Itty Bitty Book Review: "Barkskins"

"Barkskins" by Annie Proulx

Yes...back again with "Barkskins "...after I thought I'd left it behind.  I was very pleased to get a place in the Brock House bookclub as the group has been closed to new members as they want to keep the group to a reasonable number for discussion. So, a place became available but what they were reading is this novel I left off reading last Fall at around page 550. Well,  I did finish it  this time (all 711 pages) and while I did appreciate the amazing writing and what she is trying to do, it does fall short in terms of being just too long and too preachy,  My views were pretty much those of the other bookclub members but most did appreciate the writing and the message.

This new bookclub is a lively group and I look forward to future discussions.

On procrastinating on writing...

I found these quite amusing. I did a lot of procrastinating. Perhaps the worst was in third year of a Canadian Lit course and I only had to come up with a topic on a certain date but was going to class without one. (Well, Jim and I were going together...I'll blame it on that)  I mentioned I didn't have a topic (You lost lots of points if you didn't have one and also lost mega points for every hour the essay was late...diabolical professor) and a guy beside me said do "Imagery in P.K.Page" and so I did and it turned out to be a really interesting topic. Of course I did it the night before and only got it in on time because my room-mate, Beth, agreed to type it for me and she only got it done on time because I set the clock ahead two hours.  Ah...student days.

Some examples:

“When I was studying for/writing my Ph.D. exams, I ran out of things to clean/organize in my house, so I adopted a 12-week-old puppy. I love her, but this is without a doubt the single worst idea I’ve had in my entire life.

THEN after I passed said exams, I started a novel just so that I could procrastinate on it by writing my dissertation. There is no way I would have finished my dissertation if I were not using it to avoid writing the novel.

Now I have a big dumb dog, a dissertation, and maybe half a novel.” —Kellie

“I once moved to Paris so I could justify taking longer with an essay because ‘I’m working on it in Paris.’ (I stayed in Paris for months, experienced a total emotional breakdown, did not start the essay.) I was in a very rational place — it was about UFOs and the American southwest. Then while I was there I was like ‘…but maybe it’s also about Paris?’ It was not also about Paris.” —Brian Phillips, author of Impossible Owls

“I once (and by once, I mean this past week) picked up an entirely new hobby — cross-stitch — to avoid writing a paper abstract for a conference. I purchased a cross stitch kit on Amazon, waited two days for it to arrive, designed my own pattern (!!! why !!!) and stitched the whole thing. Then I wrote the whole abstract in 48 minutes, starting 49 minutes before the deadline to submit it.

But I really like cross stitch, it turns out.” —Katie

Quite a sight in Hyde Park, London

I just love this!  Linda, you'll have to see it when you're in London this summer.  It's made out of barrels that will be recylced.  He sounds like a pretty interesting artist.

"Christo  has completed The London Mastaba, a 20-metre-high sculpture floating on London's Serpentine Lake, which represents his and late wife Jeanne-Claude's determination to make art free. 

Based on the trapezoid shapes of mastaba, an Arabic word for bench given to Egyptian tombs and seats found outside homes in ancient Mesopotamia, the temporary sculpture is the realisation of the artistic duo's shared dream of creating a floating version of a form that has fascinated them for half a century.

The London Mastaba, which is made of 7,506 painted barrels secured to scaffolding and anchored in the lake, was entirely self funded and is free to view by all."

To read the full article:
https://www.dezeen.com/2018/06/18/cristo-unveils-the-london-mastaba-floating-on-serpentine-lake/

Paintings of Winston Churchill

I did know that Churchill painted but don't think I've seen any of his work.  I'm very impressed!  Heather James Gallery is selling these in her San Francisco Gallery.  Prices aren't listed.

Press Release

Widely known as the greatest statesman of the 20th century and the savior of Western civilization, a Nobel Prize winner, and the subject of a recent Academy Award-nominated film, more people than ever are taking an interest in Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965). Yet few are aware that he was an avid painter. Eleven oil paintings by Churchill from the 1920s to 1940s, from the collection of the family of the late Julian Sandys, the eldest of Churchill’s grandchildren, will join the spotlight in The Paintings of Sir Winston Churchill, on view from June 1 – July 27, 2018 at Heather James Fine Art, San Francisco, CA.

The landscapes along with a coastal scene and a still life depict friends’ estates, gardens, as well as family vacation spots, including some of Churchill’s favorite travel destinations in France and Morocco.

Room with a view

A little video I made in 2002 from our hotel in Sienna. I called this "Room With a View" as we did have this wonderful view over the Tuscan Hills. We had a demi-pension (breakfast and dinner) and the evening meals were absolutely fabulous and so great to just not to have to find a good restaurant after touring in Tuscany all day. Sienna is a walled city and one of the days we had trouble getting back in but we did manage to stumble on the right road after going down some one way streets. Well, it's very Italian to do that, isn't it?

I learned that the wonderful aria "O bio bambino caro" was in the movie "Room with a View" so perhaps that's also why it's so familiar.

