Return of the 52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 28

Week 28: Winter

Cartoon in black Sharpie on watercolour paper, with highlights in watercolour, white opaque Signo ink and white Puffy paint, collaged onto crushed white cartridge paper.

Update:

Week 28: Winter II

Salted watercolour collage with black ballpoint and Sharpie detailing.

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 27

Live from Michigan, USA! I've only ever been here in the snow before, but it's summer, of course! The snowman on the right with the "Star Trek" phaser is based on the one made by my penpal, Olivia, and I during out first meeting in January 1984. The little one is based on the one outside our restaurant window in December 2012. The squirrel victim is depicted because - squirrel! Drawn with oil pastels on two backgrounds.

Week 26: Snow

I was thrilled to unite these two long-gone snowpeople, separated by decades, but definitely kindred spirits. Just noticing that the photo of this piece loses some subtlety in the hand phaser, and yet improves the tones on the squirrel. I'm fascinated how oil pastels work, and how they scan/photograph, when the colours are layered - and loving the unpredictability.

Update:
Prismatic origami paper snowflakes on a black card background.

Week 27: Snow II

Digital stories for the festive season

And, way back in 2010:

Last year, my ol' pal Jonathan Sequeira asked friends to send him family Christmas pics for a song video by The Elephant Gods - and this was the result. See if you can spot any McLeans:

And just for fun:

And an update from "The Twilight Zone". Doo doo, doo doo, Doo doo, doo doo:

Officially freaked out. I was running for a bus because it was too far to clearly read its route number. Not mine, after all, I realise. The driver was on the phone, so I waited to ask him where my bus left from. He was *describing my appearance* over the phone, and what I was carrying, and he already knew I wanted the 399. I told him *no one* at the station knew where I was heading, and I hadn't asked anyone else anything, but he insisted he was holding up his bus to tell me what I needed to know.

"Technology", he said.

Last time I traveled on this route my mother had just passed away and I made every connection (without looking at the timetable) from Penrith, to Central, Circular Quay, and Malabar Heights, with precision timing, and we joked that Mum organised it. Looks like she's at it again. Merry Christmas, Mum!

Trudging around Ann Arbor, gleefully!

There was a flurry of activity just after breakfast on this brisk morning, as Olivia's team of "snow men" turned up with their equipment. In the summer months they mow the lawn; in winter they clear the paved areas of snow. No phone call needed; it snowed over the holidays, so here they are! They probably aren't used to excited Aussies peering through the window and photographing them as they work, though. Driveway cleared, it was off to the mall (Briarwood), hopefully to buy a few US-themed T-shirts in the post-Christmas sales, and to find somewhere nice for lunch!

Day 5 photos:

In come the snow blowers!

Santa's seal of approval?

Too much eggnog?

Definitely too much eggnog

More party animals at the mall

This cute snowman was built the day before by Max & Erma's wait staff.
(They had the boss's permission; it had been a slow day.) He was right outside our window table.

I amused them all by going outside in shirtsleeves to take more photographs of him!
Everyone kept asking - all day: "Aren't you cold?"

Dinner with the Kaleidoscopes (Jeff and his wife, of Kaleidoscope Books). Jeff brought pomegranate ale!

30-Day Photo Challenge: finale

DAY 30

I spotted a cute little dragon at our Pedlars' Fair today! A great finale to my 30-Day Photo Challenge. The slideshow of all 30 images is HERE.


Leftover Pedlars' Pennies go into the prize draw.


The library snowman finds a friend!

There's no business like snow business

Here's a Photo Peach slideshow from today's freak summer hailstorm over Penrith.

Penrith PS in December: a white Christmas

Back - and down it all comes

Well, it's Epiphany - the 12th day of Christmas - the day when we are supposed to strip the house of Christmas cheer, beating the chain stores as they prepare to put out chocolate Easter eggs, and commiserate over all the broken New Year's Resolutions. More on those later?

