knocking down the pins

Bowling?

Man has bowling changed since I last went. The squeeze, da progeny, and I went bowling on Boxing Day.

It was kinda fun and I was amazed by just how much bowling had changed.

Sadly, gone are the days of The Big Lebowski, with The Dude polishing his ball in a linen towel. Those were the days!

It has become a freak show of over indulgence: short film clips digitally projected on numerous screens at the “pin” end of the lanes. Black lit lanes where neon coloured illuminated balls roll down lanes, which can be automatically programmed to give each individual players various preferences, such as bumpers, computerized coaches, etc. I do like automated score keeping! 15 of us went and played 2 games each using two lanes for approximately 2hrs and 15 min for a cost of CDN $95. With Sarsaparilla drinks and some small snacks throw in an other CDN $60-90 bucks.
Now with all that potential, you’d think they program the LCD projectors to show clips of movies like that masterpiece movie by the Coen brothers mentioned above. No funny clips of Jackie Gleeson’s bowling on the Honeymooners. A series of vapid and ephemeral clips, which made you think you were watching Sesame Street over your toddlers back or MTV hits clips today.

Poster Images from the Lebowski Fest

There wre no images or posters from the “Dudireno” Lebowski Fest in New York, not even a still from Gutterball. Just the same monotonous fill of images which we see every day and could pave the way from Columbus Circle to the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, so mindless we can’t remember a one.

This electrified environment, with the comforting sounds of pins falling and the smack of balls pounding wood, was then augmented by the shrill call of popular top 10 hits amplified to the sound of a private jet revving up on the runway of Trenton Airport, NJ. Is there such a thing as bowling music? If no, then how about the Blues?

That said, I’m no stick in the mud and I did find a way of enjoying myself in the company of friends and loved ones. It’s still bowling and what’s not to like about sticking three fingers in a heavy acrylic ball, forcing it to roll down a hardwood lane to knock down a set of 10 pins. Damn I had to find some joy there because my score totals sucked so bad I’m still hearing the passing of wind through my ears.

It seems like an appropriate way for me to post my last post of 2005, talking about bowling. A noble sport and short of joining a league, I think I may start a quest to find “the perfect bowling alley”, then again, maybe I won’t, but I can dream about it.

So in closing why not take this quiz: Which Big Lebowski Character Are You. I did.

Happy old year my friends, see you in the new one. So now, I’m not thinking of balls but sinking apples, or is that raising apples.

GP

________________

This one’s for you Chris A. we must go bowling someday, yes!

merry christmas - light in the darkness

Christmas eye candy
from our gardens

In these the darkest days of the year, I am reminded that light shines in the darkness.

I look outside my studio and see our gardens in their winter sleep, waiting for the return of spring. So to has my life been this last year, a gentle sleep as my fields laid fallow waiting for a new spring.
As I turned fifty, I have arrived at a point in my life where I feel that I can now create what I wish, not to prove myself to anyone or even myself. I have been set free from the need to demonstrate my skill to curators, critics, society, or museums. I have already proven myself time and time again over the last thirty years of making art -- it has given me such great pleasure (as paradoxical as that may seem for an artist that has dealt mostly with pain and catharsis in their work).
One would think this a liberating experience, which it is. Sadly, I have spent the last year transfixed on those lights shinning out of the darkness, heading towards me as I stand on this highway of life. A difficult and at times perplexing time in my life as I ask myself what I really want, like a child in a candy shop.
I am happy to say that the light, which hastened towards me on that dark road, was not my demise. Rather, like the star that directed the Magi it was coming to take me home. It is where I am now and as I reluctantly embrace this newfound freedom trusting it to be true. I hope this to be a very productive and liberating year. May we all remain so directed guided by that light...

So many of you have stood behind me in these troubling times but none more than our God and my family -- my cup runneth over. I am so grateful to all of you for having such faith in me. I wish the same blessings for you and yours: a paradigm shift where love is the axis of change and integrity remains true.

From me and mine, we hope that love rules in your abode and that your wants and needs will be met in this New Year to come.
Thank you for blessing us with your friendship and support!

May the God of love bless you with faith, trust and love - Allah hum di de la.

Gerard Pas

Note: the above image is a compilation from the more than 10,000 photographs I took from our gardens this past year. I organized them in this pattern to create an “Eye Trick”, if you stare long enough the white dots suddenly turn black / grey and back to white — light shinning in the darkness.

i will always choose life

downtown London looking east from
the East Branch Fork of the Thames River

London usually gets about 51 cm. of snow in the month of December. It is only two weeks into the month and we’ve already received 47 cm. It has snowed almost everyday this month. I’ve shoveled a shite load of snow out of our driveway. We have long icicles hanging on almost every house on this dead end that I live on.

I like living on a dead end, if not for the apparent reasons such as very little traffic, for the power of using it as a metaphor. I live on a dead end and it is a dead end. “No Exits” are oxymoron’s, so while our dead end has a “No Exit” sign placed at its entrance there of course is an exit, being the same entrance which ones comes in on. I therefore could not live on a “No Exit” street; rather it is simply a dead end.

Now this dead end runs into a large recreational park, which has tennis courts, basketball hoops, soccer fields a fully enclosed and all year permanent ice rinks. So in fact, our dead end runs into a living beginning, which in a poetic sense makes sense for me -- dead end—living start. I like living on the edge.

I continually look for where the road really dies and haven’t found it yet but I see, hear, and smell the living start every day. I will always choose life but love living on a dead end. There are times that I feel living on this dead end, that there is no exist, which I call my Jean Paul Sartre times. Then I remind myself I’m living on a dead end and not yet dying on one. The again maybe I am and or will die on a dead end which will indeed be the end as I will be dead.

However, I will always choose life.

this image is by Steve Jenereaux

GP

Thames River levy

Downtown London looking east from the Westside of the Thames River Levy.To the far left is the historic Blackfriars Bridge. In the distant right is the Queens St. Bridge. Harris Park is directly across the river with downtown in the background extending to the far right.

180º panorama of downtown London from the Thames River levy

detail of the Blackfriars Bridge from above panorama

Just another grey day in the late afternoon before another snowstorm hits us later this evening. The Thames River is not yet frozen. As a teenager I used to cross the river on the ice to get downtown.

GP

six hectares

snow where ever I go
in all the six hectares

thank you Voltaire
I brought my glasses for snow

__________________

ode to Candide

six perspectives on last nights winter storm

I photographed this image at 2 am. in the morning. It was orange, so I thought I'd adjust the colour balance and liked all six.