Gothic Medieval Bookbinding Project

I was rummaging around in my files, looking for pictures I can post on my deviantART page (go, look, I added more stuff today). Anyway, I found the essay I wrote for Intermediate Book Arts last fall, and though it would be fun to post it here, diagrams and all. I'll forgive you non book-geeks if you don't want to read it all . . .



Gothic Medieval Bookbinding Project

The prospect of choosing a book arts final project was at first daunting. With so many possibilities, all of which I want to learn about, how could I choose just one? In the end, I decided on a time period that we hadn’t learned much about in class, but which was an important one for the development of book structure: the medieval period.

Even that decision didn’t narrow the possibilities that much, but realizing that I would not be able to acquire any parchment for an accurate reproduction of an early medieval book, I settled on Gothic bookbinding, when paper would have been more and more common in book production.

Paper

Paper was eventually the dominant material for textblocks in Gothic bindings, but was originally thought to be weaker than parchment. Paper was therefore often combined with parchment in a variety of ways, such as the addition of an inner or outer parchment bifolium to each paper section or to the end sections, or a narrow parchment guard to the inner fold of each section (Szirmai 176, Shailor 11-12).

Because of the expense of parchment (and also because I would have had to order it well ahead of time), I chose to use paper for this project. I found a very nice Italian mould-made paper made of cotton with wool fibres. It is quite a thick paper, and thus perhaps not ideal for a tight-backed Gothic binding, but I liked the feel of it.

There are a wide variety of possible endleaves for a Gothic binding – Szirmai provides diagrams of 19 – most of which combine paper and parchment. As mentioned, I did not have access to parchment, and so I stuck with the same paper as the bookblock. The style of endpaper I used is one not illustrated in the Gothic bindings chapter of Szirmai's book (it is, however, shown in the Romanesque chapter, page 147), but which J. Landry mentioned as fairly common in English medieval bindings (pers comm.). It consists of a single bifolium with the outermost leaf cut of short to serve as a waste leaf. Both the stub of the waste leaf and the second leaf would be pasted to the board.

Sewing

The holes for sewing a Gothic book could be either pierced or cut (Szirmai 176) – I chose to pierce them using a template to make sure I had them spaced and lined up properly.

According the J.A. Szirmai, Gothic books could have anywhere from two to nine sewing supports, with three to six being the most common (180). Because my book is small, I decided on three supports plus a kettlestitch at each end. The three supports are evenly spaced, as the optical illusion that necessitates a larger space between the bottom two supports on a raised-cord binding was either unknown, ignored, or of no concern at the time. Even as late as the 16th century it was common for books to be placed flat on a horizontal shelf, and when they were shelved vertically, it was as often as not with the fore-edge out (Petroski, 118-9).

The most common sewing supports on Gothic bindings were double cords and split thongs (Szirmai 183, Shailor 56), and since I wanted raised cords showing on the spine, I went with double cords and chose linen over hemp for strength. I sewed with a straight stitch rather than herringbone, because I wanted to pack the sewing which would help stabilize the rounded shape of the spine and create wider opening arch when the book is opened (Szirmai 272). I did the packing of the sewing after the bookblock was sewn and chose to pack each cord separately rather than doing each pair of cords together. It is possible to create a decorative effect by emphasizing the separate cords in this way (Landry, pers comm.).

The thread I used was 12/3, fairly thick to compensate for the relative softness of the paper and the thick sections.

Endbands

I had originally approached this project wanting to investigate endbands that were sewn at the same time as the sections were sewn. I had read about this in a number of bookbinding books (for examples see Burdett 143 and Johnson 85) but had been unable to find out how they were done or to find any examples. As I researched endbands, I did eventually find diagrams of integral endbands (Cockerell 110, Young 112). Szirmai describes a number of examples of this type of endband, but mentions that it was almost unknown on earlier medieval bindings (203). Integral endbands became more common on Gothic bindings (but still only account for 4.3% of the Gothic endbands Szirmai studied), indicating that they are a later innovation and not the original method of making endbands, as many writers would have it. Landry's experience with English bindings also indicated that integral endbands are the exception, and may have come from very few (or even just one) workshops (Email).

Although I am still curious about integral endbands and the origin of the misconception about their antiquity, I finally chose to use primary wound endbands with a back bead – Szirmai's Type II (206) – sewn with the same thread as the rest of the book. The endbands were tied down through the centre of each section.


Boards

The most common woods for the boards of medieval books are oak and beech, with oak being almost the only wood used in England (Szirmai 217). The boards were usually quartersawn, partly because that was the usual way of making planks for a long time, and also because quartersawn wood is less likely to warp, which is an important consideration for book covers (Landry, pers comm.).

To make the book boards, I used oak and cut it with a Japanese saw to almost the final size, then planed down the edges. Szirmai illustrates sixteen different ways to shape the outer edges of Gothic book boards (219). I chose to gradually round, or cushion, the outer edges – the rounding at the spine provides for a smooth path for the cords to travel, and the gradual rounding feels nice in the hand on the other three edges. The inner spine edge of the board is more strongly rounded to help force the spine of the book into a rounded and somewhat backed shape (Landry, pers comm.), and the other three edges are beveled.



There are a number of ways of lacing the cords into the boards (Szirmai shows several on page 223). I used one of the more common ones, with the double cords of the sewing supports laced in from the outside and back out from the inside, and the single cords of the endbands simply laced in from the outside. A channel for the cords is cut from the spine edge to the first hole on the outside, and between the two holes on the inside of the boards.



Once the cords are pasted and laced into the boards, they are pegged in with dowelling (Shailor 57) while the cover is at a 45º angle to the bookblock. Then the dowels and cords are cut off flush with the boards and the covers are forced closed which creates the rounded and backed shape of the spine (Landry, pers comm.). Szirmai has presented evidence that at least some workshops used a hammer to round and back books (194), but I decided to follow the my teacher's experience and besides, I had backed with a hammer before, but had not yet tried backing by forcing the spine into shape with the boards.



Once the boards were on and closed, the book was measured for making a template from which to cut the leather, and then put in a finishing press to keep it closed while the leather was prepared.

Covering

Leather was the most common covering material in medieval bindings, with vegetable-tanned calf and alum-tawed pigskin becoming more prevalent on Gothic books (Szirmai 225). Since I hadn't had a chance to work with it before, except as sewing supports on a sewing sample book, I originally chose to use alum-tawed pigskin. It became apparent, however, that the leather I had chosen was not going to work.

Because the book has laced-in endbands, the leather needed to be cut to have more-or-less V-shaped cutouts on the top and bottom edges. The resulting central tab would fold over to create the headcaps and the area at the point of the V would be molded around the endband cords and board edges. I wanted to leave most of the wood exposed.

This kind of leather was stiffer than the vegetable-tanned leathers I had used before, and has a tendency to chip. Even with very sharp knives, I found paring the alum-tawed pigskin very difficult. In fact, after pasting and applying the leather to the spine, it was still quite stiff. Even after removing the leather, paring it some more and re-pasting, it was still quite difficult to get it to adhere to the spine and boards. PVA on the turn-ins helped it stay, but after a night in the press the covering was still too stiff to open the book properly.



It was apparent that the alum-tawed pigskin would have to be removed and another leather chosen. I moistened the leather and carefully peeled it off, then scraped off some PVA that had remained stuck to the boards. For my second try, I used calfskin, which we dyed brown. It was much easier to pare and mould around the endbands than the alum-tawed leather.

Once the leather covering was on, the book was placed back in the finishing press and tied up with string on each side of the raised bands as well as on each side of the kettlestitches. This was to help shape the bands as band nippers were unknown in medieval times (Landry, pers comm.). Tying up would also help adhere the leather to the spine.

The final step in making this Gothic medieval style book was to paste down the endpapers.

References

Burdett, Eric. The Craft of Bookbinding: A Practical Handbook. 1975. London: David & Charles, 1978.

