Stirring it up

 Well here it is! Happy ten days into the new year. And though I'm aware the year is rather an arbitrary number, and really, any day is just like the next, the budding of a 'new year' instills in the hearts of the Western world, something nice for a while. Something intrinsically hopeful. Though I wish these feelings would sweep over the nation more than once every cycle around the sun, I'll take what I can get.

Graduation is nigh! It's been a long time coming, but the light at the end of the tunnel! I can see it! I am convinced it will be the spiritual equivalent of the new years of my twenties, if that makes any sense. After my first week of classes this semester, I am acutely aware that this last semester, unfortunately, will not be easy on me. But everything's so close to the end, I'm a little hard-pressed to care.

Coming back to the city after Canmore is always a little disappointing. It's a loud and busy place, where there are more people to ignore you - then you realize it takes an hour and a half by bus to really 'get outside' in the traditional sense. I definitely don't ever want to forget what living in a small town is like.

Something I tried really hard to do this past Christmas was shop for local things in Vancouver (I also tried to say 'happy holidays' to someone instead of 'merry Christmas' and got an overreaction that I was not impressed by - I'm wishing you well for your holidays, whatever they are - I don't have to, you know - I can say, 'thanks for your purchase, don't get your damn knickers in a twist', but please, continue to make mountains out of mole-hills). This ended up being a slightly more expensive, and time-consuming venture - but the return was quite rewarding. At numerous locally-built and maintained shops, people are willing to chat (about literally anything), help you make decisions. I had a nice chat for almost an hour with a woman in a shop on Granville Island who was selling a local designer's clothes. Talked distilleries with a couple of the new ones in town - I think my favourite has to be Odd Society Spirits - I love their labels and I sort of put Cremé de Cassis in everything over the holidays. It made shopping a little more of an adventure. I remember my first year I lived here I did most of my shopping at Metrotown. I do not go there any more. For anything. Ever.

This, in conjunction with a recent brain-bubble, has made me very interested in consumerism as a power, and a choice. And this includes all form of consumerism - what you're eating, watching, buying, and buying into. I was listening to the CBC recently and they were talking about the Weather Channel (a private company) and their website, explaining the sensationalized storms they choose to name  (similar to naming hurricanes) outside of the NOAA's classification system, the cat videos they fill their page view quotas with when there aren't any extreme weather phenomenon to report on or spin into a wild news craze. I consider this akin to those awful morning talk shows (and many other things) I re-experienced while having access to satellite over the holidays. I sit and look at it and think, 'who is putting money into this? Who keeps watching this? How does this crap continue existing?' I am always at a distinct, mind-boggling loss for answers. How does this mindless generation of sub-par, fear mongering, and ultimately ignorant content keep getting bigger, angrier, and more profitable? It's like the overstimulation olympics - who can cram as many little white lies, useless information, and out-of-context sound bites as possible into a news segment about a cat fashion show.

It's extremely easy to make misinformed, or uninformed decisions in a time where everyone is out to get your attention and your dollar. It's exhausting to think of the implications I am purchasing into when I buy a brand of clothing or food. Who or what am I exploiting by buying this product? The lists are usually long and very depressing.

I think maybe it's something we don't think of often enough; consumerism as a power. I've always felt that my own voice in the world wouldn't ever do much - how do you say anything to the people who run the world. It seems the best mode for any exchange of ideas (much to my chagrin) is through the mysterious channels of money. As much as I like consuming fish, I'm well aware of the debacle around wild and farmed fish stocks. I make a decision not to purchase fish products or eat fish, even though it is highly accessible and I like it. It seems a very 'first world' sacrifice - that's because it is. I think because the first world has such vast access to things, people think they have the right to a vast access of things. Maybe 'right' is the wrong word. But ultimately just because you can doesn't mean you should. It's an incredible responsibility, and in a marketplace in which you alone are what determines what is and is not consumed, it takes willpower. And to be honest, I think we all can use a little more of that.

I am in the middle of a disheartening work of non-fiction by Farley Mowat called Sea of Slaughter. He systematically goes through species that have been ruthlessly decimated not out of need but out of greed in North America. I read about a once bountiful ocean, the one that existed some 300 years ago, and I look at what's left. The hollow shell left behind by an over-excited industrial complex. The sense that seems common to me would be to use a natural resource with enough knowledge and foresight to allow it to replenish, and ultimately, live so that the next generation of Homo sapien can also benefit from it. But what seems to happen, again and again (and again) is a resource (in this case, any plant or animal ever to be determined to attract capital) is tapped, hunted until it becomes a valuable commodity, then it is beaten to extinction while being marketed to a higher class of people without a whole lot of forethought. It's all for the dollar. It was just this step-by-step syphoning of every resource into the pockets of tycoons. It still happens - and it will continue to happen because people seem to be able to remove themselves from the global situation if they have enough money. It's just very frustrating. Well not just just. It's huge, hairy, and rather frightening.

Anyways, I could talk myself in circles about this stuff forever. I have a bunch of global identity thoughts I've been mulling about as well. But I'll save those for another time. It's a hard thing to put into coherent sentences because I am aware of all of the things I don't know (which are plenty), and all of the misinformation I have probably consumed about these things. And what's worse is I feel really cheesy talking about it - preaching the helicopter parenting of the 24-hour news cycle, and that we need to save the planet. But come on. The writing has been on the wall for decades. When I talk about these sorts of things, tag lines from Hollywood films always come to mind. Everything has already been said. A thousand times over.

