list of photos: the summer dreamers(2), orgy of the dead (2), van laughs, the real season, sonya tries to finish the peanut butter, andrew from two directions, the working wild thing
Some things that happened this month
1. Met with Fiona about the show at the Ayden Gallery in January. I think I will do some very big photos of house plants - portraits you might say. The show theme is sort of vague still, but is focused around objects for beautifying one's personal space. I thought it might be something that all those brown thumbs/ basement apartment dwellers might find pleasing. then again I might do something entirely different.
2. Started a Japanese class on saturday mornings. There are three other students in the class: Tomson, Desmond and Jeremy. They are all pleasant Chinese fellows. They can write kanji much better than me, but much worse at speaking seeing as they have never been to Japan.
3. Bought tickets to Deerhoof this thursday.
4. Saw Sue at Jitters cafe on 4th ave. She has started lining her eyes with black and I think it suits her very well. I bought a light blue scarf which I needed at the time ( because it was cold and I wasn't feeling well ) but which overall was an unnecessary addition to my wardrobe.
5. Accepted an honorarium postion as my mother's personal stylist. ( the honorarium is clothing perks for me ) I discovered I like helping people develop a good style for them. Maybe I should become a consultant. We went to the salvation army for 1 hour and came out with 6 sweaters, a jacket, and a dress for 65 dollars. Then I went through her wardrobe and threw out a whole bunch of crappy old things. I guess we are both pleased about it.
6. Found out that my photos got into a juried photography show in Tsawwassen.
I wonder if I will win anything. The opening is Friday November 4 5:30- 8. You never know.
7. Talked to Kayla who is going to buy me a mat cutter with her employee discount ( thanks Kayla!) so I can start doing my incredibly minor business of making magnets for Rae Mate. Nevertheless I am excited about it because I think it will be very useful to have a mat cutter, and besides I have already got another commission from our neighbour Adele who wants me to frame her watercolour of her cat, as well as a native print she got for doing an opera performance at a potlatch or something.
8. Started making mine and Blair's Halloween costumes. ( see my mom above wearing my headdress) I am really more excited about this than anything else that happened this month. We are going to be 'Wild Things' from the book... I am also making a mini Max doll which Blair will carry around on his back just to make sure people get it. We are going to Claudia's house for a party this saturday, and after her party apparently going to some strange mansion party. And I am hoping to make a stop at the graveyard where some weird post -religious day of the dead style thing is taking place, led by some community artist lady. It might be terrible or hilarious or amazing.
9. Saw Andrew Apostola, a character from my past who hails from Australia and whom I hadn't seen for nearly 5 years. We hung out for many hours. While walking through gastown, we came across a buttons only store where I bought a button with a deer on it. We also visited Hastings and Main since he had never been there. I finally went to the Ovaltine Cafe which was really atmospheric and perfect. As long as you don't need to use the bathroom which is slightly scary. We went to Bosman's hotel bar towards the end of our visit, and met an Asian Vancouverite named Kevin ( I think ) who just wrote a book about Neil Young. It was a good visit.
10. Started working on a dollhouse version of my bedroom project. I think it will be weird and satisfying to make the big version.
11. Went to a burlesque version of ' Ed Wood's Orgy of the Dead' at the Wise Hall, and put on by Blair's crazy theatre punk friends. Bizarre and very entertaining. Burlesque is pretty fucking awesome.
12. Met with Sonya and talked about maybe moving into her house when she leaves sometime this winter - then walked down to the Foundation where she couldn't finish the peanut butter sandwich she ordered. We found a flyer for a show that looks cool. ' Diorama-rama' : Seamrippers present a collective art show of fabulous dioramas' November 4 8pm opening. Oh wait, but thats the same day as the photo show. I guess I will have to go after the opening. Damn. I thought it was on thursday for some reason. Oh then I tried to look for a website about it, and found this Rhya I think you should check it out.
13. Heard from Richard who is not sick with the African flu anymore. That is a relief.
14. Got about 4 more chapters into the fabulous ' The #1 Ladies Detective Agency' . The quote which has been going round my head this week is ' what's the point of being rich if you don't have time to watch your cattle eat grass?' or something like that. An excellent point I think.
15. I would just like to point out that I am already up to 15, and still I think there were many more important things which happened this month. Life is much more complicated in the big ( ish) city.
16. Bought a book at Oscar's Art Books called ' Great Americans' ' Which is photographs of normal Americans who have famous names. Its really just a normal book of portraits, but with that goofy gimmick which somehow I find appealing. Also the book was only 2 dollars and 99 cents.