Cockerell, Douglas. Bookbinding, and The Care of Books: A Text-Book for Book-Binders and Librarians. (1953). Revised edition. London: Sir Isaac Pitman, 1962.

Johnson, Arthur W. The Practical Guide to Craft Bookbinding. 1985. London: Thames and Hudson, 1990.

Landry, J. Personal communication, November and December, 2006.

-----. Email. November 30, 2006.

Petroski, Henry. The Book on the Book Shelf. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999.

Shailor, Barbara A. The Medieval Book, Illustrated from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press, 1991. Rpt of The Medieval Book: Catalogue of an Exhibition at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University. New Haven: The Library, 1988.

Szirmai, J.A. The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 1999.

Young, Laura S. Bookbinding & Conservation by Hand: A Working Guide. New York and London: R.R. Bowker Company, 1981.

deviantART

I added a link to my deviantART page in the sidebar. If you read this blog regularly, you'll have seen most of the things there (though I can think of at least one thing I put there that hasn't appeared here, plus I'll be adding more both old and new). It's all part of my plan to finally start getting some of my work out where people can see it, even if I'm not as good an artist yet as I'd like to be.

Little Journals

Rowena commented in an earlier post that I have a lot of energy. I don't really, except for bookbinding. Making books seems to energize me, so I'm trying to keep making lots of quick little projects so I can use some of that energy for other things, like work and school.

Anyway, on the previously-mentioned bookbinding blog My Handbound Books, I found a link to Carmencho Arregui's website, where there are instuctions for the Arregui-invented Crossed-Structure Binding (CSB) (of which there are multiple verisons). Of course, I had to try these. I did three sewing variations of the CSB Basic, using some book pages I had cut and folded eons ago (several years, believe it or not). I'd folded the pages way back before I knew anything about paper grain direction, so the grain actually runs the wrong way on the pages. Since you don't need much, if any, adhesive for this binding structure, I figured it wouldn't matter too much, especially since it's just an experiment. Anyway, I'm not unhappy with the results.


Even though it was my favourite colour, I think the dark green one is the least successful. I didn't have anything on hand that I wanted to use as a fancy closure, but I might add something later on (I'm wondering what I did with those sea-creature shaped charms I bought a couple of years ago).


Even from the back, the blue one's my favourite. I remembered, when stitching the brown one, how much of a pain in the butt sewing leather is. Especially when you don't have the right needle. Also, next time I think I'll glue the straps in place first, then sew, to make sure they stay where they're supposed to be.


So I think it was a reasonably successful experiment--and a good way to use up the various leathers and suedes I've collected that can't be used in "proper" leather bookbindings. I'll definitely be revisiting this structure again, though first I think I'll try some of the small projects in the two bookbinding books I was given for christmas. Or was it my birthday? At some point, I'm going to work on some more elaborate medieval books, but I'll need to buy more supplies first.

Mail Day

Well, yesterday was a good mail day (except for the credit card bill). Today is still too new to tell.

There were two packages from the US via FedEx and one from the UK via regular slow mail. They contained:

• Preview material for Jackass: The Game. I am to write a preview. I strongly suspect I am really, really not the target audience for this game, but I shall do my best to write a fair preview.
  
• Review material for Dead Head Fred. This is the retail version of the game, which I will review in-depth. I already did a preview and enjoyed it very much. I think it appealed to the mad scientist side of me.
  
• All four volumes of the 1975 run of The Book Collector, which I bought primarily for the Spring issue, as it has a fabulous article by Graham Pollard on Anglo-Saxon bookbinding structures. Plus they were listed on ABE at around the same price as some sellers listed single issues.
  

So, all-in-all, a very good mail day (except that bill).

Cats!

Wait, three posts in one day?! Indeed. I found these photos on my digital camera when I was loading the little book ones for the last post, and I had to share them. You'd think the cats were content or something.


Bast really likes warm, fresh laundry.


Poe's not really that fat, but he's big and tends to spread out sideways when he lays down.

T-Shirt

I really, really want a t-shirt that says "Will Work for Books." I might just have to find some way to make one.

Back to School

Yes, back to school week is here again. So, am I spending my Labour Day running around finding pens and pencils and paper and the appropriate art supplies? Of course not.

Today, I'm blogging. I did a couple of short news posts for work. I blogged a game review (Pirates: Legend of the Black Buccaneer, the game so obviously not a rip-off that they had to put a disclaimer on the box.) (But I liked it, actually.) for my Gamer Advisory Panel blog, which is so neglected that they don't send me demo disks anymore. Pout. And I am blogging here.

Later, I'll work on finishing a couple of small book projects. And I'll get in some video gaming. I'm working on the first Untold Legends for PSP right now. It's an RPG, and my character is an alchemist. Oh, and perhaps later I and the roommates will watch Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, since Doctor Who appears to have been booted off today's schedule in favour of a football game. (Really, a football game!) (Football!)

The other day I found a bookbinding blog done by someone in Nova Scotia: My Handbound Books. I should probably drop her a line. Anyway, on said blog I found some interesting projects. One was a simple little book using origami waterlilies as the book block (aka pages). So of course, I made one.



I had to add some text, though--old haikus about water written in pencil crayon on the inside of each lily.



Yes, it's pink. I wanted to use colours I don't like for the first try, in case something went wrong. I might make some more of these. They could be nice stocking stuffers, or even holiday tree decorations. Hmmm . . .

As for the rest of the week, I don't actually have class until Friday. Class officially starts Thursday, but that's my off day. I work 9-12 Tues, Weds and Fri (usually Mon, also, but today's a holiday). I'm hoping to switch this to 9:30 to 12:30, since I don't need a whole hour for lunch, and that extra half hour in the morning makes a big difference. Tuesday after work I'll take in my student loan papers (I meant to do that Friday, but I forgot to take a voided cheque) and get my U-pass (yay, we have U-pass this year; no need to buy bus passes every month).

So yeah. Work three days, a few errands, and then Intermediate Lithography on Friday. Bob will no doubt leap right into the lectures and demos. Printmaking classes seem to be much more intense than just about anything else I've taken.

In between classes and work, I'll be making books. I'm waiting for some paper to come in now for one of the big book projects I'm working on. Then it'll be ready to actually bind. At some point I'll need leather for the cover. The other big project still needs some intaglio printing done, but now that they have the paper in at the student store, I can do that any time. I plan on finishing it in the second week of class, before the printmaking studios get too busy. Then I can start binding that one. But I need to find some wood, and someone who can take one 1/2 inch board and make it into two 1/4 inch (approximately) boards. I'm hoping to find someone in one of my classes who took Wood and Metal and is thus allowed to use the wood shop, which I am not. I will bribe them with candy. Or a handbound blank journal.

Counting Foxes

I only just now finished word processing chapter 16 of White Foxes, Full Moon (or whatever it's going to end up being called). It now stands at 47, 425 words, plus chapter 17 and the beginning of chapter 18 in longhand. Perhaps I'll get more done tomorrow. We'll see.

I also did something I meant to do ages ago and sent a nice letter and chapter one of The Coming of the Fairies (the YA novel formerly known as Taken, 1941) to a literary agent. I don't expect this particular agent is even accepting new clients, but I figured I might as well begin at the top and work my way down. Whatever transpires, I will report it here.

And in a little less than two weeks, the new school semester begins. Damn, but this summer has gone by so fast! As usual, I didn't get nearly as much done as I had hoped. I will try to get a few more small projects finished in the next couple weeks, plus working away at my print book projects and at getting my little printing press up and running (much cleaning of cast iron with steel wool shall ensue).

Here's what my school week will look like as of the second week of September:

• Monday 13:00 to 15:00 AHIS3200 History of Photography
• Tuesday & Friday 13:00 to 17:30 PRTM3106 Intermediate Lithography
• Wednesday 13:00 to 17:00 PHOT2500 Lighting Workshop

I'll have Thursdays free, and I'm hoping to add Relief Printmaking to Tuesday nights (18:00 to 22:00), but it's currently full with a long waiting list. I'll still be working at the VRC, and I hope to get my hours in Monday, Tuesday and Friday mornings (well, maybe not Tuesday if I end up getting into Relief). It leaves me Wednesday mornings for either working on About stuff at home, or continuing to help organize in the printshop. That depends on a variety of things.

