Canada's Birthday

July 1st, 2008. I was having dinner with Susan who lives on the 18th floor of an apartment building directly across the forks of the river Thames where the birthday celebrations were taking place. The people living on the north side of the building are afforded the greatest view in the city of the magnificent fireworks display which ends the celebrations. Susan lives on the south side of the building; we were afforded a magnificent view of the gnarls of cars and pedestrians coursing their way into the park at the forks for the display.

I decided to leave for home just before the fires worked; I was in no mood for crowds and I knew that as soon as the display was over, masses would be pouring out of the party-park and I wanted a head start.

Walking away from the impending spectacular booms in the sky I saw 100s of thousands of $s in digital camera equipment in the hands of people running down towards the forks. Not generally known as a size-queen, I saw one man with such a tele-photo lens the size of which made me sweat and purr. And there were so many tripods plotted out in parking lots that for a moment, I thought that City Hall had gone a little too far in trying to reforest the Forest City. Hey, if you know London, Ontario, you know some pretty weird trees!

It was three blocks away when the first bang boomed across the skies. I turned, looked, pulled out my punky little camera and began shooting. I had too. Not one normally interested in taking pictures of mountains, moons, loons on a lake, lovers in a park, Canadian geese, Mounties, or even nice buildings, I aimed and clicked.

These are a few of them. I like them. The first photographs of fireworks I've ever taken. And just like the fireworks themselves, these images are not the best in the world, but I'll bet you dimes-to-donuts, they're a hell of a lot better than many that were taken by others at that very moment.

And more importantly, they're the only ones on my blog!

Happy Birthday, Canada!

26 Poems...

...gleaned* from the dialogue-track of Disney's animated movie, 'Aladdin.'

i can't
believe it
i'm losing
2
a rug

splendid
absolutely
marvelous

i am not
a prize
to be
won

but
oh
to be
free
call me al

i will have
the power
2 get
rid of
u

father
what's
wrong
with u?

the truth?
the truth?
the truth
is

over
sideways
and
under
on a
magic-carpet
ride

now
i'm in
a whole new world
with u

ity
bity
living
space

a snake
am i?

i never
actually wished
to get out of
the
cave

now
where
were
we?
ah yes
abject
humiliation

how
many times
do i
have to
kill u
boy?

oh
shut-up
u moron

i'm history
no
i'm mythology

him
i choose
u

i'm not
worthless
and
i don't
have fleas

there's
so much more
2 me

i am
in desperate need
of your
wisdom
but
it's been
in the
family
4
years

pretty lady
buy
a pot

there is
a cave boy
a cave
of wonders

carpet
let's
move

did u
rub
my lamp?

no
no
please

do u mind
if
i kiss
the monkey?

*(The Gleaner is currently at work on a screenplay for an animated film version of the Broadway stage musical adaptation of the original animated film classic of Disney's 'The Lion King.' To date, Pixar Studios has not returned any of his calls. He did, though, receive a rather bemusing, nasty little note from Dreamworks which he is in the process of framing in order to put on his wall.)

Portfolio 4:

An Apology:

This is not my friend Shelly.

Neither, so it seems, is the individual in the photograph in the last posting labelled Friends. Non-Friends ('This is my friend Shelly.')

It is, though, my friend Shelley and after she notified me of the spelling mistake, I promised her that I would post an offial retraction (Isn't that what happens when you remove someone's guts) -- official retraction. This is it.

I'm sorry Shelley. And even though it adds an extra letter -- meaning work -- to your name, I won't do it again.

Shelley brought to my attention one last blatant error I made in that same posting: she does not dance the Tango but has, in fact, studied the Flamingo although I think she's in denial. She mentioned nothing about Paris, Texas -- the place or the movie -- but she did mention the fact that she was particularly touched in my description of her as being complex and having layers. I told her that at the time of that posting, I had just installed Adobe's Photoshop: as far as I was concerned, everything had layers.

And curves. But I wasn't about to describe her as having curves on account of the fact that people may get the wrong impression. I mean, don't get me wrong, Shelley's swell, but she's an inny and I'm an outy kind of guy. And I couldn't exactly talk about her histogram, now, could I? At least not in public...

Sorry Shelley.

Identity Management #6

I can be shadowy in nature.

Nicholas used to call me 'Golum.'It was a term-of endearment. Presently, he doesn't call me. Anything. Anytime.