Month: September 2013

Countries that do not use the metric system

Where Google Street View is available

Peter Sever forwarded a message with a whole raft of similar maps, many U.S.A.-centric. The ones above were the first two. If you’d like to see them all, drop me a note and I’ll forward Peter’s message to you.

Photo of Bill and his bike by Danica. Top of Woodfield Road
The shortcut to Monarch Park was closed for a while, but is back now, spiffier than ever. What we learned on our bike ride today:

1. Hills down to the tunnel are fun.
2. Hills up from the tunnel are not.
3. Next time, walk the tunnel and leave the bike at home.

Yesterday we learned:

1. Riding bikes on busy streets with cars is not fun.
2. Riding on car streets with bicycle paths is better, but still not fun.
3. Riding to bicycle-only paths is best done via quiet side streets.
4. Bicycle paths (no cars) are great!

Its easy enough to notice how people behave differently toward us, depending on what we are wearing, but the effect on our own behavior is less apparent.
Good to be aware of, but it’s neither a good thing nor a bad one, as I see it. Fewer mistakes by lab coat-wearing medicos, on one hand, loss of critical judgement in some uniform-wearers, on the other.
As usual, Shakespeare got it right. “All the world’s stage” and we players tend to perform our parts according to the costumes we are wearing.

I know this is getting repetitive, but framing pictures is taking up most of our time these days. It’s never boring, because there is so much range in the styles and subject matter, it’s hard to believe they are all by one person.

Dune in Iran by Helen Andersen. Image 10″x15″
Helen and Raabye lived for some months in the eastern part of Iran, when Raabye took a contract to do accounting for a lumber company there.

Hawaiian Tikis by Helen Andersen. Image 10″x14″
When Helen and Raabye went to Hawaii, which they did several times, Helen took her paints along and her interest in aboriginal art. I like this one for its composition and for the sense of airy light it conveys.

Mill Tailings Holding Dam _ Salmo, by Helen Andersen 11″x9″. 1980. Watercolour
Although it looks completely different from the two pictures above, it is quite representative of the way Helen handled B.C. landscapes throughout her career. Her interest in industry was a common theme, too. Sawmills, tugboats, fishing boats, construction sites and farm fields figured frequently in her work.

How does a thoughtful fellow spend his time on a rainy day? If you’re Lloyd and you’ve been reading about mass shootings in the news, you dig deeper and find different ways to look at the problem.
Murder by Gunshot ‐ USA and Canada
A person is 7 times more likely to be murdered by guns in the USA than in Canada. Interestingly, your odds are increased to more than 40 to 1 if you are in the United Kingdom compared to USA.

Old West End Houses – Vancouver, by Helen Andersen, pastel on paper, 1967. Image size approx. 17″x12″
I like the bright colours and the composition in this newly matted and framed picture. Pastels can hold up surprisingly well, even under less than favourable storage conditions. Such a delicate medium, but still very fresh looking 46 years later.
One thing I discovered while removing the old matte… the archivists are right. NEVER use masking tape to attach paper artwork to its matte. The adhesive from the tape seeps into the paper and stains go right through. Luckily, on this one, only about a quarter inch all the way around was affected. The new matte hides the discolouration and now it is held in place with acid-free tape on the top edge only.

I’ve been a user of Mac computers since 1991 and when Apple began its transition into a mobile phone company, I followed them by purchasing iPods and an iPad. For at least 15 years, I was enthusiastic about Apple announcements of new software and hardware. But gradually, that keen interest has been dimming.
My iMac still works well, but so does my landline phone. In fact, that’s how I think of my Apple stuff now… reliable utilities but not really exciting. Some would say that I was mistaken to find computer products exciting in the first place, of course.

Tools I used at the start of my career as an advertising art director (mid 1970s) now show up as antiques in Craigslist ads. One of the biggest expense in assembling a print ad was buying typeset copy.
Headlines and body copy set on linotype machines (video) actually involved molten lead being poured into moulds to make lettering. We also got our type on strips of paper. It was cut apart with xacto knives and pasted into place on artboard with rubber cement or wax. Yikes! How flaming primitive.
Many, many crappy systems emerged on the market, offering cheap ways to make type without paying big bucks for the good stuff. These systems were inevitably awful, producing badly kerned, uncrisp letters in ways that were time-consuming and clumsy to use. Clients often couldn’t see the difference, though… and hey, who cared if the work was a pain in the ass. You could even get a stenographer (look it up) to do it. She was a lot cheaper than a skilled typesetter.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The Tragedy: Frank Slide by Helen Andersen. 1986. Image 17″x20″, airbrushed gouache on Arches paper
In 1903, the small mining town of Frank was crushed by a huge rockfall that killed 70 people out of the population of 600.
Why did Helen choose this subject? As far as I know, she never visited the site. It happened many years before she was born. And why does her picture look so “un-tragic”. The delicate hues and soft forms seem completely at odds with the story. Perhaps there will be clues in her writings and journals, but for now, the painting remains a bit of a mystery.

Someone managed to set up a GoPro video cam for a birds eye ride over Chamonix, France.