I just clicked on a weather link I've got set up on a my.yahoo home page -- 80F, clear and sunny through the weekend. Oops, made a mistake - that's Austin. Back to the Toronto link, cloudy with chance of rain, high of 49F. Still, its a chance to relive early spring, which is nice. The buds on the Manitoba Maple tree outside our window have opened up to light green clusters while we've been here.

Yesterday at the film festival I did what I often do after I sat down and got situated, and attempted a bit of conversation with the otherwise unengaged person in the seat beside Sharon's (she was up getting a cofffee). "So have you seen some other films this week?". He muttered something back and I said, "Excuse me?". He says a bit more clearly, "I don't feel like talking right now." Oh, okay... Sharon was out getting a coffee and when she came back, after us talking for awhile, she did the same thing. I hadn't told here about the silent dude yet. And of course she got the same response. Who knew what was going on with this guy that day. Anyway, during the film we noticed that he was reading any subtitled text on the screen out loud to himself. We figure he was recording the audio from the film for some reason. Maybe his mike was on - so that's why he didn't want to talk. Or, he was just a bit strange. Who knows.

You might be envisioning two hillbillies from Texas annoying the people next to us in theatres with our chit chat. It might seem that way to them too.

  posted by John : 7:01 AM

 
Bearing Witness
Back at the film fest - tonights selection was the made-for-A&E film Bearing Witness (dir: Barbara Kopple). A year in the life of 5 women journalists on assignment in Iraq. Compelling, though it somehow felt a little distant from the subject. Likely this is the difference in a film made for A&E vs a personal project where the filmmaker begs and borrows all the funding as they go along.

We may see one or two more films, or maybe we're done. I think Grizzly is the one we'll remember most from this festival.

  posted by John : 7:58 PM

 
Here am I

  posted by John : 10:40 PM

 
Garner State Park pics

photo

Sharon walking along a cypress avenue.

photo

View from the trail.

  posted by John : 10:30 PM

 
Beethoven's Hair
Once again, my lack of awareness of events in the world yields a fresh evening of entertainment and learning. Beethoven's Hair, a documentary by Larry Weinstein is the story of how two guys in Arizona bought an authentic lock of the composer's hair, and end up submitting a few strands to a giant particle accelerator experiment that shows/proves how Beethoven died. Lead poisoning. The same poisoning that caused his deafness, madness and his extreme creative brilliance.

The substory of how the lock ended up in the hands of the Danish family who ultimately auctioned it off was also very interesting to me. Sharon and I had visited the coastal town of Gilleleje, north of Copenhagen a few years ago - and there were lots of scenes from there. In 1943, Danish Jews, and perhaps Jewish refugees from other countries were pushed to the edge of Denmark by Germans seeking to capture them. Many Danes assisted them to get to Sweden in their fishing boats. A group were hiding in the attic of the church in Gilleleje, where a doctor injected the very small children and babies with sedatives so that they would not cry out. In appreciation, somebody there (nobody remembers who) gave the doctor the lock of Beethoven's hair which was in a small, framed glass case. His daughter, never sure if it was the real thing, found that it was in late 90's when it was auctioned by Sotheby's.

Fortunately for us, they showed the long version of this film by mistake. Unfortunately, that didn't leave any time for Q&A afterwards, which was a rip-off. There was a crowd waiting outside for the next film, but still - they could have allowed them to wait 15 mins. Having the director there to discuss the film is the best part of seeing these at a festival, instead of at home some other time. I would have understood if I was waiting in line for the next film. Toronto the good, and always punctual.

  posted by John : 8:12 PM

 
Docs - 4/24
Saw three films again today. The first two tied together very well in theme:

The Making of Teuntje

The German Secret

"Teuntje" is a daughter of artificial insemination, raised by her birth mother, and two other women. This center of this film from Holland was her desire to know her father -- to know that she had a father who cared about her.

