On line game

 Playing a RPG every second Tuesday with Allan using the Cypher system. It's been a while but I still find it a bit complicated. I need a number of screens open. I think that the online aspect of it, and that I don't even know what the other players look like, confounds the game-play further. 

Super-8 to transfer

 Packaged up film from me, William, Geremy, and Rory to get transferred out at Film Rescue. Their turnaround is a bit slow but the prices are good and we know them and can follow up with there are ever any issues. 

Coffee with Grant

 Had coffee with Grant out at La Macaron. Talked mostly about police stuff and I got some advice for a student. Grant is getting close to retiring. 

Stopped for Chinese buns on the way home. 

Neutral Ground

 We were a bit late for this opening but got there in time for a couple conversations.  Brian Gladwell and I chatted with the artist, Manuel Axel Strain about some of his materials (a mound of insect powder standing in for traditional ground shells). 

Jonah MacFadzean

 William booked Johah MacFadzean for his 52nd week of his radio show. We've not seen Jonah in a few years but Margaret works with him at the library so we managed to get connected again. great show. On to his second year now. 

Surprise gift

 To my great surprise, I received a thank you gift from Judy Anderson today. There is a piece of bead work from a LaRonge artist and a towel designed by Bethany Yellowtail of the Apsalooka (Cree) and Norther Cheyenne Nations. 

Cameras

 My paint has slowed down again, not as much because of me but because everyone else is busy and I'm not wanting to distract them with music. Working in silence, I'm not as focused. Still enjoy it though. 

A Small and Quiet Winter Screen

Risa Horowitz has been showing videos all night long in her studio window since New Years. This week she is running a 10 hour duel-screen cycle of "25 Short Films in and about Saskatchewan", an updated version of my 1999 super-8 project. Took a look after class today (brought a few grad students along). 

 

Paint

Feeling confident enough with my class tomorrow night that I let myself paint. It was a quick one and I did most of it while cookies were in the oven (oh, and I also did some baking). 

TV viewing last year

 At some point last summer, around when William and I finished the 1225 episodes of "Dark Shadows", I wrote down a list of the tv series that we had recently finished watching. After Dark Shadows, we went on to watch Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad. I found this list around New Years and began adding all the other shows that I watched at least one season of last year. Some of these, like those mentioned above, included multiple seasons but are listed only once in this list. Many ongoing series are listed here as we would have watched the newest season. Some shows only had a handful of episodes. I list them all equally. Most I enjoyed. A few were terrible and I don't know why I finished them. Incomplete seasons are not mentioned. This is 45 different show. I'm both in awe and disgusted with myself. 

After Life
Andor
Bad Batch
Barry
Breaking Bad
Better Call Saul
Book of Boba Fett
Boys - Diabolical
Cuphead Show
Dark Shadows
Derry Girls
Doom Patrol
Hilda
Irma Vep
Kenobi
Kleo
Lovecraft Country
Lupin
Made for Love
Moon Knight
Ms Marvel
Only Murderers in the Building
Our Flag Means Death
Paper Girls
Pistols
Ragnarök
Reginald the Vampire
Reservation Dogs
Rings of Power
Riverdale
Russian Doll
Sandman
She-Hulk
Solar Opposites
Space Force
Stranger Things
The Boys
The Kingdom
The Owl House
Umbrella Academy
Undone
Upload
Wednesday
Wolf Like Me
Zarqa

Reading with cat

 Reading screenplays and other stuff today. Cat getting very clingy. 

Art's Birthday

 Dunlop opening and artist talk today was in conflict with Art's Birthday event at Neutral Ground. Attended them both then William had a friend over to eat and play some Carcassonne (I lost). 

Margaret car trouble

I attended Wes's talk about Shakespeare festivals (with a large focus on Saskatoon's Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan) which was quite interesting. Some short descriptions of radical versions being performed in years gone by. Got home to find that Margaret had mishap with her car on the way to the staff conference this afternoon. 

 

Unwinding after class

 Starting to get into the rhythm of the term with teaching focused on Tuesday to Thursday. By the end, I'm pretty burned out. Thursday evening might become a regular painting night (or just vegging in front of the tv). 

