Mary Soderstrom's Blog, page 98

Return of the Cold: No Day to Think Creatively

It's been four weeks now that we've been dragging colds around.  Thought I was over it and had made plans to make fruitcakes with Sophie and play with little Thom a bit today.  However, the cough returned last night, so I'm laying low today.  So no post more interesting than this unless something drops in my lap.....

Icelandic Star Bjork Interviews Arvo Pârt: Preparation for a Great Concert of SMAM

The past and the present, as everyone knows, are intertwined in all domains.

Music lovers will have a great chance to see just that  when The Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal mixes Bach and Estonian composer Arvo Pârt Thursday in a concert that promises to be great.


Time and place:  7:30 pm., Immaculée-Conception Church

Works: Magnificat by J.S. Bach and Berliner Messe by Arvo Pärt

Artists:  Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal
I Musici de Montréal Chambre Orchestra





And in the spirit of musical and temporal mixing, here's an interview with the Icelandic pop star (not  dim light, at all) with Pârt.

Saturday Photo: Snow Fallling on Nearly Bare Branches

This photo was taken a couple of winters ago, but I don't think I've ever used it as a Saturday photo.  It seems particularly appropriate today, when the snow is lingering and the temperature has plummeted. 

Tomorrow, however, will be another day, with the forecast for rain and temperatures well above freezing.  Such is the up and down world this year. 

In-laws and Jane Jacobs: Densifying the Suburbs

Jane Jacobs at the end of her life was all in favour of densifying cities by allowing "in law apartments" and the like on single family lots.  In her last book, she advocated doing that in existing suburban neighborhoods, and some city planners have listened to her.  The economic troubles following 2008 have reinforced the appeal, it seems.  Boomerang young people and aging grandparents are apparently increasingly sharing space .

The New York Times reports today that some new housing developments are taking that into account. High end houses with separate entrances for either offspring or patriarchs and matriarchs are a coming trend, some developers think.

Jacobs would probablly be appalled, however. She was not in favour of more urban sprawl, but less. 

First Snow!

We've had a few flakes at least three times, but yesterday was the first snow that lasted.  Not much on the ground, but still...

Worth Reading: The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

Are You Listening, Politicos? Health Care Is What Matters to Canadians

Most interesting survey got quite a bit of press yesterday: Canadians hold  the health care system more important than any other characteristic of their country.

As the Globe and Mail reported: "The online survey of 2,207 respondents by Leger Marketing found universal health care was almost universally loved, with 94 per cent calling it an important source of collective pride – including 74 per cent who called it “very important.”

"At the other end of the spectrum, just 39 per cent of respondents felt the monarchy was a source of personal or collective pride, while 59 per cent were royally unimpressed. In fact, 32 per cent of respondents found the monarchy “not at all important” – the most popular singular response. "

I do hope that Canadian politicians are listening.  Stephen Harper may not be winning the fight for the hearts and minds of Canadians when it comes to the monarchy!  He's not going to be able to cover over the hole in the ozone layer with the Queen's portrait, as this Le Devoir cartoon suggests he'd like to do.

 And politicos of other persuasions should muster more support for the health care system, too.

Is This the End? History from Taticus to The Doors and Sandra

Very interesting meditation on time and the river(s) flowing by James Atlas in The New York Times , entitled "IsThis the End?"  A sample:

"History is a series of random events organized in a seemingly sensible order. We experience it as chronology, with ourselves as the end point — not the end point, but as the culmination of events that leads to the very moment in which we happen to live."

Yet: "Every civilization must go. "  He contiues, after quoting Tacitus about a  eruption Mt. Vesuvius: " But of course it wasn’t the end of the world: it was just the end of them."

Atlas also quotes New York governor Governor Cuomo:  “'we have a 100-year flood every two years now,' which doesn’t stop rents from going up in Battery Park City. "

The message?  Is it too late to stop the rising tides? Or is time to think about moving on?

And by the way, what was the ecological damage of all that defoliation in Vietnam? We got out of it, can we get out of our current messes?

Saturday Photo: Holly, a Harbinger of Holidays

I had always thought that you couldn't grow holly in Montreal, that the climate here is just too tough for the lovely shrub.  But I found this vigorously growing stand near the Université de Montréal not long ago.   Obviously there are some varieties that can take the cold.

Given that the markets are full of Christmas trees already and that we've been overwhelmed this week by hype about Black Friday, it's good to look at one harbinger of the holiday season that proceeds at its own lovely pace. 

What I Read During My Fall Vacation

Well, it really hasn't been a vacation, but I've been attacked by several little viruses, generously shared with us by Jeanne who picked them up at the day care centre.  The upshot is that I've been taking it easy more, and reading more light stuff than research material.

A list of what I've just finished or am part way through :

Books for various book clubs I'm involved in:

Caleb's Crossing by Genevieve Brooke
The Midwife of Venice by Roberta Rich
Les derniers jour de Smokey Nelson by Catherine Mavrakakis
The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delaney Begins Her Life's Work at 72 by Molly Peacock


Gifts and Loans:

The Theft of History by Jack Goody
The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowlings

Three Finalists from the Quebec Writers' Federation awards:

Straphanger by Taras Grescoe
Tell It to the Trees by Anita Rau Badami (also a finalist for the IMPAC Dublin Prize)
All the Voices Cry by Alice Petersen 

Sometimes feeling rotten can be productive!




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