watch "canada now" now

i'm on it! if you're in bc, that is. i'm supposed be on today sometime after the 6 o'clock news, talking about the future of vancouver. (cbc, channel 3) hopefully i don't say anything too dumb, so i don't live to regret this post.

lots of adventures lately, more soon.

lamaspamarama

my friend glen lowry, who has just moved over from coquitlam college to emily carr institute of art and design (yay, glen!) and is doing many great things there, recently turned me on to the work of brian lamb:
abject learning
surfing that site, i found this:
futurenatural

there is cool stuff out there!

while i'm on the subject of one of the great movers and shakers (glen lowry) at west coast line, i should mention that i ran into another-- michael barnholden-- at the thakore event two nights ago. mike told me that west coast line books has just sent its first four books, from four important vancouver writers-- reg johansson, roger farr, natalie simpson and garry morse-- to press.

also recently released is the first commodore book, a book of short fiction by fred booker called adventures in debt collection. (how many books can you fit in a single sentence?) commodore is a project of three quiet but brilliant people-- wayde compton, karina vernon and david chariandy-- who are deeply committed to black history in the western canada. congratulations you guys! i'm buying you each a megaphone.

and now for a complete non-sequitur: has anybody out there noticed how terrible peaches are this year? you buy them, they look good, and then they are all pulpy inside. i have a thing about pulpy fruit-- it brings on total puke reflex, worse than rotten meat, or rodents or any number of unpleasant things i could name. how do they get like that? why do i find it so repellant? there must be a good psychoanalytic explanation.

war and peace

Went to Ghandi birthday celebrations last night at SFU, sponsored by the Institute of the Humanities, SFU; the Thakore Charitable Foundation; and India Club, Vancouver on the invite of Roy Miki, who is this year's recipient of the Thakore Peace Award. Congratulations, Roy! Wow, the accolades are piling up. Your friends and colleauges are very proud of you. There was lots of action-- dances, speeches, an array of hosts and MCs from across the generations. Roy spoke beautifully on his work with the Japanese Canadian Redress movement, and showed a few photos including a hilarious (but touching) one of him and his family posing with John Turner when Turner passed through their riding during his 1984 election campaign. Roy saw the campaign bus go through and ran to the street with family and camera to lobby Turner to support Redress.

It seems unbloggish to give a a blow by blow of the talk, but for me, the really chewable kernal was a remark to the effect of: Obstacles can intensify the power of a movement. May be Roy will publish the whole text. It was great to see his wife Slavia, who so seldom comes to events.

In other news, there was a shooting near Rita's apartment in Miami this week. She sent a newspaper article that sounds like an episode of CSI.

I just dropped off a form in the English Department offices with my teaching preferences for next fall. Already! Interested parties, I'll keep you posted.