AGR opening with Bees

 Group show inspired by Agentha Dyck opened at the Art Gallery of Regina. I caught the end of the opening after my grad class. Had a conversation with Jessie about my involvement in her documentary. 

New microwave

 I was warming some sauce in our microwave today. It beeped to indicate it was done and I opened it immediately. When I did, I noticed that there was no light inside. I then noticed that the clock no longer was lit. In fact, the whole machine had suddenly died. After a bit of consumer report searching, Margaret and I headed to London Drugs and bought a new one. 

More Lynch

 Some late Christmas music arrived today. Came from the States, just in time for the first signs of Easter. 

Dad's bruises improving

 Visited dad. He seemed quite tired today and not much talking. His big bruise from last week has improved a lot though. 

Painting

Bit of Saturday afternoon painting. 
 

garage lock

 

Number 6 on the new garage lock is missing. Perhaps I should have locked it? 

Snow plow

 Early this morning the snow plows cleared our street. We'd been good citizens and moved our cars out of the way. However, about 1/3 of the street did not. After it was over, I went out and discovered that anywhere there was a car, the plow took all the snow away. Anywhere that there was no car, the plow left a large pile of snow. It seems like people are rewarded for not complying with the request to move your car. Margaret and I did 15 minutes of shoveling before breakfast to clear the piles of snow before hey froze together into a permanent pile. 

Teaching methodology

So this is what I was doing.....
 

Stress relief

 Still wigging out over class stuff, but I think I have a plan for tomorrow and am as ready as I'm going to be. Did a painting of a Canon AE-1 that Noelle dropped off yesterday. Considering that it was my go-to camera for 20 years or more, surprisingly I have only painted it once before. This version I did with a flash that she included. 

Weather deceives us

 We are in that week that happens every winter when it seems like it could be mild all the time, possibly even with spring coming early. Tricks me almost every time. 

Taking tree down

We meant to take the tree down yesterday, which was the 12th day after Christmas. However, Emma and Barb came over yesterday (before Emma heads back to Ontario) so I didn't want to host in the middle of chaos. Once I had the tree out of the house, I left Margaret the unenviable task of wrapping ornaments and boxing them up and I visited dad for a while. He was alone in the TV room with a Youtube channel on, playing rap music videos which intercut the singer with pit fighting. Who thought that this is was 80 year-olds would want to watch? I finally found the right remote and put on a John Wayne movie. Ideology isn't any better, but at least it had horses. 
 

Broken 16mm camera

 Was talking with Ron this week and he has been cleaning out old storage spaces. This 1940 Bell and Howell Filmo is not working. I've never known it to be on the list of available equipment for the students - it was likely donated to us long ago. I borrowed it to paint. I tested to see if a cable release would help it run (trigger does nothing) but no luck. 

Painting

I've been distracted and busy, even over the break, so it has been difficult to get back into a rhythm of painting. The painting class this term will be on Wednesday afternoons, which is when I have meetings perpetually scheduled, so for the second term in a row I cannot take it. I'm on my own in the kitchen, just me and the bananas. 

First class of term

 First class of term. I forgot my coffee at home and was very thirst by mid-class so I bought a diet Dr. Pepper from a machine. Spending three dollars on a single bottle, I at least was expecting it to be ice cold,  but in fact it was hot to the touch! By the end of the lecture, it had cooled to room temperature. 

What is a collector's edition?

 Margaret got the blu-ray of Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris out from the library. Not bad film, but that isn't the point. The case clearly labels it as a "collector's edition" disc. Other than the movie, it contains a five minute blooper reel and another five minutes of very minor deleted/shortened scenes. No commentary track. Nothing of any real consequence. As it is a new movie, there is no restoration. There are no documentaries about process or about historical context. Perhaps "collectable" has come to mean something different such as "you would own it so you don't need to stream it". 

Margaret painting for Christmas

Margaret is doing a rare commission this week, creating a snowman Christmas ornament. In all, she created three different ones. Meanwhile, I visited dad. He had a fall a couple days ago and has a big bruise. 

 

2023 begins