The 2nd film, part of a different series altogether, was similar in that it told the story of a woman who was born in Nazi Germany and never knew her father. Never even knew his name until she was older and had a family of her own. Her mother didn't want her to know, we learn, because it was not the man she really loved (a german officer), but it turns out an American officer. Pieces of the puzzle of her mother's life and the quest to find her father are revealed as she makes a series of trips from her home in Denmark to Germany and Czechoslovakia to dig up clues. Finally she traces her father to a home in Hiedelberg. He is 88, and her appeals to visit him are rejected. He dies before she can see him (Sharon and I both felt we would have just snuck into the home and tried to find him on our own, but that doesn't really matter does it?). Interestingly, during the Q&A after the film, the woman's husband (the filmmaker) told us she found only two weeks ago that she has half-brothers/sisters - living in Kansas. So her quest to find information about her father and meet these newfound relatives continues. Somewhat intimidated by meeting these midwestern-types - it may turn into another film.

Third was "Wetback : The Undocumented Documentary" - tracing the journey of about six migrants from Central America attmempting to get to the US. Despite the annoying sympathetic noises being made by the woman sitting next to me (uh, not Sharon - the other side), I enjoyed the film. Enjoyed is not the right word -- its full of tragedy and suffering (it was that kind of day at the film fest for us) -- I don't know what the right word is. While I don't agree with the message implied by the film (just open up the border so these people can stop suffering), it did present many sides of this torturous situation which put it in a larger perspective for me. These immigrants through their labor in the US (and Canada to a degree) are making huge subsidies to their families and as a result to the economies of their home countries (the film states that subsidies are the #2 foreign source of income in Mexico next to oil). My concern is that by not passing laws that legalize this movement of laborers, US vigilante groups like the Civil Homeland Defense (Minutemen) seem to be exploding in popularity lately. These are apparently mostly pissed-off NRA types ready to take this lack of policy into their own hands. I also a bit concerned that this film could somehow be used by the vigilante groups to increase their recruits.

  posted by John : 12:18 AM

 
Hot Docs
Here in Toronto for Hot Docs. Sharon, Knud and I got out to see 3 films today. Only one worth mentioning is Grizzly Man. Werner Herzog's film about Timothy Treadwell's life, and death, among the grizzly bears in the Alaskan wilderness. Completely engrossing. Made me forget that we were in the back of the 2nd balcony watching a tiny screen off in the distance.

  posted by John : 9:08 PM

 
Heading north
Last weekend we spent a nice couple of days camping - finally! - at Garner State park. Great hiking there. Some trails were a bit too steep and precarious for Sharon's taste, but we followed the contours down a more gradual trail on the way back. Sharon and Victor saved the life of a tiny bird who fell out of a tree into our camp. Sharon was tenacious in her hope for this little life and found Ruby, a volunteer at the park who helped to find a nest to put the bird in. The nest already had two other tiny chicks of the same age and type. And sure enough the next day all three were snuzzled in there together, so the mother must have accepted the new one.

They're in behind this nest... can you hear them?



Meanwhile, back at camp...



Ten days in Toronto coming up, visiting the family and watching films at Hot Docs - a documentary film festival. The temperature was 80F there the other day - now the extended forecast looks like cold and rainy. Perfect for spending time in a movie theatre.

Victor will be staying with neighbors on our loop. I think he'll be fine with them, if he can stay clear of this mean cat they have, named Godzilla, who we haven't met. I think they'll take good care of him. No doubt it will be an eventful week for them.

  posted by John : 8:33 PM

 
LIVE from Vatican City
I've been up all night, getting some much neglected work done. I've had CNN on for awhile and I'd say they've done 20 solid minutes of analysis of the smoke coming from the chimney at the Vatican. I see that they have a video monitor set up on St. Peter's square to show the chimney too.

The religious right-eousness of Fox News, which has been very pronounced since the election, has seeped over to the other news channels as well.

The goddam chimney has been on the screen for a half hour now. I wonder if there's something else going on in the world?


  posted by John : 3:04 AM

 
Enneagram types
We already 'typed' ourselves some time ago -- or rather, friends who are into this typed us, and we found it to be accurate. ...

John: The Perfectionist (Type 1)

Sharon: The Romantic (Type 4)

What do we do with this information? Not a whole lot - you just go on living in your own way. But it gives us a way of looking at ourselves with a bit of distance, so we can maybe take care of ourselves a bit better.

