Roger, there's no one quite like Marie, is there? One of a kind, a most talented, generous, and intelligent kind. I nearly forgot, also a very verbose kind. Smile.

Wonderful paintings Marie, all of them. I've got a challenging artistic idea for you (one which you are no doubt familiar with, but I'll put it to you anyway) which might fetch you some good money if you get it right..how would you paint the idea of abstraction? If you can give a formless idea, a non-generic unique form, I would admire you even more than I do now, which happens to be a lot.

LOL at "Death by chocolate" that looks delicious. Very sugary though, but delicious nonetheless. Maybe I'll make it one day. I've been known to cook up all sorts of confectionery, particularly (wink) brownies and cakes (in the distant past).

How I laughed at that Spamrant cartoon :)

Hey Roger..it began..and then - I can't say the rest without falling into fits of laughter.. :-D

Indian Idiot (H.W.)

Oh BUGGERS!

My computer just crashed! I lost my entire post and it was awesome! It was funny and witty and articulate and... and stuff.

Gee. This sucks! And I'd worked so hard on it, too. I must have spent 2 hours on that post and then POOF. Gone.

It was all about O'Rourkes and smoking girl and that thing Roger does with his face - it's like a tell in poker, an expression he makes whenever he knows he's said something "clever" and how I've got it there in the painting too and everything!

Moreover I said tons of nice stuff about him while implying all sorts of subversive things you'd have to guess at - so it would have been really fun to read, too! But now it's 5 o'clock in the morning and if I don't take my contacts out I'll have to peel them off my eyeballs.

Sigh! Insert shocking stream of profanity.

@ H.W. - "If you can give a formless idea, a non-generic unique form, I would admire you even more than I do now, which happens to be a lot."

Oh that's easy! Make it out of light.

Here's a mock-up of my idea for an imaginary entry to La Biennale di Venezia - I call it "La Serenissima". It's made entirely out of actual twilight streaming through windows and into a room filled with water, passing through suspended stars made of glass which sway gently in the breeze, painting the room as they dance with brilliant shifting colors and hues, coloring the very air around you... so it feels like your standing inside a dream and gazing out from it at the world as Twilight literally falls all around you, and then vanishes like magic...

http://www3.telus.net/thiliasspace/Marie/jpegs/mylightart.jpg

How you feel is the exhibit. For the exhibit is "La Serenissima" and it's not a place it's a feeling about it.

How stoned is that, eh?!

Anyhoo, I'm barely able to keep my eyes open and so I'll have to come back later and thank Roger properly and bug him about where he's planning to hang the painting. Smile.

P.S. if you'd be willing to re-watch Harold and Maude, I'd do a painting of Venice for you. :)

Ebert: You of all people should keep copies.

Interesting painting. It was before Ton Wolfe started wearing all white and those dandyesque suits.

Oh, and the guy on the left looks like a composite of Leonard Cohen and Jon Hamm.

You've not changed a wit.

Hello Roger,

Having never read your blog myself, I feel like I know your inner workings through Marie. I first met Marie one September morning as we began Grade 7.

I am the proud owner of both those Italian landscapes you posted on your blog. The Tuscan hilltop vineyard is the monestary of Saint Antimo just outside the famous Montalcino wine region. I was visiting the area and was so taken by it's beauty that I had to have a permanent memory. I took a series of pictures and sent them to Marie for her to work her magic. That painting framed is 2 meters long. It is the show piece of my Marie Haws collection.
Marie is not only an amazingly talented artist, she's an even more amazing friend.

May your painting bring you as much joy as the many paintings Marie has done for me over the years.

All the best
Marta Chiavacci

Ebert: You have excellent taste! Now now be a stranger on my blog.

Note: I’m writing this in Word. :)

I love that we’ve discovered the name of mystery guy; it’s D*ck Flynn! For how perfect is that?! Was there ever a name more ironic and thus better suited to be in a painting showing Roger Ebert at O’Rourke’s - than one shared in the blog the very same week he runs a “limerick contest”?

