It's been a long time since the last post. Let me assuage your concerns and say that, yes indeed, a lot has happened.

Events in Brief

I spent some number of days in Vancouver pressure washing (thank you Ben), sanding, and painting my mother's garage and deck. Try and imagine me seated in a white plastic deck chair, pressure washer in my left hand, beer in my right, sun glasses donned, and a great big smile on my face. I also had a few long bouts with the ivy on my mother's front porch. Happy, happy, joy,........joy?

This almost week was followed by a visit to Swan River Manitoba for my grandmother's funeral. No need for a summary here.

Of the last two weeks, the most important event (by far) was Kitty's birthday. Let's all wish her a Happy Birthday (yay!).

There was supposed to be daily entries while I was enjoying the great north (Swan River is rather a bit to the north of the border), however my power supply conked out on day one. Kudos to Apple for sending me a brand new one two days after my return.

This next part is the entry that did get (partially) written:

August 4th, 12:08 am

Long, long day. I feel as though all my ligaments, tendons, and muscles have been slowly stretched. Got up at six to catch a plane to Regina at nine, only an hour earlier than I got up yesterday. That was to finish off the painting of my mother’s garage. Today was to make the trip to Swan River (Manitoba) for my Grandmother’s funeral.

The plane ride gave me a nice opportunity for reading. I made some further progress into “Film Theory”; I’m now on chapter four. I didn’t transcribe any quotes, nor did I record my thoughts while reading, so I’m afraid the account will be slightly less than enthralling, but here she is.

In a chapter called “The Establishment of Physical Existence”, Kracauer focuses on the elements of film that make it cinematic. For Kracauer, cinema is art, and a film is not necessarily cinema. I’ll save his outline of this distinction for later (when I have properly understood it), but I will start by sharing some tidbits of it.

Movement, movement, movement, who would have thought. His discussion of different types of movement is interesting. It begins with three types of movement that “can be considered cinematic subjects par excellence”: the chase, dancing, and nascent motion. A nice quote from Hitchcock appears at the beginning of the discussion of the chase, “ The chase seems to me the final expression of the motion picture medium.”

That entry ended after the Hitchcock quote, I will pick it up tomorrow after I've done some more reading and it's fresh in my head.

I must send kudos to the Economist for their cover story on Silvio Berlusconi (Italy's PM) this week and for their open letter to him. It's about time somebody in the mainstream press took him task for his democratic ways. Mr. Burlesquesconi seems about ready to get himself elected for life, he must be stopped.

Why I'm not Catholic, August 12th, 2003
The Vatican has recently taken a stand and proclaimed that any support of same-sex unions is "gravely immoral", and that, "there are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even analogous to God's plan for marriage and family. Marriage is holy, while homosexual acts go against the natural moral law....Legal recognition of homosexual unions or placing them on the same level as marriage would mean not only the approval of DEVIANT (emphasis added) behaviour...but would also obscure basic values which belong to the common inheritance of hummanity." Additionaly, people extending cohabitation rights "need to be reminded that the approval or legalisation of EVIL (emphaisis added) is something far different from the toleration of evil." Also, gay couples who adopt children have been described as "doing violence". (Source: Guardian Weekly)
If only the Pope could stick to waving at pilgrims and visiting sick children.

Good night. I hope all is well.