Parent teacher interviews. 3 out of 6 teachers consider her nothing less than a princess. I guess that's a good score. How to get her to do the same to the other three is what we're going to have to figure out.
November 2006 Archives
Last Friday I told you that Arnon's print had turned out a tad dark. I took the weekend to think about it, and then I decided I was not going to be happy with it. It was too large as well. The portrait was a rush job when I did it, and the original drawing is really small. I knew the newspaper wasn't going to print it very big either. And the print just didn't work at 30 cm high. So I decided to have a new one done. I made it considerably lighter, and scaled it to 25 cm. And now I am happy, it turned out really well. Of course I am losing a little money on it now, but I had two done, and I am keeping one. Which I will frame, like I did with Arjan Visser.
These reprints are scattered all over the "best of books" tabloid, a selection from the 2006 NRC book sections. Lovely, print work is very pale though. And there should have been a new colour portrait in it, but I slept through that deadline, can you believe it... Doesn't happen to me often. That was last month, during all that root canal trouble. And what made it extra stupid was that I had sent out Merel to take pictures of that author, the two of them had an autographing session together. So I made Merel feel awkward for nothing. Currently I am enjoying a week without deadlines, a luxury I had almost forgotten existed. Nevertheless, still tired. Dozens of overdue chores to be taken care of. My phone is dead, for example. And so much more. The house wants cleaning. Desperately. But now the bed wants sleeping.
I can't resist giving Lee Valley some free promotion, also because Piffin attended a wonderful lathing course there, last Saturday. (Wilmar, bummer we still haven't started our Dutch blog):
Making a Dutch Wooden Shoe
3.5 hours
Saturday, March 3, 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
In this exciting seminar, "klompenmaker" Jack van Winssen will demonstrate the traditional art of making Dutch wooden shoes. Transforming a green log into a wearable piece of footwear, Jack will show the tricks and techniques to make a wooden shoe by hand using only the specialized tools of this old craft. Participants will be given an opportunity to try out the different tools at various stages. One lucky winner will get to take home the completed wooden shoe in an end of class raffle.
Fee: $25.00
Born and raised in the Netherlands, Jack van Winssen immigrated to Canada in the 1950s, and worked for several years as an aeronautical engineer. Soon after visiting many wooden shoemakers throughout Holland and acquiring a vast array of specialized hand tools, Jack decided to pursue his passion of making traditional wooden clogs. He currently is one of the few existing "klompenmakers" in Canada and the most experienced at this age-old craft.
Maarten 't Hart in colour! I love it when I get to do that, black & white is alright, but colour is so much more fun. I think it looks even more like Maarten this way. And for the rest, weekend. We went ice skating. Well, not me of course, I watched. Ron made brown beans soup. It's nice and autumny, fog in the morning. Makes all those Chinese people doing tai chi in the park look quite spooky. And I saw a homeless person in my street with an ipod. But then again. I met a Polish archeologist yesterday, she told me about this really famous Polish archeologist who got arrested for vagrancy in Moscou, just because he looked that way. So who knows, my homeless person with ipod may well have been an archeologist.
If you haven't read the article you can make a guess on what's on the top of the list of things that make women happy. According to Fay Weldon. It seems especially men are surprised about this number one thing. Not women, hehe. I certainly haven't yet had time for this number one thing today. I was up before anyone else finishing my rush job. I had planned on doing that last night, but our neighbours gave us two surprise tickets to The Caretaker. We made it a rule to only go to the theatre with free tickets. So after the ballet earlier this week, it now was Harold Pinter. In a lovely little theatre, and great acting, really. That is, everything we saw between taking turns dozing off. We were both way too tired after a week's work. We were wondering about all these other people in the audience. They didn't look half as tired as us, and still so rich. How do they do that?