The sound I put on it is a Tino Rossi song as we listened to Tino a lot while driving through Italy. The aria would have even been better I think.  Jim opened the volets and windows and I filmed everything from the open window.

https://youtu.be/PbpJUyD7KSE?list=FLOiZN9l0VG99U08ZvMROSAQ

A few images (not mine) of these wonderful Tuscan Hills

Enjoying a cold one in the sunshine at Jericho Sailing Club

A great view and always fun to see so many people enjoying various water sports.

We were sitting beside some young people with Irish accents.  There seem to be quite a few young people from Ireland in Vancouver.  I picked up this on Reddit:

"There's a bunch of Irish students who came over for the summer. It used to be the thing in Ireland to get a J1 and head to the US for the summer but in recent times the process (and maybe the expense) of getting a J1 has become very onerous. At the same time, the Canadian Working Holiday Visa has become more available - they used to be snapped up in minutes but now Ireland doesn't use the full allocation, so enter the students. The WHV is actually valid for 2 years and you can only get 1 of them in your lifetime so any students coming here for 3 months on it are basically wasting a future opportunity.

Just to say most of them do live around Kits, I'm on a couple of Irish in Vancouver FB groups and they only seem to want to rent in Kits or the West End.

Source: am Irish too, not just here for the summer though!"

Jim checking out the water temp at the beach we plan to swim in.  Tide was quite good but still a bit chilly,

UBC Opera with Donna on Sunday afternoon

There was a brochure one day at our mailboxes and I had heard someone mention the UBC Opera so I suggested to Donna that we go to this performance of two one act operas by Puccini " Il Tabarro" and "Gianni Schicchi"...the first one very dramatic and tragic and the second one an "opera bouffe"...comedy.  I hadn't heard of either of them.  In the second one the very well known aria, "O mio babbino caro" was sung.  This aria is so everywhere that Donna and I thought Puccini must have used it in another opera but it doesn't seem like that's the case.  I guess it's just sung so much and in so many aria collections by various sopranos.

Lesley Garret does this in Pisa in this YouTube video and I know she performed it in Harrogate, Yorkshire when we saw her.  Funny how one thing leads to another. I was in A & B Sound in Victoria many years ago and they were playing a CD of Lesley Garret. I hadn't heard of her but loved the music so asked what it was and bought it. Jim and I listened to it a lot. She was the singer on the British Airways commercials so probably a lot of you have heard her.

 Years later when we were doing a house/car exchange in Harrogate, our exchange partners noticed this CD in our collection and phoned us to say she was appearing in the Harrogate Festival. We immediately bought tickets. She was wonderful and was a "Yorkshire Lass". It was funny to hear her using a broad Yorkshire accent when she addressed her hometown audience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCbnd4vwrEA

We thoroughly enjoyed the performance and it was most interesting to be in the Old Auditorium at UBC which has been completely restored. We even visited the basement where the old cafeteria was...what students used to call "The Armpit".  It was pretty grubby even by student standards. The new version is unrecognizable.  A big lineup for wine but no famous UBC cinnamon buns:)

The orchestra pit

Lorna Crozier wins the George Woodcock Lifetime Achievment Award

I was really pleased to hear that Lorna Crozier won this award.  I sent this letter c/o VPL

Dear Ms Crozier,

I wish to congratulate you on winning the George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award. You made a tremendous difference to many of my students when I invited you to do a reading at Esquimalt Secondary School in the 90's. I remember you being quite concerned about the audience being around 200 teenagers. You asked if just the students who were particularly interested and who chose to come could be the audience. I replied that would only be around five students and they didn't need to get turned on to poetry. I did assure you they would be well behaved and while I thought they would react positively I couldn't guarantee enthusiasm. They all would have studied some of your poetry.

The positive reaction of my students exceeded my wildest expectations and after the reading you were mobbed like a rock star!

Thank you again for giving my students this incredible experience.

Sincerely,

Janice Sexton

From the VPL newsletter:

Lorna Crozier is presented with the George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award, B.C.'s most prestigious literary honour. The presentation will be followed by a reading from Crozier, who will be inducted into VPL's "Walk of Fame." Past award recipients include Wayson Choy, Jean Barman, W.P. Kinsella, Alice Munro, David Suzuki and Rolf Knight.

The evening will also include a prize presentation for author Travis Lupick, winner of the 2018 George Ryga Award for Social Awareness.

Presented in partnership with the Writers' Trust of Canada and Dr. Yosef Wosk.

ONIONS

Lorna Crozier
From:   Sex Lives of Vegetables.

The onion loves the onion.
It hugs its many layers,
saying, O, O, O,
each vowel smaller
than the last.

Some say it has no heart.
It doesn't need one.
It surrounds itself,
feels whole. Primordial.
First among vegetables.

If Eve had bitten it
instead of the apple,
how different
Paradise.

Point Grey Fiesta

Friday, we happened to drive by Trimble Park and saw them setting up the rides.

This seems very much like the Oak Bay Tea Party at Willow's Beach.  Richard and his friends certainly had a lot of fun at it so I imagine it's a big deal for kids here. There is a parade Saturday morning and road closure on 10th but we won't be out and about.

