In The Name Of My Father

I am honored to have written the introduction to Steve Carty’s photography book, Positives, which he is releasing today May 29th 6:00 p.m. at the Jerome Jenner/Smash Gallery in Toronto. It's amazing because I remember when Steve would dream of this day. How Positives has surrounded him for years. His past gallery show Positives, the idea for the book and the positive message he shares with all who have listened. The book credits me Joseph Pinheiro as having written the introduction. I can’t wait to get a copy in my hands to finally show people. We are always showing off our talented network of creatives to everyone who comes through our doors and Carty’s name is discussed often. His west coast presence is alive and well, waiting for his return. We are incredibly proud of this talented and generous friend, today is a special day. Wow, the introduction to his book! Joseph Pinheiro, writer. Hmmm.



Today I am consumed with names and titles, for myself. It’s like picking a band name and then always coming up with better ones. I’m having a hard time with it. Let’s start with my name, as I just mentioned it's not really Chico, it's Joseph and Sousa is my middle name. I was christened Chico one crazy night back in Toronto when I lived with my best friend, photographer Steve Carty. During a night filled with good friends and hilarity, I started one of my rants about the music industry, watching Chico & The Man when I was a kid and some pipedream idea for a record company, Chico Records. That day Chico Sousa was born and gone were the other incarnations like Joey, Joe, JP and Junior. When we moved from Toronto to Vancouver the name stuck and was easily remembered by all my new friends on the west coast.

While my name was solidifying its direction my creative energy continued to grow and I found it difficult to harness it all in one direction. Part of me didn’t want one direction. No matter how much I would write I still loved music, photography and design. So I started a creative group called Phreeagent – beats, images, words and design. It summed up what I wanted to work on all day long and it promoted artists I wish I could work with all day long, including Steve Carty. My blog was started just before Phreeagent launched in 2005 and all of those writings were fuelled with my hatred for my job in the financial industry after leaving the music business, and my disgust with politics, particularly south of the border.

Here we are four years later and the name game continues. In the beginning, the blog was still called Chico’s Observations – beats, images, words & design. More recently adding fatherhood, life, love, labour and politics into the byline – it is getting ridiculous, must streamline, less is more. So now I use phreeagent as my creative freelancing calling card and Chico Sousa as my writers name. On top of it all I’m looking to change the blog to Chico Daily because I like the – HOLY SHIT! A cat just jumped over this wooden fence in front of me and scared me shitless, I screamed like a little girl! Heartbeat, heartbeat...wow. Unexpected. - So now I’m trying to write a new byline for Chico Daily – Observations from a Stay At Home Dad?, Sex, Drugs & Rock & Rattle?, Observations from above the brothel? Maybe it is constantly changing.

Since the front-page newspaper article last week about ethnic names not getting hired these days, my wife suggests that maybe I should change my name to Joe Westgate. She’s funny and she’s got balls! I guess every name has been a different version of myself, V1.0, V2.0, all depicting a period of time in this sensory tapestry of life. It probably stems from having the same name as my father, one of my heroes, and always wanting to make a name for myself. I guess I’ve taken that literally. I remember wanting to be more than “Joe’s son.” I wanted people to know me, not for the greatness my father is, but for the greatness that JP, Chico or Joseph could become. One day I will simply be “Ben’s Dad” or the old guy in the corner. Until that day, there is much to do and write, create and share, produce and affect, give and guide, no matter what name you use.