Boulevard Magazine - October 2011 Issue

LIFE AT ITS FINEST

OCTOBER 2011

Harbouring Illusions Should we care if the whole harbour goes condo?

Navigators of the Straits:

How local pilots guide big ships

Spice up the Thanksgiving table with enticing side dishes

Bloomin’’ Lovely : Bring spring bulbs

inside this winter

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CONTENTS

82

Volume XXI, Issue 9, October 2011

FEATURES 12

CONDOS vs REAL JOBS Can a working harbour co-exist with residences?

By Jody Paterson

20

Shore to SHip Jump on deck with ocean pilots

By Glenn Lindsey

52

She’s No Dinosaur But musuem CEO Pauline Rafferty will roam the RBCM halls no more

By Alex Van Tol

COLUMNS

12 52

october

16

HAWTHORN Creating hipster heaven

By Tom Hawthorn

18

STATE OF THE ARTS Meet artists who work for social justice

By Alisa Gordaneer

72

DEPARTMENTS 8

CONTRIBUTORS A few of our talented crew

10

EDITOR’S LETTER Down to the sea in ships

11

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Lost and found

26

COWICHAN Where artisans include a barber

By Linda Wilkinson

36

CREATIVE MINDS Check into Barbara Adams’ brilliant hotel idea

By Alisa Gordaneer

HOT DESIGN A bevy of winter blooms

76

HEALTH & FITNESS Is cancer on call-waiting?

By Shannon Moneo

FOOD & WINE Give thanks for new side dishes

By Maryanne Carmack

80

TECHNOLOGIA Can Darryl put down an ebook?

By Darryl Gittins

WRY EYE Please teed my rail, I mean read my tale

By Anne Mullens

82

SECRETS & LIVES Rick West, tarantula tamer

By Shannon Moneo

56

64 FRONT ROW Love Kills at the Phoenix; Experts fib at the RBCM; Ballet Victoria taps into Pink Floyd; Desiree Bond goes Eclectic; and more

By Robert Moyes

TRAVEL FAR Alsace, lesser-visited but worth the trip

By Robert Moyes

HOT PROPERTIES Every castle needs a play loft

By Carolyn Heiman

60

30

72

42

66

BOULEVARD BOOK CLUB A sextet of titles to savour

By Adrienne Dyer

68

TRAVEL NEAR Qualicum, fresh from scratch

By Katherine Gordon

On our cover: Hyacinths are some of the many spring bulbs you can force to bloom inside. See how on page 56.

lIFE AT ITS FINEST

President John Simmons Vice President & Publisher Peter Baillie Associate Publisher Linda Hensellek Managing Editor Anne Mullens Associate Editor Vivian Smith Art Director Beth Campbell Business Manager Janet Dessureault Production Assistant Melissa Cross Printing Central Web Advertising Linda Hensellek, Alicia Cormier Pat Montgomery-Brindle, Geoff Wilcox

42,000 copies of this issue of Victoria Boulevard® have been published by Boulevard Lifestyles Inc., to be enjoyed by more than 100,000 readers in the top 25% of homes by value in the Victoria region.

Glenn Lindsey is a Victoria-based educator, screenwriter and part-time bus driver for children and youth with special needs. Born in Willowdale, a quiet, shady village of long-ago Toronto, he moved to Victoria in 2008 and has become familiar with the currents and eddies of local traffic while navigating about in a small yellow school bus. Using his highly tuned sea-legs, he plumbed the depths of his story on marine pilots in this issue, and didn’t fall overboard once.

Jody Paterson is a long-time journalist, manager and Times Colonist columnist who has more recently expanded her writing horizons to include magazine work, communications strategy and haiku. She is communications counsel for the Federation of Community Social Services of BC and a management consultant with PEERS Victoria Resource Society. “I wish my youngest grandson could have been there for the tour of the working harbour, because he would have gone mad for all the giant metal things and big pieces of equipment,” says Paterson.

Alex Van Tol enjoyed interviewing Royal BC Museum CEO Pauline Rafferty over coffee. Rafferty is “a gifted communicator, an accomplished leader and a rather stylish dresser,” says Van Tol, who writes for businesses, magazines and young adult readers. Her newest book for young adults is hot off the presses this fall from Orca Book Publishers. To witness Van Tol in her natural state, visit alexvantol.com.

has been a freelance writer for over 20 years, with a particular interest in the arts. Although Robert loves covering the local culture scene each month for Boulevard’s Front Row, he also enjoys experiencing what other countries have to offer. This month along with Front Row he also pens our Travel Far story on Alsace. “I had never been north of Paris, so really jumped at the chance to visit France’s Alsace region,” he says. “Aside from its distinctive cuisine and Germanicstyle wines, the people were friendly in an old-fashioned way that was enormously appealing.”

Robert Moyes

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A RTISTRY 10

•

Q U A LIT Y

•

D U R A B I LI TY

In 1842, James Douglas, then Chief Factor of the Hudson Bay Company, sailed with five men aboard the schooner Cadboro, carefully surveying all the promising harbours of Southern Vancouver Island. He was looking for the best site for a new HBC fort and to establish a British presence to help in the anticipated border tussles with the US. He chose Victoria’s harbour, then called Camosack, writing to his superior that the location “appears to me decidedly the most advantageous.” With safe, deep and sheltered waters, rich sea life, fertile grassland and temperate climate, Victoria’s harbour was the ideal spot to build a colonial outpost, Douglas felt. Later he was to also pen: “The place itself appears a perfect Eden.”

First Nations people had long thought so too, being supported by the sea and land here for at least 4,000 years before European arrival.

In this issue of Boulevard, we explore two aspects of our continuing special relationship with our harbours and coastal location: how we inhabit them and how we navigate around them.

First, Jody Paterson delves into Victoria’s working harbour and the pressures on it from residential development. Can the two co-exist harmoniously? Read Paterson’s story and see why many people like Point Hope Shipyard’s Ian Maxwell feel it is imperative that we find the right balance and keep a working harbour as a vital part of our region.

Glenn Lindsey, meanwhile, takes us into the unusual livelihood of local marine pilots, the highly trained coastal navigators who safely guide big ships through our tricky waters. Under the Pilotage Act, all ships of 350 gross tonnes in Canadian waters must have a local marine pilot on board, who usually climb from pilot boats via tiny rope ladders up a rocking ship’s side to take over command. Check out this fascinating, unusual job — and as the story notes, you could be one of them as more candidates are being sought for training.

These are just two of the eclectic mix of stories you will find in Boulevard this month: we’re celebrating good food, interesting homes, creative people, and engaging arts and culture, all of it reflecting just a little bit of that perfect Eden we call home. VB Anne Mullens, Managing Editor

YOUR LETTERS Where can I get a copy of Boulevard?

I LOVE Boulevard. I look forward to every new one.

The question is: Is there any place near where I live (near Royal Oak) where I can pick one up? I usually go to town to Murchie’s but sometimes I am too late and they are all gone. To my regret I missed the August one.

Emmy Borsboom

One of these things is not like the other.

Here is what you do so that you don’t miss any issue: Go to our website, victoriaboulevard.com, and click the “Read Boulevard” tab, then click “Get a copy.”

Putting in your postal code will generate a list of all the locations near you where you can pick up a magazine.

On our website you can read the current issue, too, as well as read back issues you missed. (It is rather fun to “flip” cyberly through pages.) And finally, you can stop by our office at 1845B Fort St., where copies are always available in the box outside our door.

Missing ingredient in the corn salad?

Boulevard magazine is a superb publication! But I have a question about the Summer Corn Salad recipe, Sept.

Issue, page 94. The photo of the salad shows amongst the corn kernels, oval-shaped green “something.” Whatever it is, it’s not listed in the ingredients. I would like to make this recipe, it sounds good, but what is missing?

Vicki Sharp

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Sharp eyes, Ms. Sharp. We got a couple of emails from readers pointing out that omission. Writer Maryanne Carmack says, “Oops, it’s soybeans,” (edamame) which she tossed in for more colour contrast in the photo. She says while the recipe is great without the beans, adding any cooked bean — black beans, garbanzo, lentil, navy, even green beans — is a great nutritional addition that is tasty, too.

And we missed a credit for flowers, too.

In each Hot Property feature, a local florist donates floral arrangements for the photo shoot, a generous gesture that subtly adds a lovely natural aesthetic to the shots. We appreciate all the florists who have done this for us over the years and we thank them by adding, in the Suppliers list, an entry for Floral Design. In September we missed crediting Daisy Chain Florists, on Fort Street for the lovely arrangements in the Fairfield home.

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Boulevard welcomes your letters (and corrections). Write to us at editor@victoriaboulevard.com.

11

ian

Maxwell

may control most of the working harbour land,

but he’s not alone in seeing its worth

By JODY PATERSON photo by gary mckinstry

I

T IS A sunny yet windy day along the waterfront in Victoria’s upper harbour, and Point Hope Maritime shipyard is alive with activity.

No ship sits in its enormous dry dock at the moment, but men in coveralls and hard hats keep busy at the shipyard and surrounding businesses, where there’s always metal to weld, steel plates to manufacture, rust and old paint to be stripped away.

Down at the waterfront a ship pulls up for repairs, soon to be hauled onto land along Point Hope’s massive marine railway. On the water, gulls keep watch for a stray sandwich crust from a worker’s lunch, while seals pull up on log booms.

The luxury condo towers of Dockside Green gleam in the background, steps away from Point Hope’s yard. Their glass balconies offer a sky-high view of the action below.

The scene calls up for me the beginnings of a funky, functional mixed-use allure, with a hint of Vancouver’s renowned and popular Granville Island about it. But the man I am walking with, Ian Maxwell, worries this sort of urban vista — thriving harbour industry in a backdrop of condos and wildlife — may soon be no more.

For someone who cares about the preservation of the working harbour as much as Maxwell does, that’s a deeply unsettling thought.

Maxwell, 58, is the president of the Ralmax Group of Companies and he owns or controls most of the industrial land in Victoria’s upper harbour.

While he isn’t the only industrialist operating here, his companies — Point Hope Maritime shipyard, Ellice Recycle, United Engineering, Island Plate and Steel, Harjim Industrial Services — occupy more than 70 per cent of industrial lands in the harbour. That’s because so many other companies sold their properties for residential use as the land’s value soared.

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“Selkirk, Dockside Green, Railyards, Songhees — those developments were all built on former industrial land,” says Maxwell. “If something were to happen to me before I could explain what it means to have Point Hope Shipyard located where it is — or why it’s there, or why a working upper harbour is so integral to Victoria — would people understand any of that? Or would it all just go to condos?”

Some reading this might argue an all-residential waterfront sounds just dandy. Who needs industry in a harbour? Condos are attractive, quiet and innocuous, argue those who live in them. All that commerce means Victoria residents who “live, work and play in and around the Inner Harbour pay a high price in noise and air pollution,” wrote city resident James Gauer in a Times Colonist letter earlier this year, complaining about the drone of seaplanes.

In fact, Maxwell was shocked recently at two Saanich city council meetings (for a new recycling plant unrelated to the harbour) when audience members treated him like an evil industrialist, calling him unprintable names and refusing to shake his hand.

He now feels more compelled than ever to explain the benefits of a working harbour — the jobs, the benefit to the environment of shipping by water, the taxes paid at triple the residential rate — to all who will listen.

He is not alone. Curtis Grad, CEO of the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority, shares Maxwell’s concerns. The harbour authority has a PowerPoint® presentation documenting in photos the massive loss of industrial waterfront in Victoria since the 1960s. “I’m alarmed by those photos, which show a continuous loss of working land from Ogden Point to past the blue bridge,” he says. “The water and the land must be tied together if commerce is to flow. If lands aren’t protected for the long term, we’re going to lose the working harbour forever.”

The city has had a harbour plan in place for a decade, notes Grad. But the challenge is in implementing it amid an abundance of “stakeholders,” governance issues and conflicting visions.

It’s a major concern in a region that counts on its marine industry, says Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin. The marine/ shipbuilding industry is one of the top three drivers of the local economy, right after public service and tourism.

