There's snow in them there hills

Pumpkin contemplates the snowy outside

Woke up early to let the contractor in to work on the bathroom window. I thought I heard someone downstairs at the door but when I went to investigate the only noise was coming from the cat. Pumpkin was meowing at the door. I opened the door to let him out but he just sat in the doorway. Probably just pondering if it was worth getting fresh air with the expense of getting his feet cold.

I thought the same thing. The thought of stepping into a puddle of slush made me shiver. I peeked out and looked around just in case the contractor was hiding somewhere around the corner. Nope. I looked down at the cat thinking "In or out?". The cat looked around (maybe at a bird flying by) then waddled outside after the sound. I closed the door and went back upstairs.

The People that you meet when you're walking down the street

Orrail shoots candid photos of people walking by

Now over eight weeks since I've gotten a hair cut, my hair had taken on shrub like characteristics. Imagine the results from putting a finger into an electrical socket and you'll be close. My hair grows out and not down, defying gravity and any style sense. With a bit of styling I could be made to look like an anime (Japanese cartoon) character. Maybe something out of Star Blazers or Battle of the Planets (AKA G-Force or Gatchaman)

I noticed the doo this morning when I woke up. It looked like it had grown outward exponentially over night. It would make Don King look like he had a crew cut. If my hair were frizzy I would blend right in with the 60s and the Jackson 5 look. Yikes!

Today would be the day to put a stop to all the crazy hair madness. Plus the hair was trapping the heat from my head on my head. In turn this phenomena made me feel lethargic. Today was the day I was going to put a stop to it. Today would be the day I went to see John the barber.

After getting my doo done I headed toward downtown and bumped into a friend I hadn't seen in years. I think the last time I saw him was bumping into him at a small Mr. Greek express restaurant just before seeing Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

Orrail was standing on the corner taking photos of people walking by trying out a new lens. He was always a shutterbug and seeing him in his environment was contagious. I wanted to take photos too. That's not a big stretch granted by it was of the subject matter. People walking by or their bicycles, driving by in their cars. It was all interesting in a photographer kind of way.


Roger and Adeem at Monster Records

Eventually I made my way down to Monster Records.

Art Crawl in Hamilton

A cute dog on the bus.

I was invited again to Hamilton, this time to see an art crawl. Melanie's studio was part of that art crawl and a bunch of us were to meet there. What I didn't know at the time of being invited was that we weren't going to "crawl" any where. People were going to be crawling to us.


Mel's studio on James street

Melanie's studio was one of the attractions of the art crawl and people showed up in small waves. It was interesting to meet them and see what photos they were drawn to. Mel's work consists mainly of black and white studio portraits. In my opinion they're very nicely done. The lighting is very nice showing off texture and putting emphasis on the subject, who all looked very relaxed and natural.


Suzy makes a face.


Inside Mel's studio, dimly lit for ambiance.


Jackie looks over Mel's present for Hope.

Once the crowd started dwindling we closed up the studio and went off to some bar. It was Hope's birthday. A friend of Jackie and Mel who seemed to be having a good time wearing large orange glasses.


Hope


Hope looks at Mel's gift.








Hope and her brother.


Trevor with drinks





















































Suzi



At some point later on in the evening I had found that I was left with Amanda and Suzi (Mel's roommate). We ended up going to some bar in Hess village where we met up with Dion, Amanda's boy friend. From there we went to Harvest Burger, a late night burger place.

I ended up crashing at Mel's where I met Seven, the house cat.





Suzi, Amanda and some random girl that wanted to pose


Harvest Burger


Chinet... fancy schmancy.





Seven Gillis


Trevor shows up to drive Melanie to Montreal


The cat, seven, sleeps on some luggage

Eat and be Merry

Looking down College street from Spadina ave

I went down to College street to pick up another hard drive. It was raining. Overall I was just trying to fight the boredom of sitting at home. Later on as a thank you for taking photos of the roller derby Leah had taken me out for dinner. We ended up at the nearby Occasions restaurant. It's extremely convenient as it's located just on the next block north of my apartment.


