Posts Tagged ‘justine curgenven’

And as the sparrow sings
Dawn chorus for
Someone else to hear
The thinker sits alone growing older
– d. bowie

So this is what it looks like at 5am, no, 6am here in Madison, Wisconsin.  You are looking across the street from our motel at the Alliant Energy Center where in just a few hours Canoecopia will be opening it’s doors for the last day of the 2010 show. Reports are that visitor numbers have nearly doubled this year over last which made for a lot of warm fuzzy feelings in among the regulars.

And this just in from the rumors department… It seems the owner of Boreal Shores Kayaks in Bayfield ran amok over the winter and bashed out a wall of his shop… (I’m sure Chris will like me describing it that way.   Now everywhere he goes people will be talking about him… “There goes Chris,” they’ll say, “Running Amok.”)   Read the rest of this entry »

Morning all.  Today we’ve got a bit of exciting news and I’m also looking for your thoughts.  First of all my friend Justine Curgenven; filmmaker, adventurer and occasional country chef has just released the preview of her latest DVD called, This  Is Canoeing!  (10,000 canoeists stand up and shout, “IT’S ABOUT FRIGGIN’ TIME!) What’s more, we’ve also.. (I can say “we” for this part…) updated her website at www.CackleTV.com..  Ok, now for the discussion bit…

I expect Justine’s new DVD to sell like mad.  She’s an amazing filmmaker of course, but what really shines through is her personality which simply soaks through every frame.  Personally, I believe she could make a documentary on lake sludge and I’m sure it would still exude excitement and fun.  It’s just what happens when she gets into something and that’s why I’ve been totally in her court for more years than I care to count now.

Now here’s the discussion bit.. How are we all doing with multi-media these days?  Are we video’d out and so far buried in the Youtube glut that we no longer value professional work?  Are we less apt to pay for something we perceive we can get for free elsewhere? Maybe it’s oppositely true that we’re more apt to buy something because all the free junk makes us well aware of the good stuff? Maybe there is still so few of us who live online, that we won’t effect the outcome either way..  What are your thoughts on the state of media today?

Oh, and by the way.. you can pre-order Justine’s new DVD right here on her brand new website… Did I mention that?

It was nice to see Justine again. On Tuesday she flew over from Manchester to Chicago, then hopped in a rental car and drove straight up to Wausau for the Open Boat Nationals that begin tomorrow. On the way she stopped in at the house for a quick chat.  My hope is that we’ll get a chance for another quick chat when I get over to the UK in September.  It’s a very weird thing how we make friends at such distances, stay in touch by email, blog and twitter and then only stand in the same room once or twice a year.  Speaking of distant friends, I’m twisting one distant friends arm to come and paddle a bit of the west coast of Scotland with me. Lord knows he’s done it enough.. Someone’s got to keep the silly mid-westerner safe in those tides!

Many miles away there’s a shadow on a door
Of a cottage by the shore
Of a dark Scottish lake
– the police

A new day, a new bowl of Haggis! Well, something like that anyway.  Thanks to everyone for their emails and encouragements. It’s hard sometimes to translate emotions to print but I’m certainly not down or out. Speaking with Kelly last evening I’m sure he’s more disappointed than I am, at least in the fact that I can still get my stuff together continue my Nessie hunt. The only real change comes in that I have to pick up on some logistics and at this point, maybe even those original plans will still go through. Plus there are lots of good folks around that I’m sure I can pester someone to give me a ride to the water’s edge.

