Endings and Beginnings

Today is the last day of my sabbatical. Of course, things don't get really busy for two months when regular classes resume. I managed to make my video every day, although I didn't finish all of the big projects I wanted to do (although I've made significant progress and will certainly finish one of the two, perhaps both, by September).
Today I got a message from Gail, my cousin and godmother, whom I've not had any contact with in a very long time (pictured above in a 1964 photo, preventing the dog from eating me).

wasted lots of time

Tired today, wasted lots of time. William was out on an all day play session with Griffin. I somehow broke the pvr and had to go swap it out, which is unfortunate because I think I just figured out how to record William's shows out of it onto dvd but now they are potentially all lost (I can start re-recording them, will take about a month). As we were leaving to go to Cable, we could smell electrical burning. Ends up the coffee maker is also shot so we replaced it too. We shopped for a cabinet to store art supplies but didn't come to a decision so didn't buy one. Had a fire and I shot my last daily video (tomorrow is Saturday and the last day of my sabbatical so the video will be the one I've been making with William).

Busy as the clock runs down

Met with Rob and David to start our course (mainly crit of David's scripts)
Worked on my puppet.(body, hair, some colour)
Shot two videos.including the burning film idea I had in January but couldn't do because it is too toxic to do inside and too meticulous and time consuming to do outside in the cold.
Watched Mirror Mirror.and 21 Jump Street until late.

 

Last day of Grade 5

William is off to the last day of school today.

Compare with the FIRST DAY OF GRADE FIVE.

Keep watching the skies...

In the heat of the late afternoon, I took William and his friends to "Brave" (Disney's ongoing struggle to create a female lead that might actually be a good role model is nearly successful). Lightning storm predictably followed the heat. After the thunder ended, we had these peculiar "mammatus" clouds.

SUMMER!

Finally feels like summer. I spent some quality time in the hammock, did some writing (the final episode of "Mr. Saul" for my sabbatical videos).

Quiet day at home

At one point in mid afternoon, Margaret asked me to hang up the upstairs phone. Perhaps this is the explanation for our rather quiet and peaceful day today. I rotoscoped a clip of footage of Loie Fuller dancing
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Saturday, garage sale and boys

Saturday; spent morning at mom's garage sale (sold almost nothing but she decided to stay open in afternoon anyways), then hung with William and his friends this afternoon. William's friend Griffin got his braces out a few days ago so William wanted to host a sort of forbidden food day for him, with popcorn and many chewy candies.

Garage sale and Reeper

I spent more time than I originally intended to at my mom's garage sale today. I managed to take a break and try to shoot my video from yesterday but the images didn't work out, putting me three videos behind. It's finally getting very hot out. This evening Margaret went out so William and I watched a couple episodes of Reeper, a four year old show I'd not seen until I found it on Netflix the other day. It's basically a Kevin Smith project, with "Chuck" meets "Ghost Rider" as it's premise (loser in box store becomes bounty hunter for a mayor-from-Buffy-season-3-like devil.

Frankenstein, Solstice, and Helmut

William's great uncle Helmut left town this morning. I had a course planning meeting with David and Rob to figure out the logistics of the summer course we officially begin in two weeks. My mom started what she says will be her last ever garage sale today, we helped out for part of the day. This evening we went to the live to video National Theatre Frankenstein play at the Galaxy, it was quite intense. Afterwards we had a backyard fire to celebrate the solstice.

it's the little things

I spent all morning catching up on typing my notes on the last two books I read and all afternoon and evening get stuff collected together and priced for my mom's garage sale. In the process, I bumped my thumb and cracked my nail.Doesn't look like much, but it's really painful and annoying.
Margaret's uncle Helmut is in town for the first time in over a decade. William met him and they had a pretty good conversation. 

Haircut

Got my hair cut today. Lots of grey. Shot a video of course.

Story time

When William got home from school, I took him to the university and we recorded the story he has been writing. All of the students are recording their stories, but mostly they will be using the built in microphone on a laptop in the classroom, and having had to listen to such recording handed in from students working last minute, I want no one to suffer this any more than possible. Besides, William's story is an epic 6 single spaced typed pages and even once I trimmed down the little mistakes, breaks, and longer pauses, it runs 23 minutes. Awesomely random.
I also imported ten rolls of photos from 2004-2005 that I found discs for (they were rolls of 35mm film). Here is a sample from February 2005:

Father's Day

This morning I was served freshly baked (still warm from the oven) croissants in bed. William got me a strange cow-bell-like bell which is made from car parts. I'll work it into my Mr. Saul video which I'll record later tonight. We watched tv the rest of the morning, then visited my dad. I upgraded my mom's computer, putting in a new sound card (it previously ran audio off of the motherboard, but this seems to have failed since my last upgrade) and I replaced her 500 mb RAM with 2 gigs. The remainder of the afternoon was spent clothes shopping.

