Sherlock Holmes Faces Death

Most every Sunday as a teenager I spent a couple of hours every morning watching old b&w movies. Sherlock Holmes, starring Basil Rathbone, was one of many.

Last week I went to the library (I love the library!), and signed out a bunch of movies, one of which was Sherlock Holmes Faces Death. A good thing about the rainy, cold weather we've been having is it makes me want to curl up and watch a movie. I don't feel guilty for being inside as I'm sometimes prone to feeling.

So Sunday night I plop my blow up bed mattress on the floor, grab some wooly blankets and a few pillows and tuck in for a night of movies. Sherlock was first. The movie starts and what's this? There's a bloody commentary with this movie??! Ah come on! I contemplate getting up from my warm den and out of laziness decide to give it a chance. What I discover is the usefulness of this commentary. Check it out. You know sometimes when watching a movie you don't quite make out what a character just did, or understand exactly what just happened? Well this voice helps you with that. Instead of having to ask the person next to you, "What time did the clock read?" And they say, "I dunno." The voice tells you! It's really very helpful by not leaving you in the dust and it doesn't distract you from your viewing pleasure as I thought it would.

Needless to say by the end of the movie Holmes faced and conquered death as only he can.

If anyone has any favourite old movies let me know! I may not have seen it yet.

show and tell

So I'm having a show. My first show in fact. It's a collection of my images from the past few years and some very recent images too. My friend Vicki is hosting it in her new home. This is her second show. She recruited me as her next victim after her first. I tried to back peddle my way out of it, but she wouldn't hear of it. So for the past month or so I've been routing through slides and scanning negatives that have never seen the light of day. It's been fun 'discovering' these images. I had turned away from selling my personal photographs as 'art' awhile back, so I'm returning to a place I didn't think I would enter again.

It can be pretty vulnerable to put an expression of yourself out to the general public. It's almost like being a kid again asking the question, "will they accept me?" But heck, I'm having fun with the process of getting ready, even if I find it a bit frustrating at times. I'm finding it really challenging deciding how to 'present' my work best. I wish I had someone sitting beside me who was seasoned at this and could guide me along. However I have found a great guy who is printing my work and has given me some advice based on new materials he has come across.

I'm tired of the old matting and frames and have been introduced to something called sintra board. Essentially it doesn't require any glass or frame. The image is mounted directly to the board allowing a customer to choose whether they want to frame it or not, so this spurs me on and makes the process exciting. This is my poster with an image I've posted here before so I'm including another image that will be presented at the show as well.

Bringing sexy back

We had to re-shingle the south side of our house this weekend and we lucked out with bee-u-tiful weather to spend the time on our roof glancing at our surroundings from a new vantage point. This is my second time at roofing. The first time was in the middle of summer 2003. I was a reluctant participant in the beginning, but then I got hooked up with my own toolbelt, hammer and nails and something happened while I was up high off the ground, swinging a hammer.... I began to feel sexy. There was something about the physicalness of this particular job that made me wonder if this is how guys feel working outdoors. I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't feel sexy when all dressed up, but can when I'm working out in the garden, hands in the dirt, sleeves rolled up, maybe I'm even sporting rubber boots or something. You know? When the bra is off and you're just working the earth or now, roofing. I bet it has something to do with the back to basics of the task. There's no artifice like when getting dressed up. It's you and your natural surroundings, push against pull, throwing all of your strength and sweat into this raw, honest exchange.
Is anyone with me on this?

Vindicated after 23 years

The topic of bullying has come up in conversation lately with some girlfriends. I was bullied in grade 6 and now what happened to me is happening to a friend's daughter in my neighbourhood. Among other things, she is being left out of "the group" to the point where she feels sick everyday and doesn't want to go to school. Yup, I remember that only too well.

Last night being Halloween I went to my friend's house in the village where there is trick or treat activity. We pulled out her Halloween decorations, they being a small headstone with a bare mannequin leg sticking out, skulls, lights and very spooking music emanating from her house. Our costumes were made up with whatever was in her tickle trunk and man, did we look good for spur of the moment costumes. We made her into a wacky Phyllis Diller/Carol Channing character and she sported the best nasal NY accent (not authentic to her characters), but nonetheless very entertaining. The kids would enter her kitchen and she would talk to them with this accent and they didn't know what the hell she was going on about. It was hilarious. I found myself a Jason type mask and black hooded cloak which hid me very well. Being someone who can't watch any kind of scary movie, I loved that I was playing this role.

Enter 3 girls. One very bossy. She proceeded to harangue us and demand who "we were supposed to be." When it came my turn I stayed perfectly silent and just stared at her in my spookiness. She was very cocky and told me many times she wasn't afraid of me. They left the house and quietly in my blackness I followed them outside and onto the sidewalk into the darkness. They spotted me behind them and all three of them SCREAMED over and over as they ran away.

I walked back into the kitchen buoyant from my victory as my friend told me I just scared the shit out of the biggest bully in school. Vindicated at long last!