17. Went for lunch with Van at Havana on Commercial Drive. I hadn't seen her in 2 years actually. But she didn't look much different, apart from seeming happier. She is engaged and is in the middle of doing a master's in Film at Simon Fraser. We pretty much gossiped the whole time, which is what lunch dates are basically for.
18. Went to a tea ceremony class in North Vancouver. It was a long way by public transit, but I loved being in that little corner of experience and action that tea ceremony is. I had to practice letting the bare essentials expand into a scene. Its a new part of the ceremony in a way, yet at the same time its merely an intensified version of itself.
19. Thought about post -post- secondary matters. Aesthetics, East Asian Studies, Photography, Language, Practical Training, Opening a Store, Becoming an Accountant, Not Doing Anything In Particular And Waiting to See What Comes Along... etc. etc. etc. Ah the Future - how Exciting and Terrible!
20. Almost lost my 20 dollars in the Top Model betting pool when Nik was nearly voted out!
21. Found out we ( some version of people I know and don't know ) are spending New Years' ( plus 2 days) in a sweet cottage on Saltspring! And found out that two of the people I know are going to be Rhya and Kyle who are coming for 10 days! yippee!
22. Hung out with my cousin Megan from Ontario who is applying for Grad school on this coast. She is a science star and did research on the Herpes virus last summer in Seattle. I think thats pretty cool - I'm sure she will get into the program.
23. Went for thanksgiving dinner with Blair's uncle Craig and aunt Karen. They live in Richmond and have a crazy cat named Angus. Blair and I hung around on the couch at my house for too long watching ' Tokyo Drifter' and chilling out - so we were late and didn't bring anything ( like wine or something) I felt bad, but we just didn't realize the time.....
24. Saw Fellini's 8 1/2 - the photography is startling. Have got to watch it again.
25. Ordered a magazine I'd been wanting to get for a while - shots magazine. I think I will submit something for next month. Its sort of cooler than most photography magazines - but there are a lot of photos which i sort of secretly think ' what's so good about this? am I missing something?' My dad doesn't think those things so secretly and instead says things like ' I just don't understand why there are still so many bad photos being printed all the time'. I guess that doesn't make it sound like such a great magazine. Well, I guess I haven't decided. but I'll probably still submit something.
26. Thought about my birthday next month (november 18th ) and how I'm going to be 29 -whats the best thing about 29? it seems sort of neutral to me - like tofu - I guess it will be one of those years that soaks up the atmosphere of what happens, rather than a year that has its own character already. Well I guess it does have a character - but I think its a bullshit one of ' the last year of youth and the good life' which is just the character that our manic youth shopping world puts on it. I don't really feel that way at all.
27. sent Zoe a ' no more Dave's' pin which I made at the fabulous new main st. store ' The Regional Assembly of Text' . 'No More Dave's' are an experimental elevator music band consisting of herbie and smarty ( my brother's imaginary friends) 11 year old girls from early 20th century novels, and old women who really don't have anyone to impress. They all exist in my mind and appear at opportune times to frighten away people who really don't know their own hearts and/or minds and screw other people over along the way without really meaning to, but nevertheless manage to do it anyway. 'No More Dave's' progressive sound and lyrics are really quite intolerable to the wishy washy. Or at least I am trying to urge them in that direction.
28. Had a dream that the world was ending - there were riots everywhere and I was with Blair. We ran upstairs into a room at the top of this huge building and locked the door - but we could see that everyone was killing each other outside the window and down many floors below. Then the room began to get hotter and hotter and I knew the world was ending. So we just held hands and kept our eyes open - I was so determined to experience dying and try to understand it. Then it was like time fast-forwarded and I never closed my eyes - suddenly it was normal temperature again and everything in the room around us was melted and had then hardened into something like igneous rock. Blair was still alive too. We went downstairs and everyone who had been fighting and killing had just become these sort of human shaped rocks. It was pretty amazing to have remained conscious while I died and came to life again all within some kind of strange eternal second. When I woke up for real I had the feeling that no-one ever really dies. I think I am too serious.
29. Ate perfect pears and remembered the persimmon trees in Japan. I hope those people lucky enough to be there are appreciating them.
30. Finally wrote something on this. and even added links which I usually never do because I'm lazy. I wonder if anyone will actually click on any of them. I thought I was quite comprehensive about finding them all.
31. wondered if it was lame to end this list with a reference to the list itself, but then decided I didn't care and was too tired to care about whether I was ending it in a non-clever, clever, too-clever or ... now the meaning of 'clever' is starting to unravel and for god's sake this is just a stupid blog and the ending be damned.
