i really can't wait

to finish school.






I have 1 assignment due this month, but I'm really busy with lots of other things!
Here's what I've been up to. So last week I presented my "no photos please" assignment in class, we were asked to present something that had a tie to photography, but was not simply a printed photo. Some people made collages, one of my classmates made a dress with prints on it. I chose to make two videos, the first was an extension of the "lonely part" I made this fall, the other video I made is a short video containing all of the photobooth pictures I've taken. I'll put them both up at the end of this post.

Other things going on in my life include a Film Festival I am organizing, this is a student event, in its 8th year. This year, Jeff Parker and I are at the helm, and the festival is going to be on March 29th at 7PM at the Vogue Theatre (yup, we booked the theatre, that's how cool we are). The Film Festival is actually held at the Vogue every year, and if you are reading blog as an outsider to Sackville, then I suppose I should tell you about the Vogue. Sackville has one movie theatre, that plays current movies, it has one screen and the place is awesome. The building is rather old, and there is a unique charm to viewing a film there. Seeing as I'm advertising, I might as well tell you about Film Society; every Thursday during the school year, an independent film is shown (these are major films that do not circulate your average movie theatre, but are show in film festivals around the world). Film society is great, as the films really bring something to Sackville that we wouldn't have if it weren't for the organisers.

So yeah, the Film Festival I help organise, we show films made by the handful of student film makers who happen to go to school here (Mount Allison does not have any form of a film program(although we have equipment to make them)). I'm excited about this years stuff, although a bit stressed, as I haven't finished everything I'm going to submit.

In other video related news, I had a presentation for the Beatles course I'm taking (wait, I don't think I ever told you I was taking a class on the Beatles, well I am, it's rad) and I made a video analysis of Revolution 9. The song is intense, but I'm not 100% satisfied with my analysis, so I think I'll hold off showing it to you until I am. But the people in my class seemed to like it.

Alright, so I should update you guys on some stats!

Before I graduate I have

• Four papers
• One photo assignment
• One take home exam (which will essentially be another essay)
• A final photo portfolio
• Two exams
• A presentation

To do. All this in under 6 weeks. I'm not looking forward to it at all.

So, I shot a lot of film last semester, and somehow, even though I felt like I had nothing to shoot this semester, I've managed to shoot more. I'm rather confused I must say. As of last week I had shot 44 rolls of black and white, but since then I think I've shot around 6, although I'm not so sure. Colour numbers in at 14 or so.

Jeez.

Anyway, that's all for today, my two no photos please videos are posted below.

Enjoy,



View My Video lonely v2 on videos.skateperception.com

oops

well that was fun,

Ha, so I wrote a blog at the beginning of reading week, but one thing lead to another and I'm posting it now.

Jeez, here it is:

So I haven't written since two Sundays ago. This is because, well, I'm sure you can guess. SCHOOL. Yup, it's bizarre too because my last two weeks weren't even that bad. Well, actually I think I told you what I had to do academically in my last post, so what shall we discuss now?

So I've thought about my last two weeks, and nothing out of the ordinary happened, I went home last weekend, hung out with my family, and went on a short photo adventure with my brother who was also home visiting. The adventure was short because it was cold, and as I mention my brother, I think it's funny to share with you that I hadn't seen him since Christmas 2006, but there are two things to say about this. First, this is about as frequently as I see him, and second, it's amazing how we pick up right where we left off. Siblings are amazing for that reason.

To continue on the discussion of photography, I'm going to share some pictures with you. First, a few weeks ago I went to Amherst with Peter on a photo excursion, I just got those rolls back today, so I'll post a few pictures and talk a bit about them. Second, I scanned part of my portrait assignment for my photo class, so I'll post those and discuss them as well!


So here are my favorite pictures from Amherst, these are from the colour rolls I shot, and the black and white stuff I took I did develop this past week, but I doubt I'll ever scan them :(

To view a larger version of any of these pictures click em and it will load a new page.

So here we have a picture of my partner in crime for this photo adventure, meet Peter!


Peter took a picture of me with my camera as he wanted to see what it was like.


We parked on one of Amherst's main streets and proceeded to walk down an ally, this is it.



Here is a window in said ally


Upon emerging from the ally we were attracted to this steam duct, it fascinated us, and I have some rather amusing pictures of Peter posing alongside it, either way,


this is my favourite picture I took of the steam and the building.


Nearby we say this building that had a roof with some intense melting action.



As we were leaving Peter showed me this ally that was again nearby and I ended up with this photo.



So towards the end of our adventure, we're standing in this doorway, and we here a cat meowing, REALLY LOUD. We follow the sound, and find this cat chilling outside of a convenience store.



Maybe he was looking at this building in the last picture?




Naw, he wasn't, as that building isn't in eyesight of where the cat was.

It's fun to dream though.

As for my portrait assignment,

I had two works, one of which I scanned and will show here.

They are three photos depicting individual experiences with old age.


