COLLECTED TONES

The 'Collected Tones' exhibition went well on wednesday evening. Mara and I spent some time figuring out technical stuff like streaming live video into the gallery space and getting projectors set up. I added the sound for the evening with some improvised twinkles and rumbles. It was a fun night and also fun to see everyone's reaction to an atypical exhibition space. Visitors entered the gallery and then found me playing music with a couple of projections on the wall: a slideshow featuring the titles of Mara's eight works, and the live 'surveillance' video of her studio down the hall, which had all of her artwork on display, mainly the 'Deep Storage Banff' installation containing photos of all her work. Check it out! 

Last night was Valentines Day and we had a great dinner in Canmore at Crazyweed. On the way home it was so clear that we decided to make a side-trip to Lake Minnewanka and check out the immense starlight sky. It was really amazing. Then we saw a coyote just trotting down the road and later a giant Elk bull right in the middle of Banff, casually licking some drainage grate. How nice!

Lots of photos below. I got Mara a grizzly teddy bear!

 

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bustling NORDEGG

This past Sunday Mara, Virgilio, and myself got into the car and drove north (after driving south accidentally) for 2 1/2 hours to Nordegg, Alberta. It was an amazing drive on the Icefields Parkway just outside of the Rocky Mountains to the slightly abandoned town of Nordegg. Originally a coal mine town for the railroad, We first only met one person, the pastor of the community church who was closing up shop when we arrived. He gave us a little history, mostly of the church and his schedule there, and mentioned we might be able to walk up and see the mine. We trudged through the snow and got pretty cold and wet, but luckily the sun was shining that day and it wasn't half-bad! Weird animal sounds in the woods, hidden train track that we followed, empty sheds by a creek, elk beds, random pipes laying around, and mysterious paw prints in the snow made for a funky jam session. Oh yeah, on the way we made a few small stops and got to watch some big horn sheep snack on some grass in a field. Lakes of ice are incredible and the mountains just always impress here.
    After our little wander through the woods around Nordegg, we got back into the "town" and explored some of the empty buildings left in the old townsite. One of the best parts of the little trip was going to the restaurant at the town lodge on our way out. Such a typical isolated town cafe with an old pump organ, really old pictures on the walls, YA KNOW. Of course we had to inject a little twin peaks into the day so we had some hot pie for dessert. CHECK OUT SOME PICTURES