Life is colourful – no longer 42 – meeting Lyla
This past Sunday was my 43rd birthday. I don’t much like parties for my birthdays. It’s not actually a negative thing. I just realized along the way I liked introspective birthdays or spending the time with family or friends but NOT being the reason or point of the gathering.
This year I planned nothing but lots happened. The saturday night before I met some friends and new acquaintances at a bar downtown, an after convention party of comics pro’s and guest stars. My favorite and really prefered part of any comic con. This time didn’t even in fact go to the convention, just the after party. It was a nice night and i came away with a copy of Becky Cloonan’s latest self published book, Demeter! Looks really good. :)
Sunday was actually a little bit of a work day, in the afternoon we met with a client Ange and I are working on a video for. It was productive and we had a nice walk after.
We’d had lunch before after Attending in the morning my cousin Julie’s daughters naming ceremony, her Zeved Habat.
We didn’t see a lot of little Lyla Rachel, but what we could was heartwarming.
A large Modern Orthodox Jewish ceremony. Lyla Rachel looked cute and slept through the whole thing it looked like.
She was brought into the room by all the women of her family.
Passed from grandmother to aunt to cousin to grandmother who held her while her parents conducted the introduction of their second daughter to their extended family. Julie tells me they named in part after my father, her uncle [Lionel]. It wasn’t I think an intended birthday gift, but a lovely one nonetheless.
I probably distinguished myself by my attempted dedication to respecting house rules. Not being religious I of course forgot to bring a kippah with me – I have a few now actually, from weddings or family events like this and i’m pretty good about remembering sometimes. But, it’s not often really the first thing on my mind honestly. Couldn’t see any near the entrance, where often you’ll find some.
So I improvised with my scarf.
Didn’t get too many looks, but one older fellow had a great laugh with me at my expense. It was abandoned soon at the show was over and we went downstairs, but I kind of like the look! ;)
Our side is a pretty big extended mostly lapsed Jewish family, we have many cousins. But Julie’s husband Ilan’s side of the family is impressively large and I think mostly filled a banquet hall with their troops alone! Lovely folks that i’ve met so far. Though watch out around a buffet!
Also saw my aunt and cousins which was nice.
One was Alan, a cousin from my father’s generation who gave me a copy of the amazing book he just published of his father’s work. “A Colourful Life – The Art and Drawing of Josh Silburt”. A catalog of his professional cartooning and paintings.
This is the site he set up as well as part of the long-term project of keeping his father’s work in the public eye.
Josh Silburt married one of several sisters, another of whom is my grandmother. Both he and another of their husbands were professional cartoonists at one time. Something I was told often by my grandmother. Doing sports and political cartoons for the Canadian press. She always made a point about how he moved on to become a very accomplished painter too and I grew up with many of his landscapes on various relatives living room walls as a kid.
The book is a comprehensive archive quality coffee table tome. Alan tells me he’s planing a launch event in Toronto in october for it. Didn’t plan to be but might just have to try to book a few days trip down to attend that. Here’s a look at the inside.
