Surfacing

I bowed out of the Blog-o-sphere for a good lengthy time since Christmas ended. Questions have been raised. Challenges issued. Word. No big. Trying to get my life re-organized and plotted down the trail of right action. Time is just flying by these days, and it seems a little bit precious.
What’s New?
Back in December, Fer and I got to talking about weird crazy abstract things like “the future”, and “goals and ambitions”, whereto for somehow we came to a decision that I would spend the next several months concentrating my available time fully on producing my first graphic novel ( a fancy word for a really long comic book for an adult or “mature” audience). No, not porn. Literature people! (I hope) This is something I’ve always wanted to do, but it is not an easy thing.
I’ve been aiming to adapt Daphne, a play that I wrote in 1999, into a full-length story, expanding on the characters and exploring it all from a slightly different angle. I’ve had all kinds of ideas about using various approaches found within the comics medium and also Illustration and prose to tell the story in various ways, chapter to chapter. This is something I had already started doing, but the actual progress of it was so slow that I might not have seen its completion before my 60th birthday. And now, over the course of the next several months (7 – 9 months I expect, cross yer fingers) I am spending my days working on Daphne full time, with Fer’s heartfelt support. It feels good to immerse myself fully in this project, putting my hands into it, and leaving the computer behind (at least for the first part). I’ve completed the first chapter, which is 7 pages long and told in the rhythm of a daily newspaper strip. Each 4-panel page is part of the continuity and also a separate segment that is valid on its own. I’ll post page 6 below as a teaser for you.

Inspired by my NY cartoonist friend Alec Longstreth, who has become somewhat famous in the comics community for his dedication and sheer organizational skills, I’ve created my own daily work “schedule” designed to help me get the most productivity out of the normal weekday. I’ll post that below too.

So far, so good…
Anyway, if any of you are wondering if I got a “job”. The answer is yes. Just not the kind you think.

Apnea.
For the past few years my nightly sleep has not been a very smooth experience. Fer has been after me for some time to have a doctor look into my sleep habits. I am an extremely loud snorer, and occasionally throughout the night, I stop breathing for short bouts of time. Last week, after getting a referral from my doctor I visited the Sleep Surgery Center in Coquitlam. They gave me a small computer-like device to take home that gathers data about its user while he or she is sleeping. When I brought it back, they downloaded all the various kinds of data, and it turns out that I am spending 80-90 % of my nightly sleep-time struggling to breathe. In fact the term the Doctor used was “self-strangulating”. A heavy blockage in my nasal septum (which, my entire life, has allowed me to breathe through only one nostril), plus excess tissue in the area where my tonsils were, a large tongue and an awkward jaw-position has all combined to create a condition called “sleep apnea”. There are several things that one can choose to alleviate sleep apnea, including various kinds of surgery, but apparently the most effective choice is a machine called a CPAP, which when used correctly helps the patient to inhale while sleeping. That is what I am going to be using to begin with. Sleep Apnea causes the patient to gain weight. And weight gain furthers the development of Apnea. The resultant effect on the metabolism makes it quite difficult for the patient to lose weight as well. For those who haven’t seen me for awhile (and of course for those who have), a few pounds have become magically attached to my mid-section. I attributed this to the fact that I’m getting older, but I definitely have noticed feeling more low-energy and drowsy during the day. I was bummed to find all of this out, but now that I know exactly what is going on, I can take some action to get healthy again. So with the help of a CPAP and spending some time at the gym, I hope to get a real night’s sleep. The doctor stunned me by telling me that I am probably only getting about 10-20 minutes of real quality sleep per night. This has probably been going on for years…

Seattle
We’ve been down to the fine city of Seattle twice this month. Traveling from Vancouver it is a short 2-3 hour trip depending on the wait at the border. Now that Fer has her 1st stage papers in order, she can travel to the U.S. and back with no worries. We explored various parts of the city. Fer found the shopping outlets to the North of the city in Tulalip. I wanted to visit the Fantagraphics store to view the celebration of 25 years of Love & Rockets by Los Bros Hernandez. Two very talented cartoonists whose work I have followed since my teens. The following week cartoonists Gabrielle Bell (from Brooklyn), Kevin Huizenga (from Wisconsin) and Anders Nilsen (from Chicago) gave a very interesting talk/slideshow at the same location. Fer has been a fan of Love & Rockets since her teens too, and bought a page of original L&R artwork by Jaime Hernandez. It’s very cool. We’ll pick it up in March when the exhibit has concluded. Seattle has a great vibe, heavy with musicians and artistic people. We stumbled upon some great joints to sit and grab a snack.

