Many people are making great efforts on this day and I have been very touched by many stories. I chose to focus on this one for my blog today as I really look forward to seeing the sculpture from a large slab of jade of an owl leading a child to a safe place
We picked up a sunflower and little pumpkin.
I'm so glad I saw they posted this clip. I was moved to tears when I visited this room of his paintings in Paris...so much beauty.
From "Open Culture"
"Now imagine that Van Gogh had actually been able to experience the acclaim bestowed on him near the end—or the acclaim bestowed on him hundreds of times over in the more than 100 years since his death. Such is the premise of the clip above from Doctor Who, Series 5, Episode 10, in which Van Gogh—who struggled to sell any of his work through most of his lifetime—finds himself at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris in 2010, courtesy of the TARDIS. Granted, the scene milks the inherent pathos with some maudlin musical cues, but watching actor Tony Curran react as Van Gogh, seeing the gallery’s collections of his work and the wall-to-wall admirers, is “unexpectedly touching,” as Kottke writes. To drive the emotional point even further home, the Doctor calls over a docent played by Bill Nighy, who explains why “Van Gogh is the finest painter of them all.” Laying it on thick? Fair enough. But try not getting a little choked up at the end, I dare you."
"Danny Jansen hit a go-ahead, three-run homer, George Springer also went deep and the Blue Jays beat the Minnesota Twins 5-2 Sunday to maintain pressure in the AL wild-card race before heading to Toronto for their final homestand.
Toronto will enter the final week one game back for the second AL wild card. The New York Yankees and Boston were tied for the wild-card lead heading into their game on Sunday night.
Toronto won the final two games of the four-game series. The Blue Jays host three-game series against New York and Baltimore."
It's great when The Blue Jays host because they have a stadium that has a retractable roof so rain isn't a problem. We certainly get a lot of entertainment from our baseball. It will be ending soon and we'll miss it.
And we topped off the day by having a lovely dinner with Donna at The Four Olives. It's great they are doing a good trade. We're really happy for them and will be returning soon.
I almsot forgot how much I disliked Save-on Foods initially. Well, Thrifty's was pretty hard to beat. I guess I usually went to the local Safeway which went out of business. I went to IGA after that mainly but then got used to Save-On.
I hadn't heard of the Sung Fish Company so I looked it up. It seems one of their specialties is red sea urchin roe. We were first introduced to sea urchin roe when we happened upon a festival devoted to it in the south of France. I think it was 2005. I do have a photo somewhere of Jim eating it. They crack it open for you and then you make a bit of a messy job eating it trying not to cut yourself on the spines. As I recall we had some of those on the street and then went for a special seafood lunch.
We've had it since in Vancouver as sushi. It was a lot easier to eat like that. It seems the Japanese are crazy about it and it's a real specialty. Well, the French were really going for it at this festival but we didn't really encounter it otherwise in France which is not to say it wasn't available.
From the blog of John Denniston
September 23rd, 2021 — A new building for the Sung Fish Company under construction at the corner of Salsbury and Franklin Streets.
Watching the sun go down and listening to music and drinking Jasmine tea.
The Blue Jays lost badly so nice to relax after that frustration.
Donna was tired from all her 75th Birthday celebration but as ever the wonderful hostess. And she gave me these lovely flowers from the reception. It looks like we will be enjoying these for a long time!
Merci beaucoup, Donna!
It was a wonderful afternoon yesterday at the Shaughnessy Restaurant in the Vandusen Gardens. The food for the brunch was fabulous. I had the Steelhead Burger and Jim had the Eggs Benedict. Well, we nibbled off each other's meal. There were lovely tributes to Donna and her brother, Ken, did a steller job...wow!
Thank you so much Donna for inviting us to share in this wonderful time with you and your family and friends.
I didn't seem to get a lot of photos. Too busy enjoying myself, I guess. and messed up on others.
Someone in Montreal is replacing election signs of candidates with pictures of cats!
I'll never forget our first TGV train ride from Paris to Marseilles. So wonderful speeding along watching the scenery whizz by. We had ordered a meal as well that first time and it was excellent as I recall. After that first time we often brought on our own wine and food...wonderful that you can do that on all trains in Europe.
From Euronews:
"Almost 40 years to the day since the first TGV rolled into service from Paris' Gare de Lyon, the new generation of France's iconic high-speed train was unveiled by President Emmanuel Macron at the same station on Friday.
Its fortieth anniversary and the arrival of the TGV M come as the race to produce the best high-speed railway heats up around the world.
The first engine of the new train, which will not officially enter service until 2024 in time for the Paris Olympic Games, was first presented at a press conference on May 26 at the Belfort factory in eastern France.
Compared to the previous versions, the stylistic evolution is obvious. The front of the train has a reptilian profile somewhat reminiscent of the Japanese Shinkansen."
