Tuesday, March 3, 2009

                                                                                I was stopped at a red light the other day and in front of me was a driving school car with the familiar little sign on top with the name of the company. This particular driving school was called the Unique Driver Training. I pondered it for awhile thinking that it may be training for unique drivers or that they give unique training to all drivers. Then I got to thinking about all the different Driving school names that I have seen over the years in Toronto. Speedy Driving School. Lucky Driver Training. Classic Driving School. Speedy Driving School sounded interesting, but I'm not so sure about Lucky Driver Training. I always pictured the instructor with his fingers crossed and lots of lucky charms in his or her nervous hands.

Which brings me to the topic of this entry. My studio, which is currently called the Pointing Baby Gallery will soon be called Roach Tackle Folk Art. I now realize that branding has nothing to do with red hot pieces of iron being pressed into my flanks and that it makes sense to have the name of the gallery the same as the name of my company. So it shall be. As soon as the weather turns a wee bit warmer I 'll get my ladder out and change the sign.

My Winter Sale is still on and some bargains have been had and many more are waiting to be had. I was working on some airplanes and took a break with a copy of Ray Bradbury's Golden Apples of The Sun. I love his writing and have never read this collection of short stories. Most of these were originally published in the late 40's  to mid 50's.  Two things struck me as I read these stories. One was that fifty years ago, many science fiction writers thought that the skies in 2009 would be filled with helicopters. We would all have our own little helicopters, buzzing here and there.  That really hasn't come to pass. In fact, I almost always glance up to the sky when I hear a helicopter, still finding them curious machines and wonder what they're doing up there; what they're looking for. I'm going to make more and more helicopters.

The other story that really made my jaw drop was one called The Murderer. Bradbury really foresaw something when he wrote this story over fifty years ago. It has to do with an invasive trend in communications. And not a system that is imposed on a society by a spying authoritarian government. This is something that everyone wants and can't live without. It's worth reading.