Month: June 2008

One thing and another (Battlestar, Victoria round up)

Here’s a report, forwarded by Robof9.
G. E. Productions Inc. is filming on campus, portions of the movie“ Battlestar Galactica “.

Film Set Preps, Shoot and Wrap-up / Clean-up Day;
7:00AM to 11:30PM, Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Film Set Preps, Shoot and Support function locations:

1)  Academic Quadrangle – Courtyard and Reflecting Pond area.
                                     – AQ rooms 4120, 4125, 4140, SSB 9200

2) Parking – SH, Lot E(East portion)
                 – S SH N side of fire lane to bus loop
                – Lot G (lower East portion)
                – Studio II (East grass area)
                 – ASB E. lane (East side)

– Set areas will be dressed prior to filming by early morning.

–  Set props, vehicles & equipments positioned where designated, shall be cleared out as soon as film shoot activities are completed.

–  Between 9-10pm Wednesday July 2, ‘08, all filming activities completed.   All vehicles, equipments & props removed, film shoot site cleaned-up and  wrapped out of campus.

I saw a man on a bike with a parrot on his shoulder in Victoria.
I have a migraine (no surprise, all the sun I got this weekend plus really inconvenient amounts of hormones).
I got up really early and ate pea pods in my mOm’s garden yesterday morning.  Om nom nom.
I had a really really amazing weekend.

It’s a beautiful day

I’m at the folks’ place in Victoria recovering from one of the more memorable days in many moons.

I got up at 4:30 and left the house with Jarmo and crew around 7:30.  We launched from Burrard ramp.  There were eagles at the launch site.  The launch was hilarious, mostly because the Suburban’s muffler was under water for a good chunk of the launch.  Anyway, that was successful.  Out into the Georgia Strait where the combined one two punch of the Fraser’s two arms dumping into the strait caused incredible lumpiness.  I lost my hat (I had sunscreen), applied sunscreen to the back of Jarmo’s neck and his bald spot, and stood for the first 1.5 hours.  We stopped at Galiano and got ice cream bars and pumped the bilges, after which the boat behaved in a much peppier fashion.

Got to Victoria Harbour long about 11:30, with bunting flying and hordes of people for the tall ships festival, including the Nina, and Jarmo just moseys up to the nicest section of dock and gets everybody a pass to the docks.  I bail to go to Pondside for the filking. 

Shortly after I got there me and twenty other people ran through the Tapioca Song… EVERYBODY there knew it off by heart, it was amazing. Instruments included stand up bass (thank you thank you Peggy) hammered dulcimer, banjola, many guitars, resonator guitar and many harmonious happy voices…..  AND – and this makes me so happy I could burst – it was simultaneously signed in Ameslan. 

I played with Devon Rex cats and listened to some of the nicest and smartest people in the world tell stories and sing songs and play exotic instruments.  Happy, happy sigh.

Then I realized I was exhausted and begged Dr Filk for a ride to my folks’ place on his scoot, which he kindly provided.  There I was thinking I wouldn’t get a ride on a motorcycle this summer, ha! THEN I got to ride to my granny’s place in the Camaro, with the top down, during a cloudless summer evening.  I had a lovely (and brief) visit with my gran, then came back here and drank a cup of tea.  There was a deer in the parking lot across the street from her apartment while we were there.

You have to admit I had an amazing day and I send big hugs and kisses to Douglas and Juliana for sponsoring the amazing event that is Pondfilk.  But I am sun- and windburnt and entirely bagged and my bed is calling me in three part harmony with stand up bass accompaniment, so good night moon.  mOm’s going to give me a lift back there in the morning, and then with any luck I’ll hitch a lift back to Vancouver with Tom and Peggy.

Tired and happy.  That’s me right now.

Nothing but pix

So, in no partic’lar order.  The broom made me think “Hogwarts is missing a student!”; and the bunny was a creature dumped on Burnaby Mountain by some schlunk, may he or she encrust the worst part of hell, BUT the story has a happy ending and the bunny was rescued; Patricia, LTGW and Francis at the pond; a salamander in the pond (hard to see, but there); a bee in a salmonberry blossom; fungus in the woods; the flowers Jeff gave me earlier this week which smelled heavenly; Trev and ScaryClown at lunch.

And then my heart burst with joy

Keith came over and said, “I have a prezzie for you.”  It was a tshirt with a design of his own contrivance.  In lurid, but slender, rainbow hued type, it says, “Queen’s Fluffiest Pillow!”

