Painted mini Viewmaster

 I brought a camera and this keychain viewmaster today. Caroline suggested I do this one but that I must do the tag as well. 

Flu and covid shots

 All three of us got our shots on a walk in at London Drugs this evening. 

Broke my chair

 My chair finally gave out. Cannot lean back anymore - or perhaps that is all you can do since there is nothing really stopping you. Went shopping for a new one but the only acceptable chair was not in stock. 

Coffee with mom

 Coffee with mom and Lori. As is often the case, we talk about family who are not in the room. I took action, texted everyone, and got mom on a video call with Maureen and Nicole. 

Halloween

 Ron Mein and friends came over after the kids time had run down (we had about 55 kids and the last one was at 8:30). Ron et al were dressed as Nintendo characters who were each dressed up as Luigi. We carved the 80 pound pumpkin from Terry this afternoon. William put a riddle on it: "Why didn't the ghost go to the prom? Because he had no body to go with.".  My film this year was based on the newest Canister recordings (Mecha-Canister).  

Premiere of Deathgasm II

 I didn't know as many people as I'd expected at the screening of Deathgasm II this evening. Caught a glimpse of Jeremy but he was in costume and interacting with many members of the cast and crew. The introduction was entirely video of the New Zealand members of the project, zoom recording. Funny I suppose. Kevin's not been to a "red carpet" screening before, and as someone who loves horror, we made an evening of it. Behind us sat Logan and John, who had both acted in the film. William pitched his show to them and it looks like Logan will do a role. 

Michael Bridge live music for Phantom of the Opera

 Wow. The Phantom of the Opera was never so cool as it was tonight as Michael Bridge improvised a score for it with his digital accordion. A nearly sold out crowd were completely engaged, interacting with the performance as per Bridge's suggestions. Dr. Bridge is based in Toronto but is from here, so perhaps this could become a regular event? We should figure out some way to get Filmpool involved with one of these next year. 

Painting Mickey

 Continuing my series of viewmaster and other 3-D viewer objects as subject, I painted this Disney viewmaster that Gerri Ann lent to me. 

Faust

 

Amazing presentation of live music with the silent film "Faust" by F.W. Murnau this evening at the RPL. Can't believe it was free and also cannot believe it wasn't packed to the rafters. A duo from Montreal, Tall Shadows, have been touring with it for the past couple of weeks playing a composed score for keyboards and electric violin. Admittedly it was an odd choice for a film. While it was its 100th anniversary, the film is unevenly paced with an extensively long middle act where Faust has a relationship with a young woman. The music was very energized, especially during the dynamic early scenes with the four horsemen and the devil, but during the romance the sound was often reduced to tones and slow beats. Nevertheless, I was more entertained by this film than I even have been before.Thank you Jon Vaughn for hosting it. 

Firt snow

Came out of the theatre this evening to find snow on car, even though it was already melting. 
 

Raking

Raked leaves today. It's supposed to get a bit wet in the next day or two so figured we'd get this done ahead of that. Yard is basically ready for winter. 
 

Double garage

Is it that double garages are not as big as they used to be, or that SUVs are bigger? 
 

Home writing

 Spent the day at home, as did William. He was doing a bit of drawing and other art stuff. I was mostly writing. I finished the first draft of a half hour Bird People episode, about 80% directly adapted from William's comics (as opposed to the others we've been writing which are structured as tv show holiday specials). 

Getting ready for winter

Finished getting the yard ready for winter. Will be able to spend the rest of the afternoon writing as the rain (and possibly a touch of snow) comes. 
 

The end of Splice

I'm very disappointed that the Saskatchewan Filmpool Board (with the exception of Jeremy Ratzlaff and Mike Rollo) voted to close down my Splice zine passion project this evening. I've really enjoyed reaching out to people and compiling lists of successes, announcements, and upcoming events for one side of the zine and writing or guiding/editing film reviews/discussions about local films/filmmakers on the other side. I saw it as an important way for us to share information, to share our love and respect for each other and our films, and to build a pool (note, the reason we called ourselves "filmpool") of writers who would be ready if/when we are able to get proper funding for the publication again. They so vehemently disliked it that they not only put a stop to my mini-low-budget-micro-publication zine, but they closed down the whole committee and reabsorbed Splice into the Board where it will only activate again if it has a stink load of money, which isn't any else's priority this year or next. 

