Circle Route

Walked from Port Robinson to Downtown Welland along the Circle Route Trail. Weather was bee-yoo-tee-full. Saw a flock of red winged blackbirds, a calling heron, a rabbit, gaggles of geese, and roosting turkeys in the tops of trees! Asked several people on the trail if this was the way to Volcano's Pizza. They all said "yes" and smiled. Tested my brother's GPS unit so I can feel comfortable with it on my trip to Teeterville Friday. (Snow Day. Any non-Canadians out there need a translation for 'snow day'?)

Got home and listened to the Great Lake Swimmers new CD Ongiara. New Favourite.

This is the best website I've found yet for cooking with wheat gluten:
http://www.vrg.org/recipes/vjseitan.htm

M*A*S*H

Maybe I've been watching too many episodes of M*A*S*H this week, but it is nice to having a working DVD player in the house again. Whatever happened to "That's Our Bush"?
The classes at Rodman Hall got off to a good start. All girls, not one of them expressed concerns over what tunes I had going on the radio. CBC2 or Ryerson I suspect, but all world music for the hour and a half. The young ladies painted Do Ra Mi fa So La Ti Do in colour for me, and then moved on to a simple still life, which I called a song using their new notes. When that's done they can move on to a still life based on a simple brass object I'll let them select from my collection. Thank you, Madame Cavé.
Kevin Richardson played music at the Strega on Friday. He remembered to artwork I bought from his show a few years back with a smile. His CD was only $5 so I got one and played it when I got home. Bluesy, kinda like when the Kids In The Hall play.
Did I mention I signed up for a graffiti clean-up the Downtown Association is having in April? I can work right until painting class starts, and I won't have to change clothes.
I did a fantastic Mad Science birthday party in Welland today, and I think I finally figured out how to get onto the walking trail you can see that runs parallel to the Welland River under the 406.

Pysanky

I finally finished my LTTA obligation to the St. Michael's grade 2 classes by showing them how to make easter eggs in the Ukrainian tradition. I grew up making them like that back in Manitoba. The best part for me was boiling up 7 dozen eggs.

Realizations

1. I love living here and I love what I do. Tonight I just got home from doing Mad Science shows at the Seaway Mall in Welland. There, I got to ignite flammable gases in small containers, I got to give a big shock to my supervisor with a Tesla Coil in front of an audience, and I got to tell my new knock-knock joke to about a dozen strangers.
   Then I ran around town getting art supplies for art classes at Rodman Hall tomorrow. The kids are going to make dinosaur and animal skeletons from pool noodles. We'll also do some Zoom drawings as well, inspired by a favourite set of books written and drawn by Istvan Banyai. My lunch is already prepared: leftover home-made (not homestyle, you marketing fiends!) roadhouse style seitan sandwiches.
   Then I went to the Strega, and Kelly gave me leftover chunks of wood from her basement renovations. I'll let the kids use those for sculpture bases.
   Then! I went to the Merchant Ale House and saw Maja Bannerman perform. Jordan Fry introduced her, and compared her favourably to an orgasm. Here, we'll just say it was a very colourful and deserved description. Maja brings so much life to her performances, I think I'll start looking for more of them. Nothing on TV that can't be taped. Terrance Cox read as well.
2. My most durable relationship with an unrelated female has been with Punk-Rock-Girl, my cat.

From my mail

Told S. the joke this am. Had to explain it, but she was vastly amused. She then launched into a lengthy analysis and discourse about the phenomenon of running two words together to make different words. She promised to tell it at daycare (where she will be full-time this week because of the school break ? which probably means you are busy this week as well, come to
think of it.) Anyway, the joke could go viral. I suggest watching for it on Letterman in about 10 days. Or more likely, Leno.

