February Winnipeg Free Press Photographs - David Lipnowski Photography

Sorry for neglecting the blog lately. This post as well as the last are a selection of photographs that I like for one reason or another. Some have been published, some have not. Here they are.


DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (February 27, 2010)
Children from the Manitoba Great Wall Performing Arts Inc. prepare and wait backstage for their performance for the belated Chinese New Year celebrations at Pantages Theatre Saturday night.


DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (February 27, 2010)
Children from the Manitoba Great Wall Performing Arts Inc. perform during the belated Chinese New Year celebrations at Pantages Theatre Saturday night.


DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (February 27, 2010)
Children from the Manitoba Great Wall Performing Arts Inc. prepare and wait backstage for their performance for the belated Chinese New Year celebrations at Pantages Theatre Saturday night.


DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (February 12, 2010)
Second grader at Clifton School Bryden Harper-Lathlin waits as the head of the dragon to go out and perform during the Chinese New Year’s celebration at Principal Sparling School Friday afternoon.



DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (February 5, 2010)
Convention Centre Executive Chef Quentin Harty with a full display of Mardi Gras dishes.
Pictured here: Louisiana Crab Cakes



DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (February 5, 2010)
Convention Centre Executive Chef Quentin Harty with a full display of Mardi Gras dishes.
Pictured here: Shrimps Creole


DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (February 7, 2010)
Canadian LT Mass Start Championships 2010. Speed skating general art at the Susan Auch Speed Skating Oval Sunday afternoon.


DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (February 7, 2010)
Joseph Neufeld (left) slips around the corner as Daniel Marcoux keeps upright during Ice Bike 12 at the forks Sunday afternoon, in which dozens of cyclists participated in the winter bike race.


DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (February 7, 2010)
Cyclist make their way past the Saint Boniface Cathedral during Ice Bike 12 at the forks Sunday afternoon, in which dozens of cyclists participated in the winter bike race.


DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (February 7, 2010)
Daniel Nemetchuk has an icy face after winning the 11.5KM Ice Bike 12 race at the forks Sunday afternoon, in which dozens of cyclists participated in the winter bike race.



DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (February 7, 2010)
Daniel Nemetchuk has an icy face after winning the 11.5KM Ice Bike 12 race at the forks Sunday afternoon, in which dozens of cyclists participated in the winter bike race.


DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (February 13, 2010)
Lead Steve Gould of team Stoughton celebrates after defeating Team McEwan during the Safeway Provincial Men’s Curling Championship at the TG Smith Centre in Steinbach Sunday afternoon.


DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (February 10, 2010)
Heather Moore is the executive director of the Prairie Scene festival at the National Arts Centre. For a story about plans to bring around 500 prairie artists to Ottawa for a festival in 2011.


DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (February 11, 2010)
Fresh IE (Robert Wilson) and Sheila North Wilson. Story is about how they met for On7 Valentines day.

Closing thoughts on the Olympics

Watching some of the Olympic ice skating made me miss my Aunt Seashell. She used to call me on the phone, and say,”Hey, there’s ice skating on television right now,” and I’d switch my television on. Once as a present, she bought my daughter and me tickets to an ice skating show. She died ten years ago, and I haven’t watched much ice skating since.

Of course, now when I look at the Olympic athletes, they remind me of my own kids. I kept looking up at the screen to see scruffy young men with long hair, totally focused on their sports, going all out to win, often the same age as Boy in Black or Shaggy Hair Boy, and I’d recognize that same intensity that drives my kids to succeed on the Ultimate field and at the piano and in the classroom.

Many of my friends say that they hate it when skaters or skiers fall, but I like watching the dramatic tumbles. At the Olympics, you’ve got athletes who are the best in their country at what they do — and yet, they still make mistakes. I find that strangely comforting.