I am afraid the title today will be longer than the actual entry. I haven't anything to say. My neighbour succesfully turned 40 last night. I have been given some more time for a rush job. Arnon's print is a tad dark. The sun is shining, it's a perfect day. I traveled half the city with my slight hangover. I have to render Maarten 't Hart into colour as well. Ger Groot seems to be the first of the Tirza reviewers I more or less agree with. Tirza is the only Grunberg book he read, I read all of them. Curious. And I think Hella Haasse looks pretty good in print.
Okay, okay, I do have another piece of lovely proze to share. Clare and I got our 40-year-old the new Tom Waits album: I try my best to chug, stomp, weep, whisper, moan, wheeze, scat, blurt, rage, whine, and seduce. With my voice, I can sound like a girl, the boogieman, a Theremin, a cherry bomb, a clown, a doctor, a murderer…I can be tribal. Ironic. Or disturbed.
The greys and the contrasts. I noticed I am also featured on the NRC website today. 39 by 56 pixels. Scroll all the way down. I just ordered a print of the same drawing, 2208 by 3303 pixels. I am a woman of many dimensions. (Lex!)
Tomorrow the greys and the contrasts. And the Grunberg print. And the party. And the orthodontist. See you there. Here, somewhere. And oh, after the Dutch parliament elections I am even gladder I voted Femke. The Dutch are a raving mad people. I am one of them.
And for this I missed the dress rehearsel of "Song of the Earth" & "Symphony in C" by the national ballet. Piffin was very grateful for my ticket, and maybe it's even better that she went instead of me. The well rounded education of the young lady. After all.
Nothing much to tell, except that they also have me draw two authors this week. I two seperate drawings. Which should keep me off the streets until Thursday. Thank god I'm invited to a big party on Thursday night, so I have something to look forward to. Did I mention I have a galerist? Huh! A bibliophilic literary antiques dealer roams the fairs with prints of my work, and he already sold Grunberg for me. Which means I also have to get myself to the printshop, this week.
We casted our votes for the Dutch parliament tonight. It was really easy, we just went to the website, typed in the code that we received by mail, and clicked Femke. Good luck representing us, Femke!
They are still not done with Tirza, I just hope that next time they won't forget to print my name with the Arnon Grunberg portrait. Today Elsbeth Etty puts the murder into doubt. I must be a very one-dimensional reader, to me murder is murder. I thought the diguise was just a way to construct a clever ending to the novel. Maybe I was wrong. And Janet Luis does not explain the title of Willem Brakman's book, haha. You can find the explanation in Tuesday's comments though. Emil Filla's painting of a Dostojevski reader -top left- bears a strange resemblance with Wednesday's photo. The article's title would perfectly fit the photo. I am so glad I am not 17 anymore...
This nursing manikin features a geriatric appearance including skin wrinkles and reddened skin folds. Convertible between geriatric male and geriatric female, the manikin is supplied with a wig as well as a stage 1 decubitus sacral ulcer, a normal mole and a cancerous mole. One pupil is dilated. The neck and all the joints of the arms and legs are fully movable into any natural human position. Over 35 nursing and medical procedures such as catheterization and prostate examination can be demonstrated and practiced. Meets all OBRA requirements. Delivered in storage carton.
The one on my right, with the collar. She googled me, and I am delighted. We always used to bike to school together. We must have done hundreds of kilometers together, being the only ones living in the big city of Eindhoven and going to school in the god-forlorn village of Veldhoven. Memories are being emailed between Toronto and The Hague. And now for my son's school, how different! He brought this picture home today. Of course this class population isn't a represention of our neighbourhood, it's the same damn problem around the globe, Toronto is no exception. In Germany children were supposed to attend their neighbourhood school. Except of course, when that was impossible because of work, or after school programs, etc. So people made sure they had those problems. In Belgium the system was quite hilarious, but to be honest, I liked it best. Choice of school was completely and utterly free. So all the parents went looking for the best schools. Which meant that some schools were left with only immigrant children. And then of course the immigrant parents also took their children out. After which the near empty schools were taken over by idealist alternative zealots who created new little paradises. Curious. But Toronto is Germany all over again. Mandatory neighbourhood schools. Unless of course, tips & tricks. So the parents from our neighbouring lesser neighbourhood, Regent Park, send their children to our school. Parents in our neighbourhood send their children to our neighbouring better neighbourhood, North Riverdale. And I suspect the parents in North Riverdale send theirs to Rosedale. And the Rosedale parents can afford private schools.