Ultimately, always consume with a conscious. Whether it be the blogs you read, the olives you put in your martini, the illin' kicks you bought online, or the cat videos you endlessly scroll through - it all exists inside your sphere of influence.

Anyways, anyways.

There aren't really any resolutions for me this year. Because I've known for a while what I've got to get done in 2014. The list is long.

I'm revamping my Etsy site this weekend (so keep an eye out) - with some new things! Recent findings have found me to be as broke as ever, and I can't seem to get a job even bagging groceries - so I guess I will just make things out of other things. Want a monster made of felt? Or possibly any other material? I am your lady.

Oh - and all of you in Vancouver - Save the Date: May 17th, 2014 - I am hosting and programming an afternoon of film and video projects (plus the premier of my most recent short film), complete with opportunities to eat, drink, network, and be merry! It's at the infinitely lovely Vancity Theatre, and it will be full of great people and wonderful things. So make sure you're around!

I decided to list some of my favourite things that I can remember discovering in 2013, that you can also absorb into your body of consciousness - I am astounded by what I currently cannot remember, surely there were more things than this - links below!

Things to listen to:

Sword & Sworcery soundtrack 'Ballad of the Space Babies' by Jim Guthrie

Things to read:

The Very Persistent Gappers of Fripp by George Saunders

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

An Astronaut's Guide to Life On Earth by Chris Hadfield

Things to view:

Rheanna Toy's short film, NINA, was accepted into the National Screen Institute's online film festival!

Learn about the BEE PROBLEM

Upstream Color

Orange is the New Black

Hannibal

Salutations, autumnal breeze.

And by autumnal breeze, I mean raindrops both large and cold.

“The thing is you have to fight the whole time. You can’t stop. Otherwise you just end up somewhere, bobbing in the middle of a life you never wanted.”

—	Alexander Maksik, You Deserve Nothing

While I sit patiently waiting for my film to return to me from it's trip to Seattle, I would like to talk briefly about all of these 'Generation Y' articles that seem to go through fits and spurts of straight up bothering me on all social media fronts. Even last year they lured me in with their apathetic temptations. Every time I read one of these (or, pretty much any article from the Thought Catalog) I feel conflicted. The internal conversation always went something like, 'sure, sure yeah, I can sort of relate, I guess,' followed by an uncomfortable silence in which I would try to figure out why this article even mattered. Why I felt so troubled about these articles wasn't ever inherently clear to me - they were just frustrating to read. Generalizing problems through such vague and blanketing terms, their fates seemed similar to that of the astrology column of your local newspaper. Bitching about being a twenty-something now seems to be the 'it' thing to do. Not offering up any solutions, nor questions that we can work towards an answer. Everyone says we're lost, doing not enough of one thing (sex/drugs/rock and roll), not enough of another (sex/drugs/rock and roll). 

I would like to offer you this counter article in Contenders Magazine written by the affable Alex Caulfield: 100 Things that Prove You're an Asshole - seek out the original article if you wish, but I did, and I was faced with immediate regret.

I'm finding articles on the internet more and more irrelevant and frivolous as ever. A lot of things circulated around the blogosphere are just plain irresponsible. And there's just so much of it. I can't take much at face value because the internet is full of trolls and hoaxes.

The problem with a lot of these Gen-Y/nutburger articles is trying to pin blame on things.  And then, while my eyes are open to all that blame-slinging, I see so much more! When I was home in August, I had my two time-a-year access to satellite TV, and the 24 hour news cycle (and Guy Fieri marathons, who are we even kidding). All I was able to see on the news is people trying to blame things on other people. Yes, so this happened - who can we blame? Some parents in the United States are still trying to get John Green's books banned - let's blame a young adult fiction writer for exposing things to our children that we haven't been able to explain to them because there is no way the real world will ever effect them in any way. Your kid fell off a jungle gym - the obvious solution is, apparently, to label the playground as 'dangerous' and berate whoever is in charge to dismantle it or you'll sue. So your kids aren't getting good grades in high school - obviously, the solution is to blame the teacher's ineptitude while your kid learns nothing of value, not from school, and not from you. The winner these days is never the good guy, it's whoever gets away scott-free. It seems that the one who slings the most slander becomes saintly.

And becoming aware of this common string - I am rather aware now of how I utilize blame in my own day-to-day activities. It takes a lot to change your own perspective in life, a lot of the time it's easier to remain the same, remain ignorant, remain blind. The more positively-inclined teachers at my high school made it abundantly clear to me back in the day, that change begins with one person. This meant something to me when I was in my teens (it mostly had to do with recycling), but it means something slightly different to me now. 'Be the change you want to see' is this rope I hang onto above a deep, dark pool of all of the big, unfortunate problems that plague humanity. If you look down for too long, it gets really depressing. I mean, those are some large-and-in-charge problems. But that rope is what you've got. So, hand over hand, you've got to climb. At a certain point, you resign to the fact you'll be climbing for the rest of your days, so you climb. My climb begins - on an infinitesimal scale - I'm weirded out with people not making any eye contact in my neighbourhood. So I've started making eye contact with like... everyone. Whether it's little things, big things, or everything, take it and do your best to fix it, even if no body else is giving it a try.

