Pentax Auto110 SLR

Marla's Pentax Auto 110 SLR camera

Marla lent me this. It is something I'd not thought existed: a high end 110 camera, an SLR in fact. The lens is removable and there is a second lens that comes with it. Drawback, 110 film is really quite terrible. Funny. 

Caligari Aftermath book launch

Book launch for the articles developed from the Caligari Project talks 4 years ago is in print and on line: The article Crystene and I wrote is called "Shadows Illuminated: understanding German Expressionist Cinema through the lens of contemporary filmmaking practices" and the journal is Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Vol. 16, Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania Scientia. It can be found and read for free on line but we did get physical copies. Berny was there and we introduced Der Glockner and Eyes of Sorrow Moon. I didn't really know how the evening would go. Berny was there to represent the film since Chrystene couldn't be there, but he was not replacing her on the stage afterwards to talk about the book. It all makes sense in retrospect, but I was very concerned that Berny didn't have a chance to say anything after the screening. Other than that, it went surprisingly well, I think owing to the fact that no one monopolized the talk and we kept things tight. 

Painting patent breaking camera

I've avoided ever having one of these cameras for years as they pop up in garage sales with the owners always saying how good they are and avoiding telling people that Kodak infringed on Polaroid's instant film patent to make this "Colorburst" camera, they were taken to court, and they lost. Polaroid made them remove it from the market and they were not allowed to sell film for it. The camera is even more useless than a standard 8 or a 110 camera which at least can be loaded with expensive custom film. It is equally useless to the camera they allowed owners to trade it in for, the infamously shoddy disc film camera (which I also borrowed from Richard - coming soon to to a painting near me). 

Quick and Dirty photography and slow and dirty printmaking

 I had to rush William a bit as he was completing a print late this afternoon. Allen was on his way and we were going to either Quick and Dirty at 7:30 or Talkies at 6:30. Time made our decision for us. Photography talks were at first a bit commercial but Cam with his 3D printed pinhole camera and Risa with  her flipping off the industry really made our evening. Ice cream at Dandy's afterwards.

Suit is done

Picked up William's hand made linen suit.

Strangeness around house

Squirrel jumping onto our bird feeders is huge. Really damn big. Really.
Snowflakes outside front door are huge. Really damn big. Really.
What is going on. Mood is really damn weird. Really.
William and I finished Adventure Time season 10. We are still looking for half of season one, but mostly we are done. What a great show. Really. 

Saturday, hmmm

William went to the film student 12 hour film challenge. He'd not signed up ahead of time so he didn't end up with an actual position. That was a mistake: he'd certainly have engaged more had he had a real job.  I stayed in most of the day and got major progress on my annual information report. I took some of the late afternoon to paint two paintings of the same camera, a Yashica-D. One is part of my series, the second is the same size but a bit of a different angle and is on canvas for my contribution to the Cathedral Festival dinner and silent auction. 

Artist talk day

Afternoon at work wasn't much work. Sandwiching my one important grad meeting were two artist talks: Erin Gee at lunchtime and Holly Fay for the 3:30 lecture series. William held his club event in the evening and I kicked around the house catching up on paperwork. 

First print

William struck his first etching print. Dirty edges but overall pretty nice.

Erin Gee at MacKenzie

Erin's exhibition opened with a detailed and strangely technical artist talk (the Q&A really brought out the computer/tech questions). Work is cool but a couple of the pieces require headsets and a bit of quiet so I'll need to return when the mob isn't there. Didn't get a chance to talk with her but did chat with Ryan and Tim. Margaret attended the talks at the AGR which sounded great.

First fitting of suit

William tried on the linen suit being made for him. It's the promised suit I'm buying him for finishing high school but more importantly, going through surgery. 

Adventure Time game

William and Allen played the Adventure Time "Card Wars" game to its conclusion for the first time since we got it. William was doing well but then Allen slowly crept up from behind and was sure to win. William played every card he could and amazingly it paid off and he snatched the win. 

Redid the painting of my first super-8 camera. It's better. The first one wasn't too back though, except for how I originally messed up the handle by trying to squish it in to a too small space. Won't do that again. 

William drawing around the house

 William's first drawing project is supposed to be of his unmade bed, and NOT from a photo. He didn't finish so he needed to sleep on the couch and continue in the morning. We've been finding other drawings around the house, perhaps Adventure Time related.

Hannah Klaus at Dunlop

New exhibition at Dunlop is work by Hannah Klaus. Her artist talk, done before we saw the work, was interesting but she'd not anticipated our hearing her while blind to the work, so it was less than ideal. She seems particularly interested in language and words, going on a tangent about the phrase "time immemorial" and how she wouldn't use it because its definition suggests a time before memory and that we have not forgotten. She also talked about needing to invent a French translation for "relationality". However, she never actually said if or how words and language are connected to her work or to her as a person/artist. In the end, the most memorable part of the show was the tea cups which were cast from bees wax but only mentioned in passing during the Q&A of the talk.

