Summertime

... and the living is busy.

It's high time for another late-summer shutdown. Much like what happened about this time last year, my interests just don't seem to be tuned into this site (my little SiteMeter dealie, and your lack of comments ... yeah, you ... suggest the same). August brings with it much to be done, had and enjoyed – primarily away from this computer-machine. So unless some freak streak of imagination strikes me, expect a return in just over a month's time.

Chances are a few photos will pop up o'er on Flickr, so don't give up on that front. I may also post from the vault for any relevant Photo Friday themes. But otherwise, relax. Stay cool like the Fonz.

120: Photomiscellanea V

Top row (left to right): Kerry by firelight in Spruce Woods Provincial Park; the concession is a little quiet at the drive-in. Middle row (left to right): boots on wires at sunset (at Wolseley & Raglan); columbine in our front yard. Bottom row (left to right): awaiting The Simpsons Movie at the drive-in; Kerry readies a marshmallow for a deluxe s'more.

The "new photos" folder on our desktop has been piling up all summer, recently ignored as a pair of heat waves made the attic swelteringly unattractive. But a reprieve from the humidity tonight has given me the chance to conduct a search and show some of what I've been up to over the past few weeks.

With the exception of the columbine image, these have not made it over to Flickr in their higher-resolution glory yet ... but soon. First I gotta tend to my HOWieZine submission, which is lagging just a tad.

Giving An Inch

While I take some time off to craft a new HOWieZine submission (theme: robots ... yes!), here's a grab from the vault to represent me for Photo Friday's current theme of vacation. If there's one thing I have, it's pictures that represent this theme. I adore vacations. And this is a snapshot, plain and simple, from a grand vacation Kerry and I had in Ireland in 2003. It was taken on bulk ISO 200 film with a point-and-shoot Pentax at Inch Strand in County Kerry, during a tour of the Dingle Peninsula. We had what could quite possibly be Ireland's first and last cloudless day, start to finish. It was in my favourite month of September, and I was dripping sick with a head cold, nicely sedated by European meds (soon she would be, too). An absolutely fine vacation day.

119: Hippo!

I haven't drawn in a little while. I needed some hippos in my life. So it seemed a touch like destiny when Illustration Friday upped and decided their theme-of-the-week would be discovery. That's a theme as vague and wide-ranging as it comes. Destiny also came in the form of a rare summer weekend spent largely kicking back and otherwise staying around the house. Plenty of time to draw, which hasn't been the case of late.

The above is a fairly straightforward interpretation of 'discovery' – and I'm not ashamed of that in the least. Anyone can be faulted at least once in their life for wanting to draw a hippopotamus. I'd never tried it myself, and this sketch almost got through with the beastie having quite humanoid feet before I realized that probably isn't the case with real live hippos. I added stitches late in the game in case anyone accused my hippo skillz of not representing – so I could retort with an oh yeah? well it's a toy hippo and a toy hippos can look however they want. That sort of deal.

If you want to see a better look at some of the pen detail in this illustration, check the larger version on my Flickr site here (click on 'all sizes' to magnify).

118: All The World's A Stage

Clockwise from top left: Jason Collett makes Kerry swoon; Amy Millan, a voice that melts butter; gruff-looking Millan bandmate; Mark Sasso of Elliott Brood gets primal on the banjo.

Last weekend I attended my 14th Winnipeg Folk Festival. My time spent on the festival grounds varies between the full four days or as little as one day, as was the case this year. My first festival took place a week or so after my high school graduation. I've experienced the festival campground as a teenager (and the booze that invariably comes with it), the mud-inducing downpours and standout performances ranging from Leslie Feist, Xavier Rudd, Neko Case and The Weakerthans to the Buena Vista Social Club, Billy Bragg and Sir Bob Geldof.

