Good Morning Humphrey

I'm making a concerted effort to take my camera out and about with me. Today, I actually took it out on my run. I run in Hyde Park most mornings and on my way from the flat to the park, I pass by a house with the loveliest dog who likes to hang out on the balcony. I've been calling him Humphrey for the past few months, as I think it suits him.

The New Forest

I used to live with a girl who nicknamed me "City". As in (and this is verbatim), "Oh you're so painfully city. Do you have anything in your wardrobe that isn't black or from Saks and oh please can I have a double espresso?" I enjoyed the teasing because this girl was a sweetheart and also because it's fairly accurate. Just the other day I was commenting to someone how foreign it would feel to not be able to walk out my front door, stick out my hand, and have a cab stop. Basically, drop me in the middle of Manhattan and I'm in my element. Drop me in the middle of a suburb and I start to get nervous. Drop me in the middle of the countryside surrounded by cows and sheep and I don't have a clue.

That's why the past couple of days have been interesting. I've been meandering around the New Forest, where my father grew up. As a kid, this part of the world both fascinated and terrified me. I loved the idea of wild ponies wandering around but not having a clue, stood directly behind one when I was about ten years old. The bruising from the kick lasted for weeks. I still love the wild ponies, especially now as I know to stay the hell away from them, and this little fellow was actually the pet sheep at the manor house where I stayed.


One other note: I came across this small, handmade memorial in the middle of the New Forest, honouring the servicemen of the 3rd Canadian R.C.A.S.C. On this spot, this battalion held services from April 14, 1944 until D-Day when they went off to land on the beaches. The New Forest was an ideal location to prepare for the invasion - lots of ground cover and easy access to the English Channel. The little memorial was very moving and while I always think that the Canadian government should do more to honour our war dead and veterans, the handmade touch to this little spot seemed just perfect.

The Balkans Beckon

What does a girl do when she is back at work on her thesis after such a relaxing vacation? Plan another vacation, of course. The Balkans beckon.

In a few weeks, a friend and I will head off to Budapest for a few days of opera, coffeehouses, steam baths, and the aptly timed Budapest Wine Festival. From there we head into Bosnia-Herzegovina where we'll spend a few days in Sarajevo before training to Mostar. It will be fascinating to see the Stari Most (Old Bridge) that was symbolically destroyed in the 90s during the war and has just recently been rebuilt. Then it will be onto Croatia: Dubrovnik, some island hopping, and finally Split where we'll be catching the last of the Mediterranean summer. Not since travelling in Thailand five years ago have I had a trip where I just threw stuff in a backpack and covered a wide area over a couple of weeks. It's a wonderful kind of freedom and adventure all rolled up in a perfect little package - cannot wait.

The Whelming

I am occasionally overwhelmed. In the best of ways. It happens, usually, during travel. Like when I found myself standing alone in the Gauguin room at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg: the quiet, the canvases all in front of me, the solitude, the hugeness of such a moment.

And yet, it happens also when (usually once a year) I take the ferry from Victoria to Vancouver. I used to take this trip every weekend as a teenager - commuting between school in Vancouver and my parents' home in Victoria and was completely jaded about it. I buried myself in textbooks and sometimes didn't even get out of my car. Now a dozen years later I find myself overwhelmed by the journey every time I take it. It's partly nostalgia, I realize, but also the solitude of the space (again), the salt smell, the kaleidoscope of muted colours, the clarity of everything in front of me. I never have my camera with me, but this week I did (for the purpose of taking a photograph of my very pregnant friend) so here you go.

Summer Reading Stack

My summer reading list is a little bit of PhD thesis and a lot of good fiction. And most of it is being done outside overlooking the Pacific Ocean, such a bonus. (Stop reading if you haven't finished HP 7.)

Alligator by Lisa Moore. It's been on my list for awhile and I'm really enjoying it - even more so than Open.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy. So much hype surrounding this book. So didn't like Blood Meridian. But then the disparity between the literary taste of friends recommending it to me and Oprah picking it for her book club seemed so intriguing, that I finally picked it up during a delay at Heathrow. Hugely engaging, full of gut pulling moments and sweeping humanitarian implications, and I bawled when it was done.

Sharp Teeth by Tony Barlow. The next book to crack open of my reading stack. It hasn't been released yet, but some early reviews are calling it "part Coleridge, part Buffy the Vampire Slayer". Fascinating. And it's written in verse, which I kind of love.

Image Music Text by Roland Barthes. I am currently implementing "The Death of the Author" as my PhD mantra.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Was the big geek who bought it at 1am. Was then too hungover to read it on my flight, but when I finally dove into it when I arrived at my parents' house, oh my was it good. Read it standing for the last 150 pages. The Battle of Hogwarts blew my mind. Professor McGonagall rocks my socks. When Fred died, I bawled. When Dumbledore reappeared to Harry, I bawled. When my two year old prediction that Snape was the good guy was confirmed, I bawled. (Much bawling during this year's summer reading.)

Visual Culture: The Reader. Very much a PhD text, but I'm currently reading Laura Mulvey's "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" and can't believe that it's taken me three years of PhD work to finally come across it. Small moment of embarrassment.