Okay, and here's one more thing, here's a new pet peeve I have. In fact, it's become a big, snarling pet peeve. It might have something to do with that big, dark pool previously stated. See, for a long time, I haven't known what I wanted in the short to long term. In the past two or three years, I've been figuring those things out. It's sort of like feeling your way across a snow-crusted glacier. That shit's scary. But if you survive, you learn, and off you go to another glacier. I've been figuring out what I value, what I need to get to where I've got to go. While I was figuring those things out - it was common place to sort of get stepped on. After getting stepped on one too many times, however, that lesson's been (finally) learned. And upon presenting someone new with a list of things that are, to me, common sense - I was met with abject back-pedalling. The first time I was able to call someone out, they tried to weasel out of it by saying I was wrong. Naturally, I was hurt, but the hurt was so temporary. Because I knew I was in the right. It was so magnificently empowering - hell, I might just need to do if more often.

Respect isn't even something to be earned, it's something you've got to demand. Sometimes you literally have to shake it out of other people, or leave them behind. I don't even know.

Here's to a self-imposed ban on letting people walk all over me.

Anyways.

My film was shipped last Monday. I await for it's return, and with it, all sorts of truths. When it comes back, that box will be either filled with a great deal of worth, or none at all. It's driving me bananas. Bananas, I say!

It's been a weird month back in Vancouver. I feel I'm behind in all aspects of things. Really feeling the rain, and we've only gotten a toe into fall.

Is there strength in solitude? Perhaps.

Probably old news, but you all should probably read Markus Zusak's The Book Thief.

Oh, and the photos in this post are ones I took in August in Canmore - trying out Lomography's colour 800 speed 35mm still film. So good, so vibrant, very versatile. I pretty much just love Lomography. So. There.

Happy rain, everyone!

Things to look at!

I've got to recommend the Netflix original series Orange is the New Black
Jaeger Designer - I don't even care, this was a fun ten minutes of my life
Dating Tips for the Feminist Man - a good read for everyone, regardless of gender or sexuality
Canadian Frame(lines) is raising money for yet another project of super-ambition!
VIFF is in town! The most wonderful time of the year, second only to Christmas!
And while at VIFF, I saw Jessica Oreck's new documentary Aatsinki - she's a very cool lady who does very cool projects (like this one) - there is also a super interactive website they've done up called The Aatsinki Season
Be sure to check out Plastic, a short film by Sandy Widyanata about body image

It's Not Quite the Time

Short post today. Not much going on.

I'm going into my sixth and final year of university this September, and it feels bizarre. High school feels like only a couple of years ago, while at the same time it feels like ancient history. It's rather disorienting.

In the wake of my last five years in Vancouver, I think I've come to fear that the amount I have grown is negligible to the time I have spent in this city. Maybe I expected more of a noticeable change, being in University, living independently, working different jobs, being around different people, et cetera. I'm sure I've changed, just as sure as I've aged, but it's very difficult to see being in such close proximity to myself all of the time.

My life goal wasn't ever to 'be a film student'. But somehow in my post-secondary education, that's what its kind of feeling like. Like there's nothing beyond graduation, nothing beyond GPAs. I've had my head down for most of my University career, sort of staring at my film student feet. With a year left, it's really about time I stared to augment how I look at my role in the grand scheme of things. A year from now my career as a student will be quite over, and I hope things will be quite different. My stress levels await the day I can not care about what a stranger grades a final exam as in a class that has nothing to do with my major. I can dream.

This summer's off to a very slow start - having not landed a job immediately after the semester ended, I'm stranded in a weird limbo between employment in July and unsure of what to do on a day-to-day basis. I've been gardening (on days that it doesn't rain, which seem few and far between lately), sewing a bit, catching up on some reading. I saw Star Trek twice. But really, I don't have much to do. Sigh.

As things are gearing up to shoot my next short film in August, I feel the usual stress and pressure of a looming shoot date - but in a rather controlled and measured way. The game has changed a little in regards to my preparation and drive going into next year, and I feel that everything is slowly, but surely coming together. Every day I try and get something lined up or figured out. As much as I would have liked a producer or a production manager this time through, I think with all of the time on my hands now, I've got some time to do some creative, as well as bureaucratic planning. Getting all of my ducks in a row.

Sorry for the short, jumping-about post. My brain is everywhere!

Things to check out (a lot of things):

Female Voice in the Film Industry panel, coming up this Wednesday

Spaces and Reservations is up with it's own website and Tumblr

Will Romines is on Tumblr! With photography!

SFU film grad Paula McGlynn's lovely blog

I finally checked out the wonder that is Brain Scoop - it's a very, very cool series

This is Water by David Foster Wallace

The Feminist Anthropologist

Just in case you missed it - one of my favourite humans singing in space

A cool history of space-safe food from Tested

Moving Forward: Reflections on three years of film school (sort of)

Well, another screening has come and gone. Another year of university has done the same. Relieved and incredibly nervous that this time next year I'll be headed out of my post-secondary career and out into the deep end.

