quote:

Originally posted by dolmansaxlil:
Such a simple question, and I turn it into a novel. Sorry 'bout that!

No apologies needed, in fact you can elaborate all you want!

So, more questions....

What's the furthest west you've been in North America? Why did you go there?

What's your favorite red wine?

Have you ever been outside Canada and the US? If so, which countries have you visited?

How did you ever find your way to the piano forums? What led you?

I actually had to look at a map to figure out what the furthest west I've been is! There were two options: Phoenix, Arizona (for Soak's sister's wedding a couple years ago) and Calgary, Alberta.I think Calgary wins in the "west" category (especially since we went into the Rockies to visit Chateau Lake Louise and Banff), and the story is more interesting, so I'll go with that!

When I was in highschool, I played clarinet (and very occasionally oboe) in our concert band. The music program at my highschool was very new - it began the year before I got there. Our teacher was pretty keen, and decided to try to get us to MusicFest Canada, a national competition. We managed to get past the regional competitions in my grade 11 year, and every year after that. The competition moved from place to place. In my OAC (previously grade 13...doesn't exist anymore) year, MusicFest was in Calgary. So 75 of us - two concert bands, a choir, a jazz band, and a vocal jazz group - flew out to Calgary for a week for the competition. There were only 5 OAC girls in the program, so we convinced the hotel to bring a cot into our room so we could all bunk together. It was an amazing trip - the first time I had ever been on a plane, the first time I had seen real mountains (sorry...the east coast just doesn't count!). Great memories. I'd love to go back.

Favourite red wine... hmm... I don't have a particular winery that I would say is my favourite, but I tend to drink Shiraz. I also like Merlot and Malbec.

The only country I've visited outside of Canada/US is Ireland. I've definitely been bitten by the travel bug, though, and am making that a priority! I cannot wait for China next year! I really can't think of a place I would not like to visit. I admit I'm more of an urban girl, but I'd really like to visit rural China and India. I also would love to go to Vietnam.

The piano forums...
I jumped into the piano forums my first year as a teacher. I am definitely someone who needs to have a hobby, and I was between activities. I started playing piano when I was 5, and played until I finished high school. I also, as I said earlier, played clarinet. I tried picking the clarinet back up, but it's no fun to play clarinet solo, so I went back to piano. When I was getting back into it, I started searching for a forum to discuss it, and stumbled across Piano World and the old Coffee Room. I was hooked, but arrived only about a month before it was shut down. I realized that I just didn't love playing and continued my quest for a new hobby, but liked you guys enough to stick around.

Dol, you posted in my very first thread at one of these forums. Thank you for being so welcoming. You are and have always been one of my favorite posters.

My question is- I've seen a lot of news coverage about the recent G20 meeting in Canada. A lot of it was very discouraging. Being an American, I've always thought of Canada as being a liberal place, and a lot of what I saw reported during the G20 surprised me. Are you concerned with this conservative government? Do you believe that there is a danger of Canada heading in directions that are conservative, authoritarian, against social welfare, that kind of thing? TIA!

Thanks, Daniel.

I am NOT a fan of the current Prime Minister. He is far too conservative for my tastes. However, I don't have any major fears about Canada in the long run. For one thing, our government is structured in such a way that, unless a party has a strong majority (the Conservatives do not, with only approximately 143 of 308 seats...the number may have wavered a bit since the election), they have to do a lot of compromise to get anything accomplished at all. The Liberals and NDP outnumber the Conservatives, so any vote that it put forward has to be acceptable to at least a handful of the more Liberal MPs. Minority governments don't tend to stay in power for very long (there have been several close calls since his second election in October 2008, which came only a year and a half after the election that got him the job in the first place). Minority governments are, in my personal opinion, the least scary time to be Canadian. Yeah, it's frustrating to know that we'll be going back to the polls AGAIN likely very soon as a result. But you can't do anything ridiculous when you're the Prime Minister of a minority government. You just don't have the votes.

The second reason I'm not as worried is because the Provincial governments hold the power over the things that matter most to me: health care, education, social safety net. A Conservative Premier in Ontario does FAR more harm than a Conservative Prime Minister, in my opinion. We had an ultra-conservative in power here in the late 90s. It was horrible. Sweeping cuts to healthcare, education reform, etc etc. It was a bad time for this province.

The third reason is that Canadians seem to have a different take on politics that those in the US. First, we don't worry as much about social politics (there's very little debate about abortion, drug laws, same-sex marriage etc, during our campaigns) - and the personal lives of our politicians just don't seem to matter as much to our population on the whole. But we also tend to make fun of our politicians no matter what party they're fun and whether we voted for them or not. I don't see the same kind of party loyalty here as I do in the US. When a politician does something stupid, we all tend to call him/her on it, even if we campaigned for the party during the election. I think that's because we don't actually vote for the party leader, so we don't get as attached to a single person throughout the campaign.

It's not that I think Canada couldn't change - we were, during the 50s and 60s IIRC - more conservative than the US. But I think that some of the differences in how our system works and the Canadian identity in general mean that the federal party in power has a harder time making huge changes quickly.

Now, if the next election turns up a Conservative Majority, I'll worry a bit more.

Are there any professional or famous photographers whose work you particularly admire?

jf

I'm really only starting to get involved with viewing particular photographer's work. With all the arts (music, visual, whatever) I am much more drawn to individual works, as a rule (the exception is literature). However, I really like Paul Strand's work, and I also really enjoy Garry Winogrand and William Eggleston. But I wouldn't say I'm conversant in any photographer's work.

I'm also intrigued by Thomas Hawk, who is just so prolific that it's amazing to view his collection. He has over 42,000 public photos on Flickr, many of which are licensed under Creative Commons, which means anyone can use them non-commercially. His goal is to make one million photographs available. I admire his attempt to truly document life around him - all the little things that go unnoticed. His work is very straightforward and photo-journalistic in style. No effects, just technically clean documentary style photography. But I love his drive to photograph just about everything he runs across.

One of the things I've found is that looking at some of my dailyshoot contacts is the most educational for me. Most of them are like me - just wanting to learn the art and craft of photography. So we're all on slightly different places in the learning curve. One of my contacts is really getting into strobist stuff, and he's just learning - so watching his photos daily is inspiring. He also posts his set up shots so you can see how he got a particular effect. Not a "famous" or "master" photographer - just someone who is a bit ahead of me on the curve. I can learn from that.

Garry Winogrand's project "Animals" shot at a zoo is one of my favorites. It was published in a tiny paperback edition.

It is a great example of "smart" photography.

http://www.google.com/images?h...=wi&biw=1208&bih=587

http://www.google.com/imgres?i...246&biw=1208&bih=587

jf

This is the image that initially attracted me to Winogrand's work:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hBqd...ark_zoo+(Custom).jpg

Do you have any pets?

We do! Bilbo the bunny. He's a Norwegian Dwarf rabbit, and is just shy of a year old.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by dolmansaxlil:
We do! Bilbo the bunny. He's a Norwegian Dwarf rabbit, and is just shy of a year old.


And now you're gonna cook'im?

*snicker

It was for an early dailyshoot theme: "Pet photos are such a cliche, but they're also cute. Make an interesting photo of a pet today."

Bilbo is really difficult to photograph because he takes off like a dart if you put him down anywhere. I needed something to contain him, and thought this would be funny.

And, yes, this hand-basket is quite roomy, thank you.

Cute!

LOVE the bunny photo!

dol, just wanted to say how much I've enjoyed your posts as WTF'er of the month. It's been great getting to know you better, and I hope that the Dailyshoot pics keep on coming! I always look forward to seeing your photos.