May 16, 2011
Centre A ran a workshop yesterday with CO-LAB. Facilitated by the extraordinary Giorgio Magnanensi of Vancouver New Music ( Giorgio is virtually a vitamin injection to one’s creative morale, a provincial treasure, and God be praised for such an animated and passionate man) I enjoyed myself immensely unraveling within his concept of de-noise-ing.
I wandered about T&T and up and down the streets of DTES with a v temperamental recorder, which only deigned to record when it deigned to record rather than when I pushed the button, but more than any recording was struck me was how my ears chased certain sounds and pursued them. And the relationship to the visual and the sound and separating the two.
I am very hopeful of applying some of what Giorgio suggested in a completely different context and will experiment and see what transpires.
Brava to Debra Zhou at Centre A for curating such an excellent series of workshops, I can’t wait for the next one!
May 16, 2011
I’ve been following the rising rivers in Mississippi, Manitoba and the B.C Interior. I’ve done some reporting on the Mississippi situation, read on the Assiniboine to compare the response closer to home and then had more of a challenge figuring out what’s happening with our own BC river action (Cottonwood River/ Quesnel (sp?).
The concept of “sacrificial flooding” (surely not so distant from vicarious baptizing ?) blows my mind. The river may not choose to burst where you live, but we are deciding in the interests of protecting more or other people/ property you shall be flooded instead. It’s a water borne class system, which may have its roots in engineering decisions and calamity management, but ultimately the condo tower and its dependent infrastructure prevails over the farm and its independent infrastructure. I am curious about the choice to destroy a food source over a chunk of cityscape. I pondered it for days until then it struck me — food can always be flown in would be the logic. I am trying to imagine how this perky decision to flood 150 homes or farmland over 850 homes will be received by those 150 home dwellers and farmers. Of course these aren’t easy decisions, but the notion of managing mother nature is reaching new levels of insistence and I suspect defeat. Where and when should the intervention begin is my question? I have a feeling it’s a few stages back in the process. Why are the rivers experiencing record levels of flooding for starters?
The river forecasting centre has today issued flood warnings in Nicola River near Merritt and the Bonaparte River at Cache Creek, West Kettle River near Westbridge and in Quesnel — the Willow and Cottonwood rivers. There are other flood watches now in place as well.
I am learning the names of all kinds of rivers, which is educating, if unfortunate circumstances in which to become aware of them. I continue to be amazed at how the geography of this country is such that calamity can strike in one spot while complete oblivion to it can happily remain in other spots.
May 13, 2011
Today a blast of sunshine looks promising … I might manage to plant another few square feet of my proposed square foot garden. How and ever, so far the first square foot has not yielded any sign of life in it whatsoever.
But the Flowerman gave me a first class tutorial on the shed door lock that surely will result in triumph and will yield the garden fork.
I had great anxiety about not being able to get into the garden this summer, but it’s rescinding. The Gods are smiling on me !
My fellow gardeners have planted bee friendly plants in different spots in the garden and labelled them with these dotey handwritten “bee friendly plant” signs, which make me think of my bee-friendliest friend Madame Beespeaker.
Marie beside me has planted her peas and beans (one or both) and her garden is waking up. My gardening companion and chief critic my son has also visited and filled the wheel barrow with compost for me. Merci mon cher.
Yesterday we took a walk, 14 paces til the rain started, we lumbered on and in and out of patchy showers for an hour. Lovely it was despite both coming home sniffing. I live in a great neighbourhood for garden watching and observing and cataloguing.
May 13, 2011
Sky knob
Of all the things that baffle me and there are a sizeable volume, attempting to open a plane door while it is flying propels me to a new level of confusion. In a quickety-click look I have just noted 8 incidents of it came up on a BBC news search.
To even peer out that tiny porthole thing on exit door is utterly terrifying. To actively attempt a wander out into the clouds ? What precisely does the door opener think is out there ? A dainty breeze and a carpet of daisies ? A deckchair and a flask of tea? I truly think we must invest a great deal more money in portable brain scanners and general investigation of the old noggin.
*
A bit more reading on the science and apparently it’s actually not possible for a passenger to manage to open a plane door since the cabin is pressurized and because of the shape of the doors and the way they fit. Thus we still need to further understand the intention of why someone would want to do such a thing.
Both men and women have been arrested for it & charged, alcohol is regularly a factor, so is anxiety and in one case a woman decided she wanted to smoke a cigarette.
May 11, 2011
Eurovision
Today I managed to stream most of the first semi final of the Eurovision Song Contest and kept up a potted commentary throughout. (The second takes place Thursday and the final Le Samedi)
The classic out of tune, no relationship to note, lyric and tune relationship of the Eurovision songs thankfully persists, along with a bucket of necessary kitsch. It only becomes utterly troubling when the various countries forget to pack the synth and omit the standard recipe of devout Euro-pop and take the whole thing way too seriously.
What has crept in is, an unfortunate, global generic influence, especially evident is the temdency to impersonate Celine and J-Lo, both odd choices given the key ingredients to the Eurovision of old. Also, people are no longer singing in their own languages they’re now singing mainly in English but with a select vocabulary that is redolent of car bumper stickers and advertising slogans on packets of tissues. (the words today, tonight, life, you, your heart, the radio, me, the one, put in a high percentage in the songs, if not flooded them all).
