Budding Builder Building Top Secret Webpage!!

I'm building a webpage. But I'm not releasing it's name till it's done. Wow does that ever make me sound like a 5 year old.

Polar Bear Swim; Shoe Explode; Due To Awesomeness!?!

I wanted 2008 to begin with a bang and so I figured jumping into frigid water with hundreds of other lunatics the best way to do that. After a night of wine and music we arrived on the scene. A small pocket of frozen beach on Charlottetowns waterfront. There must have been a few hundred people there.
The worst part of the whole event, was the wait. You know, the apprehension created by, wondering what this insane thing you were about to do would feel like. Like heart stoppingly cold? Do I really want to get wet in the middle of winter?

Finally, the signal was given; we stripped down, someone gave a speech, someone said a eulogy, we received a countdown and.... ran in.

Now, there was a thin layer of ice on the water that the, competitive "me first" types broke with the skin of there legs. My friend Lindsay is a very competitive person. So, her legs unfortunately got all cut up ( as you can see below). We took good care of her. Later administering cotton and cooing noises.

So is it cold? Yeah, I guess, well honestly I was in and out so fast I don't even remember. I did stay under the water for a good five seconds but still... What I do remember was when I was back out of the water my outer body was so cool that the air temperature felt warm in comparison. It felt very nice actually. Everyone was happy and the steam was pouring off our bodies.

Also, my shoe had somehow exploded. I'm guessing it exploded because of the sheer awesomeness of the event.

The Polar Bear Crew 2008.
Lindsay takes one for the team.Fresh out of the drink.

Spiderman 3 Review!

This is probably what you feel like you "really" did for two and half hours at the cinema...

Beautiful Baby Blossoms Broadcast Budtime!

Don't stop runnin'
Don't stop gunnin'
Live yer life as a spring has sprung.

It's spring time y'all!

Revamped PEI Hall Table Entered Into Year Of The Craft Juried Exhibition!

The PEI hall table is the product of my final months at Rosemount Technical College. It is the veritable measure of what you have learned after 14 months of teaching and what you can give to the art. Our final projects were conceived, drafted and crafted without direction.

"Here's your wings! Now fly!"

I drafted the plans on the airplane to and from Germany. Jerome wanted me to see some Christmas Markets. Shortest trip ever; like two days. But that plane with a six hour window till Frankfurt gave me focus, and the stewardess took a shining to me and kept bringing me Sleeman's.

I threw in little challenges like mortise and tenons on 45 degrees for the leg and rails. The whole things is quite strong but a skin and bones frame. All dovetails were cut by hand and the legs shaped on a bandsaw and belt sander which was like sculpting wood.

The top is walnut veneer with PEI inlaid in the top in the same veneer. PEI is contrasted solely by the opposing direction of the grain. I always loved the shape of PEI and it suits the long narrow shape of the hall table.

I love this table. Mainly because I made it and thought of it. It is my first real piece of personally created furniture. Iexpressed my artistic ideas and worked my logic.

The paint job is a result of reading about Wendy Marayuma a wood worker artist who has incorporated a lot of colour into her wild creations. I figured if she can paint Mahoganny, I can paint Poplar. I wanted Island colours the Rust colour is obviously for the cliffs of PEI and the blue is ocean and sky. I put on a layer of Red and Then Blue. The I took sandpaper and steel wool and "distressed it", meaning to make it look like it is old, antiqued. So the Rust peaks out from under the Blue. Before distressing happened, the Blue looked like hell. It was practically Teal or some sick colour. Everyone who saw it thru up in their mouths a little. You can see in the below picture. The antiquing really made her look y though. y. The jurying is taking place for the next few days there are prizes and then if they like your piece it is put on exhibition at the Eptek Centre in Summerside for the summer.

Chosen Dog of Ancient Legend Found: Bears Strange Birth Mark Resembling Atlantic Province Island.

Gus, a frappy, frothy, puppy-wuppy, is a very special dog. Special not only because he is a fun loving fido but because he bears the marking of the "Chosen Dog of PEI". Clearly visible on the back of his mane is a white shape resembling Prince Edward Island. The rest of the tireless tail-wagger is primarily rust coloured adding further suspicion and hysteria to the discovery. It should be noted that being the Chosen Pooch of PEI is merely a titular honour. The mongrel has no special powers, will not raise PEI out of its troubles but may visit it some time in the future to pee on its trees, play in its oceans, and sniff Island dog privates.

Boisterous Brunet Brethren Bring Blissful Buzz To Barren Bar!

2 34 oz of beer
1 Irish car b-mb
1 Dr. Pepper Shooter
More beer
Rum and Coke
3 Rev's
The whole clan
The Velvet Underground

Nights like that are once in a blue moon!

We buried her to the hilt. Thank God I didn't call anyone at 3 in the morning.

Best Friend Now Published Best Friend!