Rest of the article here:
Yesterday we had the soup and half sandwich special. I always get the shrimp and usually their clam chowder but their soup special was mushroom and they make an amazing mushroom soup. Even better than I remember it.
Well, the first time we've done the vaccine card and id. They still were accepting the card you got when you were vaccinated but wanted the other if you had it. We figured it was a good opportunity to try out our paper copies. Worked just great. One of the servers put it on my phone so I have that as a backup. I guess we'll get it on Jim's phone but he doesn't tend to take his phone so a paper copy is really better. I was glad to hear some fellow coming in saying he had it on his phone but he didn't usually have his phone with him.
There was almost nobody in the restaurant and the staff were surprised. I guess people will be dining out less.
I'm always interested in stories about these wonderful animals:
"Volker has produced five calves since 2007 — a high rate considering orcas have an 18-month gestation period, second only to the elephant in the animal kingdom.
And she’s a big reason why there’s a healthy population of Bigg’s orcas — also known as transients — flooding the Salish Sea these days.
“They are thriving,” said Erin Gless, executive director of the Pacific Whale Watch Association.
She said unlike the southern resident killer whales, which only eat chinook salmon and are struggling, Bigg’s orcas eat seals, sea lions and porpoises. And they’ve been finding plenty of food in the waters on our doorstep.
The Orca Behaviour Institute based in Friday Harbor, Washington, says the Bigg’s orcas are in the Salish Sea in record numbers this year."
We really miss C-Lovers so were envying Richard and Grace who cycled up to Horseshoe Bay Monday and had their Ultimate Platter Dinner for Two. I don't know if they had mushy peas...probably not. We always add that on. I thought it had oysters as well but perhaps I'm getting it mixed up with Red Lobster's Seafood Feast. Good thing they went Monday when the weather was fantastic. Well, Horseshoe Bay isn't really that far by car and this meal with a nice hot cup of tea on a coolish day would be perfect.
We had a wonderful time with Dick and Susan yesterday. It was so nice to catch after not seeing each other for quite a while. We were lucky with the weather as it was just perfect sitting outside in their garden. We were going to make it for today but so glad we went yesterday. Looks like rain is coming.
"Life has been getting in the way of sketching and blogging lately, but I do have a few more that I did from the lovely photographs of local photographer John Denniston.
If you want to see the photo from The Car Project, it is #30 of 43.
I do like those nice round old cars!"
http://passionforpaper-passionforpaper.blogspot.com
Back to me:
I'm quite sure the car in the photo wasn't pink but that's the great thing sketching from black and white photos. Well, I guess you could change the car colour regardless. And you can make it a bit more round if you like that about the car.
One of those days you definitely remember just like the Cuban Missile Crisis. I thought I would post about it after the day and having read and viewed what was presented.
Euronews had an interesting article on how technology has changed since then. Most people learned of it by a phone call or a face to face interaction. Guess that term wasn't around then. The article makes the point that at least there wasn't a lot of misinformation since the traditional media like newspapers and TV news channels were doing the reporting. I think someone could write a good novel, play, or film script on this topic.
We were quietly enjoying our newspaper when a friend phoned to tell us to turn on the TV. Like everyone we were glued to it for days.
I was wondering what I posted 10 years ago on my blog. NYC really is just an amazing place. I didn't have my blog on Sept 11, 2001 but soon after.
https://janicesextonart.blogspot.com/2011/09/new-york-911.html
We didn't get to the van Gogh. As I mentioned in a previous blog, after seeing so many wonderful original Van Gogh's in the van Gogh Museum in the south of France and in Paris, I just wanted to keep that memory.
Now, Picasso is a bit different. We've seen lots of originals but I think Picasso himself would love this immersive experience of his works. These shows have certainly been popular even if these pandemic times.
I found this artwork quite fascinating as it was inspired by a chapter title in Moby Dick. I remember reading Moby Dick in university and it was quite a slog. It's an amazing novel but very complex especially for a 20 year old. This piece of art seems to capture what my brain was like reading it:)
| FRANK STELLA |
| The Musket, 1990 mixed media on aluminum, 74 1/2 x 77 1/2 x 33 in. |
Stella’s 60+ year career is defined by his consistent effort to reimagine the capabilities of his materials and their impact on an artwork’s surface. When rectangular canvases proved too restrictive, he painted on canvases of irregular shapes. Then, he pushed even further by building and painting multi-tiered structures, the result of which is what we see here. Executed in 1990, The Musket is built from cut, trimmed, bent, and torqued honeycomb aluminum incised and painted in a wide range of fluorescent, metallic and acid colors that explode into low and medium relief. Stella borrowed the title from chapter 123 of Melville’s novel Moby Dick as this artwork is from one of the most significant phases of Stella’s career where he tapped into the novel as a rich source of inspiration to build challenging, unforgettable narratives. |
Then picked up a sunflower and little pumpkin to complement Donna's plants.
