Blog #152...April 2024

March has come and gone with another long night of Oscars on the 10th...we usually think of it as an adult affair, but kids have occasionally taken part too. Supporting actress awards went to 10 year old Tatum O'Neil for Paper Moon  in 1993, and 20 years later to Anna Paquin who was 11 when she won for Piano.                                                                                                                                                                            

The highlight of this year's show for me (although Ryan Gosling's turn was amazing!) was the little girl who took the stage with the crew of The Last Repair Shop, winner of best documentary short.   The film opens with her talking about health difficulties in her family, how they take up so much time. "I don't know what I'd do without my music," she says. looking with affection at her violin -  repaired and provided by the LA workshop featured in the film. She wore the most beautiful frothy sky blue dress for the Oscars, I'm sure she was creating life long memories, she certainly did for me.

My friend Louise has been the manager of Fiesta Farms Garden Centre for the past few years and has made it, and the grocery store across the road, a centre of learning and involvement for the community, particularly two local schools - Essex and Hawthorne. Classes visit the Centre and contribute to decorations for seasonal events, like Valentine's Day. 

I thought they were also making an Oscar ballgown, which gave me the idea to focus this blog on kids and the Oscars...I misunderstood and it was the store staff who did the ballgown but I liked the idea about kids and proceeded with it anyway. Building on their experience creating a gown last year, staff members collected materials during the year - net bags from onions, wrappings from Mandarin oranges, colourful packaging - using their imaginations to discover what would provide background. And this was the result... did you guess that the necklace is made from grapes, reduced for quick sale!

Two very interesting films that are in theatres now will be up for awards next year...Perfect Days and The Taste of Things. They have something interesting in common, both are set in a very specific culture, with a director from a totally different background. The Taste of Things is very French - cast, setting, language, but with a certain difference, brought by Vietnamese director Tran Ann Hung. Director Wim Wenders brings his German sensibility to Perfect Days, exploring the daily life of a man who cleans Tokyo's public toilets...architectural wonders every one. 

I've yet to think of something to write about in May, so it'll be a surprise for all of us. I'll be in British Columbia at the end of April, so may appear a few days into May, and may bring some BC flavour.

 Blog # 151…March 2024

To go back to February for a moment, I’m happy to see Jen Gunter’s book Blood jump to # 1 on the non fiction best seller list. And I forgot to mention an interesting find at the McMichael…a wall of paintings by Frederick Banting, that’s right one of the founders of insulin.  Science and art together again!

In December, I wrote about Medical Assistance in Dying. It's front and centre in the news again with the controversial issue of an extension to include intractable mental illness. In January I mentioned Good Grief, a film about the death of a loved one. And I wrote a piece on death for Moods Magazine in 2011 which began “When we’re born we’re issued with a return ticket” and went on to list the ways we avoid saying die or death…passing on, kicking the bucket or, for sports fans, the final inning. I’m starting to rest my eyes sometimes with audiobooks and just finished listening to Foregone, Russell Banks' final novel, the protagonist a dying man. Banks died in January 2023 and the book came out later last year. It's the first of his book's I've read  (although I remember Atom Egoyan's film made from The Sweet Hereafter) but it won't be the last! Not that I’m preoccupied with death exactly but I am trying to desensitize myself to the thought as I move through life. 

International Women's Day is coming up on March 8, we'll be celebrating online again so we can reach many people far away. Sorry to miss the tasty dishes we used to share but hope everyone can enjoy some yummy food and maybe get together with a few friends in your own corner.  On Zoom here in the studio (my kitchen) we'll have Mary Newberry in conversation with BettyAnn Mckenzie about the book she edited on disability activist Beryl Potter, followed by Maria Meindl talking about her experience with Heart to Heart, an agency that brings groups of Israeli and Palestinian teens for a week of summer camping together in Ontario.  I'll be sending some loving and supportive thoughts to Yulia Navalnaya who is bravely taking up her late husband's work, feel free to join me.

And while we're in that part of the world, there's a new book out about the amazing Volodymyr Zelenskyy who said, when someone compared him toWinston Churchill, that  he felt more like, Charlie Chaplin.  Reminding us of how Chaplin used the power of his art to demean fascism...both Zelenskyy and Navalny bring tears to my eyes with their humour and their bravery.

So Happy Birthday to any of you who are Leap Year people and we're moving towards spring, see you again in April.

 Blog #150...February 2024

When the new year begins, as it just did, there's a sense of change in the air, often targeting our behaviour, frequently to do with eating and exercise. Makes me remember using a formal stress scale to launch cognitive groups when I was in that business. Top of the list was death of a spouse, no surprise there, but there were some seemingly positive events further down ..like a work promotion, or a marriage. What they all shared of course as well as stress was change.

I sometimes think of what's not changed or what seems to be a similar situation. Is it too much of a stretch to compare the multitude of cruel scams afoot these days - online, at the bank machine or in a car - to the sharp teeth of animals our ancestors feared if they stepped outside their cave, or even stayed inside?  But back to what has changed.

Changes come in many forms - from beginning, or leaving, a relationship or job to the more subtle changes that can emerge slowly in attitudes. The wonderful Canadian gynaecologist Jen Gunter points out in her latest book -  Blood: The Science, Medicine and Mythology of Menstruation - how, as recently as 1974,  Britain's medical journal The Lancet published a piece speculating that menstrual blood could wither plants. I know 1974! She does a great deal for women btw, with The Vagina Bible  in 2019, The Menopause Manifesto in 2021 as well as Blood in 2024.

We all had to change quickly and pretty drastically when the pandemic struck, and I was reminded yet again how important friends are. Dan Levy has just released his first feature film, pivoting from his TV success with Schitt's Creek. In Good Grief  Dan blends the sorrow brought by the loss of a loved one with the life saving support of friends. It's set in the gay community and although it portrays that community as unique, the feelings connected with grief and with the importance of friends is universal.

 And Mathew R Morris in his first book Black Boys Like Me shows how topics to write about have changed since, say 1974 (when women were wilting plants). A teacher, Mathew brings his own experience at school to share with black students in his classroom, pointing out their individuality within the stereotypes of sports and music...or crime. Good for the white kids to hear too - lots to think about here.

And finally, I was lucky to visit the McMichael Gallery outside Toronto last week - how I adore that place!  I love stepping away from appreciating Canadian art to the large windows to appreciate the beautiful Canadian landscape outside. I say lucky because the Gallery is not accessible without a car, except for a once weekly bus in the summer. And the only opportunity to eat is a rather pricey and definitely not family friendly restaurant, no spot to eat a packed lunch in the winter other than a couple of benches in the lobby.  This is such an important collection of Canadian art, including thousands of indigenous pieces celebrated in a wonderful new book, that I'm always disappointed it isn't accessible to more people.  Maybe that'll change?   And, the show I enjoyed was the work of Marcel Dzama, a Winnipeg artist influenced by Federico Garcia Lorca and Tom Thomson... I know, weird, but the resulting work is beautiful and interesting.

So, this month's blog is a bit of a pot pourri, like life these days. See you in March.