Hasta La Ideas

One of the themes in issue #11 are sharp things and labour-intensive art-making. Here’s a video that exemplifies that theme! {via SwissMiss}

As I was compiling content for the current fall issue, a fishing theme emerged. I was drawn to the creativity of fly fishing and fly tying, the appeal of fisherman and nautically-inspired clothes, the diversity in design of lighthouses, and the authentic stories inspired by river and sea.

We have an article about Clarence Riggs, life-long fisherman from Newfoundland, profiled by writer Martin Connelly and illustrated by Omar Jaramillo Traverso. Omar did his sketches in person while Martin conducted the interview!

An excerpt:

“Clarence Riggs (“Clar” to his friends and “Sir” to me) has had a place up on the Terra Nova River since 1960. Born in Burin, Newfoundland, he moved to Glovertown, jtmarust north of Terra Nova National Park, some years before confederation, before there was a “national” anything in Newfoundland.

The original cabin, a field office bought from a completed government building project, burned down in the late 80s. The cabin we visited one grey Saturday in June was the new one. It’s just a kitchen, split bunk rooms and a porch with “Fish ’n’ Fur” written on a sign hung upside down. But you can tell that it has been home to weeks and weeks of good summer, year after year. 

The walls are lined with plaques poking fun at fishermen—the kind they sell in rural gas stations. “Old fishermen never die,” said one, “they just can’t raise their fishing pole!” On another, with what looked very much like a sketch of the cabin: “There is no place anything like this place, anywhere near this place, so this must be the place.”

We made the trip in an open boat, piloted with causal expertise by Clarence’s son, Phil. While his father had come from elsewhere, the younger Riggs grew up on the Terra Nova; this was home turf.  …”

Martin also filmed and edited this short film of his interview with Mr. Riggs (with a lovely story about meeting his wife for the first time.)

Thank you to all these fine gentlemen for lending their time and talents for this article.

Issue #11’s Beginnings column by Erin Loechner features prolific artist and entrepreneur Dolan Geiman. They’ve scanned the article for their press section, so feel free to read it here.

visit the Etsy shop

instagram pic by Karyn ValinoI’m still waiting for the truck to arrive with my many hundreds of pounds of magazines. But many of the fine stockists have already received their shipments, like the workroom in Toronto. (Thanks, Karyn, for the instagram pic!)

I had planned on taking my own instagram pics and twitter about the new issue but my technology is not cooperating. My iphone has worked a-ok for a couple of years, but this morning I dropped off Glen’s phone at the repair shop (alas, his met its match with a muddy puddle). After exiting the repair shop, I checked my phone for the time and proceeded on my way. Twenty minutes later, I got to my office and tried to use my phone and it doesn’t even turn on! I’ve tried to restart it to no avail. My first thought was that the repair shop is an evil genius that can transmit “no-workie” signals to unsuspecting phones so that they need repair. It had a full charge this morning.

The frustrating thing is that learning from Glen’s unfortunate incident, I was all set to sync my phone on my work computer so that I would have all the videos and pictures of Finley safe and sound. Now what should I do? I don’t want to lose anything! The more I think about the pictures on my phone, the sicker I feel. Anyone have recommendations on recovering an iphone 3G without erasing images?

Looks like I’ll be heading back to the repair shop on my walk home. ugh!!!

So a mere 24 hours ago I was uploading the final print files for Issue #11 and now I am sitting in a hotel in St. Paul, Minnesota, doing my homework for the start of The Creative Connection tomorrow morning. It is kind of hard to adjust my brain, from being so focused on the final and minute details of the magazine to now have to think outwardly and prepare for an event with apparently 700 attendees!

I have enjoyed my jam-packed 10 hours in St. Paul so far: the hotel is beautiful, I met with Sharon Werner of Werner Design Werks (I’ve admired her design work for years!), enjoyed wandering the city for a while (though the wind in bitter cold, which doesn’t help my ringing ears from a head cold + air travel), visited a gallery show of Jennifer Davis and Amy Rice, and to top it off, dinner with Tif and Jessie followed by a nice chat by the fire. (Alas, no hot chocolate, Tif! You’ll have to carry some in a flask.)

I’ve got my big camera and laptop with me, so I’ll blog recaps when I can. But if you want to follow along in real time, I’ll be on @uppercasemag on twitter and instagram sending dispatches from the event.