Grapes
Originally uploaded by Noisypond.
What's your preference? (Colour is in the post below.)
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Grapes at Kensington Market (colour)
Grapes at Kensington Market (colour)
Originally uploaded by Noisypond.
Warming up old bones
Warming up old bones
Originally uploaded by Noisypond.
I love this shot. I'm sure it isn't great from a photography point of view, but I remember watching this old, arthritic cat creak her way into a warm place where she could bask in the sun, and I'm filled with tenderness for her.
Boots
Boots for sale in Kensington Market
Originally uploaded by Noisypond.
Boots for sale in Kensington Market
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Manufactured Landscapes
"Manufactured Landscapes" is an enlightening and visually impressive documentary:
It's a bit slow, but still very worthwhile, particularly if you can watch it on a big screen. I may never look at a table fan or an iron or a ship the same way again.MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES is a feature length documentary on the world and work of renowned artist Edward Burtynsky. Burtynsky makes large-scale photographs of ‘manufactured landscapes’ – quarries, recycling yards, factories, mines, dams. He photographs civilization’s materials and debris, but in a way people describe as “stunning” or “beautiful,” and so raises all kinds of questions about ethics and aesthetics without trying to easily answer them.
The film follows Burtynsky to China as he travels the country photographing the evidence and effects of that country’s massive industrial revolution. Sites such as the Three Gorges Dam, which is bigger by 50% than any other dam in the world and displaced over a million people, factory floors over a kilometre long, and the breathtaking scale of Shanghai’s urban renewal are subjects for his lens and our motion picture camera.
Shot in Super-16mm film, Manufactured Landscapes extends the narrative streams of Burtynsky’s photographs, allowing us to meditate on our profound impact on the planet and witness both the epicentres of industrial endeavour and the dumping grounds of its waste. What makes the photographs so powerful is his refusal in them to be didactic. We are all implicated here, they tell us: there are no easy answers. The film continues this approach of presenting complexity, without trying to reach simplistic judgements or reductive resolutions. In the process, it tries to shift our consciousness about the world and the way we live in it.
Tree in the fog
Tree in the fog
Originally uploaded by Noisypond.
Taken Saturday morning. We've had a lot of fog this week - very atmospheric. :)
Monday, November 27, 2006
The Supercrew
Nishi, Elaine, Hassan, Dana, and Ada
Originally uploaded by Noisypond.
Nishi, Elaine, Hassan, Dana, and Ada - we met while training to be volunteer "volunteer supervisors" at the AIDS conference in Toronto this past August.
Crocodile Hunter Meets His Match
Had a crappy day? This will likely make you laugh anyway.
Thanks to my buddy Jim for the tip.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Catching up - again
Hey, how are you???? I know it’s been a while … yeah, I am hard to get a hold of, I guess … but life is too short to sit around, ya know? :)
So here are a few highlights:
I neglected to mention that I went to see Bon Cop Bad Cop last week with Andrea. Cute movie, a lot of fun. Of course, Andrea says she had twice the fun because she got to watch me watch the movie, and let’s just say I get into a story. LOL Afterwards Andrea and I went out for dinner and later met her boyfriend Joseph. They are such great people.
Thursday, I went with some friends to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, which was offering one of three concerts of its "Russian Festival". The first piece, which thankfully was only 12 minutes long, was a composition by a modern Russian composer. It had no melody that I could make out. And despite there being a relatively enormous percussion section for this piece, there didn't seem to be any rhythm. Actually, the variety of instruments used for this composition was astonishing - including an organ, a harpiscord, chimes, strings, three sets of huge drums, etc. The only instruments that were lacking were the piano and a harmonica! LOLThe concert, however, went distinctly uphill after this, first with Schumann's piano concerto and then with the breathtaking Sheherazade, composed by Rimsky-Korsakov. There are no words to express how wonderful the latter piece is. I was particularly lucky that evening to have tickets for much better seats than I normally budget for, as a co-worker was feeling under the weather and gave me his tickets.
Yesterday, my photography class went to Kensington Market. I’m quite happy with some of the shots that I got there. The focus of the class is on light, and the instructor is terrific. With just a little bit of explanation from him yesterday morning, and a huge lightbulb went off above my head about how to use light even in street shots for people portraiture. I will post some of the pictures later on.
Last night, I met up with some of the other volunteer supervisors I had trained with for the AIDS conference this past summer. It was the first time that I had seen them since August, and it was wonderful. They are such smart, informed, fun people to hang out with! Literally, the conversation ranged from work to family to Brazilian waxes to love to prostitution in
Today I met up with my friend Leslie-Ann after a long hiatus. (Where did all the time go???) It was great to catch up and to hear her encouragement about how my photography has grown, as she is very discriminating and much more knowledgeable about art than I am.
Okay … tons of things to do tonight, none of them very blogworthy. Stay tuned for the pics!
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Casino Royale
See. This. Movie.
I went with some friends (four guys and two other women) to watch it tonight, and we all thought it was great.
Daniel Craig is superb. Amazing. And sexy as goddamn hell. (And normally I don't go for blonds.) As I was watching the film, I was trying to come up with adjectives for him - taut, cool, prowling, edgy, dark. You're going to smirk when you read this, but I found him panther-like. I stand by this comparison.
The movie has a lot going for it. It's dark and certainly violent, but the action sequences are dramatic and very cool. Eva Green makes an excellent Bond "girl" (and has very good chemistry with Mr. Craig), and Dame Judi Dench is of course fantastic as M. Add some expensive cars, exotic locations, and some killer one-liners, and what else do you need to make you forget any troubles you might have for a couple of hours???? :)
Sunday, November 19, 2006
The Lake House
I just finished watching The Lake House on DVD. It stars Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves, who (rather surprisingly) give decent performances. Overall the movie is a very good romance - but perhaps I found it that way just because I had such low expectations when I began watching it. LOL It made me cry - more than once! (That means it was good!)
