Outstanding!
I looked up Curtis Grahauer and he appears to be a Vancouver artist: here’s an article on his work and his YouTube account. Thank you, Curtis, for such a brilliant moment of delight :)
(The book is Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives, if you’re curious.)
Vancouver’s a big city, but there’s a ton of things within it that smack of small-town fun. I mean that in a good way—it’s unfailingly awesome that this city has a ton of small-scale events, all invented just so you can have fun, meet your neighbours, and support your local community. Yeah!
A case in point is the Vancouver Canadians, our single-A minor league baseball team, whose games are true joys to attend. A Canadians game is cheap, it’s super cheerful, and it’s all wrapped up inside beautiful Nat Bailey Stadium, built in Mount Pleasant in 1951.
The baseball’s always a draw, but the club’s barrage of non-baseball interludes really make the whole thing sing. Man, do they hustle to keep your attention: there’s sushi mascot races, 50/50 draws, dancing groundskeepers, a singalong to Take Me Out to The Ball Game during the seventh-inning stretch, and more.
The stadium was sold out for Saturday’s game, with a super boisterous crowd fiercely on the Canadians’ side, and tons of silly crowd things to shamelessly participate in (the wave, the shouting of “Goose!” when a goose landed on the field, etc). The Canadians lost on Saturday, but we all went home happy, I think. Not only did everyone get a free A&W Teen Burger and rootbeer because a Canadian hit a homer (thanks, Michael Choice!), but the bat boy caught about six foul balls, to the roaring approval of the stands (“MVP!” we all shouted). After the game was done, fans swarmed to get the bat boy’s autograph too. Another fine night at the Nat.
Well, over the past few months, I’ve become an unequivocal Witold Rybczynski superfan.
This all started after I picked up one of Witold’s books, The Most Beautiful House in the World, from the local library. I’d read his architecture criticism at Slate before, and I knew he was a renowned professor, but none of it quite prepared me for the spectacular nature of his long-form writing.
The Most Beautiful House in the World was ostensibly about the construction of Witold’s house outside Montreal, but it quickly became a considered reflection on the craft of architecture and the qualities of a good home. Witold had a clear, measured voice, and he wove a wealth of thoughtful historical detail throughout his book. Let’s put it this way: reaching the end of the book was like finishing a long, rich conversation with an old, dear friend. And it was bloody nonfiction!
The next step was obvious. I had to reserve and read all of his books as soon as possible—and I did, much to my delight. It turns out Witold dives into topics that seem wholly abstract, but pulls them to earth in a way that is fascinating and wise and illuminating all at once. Home: A Short History of an Idea looked at how we had developed the concept of the private home reserved for family. Waiting for the Weekend examined how we developed the concept of the weekend and our sense of leisure time. City Life looked at how the American city came to be the way it was. The list goes on, and on.
One more thing, however, makes Witold’s writing so riveting—and it’s that his style is a sharp and invigorating contrast to a lot of nonfiction you find today. Malcolm Gladwell’s influence on the form has made some people dive into fascinating subjects but come up with very little to say. But Witold plumbs subjects with scholarly intelligence that remains approachable. He’s not trying to be breezy, he’s not aiming to thrill you with laboriously tortured narratives, and he’s not trying to tie a bunch of disparate concepts and events into a unified theory that secretly runs the universe. He’s more like a tour guide for this world, writing to help us understand where we are and where we’ve come from. There’s substance and wisdom there. I’m hooked.
Honestly, why don’t I get to roam beautiful cities and make atmospheric recordings with musicians all day? I guess I’m glad someone’s doing it for me over at La Blogotheque.
See the rest of the Josh Rouse clips here, and make sure to peruse the full list of Take Away Shows: my favourites include Phoenix and the Arcade Fire.
Woop woop—after five years with the same website design, here’s a new and improved Pabillano.com!
It’s a brand-new look revved up with lots of snappy features. One thing I’m very happy about is my new reading lists: the newer lists are all sortable by header! (The 2006-2004 lists remain static since the datestamps were messy.)
There’s also new content in the sidebar: you can now grab a feed of links I’m sharing, plus links to a few of my social networking accounts. So Web 2.0!
Anyway, this lovely new site has prompted me to update the blog more often. I’m planning for notes on books, film and television, social media, and assorted other stuff that I find interesting. But I’ll be staying away from employer and work-related topics so I don’t cross the streams, so to speak.
I’ll do my best to keep this all engaging, so do stick around for the ride—I think we’re going to have some fun.
(And many, many thanks to DZ, the driving force behind this new site design. Hearts!)
This is me at the FutureSex/LoveParty held last weekend.
Some explanation is in order. Once upon a time I dreamed of having a Justin Timberlake party. Well, to be more specific, I accidentally dressed like JT while on a transatlantic flight and thought, “If it’s this easy to dress like Mr. JT, wouldn’t it be easy and fun to get lots of people to do the same?” So the idea of a FutureSex/LoveParty was born, and this party was held last weekend at our humble apartment as a housewarming.
Here I’ve posted a small a taste of what went down…
Saw this in the neighbourhood in April.
Lame! See, this is why I don’t blog!
However, I am keeping the blog around just in case I actually have some updates to tell you. Like that I have a blog now. Here it is!