My BFF Troy Little has recently been picked up by IDW publishing for a hard cover version of his graphic novel Chiaroscuro. The serendipitous turn of events came about when Troy contacted his comic inspiration and closet-Feminist Dave Sims, creator of Cerebus, for a foreword to his hard-won book. Mr. Sims wrote a thesis on why he wasn't going to do it and published Troy's Letter and his response to it on his blog, The blog and mail posting. Dave gave Troy a lot of praise but felt that Troy needed to establish himself first and then associate himself with the dirtiest of the dirties of the comic world, lest Troy hinder his comic book future. Fair enough Mr. Sims has tons of comic book street cred, he supported himself doing comics. He also has some very stauch beliefs about "the ladies" and this gets him into a lot of shit. He's allowed to say what he wants we live in a free country. Once Troy gets established (2nd printing) Dave will reconsider writing him a foreword. That's totally cool, something else to be hard-won and I believe Troy will get there cause he's hardcore. Regardless, Mr. Sims published response on his blog garnered the attention of IDW president and Cerebus fan Ted Adams. Teddy received a pre-copy of Troy's book, liked what he saw and contacted Mr. Little to talk. The rest is history. Troy now has to pick out cool things like ink and paper stock. Hooooweeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!! Those are probably some of the sweetest decisions to make, like what kind of ice cream do you want. Anyway I am proud of Troy, wish him the best, and am completely inspired to go out and meet my artistic fate. The book is intriging and we should all go out and support this emerging artist. Check him out at www.meanwhilestudios.com.

Woebegone Sea Dog Finds Shelter In Siren's Song!

Delayne Corbett's 2nd Place winning sculpture, "Catch of The Day" captured my imagination. It's been a long four weeks laddies. The sculpture contest went off without a hitch. The theme was PEI and we had a lobster, a kitchen party, St. Dunstan's Basillica, a Viking, and a boat and mermaid. The Sculptors had 3 days and most worked through the night warmed only by passion of the art and cinamon schnapps.

New Improved Gloves For Hard Working Snow Monkey; Moral Improves Dramatically!

Corey works hard and we kind of need his hands pink and fleshy instead of black and flaky so:
Before.
















And, after. He went on to stomp many a box. Corey is also a ninja.

Suprise, Suprise Something Else Manages To Explode On A Fracking Freezing February Day!

I didn't do it. I had nothing to do with this. It only looks like something I would have something to do with. I'm innocent, I just took the photos.

Holy Crap! Giant Pile of Man Made Snow!

Thousands of gallons of water
Massive Hydro bill

65 dollars and hour to rent

60 hours of continuous snow making

Taste like shit

Lamp Submitted For Northern Lights Awards Fine Craft Contest

The Nothern Light Awards are awards for American travel writers who write about Canada. They asked Island Artisans to submit pieces to be juried for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place awards. This is my submission. Mahoganny and hand blown glass, wed together.

I got a lot of inspiration while doing this piece. I normally do a very oriental, symetrical design. The glass in a cube form on a wood base. But I tried to do something different, mainly because I didn't like how my first design hid the wood. I put the glass in a new configuration with a lot of empty wood space. The "kite" figure of glass and the "empty" wood space achieve a certain balance. The wood also plays a more prominant role. You can see the grain pattern. The mahoganny is also 2 inches thick. Heavy. Present. I think the result is interesting and opens a ton of new possibilities. There will be more "versions" of this lamp. I want to colaborate with a glass artist who can slump (melt glass into forms) and fuse glass. I was so excited I scribbled ideas on the wall just so I wouldn't forget.

I hope I win!

Feel free to order your own make out lamp.

Use it up, use it up. Don't save a thing for later.

Late Night Visit To Fire Department Yields Snow

Last Tuesday night we were determined to make snow. We had the snow gun, we had the cold. We had the fire hydrant and the high pressure pump and we had them sheltered. What we didn't have was the proper PEI hose thread to Ontario hose thread coupling. Mel (My boss and comrade) took a trip to the old Charlottetown Fire Department. Winston, a bespeckled and and massive fire-gentlemen greeted us and our confused ramblings about thread and water leakage with the cool look of a man determined to make some Jack Frost magic. He grunted, he prodded, he asked exasperated questions. Two trips later we had our solution. We hooked up that snow gun, fired her up and when the first flakes fell...

Two very, very happy supervisors. And we were all happy. I learned something about fire hoses and visited a fire station, Winston (our hero) saved the day and got a coffee and donut. Allen the "Snow Man" (He runs the snow machine) was happy to see it running and begin crafting snow. By morning there was enough snow to begin work. A week later there is a pile of snow 30 feet high.

let it snow. Some water guy, me, mel, kim and Allen the snowman.

Corbids Attempt To Set Example For Humanity Through Recycling Innitiative

I stopped to snap this photo on the way to Kent for some lumber. There was a lot more of them too.

It Ain't No Fun If Da Shnow Monkeys K'ant Have N'un

Well, have I been busy. Jack Frost 2007 is here and I am running a crew of ruffians and snow monkeys. We are building the guts of Jack Frost. We are making the blocks of marble that the sculptors will carve into art. Yes, we have the important and enviable job of stomping in boxes of snow in -15.