S. G.

Knock Knock

I got to be a score-keeper for the Crystal Beach Comets today! They were playing the Jokers and Trevor asked me to help him as he was busy with the scoreboard and the music. All I did was write down the number of shots on goal for each team, and who got the goals. It was fun - but the hour goes by so much faster. Usually, I feel I can relax and just enjoy the rhythm of the game. Oh! And i almost forgot! The drummer for the Barenaked ladies was playing for the Jokers! Afterwards, I gave a Crystal Beach Comets book-bag filled with a copy of Logan in Overtime by Paul Quarrington to Joe Lapinski, who is also on the team. I found the bag at the Value Village, something made for an elementary school down there. The book is one of my favourites. I was inspired to do a painting after reading it, but the images I made of it were all on a zombified hard drive.

Later at the Strega, a wee Mad Scientist and I made up a new Knock Knock joke. Here's how it goes:

Knock knock
Who's there?
Europe
Europe who?
How rude!
(Try it on your friends! She couldn't stop telling it for half an hour!)

Seitan is simmering...

Mmmmmm - the seitan is simmering, awaiting the sizzle of my saucepan.

March break approaches, and art classes have gone all higgledy piggledy. I'll be covering for someone at Rodman Hall on Wednesday but don't have any other information yet. A young lady has been consulting with me about drawing her portrait. Very spiritual, she is investigating many paths right now, including New York City's best seller, The Secret.

I purchased a small bust of a Roman centurion made from resin and alabaster dust. His nose and one eye are chipped, but it still catches the light really well for portrait classes. Why should a modern portrait of a Roman be any different from the ancient Mediterranean ones? I think the damage will add character to all the drawings made using it as a model, not to mention giving those same drawings a pedigree.

Time to watch Mork and Mindy

Saturday I gave myself permission to teach 5 year old art students how to make their own spray paint devices. My caveat is that I imagine they won't be able to remember how to assemble the straws due to their distraction at how COOL spraying the paint on the paper can be. Most of the fluid has dissolved the glue in the tape by the time they were done, as most of them leave their tools in the paint dishes when not being used. Science and Art meet again! Mwah ha ha!

On Sunday, the band Oliver Black was booked in to film a music video at the Mansion House. I arrived at 6:30 a. m. to prepare the space and let the crew in. They were using real 35mm film, not video.The lead guitarist, Nicolas Lesyk, told me that while the band was writing their album down in Texas, he learned a few cooking tricks using habanero peppers. You pierce the pepper pod a few times before cooking it with your rice. This allows the pepper flavour to infuse the rice without overpowering the rice's natural graces with all the heat. The pod can be cut up later and added to another dish. This is the kind of information that makes an 18 hour workday worth the effort. The band and film crew were both remarkably gracious and professional at the end of the day. I was thanked personally by every single one of them. I really appreciate that. Sometimes i find that element of professionalism lacking in the Board of education system. (Not St. Michael's Grade 1 classes with Mrs. Billard and Mrs. Boutin!).

Tonight, I am skipping group meditation to take a cooking course: Beans, Greens and Grains.

Before going to bed last night, I watched a few episodes of Mork and Mindy on DVD, before going to bed, and I decided that Mork/Robin Williams may have invented a precursor to the emoticon, with spoken phrases like: "Heavy sigh" interjected into his dialogue. And how come I couldn't remember Mork saying "Sit on my face" to Mindy back in the day? Was I too young? Her facial expression showed a lot of surprise!

Arts Council AGM

Scurrying to the St. Catharines and Area Arts Council Annual General meeting was an adventure. News reports of icy rain and freezing snow had been terrifying drivers for hours. Today was the last day of Mad Science in Fonthill, and we exchanged a number of kits by strategically storing them directly in the Mad Science van. Steve Saturn and I will be needing 4 of them for our adventures in Teeterville tomorrow. All day people have been asking me where that is, and I haven't got a clue.

The Office (restaurant with a clever name: "Honey? I'm at the Office. Can I call you back?") supplied the nosh: Pineapple cream dip, baked potato medallions with roast pork and cramalized onions, prusciutto thingys, and more. I met a new downtown Councillor, Heather Foss. I liked her.

Kim has taken her stuff out of the Fine Grind, and Vincent Verboncouer has his stuff in. I'll put up a poster or an invite as soon as I can find one.

I'm listening to a spoken word CD. Liao-Fan's Four Lessons. It seems to have a tenuous connection to Buddhism.