Category: Certainties

What? I don’t even know what you might be intending there. My car takes regular. You know how it is when you feel verklempty and that you’re undoubtedly in some obscure sense shirking some sense of duty you might have to something you half think you should be doing? Remember that?

And you slink off to other things because you just can’t get it together for what you think you should or ought to be doing?  Because it’s not working and you feel stressed and you just want to get out of here.  That’s it.

Chopin.  You’re thinking of Mr. Frederic Chopin and how you don’t have a recording now of his “Nocturnes”.  You used to have.  But it was on vinyl and the vinyl went away.

So rather than study, or write, because the whole world is waiting for something from you, you concentrate on shopping for other stuff that’s suddenly important in your world.  Because, cher amis, it beats work.  Correct me if I’m wrong.  And you couldn’t find the Nocturnes yesterday.  They’re not in the produce section and you looked everywhere you could think of.

States is looking, and has been looking, for Mr. Gustav Mahler’s 9th Symphony.  So, in a burst of creativity, in the middle of this afternoon’s rain, we elect to drive downtown to the last and finest emporium of “Classical” in Raincouver.  “Sikora’s Classical Records Ltd” 424 West Hastings.  Right in the heart of things.

Precision bombing has removed the Imperial Bank building on the corner there of Hastings and Hamilton SW.  We noticed that and stopped, in passing, to stare through the construction fence at the crater.  “Dark reddish/maroon polished marble or granite or whatever it was,” I was saying.  “I remember.”  I was talking about the exterior facade of  the extinct former CIBC bank site.  Poor thing.  But something new will grow.

There’s no time for soft feelings about disappeared buildings so in the pelting rain onward to Sikora’s.  Made it.

Deutsche Grammophon Daniel Barenboim Chopin’s Nocturnes 1982.

Naxos Polish National Radio Sympony Orchestra 1993.

Once again, dear friends, yours in the rain.  7:00 pm.  The rain has stopped!  This is crazy.

 

 

It’s something so unbelievable, so cunning, cold and inevitable it leaves you kind of dumbfounded.  Mr. Dumbfounded.  He’s back.  Because it’s here, this thing, and no one told you.  Turns out it’s been around a long time.  It’s Stemonitis splendens.   OMG.

Day one.  White grapes.  Or mothballs.  Whole bunches of mothballs.  What are all these white grape mothballs doing out in these here woods?

Day two.  Scant twenty-four hours later.  Chocolates.  Tasty looking chocolates.  Metamorphosed grape mothballs.  I’m serious.  One day later.

Sophocles nearly had it right.  Wonders are many, but none as wonderful as fungus.  Fungus.  There’s still much to do in the fungus fields, apparently.  Not all fungi secrets have been revealed.  So if you’re looking for something to do on a wet day like today…  You know, if you go out in the woods.  The field is open.

A fungus is not a plant so get over it.  It feeds off dead stuff like worn out trees.

Day three.  You may be reminded of a couple of things but it’s still Stemonitis splendens.
Having a bit of a lie down.

It’s wild kingdom stuff.  It speaks for itself.  I figure people ought to know about this before it’s too late.  Too late like when it’s dark and you won’t be able to see it.

Yrs in the rain.  Photos courtesy CS Nicol

Launched today is the Vancouver Public Library “Literary Landmarks” project.

At the crack of ten-thirty this morning a crack team of librarians and special guests braved cloudy skies and raindrops to be present at the unveiling of the plaque dedicated to Eric Nicol, which is on a lamp standard on the north side of the VPL main branch at 350 West Georgia Street. A couple of dozen other plaques featuring other writers are already in place around town.

The unveiling was followed by a reception in the library attended by special guests including some of the people getting plaqued:  George Bowering, Andreas Schroeder, Evelyn Lau, Daphne Marlatt and Sadhu Binning, among others.

Complete details on the project can be found here:

http://www.vpl.ca/news/details/news_literary_landmarks_2015

Filed in “Good Ideas”.  More plaques will be added here and there as time goes on.  Rain or shine.