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Esam gaisā!


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Thursday, October 31, 2013

My First Month

Hello Friends,

Since my last blog post two months ago, I completed my long-term substitute job teaching fifth grade at a different school than the one I currently work at and signed a one-year contract to teach a kindergarten/first grade combo class for the rest of the year. If you read my previous post, then you know I had my doubts about having my own classroom this year, but as things tend to go for me, sure enough I was picked up and without a moment left to spare!

This Halloween marks the end of my first month at my new job working in a new district, at a new school, and with a primary combo class that had had 5 different subs over the course of the entire first quarter that I was not there. I have a couple of things to share from the past month and my new experiences.

1. Small tweaks can make the biggest differences. I can't quite pinpoint exactly where I picked it up but over the course of my attending a string of professional development opportunities and watching tons of videos of effective teachers teaching, I noticed that those teachers were calling their students 'scholars'. My go-tos last year were the tried and true: boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, class, kiddos, my dears, and my loves. "Scholars? That's awesome! I wonder if my kinders and first graders will get it," I thought, but I resolved to call my students that the very first day I met them.

Well, it's been a month and my kiddos, scholars have lived up to their sophisticated title. What has happened in the last month has been nothing short of MAGIC. We went over what it means to be a scholar when we created our classroom norms together at the beginning of the month. As a class we agreed that scholars listen and follow directions, do their personal best, respect themselves and each other, are kind, courterous, and polite, and finally, take pride in all they do. If these sound like every other classroom rules posted in most classrooms that's becasue they are, but as my scholars internalized these norms it was easy to add more and be more specific. Scholars are laser-focused, scholars don't cry, scholars never cheat their brains, etc. Bottom line, my students LOVE being called scholars and they totally own what it means to be one.

It's literally gotten to the point where they get offended when I call them boys and girls. "We're not boys and girls, we're scholars!" they'll tell me. If I catch them acting naughty I just remind them that they are acting like little boys and girls and immediately they show me scholarly behavior. It's incredible. I wish I would've done this my first year of teaching! (I'm also aware and thankful that I just have a really angelic group of children this year.)

2. I love teaching writing in K-1. I'm no Shakespeare but it's no secret that I get a deep sense of joy from writing. Although I find it's one of the hardest things to teach and teach well, man, oh man, I love teaching writing to kinders and first graders!! My school is using Lucy Calkins' Units of Study and I am a huge fan. Yes, I love Lucy. This is my first year implementing a writer's workshop and I am really pleased with the level of enthusiasm my students have for writing and equally as pleased with the caliber of work that they are producing. Right now we're working on informative writing via chapter books. The sample below followed a mini-lesson on how to write a "How To" chapter.

This is one of my kinders who wrote this and I thought it was hilarious.

Shark Pups

Mermaid drops a purse so the sharks have pups.
Pups turn to babies.
Shark pups turn to baby sharks with boosters.
And they grow up.

I toyed with the idea of letting him run with this, but then remembered we're working on informational text. His brain darn near exploded when I told him that sharks don't really have boosters. We shared a great moment.

I am counting down the days for our Publishing Party. I told my scholars I'd invite my friends and their families to come celebrate their chapter books once they are published. They are all working so hard and diligently to write the best chapter books anyone has ever read!

With that, have a grand evening and as always, thanks so much for reading.

1 comment:

  1. So happy to see you in a longer term position with better behaved kids :D I had a teacher in 9th grade who called us "scholars"! It seemed cheesy at the time but he was an excellent teacher, and we all liked him.

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Tuesday, December 28, 2010

It always seems that the month of December goes so quickly, this year has been no exception. We ended November with a visit to St. Louis to see Ryan's family. We celebrated the season with food, shopping, and hanging out. The whole family was together for the first time in years!

Rylan did pretty well with the car ride to and from Missouri. It takes a lot to keep him entertained for that long. These sunglasses helped.

Rylan also rode his first carousal at the mall while we were there. He had a great time.

December was then filled with many events. Angel Tree party at Monroe Circle, bridal shower for my baton buddy, musical at church, Christmas at the LeDonne's, Son City Kids Christmas, friends over, Christmas Eve, Christmas, 2 ear infections, and lots of running around. We missed Emily, Gabo, Eric, and Cindy as they stayed at their respective homes for Christmas. (We can't wait to see them in March!) Here are some images from our month. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Monday, December 13, 2010

Dear Ear Infections...

Dear Ear Infections,
You have no mercy. You come and you go and come back again so quickly! I am about done with you as I can imagine Rylan is too. He would probably tell me if he spoke full sentences. I'm sure the new insurance company is excited because we have had 5 appointments since the relationship began on Oct. 1st. And I love how the doctor keeps saying "a couple more" of you and we will talk about tubes. How many is a couple really? I mean Rylan is only 17 months old. His usual upbeat personality has just been pummelled by your presence. I will be glad when you are gone forever!
Tomorrow, it is more antibiotics for you so we can try to move past this....again.
Until next time,

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Purdue Basketball

This year, Ryan decided to share Purdue Basketball season tickets with one of his buddies. The ticket purchasing took place before Robbie Hummel blew out his knee again. This puts a damper on the season, but it was still fun to go down and see the exhibition game this week. Ryan will be going to half of the games this season. I will join him for some. It's great to see our old stomping grounds every now and then!

October Fun

Yes, I know October is over, but I thought I should still share some photos. October was one of my favorite months with Rylan. He began "talking" more this month. He says words like, Mama, Dada, football, eat, more, and our favorite "A bus!" He sometimes yells it all the way to and from daycare.

In October, we went to Chicago for Erin B's b-day and visited a pumpkin patch. Teri put some great pictures on her blog. You can see them here.

We also visited our local pumpkin patch with Grandma and Grandpa Kring. Rylan had a great time running around and looking at all of the pumpkins. I am so glad we went on a week night, because it wasn't that busy.

We also celebrated Halloween with Zoo Boo the weekend before, and actual Halloween with Urgent Care, two ear infections, and a cough with wheezing. We got a couple of pictures at Trunk or Treat as well. Rylan was so cute as Purdue Pete, he just didn't understand that he needed to wear the hat and carry the hammer to get the point across. Ryan loves Halloween. It is much more fun for me now that Rylan is around.

Zoo Boo -- There is a zebra behind us

Trunk or Treat at West Side Church

I can't believe it's November already!

Monday, October 18, 2010

Oh how I love a deal!

This past weekend, I got together with some friends for a special visit from Texas and a birthday. Much to my excitement I heard about a website that gives discounts for fun things to do around town. We talked about it (well made fun of it) often though deep down we all wanted to check it out to see what deals we could get.
So tonight, I went to http://groupon.com/ to sign up for the daily email list stating what great deals I could get in South Bend. Bad news of the day...South Bend is NOT listed! WHAT!!?? This kind of stuff is right up my alley! I guess I'll just have to stick to http://moneysavingmom.com/ to find deals and great articles.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

He's Walking!

Rylan is on the move now. July 24th, Ryan and I were trying to get him to walk (before he did it for someone else), and he did. We didn't really think it was going to happen, but we were so excited! He went back and forth between the two of us many times. We got just a little on video, but it is so great. He got more and more confident as he did it. Notice how he pushes Ryan's hands away. Everyone keeps saying, "now you're really going to have to baby proof", I really think this is going to be true when he can get his leg up on the couch. It is fun watching him get stronger and stronger.

He also got his first bloody lip that day, but that's just because he tripped over his own feet (probably like his mom :) ).

The Lake

We have spent so much time at the lake this summer. Here is one of the best pictures of Rylan thus far in his lake gear. Nana is looking great as well.

