The Paper Bag Films

All seven of the original Block Blazers appear at some point in this recently discovered super 8 footage (below) from the early 1970s. However, it's not hard to see why this roll of film didn't claim a permanent spot on any of my showcase reels - which number in the dozens.

Based on the camera work and quality of image, I can certainly understand why the former me (of 35 years ago) decided to hide it all away. It's choppy; it's unsteady; it's aimed into the bright sun of a winter's day; and it's not terribly interesting. But what puzzles me most is why I chose to hide it all away in a large, brown paper bag! Which is where it has lived out the past 3 decades. All twisted and flowing free inside an old Woodward's shopping bag. Apparently something stopped me from completely tossing the film out in the garbage, but at the same time, stopped me from storing it with any proper long term care and consideration.

Following the poor quality scenes of foot hockey, we are treated to some equally poor quality scenes on the tennis court. I'd be interested to know the whereabouts of this tennis court's location - if either of the two combatants swinging rackets would be so kind as to educate me in the comments section of this blog. That's Don and Bartholomew to be sure, but they're clearly not playing tennis anywhere near the old Blazer homestead. It must be some out-of-town destination that we only visited once. Maybe Haney? Just long enough to shoot these awful scenes.

The closing section gives us a rare glimpse of both Evert and Doug - caught walking together in the same frame of film. It's probably the last time this pairing would ever be seen in such close proximity to each other again. And perhaps, for that single image alone, we should be happy that the brown paper bag (and the film within it) was rescued from a final resting place at the city dump.

JOGGER!

To satisfy any jogging urges I may have had back in the 1970s, the 6-mile Stanley Park seawall provided the best location for uninterrupted running bliss. Scenery wasn't bad either. But when time was in short supply (had to get to Squamish?) yet I still wanted some quick exercise, the nearby Langara golf course (with it's 1.8 mile perimeter sawdust track) would fill in as a reliable option. This is where I joined George one pleasant spring afternoon as he began a fitness program of his own.

To be brutally honest (yet modestly humble) this casual run with George wasn't really much of a test for me at the time, having spent the previous year training for, and finishing, the 26-mile Vancouver Marathon. So to entertain and challenge myself, I brought along my R10 movie camera. I would then sprint far ahead or far behind George in order to capture on film the unchanging pace he maintained around the track. The results below were found on my latest DVD transfer of super 8 film and probably haven't been seen at any point in the past by the man himself.

He's too old for this kind of nonsense nowadays, but I recall saying to him at the time that I sincerely hoped I'd be able to do what he was doing here when I reached his age. He was 12 years older than me back then - and remains as such today. That difference seemed like a thousand years into the future. Now I find it hard to believe that I'm nearly 20 years past what his age was on this day of filming.

It was all captured 30 years ago, and I think the two of us would probably find it painful to try and repeat it anytime soon.

Bashed Camera - A Blessing In Disguise

Three different cameras (each boasting a different brand name) were used in the making of my vast library of super 8 films during the hectic movie making years of the 1970s and 80s. Eventually, each of these machines would, in turn, be replaced with a more advanced, higher priced camera; providing me with progressively better image quality.

However, I've often wondered if a change would have been made AT ALL if my first camera (the old Bell & Howell cheap-o-reeno) had not been accidentally bashed against a rock one day while out shooting scenes with Doug and Paul in Dundarave - an event which rendered it completely stupid. The motor ceased to function from that minute on and it was only because I then found myself 'cameraless' (gasp!) that I bothered to invest in, what would turn out to be, an upgrade to a more modern Canon.

If the change in equipment had not been forced upon me when it was, my entire super 8 collection would have been, while not exactly ruined, certainly diminished. The bashing of electronics against rock was ultimately a good thing.

Presented in this short video (below) are random scenes (in progressive order) showcasing each of the three cameras in my possession. In fact, the opening scenes are the actual FINAL images ever recorded using the Bell & Howell from that day in Dundarave, 1973. Death would occur soon after. In the next snippet we see Tracy as she was in 1976 captured on the Canon; and finally, for a few scenes of Bartholomew Woods running the Stanley Park seawall in 1979, I used the Rolls Royce of super 8 cameras, the Nikon R10.

(Trivia note: Yes, table hockey fanatics, that's THEE BOB DELANEY catching 'high skies' from Bart.)

Billy's Epic Journey

Many of those that attended our weekly summer screenings in the Grand Garden Theatre (held in the backyard of my parent's home) might not remember the thrill of watching super 8 movies whilst seated in lawn chairs in the dirt amongst the peas and carrots.

On the evening captured here on video (below) our host Doug fires up the projector and sits back in the beanstalks to enjoy the rarely revisited (and somewhat pointless) 'Billy's Epic Journey' - a slice of life in the big city. Behind the projectionist, we can see Paul tending to a bit of impulsive weeding before the main feature, bless his little heart.


This film was Bill's only entry in the 1975 Philum Film Festival. Even with the shameless poster promotion at the snack bar that evening (see photo) his movie failed to win any awards and became a bit of a long lost memory for most. But thanks to Blogger, we can relive the journey, which may be noteworthy now only for the drastic changes on display in the background. Due to 30 years of tree growth, the city skyscrapers are no longer viewable from the top of Queen Elizabeth Park, as they are here. And while the bubble dome still remains in place today, the entire surrounding landscape of the plaza was demolished and reconstructed in 2005. Perhaps it's time for a 2008 'reshoot' of Billy's Epic Journey'. As long as Bill hasn't rid himself of the classic Epic yet.

