Belle Gardner's library (dead people's books)

through Lauren Elkin's blog about life in Paris, i discovered a marvellous virtual bookshelf: the "I see dead people's books" catalogue at Library Thing.

i was immediately intrigued by Isabella Stewart Gardner's book list. she's such a fascinating character - she lived from 1840-1924; her art expert friend Bernard Berenson said she "live[d] at a rate of intensity and with a reality that makes other lives seem pale, thin and shadowy." like some of Berenson's art opinions, many of tales told of her are probably untrue, but Belle loved art & artists, threw wonderful parties, and opened a phenomenal museum so that the public could enjoy her passion for collecting.


i'm intrigued by the breadth of her reading list...i do hope she read them all..for she had a copy of Francois Villon's ribald poems, a life of Sappho, the Decameron (she liked the medievals, by the looks of it), alongside a housekeeping book once used by Benjamin Franklin and James I's own copy of Francis Bacon's essays. one heck of a bookshelf, indeed. someday, i would love to read one of these books while sitting here in the courtyard of her museum in Boston...

"Don't spoil a good story by telling the truth."
- Belle Stewart Gardner

Stampede: horses & tipis

i finally have time to put up some photos from this year's Calgary Stampede. it was cool but beautiful on the afternoon of this tipi-raising contest.

it was really interesting & i had a lovely time, though i was reminded of a Globe & Mail quote from a Mohawk woman who was sent to residential school in the 1970s...she said her experience wasn't as abusive as many people's, and funnily enough she was even taught some traditional skills. like how to raise a tipi. which she found interesting, though peculiar, considering that Mohawk tradition has nothing to do with nomadic tipis. at least in Calgary, Northern Plains and Blackfoot tipis are in context!

this being the Stampede, there were lots of great horses...including this Paint Horse with her young sleeping foal, and the lovely chocolate-coloured Canadian horse and colt:

yes, this is actually the official Canadian horse. really it looks like the classic NorthWest Mounted Police horse, the kind of horse you expect to see in the RCMP musical ride.

the NorthWest history made me think of the Klondike. and at a bar around the corner from where I was staying, there was this Yukon-inspired new drink to try:

ugh. unfortunately, it was really really awful. i think moonshine brewed in an old Mountie's boot would have a better personality.

dinner at Frontenac House

sometimes i think my amazing publishers, Rose & David Scollard of Frontenac House, run a writers' bed & breakfast alongside their press. whenever i'm in Calgary, there are writers dropping by for dinner, new books being delivered, guests arriving with bottles of wine & suitcases in tow, conversations that last late into the night, reviews being dissected out on the back deck, new promotional ploys plotted, more books brought out...and in the morning, Rose always manages to rustle up some eggs for whoever has spent the night on their couch.

this month, they're launching their first art book, Breathing Stone: Contemporary Haida Argillite Sculpture, and it is GORGEOUS. next week, there's an event on the 19th at the Bill Reid Gallery in Vancouver.

yee-haw...

just got to Calgary for the Stampede...and discovered that the Banff Centre for the Arts is celebrating its 75th anniversary. i have great memories of working on my upcoming novel, Rats of Las Vegas, at the Banff Writing Studio two years ago...having a chance to work in such an encouraging, exciting, and special atmosphere was such an amazing gift. so a BIG tip of the hat & happy 75th! to the Centre.

love for sale

a sidewalk artist at a recent Toronto street fair:

and true to their practical Big Smoke roots, Toronto residents were chucking most of their spare change towards the lunch hat...but love was a close runner-up.

Betancourt free

a bit of good news for a change...six and a half years after being taken hostage by Farc rebels, French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt is finally free.

here's the BBC report

BIG and the underpass

just home from BIG, the Bloor Improvement Group's new street festival. i thought the name might be a titch overambitious, but in fact no, the festival IS really big, stretching from Christie Pits park all the way to Lansdowne, with shiatsu massage, art for kids, drumming circles, you name it...

i wanted to check out BIG because of a new art project just west of Lansdowne: the bleak south side of that underpass on Bloor is sporting a whole new look, thanks to Toronto artist Richard Mongiat. The Underpass Project is sponsored by the City of Toronto's Clean & Beautiful committee, but Mongiat's 400-foot minimalist mural is very different from the super-bright "cover-ups" i'm used to seeing in city murals.


Mongiat originally conceived the concept for the Dupont underpass, but he was convinced by local artist & activist Dyan Marie (of DIG IN) to connect with the BIG festival project. The change in location meant that Mongiat had to throw away his original idea. "These frames," he says, pointing to the raised rectangles within the wall, "set up the design elements. I needed a visual throughline, a thoroughfare." He found his inspiration in the barren trunks of winter trees. "Like this neighbourhood," he says, "dormant but coming to life. So I've included close-ups of buds and flowering."


There are four visual elements at play here: three from Mongiat--grey tree trunks, white wallpaper-style sworls, and close-ups of spring buds--and a fourth, surprisingly active element--the worn concrete of the underpass itself. "By keeping my work muted, black, white, grey, the wall really came through," says Mongiat with pride. "Now, the weather, the rain stains become part of the design. The wall comes alive." i think it's a fine metaphor for the place of artists in struggling parts of the city--not for art to paint over the history here, but to augment what's already in place, to contribute & open up further dialogue.

reading at Art Bar

the Art Bar series is the longest-continually-running poetry series in Toronto, and this week i was thrilled to read there alongside James Deahl, who read some truly heartbreakingly beautiful recent works, and Pier Georgio di Cicco, the city's current poet laureate. what's especially exciting about the Art Bar is that the writers present diverse approaches to poetry, there's no one type or genre, and the open mic is often quality stuff (a good place to strut stuff that's in progress, or generally warm up to the idea of taking poetry seriously.)
i was lucky to have a supportive crowd & a lovely host, Pauline. so thanks, Art Bar people, and cheers to all the friends & strangers who showed up to encourage me (& to buy books, which keeps my publisher happy...!)