The SFU 3rd Year Screening: Free was two Thursdays ago, and it was tremendous - thank you to everyone who came out to see our films. 'A Spoonful of Sugar' was pleasantly received. It was great to show something in the theater again, I always forget what that rush is like. My classmates' films were absolutely top-notch, and I've got to say it's our best screening yet. I can't wait to see what everyone pulls off next year.

Here we go...

"We gather knowledge faster than we gather wisdom."

This semester, I've been working on developing a daily routine. Things I need to do every day, things that need to get done every day, regardless. A medley of tidying, practicing the ukulele, writing, watching a movie or two, doing so much ecology reading. Perhaps in ritual I can get this semester under control and have it maintained in such a state, that in the weeks I approach my shoot, the rest of my life doesn't just... deflate/collapse/spontaneously combust.

Oh yeah. So I'm shooting in five weeks. My first largeish-scale, solo venture.

Broccoli I grew. NBD.

I've got ideas flying all over the place for my first semester film, as well as for my grad film (yeah, that's coming up quicker than I anticipated). Now that I've finally got my first draft completed and my gear list in, the only thing that feels all wiggly and in the way of my confidence is casting - and that's only because I've never done it before and it's a little intimidating. More so because I'm casting a quartet of kids. Oh, and a gear/crew situation that continues to worsten every time I check up on it. But we'll deal with that... later.

The shoot seems like a long ways away at this point, but I know it's going to sneak up on me like nobody's business. But knowing what I want is an incredible feeling. After being stuck on page four of my screenplay since sometime in July, I forced myself to sit down and complete the first draft. No sleep, I said, til it's done. The next day was just astounding (equal parts excitement, accomplishment, and drifting on three hours sleep). My gear list was easy to build, thoughtfully extrapolate and submit. It's so stupendous. I can see how this is going to roll. And I feel it's going to go well.

My excited anxiousness reminds me a lot of my trepidation going into my two productions for first year... except my brain seems so much more organized. There's still fear (if you come onto set one day and you're not afraid, really, what's the point of coming onto set at all), but it's a controlled fear, a much more logical fear. A fear I can get excited about? Maybe? I have a notebook and in it are lists of things, 'current problems', 'potential problems', 'things to avoid'. But these are right alongside the things I feel more positive about - budgets and props, lighting and camera. It's (so far) balancing out to a very zen experience. Everything, right now, seems within my grasp.

To get myself all mentally geared up for my shoot, I've selected a pile of books and DVDs to sort of set me off in similar directions. Either stylistically or inspiring character details or camera angles. I tried to do this last year, but found it very difficult to keep up with how the idea of our film evolved. I seem to have a fairly clear visual look for the film, and the challenge for me in the pre-production phase and on set is making sure that vision is understood by everyone. That's something I had problems with in my second year as well, but that's what's so supreme about third year - you really get to march to the beat of your own drum.

I also bought a uke recently. Yiss.

Coming from a different, but perhaps, equally tumultuous part of my brain, is some thoughts about the relationships between people. I find as I get older, it's easier to observe my actions from a more objective standpoint much sooner after a happening. From these observations, I can kind of patch together some reasons I end up doing things, or reacting the way I do. Fixing habits is much easier said than done, but I think it's a step in the right direction (after all). It's funny how much I get hung up on people, being liked by people. Not even people in general, certain people. While I have people in my life who care, my thoughts often do not go to them first. My thoughts get tossed in this bottomless pit of nothing. It's times like this when I'm reminded how important these characters in my life are, the ones who I can talk to and be myself around.

My older self seems to be gaining insight on my younger self.

To all those embarking on shooting in these coming weeks, best of luck! I look forward to seeing more stupendous work coming out of this year.


Things to look at:

I've started a Tumblr for some of my photos! Badger Brown.

Mantees that calm the soul.

In a round about sort-of way.

Well, a frivolous holiday already come and gone, school started again this week with a weird unfamiliarity with being around people and being so inexcusably out of my comfort zone I could hardly stand it. As of yesterday I'm on my first student film crew of the year, gaffing a grad film - it feels really good. Even the sound of gels being rolled up had a certain je-ne-sais-pas. It's exciting to be learning again, although this semester's workload is extraordinarily daunting. But, the more I think about it, the more I think it's the right kind of workload that keeps me on my feet, not in the crazy house (with any luck). 

I'm still getting fairly ahead of myself with my first semester film, but the script is puttering a long to the eventual completion of the first draft. It'll be a challenge, as I'm incorporating a little bit of everything in it (cinematography-wise): a bit of indoor, outdoor and stop-motion photography. I've started to pull together bits and pieces of crew as I go along. Some large issues that are summing up nicely in the form of panicked jolts in the middle of the night are: time (in general), casting, finances and some critical crew positions I feel unprepared to fill. The chunks of wisdom I've gathered from this week have helped me a little to get back on my feet and start thinking about things in a more organized fashion. I've short listed some films to revisit in lieu of this script, to be brought into a style scheme and mindset. I'm hoping this weekend I can complete a first draft and start assembling a basic style package to pass on to my art director (ooooooooo, I've got one of those).