For Anyone Counting

I've started working on White Foxes, Full Moon again, though I've come to the conclusion that only the first section will have that title; I'm going to need something else for the whole thing. Maybe. I have 44,043 words so far, plus a final chapter I may or may not use when I get that far, and a chapter that is so far only in longhand.

It has been really really weird, and rather distressing to have not written anything besides school things and work things for something like a year. I imagine it must be something like a musician unable to play music. But then, I'm not a musician, so I really have no idea. Anyway, it's a relief to be writing again, though I don't know how long I'll be able to keep it up. I'm actually thinking of trying to do NaNoWriMo this year, if it turns out (as it well might) that I only have 12 instead of 15 credits of classes this fall. But that remains to be seen.

Now if only I could get working on Fey again. I actually have a couple of pages drawn but not inked.

LEGO! Indy!

Your must-watch video of the week (unless you've never seen Indiana Jones or Star Wars or don't know who Harrison Ford is or even what LEGO is): Lego Indiana Jones. (Warning: you will laugh.) (Unless there's something wrong with you.)

Arr!

For all your piratey needs: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

What Have I Been Doing?

Funny how, when I theoretically have all this time to blog, I still don't get around to it very often.

So, what have I been up to . . . I already wrote about the one class I took this summer. Now that that's over, I'm working 10 or so hours a week at the Visual Resources Collection (aka the Slide Library, alias the Non-Print Collection) at school. Though it's not exactly an exciting job, the necessary tasks are varied and my co-workers are fun, so I really, really like working there.

I'm still doing my About online job, though feeling guilty for not working on it as much as I had planned over the summer. It's still fun, too, even though I haven't received any free review games lately. Exciting things are happening with a redesigned PSP model due out in September. I'm probably going to wait until October, though, and see if I can snag one of the Star Wars bundles in which the PSP is white with Darth Vader's head on the back. I'm not nearly as big a SW geek as I used to be, but Darth Vader. Of course, I'd really like one of the Japanese ones with the Final Fantasy design on, but I'm not going to pay extra to import one.

The other thing keeping me occupied is helping my book arts teacher tidy, sort and organize the Dawson Print Shop at school, one morning a week. Last week we sorted out ink and threw out a lot that was too dried up to be of use. I came home with six cans of black ink that are dried up on top, but salvageable if I dig out the dried bits. I figure probably close to half of each can is salvageable, and since one only uses small amounts of ink at a time, it should probably keep me going for a while.

And that ink will some in handy because this summer I splurged on a printing press. It's a little Kelsey Excelsior. I'm not sure of the date, but it's an oldish model. The chase is only 5x8 (inches), but any bigger and I wouldn't have been able to afford the shipping (assuming I could find one with a seller willing to ship). It's only little, so it doesn't take up a lot of room (it's currently occupying the top of a tv stand), but along with the two nipping presses, the sewing frame, board cutter and various other bookish equipment, I'm starting to think that a studio would be really, really nice. I'm working on cleaning the rust off (it's old and cast iron, so there is rust), and waiting for new rollers to arrive. Now I just need some type.

I finally got a PS3 last month. The price dropped and Future Shop had a deal where you got a free Blu-Ray movie (I got the second Pirates, since I didn't have it on DVD yet). And there's a mail-in on Blu-Ray players, including the PS3, for 5 free movies. Of course, I looked a day or two ago, and for the same price you could get a bundle with a vertical stand and a game, which would have been nice, but I'm not unhappy with what I did get. Of course, now I need a decent tv. My cheapo 13" lowest-possible-resolution just doesn't do it. I can barely make out the text on the screen (sometimes I have to guess at words from their context). A small flat-screen should do nicely . . . I still have my birthday FS gift card from Dad & Cat, which I meant to use on the PS3, but the sales guy was talking so fast and also mumbling that I had to use all my concentration to figure out what he was saying and I completely forgot about the gift card. I had thought I'd go and get the new animated Hellboy and maybe Final Fantasy I for PSP, or maybe series two of the new Doctor Who, but if I use it and the $25 off coupon I got for getting a FS credit card, and wait until August 19 at 5pm when all tvs are 10% off, and buy the less expensive brand, I think I can afford a 19" HD tv. But we'll see. The one I'm considering can also be used as a computer monitor, so I'll probably also sell my flat screen monitor when I sell my desktop Mac. Then, if I really need a big monitor, I can hook my laptop up to the tv.

Yes, well. I plan.

Beowulf!

Seen the trailer for Neil Gaiman's version of Beowulf? No? See it now . . .

More Books -- Help McSweeney's

McSweeney's needs help, so they've put all their books (and t-shirts, too) on sale. You know you need a t-shirt with squid on. Who doesn't? I do. Also, a book with a Neil Gaiman story in. Plus magazines (I have a couple issues of McSweeney's Quarterly Concern--good stories, fabulous design, and really way too thick and hardcoverish to be a mere "magazine"), lots of other books, strange stationery and more. Go, buy if you can, browse if you can't.

Oh, The Books

While looking online for a copy of Islamic Bindings and Bookmaking, which sells for absurd prices on ABE, I came across the David Brown/Oxbow Books website. Oh, so many books I would love to have in my library. They distribute for a lot of academic publishers, so they have a fantastic selection of books on illuminated manuscripts, swords, textiles, archaeology, and all sorts of other wonderful technical and fascinating things. Alas, the book I wanted is long out of print, but I found lots of other books to want. Perhaps it's time to get together the materials to revise my old sword papers and write those other sword articles I've been thinking about, and put them together into a book I can "publish" through Lulu. Hmmm . . .

Type Specimens

Yesterday my wood type class installed our group projects in various places around NSCAD. Two of the groups (including mine) installed in windows off the Granville Mall/courtyard--one in the Seeds building and one in the building right next door if you're looking for it. The third group put theirs in the display case in the Duke building elevator.

I'm not normally enthusiastic about group projects, but this one was fun. The main idea for the project was mine, and I kind of felt like maybe I was too much of a control freak, but everyone kept agreeing with me . . .


(Apologies for the shadows; click photos to embiggen.) It didn't turn out quite as fabulous as I'd imagined--we had problems getting the letters to hang right, and I would have liked the book to be propped up a bit, and the backdrop is obviously a white bedsheet--but considering the time constraints and the somewhat ambitious nature of the project, I think it came out pretty well.

Here's the project from the adjacent window:


And one of the elevator:


After the installation, we walked around and did a critique, then went back to the classroom and had food. We were sort of calling it our "opening," even though our class were the only people there, so I wore my tailcoat and pinned a leftover blue N to my lapel. It was fun.

Here are a couple of closeups of my group's project.


It's hard to see, but the letters in the books are loose, and pinned in like butterfly specimens. When I made the book, I had intended to do a quick case binding that wouldn't do much other than look good in the window, but I ended up staying up late one night making a nice solid proper binding with the tapes laced into the boards, and a hollow back, and everything. It's the biggest book I've ever made, and even though the pages are only cartridge paper, it'll make a fine sketchbook (or, I'm thinking, a book for practicing calligraphy in). Assuming the rest of my group lets me keep it.


All of the letters we used were printed on a Vandercook proofing press from old wood type, then carefully cut out. (If anyone ever has a surplus of money they don't know what to do with, I'd like a Vandercook, please.)


I think ours was the only piece of the three with a title. Oh, and I didn't put my name first because I'm an egotist; my group members insisted.

Blog News

Right, so my archives disappeared from the sidebar a while back, which I figured was probably due to my blog using an older template. Therefore, I decided to finally upgrade to a new template. Alas, the choices are slim, and the one that was in similar colours to my old template wasn't one I especially liked. I actually really like this new one, except it's the very same one that Ryan (of Halifax) and Deva both chose for theirs.