“It’s going to take courage on council to say we believe in mixed use,” says Fortin. “If a city is to be sustainable, it must include industry. Those are also good jobs around the harbour, paying decent wages. And affordability is a big issue in this town.”

Dockside Green buyers must sign a City of Victoria agreement acknowledging their proximity to the working harbour, “but that doesn’t mean we don’t get complaints,” says Fortin.

“It’s about finding that balance, and part of that is about courage on council. People have to accept that when they

move downtown, they’re moving into activity.”

The teeming sea life around Victoria’s harbour attests to the clean habits of modern industry. Maxwell has ISO 140001 environmental certification for his operations at Point Hope, United Engineering, Ellice Recycle and Island Plate and Steel, with more certifications to come.

“All the water at Point Hope is collected and treated. All the docks are sloped so we can collect runoff. Everything is run through charcoal and sand, treated, and then discharged according to environmental “It’s going to take standards,” says Maxwell. courage on Just moving goods by water council to say we instead of land brings major environmental benefits, notes Victoria believe in mixed and Esquimalt Harbour Society chair use,” says Mayor Lyle Soetaert. It would take 150 flatDean Fortin. bed trucks to move the metal that “If a city is to be one loaded barge carries away from sustainable, it must Budget Steel. include industry.”

“Victoria would not be here without its working harbour,” says Soetaert, safety manager with Harbour Air Seaplanes. “But the key is that everything at the water’s edge must be connected to land. If something doesn’t need to be on the water’s edge, then it shouldn’t be. We need to make sure we’re utilizing that connection as best we can.”

Maxwell jokes that even his bankers like him better because his businesses are located on such high-value land.

But he’s not interested in selling, and in fact is looking into ways that he might secure the land for industrial use long after his death. He’s a believer — in the smaller environmental footprint of water transport, in the good jobs and careers his industry provides, in the contours of a sheltered, deep harbour that has been attracting industry and shipping since the first aboriginal canoes and Spanish explorers started pulling up.

The work also feeds into 628 other businesses that contract with Ralmax companies. And the reason it all happens where it does is because the area is uniquely suited to the work, says Maxwell: a deep, sheltered harbour; proximity to another working harbour in Esquimalt; easy access and a lifting bridge to accommodate water transport and repair.

As a long-time supporter of a working harbour, local landuse consultant Bernard Von Schulmann knows that list of assets well. But he wonders if any of it will be enough to ward off hostile homeowners as industrial lands give way to condos.

“They’ll soon be complaining at Dockside Green about having to look at the gravel operations,” predicts Von Schulmann. “That’s what happens — people move in, they complain, and it’s them who vote in elections. Businesses don’t. I honestly think we’ll lose our working harbour within the next generation.” VB

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By Tom Hawthorn

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The world needs more so

Portland,

here’s to those in Victoria who are

making a little bit of Portland North

THE PILGRIMS return with word of paradise on Earth, a place where junk shops hold treasures; where brew pubs outnumber churches; where food carts offer a United Nations smorgasbord of delectable delights; where restaurants serve only the freshest of locally grown foods; where java joints dot every corner with steaming cups of fair-trade organic coffee; where record stores actually sell vinyl; and where a roster of used-book stores includes a sprawling emporium covering an entire downtown block.

I speak, of course, of the fragrant City of Roses. Portland! O shining exemplar of all things urban and trendy and good, you are my hipster heaven.

My own foray to the Wonder on the Willamette included a stay at the Ace Hotel, where rooms come equipped with record players and the lobby boasts a photo booth. (In its previous incarnation as the Clyde Hotel, a dive, the hotel served as the setting for the harrowing movie Drugstore Cowboy.) The groaning shelves of Powell’s City of Books lured me one block north for several hours of scanning dustjacket spines. Elsewhere in the city, the local McMenamins chain of brew pubs offers inexpensive fare and good beer in odd venues, such as a converted funeral parlour. Over in the Hawthorne district, a cornucopia of mom-and-pop shops offers trendy, funky and bohemian choices.

16

So hip that it aches, the scene has been parodied as Portlandia, a sketch comedy show. (Check out the clips on YouTube. Hilarious.) On the show, Portland “is the city where young people go to retire.”

We’ve got our own Portland North going on in Victoria. We need more of it.

Here, young entrepreneurs have turned commercial spaces into communal gathering places. For instance, the interior of the restaurant called Cabin 12 seems as homey as grandma’s living room, filled as it is with pocket books, long-playing records and board games. The restaurateur Corey Judd raised funds through appeals on social media. He was so broke he lived for a time in a room at the back. Judd hired employees of similarly struggling backgrounds, seeing in them an echo of his own resourceful self. The presence of Cabin 12, by Monty’s strip joint on Pandora, improved the neighbourhood, but the building in which they are located has been sold and will be redeveloped. Cabin 12 has to find a new home.

Other restaurants that contribute to the city’s vibe first had to deal with a slow-moving municipal bureaucracy. Located in a repurposed shipping crate on the Inner Harbour, the terrific Red Fish, Blue Fish offers sustainable seafood fare. The lines now stretch the full length of the wharf. It took ages for the owners to get permission for what has been a worthwhile contribution to the waterfront.

A decade ago, intrepid travellers Jodi Mann and Nick Crooks decided to bring the street foods of Southeast Asia to hungry pedestrians in Victoria. They stir-fried noodles from a converted hotdog cart in a Chinatown parking lot. But the city’s red tape and an unhelpful health department led the couple to abandon the outdoors. Today, the Noodle Box has five storefronts in the city, as well as two in Vancouver.

Instead of throwing up roadblocks, the city should be encouraging the use of food carts, an inexpensive way for budding entrepreneurs to get started. Carts bring foot traffic and activity to the street.

A city’s vibe depends on the residents, too, not just commercial ventures. In my Gonzales neighbourhood, an annual block party on Maddison Street brings a temporary halt to busy lives as locals meet and share favourite foods.

Children find new play pals, while older neighbours living on their own become a little less isolated.

Nearby, in the 1000-block of Clare Street, folks have placed arty, hand-painted signs at either end of the block, warning drivers of the presence of children and pets. One of them even built a box in front of her house from which passersby can borrow, or donate, books.

Over in Fernwood, one woman’s initiative has led to the painting of hundreds of telephone poles (many defaced by ugly tags and graffiti) with bright designs. This creative, engaged neighbourhood, home to a host of hip and funky mom-and-pop operations, is an eccentric outpost in a world of global brand names. I think of it as Little Portland. VB

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17

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NOT TO make a sweeping generalization or anything, but I’ve noticed something nice about artists: they tend to have a strong sense of compassion. I’ve also found that sometimes, after travelling to other countries and meeting folks who are even worse off in the funding department than Canadian artists are, those same artists feel moved to find a way to use art to help those they’ve met.

I’m basing my observations on the work of two dedicated Vancouver Island artists (well, one is an artist and the other is a writer) who have given over much of their time to projects that look for ways to connect art lovers here with artisans and artists in other countries where arts funding is a dream that seems as distant as the moon.

Linda Weech, 54, is a visual artist who divides her time among Denman, Hornby and Vancouver islands. In 2005, she started the Children’s International Peace Project (CIPP) to help children and families in the Congo, Burundi, Kenya, Guatemala and, as of this fall, India as well. Her project began when she travelled to Africa to do something, anything, she could do to help people suffering from the Rwandan genocide. While she was there, she took numerous photographs, which she transformed into art cards that she sells to people in BC and on the Internet. She uses the cards, and the images of the people she aims to help, to raise money 18

for her continued work on rebuilding villages, developing schools and even helping plant community medicinal gardens in rural central Africa and Central America.

Writer Virgil Grandfield, 43, started Fish and Dragon Fair Traders, which imports and sells hand-painted batiks on hand-woven silk, to help fight human trafficking in Indonesia, where the batiks are made. He divides his time between Victoria, where he sells the batiks at the summer Ship Point Night Market, and Lethbridge.

A former journalist and Red Cross aid worker, Grandfield discovered evidence of human trafficking in Indonesia while he was working on rebuilding efforts after the 2006 tsunami.

When he spoke out against the practice, which saw workers brought from remote villages to work for little or no money, it cost him his job, but it gave him a new mission: to help villagers of a remote community on the island of Java, where the women of the village make the batiks he sells in Victoria.

“I started buying up everything the whole village made, just to keep the families going. When I’d bought all the pieces they’d made in a month, I accidentally became a batik dealer.”

Now, Grandfield buys the batiks directly from the artisans and gives them more than a third of the profits from the sales.

“First, I pay the artists the local market value plus 20 per cent when the co-operative ships it to Canada. Six per cent of the retail price is deposited directly to the bank account of the artist. Another 6 per cent of retail is placed into a co-operative fund, which is used as needed by the artists for health care or investment in their business,” Grandfield explains. His part of the profits covers his basic food, fuel, and a small income.

While both Weech and Grandfield are artists in their own right, their use of art as a tool for social change points to that compassion I mentioned. “Arts are a universal language,” says Weech, for whom it simply makes sense to follow her heart and use her work to help others.

Over the summer, Grandfield set up a Skype link at the Fish and Dragon booth at the Ship Point market. It allowed batik buyers to see the artisans at work in Cirebon, the village in Java, and even to speak with them through a translator. “They can have a conversation,” he says. “Even a wave, between the producer and the consumer — it’s everything.”

Similarly, Weech uses the Internet to send images of “peace flags” — drawings with messages of peace — between art buyers here and the people who receive the proceeds. The money helps set up educational resources, community gardens and even beehives.

These artists put others’ well-being ahead of their own, and live on minimal incomes in order to keep their projects afloat — clearly, a labour of love. “The arts, they speak to the heart,” says Weech. “In Guatemala, the elders taught me … the most important journey we need to make is the 18 inches from our head to our heart.”

Learn more at web.mac.com/lindaweech, and fishanddragon.org. VB 19

PILOTS OF THE

DEEP:

B

UFFETED BY seas boiling alongside the Lowlands Queen, the pilot boat’s three water-jet engines claw with a roar into the swirling foam. Victoria’s Dwight Ruddick puts on his red safety vest and walks out of the comfort of the Pacific Scout’s cabin onto the pitching, treacherous deck. If he falls in, a water-activated transponder would immediately begin transmitting his position; but he would be in cold, deep trouble.

Earlier this day, Ruddick, 58, received a dispatch from

How local marine pilots guide those massive ships through risky waters Photos and text BY GLENN LINDSEY

Victoria’s Pacific Pilotage Authority office on Dallas Road advising him that he had an assignment. His job? To climb aboard the Lowlands Queen at 1300 hours, and pilot the inbound bulk carrier ship for the next several hours until it reaches the Burrard Inlet in Vancouver. It’s now 1245 hours and he’s heading out from Ogden Point for a rendezvous with the Panamanian-registered carrier, which will take on bunker (diesel) fuel in Burrard Inlet and then load up with coal at Roberts Bank.

Dispatchers in Vancouver and Victoria make nearly 11,000 such pilot assignments every year. Each one means another

The pilot boat Pacific Scout heads out for a rendezvous with the Lowlands Queen.

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The Pacific Scout comes alongside the Panamanian freighter the Lowlands Queen.

Victoria Pilot Dwight Ruddick climbs 10 metres up the skinny rope ladder to join the bridge.

The freighter, now under Ruddick’s guidance, heads for Burrard Inlet to load up on fuel and then take on coal at Roberts Bank.

Laurie Salvador & Lisa Ehrlich, Notaries Public

Specializing in: most hazardous coastline features with eightknot tides swirling and ripping past its rocky outcroppings.

Senior pilots, Ruddick among them, have thousands of assignments under their belts, which makes them especially well-qualified.

Peter Vivian, another Victoria-based pilot, has over 24 years’ seniority, with 2,600 assignments as a pilot, including about 1,500 between Victoria and Vancouver. At the moment, there are 36 Victoria-based pilots out of a total of 98, the others being based in Vancouver and Nanaimo.

If you think you could handle such work, officials are always looking to train candidates — four or five new pilots are needed every year.

But it is not the same as messing about in boats: another pilot, Bob Lynch, a 16-year veteran, emphasizes the hard work on the water. “I am on day 19 of my 20-day rotation, and I’ve had 20 assignments,” he says.