35mm photography (dispersed throughout this post) has been a great jumping point for me this past month into the exploration of creating depth and texture in photos. While keeping me familiar with the medium of film, it keeps me on the up and up about primes and zoom lenses, and it's actually made me much more aware of light on a day-to-day basis. Photography for me, is more of an exercise than an art form at this point, but I do really enjoy the experience of it. Seeing what I can capture, testing different stocks, seeing the results of an error and being delighted with the effect. I've been shooting mostly black and white, to keep me searching for tone, background/foreground differentiation and how to make a subject interesting without colour. It's actually given me a great deal of confidence going into this semester, where I plan to shoot and direct a short film - despite that people keep cringing every time I tell them my plan to do so. The next step to that is to be able to grant my confidence to a camera operator and a gaffer to enable me to move about my set freely. That's the kicker.

Back in Canmore last week I had some smaller adventures - camping in Elbow Valley, stalking a great grey owl with my Nikon, highland dancing in the beer tent at the Canmore Highland Games, going to a different store to buy pants (good god), getting all your drinks paid for because a friend's making loads more money than you, cheese fondues, so much brie for breakfast, rediscovering the wonders of trail mix, failing at making a pretty cake (just tasted good, I guess), introducing my family to some super cinema (Take Shelter) and eating expensive Alberta sushi. The trip felt rather short, but it was nice to catch up on some sleep, see some people I only see once or twice in a year, plus I rather enjoy chilling with my parents (and my dog) - but it sounds like this winter I'll be coming home for two or three weeks, giving me loads of time to muck about the valley.

I hope everyone is having a solid start to their academic year!

A video you should watch, because fish are radical - so is MBARI:

Great Manta Ray of Santa Fe -

As I start to piece together this script for the fall, I find myself constantly hung up on the visuals. When I'm sitting down, brainstorming the main conflict in the film and what it can involve - I constantly find myself on the next blank page, making lists of props, costumes, songs, locations, lighting schemes and camera angles. On a secondary front, any story I have tried to write down, I have deemed not a good enough story to tell. On what basis, I'm not entirely sure. I'm not even super sure what sort of films I'd like to make. When I think of my dream jobs, two sort of float to the top. One is working in quality kids films - the other, doing camera operation for programs like Planet Earth, traveling, observing and searching for that perfect, heart-rending shot of a tiny, rare animal making it's way in the world. As much as I'd like to be the ring-master on any project of mine, I really don't think I have the ability to actively produce entire ideas. Of course, I'll give it my all while I'm in school, but it's not something I'd necessarily cling to coming out of  University. I think it would be magnificent to collaborate with a screenwriter at some point - either in a directorial or a cinematography capacity.


While reading Mike Leigh on Mike Leigh, I've come to note certain aspecs of filmmaking that continue to both astound and confound me. The debate over art is something I find particularly futile; what is worth looking at, what is worth money - which pieces affect whom and in what way. Leigh's way of doing things is unique, laborous - and through his practices he gets these devastating dramatic pieces that I, personally, have not seen the likes of. There is a film out there for everyone, I think - and as filmmakers, the possibilities are absolutely endless. Not only are there an astounding number of ways to now go about getting a film made, but film can be made to realize any truth, any dream and any image. It's something I really look forward to being involved in for the rest of my life.

I've also started exploring photography a little more as a source of inspiration for visuals. I've now shot a couple rolls of black and white 35mm stills on loaner cameras. It's a rather exhilarating activity, looking for where the light is just right. And trying to think in black and white is opening up all of these brain-doors that look for texture on a different level than taking colour photos.

Potatoes!

I also made some amazing soup the other day. With the onset of a weird chest cold, I decided that, in 25 degree weather was good weather to make a butt-load of soup in. Using Jamie Oliver's potato and leek recipe as a jumping point, I took garden potatoes, leeks, onions, garlic, carrots, celery and ham - boiled in a vegetable stock with loads of pepper and a couple bay leaves. Delish! My only wish is that our freezer was bigger so I could make bigger batches. And, as a result, eat soup forever. Also, this horrible, horrible cough is remarkably persistent - so make a wider berth around me than you usually would. I seem to have already infected my roommate. Although it doesn't seem to come with any flu-y or congestion problems, it's all up in my chest and it's really awesome.

Having harvested my first (and probably only) head of broccoli yesterday, I think the gardening is winding down. An unfortunate white mildew is slowly preying in my pumpkins, and the peas are all but done. The beans are still coming at alright intervals - onions are still coming, and I picked my first couple of tomatoes from the vine this past week. Sometimes there's a strawberry or two waiting for me in my patio planters when I come home from out and about.

I made a new friend. It's a ukulele. After a couple years of pining after one, after feeling the need to have another interactive hobby that is completely "battery-free", I'm actually having a lot of fun teaching myself how to play an instrument. It picks at my brain in different ways than reading, watching and the like.

I'm due back home in Alberta today! Where many adventures await: camping, hiking, eating, drinking, and all that business. It's a much needed holiday, I think. A time to be away from the pressures of the city for just an ounce of time before I come face to face with an incredibly dense semester. Although my anxiety is peaking at a borderline psychotic level, I think this semester's going to be a lot of fun.

Anyways, a bit of a scrappy, boring to look at post today - but I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their August. And for those returning to school of any kind this September, I feel ya.


Things to feast your eyes upon:

Experience Madeline's excellent cartoon-amazingness!

Remember to keep up with Rock Cottage Year!

Also, ParaNorman was really awesome. I recommend you all go and see it. Plus, the soundtrack is by Jon Brion. So there is nowhere you could go wrong here. At all.

