Monday, July 24, 2006

Standing the heat (just)

The current heat wave rippling through Vancouver (compounded by my south-facing office with no cross-draft) has made me a bit slower than usual this week, and a trip to the Okanagan Valley last week didn’t help matters. I usually prefer cool weather, but with a number of real estate and viticultural stories coming due, I don’t have much of a choice but to stick to my desk. Afternoon coffee in an air-conditioned café might be a good change of pace (and climate), however.

We all know the expression about standing the heat when you’re in the kitchen. The old adage took on special meaning this weekend as a summer visit to the Okanagan and drive back through the Similkameen can’t be done without picking up tree-fresh fruit. So a trunk of Lapins cherries and Tomcot apricots led to canning sessions that yielded nearly four litres of brandied cherries and bright-hued apricot jam. Froth from the apricot jam made a nice glaze last night for a roast chicken, too. Fortunately, there was a good cross-draft going in the kitchen throughout the cooking thanks to an electric fan.

Monday, July 10, 2006

Hunter and gatherer

Writers often play the role of hunter (Nobel Laureate Czeslaw Milosz touches on his own identification with the image in A Year of the Hunter). But I recently added “gatherer” to my roles following an invitation to serve as associate editor, British Columbia, for the liquor trade magazine Vendor. I will also be overseeing book reviews as book review editor for Amphora, the quarterly journal of the Alcuin Society, which brings together those interested in books, book design and book arts in general.

This past weekend, in between roasting a leg of lamb and preparing a delicious apple-almond-ricotta cake (not quite as gluten-free as in the recipe), I took time to listen to Johnny Cash, American V: A Hundred Highways. The final album by this legendary American singer-songwriter, it closes his career on a solemn yet peaceful note. Throw in a couple of tunes by Canada’s own Gordon Lightfoot and Ian Tyson, and my own memories of seeing Cash play in Montreal back in 1988, and this is a collection I’m glad to own as much for its cultural merits as its personal resonances. Cash, more than most, pairs words with music in an exercise that, if not faultless, certainly comes across as timeless.

Thursday, July 06, 2006

On newsstands now

A good chunk of my time between March and May was spent researching the list of the Top 100 companies in British Columbia for BC Business. This sort of project is always a monumental task, and I relish the challenge even as I dread the prospect of missing companies. And inevitably, some companies always go missing. This year's BC Business list boasts 16 companies that didn’t appear last year (some of which should have), so I am generally happy with the results.

This week, I’ve spent a great deal of time working on real estate, liquor and technology stories for Business in Vancouver and Vendor. I’ve got a new role with the latter, but I’ll save that tidbit for next week’s post.

And between it all, I’ve built up some momentum reading through Wislawa Szymborska, Poems, New and Collected: 1957-1997. I previously read Szymborska's collection View with a Grain of Sand, which was augmented for the edition I'm reading. I’m enjoying the refresher course – though, really, there is so much new that it is like discovering her work all over again. The stark quality of the material is often bracing; gently, lightly warming you even as it presents chilling scenarios. For example, Still.