Real art like real adults

It seems that ever time I visit someone else's home, I get the feeling like somehow we don't live in a real adult condo.

Real adults have sound systems, not an Xbox 360 and an HD tv purchased just for said Xbox.
Real adults have straight-backed chesterfields placed with care around a coffee table, not plush and lumpy massive couches perfect for napping and watching Joss Whedon marathons.
Real adults have original art on their walls, not posters of DaVinci's City Hall and the Chinese fight against SARS.

Well, let's be honest: none of that's really going to change. If our life together isn't real adult, I'm happy with the fake adult lifestyle we've been living until now.

But, that doesn't mean we can't appropriate a bit from that other lifestyle--that one that seems so proper and refined like wine and cheese.

That's what I was thinking as we walked through this weekend's Box Social event hosted at the opera centre down the street. Local artisans with their wares: clothing, glass, painting, ceramics and random art you just don't see anywhere else... like the stuff created by Colleen Rauscher.

In fact, when we came across Colleen's Polaroid transfer prints, we couldn't help but stop and stare at her display. Her special series on historic Calgary felt like a special glimpse of the city through a much older eye. Photos of the Bay, Herald gargoyles, and early 1900s facades made this city we live in feel suddenly heavy with its own history in a way that is rarely felt in western metropolises.

So we purchased this... we just couldn't help it.


Here's how she describes her unique process:

An image from a 35mm slide is exposed onto Polaroid film using a Daylab slide printer. Before the photo has time to develop, it is peeled away from the black backing, and this negative is placed onto a damp receptor sheet. After a few minutes, it is carefully peeled away from the sheet, leaving the image. During this process, some of the emulsion may lift up with the negative, leaving a unique pattern of bluish patina where the darkest areas of the image were. Each print is an original, and it is practically impossible to achieve the same results twice.

So, yeah, now we have a real adult piece of art. Sort of... it is still a picture of the skeeziest pub in Calgary after all. Yes, a classic piece of history.

"Use the loofah."

Unfortunately, I really don't have much more to say about this than a suggestion you watch it. It's hilarious and has had me laughing all day long.



There's a larger discussion to be had (thanks to Jeff and Alan, of course) about the efficacy of public service announcements. Do they simply exist to show off great creative or do they actually make a difference?

After watching the video a few times, I can't say I'm any more an advocate for the message than I was before I watched it. But am I in the minority? Hmmm... a question for a broader population research, I suppose.

And maybe I'm just getting way too deep for a blog post about a video that makes me giggle. So, go ahead and watch it and discuss amongst yourselves.

Remembrance Day photo

We went to the ceremony at Memorial Park. I didn't expect so many people there. The highlight of the ceremony was the bugler that was on the balcony of the a nearby building. He played the Last Post and it was perfectly quiet so you could hear the echoes. It was weird to hear almost complete silence downtown.

Anyways, I snapped a photo of the cenotaph and people's poppies and I tweeted it (see my tweets to the right). CBC saw it and put in their story. Cool beans, no? It's the second photo.

We've joined the crew

Yar, there be a pirate joke in that headline... something about Natalie not being a wench.

For those who haven't heard, Natalie and I have joined a crew. It's like a gang, but geekier... much, much geekier. It's the type of crew that appreciates a photo of Natalie with a character from Katamari while at PAX.

This new crew is The Review Crew: an online magazine/blog of cool things and, well, reviews of games and gadgets.

It's lead by CityTV journalist and Gadget Guy Mike Yawney and we originally connected through work. It seems that, during a talk about a client, I may have mentioned some of the geekier aspects of my lifestyle that may have tipped him off that we might be fit to join the crew.

We're currently contributors to this little project. That means regular articles that are both pretty brief and kinda neat. Aside from the news briefs, we also produce some original stuff. For example, I recently wrote a story of a trio from Edson who are trying to break that world record for consecutive hours playing first person shooters. Natalie, on the other hand, was the first in our household to review a game: Dragon Age: Origins. She's still playing it, so I guess she liked it.

And what do we get out of this? Well, for one, we get to do some writing we don't normally get to do. A blurb about a cool ad campaign for a game is a change from writing news releases (which I like, don't get me wrong) or technical manuals. Plus, we do get a chance to get our hands on new games (and the odd gadget) that needs reviewing. There's no money in it, but there may be... we'll see how the advertising strategy pans out.

But, bottom line: it's fun. Not exactly world-changing literature we're creating, but fun. We play games, write in a different style and hang with a cool crew. Just like pirates.

A Glorious Dawn

Before you click play, a little intro. Obviously, Carl Sagan never sang any of this stuff so the creator, John Boswell, ran Sagan's voice through a vocoder. The singing is a little cheesy, a little weird, but the lyrics are awesome. The chorus gave me the chills.

Nick Sagan, Carl's son, posted on his blog regarding this video: "So, yeah, my dad put out a new music video."



And the sound Sagan does at the beginning of the song is a whale song.

I can't get this song out of my head so it's been on repeat for the last week. An awesome, awesome song.

Upside-down Pear Gingerbread

Courtesy Starting Out: The Essential Guide to Cooking On Our Own. I was going for a CBC exploded pizza logo effect.

In which we visit that bridge

Our first partial day with Nicole we finally rode the cable cars.

Here we are waiting for the cable cars. This is Nicole's waiting face. See, I don't need a Facebook account to post goofy pictures of people.