Before I disassemble the tree, here are my two ornaments - dated, as per usual - for Christmas 2007:



Christmas ornaments for 2007: a snowman in a light bulb - literally, a "snow globe" - came from Penrith's Target store in the January sales of 2007, and kept hidden away till Christmas, and a Hallmark "Shrek 3" figurine. He swings from a string of Christmas lights, with his pal Donkey under his arm. This ornament came from a Perth Target store during my vacation last October.

A bonus this year were 25 little glow-in-the-dark cherubs. I originally saw this in a Penny Miller catalogue, but they were about $19.95 for 50 cherubs, and no indication of just how tiny they were. When I was in Perth last year, I saw packets of them in a $2 shop ... for just $2 for 25. A bargain! Except that: when do you ever have all the lights out in a room with a Christmas tree? The cherubs can't glow in the daytime, of course, so I got to see them glow for about 30 seconds each night when I turned off the lights and headed to bed. Way to glow, cherubs!



I have lots of news from my recent holiday to Brisbane but, as each day creeps/flies by, the anecdotes seem to become a little less compelling, or less essential to tell when there are so many new things to talk about. Suffice to say that I must mention that I owe Virgin Blue a big thank you for letting my new (extra) bag onto my flight when I was running late. After seeing all those poor, angry, frustrated easyJet customers and workers on the UK TV show, "Airline", I was expecting a similar embarrassing scene, but all was calm and cool!

Sunday's magic number: 91.9 - Drat. Creeping up, even though I thought I was being fairly ruthless. Ah well, this week last year was like the beginning of the end, so tougher rules will have to apply from now on. There's still so much Christmas food around the house, though, and people gave chocolate, too. Sigh.

Th'frosty the Aenar thnowman

Yesterday's exciting find of photographs, lost since 1992, sent me into a nostalgia spin, determined to track down some other interesting pics I've always wanted to share.

Here is my Andorian snowman - in 3D! (Note that he won't actually appear in 3D on this monitor screen; it's just a normal 2D scan, although the background ends up with an interesting blurred effect.) Created in Ann Arbor, Michigan, December 1983, with my penpal Olivia, this cute alien snowperson has a phaser and Starfleet insignia (from her Star Trek collection). He's wearing a "Go Blue!" pin, the coincidentally perfect catch cry of the local Michigan University.

Knowing what we know now about Andorians (via the TV series, "Enterprise"), this is no doubt a rare Aenar snowperson.

Nimslo 3D cameras were hot stuff in the early 1980s, and took four half-size negatives of each subject, and these images were sent off by mail order and combined under rippled plastic to create a 3D picture. I was curious as to how the combined image would scan because the negatives are filed away - oh so carefully - somewhere!

The half-sized negatives can be printed like normal negatives, and I'm thinking that (when I find them), the extreme left and right images could probably be set up side by side onscreen to permit a true 3D viewing, right here in this blog, via the "drift" (ie. crossed eyes) method. But it actually scanned in 2D fairly well as it is!

Return of the bird

Yesterday, I mentioned the bird that entered the school library, seeking the spider I'd caught during my lesson. Today the bird was back! I glanced at the clock and it was exactly 24 hours since his previous visit. Good timing!

I was going to suggest that he came in to hear the next chapter of the book I was reading but, last week, my story sent one of the students into a sound sleep, so maybe I'm reading way too much into these events!

Meanwhile, I'm really enjoying seeing vacant floorspace in the living areas of the house. Last January, I pulled lots of stuff out of one room, intending to rearrange and consolidate all the stuff and store it more efficiently. Admittedly, I did end up shoving things back into the other room as visitors were imminent on Saturday for Midwinter Christmas, but still the cosmetic effect is great!



The event was successful. There were nine of us, a good number for catering purposes. Just for fun, we had a cupcake decoration contest, a full-sized artificial snowman, and enjoyed watching one friend's well-edited DVD of a vacation in Japan, and another friend's professionally edited DVD of her son's Malaysian wedding. Bluey was on display for the evening; the guests reckoned than only I would be so determined to have the world's biggest Star Trek action figure in my dining room!

