New Years Eve at home

 Pretty casual NYE this year. Nice supper. Watched the first two Thin Man movies. Traditionally we drink whenever the characters drink, but I think we just sipped this time. Getting too old. 

Lars Von Trier's "The Kingdom"

 William and I finished Von Trier's "The Kingdom" today. The first two seasons from the 1990s plus the new third (and final) season were all on MUBI this month. Amazing and weird. Reading about it, I am reminded that there was an American tv remake of it in the early 2000s with Stephen King writing but was canceled after 1 season. I think I tried to watch one at the time but it failed to hook me - I think it was just too rational and missed the point of the absurd horror the original had. 

Lunch with mom

 Had lunch with mom. Lori, Sean and Quinn also came. Looked at Lori's quilt project afterwards. Had hoped to see the girlfriends but neither came. Just family. 

Last painting of the year

 This camera from Amy Snider ends up being the last painting I do in 2022. My attention is weighed upon by the forthcoming semester and by other activities around the house. 

Scanning Lint

 

Finally getting around to winding through out takes from "Life is Like Lint" to look for some images for Jeff. Took a while but finally found some (perhaps all, perhaps not). Other interesting images along the way - paused to snap them in macro mode with my phone against the light table since I cannot make enough time to properly scan everything. 

Haunted house on boxing day

Geremy gave us Betrayal At House On The Hill. Mike is in town so Mike and Paul came over and we played. We first played it when Thomas brought it to town 12 years ago and we played it at Paul's. William, Allan and I played it once since then at a gaming cafe. 
 

Christmas day

Stayed up late last night, by Santa came anyway. That's a lesson! Great gifts all around. Supper at Lori's. I cooked a turkey and cheesecake. 

 

Festive meal with pie

Having a quiet Christmas does not mean it is lacking in festivities. We were able to bbq this evening, had steak and fries and Margaret made pies (some for us, others to give away). 
 

No sweater

 Margaret was supposed to wear an ugly christmas sweater to work today but we have none. It is a quirky tradition but does not seem worth the investment. She wore some bold colours and my Betty Boop Christmas tie instead. 

Margaret's family for lunch

 As we are still avoiding congregating too many people in one place at one time, especially in light of Fred's difficulty hearing conversations within a crowd, we hosted a pre-Christmas lunch for Margaret's family today. I roasted a chicken and we had an enjoyable afternoon. 

Nanaimo bars

 Single batch of Nanaimo bars this year. I cannot resist eating them and I shouldn't. 

Geremy and Rory visit

 Geremy and Rory dropped by and we exchanged gifts. Rory liked petting Sylvie and looking at our tree.

Early Christmas lighting gift

As an early gift, I got William a couple of lights for his drawing stand and screwed some wooden reinforcements onto it so that they can be positioned. 
 

Coffee and radio with Kevin

 Coffee with Kevin. William blindsided him with recording for his Peanuts Christmas special. 

advent chocolates

 Wrappers on chocolate is so weird. I think it is expected that kids will tear them apart rather than unfolding them nicely, so the flattened design is not anticipated to be seen. This is some sort of bear wearing clothes. 

baking begins

 I still don't feel like the term is over. A big paper needs to be read and reviewed this weekend and my syllabus for my grad class is still in development, but I did one batch over nice light cookies today. 

First images from new project

 Started scanning the 35mm. Here is sneak peak. 

Project developing

 Used an organic developer to process the 35mm film from the shoot William and I did the other day. Might be a bit over-developed. Lots of detail (and scratches). 

Near end of LCBOs

 Today's newspaper had article about private booze stores complaining that the government liquor stores, being that they are all closing, are putting their product on sale and undercutting the privates. All the article did for me was to remind me to stop by and pick some bottles up before it was too late. 

Sharon and mom for supper

Although the original intent was just to have a wine and sit around the tree, our evening with my sister Sharon and my mom grew into supper. I get the feeling that my family don't think that I can cook, so I did baked potatoes and tenderloin steaks and a lemon cheesecake. All went well. 

Expressionist photo/movie shoot

William and I are collaborating on a photo project using the movie camera and selecting frames or clips for a magazine. Shot in the alley behind Copper Kettle this afternoon. While it was only -9, the alley was a bit of a wind tunnel and we were both in costume and thus a bit underdressed. Froze to the core, but had the car nearby to warm up a few times. Focus was all on the project, so no effort was made to document our own process. One selfie in the car and a few rear view mirror shots of a big garbage bag in the wind. Otherwise, we will wait for the film to be developed. 

Mini-display in entranceway

 

We decorated the tree and I emptied the little display in the entranceway and installed Christmas Lego.

 

Starting holidies

Having submitted my (undergrad) grades, it finally started feeling like holidays are near. We lunched with Geremy then William and I visited dad. He was amiable but not talkative. 

When I got home, I brough the tree in and got it set up in the stand with water. I think it is a bit dry. Drank a lot of water and more needles are falling than I'd like.  

 

New MAG show

 Margaret had to work but William and I headed to Mackenzie to see the new exhibition; Anthony Thorn retrospective as well as a showcase of ten artists of Saskatchewan of 1955 (pictured above). Great stuff. Staff kept asking us if we were there for the party. Tons of people were at a function on the second floor. Security confirmed that the food looked good, but we didn't crash. 

Bought a tree

 Bought our tree. Storing in garage until we are ready to put it up. Decent size but smaller than many we have purchased in the past. $65. 

War film

This term I've been meeting with Jessie Short every week to look at and discuss war films as part of her graduate work. This week, being the last of the term, I went far afield with Guy Maddin's Archangel. I'd not really looked at it as a war film before, even though war is ever present throughout (the bombing and gunfire sounds in the background almost never stop). The film is more about memory and masculinity than war, but seeing in through this lens was interesting. Many of the tropes are not present because the main character has amnesia and so issues of nostalgia and missing home is confounded. More thought on this is needed. 

St. Nicholas Day

 

We considered putting it off until tomorrow, but it seems that St. Nicholas comes but once to fill your shoes, so this morning we binged on chocolate and lego mini-figs (Margaret had to assemble the Christmas baby Yoda). 

Drawing near the end of term

William's last project of the term, a large drawing about the Rat King, is due tomorrow. Moved him to the kitchen for final details. 
 

New book from Steve Wolfson

 Steve launched his new children's book, "Aunty Jane Knits up a Storm" at the Penny University Book Store on 13th Avenue. I got a copy with a nice inscription. It's a terrific read with cool artwork. We ended up talking at length about Florida and watching the space launch with his son a few weeks back. Very exciting. 

Early early early this morning

 Last night (up until this morning) Paper Umbrella extended its hours beyond the annual late night session along 13th avenue to (as with every year) outdo the rest of the block by staying open all night. William has a major paper due but we took a break at about 1 AM to visit and buy some pens and drink some cider.  

William presents two projects

 On the threshold of burnout, William staggers up to class (classes) with two major projects to present in photography and painting today. He'd have worked all night fine tuning had I not insisted he sleep. He still has a paper to finish writing tonight. 

Revisiting "Zip"

 Tyler Banadyga's film "Zip" starring Jason Hipfner ran at the RPL again. We were a bit annoyed that the image was stretched to 16:9 from its original 4:3 super-8 aspect ration. No projectionist on duty so no one knew how to fix it. William hasn't seen it but couldn't go as he is swamped with homework (2 project due tomorrow). I'd forgotten a lot of what the film was saying since last seeing it 12 years ago. It really is about the nature of youth and the expectation that they have something to say, which quite often they do not. Quoting books replaces actual content. Why do we expect so much from them?