August 25, 2010
Just watched a few youtube instructional vids on the baritone ukulele and might be scaling things back to the kazoo .. Blimey some gal on the CBC radio doc claimed you could basically learn something on it in an afternoon.
Just listened to some mad spoon playing a 100 metre sprint of Raglan Road on it, which was very funny. I think it might be more interesting watching these characters …
August 24, 2010
Working hard with Lori on our performance art piece for Chaos at Open Space in Victoria next month.
We are, it must be said, having a riot.
I am looking for a Ukulele to use for it, if you’ve got one that’s abandoned or ignored in the corner.
August 24, 2010
Looked up some pictures of The Burrard Bridge in the archives, I cannot see how or where said walkway could have been situated. There’s some hutchy looking construction that goes up and across it.
I wonder now if I have my bridges confused. Or if my imagination constructed something bigger from the description in the conversation.
But examining les photos reminded me how interesting the construction of bridges and tunnels is. I found the history of the sandhogs tunnelling in NY fascinating some years ago. Plus have always had a hearty affection for viaducts. The history of the railways and the industrial revolution were two of my favourite segments in secondary school history and one of my fave books ever was the navvy book that Ultan Cowley wrote.
Needless to say there are a bunch of bridges here to get intrigued by that hitherto I’d overlooked in prioritizing of local meteorology. Bridge obsession on the menu! But only particular bridges, I am selective ….
August 24, 2010
We may be making progress on the houses mentioned in the Jane Rule novel. They may have been houses along by the bridge on the left hand side, or they may have been removed for the building of the Aquatic Centre. I am settling on that stretch because in the novel when they move, they move up to Beach Ave (is it?).
The last part of the novel was virtually unreadable, verging on Enid Blyton territory, except for a very interesting moment (a paragraph on p216) when Ruth returns from Galiano to the city and her description could have matched any number of “looking up” moments in the city since the five ring bling behemoth arrived and left and continues.
I especially liked these concrete legs:
“there above her head were giant legs of concrete growing up out of the soil that must have been her garden. The road would lift up on them and flow over the bulbs, the bones of birds and Willard’s blood, just as she had dreamed it, just as it had happened before.”
A few lines later we read:
“Ruth did not go on to the beach, nor did she buy anything for Clara. She took a bus to the terminal and sat there on a bench to wait the hours until she could catch a bus to the ferry.”
There’s always something remarkable when the ordinary and unremarkable is appropriately captured. The hundreds of disappointed legs who’ve taken a bus to a terminal and sat on a bench, all there in that sentence. Or for that matter the ones who’ve been left waiting on a bench.
In any case much to be said for an uneven novel, since you can pay attention to the parts that matter or interest and investigate them closely. Bookcases need to even structurally, books less so.
***
I am struggling co-incidentally with a most unreasonable shelf who refuses to go onto my kitchen wall.
August 24, 2010
It appears everyone I am acquainted with was very good living in the 1970’s or perhaps a bit deaf..
I am trying to figure out what the term “mikes” refers to in Juan Butler’s The Garbageman. I am wondering if it is or was a slang word for pills, or drugs. I don’t think it refers to microphones because it doesn’t make sense in that context. It may be an Easterly vernacular. If you ever heard that word in that context — educate me!
August 23, 2010
Means of production: a covered walkway
At the Means of Production garden tea party today I learned much about the Burrard Bridge. The Means of Production (MOP) is a fascinating garden space run and used by artists to cultivate materials that they use in their art production. Last year, I think it was, I went to another tea party and Lori taught me how to save seeds and I scooped some to keep the bees happy.
I planted them in a corner of my garden but I think my ineptitude ended their reign fairly swiftly, nothing much has ever grown in that particular spot, so perhaps there’s a big clump of chimney bricks down there.
Today Peter was telling me about a walkway that exists beneath the Burrard Bridge, but that the city shut down during the depression because people had begun to move in there. Seemingly this walkway was a route under the bridge, across the bridge, if it was raining. The public descended a bunch of stairs, I think if I heard right, and could walk across through this covered walkway. This is such a perfect concept for November rains here.
August 23, 2010
Today I kept turning up at places that were closed! I went to two community centres that were both closed. I continue to have my seasons confused. There was a fun CBC radio documentary on about the ukuele on the radio to sing along to: Frank Faulk explores the passion for the ukulele in his documentary The Gospel According to Uke.
When I was in the Wired Writing Program in Banff, Anne Fleming played the ukukele most nights along with Ingrid who played the guitar.
It was a fun ditty of a documentary, and I have to say the players all had fine singing voices, but that was probably nothing to do with the instrument they played under their armpits. The ukulele does remind me a bit of playing the washing board with an old stick.
August 23, 2010
Watched this interesting documentary on China from the Inside: women of the country. The suicide statistic amongst rural women is very alarming. One every four mins. China is the only country in the world where more women than men commit suicide.