Diabolo update

The manufacturer of the 'Diabolo' (Jaques of London) replied to my email and filled in a lot of blanks about the wooden toy. How exciting! The wood is a hard, tropical wood native to Central and South America called Lignum Vitae. I checked it out on Wikipedia and it's pretty interesting(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lignum_vitae), the name is Latin for 'wood of life' and it has tons of interesting applications and even some literary links. One of the characters in Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera has a bathtub made of Lignum Vitae. Also, my suspicions were confirmed - the toy does whistle when played with! I wonder what it sounds like? Dude also offered to purchase the toy from me (sorry pal, not my department) because the company doesn't even have one of these babies. A rare and collectible item indeed.

Inspired

Never know how to start these things. Here goes. What a week! An impromptu trip to Black Diamond, Alberta was a superfun adventure starring Beccy Feather and various glass blowers. It was great to meet Tyler and Julia and check out their hot shop and studio. After a great BBQ Beccy and I hit the town in true booze hag fashion and went to the (only) bar in Black Diamond and immediately made ourselves unpopular with our juke box selections. Who doesn't like a little Tom Petty with their Jack and Coke?

The next day was a gong show in Calgary... I am never letting the museum send me anywhere again. NEXT!

So then a Bacon day on Saturday followed by an early evening flight to Van-cougar with Julianna. Fun times indeed! All the favorite Etown expats were there (Nutting, DCole, KO, etc) including a few surprises like Brad Payne. It was a great weekend. Saturday night we cruised to Main with Kristine and met Dustin and Joel at Habit. Delicious! Dustin was our gracious host Saturday night, we were even treated to a private show of some new stuff he's working on. Fantastic.

Then it's kind of a blur of coffee shopping coffee eating bagels from Solly's shopping coffee eating. Which brings us to Sunday. Sunday night was the most fantastic epicurean experience I have ever had. Meat Cheese and Wine. Seriously amazing. When next you find yourself in Vancouver, eat at Salt Tasting Room http://www.salttastingroom.com/ then thank me later. We finished the meal with a salty chocolate dessert and the chef brought us some sherry and I swear to God I saw visions of nature when I drank it. Like trees and deer and shit. fuct up.

Monday's highlight was seeing a totally inspiring show at the VAG (Vancouver Art Gallery, but they actually stamp your hand with a big blue 'VAG'. it's awesome.) with Julianna and D. House of Oracles: A Huang Yong Ping Retrospective. I can't even tell you how genius this chap is, the show blew me away. Here's a picture of Bat Project 2, a full-scale model of the cockpit of an American spy plane, filled with taxodermically preserved bats. There were so many great things about this show, I'm so glad we made the time to see it. Shout out to all the suckas who were milling around on the first floor lookin' at Picasso.

Alright, that's enough bloggin for one day. I will try to post some images if I can find the camera... hmmm...

since last i blogged

Not much has happened. I did go to see 'Knocked Up' last night with Erin O at City Centre. Before I say anything about the film, I need to let everyone (Amy and Tish) know that the CC Cinema is the radest cinema ever. I feel like I'm in some 80s mall movie when I'm there. And if the floor's not sticky with the stick of 1000 spilled fountain drinks, something is wrong in the universe. Anyway... now back to our feature presentation. What a piece of cinematic genius! Most of the crew from 'Freaks and Geeks' and 'Undeclared' made appearances in this fine fine film. Well worth the reduced Tuesday price of admission. Much popcorn (with dual layers of butter - delicious!) was consumed. AND we saw a preview for 'Transformers' (it looks rad). As always with Erin Ottosen, it was a great night.



The image posted is the artifact I'm working on currently at the museum. It's a wooden 'Diabolo' (aka 'Topsy Twirl', 'Flying Cone') toy circa 1908. The toy originates in China and became popular in England and France in the 15th Century then again around the French Revolution. Apparently Napoleon was known to have one (any coincidence that it immediately became unpopular again until the early 20th C? oooohhh Napoleon burn). Anyhow, I actually found the maker (Jaques of London, est. 1795) of this particular diabolo online and emailed them to find out more about the object (what type of wood it's made from, if the holes and metal bits on the ends are meant to make a whistle sound, etc.). I'll keep you posted as I find out more.

I think I am going through another insomniac phase. Can't sleep can't sleep can't sleep. I actually got out of bed at 3 in the morning to alter some garments. Sick.



until next time sweet dreams,
sarah

And on the 7th day God blogged

Let the e-craziness begin! It's my first blog - heeeeelllllllllloooo world!!!!!! Amy Fung and Tish are responsible for turning me into a blogger, let's see if the enthusiasm lasts more than 1 week...

A fun, action packed weekend just passed. The kick start was seeing a great show at the Provincial Archives of Alberta (Immortal Nature's Ageless Harmony: The Botanical Lantern Slides of William Copeland McCalla). Beautiful, beautiful prints. Check out the link http://www.cd.gov.ab.ca/preserving/paa_2002/Whats_New/gallery/McCalla/index.aspor better yet-GO SEE THE SHOW!! I know it's all the way almost in Millhoods but totally worth it.

Saturday was the Highlands Fair/Market, rode bikes with Mary (yey summertime! yey bikes!). We had a Bacon-y picnic with Kirsten, AFung and Manitoba. Sweet.

Swinging Saturday night included YOU/Happening at Red Strap Market, congrats to Travis and KO on a great night. Quelle success!!! Then off to Hooliganz (sp?) on 124St to see the lads from Calgary - the Cryptomaniacs (http://www.myspace.com/thecryptomaniacs) & friends. Good old rock 'n roll, just what I needed. The night ended with the tech guy (portly physique and black leather vest with shorts) taking to the stage and givin'er. Wicked. Way better than watching Sting any day (the Police were also playing in Etown that night).

Sunday was spent servin' up many many omlettes and other tasty treats at Bacon then a visit from Beccy Feather & co. I haven't seen that girl since we were on the sunny shores of the North Mole in Wanga-Vegas, NZ. Beccy is a glass blowing rock star and I hope she remembers me when she's famous.. here's her work: http://www.beccyfeather.co.uk/.

That's about it. Maybe I'll figure out how to post pictures for the next entry. Wait - how do I do another entry??? Ok, well in case this is the one and only blog from me...uh...stay fit and have fun.