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Inline bowline, inline bowline / Inline bowline, inline bowline
First you tie it around your hand / You showed me so I would understand
It’s the handiest knot, / It wasn’t in the book that I bought
Inline bowline, inline bowline
- bare naked ladies

Justine Curgenven will be here in Wisconsin in just a couple weeks working on her next project… What?  No kayaks?  What’s this?  What’s This? She’s sure been talking about canoes a lot lately.  Well, if you’re looking for canoes, Wisconsin is the place.  Wisconsin after all is Canada’s secret love child.  In fact it wasn’t until 1848 that the US finally accepted responsibly and took us in.  Which was a pretty kind thing for them to do considering our maps & phonebooks are filled with french names and some of us can still recite all  Bare Naked Ladies lyrics by heart. (even those really fast ones)  Anyway, it will be great to see Justine again.. even in canoe…

Islands from the first time we saw
we could wait for this moment, like rocks on the shore
we can never be closer somehow
for the moments that lasts, is this moment now
- mike oldfield

It seems humans were on living on Sardinia since at least 250,000 BC. During the early Neolithic period the Nuragic culture were building conical rock towers called Nuraghi (Nuraghe) throughout the island. By the 8th century BC the Phoenicians made their way to the island and created a base of sorts that connected ports all over the Med. When they arrived they found a mainly agricultural people who were more or less happy to trade and  leave the island’s shoreline and harbors to the Phoenicians. In time the Carthaginians took control. ( I can’t say Carthaginians without visualizing George C. Scott) In time they were defeated by the Romans and on and on it goes until next week when Justine & Barry show up…

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I feel like dancing – in the rain,
All I need is a volunteer
Dancing – what a damn jolly good idea
It’s such a jollification – as a matter of fact, so tres charmant my dear
-queen

When I was a kid Chicago was one of those far off quasi-exotic places. In Chicago there was a big blue ocean, an aquarium, planetarium, museums, giant buildings and all sorts of cool crazy stuff that sparks a small town Wisconsin kids imagination. Of course my parents weren’t the “family vacation” types so it all remained sort of a fantasy destination. Sure, we drove through Chicago,  or around Chicago, got lost in Chicago, cursed Chicago traffic but never actually saw any of the cool stuff. Well, that’s not quite accurate. I can remember having my face plastered to the car window as we drove by the Sears tower on the interstate. . .

I did finally get to see a bit of Chicago when I was a young teenager. My father lived in Zion which is a town north of the city. When I was 13 or 14 I was finally allowed to go down and stay with him for a time. One weekend we took a trip down to the Natural History Museum (which was showing the “King Tut” Exhibition)  & the Planetarium. I was in heaven. Well, I would have been if we’d actually gotten IN the museum.  It was booked to capacity so we stood on the steps and watched the golden “Tut” banners fly in the breeze for a few minutes!  The Planetarium was spectacular to a teenager though. I always remember that sense of my father thinking I was way over-excited and he was essentially board. But hey, you take what you can get. Since then I’ve been to the Windy City quite a few times. I’m not bothered by city traffic and frankly it’s not a complicated task to get around the city. Slow sometimes, but not difficult.

This afternoon we are heading back to the big city. Well, not exactly. We’re heading to a western suburb called St. Charles which is home to Geneva Kayaks and the location of tonight’s premiere of This Is The Sea 4 by Justine Curgenven. At this point I’m beginning to lose count on how many times I’ve actually watched the movie, so I have a feeling I’ll be sitting in the back corner making faces at anyone who happens to look my way. I watched T4 in Israel just last week in fact. Of course there we were sitting outside under star filled skies and caressed by a warm Mediterranean breeze. So you can guess that I’m not really going to  Chicago to see the DVD.

What has me booking a hotel and driving 3 hours each way is simply the opportunity to see distant friends. Justine & Barry of course, Ryan Rushton who owns Geneva Kayaks, the whole crazy Bloyd-Peshkin family, and many others as well. This is why you end up traveling to so many symposiums each year. Paddling is great of course, teaching is a joy as well, but at symposiums you tend to be stuck in one spot and not really seeing much new.  That crosses my mind each year when I think of the cost of attending.  Heck, even as instructors we do end up paying to attend.  The cost of travel, food, lodging, lost work, and such far out weigh the occasional stipend we receive. Yet each time I think I’ll cut down, I think about those people I wouldn’t see for another year or more if I didn’t go. In the end it’s almost impossible to shorten the list. In a way, that’s what is best about Justine’s videos. We get to see new places and share new adventures, but we also get to re-acquaint ourselves with some familiar smiles. It’s a bit like a Christmas family newsletter. . only wetter.