 I was at an eye appointment this morning so didn't attend the Art For Lunch talk by Jess Richter. She was at Dunlop and her colours met with the artwork in a bold way ...

Supper and talk at MacKenzie

 We were running late today so the lovely meal we bought at the cafe at the MacKenzie needed to be eaten on our laps as we listened to a talk by their new curatorial fellow Felicia Gay. John Hampton introduced her (below). Back row photos with new camera are poor.

After the talk, Erin Gee was hanging around, taking a break from installing her exhibition which will open next week. 

Cold but not too cold for movies

 Weather turned very mean today with temperatures that attack the skin. I "weathered" it to go to the first day back for Deb's painting class. Did the 8mm camera I borrowed this week.

I was at work the rest of the day then, even though every cell in our bodies told us not to, we headed out yet again to go see "Wizards of the Lost Worlds", an agonizing B picture made by Roger Corman in Argentina in the mid-80s. This is part of a monthly series of VHS tapes presented by Jon Vaughn. 

Hanging art

I hung three new pieces of art today. My old phone acts well as an electronic level to put Frans's piece in our entrance way.

Cameras from Richard and Gerda

Borrowed a standard 8mm film camera but also found this tiny camera which basically clicks together with a 110 cartridge to become a camera. I'm looking around for a cartridge before painting it. Someone is making new rolls, but I really don't want to shoot any so I have no desire to spend the sort of money being asked for specialty orders. I'll eventually find one inside a camera and use it for the painting. 

Success at party

I brought home the trophy for best perogies from Heather Cline's Ukrainian Christmas party and cabbage roll/perogie competition last night. I'd done some experiments with putting bacon and cranberry inside the perogie before cooking them but I wasn't really sold on this. They were not spoiled but they were not exceptional either. All it really amounted to was that they were much more difficult to make (and slower). I ended up going with traditional cheddar and potato but added lots of butter and onion and bacon on top. Feels great to have the trophy again.

Huge Saturday

William wanted to sleepin but I got him up as he was supposed to pick up his drawing (unsold) from the Woods exhibit from last month. We then ran past my mom's and gifted the drawing to her and picked up some recycling and snacks from her. Margaret was doing a collage ATC workshop at the Balkwill Centre and had hung some exquisite corpses that I'd participated in last year. I'd stopped in as I wanted to pick up the drawing I'd purchased from the last hallway exhibit. I was too early so Margaret brought it later.

Rushing back home, I spent the rest of the day experimenting with perogies for Heather's party tonight. More on that later. 

Saturday at home

Lots of events lately so was glad to stay home most of this Saturday. Did a painting. 

Lori Felker screening

Chicago filmmaker Lori Falker was in town showing her film Future Language: the dimensions of Von LMO at the RPL as part of the Independents program. It was a really interesting feature experimental doc on this important "king of the underground" musician who was notorious in New York in the 1970s-1980s. I have to admit that I have never heard of him and he isn't all that likable on screen, but she managed to shape this 7-year-in-the-making film around his eccentric personality to build up his legendary status, humanize him in a limited way, and avoid playing up the obvious underlying personality faults.

Tree down

This evening, William and I took down the Christmas tree while Margaret was out at a meeting and then when she returned we all put ornaments away and I reset William's piano. 

teaching

Film 200 began today. Of course I took pictures of everyone but I don't run those photos in my blog. Noticed that I didn't take any other photos today. William was in class but then has to wait for me for a ride home. This should work well as he eventually has other work to do in the art studios, but today it created a bit of tension. 

Back to work

I guess I was officially back to work since the first and was at the office once or twice last week, but today was the first day of classes (William had two but I didn't have any) so it at least felt more like a work day. 

Last day of break

Nick on my lap, Sylvie in window.

Classes resume tomorrow for William (and day after tomorrow for me). I spent morning on the couch with William watching Adventure Time. Later, William was out with his friends and Margaret and I caught up on errands, played some video game, and started watching new Dracula on Netflix. 

lost film was found

At least once every year I need to find a film to send to a festival. I'm referring to a physical print, but this has happened with digital files as well. Of course,I cannot find it. My super-8 film "Step Up with Hap and Hop" is playing at 8Fest in Toronto in 3 weeks and I tore the house and then my office apart trying to find it. Late in the evening I finally located it in a bag with a roll of 35mm that I was having transferred at the same time many months ago. Selected some frame grabs and did more updates to my website while I was having an obsessive day. 

Running out of cameras

I have been re-painting cameras, including this Russian SLR, that I first painted over a year ago but which were pretty awful. I'll likely re-do about the first dozen whenever I don't have a new camera. As of now, I only have one camera left in reserve that I've not painted yet. Dianne was going to come over this evening to join Paul and the rest of us for a game of Carcassonne but she had to cancel last minute due to family emergency.