My Vacation in 50 Photos

Recently, my family and I spent about three months hoofing around North America—mostly in New York, but also other parts of the US as well as Canada.  It was an epic trip that was full of fun things.  I’ve been pondering how I can share about it here, partly by way of just processing the experience, and so I’ve landed on this post as one of the main ways to do this.

For context, various global and Australian travel restrictions have meant that it’d been pushing five years since my whole family (myself, my wife and my three daughters) have been back to the States together and seen my mom (my dad passed away shortly after our last whole-family visit).  That’s a long time for my now-82 year old mom to go without seeing her grandchildren.  So because we basically missed our last visit or two (according to our old schedule) we made this one extra long.  That also gave us time to see lots of other friends and do many of the exciting things that the photos show.

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The Pandorica opened…

…in Beacon, some time ago.

47 Great Things About this Past Year

Today is my birthday!  And more than that, it’s my 47th birthday.  What does that mean?  Well, it means I’m getting on a bit, I guess.  And it means it’s only three years to 50.  It means I’m closer to 80 than I am to when I was born.  Goodness.

But as regular readers know, 47 is my favorite number.  Even if I don’t think it’s really all that important, I’ve decided to celebrate it a bit, and one of the small ways is to write this post.  Looking at the last year–June 7, 2016 until today–what have been some of the great things?  Some of the things I’ve really enjoyed or appreciated or been grateful for?

Funny Things My Daughter Says (#8)

An oldie but a goodie from many years ago, that I haven’t shared on this blog before…

When my oldest daughter was only about four years old, my family visited a modern art museum in upstate New York.  It wasn’t really our cup of tea.  Certainly, there were pieces that we appreciated, and perhaps more for me than my wife, but there were also plenty that we just had a hard time understanding where the artist was coming from.

And maybe it’s also that we just didn’t want to go to the bother of understanding where the artist was coming from. 

Bridgeport ComiConn 2014 – Non-Buyer’s Remorse

One of the highlights of my trip to New York recently (aside from, you know, family, friends and Niagara Falls) was getting to the Bridgeport ComiConn. I didn’t go because I have any particular connection to Bridgeport or Connecticut, but simply because it was not too far away for me, and I wanted to take the opportunity to go to a comic book / science fiction event of some sort that had more than two comic book people that I am familiar with (which is sort of standard for the events that come to Perth each year). It was good fun, all the more so because I was more-or-less at the last moment accompanied by my friend and former workmate Jane.

Culling the Comic Collection / Batman Stories You Probably Haven’t Heard Of

I’ve only recently returned from a trip to New York, which meant that I’ve been spending time with my parents, visiting friends, stomping around the old stomping grounds (always stomping this way and that, waking up the neighbors with all that noisy stomping) and of course…

Going through my old comic collection that my parents have generously not tossed into the trash.

Doctor Who World Tour: A Disappointment, but not a Tragedy

As I’ve written somewhere before, thanks to the celebrated Doctor Who World Tour, my favorite TV show is coming to New York this month…

I am in New York this month!

And yet, I won’t have anything to do with the event, sadly.

Doctor Who Coming Soon To…

Have you heard about the Doctor Who World Tour?  It’s a promotion for the upcoming 8th season of the revival series, where incoming Doctor Peter Capaldi and incumbent companion Jenna Coleman are going tour the world, literally.  They are visiting seven different cities to talk up the show at some sort of unspecified fan events, accompanied, depending on availability, by showrunner Steven Moffat.

A Marvellous Coincidence

For the past seven years I have been privileged to have J.R. De Ford as a friend and frequent collaborator.  He has starred in, photographed and/or co-directed many of my favorite personal projects, including Stingray, 24 Minutes, No Shame in the Grandma, The Adventures of Captain Strong, and My Mis en Scene is Tingling – all viewable on this site.