Saturday full of boys

Margaret went to BuzzArt today, and then to work, so I spent the day with William and two of his friends. There was a bit of a worry when one friend got terribly sick and we couldn't reach his parents, but an advil and 30 minutes of tv later, he rebounded. The parents got the complete report, probably just a growing boy glitch. I spent most of the day fiddling with special effects on the computer. Far from finished, but for once I am ahead of schedule with my daily videos: this one is for next weekend, so I can work with it all week.

Steampunk game film

William has been playing a steampunk game online. He and Rowan wanted to make a film about it so they dressed up and I got a few shots. He stayed home this afternoon with a bit of a flu or something, but felt well enough to go out to Rowan's while Margaret and I went to Christine and Ken's house for a drink.

Erik at home

Got a tour of Erik's new house. I expect it to turn into a strange and creative avenue so long as the electricity stays under control.
Paul, William and I went  out and bought three Lego sets from a guy who advertised them on Used Regina. We got an old Mindstorm R2D2, an old Bionicle that William doesn't have, and a remote control "Shadowstrike" vehicle (see video).

Canister comic

I went to the Calgary film co-op website to see if the newsletter I wrote a short article for has been published. They have the newsletter on line via a site called Issuu, which looked very easy to use, so I did. As a test, I put up this rather sloppy comic I wrote for the Comic Jam with Allan Dotson last month.

Tv, photos, and a movie

Couldn`t sleep last night so caught up on `Man Men`. Season ender didn`t contain as many exciting hooks as previous years. After supper we went to the Connaught Library where Janine Windolph was presenting some work by the school students she`s been working with as artist in residence. They researched time periods during the history of the school then dressed in period wear and superimposed themselves into scenes of those eras. They were printed on banners with text. Nice event. Later we went to Madagascar 3 which I thoroughly enjoyed, laughed often.

Marian Donnelly for mayor

This morning I went to Marian Donnelly`s announcement that she is running for mayor of Regina this fall. She would be great. The event was well attended.

Marla`s birthday

Gerda had us over to celebrate Marla`s birthday this morning over pancakes and real cakes.

Tickle Trunk of Dr. Caligari

Spent some time searching for a piece of artwork I wanted to frame. I ran across this collage I made about 20 years ago; `The Tickle Trunk of Dr. Caligari`with Mr. Dressup and Finnegan. I finished writing up some thoughts on the first evening of Queer City Cinema and put them in my other blog.

Big hike

I got back to work on the flatbed, sorting out my film rolls to get my "Grain" project completed finally. Also met with Christine and Trevor to plan out the lead up to his defense of his MFA. William went on a school field trip, enjoyed the archery, and came home with a few ticks. This evening I went to "Keyhole" by Guy Maddin at the RPL.

Queer City Cinema

I attended the opening night of Queer City Cinema. The screenings are at Neutral Ground, which is no where near as big a venue as some previous years. The style of films has changed quite a bit over the years as well, with far less shocking material and much more earnest calls for change. Candy Fox, a student in our program, had one of her videos shown this evening. It was well received and after the screening she led a Q+A which primarily focused on the idea of being "two spirited".
Here is my thoughts on the films. 

KaleidoCycle and a blow torch

This evening we attended Chrystene Ells' KaleidoCycle performance at the Globe Theatre. It is based upon her experiences which began a couple of years ago where something misfired in her brain. It simultaneously considers it as altered perception and as a medical problem, coming to no conclusion by the end. I particularly liked the pantomime aspects of the show when the characters wear masks and are seemingly cogs in the machine of society or when an overhead projector, some carts, and bodies double as an MRI machine. Great energy.

 At a garage sale, I found William this vintage brass blow torch. I also found an authentic cactus rain stick for only $4 and some 1970s romance comics (can never have enough of those).

Men In Black conspiracy

 
We went to the early evening Men in Black 3 screening, meaning we missed seeing Venus (which was tonight and not last night as previously thought). It was cloudy when we went to the movie, so it goes.
I thought I`d put up an image of the legendary men in black about whom the movies allude, but it seems that the fame of the movies makes a search for the real men in black to be nearly impossible. Instead of shining on the internet, they become a needle in a haystack of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. Is this part of a larger plan .... were the films funded by secret government money which helps to hide the real truth through the spectacle of fiction? You decide.

Venus

 

William and I went for a bike ride. Ran into Tim who was trying to study the planet Venus as it crosses the sun. We sort of saw it, but it's just a tiny speck.

Movie and a dinner

We went to "Wrath of the Titan's" this afternoon. Fun but I do have to wonder how much a damage a human head really does to a marble pillar when the two are smashed together repeatedly? Afterwards we went to a pizza dinner for Cathedral Festival volunteers.

Steampunk with Gerry Ruecker

William and I attended a workshop at the RPL George Bothwell Branch library in the Southland Mall, on building steam punk objects, taught by the amazing assemblage artist Gerry Ruecker. Had a good time. William built something that was either a gun or an egg beater.

What's Hot and What's Not?

William had the day off school today. I hoped to take him to a movie but his friend wasn't into it. I really don't understand the kids sometimes. We had a fire this evening.