Phonograph table extension

At William's request, I finally got around to cobbling together a crude extension on his desk so he would have a place to put his phonograph player. 

Last minute sound recording

Hours before their early morning flight home, I was amazed by Kiki's ability to cold read the ten page script I wrote earlier in the day to correspond to the film shot the previous evening. Kiki and William sat at the kitchen table (no, not the perfect environment, but you take what you can get) and rattled their way through page after page. It may have a handful of small edits, but they got not only the content but also the spirit and energy of the scene. Bravo. 

Shooting film on the farm

I thouight I really had my act together as I had all 20 pieces of technology I needed to shoot the shot I wanted on the farm this evening. I ran into a glitch ten minutes before shooting as the lens didn't mount correctly. This led to some unorthodox modifications, but I did shoot something. It isn't what I imagined it would be, but it might be better in other ways.
On the way home we stopped for a long look at some amazing northern lights. I shot a bit with my new SLR and am shocked by the extreme differences I find between the raw and the jpegs when it came to these long exposures.

Recording on the farm

We drove out to the farm for a short visit today. The girls stayed with us last night and needed to get out there to fix the bailer or something. Our car is in the shop so I drove George's car. The pumpkin patch is coming along. The cottage is just as I left it. The walls restrict the flies better than before. I forgot to bring half the stuff I wanted to do there, but we did manage to do some uneven and half hearted jazz recordings on a piano in which only about 1/3 of the keys make any sound at all, and the sounds they do make is out of key (or worse). I am completely exhausted and by the time we got home, I needed to collapse for two hours.

Leader Post article

I'm very happy with the Leader Post article on me and the AGR exhibition which came out in today's paper. I met Ashley Martin at the gallery yesterday and we had a great long talk. Naturally we talked about a lot of stuff that isn't in the article, but I think she did a fabulous job of capturing the spirit of our conversation. 

Apple sauce

First day of vacation with only normal stuff to do, but nothing was normal. Interviewed this morning for the LP. Power went out shortly after I got home, so we went shoe shopping. Minutes after returing from there, I watched my cat eat a live bird in less than a minute. Sorted stuffed toys from attic and declared 90% of them unnecessary for us to keep. Picked apples, even though they weren't ripe, and made 24 cups of apple sauce. 

Brickspo a madhouse ... of fun!

Margaret, William, Allan Dotson and I headed out to Moose Jaw for the annual Brickspo, a showcase of Saskatchewan Lego Users Group (SLUG) lego builds. While last year it was a thin crowd, this year was crazy. Luckily we came on Sunday, which had an overpacked parking lot and a huge slow crowd, Had we come yesterday, it was a 45 minute wait just to get in the door! The even is a hit. The creations this year were excellent. I was immediately pleased by the Suckanen ship that was carefully reconstructed. In the competitive "copy a toy with Lego" table, a viewmaster was almost indistinguishable from the real one (probably didn't work though). However, the Lego Xoatrope did work (fair).

Lumsden and supper at the beach

Last night William drew 16 artist trading cards. As he was beginning, I offered to write captions for them. He told me Margaret had already offered to paint them. At noon I wrote the text which appears on them, and Margaret then added watercolour and cut them apart so that they could be traded away at the ATC session in Lumsden at 2:00. After that, we continued on to the Regina Beach area to see Gerri Ann and Steve's new garage and studio and to have some BBQ. Great evening, culminating with a sit around the fire pit. 

Big Muddy and badlands tour

We were up at 5:15 this morning to get ready for the trip to the badlands around Coronach. At 5:30 Margaret's brother called to say they were on their way over in hopes that they could use our shower as their hot water was broken. A bit of chaos ensued but we all exited our place at 6:30, loaded up in George's truck, and go there by 9, plenty of time for the 9:30 tour. The tour had the advantage of getting you onto a number of private properties, some of which had locked gates. We went for the full 6 hour deal, which may have been a bit long. I'd suggest the short tour #3 rather than the long one (which was 6 hours, not the 7-8 it threatened to be). It was fun and much better than trying to find these places on your own (which we did once). Climbing wasn't as hard as it looks, but still gave you a hefty workout. On the way back we stopped in Willowbunch and did a quick museum tour, then went and ate at a substandard Chinese diner in Assiniboia before heading home.

