7.27.2010

School, stones and film.

The other night I went to the most lavish cinema I know (the VanCity) and sat down to watch a gorgeous print of Dziga Vertov's Man with the Movie Camera with live accompaniment by the Alloy Orchestra. Seeing this film as it was originally intended blew my mind. My experience with Vertov's (and all Soviet era cinema, I suppose) has souly been through DVDs. I fell in love with Vertov's essays in the film studies courses I took last year.
 
Seeing the brief Q & A afterwards opened up some new avenues of thought for me. The Alloy Orchestra explained why they enjoyed writing soundtracks for silent films so much - they essentially bring silent cinema back to life and forward into the present. I guess there are people against them writing new material for old films.

In other news, I have a roommate now I suppose. His name is Brody and he is a small brown mouse. I saw him peek into my living room late last night (or rather, early this morning), after I had suspected something with tiny feet had been scuttering about my bedroom the odd night. At least I know for sure he's not a cat sized cockroach now. That always makes turning the lights off a little easier. I was considering buying a snap trap, but now that I've named him I've gotten all attached, so a live trap it is.

I harvested my first two wee tomatoes today! Pictures will go up a bit later. Despite my recent gardening neglect, I do have one tomato forming on one of my Brandywine Tom plants, which is delightful. The Micro Tom plants are loaded with fruit and keep budding with new flowers! It's quite wonderful. I've also got some nice flowers going in this square planter. Mini peppers are fattening up on a ledge in my kitchen and I'm thinking of trying my hand at herbs again... who knows!

Last time I posted I said I may have had a kidney stone, and that might is still a might. The theory is that I passed it by the time the ultrasound was preformed. Which is good, as whatever was bothering my abdomen was a great deal more painful than anything I've ever experienced.

There's a midnight double bill of Mad Max and The Road Warrior in the next couple weeks, and I intend to be there and enjoy the future dysotopia that is Australia with a young and dashing Mel Gibson. Inception is on my list of things to see this week - after papers of course.

Class registration is done. On Mondays I get to scamper between three different campuses, which is going to get tiresome pretty quick, I think. But I feel a little more like a film student now that I'm all enrolled and ready to go. Although I'm taking only one film related course (as I've taken all of the lower division ones I possibly can already), I think September's going to be a bit of a blast.

I've just finished reading Dune by Frank Herbert and I wasn't as fond of it as I thought I would be. A friend pointed out that it is written very much like a play, a style I often have a hard time enjoying. However, I am glad I've read it - it is a classic after all!

Sorry, not much craft news these days - I've been so busy! I purchased some key rings from CLBeads on Etsy and a variety of hand painted glass eyes from Suncatcher Craft Eyes from Etsy as well. I'm quite excited for the eyes, I had been anxious to try something more complex than a button for some time. This should add a little touch of personality.

I hope everyone's summer is illin'!

7.18.2010

Favorite Artist of the Week!!

DREW FALCHETTA! I was stumblingupon things, passing time, and found this most delightful depiction of a gnome riding a turtle. I fell in wuv.

Check out the other wonders of his watercolour work HERE!

In other, unfortunate news, I may have a kidney stone - which is awesome! Not. This was determined after I sat in a hospital for 5 hours. There goes my Sunday. I get to go for an ultrasound in the next couple days. Delightful! Stay TUNED for more news about that craziness.

Have a swell Monday, everyone.

7.17.2010

Is it July 17th already?

It seems there's so little to update on, and it's been so long! Anyways, moving happily into my new basement cave - wondrous as it is! The kitchen and the living room are all cleaned up and livable. But there are still piles of things in most other rooms of the house. However, I did just get a storage space freed up today - so in some boxes go! Here's a bit of a nostalgia binge: I went through all of these boxes my parents brought out for me that I had packed up in the summer of '08 before I went off to University. It was pretty awesome going through them. I was trying to get rid of some things, but basically all I did was pack them more tightly into the boxes so it seemed like I had gotten rid of 4 boxes worth instead of two.


