Mona Navaei Roshandel's MFA exhibition

 We attended the closing reception for Mona's MFA exhibition at the Fifth Parallel. I had been expected all photos, but there was more video and installation. Well designed. Nice event. 

Fly

 Fly has taken ownership of the swatter. 

Apple sauce

I made one large pot of apple sauce today. It simmered down to about a half pot of sauce which then filled nine medium jars. Apples this year didn't require any extra sweetening.

 Steve and Gerri Ann came over for a drink this evening. Sat on deck. 

Screen Sask interview

 After a couple weeks of back and forth emails, I finally connected with Blues today to shoot an interview for the Screen Sask social media. Blues is a student intern over there for the summer with his term ending in a few days. I'll post a link once they have something online. 

Fish as artist

 My catfish has re-created his gallery, having moved it from one spot in the fishtank to another. It loves moving the suction cups around but now is somehow putting a white stone on display on top of the suction cup, as if it were a sculpture on a plinth.

Riffa panel and backyard fire

I moderated the RIFFA panel of Saskatchewan Filmmakers today. It went better than I feared. I kept things going and made sure everyone had a chance to talk. I tried to get them to converse with each other, which happened a few times. Later we lit a fire in the back yard and had a few people over. Emma, Geremy, Kevin, Rebekah, Robert, Dani, Paul, and a couple others I think. Fewer pictures than usual, so relying on 10 day old memory. William had wanted a firs on his birthday but too many people couldn't make it, so we postponed until today. 
 

RIFFA and apple picking

Picked apples off the Motherwell tree today. Probably left a third of them due to hight and lack of a tall enough ladder, but have more than we likely need. Dropped some off at Lori's. Later I attended a screening of Saskatchewan films at RIFFA this evening. Probably what stood out the most was a dance film called Rover by Tessa Leier from Saskatoon. 

William at 25

 Did some birthday stuff for William today. Geremy brought over a card first thing. We had cake. I surprised William a bird people t-shirt that I ordered through "T-Shirt Elephant" in Ontario. I'm quite pleased with the result (did one shirt black ink on white, another for myself with white on black). 

Jessie at RIFFA

 Jessie Short screened her NFB film about the Willow Bunch Giant (her great uncle) this afternoon. Before heading over there, I helped William prepare a 17 page application to try to attend a workshop through Screen Sask on how to apply for funding. 

Odyssey at IMAX

Finally saw the Odyssey tonight. Bought tickets for good Imax seats about three weeks ago and have been avoiding conversations about the film every since. There was a scratch in the print that lasted five minutes near the start. I've never seen an Imax scratch before (they run horizontally instead of vertically, so looks more like a digital line). 

 

Look screening

 RIFFA festival began today with the screening of the LOOK program student work. All in all pretty decent work. The talking before, after, and even in between the films was a bit long, but I guess it's necessary to reinforce the value of this success. 

Sold car

 William's old 2001 Mazda 626 (with the "swing" function on the vents). Sold to colleague of Margaret's from the library. He'll take good care of it. 

Leslea and Leif

 Leslea and Leif in Regina for family stuff. We met up at the bar for a couple of hours. Nova was also there. Mark and Vanda were at the next table by chance and also joined for a while 

Filmpool member's opening

 Second day of Filmpool Board retreat probably could have taken up the whole afternoon (we really need to talk about a lot more stuff) but we cut it off by 1:00 as we've invited members to come tour the new space on Lorne St. A couple of dozen arrived, so it was quite a good time. Many feel newly excited about being involved. 

Spiderman

 Went to new Spiderman movie. I enjoyed it. 

Marc's film

 Looking at some films I set aside. Looked at some frames of a roll of outtakes from what is likely a student film that Marc LaFoy made 40 years ago. Surprising what I find in my stacks. 

Fish finds more toys

 I put some marbles into the fish tank a while back because I noticed that the catfish seems to like moving things around, in particular the suction cup that fell off the heater. It doesn't touch the marbles. Today I noticed that it has found a second suction cup someplace. Perhaps an amazon order. 

Wasting time

 Meeting of the minds this evening went off track as everyone cancelled at the last minute. William and I had arrived at the library before getting messages so we worked on a puzzle. It was fun. 

Reading

 Reading Hollywood Babylon. I read this back in the early 90s and thought it was pretty radical. It is really quite superficial by the standards of what is at our fingertips these days. 

Art rack

 Built a simple rack using wood and some strong wire holders (that are similar to film racks but bigger). This is for standing up large artwork and art supplies in the garage so that they can be accessed and also are not directly on the concrete. 

Films onto shelf

 While not completed, I did finally put the majority of my 16mm film collection onto the shelves. They are more or less sorted and labeled. 

Memorial for Doug Townsend

 Drove up to Moose Jaw for memorial at the MJ Art Gallery for Doug Townsend who pass away earlier this year. His asses are being interred within an art vessel as part of the permanent collection. Charlie Fox flew in and spoke, along with others. 

Cat at vet

 Sylvie has been constantly hungry and aggressive when demanding food, even when she should be full. At the same time, she's been losing weight. We finally took her to the vet. Since we were last there,she's dropped form 6.2 kg to 3.2 kg. They did tests and will get back to us tomorrow. She has been our most expensive pet every. 

Sorting film

 I'm getting close to having the films in the basement sorted, but keep getting tripped up on space and time. I did just find this beautiful tarnished and scuffed up film reel that is suitable for framing. 

Cherries

We picked the cherries from Motherwell today.The crop was good and it seemed a bit easier to collect them this year. I spend the evening pitting them. 
 

Coffee and pie at Lori's

 Shim and the kids are in town so we had coffee at Lori's today. She made a pie from raspberries in her garden. 

Writing day

 Following the discussion two days ago, William is trying to chronicle the history of Aviatrica (his bird people world). I did some writing and he and I started shaping the Remembrance Day episode for me to write. 

mom and Filmpool

 Coffee and cards with mom this morning. In the afternoon I stopped at the Filmpool and got a bit of a tour from Joel. Things ar very much still in progress, but looking and feeling positive. 

Meeting of the minds

 Met at library this evening to work through another few stories for William's Bird People radio drama. Coffee with Geremy afterwards. Even after a discussion about how terrible the donuts at Tim's have become (I still remember the old days when they had a baker in every store, but those days are long gone), Geremy still had one and William still envided it. 

Coffee and Collage

Had coffee with mom this morning. Then I was back to sorting films in the basement. It is really cold down there, so I take breaks to go outside where it is very hot this week. I'm done some modifications on my new Bird People radio script "Buried Alive", but it is still unread by the others. This evening we went to a big collage collective work event where I had almost no space to work, no scissors, and no glue. I assembled a few pieces that I just photographed and disassembled again.. I glued only one piece permanently. Talked with Mike Jozsa and Mooky. 


 

Erika's MFA defence

 I'm very happy to have worked with Erika  Ospina Almanza for the past three years. She defended her MFA today. Mike Rollo and I were there in person with her. Matt and the external examiner, Professor Éléonore Goldberg of Emily Carr University of Art + Design were online. Ken Wilson chaired and took this picture. 

Vic 20

 William got the Vic 20 working. 

Barbara's birthday

Birthday party for Barbara Tomporowski at Greko's this evening. Meals are large and tasty (and very salty). Sat with Lynol and had our biggest conversation at the very end with a friend of theirs who was sitting at the other end who is veyr into old games and comics. Didn't catch his name.