Smile.

I regard it as confirmation from the Gods that indeed, everything is connected. And as noted, it all started with a journal entry and Roger’s memories of a pub in the dodgy part of Chicago, a place no longer there but when it was, of questionable repute; an Irish pub called O’Rourke’s.

I just want to be comfortable, you know? I just want to sit down, enjoy a Kilkenny, chat with friends, maybe play a few rounds and pretend I don’t suck at pool, while catching a nice buzz. I don’t want to have to worry about how to pay a fancy coverage charge (insert really bad word!) or navigating past stupid yuppies to reach the bar - none of that crap. And the very week Roger posted his journal entry about O’Rourke’s, was the same week “I” discovered the fate of my favorite watering hole: the “Irish Heather”.

They’d moved across the street. Seems required upgrades to the building had forced the owner to choose the lesser of two evils: close his business for one year, or move. And this is partly what was lost because of it: the back room conservatory: photo by Stephen Dyrgas….

http://www3.telus.net/thiliasspace/Marie/jpegs/irish_heather.jpg

Arguably THE most perfect spot to drink in Vancouver. An alley runs behind the pub and covered in red bricks. They’d simply enclosed part of it to make an extra seating area. God, how I loved that place.

So I was in full empathy mode, when Roger heaved a wistful sigh as he recollected the passing of one his favorite places, too! That’s how I could relate even though I’d never been there. I knew O’Rourke’s because I’d known the Heather. It too, was also in the dodgy part of town; smile.

For that reason, my emotional attachment to the place was immediate - and then I saw Jack Lane’s photographs! And suddenly, my next painting! But I needed better reference, which is how I got a hold of Jack’s B/W photos; I pestered Roger and he sent me some. And when I saw the alternate shot of him with Tom Wolfe... BINGO!

Two guys in the middle of a conversation we can’t hear, flanked either side by mysteries for being equally as ignorant of what they were thinking, too.

Why does anyone go to a pub? To drink? I suppose, but not me. I think it's where you go to drink a “conversation” too! And what’s better than a conversation you can custom tailor - for never knowing what was actually being said? It’s a blank page on which the viewer can write whatever they want! You can imagine all sorts of things!

They could have been plotting a murder.

What?! Don’t look at me like that - it’s Chicago. And two writers are in a bar. Enough said. :)

And so I loved that shot. It was sublime. Although... true; it does look like Roger’s groping himself in the photo, but I took care of that and changed it for the painting. And I dropped Flynn’s hand as well – as it kinda looks like he’s trying to punch Tom Wolfe in the jaw. But all minor stuff and easily dealt with.

It took longer to paint than I’d planned – chasing the rent can be distracting – but I eventually finished it. Actually, Roger got to see it as a work in progress. I was sending him photos in cyber dispatches while bugging him about the spam filter and stuff. So he knew weeks in advance how things were coming along.

And then the day finally arrived when it was dry and ready to go to Chicago. I couldn’t afford the shipping and so he actually picked up the tab for his own present! How nice was that, eh? (As he didn’t make me feel like a cheap basterd; chuckle!)

What?! I have to pay the postage on my own GIFT?! Jeeesh, and that’s so typically Canadian, I swear, you people...”

Smile; instead he just told me how much he loved it and Chaz too.

And there you have it; that’s the story of the painting and how it came to be. I love O’Rourke’s vicariously so. I love how Roger’s memories of the place, feel. I love the conversations I get to imagine and the ongoing mystery of smoking girl and that Flynn’s name sounds the way it does. And that right now, my painting is inside Roger Ebert’s house; the same critic who didn’t like Harold and Maude.

What’s that got to do with anything..?

Rubbing hands together with a glee. (Or maybe I’m just f-cking with ya; laugh!)

One thing however is not in doubt; how sincerely flattered I was by this. It caught me totally by surprise when you suddenly asked for a few pictures and my death by chocolate recipe! I thought you’d just show the painting to Chaz and the kids, maybe Tom Wolfe and there you go! Note: that’s why it took me so long to write that post, the one I’d lost; I was actually at a loss for words!