Birthday Flashback

Celebrating my birthday today and here's a flashback to my 1st one. I've been feeling slightly nostalgic while at my parents' house and scanning old photographs into digital format. But today is a wonderful birthday - good coffee and running on the beach this morning, lunch with family, dinner with a dear, dear friend. And most likely, a martini or seven.

West Coast Moment

While I love running around the Serpentine in Hyde Park, running in London is certainly different from running on Vancouver Island. In London I usually find myself dodging grim faced, business-suited folk hurrying to work. This morning on a trail that runs by my parents' house, every single person walking, running, or cycling past me shouted out: "Good Morning!" or "Hey there!" or "Great day!" It was rather glorious...and then I came home to drink my coffee on the deck and watched these guys on the beach below me.

Flying with Harry Potter

Here I am, bleary-eyed after a night of cocktail party hopping, picking up my copy of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows at 1am this morning. I know that the J.K. Rowling backlash is out there, fuelled by the media hype surrounding book embargoes and price wars and spoiler alerts, but on the most basic level, what a great event this is. People lining up for a work of fiction.

I think it's brilliant, I love the books, and as I looked around me today on the airplane that flew me out to the West Coast and saw so many other people lost in the latest Harry Potter just like me, I couldn't help but smile. I've been near hysterical about other books being released my entire life, and sharing it with other people just feels cool. And as the rain teems down here on Vancouver Island, I am curled up in front of the fireplace, the ocean in front of me, a glass of wine in one hand and Harry in the other: you'll have to excuse me as I go back to reading.

(A small addendum: if you're buying HP, support your local independent bookstore!)

The Pain and The Itch

The Financial Times review of The Pain and The Itch currently playing at the Royal Court begins, "A rule of thumb in drama: the smarter the sitting room, the greater the mess that is likely to be swept under the metaphorical carpet. In Clay and Kelly’s minimalist living room the sofa is streamlined, the lines are sleek – and the mess is big indeed."

So true. Bruce Norris has concocted a brilliant mess in this play, which the audience only fully understands at the very end. Ensemble casts at the Royal Court never disappoint and this one was particularly good - especially the dreamy Matthew Macfayden. He plays a petulant boy stuck in the body of a man who has discovered the status that a BMW can provide - and what else is a yuppie if not this? I especially loved the scene where he tries to explain to a confused, foreign guest that the distressed wood dining table is supposed to look that way. Michael Billington's review is here.

Quite brilliant to have a mysteriously gnawed avocado as both an element of suspense and a crucial metaphor running through the play. And one of the best elements was the manner in which the characters spoke, written directly into the text. God, it was funny. And as I am often teased for speaking in numerals, I felt slightly self-conscious. The whole point?

KELLY: Unless you know some human that bites into an avocado like it was an apple, all right? So, yes, some non-human creature has entered our house and is now feasting on our avocados?

CLAY: And of course the mind devises these scenarios.

KELLY: But the bottom line is: one, what sort of toothed creature are we dealing with; two, what is the point of entry; and three, where exactly is it now?

Game, Set, Snap

I was originally disappointed because all of this rain meant that my tickets on Centre Court, originally scheduled to be both men's semi-finals, would be featuring other play. It turned out to be a huge treat. Two men's quarters including Nadal vs. Berdych, Federer vs. Ferrero and then the women's semi-final between Venus Williams and Ana Ivanovic. And then, due to a series of long matches on No.1 Court, the officials moved the second semi-final between Bartoli and Henin to Centre Court. Not only did I get a bonus match, but it was the upset match of the tournament.

I really love this photograph I took of Federer in the focus of all the courtside photographers. (Was today's final a crackerjack match or what?) Click the images below for larger versions.

RA Summer Exhibition 2007

Remember my fantasy? Well this year's Royal Academy Summer Exhibition made it particularly good - I could have spent a fortune. One thing I particularly love about the exhibition is how there is an explanation in each gallery room as to how the room was hung. An important element due to the eclectic nature of the individual pieces in each gallery, but I wish more exhibitions did this as a matter of course. This kind of interest seems to be the same as the way I can sometimes love the structure of a book just as much as its content.


Speaking of books, Ken Howard's paintings always make me feel like I'm inside of one, reading on a rainy day. He had several paintings displayed in this year's exhibition, which were lovely. I also enjoyed Michael Craig-Martin's Reconstructing Seurat (pictured above). And featured in the show was the controversial Iraq Triptych by Michael Sandle - created in just ten days and despite the brutal nature of its portrayal, was a beautiful, intricate piece. One other painting I would have dropped a bundle on was a watercolour interpretation of the classic Penguin cover by Harland Miller - you can see several of this series here.

Wimbledon Predictions 2007

A little late with my predictions this year, but it doesn't really matter with all of this rain we've been having. So many delays that I don't think even the players know what round they're presently playing. I'm going to cheat with my predictions this year, simply to spice things up a little. I believe that the winners will be Roger Federer and Justine Henin - it's just so boring, but gosh they're playing well on the grass.

My backup prediction is for Centre Court favourite Marcos Baghdatis and Michaella Krajicek on the ladies side. And quietly creeping through the draw at the moment are Tomas Berdych and Andy Roddick. How much would I love Roddick to win it? So much. And how exciting is this new Tamira Paszek?