Big Love, "Next Ticket Out": If you can dodge an accusation of adultery, you can dodge a tetherball

Well, nothing on tonight's penultimate episode of "Big Love" season four was as gonzo or ridiculous as last week's Mexican adventure, but there's still too much going on and I have yet to see anything to convince me that Bill's political campaign isn't the most credibility-damaging storyline on a previously-good drama since the Dillon Panthers' backup tight end went on a 12-state killing spree.

On the plus side? Tetherball fights always remind me of good times at summer camp.

What did everybody else think?

Caprica, "There Is Another Sky": New Cap hustler

A belated review of the latest "Caprica" coming up just as soon as I rip my arm off...

"What are you?" -Vesta
"I'm awake." -Tamara

One week after Daniel Graystone vowed to stop making profits off the holo-band business, and in the same episode where Daniel told his board that said business was finished, "Caprica" made its deepest plunge yet into the virtual world that sits adjacent to the 12 Colonies, in an episode that embraced all things cyber-punk(*).

(*) Question: has "The Matrix" trilogy so overtaken the public's conception of this kind of story that we now have to reference Neo and Morpheus anytime one comes up? Even in an episode whose visual aesthetic was much more "Dark City" than anything the Wachowskis did?

Until now, Tamara's avatar had been an afterthought compared to the Zoe/avatar/Cylon trinity. Not anymore. What started out as a kind of nightmare for the poor virtua-kid (not knowing who/what she is, in the control of people just looking to profit from her unique abilities) turned into a kind of Pyrrhic victory, in which Tamara discovered she was dead but also came to understand the level of power she has in this world, and that she has nothing to fear from anyone just plugging into the holo-band from the real world. A very well-played journey by Genevieve Buechner, and now I'm very curious to see how or if Tamara's story is going to intertwine with the creation of the Cylons.

And speaking of those lovably obedient sentient robots, Daniel and Zoe took a backseat to the Adamas (living and dead) this week, but Daniel's demonstration to the board was memorably macabre - so over-the-top and horrific that it likely distracted the board from a deeper questioning of Daniel's pitch - and an even better use of the show's shifting perspective of Zoe than last week's robo-boogie dance number. Zoe is sentient, but this body prevents her from entirely acting on her own free will, and as Daniel talks about making these robots do whatever humanity wants them to, it's not hard to understand why an entire race of Zoes might want to rebel some day.

More good material with the three Adama men(**), and of course Joseph would finally let himself come to terms with his wife and daughter's deaths at the exact moment he learned that Tamara's avatar isn't quite gone yet.

(**) Again, we're not going to go very in-depth about "BSG" for the sake of anyone who might seek that show out later, but watching this trio, it's not hard to see that hard old man Bill Adama took after his uncle, while indecisive Lee is very much Joseph's grandson.

"Caprica" the series is still forming itself, piece by piece. I'm not entirely sure where the story is going (other than the broad points we know from "BSG"), nor whether we're going to have a consistent style or tone from week to week, but every episode so far has held my interest while I wait to get a better view of the big picture. So Espenson, Moore, Eick and company are doing something right.

What did everybody else think?

Cryptopopology: Bob Dylan in The Madhouse on Castle Street

The Madhouse on Castle Street

While Bob Dylan was a burgeoning newcomer performing in New York City circa 1962, he was watched closely by directer Philip Saville who was apparently impressed enough with the performer's charisma that he asked Mr. Dylan to come to London to star in a television play entitled The Madhouse on Castle Street.

The Madhouse on Castle Street was written by Evan Jones and directed by Philip Saville, and it told the tale of a lonely man who locked himself in his room, refusing to emerge until the world has become a better place.

Bob Dylan was initially slated to play the lead role of Lennie--'an anarchic young student who writes songs'--but indeed he had no prior acting training or experience. This also seemed to entail a lack of acting ability as well, and during early rehearsals it was discovered that he could not remember his lines--which could be considered odd, seeing as how many song lyrics he already had in his repertoire.

Not ready to call it quits with Dylan, Saville shuffled the play a bit and created an additional role for him. Actor David Warner took over as Lennie, and Dylan became something of a wandering minstrel by name of Bobby, performing songs that commented on the action taking place on stage. At the finale of the play, Dylan is said to have performed Blowin' in the Wind, the first in a long line of huge public performances of the song that would later become a hit.

