Archive - January, 2009

The end of the world as we know it

It is snowing again here in Vancouver. Giant flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the streetlight. We are now into our sixth consecutive week of uncharacteristic and rather unsettling weather patterns. Last week we experienced something called a temperature inversion where it was 27 degrees Celsius on the ski hills and minus eight in the city creating a fog that made skyscrapers disappear into thin air.

Strange times indeed. My thoughts tonight are further derailed by an advertisement, on the back cover of a magazine that splays itself across our couch. It is peddling a new car from one of Detroit’s Big Three who, less than two months ago, had been forced to send their top executives down to Washington in order to sheepishly sit in front of US Congress and shamelessly beg for their lives. In the time since, GM and Chrysler have already seen 17 billion come to them in government assistance to which they have responded with the promise of a “greener future”. All of which brings me back to that ad and one line in particular: “Smaller than your average SUV.” Continue Reading…

Foodists.ca

Foodists.ca

Foodists.ca
Starting in ’09, along with my sporadic duties on this blog posting about design, art and culture, I will also be sporadically contributing to a new site that focusses on another one of my passions: food. The Foodists describes itself as “a collective of like-minded food worshipers. We breathe and sleep in order to eat and drink.”

Seeing as I don’t get out all that much these days what with the new family and all, I am planning on posting recipes that reflect the type of meals that I make on an average night, when I’m knackkered from work, my daughter needs to go to bed but I am still determined to sit the wife and I down to a damn fine meal. But the site as a whole covers all things gastronomically related and boasts an eclectic list of contributors. So check out foodists.ca and bon appetit.

Recommended Reading: Tom McCarthy’s Remainder

A review of Tom McCarthy

A review of Tom McCarthy's Remainder
The moment that I finished Tom McCarthy’s Remainder, I began reading it again, slower this time; often pausing and re-reading a particular passage 10 or 20 times over again. I would spend hours going over a single sentence to the point where the words entirely lost their meaning and the very act of reading became the mechanical exercise of my eyes discerning the white space between the black of the type. At one point in the process of turning page 97 over to page 98, I became so enthralled by the way that the texture of the paper fell away from my fingertips and settled so serenely under my opposite thumb that I spent the rest of the afternoon reliving this moment, practicing that exact transition from 97 to 98 until I could do it effortlessly and exactly every time. Other days I would lie in the bath and simply think about reading the book as it sat on my bedside table and that would be enough.

Any and all of the above methods for fully appreciating Remainder should be taken under strict advisement by the reader however, if you begin to experience black outs or mild seizures, then I must advise that you consult a physician immediately.

Read The Believer interview with McCarthy here.