Plenty of Nothing

Good Things and Bad Things of 2007

Good things:

In May we attend a Scott McCloud lecture in Toronto.

In June Douglas and Anne Fizzard exhibit at the MoCCA art fest in Manhattan.  Simultaneously Heather starts to publish photo-comics as part of an internal communications campaign inside an email-addicted corporation.

Engineering feats in Hampton Park as an overpass is hydraulically replaced in one day in August.

In September Douglas starts drawing class at the Ottawa School of Art, and begins cartooning.  Heather takes a spinning class.

Bad things:

Winter doesn't start till mid-January.

In August our trip to TCAF in Toronto is waylaid by kidney stones.  Sixteen hours in emergency.

In October, Heather spends her vacation cleaning and sorting at her mother's.

We see Jethro Tull in November.  Dude, hire a singer.

Cathy Deirdre Zinck Comics "Mojo"

A Couple Hours Well Used: Snap Judgements

Yesterday I pitched the housework and went to the Gallery to see Snap Judgements: New Positions in Contemporary African Photography. It's in the city until Jan 6th and I'll probably find a way to go back for a second look since so many of the photographs have stuck in my mind. 

I'm usually  very careless when I look at a still life but this time I've come away from the exhibit with strong memories of the careful composition of Moshewka Langa's images.  I haven't found an online version of my favourite (three stacked chairs with bottles) but you can see some of the show's images here, a review of the New York mounting of the show here, and an interview with its curator here. 

Heather

Cathy Deirdre Zinck Comics "ID #5"

Reading the Year: 2007

Though I haven't been reading as much as I usually do, my year end count is about where it always ends up--not quite a hundred. Sometimes this number appalls me until I remember that I'm no longer in grad school. This year, though, a couple of new patterns are emerging.

Mystery novels are losing out to graphic novels and fantasy/science fiction. I'm finding Terry Prachett's silliness more engaging than a stack of the mysteries; watching Pratchett spend 200 pages building up to a bad pun has become more satisfying than the unfolding of another puzzle with violence. Literary fiction is starting to lose ground to non-fiction: a mix of books for work, books about Canadian commies, and books about health issues. For a month or so this fall, I'd bring stacks of novels home from the library, read the first 20 pages, and decide I couldn't bear to read the rest of it. (You'd be amazed at how many novels deal with memory problems and dementia. They just seemed to pop right into my hand.)

Odd to think that out all the books I enjoyed this year there are only a couple that will lead to more reading in the new year: Martha Gelhorne's The Stricken Field and Michael Frayn's Toward the End of the Morning.

I'm dithering about defining reading resolutions for 2008--I see them in other blogs and they look very shiny, very attractive. My "should read serious stuff" side wants the shiny resolutions but my "just have fun wandering about" side will probably win out in the end.

Heather

Cathy Deirdre Zinck Comics "ID #4"

Angela James

Damien Cox has a column in today's Toronto Star about the IIHF's hall of fame induction of Angela James, Geraldine Heaney and Cammi Granato, in which he points out that the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto has done nothing comparable to honour female hockey players.  Poster girl for how women's hockey is not promoted would have to be Angela James, who captained the National Team for years until she was axed from the team on the eve of the first women's Olympic championship.  By my count she has five hockey cards, four fewer than journeyman Lance Pitlick.  Commendably, In The Game Cards has done a couple of women's national team card sets lately, and included oldtimers Manon Rheaume and Stacey Wilson, but no Angela James.  It ain't right.  The captains of the national team all belong in the HHOF, starting with Angela James.

Cathy Deirdre Zinck Comics "ID #3"

Argosy Cartoonist Heather Meek

Kate Beaton has put me on to a couple of former Argosy cartoonists, one of whom lives in or around Ottawa if the internet is anything to go by.  Heather Meek took Fine Arts at Mount Allison from 1999 to 2003, and has since done a MFA at U of Windsor.  Some of her comics are here, including "Black Creek Pioneer Village" from which I have swiped the adjacent panel.  Her website is here.  Douglas

Ten Top Tips for Dealing with Too Much Snow

1. Smuggle on to neighbour's lot.
2. Each morning bring in a tub's worth and let it melt in bathtub. Added benefit: Extra indoor humidity.
3. Set up slushie stand. Use profits to buy plywood.
4. Exploit geometrical efficiency: buy some plywood, build a squarish, portable form and pack it wide, high, and even.
5. Alternately, build a ziggurat.
6. Liberate some rink boards and build a backyard snow maze.
7. Fill in all sidewalk and driveway paths and build plank and rope walkways up and over.
8. Turn shed upside down and fill with snow.
9. Bag it up in green garbage bags and put out with the regular garbage.
10. Put it in the dryer.