Dylan and Warner, who was just starting out in his career and would later go on to participate in such eclectic genre features as The Omen, Tron, Twin Peaks, and Batman: The Animated Series, were also joined by television performers Maureen Pryor, Ursula Howells, Reg Lye, James Mellor, and Georgina Ward.

The teleplay was broadcast on the BBC on Sunday January 13, 1963, part of the network's Sunday-Night Play series, with a running time of sixty minutes. One would think that a copy of this early performance of Bob Dylan's must exist, but it would seem that footage is forever lost. As was common practice of the era, the 35mm master was junked in 1968, after its shelf life had "expired" in accordance with the contract. Reportedly an unfathomable amount of priceless television footage had been destroyed by the BBC before their 'junking' policy was revoked in 1978, and The Madhouse on Castle Street was only one of many, many shows to have disappeared forever.

Still photographs of the production have survived, however, as well as some audio recordings made by viewers utilizing their then-advanced reel-to-reel recorders. Although a full-length audio copy of the proceedings has yet to surface (and it is very unlikely that it ever will), fans and collectors alike keep their fingers crossed, and keep the hope alive.

Below is a sample of one such song, "The Ballad of the Gliding Swan", said to be taken from the missing teleplay.



Along with "The Ballad of the Gliding Swan" (largely thought to be a collaboration between Dylan and playwright Evan Jones) and Dylan's own "Blowin' in the Wind", Dylan also performed the traditional tracks "Hang Me Oh Hang Me" and "The Cuckoo".

To coincide with the release of Martin Scorsese's 2005 Bob Dylan documentary No Direction Home, the BBC broadcast a documentary entitled Dylan in the Madhouse that detailed the musicians first BBC appearance, and issued a worldwide plea for collectors to come forward with any footage they may have in their possession.

The Beeb (and the rest of the world) is still waiting.

Further Reading:

• The BBC
  
• The Guardian
• The Independent
• The Sunday Telegraph (.pdf)
  

Don't think twice, it's all right...
--J/Metro

December and January Winnipeg Free Press Photographs - David Lipnowski Photography

DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (December 19, 2009)
Manitoba Moose Brian Salcido (#22) collides with Lake Erie Monsters Philippe Dupuis (#9) during third period action Saturday night at the MTS Centre. The Lake Erie Monsters beat the Moose 3-2.


DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (January 16, 2010)
Milwaukee Admirals' Scott Ford (#4) fights with Manitoba Moose Pierre-Cedric Labrie (#32) during first period action at the MTS Centre Saturday night.


DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (December 29, 2009)
University of Manitoba Bisons Eric Garcia (#4) grabs the ball from between a Univeristy of Winnipeg Wesman's legs with seconds to go in the 4th quarter Tuesday afternoon.


DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (January 16, 2010)
Snow Kiter Trevor Potapoff enjoys an unusually warm winter day at Oak Hammock Marsh Interpretive Centre Saturday afternoon.


DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (December 27, 2009)
Ice skaters at the forks.


DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (December 31, 2009)
People enjoy the New Year's Eve fireworks display at The Forks Thursday night.


DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (January 16, 2010)
It was a nice day for a horse ride along highway 7 Saturday afternoon.


DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (January 09, 2010)
Aaron Burnett sings along with Rhea Hall (3) during the Winnipeg Folk Festival's Little Folk Series at the Folk Exchange Saturday morning. The Winnipeg Folk Festival's Folk School has a wide variety of hands-on workshop, such as this one aimed athe some of the festival's youngest audience members.


DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (January 23, 2010)
Dave Daley shares a special moment with one of his dogs prior to leaving the Hugo St. Docks for the Forks Saturday morning. Daley and his 11 dogs sled more than 1,200 KM from Churchill to Winnipeg.


DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (February 18, 2010)
Human rights activist Ali Saeed wants an apology from the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority because of an incident at Richardson International Airport in which a scan of his hands found traces of TNT.


DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (January 16, 2010)
Oak Hammock Marsh Interpretive Centre's Jacques Bourgeois jumps into the marsh Saturday afternoon at Oak Hammock Marsh Interpretive Centre as part of a Survivor Workshop in which Dr. Gordon Giesbrecht (Dr. Popsicle) led.


DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (January 14, 2010)
Ben MacPhee-Sigurdson for water tasting feature (scotch mixed with water pictured)


DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (January 06, 2010)
137 Marine Drive in Van Hull Estates. Homes section.


DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (January 29, 2010)
Writer, former boxer, and Human Rights Activist Rubin "Hurricane" Carter spent 22 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, spoke to students at the Univeristy of Manitoba Friday afternoon as part of Celebration Week. Pictured, Carter shows his world champion boxing titles to the crowd.


DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (January 29, 2010)
Writer, former boxer, and Human Rights Activist Rubin "Hurricane" Carter spent 22 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, spoke to students at the Univeristy of Manitoba Friday afternoon as part of Celebration Week.


DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (December 19, 2009)
Niki Vegh and Tim Coffin (Tim was on the reality TV show 'Jetstream') kiss during weddings photos at the Forks Saturday afternoon. The two were married Saturday afternoon.

Daffodils in February and putting the cart before the horse with Antonia White

I have photographed my copy of Jane Dunn’s “Antonia White: A Life” with a vase of daffodils not because they reflected my mood whilst reading the book, but because I needed cheering up. A dear friend has been bullying me for years to read White’s classic novel of convent school life Frost in May. I finally acceded and thought it deserving it of its reputation. I can understand why this book was chosen as the very first Virago Modern Classic. Aware that Frost in May is heavily autobiographical, I then jumped feet first and with much speed into its author’s biography.

As a cursory glance at this blog will show – I do love a good biography. But sometimes, just sometimes, reading a biography of a writer before one has read most of their work can be a shame. I suppose that the reason for this is that knowledge of the life and demons of a writer can taint the way we see their work. Jane Dunn’s biography of Antonia White is excellent, but I wonder if I should have waited.

Antonia White – the first Virago lady was a remarkable talent. Born in the last year of the 19th century, Antonia’s life changed when her father converted to Catholicism when she was seven years old. Her father’s conversion was the defining spiritual event of Antonia’s life and she would turn it and its implications over in my her mind for many years and in the midst of doubts, rebellions and reconversions. Her father took to his new faith with gusto and Antonia was sent to be educated at the Convent of the Sacred Heart at Roehampton. Her account of the cruelties and bigotries of convent school life – where children were encouraged to fall asleep with their hands clasped in prayer lest they should die in the night still has the power to shock us today.

It was not simply Antonia’s spiritual landscape that was laid out at Roehampton. So too, her identity as a writer was formed. The dramatic events at the end of Frost in May (which I will not spoil for readers who have not read it) left Antonia with a profound, tormenting sense of personal victimhood and an inability to write fiction. Although her writing was outstanding, she would never, even as a grown up woman be able to write purely fictional work. Like another Virago writer of the same period – Barbara Comyns – her writing was cathartic and based on her own life. For Antonia – writing was associated with the greatest injustice of her life and this changed the way she worked forever. She suffered from extended periods of appalling writer’s block. She destroyed huge amounts of her work. This account of her life as a writer has left me wondering what she would have produced if she had been able to tackle fiction. Was it her early experiences at the convent that put the fire into her writing? Or did the convent partly stymie a talent that was always there?

This tussle between pain and creativity speaks of the dominating factor in Antonia White’s life. As was evident from her very early adulthood, Antonia White was severely and brutally bi-polar. She suffered from extended periods of crushing mental illness which sapped years from her life and poisoned most of her relationships with others – even, or rather especially – those closest to her. For me, the most striking part of Jane Dunn’s biography was where she compares the medical reports from Antonia’s most dramatic breakdown, with her own fictionalised rendering of the same event. The clarity of vision and vivid language that White used to describe her darkest moments are staggering and the reader will watch anxiously for the strange interlacing of her depression and her startling creativity throughout this splendid record of her life.

