Danger. Keep Off Roof.

Up at the crack of dawn and off to the penultimate Flamboro of the season and bloody cold it was too. And at the field we added damp to the mix with a very nice fog hovering. I was dressed very sensibly, suitably layered and toasty and all, while quite a few hardy Canadians were comfortably strolling around in sweaters, shorts and sandals. Pioneer material I am not.

But the fog burned off and by 9:00am a lovely fall day.

Here's what I saw:

a great soapbox racer, sold very, very early in the day

art needs no explanation, it stands or falls on its own
or sometimes it just leans




a beautifully alligatored hutch from Ed Locke



file under: terminally cute


file under: little red shovels, box of


file under: spools, box of


and the crew from TreasureHD was there

wanted to get this WPA kit, but didn't



Elaine was shopping along with her dog, Hanna, and Hanna's dog, ChiChi



Always good advice; wanted to get this and did.

So, all in all, a good time time was had by all. Except certain wives who didn't get any jewelry.

There's always next time.

As long as we remember: Danger. Keep Off Roof.

'Shrooms and a Hat

With the weather being so great, and the dollar being so equal, it was time for another road trip. We'd been wanting to visit the Ontario Antique Mall, just outside of Rochester NY so off we went. They boast of a thousand dealers, and are in Farmington, NY. Just get off at New York State Thruway exit 44, drive three miles, and you're there.


We'd been warned to expect delays crossing the border at Lewiston NY but the delay was all of three long minutes.

An hour later we were parked at the mall and ready to go. It's a lovely mall, but mostly comprised of dealer showcases. Not much for me, mostly collectibles, glass and china, but enough jewelry and accessories to keep P occupied while I sat in the car and read.







We bought nothing.

On the way back we stopped at Clarence, NY. Hadn't been there in five years or more and what a difference.

A little back story first. The first time we went, almost thirty years ago, the busiest field was Hickey's. Truly a field, with a bunch of rickety dealer tables set out every Sunday and one small shack of building for those few dealers who didn't want to unpack and repack every week. Clarence Antique World was just a mile or so away and with better facilities eventually took most of the dealers away.

Hickey's closed.

Antique World expanded. Then there were partner squabbles, buyouts, non-competition agreements, then competing fields. This is all over a twenty year span or so. And all during the heyday of antiques mania.

There were two huge Extravaganza Expos a year in addition to the weekly Sunday offerings. It was fun then to be there shopping with flashlights in the misty, biting-bug ridden pre-dawn hours, and there were treasures to be found. Some dealers even packed up by 11:00 am not wanting to be around for the tire-kickers who'd show up after church let out.

During the Expos we'd sit with twice-a-year friends, play catch-up and feast on the chicken BBQ set up by Chiavettas. (We still buy their Italian salad dressing by the case).

And all good things must come to an end.

With the dollar then at at 1.50 or more and the creeping price of gasoline and 9/11 and the ease of ebay, we, along with a lot of other Canadians, just stopped going.



We still don't know how it is on Sundays, but during the week there are a number of building/group shops open and that's what we saw this trip. A lot of the same old, same old: some interesting things, some not so, but worth a look if you're in the neighbourhood.

And we were.

One thing we didn't do while we were in the 'hood back in the Rochester/Avon area was have lunch at Tom Wahl's.

That alone would have been worth the drive. Especially the mushrooms. And the rootbeer.

So in the end what did we buy (and this includes a final stop at the Outlet Mall)?

Two Mighty Tacos (actually not too bad and pretty big) and a hat.

A very nice hat. And worth the trip.

But I'm sorry we didn't make it to Tom Wahl's.

If You Can Read This, You're Probably Not a Woman in Lowland Nepal

It seemed like a good idea: we'd been going to yard sales all summer, so let's have a sale of our own and get rid of some of our mistakes, and then it became a neighbourhood sale with a number of families participating.

And it was a good idea, except that the weather didn't cooperate. It was bloody cold.

Oh well. But all in a good cause. My good cause was clearing a path in my hallway.

The real good cause was halfway around the world.

My neighbour's sales' profits are being donated to WELNEPAL a wonderful organization which supports Womens' Education and Literacy in Nepal. And they had some great stuff all donated by volunteers and fund raisers.

Here's what you missed.

Just beginning to set it all up around 7:00 am

C'mon who doesn't love Nancy Sinatra?
Vinyl is a hot item; almost all of it went.

Did I mention there was Wedgwood? SOLD! (and not to me.)

Good to the last bite.

Hand knit Aran sweaters. A best seller considering the cold morning we had.

And what's a yard sale without a box of plush toys?

