CANCER, CONCERNS & CASH - LIFE IN THE SLOW LANE & my FUNNY 'KNOW IT ALL CLUB'

Well it's been a long while since i got back into the Babble with the Rabble of my mindless and mindful thoughts....

well got another emergency call from the General Hospital to attend a meet in 6 hours with the spinal radiation specialist; so, instead of enjoying a moderation of the arctic -30temps that have haunted my outdoor life in Ottawa's Sandy Hill, i had to cancel my ski-out of the day to prep for this meet and jusst went for a one hour hikeAlong the Rideau Riverside.

My thoughts turning to a recent email received from one of my former associates when i produced, cooked for and hosted a Toronto Soup Kitchen at St. George's.

Haven't heard or seen him in a decade or more and receiving his email about his robotic cancer surgery but nothing about how i feel or what state my cancer is at.

Instead he offered his solution which was to write poetry to my Cancer as though it would listen or cause me some relief.

Being an avid lifelong filmaker i sent him my most recent mini-doc called SOLITUDE - shot from my kayak during the water woods of NB i.e. Spring floods produced a 'lakeinthewoods' thus i was able to kayak which a month later would become impossibe since the earth would absorb the water.

It's one of the miracles of daily kayaking most of the year to have this amazing experience. Very meditative and very wonderful kayaking ...... floating thru the woods instead of hiking over them.

To help the viewer experience this meditative miracle i put a Tibetan Bhuddists chant under the image.... and told my former collegue this was my poetry ( he was well aware of my creative filmaking lifestyle . )

Instead of showing any interest in it at all he went into a tirade of ridiculous ways of how to shoot image from my kayak - i would point out that  he's never been in a kayak, never been in NB, never been kayaking in any kind of water source and never shot one inch of film/video footage; thus, he qualifies to be the next PRESIDENT of the KNOWitALL CLUB.

Because the PRESIDENT must know it all and do absolutely nothing about anything....


p.s. i should mention i know or knew many guys those years back who would qualify for the PRESIDENCYof the KNOWitALL club not unlike that idiot who now is President of America .... sad very sad.... he reminded me of the patience I used ot have for such creatures of negativity... and sometimes still tolerate them but not as often mmmm.

IMAGE NEWSPAPER ARTICLE - The Secret of Video Shorts

Synchronicity, Life & Peter Evanchuck

Filmakers Helene Lacelle and Peter Evanchuck are right in the thick of some projects. ( photo by Anthony Knox )

 VIEW : NB FILM CO-OP  ON-LINE ARTICLE

It's rather amazing how Jung’s concept of Synchronicity can affect one’s creative  life  - when I accidentally met Nelson Adams in Fredericton through a friend, I had no idea he would restart my film career since I had long before self terminated it due to the tiresome, annoying control others had of my work. But he did and as they say the rest is my history as once again I’m making films or rather videos. All due to the advent of Nelson and digital technology – now that’s a living example of sychronicity.

Like many independent filmmakers, I've always admired artists who’s work is very personal; from beginning to end, they create it according to their own self-awareness … very admirable indeed thought I.

"I wish filmmaking was like that," I often thought… well with digital it is – no question. We now can personally ‘make a movie’ like an artist ‘makes a painting’ i.e. completely alone using all our talents and skills to arrive at our personal view of the subject through our world experience. Not tainted by the big shots, the boys in the back room, the majors, the broadcasters, etc., etc...

We can arrive at a finished creative piece of ‘art,’ and then screen it on Youtube or Vimeo. This freedom is astounding for me and all independent, highly creative people who dislike to compromise their creations. So for the past few years I’m back at it – making my movies using digital technology.

The second occurrence that shaped my present ‘way’ of looking at movies happened in a manner that could be construed as negative but  I saw it as a positive – a lesson of learning in the modern age. I halted my movie making to review this 21st century way of achieving one’s art. 

We all want to make feature fiction films not shorts, not docs. We want to see our movies in theatres and get the recognition and get big compensation. Well of course that was my folly as well. 

Then through a series of mishaps, I learned that it was shorts and short docs that one can make like an artist, not the big features which depend so much on so many, but videos - short docs were the answer.

When cancer struck me again last summer, I decided to put that theory into practice and make a series of 5 or 6 short docs fast and furious using digital technology. Then while convalescing from surgery and 42 days of radiation, I would use my time completing those shorts while I upgraded my skills using a great professional editing software called FinalCutPro7. 

So far I’ve managed to put 4 shorts ‘in the can’ as we used to say in the film world and have two more to complete. I should mention they are such fun to make… such fun and after all life lived fully is the best life of all.

To view Peter Evanchuck's recent docs called Peter’s shorts please go to: http://www.movieshandmade.com and scroll down to the bottom of our web page where you will see the posters and the links to youtube.

my life has slowed down even more CANCER has returned

Whoever said FREEDOM 55 obviously never had a life before 55 - growing old is no fun for the highly active person who lives life not only fully but often dangerously by the standards of anyone who's says his life begins at 55... anyway, we all have our way of interpreting and understanding our lives and the lives of those who have history and those who have almost non.

Cancer has overtaken my life again after being told i was clear of cancer a couple years ago now i'm told that it has returned and so i'm waiting for surgery to remove the larger tumours and then 42 days of radiation to remove the smaller tumours - meanwhile i'm carrying on like someone who has and believes in the future.

I've returned to volunteering at a local Soup Kitchen after having done cooking/running soup kitchens in Toronto for almost a decade off and on and then easing off to return to renovating, doc. making, book making, curating, and travelling.

my partner and I have a rather full life going from one creative enterprise/event to another over the past years - hard work, hard thinking has as it usually does , paid off so we've advanced our lives and our future by tackling all sorts of creative work.

ok that's an update and now ... while waiting for my surgery dates , i've completed a short doc using that to upgrade my skills in FCPro7 - u can view it on youtube and soon on Vimeo ...

THOSE WERE THE DAYS MY FRIEND

yeah i never thought they would ever end when i was in the thick of it but all things end eventually some last longer than others but i had far more than my 15 minutes - i recall the time i drove to New York to meet up with Andy Warhol at The Factory for a movie I was hoping to make called something like ANDY WARHOL LIVES HERE but these were film days not video days and that meant a ton of heavy cameras and gear in my Pristine Ford van crossing the border when it was normal and easy and fun and driving non stop to N.Y. into lower Manhattan and getting into The Factory but not really meeting ANDY since no one really met him ... he was too too famous

TIFF tiff tiff.... and so it goes

well sad as it is to reveal TIFF is not my thing - from the early years of excitment/energy to the present holywoody commercial BS that causes people to rush around trying to become somebody or something instead of creative creators is rather disapointing and tiresome - too bad - i'm glad i knew it, felt it,saw it, heard it when it was wonderful way back ....

LET ME BABBLE A BIT LIKE A HORSE WITH A BIT

I ONCE again see the CBC teetering on the brink of a steep cliff as long as the Harper and his harpies are at the helm of the Canada BOAT - THAT benchmark of Canadian CULTURE is fat and needs some trimming but with the harpies at the helm it'll be more than trimming it'll be the wrecking ball - once again the Conservative lie their way to success like that last election with robo calls now no longer is the voter able to counter the cheats with Harper's new laws hell lie and cheat his way back into his dictatorship unless we consider our CULTURE important and our peaceKEEPING views from our past that is B.H. ( before Harper ) important enough to get rid of tyrants like Harper and return to excepitionally peaceful leaders after all 'a proof is a proof when it's a proof. ' isn't it JEAN ? He was a good LIBERAL who kept us outta IRAQ's fiasco .... WMDestruction what bullshit?