No Link Sharing



Colour print test trips of 35 mm slides courtesy of Professional Colour Prints now sadly gone

Why are these pictures here?

On Saturday night (I am writing this Sunday afternoon) I got into bed for one of the best pleasures of the week. This is to read the Sunday NY Times a night before. It comes crashing into the front door around 8pm. I quickly found all kinds of relevant articles on topics that I am interested in and also well written articles on topics that in most situations I avoid. One in question is economics. But that does not prevent me from reading Pulitzer Prize winner and liberal-leaning Paul Krugman. He had a cover article in the Sunday Times Magazine called Eurotrashed – Can Europe Be Saved? I read the long article and finally could explain to most people out there the problems of Ireland, Greece, Iceland and the looming financial collapse of Spain, Portugal and Italy. I found out that one of the possible solutions is what Krugman called a Full Argentina.

In the same magazine I read No More Mrs. Nice Mom – Is the iron hand of Chinese parenting the future for Americans raising their kids? by Judith Warner. This timely article comes exactly at the time when my daughter Hilary stresses to me that she is not a mom who is in a popularity contest with her two daughters. She does not try to be their friends at the expense of discipline and allowing them to be rude or to slack off.

In the arts section I read an astounding article by amateur violinist and NY Times music writer Daniel J. Wakin called Bytes and Beethoven – With Bows and Laptops, the Borromeo String Quartet Has Enlisted in the Technological Revolution. In part of the article Wakin describes how the quartet with laptops instead of sheet music on their music stands and with the help of a special foot pedal they scroll original manuscripts to read the music. They also record, when possible all their concerts and make them available, for a price on the web.

The main section of the paper had a long piece, Jigsaw Picture of an Accused Killer – Seeking Answers Beneath Loughner’s Mug-Shot Grin, reported by Jo Becker, Serge F. Kovalksi, Michael Luo and Dan Barry and written by Mr. Barry. This piece of writing, in spite of the grim topic, managed to be beautifully written while still being informative and as much as I hate the cliché that follows, it was thought-provoking.

The business section had Ping by Nick Bilton and was subtitled Can Your Camera Phone Turn You Into a Pirate? This article explained the possible copyright infringements of copying, the example used, a couple of interior design pages of a design book at a bookstore without buying the book to use as reference for a home re-decoration. By the time the copyright laws for such a act become reality the author finishes with, “As Ms. Ahrens says, ‘By the time this becomes an issue, we might not even have bookstores anymore.’”

In brief my Sunday newspaper, read on a Saturday had lots of stuff that I might have wanted to share with friends. But there is one big reason why I don’t. I could go to facebook (why do so many write this word capitalized? Check the website!) and post a “Read this about the Borromeo String Quartet. It is worth reading. Or I could tweet (Not only am I in facebook but I am also in Twitter) : Bytes and Beethoven (and insert the link to the NY Times article).

There have been fantastic slide shows from exhibitions at the Met or at MOMA that almost made me itch to insert in facebook for my friends.

The Vancouver Museum of Anthropology has posted wonderful blogs on its exhibition of Man Ray. I have been tempted but refrained from posting links.

Then there are all those music Youtube videos of obscure jazz musicians like Richard Twardzik or some really all but unknown composers of the 17th century that I particularly adore.

It was two weeks ago that I read in my NY Times about the new BCC Masterpiece series called Downton Abbey which airs its second installment this Sunday. One of the stars is American Elizabeth McGovern. I happen to be a fan as is a friend of mine who happened to have interviewed her some years ago. To my knowledge there was no mention or advance article on this show (which is very good) in our Vancouver Sun.

I wondered if my friend knew about it? I could have posted something about the show on facebook and perhaps my friend who is also on facebook and, we are facebook friends, would have read it.

But I decided to call him a couple of hours before the airing of the first installment. He was not there. I left a message that I had called and left no further information. He never called back so I wonder if he knows about the show.

My presence in facebook is simple. I run a short, Twitter type tweet in Spanish introducing to that day’s blog. Facebook has the nice feature of allowing you to include any one of the pictures from your blog when you write in the link. It does so automatically. I believe that no matter how lousy my blog might be, by posting a link to it I am contributing something that is personally manufactured. I am not simply posting a link to an article or video (and they make it so simple now). So much of what I read in facebook and Twitter is geared around a reaction, with a subsequent link posting to some event in the US. As far as I know nobody in the circle of my “friends” commented on the heinous assassination of the Punjab governor by his security guard.

While Canada and the US are shipping manufacturing operations to the East (read in the NY Times that a company that makes solar panels is shifting operations to China) I find that we who participate in on-line social networking sites contribute nothing except, “Saw this great video here, etc” We are not only not making stuff with our hands we are no longer writing stuff with our hands. And our comments on the events in Tucson for the most part prove (at least to me) why I like to read to good columnists who are professional journalists. I am simply not into (in fact I deplore) what former West Magazine Editor Paul Sullivan used to trumpet as Citizen Journalism. To me that smacks of people around the guillotine in the waning of the 19th century crying “Off with his head!” I am not interested in their opinions.

There is supposed to be this warm inner glow about being part of a community. That this community is really no longer available on the phone, over coffee or even by a stamped envelope, reveals to me what my friend Ian Bateson says quite often. He says that people have retreated into a shell, much like turtles.

Which brings me to why are these pictures of Lisa Prentiss, formerly of Vancouver and of Marysville, Washington here? I think that Lisa (aka Alexandria) had that icy sexual look of a modern Estella. Estella has been in my thoughts of late. My new friend Errol Durbach, who is a drama professor at UBC has recently adapted Great Expectations to the stage. Of Estella he writes, “that frozen icicle of a woman, incapable of reciprocating affection....). Great Expectations is going to open at the Gateway Theatre in Richmond opening on February 3. I am going to have the opportunity to photograph the shows Estella, Mia Ingimundson. And Mr. Durbach will accompany my photo with an essay as a guest blogger.

These pictures are here because I want to share them with whoever reads this.