The other pictures that I have used here are a publicicty shot of the adult Antonia White - and also a school photograph of one of the Scared Heart's other famous old girls - Vivien Leigh.

How TV shows try (or choose not) to depict Asperger's syndrome: Sepinwall on TV

In today's column (a rare visit to Page 1 of the paper for me, unless there were five simultaneous huge breaking news stories last night), I use a storyline from NBC's new "Parenthood" to look at TV's depiction (or lack of depiction) of characters with Asperger syndrome, including comments from producers of some shows with Aspie-like characters like Sheldon on "Big Bang Theory" and Brennan on "Bones."

A more traditional "Parenthood" review coming on Tuesday. I like the show, though the Asperger story was definitely the strongest part of it.

Finally, Dogs Have a Toilet Meant for Drinking From

via dogatar.com

So why are my thoughts on toilets? While thinking about preparing for the tsunami this morning I checked out the NZ Civil Defence advice on evacuation procedures.. have to admit there was not a lot I could put a definite tick beside... particularly with the due water arrival planned for 10 minutes.. (so why was I checking online instead of hurling things into the car???? hmm) - actually, my partner did murmur something in my ear about a tsunami warming when he left for work at 5.45 am - funnily enough, it didn't register and I returned to sleep immediately! A friend then rang about 9... so of course I checked it all out before I took a shower. Judging by the online photos of rather ignorant people walking on the beach beneath the tsunami warning signs, I was at least pretty safe as we are actually some kilometres inland! I did of course check my adult children were up, particularly since my daughter is on crutches with a broken foot! Speed is out of the question for her at the moment.
Anyway - I don't think I could muster a working torch, portable radio, batteries and all the food, documents and photos to take, let alone finding the cats, or enough cages ( which reminds me the one cage we have is on loan) , but I did wonder about filling the scungy 20l canister we drain the fish tank into (eeew) and then, how we could access and drink the water in the toilet cistern. Hence this photo made me smile. Luckily my son reminded me we could just evacuate inland to people with running water... today at least. If a major earthquake hits us, and one day it will apparently, we would not be so lucky.
Meanwhile, thinking of the people in Chile... and Haiti...

Posted via web from Four Paws and Whiskers

Finally, Dogs Have a Toilet Meant for Drinking From

via dogatar.com

So why are my thoughts on toilets? While thinking about preparing for the tsunami this morning I checked out the NZ Civil Defence advice on evacuation procedures.. have to admit there was not a lot I could put a definite tick beside... particularly with the due water arrival planned for 10 minutes.. (so why was I checking online instead of hurling things into the car???? hmm) - actually, my partner did murmur something in my ear about a tsunami warming when he left for work at 5.45 am - funnily enough, it didn't register and I returned to sleep immediately! A friend then rang about 9... so of course I checked it all out before I took a shower. Judging by the online photos of rather ignorant people walking on the beach beneath the tsunami warning signs, I was at least pretty safe as we are actually some kilometres inland! I did of course check my adult children were up, particularly since my daughter is on crutches with a broken foot! Speed is out of the question for her at the moment.
Anyway - I don't think I could muster a working torch, portable radio, batteries and all the food, documents and photos to take, let alone finding the cats, or enough cages ( which reminds me the one cage we have is on loan) , but I did wonder about filling the scungy 20l canister we drain the fish tank into (eeew) and then, how we could access and drink the water in the toilet cistern. Hence this photo made me smile. Luckily my son reminded me we could just evacuate inland to people with running water... today at least. If a major earthquake hits us, and one day it will apparently, we would not be so lucky.
Meanwhile, thinking of the people in Chile... and Haiti...