First Birthday

July 9th came way faster than expected. Rylan celebrated his first birthday with the extended family on hand. We had a great time sharing the day with everyone. Rylan enjoyed spontaneously playing in the pool with his cousins and eating his cake. On his actual birthday we went to the fair and met Rylan's second birthday buddy (Kel is the first). This gentleman was turning 83. He and his wife were so cute making faces at Rylan in the stroller. On his birthday Rylan was getting very good at pulling up. He was also putting his hands in the air to say "So big", and showing everyone his tongue. This is such a fun time! The only downfall is that he's growing so fast!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Once upon a time in Mexico...

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to post about our trip to Mexico. We had a great time celebrating with Emily and Gabo and their Mexican family. I'll give you the abbreviated version of the trip...
  • Before Mom, Rylan and I got on the plan Sunday the 13th, I had broken my in-law's suitcase that we borrowed.
  • The flight down consisted of 1 hour sitting on the runway (Rylan slept for 45 min of that hour), no air condidtioning and Rylan fussing the entire 4 hours we were in the air but falling asleep the second we landed. We were grateful to be off of the plane. It was easily four of the hardest hours of his life thus far.
  • Emily was sick the first 24 hours were were there. She had a stomach bug. Thankfully she bounced back well.
  • Ryan Kring, Ryan Bastine, and Roger were to fly out of O'hare Wednesday morning at 8:30am. When they arrived at the airport, no one was at the check-in desk, and they learned over the phone with the airline that all morning flights on this airline were canceled for the last three weeks. After many stressful hours and phone calls to Mexico (thank goodness for Skype), Roger flew alone to Mexico at 2:55pm Wednesday and Ryan and Ryan flew first class on a different airline from 2:00-6:00am Thursday.
  • They arrived at 8:15am to the hotel and we left at 9:00am for the civil wedding. This began our tour of Mexico in a big white van with my entire family. (Ryan, Rylan, and I, Mom, Rog, Dad, Trish, Eric, Cindy, Ryan Bastine, and two of Emily's friends)
  • That same day, Ryan (and the boys) watched a Mexico World Cup soccer game with some real fans, I spent way too many hours at a nail salon, cried in a cab, and took Rylan to his first bachelorette party. The nail salon was not that bad, just a very long experience. Everything turned out good, and I spent some good time with my sister.
  • Saturday was the wedding...what a fun day! The hair dressers came to Em's apartment, so we bopped in and out all day. It was so fun being all together. The setting for the wedding was awesome. It started only an hour late, and the rain held most of the ceremony. The funny thing was, Em and Gabo didn't even know it was pouring until the pastor said something. They then turned around and saw all of the umbrellas. Some of us went up under their little tent to finish the ceremony. It was so personal. We then had a great party complete with Mariachi music.
  • The flight home on Sunday was great! We had an extra seat, three extra people, and a big white wedding dress thrown over our shoulders. (To think we barely breathed on it after it was steamed earlier in the week.)

We are so glad we went! It is hard to travel with an almost one year old. He is such a trooper though. He didn't even fuss when he had to go back in a carseat at O'Hare airport. Em and Gabo also had a celebration in South Bend July 2nd. They have been home for the month (part of the reason for my lack of posting) and watching Rylan while I work. They leave next Saturday (boo!). I am so thankful for our time in Mexico, and their time in South Bend!

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Here we go...

Just last week Rylan started pulling up. It happened quickly. I know he was doing this a little while he was still at daycare, but we didn't get to see that. Today he was beginning to "cruise". He usually makes an attempt at this when he wants something like the computer. This is fun for us. We know, we know...just wait until he really gets moving. So far we are faster than he is. Does chasing him count as exercise?

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

It's wedding season!

In the last year, my brother Eric, and my sister Emily have both gotten engaged! Emily and future husband Gabo will be married in Mexico June 19th and will again celebrate in Indiana July 2nd. Eric and Cindy will be married in San Francisco March 18, 2011. They are meeting us in Mexico for Em and Gabo's wedding.

We are ready for the weddings! Rylan has his suit and passport (for Mexico). I am a little nervous about air travel but am sure we will work it out like usual. I'm sure Rylan is not the most high maintenance baby to ride a plane. Here are some pictures of our preparation

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Spring Family Photos

Last week my brother came over to take family pictures for us. He has an art degree and does well with photography even though it isn't his favorite. The plan was to wear our Cubs gear and wear regular clothes, and hopefully get some pictures outside. Well, Rylan was in an okay mood until right before the pictures when he got really, really tired. Here is the best picture. We will be scheduling another session.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Swimming Lessons

Last month we signed up for Mom and Tot swimming lessons. This is a class at the Y that helps kids get comfortable with the water while their parent is holding them. We met Shannon and Lilly for our first class. The kids did great! We sang songs, kicked, splashed, and moved in a circle to the music. It is a great class. Unfortunately, Rylan got ear infections the following week, and has been sick off and on since. We were able to move our payment to the next session. That was a big bonus! We will be ready for the lake when the warm weather arrives.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Bath Time!

Rylan is now 7 months old! We can't believe how fast this time is going. We are enjoying every minute of it. We got out Rylan's new seat for the bath tub today because he has grown out of the baby tub. He seemed to like it! Maybe next time we'll get out the bubbles.

The last two weeks have been something...Rylan has begun cutting his teeth, so that has brought sniffles, a fever, and minor fussiness. Fussy for Rylan is not really that bad. I am also getting my energy back from not feeling well. We are looking ahead to spring. I can't believe it is already mid-February. Our calendar is filling up fast as usual.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

6 months old

Rylan is 6 months old already! He is getting so big. At his 6 month apointment, he was 18.6lbs and 28.5 inches. We are geting ready to transition him to the bigger carseat because the infant seat only goes up to 29 inches.

We love making him laugh. (Which then makes us crack up!) He is beginning to sit up now and loves his musical toys. Our favorite thing is probably that he knows who we are and sometimes reaches for us.

We are adjusting well to the routines of work and daycare. I can't believe how fast my time home went. Rylan is doing well at daycare and I like it better each time I go in walk in both at the beginning and the end of the day. God has really worked this out for us.


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Thursday, October 14, 2010

Sitting on Hands, Living the Plan

C S Lewis said, "It seems like there's no plan because it's all plan."

Well I'm living in the 'seems like' today.

How blessed I am, and how little I know it. The focus of my life has been mothering, helping kids to learn music, and lately helping brides with their special day, and writing like mad about everything I've read about.

Doesn't sound very focused, does it? Nope, I'm busy, behind and broke.

 But, I'm breathing! And I believe in the plan.

And that will be my focus, for today.

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Saturday, September 20, 2008

Faux Silk

You thought I forgot about my blog, didn't ya? Nope, just couldn't get to it! And I'm not *entirely* sure what I've been doing. LOL I think between allergies and migraines, I've just been "out of it." Oh, and then there those kids. :-)

This is the technique I'm doing next month for my Card Buffet (if you want to see what else I'm doing, click over to my card buffet blog).

This was such a fun technique! I've seen it around, of course, but I just haven't given it a try. I was in the mood for it, and this is what I came up with. I have a vague memory of being prompted by something on someone's blog, but I can't remember anymore.

Stamps: Organic Grace, Elegant Notes
Paper: Whisper White, Baja Breeze, Tissue Paper
Ink: Baja Breeze
Accessories: retired copper Hodgepodge, tag punches, sponge


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Thursday, July 26, 2012

Seasons of love.

Last season, my life was a bit different. I had everything that I needed, and more; my reliance on God was for my emotional stability, and direction towards the future.

 It’s funny how we take so much for granted.

I’m in a phase in my life right now where my reliance on God has become pretty... overwhelming. My reliance has gone from the emotional, to the emotional and the physical, and I am gently reminded that I only like to pretend that I have everything together. As my mom put it, “God works things out in the nick of time- not necessarily when we want, but definitely when we need.”

Faith in action is believing that God will provide for you, say- something like an apartment, and trusting that you will have a place to sleep at night. This doesn’t mean that freak-outs won’t happen, (you ARE human, after all) but in that last hour, right as your heart is beating and you’re unsure that something will work out, and you can only be on the floor in front of God, giving up all control, he flips the switch and there’s an apartment available TODAY, 10 blocks from where you’re currently crashing, and- yeah, God is good.