Meanwhile, in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Lowlands Queen looks small against the 2,200-metre-high backdrop of the Olympic Mountains. Yet at 225 metres long, the ship is over twice as long as the Coho ferry and six times as heavy with a 14-metre draught and weighing a hefty 77,000 dead weight tonnes.

This may be a modern, GPS-equipped cargo ship, but it still needs Ruddick to negotiate the tricky currents and tides.

Once on board, he will show how 26 years of experience and specialized training at modelship training facilities in Poland and France, and emergency ship-handling training in Seattle, enable him to pilot this behemoth through the risky waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Haro Strait, Boundary Pass, and Georgia Strait.

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A deck hand will escort Ruddick to the bridge, where he’ll meet the ship’s master and navigation officers. (The language of the bridge is always English.) Ruddick will outline his plan for routing, considering anticipated traffic and weather, and tidal ranges with predicted current speed and direction. Using the ship’s radars and depth sounder, he will tell the navigation officers to plot the ship’s position every 10 to 15 minutes.

As defined by Pacific Pilotage regulations, Canadian marine pilots have safe “conduct” responsibilities at all times for all large ships. Each ship must have the largest marine chart on board showing Canadian waters to assist in the ship’s transit.

Safe conduct is imperative.

It may be occasionally dangerous, but Ruddick says he embraces the diversity of tasks.

“The job’s got a lot of variety… that’s where the reward is,” he says. Ruddick is also in it for the long haul: born on Salt Spring Island, he went right from high school (Ladner High, in Vancouver) to work Scandinavian ships for four years, sailed globally on various other ships to get enough sea time, and came back and worked the coast.

Before arriving at the pilot boat station on this day, Ruddick does his homework. He reviews the weather reports, ship traffic, and the ocean currents and tides using online tools like AISlive and SiiTech. With youthful enthusiasm, he notes that “there are a great number of aids. I’ve got an iPhone, and one of the apps is a ship finder… that’s a great one… very handy

as an additional tool.”

From the forward windows of the pilot boat, Ruddick scans the skies. It’s now 1255 hours. A moderate wind pushes dirty white clouds from the west over Race Rocks, and mixes up a big chop on the ocean. Ruddick knows he has a tricky 10-metre climb up a rope ladder hanging from the side of the cargo ship. Now 275 metres away, the Lowlands Queen steams slowly at 10 knots (just under 18 kilometres an hour) with its gigantic 10-storey bridge castle floating like a white office tower above the aft deck.

As the pilot boat nears the Lowlands Queen, Ruddick laughs as he recounts a story about piloting a US aircraft carrier. “I had the privilege of riding the USS Nimitz out from the Nanoose test range… there were only two jets on the aft… and we came (to the carrier) in a helicopter like Top Gun.” He then piloted the billion-dollar ship towards Bremerton, Washington.

The launch master brings the Pacific Scout up beside the Lowlands Queen precisely at 1300 hours. It’s time for Dwight Ruddick to go to work. As he has done many times before, in the bright sunlight, in the blackness of night, and in the tossing seas, he confidently grabs the rope ladder, and begins his climb.

Ruddick smiles as he ascends: he figures he has the best job in the world. VB

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2011

COWICHAN

Traditions revived:

why a new Cowichan artisan group boasts a barber amidst the artists

BY LINDA WILKINSON

Cowichan artisan crafts include a glass and silver tablet necklace by Peggy Brackett; stunning pottery by Mary Fox, and the 22 x 30� watercolour Coming Home by Jennifer Lawson

I

Sidney

FINE

ART Show

OctOber 14 • 15 • 16, 2011 MARY WINSPEAR CENTRE, SIDNEY

OPEN EVERY DAY AT 9 AM MEET THE ARTISTS SATURDAY EVENING 7-9 PM

$6 Admission or $10 for a 3 day pass

ARTIST: VIRGINIA GLOVER

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n our fast-paced, digital world, a man’s hottowel, straight-razor shave sounds like a luxury of the past.

But in the little town of Chemainus, it’s making a comeback. Among the murals, carvings and shops on Willow Street, hangs a simple sign — Doc the Barber.

Inside the shop, a heritage feel is created by antiquestyle mirrors, custom woodwork inspired by photos of barber shops from the early 1900s, and vintage barber chairs, one of which is 103 years old.

The fact that Doc the Barber is a woman named Jen Morrell is note-worthy enough. Even more interestingly though, Morrell is included in a new group called the Cowichan Valley Artisans because she keeps this barbering tradition.

The artisans also include potters, custom woodworkers, glass artists, a painter, a chef and traditional balsamic vinegar producers. Each makes his or her living by focusing on craft and creating high-quality products — or in Morrell’s case, providing high-quality service.

The artisans decided it made sense as a marketing strategy to form a group and offer year-round studio tours and art shows, where the public can meet the artisans, watch them at work and buy their products.

“We have potters, we have furniture makers. Unusually, we have a winery, and we also have a restaurant because the chef there is very talented and is trying to go for a zero-mile cuisine. He has a lot of knowledge of the tradition,” explains Jo Ludwig, one of the group’s founders and coowner of the KilnArt Glass Studio in Crofton.

The self-guided tour allows visitors to explore Jennifer Lawson’s Cowichan Bay art gallery at her house, which is the oldest in the valley, as well as Mary Fox’s pottery studio in Ladysmith, Jo Ludwig and Peggy Bracket’s glass studio in Crofton, Michael Moore’s wood-working workshops in Duncan, and Cobble Hill Pottery.

The chef, Brock Windsor at Stone Soup Inn in Lake Cowichan, grows food at his on-site farm, gathers from farms or markets, forages from the woods or brings in seafood from the ocean. Windsor and his wife Ayako also operate a B&B.

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PREPARED FOR: SIDNEY FINE ART SHOW PUBLICATION: BOULEVARD MAGAZINE rev INSERTION DATE: SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER SIZE: 3.875” X 4.625” MUSIC BEFORE 1800 PREPARED BY: BRAVO ADVERTISING 250 590 1169

SPECIAL EVENT

n

Saturday, 29 October 2011

Song of Songs

Les Voix Baroques (Montréal) Matthew White countertenor Stephen Stubbs guest director

BAROQUE, RENAISSANCE, EARLY CLASSICAL & MEDIEVAL CONCERTS PERFORMED BY LEADING INTERNATIONAL ENSEMBLES

Saturday, 26 November 2011

The Glories of Venice ¡Sacabuche! (USA)

Saturday, 17 December 2011

A Baroque Christmas Aulos Ensemble (USA) Nancy Argenta soprano

SPECIAL EVENT

n

Friday, 27 January 2012

Bach, Scarlatti and Vivaldi

Musica Angelica (Los Angeles) Dame Emma Kirkby soprano Daniel Taylor countertenor

Alix Goolden Hall, 907 Pandora at Quadra TICKETS Box Office 250-386-6121, Munro’s Books, Ivy’s Bookshop Information 250-882-5058 www.earlymusicsocietyoftheislands.ca Early Music Society 1 / August 2011 27 Boulevard Magazine / 150 line screen / 3.875”x 4.625”

Experience Live Theatre This Fall in Cowichan

Opera, Blues, Dance & more at the Cowichan Theatre, 2687 James Street, Duncan.

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Benchmark Gallery ~ Hosting the Cowichan Valley Artisans We invite you to the Show Opening October 7th, 5~8pm The CVA show will run until October 22nd

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At Venturi-Schulze Vineyards, Giordano and Marilyn Venturi, along with their daughter Michelle Schulze, produce traditional balsamic vinegar made from home-grown organic grape juice. Former governor-general Adrienne Clarkson was a customer, buying balsamic vinegar as gifts for visiting dignitaries.

“We are the only ones in North America, that we are aware of, who are actually doing it according to the true old traditions of my husband’s home town (in Italy),” says Marilyn Venturi.

And where does the barber fit in? As Top: Harriet Hiemstra’s decorative Ludwig explains, a vase is part of her earthenware lot of the crafts were Belle-of-the-Ball series. historically intertwined with the trades, such as the broom maker or the knife maker (and we can’t forget the butcher, baker and candlestick maker). In the medieval times, artisans were recognized by how fine their skills were and how new their materials. An artisan who was a business owner enjoyed a higher social standing than those who were employees.

Coming from a long line of tinsmiths, Ontario-born Morrell was on the lookout for a new trade when she read an article about the dying art of barbering, including straight-razor shaves. She liked the idea of creating something with her hands, as her father and his father had done. “(Tinsmithing) is the same as cutting hair in the sense that you’re reshaping and moulding with your hands,” explains Morrell. Honouring the past is important, too.

“I am really trying to keep the traditions of barbering to offer an old-fashioned barber shop where men can come and talk about sports and politics and get their straight-razor shave.

If they are not getting their face done, I always try to finish their haircut with straight-razor shaving their neck.”

One of her clients, Phil Mavis, owner of Willow Street Café, has no problem with the idea of a woman barber because

“she cuts good hair.” And it helps that most men can relate to Doc’s hobbies. She is even on the pit crew for a sprint car.

“I am definitely a tomboy who can talk sports. I always joke that the hardest part is getting people through the door: once they are through the door, there is an 85 to 90 per cent retention rate and the other 10 per cent are tourists.”

Crafts were While the main goal is to promote historically members’ businesses, the group also intertwined with supports the local art community the trades, such and environmentalism by including as the broom The Land Conservancy’s Keating maker or the knife Farm estate and the Somenos Marsh maker (and we Wildlife Society as tour venues. can’t forget the “One of the most important parts about being part of the Cowichan butcher, baker Valley Artisans is that everybody and candlestick does such good work, and so you maker). get together to support each other and inspire each other. That is a consequence of being in this association with a bunch of really good craftsman,” says Ludwig.

To get an early glimpse of the craftsmanship of the Cowichan Valley Artisans, visit their display at the Benchmark Gallery (near EJ Hughes Gallery) at 28 Station St. in Duncan until October 23. As well, there will be an artisans’ reception on October 7, from 5 pm to 8 pm.

See cowichanvalleyartisans.com for a complete list, as well as a brochure that gives contact information and hours of operation for each artisan. Visiting by appointment is often possible if you are touring on an otherwise “closed” day. VB

Michael Moore’s custom furniture includes this dining room table made of Western broadleaf maple with koa inlay.

A scale model sits atop the table.

FRONT ROW

ROCKIN’ THE TUTU Ballet Victoria’s

By Robert Moyes

artistic director Paul Destrooper has never been shy about edgy material or big gestures, as made clear by his vampire-themed tango show or the full-on Carmina Burana he staged at the Royal Theatre. For his latest “coup de tutu” he is presenting Ballet Rocks: From Bach to Pink Floyd.

His collaborators are three fellow choreographers with international profiles, all of whom embrace formal dance while simultaneously pushing its boundaries. “With dance, you listen to all kinds of music,” says Destrooper, a Royal Winnipeg Ballet alumnus. “And just as you can take Bach and make it fresh again, there are modern composers who are innovative and inspirational.”

He finds Bach’s strong rhythms and interesting melodies have a parallel in the musical structures of Pink Floyd. “And the lyrical softness of mellow or ‘stoned’ Floyd can also correspond to some of Bach,” chuckles Destrooper. Bruce Monk, a choreographer from the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, will be remounting and extending a piece he created in 2009 that is performed to iconic guitar solos from A Momentary Lapse of Reason.

By contrast, Destrooper uses a simple park bench as the narrative centre for his classically based piece danced en pointe to excerpts from Bach’s cello suites, performed live by internationally celebrated cellist Denise Djokic. French

Ballet Victoria performs Ballet Rocks: From Bach to Pink Floyd at the McPherson Theatre, October 7 and 8 at 7:30 pm and October 9 at 2 pm.

October 3…

6

7-9

13-22

29

West Coast Images

Artifact or Artifiction

Ballet Victoria

Love Kills

Les Voix Baroques

McPherson

Phoenix Theatre

Alix Goolden

Eclectic Gallery

Royal BC Museum

30

dancer and choreographer Sandrine Cassini was inspired by a soundtrack of alternating selections of Pink Floyd and Bach.