A rare moment that and I’ve moved past it now, as you can see. :)

@ Roger wrote: “I informed Marie that the ghosts of the O'Rourke's Crowd still haunt the Old Town Ale House to this day. The owner is Bruce Elliott, a regular in those days. Marie, who loves Venice, might agree that a master of the Italian Renaissance would have been drawn to the same subject, albeit expressed in a somewhat different style, in Bruce's own painting "The Strip-Searching of Rod Blagojevich."

Oh absolutely. Without a doubt. Those dudes totally loved a bit of unpleasant business. Caravaggio for example, would have done a lovely job of it. Or whoever painted the rape of the Sabines. A strip search would have been a walk in park, chuckle!

@ Marta Chiavacci wrote - "Marie is not only an amazingly talented artist, she's an even more amazing friend."

Awww! What a nice thing to say, Marta! But I’m still gonna tease you about wearing FIVE inch heels. As that’s insane and what real friends would do.

Roger? Marta gave me my very first Bialetti! Her parents moved to Canada in the 50’s from Lucca, near Florence. And several years ago, Marta ironically moved to Lucca to live there! She fell in love with her second cousin, whose got a house near the medieval city. She kept her place in Vancouver though and routinely travels back and forth; currently, she’s in town. And get this – Marta Chiavacci, a female born in Canada, moves to Italy, studies wine and ends up beating all the guys and becoming FISAR’s sommelier of the year in 2007.

That’s right – I know an award-winning Sommelier. The girl I met in grade 7. Naturally, Marta gets to pick the wine whenever we go out to dinner, as otherwise, I buy wine based on how well designed the labels are. At the moment, she’s in the process of setting up her own wine business; guided tours of vineyards with a sommelier.

Marta’s interesting to know in her own right, but as a relocated Canadian, I get a close-up view of another country now too, through her dispatches about daily life in Italy. The truth of things. It’s like having my very own reporter on the ground! And the story of how she got a driver’s license in Italy, is a thing to behold. It takes days to tell, as it’s that serpentine a journey through their bureaucracy. Chuckle!

And now you’ve got one of my painting’s too, joining the club with Marta.

Awesome.

P.S. now watch, I’ll die and suddenly those paintings will be worth a fortune!

By God, that cake looks astonishing.

I discovered the many talents of Marie while perusing the Buffyworld forum!
Although I felt I was a bit long in the tooth to be a Buffy fan I was never-the- less hooked on that show. I found it to be incredibly artistic and unique. I was so disappointed to find that most of the people who posted were less than interesting. Then I discovered a post by Marie! Finally someone who not only viewed the show similarly to myself but could express her views so clearly! What an imagination and unusual writing style she has! So vivid, her posts have life!
We have remained friends over the years although Marie is in Vancouver and I am in Ontario.
The wonderful thing about the internet is that you can make friends from the inside out rather than the outside in!
I studied and worked in art for years and when Marie sent me examples of her work I was immensely impressed by her artistic talent. Her style is quite unique, beautiful colours! She deserves recognition and I am delighted to see you showing appreciation Roger!

@ Paul Arrand Rodgers wrote:

"By God, that cake looks astonishing."

Speaking for myself, I consider it tangible proof in the existence of one. :)

Imagine if a bitter sweet chocolate truffle were a cake with raspberries at the center of it.

Note: this is why I'm always amused whenever a fight breaks out inside a thread about Religion as clearly, all the evidence you could ever need is sitting right there.

Gee, Whiz, Marie, that's just wonderful.

I looked at the pic awhile before I read the words, wondering "what is Roger Ebert doing on the back of an original edition Kerouac novel???"

No dying young for you, artiste. XOXOXOXOX

Those cake photos should come with a warning: Not suitable for pre-lunchtime viewing.

(salivates madly)

I love the term "newspaper man".

