After years of dire need, there is a community darkroom opening up in New Jersey.  And it is not in Jersey City, thankfully.  I love Jersey City, but I know how tough it can be for some people to get there.  It is opening in Newark.  Woohoo!!!  I missed the deadline to contribute to donations, but I will once there is an opening for that again.

I have been digging deep online and happened to find an article on the Emulsive website.  It looked like the darkroom was in an area I drive through when going home from the club, so I took a gander on the way home on Saturday.  I cross the street shortly before I get to route 280.  I was in no mood to drive around on Saturday - a gross, persistent guy hitting on you will do that to you - but I plan to drive by the location tonight.  (Yeah, clubbing tonight.  The night before Thanksgiving is always a big deal at the club.  Only black lights.  Everyone's teeth and hair glows.  I need to rebleach my stripe for this.)  So then I started digging into different kinds of film.  Oh dear.  I found some fabulous colour films - wild, psychedelic stuff.  I will put them on my Christmas list, for sure.  Then I found this dreamy black and white film by a brand called Svema.  Gosh, the Eastern Europeans have it going film and paper-wise.

I am trying to get a friend back into shooting.  He has taken a break from it - no access - so I hope that giving him a camera I have laying around will inspire him.  I see so much crappy "art" out there and to see someone with fantastic talent not able to use it makes me sad.  I still have this dream/fantasy of going on shooting adventures with friends.  I had so much fun shooting with a couple of former students over the summer and I want to do it more often.  The creativity osmosis can be quite cool.  Then, imagine having people to develop and print with in my basement?  My sister and I tried to start an art collective years ago.  We envisioned a Morris County thing that would involve the freak artists - not the rich suburban housewife ones in my town - but it never went anywhere.  Maybe when I am done being the Chairperson of the NNJDSA, I can spend more time on my art.

I went out to dinner with a former student yesterday. She is doing so well in college.  She is adjusting perfectly.  Then I was surprised by another friend/former student this morning and he is adjusting well too.  Too often I hear of the kids from this school bombing at college - too much partying, not adjusting to living independently, not handling the workload - and I know that many of my colleagues teach too easily.  I loved last year's class because of the kind of young adults they were.  They were so different and hearing how they are doing in college makes my heart sing.  Last year's bunch was so unique and seeing some of them this week is helping with some stuff right now.

Then I get a massage today, deliver a bag of catnip to my friend, and hopefully dance my ass off at the club.