Projecting Spock & St. Joseph Surrounded by 40 Year Olds
Saturday, September 28, 2019
I must admit that I only saw one porn film in my life. It
was Deep Throat and I witnessed it in a
San Francisco movie house . What made this a once-in-a –lifetime-even-never-to-be
repeated-event were three men in front of me loudly munching on popcorn.
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| Courtenay Webber - The Projection Room, 27 September 2019 |
Here in Vancouver I never patronized any of the porn
movie houses and the first time I ever went to the notorious Fox Theatre was
when it was converted into a concert venue by David Pay from Music on Maine.
Suddenly this week I was invited to attend a 40th
birthday bash by a lovely woman at a place called the Projection Room. This was
the very room, above the now cabaret
venue where the films were run from.
At age 77 I could not refuse the invitation by a woman
almost half my age. It gave me the opportunity to watch how these younger
people spend their evenings when they are not glued to Netflix, or looking for
online dates with their phones.
But I had an ulterior motive to attend this fine
celebration last night. I was there waiting for the incarnation of St . Joseph
and Mr. Spock. Neither showed up.
But I did know Michael Unger from years past at Nerd Nite
and at film screenings at the Vancouver Planetarium. The business-like
gentleman appeared with a beautiful woman called Erin who reminded me of British screen
star Diana Dors (born Diana Mary Fluck).
He could not have been Spock as he could not separate the
fingers of his hand in a Spock-like manner. He also confessed to me that he has
never been interested in carpentry.
As for the lovely woman of the celebration, dressed in a
gold lame outfit, she greeted people all of about her age. I did not know
anybody but I nursed a Fernet con Coca while talking to a redhead who denied
being one.
A Persisting Ebb Tide
Friday, September 27, 2019
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| Rosa 'EbbTide' 27 September 2019 |
Fall is in the air and both my Rosemary and I wore our fleece
vests and long-sleeved shirts today.
From my vantage of my oficina (the door is open) I can hear
Rosemary snipping with her scissors dead leaves from our plants and perennials
on their way to their seasonal sleep.
I told Rosemary that I was going to cut all the open blooms
(there are many closed ones left) of the floribunda rose Rosa ‘Ebb Tide’ which
looks like an old rose, smells like an old rose, has an unusual Gallica-like
purple colour but, unlike all of those previous roses it is remontant and
abundantly so as this scan proves.
Nobody is really going to come in the next few days to
inspect our gardes so I got a dim green light from Rosemary to snip Ebb
Tide.
Ebb Tide proves that you miss out if you are a snob. I would
not have been caught dead in having a floribunda rose in our garden (my nose would have been up in
the air). Then I saw this rose blooming in the Lougheed Highway Garden Works.
Rosemary was surprised at my purchase and told me she had seen the rose at the
UBC Shop in the Garden but had been afraid to tell me about it.
It seems I am still an ogre.
A Melancholic Sputtering into Fall
Thursday, September 26, 2019
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| Rosa 'Abraham Darby' 26 September 2019 |
Coming from the opening of Spring in Buenos Aires on
Saturday to a foreshadowing of fall in Vancouver has put me into a melancholic
mood as I think of the warmth of Buenos Aires, of my family, and of the employees of
our Claridge Hotel on Calle Tucumán. That melancholy is partially brightened by
the photographs I took of a couple of tango dancers that perform on the street,
the extremely central hub of two walking malls, Lavalle and Florida. I am
currently fixing the pictures of Guillermina Van Der Linden and her partner José Carlos Romero Vedía. They and their troupe dance Monday through Saturday from 5 to 9. In my opinion they are superior to any of the expensive and over-the-top Buenos Aires Tango Shows.
Tango para una ciudad
The sometimes excellence of age and experience
Donde la espalda pierde su nombre
It is cold and I have turned on the heat but as I walk
around our garden I can note that some of our roses are ignoring the rain and
the cooling and are sputtering and keeping on. They take seriously the idea
that since they are remontant they must bloom in the fall. And many have.
These spent blooms of the English Rose, Rosa ‘Abraham Darby’,
the Sherman Tank of Roses is to my eyes extraordinarily beautiful.
Soon they will all be gone and they will lose their leaves.
But there is that idea that after our winter, a coming spring will remind me of
tango, warm friends and our roses will greet us for another year.
Of hope.
Tango en Carmesí - Lavalle y Florida
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Después de
haber vuelto de mi Buenos Aires, del cual me despedí en 1967, para volver
varias veces y, recientemente hace una semana, todo parece un sueño. La ciudad
no parece cambiar (las veredas rotas siguen igual) y mis viejos fantasmas de
familia y amigos aún la habitan. En dos patadas parece que tan pronto llego al
Aeropuerto del Ministro Pistarini pienso en castellano y el Vancouver en donde vivo
con mi Rosemary es el del sueño.
Para un
viejo de 77 años, este viaje confirmó que aún viejo puedo hacer amigos. Los que
trabajan en el Hotel Claridge (nuestro hogar en Buenos Aires) me
brindaron copiosa amistad. No pude ver mi amigo el Teniente de Granaderos ÁngelNicolás Gómez porque estaba tomando un curso de perfeccionamiento en Campo de
Mayo.
El mayor deleite fué el ensueño de mi nueva
amistad con Guillermina Van Der Linden y José Carlos Romero Vedía, dos
bailarines de tango de eximio talento que comparten lo que hacen con los que
transcurren esa intersección tan porteña que es Lavalle y Florida.
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| Guillermina Van Der Linden |
De niño
para mí sólo existía la música del Teatro Colón (lo que escuchaba mi mamá en la
radio) y la demás, la popular, que era el tango. Aunque pude aprender a bailarlo
aquí en Vancouver, mi nivel de experiencia lo considero eficiente, y nada más.
Pero habiendo visto a mis padres bailarlo sé lo bueno cuando lo veo.
En mis
muchos años de fotógrafo en Canadá para revistas y diarios fotografié mucho
ballet y danza moderna. Como mi antiguo amor por el arte taurino (cuando viví
en México), sé que tan importante como es la técnica hay algo mas que llamo
presencia. Ver a Guillermina y José Carlos bailar confirma ese conocimiento.
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| Arriba, Ornela Simonetto, un transeúnte con suerte y Miriam Gutiérrez, y abajo Guillermina Van Der Linden |
Ahora que
estoy jubilado no tengo la necesidad de complacer a un redactor o un diseñador
gráfico. Puedo hacer lo que se me da la gana. Sí, fotografié con una luz de
estudio en unos de los salones del Hotel
Claridge a esa pareja. Pero hay algo realmente lindo de poder tomar
fotos sin necesidad de justificarlas con nadie. Si quiero tomar fotos que ya no
son retratos (de piernas y zapatos y polleras y pantalones) lo puedo hacer. Si
uso un obturador de 18 de segundo y las imágenes son movidas y borrosas,
¿Porqué no?
Seguí con
mi cámara a Guillermina Van Der Linden y a Ornella Simonetto, las dos luciendo
un vestido (que poco cubría) de color carmesí.
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