Faith is knowing that God is good even when things look hopeless. God did not provide for me because I said my prayers the right way or because I didn't curse or I paid my tithe on time- God provided for me because he loves me. That’s how I believe this thing works... God created the world out of love, and yeah- I don’t have the answers to why bad things happen to good people, or why there is hunger and poverty in the world, but I know that it’s my duty to help if I can, and sometimes even if I can’t. Because that’s what Jesus would do, and he was a pretty good guy.

I live in a chaotic world, interwoven with grace, and am constantly reminded that God is good, even when it doesn't look that way.

I am loved.


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Thursday, March 15, 2012

A Perfect Ending

Those of us who deal regularly with obituaries have probably seen it all - unexpected deaths, long-expected deaths, deaths that occurred suddenly in the course of everyday of life, and deaths from infections in the pre-antibiotic era, reminding us of how many times it could have been us.  We've seen young deaths and old deaths; from natural causes to murder and suicide.  Some deaths are memorable, and many are not.  But the one death that has stayed in my mind is that of John Wesley Graves.

John and Nannie (Biggs) Graves

His obituary is standard fare - 84 years old, prominent farmer, moved from his home in Stark county, Illinois to Madison county, Iowa, married Nannie, had children, etc.  But the best part of the story isn't found in the obituary.

It was Christmas Day, 1954.  John's niece, Zella and her family were on their way to her father's home for Christmas.  They stopped to deliver Christmas greetings to John and Nannie.  John and Nannie were not planning an early Christmas meal with their own family but were preparing to have a quiet lunch at home instead.  They were both feeling well and in good health.  After a short visit, Zella and her family continued on their way.

Later that afternoon while the family was opening presents, Zella took a phone call.  After all the presents had been opened and "thank yous" given, she told the family that after lunch, Uncle John had laid down to take a nap and had passed away quietly in his sleep.

I can't think of a better ending to life - a nice visit with loved ones, followed by a quiet meal at home with my beloved spouse, and then simply relaxing and closing my eyes, all with a lovely white, snowy, glittery and joyous Christmas Day backdrop.  A gentle drift into eternity.  Rest in peace, Uncle John Graves, and thank you for a wonderful story.

Many thanks to cousin Gerald (and cousin William) for sharing not only family documents and photos, but priceless stories and memories such as these.  Cousins, no matter how distant, add a richness and fullness to our mutual histories that cannot be obtained anywhere else, and are a true blessing.

  1. Oh, lovely. I agree, that would be a nice way to pass. Family, food and a wonderful holiday.

  2. Such a sweet, quiet, painless ending to a life.

  3. I've never equated heartwarming to death before, but your story about it was.

  4. That IS quite a lovely story. I am sure they were so glad that they stopped through...


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Ancestral Roofs

"In Praise of Older Buildings"

Saturday, February 26, 2011

another deposed monarch

This afternoon I've started reading Leslie Maitland's scholarly but accessible book, The Queen Anne Revival Style. It's reminding me how much I like the style - a little bit Gothic a little bit classical a little bit Tudor a little bit English rural life-ish. Big clues you have a Queen Anne? Dark red brick with white trim, terra cotta panels, bay windows, variety of window types, stained or frosted glass, irregular roofline, verandah with classical columns, corner tower, L-shaped plan with large gables at each end, deep brackets and vergeboard, interesting chimneys.

Maitland's detailed descriptions of the interiors of some of these homes, and of the social history that created them, is really evocative. I'm thinking baronial dark-wood-panelled splendour, pater familias uninterrupted by the fireplace , well-behaved women and children, lots of Victorian clutter...hmmm, some places I'd rather not time-travel to.

Enjoying this book is also reminding me that the house in these photos is the first building I ever really studied closely. I wrote a paper on it for Shannon Kyle's Ontario Architecture course, and later converted it (the paper) into a little article for Outlook, the journal of our wonderful local historical society. The neatest part about the research was the story of the tower - no, don't look up, it's gone. Interesting how often these third storey stories pop up - several houses I've explored since are missing towers. Notice the slight tilt to the building? In the case of this house, the tower was removed because it was too heavy for the shifty sandy soil beneath the foundation, and was causing structural problems...had to go! Third verandah, ditto.

Nowadays, the house is broken up into apartments, lacking the touch of a dedicated in-house preservationist. Mops on the porch, rubbish on the grass, and just recently someone has decided to paint the capitals on the porch columns bright brick-orange. Oh dear - still a grand house though. It's on my walk downtown through the leafy East Hill area, and I look forward to reconnecting with it every time I'm in the neighbourhood.

It's a sickness...

It's a sickness, but a good one.

Any enthusiasm - showing wolfhounds, building replica vintage and historic motorcycle frames, collecting early Heathkit sets or fine guitars - they are all intensely absorbing and very rewarding. They also lead to interesting connections with others who share the bug.

A gentleman I have just met through this blog has developed a Field Guide to old house styles he calls A Field Guide to Building Watching. It's at
Massive amount of work and research. Great photos and checklists for identification. A project I once had in mind - glad Ted got to it first, it's a big job! It will be a regular stop from now on.

Another contact researches Eaton's houses (those mail-order homes sold in kits or as plans in the early decades of the 20th century) and is anxious to hear from anyone in Ontario who knows of examples in this province. If you know of any, please contact me at the email on this blog and I will get in touch with her.

Must go. Feeling poorly. Need an infusion of the latest issue of Heritage Matters. Or maybe I'll work some more on my blog. Or perhaps a few more pages of Leslie Maitland. Then there are the minutes from Thursday's municipal heritage meeting to write up. Or I could work on my photo files for the ACO tour in October. Or my article on Glanmore house for Umbrella. Oh dear. It IS a sickness, isn't it?

Left: in Belleville, adjacent to Corby Rose Garden
Right: Hochelaga Inn, Kingston

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Room at the Inn

I was talking the other day about how buildings go through transitions over the decades, centuries, leaving us with today's version, and only hints into what they were like before - bringing out the detective in all of us lovers of old buildings. Delving into the history of our local Clarion hotel, which is an historic building once called the Quinte Hotel, is a worthy exercise in time-travel.

The building was built in 1895 on the long-vacant site of the Dafoe Hotel, which burned in 1886. The Quinte Hotel itself was rebuilt after a disastous fire, in about 1909, adding a fourth storey in the process. It has seen many changes, has operated under several different hotel chains, losing a lot of its grandeur over the years. The Quinte Hotel was spoken of in superlatives in newspapers of its day. The Belleville Sun, in 1895, in the enthusiastic rhetoric of the time, reported that "there is no finer hotel to be found inthe province of Ontario than the Hotel Quinte". The hotel is associated with so many stories of Belleville, and of its illustrious citizens. Its a great story longing to be told.

When the Quinte Hotel was first built it is reported to have had many Romanesque Revival elements - that style said "we're important" in 1895. From what I can see in the photos I have viewed there were rusticated limestone foundation stones and piers for the prominent high porches (one removed in the 1960's, the other lowered and modernized), the deep red brick emulating the characteristic red sandstone, the round-headed arches and brick hood moulding above windows on the first floor and frontispiece on the Bridge Street side, rustication on the chunky pillars of the porches and the detailing at the top of the Bridge Street frontispiece, which all suggest Romanesque Revival. I can't see enough of the detail of the sun-room at the top, but it has a massive feel.

During the rebuilding after the fire around 1909, a brick fourth storey was added with a cornice separating it from the floors below, and classical features diluted some of the Romanesque Revival feel. The removal of the Bridge Street portico and the lowering and modernizing of the Pinnacle entrance were the biggest loss to its historical sense of style.

Today the hotel is a viable Clarion Hotel, much changed, but still the centre of downtown life, and mindful of its heritage. We should be proud of its longevity.

