Phaidon has a great series of city guides. I used the Cairo one on my trip and it was fantastic for restaurant recommendations and for giving a different perspective on the architecture, art and culture of the place.
I highly recommend these as supplemental guides. Not a great replacement for your full-blown guide book, but definitely necessary reading in advance of the trip, good for nightlife planning, and perfect as small, pocket-sized gems that you can easily cart around while on tour.
Fugitives by Suzanne Jacob is a novel translated by Sheila Fischman, who must be the best French-English translator in Canada.
Suzanne Jacob is a major voice in Quebec fiction and I wanted to read her latest (the 7th) novel. Fugitives is the story of four generations of women who are trying to escape the madness of their families. These are children who are taken advantage of by adults, children finding their way sexually, children finding their place in the world.
The chapters switch between different points of view and although it is evokative and mysterious, I didn’t quite get into this story. It’s a novel of the mind, in this case the minds of four women.
A worthwhile read, but I did have to stick with it.
Quote: Robert Bringhurst takes us on another of his walking tours, this time through the bramble of English and French-Canadian books and book design, from the mid-18th Century to the present day. Along the way, he discovers a true “image trove” of identity, culture and history.
And he does what no other work on books and publications does: He creates a truly national survey of Canadian books by bringing Canada’s long history of Aboriginal story-telling into a context of “book”. It is a context that goes into the depths of our prehistory, far beyond the printed page.
I am a big fan of Bringhurst and a fan of book design. Penguin by Design by Philip Baines was a favourite read a couple of years ago.
The Tales of Beedle Bard by JK Rowling (Collector’s Edition) arrived today. It was as cool as opening a package from Apple. Thank you Jo!
Opening the box. The gift case is bigger than I expected. I also saw the regular edition in the store and was hoping this would be spectacular by far. It is.
Slipping off the case cover, you have a big leathery book hallowed out with a side pocket for your Beedle the Bard reproductions of the prints and the velvety pouch with The Tales of Beedle the Bard.
I chose to look at the prints first. Love the skull.
Lots of great sketches. A whole envelope.
The fountain is my favourite. I might frame this one.
In case you need to be taunted, here’s the gift package.
The Gryffindor red and gold embroidered pouch containing the tales.
Gasping. The title page is beautiful. I love it.
Jo’s handwritten introduction.
The rest of the book looks like Cochin Wizard (?) to me. (That’s a font.) It’s awesome. Cute metal clasp. There are more photos to come. Can’t talk now … reading.
UPDATE
Opening the box from Amazon.
This side up.
The Tales cover.
The book also smells good.
Marbled end papers.
The title page. Still gorgeous every time I open the book. Loving this present.
Farmstead Wines announced a photo contest recently and there are still prizes left.
Post a photo to Twitter, TwitPic, Flickr wearing your Farmstead button or drinking a bottle of Farmstead wine. Really, even if there are no prizes left, wear your button, drink the wine. It will change your life (or at least your opinion of good wine).
Despite my bleary eyes, lack of sleep and general clumsiness today, I managed to dress up and go on a field trip to the Chanel Boutique, where I was lucky enough to secure, not one but, two sample bottles! These are generally given out if you purchase one of the regular bottles for $245.
I came to San Francisco for the Edward Tufte workshop. Basically it’s all about graphics, tables and visual representation of data, a little bit of statistical analysis, a pinch of PPT ranting and the general goodness that comes from learning new things from a guy who sees it all as old hat.
One of my favourite quotes today was, “you want to keep an open mind, but not an empty head.”
I tucked in some sight seeing while I was there. A reconnaissance mission really. I must go back. (Salt House had the best gnocchi ever.)
The ginger bread houses (or ships) at the Palace Hotel were yummy looking.
The Palace Hotel is gorgeous, and right across the street from The Sentinel, the best lunch counter ever.
Mushy ice skating in front of Macy’s seemed to be a popular source of evening entertainment. Although it’s cold, it’s not Winnipeg cold.
Thank goodness I found the groove. The street buskers (steps from my hotel) were throwing down the 8-counts. Edward was a tap dancing machine. He knows Dormeisha and Jason, Lady Di, Joel Hanna, all the tappers in my world. Albeit, it’s a world I should return to before I lose my place.
My trip ended with a crazy airport experience.
Here’s the Free Speech Booth where the solicitation of funds may occur. Really, what is this?
AirCanada decided to change our aircraft at the last minute, which meant a 1-hour delay. The flight attendants got on the new plane only to discover that the catering carts were not moved over, which led to another hour delay. When we finally got on the plane, they discovered the wing flaps weren’t working. The single mechanic on duty tirelessly worked away at the problem for another hour. After 2 hours and 45 minutes of delay we were on our way. Good thing I was at the airport so early, f-sharp. In flight, they realized the customs cards were no where to be found. An agent met us at the gate with them, although they were US customs cards, which are entirely useless when entering CANADA! I’m sure the flight attendants were as happy to finish the trip as the passengers. What a gong show.
He got lost a couple of years ago when my mom and I were cleaning up her storage locker. I set him aside to bring home and he somehow got lost. I was sad.
Two days ago was my brother’s birthday and he got a bunny puppet with crazy eyes, which prompted my mom to say, “hey I found your rabbit when I was getting my Christmas decorations out.”
Hooray for Christmas!
You can see my rabbit has been roughed up a bit. Ears and whiskers askew. Poor bunny.
