Toronto Public Library readings May 16, 2012
I am thrilled to have been invited by the Toronto Public Library to participate in their Eh List Author Series. I am lucky enough to be doing two readings for the series!
The first reading will take place on Weds May 16th, 2012 at the Northern District Library at 12.30pm and later that evening the second reading will take place at the North York Central Library at 7.30pm.
There is a rumour that we might have a bit of music at the reading! So bring your bodhráns!
I have never been to Toronto, so am very happy to make her acquaintance beginning in the libraries. Curiously I have been to New York and my sole purpose was to go to the library there. I wonder if other people go on holiday to the library?
Please spread the word amongst your compadres and come out and hear a reading or two from Malarky and even a tune or two.
Thank you TPL
A two night sudden temperature dip that I noticed firstly because an extreme weather warning was issued for the homeless and it caught my eye. -2 last night and it will settle around -1 tonight.
Yesterday I noticed a man I have seen over a dozen years on various streets. The first years I saw him he was always on his bicycle and seemed purposeful. He clearly had some mental health struggles but he looked like he had shelter and seemed quite functional. In recent years he has plunged and is now clearly sleeping rough, he looks fragile and bashed about by life. Every time I see him it’s such a reminder of what happens to the vulnerable when mental health support, affordable, subsidized or sheltered housing and pro-active medical care do not kick in. (a troika rather than 4 pillars) Deeply saddening and alarming. He’s not the only one, I’ve noticed many others. I cannot fathom how they endure the cold nights they must face. My mind turns to them as the temperature falls or the icy wind hits.
Adventures in sledge hockey
Have I mentioned how much I am enjoying playing sledge hockey? It’s been five whole weeks since we started. I have to confess the hockey part is a bit lost on me, but I enjoying the barrelling about on the sledge (which is its own unique skill).
I find it very hard to unite stick or pick as it is called and puck, but really enjoy turning left and right and in circles at high speed. (by my calculations)
Yesterday we learnt how to be “defensive” on the boards. You huddle yourself in close, so you do not sustain injuries. It’s preemptive. It reminded me of the way David Foster Wallace used his knowledge of the wind direction in Junior Tennis.
The dilemma of very cold feet and hands in sledge hockey has yet to be tackled but I am thrilled to have discovered this new sport. The small male has already advanced to the intermediate level ! He of resistant fame!
Amish 2012
PBS had a new film about the Amish the other night that’s available to view online.
An intimate portrait of contemporary Amish faith and life, this film examines how such a closed and communal culture has thrived within one of the most open, individualistic societies on earth.
Narcoleptic Government
I was just reading a list of people who have narcolepsy and noted a competitve road cyclist and a molecular geneticist were both on the list. I was kind of relieved to see the geneticist in there and imagined him poking about on the topic inside test tubes or his own cheeks.
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There was a piece on CBC Radio tonight about the federal government’s insane decision to completely withdraw funding from the Arctic Atmospheric Station (part of CFCAS). It was this station that discovered the largest ozone hole ever found over the arctic. Thus it’s clear that this oil clappy govt have withdrawn funding on ideological grounds and because they are so dim they refute climate change and the need to observe and record atmospheric changes and shifts up there. I truly hope the first epic piece of ice shelf that breaks free and comes flowing towards us will make a beeline for the left leg of Stephen Harper’s bed.
Earlier this week I watched Gasland about natural gas fracking in the States. Terrfiying to see people’s water supply completely contaminated and to realize that with no water supply we are completely screwed. Frack off says I.
Low-pressure unison
There is another low-pressure system coming in that’s provoking yet another curious weather situation. Today, late in the day, wind, cold freezing wind with a snowfall warning. It looks like the snow will be slush but the combination of wind and nearly snow coldness was unusual for us.
The clouds hung low in that pre-snow mentality they possess.
The weather redolent of a shift and around us the talk is of a teachers strike and this morning’s news of the death of Jim Green, (RIP), a long-term poverty activist and former City Councillor was written all over those sad, low clouds today. A strange unison between weather and change and sadness out there.
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A unity that failed to occur today however was the chicken soup I decided to make (Asian style) before the misguided notion overtook me to hurl four lamb sausages into it. I am still several hours later wondering what possessed me to do such a thing.
Answers on a post-card to ….
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A major woodwork undertaking that should not have been undertaken but God loves an ambitious palm-sanding woman, with her dressmaking measuring tape and her dremmel. An extraordinary sized shelf has resulted. I think a very spacious, high-class shoe rack is the outcome, which needs to have a back to stabilize itself. My first experiment with mad-sized lumps of plywood from scratch. It looks better than it touches. It touches, well, wobbly. Lesson learned= measure the space into which the intended shelf will dwell.
Turbulent birds
The dry-sounding November windstorm blew into an epic wind event all day long. Vigorous and refreshing. It’s still gusting out there now, but the dial has been turned down on the worst of it.
Today at the Farmer’s Market the poor, tent-less vendors were grabbing and clutching their goods like you would a tumbling child. I bought some very tasty arugula and have found a source of local BC salmon, which I’d previously been hunting for. Very delicious supper. We are so lucky in these parts with the access to local and so much variety of fruits, veggies and great fish.
The birds were dipping and being sidelined by the wind. I was watching them trying to understand how they compensate because they still seem to level out. But they certainly experienced turbulence today the poor blighters. Would we were so savvy as the birds when turbulent circumstances strike!
Vancouver books @ 49th Shelf
I have a piece published today at the 49th Shelf (formerly Canadian Bookshelf) today. It’s a piece in which I finally have an opportunity to talk about Renee Rodin’s memoir Subject to Change, a book I’ve wanted to highlight for a while. I also include Taxi!, Crossings and Adventures in Debt Collection.
Here is the opening to the piece, click the link to read the rest.
The domestic features significantly in my debut novel Malarky. Domestic territory and behaviour are surveyed, examined and subverted within it. Lest this give the impression I am way domestic, I assert from blast off that vacuuming is the sole household task I excel at. If there was a way to vacuum and read simultaneously I would do it. I have succeeded in walking and reading. I have almost succeeded at knitting and reading, but vacuuming and reading still evades me.
When I was frustrated writing Malarky I would turn on the vacuum. The straight lines, diagonals and heave-ho repetition improved my disposition, but inevitably my mind wandered to books I wanted to revisit. Sometimes to simply reacquaint with a sole paragraph.
Here are some, of the many, local Vancouver books that have caused me to strand the hoover in the middle of the floor and search for a paragraph or moment in them.
To continue reading click here