Griffin in town recording

 Griffin and Kae are in town. We recorded the last necessary voice for the radio play with him, and then William recorded a huge loop scene for Griffin's feature film. 

Party night

 I spent twelve hours editing audio today for the radio play. While I wanted to stay in the groove, I also wanted to do a bit of holiday stuff. We headed to Carle Steele's place for a mix of in and outdoor fun as they burned stuff in the fire. Then we headed to the Truszkowski's for some wonderful cakes and squares. Running a bit late on both so we headed home in time for me to edit another two hours. 

Worst advent calendar ever

 Margaret ordered this for me so that I could open up a miniature camera. Not only did it arrive almost three weeks late, but .... oh my god, I don't know what to say. William articulates it better. Watch his unboxing video:  

Allan for supper

Allan is heading out of town for the break to visit friends and family as usual. We caught up with him over some steaks (too cold to bbq but did so anyway) as well as attending Ayesha's reading of her play at the university. 
 

Radio Drama recording

Over the past couple of weeks, Geremy, William, and I have been writing a radio drama for a bird people chrismas special to air on CJTR. We started recording voices a few days ago, but hit our peak today with half the voices covered in the studio. Pictured here are Jon Tewksbury (two voices) and Thomas Parham. Earlier today was Ken Wilson. William recorded three of his own today, and two of mine. It will air on the evening of the 24th at 6:00 pm on 91.3 fm in Regina. 
 

Promote William's workshop

William will be hosting a workshop about using foam core in January at Neutral Ground. We took some snap shots of material for promoting it. 
 

Decorate tree and purchase new fish

Tree up, watered, and decorated. Bought a new molly at Pat's Pets. Our prior one died. The guy at Pet Smart would not sell me a fish because my ten gallon tank is the right size for just my cat fish. He doesn't care that my cat fish is sociable because it is labeled as "slightly aggressive". Since I had an early catfish die of anxiety when left alone too long, I reject his assessment.  I walked out of that store and won't shop there again. 
 

Coffee with mom

Coffee with mom today. Drove around to about five places trying to find things open but, being Monday, many coffee shops and most art galleries are closed. Found a place, but ultimately had most of our conversation n the car. 

Bought a tree over a week ago and finally brought it in this evening.
 

Lunch at mom's new residence

We arrived early for lunch at mom's residence - a special event for family - and spent some time in her room. Margaret and William had not yet seen it. She's changed some art around since last week. Food was excellent. 
 

More art prep

 So many things to cut for William's show. One problem is that the efficient way to do everything is in stages, which results in none of the boxes being presentable until near the end. Therefore, it looks like nothing is ready. True, there is still a LOT of stuff to prepare. The white foam core that he bought from Gails is not available anywhere. It had a writable, matt surface but all the white that can be purchased is shiny and glossy. However, the black is all matt, including the inexpensive stuff from the dollar story which has been great for supporting pieces. 

Coffee from Kristin

 George returned from an Ottawa trip and brought some gifts from William's cousin. 

MAP party

 Holiday party for the faculty today. The dean's office turned on a fireplace channel for the projection but Risa had them change it to the "Shit Fireplace". Interesting conversation with the dean about what happens at other faculty council meetings as he never has a chance to go to any of them.

Broken mug

William's favorite mug, which we bought on the east coast in July of 2010, broke today. It was actually their third of these mugs that we had. Cannot find a replacement online. 
 

Vice

Got a new vice for the metal table in the garage. Margaret ordered a nice one from Lee Valley last week but it is too thin to fit on that surface so I put it in the basement on my new bench there. 
 

Car fixed

 The other day we got the car back from auto body. When we were getting the winter tires on at the dealership in the fall, another customer backed into ours, so we needed a bunch of scratches fixed. Looks good now. Brutally cold out though.

Bruce Labruce new film

Bruce presented his newest film, "The Visitor", at the RPL tonight. Decent crowd, although I didn't stick around long. It struck me as a bit of a Jordolowsky-style thing. 
 

St. Nicholas Day

 Who's the wise guy who filled our shoes with junk again? 

Moving mom

 With movers, we moved mom from her condo into the assisted living places next door. Everything went smoothly. We had worried it would seem over crowded, but it looks and feels really good. 

Governor General Awards

 

For the first time, the Canada Council hosted "Governor General Awards" for the arts is moving its presentation venue away from Ottawa and will hold the functions and accompanying gallery exhibition in other cities. The first of those is here in Regina. There was very little promotion unfortunately, so although it is one of the most important art events of the year, there were still empty seats. The event was tight and interesting with many short art talks. Prime Minister Carney has been the first PM to actually address the GG awards directly this year and sent a message calling Regina "the cradle of Canadian culture". Got quite a reaction. 

Snowman

 Margaret and William built a couple of snowpeople this week. 

Bruce Labruce in class

 Today Bruce Labruce came to speak with my Film 400 students on the last day of the term. It's been 15 years since he was last here. It was different, and still amazing. Perhaps more thought and ideas towards how the subject matter evolves within a person's career, rather than 15 years ago when the subject matter seemed much more of a reaction to situations. 

Building 1/6 scale stuff

Building lots of chairs and stuff for William's project. Margaret jumped in with help on some paint. 
 

William on characters

William using his portable light tablet to create his two sided characters for his Neutral Ground project. Things are moving a bit too slow but I've had fun helping. The characters are each seen from two sides so need to be reverse angles on the stand ups he's building. 
 

Kitchen reno finished and cinnamon bun with mom

My part came in from Lee Valley so I was able to complete my pull out rack project in my kitchen. Also went for coffee and a cinnamon bun with mom, over to the French Press. 

Jon and Geremy and Mark

Coffee with Geremy and Jon on campus today. Talked about the radio show and other stuff. Then Jon and I went to see Mark's presentation on his new film project about walking. 

 

Building a neck

 William was working on the neck of his puppet today. Chrystene has some very complicated but effective systems to achieve the range of movement William wants. Of course, he is paying for that desire for control now. 

Brick of light

Was looking at these sturdy yet versatile lights at work today. They are on sale so I might get a couple for myself. Large range of brightness and controllable colour temperature. 
 

my new vice

My new vice is working on my workbench. Actually, I wanted a bigger one to fit on my metal table outside. Margaret ordered this one off Lee Valley and we didn't realize it would not fit, but does on my new bench in the basement. 
 

Hungry cat

 I went to mom's for a family meal with Lori, Al, and cousin Chris this evening, feeding the cat before I left. Margaret came home from work 15 minutes after I left and fed the cat again. When I got home, she started begging for third supper. 

Cousin Christine

Met a cousin we'd never met before. Christine (Chris) was the first born of mom's sister Mary and was given up for adoption. Mom has had some communication with her recently and she came to visit from Ontario this weekend. 
 

Tea with mom

 Picked mom up for a bit of socializing. She wanted to go to the christmas bazaar at her church. We had a bit of coffee and strawberry shortcake. She had soup that someone there made, which was probably the best choice. Didn't buy anything at the craft tables, mostly because mom is moving in a couple weeks and trying to divest of stuff. 

Lecture by Thom Parham

Dr. Parham came into my class earlier this week and gave a really good lecture on pitching and on story. Today he did a public talk through the C-SET (Centre for Socially Engaged Theatre at the University) about getting a career in arts. William and I went. It was good, but being under an hour it was also not as deep. 
 

New writing project

 William, Geremy, and I met to talk about new Chrismas special radio drama today. Keeping details secret for now.