Grandchild


Companion


Solitude


So that's all for this week.

I'll be back next week with another post catching you up on my life!

yay!


As always, if you have any questions, email me at:
jzstrsf@mta.ca


wow

Here I am posting one week after the last time I posted. We'll see how long I can keep up with this. This past week has been pretty interesting for me, because I really didn't get all that much school work done. On Monday I had my second last radio show and then somehow managed to lose the rest of the day. Tuesday night was spent helping Jonathan Clark finalize a music video for Mike Allison (http://mikeallison.ca/mikea/) and then Wednesday I did the same thing, as well as film the Wilford B. Jonah Lecture, given by Richard Florida. Thursday I believe I finally got some work done, and then Friday night was spent working on some videos (as well as getting a haircut). I have a lot due coming up, and I suddenly am a lot busier than I thought I would be.

Before reading week I have to:

• Write 2 papers
• Write 2 midterms
• Finish the next photo assignment (portraits)
• Document the "Sweetest Little Thing" at the Owens.
• Work on several videos for the www.mymta.ca site.
• Acquire music rights for songs I would like to use in the Film Festival
• Most likely I have other things to do I've forgotten.

So from that list I posted the first three are fairly self explanatory. The "Sweetest Little Thing" is something I don't know a whole lot about, because for whatever reason I have yet to attend this annual event in the 3 full years I have spent at this school. SO, instead of telling you what I think I know about it, I'll wait until I've gone, and then tell you what it was like! Maybe I'll even post a video in the weeks following.

So hmmmmm, I've got a ton of video content for this blog, but in the interests of only posting one thing a week you guys will have to wait on some of the stuff. I'm excited about the videos I'm going to be making for the mymta site, and hopefully they turn out well and end up both here, and on the site.

So about my radio show. It got to the point where making a show every week wasn't a fun synthesis of all the new music I was listening too, instead I was having trouble figuring out what I wanted to play, and so I decided that I should end on a high note. So after tomorrow, I will no longer be hosting a radio show. It's kind of bittersweet, but all in all, it will be nice to have a bit more free time on Monday's. That having been said, I'm SO glad I finally made myself have a radio show. It's something I wanted to do since I came here, but just never committed to, because when I do things, I like to be able to commit to it 100%, or not do it at all. So yeah, lets do some more list work.

• I've hosted 13 radio shows, tomorrow, my 14th will be my last
• This is my 13th blog
• I actually have lost track of black and white film shot. But I know I've shot something like 4 or so rolls in the past week.
• I processed 6 on Saturday night

So yeah my radio show last week, looked like this:




And well, I shall depart now. Here is that music video I helped edit. Hopefully you guys like it:




As always, if you have any questions, email me at:
jzstrsf@mta.ca


School, school

So this past week I had some epic fun writing two assignments that were among the hardest I've had to do in a while. They were both completed on time though, so that's nice. Either way, I'm not behind on the reading for all of my classes and will have a fun time trying to catch up (and likely failing) for the rest of the semester (failing that is, in catching up on my readings, not school). A few weeks ago we had to present our self portraits for my photo class, and I was proud enough about them that I scanned them! Unreal isn't it!

I'll post those... um. But first! how about a list?

• Number of colour rolls shot since I last counted - 8
• Number of black and white rolls shot since I last counted - 22
• Number of black and whites rolls I developed on Saturday - 17
• Number of rolls I shot today (on an adventure with Pete to Amherst) - 6
• Number of assignments passed in this past month - 3
• Number of papers/take homes till I graduate - 7
• Number of assignments/final portfolios till I graduate - 6
• Number of months left in school 3
• Number of trips I am going on this summer - 4 major ones many small ones
• Possibility of me having a full time job this summer - 0%
• My feelings about that - SO STOKED.

So yeah - self portraits!

(click the images to view larger versions)

This one is taken with a 28 mm lens looking at another camera, the reflection appears in the filter at the front of the lens.




This one is taken looking into a mirror, the camera is positioned in such a fashion that the light from the window is caught as a reflection in the filter at the front of the lens.



Zero photoshop involved here, just good old reflections.


I'm kind of feeling a bit stuffed because I went to Amy's family's house for supper tonight and ate a ton, so I think I'm just going to lie down and leave you with what I've written (as well as the requisite closing video).

So yeah - here's the mantage (obviously not made by me):




As always, if you have any questions, email me at:
jzstrsf@mta.ca


my tummy hurts

So today all of the bloggers (except for 2.... or 3? it's all a blur) got together and ate supper at meal hall. I ate a lot, and was stuffed when I left, I then went to see "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" at film society, that movie, is really a downer, and it didn't help the food settle. So hence the name of my post.

Well I promised that I'd talk about my courses this semester this week, but I'm mad at all of them right now, even though only two are really causing me grief (read: grief in that something is due, and is not at all unreasonable for them to have things to pass in, I just simply don't want to do them). So maybe later I'll tell you about my classes. Maybe.