1.Top :(coloured postcard) Quinte Hotel (after 1909 rebuilding, note fourth storey above cornice.)
2. Left: Quinte Hotel (as originally built in 1895, note the sun-room on the roof)
3. Right: Dafoe Hotel (note the carriage-way into a central courtyard)
4. Bottom: Quinte Hotel (now the Clarion Hotel) as it is today.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Baby please don't go...

Another article in ACO's Acorn-on-line has me thinking. We so often use their term 'demolition by neglect'' to describe a situation where a building is left to deteriorate to a point where only the staunchest preservationist is left standing to defend it against the developers. This article coins a new term - 'developer's lightning' (hastily rescued from the tactless use of a now totally politically incorrect term by a local politician) - in connection with a fire, later found to be arson, which destroyed an important old hotel standing in the way of the Toronto developers.

The little house with the fine chimneys, above left, is the Billa Flint house (1835) in Belleville, built for this important local businessman and politician, who became a senator in 1867. Good pedigree this house has. Just recently the house was targeted by vandals who found the long-abandoned building just too tempting. Shame the owner doesn't find his stated plans for the place just as tempting. The clear and present danger for uninhabited heritage buildings is always further decay resulting in demolition. So often fire or other irreparable damage seems to have played into the hands of waiting developers (and the suspicious among us wonder aloud about collusion).

The house at top right is less famous - haven't been able to find anything about it so far. It sits on rural property north-east of Trenton. It's a lovely place, low regency profile with a line of tall windows and French doors with lovely cornices. Frame, stucco, gable roof. Lovely setting among trees on a country road. This house, unlike the Flint house, probably doesn't have anyone to speak up for it. Not famous. But this house would have a story. I hope it's been a happy one - family, success, tradition, love. Like we feel when a human life draws to its close: I hope life's been good to it. I hope all that can be done has been done. I hope this life will be remembered.

I hope to visit this little grey house a few more times before it goes.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

And now for something completely different...

Whew, too much research lately, need to lighten up. I've just recalled a thoroughly delightful day we spent last summer at the Albert County Museum in Hopewell Cape on the Fundy shore of New Brunswick. The museum is operated by the fine folks of the Albert County Historical Society. Albert County was founded in 1845. Hopewell Cape was the Shiretown and the structures on the site were the original Shiretown buildings in their original locations, spreading up a gentle slope from the shore.

Competing with more famous Hopewell Rocks, (which we kayaked in the afternoon), the Albert County Museum can hold its own historically. Hopewell Cape was the birthplace of Premier R.B.Bennett, who among other achievements, founded the CBC - and himself a Conservative!! - and the museum is proud to showcase his career, as well as the lives and work of the people of Albert County.

The museum complex features a fine exhibition hall of farming, fishing and social history displays, the original County Gaol with graffiti from prisoners preserved on the plaster walls, and the actual County Tax Office with files and space for researchers and genealogists. The Community Hall has a powerful display about R.B.Bennett and the Great Depression, which got us both interested in reading Boyco's new book about this complex man and his political times.

The building that most impressed us was the County Court House (rebuilt 1904 after a fire ). It is a solemn classically styled building at the top of the rise. The structure was designed by Watson Reid, a local architect, son of a carpenter. The interior of the building has exquisite woodwork.

And now for something completely different, something many locals don't know! Watson Reid was one of three architect brothers whose impact ranged far beyond their little village. In 1888, in the seaside resort town of Coronado near San Diego, the hotel designed by the lads, the lavish Queen Ann style Hotel del Coronado, was opened. It stands today, with several additions, offering hospitality now, as it did then, to the world's rich and famous. It is a U.S. National Historic Landmark. Small-town lad makes good.

Photo top right: Hotel del Coronado. Thanks to Wikipedia - and yes, I did send in my donation to Jimmy Wales.

It ain't necessarily so....

I'm taking a course on the history of Western architecture with Shannon Kyles through Mohawk College this winter. It's great fun, revisiting places I studied in my undergrad history of art courses - pulled out my old Janson History of Art text to work on an essay recently. Purchased it for a whopping $12.95 in my sophomore year! It's funny how the long-term memory works - terms and structures I studied in 1966 are etched in my mind...the names pop out almost without bidding - whereas the new ones take some serious work to fix in there.
I recall one of my big disappointments in my early study - it comes back even today. What I see in the photographs (or in real life in the case of some we've visited over the years) is not at all what people saw when the structures were new - as I write this I ask myself "what did you expect?" - but still,who knew...

-that Lincoln cathedral's exquisite early 14th century stone screen was originally brightly painted?
-that the statues and carvings in those brilliant white Greek ruins we see were once bright reds and blues?
-that the arches in triumphal Roman arches and coliseums were boarded up and used as public housing in the middle ages? Nicks in the walls show where roof supports were once anchored, and carved niches were used for fireplaces and dovecotes.
-that the Parthenon was originally covered with sculpture (poached by a British collector); that its 40' tall ivory and gold statue of the goddess Athena disappeared somewhere along the way, likely in a fire; that its romantic ruin today is in large part due to an explosion in 1687 when the temple was being used by the Turks as a munitions dump?
-that the marble, gold and bronze fronts of great buildings were removed and used in the building projects of kings and emperors of subsequent empires? (and popes were good at that too)
-that many of the wonderful stone houses in England were constructed of stone from nearby abbeys, disgraced and destroyed in 16th century, and that the romantic ruins we see today (think Tintern Abbey) were just the churchy bits that would be too obviously nicked to be useful?
-that stone structures like Stonehenge may only exist today because the stone was too heavy for subsequent civilizations to remove for building material?
-that the cathedrals of Europe and England were 'improved' over the centuries; Romanesque carving removed in favour of Gothic sophistication, new styles for old??
-that the brilliant palace of Knossos (how amazingly well-preserved I thought) built in 1900 to 1450 BC, was buried by an earthquake, rediscovered and rebuilt in early 1900's by Sir Arthur Evans? He did the best he could, but scholars have disputed its authenticity over time.
-that so much of what we see today is the result of passionate and painstaking preservation work by governments and individuals, and that for all that we see, there is so much more lost to us?

The fires, the earthquakes, the wars, the changes in taste - deliberate and accidental tragedies, the rich history of accomplishment and catastrophe that these structures represent - I've observed before in connection with old Ontario houses that old buildings are a portal to the past. I am experiencing this so powerfully in this course. Wouldn't care to guess how many European and British history books I have piling up around my desk?

Back to the Palace of Knossos for a minute. I recall my first visit to Minoan civilization in my sophomore year at Carleton (since Grade 9 mythology with Mrs. Ross), and the palaces of this peaceable artistic Mediterranean kingdom. The Palace of Knossos was rebuilt by Evans during a lifetime of work, using the knowledge and tools available to him in the early 1900's. And even he got it wrong, according to scholars. What remains is only a hint of the brilliance of that culture, an invitation into the history and the myth about this kingdom, its rulers, the palace, bronze age civilization.

The other day I made up a term for what happens when I see a ruin or a reconstruction and imagine it to be 'the real thing". (It's a great conceit to think it's original, but I haven't seen anyone else use it yet.) I call this the Knossos effect - reconstruction using modern materials, rebuilding based on what we know, what we wish, what we need (tourism leaps to mind). From ancient structures right up to c19 Ontario houses - all an invitation to do our research, do some time-travel. Because in the words of Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward....what we see today? "It ain't necessarily so".

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

If wishes were houses...

There's a lot of interest in mail-order houses. I was doing some research on early catalogues recently for an article in a local arts newspaper. This all started when I rediscovered a facsimile edition of the 1910 Eaton's catalogue on my bookshelf, and spent an enjoyable few hours looking at merchandise that has long disappeared from our lives...automobile coats and bicycle skirts, cuspidors, mangles and two-horse harness. And houses.