There's no business like snow business

The Year 5 and 6 teachers at school/work took their classes on an excursion to the Three Sisters, Katoomba, today. The radio news this morning warned of icy conditions, a blocked highway at Wentworth Falls, closed schools, and snowfalls.

Although it looked extremely doubtful that they'd be going, especially after two recent postponements due to torrential rain and sodden conditions, they were actually able to depart on time, and were rewarded with clear views from Echo Point. A screening of a Blue Mountains movie at The Edge IMAX theatre replaced the planned bushwalk, but the students were able to scrape together enough snow to have a snowball fight.

The ESL (English as a Second Language) students took the snow in their stride - plenty of snow back in their native lands - but the views of the Three Sisters and Megalong Valley took their breath away, I hear.

It seems it as worth the risk to postpone the previous dates. According to the TV news tonight, this was the first decent snowfall in the Blue Mountains in eight years.

I guess the appropriate response is: Cool!

Too bad I had to stay behind with the younger classes. It's been 15 years since my last snowman (built of actual snow).

Frostbite folly

Today was Sydney's coldest overnight temperature for 2007 and here, near the base of the Blue Mountains, it was almost 0 degrees C. I hadn't thought about how truly cold it might have been until I was halfway to work - walking briskly - when a slight tingling on my ears made me regret not digging out a beanie and woolly gloves.

I well recall one particular morning in Chicago, USA, in December 1983. I'd been temporarily unable to make contact with my second cousin, and take up his offer of accommodation, and had booked a night at a hotel adjacent to Chicago airport. It was several degrees below freezing, but considerably even more below due to the wind chill factor.

With time to kill the next morning, I headed off to breakfast at the McDonalds across from a snow-covered park. (I was on a promise to my Ann Arbor penpal not to see falling snow until I got to Michigan.) Partway across the park, I realised that the stinging sensation to my fingertips and ears was due to going outside without the appropriate garments. I had visions of collapsing in a heap, being covered by fresh snow, and not being found until the next thaw.

I did finally make it to the McDonalds and, after eating, I reluctantly prepared to head back to the hotel. In a brainwave, I ordered a brewed coffee - and I hate McDonalds' brewed coffee - and used it to get back across the park: the coffee warming up one hand, and then the other, and reaching to cup one ear, and then the other.

Not quite frostbite, sure, but still scary (and not to mention painful).

Wednesday bizarre

It's Wednesday - halfway through the first working week of the year - so let's have a few bizarre pics to keep the momentum going.

I've been pottering around the school library this week, reminding myself of all the library administrivia and procedures I'll be expected to know like the back of my hand (by next week). All the while, I am aware of the hard, coal-black eyes of my fine frozen friend (left) sitting in the library, pining away for the sound of browsing patrons. He's left over from the skit my class performed at the last school assembly of 2006, but I didn't get a chance to photograph him till today.



But all good snowpeople need a companion, so here's an old shot of Jack in drag (right) - while on holiday in Sassafras in Victoria's Dandenong Ranges.

Yep, it's wacky Wednesday all right...

On the tenth day of Christmas

Yesterday afternoon, a casual glance out the front window happened to connect with the next door neighbours' huge black Rottweiler, Tyson, roaming the street! Now, according to the neighbours, Tyson is quite the pussy cat - and a scaredy cat - having been treated cruelly as a puppy by previous owners, but he's so aggressive when passersby venture too close to his domain that we all find it hard to believe that he wouldn't take a chunk of human flesh as a souvenir just for us daring to live in the same street. (Or at least chew on an ear, like his namesake.) But here was Tyson, a trainee Hound of Satan, free at last!

