{"id":2259,"date":"2004-11-16T12:36:26","date_gmt":"2004-11-16T12:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/?p=2259"},"modified":"2020-09-25T08:39:55","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T07:39:55","slug":"continental-drift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/continental-drift\/","title":{"rendered":"Continental Drift"},"content":{"rendered":"

Or Falling off the Edge of the World<\/h4>\n

DOCUMENTARY FILM SHOOT: CONCLUDED<\/p>\n

DAY 11: INTO THE WEST
\nThe tides and B.C. Ferries wait for no man, so it is wise to leave early for Horseshoe Bay. As it is, we are there in plenty of time, but too early for the Starbucks at the terminal to be open. (Production has received a gift in the form of a hefty fistful of 25-dollar Starbucks certificates, so the rest of the trip will be an attempt to juggle a shooting schedule with the shimmering mirage of free coffee. I have also embarked on a quest to find a decent pair of cowboy boots. This is definitely turning into a road movie!)
\nThe sunrise from the boat is amazing, and once again I am in desperation at how beautiful it is, and how I\u2019ll never be able to paint it. It\u2019s enough to make me want to stay at home and never set foot outdoors again, or at very least, lapse into some worldly ennui and sophistication that would let me look at everything through half-closed eyes and say \u201cOh but it\u2019s not half as lovely as Capri or Salzbourg, dah-ling.\u201d\u00a0 I have nothing but admiration for people who see the world as an extension of themselves or a succession of backgrounds in photo albums.
\nHappily, all this febrility keeps one warm; it is freezing cold out on deck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Photos left & center: St\u00e9phanie Chapelle
\nArriving on Vancouver Island, Bob, not content to have me risk my life in the saddle, has decided that wild predatory birds would be just the thing, and off we head to the next place<\/a> he has in mind for me to briefly become an endangered species in my turn.
\nI end up conversing nose-to-beak with owls and an eagle. Robin and Sylvia Campbell have single-handedly created a unique center where injured creatures are taken in, nursed back to health, and then released. (They even take in bears, but thankfully had none right then, or Bob probably would\u2019ve suggested I wrestle one.)
\nI\u2019ve never been that close to wild birds before, and again I am struck speechless at how intricately beautiful they are. Of course, given that we live in a world where we are televisually bombarded by all manner of temerious and\/or foolish individuals poking their fingers at nearly every creature alive, it may not seem terribly interesting to you, but believe me, I was thinking two things simultaneously: these creatures are sublimely beautiful and if one decides to suddenly eat my hand or my nose, then I am in big trouble\u2026.<\/p>\n

Ever onwards, past Coombs (where I see my dream castle, but fail to find any cowboy boots) and west again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Photo left: Gretchen Jordan-Bastow<\/p>\n

Over the rise in the middle of the Island, a brief stop at Cathedral Grove, where I am ready to lose myself contemplating some of North America\u2019s tallest trees when Bob decrees \u201cThis sucks.\u201d – footpaths with railings and the interdiction to stray from them makes filming impossible – and we are suddenly back in the van heading for Pacific Rim.<\/p>\n

We scour Tofino for a place to have coffee, but despite Werner\u2019s lament of what tourism has done to it since he last visited 30 years hence, civilization has yet to parachute in a Starbucks, and we settle for coffee undoubtedly filtered through old socks. We head up Radar Hill and check a few beaches, but the light is going already, we have tarried on the road to watch a wandering black bear and have lost precious time.<\/p>\n

DAY 12: PLACES OF SAND AND FOG<\/p>\n

First light finds us out on the beach, the weather is rotten, but that\u2019s what we want. No sunny blue skies and calm seas for today. If we could conjure up the minor demons of wind and storm and the malicious mermaids of crashing surf,\u00a0 we would do it. We also manage to get stranded by the rising tide, but Bob gets his shots despite damp feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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I always feel very small on the edge of the Pacific. It\u2019s the Farthest Shore, the land of earthsea, the space between the tides, the place of sand and fog. It\u2019s where my mind drifts to anyway. Must be a North American thing – your mind wanders ever west, never east, until it fetches up against the Pacific. Generations of pioneers in covered wagons and hippies in Volkswagons have imprinted a flow on the continent (ever seen anybody hitchiking east? Ever seen a road movie that isn\u2019t heading into the sunset? Or a poor lonesome cowboy for that matter?) that sweeps you along until you\u2019re knee-deep in the surf.<\/p>\n

I can discard all scientific knowledge of the earth and be on a beach of less sophisticated times. Before a sea dotted with isles named Hy Brazil, Avalon, Xipangu\u2026 and that somewhere out there beyond the horizon I could fall off the edge of the world. Suddenly the beach doesn\u2019t feel so firm any more.<\/p>\n