And speaking of Ryan's and Deva's blogs, I bugged them until they gave in and started them, though Ryan hasn't yet posted all his interesting responses to various "proofs" for the existence of god, and other odds and ends I keep telling him would be good blog posts. You'll find his blog here (also in the sidebar). Deva's blog is full of all the interesting and wonderful things she has been exploring through her reading lately. I wanted her to blog about them so I could vicariously experience the research she's doing. Yay! Read her blog here (or click in sidebar).

Sometimes we have involved conversations about stuff like this too, so reading Deva's and Ryan's blogs is a bit like eavesdropping through the window of our apartment.

The Wilds of Nova Scotia. With Books!

Yesterday, Deva and I had planned to go to Frenchy's, a secondhand place I've heard much about since moving here but never visited (I should clarify, Frenchy's is actually a chain, not a single store). We thought we might also make a quick stop at Value Village and perhaps Chapters, and then grab some groceries on the way home. After visiting the Frenchy's in Sackville, where I got a gorgeous velvet scarf for $1.50 and a couple of tops for work, we got back on the road and the conversation turned, as it often does when Deva and I are in the same place, to books. Somehow Wolfville (home of Acadia University) also came up, and I mentioned a bookstore I'd seen in the phone book that looked intriguing. Deva thought it might be a shop she remembered, and so we decided, what the hell, and drove out to Wolfville (in a car borrowed from Judy, Deva's mom).

Said bookstore, The Odd Book, turned out to be as wonderful as I'd hoped (though the "books about books" section was a bit of a disappointment). They had a lot of obscure old stuff for reasonable prices (plus a few things I though were priced a little on the high side). When we pried ourselves away from the books, we each had a substantial stack and had decided that semi-regular trips to book shop might be a good idea. Here's what I ended up with:

• Edwin Mulhouse by Stephen Millhauser -- fiction by the fellow who wrote the short story that the movie The Illusionist was based on (fine movie, too)
• Martin Dressler by Stephen Millhauser -- yeah, same guy; I've been devouring his short stories, and so decided to tackle his novels
• The End of Faith by Sam Harris -- one to add to my atheist library; it was on my list of things to look for specifically
• The Great Houdini by Williams and Epstein -- for my research on the history of magic that will eventually result in a novel
• Tales of the Fairies and of the Ghost World by Jeremiah Curtin -- for the fairy library; I'm not sure if I used this one in my thesis--if not, I should have
• On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin -- finally my own copy; I've been reading Darwin's Ghost by Steve Jones, which is sort of an updated version
• Issues in Science and Religion by Ian G. Barbour
• The Death of Adam: Evolution and its impact on Western thought by John C. Greene

So, lots of fabulous things to read.

And I have much more to write about, such as Sue's visit, my birthday (plus thanks to gift-givers), and my thoughts on the two new blogs listed to the left (Deva's and Ryan's, for which I am sort of responsible), and the change in appearance of this very blog.

Rare Typo

The class I've been taking for the past week and will be taking for two more weeks is called Rare Typographic Mixed Media Printing. I didn't really know what to expect from it except that we'd be using the wood type in the Dawson Printshop (anything to play with type, I thought, and the Dawson room is quickly become the home of my heart at NSCAD). Anyway, despite the intensity of the three week, four-days-a-week format, I'm having a blast. I've just finished up project one this weekend. We were put in groups of three to set up a galley of type (and despite my usual aversion to group projects, I had fun). Our project was then to each use the same galley to make our own individual prints. I've ended up with two editions of three prints made from various bits of paper assembled into a sort of collage (or something), plus an accordion book (also in an edition of three). I'll try to get some pics up, as these brief descriptions don't really say much.

Tomorrow I've got to do a mock up for part of our project two--a group project to somehow use type to express contrast in an installation that makes use of three-dimensional space. More on that when I see if my ideas will work.

So that, besides work at the VRC and online stuff at About PSP, is what I've been doing on a regular basis.

Damn, Now I Need to Go to Disneyland Again

Pirates. Nintendo DS. Free downloads. Sigh.

RIP Lloyd Alexander

Yesterday.

Erm . . . Yeah

I suspect there may be a few people out there wondering why I haven't been blogging. There is a good reason. Sort of.

Last semester was the proverbial semester from hell, except that most of my courses were actually really good. What was hellish was constantly having way too many things to do and not enough time to get them done, let alone get them done to the standards I wanted them to reach. The reason for this hellish semester? I had the usual course load of 15 credits plus my job. The problem was that one course (typography) was a 3-credit course that should have been worth 6 credits, and another (intro printmaking) was a 6-credit course that should have been worth 9. This was only partly alleviated by also having an art history (craft and design history) -- art history courses usually only involve reading things and showing up for class (this one did have a short paper, too, though). My other class was basic colour photo, which I really would have like to have more time for, as it kind of became a refuge from my other classes.

Anyway, I got my grades in the mail yesterday. Not as good as I hoped for one class, better than I feared for another, so I suppose it balances out. My GPA has now dropped below 4, though. Sigh. Here's what I ended up with:

• AHIS2120 Craft and Design History 1750-1850 -- A+


• CMDS2500 Typography -- B+


• PHOT2600 Basic Colour Photography -- A


• PRTM2000 Introduction to Printmaking -- A-

For comparison's sake, the lowest mark I've had since starting at NSCAD is B+, which is what I ended up with in both of my Foundation drawing classes. And now typography. Sigh.

Anyway. My reasons for not blogging since the semester ended . . . about a month ago are not so good. Mostly I had simply got out of the habit. And also bringing everything up to date just seemed too monumental a task.

My summer will be a little more relaxed. I got a very part time job at the Visual Resources Collection (the facility formerly known as the slide library) at school, where I spend my time filing slides, remounting slides, checking in and out slides and videos, and other library-ish tasks. My boss and the other assistants are great people, so it should not be an unpleasant employment experience. I'll keep the job into the fall, as well, unless my course load becomes as crazy as last semester. This does not seem likely, as due to an error in the online timetable, I apparently signed up for a course that doesn't exist, and may have to drop another due to not being able to take the prerequisite in the summer (cancellations of summer courses mean not being able to get student loan, which means not being able to take summer courses, except for one that I am paying for by getting a job at the VRC, which requires me to be taking a summer class to qualify). Anyway. Summer will consist of 10-15 hours a week of work at the VRC, something like that many hours or more working for About PSP, plus three weeks of 4-days-a-week, 4-hours a day class from the end of May to late June. Also lots of bookmaking. I've already been to Joe's studio a couple of times to ask advice and use tools and generally hang around being bookish.

Also, Sue and Selena are coming to town in just over a week, so I'll be hanging out with them as much as I can.

And, it'll be my birthday soon. Aaah! 35. Yep. Older than I look. Heh.

New Manuscript

Or, well, actually a really old manuscript: 8th century, in fact. It's very exciting, though they (not unexpectedly) fail to say anything about the structure of the book. The illuminations and calligraphy, naturally, steal the show. I guess it's hard to make structure exciting to the general public.

Grauh

I am back in NS, and still tying to catch up with the time zone. Will blog more when I do.

On My Way

Way too early tomorrow morning I shall be on a plane, en route to BC. I will, no doubt, strongly resemble a zombie when I arrive.

More Wishes

Wel, I went and updated my Amazon.ca wishlist (it's linked over there on the left somewhere). There were a few things -- a couple books and some PSP games -- that I'd forgotten to remove. And I've added a few things, but I keep forgetting things I thought of during the week and haven't added. Sigh.

Anyway, a few more things to add to the wish list below . . .

