The Streets Are Alive...

Wow, what a difference a week or two makes. This week Soho felt like a different place (aside from the ever present smells of what can only be politely described as "bodily effluent") with so many more people out in the streets surrounding the pubs, and the pubs themselves looking a little more cheery as their flower baskets come into spring colour. Throughout the year thus far (i.e. since I arrived in January) I can only remember the odd brave soul standing outside a pub with pint in hand bracing against the cold and damp (usually yelling into a mobile phone), but since the St. Patrick's Day gatherings the streets have steadily gained a more lively appeal. Soho is always lively, of course, with all the "weekenders" in the center of town for a piss-up, but I am speaking more of the regular apres travail crowd getting out for a pint before they head off home. Last night was particularly fun because for a lot of the work crowd it was last day on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban! So there were a lot of folks out celebrating.

I am happy today mostly because in just four days I am off to see "my lovely" in Madrid! The past four weeks have been very packed and have flown by, but I miss my gal more than ever!!! I am looking forward to some great relaxing spring days in one of the great cities of Europe and just getting caught up! I am anxious to see how the mood of the city has changed since the reality of the bombings that occurred just after I was last there.

Also, I am happy to report that Friday featured my first ever "film final" as a compositor! I had taken on the composite of a fairly ambitious nearly all-CGI shot (that I had done all the Lighting TD work on as well) featuring the Whomping Willow peering out of the darkness and gloom surrounding Hogwart's on the edge of The Dark Forest. To be honest, things got off to a rather funny start! I submitted my first daily in an extraordinarily hasty manner and the results looked a little more like "Harry Potter and the Technicolour Dream Coat!" than the afore mentioned dramatic lighting scenario... But I plodded away nonetheless and the shot really came around. It is amazing what all those crappy little video resolution composites I have done over the past eight years can teach you! Mostly what NOT to do... I have one more short little shot to composite for the film and I will be done! I will save any further reflections on the project for a latter date. In the meantime, there's a link to the official website on the side bar.

Thanks to Michaele and Christine for the early birthday present in the mail! A classic black t-shirt adorned with an image of the famous (in my mind at any rate) Calabria Caffe on Commercial Drive in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia - my home of homes! Little did they know that Frank Senior, upon hearing I was going to Europe, presented me with the very same t-shirt! "Even in Italy, there is no caffe like this one!" It wouldn't be quite right for a zealot like myself to be in possession of only one Calabria Caffe t-shirt now would it!? The package also included, of course, recent info on the Vancouver housing market. Mike's newest motto: The stock market is for Economics Ph.D.s and losers!