Live in Vancouver, looove movies? Be sure to check out the Vancouver Retro Cinema Festival. PRISCILLA IS PLAYING!

I found this neat, very informative site that describes the inner workings of tons of still photography cameras that are a little on the old side. Here's a link to the Nikon FA portion of the site. Extremely thorough, and rather straightforward. A great guide for n00bs like myself.

Tripping all over Western Canada.

The summer's pretty much over, but it's making room for delightful fall adventures - where I get to learn things! I cut all my hair off and bought a pair of shoes that aren't sneakers. I'm a grown up! Or something.

I've been traveling a bit. And by traveling, I mean going to see relatives. I don't get out much. First, I ferried over to the island via a long, hellish bus ride with camera equipment and, as usual, too many books. There I spent some time with my Gran and we went on some adventures. It's a tradition we go to Cumberland and pick up some delicious doughnuts at the local bakery. We went to Seal Bay, saw some seals - or rather, we heard them first, as they kept snorting at each other. We also went "plodging" at this great beach that, when the tide is out, there's this vast expanse of sand with shallow pools of saltwater flowing between eachother. Plodging is when you hike up your pants and plodge through these puddles. I think it's an English thing. My Gran is quite English. We pulled over to this road side cafe nestled in the trees called Becky's. They don't really have a menu. Just tell them what you want and they'll see if they can make it for you. What's better is that the owner is a gentleman with an artificial leg who has an affinity for karaoke. Oh, also the Nanaimo bars are the tallest I have ever seen. We spent a lunch at the Wandering Moose Cafe, who've got great soup and sandwiches and tea and things. For a fancy farewell dinner, we went into town to Atlas, where we shared a goat cheese tart and I had a burger that had regular burger fixings, plus pear and brie.

To Calgary! My mom took me to the zoo and we chatted while we perused the caged mammals. I was disappointed to see that the nocturnal portion had been closed down. The reptile and amphibian section was whittled down to some dwarf caimans and a tortoise, I think. I also obtained a pair of maroon pants that make me look like a 70's pimp. I dig it.

Canmore was hot and gorgeous, I spent some time just basking and reading. My dad took me to the Quarry before whisking me off to my Grandparent's farm for a couple nights. I reburned my sun burn. When I got to the farm I got mosquito bites ontop of my twice burned burn. There are few things as painfully itchy, methinks. We took the dogs out to the pond and hunted in the tall grass for (velociraptors) wood frogs and dragonflies and fancy-pants spiders. I found a friend down at the lake, a dragonfly was struggling in the water and I scooped him out. He hung out on my shirt sleeve for a good half hour before he deemed himself dry enough to fly away. I named him Horatio. It was nice to be up there for a bit. I don't think I've been that way since 2009. Seeing my grandparents and my uncle was great too.

Spent some time at the Paw with a group of friends. I would have liked another night with them all. I miss them quite a bit, especially since John left us. Time didn't permit much between everyone's schedule's though. Canmore lost another super guy last Wednesday quite suddenly. I'm sending all of my love out that way still, especially to his wife and all of his friends. It was such sad news to hear.

Spending time with my parents was pretty fly. Cracking vulgar jokes while drinking and roasting marshmallows, staying up to watch a movie only to have everyone just sort of fall asleep around me, pitchers of sangria for an anniversary dinner. It was pretty super. We all took a hike up to Grassi Lakes with my sister, aunt and rolly-polly dog. I walked into a lake and felt the coldest water on my legs since the East coast. I flew back to Vancouver the next day.

Here's a collection of the least dumb shots I took while I was away. I'm always disappointed that I don't have more/better footage. Le sigh. Try to enjoy none-the-less.

I came back to see that my garden had transformed into a tiny plot of jungle. The tomato plants were vast, when I was under the impression they wouldn't make it. One's even got some tomatoes already started. All of them have flowers. The radishes are MAD. I've got some good start on lettuces, flowers on the melon plant, more blossoms on the pumpkin plant. I've also now got another plot out back, which I might fill with root veggies - carrots and beets and more radishes, most probably.

A book you need to read? The Shadow of the Wind by one Carlos Ruiz Záfon. One of the most intriguing and richly written pieces I've read in a couple years. Now, this could mean I just haven't been reading much fiction. And I suppose I haven't. But I did really enjoy this novel. I went and bought his other book The Angel's Game last week. I can only hope it'll be a fraction as good as his first.

A film you need to watch? Rango! It's been said more than once that I have a child's taste in films, but I really did enjoy it. It was probably 20 minutes too long, but I really enjoyed the character design and the wondrous textures and references and all around awesomeness. I can really appreciate a film that pays just as much attention to it's secondary and background characters as it's protagonist. Also, there are very few human beings in the film. I also like that very much.

Now for some angst! There's been a funny, deep seated doubt I've seemed to have grown over the summer. After scraping all of that horrible sadness and lack of worth off my skin, I've seem to uncover something just festering away in a less accessible place, say a kidney or a spleen. I can't seem to shake it quite so easy. Hopefully some film work will drive it away. I don't like the feeling much. A future that once seemed boundless is now this slightly-too-small box that I'm destined to sit in with my knees under my chin and my ear pressed up against the top. I shudder at the prospect.