Instead, enjoy this story

Throughout last semester, me, Alicia and Mike (and sometimes others) would go on little photo adventures. Towards the end of November, we decided to go on "one more adventure." We met at the photo lab at 1:30 ish and then proceeded to walk towards my house, with the purpose of making our way towards the train station. We were immediately struck by the fact that it was really warm out. We we arrived to the end of campus by York Street, Mike and Alicia decided to climb a tree. I took pictures.









We then wandered down Landsdowne and eventually ended up at my house, where we elected to leave our winter coats, as it was much too warm for them. Instead of doing the normal act of using roads to make our way to the train station, following Mike's lead we walked across a field, and then ended up in this rather cool spot, where I had fun taking pictures of a sewer exit thingy. As I was changing film in my cameras and taking pictures, Mike and Alicia wandered off and ended up laying about in the tall grass. I took some pictures here, and once you see them I'm sure you'll wish you were laying about on a warm late November day in some tall grass in Sackville.





After that we went over to the train station, and sat in the grass yard of in the sketchy abandoned house next to George's Fabulous Roadhouse. Once we started to get cold (as it was about 4 or so) we walked back home.

It was indeed, a fabulous adventure,

Here is my radio show for the past week:



So while looking for a video to post on my blog I went to www.youtube.com and the top featured video was by Two Hours Traffic. My reaction went like this: "woah"

Here it is.



PS they are a maritime band and play in Sackville 2 or times a year.

Well that's all for this week, thanks for reading and see you next week!

As always, if you have any questions, email me at:
jzstrsf@mta.ca


Sup

Holiday! (is over )

Before I go on, any picture I post here, you can click on to see a larger version.

So last time I posted I did a recap of my classes, I thought it was a good idea, and in fact a few people let me know that it was. Neat. I had intentions of writing a blog over break, but I was so busy doing hardly anything productive that in fact I just couldn't seem to get around to it. So lets see, what can I talk about in this blog?

How about I

• Tell you about my holidays
• Talk to you about some music
• Show you some pictures I've taken
• Show you some pictures that will make you laugh
• Talk to you about my upcoming semester

So my holidays hmmmm? I went home to New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. I finished exams on the 18th, and was initially supposed to go home on the 19th, but instead ended up going home on the 20th at night. Here's why, Amy was coming home with me to visit for a few days, but she and Rory were working on a project together and needed to present it prior to leaving, due to this delay, Rory offered to drive us back to New Glasgow (as my dad was supposed to get me on the 19th). The drive back was fun, as Mary came along with us (she works at the Owens art gallery) as she was going home to Pictou county as well. The ride home was fun, and the few days Amy and I spent together were filled with sleeping, watching The Office, playing Scrabble (only once though) and eating food. After Amy left, my sister Gaby arrived, and she was in New Glasgow for the duration of my time home. On January 1st I left home and came back to New Glasgow, then I caught a train to Caraquet (that's in Northern New Brunswick) and hung out with Sylvain and Tia for a few days. The main point to this trip to Caraquet was to get a bunch of work done on the Wub Tour DVD. You see this past summer 7 of us went on a road trip around Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to skateboard, although initially I had no intention of making a video out of it, my mind changed. That video is on Google video, and it's LONG so I won't post it here, because I doubt very many of you will want to watch a horrible compressed 40 minute skate video. Tangent aside Sylvain and I got a whole bunch done in those few days I was in Caraquet (1st to 5th). On the 5th we drove up to Riverview to skate at the indoor skatepark. After a long day of physical activity, I got back to Sackville and literally went to sleep as soon as I got in the door, 11:00, and got out of bed at 1PM on Sunday, I guess I was tired!

So music, hmmmm, while on the train, to Caraquet I decided to take up the daunting task of sorting through my music library and figuring out stuff I don't need to have in iTunes and on my iPod, the plan is, once I figure out what I want gone, I'll put it on my external hard drive, so if for some reason I need it, I can get at it, but essentially I will clear up a huge amount of space. In other music related news, I had my first radio show of the new year on Monday and it had an "electronica" influence. I use quotation marks because the music wasn't outright electronica, as it still had ties to the alternative/indie stuff I play on my show.

Show 10



OH YEAH!

Some time in the last two months I got the idea (from a webforum I frequent) to try to see if I could make a playlist out of 18 songs that I would feel happy listening to for the rest of my life. Although the task was daunting I managed, and I am really happy with the result, as I listen to that playlist a lot now.


On to photos!

Hart Hall on a wonderful sunny day after a heavy snowfall.



The post office


Hanna at the cafe


JJ's shoulder... the first in a series?


The standard way I look at and photograph trees


Snow angel



Here are a few funny internet pictures.






Contrary to the list I posted at the beginning of my blog, I will NOT talk about my upcoming semester, instead, I'll do that next week!

yah!

Closing video for this post - Charlie Bit Me.