The Ups & Downs of Fortune
Comics about scattered families and messed-up sleeping patterns
Hello, Drawing Book readers! I missed writing to you last week, but there have been a few challenges around here. It’s nice to have a chance, this week, to look back through the pages of the old drawing book (the journal I kept in the late 90s), and read about my old adventures.
Maybe I’m looking at things through rose-coloured glasses. When I look back now, it feels like it was a fun and exciting time. But at the time, things felt so unsettled. I worked as a flight attendant for Air Canada - usually on the Frankfurt route. But once in a while, I’d get a different schedule and end up travelling all over the place…
Because I was rarely at home in Calgary, it felt good to be able to get together with my family, in between flights. Here’s a picture of my brothers, which I drew after I got back from all that travelling.
Of course, I love all my numerous brothers, but I’ve always had a close relationship with one brother in particular. Back then, we spent a lot of time together. But things were about to change. He was leaving town for an amazing voyage on the Ship for World Youth. I drew this next page as I thought about how much I would miss him. (And I wrote it in French, a language we both enjoyed speaking badly to each other.)
(Ah, the Night Gallery - an iconic Calgary rock’n’roll hangout back in those days. Its location in a heritage building on 1st Street SW is still there, but the club is long gone. However, I just found a 1999 video montage of bands performing there. My rock’n’roll brother was probably there for a lot of the performances in this video!)
I liked the Night Gallery too, because it was open at night. When I was home in Calgary, I was usually up late. My regular work shift, the Calgary-Frankfurt flight, was a night flight, and I was a night owl anyway. But around now, I was doing something new during those long nights… I was painting, for the first time since I’d finished my year of art school two years before.
The last part of that page shows the aftermath of a family dinner celebrating the return of my travelling brother - hooray!
Missing Links
A couple of notes: what is the “Allegro Con Molto Brio King Kong?” When I read that, I thought it must be a tune from the (great) soundtrack to the movie Waking Life. But just now, I looked it up so I could find a link, and instead I found an article that mentions “the digital opera, Allegro molto con brio king kong which premiered at Dancers' Studio West in Calgary in spring, 1999.” Well, 1999 is when I was writing this in the Drawing Book, so that must be the music I was thinking of. I don’t think I remember going to see this performance?! I did find a link to a performance of it.
But I couldn’t find any mention of the Monty Python sketch referenced by my lines on that last page: “He’s a dualist - get him!” I’m sure there’s a sketch… which maybe I had on a cassette tape??? in which some empirical science guys go after a dualist (who believes in a mind/body distinction). It must be out there, somewhere.
And now, like my 1999 self, I’m so sleepy that it’s time to sign off. All these years later, my sleeping pattern has not improved much.
Wishing you safe travels and safe returns… and good sleeps during the hours that you need them!