yyt

am listening to a certain week-end am morning programme from the regional service of a coast to coast to coast broadcaster. not sure why as while the programme is supposedly about the local arts scene most of the music – and there is a lot – is off island. the standard format is one interview then 10 minutes of music but since three hours have to be filled, instead of going into more depth with the interviews, the host plays more music.

so here i am listening and my ears perk up as the host is going to interview a photographer who is documenting fort pickering/pleasantville before it is turned into condos. hold out no hope though when the interview starts. the first thing is – of course – the camera. she mentions that it is something that looks ancient with bellows and wood, something that hasn’t been seen in a century.

the photographer follows suit and talks about the camera for a good five minutes – it isn’t in fact old at all, it is made by wisner who is a harpsicord builder, who bla bla bla.

i may have zoned out but don’t remember any description of the snaps at all, except they are in colour and one was sold to THE ROOMS. i know that they are based in some sort of personal history – some yank ancestor was at fort pickering during the second war, when newfoundland was a republic.

didn’t hold out too much hope as the local presenter was given a national programme during the summer holidays in which she would interview artists from coast to coast to coast but instead of asking anything about the work and why it was made, she decided to find the wacky and accentuate it.

one person dresses in the clothes of people she is interested in so what does this presenter do? she doesn’t go into why the artist does it or how she is turning what was an interesting idea into pastiche by doing the same – and doing it on the highly visual medium of radio.

the programme – which i only hope was canned – only reinforced the public’s view of artists as those wacky characters doing wacky things.

i was thinking of taking the deardorff up north again – it is this strange nostalgia for 2005 and the manner of printing large format negatives even though yesterday i was pulling my remaining hair out trying to get a decent print – but fearing running into her and one cannot help it as she is constantly on the prowl for spots to fill up the six hours every weekend, am sticking less conspicuous modes of photography.

am surprised she hasn’t hit on the macadamia nutted swiss cheese head playing in the tidal pools along cape st. francis as she would be perfect. she could talk about the underwater camera and the fixation on tidal pools. they should have cross paths by now.