My hot hamburger at Occasions


Leah or should I say "Miss Carriage"

Along with the gift of food she had also dumped on me a whole slew of DVD titles. There were some pretty obscure movies that I didn't even recognize. Then there were titles I sort of recognized. For example "Highlander", only it wasn't the movie with Christopher Lambert, it was a cartoon... nay, a Japanese Anime by the same direction that did "Fist of the Northstar".
The movie was loosely based on the same movie franchise that I loved but thought should have stopped over the first one.

WARNING: SPOILAGE for HIGHLANDER 2

As a side note, if anyone hasn't been keeping track I have and that's the beauty of this blog, that I keep track of mundane details that some of you may not notice. Highlander 2 has been released a whole bunch of different times. There was Highlander 2: The quickening, Highlander 2: The Renegade version, and supposedly there's another version coming out.

For anyone that has seen the franchise Highlander 2 (the quickening) tried to explain the "prize" by making the Highlander an alien. What the heck? When the producers found out the movie bombed (even though I had dragged a contingent of my computer science class with me to see it on opening day) they went and filmed more stuff then released another version getting rid of the whole extraterrestrial idea.

I saw both versions (so in the end I guess their plan worked... on me at least), and again I was disappointed that a sequal had not lived up to it's predecessor.

End of HIGHLANDER2 rant

Later on that evening I joined Dominic and Juliet for dessert at a place on the Danforth called Dimitri's, a place that sells crepes and ice cream and waffles among other things.


Juliet and Dominic

Blow up in Hamilton

Sitting in the back of the GO bus


Fortinos the sign you're in Hamilton

Took a trip to Hamilton to see the movie "Blow up" with Melanie, Jackie and some of her other photographic friends. We were to meet at Mel's studio then go to the Hamilton Art Gallery from there.

At the time I didn't know much about the movie, Melanie convinced us all (all of us that went) that it was a great movie that we should all see. I found out later that this was an opinion she acquired from the literature from the Art Gallery advertising. I will get back to this fact later on in this blog entry.


The statue of Queen Victoria in Jackson Square

Before the movie ran, a person came out in front of the audience to give a little insight as to what we were about to see and how it was so ground breaking. She had lived through the years that the movie was released and gave us her personal view of what the times were like. While I'm sure most of what she was saying was interesting, I sat there trying not to pay too much attention to her as I really hate finding out things in a movie before seeing it. My brain will put all the pieces together and assemble the story while the filming is rolling thus taking me out of the movie and making my movie going experience less spectacular. I think I may have brought this topic up in a previous blog entry. If I have it's because it really does bug me.

According to the speaker "Blow up" came out in a time when fashion and the life of a photographer were not that well known as today. Supposedly the clothing and the storyline was ground breaking. Plus it was Antonioni's first British film.

I've always wanted to see an Antonioni film. Probably from watching "Free Enterprise". If anything, "Blow up" the film that really didn't seem to have any plot line, made me appreciate "Free Enterprise" that much more by the way the characters in that movie refer to Antonioni films.

If I had an image of Antonioni just based on this one film I'd say he was an incredibly bad story teller as the film was unfocused with some very interesting possible plots lines and characters. At the same time I'd say he was a master at selling the film and making it into a cult classic by introducing conservative types to nudity while making the movie so long and boring that people have to start thinking about what they are watching and interpret it into something that they could justify spending money on. But then isn't that what art is? Something that makes you think.


I had arrived in Hamilton early so I picked up a meal in the Jackson Square mall

About two hours into the movie, it was a long movie, Melanie whispered to us "Did you want to leave? Is anyone finding this interesting?" or something to that effect. A few of us left while a few stayed. The few that stayed were meeting with some people to pick them up after the movie. The poor bastards. My butt was really sore, a combination of an uncomfortable chair and a really long movie with no discernible plot.

We ended up at the Peasant Plucker, a local pub/bar in Hamilton, just south of the GO bus terminal. There, Melanie apologized for taking us to see the film. I spent a few hours there before it was time for me to get on a bus to return home.


Melanie at the Plucker


Jackie satisfied from eating pickle slices


The Hamilton GO bus terminal


Do not sprinkle things on to pigeon heads