Question is, what is he doing? I know what he is doing, because he told it in a radio interview. Maybe you will be able to read what he is doing in this Friday's newspaper. Any ideas now?
I was offered money today, for a page from this sketchbook. As if I would cut it up just like that, no way. But the idea of it sure made sketching the next author into my little moleskine more fun. Willem told me he used to know this week's author. Through a friend. One day the author wanted to play a game of chess with Willem. But he turned up with a second from the local chess club! For consultation on his moves. Needless to say Willem offered a draw as early as politely possible. Read Willem's comment on this post, it's almost the same story. Oh btw, thanks to Eva -who told me where to get them- I now have chocoladeletters! And they still had all our letters at Shopper's Drugmart, thanks Eva! Why on earth does Shopper's Drugmart sell chocoladeletters?
The black & white version of Arnon Grunberg will be in the Sinterklaas tabloid, I did this emergency colouring job the day before yesterday. It's out of focus in the digital paper, but Willem tells me it looks al right on real paper. It was the first time I was asked to draw an author when I had actually already read the book myself. And while up intil Tirza I had adored everything by Arnon Grunberg, Tirza itself to me was a bit of a disappointment. I don't know, I saw the end coming three chapters ahead... Why is Hofmeester frantically doing yard work? Oh, of course he has killed Tirza and Choukri. Why is Hofmeester hanging out on Schiphol all the time? Oh, a connection with pretending to see Tirza and Choukri off from Frankfurt airport. Too much construction, composition, to my liking. Which would be perfectly fine, but the story is a family story, very much a story story, a saga, a narrative. With a little less credibility than I think such a story needs. I much prefer Arnon Grunberg's writing about the more absurd. I haven't read Willem van Maanen's book. I would like to though, having read Elsbeth Etty's review.
Just back from the Dutch Treat Borrel. And lovely Mr. Niemeyer brought all of us our homesick groceries. The system is elegant in its simplicity, you go to the Niemeyer (exclusive Albert Heyn imports in Canada) website, place your order, and Mr. Niemeyer brings everything to Betty's. And has a beer. Or two. And I think I was made somewhat of a board member, but I insisted to be a board member for bacon and beans.
This machine is called a wipkip in Dutch, a humping chicken. I have no idea what the proper term in English would be, but it's very probably a more proper word. Now all I have to do is colour Arnon Grunberg, I hope he likes that. And get Michiel to prepare the chicken, I thought chicken would be the proper thing to eat tonight. Everything is connected in my life.
Michiel and I just went to the store to buy toilet paper. One of these things. And I am very grateful that there are always stores open in our neighbourhood. Even christmas and new year's eve. But about the chicken bones. We were contemplating them while on our way through the rain, to buy toilet paper. Why are there so many chicken bones on the street? Orbit finds them e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e, and they're not good for him. It's a mystery. Do people eat so much chicken? And then if they do, why do they all throw their bones on the street? And why are Chinese old ladies afraid of dogs? Anyway, this drawing will be in this Friday's newspaper. Deo volente. Because tonight a rocket was launched at the printery, no kidding. Amsterdam is a dangerous place. Are there chicken bones in the streets of Amsterdam?
Another day of egging, postponing, distracting, avoiding. And then late at night suddenly it is not so hard. Well, at least I have something to start from tomorrow morning. After I nurse Otger, who is sick, Orbit, who has a running eye, and Michiel, who had a woodworking mishap, but all of his limbs still.