Practical Things

• knife sharpening apparatus -- for keeping my leather paring and bookmaking knives sharp, now that I spent a couple of hours in my teacher's studio getting them sharp. I'll need medium and fine ceramic stones (Spyderco makes nice ones that should be easy to find, or there's these ones from Lee Valley), and probably a coarse Diamond stone eventually, in case things get really messed up (here's the Lee Valley page on Diamond sharpening things -- the 6" is plenty big). Because the knives are flat on one side, kitchen knife sharpening apparatus are not generally good. Oh, yeah, and a strop. The most important thing is a strop and the grit that goes on it (once again, Lee Valley to the rescue).
  

Fun Things

• Inu Yasha season three box set DVDs. I already have the first two seasons and all the movies.
  
• The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana by Jess Nevins. MonkeyBrain Books, 2005 (official web site is here). I'm actually collecting rather a lot of Victorian fiction (especially science fiction), fiction set in Victorian times, nonfiction about Victorian times, and nonfiction about the history of magic, as reference for a novel that's been growing in my head for some time now, and is going to need to be started soon. I hope. To that end, movie versions of Victorian sf are also welcome. Jules Verne, especially. Even old black and whites. Maybe especially old black and whites. And The Illusionist and The Prestige, whenever they come out on DVD.
  

That's all I can think of right now. I think there was more, but it's gone now.

Holiday Wishes and Travel

I figure it's probably about time I made my holiday wish list, in case, you know, people don't know what to get me. Of course, no one has to get me anything. I'm quite happy just having you all around in the world. These things here listed are not in any particular order, by the way.

Practical Things

Of course, in my world, most practical things are also fun, so don't worry about getting me something practical when you want me to have fun. These ideas are both.

• art supplies -- I'm most focussed on book-making and printmaking right now (I have Intro Printmaking next semester), so things like paper, printing ink, bookbinding odds and ends, or gift certificates to art supply stores (Opus and Island Blue both have mail order, and of course there's Talas, but I don't know which if any of these do gift certificates) would be lovely.
  
• books -- Specifically books on bookbinding and books on books. I'll try to add all the relevant ones to my Library Thing list so people can see what I've already got. And I'll try to get my wishlists updated, too, so people can see which ones are at the top of my list. Or there's always the gift certificate route. Amazon (either .ca or .com), Chapters, Powells -- they're all fine (Powells has more used/antiquarian).
  
• light meter -- So I can figure out exposures for photography. I need something that has incident metering, but I think most of them do both incident and reflective these days. The ones we use at school are the Sekonic FlashMate or similar. I certainly don't need anything more complicated.
  
• PlayStation 3 -- Yeah, okay, no one's going to get me one. I'd be surprised if anyone can even find one any time soon. But I'd like the 60GB version just in case someone has too much money lying around. And it's in the Practical list because I can use it for work as well as play (on account of it can interact with the PSP).
  

Purely Fun Things

• books -- Yeah, books are fun. Niko likes books.
  
• Nintendo Wii (the console formerly known as the Revolution) -- that's pronounced "wee" if you were wondering, and yes there have been many jokes. I want to play Legend of Zelda in the worst way. And the Wii is backwards compatible, so I could play GameCube games, too. Alternatively, a GameCube would be cool, and cheaper, but won't play the newest Nintendo games.
  
• games -- EB Games certificates are good, or Futureshop, or you can get me the box set of all three Devil May Cry games. Or, if someone gets me a Wii or a PS3, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (or LoZ: Windwaker, which is GameCube, but Wii is backwards compatible) for Wii or Genji II for PS3. Also the Legend of Zelda game for DS if it comes out by xmas.
  
• DVDs -- I still don't have any Angel past season one, or any Farscape besides a few odd discs from season one. I'd really, really like the new Doctor Whos, though. The ones with Christopher Eccleston as the ninth Doctor or David Tennant as the tenth Doctor (though the old ones are cool, too). Those classic versions of Frankenstein with Boris Karloff and Dracula with Bela Lugosi are tempting, too.
  

I'm sure there are other things which I have forgotten. Maybe even important things. So I will update this list if I think of anything else. Plus, there are always those cool unexpected things that I hadn't thought of but which are perfect. There always seem to be lots of those.

Oh yeah, and travel. I'll be arriving in the Nanaimo airport on December 13th after an obcenely long cross-country flying marathon, and will be leaving from the same airport on December 31st 29th. So if you're on Southern Vancouver Island, I might see you over the hols.

Bookish

In a recent conversation with my roommates, Deva asked, "If you were a superhero, who would you be, and what would your superpower be?" (Yes, we have conversations like this all the time, though it's usually Ryan who asks this sort of question.) My answer? "I think I'd have to be The Bookworm." A superpower was more difficult, but we settled on knowledge, or the ability to find out anything.

So yeah, our apartment is starting to look even more bookish than ever. As if my and Deva's shelves full of books (mine neatly ordered, though rather over-full, and Deva's haphazard and sometimes spilling over at the edges) didn't make it obvious enough that Book People live here, there are now -- crowding the computers and printers and scanners out of their dominance of one third of the living room -- an assortment of book-making apparatus. The first was an unassuming marble cutting board for paring leather on, that simply looked like it got lost en route to the kitchen. Then came the sewing frame and finishing press I ordered from England. Neither is very large on its own, but together they take up a fair bit of room, and I haven't actually decided where they'll live permanently yet. Then this morning the parcel guy brough a big box containing a small wooden press (a standing press or nipping press, perhaps; it's a sort of generic "book press" according to the tag on it). And sometime later this week I'll be adding a small-but-heavy metal press, of the same ilk as the wooden one, but more heavy-duty. My book arts teacher has one a previous student wants to sell for a very reasonable price. There may be a smallish board cutter, too. Now I just need to find a parlour-size letterpress and I'll be set. For now.

Blogthings - What Gender Is Your Brain?

Your Brain is 67% Female, 33% Male

Your brain leans female You think with your heart, not your head Sweet and considerate, you are a giver But you're tough enough not to let anyone take advantage of you!

What Gender Is Your Brain?

I Wish I'd Made These

Well, not really, but the photographs (ambrotypes, specifically) and camera obscura installations that Stephen Berkman makes really fit in with some of the stuff I've been playing with. (Via Brass Goggles and crossposted to Camera Obscura Nova, my Livejournal.)

Now This . . .

This is a watch I'd rather like. Pocket watch, roman numerals, mechanical (which is to say not battery-run, as in you have to wind it), chrome (not a big fan of gold, I), window for peering in at the gears working away . . . Very cool.

Madness, Shapechanging, Art

The Journal of Mythic Arts Summer /Fall 2006 issue is now up at the Endicott Studio website, and my paper "The Artist as Shaman: Madness, Shapechanging and Art in Terri Winding's The Woodwife" is included. You can scroll down the page to find it (but be sure to look at the other wonderful stuff too), or if you must, skip straight to it here.

This was originally written as an assignment for a workshop/seminar I took at SUNY New Paltz in . . . 2003, maybe, or was it 2002? So it's really Heinz Insu Fenkl's fault that I wrote it in the first place. And, of course, Terri Windling's for writing a book that made me ramble on at such length. (The mistakes and the stupid things are all my own fault of course). The paper was first published in the Mythic Passages web journal.

Two Ronnies Mastermind

Watch this: Two Ronnies Mastermind (the usual warnings about having anything in your mouth apply).

The Shire of Bend, Oregon

Maybe the Tolkien Estate can sure them? The Shire of Bend, Oregon. I shudder. Many times.

School! Books! Etc.

School started up again on Thursday. I had Architecture, Culture and Photography with the lovely Mr Fish. Like Intro Photo, it should be a really good class, but lots of work. On Friday I had Graphic and Typographic Design with a prof who had a Scottish accent and a tendency to trail off at the ends of sentences, but I think he'll be easier to listen to when he's actually talking about design and not reading out the obligatory course descriptions and rules about respecting the historic buildings our school is in. I'll have that class twice a week (Tues and Fri mornings). Then Friday afternoons I have Intermediate Book Arts with Joe Landry, who also taught Letterpress in the summer (and who gave me an A+). It's going to be a really, really great class (even though I managed to cut myself while sawing a recess on the spine of my sewing sample -- Joe and half the class were out of the room fetching sewing frames, luckily) (for those of you who don't know, if it's pointy or sharp, I'll eventually stab or cut myself with it, though it's never serious). And that's what my semester is going to be. Only three classes, but two are 6 credits, which is kind of like double. So I'm still doing 15 credits -- the maximum anyone is allowed to take at once.

