heave ho

the dutch expression "blij met een dode mus" does not lend itself willingly to translation, alas, since "happy with a dead wren" sounds ever-so-slightly dire.
what it means to say, though, is simply something along the lines of: "promises, promises"...
with a nice little "tsk" at the end.
*
here are a few boats.
until i am seaworthy again.

two days from knowing

"the great advantage of being in a rut is that when one is in a rut, one knows exactly where one is."
- arnold bennett

i may have exaggerated.
somewhat.
i have boats, yes, but i also have beaches, and boarded windows. i have rust, and rainbows. i have fences as far as the eye can see.
am i consistent - i wonder - or am i simply predictable?

like a skylit water stood

if all goes well - i'm waiting on my 35mm, which should be developed and scanned by tomorrow - i will soon have (counting this medium format stuff and my little cigar box full of polaroids) nigh on 250 new images in my treasure trove of memories.
it is entirely possible that 200 of them are of boats.
does anyone mind?

truly unexpected tidings

sometimes i shoot all 36 exposures in the space of a single hour;
sometimes i collect my negatives from the shop and see a whole season reflected, reproduced in three dozen frames.
these forgotten images - the ones that cross borders (from norfolk to alkmaar to broek op langedijk, for example) and travel time - more than make up for the supreme frustration of endlessly half-finished rolls of film.
*
i'm off to see my best friend. my five favourite cameras have been fed and packed.
i'll be back on the 15th.

their own banquet

plain fare is served here. my crockery is chipped. my pots, my pans are dented. my
heart and soul stir, despite, in unison.
i aim to nourish.
i aim to please.
i love my regulars.
*
when a turkish splinter group hacked this site (WHY?) last weekend, i underestimated the random poison it scattered: it will take me a long time, and a concentrated effort, to undo its evil. without my best-ever-host, i would have closed my doors completely.
*
the joy of cooking: may it prevail.

washed in the speechless real

i wish i could say that my reticence has been reflective.
it hasn't.
i am merely tired, and taciturn, and counting the days till march.
and then may.

a walk on the wild side

"there's so much plastic in this culture that vinyl leopard skin is becoming an endangered synthetic."
- lily tomlin (american actress and comedian, b.1939)

sometimes - confronted with another's frenetic tastes - my innate tameness dismays
me.
and sometimes it doesn't.

tending the tides

i should sail a symbolic sea today, mooring my tale with maritime metaphors, plying port, spinning starboard, veering, steering, but i will simply bob the gentle waves of
this little jubilee.
*
it's been four bright and buoyant years.
i thank you!

the crowd begins to sing

the picture, the words it's worth, the song it sings, the strings it strums: there is pure power in combination and collaboration. i have often wished that i knew how to match the media, to immerse myself, and others, in image, with matter, with music..

rich silfver knows, instinctively, how. he put - as he modestly says - "a small test" together, here:
94114
*
turn the volume UP. LOUD. i do, every time.

all my slings and arrows

january, at first backward glance, looks to be thirty-one days of dithering, and
indecisive darting back and forth. i did, however, accomplish a scattering of worthwhile things:
*i stuck to The Diet...almost.
*i was a good friend.
*i survived a long series of very early shifts, with my alarm coaxing me awake at 4 a.m.
*i won (me! who never wins anything!) one of gayla's prints (i chose this one, which i find sublimely canadian, and which i will give total pride of place).
*i sipped a convivial cup of koffie verkeerd with rachel. it had been far too long.
*i booked a flight to england - to visit someone i love dearly - for the first week of march.
i desperately dislike flying, but the offer offered was too good to refuse. the travelling time (compared to boats and trains) was also too good to refuse, but i knock on wood as i say this, as the airline in question can have serious efficiency issues. i work at an airport. i know these things.
*i found a kitchen i like. perhaps this house will finally shed its plastic panelling and its holly-hobbie wallpaper.
*
i did not update here enough, though.
this, hopefully, will be the first step in the right direction.