Vacation officially over. It was nice to be home for at least a bit of it, but it was busier than I would actually prefer it. I spent a week on Change Islands, which was fabulous- about a quarter of my thesis research got done. I also shot an interesting story for Saltscapes magazine and spent yesterday morning shooting St. John’s Triathlon – the largest triathlon competition in Atlantic Canada.
I did have a chance to spend a fair bit of time at St. John’s Folk Festival this past weekend and Mike Stevens was definitely one of the highlights. Brilliant, brilliant harmonica player. Enjoy.
Croatian word of the day: svirač [music] player [svee rach]
Great, great news for Newfoundland writer Lisa Moore. She is one of the 12 writers on the longlist for The Man Booker Prize for her novel February. It’s a really excellent book following a spouse of one of the men who lost their lives in the 1982 during the Ocean Ranger oil rig disaster. The book is about grief first and foremost. Lisa has written a very emotional and yet restrained book that never slips into being pathetic – a feat that a lesser writer would not be able to pull off.
This is a photo of Lisa from a shoot earlier this year for The Guardian.
Local convenience store and ice cream shop Moo-Moo’s this afternoon. We had a preview of spring about a couple of weeks ago. I am hoping that this is the real thing.
Some photo links:
The Jazz Loft Project is an amazing collections of audio recordings and photographs made by W. Eugene Smith during eight years that he lived in ‘the loft’ which also happened to serve as a playground for some of the best jazz musicians ever. There is also a 10 piece radio series which I haven’t listened to yet, but will this weekend. And here you can hear and see a preview at the New York Times.
And take a look at Ashley Gilbertson’s work called Bedrooms of the Fallen. It is an unusual and in many ways effective body of work. There is something that bothers me about it, but I can’t quite put it in words at the moment.
Croatian word of the day: proljeće spring [pro ly e che]