We always used to stroll down to the Oak Bay Tea Party to take a look around and to get the famous "Baron of Beef"....always excellent!  Apparently they bar-b-q 500 kilograms of top inside round beef.

And not to be missed and only in Oak Bay...

Floating Tea Cup Challenge at the Oak Bay Tea Party

2018

Mayor Nils Jensen will be facing challenger(s) each year in the Floating Tea Cup Race.  Made of fibre glass and powered by mis-matched oars, it's a race of skill and daring.  Pull too hard on the oars and your saucer may dip into the water and you're sunk!  Not to fear, the Oak Bay Sea Rescue Society rescue boat is close by.

Why you should become a library tourist

Ok...so we've been "library tourists" without knowing it. I do like his approach to travel and it's what we have done.  I suppose that's why we keep going back to the same old places. We don't have to see anything because we have already seen the major sites. We also value leisurely mornings with our coffee and old fashioned print newspaper. We have probably enjoyed newspapers wherever we've been especially in the UK and not really quite so much in France especially Paris where the two newspapers Le Figaro and Le Monde are intellectual debates about issues. Very erudite but not our idea of morning reading especially in a foreign language.  In Paris we read the Herald Tribune and caught up on North American news.  Now, in the south of France there was the Var- Matin which was a local type of newspaper and more what we want.  When we were doing most of our travel online newspapers and internet connections weren't in the picture.

"This could become your new secret traveling mission.

A few weeks back I wrote about how you should set yourself a 'secret mission' when traveling in a foreign city. The idea is that, by pursuing something interests you, you'll escape the usual tourist traps and see more of a city's local side. For me, that's often food shops and market stalls. Others seek out supermarkets, pharmacies, music stores, and bakeshops.

Now I have another suggestion: Why not engage in library tourism? This fun idea comes via an article in The Daily Beast, titled, "We Took Our Young Children on a Library World Tour — And It Was Marvellous." Stuart Kells recounts his family's quest to visit several of the most prominent libraries in the world, including,"

Read the rest here:
https://www.treehugger.com/travel/why-you-should-become-library-tourist.html

Checking out our new swimming options

We were very spoiled with our "Paradise" beach (aka Bikini Beach) on Beach Ave because even at the lowest tide the drop off was such that you could still get a swim easily.  With Spanish Banks you really have to have a reasonably high tide.  The tides aren't good at the moment since high tide is 11pm and low tide is 4pm.

What they call "Central" Spanish Banks seems like it might be the best option for us as it does seem to drop off a little better and since there are some rocks rather than just sand it is less busy so lots of parking spaces.  Everyone and their dog was down at the beach Tuesday evening!  We always wear our beach shoes so rocks aren't a problem for us. It's also closer to UBC so less of a drive and there are food services and change rooms.

We talked to a woman who was in swimming there and she said it was quite warm.  We usually get in the ocean the first or second week of July so we'll probably stick to that schedule given the tides aren't great at the moment.

Lunch at The Sylvia with Maureen

It was a magnificent day Monday and it was great to see Maureen and be back at The Sylvia.

We all had the soup and sandwich special...tomato basil and smoked salmon croissant....yum!

A heron looking for food for hungry chicks.

The English Bay slide....it wouldn't be Vancouver without it!

It was great to see this "Reading Light" across from the Sylvia encouraging chldren to read "Mister Got to Go".  The VPL has a number of these "lights" (they are on lamp posts} across the city featuring various children's books available in the library.

Speaking of libraries and what survives

Of course, libraries preserve things for research. Jim and I were just commenting recently what a boon it is to have materials available digitally now so researchers don't necessarily have to visit the collections in person.

Jim has done research at a lot of libraries and I wish I had all the library cards but we have quite a few of them. They got saved probably because Jim felt he might go back and do more research I suppose. Richard commented once when trying to figure out what got saved was more what didn't get thrown out. He was right but there was just so much stuff!  But his comment did make me more aware of saving things as mementoes.

 Patty and Terry went to a lot of music concerts over the years and mentioned regretting not saving the ticket stubs. It would have been so easy and takes up so little space. I thought of all the things we have attended and also thought why didn't I do this too. We saw people like Placido Domingo, Joan Sutherland, Leontyne Price, Glenda Jackson, Maggie Smith, Alan Bates, Laurence Olivier and others I can't remember at the moment.

Some library cards.  Of course I was having a good time seeing the sights while Jim was slaving away...

Austin Public Library, UCLA
British Library, Los Angeles Public Library

New York Public Library, The Huntington Library
Lambeth Palace Library, Georgetown University

Cambridge University Library, Columbia University Library
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Centre (Austin, Texas), KBR in Brussels, Belgium
* The Harry Ransom is where Jim spent a total of several weeks researching.  They have the most amazing collection of just about everything.  That's what Texas oil money can do...

Bilblioteque Nationale (Paris), New York Public Library
Archives Nationale (Paris), UCLA

Harry Ransome, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale (Florence)
King's College, London

Jim just mentioned that some of the ones that didn't survive were Princeton, Yale, and Harvard.  I do remember Harvard very well.  I took a look in the library and a campus tour for parents was starting so I tagged along.  It was quite fascinating.