Barrytown makes movies. This is what we do.

Barrytown has been enjoying this website tonight.

(Via Dinosaur Comics)

Filed under: Barrytown, Movies , Movies, web

Christmas Trees

The Christmas Tree at Barrytown was also a bit like White Ninja’s. Sad.

Filed under: Barrytown, Web Comics , Barrytown, christmas, christmas tree, whiteninja

Movie Magic

That’s, uh, no. Non-negotiable. How will we know you’re sad if you don’t say, “I am so sad”?

I’d, act it. But…

Naw, that’s stupid.

The trailer for the movie my roommates were writing last winter, filming this summer and now working to finish, is online. It’s called Jeff is Dead. Also have a look at other movie projects on the go at Forgotten Studios.

Filed under: Barrytown, Movies , Barrytown, film, Movies, movietrailer, roommates

Dishes

I don’t really think my housemates have gone bad, but this does apply to Barrytown right now.

When housemates go bad.

(Via indexed.)

Filed under: Barrytown

Photographs

I put a few photographs from the last couple months up at my Flickr. Since it’s summer, there’s lots to be documenting these days. And yes, that would be the right term to use for what I do. I want to be documenting the life of my friends and I during these days.

For that purpose, I’ve also ordered this camera, hoping that I’ll keep it with me more often and get more shots that I wouldn’t have gotten because I didn’t want to take my SLR with me.

Filed under: Barrytown

From a conversation the other day

jaywalk |ˈjāˌwôk|verb [ intrans. ]
cross or walk in the street or road unlawfully or without regard forapproaching traffic.

DERIVATIVES
jaywalker |ˈdʒeɪˈwɔkər| noun

ORIGIN
early 20th cent.: from jay in the colloquial sense [silly person]+ walk.

tomfoolery |tämˈfoōl(ə)rē|noun
foolish or silly behavior : he was no longer amused by Ozzie’s youthful tomfoolery.

Tom
familiar shortening of masc. proper name Thomas, used by 1377 as a type of a nickname for a common man. Applied 17c. as a nickname for several exceptionally large bells. Short for Uncle Tom in the sense of “black man regarded as too servile to whites” is recorded from 1959. Tom Walker, U.S. Southern colloquial for “the devil” is recorded from 1833. Tom and Jerry is first attested 1828 in many extended senses, originally the names of the two chief characters (Corinthian Tom and Jerry Hawthorn) in Pierce Egan’s “Life in London” (1821); the U.S. cat and mouse cartoon characters debuted 1940 in “Puss Gets the Boot.” Tom Thumb (1579) was a miniature man in popular tradition before P.T. Barnum took the name for a dwarf he exhibited.

fool
c.1275, from O.Fr. fol “madman, insane person,” also an adj. meaning “mad, insane,” from L. follis “bellows, leather bag,” in V.L. used with a sense of “windbag, empty-headed person” (see follicle). Cf. also Skt. vatula- “insane,” lit. “windy, inflated with wind.”
“The word has in mod.Eng. a much stronger sense than it had at an earlier period; it has now an implication of insulting contempt which does not in the same degree belong to any of its synonyms, or to the derivative foolish.” [OED]
Meaning “jester, court clown” first attested 1370, though it is not always possible to tell whether the reference is to a professional entertainer or an amusing lunatic on the payroll. As the name of a kind of custard dish, it is attested from 1598 (the food was also called trifle, which may be the source of the name). The verb meaning “to make a fool of” is recorded from 1596. Feast of Fools (c.1320), from M.L. festum stultorum) refers to the burlesque festival celebrated in some churches on New Year’s Day in medieval times. Fool’s gold “iron pyrite” is from 1882. Fool’s paradise “state of illusory happiness” is from 1462. Fool around is 1875 in the sense of “pass time idly,” 1970s in sense of “have sexual adventures.” Foolosopher, a most useful insult, turns up in a 1549 translation of Erasmus.

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Narrowness of our geographical lives

From Theory of the Dérive:

In his study Paris et líagglomération parisienne (BibliothËque de Sociologie Contemporaine, P.U.F., 1952) Chombart de Lauwe notes that “an urban neighborhood is determined not only by geographical and economic factors, but also by the image that its inhabitants and those of other neighborhoods have of it.î In the same work, in order to illustrate “the narrowness of the real Paris in which each individual lives . . . within a geographical area whose radius is extremely small,î he diagrams all the movements made in the space of one year by a student living in the 16th Arrondissement. Her itinerary forms a small triangle with no significant deviations, the three apexes of which are the School of Political Sciences, her residence and that of her piano teacher.

Filed under: Barrytown

Word of the Week

Quixotism is the description of a person or an act that is caught up in the romance of noble deeds and the pursuit of unreachable goals. It also serves to describe an idealism without regard to practicality. An impulsive person or act can be regarded as quixotic.

Quixotism is usually related to “over-idealism”, meaning an idealism that doesn’t take the consequences into account. It is also related to naïve romanticism and to utopianism.

 See also, Quixotic. Get Fuzzy. My girlfriend’s school project on Don Quixote.

Filed under: Barrytown

It took me back

Seeing sun dogs today on the way into work took me back to about 1990 with the sun low in the southern sky during the darkest days of winter, my dad driving my brother and I back to school after a lunch of macaroni and cheese. In the middle of my elementary school years, still a year or two removed from the closure of that ancient prairie sandstone school, the cold so bitter that a blanket, a block-heater, a couple hours and a foot careful to provide just the right amount of gas was needed to get the car started that morning. Pulling up with the school standing tall to our right, the humidity and ice crystals in the air provided the perfect conditions to see the sun on our left, just over the oak trees across the street, shining through the haze, and to its left and right, imitations of the sun shining just a few degrees less bright and less distinct.

The ones I saw today were a pale comparison to those of my childhood, but still took me back.

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2 things have struck me

Regarding a quick visit to the Environment Canada website to check the weather for Calgary.

1. They redesigned the website and it looks really good. It’s a nice, simple, modern page now. As opposed to the pre-21st century version they used to have.
2. Wow, it’s going to be cold next week. I better invest in mittens that don’t have holes in the palms.

Filed under: Barrytown