Posted via web from Four Paws and Whiskers

Still February

Our driveway looks like a bobsled run, with tall sides of melting white and an icy track that our cars slip down. Little Biker Boy helped me bring in logs for the fire that's crackling and now he's upstairs asking Shaggy Hair to give him a turn playing a computer game. With-a-Why and I are sitting on the couch, looking at my photos from the Sunshine State. As I watch the snowflakes hitting the window, it's hard to believe that just a week ago, I was walking through mangroves in a t-shirt and shorts.

Not ready to turn back yet.

LIBRA [September 23–October 22] Metaphorically speaking, you have recently begun crossing the water in a dream boat that has a small leak. If you keep going, it's possible you will reach the far side before sinking. But that's uncertain. And even if you were able to remain afloat the entire way, the shakiness of the situation would probably fill you with anxiety. My suggestion, then, is to head back to where you started and fix the leak.

Thanks, Rob Brezsny.

NZ tsunami alert after quake - national | Stuff.co.nz

via stuff.co.nz

LATEST: 8.59am: Civil Defence says people in coastal areas should:

1. Stay off beaches

2. Stay out of the water (sea, rivers and estuaries, including boating activities)

3. Do not go sightseeing

4. Share this information with family, neighbours and friends

5. Listen to the radio and/or TV for updates

6. Follow instructions of your local Civil Defence authorities

9.00 am
Perhaps I might leave the house for a while..... and head AWAY from the beach... just in case
see ya

Posted via web from Four Paws and Whiskers

NZ tsunami alert after quake - national | Stuff.co.nz

via stuff.co.nz

LATEST: 8.59am: Civil Defence says people in coastal areas should:

1. Stay off beaches

2. Stay out of the water (sea, rivers and estuaries, including boating activities)

3. Do not go sightseeing

4. Share this information with family, neighbours and friends

5. Listen to the radio and/or TV for updates

6. Follow instructions of your local Civil Defence authorities

9.00 am
Perhaps I might leave the house for a while..... and head AWAY from the beach... just in case
see ya

Posted via web from Four Paws and Whiskers

Up [2009]

Film critics and cinegoers have called Up a rousing success, and have named it, along with Wall-E, as one of the great masterpieces of modern cinema. I wouldn’t go that far; but yes, there’s no doubting the fact that it happens to be one of the most noteworthy outputs from PIXAR, the ever-dependable makers of jaw-dropping 3-D animation. The tale of Carl, a former balloon salesman, now in the twilight of his life, who undertakes the journey of a lifetime in order to fulfill a dream that he shared with his wife, that of exploring South America, is, at the end of the day, still a movie aimed principally for kids. Agreed that it contains the “adult” themes of ageing, loss, unfulfilled dreams, and broken families, but at its heart Up is essentially the kind of movie meant to engage the viewers, lift their spirits up and provide a whole lot of fun and entertainment in the process. And in that sense it is quite a success because fun and engaging it certainly is. But despite its solid, old-fashioned tale of fantasy and adventure, what would remain longest with the viewers is the first quarter of the movie which shows how Carl, as a kid, met with his future-wife, and then, through an extended and extremely poignant silent sequence, we are given a brief preview of the journey covered by Carl and his wife from youth to old age, through various moments of love, joy and grief.





Director: Pete Doctor & Bob Peterson
Genre: Animation/Adventure/Fantasy
Language: English
Country: US

Burn Notice, "Good Intentions": Lipstick it

Snow removal Thursday and Friday and then family stuff on the weekend is putting me behind the eight ball on a couple of shows (I have yet to even watch "Caprica," for instance), so in the interests of letting people who want to discuss "Burn Notice" get to it already, I'll simply say the Fiona showcase went to a darker place than the show normally goes, but in a way that nicely filled out what we know about Fi, and Carlos Bernard delivered a nice guest turn as a more morally-ambiguous-than-usual bad guy. Also, given events late in the episode, I hope Matt Nix really has a good ace up his sleeve to make the Gilory arc feel worthwhile in retrospect.

What did everybody else think?

