April 17, 2016 · 7:06 pm

Books: The Paying Guests – Sarah Waters

9780349004365Why mince words I loved this book. From the opening page you’re drawn into this lovely world of 1920’s London and the lives of a mother and grown daughter whose circumstances are forever changed by the Great War.

To make ends meet they rent out rooms in their their grand old house to a young couple or ‘paying guests’ . Although awkward at first, a relationship quickly develops and before you know it the old house comes to life again with a steamy, illicit, passionate love affair.

Of course, illicit affairs are the stuff of real life and fiction. I think what makes this one unique is that it explores illicit love amidst the backdrop of changing moral fabric. The old world where women played prescriptive roles was changing. The Edwardian sensibility was fading against the rise of the middle class and the collapse of the old social genteel order. When the Barbers, a rough and tumble young couple (he’s an insurance broker, she a stay-at-home wife of questionable class) move in, their relationship with Frances and her mother becomes a microcosm of the new social order that is emerging.

This all sounds very academic but what this book is, is an extraordinary romp that’s well executed on multiple levels.  Without giving too much away I would say that the book is also a study in the slippery slope of moral indiscretion where one act begets another and before you know it,your characters are far away from who they thought they were or hoped to be. Another great read! I loved it and look forward to reading other books by the talented Ms. Waters!

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April 17, 2016 · 6:31 pm

Books: The Girl on the Train

The_Girl_on_the_TrainThe jacket copy on The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins says you won’t be able to put this book down and I didn’t. Not once. I read it straight through even though the characters are almost all horrible non-likable people. But there is something incredibly readable about this book that keeps you turning page after page. That’s a good story teller at the very least.

Rachel, the main character, is a bit of a blubbering drunk who has lost control of her life and lives it vicariously through others. Every day she commutes to London and she passes a series of houses which she has become quite familiar with. So familiar, in fact, that she feels she has come to know one couple in particular. Then one day she witnesses something disturbing and she goes to the police and becomes inextricably entangled in the disappearance of a woman.

And voila you have the makings of a classic murder mystery plot! What I find interesting about this book is the exploration of memory loss as a result of drunken black-outs. Our main protagonist’s memory is unreliable because she’s a drunk and has difficulty recounting the details of an event, and often can’t remember the event itself. So part of the book deals with her struggle to piece together details of the incident and as well as of her own life.

The other theme that runs through this book is the issue of domestic violence and the politics of power in male female relationships.  It doesn’t paint a pretty picture and certainly some of the issues she touches on would be familiar to most of us which brings relationship politics uncomfortably close to home. Last but not least at the centre of a good murder mystery is the fact that people aren’t all that they portray themselves to be. In The Girl on the Train nobody really is what they portray themselves to be. How well can you ever know know someone? This book explores this theme and the result is CREEPY. This a great quick read. I found myself going back after I finished reading it trying to pick up clues that the writer left as crumbs in each chapter. Good read!

 

 

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April 11, 2016 · 4:50 am

Poem of the Week:For a Dying Tomcat Who’s Relinquished His Former Hissing and Predatory Nature

I remember the long orange carp you once scooped
from the neighbor’s pond, bounding beyond
her swung broom, across summer lawns

to lay the fish on my stoop. Thanks
for that. I’m not one to whom offerings
often get made. You let me feel

how Christ might when I kneel,
weeping in the dark
over the usual maladies: love and its lack.

Only in tears do I speak
directly to him and with such
conviction. And only once you grew frail

did you finally slacken into me,
dozing against my ribs like a child.
You gave up the predatory flinch

that snapped the necks of so many
birds and slow-moving rodents.
Now your once powerful jaw

is malformed by black malignancies.
It hurts to eat. So you surrender in the way
I pray for: Lord, before my own death,

let me learn from this animal’s deep release
into my arms. Let me cease to fear
the embrace that seeks to still me.

 

For more information on Mary Karr, please click here.

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April 3, 2016 · 9:51 pm

Italian pasta with sunburst tomatoes, prawns and mixed greens

MSIU-FOOD-007

The Globe and Mail is on a great recipe roll! I got both this Lucy Waterman recipe and my Jamie Oliver Asian Noodle recipe from there. Both of these recipes are ridiculously easy  to make.

12 ounces (375 grams) fettucine

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 cloves garlic, sliced

2 cups cherry tomatoes

1 pound (500 grams) shrimp, peeled

12 ounces (375 grams) stemmed mixed greens, roughly chopped

1 teaspoon chili flakes

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

¼ cup toasted breadcrumbs

Method

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add fettucine and boil for 10 to 12 minutes or until al dente. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the pasta cooking water.

Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic and tomatoes and sauté until tomatoes burst, about 2 minutes. Add shrimp and cook until they turn light pink, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in greens and chili flakes and sauté until the greens wilt, 1 to 2 minutes.

Add pasta to skillet and toss together. Add enough pasta cooking water to moisten everything, up to 1 cup. Season well with salt and pepper. Toss with extra virgin olive oil and finish with breadcrumbs. Serve immediately.

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April 3, 2016 · 9:35 pm

Jamie Oliver’s Asian Noodle Soup

Jamie_HealthierHappierYou_JanFeb16_20841_AsianStyleChickenNoodleSoupI made a vegetarian version of Jamie Oliver’s Asian Chicken and Tofu Noodle soup  and it was fantastic. It was easy to make and it is now competing with laksa, my other favourite rice noodle soup.

For those of you interested in the original chicken version here is the recipe.

For a veggie or pescatarian version (I added prawns to the one I made last night) here is the recipe:

I litre organic vegetable broth

2 shallots

1 3/4-inch (2-centimetre) piece of ginger

4 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon peanut oil

2 tablespoons sesame oil

5 star anise

½ bunch fresh coriander

I bunch fresh basil

100 grams (4 ounces) tofu

2 cups spinach

5 large mushrooms (thinly sliced – (I added this to the recipe)

1 lb prawns peeled – to serve 4 people

4 green onions – finely chopped

½ fresh red chili

3/4 cup fine uncooked rice noodles

2 tablespoons low-salt soy sauce

Black pepper

1 lime cut in 4

Peel and finely slice the shallot, ginger and garlic.

Heat the peanut oil in a large saucepan over a medium–low heat, then add the shallot, ginger and garlic. Fry for 5 minutes, or until softened.

Add sesame oil and fry for a few more minutes.

Add star anise and cover with 1 litre of bouillon. Gently bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cover the pan with a lid. Add mushroom and prawns. Add a dash of soy sauce to taste. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Add spinach to heated broth before you’re ready to serve.

Pick the herb leaves, chop the tofu into ½ inch (1.25-centimetre) cubes. Cook rice noodles.

Place rice noodles in serving bowls, add herbs and tofu and then ladle broth with spinach, prawns and mushrooms and serve.

I gave everyone a small ramekin with hot pepper, a slice of lime and herbs and green onions so they could garnish their soup to taste. A big bottle of sriracha was on the table ready and waiting. Serve and sigh with satisfaction. So easy, so delicious. Thanks Jamie Oliver!

 

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March 13, 2016 · 1:08 am

Fashion Week Shines a Spotlight on the Elephant Crisis

 

Vancouver, BC: In an industry that regularly garners criticism from animal advocates, Vancouver Fashion Week (VFW) is showing the world that animals do in fact matter. On Saturday (March 19) March 20 (VFW ) will feature Elephantasia, a pachyderm-inspired, eco-couture collection by a collaboration of 12 different designers globally. This travelling exhibition will raise awareness and funds for African elephants who are killed for their ivory. In Africa an elephant dies every 15 minutes. Ninety-six elephants die from poaching per day and at this rate, African elephants will be extinct within our generation.

Elephantasia is enlisting the support of BC’s only elephant advocacy organization – Elephanatics. Based in Vancouver, the group helps the long-term survival of elephants by raising awareness, organizing events such as the Global March for Elephants and Rhinos, and providing education on the enormous challenges elephants face in Africa’s poaching crisis and in Asia’s tourist trade.

The fashion show On Saturday March 19th will also include guest speaker, Dr. Jake Wall, Chief Scientific Research Advisor for Elephanatics. (Elephanatics, Save the Elephants, UBC Grad and National Geographic Explorer) He will speak at 4:30 pm about the current poaching crisis in Africa. Dr. Wall developed a real-time monitoring system using high-tech GPS tracking technology inside collars that were put on wild elephants. The system helps counter elephant poaching in Kenya and South Africa. Dr. Walls technology was instrumental in capturing iconic footage of a one-hundred-plus elephant herd for National Geographic’s documentary, Great Migrations.

On Sunday (March 20), Elephanatics will host an information booth at VFWs show at the Chinese Cultural Centre at – 4:00 pm. The booth will be collecting donations for the African Wildlife Foundation and encouraging donations with the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust’s baby elephant orphanage in Kenya that cares for the young elephants orphaned by poaching, until they are ready to be introduced to the wild again.