I recall Eurovision parties in Dublin bedsits in my twenties and everything about watching the Eurovision is its own chronology , whether the songs still hint at music we danced to in the marketplace in Yugoslavia or just that Euro pop is a bit like bread the ingredients are fairly stable. And then there’s the costumes and the dancing and what seems a universal requirement that you cannot actually sing in tune. Ran into a neighbour who’s from Paris at the shop and we had such a laugh exchanging reflections on the Eurovision past and present that we invited a few dour looks. (doesn’t take much in Vancouver ….built in citizen noise police in some spots) .
May 9, 2011
By night I was thrilled to have an opportunity to watch two of Allan King’s earliest documentaries made during the 1950’s and 1960’s when he was living in Vancouver and working for CBC Vancouver.
Gyppo Logging
Allan King (Producer), Canada, 1957, 29 minutes
Gyppo Logging explores the lives of loggers who eked out a living by hand-felling some of the most inaccessible timber on the BC coast. Relying on sheer toughness alone, these men endured one of the most dangerous industries in the world. Their hard way of life resulted in a huge appetite for music, drink and dancing.
Portrait of a Harbour
Allan King (Producer), Canada, 1957, 28 minutes
Vancouver’s life as a port city is given an encompassing look in this remarkable glimpse of life on the waterfront. From the tugboat operators who ply the waters of Coal Harbour, to cannery workers shelling crab, to the Japanese sea captain inching his way into port, each scene is a gem. Together they create a bustling portrait of a Vancouver that once was.
On my way out of the cinema I was beyond ecstatic to see that the documentary On The Bowery will be screened here May 19, 2011. I extensively researched The Bowery during the time period of this documentary, including two trips to NY, thus I am made up to see this film restored and here on my doorstep for the viewing.
May 9, 2011
Fascinating labour history walking tour today in downtown Vancouver and DTES. I thought I knew something of labour history in Vancouver having read plenty — but there’s so much more to learn and discover! What a radical history it is! My knowledge is quite patchy it turns out, but handily the tour was also a tad patchy on the particular time period and events of April 23, 1935 which we explored recently in Rereading the Riot Act, so was able to challenge and enhance that bit.
It is something of a disgrace that the City did not mark the contribution of The Mothers Council of Vancouver in 1935 today, within its Vancouver 125 celebrations. Left wing women’s history in the city during the 1930’s remains lightly documented rather than comprehensively. Irene Howard’s excellent essay The Mother’s Council of Vancouver: Holding the Fort for the Unemployed, 1935-1938 on the topic is vital reading.
May 8, 2011
Working Class and Labour History Walking Tour
For those interested tomorrow (Sunday) there is a Working Class and Labour History Walking Tour taking place as part of La Commune de Vancouver.
Join SFU Instructor John-Henry Harter and others for PART I of this walking tour of the city’s working past.
Meet at 2pm outside Burrard Skytrain Station. The event is due to last til 4pm, dress appropriately to our variable weather of late.
This event is part of a series:
La Commune de Vancouver
Paris 1871/Vancouver 2011
March 18-May 28
FOR MORE INFORMATION, GO TO:
www.sfu.ca/history/commune
May 8, 2011
I had not long made a pot of one of my tea-blends experiments (today’s was named grotty weather Saturday blend: i scoop of Lea Valley tinned orange pekoe with one scoop of Lady Earl Grey from Steeps) when lo agus behold the most astonishing weather event unfolded.
I would term it a hail-rain-rain-hail event or even a Hail Our Rain moment. It arrived with the strangest ongoing rumbling throughout. Ever curious about the varieties in rain (I’ve convened with a lifetime of it and yes there is much variation in it) I took myself out during the preliminary hail stage. Three of my neighbours were transfixed watching it descend and bounce off the branches and ground, then the father arrived and they all departed under cover of brollies. The line of umbrellas were visible just above the front hedge as they trekked off.
Meanwhile behind the tree, a vicious bouldering action was happening with the clouds in a South West direction.
I ran out into the hailing rain and yep they stung on landing. Ran back in. Then spectated it from different windows and angles and then when I ventured out to pick up a book, the opera continued, with a strange pattern of repetition. The speed would increase and an extended period of hail would follow, then cease and back to rain.
It was extensive, it was indeed an opera of a weather event. The sound was incredible.
May 7, 2011
Parataxis thank you
Thank you to everyone who joined us last Sunday afternoon for the Parataxis event exploring Helen Potrebenko’s novel Taxi! in today’s city and interfacing the book with what was and what is. Thank you especially to the members of the public who “read shotgun” (open the book randomly and read passages) and to Helen who planned the route and talked to readers as we wandered. We were also blessed to have the collaboration, performance and generous support of Lori W (Mme Beespeaker) who concurrently documented the event at her blog.
I had a strange crisis before embarking on the event, which has given way to new/re-imaginings and invited input (some helpful, some less so). I set out perhaps to ask a few questions, one certainly was who authors remembering? Another was: what am I prepared to do for this book? I did not factor that one needs “permission” to revisit repeatedly. I had not considered that a repeated revisit might invite an assumptive yawn. But then it’s always easier for people to yawn, dismiss than engage.
The actual experience of repeatedly visiting a text like Taxi! (through different interventions) is quite the contrary. Each time we engage with this book it delivers new delights, reflections and questions, not least because of its fragmentary form. Again, a reflection of the working day, the working shift, the working life and this particular city, where the tea does not sit inside the pot for long.
The 11 people who joined us last Sunday engaged with the text in such a committed, enthusiastic and detailed manner which resulted in whole new considerations, especially about the present day.