Here's my most recent Kingfisher Says post. Pretty much talking about what I just talked about in this post. But you get to see my weird face and hear all of my poorly chosen phrases and hums and haws! Yay! (Note: by far, the most convincing thumbnail to date proclaiming my sanity)

Mustache disguises.

So it's July. Happy July? Yes. Because now that's July, July will be over soon. Kapeesh? It's an uneasy time when I've got my nose to the grindstone, but in such a way that I'm constantly wondering, "what the hell for?" Although I can answer that question rather simply, most days I go unconvinced. Unconvinced of what? I am rather unsure. I am unsure of many things. This paragraph is filled with so much unsureness.

I'm getting extremely stoked on Harry Potter. I'm motoring through the series again, hopefully to have them done by the time I stand in line for a great number of hours to see the final movie at midnight with some friends from work. Yes. Midnight opening for the Deathly Hallows Part II. Once a nerd, always a nerd. I accept this. It's going to be an emotional roller coaster of ending childhoods and sadness and 70% of the characters dying for whatever reason. But at least we'll have each other?

This photograph.

Anyways, we christened the Bat Cave with a good old fashioned house warming this past Wednesday and were happy to see all of the faces that showed up, bearing booze and food. Joel (of the 30 days of videos) came bearing a gift of a Battlestar Galactica themed mug, on which "WHAT THE FRAK" is printed in large, rather angry, red letters. I will now forever loaf around  my house drinking booze from this mug, pretending I am Colonel Tigh. I think most of the evening can be summed up by this photograph and by telling you that I strummed on a green ukelele for a while repeatedly singing, "I like dudes". We're a classy bunch.

I went down to Red Cat Records last month and picked up some sweet, sweet vinyl. I'm a large fan of used vinyl, as it doesn't cost me $50 *coughDaftPunkcough*. But I accept that I am poor and will someday not be. Though I don't rest very easy with that thought. It's more a superficial, polka dot band aid for the sucking chest wound that is the problem of how I'm going to make money for the rest of my life. Anyways, back to records. I bought two marvelous soundtracks - The Muppet Movie as well as When Harry Met Sally (oh, Harry Connick Jr and your sultry, sultry voice). I also picked up a really illin' Bony-M album, which a friend of a friend remarked, "I think my mother had that album," I laughed and told him to listen to Ra Ra Rasputin immediately whilst dancing. I also picked up my favorite U2 album, War. I believe my dad used to have it on cassette tape, back when those were cool. It's absolutely stupendous on vinyl, it's loud and "full of texture" (if that's a thing - it must be a thing) and wonderful.

Moseyed on down to the Vancouver Public Library book sale after class yesterday to see what sort of wonderful, wonderful things I could find. First off, I was blown away by the building it was in. Evidently, I had been skirting around it my entire school year by about two blocks and never even noticed it. It's glorious! I didn't even have much time to marvel at it, as it was raining rather hard, and me being myself, I didn't have an umbrella with me. You'd think I'd learn eventually, as this is Vancouver I live in. The book sale was a little less intense than I had hoped it to be, but with paperbacks coming in at 75¢ a pop, I really, really could not complain. I picked up four National Geographics, a copy of Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain, T. H. White's The Sword in the Stone and two tiny gems, MASH Goes to Texas and MASH Goes to San Fransisco. I also almost picked up a tiny paperback entitled Indiana Jones and the Philosopher's Stone, because it was hilarious. "Harry Potter, we meet again" "Snakes, why'd it have to be snakes?" or some sort of mash-up like that. Who's not very clever with these sorts of things? This guy.

I recently planted a pitcher plant in my frog tank, and am both disgusted and amazed to report half digested cricket carcases in all of the largest pitchers. It's gross, but so so awesome. Here's some photos of my new fish and my old fish. They're doing rather well. The glowlight tetra is Herp and the silvertip tetra is Derp. Derp is doing a lot better than Herp, but hopefully Herp will start putting on some weight soon. My oldest tetra, Miles, is bossy and chubby. My two catfish are boisterous and chubby. The shrimp's a fat kid, who keeps molting because he keeps getting too fat for his shell. I'm so glad everything in this house is so well fed. :|

Finally got around to planting some veggies last week. Hauled a bag of sea soil home and planted up some peppers, tomatoes, basil, sunflowers, peas and pansies. Today I picked up a strawberry plant, tons of bamboo to build trellises from and more pots to fill with this wonderful stuff known as sea soil. My place doesn't have any sort of hose (or any sort of spigot for one), so there's going to be lots of trips up and down stairs with a mop bucket filled with water and fertilizer to keep that garden going strong all summer. I'm hoping we'll get something out of it. I'm going to plant up a bunch of lettuces in a planter perhaps tomorrow. I'd love to expand my gardening habits, but it's hard 1) renting, it's not like I can invest much in this place, seeing as I'm not going to live here for years and years and years. 2) sharing the yard with three other people. I keep daydreaming about being able to have raspberry and blueberry bushes and apple trees and flower patches, but I guess now's  not the time in life. I'm finding it hard to pace myself.

