Light & Sound

A recent discussion of stage lighting led me to the House of Cards video, by Radiohead- a gently surrealistic piece for a mauzy day.

(Image: flickr.)

And the designing begins...

(Image: jannuzzismith.ca.)

Dr. Les Harris 1929-2008

(Image: mun.ca.)

Copy Deadline

All hands go.

Image (metaltype.)

Win This...

The fabulous (and generous!) Jean Claude Roy is once again donating a landscape painting as a prize for our subscription drive. So feast your eyes on this: it's called St. George's. Anyone who buys a new or gift sub or renews a sub is eligible to win.

Who can get enough of a Newfoundland August? And it's heading into Friday evening - all hands please chill that Reisling, turn that deckchair towards the sunset, and prepare this absolute taste of summer.

(Image: creampuffsinvenice.)

Travel Anywhere

Check out this fantastic mini-series, not to mention the rest of this intriguing site...

(Image: wordpress.com.)

Gert's Clothesline

Spent yesterday morning at The Rooms with the very talented Angela Antle , talking about this encaustic triptych...a visual treat for our upcoming issue...

(Image: from The Flood at Furnace Cove, courtesy of Gail Tuttle.)

Perseids

Catch the Perseids meteor showers ? What's that? You say you couldn't see them, because it has been raining and overcast for just weeks and weeks? Yeah, I hear you. Anyway, here's one venue that might provide a little visual solace...

(Image: phys.utk.edu.)

Five Rings and New Stars

The TVs at the gym are nonstop-tuned to Olympic coverage, so even I, the least sports minded of people (saving FIFA soccer of course) am getting the latest as Canada remains blocked from the podium and Michael Phelps is posed to out-medal Mark Spitz. Watching the relay swimmers arc and knife through the water (I was lying on a mat reading Glamour magazine at the time) I wondered: What's it like to do something perfectly?
Outside the colossal venues, the CBC reporters tell us, the people are equally awed as they look up to the night skies. The smog reduction program has worked so well the moon and stars are visible for the first time in years.

(Image: beijingolympicsfan.)

Fall Issue deadlines

Our copy deadline is eleven days away, but that doesn't mean we can't file material if we want to. Our designers - the very talented & understanding Granite Studios - accommodate my compulsion to be super-organized and hyper-punctual. Which doesn't mean things always go completely smoothly. Like, hey, did I ever tell you about the time I forgot, and I mean, completely forgot, all about Archival Notes? The most read and popular feature of the magazine. Linda White is the tour de force behind those - and, let me tell you, she can work some fast.

(Image: leedsfest.)

Music in our Mist

It was foggy, it was misty, heck, at times it was downright pouring, but that did not stop the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival, no sir. Didn't even delay the schedule. Your faithful
N. Q. was also on hand, handing out some complimentary copies, selling the odd sub and chatting with people traveling from anywhere from Oregon to Christchurch, Dorset. What's a few leaks and a bit of mud when you've got your jigs and reels and, we hear, a beer tent?

(Image: celticlight.)

Observations on the Observation Deck

5:30 am found me in a Jiffy Cab on the way to the airport (following a night of the kind of sleep where you only doze off long enough to dream you've overslept!!). I was not traveling myself but seeing someone off, and, after they went through security, I grabbed a large Tim Horton - no apostrophe because they're in the States now - s coffee and walked up the stairs to the observation deck. This is a great spot, bright and quiet, kept, for some reason, in near-secrecy by airport management, but it is there, accessible in all its hushed and inviting glory.
Children like it. The last time I was there, two fathers were present with an assortment of girls and boys. I drowsily (it's always 5:30am when I'm at the airport; it's like a new travel rule) half-eavesdropped as the men discussed recent car repairs and then segued into the difficulties of planning a successful honeymoon trip, a problem I gathered that had been encountered in the past and now in effect remedied, or made up for, some years later by the two wives deciding to go off, themselves, to Las Vegas. The various children were out of their minds "seeing" their moms in every round plane window, waving.
This morning, a young mother sat on the window ledge with two small kids; they too were avidly interested in precisely locating their dad within the various metal leviathans rolling smoothly from the gates and along the runways. As the planes taxied towards take-off, set against the Torbay pine trees, the little boy said, "Look, they're like sharks, white sharks swimming in the trees." And he was right.

(Image: www.jetplanes.)

P. S. The N. Q. is heading to the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival - you'll find us back at this post on Tuesday.

N. Q. @ the Folk Festival

So the weather is a little...anachronistic. We are still gearing up for the

Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival in Bannerman Park this weekend. We will have a table in the "Main Merch" tent, our latest issue on proud display, ready to whip out back copies and subscriptions. All visits and feedback welcome!

(Image: nlfolk.com.)

Books @ N. Q.

This morning's task: to complete a review of Barbara Rieti's Making Witches, a fascinating work and one of four non-fiction publications we'll cover in our next issue. (The others include a biography of Coaker's daughter, the papers of George Cartwright and Bob Wakeham's memoir, all good stuff.)

(Image: bookpublishing.com.)

Cornerboys @ The Commissariat

If I can get my editorial ducks in a row by midafternoon (where did this saying come from? how can ducks be relied on to stay in a row, when, clearly, they have their own avian agenda?) I hope to catch The Garden Party (4:30pm, Commissariat House, Wed-Sun, tickets $13.50 or 2 for $25), a new production by Cornerboy Theatre, itself a new company from Mary Walsh and Rick Boland.
Theme: Responsible Government. Characters: Fleming, Morris. Atmosphere: Promises to be lively.

(Image: toolhire.wordpress.)