Born Free

Amazing song...amazing video...

Memory Lane With The Fly

Part Two...

The Only Feminine Protection A Woman Needs Is A Smith And Wesson

Yes, that's right...the gun I am holding is a "dirty harry" 44 Magnum. At the time of the movie's release in 1971, this was one of the most innovative guns produced...perhaps you remember Clint Eastwood says so in the film " I know what you're thinking, punk. You're thinking "did he fire six shots or only five?" Now to tell you the truth I forgot myself in all this excitement. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and will blow you head clean off, you've gotta ask yourself a question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do ya, punk? "


Little known fact about me. I'm not a bad shot. You see those two head shots? The ones highlighted by flourescent green on the figures surrounding a hostage?I took those...with the Dirty Harry Smith and Wesson 44 Magnum. I saved the hostage. The other shots...well...let's just say that one of my shooting buddies killed the hostage! I won't say who, for the sake of preserving their honor. Ha ha. I win! (btw, safety first, in these portraits none of the guns were loaded at the time of taking the pictures)

Somewhere in Wisconsin. We drove north this weekend to visit our friend Andy. Lets just say we seemed awfully close to Canada because it snowed the night before! In May! I've seen it snow in Calgary in May. sheesh, but we got wonderful crisp spring weather for our weekend holiday. We went up to see Andy give a presentation for one of his classes on writing and the writing process. His presentation was on Revision. Andy had interviewed Stagg and I on how we work with revision...Stagg on his paintings and me on how I write and revise for film. Below is a photo from his morning presentation...I'll just throw that in here...

The notes in this section of his presention represent his approach and findings from the interviews. He interviewed half a dozen artists in various disciplines of art-making.

Interview Themes:

-changing medium in revision
-different considerations of audience
-the passage of time
-writing on multiple projects simultaneously
-concepts first: analysis second
-revision in thinking and tightening up
-trusting the intuition
-revision strategies change
-pursuing art for pleasure

After the presentation we went back to Andy's place and changed our clothes, stopped for coffee, then went out to the shooting range. There were four of us, Tricia and I drove up from Chicago and Andy's brother, Chris, drove from Madison. Then we went for lunch and beers all afternoon and had a fantastic visit checking out the local irish pub, and brewery. Chris is about to get married and we covered all kinds of topics from plans for his wedding, his renovation work, meeting people in new towns, work, plans for the future...and we had a lot of fun just joking around all afternoon. Everyone was in top form with the joking...I haven't laughed that hard for quite a while. It was awesome to be out side the city and kick back for a couple of days. Back to Andy's for supper and to watch SNL with Betty white hosting (hilarious!)









I got "bit". Didn't hurt but just a bit of skin on my thumb got caught...how lame of me. I was holding really well but probably a little kick in the gun threw me off when I tried to practice faster technique.Gives me street creds though right?








Related Links:

1. ) Smith & Wesson (NASDAQ: SWHC) (S&W) is the largest manufacturer of handguns in the United States. The corporate headquarters is in Springfield, Massachusetts. Founded in 1852, Smith & Wesson's pistols and revolvers have become standard issue to police and armed forces throughout the world. Consequently they have been used by sport shooters and have been featured in numerous Hollywood movies, particularly Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry. Smith & Wesson has been known for the many types of ammunition it has introduced over the years, many cartridges bear the company's name. From Wiki

In The Kitchen...

Lazybones Tricks...

I always find a lazy way to do certain things. when it comes to cleaning I will go all out and do major good work. I'm not afraid of hard work or anything...but I do have some things I do that are typical primate behaviour of finding ways to make everyday duties as easy and quick or simple as possible. I lve good kitchen design and I'm very good at organizing and designing kitchens...I've helped several friends with renovations and making their kitchens as functional as possible with good traffic flow. I've worked in a lot of professional kitchens that were horribly designed and many that are brilliantly designed. (as a matter of fact...i wish i could overhaul the cafe where I work a few hours a week...the fridge for the milk is a good 7 feet away from the cappucino machine...an outrage! It should be right below)

When you rent you often have to put up with apartments and especially kitchens that were installed by people who don't work in kitchens and don't live in said kitchen. So they put things in the only place with the least imagination given or consideration to traffic flow or function. I like many things about our galley kitchen, it's not bad...but the fridge has a left opening door. It should be a right opening door because of it's position. So...I picked up a few trciks to work around this incovenience...and the photo above demonstrates one of my idiosyncratic behaviours...I rest my tea cup on the ledge of the door...and pour my milk in...thereby saving the time of taking the milk all the way out of the fridge to a counter.

Do you have any such weird shortcuts you do around the house...?

The Mysterious Mr. A

You know...I've met a lot of people in "real life" that I met online through bookclubs or blogging...and whenever I meet them...one out of ten of these folks have the same question.

the question is always..."Who is Mr. Anchovy?"

He is almost always asked about and made my online friends very curious. Mr. Anchovy and I met when I was faking being some kind of student at a university. (I am a miserable student, terribly slow learner and have no business ever trying to pass as intelligent...)

Mr. Anchovy and I have been friends for a long long time. Now...a lot of people have this idea I am a hardass. I put my foot in my mouth, I say what I think. I do...its a curse. I've even upset people occassionally...

...but my beloved MisterAanchovy (who btw...introduced me to my husband Stagg) makes me look like a pussycat.

You do not want to be on the wrong side of any ethical debate or philosophical encounter with Mister Anchovy...I learned what little skills I have from him oh sensa...and here is an excellent example of why i love Mister anchovy so much....he has become a dog owner and is coming up against all the mysterious Toronto politics of dogs, school kids, neighbours, big money and zoning...check out this blog post...it's poetry...

:0

...go get em Mister Anchovy!

Whoosh....

Holy crap...it's been a weird busy few days. I landed up working a LOT covering some double shifts while my boss was out of town. We went to see our friends in the band The Hamburglers open up for Japanese band Peelander-Z at the fabulous Reggie's Rock Joint. Some of you may recall we saw Gallows at Reggie's and it's one of our favourite venues with fun pub food, great music, a record store too! Other bands playing with The Hamburglers were oh shit...I forgot their names...I have to wait till Stagg gets home and I'll add them here in an hour or so...














Hanging with one of Stagg's long time friends...