Medium format

Today, after a thorough art history lecture, I went over to Elpro Photo on Elm street (a street really close to Ryerson) and picked up a roll of 120 film I had dropped off on Friday. Preeetty exciting. I never use film anymore mostly because I have gotten used to that instant gratification from digital, and with school projects and deadlines digital is just more practical. But I've noticed that digital prints have this weird hyper-clarity to them that I don't always like, and I miss the grainy, dreamy quality that one can only achieve through using film and a cheaply made medium format camera. So here's a print of Data, the rest I'll put on flickr, and cheers to film.

Suuunnndaaay...

No power outages at work today. No fires, floods, earthquakes, Godzillas, or other natural disasters either. Maybe exciting things will happen tomorrow. I will be picking up a roll of developed film tomorrow after class, so perhaps there will be photos to share with you. Whoever you are. For now, I have "What a feeling" from Flashdance stuck in my head.

The darkness

"Why is the title of this post so emo, Claudia?" I will tell you, invisible person who only exists in my head. Yesterday, a big chunk of downtown Toronto lost its power at about 11:30 am. According to Toronto Hydro Services it was due to a burst water mane. My place of work was lucky enough to be affected by this event, but me and my fellow employees were not allowed to actually leave work, incase the power came back on (I work at a movie theatre, and the idea of ever being closed is a travesty to the company's head office, who, by the way, get about 2 months off a year). So, we hung around, talking and fooling about, taking turns telling the confused customers to essentially fuck off, but in a nicer way. It's shocking how incredibly stupid some people are. We'd say, "I'm sorry, but we're closed for the time being because the power is out. We don't know how long it will be out, so you should probably go home," to which they'd reply "So I can't even see Avatar? Can I at least get a diet Coke?" No my friend, both those things would require a magical thing called ELECTRICITY. Hard to understand, I know, but you'll wrap your precious little head around it soon enough.

2:45 pm rolls around, and suddenly all light and power is restored. Everybody reluctantly rushes around trying to get things ready for the eager movie goers. Being the projectionist, my job is to go upstairs to the projection booth to thread the prints and start the movies. The booth is already a slightly scary place; a giant room full of big, loud machines that make strange sounds at random times, and a catwalk above your head also emitting sudden sounds and freaky shadows lurking about. I never thought about how blood-curdlingly frightening the booth would be when completely silent and pitch black. But no worries, I had the benefit of finding out. While threading the first projector, apparently the power said, "umm, no thank-you" and went out once again. Excuse the lame cliche, but it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. But you wouldn't be able to see it. You also wouldn't be able to see the Projectionist Killer (a serial killer invented by the mind of Claudia while in a state of sheer terror) coming for you while you frantically ran down the stairs, using your crappy cell phone as a flash light.

I'm guessing the power was out most of the evening, because it was still off when my shift was finished at 5 pm. My next shift is tomorrow, 4-10:30 pm, and I'm slightly nervous, I hope I didn't anger the Projectionist Killer by narrowly escaping his clutches. I hope the ghosts in the booth (the ones I blame when something inexplicably goes wrong) take care of him...

Sleepy time

sleepy time
Originally uploaded by claud-hop

I wish I was doing what Graeme is pretending to do in this photo, but in a big bed with incredibly huge and over-stuffed pillows and blankets.

Q: Are we not men?

Q: Are we not men?
Originally uploaded by claud-hop

Last night I had the insane privilege to attend the first Devo concert performed in Toronto since 1984, and it rocked the socks right off my feet. My shoes too. It would have been weird if only my socks came off... Even though the Phoenix was completely oversold (I was wedged between a really drunk guy and a really fat guy, and the tallest man known to earth was standing in front of me) I still had an amazing time. Thanks to Graeme who bought the tickets!

P.S. The guy who opened for Devo, JP Incorporated, was hilarious! You should google him. Or click on the hyperlink.

Epidemic

Everybody is sick. My dad has had some kind of flu for the past few days, now his wife has it, my mom got a kidney infection today and her boyfriend woke up this morning with a fever of 102. Since my mom and Luigi were mostly bed-ridden, and it was such a gorgeous day out (a whole 13 degrees celsius. That's hot here in November), Graeme and I took the dogs out for a walk. Hmm... not much else to report. I'm feeling quite lazy.

Ziggy between our shadows.

I know that she's blurry, but I like it.

Graeme and Brody playing together.

The bridge on the way home.

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat...

Let's not even talk about my failed promises for this blog, okay?

Now that November has arrived, it is time to make gifts for the holidays. And since it is already November 3rd, I am a whole two days behind schedule, because as soon as those pumpkins get thrown into the compost by their respectable owners, or smashed by some totally badass kids, Christmas is shoved down everyone's throat with commercials of Santa, snowmen and douglas firs, all lined up and dancing like the Rockettes. I guess I don't really mind, the holiday season does have a somewhat cozy feeling to it, dancing trees and all. So anyways, I am starting my gift crafting by completing this giant granny square blanket I began making months ago, and then forgot about (what a surprise, I, Claudia, began something and neglected it. How unlike me). I worked on it for about two hours tonight, and didn't seem to get very far because it takes about 20 minutes for me just to complete one side at this point.

Christmas gift #1,

about half way to completion.

The blanket will be for Graeme's youngest niece Emma, who is about 7 months old, this will be her first Christmas.