Last Day 2013 - Make it A Good Day

Every day counts, but lasts and firsts make us think about the passage of time more.
Every day we do small things that make us a little lighter inside.
For me it is a simple daily pleasure, my morning coffee in my kitchen, my quiet time. I don't rush it. I savour it and I know I am blessed to have it all - the kitchen, the good coffee grinds, the choice of a cup I like, the time - more than anything else - the time.
If I have companions for my little ritual I feel it's an extension of my privilege. It could be a cat, a child, a partner, a neighbour, a friend. Once in a blue moon, a sister - in the flesh or on skype from far far away. Every one of those is a welcome addition, never an interruption.
I wish you a year filled with the small things that make your own life a blessed life.

It's A White Christmas

Fluffy snow drifting down on our quiet city this morning. The house is quiet too.
It will be a busy day once I get started. I offered to cook an impromptu holiday dinner for friends who lost power in the ice storm and don't have it back yet, and can't host their traditional festive one. It won't be as grand, but the house will be warm and there will be food.
Such beautiful devastation.

Old Man Winter

Has arrived, no question about it.
The myth that it can't be cold when it snows - where does that come from? It's bitterly cold, hovering around the -20 c, my frozen fingers after a few minutes of snow shovelling are hard proof, and snowing relentlessly. Even the cats don't want to be out today.

Night Train To Lisbon

A plug in for a very good movie that did not get the recognition it deserved:
With the fabulous lead of Jeremy Irons, his voice as deep, enticing and soothing as it ever was, and a supporting cast that is the best of the best. The backdrop story is of the darkest times in Portugal's recent political and social history, of which I'm ashamed to say I was completely ignorant. The intricate web of love and hate that happens between friends and enemies, and what time does to both is what makes this movie deep and thoughtful.
Based on a novel which I intend to read, of the same name.


All thumbs up for this one.

The Hawk Lives

They took care of it until his eye healed and released him back to the wild last week.
Sometimes good things happen.

Birds of Prey in the City

A wounded specimen of this magnificent species - Northern Goshawk - landed, unintentionally I'm sure, on my doorstep this morning, and was taken to a wildlife rescue centre shortly after I called the city. I am grateful that we live in a city that cares enough, but the truth is this center operates solely on donations. If you can, call Toronto Wildlife Center and give them some money. They need every penny, and no amount is too small.

Hot Wheels - Watch this:

Nobel for Alice, Hurrah!

It gives me a little bit of hope to hear this morning of Alice Munro getting the Nobel prize. She well deserves it. After my great dismay in learning that evil Putin, a man who lives by the sword, is nominated for the Peace prize, the whole thing completely lost any credibility in my opinion. This restores a little bit of what is lost.
Here's a toast to the Great Alice, to Canadian Literature, and to all the people around the globe who live by their art. They make our lives richer.

A Song for Thursday: Michael Kiwanuka

Sweet voice this young man has:

Fashion Show on the Edge: Rick Owens

Now THIS is fashion to revel in. Watch all the way, it gets better and better and don't forget to look at the clothes.

Sherman Alexie - What a Fabulous Writer!

I'm reading a collection of short stories of this very good author, and the stories are indeed very short. Yet I find that occasionally I have to halt mid sentence and rest before I can move on to the next line, sometimes the power of his words is too much to bear. He is blunt and unflinching, looks into the lives of Native Americans and offers it to us so plainly it hurts.
It hurts not because we see the situations he writes about from above, or unrelated to other cultures as our circumstances are so very different; no, it hurst because on the basic level of human existence we all hope for the same things. Some of the people who populate his pages are damaged beyond repair, and some still have some hope. No matter where they are on their journey, he follows them around, and lets us have a peak.
Reading his stories is a humbling experience.


“I suddenly understood that if every moment of a book should be taken seriously, then every moment of a life should be taken seriously as well.” Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

“But none of them laughed as hard about my beautiful brain as I knew my father would have. I miss him, the drunk bastard. I would always feel closest to the man who had most disappointed me.” Sherman Alexie, War Dances.

JW Anderson - The Worst Designer of our Time?

I think so. His taste and style are simply terrible. I've blogged about his men in skirts before, and I feel his female designs are just as bad. Tasteless, shapeless things that are supposed to be witty but are just unbearably useless, completely unwearable.
See for yourselves, and make no mistake, these are men:




The women's designs are offensive to me on a similar level. Not because I'm a prude, but because they serve no purpose whatsoever - they are not beautiful, they are not pragmatic, they say nothing about the human form in all its glory. On the contrary, I think these clothes are mocking those who wear them, and that is the absolute worse thing a designer can do - to mock his customers.

