Blue

The Blue Room

This is the room I designed for myself. It was a simply little room off the main entryway with floor to ceiling windows looking out over the front yard. It had white walls and white Berber carpet for a couple of years before I got around to working on it. 

I created a wrap-around desk that stretches from the windows on the left all the way around to the doorway, creating a big L of workspace. There are six desk bays between the columns, one of which is taken up by a bank of four television sets. As a full-time dad I like to get lots of information into my brain when I have free time. I can watch four different football games, or have two games on, the HGTV station on for Kelly and Cartoon Network for the little ones. It's good to get everyone into the same room even if we are interested in different events.

The stone columns are faced with tumbled slate and are designed to support the shelves which appear to float behind them. While I would have liked to have used stone or artistic glass for the desktop, I used high-end plywood which I lacquered to match the pine shelves. It has worked beautifully. The shelves are all lit from above with rope lights so that they don't become dark cavernous spaces at night. All the book titles are lit and the room takes on a soft glow.

I splurged on the grey carpet which is the thickest softest i could get, with the best pad underneath it. It's a tiny room and the difference wasn't exorbitant. I have a 1980's Williams pinball machine in the left corner and a leather love-seat facing the screens. There are three computers in the room, and the kids work side by side with me, which is very nice.

The sculpture guarding the entrance is Ezekiel. He stands 7 feet tall and has long dangling arms and skinny legs. The rabbit on the shelf is a Nabaztag and he uses the wifi signal in the room to send me messages, broadcast jazz programs, tell me the time, and generally keep me entertained. If you send him a message, he will speak it to me. His ears spin around when he speaks and he has a serious attitude. I like him very much.

Happy Birthday Son

Today is a blessed and wonderful day in our house. Alexander has just turned eight. True to his determined character and the precise nature of his observations, he would not let anyone wish him a 'Happy Birthday' until 5:45 pm, the exact time he was born. We counted down the minutes - the board in the picture above is ready to greet him as he gets home from school. Usually I list the kids' chores and activities on the chalkboard, which they dutifully check off one by one, but as you see today was a "no chore" day. It's snowing now as I post this. Looks like the kids will get to sled in the morning.

I have big thick ribeyes to grill, a fire is crackling, sparkling cider is flowing, and it's time to open presents. Oh to be eight again, and have that sense of wondrous anticipation! I spent nearly three hours in Target with Alex this week, slowly checking out the various toys and Lego sets. I sat down on the floor with him and we inspected the big boxes, reading the details of what figures were included and what land speeder and turbo lasers came with the one 'big thing' he wanted.

I think it was my favorite few hours this week. The girls bounced around looking at the various toys, each coming by every 30 seconds with some new treasure they wanted to get for their brother. Alex and I sat studying the fine print on the boxes and discussing what was cooler, what was a better deal, what would be the most fun to play with.

He brought me over to one box and said in his clear, calm voice that he thought this was something that Santa Claus would have to 'maybe' bring him, since it was such a big present. I nodded and agreed that it was indeed expensive and that it probably would be something we would have to write to Santa about next December.

But I pulled it off the shelf and we sat on the floor and inspected the stats, admired the design and discussed the merits of what was included. I then set the box back on the shelf, stood up, ruffled his hair and we all walked out. Everyone was chattering about what they saw.

I dropped the kids off at my moms so I could go play soccer, then drove back up the highway to the Super Target and got the one thing he most wanted.

Sister & Brother

We come to a milestone this week and it's hard to believe how quickly the months fly by. I remember a time when I used to measure my children's ages by weeks ~ and now I note them by years.

My youngest beasties are nearly inseparable. Inside, outside, reading, drawing, playing imaginary games, eating, brushing teeth, it doesn't matter what the activity: at all times they are to be found together.

It is like there is an invisible cord that stretches between them, and it doesn't allow one to get too far from the other. I honestly do not know how they survive the school day, separated by half a school of bricks and mortar. But once they're back on the bus they are back together, and when they walk in the front door after school they are side by side.

I am very proud that they are so close - I have insisted that all three show kindness, love and respect for each other. I tell them over and over that they will never have best friends as dear and close and loyal and protective as their brothers and sisters.

That also means I don't put up with whining,complaining, nagging, tale-telling, or any of the other normal sibling grousing - I set the bar very high when it comes to their behaviour. While this oftentimes casts me in the role of the 'bad guy' as I clamp down on infractions, or harp over and over on the way we should diplomatically solve problems, or how we nicely ask for things, or have conversations like:

Older girl to boy in horrified voice: "No don't touch that!"

Me to girl, "Is there any possible way in the world that your brother could harm that toy?"

Two second pause while girl considers how to explain her instant aversion to having anything belonging to her touched by her brother under any circumstances, but also appease dad's insistence on sharing everything, factoring in the fact that the toy in question is a 50 cent Beanz thing that could probably be rolled over by a tank and survive intact. 

"Yes," she blinks at me seriously. "He could drop it on the granite counter and it could break."

My eyes grow wide in amusement and half-serious consternation. "In which case I'll buy you another packet of Beanz for three bucks."

Slightly defeated: "Okay."

Boy reaches for toy again with lightning speed. "And you must *ask* first." His hand hovers just over the toy. "Nicely," I add with emphasis.

"Can I please see your green guy?"