A Prairie Home Companion
Last night we watched the DVD of the film A Prairie Home Companion. This was the great director Robert Altman’s very last movie. Altman is known for creating films that allow the audience to quietly experience events on the screen as “moments that occur”, rather than as events which are “presented to the audience”. They feel very real and time moves very much with a rhythm that feels like life. A Prairie Home Companion is a radio program recorded live at the Fitzgerald Theater in Minnesota and has been running Saturday nights on public radio for more than 30 years. The show is a creation of Garrison Keillor, the host and guiding presence. It is structured on the live variety radio shows that used to dominate the airwaves during Keillor’s youth. The program is a throwback to more innocent times, and the talent and entertainment value that comes of it is priceless. The movie, is a fictional account of the last day of the show, as the players prepare for the theater to close and the show to end. The cast is tremendous, including heavyweights like Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Kevin Kline, Tommy Lee Jones, Woody Harrelson, and John C. Reilly. As I’m typing this I’m listening to the audio commentary provided by Altman and Kline, who joke and banter and talk about how the film was put together. I loved this movie. The music is wonderful, the performances are great, and it really captures the essence of Keillor’s radio program. The real happy ending is that the show is still on the air, and we can continue to enjoy it, rather than lament its ending. Its sad that it is Altman’s last movie, but it is a fitting one.

Joss
Our little boy is doing great. He’s not yet walking on his own, but certainly crawls with torpedo-like speed and intensity. He’s standing and cruising quite a bit as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if he started taking his first steps real soon. We’re so happy with his daycare experience. Joss has a good friend there named Aidan, who he spends a lot of time hanging out with, laughing and playing. Its really great seeing his face light up when he sees his buddy. The caregiver at the daycare says she has never seen such a strong bond of friendship in such young toddlers. That’s pretty cool. When they are ready to “graduate” over to the next section of the daycare in June, they plan on moving them over together. That makes us pretty happy. We’ll have to make a considered effort to get to know Aidan’s parents if we can.
Momma just gave her boy a bath!

Father & Son watching Superbowl (with their snacks)

And The Oscar Goes To…
I hope to try and become a bit more regular now in my blogging to at least once a week, hopefully. I’ll have to add it to “The Schedule”, along with “morning workouts” at the gym. I hope all of our friends and family out there are doing well these days. We’re missing our NY crew immensely. Especially with the Academy Awards coming up tomorrow, as we would often attend some sort of big group event at someone’s apartment to view it, and bet on the winners. This is the first year that I can remember when not only have I not seen every nominated movie for Best Picture, but I haven’t seen ANY! Movie nights take a seat at the back of the to-do list when you have a baby. I can hardly wait until Joss gets old enough to enjoy going to the movies. I tried to sit down with him to watch Pixar/Disney’s animated movie “Cars” the other day, and although he liked some of the scenes at the racetrack, the allure of his red wagon and building blocks were to much for him to resist. We joined Zip.ca, which is Canada’s version of Netflix, a mail-in movie rental company. So far I’m pretty happy with them, but they do have to invest more in their stock availability. Netflix in NY was great. Often from them you could expect a new release to appear in your mailbox in its first day of availability. We’ll see. I’m hoping Zip comes through. These guys are pretty new and ten times better than Starflix which consistently sent us DVDs from the bottom of our wait list. We’ll be viewing our first Oscar-nominated movie next week: Little Miss Sunshine. I hear its pretty good.
The afore mentioned wagon.

Well I guess I’ve written a lengthy enough piece. Sorry I’ve been “away” for awhile.
More to come.