Geeky Photographer’s Note
The cinematography in this film is also very good – beautiful use of light in many of the scenes. I know how hard it is to capture such sweet light in still photography; I’m astonished at the coordination it must take to get the scene with the light with the actors, the crew, scene, props, etc. Even many of the indoor scenes are very beautifully lit.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Florence of Arabia
I just finished reading "Florence of Arabia" by Christopher Buckley. I'm into satire these days, and this novel is a gem. It's about an employee of the U.S. State Department who dreams up a way to introduce stability into the Middle East: by promoting a feminist revolution. It's smart and funny.
Conversation between a sheik and a Frenchman, regarding whether the Americans would support Florence or the kingdom destabilized by her feminist revolution:
"My dear iman, you must understand - the Americans are idealistic to the point where they must lower their thermostat two degrees. Then they become very practical."
Some great commentary about politics and current events of the last 2 - 5 years as well - the reference to GWB near the end of the story is priceless!!!!
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Weeds
I just finished watching the first season of “Weeds”. The Showcase TV series. It’s about a widow who turns to dealing marijuana to support her two sons and their suburban lifestyle. It is fresh and funny and poignant and intelligent. The casting, acting, script, etc. are all great. Mary-Louise Parker is excellent. But what really makes the show exceptional, in my opinion, is Elizabeth Perkins. Perkins is simply outstanding as the angry, bitter, dominating bitch Celia. Genius.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
The gang
The gang
Originally uploaded by Noisypond.
Several of us went on a nature walk today around Devil's Punch Bowl in Stoney Creek, Ontario.
The waterfalls itself was a just a little bit disappointing, but still pretty cool. So we looked at it for about ten minutes and then went for a leisurely walk and enjoyed the fresh air. Great people.
Devil's Punch Bowl
Devil's Punch Bowl
Originally uploaded by Noisypond.
If you look very carefully, you can see some of the layers of rock have a greenish tinge, and others have a reddish one. There are also some yellow layers in there ... and no, it is not because I manipulated this picture in Photoshop - that's the way it looks in real life.
Life's little surprises
The other day, I went with a group of people to see the movie, “Borat”. Some of them went ahead to grab some seats, while I spent my retirement fund on a box of popcorn and a soft drink. When I went inside the theatre, it was dark and there were a lot of people, so I stood there for an indecisive moment, scanning the crowd for my friends.
“Looking for someone?” said a stranger at my elbow.
“Yeah,” I responded, still searching. “I know my friends are there somewhere.” In my peripheral vision, I noticed that the stranger was still standing by my side and that he was tall.
We exchanged a few pleasantries until my friend Saif noticed my lost little self and waved to me. “Ah! There they are!” I sent the stranger a friendly smile and thanked him for standing with me so gallantly while I was looking for my group. He ended up sitting just a few seats away from me.
The next day, I got an e-mail from an ex-boyfriend: “So were you angry with me, or did you really not recognize me last night? And did you like Borat?”
Yup, that’s right. An ex-boyfriend. Whom I should have recognized – it hadn’t been that long (a few years) since I’d seen him. But that’s just not where my headspace had been.
Knowing that you’ve moved on is priceless. It was a valentine from the Universe that I really needed that day. However, it also makes me think of the song “Someone I Used to Love” by Bruce Cockburn, which I used to think of frequently when this ex and I were dating. In part, the lyrics are:
All the days we've been together
All the days we've been apart
Add up to a bunch of nothing
If I'm not still in your heart
I never want you to be
Just a page in my history
Someone I used to love
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Bench at McMichael Art Museum, Kleinberg, ON
Bench at McMichael Art Museum, Kleinberg, ON
Originally uploaded by Noisypond.
This isn't so much a picture of the bench, as it is a picture of the light in the area where the bench is situated.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Katrina's destruction is not yet complete
A startling article in the New York Times:
NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 31 — John McDonogh High School has at least 25 security guards, at the entrance, up the stairs and outside classes. The school has a metal detector, four police officers and four police cruisers on the sidewalk.
Donald Jackson, McDonogh High principal, said the unrest in his school, including six “very serious” assaults, surprised him. He observed a class.In the last six weeks, students at McDonogh, the largest functioning high school here, have assaulted guards, a teacher and a police officer. A guard and a teacher were beaten so badly that they were hospitalized.
The surge hints at a far-reaching phenomenon after Hurricane Katrina, educators here say. Teenagers in the city are living alone or with older siblings or relatives, separated by hundreds of miles from their displaced parents. Dozens of McDonogh students fend largely for themselves, school officials say.
“They are here on their own,” Wanda Daliet, a science teacher, said. “They are raising themselves. And they are angry.”
The principal, Donald Jackson, estimated that up to a fifth of the 775 students live without parents.
Name that song
It's a song I listen to at the gym (which, through miraculous self-discipline in several ways, I actually visited tonight), and one of the best lyrics is:
"I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine!"
Actually as lyrics go, it's not all that great, but I love the intonation of the singer.
So - guesses? Song and/or artist?
It's probably pretty easy for those of us who grew up in the '80s ...
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Ode
You finally died.
I was sitting at my desk and I heard you drop.
You hadn’t been looking well for a while – I’d noticed.
I just didn’t know what to do about it.
But the rest of the plant looks a lot better without you.
:)
I work with Johnny Depp
Actually, his name is Julian ... affectionately known as "Jules" or "Jools" or "Jewels". :)
But I think he did a great job dressing up. And I'm sure he also was a great mimic of Capt'n Jack's odd mannerisms. :)
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