You can take this test to get a rough idea of which of the nine types you might be. For me it was actually a tie between type 1 and 5.

  posted by John : 10:30 AM

 
Times of Harvey Milk
We watched this film on DVD last night. I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it. Especially if, like me, you didn't know the story.

The director of the film, Rob Epstein, is going to be the guest for our film class tomorrow night, so I ordered this movie from Netflix to be current. But now it looks like I need to be in Dallas tomorrow, which is quite dissapointing. We haven't been able to attend very many of these classes so far, and I'm most interested in the documentary guests. Listening to the audio commentary on the DVD will have to do. That's where they show the movie with the sound turned down while you hear the filmmakers talking about it.

  posted by John : 8:13 AM

 
Dry line
For a week now we've seen rain in the forecast for today. Right now its blue skies and sunny out. In less than 1 hr we're going to have about 30 people over for the neighborhood association picnic. This is the forecast:.
.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT. THERE IS A SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT NORTH AND EAST OF A LINE FROM MASON TO BOERNE TO SPEAKS...INCLUDING THE CITY OF AUSTIN. A STRONG UPPER LEVEL STORM SYSTEM LOCATED OVER THE FOUR CORNERS REGION WILL MOVE SLOWLY EASTWARD CROSSING THE CENTRAL PLAINS ON MONDAY. A SQUALL LINE IS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP ACROSS NORTH TEXAS THIS AFTERNOON ALONG THE TRAILING DRY LINE. ISOLATED SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE POSSIBLE WITHIN THE LINE WITH LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS BEING THE PRIMARY SEVERE WEATHER THREATS. THE SQUALL LINE WILL BUILD SOUTHWESTWARD ALONG THE DRY LINE INTO THE EASTERN HALF OF SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS LATE THIS AFTERNOON INTO TONIGHT. IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THE THREAT OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WILL EXTEND SOUTH OF THE SLIGHT RISK AREA TONIGHT WHICH WOULD ENCOMPASS THE CITY OF SAN ANTONIO.

...Update: Party's over - still clear skies. Bring on the storm.

  posted by John : 2:11 PM

 
Unveiling

before & after images

Yes the painting is finally complete! After two months of this being on our minds ever day, running to the hardware store for ever-more supplies, the house painting is finally complete. Looking back at these pictures -- what a difference. We really like the color combination. But mainly we're just glad to have our home back, and not have to live in on a work-site. At least until the next major project. We are having a custom awning installed over the front door in a few weeks - fortunately that'll mostly be done offsite. Then there's the idea of screening-in the carport. We'll never be done, that's for sure.

  posted by John : 4:21 PM

 
House painters by day, rock-stars by night...

On the right, our good friend Aaron Calhoun who has done alot of work inside our house too. On the left, Hunt Sales - a talented painter who has had some other odd jobs on the side, like playing drums for Iggy Pop and David Bowie, and who happens to have a very famous dad. Thanks guys!

  posted by John : 4:07 PM

 
Dogs at play.

photo gallery

Our dog Victor (the black one) and Bodhi, our friend Aaron's dog, had a spat last week when Bodhi got jealous and kind of attacked Victor. They've since made up. Did you ever see the movie Amores Perros? Lots of dog-fight scenes in it, all done with dogs playing like this and sound effects added.

  posted by John : 3:32 PM

 
DST
Thinking about Daylight Savings Time, from this news that Knud told me about, and from Leslie's photo of what things look like now before 6am (I don't have any first-hand knowledge of this)... I'm pretty sure I always thought DST was done to modify daylight hours in the Winter, to make it lighter in the morning when kids were off to school, or have it lighter in the morning for the farmer's during their late fall harvests. I thought we moved back the 'regular' time last weekend. But of course, this is totally backwards.

So turns out its an energy-saving thing. Of course, it had to be for economic reasons. Silly me.

  posted by John : 7:39 AM

 
I like this new phone I got, but it sure takes funny-looking pictures...



Those multicolored things on the cliff are supposed to be green cactus. I knew the camera part would be lousy. It has no zoom and the lens is just a little dot. Which is fine, because I got the phone because it has quick access to Yahoo IM and best of all I'm up $200 in the deal with all the rebates from Amazon.com

  posted by John : 2:29 PM