The compleat artist can report, express, emphasize, embellish while obtaining a closer truth, animate lifeless materials, sound a clear tone, simulate cacophony, soothe, excite, embrace, endear. Marie, hearty congratulations for your demonstrations of compleatness.

@ Scorp wrote - "I discovered the many talents of Marie while perusing the Buffyworld forum!"

Hi Anne Robertson of Ontario, Canada! (Smile)

Me and Anne do indeed go back a ways! We've been pen pals now for over 13 years. Never met. But we share a mutual understanding, birds of a feather and all that. Besides, she's the one who told me about "Dexter" and encouraged me to watch - that alone endears her to me, if nothing else. :)

As noted, Anne is also an artist. I like to share one of her drawings with you - I think it's charming and delicate and it reminds me of how artists used to draw:

http://www3.telus.net/thiliasspace/Marie/jpegs/anne_drawing.jpg

She was a genuine bohemian; played music in Toronto coffee houses, back in the day. She's got some stories; smile. Recently she battled ocular cancer - yup, an artist with cancer in one of her eyes. I thought she was extraordinarily brave; lucky too. A Canadian - so ALL the medical treatments including trips to and from the hospital, were covered. (But that's another thread, I know.)

Point is, I don't think I did anything special and yet here I am, on the receiving end of some really flattering attention - which is more humbling than anything else, and it makes me want to share that light with some of my fellow brethren. As unless it's on an arrest warrant or an overdue bill, it's always fun to see your name in print! :)

My friend Diane Kremmer lives a life most artists can only dream of. Happily settled with her partner Dave Fox, they live in a house well away from neighbours, surrounded by old forests on Pender Island, just off the coast of British Columbia. To reach them you have to take a Ferry! That alone making a visit an adventure!

Life on a West Coast island has it challenges, which includes storms, broken septic tanks and water heaters that need replacing. But the perks more than make up for it; there's no city lights for starters. So at night the stars appear and so close to earth you can touch them. And you can see Rings of Saturn clearly, even through a modest telescope. I'll always remember that, and how to this day it reminds me of when Jodie Foster touched space with her finger tip in "Contact" and it rippled.

When my kitty died, I took some her remains to Pender Island and buried them as twilight fell over Diane's garden and next to the grave where their own cat lay; death by feline AIDS, the cause.

I'd gone beforehand to a dollar store and purchased a super-trippy psychedelic piggy bank from China in the shape of a cat wearing a hat and turned that into a urn - awesome! - and then we taped balloons to it and blew up more and grabbed Karma bells and apple cider and, well, take a look for yourself...

http://www3.telus.net/thiliasspace/Marie/jpegs/urnwake.jpg

Good times. :)

And that being the case, knowing we sat there drunk beneath a sky loaded with stars and popped balloons and rang bells and bid farewell to my cat - whom we hoped would join the hers and together as ghost kitties, haunt the garden under the cover of darkness - it should come as no surprise then that Diane collects dead things.

No, wait, hear me out! It's perfectly normal, I swear! :)

Diane collects the remnants of birds and beetles and mice. Tiny bones and skulls. Feathers are good too. Oh, and she once found a dead owl! That was cool... until he got stinky.

You have to see how stuff is "put together" if you really want to draw it. All the great artists used to do that moreover; many a covert trip was made down to the morgue.

Note: Diane & Dave rescued a pair of cats from a shelter not too long ago - Newmar and Sagan. They named them after Julie Newmar (Batman's Catwoman) and Carl Sagan. And apparently, they like dead things too.

A recent dispatch from Diane: the body count

"Newmar: moths, spiders (and I mean the big kind), frog, bird."

"Sagan: pine cone, apple, dog fur ball, snail and worms. (I think we're up to 7 right now)"

"The moths were the first things to be brought home and which we praised them for but the praise soon stopped when the spiders, frogs and birds entered the picture."

So you see, it's not like she's dropping dead things into a pot and making a stew or anything; smile. Basically, we both love Edward Gorey and Tim Burton and Grimm's Fairy Tales - all that is gleeful and macabre. (Oh, and Diane's Parents are Germans - but I'm sure that means nothing.)