As I've moved into the fall (both literally as well as figuratively) I find that all I am really happy about doing is writing, and I felt that contributing in that way to the Filmpool would be mutually beneficial. They didn't see it that way. Ultimately, it's not really my Filmpool anymore.

 
 

Janice moving

 Janice has been a very fun and inspiring painter in out weekly Balkwill sessions for the past few years. Today is her last day with us as she is moving to BC. We'll really miss her. 

Felipe and Bernie

 Felipe Diaz and Bernie Hi did presentations about the Canada Council and Sask Arts this evening at the Filmpool. It was a good talk with enough room for questions. You can always learn something new, and we did (there is a downloadable form on the CC website so you can work off line!!!). Great to see them. 

Family visits

 Margaret's cousins stopped past the house on their way home this morning. Carl will be back in the spring to show his new film. 

Fred's funeral

Funeral today. Frank and Carl and Carl's son Julien drove in from Alberta. Many friends and family came out to the service in Southey. After the interment, we finally got a look at George's new house (in progress). Wow, it's big and beautiful. 

 

Margaret's birthday

Happy birthday Margaret, as well as Griffin who shares the date. We joined Griffin, Bob, and Bob's parents at Bushwakkers for supper then cake at their house. Nice evening. 

 

Wordle

 After glitching (not making a mistake) last fall when we had won about 330 in a row, we have finally reached an entire year of unbroken Wordle wins. 

Very tired today

Mom phoned at 4:30 am. She'd fallen out of bed. I called the front desk to tell them, but they reminded me that they cannot personally physically help anyone to their feet but can check on her. I got there and talked her up. She's fine, but has forgotten how to roll and move like she used to. We sat around until 5:30. When I got home, I couldn't get to sleep until past 6. Mom phoned again at 8:15 to see if she could take me for breakfast. I think I barked at her. 

Later we finally reached a full year of Wordle. 

 

Cat to humane society

 This large, well cared for and not hungry cat has been living in our back yard for a couple of days. With snow threatening tonight, I took him to the humane society. He has a chip and they called the owner, but found that the owner had given him to someone else. They need to track down the second owner now. Hope it works out for him. He is very affectionate. 

Thanksgiving with mom

 Lori, Tate, Margaret and I had Thanksgiving lunch with mom at her residence today. Food was very nice. William was at his second day of Soracon. 

Soracon II

 William had a table at Soracon again this year. It moved from university campus to the Centre of the Arts. He sold a lot of mini-comics and books but not the original large comic strips. Had a good time. Two day event.

Folding paper

 I make a turkey today. Paul came over. After supper, we folded mini-comics until midnight. William built a few books in the basement. 

William haircut

 William had to cut out of the Filmpool party for his haircut. Took a lot of time trimming his sideburns. 

Filmpool housewarming

 Successful party at the Filmpool today. About 50-60 people came. 

Painting viewmasters

 I painted another viewmaster today. It's a modern one, but as it is from William's childhood, it's also getting to be old too. Probably from 2004-2006?

AGR Fashion

  We missed the opening but I stopped in to see the AGR exhibition around fashion. Lots of things to see with a very dynamic room set up and always something in your eyeline. Great colour. 

Egg

 

Margaret noticed that someone hit our front window with a couple of eggs today. Don't know why. It was pretty difficult to clean off (I forgot to take a photo before cleaning, but here is an after photo). 

Globe Theatre

 Coffee with Mike. Showed off the Art Sask magazine (from SaskArts) that William is featured in. Later in the evening we went to see Zarqa Nawaz's "Mosque Heist" at the Globe. Griffin came too. Margaret was scolded for walking across the stage area at the end of the play, I assume by a staffer who was chatting instead of properly supervising the area and then had to over-react.