Rounding out the program is Australian dancer/choreographer Paul Knobloch, represented by a tender pas de deux set to a Bach harpsichord concerto. “These works juxtapose two different styles of dance and music while offering a glimpse of both 20th- and 21st-century ballet,” explains Destrooper.

Performing October 7-8, 7:30 pm and October 9, 2 pm, at the McPherson. For tickets, call 250-386-6121.

A new season begins!

Emily Carr Project Love Kills ensemble

october 11, 8 pm – concert 1 october 15, 8 pm – concert 2 uvic centre Tania Miller, conductor

A KILLER MUSICAL It was likely the idea of watching a pair of serial killers that kept the crowds away from Theatre Inconnu’s Canadian debut of Love Kills, at least until enthusiastic word-of-mouth resulted in full houses for the last week of the run. Those who missed out on one of the theatrical highlights of last season will be grateful that Inconnu’s artistic director Clayton Jevne is remounting this surprisingly engaging production as the season-opener at UVic’s Phoenix Theatre. A little-produced work by Obie award-winning playwright Kyle Jarrow, Kills recasts the truecrime tale of thrill-killer Charlie Starkweather and his 14-yearold girlfriend as a rock musical. “We have the original cast and band and it will be the same staging, but the actors will be freed up to move around more in the dramatic scenes,” Jevne says. “Plus the thrust stage, with the audience on three sides, will make it more like a concert situation.” Despite delving into a murder spree that spanned five states and resulted in 11 deaths, the most shocking thing about Kills is how much humanity it uncovers. (It helps that no violence is depicted on stage.) The musical has four actors: the two killers, plus a sheriff and his wife. All four are fine singers, and some complex emotions are explored as the parallels and contrasts between the two couples offer insight into the killers without passing judgment. “Kills challenges you to be empathetic despite the appalling conduct,” notes Jevne.

Running October 13-22, 8 pm, with an October 22, 2 pm matinee, at UVic’s Phoenix Theatre. For tickets, 250-721-8000.

The Magical Music of Disney

september 27, 2 pm september 28 & 29, 8 pm september 30, 2:30 pm (Concert for Kids)

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tania miller

Giuseppe Pietraroia, conductor

Meyers, Haydn & Mozart

october 23, 2:30 pm uvic centre Jean-François Rivest, conductor Christi Meyers, violin

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CRAFT AND DESIGN IN CANADA 1940 - 1980

CELEBRATE THE DESIGNS YOU GREW UP ON

ON NOW UNTIL NOVEMBER 27, 2011 1040 Moss Street | aggv.ca B O T T L E | L U K E L I N D O E | M E D I C I N E H AT, A L B E R TA , C . 1 9 6 7 C O L L E C T I O N O F T H E C O N F E D E R AT I O N C E N T R E A R T G A L L E R Y P U R C H A S E D , 1 9 6 7

Desiree Bond’s work includes these two June 2011 paintings.

Top, French Beach, acrylic and conte on canvas, 12 x 12.

And left: Cattle Point, acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16.

INTO PLEIN AIR A graduate of the Alberta College of Art, Desiree Bond moved here several years ago and went on one of the area’s many studio tours to check out the local scene.

That got her invited on a painters’ picnic with several famous artists such as Keith Hiscock and Adam Noonan, ending up out in the wilds of Victoria taking a crash course in en plein air painting. Despite the occasional bug sticking to wet paint or the wind blowing her canvas off the easel, Bond was delighted by the immediacy of painting from nature instead of from a photo in the sterility of her studio. And her fellow painters were clearly delighted with her — Bond was asked to join the talented ranks of the Al Frescoes and has been painting outdoors in a social rather than a solo context ever 32

since. An exhibition of her recent work is being mounted at Eclectic Gallery, her first big showing after co-owner John Taylor began selling her paintings more than a year ago. It was Noonan who introduced what he called an “incredible” artist to Taylor, who has become a fan. “Desiree paints rich, West Coast landscapes, but with a sense of abstraction,” says Taylor. “She has a distinctive style and colour palette, and her outdoor paintings in particular have a gestural immediacy.”

Another signature of her work is how she does preliminary sketches on the canvas and then visibly integrates that underdrawing into the final painting. According to Bond, who has won numerous awards, the opportunity to regularly swap ideas and talk shop with some of Victoria’s most distinguished painters has been a fantastic way to keep fully engaged with the creative process.

West Coast Images runs at Eclectic Gallery, 2170 Oak Bay Ave., from October 3 to November 12. For information, call 250-590-8095 or Google “Eclectic Gallery.”

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM The Royal BC Museum is always worth a visit, but never more than the night of its brain-teasing Artifact or Artifiction gala. You can’t go wrong with gourmet grazing courtesy of Truffles Catering and a tuxedo-worthy emcee in the person of news icon Tony Parsons. But the real charm of the event involves matching wits with the museum’s wiliest curators. As they present provocative anecdotes about 20 unusual artifacts you decide if you’re hearing hard science or the lies of a deceitful docent. “It’s a lot of fun for us, because we get to share stories that are odd or fascinating,” says Kelly Sendall, manager of the RBCM’s Natural History section. As contestants wander through the galleries snacking on scallop skewers and imbibing premium Island potables, they have two hours to fill out a true/false scorecard. Sendall, who has done four of six previous Artifact events, remembers one evening when he got to tell the gruesomely preposterous

Is it true or is it false? Getting enough answers right at the popular RBCM fundraiser can win you big prizes, October 6th.

account of the Pacific hag fish, a jawless carrion feeder that uses any available orifice to get into a corpse, then ties itself into a knot in order to pull itself along as it snacks on decomposing internal organs. (True story, by the way, just pray that David Cronenberg doesn’t hear it.) “It’s harder doing the fibbing part,” admits a smiling Sendall. “Scientists are used to dealing with the truth.” Artifact or Artifiction was originated by the RBCM and has become its major fundraiser, last year hauling in over $90,000. The top three prizes are a 10-day cruise for two with the Holland America Line, a threenight luxury weekend getaway at the Wickaninnish Inn in Tofino, or a week-long getaway to a luxury Aviawest property in BC plus $400 in gift cards. The bad news is 375 highly competitive participants will want to win at least as badly as you do.

The red carpet unrolls on Thursday, October 6 at 6 pm at the RBCM. Tickets can be purchased online or by phoning 250-387-7222.

In Victoria Denise Djokic performing Bach Cello Suites McPherson Theatre, Victoria October 7-9 | 250.386.6121

Cowichan Theatre, Duncan October 22 | 250.748.7529

Paul Destrooper/Artistic Director | www.balletvictoria.ca

A good cause, great food, clever minds and enviable prizes all come together for the museum’s annual Artifact or Artifiction fundraiser.

BIBLICAL INSPIRATIONS The biblical Song of Songs inspired many Renaissance and Baroque composers. They responded happily to the challenge of taking these often erotically themed poems and recreated in music how the language of the poems interwove elements of religious fervour with earthier sentiments. That compelling repertoire became the inspiration for renowned countertenor Matthew White and his Montreal-based ensemble Les Voix Baroques, whose show will anchor the fall season of the Early Music Society of the Islands. “Part of the power of this concert comes from the sheer scale of the production, which has six instrumentalists and a dozen singers,” explains EMSI artistic director James Young. “There’s going to be a certain grandeur to the performance, plus the compositions span 150 years and include such composers as Lassus, Monteverdi, Charpentier, and Purcell.” The performance we’ll see in Victoria is identical to what the ensemble recently performed, to great acclaim, on the main stage at Boston’s Early Music Festival. Although “falsetto” countertenor singing may be an acquired taste, Young points out that this is a golden age for the style, which came back into vogue as part of the “early music” revival in the 1970s and ‘80s and now has incredibly high standards.

“Early countertenors could sound forced and even harsh, but the current level of singing is more suave, elegant, and beautiful.” According to Young, the goal of the countertenor is to sing in the soprano range yet still sound masculine, something White has mastered. “He’s one of the top 10 or 15 countertenors in the world,” says Young.

Performing October 29, 8 pm at Alix Goolden Hall, 907 Pandora Ave. Google “Early Music Society of the Islands.”

Acclaimed countertenor Matthew White and his Montreal ensemble, Les Voix Baroques, perform October 29 at 8 pm at Alix Goolden as part of the Early Music Society of the Islands programming.

CREATIVE MINDS

From schools to hotel lobbies,

Barbara Adams brings art – and fellow artists – to the world

BY ALISA GORDANEER photo by vince klassen

V

isual artist, silversmith and jewellery maker Barbara Adams bursts with ideas that add substantial beauty to the world.

Some of her notions involve creating wearable art in the form of handcrafted silver, stone and bead jewellery, from heavy, significant pieces made with chunks of rough-cut quartz offset with crystal beads, or polished agates transformed into fabulous floral designs, to wispy, water-coloured silk flowers on tea-dyed cords.

But Adams’ other ideas are equally dramatic and usually involve promoting the arts in some noticeable, public way. Clearly, she’s the type of person for whom thought must logically be followed by action.

“I like to make things, and do stuff,” she jokes. “If I get an idea and I can visualize it out there in the world, I have the choice of swallowing it, or doing it.” As such, she not only crafts jewellery, but has a business doing house detailing, which involves decorating homes personalized to clients’ tastes, from art to furniture to colours.

In the immaculate jewellery studio of her art-filled, Art Deco home, on the kind of bright Victoria

morning where anything seems possible, she tells me about Artishow, her most recent great art-promoting idea to become real; a residency program in which local artists work in the lobbies of downtown hotels.

“I have a hard time, if I know it would be a positive thing, in not doing it,” she says.

As an art educator, Adams, 65, says she believes in bringing together communities around the celebration and appreciation of visual art. Raised in Violet Grove, Alberta, she attended the University of Victoria to study political science, and then did a Masters in Art Education here too, moving to Victoria with her husband, lawyer David Adams (between them, they have five adult children). She’s long been involved in education — Adams also holds a Masters in Education from the University of British Columbia. “For me, it’s about making arts accessible to everybody in a non-threatening way,” says Adams. “It makes people feel good — it’s a wellness thing.”

Adams, who used to teach art at Monterey Elementary (and built its first real art room when the school transitioned to a middle school in the early 2000s), is a firm believer in connecting art with individuals who might otherwise never get a chance to experience it. She also started Monterey’s artist-in-the-school program, and ran it for a decade until her retirement, transforming it from an un-funded “extra” to a program that raises as much as $20,000 per year for arts education in local schools.

That, in a way, is where the idea for Artishow got started, says Adams. Many fundraising events turn to artists for support, often asking them to donate a painting or sculpture for a silent auction or the like. “I didn’t see any event downtown honouring, promoting and providing opportunities for visual artists themselves.”

Thus was born Artishow (if you’re pondering the use of the artichoke as a logo, consider the French pronunciation of that prickly veggie: artichaut sounds just like Artishow).

Adams says when an idea makes sense, and you bring people together around it, it tends to happen. So she called up her hotelier pals (Fairmont Empress manager Martin Leclerc, Laurel Point manager Ian Powell and the Piercey family, which owns the Chateau Victoria), and suggested they might like to have artists-in-residence in their hotel lobbies. In exchange for participating in Artishow, the hotels get free publicity, increase traffic to their hotels, and create relationships with local artists who then become ambassadors for the hotel itself. “They’re welcomed by the staff,” says Adams, who explains that after an artist has been in residence for a while, hotel staffers come to know them and tend to make sure guests have the chance to see a real artist at work. And the guests, of course, enjoy it enormously, whether it’s in the hotels or as part of the now-finished plein air component, which saw artists following the venerable tradition of painting outdoors on the hotels’ grounds. The goal of the outdoor event was to draw further attention to the artists-in-residence, and to reach out 37

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to passersby who might not initially be drawn inside to view the artworks in progress. It seemed, particularly from the first day’s total attendance of approximately 6,000 people, to work.

