More Kisses Please: May 2006

so dark the con of man

Oh my. My entire foundation of Christian beliefs has come crumbling down. Mom.. all those years of forced Sunday school have been wasted. Dad.. I know you're reading so it's safe to say those sermons delivered by Rev. Schmidt that I had to attend..all forgotten. All I can think about now is the dark con of man, the cover up of the true power of God Almighty. It was a WOMAN. In fact, my angst ridden teenage years could have been spared had I known that there was hope that I as member of the female species could have come out on top.

Oh but really I jest. It was a clever movie and entertaining. Did it need a disclaimer? No, I could tell it was fiction, or have they dug up the Louvre yet. I mean is Mary Mag down there?!! I'll tell you, it did want me to go back to Paris and well..I'm crazy for locations. What I do know is I wish I was clever enough to come up with the spoof that ends with the Holy Grail being at the new Apple Store on 5th Ave, NYC. I can see it. The orb that fell from the sky, the number 5..come on..it hasn't happened yet that I know of, but I can feel it brewing in the collective unconscious..24/7/365/12..

luscious

luscious, originally uploaded by smoooch.

Strawberries are in season. They're cheap like borsht right now. I bought 7 lbs for $10 today. I cut the tops, washed them and bagged them for future berry enjoyment. My mother will be pleased.

wheat

wheat, originally uploaded by smoooch.

the next best thing

I just arranged over the internet to have prints made from my photographs. I went to my favorite Photoshop's website, dowloaded their order software, uploaded my files and info and clicked done. I can even have them mailed to my home. I'll be picking them up in a few days to check it out and if the results are positive it's how I'll have my photos printed. Electronically.

All my photos shown on my webpage that were photographed by myself or shown on my personal Flickr site are able to be purchased. You can contact me at justajill@hotmail.com, if interested.

the best thing

The best thing about living where I do is Trout Lake. And the best thing to do at Trout Lake on Saturdays and Sundays is go to the Farmer's Market! Every weekend I can trundle across the parking lot in my PJ's and buy a fresh brewed organic coffee. I can peruse the samples of fresh organic cheeses and homemade jams. Wander through the displays of barley eye pillows, ceramic candle holders, hemp baby clothes and other down to earth wares until I feel its time to get some fresh greeens and potatoes pretty much picked and dug up that day. Get myself another organic coffee and wander back across the parking lot.

By the way.. I'm moving, but not far enough away to endanger my weekend visits to mother earth.

Also.. I didn't find that rock pictured below, or photograph it. I found it on Flickr and had to share it onwards.

written in stone

written in stone, originally uploaded by omnia.

a little less than usual

I came home sick from Tofino. Achey and feverish and down right sick. So sick I didn't go to work on Wednesday, which is rare. What I did instead is spend the whole day in bed. While I enjoy sleeping the whole day away, the opportunities to watch day time TV are few and far between. So while I was meandering in and out of feverish consciousness, I struggled to keep my eyes awake for various day time talk shows. What's on Oprah?! A mild excitement rolls over me and for a moment it feels like an important task to partake in. I drift away vagually feeling bad that I can't make more of an effort to prop myself up for Ellen, only to awake when I would have returned home anyways. The childish opportunity to indulge in what's often denied, slips away.

In other news.. a steadfast program to keep my work life from permeating and taking over aspects of my other regular life has begun. It's crazy how insipid it is. How if i don't take care my conversations begin to be overshadowed by conversations on THAT topic.

sand hearts found

found sand heart 3, originally uploaded by smoooch.

dreamcatcher

dreamcatcher detail 3, originally uploaded by smoooch.

pictures of the recent camping trip to Tofino are up in My Flickr site.

camper van's-not

The boyfriend and I took off on Saturday, in the wee morning hours in a rented mini van in search of other sites and sounds. It's a long weekend. Need I say more. No, but I will. Off we went at 4 am to make the 5:15 ferry sailing to Nanaimo. Being the one who slept the most, I became the designated driver.

