January 28, 2012

Burns Lake/Tyendinaga Haudenosaunee Longhouse

The fire at the mill in Burns Lake was so saddening to follow this week. The fire killed two peopke, injured 19 others and the destroyed mill is the main employer in the town. The image of the back of people hugging each other, as they stood outside awaiting news remains with me. The size of this province means that sometimes these stories, that in a regional sense are up the road, remain distant from us. I always have a hard time resolving how the physical size can lead to an emotional indifference or resignation.

Concurrently another story on the other side of the country caught my auditory attention this week. The story of the Tyendinaga Haudenosaunee Longhouse (Mohawk Territory, Ontario), explained in a CBC radio interview, was both moving and invigorating. The Longhouse was burned to the ground in 2009 in an arson attack. The community and communities surrounding came together and through donations of materials and labour rebuilt a new Longhouse. I think the descriptions of people labouring together over a few days moved me the most. The was something in that collective physical gesture to raise it back up. Expecially given the high level and diverse skills that people volunteered and the breadth of the materials donated.

Here is the Facebook link with photos and details of how you can donate if you are inclined.

One of my first jobs in Canada was at the First Nations Longhouse in UBC.

January 26, 2012

Today my partner reports back that unusually he took his walk in the rain and how it grew on him. It was atmospheric and he enjoyed “the ambiance of the clouds, the glow from the ships and city lights and the vortex created by the blackness of the water.”

Ha!!

He is also wearing the jumper I knitted him for xmas. The first jumper I have ever knitted in this lifetime. It’s is so endearing this creation ! And when I see it on him, well I get a little chesty smile at the sight of it. It really has a bit of a Middle Earth look about it (due to a number of technical challenges with the wrong sized needles and having to go avant-garde on the pattern as a result).

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The last two days were the equivalent of a literary long distant- no-sleep truck drive.  But Malarky is on her way to you. Enfin! Thank you so much to everyone who is showing such warmth and curiosity about my novel. It was a long haul. (10 years)

January 22, 2012

Beached rain

My partner is a great believer in walks on the beach.

Borrowing from him, I am pioneering a slight alternative… walks in the rain on the beach.

The other day during the mysterious Winter Storm Warning I took to the beach and was struck by how calm the water was and how warm the temperature was. (air not water) It was lashing rain and I can say there were very few people out and about. A few hardcore dog walkers in the distance and one drenched person running.

Ever so peaceful. No people, that vast water and those tankers anchored out there — what exactly are they waiting there for?

January 20, 2012

Three generations of incarceration

This morning upon waking I listened to Gary Younge’s Radio 4 documentary Three Generations of Incarceration. (5 more days left to listen) A documentary that tells the story of one family who has had three generations pass through America’s criminal justice system. I’d been waiting for this documentary since I read about it last week.

I like Younge’s approach to radio and how the story unfolded between the movements of the man he was talking to. I think because I enjoyed tracking the urban sounds that surrounded him. But mainly what I admire about Younge is the sense that he’s keenly listening to his subjects. There’s a great deal to be said for gentle curiosity. And on that note I intend to listen to it again.

Radio 4 is running a whole series of programmes on prison and prisoners.

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January 20, 2012

Teapots on the way…

A breaking news weather language event.

A Winter Storm Warning has just been issued for our area. What on earth is a Winter Storm Warning? I have never in all my recorded here years of weather obsessing ever seen one.

It’s a first for weather related language.

Or are Environment Canada just trying to keep things varied?

Does a Winter Storm include showers of teapots or salt shakers or locusts perhaps? It’s question for the penguins.

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I’ve enjoyed the readers who’ve landed up here with the “what is an arctic outflow warning?” search terms. Am hoping the what is a winter storm? searchers will also turn up. And the Penguins fans.

You’re all welcome at mrsokana. We’re full of Malarky here.

January 19, 2012

Here’s a link to a bunch of Michele Bernstein’s pieces translated from Potlatch and Situationist International including a critique on Marienbad in 1962.

I wish Not Bored, who translated them, would also undertake a translation of the impossible to find La Nuit novel Bernstein wrote and upload it in the interests of town planning (take your pick ou) and public reading service.

January 18, 2012

Just went for a little field trip in the -5 (which feels like minus 9) arctic outflow warning and it wasn’t too bad.

But I was wearing ski-ing clothes in anticipation of the arctic encounter and my mind was full of warm thoughts about penguins and their supreme intellect.

There’s a bit of a wind out there alright.

This is a major cold weather event for us. Even tho’ by Edmonton standards it’s tropical.

January 18, 2012

Sweet baby Jesus….

January 18, 2012

“It was always women who were publishing Joyce…” Sylvia Beach (Self Portrait)

(“My bewk will never come out” Joyce to Sylvia)

January 17, 2012

486

486 people committed suicide in Ireland in 2010 and 2011. (possibly higher than this number)

RTE Frontline have sensibly done a programme/discussion to address what Ireland can do to tackle mental health problems.

Phyllis MacNamara so brave and articulate to tell her husband’s story. Very poignant her insights, especially on anxiety. I hope they listen to her. (“Nobody knew what to do, there isn’t any place in the system…”)