Category: hellidays
I love having new toys!
Especially photographic type toys.
Yay plastic cameras!
After lusting and longing for a while, I finally broke down and spent some money on a Fuji Instax instant film camera.
It’s like a Polaroid, only a Fuji brand. You know, *coff coff* a financially solvent company?
Anyhow, this fabulous little Instax makes very small instant photographs, they are 2 x 3.25 inches in size.
I LOVE that I have an instant photo camera again!
It hearkens me back to my youth. One Christmas holiday, I got a Polaroid under the tree. Oh what a fabulous present!
I could spend my allowance on buying Polaroid film, which was fairly cheap back then, and then run around snapping photos of whatever I saw with *instant* gratification!
Ok, sure, these days digital cameras provide that instant look at the photo you just took, but there sure is nothing like the sound an instant camera makes after snapping a photo. The motor engages and it shoves out the cloudy photograph. Oh the sweet agony while you wait excitedly for it to develop.
Gah! I love it!
So as I do with every new camera I buy, I take it out of the box, ooh and ah over the features, load up the film or memory disk, and then turn it on and point it at the Feline.
She’s my test model for all new photo and video devices in the house.
Ah, the long suffering Feline….
(scanned photo, not actual size)
And yet, she always manages to strike a pose. I really do think she’s getting better at this job of supermodel.
“I won’t get out of bed for less than two scoops of kibble.”
Such a Diva.
Harumph!
And yet…she sure knows how to work the camera.
As for me, I’m still giddy with the fabulous gadgety goodness of it all!!
Happy Awkward Easter!
Because you didn’t ask, I decided to provide a blast from the past.
Easter, April 8, 1976 from our backyard in Albuquerque:
I’m only sorry I had to drag my siblings into this.
I’m the shortest one. You know, the one with a deathgrip on my Easter basket.
Man, I loved that dress. It had a sash and everything.
We’d been to Easter Mass that morning.
Mom had sung “Jeeeesus Chriiiiist is riiiiiisen todaaaaaay!” loudly along with the congregation and the church organ (man, she loved that song. Something about all the allelujahs.)
Ham was in the oven and the backyard Easter egg hunt was soon to begin.
I always did love Easter. A new dress. New white sandals. A basket full of candy. Yeah baby!
Anyhow, Happy Easter to all who celebrate it!
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Oh, also, because no one asked, on the next page of that same photo album….
Here’s what the 1976 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta looked like:
This old dog learned a new trick
At Christmas, my husband received a gift from his step-mom. He unwrapped it and exclaimed, “A Ray Harryhausen collection! Honey, look, we got a Ray Harryhausen collection! Wow, thank you!”
And I was like, “who?” My sweetest is an educated film guy, so I figured it was some obscure director of strange and dark independent films. So I said, “hey, great!” with a shrug.
Who knew I was TOTALLY missing out?
Well, in my ongoing film education (The Good Man is keeping a list. I’m working through it….) he popped “The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad” in the ol’ DVD player while I was eating lunch one weekend afternoon.
Yeah baby! I figured out just who Ray Harryhausen really is. A master of creating amazing creatures in stop motion animation.
The stumbling roaring Cyclops from the late 1950’s is every bit as creepy today. In fact, in a lot of ways, I actually like that better that today’s over CGI’d movies.
Wow, so ok, I was intrigued.
At the end of the “Seventh Voyage of Sinbad” DVD, there were some special features. One was a bit about when Harryhausen got an Oscar (presented by his best friend, Ray Bradbury. What a pair they must make!) and at the end of Harryhausen’s speech, Tom Hanks comes onto the stage to bring on the next award.
He makes the segue by saying, “I know for some people it is Gone with the Wind or Casablanca, but for me, it’s all about ‘Jason and the Argonauts‘”
I looked at The Good Man, “Well we have to watch that next, then.”
And so we did. We watched as Jason and his merry band of Argonauts fight a huge bronze statue of Talos come to life and, oh man this part was cool, a whole army of sword wielding skeletons! Skeletons! I *love* skeletons! They clacked and grimaced and fought. Aw damn, how very cool!
Then we watched “The Golden Voyage of Sinbad” and I remembered that I saw this movie, most likely on TV, with my big brother back in the day. I remembered the blue Shiva with swords in all the arms. (and let’s talk about the very naturally endowed Caroline Munro. Rowr! It’s so rare to see an un-surgically enhanced actress anymore.)
And finally, we had to get to the must see film because, well, it’s set in San Francisco. This is all part of my SF film education.
“It Came from Beneath The Sea.” Yeah baby!
What the movie lacked in dialogue and story (and it lacked A LOT), it more than made up for in great animation.
Oh, that angry squid snapping the top off the Ferry Building and wrapping tentacles around the Golden Gate! Whoa! And that far-reaching tentacle slapping down Market Street, squishing unsuspecting citizens!
Good stuff!
So okay. I’m up to speed on Harryhausen. I watched the Dirty Harry movies. We did the Hitchcocks set in SF (hello Vertigo!).
I’m excited to see what’s next in my ongoing edjumacation!
Lighting a votive for, uh, peace?
Oh, this could be a serious and solemn post.
It’s not gonna be, however.
So you see…my rock star mom-in-law is a Brooklyn girl, and at the holidays, she has traditions in keeping with where she was raised.
In her words: “Not untypically for someone from Brooklyn in my day for most of my adult life, I’ve made Italian food for the holidays. Often the menu included a seafood dish like spaghetti and clams for Christmas or New Years Eve and usually a lasagna on Christmas Day.”
Italian food? Oh I’m ALL about that.
This holiday season it was her very generous idea to celebrate the holidays with the foods from my childhood in New Mexico.
That means tamales that we handmade together, a pan of Hatch green chile enchiladas and a big pot o’ beans.
To help set the atmosphere, my mom-in-law brought over some accoutrements including Mexican hot chocolate, a tortilla warmer, and an Our Lady of Guadalupe votive candle.
We lit Our Lady up and enjoyed dinner by her warm candlelight.
So the holidays passed by, as they will. The Good Man and I began to dismantle the holiday displays in our home and put things away.
Our Lady of the Fabulous Christmas Feast had been on the coffee table for a couple weeks, but after New Years she had disappeared. The Good Man had stowed her away somewhere. Fair enough, right?
But then…I was rather startled to, uh, find her.
Here:
I call her “Our Lady of Fartima.”
The Good Man never laughs when I do.
But I crack myself up every time. I think being able to make your ownself laugh is the key to a long life.
Side note to Ephraim: I realize yesterday I promised to try and keep it classy on the blog today. I failed miserably. I’ll try again on Monday, ok?