And I've just spent some time entering all the books I have out in the living room into LibraryThing. Go look if you want (you can search for me as "feynico"). Basically, you can see most of my geek books, some of my nonfiction and a very small amount of my fiction. The bedroom shelves will be next, but I'm going to need to get a paid membership before I'm done. There's a nice lifetime membership option which only costs two and a half times the yearly membership, so I'll probably do that (unlesss someone wants to get me a gift membership). I really like the idea of being able to keep a record of my books online, for insurance purposes, if nothing else. I'm probably also going to (finally) get some kind of book cataloguing software for offine, too. I had one all picked out a year ago, now I just have to figure out which one it was . . .

One Down . . .

It's been an ambition of mine (one of a short list of things I want to have happen before I drop dead) to have work on the Endicott Studio website or be mentioned there in some way (like if I had a novel published and they put it on the recommended reading list or something). Anyway, there will soon be a paper I wrote in the Endicott Journal of Mythic Arts. And not only that, but I'm listed in the "Contributors to the Journal of Mythic Arts" in the right column of the Endicott blog. I'm only two names down from Neil Gaiman!!

Swashbuckling

You Are A Pirate!


What Type Of Swashbuckler Are You?
brought to you by Maddog Varuka & Dawg Brown

I Rule the Freakin' World

I picked up my grades from the summer today:

Basic Book Arts ---> A+

Intro Photography ---> A

Survey of 20th Century Art ---> A+

Letterpress Printing ---> A+

Plus, I got my paycheque, a notice from Canada Post to pick up a parcel, and a notice from UPS that they'll try again to deliver a package tomorrow. All in all, a good day.

I Have the Best Job in the World

So have I said lately how much I love my job? I really, really love my job.

Twice this week, a nice FedEx person has showed up at my door with packages for me. One was two anime UMDs, for an upcoming special guide I'm planning on Anime on UMD (or Anime for PSP). The second was a Beta build of a wacky Japanese PSP game called WTF (which does not stand for what it stands for; it stands for "Work Time Fun"), with a t-shirt! So now I have cool stuff to review and write about.

Like I said, I love my job.

Mild-Mannered

What does Niko say when a Jesus boy asks her if she wants a Bible tract? Why, she politely says, "No, thank you."

And what does Niko say when said Jesus boy then asks, "If you die tonight, will you go to heaven?" Why, she says, "I'm not going anywhere."

And then turns around and yells after him, "I'll just be dead!"

Art for Sale!

Yes, finally some things I can sell! Buy a coelacanth print, and get a coelacanth card free! Pics and info here.

I'm going to have some photos for sale soon, too.

Punctuation Matters

Just ask Rogers about that single comma. Not enough attention to the details of punctuation may cost them a lot of money. (Via Neil Gaiman.)

Shiny Airship Watch

If anyone should ever wish to spend a tidy sum on a watch for me, this is the one I'd like.

Rayguns!

I really need these.

Oh, and I need this to be released in North America.

Joining Things

Yeah, well, you all know how much of a joiner I am. But I found a few cool sites that seemed worth the effort of registering.

• Library Thing lets you catalogue your books online, and searches various databases and bookstores so you don't have to type everything in. It even includes covers. You can add 200 books free, and then have to pay a yeary or for-life fee. I like the idea of having a list of books online, where I can access it from anywhere should I need it for insurance purposes. It won't be long before I have to pay, though, assuming I get around to adding all my books. If you want to look at my books (have only added a few so far), seach for me under "feynico."
  
• TV Shows on DVD is a site where you can find out if your favorite shows are on DVD and vote for them to be on DVD if they're not. You can also make want lists for existing and yet-to-be-pubished DVDs. Now everyone go and register and vote for The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne. Do it now. Please.
  
• My Livejournal. It's so much easier to keep track of other people's Livejournals when you have one of your own. I'll probably end up putting personal, daily-life type stuff, plus writing updates, here on Anagram for Ink, and use the Livejournal for visual arts stuff. No doubt they will cross over a lot. But there you go. One more thing for me to neglect.
  

Font Geek

What does it say about me that I was more excited that my 20th Century Art teacher complemented the font I used on my midterm paper than by the fact that she gave me an A?

Oh, it was 12pt Garamond.

The Usual

So, school goes along pretty much as usual. Photography is my favorite class. It's intense but lots of fun. Letterpress can be a bit on the dull side at times, but I've discovered I really like setting type. It should be really boring, but I like it. I'm going to buy a small letterpress, if I can find one on eBay that's both a reasonable price and in good shape. In the meantime, I bought a camera. This camera. Yes, I finally blew all of my birthday money, plus a bit more besides.

Now I'm saving up for a sewing frame and a book press for bookbinding purposes. With what's left in my bank account (aside from what I need to, you know, live) I'm going to buy PSP stuff to review, and probably a second hand PSP on which to run homebrew -- I have an idea for an article series for work, following my attempts to downgrade the firmware and get homebrew running. Potentially, therefore, the second PSP could pay for itself.

Hardcore

Some of you may know, either just from knowing me or from following my ramblings on this blog, that I am entirely non-religious, yet also fascinated with (and sometimes horrified by) religion. So someone I know who is a student of Zen (hmm . . . should that be capitalized or not?) was reading this book called Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies, and the Truth About Reality (by Brad Warner). I thought it sounded interesting, so I asked to borrow it. I just finished reading it this morning (and, since I only borrowed it Thursday afternoon, you can safely draw the conclusion that it was an absorbing read, and therefore also a quick read). Hmm. I expected it would be interesting and well written, from the things my friend said about it. I wasn't really expecting so much of it to resonate -- and resonate strongly -- with the way I already think about things, religion included.

For example:

It's only when people believe that their beliefs are above questioning, that their beliefs alone are beyond all doubt, that they can be as truly horrible as we all know they can be. Belief is the force behind every evil mankind [sic] has ever done.

Or:

Religions, the supposed institutional repositories of humanity's understanding of the deeper mysteries of the universe, have never offered anything more to me than sophisticated methods of avoiding the truth, of building elaborate fantasies in place of reality.

The older I get, the more I think the dangers of religion -- any religion -- far outweigh the benefits, though I know there are an awful lot of people, even non-religious people, who would strongly disagree.

There are simply too many interesting things in the book for me to quote them all -- too many times when I stopped reading so I could absorb something properly. Here's one, though:

Buddhism won't give you the answer. Buddhism might help you find your own right question, but you've gotta supply your own answers.

Hunh. I'll stop quoting now, and gushing. I think I'm going to have to get a copy of this book for myself, though, and read it a few more times. I'm not going to suddenly become religious, but this is, I think, something that warrants further investigation. Anyone want to read the book and tell me what you think of it?

Back to School

Yes, today it was back to school again. I had my first Letterpress Printing class, which is going to be very exciting. Real printing with real moveable type. The kind you can take out and move around in different configurations, without the use of a computer! Okay, I am being silly, but I think it will be a good class. The prof is not the mot dynamic speaker ever, but he knows an awful lot about the history of printing and book binding, and stuff, and seems to have a vast store of amusing stories that probably only book geeks actually find amusing. Luckily, I am a book geek.

Today we had a kind of show and tell with lots of samples (both real and reproduction) of manuscripts and early printing. Then we got a tour of the print shop (I think the third I've had this year, but I love it there, so that's fine with me), and we got to poke around in the basement, where all the type is kept and where we will be spending a lot of time in the next seven weeks. Yay!

