Warhol's Silver Clouds

Well look at that - I'm writing on ye olde blog. I'm in Pittsburgh to present a paper on novel and film design at an academic conference.

I flew in this morning and had the day to wander around Pittsburgh, which really, doesn't take very long. I've never been to an industrial US city - and one that the recession has obviously hit pretty hard. Lots of boarded up shops and restaurants and near deserted streets.

But Pittsburgh is the birthplace of one Andy Warhol and subsequently houses the Andy Warhol Museum. I'm not a huge Warhol fan but was really impressed with the seven floor museum and its collection. I hadn't realized that Warhol was such an accomplished photographer and his commercial design work from the 1950s before he entered his own rather extended 15 minutes was cool.

But the best piece was Warhol's Silver Clouds - iPhone snap above. I stood in that room by myself for a really long time and was amazed that the clouds seemed to magically avoid me. I think I carry a strong energy field...or I am surrounded by evil.

A Day in the Life

Well, I'm seriously flattered that I have secret stalkers. I thought the only people who read this thing were my friends scattered around the world, and thus, it was a great way to keep in touch before the explosion of things like Facebook. (The blog also gets an incredible amount of traffic due to a couple of posts, so I keep it up for that.) You can always introduce yourself - email's to the right!

Life towards the end of 2008 was so busy that I didn't have time to update here. Then life slowed down wayyyy down and I now sit so mired in final PhD work here in Toronto that I even bore myself.

Momentile is geeky and self-indulgent. You could make out an average day from the photographs though: I like granola and fruit for breakfast, I'm working on the photography section of my thesis, I hang out with my neighbour's cat, I have dinner at the Four Seasons and I end the evening with a tea.

Also, I tend to favour restaurants with chalk board menus (breakfast & dinner), it has been snowing a helluva lot in Toronto, and chocolate is my salvation at the moment.

Momentile

It's been quiet around here. Other networking sites have captured my interest and people tend to know where I am and see my photographs through Facebook and Twitter and Flickr. But I have found another geeky, time wasting endeavor.

I'm chronicling my days with my iPhone camera on Momentile. Neat concept and takes less than 5 seconds to accomplish. With the PhD thesis in full throttle writing mode as I wrap it all up, that's about all I can handle. So now you can see a snapshot of my day, everyday. Fascinating to be sure.

Martin Creed, Work No. 850

Wandering through the Tate Britain recently after seeing the Francis Bacon exhibit, I was very nearly run over by someone sprinting through the gallery. About 30 seconds later, it happened again. It took me a moment to realize that I was actually standing smack in the middle of some art: Martin Creed's piece entitled Work No. 850.

Unbwogable!

When I was in Kenya a few weeks ago, Barack Obama was, rather predictably, front page news in the media. Tonight he did become completely unbwogable. Congratulations, Mr. President.

unbwogable
adj. unshakeable, unbeatable, unstoppable.
Subjects: English, Kenya

Etymological Note: English un– ‘not’ + Dholuo bwogo ‘to scare’ + English —able ‘capable.’ The word was popularized by the song “Who Can Bwogo Me?” also known as “Unbwogable,” from the Kenyan musical group Gidi Gid Maji Maji.

Out Of Africa

Arrived back in London at 5:30am after two weeks in East Africa. I shot bazoodles of photographs and didn't really look at them on the trip, choosing instead to just keep switching memory cards and storing everything. As I began sorting through them all this afternoon, this one jumped out as my favourite thus far.

Eyes Are Everywhere

I took an impromptu long weekend and flew to my folks' place on Vancouver Island for a couple of days. Since I was out west for such a short time, I purposely tried to keep my body clock on EST. At 5:45am, I was in the house checking my email when I felt like I was being watched. I turned on my laptop's isight camera, moved it two inches to the right and snapped a photo.

Cottaging

I spent last weekend up in classic Ontario cottage country. Brought up two books that I've been dying to read: De Niro's Game by Rawi Hage and Do Travel Writers Go To Hell? by Thomas Kohnstamm.

What did I do up there? Drink champagne, wine and Pimm's all day and flip through the pages of British Vogue.

Strike a Pose

I've flown to my parents' place on Vancouver Island for a few days of vacation. This guy was very amenable - posing patiently for me while I played with the settings on my new camera.

The English Patient Redux

As I'm watching The English Patient for the 476th time, freezing the screen shot every 30 seconds and writing notes, I can tell you that this is the only thing that makes me feel good right now:

A Weekend in Tallinn

I spent the weekend in Tallinn, Estonia a couple of weeks ago with some girlfriends. What a pretty little city that was a mesh of Scandinavian and Eastern European cultures. The Old Town was full of buildings that were colour coordinated with the sky (example above) and little linen shops and patios that invited a drink or eleven.

More photos of this interesting city up on Flickr, including ones of the Old Town, and my favourite, the top of Alexander Nevsky Cathedral through an old groto.

Re-Writing Looks Like This

And then I go drinking.