For 2011, the participating artists are local professionals chosen by Adams and her co-organizer, Kerry Liggins, from rosters of studio tours, the Victoria Art Gallery’s art rentals list, and local galleries. “They’re artists who are fully confident in their craft,” says Adams, explaining that the idea is to showcase professional artists from the community. (And, I’d add, they’re likely also artists who don’t mind doing their work in front of curious visitors.) “They’re fine artists who make their living primarily or solely through their art.”

The artists spend two weeks to a month each at one of five local hotels, making and displaying their work in a dedicated studio space that’s open to the public. They don’t get paid to be there, but have the opportunity to sell their work with no commission, and a dedicated amount of time where they’re simply able to do their work. Visual “When Barb Adams artist Jennifer Waelti-Walters, who did a residency at the Inn at Laurel calls and asks for Point in August and September, says my participation, the opportunity “made me search I always say yes,” out a focus and a project,” which says Victoria was part of the reason why she painter Robert wanted to participate. The time, she Amos. “As an artist says, felt like “privileged space.” herself, she really Adams’ influence is felt by the local arts community as well as art understands what lovers. “When Barb Adams calls and artists need.” asks for my participation, I always say yes,” says Victoria painter Robert Amos, who’s worked with Adams since her days at Monterey. “As an artist herself, she really understands what artists need.”

This month, you can see Sophia Morrison doing painting and pottery, and Nirmala Greenwell doing paintings, on site at the Inn at Laurel Point. At the Hotel Grand Pacific, Alain Costas will demonstrate his printmaking techniques, while Galen Davison will paint at the Ocean Pointe Resort and Tara Juneau will paint at the Chateau Victoria Hotel. Painter Judy McLaren is the artist-in-residence at the Fairmont Empress, confirmed back in late July. That relatively late confirmation just shows how the whole project is a work-in-progress.

“Just like when you create a piece of art, what you start with isn’t necessarily what you finish with — you go where the concept takes you. You have to be responsive to all parties and work to actually build something,” says Adams.

And what’s building seems to be a sense of momentum that will carry Artishow into the future. As Waelti-Walters puts it, “Artishow is a brilliant idea and provides a focus for tourists who want something a bit different, or who have seen all the usual sights/sites on other visits. With proper publicity and support from the city it could become a … festival that people would see as a destination and a reason to come back.” VB

small BUSINESS WEEK advertising

The week of October 16 to 22 is designated as “Small Business Week” in Canada.

Celebrations and events take place all across Canada. Described as the backbone of the economy, small business is particularly important in the Capital Region of British Columbia. One hallmark event in our region is the 2011 Business Services Show put on by the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce, taking place on Wednesday October 5, 2011 at the Crystal Gardens, 713 Douglas Street, between noon and 7pm.

For tickets and information about the event: victoriachamber.ca What follows are a series of advertisements — businesses telling their story in their own words. Hats off to all. Here’s to a successful 2011 and beyond!

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HOT PROPERTIES

Fit for a Princess:

Privacy, tradition — and a special fairytale play loft — define this Langford family home By carolyn hEIman

let’s start with the top of the Walker home. This makes sense because the roof, with its hand-cut rafters, shows how building tradition rules the roost in this family home.

Fifty years ago, houses built by carpenters this way left attic areas open for vaulted ceilings or lofty bedrooms: today, cheaper manufactured trusses prevent that, and so you get dry-walled ceilings.

So while the storey-and-a-half home sits low on its

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landscape, inside, cathedral ceilings soar up to the second level, where a barrelled dormer window in the entrance way floods light into both floors, while looking watchfully out onto a cul-de-sac in View Royal.

But perhaps the most charming — even whimsical — contribution of the traditionally constructed roof is its little play loft for the couple’s seven-year-old daughter. Tucked into the highest peak and reached only by ladder, this magical play

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Just off the family-friendly kitchen is a large laundry room. Below: The roomy upstairs office is built over the garage. A ladder leads to the play loft in the daughter’s bedroom.

retreat in her bedroom makes one want to cry out: “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!”

The play loft, inside the airy fit-for-a-princess bedroom (which also happens to include a child-size walk-in closet), firmly establishes this home as the builder’s personal family place. It’s a home tailored for their needs, not the cookiecutter demands of the marketplace. Indeed this is the first home the award-winning builder/developer Christopher Walker, of Christopher Developments Inc., designed from ground up. Every line on the drawing board reflected the

enclave in which he and his wife Joan wanted to raise their daughter.

The 3,100-square-foot home rests at the dead-end street of an eight-lot subdivision Walker created in 2004 from a twoacre parcel that snuggles against a narrow ocean inlet. Walker carved out the hidden enclave, now nearly full, butting up to a working farm and forest.

Acquiring the property after a knock on the door of the original owner, Walker, a former airline mechanic/pilot, immersed himself in learning more about the history of the

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Mature trees and plants were preserved in the building of the home and lush foliage creates privacy for the outdoor living space.

property and then named the street Mills Cove after the Hudson Bay grist mill that existed on a fast-flowing section of the Millstream Creek bordering the subdivision.

Where possible, trees were saved in making the subdivision. Walker added a curve to his driveway, enabling a 50-year-old towering Deodar (cedar) tree to continue providing shade. There’s been no temptation to top graceful firs in the foreground to the water view.

The Walkers like the natural privacy screen created for their hot tub area surrounded by hummingbird feeders and wind chimes. Even with the lush foliage around them they’ve never had difficulty spotting herons, salmon-feasting seals and other abundant wildlife touring the inlet.

“Mature trees add so much to a development,” Walker says. “I wanted to save as many as possible.”

Even clumps of lacy Dicentra eximia “alba” (aka bleeding heart) were saved from the bulldozer to be replanted in naturalized areas elsewhere.

The trees that did come down became the exposed fir timbers in his home.

After building so many homes for others, designing their first home especially for themselves was liberating, says Walker, as “they could do exactly what they wanted and try new things.” In the master ensuite, Walker turned to a friend in the glass business to custom cut a three-quarter-inch-thick piece of glass for the counter top and then to apply a special “opaque coating” to lend a greenish hue. The Bezdan spindles for the staircase took on a vintage look after muriatic acid and water treatment were applied to accelerate corrosion. They were then cleaned and clear-coated.

The Walkers took some time out to work details of the fireplace to have it perform as an effective room divider because they wanted

The master ensuite features a custom glass counter top and wraparound views. The elegant, private master bedroom overlooks a secluded inlet.

both sides to be optimally functional. Now the living room side boasts custom cabinetry that hides the big-screen TV. On the dining room side, a wine rack and liquor cabinet is conveniently right by the dining table.

The home’s design is decidedly traditional because “we wanted a warm-feeling home” and the warm Jatoba wood floors, cabinetry and trim details do most of the work in achieving that feeling. With that choice come some restrictions. “With traditional homes you are stuck with certain rules around balance and trim details,” says Walker, who wistfully likes the idea of contemporary homes because there are fewer rules.

Joan “lent ideas when allowed,” she says, and the couple agrees they were no different than most couples when it came to negotiating home design and tastes.

“It was a tug of war between functionality and Chris wanting as many windows as possible when it came to the living room,” says Joan.

Both sides appear to have won the “war.” The home has a balance and functionality reflecting where they are as a family and couple. The kitchen includes a painting/art space for daughter Ayla but it’s easy to visualize this as a casual eating area as family dynamics change. The laundry room just off the kitchen is bright and spacious, recognizing that great homes not only look fantastic but make domestic life easier. Nearby, a bank of pantry cupboards provides ample storage.

The upstairs office, built over the garage, is roomy, reflecting that they run their development business from the site. There’s a large, L-shaped desk for administrative work and another table where drafting plans can be easily rolled out. Against the wall, exotic fish languidly swim among swaying anemones in an aquarium. The marine life beckons onlookers to drift away in thought to create their next big idea. “I intended to buy my daughter a gold fish and bowl but came back with this,” Chris sheepishly admits.

The bowl story is just a little analogous of the time when he knocked on the door of a little cottage built by Millstream almost a decade ago and he only had a germ of an idea of what he would do … with the property that is now a special family place. VB SUPPLIERS AND TRADES: A number of skilled professionals, trades and suppliers helped create this home. The homeowners wish to acknowledge the following contributors: Contractor/Builder: Christopher Developments; Custom Cabinetry: Don Drover Woodworking; Counters: Eurocraft Marble & Granite; Flooring: The Finishing Store; Hardware: Victoria Speciality Hardware; Plumbing fixtures: Kitchen and Bath Classics; Tile: Gazzola Tile and Design; Window Coverings: Hinds Blinds; Lighting: McLaren Lighting; Lumber: Slegg Lumber; Concrete: Ocean Construction Supplies Ltd.; Mechanical and Heating: Island Energy Inc.; Flowers: Petals Plus Florist 49

The Rafferty Legacy The Royal BC Museum needs a new CEO who can keep it where the retiring one took it: re-embraced by the public.

But this time, it needs to succeed without blockbusters.

Not everyone can right a sinking ship, plug the holes, rebuild it while it’s in the water, and get it back on course — and do it all without blowing a wad of cash. Pauline Rafferty, by all accounts, is one of the rare folk who can.

Rafferty, who took over as CEO of the Royal BC Museum in 2001, has shepherded huge changes to the organization: becoming a Crown Corporation; steering Canada’s first amalgamated museum and archives; taking over the title to the land and buildings; revitalizing a flagging exhibition program; renewing community interest and support; launching public programs with a deepened focus on children and families; and, in recent years, landing the Royal BC Museum in the Top 100 Places to Work in Canada, as well as in BC’s Top Employers.

BY ALEX VAN TOL photos by gary mckinstry

She’ll also be the first to tell you that she didn’t do it alone.

“It’s a great group of people that I work with,” says the impeccably turned-out Rafferty over coffee at Vista 18 one quiet afternoon. “That’s what’s made it possible to do what we do.” Rafferty explains that people working in cultural institutions are a hardworking, passionate bunch: “You do this because you love it, you believe in it, you know it’s the right thing for the collection you care for,” she says. “And in the long term, it’s the right thing for the province.”

Ten years after taking over, and now 61, Rafferty has decided to hand off the wheel. “It’s a different organization now,” she says. It’s as close as she’ll ever get to bragging.

Rafferty announced her retirement to the board of directors last January, and told staff in early May. She hasn’t yet set her retirement date, preferring to work with the board and a recruitment firm to find and establish a new CEO. “For the last 39 years I’ve either been going to school or I’ve been working. I think it’s OK to say I don’t want to have such a routine and such a schedule,” says Rafferty. While she will remain active on various boards, retirement offers an opportunity to travel, read, reflect, plow through those

photo albums, and spend more time with her family (Rafferty and her husband Bob Plecas have five children and 10 grandchildren).

In the beginning, Rafferty’s work was clear: to open the community’s eyes to the precious gem (the collection contains more than seven million artifacts) that had been languishing in dignified neglect in its midst. She dared to increase the museum’s profile by ramping up the frequency of blockbuster travelling exhibitions like 1998’s Leonardo da Vinci: Scientist, Inventor, Artist — a significant step for the venerable institution, which had long been known for gazing solely at its own navel. The decision to open itself up to more international exhibitions incited the ire of British Columbians who reasoned the museum should focus only on… well, on this province. The only problem? The same people hadn’t set foot in the museum in a decade or more.

Shortly after she took over, Rafferty and Plecas hosted a gathering at their Gonzales home that involved media standouts such as Norman Spector, Ted Hughes, Mel Cooper and Vaughn Palmer, as well as leaders in the political and business community. “It was a real who’s who of Victoria,” recalls Global TV journalist Keith Baldrey, who was in attendance. “It was to celebrate the fact that Pauline had the job … and that the museum was moving into a new era.”

The message was this: here’s our new CEO, and things are going to change. Change can be scary and uncomfortable.

But it’s all for the better: just you wait and see. With her characteristic diplomacy, tenacity and conviction, Rafferty set about proving to skeptics that yes, this was a good idea — and that yes, the museum would break apart and sink unless it made significant efforts to broaden its revenue base.

“I’ve always been a believer that you can either complain or you can do something,” she says. “Wherever I thought I could make a difference, then I would get involved. I would work at it until I could make that difference.”