Of the 14 years, the 2007 lineup was the least familiar to me, but the performers I was keen on managed to all be on stage during the Saturday – so I focused on that (perhaps a poor decision; word has it Friday night kicked some butt). I brought my camera and zoom along this year to stay occupied capturing concert footage at the daytime stages, since the recent festival norm seems to be stifling hot days rendering me stir-crazy from heat. It's only a year – minus a week – until the next one.

A few more shots from last Saturday can be viewed in this Flickr set (including a couple of an Imperial Storm Trooper ... no foolin').

117: Take Off (To The Great White North)

Top row (left to right): Kerry, stylin' as Indiana Jones; Duncan catches some late-day weeds; full moon over Lake Athapapuskow on Friday night. Middle row (left to right): the maw of a killer northern pike; the maw of a not-so-killer Anna. Bottom row (left to right): polyphemus moth rescued from the lake; foggy Monday morning just before we left.

Kerry and I joined her sister's family for an extra-long Canada Day weekend of camping at Baker's Narrows Provincial Park near Flin Flon. We purchased a tent, three years ago, but sadly its use had been limited to an initial setup inside our gigantic old apartment and lending it out to a friend once. So it was high time to put it to the test. We picked up some sleeping bags, an air mattress and a cooler a week previous, and our half of the provisions the day before ­ including cinnamon buns from Tallgrass and tasty-fresh other buns from Deluca's.

To get to Baker's Narrows is a 719-kilometre drive. There are pros (and a few cons) to such a long trip to go camping. While I enjoy the ability to drive about an hour to experience relatively unspoiled nature, there's a palpable difference between what is nearby and the rugged vastness of the real north country. This I loved. I also admired the unexpectedness of twilight extending almost to midnight, the traffic jams of loons and mergansers on the lake and the scent that comes from firesmoke-drenched clothing. I took exception to my first sleepless night of ear-buzzing mosquitoes inside the tent (this got rectified though, right quick) and the mind-numbingly empty road home through the Interlake. But the fact that, after living in Manitoba for 25 years, I finally caught a glimpse above the 53rd parallel made the trip absolutely worthwhile.

Baker's Narrows is on the shores of Lake Athapapuskow (say it like you spell it), the epitome of the Great Northern Lake. Unlike many of Manitoba's provincial campgrounds, conscious effort has been put into retaining as much nature around the sites as possible ­ – and because it is out of reach for most weekend urban hooligans, the place quieted down come nightfall even on the long weekend. Any urban hooliganry was reserved solely for Monday night's White Stripes concert, a far cry – mebbe the farthest cry humanly possible – from the quiet and foggy morning we experienced packing up to leave the lake.

Stay tuned to my Flickr site for new photo uploads from the weekend, including better looks at the ones in the grid above.

116: Zoo(m)

Top left: the wary eye of an American flamingo. Top right: it's not what you think (aka the backside of a vulturine guineafowl). Bottom left: a roseate spoonbill gives the stink-eye. Bottom right: nobody knows the trouble this lemur has seen.

Our country's 140th birthday is upon us – and while Kerry and I celebrate by camping under the stars in the True North, I present to you this quartet of recent zoo images from my continued feeling-out of the new zoom lens. The zoo continues to be the perfect spot to shoot, for now, though I've tried my hand so far at capturing some slightly more, uh, wild animals both at work and at the lake. It'll be with me this weekend in case we see any bears, moose, beavers or hosers – but regrettably, the Rebel-with-zoom will be too large for carting into Monday night's White Stripes show. Have a great Canada Day, all!

Click here for a closer look at the flamingo.

Click here for a closer look at the guineafowl (and here to see it's face).

Click here for a closer look at the spoonbill, my submission for PhotoFortnight's theme of "red".

And click here for a better look at the weary lemur.

Escape From Winnipeg: The Soundtrack

The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do. You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention. Then you got to take it up a notch, but you don't wanna blow your wad, so then you got to cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules.