Going up

Nicole had scoped out a wicked restaurant to eat at and on the way we saw the picture below (a restaurant we did not eat at). The concept of the wicked restaurant is that you share each dish. We had an amazing halibut, scallop, and a tomato salad. We also had goat cheese which not everyone liked and, in my opinion, an overdone yellowtail. But wow, it was great and definitely the food highlight of the trip.

The next day, we wandered through Haight Ashbury, where I bought an awesome fall coat, and then went to Golden Gate Park and saw these animals.

Then we headed toward the bridge and took a billion photos.

I'm not sure what prompted Daorcey's confused face.

You'd think with the three of us and two cameras in our possession, we'd have many photos with the three of us in them. Here is the only one.

Finally on the bridge, we have the following.

It is a loooong way down.


And up.

Which beach did you go to? Ocean Beach

No, really that's the name of the beach.

After dumping our stuff in our really small hotel room, we rode the bus for an hour to reach the beach. San Francisco was suffering through an uncharacteristic heat wave so it was a sweaty bus ride.

I guess that explains our scowls.

Lots of people on the beach, surfers, and dogs.

I think he belonged to the lifeguards. But he would plop himself down near the water and only move if he was about to get wet.



Hey, another picture of us.



Some Cthulhu-esque seaweed thing.

Sashimi sampler. The snapper is usually chewy at most places, but here it was soft.

It seems the homeless in SF are crazier than their counterparts in Calgary. Is it the warm weather? Or the fact that people consistently give money to panhandlers? Anyways, in Japantown we ran into a guy who wanted us to buy him a chicken dinner. He was an older guy, with a cane but it looked like he had a home.

At first I apologized for not having any change to which he replied he wasn't asking for change but for a chicken dinner. Then he tried this tact:

Man: I was drafted into the Vietnam war but don't hold that against me. I could have gone to Canada but I did my duty to this country and her citizens. I protected this country.

Me: But we're not from here.

At this point, we've probably run through his two rhetorical points that usually work on people. I'm not sure why we didn't walk away. Too rude? I offered him a bottle of water which he refused. Then we just started moving very slowly away from him.

Thankfully, in Canada you don't see many homeless veterans. It could be fewer vets or hopefully, we just have better social programs to help those who fought.

Chinatown in SF

One of our quests for San Francisco was to have dim sum. A friend recommended some restaurants but we naively assumed they would be in Chinatown. Luckily, some helpful ladies at the Chinese Cultural Centre pointed us to a good restaurant, City View.

So here we are at the Chinatown gates. And for those of you keeping track at home, we did find the location of a safe house in GTA: San Andreas. Nicole did not scoff as much as I thought she would every time we pointed out a GTA safe house.



Found a coolie hat.

And now to the food. It was really good dim sum. Better than Calgary sadly and more expensive. We couldn't have had more than 15 dishes and it was $60 USD. But soooo tasty.

Shanghai dumplings, rice rolls (although not as good as Calgary's as the hoisin and peanut sauce was missing, and bean curd thingys. The bean curd thingys were the only duds of the group.



Anyone who's gone to dim sum with me knows my love of cream buns. The topping was crunchy and sweet. And the inside, so delicious.




In the foreground was an interesting dumpling. I think it had bamboo and mushrooms?

And then we found a store with my name.

Landline PSA

We are dropping our landline effective Sept. 3. So if you've been phoning us on that line (we're looking at you, parental units) you will be forced to phone us on our cells. If you don't have our phone numbers, drop a comment here or an email and we can update you.

We have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty

Back in January, I wrote I would like to do a 1 chin up by myself.

Today, I did two by myself.

I have to give credit to my co-worker for helping me train. My next fitness goal is to do five chin ups in a row.

I have to admit I'm pretty proud of myself. I've lost weight (I think) chasing this goal although my grandmother thinks my face looks better with more weight on it.

And, I've also read 22 books so far. The average Albertan read 19 last year but British Columbians read the most at 33 in a year.

On the ridge

Not once, not twice, but three times we have been to Vimy Ridge. We've seen it in each season except winter. And it's still awesome.

View from the front of the memorial. It was a gorgeous day and you could see for miles.

Yep, it's high.


The memorial smells like sheep. The use the sheep to trim the grass as it isn't a big deal if the sheep steps on an explosive.





When they restored the monument, they recarved a lot of the names. According to a video we watched in the interpretive centre, the stonecarvers came to treat each letter with such reverence.

On our tour of the tunnels the first time around, the guide pointed this out. The story goes that while waiting to attack above ground, some industrious soldier carved this out of the soft chalk. We didn't get a proper snapshot then. This time around, we were in larger group so we were herded around the tunnels quite quickly. Luckily, we both kept an eye out for this, ducking into each room.


There's a small band of metal that terminates at either end in a maple leaf stone.

I'm not sure what this statue is about in Lille. We went from London to Lille, and then Lille to Vimy. It was a French holiday so nobody was around in the morning.

Look at how skillful the stone is carved to resemble cloth.




Even in the icon, the figure of Canada mourning is kept. They could have just designed the icon to have two columns but I guess they felt it was important to have the figure there too.


George Devloo would pick up stranded Canadians at the Vimy rail station. See, the village Vimy is near the monument but it is way more convenient to go to Arras. He would drive wayward tourists and student guides to the memorial out of the kindness of his heart. He died last year. The photo was in the interpretive centre and the text came from an MP's speech in the House of Commons.


We took a lot of photos. I guess to prove that we were there.