House FUll of Flowers

How good to start a new year with a flower at every corner?




Wishes for the new year from around the table included fine words such as compassion, love, patience, peace of mind, clarity, music and art, togetherness, and of course, like every good pageant: World Peace.
Amen to all.

Poor Blue Jasmine (spoiler alert!)

I tend to not read reviews of movies before I go see them, I love the surprises movies have in store for me. I went to see Blue Jasmine knowing nothing about it except that Woody Allen made it and Cate Blanchett is the lead. So I knew nothing about the homage to Tennessee Williams but I'm so clever I recognized the story line as soon as the boyfriend bursts into a fit of anger and jealousy. Hey - I know this, I thought to myself, this is A Streetcar Named Desire all over again, and better except Marlon The Great isn't there.

What we do get here, rather than the lines of the old play, is a modern take on the fragility of the rich without their money. Woody is best in propelling drama with dialog like nobody else, in every one of his films, a dialog so brilliant you think the actors are making it up on the spot, not a single word out of place or superfluous. A rare quality in movies.
To his aid come the superb casting and design of sets, clothes, atmosphere so natural you feel you're a fly on those walls, be it in the beautiful Hampton's villas or in the hopeless desolation of a San Francisco apartment. It is a well made film, nasty and dark and perfect.

Woody Allen's a bastard, but he knows what he's doing, the bugger. I still think he is a pedophile and guilty of incest. Why do I go to see his movies still is beyond me. I shouldn't. He should have been writing in jail. That's the ugly life at work here - his crimes are not considered criminal because of his fame and because he never officially married the mother of his children. It doesn't change the fact that he married a girl he raised, 35 years his junior, the adopted daughter of his long term common law wife and mother of his biological children, he married the sister of his own kids. This will never be right, no matter how good a writer he is, no matter how he managed to convince himself, the girl, and the world that technically this is all just fine and dandy.

Wooddy Allen is not the first man in the world and surely not the last to be forgiven for serious bad deeds because of his talent, fame, or wealth. Such is the world we live in. Yesterday's news are fast forgotten, and the world moves on. I wonder what legacy he leaves the kids from his newly constructed family. He was writing their drama of a future even before they were born.
I just wish one day someone will be able to write something equally nasty and good about him, in his own style so the truth will be out there, for those who are seeking it.

The Big Ballet

The world of dance is not very nice or inclusive, traditionally. But every now and then someone makes a breakthrough that shakes things up and push the "refresh" button. Here is a group of Russian dancers who are the opposite of the typical svelte and lanky ballerinas we've been programmed to expect. They are BIG ladies, but they can shake it with the best of them. Presenting and example from The Big Ballet:

Reviving An Old Treasure

The Front Page, a diamond of a movie directed by Billy Wilder, shoots words at you at a speed of a racing car. You miss one, you missed the whole scene. It's the opposite of those TV shows of today where you come back to the same channel 2 hours later and the very same stupid faces stare at each other with "meaningful" looks that say nothing in particular. No, this play makes each and every word that's hurled at you count. Of course every other word is as foul as they come, and the characters are all bad - there are no good people in this screwball comedy. Everyone is stinking rotten, only for different reasons.
It stars Jack Lemon and Walter Matthau, fast talkers from a different era, back when actors knew how to use their eyebrows, before botox took that option away.
Half way through we realized we've seen it before, under the name "His Girl Friday". It doesn't matter, it's brilliant no matter how many times they'll make it over.

Unexpected Gifts

How nice it is when my appreciative customers just drop by to say hello or bring me a treat, or to tell me their latest escapades. I love that aspect of having a community shop. The best one last week was this: one of them is a great poet. He came over just to gift me one of his poetry books. This book is a beautiful thing: Two poets engage in a conversation that sheds light on their daily inner lives, across generations, genders and a wide continental gap. They come together in these pages to bring beauty and quiet contemplation to the rushed voices inside our heads. If we care to lend an eye, ear, thought to their short clear sentences.
The two are David Bateman and Naomi Beth Wakan.

Here is a little quote from the book "Pause":

no matter
how many words we say
to each other
the essence lies in the spaces between
the essence lies in the pauses

P.S. - The long Ships Movie Circa 1964

Don't bother. Awful stuff. Pure rubbish.
Truly disrespectful to the book upon which it is based. An anathema, in fact.
How can someone take a work of art and turn it into a preachy Christian snooze is beyond me.
Apparently a new Swedish produced movie is in the works as we speak. I hope they indulge in true Pagan bloodletting, slave-driving drudgery, lustful flesh, and show us the beauty of Mother Earth with proper cinematography while they're at it.
Why Swedish, when the vikings in this book are Danes, that is my question.

