bitdepth

Kayaking in Keji

Kayaking in Keji I live in the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia, which is one of the most amazing, beautiful places in the world. Yesterday I went to Kejimkujik National Park which is about 90 minutes away from Wolfville (giving distance in units of time is a Canadianism that I’ve recently become aware of). Even though I’ve lived in Nova Scotia for 4 years now, I’ve never gone to Keji as it’s affectionately called. It’s an amazing place. It’s sad, but all too often we miss the wonderful places and things that are close to us. Keji has camping, hiking trails and boat rentals and is very affordable. I’m definitely going to go back and explore the park and maybe even get a tent and stay there. I’m more of a hotel person than camping person, but maybe I’ll change a bit.
To capture some moments without the fear of ruining an expensive digital camera, I bought a cheap digital camera that is also submersible. While it removed the fear of the camera being splashed by water, the pictures look like pictures taken with a cheap digital camera. But part of me likes the grainy, impressionistic images from it.

August 6, 2004 camping, keji, novascotia

Big Fish

I’ve liked every one of the films that Tim Burton has made, but for some inexplicable reason I didn’t see Big Fish in the theatre. While many critics have praised it as Burton’s most mature film, etc, etc, etc, I think that they’re ignoring a lot of Burton’s work. Sleepy Hollow is complex, dark and solid. Ed Wood is brilliant as it tells the story of a tragic figure in the style of the films of Ed Wood. What I think Big Fish manages to do is combine the more serious elements of Burton’s work with the more fanciful elements. There is a great cast and a sentimental story that sucked me in. How could I not love a story about someone who tells stories? It’s an episodic tale of a man’s life told through stories with a framing structure that holds it all together. It’s beautiful and melodramatic, and it clicked for me. Telling stories is one of the fundamental and important things that we do whenever more than one person is around. We should celebrate it more.

August 4, 2004 bigfish, film, review, timburton

The Dreamers

Bernado Bertolucci loves cinema. If you don’t believe me, then see The Dreamers. It’s a light, wonderful love letter to cinema which, for many, is wrapped up with the French New Wave and the reaction of French critics to American films. It’s a simple story of a Matthew, a young American cinephile who meets Isabel and Theo and falls in love. Part of the film is a love letter and a lot of the film is a exploration of youth and sexuality. Setting the film in Paris in Spring of 1968 makes it possible to explore all sorts of ideas about when film became a more self-conscious art. But it’s not a didactic film and it’s not boring. It captures the feeling of falling in love with the flickering images on the screen and the feeling that you’re seeing a whole new world for the first time. Maybe I’m biased, but meeting a scarily beautiful uninhibited woman who only wants to talk about films, see films, reenact scenes from films and have sex is probably a fantasy shared by many cinephiles. But Bertolucci makes it more than a tawdry fantasy and manages to combine the sensual, the cinematic and the political in a Brechtian mix that never seems heavy. Maybe it’s not for everyone, but I loved it.

August 3, 2004 bertolucci, film, review, thedreamers

Graduation

On my way in to graduate Two years ago (less two weeks) I began a journey with the Nova Scotia Community College. I attended New Faculty Orientation which was the first of 10 courses as part of the Community College Education Diploma Program. Last summer I spent a month in Truro as part of the Summer Institute. It was an amazing experience that changed my life. At the end of this phase of the experience I was lucky enough to be chosen to speak for the graduating class which is quite an honour. I was able to spend a couple of days before the ceremony in Truro with some of my friends and had a great time. I felt like I belonged and was happy and solid and centered. On the morning of July 30 I wore a blue gown and lined up with my fellow graduates in Truro and we walked in to the gym and graduated. (Carolyn took the picture of me on the way in.) I’ve typed up a version of my speech to preserve the moment. Here’s what I said.

August 2, 2004 ccedp, graduation, me, nscc, truro

2 / 2

Kayaking in Keji

Big Fish

The Dreamers

Graduation

About