Long, Cold Winter

In April, 2018, I spent about twenty-four hours in total assembling these three paper sculptures. They came in kits made by a company called Low Poly Crafts. I found them at the One of a Kind Spring show that year. The kits were doable (as you can see) but sufficiently demanding (the dachshund was a real stinker) that it took me almost five years before I felt like I wanted to do another. 

Low Poly Crafts was at this winter's One of a Kind, so I bought a squirrel... 

and a sloth.  

These are product photos, not my finished efforts.

According to the package descriptions, these are of even higher level difficulty than the other three.

Just the thing for a long, cold winter.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen

Unexpected Outcomes

An Unknown Soldier

I was in Whole Foods last weekend, looking for egg replacer. I showed a picture of the product I wanted to a young man who appeared to be an employee of the store.

He sprang into action, scanning the shelves. He soon presented me with an egg-carton-like package and asked if it was what I wanted. It looked like a replacement for scrambled eggs (I wanted a replacement for baking) but it was hard to tell, which is what I said.

So he ripped off the label and opened the carton. I could see then that I definitely did not want the product. Nor, in its current condition, would anyone else.

I left the store empty-handed, but with a better understanding of why Whole Foods is so expensive. 

In another grocery-related incident, Bruce and I were walking though Allan Gardens, heavily laden with recent food purchases. The Gardens are a mess these days. There are people living in tents everywhere, and the main path has been obstructed by a hoarding erected around the greenhouse. 

Several inches of freshly fallen slush made it treacherous underfoot. Two women had illegally parked their car on the one path cleared for pedestrians.

As I squeezed past the vehicle I said to one of the women "You have a lot of nerve parking here."

Nothing in my words conveyed that I required an explanation, but she offered one anyway. She said, "We're bringing charity to the people in the tents!"

"Of course you are," I said, in a tone Bruce has described as venomous (I'd say unimpressed).

That was all it took for the woman to lose it. She shouted at me to FUCK OFF, plus other instructions.

I ignored her. But found it interesting that someone so full of charity could also be so angry. As Bruce and I continued on our way, I heard her telling her companion what a terrible person I was. 

Both episodes just go to show that, no matter what you intend when you start a conversation with a stranger, you never really know where you might end up.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen

Wrong Shoe, Wrong Foot

Not made for walking: "shoes" at the Bata Museum

I was in negotiations for a job this past week. A job, the more I think about it, and the more I hear from the person I'm negotiating with, that I don't want.

I find myself in this situation because I still wonder, even after three years of happy retirement, if there isn't a paid job out there that would be fun, interesting and remunerative enough to make me want to put up with all the other nonsense having a job entails.

But, even as the offer was made this week, I was thinking, "Wait, if I do this then I won't be able to go on that trip, or take this course, or do that other fun thing."

Also, the pay wasn't just low; it was ridiculous.

This all came about because someone asked me if I'd be interested in working with them, and I said "yes, but on a part-time, temporary basis." Evidently, all they heard was "yes."

Maybe I've learned my lesson this time. Next time I hear that question, I'll just say no.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen

 

Mightier Than ... The Virus

The photo above shows the Bluma Appel Salon at the Reference Library around 11:30 in the morning last Sunday.

The crowd was at least 500 people when we were there. I'd also say there were as many women as men, as many young as old (though no strollers, which was a mercy), and lots of racial diversity among them.

What on Earth, in this day and age, and at this stage of the pandemic, would draw such huge numbers? Was it a comics convention? Was it stamps? 

Take another look at the photo below.

Any idea what would attract this kind of mob?

It was pens. These are photos from the Scriptus show, an annual event showcasing pens, fine paper and ink. There were some ball points and gel pens in among the wares, but mostly, there were fountain pens. Used fountain pens. New fountain pens. Five hundred dollar fountain pens. Fountain pens so coveted by those in attendance that they arranged themselves three deep around the tables and examined the nibs with jeweller's loupes. 

I bought a cool pen as a gift for a friend, and Bruce had to wait outside because there were just too damned many people.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen

Filmore chips in for public health.

Squeaker

From a gallery at the Carnegie Museum. There should be one for women politicians.

I rarely leave the house after dinner, but, when I got an invitation (before the results were in) to Dianne Saxe's "victory party," I thought I'd better go.

