Vancouver Bound!
October 21, 2009
Here’s today’s sorbet. If you’re not on the “Sorbet” list, why not? What’s wrong with you? It’s free and cool.
The fog is stunning today. Love it. Love the drama of it. Come and say hello in Vancouver, if you’re there. We’ll be using the pseudonyms Thelonious Pinsky and Driffa-Jane Pinsky in Vancouver. I’ll be wearing a pocket hankerchief all weekend. Driffa-Jane will be wearing leather — lots of leather.
The compassion
From across the restaurant, we can see her crying.
She came in with her friend, sat down, and immediately
began to sob.
My wife and I are both moved by these tears.
My wife imagines a break-up scenario – the guy did it
on the phone, or by Tweet, or by text message – and this woman
is shattered by this news.
I imagine something less romantic like a lost job,
or dead pet, or perhaps a broken date at the end
of a long crappy day.
“Let’s send her a drink,” my big-hearted wife suggests.
“Really?” I say.
“Why not? It’ll cheer her up.”
So I pinky swear our waitress into never saying
who the drink came from and the drink – a vodka martini –
is delivered.
She seems to be immediately buoyed.
She looks around the restaurant, and into the bar – looking for anything
but a couple with an eight-year old sitting a dozen feet away.
This young woman — who is wearing a sort of bustier that needs constant
pulling up and adjusting, and a short skirt (she seems incapable of sitting without
her legs spread wide open) — does not revisit her initial sorrow.
Whatever it was seems to have passed.
It appears that she is ready to party.
She probably thinks someone in this bar is hot for her and the drink
has nothing to do with her sad arrival.
For her, this drink is sexual; it has nothing to do with kindness.
My wife and I look at each other and smile.
“I bet she’ll have her top off and be dancing on a table in about two hours,”
my wife says.
“And we contributed to that scenario,” I add.
But an act of compassion exists in isolation.
The grace or elegance of the person on the receiving end
is irrelevant.
The weekend…41 and 58!!!
Trofimuk will be in Vancouver this weekend, promoting his latest book at the Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival (http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/ ).
EVENT 41: Playing with Real People
Kate Braid
Annabel Lyon
Thomas Trofimuk
Host: Andreas Schroeder
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 10 – 11:30AM
PTC Studio
$16 / $8 for student groups
Aristotle himself is the narrator of The Golden Mean, Annabel Lyon’s tale of war, political intrigue, ambition and the philosopher’s pupil, Alexander the Great. Renowned pianist Glenn Gould pours out his inner heart to a fan going deaf in the fictional narrative A Well-Mannered Storm: The Glenn Gould Poems by Kate Braid. And Christopher Columbus—or at least a fellow in a Spanish insane asylum who believes he is Columbus and can tell the “truth” of how he obtained ships from Spanish royalty—takes centre stage in Thomas Trofimuk’s Waiting for Columbus. Thorough research by these three writers into their historical figures is plainly evident but is only a starting point for great leaps of imagination and style. Take the leap with them!
EVENT 58: Polyphony
John Bemrose
Andrea De Carlo
Cynthia Flood
Karen McLaughlin
Maile Meloy
Anik See
Thomas Trofimuk
Host: Paul Grant
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24, 8:00PM
Waterfront Theatre
$18
Settle back this evening to hear seven fine writers read from their new works. There’s definitely more than enough in store here to introduce you to some riveting and entertaining
fiction and poetry that you will want to explore further. Italian author Andrea De Carlo, who has 13 novels to his credit, joins American Maile Meloy, chosen as one of Granta’s 21 Best Young American Novelists. Five Canadian writers round out the slate and you’ll be sure to discover some voices that you’ll want to return to. Come and sample some great reads!