car shopping and camel rides

Looked for a second car today. Got some leads and ideas but no purchases. Slightly more interesting is that the guy who runs one of the lots on Park Street also has restored and used to rent the horse rides from the stores. He used to have 200 of them. He's been selling them to collectors. He has a camel ride in the front of his shop. 

Super-8 editing

Set up to edit super-8 in the basement. I realized only half way through that the video transfer was sent at 24fps rather than 18, so the film doesn't fit on a small spool like I'd expected. I'll need to get a new spool from the office once it opens next week. 

Leslea, Leif, and Teagan visit

After our visit to SGI, we hosted Leslea, Leif, and Teagan for an afternoon/evening of food and conversation. Near the end of the night I proposed a new project for them about new cults. Probably the wine talking. 

William reading Vonnegut

We need to get up in the morning and William can't put down Kurt Vonnegut's "Sirens of Titan", which was one of my favorite books. I really can't blame him. Vonnegut is one of the only authors I return to for a re-read and I'm so happy  he is enjoying it. 

Biggest Carcassonne game

For the first time ever we played Carcassonne with every piece that we could. Berny, Mike, and Paul came over and along with William, the game took 8.5 hours.  Oddly, the scores were very close. Paul won but he beat Berny by only a few points. We were all fairly close.

Christmas Day

Lovely relaxing morning opening presents. We are all sick so I've not yet tried the seaweed flavoured gin that Bob and Tady sent from Halifax (along with other amazing items), but I'm sure it'll be great. Later in the day Gertrud and Mike dropped in. Then we went to my sisters for supper with my whole family and a couple of games (Mexican Train and Bang!).

Christmas Eve with Margaret's family

Lovely meal, goose and fixings, with Margaret's family. As usual, gifts were opened after supper. It was all lovely. High points in gifts would be the new iphone Margaret's brother gave her, a fireside popcorn maker for William, and an amazing 1959 aerial photo of the farm that Margaret's cousin Allen had printed and framed for her parents. There was a good conversation with the girls in Toronto.

Fellini "festival"

William and I finished out personal Frederico Fellini film festival tonight with the Christmas film "Ginger and Fred" in which a fictionalized Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers go to Rome to participate in a huge Christmas variety show. We have been watching the Fellini films in order over the past three months. At the very beginning, Margaret spotted "Intervista" at the library and brought it home but we didn't watch it since it was one of the very last films. Now it appears that the "Intervista" dvd has been lost or damaged or de-listed from the library so I don't have a copy to watch. Perhaps I'll find it in the future. What we did watch was:

-->Open City (co-writer only)

I Vitelloni

-->La Strada

Nights of Caberia

-->La Dolce Vita

8 1/2

Juliet of the Spirits

Satyricon

Clowns

Roma

Amarcord

Casanova

Orchestra Rehearsal

 And the Ship Sailed On

Ginger and Fred

Shawn Fulton photos from Fadadance Expressionism are incredible

Huge thumb up to Shawn Fulton who took some great photos at the Drunk on Expressionism party this weekend (the FadaDance-Caligari Project party at the Exchange). I fell in love with this image and needed to buy it. Here is a link to the site to look (and buy) the images. 

Dinner with Xin

Celebrating Xin's successful defense last week, Mark and I took Xin to the Creek Bistro for supper this evening. As always, the food and the presentation of the food was incredible. We talked about film, Christmas traditions, food customs (eating something sweet at the end of a meal), and other light stuff. A very nice evening.

Cookies

I was catching up on a number of things today including looking for a car, shopping, helping William (who is home sick) with some of his homework, and last but not least.... BAKING COOKIES!. I hope to ramp up further tomorrow. I'm using a different flour and it tastes a bit different so I'm not sure every recipe will work. The chocolate fudge ones are impacted much less than the cranberry ones. 

William sick, I'm grading

I finally got my grading done today (on final deadline). The house was in a bit of chaos due to William being sick but still trying to get his media project done (an infomercial for the "Omnibox". I didn't begin my baking. 

Photos from Fada Dance Drunk on German Expressionism party

Last night the Caligari Project closed with the Fada Dance German Expressionist-themed dance party at the Exchange. Berny took command of the entry area where the puppet sideshow was scheduled to be but sicknesses had forced to downscale. His shadowbox and Beetlejuice performance, along with the dozens of decor pieces from "Der Glockner" set the tone for the party.  I put up two projectors of old (and new) expressionist films and installed my tickletrunk viewer. Further inside was an evening long puppet/sand/drawing-projection by Tamara Unroe along with six amazing dance performances with stunningly bizarre Expressionist/Bauhaus inspired costumes, sounds, and movements. Berny and I judged the costume pageant. William went home after the second set of dances, feeling that the cold I've had is finally reaching him.

Trip to Saskatoon

We went to Saskatoon on Friday for an appointment for William and stayed overnight. Coincidentally, Mike's whole family also came up for the same days so we ended up eating with his parents on Friday and having cake (of the birthday variety) on Saturday before returning home. We only did a bit of shopping (Lee Valley, Christies, and McNally Robi

Lee Valley "tools"?

breakfast at Christies on Broadway

Fog off Saskatchewan River in early morning in Saskatoon

For liner notes in William's first punk album

nson.