Either way, the end result, Diane's website:

http://www.dianekremmer.com/

Pretty impressive, eh?

And so as nice as it is to hear my work praised by Roger, I'm always thinking to myself, "ah, yes, but have you seen these guys..?"

Mind you, we're always finding more to praise in someone else's work. She saw Roger's drawings at Flickr (I gave her the link) and she made all the same noises I did when I first saw them.

"Did you see his Loosey goosey?!"
"Yes! Those are amazing! I had no idea he drew.."
"I know! I had to bug him to show me stuff, Kremmer..."

Smile.

And so Roger goes "look at Marie's stuff.."
And Marie goes "Look at Roger's stuff.."

Until everything takes on a life of its own, the work getting passed from artist to artist and finally we're all just staring at one another's work and thinking: "you talented basterd."

And that's the moment when you know you're in good company. :)

That Killer Chocolate Cake of yours is to die for. The recipe was the last thing my poor old printer was able to do before gasping its last breath. It was a noble task.

Marie,
If I wasn't running a race tomorrow morning after playing a gig tonight, I'd attempt the cake tomorrow morning. Do I remember correctly that you compose music on an autoharp?
I can get you a few gigs if you are ever in the neighborhood.
You are very talented.
David

The old Irish Heather! Funny to find here a fellow Vancouverite who appreciates what was the best hidden gem in town. They moved about 2 years ago--the lovely Gastown building they were in was riddled with problems. Too bad, because it's just not the same now.

@ alice wrote -

"The old Irish Heather! Funny to find here a fellow Vancouverite who appreciates what was the best hidden gem in town. They moved about 2 years ago--the lovely Gastown building they were in was riddled with problems. Too bad, because it's just not the same now."

Greetings fellow West Coaster; smile.

Yeah, when the Irish Heather relocated literally across the street, it left too much of its soul behind for me. I mean, there's a chandelier hanging overhead in the new place. Good grief, Charlie Brown, what the f*ck is that! :)

Did you know that the Irish Heather Pub was originally the very first police station in Vancouver? And it was also haunted??

Yup! Seems customers reportedly heard the sounds of clattering chains and slamming cell doors in the washrooms. It was smack dab in the middle of spook central!

"Before it moved across the street on account of the building renovations work, the popular Irish Heather pub was located here for many years (at 217 Carrall Street). Part of its ambiance in this location was that it occupied the same unit as the old jailhouse, right next to the cobble stoned courtyard where the hangman's scaffold once stood. There, in the 1800's, over 40 people were publicly executed." - Ghosts of Old Vancouver

http://ghostsofvancouver.com/gaolers_mews.htm

And I loved it, dammit! I loved every spooky inch of it, all the chips and cracks and uneven red bricks in back, oh, but how I loved the old Heather; huge, long melodramatic sigh!

Smile.

As for Gaoler's Mews and the site of the Old Heather, it was never about saving Historical buildings. Not in imo. For at last report, construction will add 30 commercial live-work units, to the area. The minute we got the 2010 Olympics, Gastown's fate was sealed. I knew they'd slip in under the cloak of whatever pretext and start "cleaning up the place" and in doing so, rip its soul out.

I hate yuppies! I hate condo owners! You're worse that the SPAM FILTER!

(Making self-indulgent snarky noises.)

Clearly, I could rant pointlessly about this topic all day. :)

@ Rosie wrote:

"That Killer Chocolate Cake of yours is to die for. The recipe was the last thing my poor old printer was able to do before gasping its last breath. It was a noble task."

It's a $20.00 cake. I felt I had a moral duty to explain how not to mess it up. :)

Note: it did NOT escape my notice that Roger "teased me" about the length of said recipe ala his little quip about Julia Child.

Bake a cake, cut it perfectly in half, spread some raspberry jam in the middle, replace the top, pour melted chocolate over everything, done. There! And good luck to all who didn't think they'd need a longer set of directions.

Chuckle!