"And give it back after a reasonable time or when she asks." I look to her and add, "Nicely."

Even though I sometimes feel like I'm saying the same things over and over and insisting on decorum every fifteen seconds - it pays off in the long run. There is peace in the house, and they really are quite remarkably nice to each other.

I just go a little crazy in the process.

Supercell

Pink

My little one was thrilled when I finally finished the last round of sanding and lacquering her shelves. All her treasured things have made their way out of the boxes and baskets. All her dolls are proudly displayed in the doll cabinet and all the stuffed animals have a home on the shelves. Her desk is full of etch-a-sketch tablets, a cash register, Mazie Mouse, Elmo, a treasure box, puzzle clock, and her sketch books. 

Doll beds are tucked under the desk, and a secondary desk slides out to give her more room to keep puzzles going when she's not quite finished, or to have a tea party.

The doll cabinet was once used by her mother and has been refurbished and painted a deeper glossy shade of pink to go with the pink ceiling, walls. It is lit from within and looks really pretty at night.

There are strings of glass square beads that hang in her doorway that tinkle nicely when she comes and goes. They are a very good indicator of what she is up to when I am downstairs.

Her bed fits in nicely with the natural wood feel, and the whole room has a rosy glow to it. 

Avatar Soars

The movie was awesome. The 3D takes about 15 minutes to adjust to in your brain, but once you stop thinking about it, it just blows you away. The flying scenes in particular were exciting and visceral in a way that put you on the back of a Ikran and reminded me why I love to fly so much now.

Neville Page designed the Mountain Banshees, and it's worth going to the movie just to see the scenes where our hero must climb up into the floating mountains to find and bond with his mount.

The kids loved the movie and the messages and have not stopped babbling about all the themes since. 

Don't listen to the haters, it's a work of art and is thoroughly enjoyable. Cameron created an entire world, right down to the fauna and the bugs, and every frame is full of detail and imagination. I particularly loved the trees and flowers and the third and fourth level of activity going on as the characters talk. There's plants that zoop down into the ground if you so much as touch them (with an amazingly satisfying whoop noise) and willowy trees that reach out to touch you if you draw near. Bugs that have wings that force them to spin around dizzily, their little eyes saying, "Oh dear, hear we go again." Every step through the forest creates a bioluminescent reaction in the moss and footsteps linger for a second or two, like in wet sand. The world is fully realized.

I just loved it.

Make sure you find a theater near you that has "Real3D" as that's the best projector and screen you can see it on. I'll check it out in Imax later this week and report my experience with that, but I was afraid it would be too hard to make out what was happening on the giant dome.

Loved seeing Sigourney Weaver in a leading roll - she's never looked better. Sam Worthington did a great job. But really the film belongs to Zoe Saldana - she was wonderful. Horner's score was a bit derivative of his earlier themes, I kept waiting for Enya to join in for the Titanic love song - but that's like criticizing Santa Claus for always wearing red: you know what you're going to get with Horner, and perhaps it will grow on me.

The message starts out simple - and that seems to be all the movie's critics can latch onto - but there are layers of themes and questions asked inside the broader picture. Alexander, who is seven, came out of the film and started talking about how both sides learned lessons, and how you never give up even when you think you've lost everything.

The ideas of whether the "dream walkers" are real creatures, and do they have a soul - and in what body does that soul reside? Those were interesting to me. The concept that the whole planet was interconnected in ways that we must only dream about - or try to re-create via social media and internet - was fascinating. 

Awesome movie.

Memories of James Cameron Films, Avatar & Inspiration

It's been a long time since I sat down in a theater to see a James Cameron film. The last time, I was sitting with my sister in the Park Road Theaters - the main screen there was massive back then, before they subdivided the space and put in smaller screens - and we munched popcorn and talked about Aliens, Ridley Scott, The Abyss, the advances in technology, and the media coverage of Titanic. It was to be a disaster of a movie, if one was to believe the critics. A gigantic waste of time and money.

We all know how that turned out. 

Here it is ten years later, and the critics are still saying the same things: rumors of grossly inflated budgets, wooden dialog and weak characterizations. I don't understand the cynicism or the hate. The guy's an artist. He makes the movies he wants to make. He's a world builder, and a visionary.

You want a Scorsese movie, go see a Scorsese movie. You want to see what 500 million dollars worth of cutting edge film technology will get you? Go see Avatar. Cameron can put together an action sequence like no other film-maker in the world. Remember the 30 minute scramble through the guts of the Titanic as they try to escape the ever-rising waters? Remember when Ripley and the marines discover the aliens inside the terra-forming complex the first time, and their narrow escape in the battle tank? Remember the bridge scene from True Lies with Jamie Lee Curtis, Arnold and the Harriers? I could go on and on.

And tonight I get to go see a world no one has ever seen before, because until now it's only existed in an artist's head - and has been created by a team of amazingly talented men and women who share in his vision.

My three kids will be on the edge of their seats - and I''ll be right there with them. Grinning and gripping Alex's hand. We get to hear a new James Horner score. We get to see fabulous new creatures.

Art fires your imagination and takes you places you've never been before. Art lifts your heart, and fuels your soul, and sprinkles the seeds of growth and new ideas. These things blossom into fresh artistic works, books, paintings, music, poetry - and sometimes helps create new artists.