East Van Culture Crawl 2024

 Last month, I participated in the East Van Culture Crawl. It is a four day event where studio artists open up their space to the public. 

I debuted the sale of my paper mache creations, under the banner of "Three Circles Pottery and Paper".

I did sell a few things, came close to breaking even on the registration cost (if I am careful about what costs I count). I got a commission from a good friend of mine, John, for two more rainbow poppy vases and I think they turned out well. He bought the first one I made at the event. 

I put together a playlist for the event, available at YouTube Music. It was well received by the other artists in the studio, not sure if it made the visitors more comfortable. 

If you want more of my YouTube Music playlists (they are awesome) I am @brianwetton4068 on that platform. You can also see more of my craft adventures here. 

Whistler Weekend November 2024

Veronica booked us for a couple of days at Whistler, a mountain resort town near Vancouver. There is skiing in the Winter and Hiking, Golf, and Cycling in the Summer, but we are in between seasons. The weather cooperated this morning and we went on a walk around Alta Lake. This was a nice chance to get away from everything, I really enjoyed the break from the routine. First stretch of the walk was around the golf course.

Then it was around Alta Lake

Some beautiful vacation homes to see along the way.

I had minor envy, but I never did make the financial moves to end up affording something in that price range. I do have a three story, rustic place in the forest in a more dangerous part of town (in the Black Forest, in the game, Valheim):

I have a new page for my craft studio work

I have enough craft creations that I am trying to sell some of them, and now have a web page to advertise them: https://sites.google.com/view/3cpp. I am participating in the East Vancouver culture crawl November 14-17, details on the events tab of that new site. 

My father, Anthony Brittain Robinson, died last month

He was 97 years old, and in good mental and physical condition until the last few days he spent in the hospital after collapsing at his retirement home. There is an obituary for him on a web site hosted by the funeral home that handled his cremation:

https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/burnaby-bc/anthony-robinson-11985574 

My parents separated when I was four years old and later divorced. My mother went back to her maiden name and took me with her, which is why I am now a Wetton although I was born a Robinson. My father stayed a committed parent and took me for every holiday from then on. I got to see the province as I came to visit at the places his career as a professional forester took him. There are a lot of things to admire about my Dad. He had a successful career and really cared about the people that worked for him. He designed and built a cabin on Babine Lake (that is still standing). He was a real gentleman and I have had many kind words about him from his friends and the staff at his retirement home. My wife and I got to know the old man version of him well when he lived with us through COVID. He will be missed. 

These are pictures I took of him at his home in Kamloops just before he moved down to Vancouver. They were publicity shots for his books, still available (I think) on Amazon. 

Bulgaria Trip Summer 2024

My wife emigrated from Bulgaria in the 90's and still has connections and a family home (shared with her sister) there. I visited for the first time two years ago and we had another long trip this Summer. The first stop was Albena, a resort area on the Black Sea. We stayed at an all inclusive hotel, my first time at this type of vacation venue. It was all eating, drinking, sleeping, sitting in the sun, and a bit of sea swimming. The all-inclusive experience was fun to do once, but once is probably enough for me. 

Albena was originally a resort area only for Western tourists when Bulgaria was a communist country. This was the first time my wife had been there, so new for both of us.

We then had a few days in her home town, Perushtitsa, near Plovdiv, on the slopes of the Rodopa Mountains. It is an interesting town, with easy access to hiking trails. One leads to the Three Generations Monument, a nice hike I did a few times on this trip. It has a view of the town and beyond. 

The town has a population of about 5.000, down from 8,000 in the peak of its prosperity in the late 80's. There are a number of neglected and half built houses. This one I remember from two years ago on the way up to the monument and does not seem to have been worked on in the intervening years. There are still some influences from the communist era, like this mural on City Hall. 

The last leg of the trip took us up to a local mountain resort, Varhovrah. More hiking for views and to a nearby village, Churin. 

Many of the mountain villages were built near water springs. One of the highlights of the trip was getting to meet my wife's sister and her husband. We had some good times together. 

I tried out a low volume and weight solution to portable computing (iPad, stand, and wireless keyboard) that worked well for e-mail. As the final note, I can say that there is a perfectly acceptable, low cost local gin. 

Art Studio Space

It had become apparent that my paper mache and other craft hobbies were filling up the apartment, with product but also with supplies and tools. The obvious answer was to get some art studio space, which I moved into today. I have seen a few of these shared spaces through children and friends, so I knew what I was getting into. I have an open square space in the middle of the second floor of an old warehouse in East Vancouver, on Powell Street. It is right by the train tracks. 

I am one of ten people in the space. I met three of them today and they seem like they will be a good crowd. I guess they are mostly there to work on their art/craft but I am hoping to get input on my designs.

Kilns are not allowed (not the right power or ventilation plus the fire risk), but I may do some pottery there and take it elsewhere to be fired. Right now, it is set up for paper mache work. Some of my latest creations (made before I moved in) are shown below. I am hoping to sell some of this stuff at some point, thinking now of Christmas ornaments for a seasonal craft sale. These stars are a nice canvas for decoration ideas. 

YouTube Music Playlists

After vinyl and CDs, I went to iTunes for a digital collection of my music. I converted my CD collection and added it to that platform. There are some albums that stand out as good listening (see my earlier post for examples) but also many excellent songs on albums that are not good as a whole. I spent some time and energy compiling playlists with some attention to the order of the tracks. I have reproduced some of these in YouTube Music. So far, there are 

• Undanceable Electronic Music
• Brian's Christmas
• I (not me personally) was on drugs when I wrote this song
• Background Music for All Occasions 
• Brian's 2CD choice of Yes
• MSU Summer 2023

If you search for "Brian Wetton" I should come up, or I am @brianwetton4068. Look for "Brian's Funeral CD" and "Gaming Songs" in the future.