From the Desert Sun:
Because of the unusual rain there is a "super bloom". I didn't know they happened at this time of year. We were there in March one year and they had an extraordinary amount of rain. We didn't really have anything to compare it with (this was a Spring Break holiday when we were working) but locals were very excited and were pointing our plants that hadn't bloomed in over 50 years. I found it quite fascinating that seeds could hang around waiting for an unusual amount of rain.
Ah...the natural world.
I've learned some things about Urban Sketching in the past few days. I thought it just meant you sketched things in an urban setting and thought that the artists mainly sketched from photographs. Ah...how wrong I was! It seems that it began as a movement whose manifesto was to only sketch "in situ". This group was founded by Gabriel Campanario in 2007.
There are now groups doing virtual urban sketching but are making a point not to call themselves "urban sketchers". One is #Virtual Travel Sketch and their guidelines state:
"Please do NOT share your sketches in Urban Sketchers groups. Sketches that are not drawn on location and in reality are against the Urban Sketchers manifesto, so please do not share them in these groups."
Initially I wondered about making the distinction and didn't think it really mattered but after thinking about it I think it is important and does make some sense. But I'm glad there are lots of virtual groups drawing from photographs (and giving credit to the photographer, of course) as it seems like a total win-win.
Ah...what would we do without humour. People in many places can relate to this. And on this very special Labour Day, I hope most people are appreciating the amazing work of everyone who has been working through this pandemic and contributing positively to our lives.
This photo was taken just before 8pm and changed within minutes to something much less spectacular. Taken with my iPhone.
I just love the sketches Susan K. does from photographs. And so I had this idea of her doing some sketches from John's photos. She had been sketching trucks and John has a series of photos of cars he photographed around Vancouver while he was working as a newspaper photographer. As always, he captures pretty interesting stuff so I was pretty sure Susan would find something that would capture her imagination....and she did!
Great photographs and great sketches.
From Susan's blog:
This was inspired by another of John Denniston's photos from The Car Project.
When Janice sent me the link to her cousin's website, she said she would be interested to see which photos I would choose to draw from.
This one had me at the car, but the Midas sign was definitely a contributing factor. Thanks, Janice!
Back to my blog:
I just loved this photo John posted yesterday. Maybe Susan will be tempted.
September 1, 1996 — Every once in a while I search through my negative files looking for pictures I’ve missed, like this one of Greg Moore two wheeling it over a curb during an IndyCar race at False Creek. This leads to finding more pictures that I never printed, again from the IndyCar races, which can be seen HERE or by clicking on the picture above. Michael Jourdain Jr is the driver in front of Greg.
We never did get to New Orleans and so sad to see it destroyed again. I really feel for all the people affected and what they're going through with the aftermath. And all the other places that were afftected by this terrible storm.
But I don't think you can keep this place down. I thought this was an interesting link with more information on the Karnofsky Store.
https://acloserwalknola.com/places/karnofsky-shop-residence/
With rescue crews now combing southeast Louisiana to help residents caught in the flooding and assess the damage caused by Hurricane Ida, which made landfall near Port Fourchon on Sunday morning, one early historical casualty has already been identified. The Karnofsky Store, a Jewish family’s former tailor shop and residence in New Orleans that served as a second home for jazz legend Louis Armstrong and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, completely collapsed when the category four storm swept across the city.
Alfred Molina will play Ganmache .
Washington Post
"The best mysteries and thrillers rise to the level of social novels, presenting readers opportunities to confront the difficult issues we face. Penny’s novels have always been driven by this (as well as the love of family and friends). 'The Madness of Crowds' may be one of Penny’s darkest works, but we can still find comfort in the natural beauty of Three Pines and the quirky residents we would love to have as our neighbors."
He usually has something interesting to say and this particular post made me think especially about how being in community has changed.
The model for TV in the 1960s was three major networks supported by mass advertising. And so the shows that were produced were banal, reassuring and fairly inexpensive to produce. The goal was simply to keep someone from watching the other two channels.
The business model in the Netflix age, with multiple streaming channels racing to gain market share among affluent consumers with a surfeit of choice, is fundamentally different. And as a result, so is the content being produced.
It’s not that the TV people wanted to watch suddenly changed–it’s that the economic model for delivering it did.
The business model for news has changed, and so the news has. Not what’s happening in the world, but the way the internet reports it.
The business model for all the lifestyle (health, gossip, etc.) filler we see has changed as well. And so it goes…
And for many people, the biggest change is this: the business model of social networks has replaced the simple act of being in community.
It's been a while since I took a sunset photo. I took these at 8pm and now five minutes later it's even better but I'll stick with the first ones.