I remembered a visit to several south Saskatchewan communities while we exploring 'the Big Muddy' from our base in the Coronach municipal campground few years ago. A local guide pointed out the house at the upper left - a weathered husk of a house, standing in a field of harvest-ready wheat. The house, going back into the earth, to nurture future crops? Our guide explained that this was an Eaton's mail-order house - whether local legend or not, the idea was new to me, and I was hooked.

Most sources suggest that the mail-order house, available from around 1910 to 1930, was a prairie phenomenon, necessary because of the shortage of timber for house lumber. Makes sense, looking at the countryside surrounding these little buildings. There were a number of companies: Eaton's and Aladdin were the two main ones. Lumber was shipped from B.C., and everything else needed to build a home - windows, hardware, nails, paper, optional plumbing and heating kits - arrived by boxcar from Winnipeg. Plans and material for barns, school-houses and other buildings were also available. Plans were available for those who had local access to building materials. Lots of homes in the East may have been built from the catalogue plans - that would be interesting to know.

I have come across some interesting websites in my research, created by community heritage associations or ranches. They contain all sorts of interesting images and stories. A visitor to this blog is looking for news of Eaton's houses in western Ontario - I am doing the same in eastern Ontario. Let me know what you know about mail-order homes!

The photo of the faded little yellow house with the red roof was taken near Sceptre, Saskatchewan, on a tour to find the Great Sand Hills. The little school-house photo is from a historic tour we took in South Saskatchewan, out of Coronach. My heart tells me they came in a kit from one of the mail-order companies. More houses with stories to tell.

Every winner has scars

Robert N.C. Nix said "every winner has scars." I'll admit to not knowing who Mr. Nix is, but I will agree that heritage buildings who have survived alterations, near demolitions and changes all around them are winners in my eyes. And they bear scars from their battle to survive.
I read the term 'roof scars' somewhere - wish I could recall where, so I could attibute this very apt term to its creator. Roof scars - traces of a previous roof line visible on a wall , showing up as discoloration, differences in material, intriguing lines. The Quebec city building on the left shows changes in the roofline of the structure which once stood beside it, as it grew, and the addition of another storey to itself. The limestone parapet wall in Kingston shows a brick fireplace and flue exposed by the demolition of its neighbour...quite a shock, like an elderly lady on the sidewalk in her nightgown.
I'll admit to a tendency over time to view an old building as if it had always been that way - forgetting of course that as we age, we change. Buildings that have stood for a century or more are very unlikely to be in their original condition - additions for practical reasons (a wing, dormers, repairs after fires, concrete basements under moved buildings), changes in fashion (producing add-ons and combinations of styles - harmonious or otherwise), inaccuracies due to lack of information (you could call it the Knossos effect), limited skill or resources (removal of Regency treillage, the vinyl siding compromise), myths about features of early buildings (a pet peeve of Miss MacRae), loss of associated heritage landscape (my favourite Glanmore property), and lots of other factors combine to make appreciation of old buildings an intriguing puzzle.

For many years my response to old buildings has been an emotional one - how lovely, how unusual, what about this building intrigues me so, what makes my heart ache? A global holistic approach. Now that my architectural knowledge is increasing, I am more analytical, and my appreciation of detail increases with my ability to name and describe it and place it in history.

Now I begin to see the need to become a detective! All good.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

...on my way to the Forum*

In my last post I mused about Greek Revival architectural style and how North America adopted it so readily for civic buildings. It was just what communities needed to enhance their image, affirm their their progress from log and frame settlements to successful villages, towns and cities, and create a dignified home for their institutions of peace and good government.
These photos illustrate the civic pride and aspirations of three communities of different size - with different resources. Upper left: Kingston City Hall (1833-34), Lower left: Napanee Town Hall (c. 1855), Right: Bath Town Hall (1861). Can't you just hear the public debate, the enthusiasm in the newspaper, the approval from the pulpit, the arguments in the tavern, the comments of the sidewalk superintendents?

Can you say, "dignified"?

* Point taken - forum was a Roman idea, but we were on our way there when we stopped for the flowering of Greek culture, right? I liked the quote...from the Stephen Sondheim musical I seem to recall.

Go on, impress me

Now where in the world are we?
Well, Nashville of course!
Who wouldn't associate this exact replica of the Parthenon with Music City?
But association is exactly what this is about.
This replica of the Parthenon was built in Nashville for the 1895 world's fair. Nashville had high aspirations - it wanted to lose its frontier wild west image and become an Athens of the west, a centre of culture and commerce. Like all of the other structures produced to wow the visitors, this building was meant to be temporary and to be demolished later, but there great resistance which resulted in its being rebuilt as permanent structure in 1920. And so it stands in a lovely park - on a hill - on the Nashville bus tour route.

But this Parthenon wasn't the real thing. Many government buildings of the nineteenth century in the United States and Canada adopted the Classical Revival (or Greek Revival) style, "applying Greek plans and proportions to civic buildings" (Shannon Kyles). The reasoning is the image and the association. In the nineteenth century, as new nations were defining themselves, the Greek culture was being carefully studied. Archeological study produced studies and plan books based on the sublime geometry of the Classical orders, and architecture was never the same.

The builders of the fledgling American republic harnessed their architectural wagon to the Greek revival star - with its associations fitting their ambitions. The style evokes the nobility and enlightenment of the Greek culture and the democratic ideals of the Greek republic. Its use in civic buildings communicated those lofty ideals - and order, authority and stability. Interestingly, New York state, an area of expansion at that time, also adopted many Greek place names (and Greek Revival style in civic and domestic building) for the same reasons. That's why we shop in Syracuse and tour Greek Revival cobblestone houses in towns like Greece and Cato, N.Y.

Interestingly, this replica of the Parthenon is not accurate. It purports to be the only full-size replica in existence, and well it may be. But today the actual Parthenon at the Acropolis in Rome is quite plain and a bit worn (well it was built by 432 BC). And we all remember Lord Elgin, British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, who 'rescued' all the sculpture from the frieze and pediments to their new home in the British Museum in the nineteenth century. Such was the absolute chauvinistic audacity of the British Empire at its peak! It must be terrible to see that amazing work stripped of its context, removed from this hilltop in the bright Greek sun that has bathed its ancient culture for so long, and displayed like natural history museum butterflies pinned to velvet.

Ah, well. Must get on with my reading. The Architectural Conservancy newsletter has lots of new stories about demolitions of Ontario historic buildings. Hope they're saving the marble mantels.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Gothic Survival

I'm not sure, but maybe it was significant that the sun disappeared and a massive cloud bank overtook the town of Picton this afternoon, just as I arrived to take a photo of this house. I haven't looked closely at the house in years - I used to think it was a castle when I was a little girl. The name of the house, "Grove Place" or the Downes house (I recall it as the Falconer house), has come up recently, as Picton recovers from the 'surprise' demolition of its 1875 Methodist Episcopal church, and begins to flex its heritage muscles. I notice that the house is up for lease; once at the leafy edge of town, it's now dead centre, surrounded by a commercial plaza, a bank and a magnetic local coffee shop. I expect it will succumb to development, unless the community rallies quickly to develop the commercial and tourism potential of an historic and quite lovely - though desperately needy - Gothic Revival style home.

According to my tattered 1984 edition of The Settler's Dream (reprinted recently to address increasing interest as a new crew of heritage nuts discovers the houses I grew up with...and in), the house was already losing ground (literally) 27 years ago when the "delightful grounds" were sold off for parking lots. The date of its construction is c.1858, and Cruikshank's litany of Gothic influences bears repeating - the porch gives a nod to Tudor styling with its buttresses and labelled doorway, the gable bargeboard suggests Elizabethan style, the oriel window recalls the Jacobean, and the complex chimney style is vaguely Tudor.

A fairy tale castle to a little farm kid. I hope fairy tales do come true and someone comes to wake this sleeping beauty.

