scheltema

My friend Ineke was in Amsterdam and found my shop displayed in the Scheltema bookstore. These are the blog entries of when I was making that thing (just to refresh you memory):
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under the sea

Today I am being showcased by a quackbusting doctor in Denmark! Or how a cow catches a hare on the internet. Whatever. I had put some quackbusting blogs on my blogroll, that's how it happened, nothing mysterious. I love reading about quackery, it just never stops puzzling me how people can fall for silly and often dangerous hogwash. And besides that, these quackbusting bloggers are sharp, humorous, intelligent, and good reads.

Hahahaha, I was wondering why I suddenly get so much more hits on my AltPick site than usual. And then I realised that the Denmark doctor's visitors must think Altpick has something to do with alternative medicine, hahahahaha! I should update that thing btw.

stretching

Or how to turn a single drawing into a spread.

I confess, I posted this monday entry on tuesday. I didn't feel like blogging yesterday. Yesterday was one of these days where everything went wrong or was plain frustrating. Little things like the streetcar driver not stopping after I had pulled the cord. Having to tell the dentist I am not going back to the periodontics guy he sent me to. I don't like him, I don't trust him, and I think he charges too much. Having to send off paperwork and finding myself out of envelopes. Taking the paperwork to the post office in a plastic bag planning to buy an envelope there. Discovering the plastic bag is wet on the inside. Not finding the hair dryer. Sitting on the porch waiting until the paperwork dries in the burning sun. Anyway. I was glad not to be in New Orleans.

etiquette 2

It's a scene straight out of the article. Unfortunately table manners aren't even mentioned in the article, otherwise I would have certainly drawn those. I am still struggling with the b&w concept as you can see. It almost depresses me, not being able to use colour. I hope I finally used enough contrast this time, I always find that the hardest, things usually end up too grey.

etiquette

Am doing an illustration on etiquette. I wish I could work non stop on my merry-go-round, but we have to eat too. The illustration is almost done, but I cannot wthhold you the gem I found researching the topic. A long time ago I used to be quite an expert in the field of etiquette. Not only was my stepmother a fierce advocate of the sport, but all volumes of the "universiteit voor zelfstudie" were on a shelf right above the desk where I did my homework. And since I had to do homework each day until half past eight or so -yeah right- I had lots of spare desk time. The volume on etiquette was my favourite. And I grew up the well behaved woman you all know.

moon

I started this one before our camping trip. That allowed me a smooth start, just colouring a drawing that was waiting for me. Feels good to be working again.

holland michigan

I found this mysterious postcard while looking for a nice image of a housekeeping scene, because that is all I did today, housekeeping. Has to be done, no way around it. Apparently this street scrubbing takes place in Michigan. I knew the Dutch are (were) known for scrubbing their sidewalks, but this is overdoing it. This is not the Dutch diaspora, these are Dutch in frigging orbit.

kasimir malevich

The nephew got on a much more realistic aeroplane this afternoon. As I am writing this, he is still up in the air somewhere. And his father -my brother- is in his car on his way to Schiphol airport to pick him up. The nephew could choose (how old are you, honey?) whether he wanted to be chaperoned onto the plane or not. He chose yes, and so we all had to wait two hours for the chaperone stewardess with her golf cart. She called the nephew "pumpkin", and "baby". That must have been his final culture shock before leaving the country. With three other teenagers and two old ladies on a golf cart.

divided we Falls

Sorry, couldn't resist, his neck was bright red. Today was the nephew's last day in Canada, so we did The Falls. Not a good idea for a Sunday afternoon, although we stand in line behind our sympathetic firefighter, we did not do the journey behind the Falls, it would have meant a wait of two hours. Tomorrow we'll drive the nephew to Pearson, and then he's on his own again. Fifteen, isn't that something. A waitress today asked him what he did, in Holland. School? What did he study? Highschool?!

hallelujah

Didn't find him anywhere, guess I am not a wise man. Then again maybe I am, the wise men haven't found him either, or they would not still be seeking, now would they. I took things in my own hands and resurrected the blog, so that at least can be found. Camping was fantastic, we went much farther north than we planned for, ended up halfway between Sudbury and Timmins. Cold nights and the first autumn colours. Outback camping, hotdogs, marshmellows, the works. Poutine even. And on our way back the world famous fresh fish and chips in Killarney. A two hour detour for fish and chips in the pooring rain. But I do have a suntan.

dog

He said he was aiming for the dog. The nephew.

CN tower

The son and the nephew. It was an ideal day for it, crystal clear sky. An hour in line to get up, an hour in line to get down. The people you get to know so well in these hours, and forget immediately afterwards. Unless you have a blog, and you can write about the Japanese couple, so frightfully shy. The girl could hardly stand on her high heels anymore. She didn't look as if she could handle the suggestion to just go barefoot. So I said nothing. And the Indian couple behind us, with their crying toddler. Why on earth do people take little children to these places? And a lacrosse team, they explained to me what lacrosse is. You learn something every day.

moon

We are not sure whether we're going to go for Killarney or for Bon Echo. We'll have to gamble on the non reservable sites, because we can never plan ahead. Bon Echo would be a safer bet, it's not that far away. Killarney is tempting though, group of seven mountains, boohoowoo...

biotex

I have no idea who did these lovely illo's, and I don't have the energy to research it. If you're in Toronto, you'll know why. I am slowly starting to prepare the camping trip. I made reservations for a Dodge caravan, which, my dear Dutch readers, is not a caravan. Unfortunately in Canada there is no such thing as Biotex. Which, my dear Canadian readers, is a detergent essential to camping trips. "Vakantiewasje? Pak Biotex mee!" But then again, Canadian camp sites are so uneuropean in many ways. Washing machines everywhere.

Update. We tortured our brains, and now we think to remember these images are stills from animated tv commercials. Must have been Geesink then. Does anybody know that? I did find larger images. And here you can listen to them!!!

crash

At least my publisher will now believe how fierce the weather conditions are in Toronto. If he didn't before. In a super thunderstorm with horizontal rains an Air France Airbus crashed at Pearson. No news yet about casualties. It was probably hit by lightning. Survivors fled onto highway 401, flagging down cars to get them to the hospital, what a nightmare.

deadline

Today was supposed to be the merry-go-round deadline. But I claim sweat exception. I have never before longed so much for autumn. Oh yes, Dave just told me about the webcam on the ROM, I didn't know that. Really interesting, go see. Liebeskind in action. And oh yes, I updated my portfolio today, that was a while ago.