The New Floodgates of the Mind

Greetings Readers! 🙂 I received today a bit more information on what the Shuster Award will look like. And so, for those of you interested, here is the description:

“We will be basing the award plaque on the classic cover of Superman #1 that Shuster illustrated but instead of the Man of Steel in the oval frame it will instead contain a portrait of Joe Shuster himself and the very talented Canadian artist, Tom Grummett (who has a long history illustrating both Superman and Superboy), will be doing the full colour illo of Shuster. Of course, the framework design on the Superman cover will be redrawn and slightly updated (so as not to put DC’s nose out of joint by simply using a copy of the original) and the logo will now spell SHUSTER instead of Superman using the same classic lettering style. In the small box on the cover that contained the comic price we will be inserting a stylized Canadian maple leaf and the whole image will be imprinted onto a metal surface, in full colour, through a process called sublimation and then mounted onto a brass plate and a plaque base that resembles a marble surface — the individual award information fitting nicely into the area on the cover that originally said “The Complete Story of the Daring Exploits of the One and Only SUPERMAN”.

You can imagine how great it would be to have one 🙂 Definitely something I would display proudly in my home…

It’s bizarre. I seem to have a lot more “action” going on in my head than I’m letting out on these boards. Not sure why unless it’s a massive combination of workload plus insufficient sleep plus major fatigue at end of day. Driftless, listless sometimes comes into play. And just for that, I’m gonna post a few random things:

1- Tuesday night I got a chance to watch The Ring. Outside of a small handful of moments-made-to-jump, the movie was lame. Sure, it was intriguing and interesting (I think I was more fascinated by the removal of the fly from the videotape than anything else) but for all its hype, I was expecting to be scared if not disgusted. I was neither. Have I become too jaded?

2- Monday? night we watched America’s Sweetheart. This was a movie I wanted to catch at the theatres since three of my favorites were in it: Billy Crystal (fav funny guy), John Cusak (fav cool guy), and Christopher Walken (fav psycho guy). I’m glad I didn’t. It was the most conflicting movie I’ve ever seen. The first hour is pure garbage. Stupid, wasteful, pathetic, disgusting. I couldn’t believe the dreck. And then… the last half hour is pure brilliance! I could not stop laughing! What a payoff! Walken’s character is killer and Cusak’s and Crystal’s reactions had me in stitches. A complete turnaround, that’s for sure!

3-

4- Per raro che sia vero amore, e meno raro della vera amicizia. (True love is rare, true friendship rarer) F. de la Rochefoucauld

4b- Then the best thing to do would be to fall in love with your bestest buddy, n’est-ce-pas? 🙂

Coincidentally, I was about to post up a note about The Shuster Awards today, when I got the latest update in my mailbox. After some re-thinking and re-alignment, the executive committee has decided to alter what we’ll be voting on this first year. Instead of all the categories mentioned earlier, we’ll now be concentrating on the following 5:

– Outstanding Canadian Comic Book Writer (not eligible if you drew your own story)
– Outstanding Canadian Comic Book Artist (penciller, inker, colorist, etc. Not eligible if you wrote your own story)
– Outstanding Canadian Comic Book Cartoonist (someone who wrote and illustrated their own work)
– Outstanding Canadian Publisher
– Outstanding Achievement (for the benefit of the Canadian comic book community – fan or professional)

The Hall of Fame awards are not open for public vote the first year but instead chosen by a panel of Canadian comic book experts/ historians.

I, obviously, have my list of recommendations and nominations for most part, but there were a few I had to research. And that, my friends, is one of the best things about all this. The best reward of research is in finding out about so many talents out there who deserve wider recognition. I do hope one of the outcomes of The Shuster Awards is to do just that.

It is quite interesting to see who out there is a Canadian creator, but it’s also a little sad to see some very talented folks who weren’t eligible this year since they did not have anything published in 2004. Hopefully, that will change in 2005 (I only know of 1 person for sure).

