La Gigue du Mont-Royal

I'm back from vacation with Brad in Montreal. I had a good time-- pretty low key, lots of walking, lots (and lots) of time spent reading and thinking on trains. It was definitely a boon to SAMETIME and was a lot of fun in that respect.

For me to get to Montreal it's a 16 hour train ride. For Brad it's 4 hours less. I did pretty well sitting still on the train. Those who know me, know that I'm no fan of sitting still and the first few hours were tough but I resigned to teach myself to read something other than the New Yorker (which I still read every word of) and take advantage of the situation by doing some much needed catching up on the written word

Those who know me also know that I'm no fan of fiction (these days) so I hunkered down with one of my favorite writers, Michael Pollan and consumed large chunks of "The Omnivore's Dilemma" while on the train, finishing it this past Friday in a northside coffee shop pretending that I didn't notice that compared to Montreal, Richmond is the sticks. The book is an excellent, smart, sobering read that has given me a much greater appreciation for grasslands, and a much more skeptical view of corn- which despite being a grass appears to be taking over our lands and our bodies. This is no book review so let's move on...

I saw a few movies during the past week: Eastern Promises (which I keep wanting to call Eastern Express, the name of a Chinese restaurant in Frostburg) which was pretty poopy despite that Viggio guy killing people while he was naked in a bath house; "Two Days in Paris" which I thought was brilliant despite there not being a scene where some naked guy kills people in a bath house. Julie Delpy is brilliant; Kim and I just saw "In the Valley of Elah" on Friday night and it was pretty terrific despite the terrible Annie Lennox song, and over done final scene (think the Nick Cave song at the end of "Winged Migration" and you've got the idea).

I'm going to spend the next week (or so) posting a chronology of images from the trip and writing short captions. Overall, the trip was good-- good for my body and brain to not be in the facilities management business for a week and good to have the time to be able to reflect on what my life (when not on a train) looks like, and realize that I need to make some fundamental changes to ensure a life that I'd be interested in even if I wasn't the one living it.

Of course The Kim stays in the picture. It's some of the other stuff that's got to go.

Off to Montreal!

Mr. and Mr. SAMETIME are headed to Montreal until next Thursday. This means that from Saturday to Wednesday, all the SAMETIMES that happen will be happening at the SAMEPLACE.

Next project: SAMEPLACE

DeWitt Camera Centre Grand Opening

This post starts out really nice w/ Ed pinning a DeWitt Camera Centre button onto the sweater of a 94 year old woman who visits his store regularly...

And then next it leads you into one of the back rooms at DeWitt's-- which, when it was Clark's I bought most of my camera supplies there for nearly 10 years and I always wondered what was back there behind the desk, through the hallway...

And then here's a view of my work, installed in Ed's store on the yellow yellow walls, way up above the shelves. This picture was taken during the great opening where I saw many many friends, and where everyone was very happy b/c this was not just an art opening, and it was not just a sale commemorating the opening of a new store. It was much much more than that...

And then we jump way ahead to about midnight when Kris and Mark were fooling around (for the benefit of the camera?) on the shuffle bowl table at Dante's (where every band that I'd want to see were I in town --except for the three that I just thought of -- played). Following Kris and Mark's PDA, Mark and I had a good conversation about Senator Craig, anonymous gay sex, and our aversion to sex in public restrooms...

It appears here that Kris jumped off Mark and got busy chewing pretzels w/ Jeff and posing, but really, it didn't happen that way. And in fact, before this picture was taken Jeff and I were sitting with Kim doing our best to make her laugh by laughing ridiculously loud and ridiculously...

And finally, Dante's is in the same building that housed a bar very dear to many many people in Frostburg, a place where we all spent a lot of time... some of us working, some playing music, most of us drinking (sometimes while working), and I know this bar sink better than I know any other, and I must say I feel a slight tug on my heart each time I ignore it on my way out the bathroom door.

You're Invited!

What are you doing this weekend? Will you be in Cumberland Maryland? If so, stop by the new DeWitt's Camera Centre at 56 North Centre Street.