A collective breath was released when the museum held its first blockbuster exhibition under Rafferty’s banner. Eternal Egypt opened in 2004, and remains the museum’s most popular exhibition to date, having pulled in 316,000 visitors.

The breath-holding quickly gave way to total buy-in: the museum was a capital D destination. The city was hooked.

“One of the reasons city councillors were excited about (the exhibitions),” recalls retired Victoria city councillor Helen Hughes, “was that they would really bring a focus to Victoria in the tourism world.” With the opening of Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition in 2007, nearly half a million people came, spending more than $30-million on the south Island.

In her day-to-day job, which often begins with a 7:30 am meeting and ends with an evening function, Rafferty is frequently called upon to make difficult decisions (layoffs in the wake of the 2008 crash); negotiate intricate political minefields (fighting for more money from the province while maintaining a safe distance or repatriating artifacts to various

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cultural groups); and delicately push through ideas that have the potential to piss off an entire city (rezoning the museum property to accommodate a massive tower and expanded exhibitions hall). “She’s focused, she has the ability to cut through the unnecessary things and get to the heart of the matter, she’s smart, and she commands respect,” says Martin Leclerc, general manager of the Fairmont Empress. “It’s all about the results with her. It’s not the Pauline show. That’s a great trait for a leader to have.”

Building on the community’s support will be a key task for her successor, says Rafferty. “We need to find champions.

People who will stand up and say how important we are.”

He or she will also have to be good at shaking money trees. “The Royal BC Museum needs two things,” says Rafferty.

“It needs more support from donors, and it needs more financial support from government. For the amazing work we do, we do it with very limited resources.” In 2010, BC kicked in more than $12-million in grants, down from more than $13-million in 2003-04, and admissions brought in more than $5-million.

In 2010 the museum’s net income was just over half a million dollars.

For while the blockbuster strategy brought paying customers back to the exhibits, it did not bring in huge profits for the museum itself, so the focus will return to finding new and engaging ways to tell the story of BC’s human and natural history. Conceptualized and designed in-house using objects from the museum and archives’ own collection, and offering enriched programming to draw the crowds, Behind the Scenes and The Other Emily are the first of these of BC-centric feature exhibitions.

The only big show that actually turned a profit was Titanic.

“We always hope the rest will break even, but they don’t always,” says chief financial officer Faye Zinck. The museum picks up all the internal costs of the major shows, and sometimes even third-party costs.

Board member and businessman Peter Gustavson notes that Rafferty’s deft touch in negotiating thorny subjects will be missed. Case in point? Guiding a contentious application for rezoning through a city council that typically sets fire to applications for high-density projects in the city centre. “But Pauline and her staff were able to communicate to the city that such a project would be advantageous,” Gustavson says of the multi-million-dollar plans for expansion, renewal and leasing of commercial space. The incoming CEO must have this kind of political astuteness and a collected demeanour, says Gustavson. It’s essential for the new blood to stand up in front of the provincial government, CEOs and large corporations, and explain in five minutes or less why investing in the museum and archives is in their best interests.

Finding a replacement won’t be easy, says Gustavson.

“Pauline Rafferty has put the ship on a wonderful course,” he says. “It’s nothing short of sensational.” VB

HOT DESIGN

A Force of Nature Enjoy the beauty of spring bulbs in your home all winter long

Both hyacinths and narcissus are easy, rewarding spring bulbs to force for inside blooms.

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N OCTOBER, spring bulbs begin to fill the shelves at local garden and hardware stores. It is the perfect time to plant them in colourful clumps in your garden to produce beautiful blooms next spring.

But why not try bringing the glory of fresh, longlasting, inexpensive spring flowers into your home all winter long? Called “forcing,” you simply mimic the bulb’s natural cycle with cold and darkness, tricking it to bloom indoors for you.

“It’s so easy and so fun to do,” says Christel Alexander, coowner of Fiorenza Flowers in Sidney, who started forcing bulbs at her mother’s side decades ago and then taught her own children, making it an annual fall family tradition. She often plants them with curly willow branches or other nice twigs for a display and, if flowers get “leggy,” ties them with raffia or ribbons. “Friends come into my house and say, ‘Oh I love that,’ and I am always telling them how easy it is.”

What bulbs to pick?

Almost any healthy spring bulb can be forced, with some easier to do than others.

Paper white narcissus are the easiest, with the shortest time to blooming — about six to eight weeks — and a lovely scent. They are very popular at Christmas time. Start forcing in November to have blooms through the Christmas season.

Keep them out of direct sunlight to avoid too leggy stems.

Many floral shops stock special forcing packages for Christmas paper whites, available now. Amaryllis bulbs, which don’t need to be chilled, are also sold in special packages.

Daffodils, as part of the narcissus family are also easy and rewarding.

Hyacinths are gorgeous and highly fragrant as single blooms, and dramatic in groups of threes and fives. They bloom in about eight to 10 weeks.

Crocuses, grape hyacinths, and other early spring flowers like snow drops make a lovely display in larger numbers. The bulbs take about 10 weeks to bloom.

Tulips are the hardest to force since they are prone to rotting — good drainage is essential and don’t get the bulbs wet. Try special forcing vases. Tulips must be chilled for about 16 weeks.

Water culture or pots?

Bulbs can be forced in rocks and water or in sterilized potting soil. Paper whites and hyacinths are particularly nice in water with rocks or coloured marbles in an attractive glass vase or dish.

Water culture: place clean rocks, pebbles, sea glass or marbles into a glass vase. For a group of bulbs, choose a flat, shallow, wide glass dish or decorative dish. Anchor the bulbs well among the pebbles or rocks, but don’t completely cover them. Fill the container with water until it just glances the base of the bulbs (hair’s breadth!) and keep refreshing the

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water to this level throughout the growth cycle.

Soil culture: choose a very clean pot with good drainage and enough room in depth and width so the bulbs are not cramped. Fill three-quarters full with light, sterilized potting soil. Plant the bulbs, flat side down, so that the tip is coming out of the soil and that the other bulbs are close but not touching. Water the soil well and keep the soil moist throughout.

Chilling All spring bulbs need a chilling period in a cool, dark place like a fridge, shed, or cold storage. Since different bulbs take different lengths of time to chill, the general rule is keep the bulbs cold and dark until you see hardy signs of growth, such as about 5 cm of green stem growing out of the bulb, or roots that are well dispersed throughout the water culture or that are visible coming out of the drainage holes. Put a brown paper bag over any bulbs that may risk exposure to light. A bulb covered in a brown paper bag on an outdoor porch can also work.

Bloomin’ lovely Once growth is established, move the bulbs out into warmth and light. But don’t bring them out into a hot room as they will fade fast. Too much sun too fast will make them leggy. Try to keep them in a cooler room like a hall or a kitchen. Coolness at night will prolong the blooms.

“Remember you are trying to imitate what the bulb would experience in springtime,” says Miria Gordaneer, of Daisy Chain Florists, who stocks forcing packages for Christmas.

“The better you can mimic winter and spring, the better your bulbs will do.”

If you plant many bulbs to force in separate pots or water cultures, move bulbs out of the cold every two weeks for a succession of blooms.

Save to plant next year Bulbs that have been forced in water tend not to bloom again. But if you have forced the bulbs in soil, you can save them to replant in your garden next fall. When the flowers have faded, let the soil dry out, trim back the stalk to the top of the bulbs, remove the bulb and dust off any excess soil.

Store clean, dry bulbs in a cool dry place until next fall to plant in your garden. VB

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HEALTH & WELLNESS

Will

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It’s highly unlikely, says current research

BY SHANNON MONEO

How to reduce exposure to cell phone radiation: 1. Talk less. No more than 30 minutes daily. Text instead.

2. Keep cell phones away from the body. Even an inch away significantly reduces the radiation absorbed.

3. Check how much electromagnetic radiation your phone emits. Newer phones give off 10 times less radiation than first-generation phones, says provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall. The US-based Environmental Working Group publishes a list of cell phones and their radiation count. You can also search the radiation levels of your own model at ewg.org.

When Deedrie Ballard began selling homes in Victoria in 1991, she carried around one of those “great big brick phones” to keep in touch with her office and clients. Ballard was one of only about 100,000 Canadians who used a cell phone.

Today, the real estate agent with Re/Max Camosun uses an iPhone, ringing up $400 per month in charges and many minutes of talk.

“In my business, I have to use my phone,” says Ballard, who admits she’s never tracked the hours spent on what is in effect her mobile office.

In May, a study by the World Health Organization declared that radio-frequency electromagnetic fields from cell phones like Ballard’s early model could be “possibly carcinogenic to humans.” The 31 scientists, (including two Canadians) from 14 countries reviewed more than 50 animal and human studies, some of that research funded by cell phone manufacturers. They concluded that an increased risk of glioma, a malignant, often deadly brain cancer, representing two-thirds of all brain cancers, is associated with using a wireless phone.

4. Go hands-free. Headsets can lower radiation absorption.

5. Don’t use cells where the signal is weak. Tepid signals require the phone to work harder to communicate with the transmittal tower.

6. Children should limit their cell phone use. When used by children, the average radio-frequency build-up is two times higher in the brain and up to 10 times higher in the bone marrow of the skull, compared to use by adults.

Is Ballard ready to hang up? Definitely not. She had heard about the study, done by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and even with the word “carcinogenic” upping the ante, Ballard remains cautiously skeptical.

“Long-term studies have been inconclusive,” she notes.

And she’s correct. Not long after the study was released, a Finnish study declared that brain tumours found in cell phone users don’t develop in the area where radiation from the phones makes contact with the head. But the results weren’t airtight. The study from Finland’s University of Tampere noted that cancer doesn’t develop overnight and only five per cent of the people in the study had been using cell phones for at least a decade.

In 2010, 78 per cent of Canadian households had a cell phone. Globally, there are five billion cell phone subscriptions.

As Ballard says, many things cause cancer. “Foods, plastic, alcohol, cigarettes.”

In fact, the IARC study put cell phones on the same cancercausing call list as being a firefighter, talc body powder, oral contraceptives, dry-cleaning chemicals and gas engine exhaust.

Since 1971, the IARC has studied more than 900 agents and about 400 of them have been labelled as carcinogenic (Group 1), or potentially carcinogenic (Group 2A, probably

carcinogenic) or Group 2B (possibly carcinogenic), which is where cell phone use falls. Group 3 covers agents (about 500 of them) where evidence is inadequate as to carcinogenicity, while Group 4 (contains one item, caprolactam, an organic compound used to make plastic) represents agents that are probably not carcinogenic to humans.

BC’s top doctor says the only clear risk is when the cell phone is used while driving.

“When you put IARC’s study The IARC Study put into balance with all the other cell phones on risks in life, I’m not greatly concerned by these findings,” the same cancersays Dr. Perry Kendall, provincial causing list as talc health officer. body powder, oral While the 2B classification contraceptives, dry means one can’t outright dismiss cleaning chemicals, the cancer risk, most of the and gas engine evidence has been weak and exhaust. most scientists don’t think the link between cell use and cancer is a big issue, he says from his Victoria office.

“If there was a major impact we’d know about it by now,” notes Dr. Kendall, a physician since 1968 and provincial health officer since 1999.

For example, the IARC study used results from the

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INTERPHONE study, the largest-ever study that examined cell use and brain cancer among almost 6,000 people The study showed a 40 per cent increased risk for gliomas in heavy users, defined as those who averaged 30 minutes daily on the cell over 10 years.

But highlighting the imperfections of the study, which collected data up to 2004, people self-reported, so their recollections may not be accurate.

And brain cancer rates also vary by age, gender and location, with about three to five cases for every 100,000 people.

Assessing human populations for cancer risk is always a difficult task, because many genetic and lifestyle factors can influence results. It’s even more difficult when assessing risks for diseases with low incidence rates, such as brain cancers.

Both factors make it difficult to assess the carcinogenic risk of cell phones and are likely responsible for inconsistent results, says Gary Holub, a Health Canada spokesperson. Scientific evidence linking cell phone use to an increased risk of cancer is limited, he says.