Once the timing had sunk in (it’s mere weeks before Pride Day – a fact he alluded to in his presentation of the garment to me) and I had donned it, I looked down and realized we were both wearing robot socks.

Paul came over and said I have a present for you.  It’s my 100$ check from the BC Gov to spend on the environment (nice vote buy, assholes) and a screed from Elections Canada that manages to get my name wrong in two new and interesting ways 6 weeks after I changed my address with Elections Canada online.  Who the fuck in their right mind believes this government is smart enough to spy on its own citizens?  Even if they were, the bureaucracy they run this crap through couldn’t organize an orgy in a brothel.  Canadians must be the world’s politest incompetents.  Okay, end of rant.

Then Paul tried to break my computer, and failed.  His new iPod kept trying to crossload itself onto my computer when all we were trying to do was charge the damned thing.  I had to unplug the damned thing twice and force quit my MacBook twice to get it to stop doing that.  Since I know from SQUAT about Macs I freak anytime untoward happens – I have no Mac geek to lean on.

Anyway, Paul has left still needing some charging method for his new toy, (which I’ll have you know I wish I had) and Keith is gaming, and Katie is needing more resumes, and I need to pack and sleep. Jarmo’s gonna be here 6:45 ayem-ish tomorrow, and dawn comes early.

ScaryClown was here

He had an interesting day at work so he went to our place early after I checked with Jeff, and when I got there he and Jeff were ensconced in the living room watching something. Then Jeff and I made dinner (he broiled the chicken breasts to perfection, I must say) and we consumed it on the back deck with attentive cats and much hilarity. The cats liked him… it was sweet watching ScaryClown leap to his feet to let one in when he scratched at the door. “You’ve set a precedent,” Jeff said drily, and ScaryClown said something to the effect that cats easily train him.

I have no beer left, but I’ve seen Robert Macnamara in Fog of War and I was amazed. It’s one of the best shot and most interesting and best scored documentaries I ever saw. I remember DrFilk raving about it when it first came out.

Keith started early

He was supposed to start today but they started him yesterday.  I hope for a full report at some point.

Watched The Big Red One yesterday.  The firefight scenes are great but everything else suffers in comparison to Band of Brothers… especially the music, holy crap it was bad.

I made purple food yesterday – purple home fried potatoes.  I’m having some more now, damn they’re good!

I wrote a song last night. Like, late last night.

As soon as I got in the car to drive home last night I wrote a song. I’ll be posting the lyrics to my LJ, as looked at in the bright light of morning they seem, uh, a little on the ‘back of the hand to the forehead’ end of the spectrum, not that there’s anything wrong with that, that’s sort of what songs are for. Oh well, this is what happens when you challenge yourself to write something that doesn’t have a happy ending.

I know I’ve said this about 100 times and I keep forgetting it, but seeing live music is a really important feed for creativity. I just saw three live bands in a week! No wonder I start getting all antsy, and walking down the street singing. I wish I wasn’t so wasp-y sometimes, I’d sing in public a lot more.

Just for fun, a fraction of the lyrics for ‘The Hardworking Locksmiths of Sunnydale” which I started writing on Sunday.

When I got out of locksmith school

In the year of ninety seven

The old pros told me that there is

A locksmith’s earthly heaven

Be prepared, they told me

For work on work galore

But make sure that your stomach’s strong

You’ll see a LOT of gore

O Sunnydale, O Sunnydale

until you disappeared

You helped me pay my mortgage off

But man, you sure were weird.

What a bleeping day

To preserve the dignity and privacy of those involved, I will not recount some of the events of this evening. Nobody was injured, the cats are fine, and I won’t speak for Jeff but I would describe my current mental state as “spitting out feathers”.

Jericho was fine; I heard my first ever submarine shanty, which really is a fine thing to be able to say, the other performers were wonderful, Ballyhooley was great, they did a kickass version of Wraggle Taggle Gypsies and one of them plays uillean pipes ver’ well.  And there was an octave mando and more fracking pipes with holes in ’em than you imagine one guy lugging around.

Paul and Keith showed up, and just as promptly, disappeared, due to scheduling issues. I hung til ten but I had to get the car back to Joyce Station.

One block north of Joyce Station, and may the laws of probability and a pterodactyl’s left great claw be thanked that I had my back turned to this jackass, I heard a guy who hawked up a throat oyster so big that it was carrying a cell phone with ease – I heard the sucker bounce on the ground – and then he made an even MORE incredibly loud noise which sounded like somebody trying to clear a vacuum cleaner hosepipe jammed full of liver with a toilet plunger, and I must repeat, really loud. Reverberating between two buildings, drowning out the car noise. Score one for the human capacity to be really fracking disgusting.