And the left overs...? All yours. Come and get 'em

So six hours later, I asked my neighbour how he thought the sale went. His reply: too much work; he'd rather write WELNEPAL a cheque.

This from a guy who spends almost all of his free time volunteering for WELNEPAL.

You can write a cheque too, if you want.


Or just go to Nepal and drop it off in person. Henry! Gas up the jet! Wheels up at Oh-eight-hundred hours.


Here's that website again: www.welnepal.org

A Change in the Forecast

If the antiques business is in a slump, don't tell anyone at the Gadsden's Christie Show. I don't know any official numbers but it seemed that there was fairly sizable crowd anxiously checking their watches waiting for the 8:00 am opening.

No early admission here, and there are signs posted admonishing dealers: "No sales before opening".

The weather (forecasters) had been threatening rain, but nope, it was beautiful. Perfect shopping weather and it sure looked as though people were buying. I saw money changing hands and packages being carried and carted.






While I was chatting with show promoters Wendy and Jeff Gadsden, a number of people stopped by to say thanks and compliment them on a terrific show; these were customers: some regulars, some first-timers. How often does that happen?

A lovely end to the summer shopping season.

And an assortment of random shots:
Salvation Army Camp that-a-way


Bull's eye mouldings
Tin Ceiling Squares
Frames
Cedar canoes.
I didn't buy any of these.


Hudson's Bay Point Blankets.
I did buy one of these.



All in all, it was just a bee hive of activity.

Yep. I bought that too.

Nostalgic for Nostalgia

We hadn't been out to the Barrie Antique Centre in while, so we went. By this I mean, I wanted to sit home reading & eating bon bons and P said we should go to Barrie. So we went.

I'd forgotten what a great collection of nostalgia they've got. We get used to seeing so much glass and china and shiny sparkly bits, it's refreshing to see such a good hoard of nostalgia and country store items spread over two large floors. And (most of) it's for sale.

Talk about being packed to the rafters. I love old signage and this place is just full of it. In a good way. Not only are the walls totally covered, there are signs and notices and ads hanging from the ceilings and lintels.

Wind-up toys, old tins? They've got 'em. Dry goods boxes? Yep. 1920s toilet paper? Don't ask.

Little stuff like matchbooks and milk bottle caps, to bigger things; I saw a treadle powered lathe while I was there.

There are a few reproductions mixed in, so if you're unsure of what you're looking at, ASK!

It's an easy drive from Toronto, under an hour if the traffic's good, and situated on Innisfill St., just minutes from the highway off ramp.

They don't have a website, but the email addy is barrieantiquecentre@bellnet.ca.

The address is: 272 Innisfil St. Barrie, Ontario. Call 705-726-1663.






So what did we get? P bought some shiny sparkly bits.

But strangely enough on the way home we happened to pass Vaughn Mills Mall where there just happens to be a Purdy's store and strangely enough again they seemed to have Purdy's English Toffee in stock.


Now I am sitting around reading and eating bon bons.

All's well that ends with jewelry and candy.

Props for my Peeps

This is a follow-up to my previous post. Recently I was asked to define a "prop".

Prop is short for "property" as in property of the production.

Here's the poop. If an actor handles it or it's mentioned specifically in the script, it's a prop .

If it's just sitting around looking pretty, it's set dressing or set dec(oration).

Sometimes there's cross-over.

We specialize in hand props, the smaller stuff. The stuff we hope you'll never notice. If a prop is not key (important) or not a hero (very loosely, one that's important enough for a close-up shot and/or to require multiples in case something goes wrong), we hope you'll be so absorbed in the story that you won't notice the stuff, unless of course, it's a key prop or a hero.


It's the job of the prop master and/or prop buyer to find this stuff and take care of it while it's on set.


Here's a scene:

The MAYOR rushes down the steps of City Hall into a throng of reporters. He trips and drops his briefcase which flies open spilling its contents. Flashbulbs go off. Mayhem ensues as he tries to retrieve the contents.

So what are the props needed? The only ones specifically mentioned in this set-up are: (1) briefcase, (2) contents of briefcase and (3) Flashbulbs.

(1) The briefcase has to be right for the period of the film, and right for the character of the MAYOR. Is it bright shiny new, or old and worn? Was it expensive or the economy model? Did he buy it for himself, was it a gift? (Remember: there are no small decisions in making a movie.) It needs to be a briefcase that will (or be rigged to) spill its contents when dropped.

(2) And what are these contents? Are they important to the story, have they been established in a previous scene, what do they reveal about the mayor? Brown bag lunch, kid's rubber ball, porn? Or is it just a bunch of papers that will look good when the wind blows them away?

