jodi's weblog

jodi's weblog

 

 

legwarmers, y’all

Well, they might not be folded down over a pair of high top sneakers (untied laces loosened to accommodate as many friendship pins as possible) the way I used to wear them back when I was cool (or thought I was; circa 1983), but I tell you what, these are the nicest leg warmers I’ve ever owned.

legwarmers

Pattern: Sydney, by Staceyjoy Elkin.

Yarn: Berroco Cuzco, a wool/alpaca blend

Now if only I hadn’t forgotten my new red boots, the ones I made these legwarmers to wear with, back home in Windsor.

Posted by jodi on March 2, 2010 at 8.20pm

roll up the ripoff

turn up a winner?

On first glance I thought that perhaps Tim Hortons had, after all these decades, changed their colour scheme. But, no. This Country Style Donuts coffee cup is nothing but a dashing imposter, laying its glitzy colour scheme over the well known design of Tim Hortons’ nationally beloved and highly anticipatedRoll up the Rim. Here, have a look at how similar the design is:

RRROLL it! by western tragedy on flickr
photo by flickr user western tragedy

(for my non-Canadian friends: the other side of the Tims cup also has little black and white photos of the SUV and the television and whatever other stuff you can win on it. Just like the imposter cup).

Posted by jodi on March 1, 2010 at 11.28pm

sing it one more time

Who owns hockey? Why, I believe that would be Canada.

hockey gold for Canada (again)!

You’d think this shot was from the women’s gold medal game if the score wasn’t different.

hockey gold for Canada (again)!

hockey gold for Canada (again)!

Posted by jodi on February 28, 2010 at 6.34pm

studio video!

Today’s video was supposed to be cutting a woodblock, but the wood gouges were forgotten at the Monastery. So instead, more drawing.

I’m trying out a new method for counting lines: instead of counting in my head how many lines are drawn in each section and adding up all of those numbers, I’m making a tally of every group of five lines. This way maybe I can watch cartoons on the laptop while I draw, or talk with Peter on Skype (will try it out tonight and see if the drawing and the conversation interfere with one another). Five is a number I can feel with my hand instead of keeping it in my head. I think.

Yes, I am listening to Ozzy Osbourne while I work. I realized while drawing today that I added Ozzy’s “Bark at the Moon” to my blip.fm playlist more than once; not sure what that reveals about me but there you have it (full disclosure: I have the LP too). A song, of course, is only as good as its bridge, and as you can hear in the video. . . well. Other cheesy songs I’m embarrassed to admit I like but which can probably be found more than once on my blip.fm playlist include Peter Murphy’s “Cuts you up” and Murray Head’s “One Night in Bangkok”. Don’t judge.

Posted by jodi on February 27, 2010 at 6.53pm

turn on the waterworks

hockey gold for Canada!

The second and third periods of last night’s hockey game were dead boring, what with all of the scoring happening in the first few minutes of the game. But, whatever. We won!

hockey gold for Canada!

That guy with the “GOLD CANADA GOLD” sign had a white helmet on his head with a flashing police car light on top. Somebody on flickr said that he was in the front row at every game, always with the same helmet and different signs. Hilarious. He must have spent a fortune on tickets.

I always feel so sad for the team that loses, though, because I am a sympathetic crier and can’t see people crying on the teevee without joining in (it makes no difference whether or not I’m actually moved, and in fact television doesn’t really move me very often and I’m mostly cynical even about the few shows I like; the crying’s just a visceral reaction. Or whatever the viscera of tear ducts are, I guess). I wish the Americans could have felt happier in celebrating their silver, but they all just looked so crushed that the medals ceremony was hard to watch. The Finns, on the other hand, were ecstatic, jumping around and making kissy-faces at the camera. So cute. Anyway, it was nice to see some people in the stands wearing Canada jerseys holding up American flags and shouting “U-S-A! U-S-A!” after the silver medals had been given out. Okay, actually that might have made me cry a little too. I’m a big old crybaby this week. Y’all should have seen me hoofing it up that snowy hill to work yesterday in the wind and blowing powdery snow. I was crying up a storm then, I tell you what.

hockey gold for Canada!

Another thing frequently seen on the teevee these days that never fails to make me cry:

welcome to Canada

The Tim Hortons “welcome to Canada” ad. For the record, I’ve never cried over a Tim Hortons commercial in my life before, no matter how overly sentimental and mushily patriotic they are. This one, though, I can’t watch all the way through with dry eyes. Good thing all this hockey will be over soon and I won’t have any more reasons to watch teevee.

welcome to Canada

Awww.

Posted by jodi on February 26, 2010 at 5.51pm

i’ll show you mine

A comment thread on another website got me thinking: did I ever share my favourite pickup line story with y’all? I might have, but it’s short and sweet so here it is again anyway:

It was, I think, the summer of 1986; I was 14 years old and loitering around the playground of my old elementary school around 8:00 in the evening with a boy named Joe. Joe was a year or two older than me, 16 maybe. He hadn’t lived in our town long, having been recently shipped to the other parent while on probation for something about which I don’t know the details. The setting must have inspired him, because he suddenly, in the middle of an otherwise normal conversation, came out with the very juvenile suggestion “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours”. Then he whipped down his fly and displayed his junk, indistinct in the fading evening light and the shadow of the school building (thank goodness; teenager penis is something nobody ever needs to see). This was immediately followed by what is still one of the best lines I’ve ever heard: “Now that we’ve seen each other’s genitalia, maybe we should introduce them sometime?”. So smooth. Never mind that he hadn’t even seen mine.

Ever the deflector, I said “Don’t you have a curfew?”. To which he looked at his watch, swore, and lit off across the field and home.

In retrospect I’m surprised that boy even knew a big word like “genitalia”. And I wouldn’t be at all shocked to learn that he’d heard that line in a bad movie.

phallus riding a phallus

Posted by jodi on February 25, 2010 at 9.39am

student drawings

I’m a bit behind in posting student work and now have a rather large pile in my office waiting to be marked, photographed and handed back. Guess this weekend is for grading.

These are a few of the self portraits my Drawing II students did last month. For more you can check out the class flickr set.

student self portrait drawing
Steve Saad

student self portrait drawing
Emily Evans

student self portrait drawing
Nick Scarfone

student self portrait drawing
Erikka Molenaar

Posted by jodi on February 24, 2010 at 9.13pm

in progress

A terrible photo, but you get the idea; a few of the drawings from last week. These will all have layers of woodblock printing on top of them. Of course.

They’re not meant to go together but I kind of like them stacked like this now that I see them together.

in progress

Posted by jodi on February 22, 2010 at 9.57pm

travel day

The French word for “take-off” is “décollage”. I love this. Coming unglued, or unstuck, from the earth’s surface.

Today was a good day for taking photos out an airplane window, but I only shot film today so gratification is not instant. This takes some getting used to. The icy Northern lakes, under a smooth white layer of snow criss-crossed with networks of tracks (snowmobiles? trucks?) were lovely from the air; not sure yet whether my sweet new lo-fi camera will be able to capture that detail.

The only digital photo of the day was this one, taken during an arse-numbingly long layover at Pearson Airport: Legwarmer #2, almost finished. It’s half a repeat longer than #1, and the longer length is better. It seems there is always a certain amount of rip-and-redo.

Pearson Airport, purple tights, knitting

Posted by jodi on February 21, 2010 at 8.45pm

tacos are happy to see me

tacos

Posted by jodi on February 19, 2010 at 5.42pm