I mentioned before how great it is to be a part of this, but I also now realize how… not intimidating, but at least really secretive it has to be. I know quite a number of folks in the community – most of who I greatly respect and admire. Of course, this does not get in the way of my responsibility of choosing wisely/ correctly/ or fairly. It’s the work that must be judged, not the person. Well, except for the Outstanding Achievement category 🙂 I’m honored to be on the ground floor of these awards, and I hope I get the chance to do it again. I don’t know what the rules are in regards to the Nominating Committee, but if I’m asked again in the future, I know I won’t turn it down 🙂

“But what I’d really love would be to do Wayne’s World for real…” 🙂 In my case, of course, it would be to continue developing my TOP SECRET PROJECT and get back on those bookshelves. And continue to pester my cohort from Scarlet Rose Productions to release those incredible books still locked away in the vaults. Art like that should not remain hidden from the world!! 🙂

For now, back to my picks. I’m still very curious to see what these awards are going to look like! Of course, I’ll keep you all up to date. When I know, and can tell, you’ll know too 🙂

Television show creator/producer Stephen J. Cannell told Video Store Magazine, though, that “a favorite of his is ‘Profit,’ a critically successful show that ran for only four episodes in 1996. ‘That’s a show that people are still talking about,’ said Cannell. The show, 10 episodes of which exist, followed a sociopathic character as he builds a career inside a large company by destroying other people’s careers.” Now Anchor Bay has announced that they are bringing Profit to DVD in 2005:

PROFIT (1996)

Starring: Adrian Pasdar, Lisa Zane, Lisa Blount, Keith Szarabajka

That is SO cool. Count me in as one of those who’s been talking of this series when it first hit the airwaves. In fact, I have most if not all of the episodes scrunched up on tape somewhere. Definitely looking forward to getting this on DVD 🙂

The entire weekend seemed a non-stop marathon. James came home friday night with a French project he had to finish. Firstly, he had gotten an extension which we didn’t approve of, mainly because the subject matter did not really require it. But then, when we got to review it, we were appalled at how messy and incomplete it was. After a long diatribe on how important it is to do well in school and the proper way to put projects together, we basically made him redo the entire thing. We were very upset at the fact that he had received it two weeks ago but didn’t attempt to finish it until thursday (when he realized he was missing something).

It’s quite frustrating to work so hard with him (and at times Melyssa) teaching them the importance of staying up to date with school work and doing your best, etc. We give them these valuable lessons, then they go “away” for two weeks and when we see them again, we’re having to repeat the same lessons.

Let’s be brutally honest. They both would be better off living with Chantale and I. Their schoolwork would DEFINITELY improve. Exactly the way his used to when we all lived in Montreal closer to his first school – we were closer and thus had more access to him and his schoolwork, thus the lessons stuck and his work was good.

sigh.

One day it’ll work out. In the meantime, we keep plugging away, knowing that they at least understand how much we love them and want them to succeed (because we KNOW they can and they know they can do better).

Never a dull moment.

Just a little something that made me snicker as I looked out my office window and saw other folks doing the same thing…

Fast Fiction: Quitting Time

The links are finally ready! Here are the Ultrasound pictures of Baby Aragona-Turgeon! Do with the clicky-clicky! 🙂

Ultrasound 2 Here you get a good look at my profile – nice face eh? I’m going to be gorgeous!

I saw my baby yesterday.

It can’t do anything more than swim and bounce around and yet, it’s already captivated my heart.

About 10cm in length, I was COMPLETELY shocked with seeing HOW developed it is at just 13 weeks. And the machine? Wow. I never saw James or Melyssa as clearly at 20 weeks as I did their little sibling. It was, according to the technician, in perfect position. It stayed that way for over 20 minutes being poked and proded and photographed, its hands moving about, almost clapping, its little legs and feet kicking outwards. And then, when it got tired of being pushed against, it opened its mouth as though attempting to suck against whatever was coming near its head! Smacking its lips over and over causing all of us to gasp and laugh!

Have I mentioned WOW? Eyes glazed, face frozen in a smile, watching in complete wonder, absorbing every little detail. Like the little heart beating so quickly. The existence of a stomach which proves it can eat/absorb properly. The existence of a bladder which proves it has working kidneys. A cute little nose and nose bone. A nice head and good size brain.

I’m still gushing over the experience. And Chantale was worried that I wouldn’t have found it anything special and that I had “done it” already. No, my love, it was incredible! 🙂

The home computer is offline as I finally got around to moving the desk and finishing off the basement floor painting, but I should be able to get reconnected tonight in order to scan the ultrasound pictures and upload them somewhere. And if not tonight, then tomorrow 🙂

Wow. 🙂

It’s always interesting to go back and review who’s been babbling in our journals, don’t you think? 🙂

Biggest Talkers

I’ve had this photo on my system for a while now but never got around to uploading it. I can’t really describe how much Chantale and I love this painting or this artist. We’ve spent many an hour lounging on our couch watching it on our wall. Its simple elegance brings out so much of what we felt on our Wedding Day and how much love we have in our home. I think it was about time I posted it here, especially after my previous announcement 🙂

Dance Me To The End of Love a simply gorgeous painting by Jack Vettriano. This was a wedding gift to us by some dear family friends