Last night I went to see what may very well be the filthiest, most obscene film ever made. Remarkably, there isn’t a single scene of violence or nudity. It is just people talking, very frankly, hilariously and, yes, intelligently about the most taboo subjects in our society. It was one of the most thought-provoking and… Read more »
Every Saturday morning, soon after the sun comes up, I take my eight-year-old daughter down to our favourite breakfast spot to share a Spanish omelette. It’s about a forty-minute walk each way, and we pass the time by telling each other stories from our lives. For instance, I’ll tell her about the time her mother… Read more »
It’s the ungodly hours before dawn, and the vicious vampire mosquitoes are gathered about my head. Despite the fact that it’s one of those humidity-drenched Bangkok-like Vancouver nights, my wife and I are completely swathed in bedclothes so that as little of our skin as possible is exposed to the relentless attack of these flesh-frenzied… Read more »
I plant an apple tree and wait for you to crawl through the grass toward me, and open my eyes to delicious worldly delight. I plant red roses to remind me of the way your hips moved in the candlelight in the Moroccan hotel room the night before the bomb went off in the marketplace…. Read more »
There are thousands of qualities of light that need to be identified and categorized. This work is being carried out by physicists and poets around the world. From the nightlights plugged into the electrical outlets of our childhood bedrooms, to the candles that burn at our funerals, light provides primal solace in the face of… Read more »
All memory is convulsed in an upheaval of violence. There is a fire burning over the Earth, taking with it plants and animals, cultures, languages, ancient skills and visionary wisdom. Quelling this flame and reinventing the poetry of diversity is the most important challenge of our time. (Wade Davis, 1999, p. 279) When I woke… Read more »
Dinner is all about mismatched cutlery and drinking wine-in-a-bag out of water glasses from the Super 8. We’re eating ham steaks and a potato salad that’s made the way it’s meant to be made, which means you can feel your arteries congealing with every bite. Outside, there’s a full moon rising above the lake. When… Read more »
Driving through Manning Park last Sunday afternoon, I’m one of the first dozen or so vehicles to arrive on the scene of a fatal highway accident. No emergency vehicles have arrived yet. There is a silver thermal blanket, the kind that comes in roadside emergency kits, that is shrouding a dead body. There is a… Read more »
In the July 10th edition of The Vancouver Courier, a community newspaper, there was a story about a woman whose cat was injured and nearly killed by two coyotes. The woman’s response was to immediately call for a culling of coyotes in the area, in order to make nighttime prowling safer for domesticated animals. “‘I… Read more »
Simply By Getting Out of Bed On This Ordinary Morning You Could: “¢ Be hit and killed by the Number 17 bus. “¢ Find a beehive beneath your floorboards. “¢ Be abducted by aliens and forced to attend intergalactic cocktail parties where peculiar customs prevail. “¢ Crush beneath your boot a beetle whose brain and… Read more »