No dog story today, my head was blown off. But I do want to blog the wonderful collection of always-a-couple-and-a-dog Lilliput covers I found. More about Walter Trier here.
For a moment there I thought I found Takkie, with a grown up Janneke. But Takkie looks a bit different. Typical internet fun, we -the Dutch- all know our national hero Fiep Westendorp, and in Argentina they probably know Guillermo Divito. Working in the same era, in the same style as so many illustrators in those days. I have a nice Takkie story too, today. Our Takkie had a bath. Now Orbit's previous owners insisted he was afraid of water, and they always sent him to a groomer. A perfectly short haired dog! Nonsense. But Orbit was starting to smell a little too doggy to my liking. We filled five buckets with lukewarm water (our shower head is attached to the wall, no good) and Michiel took Orbit and sat down in the bath tub. I poored the water. Michiel rubbed in the shampoo. He liked it! He loved it, swear to god. Ergo, never believe people who have their pet adopted. Oh, and byyy the waaay, finally updated my portfolio.
Yesterday kids & dogs, today people & animals. I call that progress. Hans den Hartog Jager, another author I only knew from my favourite radio program, wrote a novel about overpopulation, animal rights activists, nature lovers, re-introduced wolves, a cottage in Belgium, nature/nurture, instinct, reason and the Beast in Man. Researching Hans, I listened to a radio interview, in which he commented on the sudden popularity in Holland of a political party "for the animals". He had an interesting take on the subject I thought. And now in this review I read that he has his main character Maltus express this view in the novel: "For the time being he concluded that the kind of people who in the seventies and eighties justified themselves by hugging workers and negroes had shifted their field to animals".
Joris, in yesterday's comments: Gee Eliane. Model kids and a model dog. Now you really start to scare me ;-) I cannot leave that unanswered. I commented back that I don't like complaining on the blog, but that's not completely right. Truth is, I don't think it's that hard having model kids and model dogs. This morning, for instance. I was trying to teach Orbit some better listening skills. I called him back to me every time he was a little bit away, made him sit, and praised him. Simple. He thought it was good fun, so he complied. The little bits less little each time. Suddenly a German shepherd runs towards him, its owner screaming and shouting even before his dog reached Orbit. It sounded as if he was cheering him on, the stupid owner. Of course the dog attacked. Orbit squeaking like a pig, and the shepherd growling. Fortunately Orbit was still in our training mode, I called him, and he came over just like that. Observing other dog owners is very instructive, I find. I watched a professional dog walker as Orbit approached his pack. The dog walker sat down on his heels, making himself small, talked to Orbit in an inviting tone of voice, and patted him. Simply showing his dogs that Orbit was nice. I stole that trick immediately, because Orbit is a very dominant little character, and he often tries to intimidate other dogs. Except when I show my liking for the other dog. Simple. I have to admit I am nervous around pitbulls, and showing nervousness is bad. The same goes for kids. Don't show nervousness. Never share your fears and worries, show them how much fun everything is! Never ever shout at them. And don't even get me started on punishing. Everybody makes mistakes, and so do dogs and kids. Love the bomb.
I also went to the life drawing class tonight, but I gave up after an hour, I was so tired. I could hardly stand up at my easel, and I couldn't stop yawning in the overheated room. Bad for the focus. Very bad. And I knew Michiel was frying fish at home. So I went home and ate fish. I am not only tired from doing all these drawings -Clare insists I need down time- but also from walking Orbit. He is with us for over six weeks now, so we started letting him run off leash. He is so happy! He runs as fast as a canon ball, with big dogs, small dogs, all dogs. And whenever he meets a dog looking for trouble, he just runs away, such a good boy. Although this afternoon such a dog went after him, scary. And Orbit doesn't really listen very well at greater distances. But I discovered he does listen to "sit!" from a distance. He just sits down and waits for me to put his leash back on.