Kendall refers to the “dose response curve,” which examines the length of exposure and the amount. Many people have been using cell phones for less than a decade.

Brain tumours can take 10 to 30 years to develop after the initial exposure. Given those two factors, both Holub and

Kendall strongly agree that more research is required.

Health Canada conducts its own studies and reviews scientific evidence from international animal and epidemiological studies that are published in scientific journals. Based on the studies, Health Canada establishes limits for human exposure that are well below the threshold for any potential harm, says Holub from his Ottawa office.

As long as exposures don’t exceed Health Canada’s guidelines, the department doesn’t consider exposure to cell phone radio frequency fields dangerous, Holub says.

Kendall, a regular cell phone user who keeps his phone in a holster on his belt, reminds us to put the risk into perspective. Estrogen therapy, drinking alcohol, being a painter, being exposed to radon, using tanning salons and eating Chinese-style salted fish all cause cancer.

Bottom line from the doctor: “Anything can be a poison. It depends on the dose,” Kendall says. VB

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TECHNOLOGIA

Digital books are great, but Darryl is not ready to part with paper just yet

By Darryl Gittins

When cds replaced records, I lamented the loss of the beautiful art work that decorated albums. Remember the cool cutouts that came with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band?

I love digital books, but I wonder what we are losing in the transition from paper.

I have a stack of Phillip K. Dick pulp fiction, some nearly 50 years old, and I love the smell of the old pages. To me, that’s part of the reading experience that can’t be replaced by the ereader. And as my wife points out, you can’t read a digital book in the bathtub. Well, you can, but it’s probably not a good idea.

Another problem is you can’t easily loan out an ebook, especially if it’s digitally protected (using Digital Rights Management or DRM). The venders are gradually working to provide sharing options, so expect to see this get easier. There are ways to do it, depending on your device, but none are as simple as pulling the paperback off the shelf and handing it to someone. Thanks to the magic of Google, it’s not hard to find the sharing tricks for your specific device. For example, check out the lendle.me site, where you can lend and borrow Kindle books.

64

My wife and I use the same Kobo account on our devices (tablets and smart phones). That way, when we buy a new ebook, it appears on all our devices. The Kobo app even remembers the page I was on when I open the book using a different device.

Sharing non-protected content is no big deal, though such books are likely public domain, and therefore free from several websites. Click the “Kindle, Android, iOS or other portable device” link on the gutenberg.org site for some great tips on getting these freebies onto your device. Also, be sure to check out the Calibre ebook management program from calibreebook.com. It will convert virtually any document into the correct format for your device and then upload it to the device.

Calibre can even automatically download magazines and newspapers (including The New Yorker, The Globe and Mail, and over 300 others) on a schedule you create. Click the Get News button to get started. It’s a must-have.

Browsing the digital book store just isn’t the same. Some sites let you download a “sample” that lets you read a few pages, but often the sample ends just after the credits, and before the actual book starts, so you don’t even get to read the first page.

(Note to Kobo: please fix this!)

For all the losses, there are clear advantages. You can carry one light device that contains a huge library, including dictionaries and other reference books. That’s a boon for road warriors. Ebooks save trees, and while they use a bit of electricity, getting paper to your door uses energy also.

I love the instant gratification of downloading the latest Pendergast novel the moment it’s released instead of having to shlep downtown in hopes of finding a copy. And you can set the font size if you’ve forgotten your glasses.

Ebooks are cheaper, though not by a huge margin. I find this particularly irksome because the cost of manufacturing and shipping paperbacks should make ebooks substantially cheaper, but they’re not. Clearly the publishers are taking us to the cleaners. There is an initial cost outlay for the ereader device.

However, they keep dropping in price. Chapters sells the excellent Kobo Wi-Fi for close to $100.

You can also borrow ebooks from the library. The bclibrary.ca website also has a guided tour to get you started borrowing ebooks. If a title is already signed out, you can put it on hold, and then instantly download the title when it’s available. The strangely named Overdrive Media Console app from overdrive.com walks you through the process of adding your library account, and makes it easy to access your borrowed books on any mobile device.

Other sources for free ebooks are ebooksread.com, ereaderiq.com or feedbooks.com/publicdomain.

Electronic and traditional paper books will continue to coexist in our house for now. But our bookshelves are full, so instead of buying throwaway paperbacks, we’ll get the ebooks.

I plan to keep my old pulp fiction, because they still work when the battery runs out on the ereader. VB

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BOOK CLUB

An eclectic group roams through titles from

quirky to gritty

to

colourful By adrienne dyer

THE CLUB: The members of this group, Books and Such, don’t believe in limiting themselves to a single title per meeting.

Instead, they each bring two or three recent reads to share with the group, lending copies back and forth after a quick review of each title. Conversation flows according to whim, and becomes especially colourful whenever other members have some previous experience with a particular title. The club has been around since 1997, when two friends, who couldn’t find a book club to join, decided to start their own and placed an ad in the Times Colonist.

They later recruited more members by posting ads at their local library. This month they discussed six books.

Life of Samuel Johnson, by James Boswell: “I love books,” said this member, who received her treasured copy of Samuel Johnson’s biography from a late friend who had, in turn, been given the book by his father. “I love the way they feel in my hands, I love their smell. This book is a great example of what I love best about books. It’s beautifully illustrated with sketches of 18th-century life, and contains marvellous reproductions of paintings. Boswell’s account of Samuel Johnson’s fascinating life is well written,

and rich with references to current events and anecdotal articles, providing a colourful glimpse into life at the time.”

Vanishing and Other Stories, by Deborah Willis: Local author and Munro’s employee Deborah Willis’ debut novel is a collection of short stories about ordinary people and events made extraordinary via a few quirky twists. “Each story is a real gem,” says the book club member who introduced Willis’ collection. “The writing is wonderful; very sparse. All the stories are very different from each other, and the characters are very real.

I highly recommend this book.”

Lady Franklin’s Revenge, by Ken McGoogan: Crack this spine and you’ll discover a formidable, 19thcentury woman of adventurous spirit, unwavering tenacity and, by some accounts, supreme heartlessness. The book chronicles the colourful life of Lady Jane Franklin, wife of Sir John Franklin, who famously vanished in the Arctic while completing explorations of the Northwest Passage. “Lady Franklin was a woman before her time, who navigated her way through a man’s world by persuading them to do exactly what she wanted them to do.” Like, send her husband on his

final voyage. And continue the search for her husband 12 years after his ship vanished in the Arctic in 1845. “A lovely, fascinating history book about an adventurous and powerful woman.”

Franklin’s ships have never been found.

Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts: “I first saw this author telling his life’s story on an Australian TV show,” says one member, a voracious reader who gobbled up this “gritty, rough book about a good man who just keeps falling down.” Though Shantaram is fiction, Roberts drew inspiration from his own extraordinary life of heroin addiction, crime, imprisonment, Mafia employment, and life as a fugitive in the Bombay slums, where he also established a free medical clinic for slum residents. This member calls Shantaram a remarkable work by a remarkable man, not likely one you’ll forget. If you can hack the truly gritty bits, you’ll feel changed by this book.

Hui Gui: A Chinese Story, by Elsie Sze: “I am drawn to books about China,” says this member, who never met her Chinese grandmother. “I love everything about Chinese culture — the mythology, the symbolism.” Snapped up from a garage sale, this epic story chronicles the life of protagonist Tak

Life of Samuel Johnson, by James Boswell (1791); Biography Publisher: Oxford University Press c.

1988; 1,536 pages Vanishing and Other Stories, by Deborah Willis; Short Fiction Publisher: Penquin, c2009; 288 pages Lady Franklin’s Revenge, by Ken McGoogan; Historical Biography Publisher: Phyllis Bruce Books, c2005; 456 pages Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts; Fiction Publisher: Scribe Publications, c2003; 936 pages Hui Gui: A Chinese Story, by Elsie Sze; Fiction Publisher: BTS Publishing House, c2005; 290 pages Robert Latimer: A Story of Justice and Mercy, by Gary Bauslaugh; Non-fiction Publisher: Lorimer, c2010; 184 pages

Sing and his family, from the war-torn 1930s to 1997, when the British gave Hong Kong back to China. “This story is about love, courage, politics, family, destruction and violence too, but there are enough tender moments to ease the heart-wrenching parts. It’s a beautiful book.”

Robert Latimer: A Story of Justice and Mercy,

by Gary Bauslaugh: In 1993, Saskatchewan wheat farmer Robert Latimer euthanized his severely mentally and physically disabled 12-year-old daughter, Tracy. He was convicted of second-degree murder and remained in prison until 2008, when he received day parole.

Duncan author Gary Bauslaugh covered the Robert Latimer trial for the magazine Humanist Perspectives. “Mercy killing is a controversial issue, one that is under the surface all the time, especially as our population ages. Everyone should read this book,” said a club member. VB Questions or comments? Want your book club featured in the magazine? Please email Adrienne Dyer at adyer@telus.net for more information.

67

TRAVEL NEAR

Qualicum Come for groceries, stay for shopping, strolling and scenic tranquility

At Qualicum Beach, stroll the beach waterfront, visit the Saturday market, pet the goats at Morningstar Farm or shop in the picturesque downtown

TEXT AND PHOTOS BY KATHERINE GORDON

(shown in bottom photo: Julia Mountain, proprieter at Smithfords.)

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Y FIRST visit to Qualicum Beach was just a side trip off the highway. I was heading up-Island for a summer camping trip, and needed a coffee and fresh groceries.

I’d heard that Qualicum has a good supermarket and made a detour.

It was mid-morning as I drove along the waterfront. Shrilling oyster-catchers at the edge of the low tide on Qualicum’s pebbly beach outnumbered the half-dozen or so people strolling on the sunny waterfront pathway, enjoying the views of the snow-capped Coast Mountains across a mirror-like Georgia Strait. Water flashed off the paddles of a group of kayakers traversing Qualicum Bay. In the tree-lined centre of town, a short drive uphill from the beach, storekeepers were leisurely unlocking their doors. Between the ubiquitous hanging flower baskets I spotted a small bookshop, an outdoor store, and a couple of art galleries. I stopped at the Courtyard Café & Patio, its outdoor tables busy with breakfasting customers. A sign in the window boasted: “Everything made from scratch using local ingredients.” This looks like my kind of town, I thought.

A locally roasted Karma coffee in hand, I walked around the corner to the Quality Foods supermarket to get my supplies. It was a revelation. Who knew you could fall in love with a produce section? When I reached the delicatessen, I started fantasizing about getting locked in for the night.

Loaded up with locally produced smoked salmon, heritage tomatoes, cheese and bread, and a fistful of brochures from the visitors’ centre, as I headed out of town I resolved to stay longer next time and enjoy more of this pleasant little town.

Qualicum’s appeal is nothing new. With its stunning mountain and seascapes, its fertile valleys and temperate climate, Qualicum (pop. 8,500) was a magnet both for its original First Nations settlers and the Europeans who have since joined them. By the turn of the 20th century, the little settlement was already an internationally renowned resort town boasting numerous parks and other amenities. More than 100 years later it remains a popular destination.

My second opportunity to visit Qualicum was to see a friend’s daughter, a professional cellist, playing a concert at The Old School House Arts Centre, or TOSH as it’s fondly known locally. The elegant art gallery, housed in a 1914 heritage building, hosts 15 local artists working in residence and displays works by dozens of others, as well as putting on regular classical and jazz performances. The concert was packed with locals as well as visitors, all enjoying the excellent acoustics of the intimate venue.

But as with my first stay in Qualicum, circumstances dictated that it was yet again a fleeting visit. When my sister Caroline recently visited from Australia, I finally had the excuse I had been looking for to have a more leisurely look.

We both enjoy browsing through shops and galleries, so we started our explorations in town. After popping into the

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Mulberry Bush Bookstore to make sure they had my books in stock (they did), we went into the Vintage Candy Shop to stock up on fudge. Yesterday’s Child Antiques yielded an old corkscrew to add to my partner’s collection. Caroline bought a dress at ViAn’s Village Fashions (“Because Nice Matters”).

At Smithford’s, the “Don’t Need It? We Got It!’ welcome sign and the quirky row of wooden cats on the fence lured us in for a closer look at its stock of locally made objets d’art.