Moving caused some curious, old-time things to surface. I went through some picture books the other day, finding that some were just as old as I was! Puzzle Island, The Butterfly Ball and Rupert were some of my favorites. I also leafed through a copy of The Road Goes Ever On and On: A Song Cycle, which I picked up at a used book store in Canmore some years ago - during my overly obsessed period of life when anything that Tolkien's name graced had to be mine - and had a fit when I realized I may have had, in my hands, a first edition. Unfortunately, after an hour of over exuberant searching, I discovered I had the first American edition, which is still a little valuable, but not straight from London valuable. I actually got some use out of this book my late Great Uncle Brian gave to me on my birthday some years ago called Treasures of the Misty Mountains. It's entire volume is dedicated to the different editions of Tolkien's books and various merchandise that has stemmed off from the series (oh, the things in my library). In fact, it was more useful than anything I found on the internet (books for the win).

Another thing I rediscovered was this box that I has housed many things throughout it's life, jewelry, photos and now is host to gameboy games. It's been plastered with stickers since middle school, but on the bottom is a little piece of signage via my Grandpa, who made the box. I don't know if I ever realized this was on the bottom. Why my childhood self figured it was a good idea to plaster something my Grandpa made me specially with his own two hands with stickers of Pokemon and cycling swag, I don't know. But now it bears this strange new specialness to me. I'm getting far too nostalgic in my old age.

Check this out - the Bat Cave has not one, not two, but four game consoles. We're working on a fifth. That's how much gaming/Netflix watching goes on under this roof. I've discovered how much rage Halo gets out and created a disgusting alter ego for myself in Xbox Live known as "Dinkleberg". This alter ego dresses like they empty lobster traps for a living and are pretty okay with that.

Nesting has been going quite nicely. Organized all of my books last week, which has calmed me down quite a bit. High ceilings have given way to more space to put books on the top of bookshelves, which has just been revolutionary. I've got a pile of Redwall novels, a pile of Harry Potter hardcovers, a stack of graphic novels and some fancy boxed sets sitting where they wont take up space on the actual shelves. Organization and high celilings for the win. Books rule.

Excitement is mounting for August. My only exam arrives on the 10th, which is now going to be followed by a three week hiatus from school, work and Vancouver. I'll be headed to the island to visit my Gran for five days or so, then I'm jetting out West to Canmore for a good, solid visit with my parents, grandparents, friends and puppy dog! We've been planning lots of mini trips to do - the zoo, movies, Lord of the Rings on Blu Ray marathons (yesss), hikes, I think I'll even get a trip up to the Farm! I need a holiday, it's not a very long one, but I suspect I'll return quite refreshed for the fall semester.

Anyways, hope everyone's having an okay time this July. Tomorrow's going to be a great day filled with gardening, sun basking and celebrating Vancouver's 125th downtown with some free concerts. Free is good. I hope you enjoyed my text/photo/youtube embed heavy post.

Make sure you keep an eye on:

The Long Road Home: their Indiegogo campaign made it to a sweet, sweet $10,386! Production will be commencing shortly. Be sure to follow their video blog of the super-journey with filmmakers' Alex Coulson, Adam McKay and Analise Stuart!

Choch: their Indiegogo campaign reached their goal of $1000 and even went a little over! Be sure to keep an eye on when DVDs are going to be released - here's an article in FFWD from this past week, where filmmaker Brendan Prost speculates as to why no one seems to have an interest in coming out to watch independent films.

Some neat things to bewilder and bedazzle your wrinkly brains:

Virtual tour... of MOSCOW. In leiu of Durae and I learning a whole of three words in Russian the other day and vowing that we would learn it proper.

The wondrous Peacock Spider via ABC.

Stumbled across this photographer just yesterday - haven't quite seen anything like it. I recommend checking out his entire gallery! Get ready to get up close and personal to those hairs on the elbows of spiders. Just saying. It's very cool.

Jumping spider- the mustache from Ahmet Ozkan on Vimeo.

Music tidbit of the week:

How to Train your Dragon!

Music by John Powell

I've been doing genetics homework all week listening to this! I don't have any speakers hooked up to my computer at the moment, so I've had the ol' earphones plugged in at all times. I've been finding lyrical music increasingly distracting as I try and decode what this frigging textbook is trying to tell me in the most complex way possible, so I fell back on some orchestrated soundtracks to soothe the soul. It's a wonderful mix of epic, motion picture orchestra, booming bagpipes and rolling drum crescendos, as well as playful Celtic flute pieces and an adorable song by Jonsi. Have a listen, or numerous. If you haven't seen the film yet, please do that too.

A bonus gift for you:

Today is Tuesday!

Hey everyone! Just some updates, I suppose. Did some shopping and some sewing the past few days. Today there was some thunder, some sunshine, some pouring rain. Good ol' Vancouver!

This swell fellow here is up on my Etsy site!

Gardening!

Oh how I love it! Even if it is limited to windowsills and bookshelves, it is definitely one of my favorite hobbies I've picked up since being in Vancouver.

Microtomatoes! Someday.

A quartet of Strawberries! These ones grow in a bush rather than on runners. I hope these bear fruit! I would love to have granola with home grown strawberries this summer!

Plaaaants + Butt Dance.

So yes, I have become a plant freak. Here are some photos I took late January of my (comparably small to now) plant collection!!

Dwarf Sunflowers!! They are amazing. They also grow like weeds. Which is also amazing.

My windowsill set up of Mason jars! Also: the gorgeous view of the house across from us. Not.