It's not a hard cake to make, if you read the directions ahead of time. :)

@ Gary in Phoenix wrote -

"The complete artist can report, express, emphasize, embellish while obtaining a closer truth, animate lifeless materials, sound a clear tone, simulate cacophony, soothe, excite, embrace, endear. Marie, hearty congratulations for your demonstrations of completeness."

Wow. Thanks! And to think I used to call that "jack of all trades." I like your way, better: "I" am a complete artist.

That doesn't sound too pretentious though, does it? Ooo, that reminds me!

Animation is a genre of film and television. And I used to work in both at various studios in Vancouver; ie: hand-inking cells and painting backgrounds. I was never an "animator" - those are the guys who draw incremental movement, frame by frame. I needed to mention that in the blog, and again, because it's the difference between being a lowly actor and a director; same industry, different job, and I don't want anyone to poke me for thinking I'm putting on airs. :)

And now that my @ss is covered...

I have seen Chasing Amy. And inkers are not tracers.

Oh, Marie, I needed the extended version! There are certain communities pocketed throughout New England where the words “I’ll bring the dessert” leaving my mouth have struck horror in the hearts of conscientious hostesses causing them to secretly draft others into that service. I find I have a tendency to leave out important ingredients – like shortening, for instance. I made (and then optimistically brought with me to an afternoon picnic) a shoofly pie, which would have better served as a tool for a wrecking crew. And then there was that unfortunate cobbler. I keep hoping (and you would think by now I would know better) if I could just get the right recipe... When I told members of my family that I had found THE chocolate cake, their response was an immediate “PLEASE just send us the recipe, we will make it.” (Well!) I remain, however, hopeful and stubborn (and short one printer).

Yours in baking,
Rosie

@ Rosie wrote - "When I told members of my family that I had found THE chocolate cake, their response was an immediate “PLEASE just send us the recipe, we will make it.” (Well!) I remain, however, hopeful and stubborn (and short one printer)."

Awesome! Let me know how it goes for you - and maybe take a picture? The spam filter loves photo links; smile.

And New England! Hello neighbour sharing a common border. You guys get some beautiful fall trees out there! I've seen pictures! But what I really love.. is Maine Lobster. OMG.

Drool.

For whatever reason, my ex-husband is still a good friend and, since he is also the father of my two children, he shares in all of our family celebrations. He is also a fearless and capable baker. This Christmas he graced us with your Killer Chocolate Cake (said he just couldn't resist giving it a try). It is without parallel! Delicious! I would have sent a picture but all thoughts besides where are the dessert plates were forgotten as we gazed at its glory.

Rosie

PS: My years in New England (I now live in Pennsylvania) made me a firm believer in Maine lobster. It is my hope that all pictures of me with butter dripping off my elbows have been destroyed.

Have a wonderful 2010, Marie!

Hi Rosie!

I just saw this now - 6 weeks late! If you're still around, hopefully you'll come to read this, for I'm delighted to hear the cake turned out!

I proves that sometimes it's "good" to be long-winded when giving instructions. :)

The fact you devoured it too fast to take a photo, is high praise indeed for my recipe. I'm only sorry Roger can't eat it too.

Although... if he's on a liquid diet, chocolate can be a liquid, eh? I'm sure there must be a way to get some chocolate in Roger.

Off to Google this...

I am thinking a nice chocolate shake for our favorite two thumbs up guy, what? Soft serve chocolate ice cream and lots of chocolate syrup...put some meat on his bones. Chocolate is the best in ANY form, right??

Hey! Are you folks in Canada sending all this cold air to the Northeast. Freezing to death here...

Rosie

They say the camera doesn't lie, but somehow the painting seems to me truer than the photo. Marie, beautiful work. Roger -- thanks for sharing it with us!

Again, people react to what's in front of them.
Anomalies react to what is never in front of them, as in seeing the left hand of the male standing off to the left of your GF. Any woman having a hand that big would more likely be a hooker in Los Angeles -quite likely a man. In any case, what kind of guy would not wrap his arm around a smoke'n woman?