A quick stop at the first Timmy Ho's and we were off in the direction to Port something or other which would lead us further towards our destination of Tofino and Long Beach. We arrived safely and chose a campsite just outside of Tofino. It's very conveneient with free hot showers and firewood. And an internet connnection. I think you really have to get remote to 'rough it' these days. I mean, we're surrounded with people who are travelling with a little house aka, the campervan and the travelodge.

We spent our first night in a too small tent equipt with shitty 'self-inflate' mattresses that have clearly forgot to uphold their end of the bargain. My back feel like I slept on a boulder. I have just heard the rumblings of 'free' coffee. I must retreive some and continue on with my 'holiday'.

More words and hopefully pictures to follow.

Stroked

I was Stroked last night. First concert I've seen in a long time. In fact I can count on my fingers the live shows I've seen in Vancouver.

1-The Cramps- Commodore Ballroom
2- Reverend Horton Heat- Commodore Ballroom
3- The Pretenders- Queen E Theatre
4- Patti Smith- the Commodore Ballroom
5- Toots and the Maytals- Malkin Bowl
6- The Strokes- Plaza of Nations

Plaza of Nations is a horrible and lovely venue at the same time. It's outdoors and if the weather is warm, quite lovely. It's also surrounded by glass and cement. Seriously folks, despite the Strokes, the apparition of Janis Joplin will be the only thing that gets me to go back to that venue. Heavy reverberation and echo. I actually left early as it was so distorted, loud and noisy but great.

The Strokes were great to see, but not unlike the countless concert shots I have seen. Nor that different from the appearances on Saturday Night Live or Letterman. I swear Julian Casablancas was still wearing the same clothes. In fact, I think they all were. There was the 'hunched over the guitar' pose, the 'head back' pose and the 'hand on microphone, foot on monitor' pose typical of most Rock and Roll shows and certainly The Strokes.

Early on, with the opening band playing, my friend Christine and I made our way into the area in front of the stage. We manoevored for better advantage points, all the while enduring the wall of sound and guitars coming from the warm up band. I don't remember what they were called but they've been listening to too much Radiohead and other Emo-rock. Christine felt warm and left to get water and I stayed put. 10 minutes later a surge of bodies behind me pushed me forward and further into the crowd. Christine and I would be seperated from this point on.

As the concert grew near the crowd swelled and condensed like a balloon being blown up and deflated. Occasionally an attempt to gain better footing would be attempted. This is basically a group of people rearing back and charging forward in effort to displace the molecules of people into other positions. The crowd was a condensed jumble of arms and legs, standing ribcage to ribcage. Elbows and shoulders used as weapons for advancement towards the front. At one point, I was certain I could lift my feet off the ground and not move, the pressure of others near me was so great. I was positive I would either throw up or pass out from lack of oxygen.

I decided to give up my perfect fantage point to capture a shitty, grainy phone cam picture of Mr. Casablancas and attempted to push and elbow my way out. Of course this was seen as an attempt to score myself yet a better spot until I started to yell that I was trying to get out. I was finally expelled from the mass with a whoof and my spot immediatly consumed by the hungry mass. When The Strokes started, I looked back to where I had been standing and it had erupted into a mosh pit of jumping bodies, arms waving and bodies surfing above it all.

Hightlight: a cover of Walk on the Wild Side

Update; many phone messages from christine telling me over her wherabouts, of which I received the next day. Another message to say 'Let's get together. I'd love to hear how it was FOR YOU.'

strokes4, originally uploaded by smoooch.

Not bad for a camera shot.

wink

wink, originally uploaded by smoooch.

Neighborhood cat.

them

them, originally uploaded by smoooch.

and then I said..

and then I said.., originally uploaded by smoooch.

My favorite wanderluster is back from exploring Thailand, Cambodia and everywhere in between. World meet Christine. Christine, I think you're you've met the world before. Yah!! I'm excited to see her. She's hip and funky yet not an ounce pretensious. Kind and generous but never gushing. Wise and mature is she yet in a flash will jump and skip and run and giggle like a 5 year old. Never is she boring, always engaging.. of course I had to offer up my companion Strokes ticket as a welcome home, hey lets go party, gift!!