The Intelligence of the Body...

... was the title of a lecture I caught yesterday. The discussion was divergent and engaged. Thoughts of Aldous Huxley's concept of getting out of one's own way. Of Wayne Gretzky being able to skate, in sports writer's terms, not where the puck was, but where it was going to be. Of Steve Carel's character in Little Miss Sunshine, who, racing to the aid of his beloved niece, runs (Roger Ebert writes) like a man who has read about running, has seen the diagrams of people running, does understand that human beings run - but has never actually run before in his life. (See it - it's hilarious; the whole movie is wonderful.) The lecturer - Gabor Csepregi - who, I have to say, was also an Olympic-level athlete, qualifying for Canada's water polo teams in 1972 and 1976, and about which, I also have to say, it was pointed out that water polo was the first group sport admitted to the Olympic Games (1900) and was invented by bored British officers posted to warm climes who played on underwater wooden horses - amidst all this came the name of writer Stefan Zweig , whose popularity and readership has ebbed and flowed, but whose Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of A Woman remains on the literary radar.

(Image: S. Zweig in 1930, davidbolduwork.com.)

New Portrait Exhibit Opens Tonight

Portraits are a genre unto themselves. Some visual artists, ie. Mr Warhol here, are primarily associated with it. Closer to home, Sheilagh O'Leary excels at portraiture, as anyone who has seen her Twinning Lines or Island Maid, among other shows, will know. Her latest is More Than Meets The Eye, 28 black and white photographs of models, mostly children, with Down Syndrome. The opening reception is 7-9pm tonight, the third floor gallery at the St. John's Arts and Culture Centre, free admission and all welcome.

(Image: sf.moma.org.)

Ever hear tell of the semantic web? The goal is to create a language machines can read. Funny how that usually turns out very badly in science fiction movies...and it definitely added to the dearth of lucidity in Eagle Eye...but the end product here is not a scary Terminator-type guy but an Internet that can make its own connections and inferences.

(Image: murdoch.edu.au.)

Why You Won't See Me At The Glacier

It's Craft Fair season, and we're gearing up for three. We'll have booths at the NLCDA events in St. John's (at the Convention Centre) and Corner Brook (at the Pepsi Centre). We'll also be at the Anna Templeton Centre in mid-December (this is a smaller-scale market, and quite lovely). But we won't be at The Glacier. Why not? You might be wondering. Well, here's the story of my book signing at The Glacier.
I had a book published two years ago, and as every author knows that means book signings. There you are at the Avalon Mall/Village Mall/Costco, at a fold-out table with a stack of your books fetchingly arranged, while shoppers flow past maybe vaguely registering your presence and wondering if you're selling Girl Guide cookies. I don't drive so I learned lots and lots about our Metrobus system; even so getting to The Glacier was a transportation challenge.
Eventually I found myself embarked on the first of two 45-minute rides, surrounded by some...interesting characters. One woman I remember was enthralled in a vicious and convoluted fight with her landlord about something weird, not like the hot water heater or furnace but about a shower curtain or something. Anyway, the bus driver got me as close to The Glacier as he could, pointed out where it was and where I could cross the road, and said he would see me in two hours.
The Glacier, as its name implies, is a rink. The floor was composed of boards - plywood I think - laid over the icy surface. The crowded booths were arranged on top of this. I found my small table and spread out a fan of books. In the background, a looped tape played the same six Elvis Presley Christmas music covers, over and over.
A shadow fell across the table. I looked up. There stood a Very Big Woman.
VBW: Is that a Newfoundland book?
Me: Why, ah, yes. (It was a collection of obituaries about Newfoundlanders and Labradorians that I'd had published in the Globe and Mail.)
VBW: Doesn't look like it.
(I have no idea what she meant. Should it have been shaped like Newfoundland? Had 'Newfoundland Book' stamped on its cover? She picked up a copy, took out her cellphone, and dialled.)
VBW: Is Bernice there? Well get her...Bernice. I'll looking at a book. I think it might do for Poppy. It's about nondescript people.
(I really have no idea what she meant by that. However Bernice must have said something like, Yes, you know Poppy is all about nondescript people, get it for him.)
VBW: OK. I'll buy it.
Me: Great! Would you like me to sign it?
VBW: Whatever. OK. Say, 'To Poppy from Zachary."
So I did.
I did laugh all the way home. But I will never go back to The Glacier.

(Image: lealawatson.co.uk.)

C2C New Season

Was part of a 'do last night - 4Play5, the season launch and fundraiser for C2C Theatre. Their motto is Good Theatre Done Well, and that's pretty much what they accomplish, except you could add With Great Style, and their next show is The Leisure Society.