The Vampire Maid by Hume Nisbet

The Vampire Maid

by Hume Nisbet

Hume Nisbet was first and foremost a painter in his own eyes, but when he failed to make a profession out of it, he turned instead to the written word.  Even then, he often wrote about the art world, but his tone turned bitter and cynical whenever speaking of the chances of becoming a successful painter.  As a counterbalance to his artsy tirades, he also composed fiction, including this very brief vampire tale first published in the yesteryear of 1900.

It should perhaps be stated that in art, it is generally important that a painting be instantly recognizable for what it is.  In literature, that isn't necesarily true.

A city boy who has grown tired of the hustle and bustle takes up residence as a lodger in a remote country abode.  He has done so in search of solitude, hoping to get some work accomplished, but his ambitions change the moment he meets his landlady's daughter.

It may not be love at first sight, but it is fascination at first sight, and that gives way to love soon enough.  He forsakes solitude and career goals for his growing obsession with her, and is quite happy with the result.

Now if he could only figure out his decreased level of energy, and these strange nightmares he's been having.

Okay, the secret is out.  The girl is an undead bloodsucker.  Before you cry spoiler, just keep this in mind:  The story is called "The Vampire Maid", for Pete's sake!  If you didn't figure this out by page two, you were probably just browsing for pretty pictures anyway.  The ONLY surprise this story held was that the vampire in question wasn't a maid at all--at least not in the Amelia Bedelia sense.

And that lack of surprise is the dooming factor here.  You know the "twist" ending before you even start reading the story.  Still, the manner in which our healthy narrator becomes sicklier and sicklier while his sickly lover becomes healthier and healthier (thanks to her secret nocturnal feedings) was pretty inspired.

It's a moody, brooding, slightly-gothic romance that will probably be of interest to fans of this particular melodrama--Dark Shadows fans, I'm looking at you!  For the rest of us, the good news is this: the story is so short, it's over before we even know we're bored.

Too bad the same couldn't be said of Dark Shadows.

That's right.  I said it.

The Vampire Maid has slipped willingly into the public domain.  Click here to download it or read it online, courtesy of ManyBooks.net.

--J/Metro

The Power and the Glory

The back-slapping season is well under way as the Lovees continue to congratulate themselves over how much attention they’ve received and how much money they’ve earned and how clever they all are.

It was ever thus, dontcha think?

We (the plebeians) await the next set of awards (laurel leaf) from the Academy (the Senate) being passed on to the actors and directors (the gladiators).

Since the first coin was, well, coined we’ve paid handsomely for our entertainment. Fame, money and power (sex, drugs and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches) await those who are particularly successful in their endeavours in this arena. We elevate them in our minds as people who are demi-gods. We quiver in their presence. We hang on every syllable that slides from behind their perfect dentistry.

But they are just people, people.

Anywho, I digress. What I wanted to say that was while they wipe sweaty palms on each other’s backs some of the people who are vital to the whole process will be missing. Ignored even.

I’m talking about the writers of course.

Walter Kirn penned the book that was the inspiration for one of the year’s most celebrated movies, Up in Air, starring George Clooney and nominated for six Oscars… but Kirn hasn’t been invited to the Oscar ceremony.

Twitter rage ensues.

According to a New York Post report, Kirn “took to Twitter to bitterly complain that he wasn’t invited,” writing on his Twitter page “Caution to writers: Don’t expect that because you write a novel that becomes an Oscar-nominated film that you’ll be invited to the Oscars …. Novelists are like oil in H’wood: they drill us, pipeline us, pump us and then burn us.”

Sadly, it was ever thus.

William Goldman author of “Adventures in the Screen Trade” (which is required reading for anyone interested in scriptwriting) noted that even when he was nominated (and won) the Oscar for writing the script for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, he was missing from the invite list. Crazy innit? Are there any other industries where the innovators are given such shoddy treatment?

I’m guessing that until we writers move from behind our computer screens and get our faces displayed on the large screen (and into the minds of the plebian) nothing will change.