Today I decided to do a little sewing, when I was probably supposed to be catching up on bio, but whatever. I drew up a bunch of patterns for fruit&veg keychains (!) and ended up making this tiny little fellow I have called Wee Blue Bunny. He ended up a little more lopsided than I would have liked, and I should have stuck with felt for his belly - the fabric I used is sort of weird and stretchy, which makes it hard to keep even.



In other sewing news, I'm thinking of making Big Buckaroo more interesting. Since I made him I have continuously said to myself, "He's not quite 'alive' enough, he needs something more!" So the answer? I think a neckercheif and some chaps are in order! It'll make him look like a real buckaroo from the west. It'll sure make his boring felt torso a lot more intriguing. Maybe I'll give him big Brezhnev eyebrows too.

My garden has shrunk quite a bit since I've moved. It's been a bit neglected lately. But one tomato on my micro tom plants has started to turn red at last! They are LOADED with tomatoes. The back yard gets sun all day and my plants are just loving it! My Brandywine toms are chest high and started flowering a few weeks ago. Hopefully I'll be able to get some huuuge tomatoes off of them!

I think I'm going to go to a park further north tomorrow and get some nature shooting in. I haven't been out with my Sony in a very, very long time, so it's time to delve into nature for some gorgeous shots again! It'll be a bit of a haul by transit to get up there, but hopefully it'll be well worth it. I was going to go up there today, but my mom, dad and puppy left today and after that, I wasn't feeling up to too much of anything (except A LOT of Star Trek: Deep Space 9). Azn's coming to visit next week for 4 or 5 days and I may have a hot date the week after (?) busy busy busy.

Hope everyone's summer is going swell!

7.04.2010

Birthday/Fathers day coffee sleeve.

I finally got to give this to my dad on Monday, which he promptly left in my mom's car before leaving back home. I'm fairly proud of it, it was taxing at times and it's a wee bit large for your standard coffee cup, but that is easily amended. So it's made from felt, red and black as you can see. I'm not that great at/don't have the right tools to do embroidery, but it still turned out alright.

Anyways, I guess I should stop stalling. I need to start scrubbing my floors, which are filthy. *sigh*. Or maybe I'll make food first... well, procrastination always wins.

Boxes.



Hellooo all. Well, just a bit of an update today, nothing too outrageously fancy. I am moved out of my old house and into my new basement, there is a crap-ton of cleaning to be done and even more boxes to be unboxed. My parents brought a bunch of miscellaneous boxes from home that I had packed up in the summer of 2008, not knowing what to do with all of that stuff. I guess I'll have a nostalgia explosion, then throw most of it out. I had a small nostalgia explosion yesterday when I took my first trip to the Vancouver Flea Market with my mom and sister, expecting something perhaps a little higher class, but as I walked through the doors I saw kiosks filled with 80's electronics, cheap DVDs, walkmans and old LPs. I'm just going to say that it was bizarre... and that I'm pretty sure drug deals go down there. What I found the most funny was this big, tall 20-something in huge sunglasses and an Ed-Hardy t-shirt was wandering around trying to find a cheap iPhone for himself. The bling on his car obviously put him over budget. But enough stereotyping for today.
My mom's gone to the island for tonight to see my Gran, but tomorrow she's coming back to stay overnight AND TO TAKE ME TO SEE TOY STORY 3. I am pretty ashamed I haven't seen it. In fact, I was supposed to see it a week or two ago, but packing and papers for school sort of took over my life. I am super excited! I've heard nothing but good things about it. A friend at work told me that it completed her childhood and to bring the tissues because it's so sad. Pixar, you are genius.

Anywhom, stay tuned for some sweet photographs of the goings-on of this past week or so.

Hope everyone had a pretty delicious Canada Day. I'm fairly sure all I did was go to IKEA like... 6 times and watch the most boring episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation ever.

Ta for now!