(image: americaslibrary.com.)

Spring Ahead, Fall Ahead, Look Ahead -

- Look out - it's something like that, right? Daylight Savings Time I mean. Which stops (or starts?) soon. (And which is the real time?) Said to have been initiated by one William Willett who was dismayed to see so many of his fellow Londoners snoozing away a dulcet summer morning. Newfoundland has it's own connection to DSL, too, of course, being the kind of well-connected place we are. The time shift is not kicking in this year until the first Sunday of November, so a few more dark fall mornings ahead...let's focus instead on that beautiful slanting silver sunlight so calibrated to late autumn.

(Image: einsteinslock.com.)

ultrabionova @ A1C Gallery

This solo exhibit opens tomorrow night at AIC - big striking works as fundamental as cells and as ephemeral as snowflakes. The big 'do includes a performance by the artist, Ingrid Mary Percy - she'll compose a work of string art, scheduled for around 8:30pm if you find yourself downtown, Friday night, having a few drinks, having a few laughs, add a shot of culture...
(Image: Ingrid Mary Percy)

nobody, not even the rain

Our slightly extreme weather this morning has put me in mind of this poem by e. e. cummings;

[somewhere i have never travelled]

somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully, mysteriously) her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands

(Image: painting by cummings, courtesy of yale.library.edu.)

Want some chocolate?

We're test driving a new idea - the next five people to start or renew a subscription or give a gift of the N.Q. will receive a box of gourmet dark chocolates (retail value $22) from the Newfoundland Chocolate Company. Just give us a call at 709.737.2426, or email us at nfqsub@mun.ca.

(Image: newfoundlandchocolatecompany.com)

The seminal Newfoundland film The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood, which you may or may not know was also adapted for stage by Mark Turner, of alternative band King Nancy fame, is available on DVD, a mere thirty years or so after those first frames (of the school maybe? "Napoleon was an Emperor, not a King!") were shot. Word is NIFCO is handling the distribution.

(Image: heritage.nf.ca.)

Reading David Hare's The Judas Kiss, the story of

Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), the Irish playwright and poet whose ill-advised decision to pursue a controversial libel suit wrecked his health and ended his life. The plays of this dramatist, perhaps wittiest person in the history of the English language, are still (justifiably) popular today, as is his poetry (see The Ballad of Reading Goal) and his bon mots, ie. "Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination".

(Image: poems.net.)

You must see this movie!

The Fall. It is absolute visual magic, a world beautifully realized without an ounce of special effects, and if you don't lose your heart to Catinca Untaru you don't have one.









(Image: collider.com.)

Today's the day! Don't forget to

(Image: austinchronicle.com

Ilse Hughes' New Show

This weekend I'm hoping to spend some time with Ilse Hughes' latest exhibition, Infrared...an urban landscape, up at Red Ochre Gallery until October 29th. I'm a big fan of Hughes bold palettes and dynamic brushwork - she's a painter who thinks paintings should be about paint!

(Image: View From the Fort, Red Ochre Gallery.)

Further to Rabbittown

This will take you a series of linked videos, a viral preview of this weekend's To Be Loved. Very fun stuff - maybe a little bit of language.




(Image: grooveshark.com.)

Theatre of Fact

There's a new play opening this weekend at Rabbittown Theatre: To Be Loved, written by Ed Riche, which is exciting enough, but it also includes the promising cast of Brad Hodder as Steven Harper and Neil Butler as Stockwell Day. Guaranteed to be a piece of sharp, incisive comedy, it may also be a nod to the genre of documentary theatre, which is gaining such prominence these days thanks to such silver screen versions of The Queen and Frost/Nixon.

(Image: mensvogue.com.)

a visual escape from the intense headlines...

...courtesy of Rachel Ruysch (Still Life With Flowers on a Marble Tabletop, oil on canvas, 1716).
(Image: rijksmuseum.)

Riddlefence Launch

The second issue of Riddlefence hits the stands today, with a ritzy launch party. The N.Q. will be in attendance at Government House, NL's oldest magazine saying congrats to its youngest.









(Image: the scope.ca.)

Time to Organize Those You-Know-Whats

We're approaching a month from copy deadline - let's get those ducks in a row !

(Image: wordpress.com.)

Scenes From Metrobus

On the #10 bus this morning we drove past the Fire Station on Harvey Road, where they were testing out a giant cherrypicker. The slow stately ballet of heavy equipment is always mesmerizing - and reminds me of this very good movie: The Lost Language of Cranes.

(Image: sigalminc.com.)

First of October

And we all know what that means: monthly reports!














(Image: superstock.com.)