Barns of Hastings County

Recently I met a person who loves barns. I must admit to a certain pull myself, having grown up on a farm and owning hundreds of sensory memories of a proud old multi-generational barn on a working farm. I sense as much as recall a cathedral like space with dust motes from the hay floating in beams of sun shooting through the cracks between weathered boards, the massive creaking presence of draft horses in ancient stalls, the spring arrival of wobbly wet pink-nosed calves, the warm winter breath of dozens of contented cows, all the mysteries of things growing, work accomplished, the passage of the seasons marked by tasks of animal husbandry, field work, harvest. Oh my, I'm there this morning.
There was a much-panned movie a number of years ago - The Bridges of Madison County. I don't recall the story but I remember the film did a good job of creating a sense of loss (a bit soppy and maudlin, true, but the visceral sense that something is going and it hurts). I feel that way about barns. As I drive around Hastings (or any) County I see countless skeletal barns going back to the soil, themselves harvested for barn wood or whatever is left of value. So much earnest planning, such toil in the construction, immeasurable work accomplished for several generations, now irrelevant. Beautiful in their grief.
I draw comfort from this one thing, in my country drives - Hastings County has a fine and viable farming community still, and there are wonderfully well-kept and prosperous barns on those very same nostalgic drives. So I take some comfort in knowing that this way of life will continue in some form for some folks, because, as they say on the highway sign "If you ate today, (you) thank a farmer."

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Strawberry Fields Forever

We all think we know what Gothic Revival style looks like - central pointy gable with a finial and/or pendulum and barge-boarding right? Lancet windows. Merrill Inn in Picton. Seymour House in Madoc. Much as I love those details, I like these two buildings because they display some of the other less common features brought into c19 Ontario from the English Gothic or medieval era - hood mouldings and carved label stops, trellis work buttresses, and oriel windows - so Romantic!! One home is symmetrical, the other delightfully irregular in profile.

The house on the left is one of my favourites in Belleville. According to the Hastings County Historical Society book Belleville's Heritage (1978) , the house was built in the 1850's for Adam Henry Wallbridge and passed on to family members. The house is stucco over stone, a lovely backdrop for the stately porch with its delicate sham buttresses. The oriel window with its cresting is so regal. This house has presence a neighbourhood of fine homes in outstanding condition, it has a certain something that sets it apart.

The building on the right is Elizabeth Cottage in Kingston. It is very difficult to photograph. A wide property snug against an unattractive neighbour, it is best appreciated (unfortunately) from the middle of a very busy and very slushy street (the day I visited recently). Outfitted with plaques as befits its stature and story, the home is definitely feeling its age - it's a retirement home with space to let, according to yet another sign around the corner. The right side was built about 1841-43 by Edward Horsey, who went on to become the architect of the Provincial Penitentiary and Frontenac County Court House (according to Margaret Angus, in The Old Stones of Kingston). The left side was a separate, later, cottage, joined elegantly to the original. Only the modern sun-room interloper between the sham buttresses spoils the Gothic whimsy. The unmarried grand-daughters of the original owner established the home as a residence for retired gentlewomen (conjures up the duchesses in "reduced circumstances" of English novels.)

After several generations of stern Georgian family homes rising in the wilderness, the Gothic revival must have been an exotic change. Championed by John Ruskin and his contemporaries, Gothic revival style sought to honour the work of craftsmen, and the spirit of Gothic churches. In some ways, we still feel that tingle of the eccentric, the theatrical, the spirit of the age when we stop to appreciate a Gothic Revival home or church.

According to my prof Shannon Kyles, Strawberry Hill, built in 1750 by Horace Walpole, was the first house to be called Gothic Revival. Situated in the London borough of Richmond, the house has just completed a 9 million pound restoration by the Strawberry Hill Trust and is being reopened this April. I would love to visit but may have to satisfy myself with return visits to Or to my favourite house on Bridge Street.


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The Alcmaeonidae

A powerful presure group mainly from the Alcmaeonidaes wanted nothing better than to do a deal with Persia. The Alcmaeonidaes regarded themselves as long term realists. Darius' overlordship in Greece was, they argued, inevitable. Against them stood the plain, decent, stupid men: farmers and craftsmen and sailors who were not clever enough to know in advance when they were beaten, men who still placed honour above calculation.

In the early spring off 493 B.C. Phrynichus put on a play in Athens called 'The Capture of Miletus', vividly depicting the collapse of the Ionian Revolt.[1] The audience weep tears of grief and patriotic shame. Stung into swift action, the pro-Persian lobby got the play banned. Phrynichus himself was fined 1,000 drachmas (almost three years pay for the average working man). But the idea of subservience to Darius, was loosing ground. By the end of spring Themistocles' own election won on a tough-line-with-Persia ticket. The newly appointed Chief Archon. At the age of thirty-one, just above the minimum age for eligibility - Themistocles, had been elected to the highest civil office in Athens.

Miltiades with his thoroughly shady record arrived in Athens near midsummer. Some said, prosecute him. Exactly the commander we need, said others: appoint him to the Board of Generals. There was no one who watched this debate more closely, or weighed up the odds with greater care, than Themistocles.

Miltiades supporters would agrue though that his vast knowledge of Persia would be invaluable for Athens at this critical time. Themistocles and Miltiades had really nothing in common except a determination to fight, but that for the moment was enough. Miltiades knew both Darius and Hippias personally. His twenty years of being a military commander in the Chersonese would be invaluable. Charges brought against thim were summarliy dismissed (it seems reasonable that this would have been done by Themistocles). And soon afterwards, by popular vote, he was elected general of his tribal division.

Alarming reports flooded Athens of the Persian invasion plans. Themistocles responce now, later and always was that the best course was to fortify Piraeus, abandon Athens, and stake everything on a strong navy. This policy ran into violent and predictable oppostion from the whole conservative group. This plan was always going to offend the landowners, and those with the sense of honour about defending homes and shrines. Moreover, Themistocles main support came from the much-despised salior rabble. Somewhere in 493-92 B.C. his naval development programme was defeated, but the assembly did vote for the fortification of Piraeus.

NEXT PAGE>>>Two Kings

'Histories' by Herodotus published by Wordsworth 1996

'The Greco-Persian Wars' by Peter Green published by University of California Press 1998

Note#1: This play may be the first time that recent historical events, as opposed to myths, were represented in the Athenian theatre, however this play has never been found.

Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved


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Saturday, March 13, 2010

Movies: Advice for time travelers, Part 1.

We here at ANTSS like to think that we give you more than simple opinion pieces on fright flicks. Instead, ANTSS strives to give you info you can use! In previous posts we explained why, against conventional wisdom, splitting up is always the best strategy for escaping a slasher and how game theory can help you survive Jigsaw traps. Today, we're going to use the film Triangle to explore what you should do if you find yourself in trapped in what appears to be a time loop. That's right. One day, you're minding your own beeswax. Next thing you know everyday is Groundhog Day and there's screaming and blood and more screaming. Fear not! We got you through the slasher and the Saw traps, we'll get you through this.

As with all survival situations your first and most important move is to stop and figure out what the hell is going on.

So, what the heck is happening in the movie Triangle?

This isn't going to be a standard review. I'm about to spoil this movie nine ways through Sunday and be waiting to spoil it again on Monday, so if you haven't seen it and you think you might, read no further.

However, I'm also going to assume you've seen the flick, so I'm not going to discuss plot and character enough to make the flick make sense. It isn't that I'm afraid to spoil the movie for you so much as I worry that reading this without seeing the movie might be the horror blog equivalent of reading Malone Dies in Martian.