A tough job and who better to do it than these cold lookin' people:

I had the oppurtunity to help interview and hire my crew this year. Out of our original five only two were approved by the hrdc. So we had to go back and scrape the bottom of the barrel. And what was at the bottom of the barrel, but gold. Golden Snow Monkeys. My crew is fantastic. They are easy goin', fast learnin', hard workin', team playin', do what they are a toldin', and don't hesitate to let me know if there is a better way of doing somethin'. They have skillz to pay the Jack Frost Billz. They make this job so much easier. Because I'm always doing that supervisor thing of talking on the phone to a multitude of people or running all over the place looking for washers, or looking pensive, scratching my beard trying to lay out the 50 by 62 foot maze. And when I'm doing that, what are they doing? Paying da billz! Stompin' da snow! Long live the Snow Monkeys. May I do my best to steer us true! Take a look at what we have done so far.

Cat dumping snow into a flimsy plywood form.

The result: impressive but proved to be "wonky" looking and not very straight or plumb.

We made a more sturdy form (at right) and knocked down the other walls. We had to move the maze anyway.

Finished 62 foot wall for the back of maze.

We have completed about a third of the maze so far. We had a beautiful work day, today. It was about -10 and sunny. Strange to say but it was very comfortable. The next couple of weeks are going to be "all go". Peter, the head sculptor, arrives tonight. The sculpture tent should go up tomorrow and then we will probably be working to get all the "marble" blocks ready for the rest of the sculptors when they arrive on Thursday or Friday. All the pieces are coming together. The weather has been fabulous. Negative temperatures every day. Bloody cold and it looks like it isn't going away.

Laptop and Co-Conspirator Succeed In "Sydney Street" Destruction!!

So, Jonathan had a plan of action. Clean up the computer. What could possibly go wrong?

Well!

Little did we know that his girlfriend's computer, in collusion with his laptop were conspiring digital doom. In the middle of file transfer from his laptop to the "comp" in question, there was an un-noticed crash. Very sly. Jonathan thinking that everything was alright formatted his laptop. Of course he would go ahead without checking! He didn't have to check! We had that computers trust! We trusted it with our art and it had our art thrusted. "Sydney Street" is gone. Jonathan says that all that is left is some random unfinished piano part; we killed ourselves making and that wasn't even that good.

In a way it's good. It will en-gender a brand new version, but Jonathan is inconsolable and distant. Something changed in him when that computer did what it did. He can't look a computer in the screen anymore. There is rage in his eyes and pain. He is "raining" inside.

Stay tuned for more adventures.

pt

Failed attempt at song recording completion

Oh, our hearts were in the right place! We were ready to work! We were aiming to finish our song "Sydney Street" and put it up online. So our work has some end...or beginning. Well, well well!!!

Jonfen's computer just kept on crashing. Task after task after simple task. Sonar was hogging something like 210,000 KB. I don't know anything about computers but every other program was running at about a twentieth of that. Let me tell you, when you click something and the computer freezes, and then stutters, and farts up a "Program Not Responding" you feel your blood pressure slowly begin to rise. Now, if that happens twenty times in a row then your reason evaporates, you violently molest the keyboard and mouse trying to persuade that computer to behave. Then you get Tourettes. And it's all a spectacle for your friends. I was laughing at Jonathan freaking out at his computer. I was all zen about it. Until I tasted the wrath of that fracking laptop. Aren't computers supposed to have made our lives easier?

We did have a modicum of enjoyment at the beginning of the session and have agreed to not be discouraged by the computers coup d'etat. Because "Sydney Street" happens to be a great co-creation of Jono and I's. He started playing something new out of the blue one fall night and the words came out of nowhere. The muse was truly courting us that evening. Now if only the Windows XP Fairy would visit us. Jonathan put that lap top under your pillow and maybe in the morning it might work.

Haters of the world dis-unite

Yes, of late I find I have been critical of pretty near everything. Thinking blindly that sarcasm passes for wit or critical-ishness for personality. And it is so easy to do on a planet, where good things are rare and world wide catastrophy lurks in the airwaves, weather, birds and melting ice. Well I would like to change my world view. When I see a story about something good, I feel hope.

Happy Story

Mr. Hollopeter, a student at the New York Film Academy, was at the subway station at 137th Street/City College on Tuesday when he suffered a seizure and fell onto the tracks just as a train was approaching.
Mr. Autrey was standing on the platform with his daughters and scores of other subway riders when he saw Mr. Hollopeter convulsing on the tracks. As he watched, he thought: “I'm the only one to do it.”
He eyed the trough between the rails before jumping on top of the teenager, Mr. Autrey said, and relied on his experience as a construction worker used to “confined spaces” to calculate — in split seconds — that “maybe we have enough clearance.”
Before jumping, he said he made sure his daughters were okay and asked two women to hold their hands.
The southbound train grazed the top of his hat. He said he and Mr. Hollopeter remained there for 20 minutes while MTA workers shut off the third rail.
“What I did was something any and every New Yorker should do: If you see someone in distress do the right thing — help out" (The Globe and Mail)

Now I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have the presence of mind to do that, and I'm not saying anyone should. But I wanna be a little more positive about the world and all of us.
peace
pt

P.S. Post a happy story if you got one.