I also spent a fair bit of time in the dark room, working on my prints for the portrait/self portrait project. My portrait negatives came out pretty thick; I'm not sure if it's a shooting problem or a developing problem. They're not beyond hope, though, and I got some decent prints from them. Quite a few were not in great focus though, which is a bit disappointing. Part of the problem is that my subject was moving quite a bit, but I very much didn't want her sitting still and posing, so the only solution would have been more light. I guess I should have used both of the lights I had, instead of just one, so I could have used a smaller aperture and therefore had greater depth of field. But anyway. She was a great subject, so I am happy about that.

Tomorrow I'm going to shoot some more self-portraits, even though I really already have enough for the project. I have some mad scientist ideas, which are just too much fun not to do. I do wish I had more props, though, so this is a project I may revisit in future. I also still need to make some prints for a sort of related project, which I may hand in as part of the portrait assignment -- a book of me playing on my PSP while also doing everyday things like doing the dishes and getting dressed. It'll be a day-in-the-life sort of thing, and each photo will have the time under it, but no other text (except possibly to say what I'm doing -- for example "9am, brushing teeth" or something).

And finally, I had Survey of 20th Century Art, where I handed in my take-home exam/essay (which is, I think, a decently written blather), and got back my slide test (only an A-, alas, but pretty good considering how little time I ended up having to study). So that was my day.

I Am A Moron

Someday, maybe I'll learn to take my own writing advice. You know, the really basic "never send out your only copy of a story" advice? Yeah, well.

As many of you know, I used to write the content (and do some other stuff) for About.com's Creative Writing for Teens website (now I do the PSP site). Well, a lot of the articles are tool-based, meaning you plug them into an online form, essentially, and it gets added to the database. Well, I developed a really bad habit of composing directly into the tool. And then I stopped doing the site. Leading up to my switch to PSP, I did start a word doc and cut and pasted the text from many of my articles into it. Except I don't know where I saved the doc. And now the CW for Teens site is no more (not just my version; About decided to remove it entirely). I have never been happier that Google caches pages--I found a lot of my old stuff that way. And the really old stuff I still have on the laptop harddrive. But there are a few bits and pieces that somehow never got saved anywhere but on the About servers, and which have disappeared from Google.

Yeah, so I feel a bit stupid. I didn't even think about it until someone emailed me looking for a manuscript format article I wrote. I did find that one, but now I have no energy left to email the guy back (even with a happy stomach full of sushi). Tomorrow, I guess.

It's not even that I'll ever need the stuff again. Unless I decide to pubish a how-to-write book, which I probably won't do. It's just mine. I made it. Geh. I will recover. At least it wasn't stuff I really cared about, like my fiction. Now that I have mostly saved in multiple places (some of it exists in various versions on floppy disk, laptop harddrive, cd-rom, Mac harddrive, and one or more hardcopies in a box somewhere in BC).

As soon as I'm done cat sitting, I'll be making sure updated copies of all my fiction is in multiple formats and possibly even different places (anyone want to volunteer to curate a hardcopy or cd of one or more stories? see, I'm paranoid now).

Nik Shoots People

I rescheduled the photo shoot with Deva's mom Judy to this afternoon. I'd hoped to photograph her in her sewing room, which has wall-to-wall shelves full of fabric and other crafting goodies, but it was so cramped I couldn't have got the tripods in. So instead we shot in the living room, with Judy on the couch, surrounded by fabric samples and all her many current projects. I hope the window behind her won't be a problem (the curtains were drawn, but they were pretty thin).

Ryan (Deva's son) had offered to be assistant, so I handed him my 35mm and he took pictures of me taking pictures, pictures of his grandmother, pictures of Sam-the-cat-who-has-thumbs, etc. His friend Mark was there, too, so after I took pictures of Judy and her crafts, I took some of Judy and Ryan, and then some of Ryan and Mark playing Yu-Gi-Oh cards. It was pretty fun. I've ended up with 4 12-exposure rolls of medium-format (120) fim, and most of a roll of 36-exposure 35mm film. And I just realized I didn't save any film for the Nik-as-mad-scientist shoot Ryan is going to help me with tomorrow. So I'll have to remember to stop at the NSCAD store and buy more film. 2 rolls should be plenty; I'm doing the mad scientist ones more just for fun (unless they turn out really well, in which case I may use some for the portrait project).

Anyway, that was my day. It's been really hard to get up in the morning. Possibly I am abusing caffeine too much and it's getting back at me, like it used to. Bleah. Oh well. Tomorrow is work, then mad scientist photos, then anime and hanging out with roomates, then more sleep. Oh, and I'll probably develop whatever film I have somewhere in there, too, and then print on the weekend. We'll see.

Blargh

It's hot. I know I shouldn't complain. After all, it was raining all weekend, and I wished it was nice. I don't mind, really, I just wish I only had to walk places in the evening, when it's cooler. The worst part is, I keep forgetting my sunglasses, so I have to squint a lot, or else walk with my eyes closed. Anyway, I'm not really complaining about the heat, I'm just tired and sweaty from hauling lots of camera equipment from school to home and then from home back here (where I am cat sitting) -- most of the way on the bus, I am glad to say. And I will have to haul it all back to school tomorrow (not on the bus), and then sign it out again on Thursday and repeat the whole process because my portrait subject was too worn out from company and sick people (S.O.'s dad in the hospital for a triple bypass) and wouldn't let me photograph her. I wanted to take the pics anyway, because, well, sometimes people are more interesting when they're tired than when they're all dolled up and ready for portraits. But she wouldn't let me. So Thursday it is. (Not, but the way, that I am complaining about that either -- there's no phone here, so she couldn't call and tell me not to come, and anyway we had a nice visit.)

Why, I wonder, is it so hard sometimes to write about things that happened without sounding like one is complaining? Oh well.

In other news, I raided my host's dvds the night before last, and watched Das Boot because I had always heard it was really good. And it was. Quite amazing, really, both visually and in the development of character. Very long, but well worth it. I'll watch something else tonight, but I haven't decided what yet. Last evening I went for a walk around Halifax's South End and decided this is the area I'd like to live in, should I decide to stay, and should I manage to find some kind of work that lets me pay the sort of rent normal people pay. I also went along the harbour front, where plenty of other people were also walking. It was nice in the fog, though, as all the usual busy sounds were muffled and things distant were obscured. Alas, because -- I presume -- I was dressed in the usual dark clothes and walking as quietly as I usually walk (which means people don't tend to notice me right away) some poor old guy in a hat thought I was stalking him. He made some humourous comment when he noticed me, but I think he really thought I was following him, waiting for the opportune moment to steal his wallet or something.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, my hair is all green now. Well, actually it was all green. It's now brown with a faded green patina and some brighter green streaks, due to an uneven bleach and dye (very hard to do this to one's own hair, even with last minute emergency roommate assistance). It was all in the name of art, anyway. In my photo class there's a woman with bright red hair and one with blue hair, so with me having green hair we made up the primary colours of light: RGB. So our photo teacher thought it would be fun to photograph the three of us. Therefore I dyed my hair all green. With the heat, though, I'm seriously considering shaving off the back, skater-style, or at least cutting that part really, really short. (If you can't envision what I mean, look at Sorcha's hair in "Meddlesome Spirits" (middle panel), only my hair isn't that long anymore.)

Now I think I'll make a salad, because I'm still too warm for cooking. I have some feta cheese and lots of different veggies (in many different colours!). Hmm. Except I just remembered I haven't any salad dressing. Maybe a sandwich . . . I have some nice gluten-free cheese bread . . .

Where the Hell Have I Been?

I expect one or two of you may be wondering that. Well, I've pretty much been where I've been all along -- either at home working or at school attending classes. Or, occasionally, buying art supplies so that I can do projects for said classes.

Last week was end-of-term for half-summer classes and mid-term for all-summer classes, which meant I had a final project and an exam to study for, plus a non-final project to work on. The final project was to make an edition of 17 flag books for Book Arts class (I actually made an edition of 19, so I could have a couple extras). It took longer than I thought. The flag book is a fairly simple structure, but I didn't quite realize how much longer it would take to make 19 of them. And, of course, I knew what I wanted to do and am too stubborn to simplify in order to get things done faster. So I was up pretty much all night one night, but I got it done and I think it turned out pretty good. I'll post pictures soon.