Books, Water, Skies - A Recipe for Happiness

These are the things I've always been partial to, since my childhood on my father's ships' decks (not his own ship, he was the captain). This combination still works to restore my sense of self: A good book, a sunny day in the proximity of a large body of water.
I've recently finished reading The Book of Ebenezer Le Page by Gerald Basil Edwards. It is a dense masterpiece which took me some time to get through, but well worth it. It was a privilege to spend time with the man in whose voice the book is written, a thoughtful kind and right-hearted man from the isle of Guernsey, who chronicles the changes of the small world around him, and leaves it in the end with only love in his heart. He lives his entire life in one house on the island, yet he never feels restricted. The way he looks at the people around him is timeless and soul-searching.


And now I'm on another long-reaching one, space wise: The Long Ships, by Frans G. Bengtsson. It is the story of the travels and adventures of a viking named Orm, told in a language so bemused and unassuming as to capture the imagination of a child, yet good enough to eat. Great fun. It could be a great adventure film. The fighting, blood, costumes and turn of fortune are perfect for the screen. In fact, there is an old movie based on it. A good one to spend the summer with.

OMG, A Heavenly Drama

The rain came to wash our sins away and give us a bit of a break, look at the blue sky peeking above.
We can now breathe again.
Then the painter in the sky got experimental, couldn't decide on the type of clouds to use - is there a name for this?

C & C : Cupcakes and Cocktails

They may not look like much, but one bite of these little lethal salted caramel cupcakes, made by the loving hands and wicked mind of my dear friend The Rat for Our Mutual Friend's birthday (she who shares the birthdate of my dear late father) - one bite and I roll my eyes, and feel like I've died and gone to heaven.
"They are better than sex" is exactly what I said, and I meant it.
Coupled with the most saturated cocktail made by moi, it was a Sunday afternoon to be reckoned with, all around.

A Hot Thursday in The City

What a day it was.
The lingering heat is one thing. To have the street where we live evacuated because a gas pipe was accidentally "tapped" by construction workers - an unwelcome disturbance.
I closed the shop and came home to see that the kids are ok. They were not, of course. We tried to make the best of it.
I helped the oldest neighbour on our street find shelter from the oppressive heat, and put the policeman in charge to work checking up on him periodically. Then we sought refuge at a friend's air-conditioned house for the rest of the afternoon.
I'm going to purchase a cooling device for the house today; enough is enough. So far my resistance to it was based on the contention that heat in this country is a passing thing, that we should just deal and take it in stride. But this week is testing my resolve. I'm caving in.
And of course, as a result, we have no hot water now. Of course. It's the perfect day for a cold shower, luckily.

Sweet Sunny Spots

Sometimes, you need not look any further than your very own kitchen. The cats know it is the best place to catch some warmth, and so do I:

Bliss

Last week was unsettling for me on a few levels, but the weekend has proved to be more than worthy in calming nerves and stomachs.
What can work better than meeting this little fellow on an evening kayak ride? in one instant you know in your heart of hearts what's what in life:

Ah, yes, this:

And This:

And many hours of solitude with this, and a masterpiece of a book on hand:

There is something good in the world when a good friend trusts you enough to leave you all alone in her cottage for a night, knowing it will still be there the next day, and you will be once again a happy companion.

On the Airwaves about Bartering

http://www.cbc.ca/ontariotoday/2013/07/02/tuesday-do-you-barter-for-clips-and-services/

A call in show on CBC yesterday took my call. I'm the last caller at the end of the podcast.
There was such a short time to explain the concept, and I was a bit nervous, it's not quite clear how the bartering works for me so let me elaborate:
The consigners who choose to spend their share of the sale in the shop use it as credit on their purchase if it is a larger amount, or a reduction from their purchase if it's smaller.
Another bartering experience I didn't get a chance to talk about is this: I got my piano tuned for the price of an expensive pair of glasses. Both of us, the renowned piano tuner Jamie Musselwhite and I, were very happy. He looks cool in his Oliver People's round glasses, and my piano no longer has a sticky middle F#, a very usable key. Not to mention, there is a consigner out there who is due his share of the glasses. He's happy too.

Accentuating the Positives

These are strange times.
I walk the streets of my neighbourhood and find more and more old architectural treasures in the clutches of "development". It makes me sad and I feel I'm continually mourning my city. Everywhere we go a sign the size of a small apartment pronounces an application to city hall for a redevelopment that promises to replace an old Victorian row house with a tower of an indistinct nature that is going to look like a slum in 20 years or less.
How Pathetic is the state of our nation, that we sit and let it happen without trying to put a stop to it?
Truth is, the building where I am, this little shop, is under the same threat after changing ownership recently. I can see it coming, even though it could be years in the making. The noose is already being tied in some back room of the wheelers and dealers at the planning departments and city councillors, behind the scenes and far from anyone's ears.