New Puppy (Migraine better thanks….)

Dave @ OneLegWest has posted pics of his puppy Max’s first day at home. Check out how happy Jake is to see the new arrival….

I feel so much better and the sun is shining so delightfully that I’m off to Jericho tonight.

Did I mention the whole fam damily was over last night for a spaghetti dinner? Keith and Paul brought Caesar salad and corn bread, and Katie brought her sweet self and picked up her blankie from G’ma. Then we watched Buffy (Darla gets hers, the first time anyway). Happy Sigh.

Oh oh oh, I forgot to mention, I’m getting a FREE RIDE to Victoria for next weekend’s Pondfilk!! Dalai Jarmo just dropped by to say they are taking off at hours ungodly on Saturday morning to go see the tallships. Obviously I’ll chip in for gas so it won’t really be free, but Me Happy! It will be a most convivial crew, and they’ll just drop me off at the Harbour.

Every time I get a migraine these days I think happy thoughts and it goes away. Sometimes the happy thoughts involved nudity, but a lot of times I think about my friends and family and the happiness just wells up like a magical fountain.

Migraine, Psychic

I’m kinda aiming sideways at the screen, since I can’t see all of it. Before I sign off for the day, though, I thought I’d mention something that happened on Sunday. As I walked down Duranleau, I saw the sign for the psychic, and had an overpowering urge to go in. This DESPITE having seen the Bullsh*t episode about psychics (it’s a show by magician debunker atheist darlings Penn & Teller). I paused on the landing for five minutes, while the urge to go up got stronger and stronger. So, hoping like hell nobody from work would see me, I gingerly climb the stairs, where a pleasant looking woman tells me “Sorry, we’re closed.”

Guess she didn’t see that coming. I was giggling to myself as I went down the stairs.

Just back from Stonehenge….

I have a trip report from a coworker’s family member….

Hi

 

 

Just back from Stonehenge (88 miles in 90 minutes). And about to go to bed.  Went down after supper last night and got there just after midnight due to traffic. Many thousands of revellers (even some regular people with kids, lots of pagans but also lots of drunk f*ckwits and doped teenagers falling over.)

 

However, it was an awesome experience – despite the misty rain, cold and no sunrise. I had my iPod on full listening to my chill-out trance. Here are two pics.

 

The official count is that over 30,000 people attended the event. And at least 1,000 officials (cleaners, security, police, paramedics, marshals etc.)

 

In their own way the rebellious anti-socials the “non-spiritual” revelers, the atheists, anarchists, Hells Angels, drunks and f*ckwits were all unwittingly contributing energy to the pagan event. And if you look at it like that, then this is the biggest cultural/spiritual happening in the UK. (Not counting Music festivals.)  (Ed. Note – like Glastonbury, which is berloody huge). And everyone came along of their own free will. With free access to see – nothing. And maybe to have a moving experience, receive a blessing, have a social encounter, or to share in a unique collective event to dine out on for a long time. And because the authorities tried to stop it happening back in the 80/90’s everyone now wants to find out what they were trying to hide. 

 

It was one big trance party – without amplified music. Lots of dope ‘n’ drums. One very good pagan percussion band, dressed as ghouls playing samba rhythms – complete with tattooed conductor. They were accompanied by large paper and wood bull horns and a group of devils and angels, who danced and fought over the soul of a minotaur, a man-bull.

 

 

Andrew

Please note Andrew is a great photographer – these pics, taken on his phone, do NOT represent how good he really is.  Thanks to Peter T for passing these along!

Goodbye George/Hullo Darwin

My happiness at attending the Hilario Duran Trio got wiped outta my heart when I found that George Carlin died yesterday.  However I am still happy about meeting Darwin.

Some explanation of the pics.  The first is a CP train the Luddite owns.  He let me touch it.  Considering that I break things by scowling at them, this is amazing.  The second is of course Alex and the newish Darwin, who is the piggiest baby ever until you remember that he’s at the three week growth spurt stage, alternately ravenous and exhausted.  This was literally the first time I got a SFW shot, because, well, he WAS EATING NON STOP.  Anyway, Darwin made out like a bandit both in terms of food and prezzies.  The cat is the cat shown previously, this time on a roof across the alleyway, and the tea towel, if you look at it hard, looks like a girly version of Cthulhu.  You’re welcome!