As time breezes by, the occasional set of photos, ramblings, notes and drafts gets left wayside. I’m now going back over the great unpublished and sharing things from my past that are interesting beyond their immediacy.
Behold, the retro blog.

Leading up to Christmas 2007 we stayed with Henry and his family in Fall River. The evening after Henry had taken us out to Cape Cod his wife Michelle kindly showed us around some of the local houses decorated for Christmas. There were plenty of smaller displays on the way, but despite Henry strongly pushing the enormity of Chuck and Flo’s display on us, we were still rather overwhelmed when we saw it in person. Quite literally the most lighting I’ve seen per square meter of land ever.

Kate uploaded some photos of our wedding invitations. I’m really happy with the finished result. Visit Lovelorn Unicorn for more.

As time breezes by, the occasional set of photos, ramblings, notes and drafts gets left wayside. I’m now going back over the great unpublished and sharing things from my past that are interesting beyond their immediacy. Behold, the retro blog.

E is for Edward who authored many books.

Anyone who has heard of Edward Gorey seems to hold a significant deal of affection for his books. He’s an author and an illustrator, but his categorization seems to end there. His picture books aren’t graphic novels, they’re quite different from those. Gorey made a career out of small picture books in a way that few have outside of children’s literature. I adore his books, Gorey managed to perfect the art of creating a convincing, seamless and believable world – an artistic talent I value above any other. Set in Edwardian times, in some fictional place that manages to transcend ties to reality, many of Gorey’s books are dark and whimsical while often remaining humorous and cute.

When visiting the United States in 2007 our friend Henry took us on a day trip to Cape Cod in order to visit the Edward Gorey House – his Massachusetts home turned museum after his death. We don’t have many snowy towns in New Zealand, and arriving at Strawberry Lane with the Gorey House covered in snow, the doubtful guest in the yard was about as magical as it gets.

Though I did wonder just how much Edward Gorey stuff could be made into a Museum, I didn’t have doubts and the experience was well worth the visit. The collection on display ranged from his personal items, to original artwork from unpublished books and props created in honor of his works – the Gashlycrumb Tinies in particular are great. There stands a mannequin draped in his eclectic clothing purchases and a collection of the many rings he wore on his hand. Even the resident cat is rather absurd, much in the fashion of Gorey’s cartoon cats. The rather curious character of Edward Gorey is enough to drive the interest in the museum. When we visited, the museum was helmed by his personal friends who added an extra touch to paying homage to an admired author.

Lately there has been way too much doing to be able to spread word of said doing. A large part of it has been busyness at work and a mad rush on wedding planning that has included invitations, the website, catering and other such things. It’s fun, but the other fun stuff, in no particular order, has been:

1. Dirty Dancing

I saw this for the first time as one of the classic film screenings at The Embassy Cinema. Such a great experience. The crowd went wild plenty of times. I think the classic screenings are one of the best things to happen to movie theaters in a while. No technical standards of movie exhibition in the theatre or home can compare with the effect of a good audience. I think Easy Rider has just had it’s screening, but Imagine is coming up very soon.

2. Skate Highway One

Photography by Jed Soane (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jedsoane/)

Speaking of wild crowds. I think Skate Highway One may have received the best turnout of any Richter City Roller Derby bout this season. Wellington did get whipped by the slightly scary Pirate City Rollers from Auckland, but it was still an exciting match and I appreciated every moment that the Wellington girls were taking points.

3. The Wire

If you don’t know already then perhaps there’s no point in me telling you how rich, clever topical and well developed this tv show is. I’m onto Season 4 right now, I just need more time to get on with it.

4. Purchasing Fonts

I’ve always admired a good typeface. Not as much as I do now, knowing what hard work, talent and precision really go into it. My first font purchase ever is Phaeton which we used for our wedding invitation. Admire away. Now that I’ve got my first, I feel tempted to get more. I think a typeface shopping spree would make a pretty awesome gift, though a potentially expensive one at that. Phaeton is also my first time using OpenType with advanced features and it wowed the pants off me. Who would have expected something Microsoft had a hand in would be so worthy? Check it out at Adobe.

5. Raw Meat Monday

Nope, I’m not upping my carnivorousness. If anything I’m leaning closer to vegetarianism (this would be much easier to describe if it worked on a continuum rather than in absolutes). Raw Meat Monday is the night that established comics take to the Fringe Bar with new material and upcoming comics give it a go. For only a fiver you get plenty of laughs in an atmosphere I can totally get behind.

All this behind me, I’ve got rolls of film to develop. Digital photos to sort out. And not nearly enough time to accomplish either. At what point do people decide they can hire an assistant?