Ever had that happen – like a slow lift off into space? First you imagine your surroundings, then the few square miles around you, then the region and you lift up with the certitude of where you are all the way until the earth is a small blue ball in front of a curtain of stars. It\u2019s only happened to me three times, once in a school bus when I was 14 or so (of all places), once on a freeway (I pulled over), and once on that beach. (But wasn\u2019t I just falling off the edge seconds before? None of this makes sense at all.)<\/p>\n

Thankfully, the camera box snapping shut and someone saying \u201cOkay, let\u2019s go.\u201d brings me down out of orbit or I might still be up there, like Major Tom\u2026<\/p>\n

To another spot we found the day before, where the most fabulous trees overlook the ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Wind shapes. Trees frozen in flight. Trees are portraits of time clothed in bark and bearing branches. It\u2019s too wet and windy to draw, and besides, I\u2019ve left the sketchbook in the safety of the hotel. Thankfully I have my camera, and these are going on my next book cover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Left: Working on my \u201d film director\u201d look – generally hirsute, RotK cap and Kiwi stockman\u2019s coat.
\nPhoto: Gretchen Jordan-Bastow
\nRight: Heading back east
\nDAY 14: HIGH TIDE, LOW TIDE<\/p>\n

Day 14 is a short one, and the last little bit to be shot. I am to sign a few books at Chapters on Granville. \u201cA few\u201d, because given that there are only 8 copies of Myth & Magic to be had in all of Canada, Chapters hasn\u2019t exactly announced anything for fear of being beseiged by angry and empty-handed clients. As it turns out, if you subtract immediate family and forum members, I think one person, perhaps two, did actually turn up, which gets Vancouver a prime spot at the top of my Worst Signing Session List, along with Oxford and Neuch\u00e2tel. Alas, of course Bob was diligently shooting away, thus immortalizing the proof that nobody EVER comes to these things\u2026
\n(One of the employees did say that \u201cAlan Howe\u201d would be signing books\u2026 I wonder what John Lee was up to?) There was, however, a Starbucks IN the bookstore, but since coffee was free for visiting authors, I was still unable to inaugurate my card.
\nOn the other hand, it did leave me time to do fairly decent little sketches for everyone, and a chance to chat a little before being whisked off to the airport.<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s showbiz boys and girls – you get to spend an exceptional time practically married to a crew of wonderful people, and then suddenly you find yourself orphaned, abandoned in an airport waiting room – and worse still, the d**n Starbucks at the gate DOESN\u2019T accept the magic coffee card. Sic transit faba arabica. My luck was not to improve –\u00a0 given that I had in my possession a certified international card accepted the world over, I rushed off to find the Heathrow Starbucks, but it was closed for renovations\u2026 (By this time, the free coffee no longer mattered, it had become a quest on principle – a caffeine-deprived Pellinore hot – well, at least lukewarm – on the trail of a Glatisant Decaf Skim Latt\u00e9…)\u00a0 Damnation, thwarted yet again. But I will prevail. (I can see myself now at JFK: \u201cWhat\u2019s your reason for your visit, sir?\u201d, at which point I will hold up my coffee card. \u201cOh, and I need cowboy boots too.\u201d)<\/p>\n

In the meantime however, there is a web site<\/a> if you want to find out more.<\/p>\n

BUT OTHERWISE\u2026<\/p>\n

Have been certainly doing far too much slipsliding away for my own good of late, so back in the real world\u2026<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be at Montreuil, at the Salon du Livre, some time during the last weekend in November. I\u2019ll post the times if I get them in time.<\/p>\n

Also, there will be an exhibition of the illustrations for \u201cThe Abandoned City\u201d in Bruges, at the city library (Kuipersstraat 3, 8000 Brugge), opening at 11 a.m. on Saturday December 4th, followed by a book signing at 2 p.m. (For those of you who haven\u2019t been to Bruges, only one question: What are you waiting for?) More information will follow as I receive it.<\/p>\n

Received my copy of \u201cWhen a Fan Hits the Sh*t<\/a>\u201d, which I read in one shot – couldn\u2019t put it down. It\u2019s very funny and incrediby sad in a way, like all things involving good will that go awry. I even have a little chapter, but, unlike a few of the cast, who ended up stranded in LAX, my involvement was limited to a few e-mail exhanges.<\/p>\n

Received proofs of the Artbook, which look good. The book should be out any day now. I\u2019ll be signing in Lyon on December 10th, Annecy on the 11th and Aix-en-Provence on the 18th.<\/p>\n

More on that next time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Or Falling off the Edge of the World DOCUMENTARY FILM SHOOT: CONCLUDED DAY 11: INTO THE WEST The tides and B.C. Ferries wait for no man, so it is wise to leave early for Horseshoe Bay. As it is, we are there in plenty of time, but too early for the Starbucks at the terminal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-2259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicles","tag-john-howe-documentary"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1PY8Y-Ar","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}