I strode out to the front yard, feigning confidence, lest I end up on the menu, only to find that Tyson had already returned to his own house, and was waiting near his owners' front steps. Wagging the tiny stump that is his tail, he greeted me with a glint of mischief in his eye. It was then that I noticed he had something in his mouth. (A toy, perhaps? A thick branch? A garden gnome? A Jack Russell terrier?) I wisely chose not to cross the invisible barrier between the two front yards, and instead elected to call out, "Doreeeeen!", until the neighbour appeared on her verandah.

"Tyson, what are you doing out?" she asked him. It was only then that we both realised exactly what Tyson had in his mouth: a huge piece of raw Christmas pork on the bone, still wrapped in white plastic netting. I guess we should be grateful that it wasn't a dismembered human arm, or similar - but a dismembered pig's leg was disconcerting enough, even just after Christmas. (Was there a three-legged pig wandering the streets of Penrith?) Although some houses in the street still had their garbage bins out from the day before, none appeared to have been knocked over, leaving us to wonder just how he came by his prize. We hope that Tyson hadn't accosted some hapless, elderly pedestrian returning from the butcher's with a post-Christmas bargain. Maybe someone tossed it to him, to get the giant, black, salivating Hound of Death off their lawn?

When last seen, Tyson was safely back in his yard. Doreen had replaced the length of Colourbond fencing panel that Tyson had so easily popped from its frame, and she was affectionately brushing dirt off Tyson's nose. Of course, he'd just buried the meaty evidence. It should ripen quite nicely in that huge hole he dug for it.

Today's ornaments, as we hurtle towards Epiphany:



Above left: For 1988, I barely recall finding the little orange Christmas dinosaur. He may have come as a boxed ornament, from Grace Bros. in Roselands. The ceramic snowman is actually a bell, with his black ceramic shoes as the clanger. He was bought "on special" in a country town's gift store during a holiday in the late December/early January. Probably Albury, New South Wales.

Above right: For 1987, the wooden Garfield the cat, of "Garfield " comic strip fame, wears a jester's outfit, complete with real little bells. I can't remember where I bought him. Probably Grace Bros., Roselands. The ceramic moose just bellowed "Buy me!" when I saw him, although I seem to remember he was quite expensive, and I only rationalised buying him because I only buy the one expensive ornament each year. The antlers seem to be cast separately and then glued into position. Like Garfield, he also wears real bells and came from Grace Bros., Roselands.

On the first day of Christmas

I was very slack/busy this year and almost didn't get my Christmas tree up in time. The school year went right up to the Thursday of last week (21st), a week later than we used to experience in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s - and soooo inconvenient for doing Spring cleaning, decorating for Christmas and relaxed shopping. The last few years, in order for the Easter break to be longer, we break up later and it seemed like I was still writing comments for students' report cards when I shoulda oughta been tidying up around the house.

Last night, I was still decorating the tree and it occurred to me that I can relate many anecdotes about my Christmas ornaments. In the early 80s, I'd read an article in one of my Mum's old "New Idea" magazines, of a young married couple, so short of money after their wedding, that they had no money left to buy many decorations for their first Christmas together. They ended up pooling their cash and buying just one single ornament, which they dated - and thus began an annual tradition: of buying one, perhaps fairly expensive, unique ornament. Over the years they built up a Christmas tree full of important memories, and the cumulative effect of such a, um, well-hung(?) tree is infinitely more special that one covered with the contents of a bag of el cheapo baubles from the local Two Dollar shop.

The idea really appealled to me, especially because there fashion and decorating trends are even reflected in Christmas ornaments - certain styles, colours, glittery effects, commercial tie-ins, etc that firmly root a particular ornament to a time and a place - so when I knew I was about to buy my first home unit, I used a trip to the USA (December 1983) to start my hunt for unusual ornaments, to scrawl dates upon and perhaps to imprint some favourite memories, for my own tree. Of course, I couldn't restrain myself to two ornaments that first year, and I've usually try for one expensive, and one el-cheapo-but-cute, ever since. Watch this space over the twelve days of Christmas!



