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Tag Archives: Perspectives
Two Basket Cases
This from a long 2006 missive to my friend Willard: The horn basket [cornucopia] is emptied and usually in its emptying it does not suffer damage. The container subject to dehiscence loses its capacity to act as a container in … Continue reading
Trip Tips
Mitch Cullin. A Slight Trick of the Mind. We find a Sherlock Holmes in advanced age. And the novel raises existential questions about memory and loss. But also about love. Is our protagonist able to love? Is he able to … Continue reading
Avian Perspective
Richelle Kosar in her novel The Drum King has her narrator-protagonist observe the birds: Gulls were circling across the radiant clouds with wild, faraway cries. It struck me how beautiful and graceful they appeared at a distance; you could almost … Continue reading
Lunch Artist
I take issue with the characterization of Scott Burton’s chairs found in James Cross Giblin’s Be Seated: A Book About Chairs. (The description may be accurate but the interpretation is unjust.) Burton’s stone furniture has serious limitations. Since the pieces … Continue reading
Vanished Boundaries Remembered
Shawn Micallef, one of Toronto’s psychogeographers, wrote some time ago in an issue of Eye Weekly about a particular sculptural piece: On Yonge Street, the Hogg’s Hollow dip divides the city deeper and wider than the Don Valley and is … Continue reading
Bridge Walking
Stephen Kuusisto in Planet of the Blind has a stimulating description of the Brooklyn Bridge. The Brooklyn Bridge has a civilized, old-fashioned promenade deck, with teak benches and intricate wrought iron lamps posts. This walkway is sensational, crossing the bridge … Continue reading
Chambers and Antechambers
I have of late been thinking about public/private spheres and intermediary zones and was very pleased to come across these lines from “The Grand Dance”, a poem by Gwendolyn MacEwen: […] I am simply trying to track you down In … Continue reading
a Skip and a Beat
In a piece collected in Close to the Knives David Wojnarowicz writes: Hell is a place on earth. Heaven is a place in your head. In case any readers might want to take this aphoristic slice of quotation as a … Continue reading
Marlene Creates
She lives up to her name. I am simply entranced by the description of one work. You get the feel of it. Text from the Signs of Our Times exhibition catalogue, 2005. The exhibition was a retrospective traveling show of … Continue reading