(3) Are they really flash bulbs? If so, how many? Or modern electronic flashes? Presumably they're attached to cameras. How many of those? What kind? Do they actually have to flash, or will the flashes be an effect added in post-production?

What about the other stuff not mentioned in the script? Reporters with tape recorders, pads and pencils. Are there passers-by on the street? A woman carrying groceries perhaps? A man with a newspaper in one hand, umbrella in the other? A kid on a bike.

And that's without the set dressing: stuff like a newspaper box (empty or with papers (can we read headlines?) the garbage can, the signage and all the other stuff that's always there.

Let's stop now because my head hurts.

Pick your favorite movie, have another look at a favorite scene, ignore the story and have a look at the objects that the actors handle or are in the scene to dress it up.

An example:

In the photo above, a scene from Little Mosque on the Prairie, set in a pawn shop, there are only three props. The rest is set decoration or costume. Those three circles indicate the only things I handled in this scene. (Actually there is one more, but it's off camera.)

By the way, I didn't supply any of the props or set dec in that scene; they came from a competitor.

Some of the things we got called for this week, and didn't have, were:
angel's wings (costume)
trapper pelts
torpedo shells
giant martini glass
a spaceship
giant scales of justice
wagon wheels & tumbleweed,
electric chair,
airplane seats
and a pink limousine.

For a look at some of what we do have go to;

torontoprops.com
and
vintageprops.com

And if you know anyone with an electric chair they're not using any more, you'll let me know, won't you?

Everybody's an Expert

Everybody's an expert. Especially me.

This week I had a job as the antique consultant for a tv-movie being shot here by the Hallmark people. One of the key props is an antique box purchased by our heroine and given to a key character.

There are lots of keys in movie making.

In Making Movies, Sidney Lumet wrote that: "there are no small decisions in film making".

This is key. Movies don't just happen, they get made. And this mean decisions. Lots of decisions. Maybe even millions of decisions. And in spite of what many critics, both professional and armchair, seem to think, the people involved are a pretty bright bunch.

The basics of movie making, in no particular order, are these:

A movie begins with an idea.

The writer takes this idea, this fleeting notion of a concept, and puts it on paper. It ain't that easy. You try coming up with a hundred and twenty pages of pure gold. The writer has to make up a story, create a bunch of people, put words in their mouths, ideas in their heads and then has them do stuff. All of this is to make you want to know what happens next. And if you care about the people it's all happening to, even better. And if the words coming out of their mouths move you to tears, to laughter, to dark thoughts, there's the gold.

The producer finds the money to make this happen; puts together a team to make this happen. In other words, the producer finds a way to make all of this happen. In spite of all the producer credits you might see in a movie's credits, there's usually only one real PRODUCER.

The director is entrusted with the vision. The director has already seen this entire movie. In his head. Shot by shot.

The production designer's job is to make sure you can look at this thing for two hours; that nothing you see jars you back to reality and that everything you see on screen just looks right.

Everything in the movie must propel the story forward. We must want to know how the story ends and not get bogged down with nit picking: "Look, there's a watch on the chariot driver's wrist in ancient Rome."

And that was my job on this project.

Was this antique box (remember the box from the first paragraph) right for the story. They weren't going to use an actual antique box. The movie box was being built by the props department, so the colour, shape, size and so on needed to be accurate. Because out in audience-land everybody's an expert, and these experts love to write letters. Sure, there are mistakes, glitches, anachronisms in almost every picture. There are even websites that point these things out. They're fun to spot, but movie makers work hard to avoid them; they do do the due diligence.

For my presentation for the producer, director, production designer, props department and the builder, I'd done my homework. I'd photographed and photocopied lots of reference boxes and brought in a stack of books, all laid out on the conference table, opened to an appropriate page. With more pages ready underneath; lots of little yellow post-it's peeking out.

The props department, the people who had actually hired me to spout my expertise, had provided a number of antique boxes for people to handle, examine, pick up, smell, heft, turn over.

And they did.

In movie land, as in kindergarten, this is called "show & tell".

I showed and telled and I was grilled. This was a pretty astute group and the questions were the right kinds of questions to ask. Will the actress have trouble handling the size of the box? Which colors and designs would be historically accurate? What shapes are there to work with? What if we did this...? Could we do this instead...? Would it be wrong to...?

I was asked to justify my answers.

And since the box is discovered overpainted and will have to be stripped to its original state during the picture, the builder will have to make at least four identical boxes, three of them then painted and partially stripped, to correspond to the various stripping stages. And to allow for takes, mistakes and reshoots on one key scene, there should be at least four identical lids for box number two.

My prep for this meeting took about five hours. The meeting took another two. All for a box that's not the most important thing in the story.

No small decisions in movie making. I should know, I'm the expert.