And if you're confident that you don't want to see the movie, I urge you to reconsider. It's a hoot. Since my initial exposure to his 2005 CHUD-on-the-loose flick Creep, I've always cautiously categorized director Christopher Smith as a man who is, frustratingly, always about to arrive. I felt he was a cat whose flick always showed potential, without ever realizing that potential. Now, after seeing Triangle, I think I was approaching Smith's work's from an unhelpful perspective. If Smith has yet to make to make his masterpiece, it's because he's too uncomfortable with the easy cut-and-paste methods of modern horror. He could "pull a Aja," as they say in the Fright Game, and, after establishing a bit of indie cred, turn his attention to cranking out proficient retreads at the bidding of his new corporate masters. But, instead, Smith's decided to walk his own route, even at the cost of stumbling. We've yet to get the Chris Smith masterpiece, but when Smith falls it's because he reached further. In a genre as conservative and nostalgia besotted as horror, the willingness to accept risks bred of ambition is refreshing. Triangle, like all of Smith's films, is imperfect. But the promise derives from Smith's refreshing belief that horror doesn't have to pander or be stupid. What frustrated me, in the end, wasn't Smith's unfulfilled potential, but the the genre's vast unfulfilled promise.

If that's not enough, you should go if only to see the spectacle of a horror film that believes it's possible to have fun even though you didn't turn your brain off.

Okay, either you've been convinced or you ain't been. ANTSS assumes no responsibility for possible spoilage.

On to the flick at hand.

The central tangle of Triangle involves an abandoned ocean liner that appears to be, somehow, stuck in time. Our protagonists get on the boat and find themselves in conflict with a mysterious assailant. This assailant turns out to be another version of Jess, sole survivor of off the "previous" time our protagonists arrived on the boat. We're going to call the heroine of the piece Jess Prime. Despite the loopy structure of the film, the narrative logic is fairly straight forward and we follow a single version of Jess throughout most of the film.

As Jess Prime and her friends battle the murderous Jess -1, Jess Prime puzzles out that she's stuck in a general pattern. Whenever a particular set of our original cast is removed from the boat (she mistakenly believes that they must be killed, though her own trip through the complete cycle of the plot disproves this), a fresh set of characters arrives on the boat. Or, more properly stated, the boat returns to a previous time-position shortly before our protagonists arrive. (From the relative vantage point of the "new" protagonists, the action on the boat would be "going backwards" - that's to say that the time spent on the ocean liner is actually time spent traveling back to a point before they arrived on the ocean liner. More on this later.) In order to get back to her son, Jess Prime decides that she must break the pattern. At first she attempts to do this through non-violent means. Eventually, she becomes convinced that the only way to break the pattern is to stop it from happening in the first place, and prevent the party from setting foot on the boat. (Though this is only part of her motivation: We eventually discover that she's also attempting to use the time traveling properties of the boat to prevent the death of her son, who in the normal world-line of the plot dies while she's on her way to the sailboat that ultimately takes her to the time traveling ghost ship.) She attempts to prevent Jess -1 from killing the remaining folks in her party. In the course of defending herself from Jess -1, she forces Jess -1 overboard. This fully eliminates Boat Party -1, introducing Boat Party +1 to the ship.

Jess Prime realizes that the moment Boat Party +1 steps on the ship, she got to eliminate them all in order to get another chance to stop the party from boarding. Consequently, she begins a murder spree inspired by the work of Jess -1. But, of course, Jess +1 forces Jess Prime overboard in a near perfect recreation of the battle between Jess Prime and Jess -1.

Cast from the boat, Jess Prime doesn't die (disproving the hypothesis that everybody in the party must necessarily die to start the cycle over again). Rather she washes up on a beach several hours prior to her launch on the sailboat that will take her to the time traveling ocean liner. She promptly heads back to her home, witnesses her (Jess -Prime - so named because her roll is to repeatedly not enter in the plot cycle, and therefore her position is oddly as stable as Jess Prime's) own brutal behavior to her autistic son, kills herself (Jess -Prime is killed by Jess Prime), and stuffs the body in the trunk of her car. She grabs her boy and rolls out to ditch the body. She gets involved in a car accident that kills her boy. Thinking that another round on the ghost ship would throw her back to Jess -Prime's house prior to his death, she grabs a cab to harbor and gets on the sailboat that will take her back to the time traveling ghost ship.

We've got an overview of the situation, less discuss options.

First, there's a potentially supernatural explanation. We need to face the possibility that Jess Prime is dead and being punished by the gods for her abusive treatment of her son. Throughout the flick, Jess Prime is exposed to portents that suggest that what she's experiencing is not exactly materialist in origin. The ship is named after the father of Sisyphus, the mythological king who was punished for violating the privacy of Zeus and doomed for eternity to fruitless toil. One of Boat Party Prime wonders aloud if Jess Prime's behavior isn't due to guilt over her son, a double edged comment the multiple levels of which the character would be clueless about. There are several references to seagulls, perhaps a satiric jab at the Buddhism manque wisdom of Jonathan Livingston Seagull: "Begin by knowing you have already arrived." Plus, there's a host of smaller, odder coincidences that wouldn't suggest time travel. For example, the drummer in a marching band that witnesses Jess Prime's car accident carries a drum that bears the same logo as the ghost ship's house band's drum kit. Certainly one could argue that this is just thematic playfulness on the part of the filmmaker, but what if these bits of data were not window dressing? What if they were somebody or something telling Jess Prime about her fate? Good as any other theory, really.

If, in fact, the problem is supernatural in origin, then it is safe to say that you're pretty much screwed. Humans are the playthings of the gods, yo. Clash of the Titans aside (besides, Perseus is more properly considered a demigod, so using him as an example of a human who took destiny into his own hands is stretching things), when the gods want you SOL, you are most definitely S, O, and very L. Not that you might not, eventually, negotiate your way out of it or escape briefly (Tantalus himself conned his way out of Hell for a brief moment), but this will basically be at the discretion of the gods. My recommendation is to take your lumps and hope that some legendary hero comes by and saves you at some future date. Not a great plan I know, but that's what you get for pissing off the gods.

Honestly, the supernatural thing seems a cop out to me. So let's assume that the situation depicted in Triangle is materialist. It's weird and unlikely, granted, but it is the product of a wrinkle in natural laws and not the result of otherworldly intervention. Given that, what are we looking at.

Here's what were not looking at: Eternal return. Criticism of Triangle has provoked bloggers to dig into their storehouse of allusions and invoke La jetée and 12 Monkeys. The connections are both thematically obvious and factually incorrect.

The concept driving both those excellent flicks is the idea that time protects itself by making paradoxes impossible. One of the classic theoretical problems of time travel is the creation of paradoxes. Y'all know the sort of time warping shenanigans I'm talking about: Could you time travel back 90 years and kill your own grandmother, meaning you'd never been born and therefore could not travel back in time and kill your grandmother? One answer to this question is that time will always already be protected from your intervention. The past is set in stone and if you're in the past, your actions have already been determined. The sticky wicket here is the "self-consistency principle" advanced by physicists Igor Novikov and Kip Thorne. Basically, the concept of "self-consistency" preserves the past: Because any moment in time requires a specific structure of events to "arrive," then that structure is immutable. If you leap back into the past, then your actions were always a part of that structure. You can't change the past or the present.

On first glance, this seems like an attractive explanation of what we're seeing in Triangle. Attractive but inaccurate. Like my pick-up lines.

Jess Prime regularly changes the details of her present and sees evidence that previous incarnations of her (Jess -1 through -infinity) have altered her present. There's one glaring example of this and two less obvious, but kinda more interesting examples.

The most blatant evidence that Jess Prime is not, in fact, stuck in a permanent loop comes when Jess Prime and Jess -1 first come in conflict. Jess -1 is blowing away members of Boat Party Prime in the theater with a skeet shooting rifle. Jess Prime fires back, grazing Jess -1's forehead with some buckshot. When Jess Prime consigns Jess -1 to Davy Jones's locker, Jess -1 has clearly taken a few pellets to the forehead. Jess Prime never suffers a similar injury. When Jess Prime becomes the baddy and starts chasing around Boat Party +1, she takes cover pronto. When Jess +1 brings on the lead for lead trade, Jess Prime never gets nominated with buckshot.

It's a small thing, but time travel is annoying like that. It's all details.