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Josh Holland

Josh Holland, 2013

With great sadness I attended the memorial of Josh Holland this afternoon. Josh was a student of mine last year and had such uncontrollable ideas that I was certain he would shake this city for years to come. I shared a story with his brother about Josh as a second year student, an event I probably should have failed him for but I rewarded him instead (I still won't describe it in print). Josh would have appreciated the service, or at least the first half, which contained singing, jokes, satire, and a screening of his last film, a hilarious short in which he froths at the mouth in a re-enactment of the discovery of his van being vandalized. We forgot for a moment that he was gone. Not forgotten.

Josh Holland, 2015

Regina Beach

We got a slow start but eventually made it to Regina Beach after fixing our bathroom fan and a few other errands. The beach was nice; the water warm and not filled with algae yet. Some obnoxious 18 year olds were drunk and listening to bad music (country) but eventually paid the ultimate price (they buried the sin in the sand). We ate at the Bluebird, sitting on the steps.

foreboding?

My second day of my vacation consisted of a morning of meetings with students and an afternoon of email followed by some family time. Later we finally watched "Only Lovers Left Alive" by Jim Jarmusch which I purchased a few months ago but we just couldn't get around to watching. Slow but beautiful. It is another hot and stormy night. Later William and I tried to watch "Smokey and the Bandit" but couldn't make it half way. 

Crooked Bush, north of Saskatoon

We spent Sunday night in Saskatoon, breakfasted at a diner on 20th Street, then drove in tandem, along with George and the girls, north for an hour to find the twisted tree botanical anomaly we'd hear and read about outside of Hafford. It wasn't too difficult to find, even though it was smaller than photos of it had led me to believe. William and walked around it (sauntered really) in about two minutes. There is a boardwalk which takes you in so that you can look at the weirdness without breaking a leg. 

J. Caesar at Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan

We drove up to Saskatoon and took in J. Caesar at the Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan. I really enjoyed it. I knew that it was to be an all woman cast, but I was surprised to see the costume design was all post apocalyptic, Mad Max-like. This allowed them to make the minor adaptation of "woman" for "man" throughout the the story without ever needing to explain the shift in context. It was seamless and exciting. The play is short, 90 minutes including the introduction and intermission, but well worth it. We went on the day with the medieval feast which was pleasant. Katherine won the door prize (four drinking vessels). We played cards at the hotel afterwards. I was exhausted. 

Super-8 "workshop"

While I suppose I did some workshop-type stuff at the beginning of the day, but I think we successfully had a group interactive activity day instead. With nine participants plus myself, each with a super-8 camera in hand (we had enough between the Filmpool's generous contribution and my and Ken's cameras) so everyone could go off in groups but still work individually. I blacked out the garage with tar paper and at about 2:30 we started processing film. I thought we'd use the garage to screen preview films but we kept getting behind schedule until we ended up showing the day's work sight-unseen in the backyard after dark. The work was fun and funny. Geremy and William worked together on a pair of rolls; one about a stalker and another they recruited Ken's help and devised a chase film about  a kangaroo hunter. Three students Weiye, Shara, and Sharon, came and made a visual exploration of the downtown. Most notably about the student work was the large amounts of solarization that I believe was caused by a mixing error on the bleach (my fault, but a very interesting error by all accounts). Mooky made her first super-8, animating  toy dinosaurs then working with Sara and her puppets. Chrystene and Berny filmed a re-staged version of their Punch and Judy show that was so hilarious at the puppet slam earlier this year; the film did it justice. I shot random odd images in respect to this being the 100th anniversary of Dada. Sara played accordion during the screening and we laughed and cried (without actually crying). Thank you everyone for coming out and making the day so much fun.

Garage turned to darkroom

Today I got my stuff together for a workshop I'm hosting tomorrow. I've tar papered the inside of the garage to make it light tight. This has proven to be much easier and much more effective (and only slightly more expensive) than when Geremy and I blacked it out for the camera obscura a couple of years go. The only problem is is that the smell of tar paper is quite strong. I'll have to see if it airs out by tomorrow of if we have to suffer with it. 

Secret Garden secret

We were able to go on a sneak preview of some of the New Dance Horizon's Secret Garden Tour this evening. If you are able to go, and you should if there are still tickets, then there is an amazing green house room on the north side of town which was truly a beautiful piece of architecture. Well worth the trip out there. I won't give the address as it is only accessible if you have the tour package, and if you have that, then you have the address. 

Exhibition photos: big crowd

Great crown tonight at the opening bash of my Art Gallery of Regina exhibition. There were 134 people in attendance (according to the gallery). I didn't get a chance to talk to everyone but but did have some great chats with many people.Thank you everyone for coming; it made it even more special. I revealed the stand-up of Canister with Saw Boy just before the crowd arrived. Here are a few images: