Saturday, January 25
Jan. 26th, 2025 12:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
That my Sweetie got up a bit early (though three hours longer than he would normally be in bed) so that I could sleep. There's a point where if if I haven't fallen deeply asleep already, I get really restless and need to shift around to find a good sleeping position, and I can't do that if he's still in bed.
Most of the time, I come to bed as he's leaving for work, so I only sleep with him for a short time. I think I've just gotten used to that.
Of course, since he got up, the cats started screaming for food. They tend not to do that with me if I'm sleeping, but the moment someone is up...
Anyhow. After doing chores and such, we went to the city for our fun day.
We did get to the Art Gallery again to have a better look at the one exhibition of work owned by private collectors who loaned them for this showing. It's incredible to think that some of these paintings are in someone's home.
We then went to see the new exhibit in the basement, it's often very good local artists.
The basement is also where the art for rent/sale is kept, and where some of the gallery employees work from.
We saw our friend Andrew, who works in sales and installation of these art works.
We probably haven't seen him for close to a year, somehow we kept missing him.
I can't help but think that this is kind of a strange and wonderful relationship we have. It started when he worked in the gallery's gift shop a few years ago, and I always made a point of talking with him and had fun with some of the interesting clothes he wore. We always made a point of going in and saying hi to him and talking with him.
Then he moved into the basement with the sales/installation, and we see him less often, but it just seems like such a wonderful connection we have. We all hug, and it's like there's this big glowing light coming from him.
We really only know him from the art gallery, and we don't know a LOT about each other, but somehow it's just this wonderful thing.
Anyhow, we had a nice chat, and he's taking carpentry classes through NAIT, and might go into cabinetry. I'm not sure what sparked this new direction, possibly because there's not much room for advancement where he is, but I hope this new chapter is something good for him.
So I'm thinking that maybe it's time to see if the friendship works outside of the gallery, since he might not always be working there. I would hate to lose track of him if he doesn't work there anymore.
I'm glad we went back this week to have a better look at the art we barely had time to enjoy last weekend, and so happy we saw our friend.
Then we ate at the Copper Branch, a small franchise of good vegan food. This is the place that has the tasty ersatz chicken chunks. Mmmm.
My Sweetie found us something fun and different to do tonight. We went to a very odd little bar/club that is in what used to be an autobody shop, and it's so eccentric. There's a fun collection of unusual cookie jars over the bar, and a flamingo disco ball.
There's a room that is a small theater separate from the bar, just another room in the building. The production was an improv, and it's hard to explain, but they were sort of acting out Dungeons and Dragons, and they were in character and simple costumes, and whenever they needed to make a decision, they got audience members to roll a giant dice.
I'm not a gamer, but I know a bit about how D&D is supposed to work, but it was fun without having to know much. It ended up being like improvising a story that was a bit like a "choose your own adventure", and whenever one of those decisions needed to be made, like "can they climb the giant tree" or "does the gnome survive the Roc attack" they rolled the dice.
It was weird, but so much fun, and it was such a strange venue, but you could tell right away that this was one of those small, community treasures. They perform the same kind of D&D improvisation several times a year, and of course it's different every time, and this same group of people do other local comedy/improv things too.
You can tell that the audience is mostly of people who know and follow this group, and there's a real sense of community with the bar itself, the players, and the audience.
I enjoyed the dynamics of everything in play just as much as the improv itself. This kind of live performance and community feels very real in a way that defies our online obsession.
I'm very glad we went, and we'll likely do some more of this.
We did poke our heads into the book store, but nothing jumped out at us tonight. We also poked our heads into a different thrift store (consignment?) but there wasn't enough time to really do more than scout it out for the next time.
Then we came home, put Dandy back into his normal pen, and my husband needed to go to bed.
That my Sweetie got up a bit early (though three hours longer than he would normally be in bed) so that I could sleep. There's a point where if if I haven't fallen deeply asleep already, I get really restless and need to shift around to find a good sleeping position, and I can't do that if he's still in bed.
Most of the time, I come to bed as he's leaving for work, so I only sleep with him for a short time. I think I've just gotten used to that.
Of course, since he got up, the cats started screaming for food. They tend not to do that with me if I'm sleeping, but the moment someone is up...
Anyhow. After doing chores and such, we went to the city for our fun day.
We did get to the Art Gallery again to have a better look at the one exhibition of work owned by private collectors who loaned them for this showing. It's incredible to think that some of these paintings are in someone's home.
We then went to see the new exhibit in the basement, it's often very good local artists.
The basement is also where the art for rent/sale is kept, and where some of the gallery employees work from.
We saw our friend Andrew, who works in sales and installation of these art works.
We probably haven't seen him for close to a year, somehow we kept missing him.
I can't help but think that this is kind of a strange and wonderful relationship we have. It started when he worked in the gallery's gift shop a few years ago, and I always made a point of talking with him and had fun with some of the interesting clothes he wore. We always made a point of going in and saying hi to him and talking with him.
Then he moved into the basement with the sales/installation, and we see him less often, but it just seems like such a wonderful connection we have. We all hug, and it's like there's this big glowing light coming from him.
We really only know him from the art gallery, and we don't know a LOT about each other, but somehow it's just this wonderful thing.
Anyhow, we had a nice chat, and he's taking carpentry classes through NAIT, and might go into cabinetry. I'm not sure what sparked this new direction, possibly because there's not much room for advancement where he is, but I hope this new chapter is something good for him.
So I'm thinking that maybe it's time to see if the friendship works outside of the gallery, since he might not always be working there. I would hate to lose track of him if he doesn't work there anymore.
I'm glad we went back this week to have a better look at the art we barely had time to enjoy last weekend, and so happy we saw our friend.
Then we ate at the Copper Branch, a small franchise of good vegan food. This is the place that has the tasty ersatz chicken chunks. Mmmm.
My Sweetie found us something fun and different to do tonight. We went to a very odd little bar/club that is in what used to be an autobody shop, and it's so eccentric. There's a fun collection of unusual cookie jars over the bar, and a flamingo disco ball.
There's a room that is a small theater separate from the bar, just another room in the building. The production was an improv, and it's hard to explain, but they were sort of acting out Dungeons and Dragons, and they were in character and simple costumes, and whenever they needed to make a decision, they got audience members to roll a giant dice.
I'm not a gamer, but I know a bit about how D&D is supposed to work, but it was fun without having to know much. It ended up being like improvising a story that was a bit like a "choose your own adventure", and whenever one of those decisions needed to be made, like "can they climb the giant tree" or "does the gnome survive the Roc attack" they rolled the dice.
It was weird, but so much fun, and it was such a strange venue, but you could tell right away that this was one of those small, community treasures. They perform the same kind of D&D improvisation several times a year, and of course it's different every time, and this same group of people do other local comedy/improv things too.
You can tell that the audience is mostly of people who know and follow this group, and there's a real sense of community with the bar itself, the players, and the audience.
I enjoyed the dynamics of everything in play just as much as the improv itself. This kind of live performance and community feels very real in a way that defies our online obsession.
I'm very glad we went, and we'll likely do some more of this.
We did poke our heads into the book store, but nothing jumped out at us tonight. We also poked our heads into a different thrift store (consignment?) but there wasn't enough time to really do more than scout it out for the next time.
Then we came home, put Dandy back into his normal pen, and my husband needed to go to bed.
no subject
Date: 2025-01-26 08:32 am (UTC)I saw a place on Instagram - it's a Japanese retro jazz bar that makes cocktails according to the kind of music they are playing that day: swing, blues or whatever. Patrons are encouraged to bring in their own vinyl. I've asked the ballerina group if they'd like to get together there some evening.
no subject
Date: 2025-01-27 06:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-28 09:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-26 10:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-27 06:53 am (UTC)What I wish I had known a long time ago, is how open and unpretentious the world of public art really is. It's become a lot more accessible, and there's so much information about the work and artists that adds so much to the experience, and most art galleries for the public have people working there who are so willing to talk about the pieces and the point of that exhibit.
If you really embrace it, art becomes a way to live, not so much in terms of the "art world", but you start seeing and seeking out experiences and people that are "art", or food, or music, or you start to see places and moments and the shifting light as moments of meaning.
It's everywhere.
no subject
Date: 2025-01-27 11:41 am (UTC)