– Rob (John Cusack), High Fidelity

I remember this quote each time it comes to making my annual summer road trip CD. What began as a simple challenge between Kerry and I in 2004 has become a springtime ritual: a chance to string together a soundtrack for the all-too-brief season of weekend getaways.

But what road trip aficionados may find odd, is that only a few of the songs on the new disc touch on the ideas of travel, being on the road or even movement. But for me, content doesn't even matter ­ – it's all in the rhythm. What's more, these summer discs are never modeled for urban cruising. Instead, they're built for a very specific purpose: escape from the city. That's why this disc in particular was laid out as it is, starting off gruff and loud, eventually winding its way to a cruise-controlled series of softer, stress-free tracks (and the last one is bonus, kind of a just-when-you-thought-it-was-done sorta thing).

I've noticed already that my interest has faded in the CDs I made only a couple of years ago. Tastes change, and that's healthy. And because I was, and still am, a late bloomer to most music scenes, I should probably continue to expect this as I feel out new music as it now pours in ­ because as Jemina Pearl Abegg squeals in "Adventure": it's all cool kiddo, 'cuz we're like, adventurers.

The 2007 lineup

I'm Shipping Up To Boston - Dropkick Murphys, The Warrior's Code
Manifest - The Weakerthans, Reconstruction Site
*Adventure - Be Your Own Pet, Adventure
Wolfgang - Elliott Brood, Ambassador
American Pageant - The Sadies, In Concert Vol. 1
Outsiders - Franz Ferdinand, You Could Have It So Much Better
(Antichrist Television Blues) - Arcade Fire, Neon Bible
When Company Comes - The Feelies, The Good Earth
Cold Black Devil/14 Miles - Jackie Greene, American Myth
Corona - Calexico, Convict Pool
*Be Gentle With Me - The Boy Least Likely To, The Best Party Ever
*Snakes In The Grass - The Essex Green, Cannibal Sea
Monster Ballads - Josh Ritter, The Animal Years
We All Lose One Another - Jason Collett, Idols Of Exile
*When U Love Somebody - Fruit Bats, Mouthfuls
Coconut Skins - Damien Rice, 9
Trans Am - Nathan, Key Principles
*Baby I - Amy Millan, Honey From The Tombs
*Born Secular - Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins, Rabbit Fur Coat
Sugar Baby Love - The Rubettes, K-Tel's I Love Pop Music

* These tracks, either directly or indirectly, came to me courtesy of fellow Winnipegger Chris Pointon's awesome (but only occasionally updated) Pop 77 podcast mixes.

Swing High

A shot of Kerry on the swings is almost an annual ritual for me. This vision, on the swing set at Half Moon Beach in Matlock, Manitoba, was taken in the summer of 2003 using my hand-me-down Minolta and slide film – and is my submission for Photo Friday's current theme of active (a similar 2006 swinging photo was used for Photofortnight's theme of transport, seen here). The original photo contained a strip of Lake Winnipeg horizon just below the bottom of the crop shown here, but was removed to heighten the illusion of ... well, height. A closer look at the detail can be had right over here.

115: The Blue Suited Booby

Every girl's crazy for a sharp-dressed man ­ – so I hear, constantly, on the classic rock station shooting out of each Camaro here in town.

But there's substance to the argument; in the bird world, appearance is practically everything. While it can be said that approximately two out of every three ZZ Top band members are intensely bearded, the ratio of male bird species that rely on colourful, attractive or otherwise distinctive plumage to lure potential mates is much higher. Boiled down: the suit makes the man.

Some species that live in massive colonies made of birds appearing precisely the same ­ – like the blue-footed booby ­ – require other means to identify individuality. Brilliance of the feet is an asset, but the male also makes use of an elaborate courtship dance to attract attention.

Nonetheless, my submission for this week's Illustration Friday theme of suit suggests ­ – as ZZ Top will tell you ­ – that in the mating game, a nice suit goes a long way in seperating contenders from pretenders.