July 2004 Archives

Their sin in the sun was a prelude to lust in the dark! Now try saying that with an Amsterdam accent. I have no idea whether I should credit some blog for this paperback covers link, I just bookmarked it, don't remember how I found it. Looking forward to this French River more and more every day. Collecting pulp fiction is easy over here by the way. I saw whole shelves of them in a second hand book store last week, the nicest ones -I saw Dashiell Hammett- lovingly wrapped in plastic. But I am not a collector.

And again: snail mail!! Love it, love it. Bloggers sure know how to snail mail. This one is from Odette, she sent me two lovely flowers, but one got damaged a bit, the envelope was damp.

Who learns young, forgets not when she is old. Almost now, almost. I would have done a lot of packing today, but it's so humid, sultry and stormy that it has been a bad migraine day. About the word sultry. The dictionary's first definition: Very humid and hot: sultry July weather. Second: Extremely hot; torrid: the sultry sands of the desert. Third: Expressing or arousing desire: a sultry look; a sultry dance. My Canadian friends who were visiting said they had never heard of the first two, only the third. They think the first two might be British. It's almost like the eternal misunderstanding in German, between schwul and schwül.

I tried to very honestly portrait my legs, while lying in the hammock. It's high time for our camping holiday. I have a book somewhere, with a similar drawing in it, only much better. I'll try to find it. ---Update--- I have searched, Michiel has searched, nothing. We both remember the image clearly, a man lying with his legs straight in front of him while drawing himself. You see the interior of the room, his legs, his drawing pad, his hands, his nose, and even the edges of an eye socket. We tried to remember in which book we saw the drawing, I had a strong association with Stefan Themerson, Michiel with "being John Malkovich". Odd. Then we remembered the image must be in "logic, labels and flesh", and that one somehow didn't come to Canada with us. It's probably at Michiel's parents. I'll mail them. (Or does any of you...?)

Oprah again:
Go look at Joli(e)'s blog!!!!!

Maybe there are still children who get bored with nine weeks of Summer holidays, but this is not one of them. While listening to an hour of non stop film music. (After Iggy Pop quite a long explanation in Dutch, but that's all)

Again we did not buy a house today. The agent showed us several, one house even got us nervous. We went back after an hour. And it had just sold. What a relief, haha. It was nice though, big kitchen, nice deck, porch, skylights, nice street, affordable... The other houses were either too small, or just plain sad.

I have a couple more, but I'm out of scrap paper. I like to print the portraits on old fashioned "kladblok" paper, I have no idea whether I can buy "kladblokken" in Canada. This one was decades old, some prints even have drawings on the back, which makes them originals, almost. The paper is beautifully discoloured. And I have nothing left, I could cry. Doesn't anyone have an old "kladblok" for me? A big one? 21 x 27?

Snail mail! Snail mail! Zeekomkommer sent me this lovely postcard!

I think Joli(e) will want me to draw a skinny one too. And then maybe do an animated gif. I'm not gonna. But my series has grown to three, that's what counts. I'll have to take on something male now. Definitively.

Have to work a little harder on my celebs sequence, fishbucket is already promoting my enormous series of two.

Hinke asks everyone to spread the word. So I do. Richard Serra did the painting, and set it free for the good cause. Go download.

Always fun, browsing old ads. Sugar 'n Spicy had them. The picture totally reflects my mood. I do want to work, but it's soooo vacation as well. Otger went to his first day of i-camp today, so Piff and I went shopping. We found such a lovely and more than perfectly fitting original dirndl... And I didn't allow her to buy it, the neckline required drinking age I'm afraid, grmpf. But it suited her, oooo. She would have looked a lot like this girl, and she's an artist. Maybe I was too strict.

We were betting on the wrong horse, we went to Kensington, not the Danforth. A whole crowd was cheering for the Portugese at our favourite coffee corner. There's usually a very Dutch atmosphere in this café, they serve "kano's" and sell liquorice in all sorts, but today, there was nothing Dutch about them. Even in the cheese shop everybody was watching the game. The nice car outside did not have a Portugese flag unfortunately. And then the game was over, and sadness hit in. Not in this guy: "There is only one of us, but we're all very happy!"

One dollar, at a yard sale around the corner. Goes to show, you always get what you need. I think it's an antique. An original "Great Lakes, Huron H-5". With a Clipper compac model no. 36 spinning reel. I guess it's at least 40 years old, I forgot to ask. Otger is ready to roll!

O yes, about tomorrow:
It’s Greece versus Portugal for the biggest prize in European football. And no matter which team takes the title at Euro 2004, there will be a massive street party somewhere in Toronto on Sunday. The only thing that needs to be decided is whether the festivities will take place on The Danforth if Greece wins or on College and Ossington if Portugal prevails.

Yay! I've booked our Summer holidays! You can post crash courses on how to go about all af the above in the comments. I'm serious, we don't know the first thing about fishing, and what to do with them if caught. And Otger would love it. I will have to buy him some equipment. And looking at the sizes of those fishes, brrr, what kind of hooks and rods are they using? Is there a book we can buy? How do we determine the variety of the fish? What are these fish names in Dutch? I already panic in a fish shop, let alone in a canoe... I'll need barbecuing recipes... And I'm not looking forward to these guys...

Number two in my Celebrities Project. Number one was Courtney Love. Next one may be Jim Carrey, or Oprah Winfrey, depends how I feel.