The polls in Ward 11 closed at 8:00 p.m. By then I was seated at a table full of strangers in the Victory Cafe on Bloor West. The one thing we had in common was we'd all volunteered for Dianne's campaign. Well, that, and the fact that we wanted her to win.

By 8:30, the local news station had declared Dianne's chief rival, Norm Di Pasquale, the victor by a narrow margin.

So I went home. Bruce had caught a cold in Pittsburgh and wasn't feeling well. And there didn't seem to be much of a reason to hang around.

By the time I got home shortly after 9:00 p.m., the narrow margin of victory had changed. Dianne was in the lead by about 130 votes. So I decided to stay up and watch the numbers ... which did not move, at all, for the next two hours. 70 out of 77 polls had reported in, but I couldn't keep my eyes open. I went to bed.

Back at the Victory Cafe, before the results were made official, Dianne thanked her supporters for her apparent victory and went home. Her campaign team called her after midnight to tell her she'd officially won.

She finished with 8,614 votes, Di Pasquale with 8,491.

Phew.

Thanks for reading!

Karen

That's a hard climb: looking up from the lower
station of the Duquesne Incline.

 

Pittsburgh in Retrospect

Red's Bar summed it up for us. Once upon a time in Pittsburgh, neighbourhoods had bars and stores and places where people congregated. Then thoroughfares cut through the neighbourhoods, industries declined, people left, and no one has came back (at least not yet). There's a 3 kilometre stretch along Fifth Avenue, between the University of Pittsburgh campus and the PG Paints Arena, that is almost entirely dead. 

We went to Pittsburgh on a friend's recommendation. We stayed downtown, where most of the hotels are, but there wasn't a lot going on there.  

The liveliest parts of the city that we saw were the blocks around the University of Pittsburgh, with busy sidewalks and prosperous street level retail.

The rest, especially that 3 km stretch along Fifth Avenue, was deserted-feeling, run down or completely derelict. I'm sure the pandemic hasn't helped.

We were delighted by the Carnegie Art Museum, though. I'd somehow gotten the impression that Carnegie's museum was the poor sister to Frick's. But, no, the CAM's got a great collection. We saw just the tiniest bit of it on Thursday.

It's interesting that they picked this Rothko
for a temporary exhibit.

Part two of this blog's two-part series: the Nixon Agnew Collection.

The Puritan. Still an important part of the American political landscape.

While Frick (whom everyone assured us was not a nice man) collected the works of the past masters, Carnegie patronized, and his museum still patronizes, contemporary Pittsburg artists. So the collection is vibrant, and feels highly locally relevant.  

Overall, we had a fun vacation. We enjoyed ourselves, ate better than we usually do (I recommend The Steel Mill Saloon, Meat and Potatoes, Nicky's Thai Kitchen, and Max's Allegheny Tavern) and everyone we met was friendly and helpful. Plus, I got my camera fixed.

Thanks for reading!

Karen

Facts and Figures

Pittsburgh area in square km: 151.1

Pittsburgh population: 301,000 (est. growth about -.5%/year)

Toronto area in square km: 630.2

Toronto population: 2.93M (est. growth about +1%/year)

So, Pittsburgh has one quarter the land area and one tenth the population of Toronto and its population is shrinking. No wonder it seemed deserted. 

Andy Warhol and Me

I can't decide if Andy Warhol was a great artist or just a guy with a gift for flattering rich people who ran a long con.

We spent two hours yesterday at the Andy Warhol Museum, the storehouse for all things Andy, with a chronologically curated selection of his many, many works.

Usually, after that much time in a museum, I feel "full", like I can't absorb any more information. Yesterday, I felt like I'd spent my time shopping, but hadn't seen anything I liked. 

Correction. I liked these:

Nixon and Agnew hand puppets from one of the hundreds of "Time Capsule" boxes Warhol obsessively collected for more than a decade before he died. 

After the museum, we crossed the Allegheny and Monongehela rivers and rode up the Duquesne Incline.

You can see what kind of a day it was: cold, rainy, windy.

And I took pictures of Bruce interacting with his environment:

By the fountain where the rivers meet.

With Roberto Clemente Walker.

With the big wheels that pull the incline cables.

Today the weather will be warmer and dryer. We're going to the Carnegie Art Museum. And I'm going to get my camera out of the repair shop.

Thanks for reading!

Karen