If Jess Prime's fate was etched in stone, than her fate should be identical to fate of Jess -1. But it ain't. In fact, her experiences should also be the immutable blueprint for Jess +1's experiences, but they aren't: Jess +1 experiences missing the baddy and facing a version of herself that isn't sporting a head wound, both experiences that Jess Prime did not experience.

Another crucial, but more subtle difference is the fact that no person in an eternal return scenario can ever complete a full loop of a cycle. Recall La jetée and 12 Monkeys. In both cases, the moment both characters realize that they are in an self-consistency trap, they die. The Man and James Cole can't carry this knowledge back to the beginning of the cycle. Why not? Because that would change the timeline. Even if they were unable to prevent the actions that formed the past, the fact that they were now going through the motions aware of the cycle would be different from the first time they did it, when they were unaware of the fact that their actions were leading to the very timeline their actions helped create. Consequently, we can state that no character in an eternal return story can ever complete the cycle with their awareness of the cycle intact or the cycle wouldn't be self-consistent. Jess Prime manages to go full cycle with her awareness of the cycle intact. For shits and giggles, we can actually extrapolate that no version of the cycle is ever the same for Jess Prime because, at the very least, she's going through the motions with an awareness of having gone through the cycle n - 1 times before where n = the number of the cycle she's about to go through. At the end of the film, for example, Jess Prime is about to start the cycle over again for a at least a third time (her actions reveal she's getting on the sailboat because she knows it will give her another shot at time travel, so we've done it at least once before the flick starts), aware of the minimum two times she's done this before. This is different than the time before, when she would only be aware of having done this whole dance once before. Difference means no eternal return. Therefore, Triangle isn't an eternal return story.

"Okay, CRwM, so there's little differences," you say. "Perhaps time doesn't sweat the small stuff. Maybe, so long as you don't alter the final outcome, the timeline ain't picky and the little stuff comes out in the time wash."

Related to the awareness issue, there's the issue of relative experiences of time and aging. From the view point of the killed of members of Boat Party Prime, the time it takes to complete any number of cycles is always equivalent to a single cycle. They "start over" whenever a cycle is finished with no knowledge of the previous cycle. From Jess Prime's frame of reference, however, all the cycles occur in a linear sequence with a single unbroken thread of time-space experience shooting through them all. She doesn't "start over" so much as she arrives at yet another replay of similar events. That is to say, an infinite number of cycles would always be experienced a single stretch of four or five hours to the boat party, but every cycle is experienced as an additional four or five hours in the life of Jess Prime. In short, Jess Prime is aging while her companions in Boat Party Prime are not. While not immediately noteworthy, eventually Jess Prime's aging would be a clear violation of self-consistency. Since an infinite number of cycles are experienced as a single cycle, the only cycle anybody in Boat Party Prime, except for Jess Prime, would have an experience of would be a final cycle. This means Jess would go through 156,000 cycles and eventually reach the age of 100. From the viewpoint of Boat Party Prime, Jess Prime would have never showed up to the sailboat. Instead some insane old woman would come to the boat, rant that she was actually the late twenty-something Jess, and then croak on the dock of old age.

This leads us to the third and perhaps most subtle proof that Jess Prime isn't stuck in a story of eternal return. We're going to call this proof "The Pile Problem." On three major instances, Jess Prime comes across a pile of objects that reveal the loosely cyclical nature of her story arc.

1) While searching for a way to defend herself from Jess -1, Jess Prime loses a locket. Its chain snaps and it falls on a pile of similar lockets.
2) During Jess -1's kill spree, the wounded Sally attempts to crawl away from Jess Prime (thinking Jess Prime is the killer) and crawls to a section of the ship that is littered with mounds of dead Sallys.
3) Leaving to bury the body of Jess -Prime, Jess Prime hits a seagull with her car and tosses it off the side of the road, where it lands among the bodies of several other seagulls.

Aside from being a neat dramatic flourish, these piles are one of the best indicators that we're not in a self-consistent trap. First, because the presence of previous objects prevents the latest object added to the pile from falling exactly the same way. In a self-consistent eternal return loop, Sally's body would always give out at the same spot, in the same place. The locket would always land the same way, so would the corpse of the seagull. Even if we dismissed the idea that small tweaks to the timeline don't screw everything up, there's actually a far more serious violation of self-consistency going on here. The big problem isn't where the bodies and trinkets fall, but the fact that we keep adding mass to the universe at every cycle, mass that is apparently created ex nihlo every time Jess Prime goes through a cycle. Which gives a problem not unlike the aging issue we've discussed before. Assuming Jess Prime made through 150,000 cycles (as long as it would take her to reach 100 years of age), she would have added nearly 10,000 metric tons of dead Sally to the universe. That's a lot of dead flesh. And it's an impossibility in a closed system like an eternal return model of time travel.

There's other contradictions worth mentioning in passing. While exploring the ship, Jess Prime and Boat Party Prime run across messages painted in blood on bathroom mirrors and various trails of blood on the floor. Why doesn't this stuff pile up like Sally Prime and Sally Various Negative Numbers' bodies? Shouldn't the blood trails be rivulets of crimson after a handful of cycles. And how many bathroom mirrors does this ship have anyway?

So, we can safely say that we're not in a story of eternal return. And that's a good thing for you my impetuous little chrononaut, because there's crap all you can do if your stuck in a eternal return loop. Eternal loops do wacky stuff to free will. You've got it, in a theoretical way, but you've also always already used it. The practical result is that you've already done anything you could do. The upshot is that you'll never actually experience the feeling of going through cycle after cycle. If you're in an eternal loop, you might get a "oh crap" moment right before you die or something, but the principle of self-consistency ensures that you can't ride the loop again with any awareness of the loop you didn't have on the first ride. It's science's little gift to people stuck in that eternal hell; for the most part, the trapped never realize that they are trapped. So you've got that going for you.

Sasquatchan said...

man, I can't find it quickly, but I thought somewhere on wiki, under/xref from the terminator series was a list of the various attempts to "explain away" all the possible paradoxes within time travel etc.. And so I wondered where/if/how this approach would fit into it.. (yeah, ok, I'm ignoring the mystical of it, since the paradoxes I think all implied "scientific control" of time travel..)

CRwM said...

Screamin' Sassy,

I haven't seen the list, but in the next section we're going to trot out a explanation of how you could theoretically time travel and not be bound by the self-consistency problem. Having never seen the list you're talking about, I don't know if any of it answers the problems viewers feel are inconsistent in the Terminator franchise.

The Igloo Keeper... said...

CRwM said...

Shon Richards said...

I saw this movie tonight based on your recommendation. I stopped reading your plot breakdown as soon as I saw Jess-Prime. That is my kind of movie.

I don't know why, but the 50 Sally's lying around dead cracked me up. That is a perfect 'You are screwed' message to the main character.

At one point, me and my wife figured that one out of four Jess's survive the experience. We fully expected Jess to wake up on a beach filled with Jess's.

It is such a careful movie in some aspects that I have to beleive it was not meant to be a time travel movie with the usual paradoxes that drives me mad. For once, I thought a supernatural explanation was a welcome logic failsafe.

Wonderful movie.


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Sunday, May 1, 2011

Moose Man turns 2!!!!

Little bit of a random cake without an explaination, but thats whats so good about custom cakes!! ;) This moose man cake is for Mr Logan who is turning 2. He was born on Cinco De Mayo so his parents (my most wonderful friends in the world) are throwing him a Moose Man Cinco De Mayo celebration. Moose man is one of many nicknames he owns as he is a big boy, destined for a linebacker position in the NFL one day!

Happy Birthday Moose Man!!!

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Sunday, August 16, 2015

Tomato chutney

So every year in late summer when local field tomatoes are abundant, I make this recipe. It's from Gourmet Magazine, September 1977.  It's great on burgers, in sandwiches, or with fish, seafood, and meat! It goes great with just about everything in fact. Here's the recipe: Tomato Chutney

Saturday, August 15, 2015

Monday, August 03, 2015