Above left: For 2006, a Hallmark "Superman Returns" over the Daily Planet; and a Homer Simpson as Santa, complete with stolen candy hidden behind his back. The Superman came from a local Target store and Homer from "The Simpsons" was a souvenir of the recent staff shopping trip (the Christmas Cave at Alexandria).

Above right: For 2005, a silver and frosted glass snow ballerina from a Christmas store cut-price sale in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains; and Spiderman carrying a webful of toys, purchased from The Phantom Zone comics collectibles shop in Parramatta.

Birthday blog

Happy birthday to me. Luckily, I don't feel any different. Nothing else to report yet, 'cos I just got out of bed...

Captain's Log: Supplemental
A rather uneventful day. The morning was spent finishing off the snowman, as mentioned in yesterday's post. And much of the rest of the day involved snatches of time to rehearse the class with their lines for Friday's assembly. I even tried a little blackmail to keep them calm: "Now, it's my birthday today, and I'm sure no one wants to spend my birthday in Discussion Time at lunch." Okay, I know it made no sense, but it did seem to work. A bit.

The students were very charged up about the play. We haven't had time to practise with a live microphone yet - and probably won't - but they've been drilled to go slowly and loudly, since stage fright and the sight of their parents in the audience is bound to make them too fast and too quiet in their delivery of the script. I'm hoping to over-compensate now and solve a potential problem.

The afternoon was spent on my regular "trip into the city" on the train. Thursday nights have become a ritual, since 1977, when I first started travelling into the city daily to go to teacher's college in Broadway. I discovered the joy and convenience of visiting all my favourite bookshops, toy shops and comic shops all on the one night, and I can't imagine a Thursday night without new "Star Trek" items, or "Starlog" magazine, or other exciting things to buy and/or read on the way home.

It would have been nice to share my birthday evening with someone in the city, but I didn't really put any thought into who might have been available, until I found myself trudging around alone, feeling peckish and realizing some company would have been cool. Oh well, I commiserated with a Krispy Kreme donut (or two), from the tiny outlet which has opened on the site of the juice bar where I used to buy my non-fat fruit smoothies. Oh well...

Midsummer snowperson

I've spent the last few days making a life-sized snowman for use as a prop in my students' long-awaited annual class item, to be held during next Friday's assembly. Each class gets a turn, and we got the short straw, I think, as we've had to wait for the very last Friday in the school year.

It seems ludicrous to be making a snowman in December here in Australia. This particular one's made of white nylon wadding wrapped over a donated prop Bar Mitzvah drum, and, as the head, my hastily-made Humpty Dumpty prop from much earlier in the year. The snowman is almost finished and is looking pretty, um... cool! ;)

I've only ever made one real snowman before: Ann Arbor, Michigan, late December 1983, with the assistance of my US penpal, Olivia. Naturally, our snowman had a "Star Trek" theme; Andorian antennae, an authentic Enterprise insignia on his chest and a Starfleet phaser attached to one of his tree-branch hands. Actually, come to think of it, he was probably the first ever Aenar snowman. The final year of "Star Trek: Enterprise", the prequel series to TOS, introduced a blind, albino, psionic subspecies of Andorian in its final season.

The snowman for our class item will be unveiled at the climax of our readers' theatre performance, There was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow! by Lucille Colandro & Jared Lee. It's based on the higher profile children's rhyme, There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly! Except this woman eats a range of wintery ingredients (snow, a pipe, some coal, a hat, a branch and a scarf) - until she hiccups out a snowman!

Not only did it seem a festive dramatization for December, without being too Christmassy, the book allows almost every child to have something to say and do. The worst thing about school assemblies if that, traditionally, some students get shy and deliberately pull a sickie on The Big Day - but The Show must still go on. Even though they are only six, seven or eight years old, all of the students need to be able to be last-minute stand-ins for any other vacant role. Wish us luck!

I shall try to get images of both snowmen for the blog.

Captain's log: Supplemental: Well, here's the skit's snowperson, anyway.