That rant over, let's think about the nice things in life, to replace these bitter disappointments with a bit of sweetness.

* Summer vacation. No morning rush, no afternoon classes. Leisurely dinners, movies, rest, warm sunny days in housecoats and nothing else.

* Summer festivals in the city of Doom (this is what I'm calling Toronto from now on) - culture, music, art. Some counterbalance to the greed and ugliness of the "It's not personal, it's business" crowd we have to live with these days. Thank the universe for artists.

* The nasturtiums are blooming - YEA!!!

* A new chimney towers over my house at last, the 100 year old one put to rest (together with a large chunk of money).

* New delightful customers discovering my shop of treasures every day.

Proud, Happy, Hot?

Pride flag is on my door, as it flies every year.
Pride week in Toronto kicks in Friday. This is a big weekend. It's a wild wild party in this neighbourhood, with 3 different parades: trans on Friday, the ladies on Saturday, the guys on Sunday.
My personal favourite is the party on Church street every night. The things you see on the streets of our village will teach you more than you ever wanted to know about sex in all its variations.
I'll be here on Saturday watching the biker ladies passing by. The heat is on. It means there will be more skin and intimate parts visible than usual this year. Of course the weather is just an excuse.

Meanwhile, IRL

Not to suggest that my life in the shop isn't real, only to say that there are other aspects and places in which I enjoy my existence.
Some of our season's activities so far (such as they are, and this summer) have been helping with costumes and make up and going to watch end-of-year performances of our children in their various artistic activities and schools, outstanding leisurely outdoor dinners with neighbours, and walks at dusk when the rain isn't falling.

Where is Our Summer?

It comes and goes in spurts and fits of rain, wind, cold, with a burst of sunshine tease here and there.
Meanwhile, people get hopeful and shop for summer clothes, of which plenty are to be had at RM.
The latest incoming items and sales include fabulous Boss jackets and suits, fun T shirts and shorts, sandals and shoes. Anything a man of taste and style needs.

One of my favourites still offered is a fine Boss jacket of linen and silk mix - summery, light and elegant. It's in my window, hanging over a Gotstyle stripy cotton shirt, a match made in Heaven.

The jacket is similar to this one:

Summer!!!

It has arrived. Furiously so.
The weather is driving people and homes mad. My basement was flooded by the rain. Now it has become too hot to sleep.
A little balance could do us all a world of good.
The up side is that there are summer clothes to be had at Renaissance Man, so come and take a close look.

Back Home

Back home, refreshed, rejuvenated, happy.
These are some of the things I experienced while away.
Clouds over the Georgia Straight off the pier in Sechelt:

Cabin on the water's edge, where you fall asleep to gentle waves lapping sounds, like earth breathing endlessly:

Skookumchuck seawater rapids:

Everett dock in the morning fog:

The magical fuzzy trees in the forest on the Skookumchuck trail:

The fearless fat seagulls in Vancouver you have to love:

Out and About

I'm off - even criminals get time off got good behaviour.
The shop is closed until May 16th. Keep an eye on it for me, won't you?

I'll be exploring the wonders of the west coast.
Toodaloo.

Sunday Afternoon at The Rex

This soft song of Kate Schutt, I'm yours if you'll have me, was covered yesterday by the Swing Shift big band and the smokey-voiced young singer Sofia Perlman. A very crowded Rex jazz bar ate her up:

The Mayor And Me

Yesterday was an interesting day in the politics of Toronto.
I sat in the stuffy meeting room and waited my turn, along many others like me, to ask the city not to sell itself to the devil for no good reason. The devil was there too - a bunch of American stake holders looking for an easy mark. A former mayor of Las Vegas was one of them, telling the crowd how good they are at giving jobs where none have been before. It made us all raise a universal eyebrow, since we know Las Vegas is the suicide capital of the U.S.
One smart man said to the gathering crowd: in a card game look around the room, and if you can't tell who the mark is, it is you.
Thats us alright.
After 10 hours waiting I got my wish to have my say. And what do I have to show for it? Tired eyes, and this:

Get Ready: Sun Time

There's a nice crop of Sunglasses here.
A pair of Silhouettes, light in weight, dark enough to make you mysteriously fab. $80.
Oliver Peoples old fashion frames, trendy and light. $100.
Hugo Boss, brown lens, $80.
Ray Ban sport light, protective, clingy - $80.


And a special: beautiful Bering watch $100.