The mid-term was a slide test for Survey of 20th Century Art. I hardly studied. I always feel guilty about not studying, yet I almost never worry about not studying. I just don't stress about tests, for some reason. Anyway, I managed to cram titles and dates and artists into my brain in what little time I had, and remember enough of the lectures and discussions and readings that I think I did okay. Now I have a take-home to do for the same class, but it shouldn't take too long.

The other project was a work-in-progress for a self-portrait/portrait project for photo (that is, the project consists of both self-portraits and portraits of someone else). I wasn't as prepared as I'd wanted to be, but luckily the thing isn't actually due for another two weeks. I've since shot another roll of self-potrait stuff, which may or may not be what I was aiming for, but even if it's not, I think I can use it for a book project that popped into my head while I was out for a walk (walks and showers seem to be when I get all the best ideas, or occasionally in the middle of the night when I'm not really awake enough to manipulate a pen). I have a subject lined up for Tuesday for the portrait part, which I think should be fun to shoot. I may or may not post some of the results of this project later on, but I probably will add a few things from previous projects, as I know a few of you friends-and-family types are curious to see what I've been doing.

Right now I am cat-sitting, so I have lots of peace and quiet. Also I have a week and a half off school. I am trying to do lots of work, since my three-month review is coming up soon and I really need to get more content up. Other than that, I am reading and eating yummy, healthy food (I have been getting into some very bad junk food habits lately, which explains why the extra weight just won't go away). Today I went for a walk (I was originally going to hop on the bus to Value Village but it was raining very, very hard this morning; when the rain let up, I decided to just ramble around a bit). I ended up at Pete's Frootique, a fancy sort of grocery store with lots of organic things and local things and gourmet things and generally delicious-looking things to eat. I picked up a few ordinary things of the vegetable variety (I did splurge on a yellow zucchini instead of a green one -- they looked so lovely), and found some things I've been looking for since I moved here (like rice paper). And tea! I finally found Lapsang Souchong. And loose, too. They have many loose teas and so I shall be going back. Why I hadn't gone there before now, I do not know.

On the way back, I stopped in at a newsstand that had the best selection of magazines I've seen since Yates Street News in Victoria closed, and spent a pleasant half-hour browsing. I bought a couple things to read, and now I am back and blogging and there is some sushi in the fridge waiting for me to eat it.

Umm . . . I'm Not Really Dead

Just really, really busy. But after Thursday I should have more time and will actually write something about what I've been doing, and even post pictures of art. Art by me! Right now I have to go spend the rest of the day making books for my final Book Arts project, which is due tomorrow morning. Then I have to find a few minutes to study for my 20th c Art mid-term slide test. But first, more tea.

What country should you live in?

Which country should you REALLY be living in? The United Kingdom You have pride in yourself and pride in your country. You believe that history and culture is an important factor to the future of your country, and that traditions and values should be upheld. You love your scones and tea, and reading soppy romance novels. The UK is where you should be...

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

More Star Wars Geekery

Star Wars Death Star Explosion Aftermath: the usual warning about food and beverages apply. Especially right at the end.

Which Star Wars Character Are You?

Your results:
You are Qui-Gon Jinn

Qui-Gon Jinn 76% Chewbacca 72% R2-D2 70% Padme 68% Obi-Wan Kenobi 67% Lando Calrissian 65% Princess Leia 62% Boba Fett 60% Yoda 59% Han Solo 58%

Overall, you're a pretty well balanced person. But maybe you focus a little too much on the here and now. Think about the future before its too late.

(This list displays the top 10 results out of a possible 21 characters)


Click here to take the Star Wars Personality Quiz

Best Semester Ever

I am currently very, very glad that I decided to take classes this summer. It's all because Alvin, my last semester's photo teacher, kept saying how great it is to take Intro Photo in the summer. And it is.

So, right now I'm taking Survey of 20th Century Art, which is a twice-a-week, hour-and-an-half lecture course (all summer). It's not especially exciting, but certainly not the worst lecture course I've done. I'd like more background on the social and political conditions, but I guess there's just so much to cover that there isn't time. Oh well. I like the teacher, though; she's nice. Actually, I like all my teachers this semester.

I also have Book Arts, twice a week for four hours (for the first half of the summer). It's such fun! We make a book every class, and we've been working our way gradually from really simple pamphlet form to more complex sewn forms. We haven't done any multi-section books yet, but we have done one with an accordion spine, and part of the homework this weekend is to make a flag book, which is a variation of the accordion. Also, we have to make an "altered book." While I don't much like the idea of cutting/gluing/writing on an existing book, I do have a good idea, and a Value Village archaeology book that makes frequent reference to pre-flood things. Heh. Pre-flood. Here's a bit about my teacher.

And there's Intro Photo, twice a week for four and a half hours (all summer). It's a really good class, too, and everyone seems to actually want to be there (as opposed to just taking it for credit or because they need one more elective). I just spent my entire Friday afternoon in the darkroom, making prints for Monday's assignment. I might even go in Monday morning, if I decide later that my prints aren't quite "sparkly." I actually re-did some prints that I got a B+ on, because I wanted to get them right (I think Deva thought I was a bit mad, because a B+ is a very respectable grade). Anyway, thanks to my teacher (hi Adrian *), I think I may actually have figured out how to make good prints (or at least better prints). So, yes, still really liking photo, and still thinking about changing my major (about which more later).

*Not that I think he'll actually be reading my blog, but one never knows, and it seemed rude not to say hi.

Happy Birthday Deva!

Yep, it's my roommate Deva's birthday today. She's still one year short of being the answer to life, the universe, and everything, so I can't tease her about that yet. We don't really have anything planned (except a trip to Value Village when she gets back from renewing her driver's license). When it gets a bit closer to my b-day we'll probably have some sort of feast. Or cake. Or a feast and cake.

(Ah! I just realized it's now only 2 weeks until my birthday, until the day my age will no longer be the western world's magic number twice. Although the digits will add up to the western world's other magic number. Not that I find any particular sigificance in numbers, they're just fun to play with. Like words.)

PS3!!!

Okay, I knew this a few days ago, but thought I should wait to post it, on account if being too excited. The PS3 comes out in November, and won't be as expensive as many people feared! Here's the press release.

So now the question is this: Preorder from EB Games and try to scrounge up an extra 600 bucks by mid-November, or hope that someone gets me one for Christmas?

I'm anticipating that there will be interactivity with the PSP, at least on some games, so I'm going to need one for work (that's my story, and I'm sticking to it).

So yeah. I got some thinkin' to do. Preorder, or hope for xmas? Preorder, or . . .

T Minus One Month . . .

So, the date is May 2, meaning it is one month until my very own birthday. And speaking of birthdays, could everyone I know who wants me to remember their birthday please post a comment with the date of their birth in it. The reason I'm asking is not because I have forgotten when everyone I know is born, but because the big birthday summer season is fast approaching, and their are a couple of birthdays that I'm always convinced are a few days before or after their actual date. Now previously I have lived close to people and there were enough reminders that by the time the date arrived, i had it straight. But now, living far away from the bulk of my friends and relatives, and having packed the little book I started keeping with all the days noted somewhere in a box . . . Well, I think you can see where this is headed.

No, I'm not going to list the ones I always get right, because that would just make the owners of the ones I always get wrong feel bad. So there you go. Please comment with your birthday (and, you know, your name) and also the birthdays of anyone you can think of who isn't likely to read and/or comment on this blog.

Right.

So I spent much of this morning trying to get a decent picture of me to submit for my Guide photo at work. I finally got one I'm happy with and sent it off. My favorite, though, wasn't quite suitable (having part of my hand over my face), so I decided to make it my new profile photo. Here it is, bigger (yes, I did just re-green my hair):