EVENT DETAILS

Elephantasia at Vancouver Fashion Week

March 19 14 to 20, 2016 at 4:30 pm

Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Vancouver

50 East Pender Street

Vancouver, BC

http://vanfashionweek.com/elephanatics/

FOLLOW THE CAMPAIGN

http://www.elephanatics.org

Twitter: @elephanaticsbc

facebook.com/Elephanatics/

Instagram: Elephantasia2016

MEDIA CONTACT

Tessa Vanderkop

elephanaticsinfo@gmail.com

604-789-8886

 

 

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March 6, 2016 · 4:12 pm

Poem of the Week: Flossie at School by Alden Nolan via Poetry Mistress Alison McGhee

Flossie at School
     – Alden Nowlan

Five laths in a cotton dress
was christened Flossie
and learned how to cry,
her eyes like wet daisies
behind thick glasses.

She was six grades ahead of me
and wore bangs; the big boys
called her “The Martian,”
they snowballed her home,
splashed her with their bicycles,
left horse dung in her coat pockets.

She jerked when anyone spoke to her,
and when I was ten
I caught up with her one day
on the way home from school,
and said, Flossie I really like you
but don’t let the other kids know I told you,
they’d pick on me, but I do like you,
I really do, but don’t tell anybody.
And afterwards I was ashamed
for crying when she cried.

 

For more about Alden Nowlan, click here.
Alison’s Facebook page.

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February 5, 2016 · 11:59 pm

Wild Geese: A poem by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Thank you Mary Oliver.

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January 23, 2016 · 11:15 pm

Poem of the Week: The Laughing Heart via Poetry Mistress Alison McGhee

The Laughing Heart
– Charles Bukowski

your life is your life
don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvelous
the gods wait to delight
in you.

 

For more information on Charles Bukowski, please click here.

This poem found it’s way to me via Alison McGhee – poetry mistress.

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January 17, 2016 · 5:42 pm

Minutiae #18 Heroes

When I was a kid/young adult I felt weird. I have no idea if I was weird but I felt weird. A square peg in a round hole, me on one side of the world, the world on the other side as though there was a piece of glass between us. I guess this is just being an awkward teen and not having any idea what your place in the world is.

Then one day Ziggy Stardust blew into town and changed everything. Over the years he brought Diamond Dogs, Scary Monsters, Aladdin Sane , and Let’s Dance. That fresh breeze of overt differentness of David Bowie became a lightning rod of approval for my own feeling of not belonging. I loved him, I loved him, I loved him. I overcame my insane shyness and danced and pranced in our living room to an audience of one (my adoring mother) while I sang so the world could hear.

“In the year of the scavenger, the season of the bitch
Sashay on the boardwalk, scurry to the Ditch
Just another future song, lonely little kitsch
(There’s gonna be sorrow) try and wake up tomorrowIn the year of the scavenger, the season of the bitch
Sashay on the boardwalk, scurry to the Ditch
Just another future song, lonely little kitsch
(There’s gonna be sorrow) try and wake up tomorrow”

Sing some more, she’d say and I would. Quite improbably I felt unabashedly most like me when I would get all dolled up and lay out my best Bowie performances for my mother.

The heart is such a crazy thing. It seems miraculous to me that a complete stranger can come along and make a girls’ life better. Make her place firmer in this world by showing that weird was just a better part of the world we live in. If he could join the human race, I could too. If he could dance, so could I.

I read a piece the other day by an ardent, life long Bowie fan who exclaimed that he wasn’t one of those fly by night fans like so many are. He’s bought every album, watched every interview, understood Bowie’s art from beginning to end. He never got off the train.

I don’t think I got off the train but I was not that person who remained an overt fan for the rest of my life. When I heard that he had died I felt sad. But as the week progressed I found myself thinking about him, his art, his music, his family, and what a profound loss it must be to have this super nova be fallable, to have to face leaving much too early and how hard that must have been for him and for those who truly knew him and loved him.

I loved David Bowie the artist. His art changed my life, touched me, twisted my heart, shaped me, made me stronger, made me better.
My mantra to this day when I have to speak in public is “If David Bowie can do it, so can I.” and I step forward on to life’s stage and try and give the performance of my life. Like he did.

Now that he is gone you find out other things about him that I didn’t know. That he is aquiet supporter of animal rights, that he licensed his song Heroes to the producers of The Cove for very little, that he was an early advocate against the senseless slaughter of dolphins in Taji. In the end David (Bowie) Jones was a human being like the rest of us. He was mortal, but he represents to me the best part of being human…the amazing beauty, art, that connects us even if we don’t know each other, have never met.

I went for a walk this week and found myself crying. I had no idea why. Then I realized it was grief. Saying goodbye to someone who gave me strength through his art and helped a young kid join the human race (with occasional confidence). Thanks David.

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