Connections -

Oh it's all connected in the long run, lemme tells ya.

Laine (pictured above) is the sister of Bartholomew Woods, who as we all know is a dedicated blogger himself with a very popular blog over on the far side of town. I believe his blog covers the topic of 'string' in great detail; the various lengths of string one can find while out walking.

But more about Laine. Oft times in the mid 70s, Laine would be employed by MY sister Fran (see the connections) to babysit 4-year old Tracy, who at the time, was Fran's daughter and my niece - and remains as such today - altho she's married now and has her own small daughter and she lives out of state. Otherwise she's exactly the same. A snapshot (snapped by Laine) of myself with the childlike Tracy can be seen in picture form in the space below.

As far as I'm aware, the video you're about to see contains the only footage in existence of Laine in the act of babysitting during the few short years she provided that fine service for my sister.

However, before we watch any of that, we must watch any of this: a few random clips of life in the 70s (including Billy eating ice cream and Darcy at the beach); footage originally left on the editing room floor for some reason. And watch for George as he goes to extreme lengths so as not to be accused of smoking his pipe in a no smoking area. Priceless.

And of course, Little Al makes his regular appearance.

A Brief But Pointless Minute

Time for another brief but pointless minute of ancient super 8 film footage, rescued from the dead box of obscurity and presented here as if it all happened as recently as last Tuesday.

The dead box is filled to the brim with forgotten moments like these; tiny snippets of the past resting quietly within their plastic reels. These are film clips that haven't seen the inside of a movie projector in almost 35 years.

Seems like I had to try and make a Hollywood production out of everything I shot back in the old days - which included turning a casual summer evening's drive out to New Westminster (with Doug and Paul) into a bleedin 3 act play. I'm pretty sure most people wouldn't have bothered to capture the outing in such a bizarre manner. The stupid poster we used as a prop, must have taken a good 5 minutes to produce! Take note of the promotional T-shirt Paul is wearing for the movie "Why Did They Do What They Did". A sure sign that this clip was filmed 'post' Philum Festival 1975.

There's more footage from this event (not uploaded) but only 'McCoy' would want to watch it.

Blazers Clubhouse

Took a stroll yesterday, did I, thru the old neighborhood and experienced a rude awakening by doing so. It was painfully clear to this reporter that the aging process had been hard at work here since doing my last survey. It must be all the old home movies I've been watching lately - they leave an impression that things haven't changed much down in Blazerville. Unfortunately that's far from true.

The gathering place for 'all things Blazer' during the first half of the 70s was definitely the front stairs of Don's house. Many an adventure into time and space would begin on these wooden steps with the casual dropping by of the regular gang. (For some reason, I don't recall Rob or Doug ever being a part of this 'stair' gang.) In the winter months, a street hockey game might soon break out; but in the summer, we'd head to the back yard for some dramatic ping-pong action that sometimes lasted past midnight.

But there won't be any late night games here in the near future - based on this picture of the current condition of Don's backyard (below). Don and Co. packed up their ping-pong paddles and related belongings and left the residence long ago, so we can't blame him for what's become of our once pampered home court.

Compare that image (above) with the following one I took of Bartholomew Woods (below) standing in the exact same yard. This was back in the days when the grass would be cut like the greens of a professional golf course. In fact we used to bring out the 'Mad Max' golf game (look for that item on ebay, Bart) for a few rounds on the manicured lawn now and then.

To catch a glimpse of our ping-pongish ways back in 1974, (plus a bonus clip of a day on the slopes) the following video may be employed.

Salvaged Bits And Pieces

The first of many 400 foot super 8 films transferred to DVD has now spun to a slapping finish, but not before it provided us with a short, fond glance back at (1) the Vernon trip; (2) the table hockey nonsense; and (3) the wonderful world of Wanda.

Seems a shame at this point to just dump what little footage remains on the reel without first letting it all see the light of day. Perhaps another blog report could be improvised right here and now composed entirely of the few salvaged bits and pieces that either had no story for them to cling to, or they were lacking in the required interest/focus needed to deem them worthy.

And yes... 'Little Al' is once again front and center in these clips.

Street Wise

Another look back (via video) on our 'street of dreams' from the 1970s. Which means another lazy blog entry for me. This video features more of the same people from the previous videos (they're all kinda redundant). These are the people that made up the bulk of what a typical afternoon around the old homestead was really like.

Fellow blogger Bartholomew Woods points out, and quite rightly, that 'Little Al' seems to be appearing in these vintage super 8 films far too often; as if he considered himself a paid up member of the exclusive Blazers club. The simple fact was... the little scamp was ALWAYS hanging around. There was no avoiding him.

You'll see Alan here again in a few more scenes. He's like Zelig for crying out loud. If we were to go back to the neighborhood today, 30 years later, to search for him, I'm pretty sure we'd find him, probably looking much the same as he does here on screen, still hanging around the block, riding his bike on the sidewalk or playing hockey with a broken stick.

Didn't the Twilight Zone have an episode or two along these same lines?

At the tail end of this film, Bartholomew and Dan can be seen strolling thru downtown Seattle and visiting the Space Needle - which none of us can actually remember doing. Bart & I had left the safety of our home turf that weekend in order to partake in the 26 mile Seattle Marathon, an ordeal we both managed to finish on a cold and rainy November day. Dan was merely along to drive us home afterwards.