Vegas in Victoria

must be the end of the tour...arriving on the far western edge of Canada! (photo taken through the windshield as we drove in)

first thing, arriving here, i unpacked my lucky metal rat (the cat where i'm staying didn't seem too bothered.)

we opened "Breakfast in Vegas" yesterday at the Victoria Fringe--I was the very first show at the fest. i'm lucky to have a fantastic venue, Cabin12...it's a diner, and it's perfect for the "Breakfast" show concept. Victoria itself is so beautiful, i had to really force myself to stay inside for two days, working on the show. but now it's the weekend & i can explore...

steampunk computer lust

have recently spent too much time in big box stores looking at ugly computers, as my current laptop limps towards purgatory. but even the most design-sensitive laptop in these stores really lacks aesthetic interest. i spend so much time doing creative work on these ugly shiny things, it would be nice to find inspiration in the physical manifestation of the wires (ok, you Mac-phreaks out there, don't let me keep you from enjoying your perfectly smooth iThings. they don't do it for me but i'm glad you're all so delightfully happy.) i'd rather have something along the lines of William Gibson's descriptions in his novel Idoru, laptops remodelled into artworks of turquoise, recycled aluminum, and glass. which almost nearly exists...the laptop that i would REALLY like to buy next looks more like this...or this...

(this photo from computer re-Maker Jake Von Slatt)

poker at Yellow Dog

A great evening organized by Rats of Las Vegas publisher Enfield & Wizenty (the literary imprint of Great Plains), at the most excellent Yellow Dog in downtown Winnipeg. Kudos to poker queen Susie Moloney for winning the evening's 7-card stud game--her prize was an enduring reputation at the card table & a serious bottle of booze. And many thanks to the other players, who were a treat to deal for: crime authors Michael Van Rooy and Mike McIntyre, McNally Robinson's David Lawrence, and Great Plains publisher extraordinaire, Gregg Shilliday. (photos courtesy of a cellphone...nicely atmospheric, i say! and for further multimedia, imagine the really marvellous selection of whiskey at the Yellow Dog)

art, process, portrait

visual artists are often good at talking about their work-in-progress; writers, often less so. so while i was in Banff, i decided to listen in on as many art talks as i could, to see how people talk about their work. in the process, i discovered some fantastic art. AND as an extra bonus, i was even recruited for some art projects-in-process--probably because it's cheaper to use writers than models or actors. one of the projects was a video by Michele Provost, which involved getting dressed up in historical costumes (i ended up in a blue satin robe that made me look like the Victorian Hood of Death...in a good way, right?) and the other is a series of photographs that are equal parts contemporary portraiture & 15th-century chiaroscuro.

this is work-in-progress from Petra Stavast, the Dutch photographer who was in residence at Banff & who is working on a long series of portraits taken with a cellphone. considering how unenthusiastic i am about cellphones, i was surprisingly happy to sit still for the shoot... probably because Petra was really charming & her studio is in the woods, about as far from the mad shouting of cellphone beeps as you can get. and i like the idea of using cheap nasty contemporary technology to make something slow & sometimes beautiful.

Banff compatriots

ground squirrel - elk - ground squirrel - elk - deer - deer - deer - ground squirrel (multiply x 100) - elk - swimming elk - deer - deer -deer- wolf - chipmunk - red squirrel - red squirrel - black pine marten - big-horned sheep - ground squirrel.

Pine Siskin - tree swallow - cliff swift - many Robins - sparrows (innumerable) - crow - raven - magpie - mallard- Merganser - Canada geese - one solitary Harlequin duck - Gray Jay (also known as a Whiskey Jack)- several osprey (or the same one, flying about?) - Ruby-crowned Kinglet - Dark-eyed Junco (innumerable) - two Mountain Bluebirds.

And one bat.

scrapbook

reading Robert Kroetsch's A Likely Story, i'm thinking that blogs are much more like scrapbooks, open to the public, rather than private journals, secret diaries. we collate present-day links with ideas, magpie shiny images, and somehow this

"implies a larger whole, an organized universe, an explanatory mythology, from which the scrap was taken... A scrapbook is made up of stories--and of gaps and silences. A scrapbook is a kind of code; the code allows us to bring into play whole areas of memory." - Kroetsch

two shiny scraps that caught my eye this past week: first, my friend Sue Chenette writing about Paris, specifically the city's relationship to language

and, thinking about books, a rather brilliant tank re-purposing:

anthill

turns out this anthill is a well-known landmark on the Hoodoo trail...the ants have been building this pile of dry spruce needles for several years. being right near the arts centre, the hill has been featured in a number of videos etc. Hard to see them in these small photos...but trust me, the needles are completely covered in black & red patterned ants. they're quite nifty-looking ants, actually, and apparently they eat other more destructive insects, so i am trying to like them.

they didn't swarm out and attempt to drag us into the anthill when we walked by...so i conclude that they are friendly. or at least, indifferent. which is fine with me.

more birds

seems like every day brings more birds to the Bow River area...blue birds, siskins, swallows...and i also spent some time watching two crows gathering dead weeds by the river, presumably to build or repair their nest.

which got me thinking about crows. i love this video, even though it is a group of caged crows, being studied. but still, the way the bird perfects the tool, clearly figuring out how to improve the wire it starts with...