Julia Mountain, Smithford’s proprietor, was at the counter. We recognized the ex-pat Kiwi’s antipodean vowels immediately.

“I came on vacation a few years ago and stayed,” Mountain told us. “I love it.”

A horse owner, Mountain appreciates living in a bucolic rural landscape with access to a diverse and vibrant downtown. She also likes the fact that there are as many outdoor activities to enjoy as in her native New Zealand. Her teenage son, an active athlete, keeps busy skim-boarding and swimming at Qualicum’s wide, flat, beach; mountain biking; and hiking or skiing, depending on the season.

Our appetites sharpened by shopping, we headed for the laid-back ambience of Lefty’s Café to share a salmon burger and salad for lunch. We’d planned on going for a walk afterwards, but weren’t in the mood for driving to one of the many hiking trails near Qualicum. Despite being late September, the day was warm. To the beach we went.

We bumped into Wayne and Judy Fowler, visiting from Omaha. “We used to go up the Oregon Coast for our

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Clockwise: The Old School House Gallery hosts regular concerts; Try tea or a walk at Milner Gardens or play a round at The Memorial Golf Course.

holidays,” Judy told us, “But after coming to Qualicum Beach for a change five years ago, we’ve come back here ever since.

As soon as we arrive, all the stress vanishes instantly.”

The Fowlers had just finished 18 holes at one of their favourite local golf clubs and were discussing where to have dinner. Caroline and I had previously agreed on reserving an ocean-view table at the Shady Restaurant and Pub. The Fowlers chose fine dining at Giovanni’s Ristorante in town.

The couple recommended we visit Morningstar Farm, a few kilometres south of town and home to Little Qualicum Cheeseworks and Mooberry Winery. Cheese? Wine? My sister and I looked at each other. “Let’s go!” she exclaimed. “Right behind you,” I replied.

When we arrived, all was bucolic tranquility in the late afternoon sunshine. A fat white goose snoozed in the dust against a red and white barn. A flock of brown and white goats grazed in a lush meadow, rolling fields edged with orange-tinged trees stretched to distant foothills. Cheesemaker Nancy Gourlay introduced herself: “I’m the big cheese!

The dairy queen, so to speak!” Thankfully, she doesn’t make her living as a stand-up comic. She doesn’t need to: the awardwinning cheese is divine, and the fruit wines delectable. The peach wine I tried first was luscious. The blackberry was exquisite. The raspberry tasted like rose-coloured sunshine.

Loaded up with brie and bottles, we headed happily back to our car. “I’m so glad you discovered Qualicum,” my sister said as she settled into her seat. “We’ll have to come back again next time I visit.” Any time, Caroline, any time. VB

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To know if you go Accommodation: Everything from campgrounds and cottages to B & Bs and hotels. Check with the Qualicum Beach Visitors Centre (250-752-9532) for a full listing (also see qualicum.bc.ca).

In the vicinity: Coombs with its famous “goats on the roof” restaurant, market and shops; the village of Errington; the giant Douglas fir of Cathedral Grove; Parksville, with its endless beach; Little Qualicum Falls Regional Park; Horne Lake Caves Provincial Park (camping and caving excursions).

Things to do in October: Farmers’ Market (ends Thanksgiving weekend); Fall Colour Days at Milner Gardens and Woodlands; Museum Visits; Farm tours at Morningstar Farm, including the cheese works and winery; Walking tours of Qualicum’s historic buildings (12 on the National Historic Register); Concerts at TOSH, see theoldschoolhouse.org/ for the schedule.

Things to do year-round: Trail riding, hiking, kayak tours, Qualicum Fish Hatchery tours, wildlife viewing trails, farm visits. March to mid-April is the Brant Wildlife Festival. 2012 is Qualicum’s 70th anniversary, with monthly events planned.

8/5/2011 4:10:10 AM

TRAVEL FAR

Alsace:

All sorts of

Discovering medieval Riquewihr and other French delights text and photos BY ROBERT MOYES

Clockwise: Touring the historic core of Strasbourg by canal boat is great way to take in the sights, such as the famous Strasbourg Cathedral. The vineyards of Alsace lap at the very edge of the medieval town of Riquewihr.

This private courtyard in Riquewihr just needs some wine and cheese on the table.

After too many hours crammed into an Air Transat charter, my wife and I spilled onto the tarmac at Charles de Gaulle airport.

Feeling stiff and shattered, we shuffled along to catch the nearby train into downtown Paris, only to be confronted by an automated ticket-spitter that repeatedly refused our 10Euro bills. Frustrated and with a lineup growing behind me, I suddenly heard a voice at my ear, speaking brusque French.

Unable to understand, I gave my version of a Gallic shrug and

handed over my Euros to the well-dressed man behind me.

Equally unsuccessful with the bills, he whipped out a credit card and conjured $25 worth of train tickets for us. Twice I handed him our money in trade; twice he refused. Then he smilingly opened his arms and declared, “Welcome to Paris.”

That remarkable show of generosity dispelled any lingering worries about the stereotypical tourist-loathing French, and our good luck was to continue unabated as we took a three-hour bullet train from Paris to the lesser-visited area of Alsace. Set in the northeast corner of France, Alsace is one of the country’s most distinctive regions. And our ultimate destination, Riquewihr, promised to be a marvel. Dating from medieval times, this fairy-tale village is considered one of the most beautiful and romantic in all France. We would be staying here for the next week with a dozen fellow renters from Victoria. Our abode, known to locals as La Maison Bleue, was built in the 1500s.

Wandering through Riquewihr is dreamlike: the halftimbered facades of these centuries-old houses suggest a movie set; the many shops have display windows awash in cute regional kitsch, especially dolls representing storks, small woodland animals, and happy grape harvesters. Red-cheeked merchants seem to be playing bit parts in Walt Disney’s Snow White. Yet it is all real, in its fantastical way, and by my second day I was happily bolting out of the house to hunt down the freshest croissants and pain au chocolat to accompany our breakfast.

Spoken French sounds different here, a reminder that Alsace has for centuries been influenced by Germany. Not surprisingly, the distinctly Germanic cast to the place extends to the cuisine. Dinners of choucroute (white cabbage) garnished with sausages, smoked meats and potatoes are universal, as are other regional dishes such as spatzle (pasta dumplings), onion tart, and chicken cooked in beer. But in Alsace all those heavy ingredients are lifted up by French culinary flair into something lighter and more savoury. www.tofinovr.com It’s easy to wander about marvelling but there’s not a lot to do in tiny Riquewihr once you have visited the postal museum and the house devoted to Hansi (Jean Jacques Waltz), a renowned illustrator of children’s books. (It’s easy to see what inspired all those window displays.) Several other villages are within walking distance, as are a stork sanctuary and zoo.

Bike rentals are a fine option, as the scenic terrain is forgiving, the roads pleasant. And if you are lucky enough, as we were, to be in town for Bastille Day, you can join the locals for a dance in the town square with live music ranging from classic French songs to equally revolutionary tunes like the Village People’s YMCA. Unless all you want to do is read, day trips are a must.

Don’t omit a visit to imposing Haut-Koenigsbourg Castle, whose eight centuries of history as a feudal fortress are handsomely presented. The castle was restored at huge expense during the German occupation of Alsace; just as the

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work was complete, Alsace reverted to France as part of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. Strasbourg, one of France’s largest cities, is less than an hour’s drive away and well worth a day’s outing. The charming city centre, complete with canals and bridges and a stunning cathedral, is a marvelous step back in time. And if you’re not afraid of playing the tourist, circumnavigate the historic city core via a canal boat: the views are fantastic and you can get an English version of the tour guide’s spiel over headphones.

Much closer, just 15 kilometres from Riquewihr, is exquisitely picturesque Colmar, celebrated for its canals and colourful homes and shops. The effect so beguiled the prime minister of Malaysia that he wanted his own replica; six years later, the Colmar Tropicale resort opened in the hills outside of Kuala Lumpur. And you don’t need to be an art history buff to want to make a pilgrimage to Colmar’s Unterlinden Museum to view the elaborate, multi-paneled Isenheim Altarpiece by Matthias Grünewald: this gruesomely visceral painting of the crucifixion is one of the most emotionally dark masterpieces of 16th-century art. The museum itself is engrossing: handsomely sited in a 13th-century convent, it can be profitably visited for hours.

And if you’ve ever wanted to take in a winery or two — on foot, no less — here’s the place. Alsatian wines are a great source of regional pride: vineyards lap at the edge of many

74

towns, and more than one town-square fountain literally gets converted from water to wine during harvest season.

Riquewihr is right in the middle of Alsace’s legendary Route des Vins, a corridor of neatly ordered vineyards so vast that if you dropped all 70 of the Okanagan’s wineries into it no one would even notice. As with the food there’s a Germanic imprint on the wines, being almost exclusively those aromatic whites such as Riesling and Gewürztraminer. They also produce a creamy and inexpensive sparkling wine, in a style known as Cremant.

Inevitably, time ran out and it was back to being crammed into a torturous airline seat, heading west and sucking in dry, recycled air. Sad to be leaving, I also felt enormously lucky.

It had been 30 years since my last trip to France, memories and echoes of which had kept surfacing throughout this trip, along with enough long-forgotten snippets of conversational French to allow me to cobble together the occasional sentence or two. Regaining that ability, however falteringly, was already making me hungry for my next visit to another intriguing region of this most charming and sophisticated of countries. A la prochaine, mes amis.

For tips on travel, accommodation, food and shopping, visit ribeauville-riquewihr.com/en/. VB

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FOOD & WINE

Let us give THANKS for spiced-up

holiday side dishes text and photos

By MARYANNE CARMACK

brussels sprouts with Bacon balsamic glazed parsnips Maple Orange Sweet Potatoes Cranberry SalsA

W

HILE THE Thanksgiving meal is a traditional holiday celebrated with a host of rituals, it doesn’t have to be boring. An ordinary holiday feast can become extraordinary with the selection of side dishes offered alongside the turkey. The side dishes

may even steal the show.

You can easily adapt some traditional side dishes and make them more tantalizing. For example, mashed potatoes are neutral enough to go with almost any flavor. Try whipping them with Salt Spring Island goat cheese or add a little spice by adding chopped roasted chilies and a pinch of ground chipotle pepper. Cranberry sauce can take on a country feel with the addition of some dried Okanagan cherries, or become decidedly French when sweetened with maple syrup from Quebec.

Or try these recipes for glazed parsnips, shredded Brussels sprouts and mashed sweet potato, which are elegant sides that go well with any holiday meal. They can be modified to fit with whatever the flavour theme of your Thanksgiving.

Balsamic Glazed Parsnips and Onions 2 lbs parsnips, trimmed, peeled and cut into sticks 2” x .5” 2 medium yellow onions, halved and sliced 1/4 cup olive oil 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar 1/4 cup light brown sugar 1/2 tsp salt, or to taste 1/2 tsp ground black pepper, or more to taste

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Place a rack in the lower third of the oven. Heat the oven to 450. Line a baking sheet with foil. In a large bowl, combine the parsnips, onions, olive oil, vinegar and brown sugar.

Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking sheet and season with salt and pepper. Cover the baking sheet with foil. Roast the parsnips for 20 to 25 minutes, or until tender. Uncover the baking sheet and continue roasting until the parsnips are well browned and glazed, five to 10 minutes longer, stirring once.

Can be made ahead and re-heated. Serves eight.

Maple Orange Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Toasted Pecans 4 lbs sweet potatoes 1/4 cup chopped pecans 1/4 cup orange juice concentrate 1/4 cup maple syrup Salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Heat the oven to 400. Scrub and dry the sweet potatoes.

Pierce each potato several times with the tip of a knife. Bake the potatoes for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tender, turning them once. Meanwhile, in a small, dry skillet over medium77

low heat, toast the chopped pecans, stirring often, until lightly browned and fragrant, three to five minutes. Transfer to a plate and set aside. Let the sweet potatoes cool enough to handle. Split each and scoop the flesh into a large mixing bowl. Discard the skins. In a small saucepan over medium heat, warm the orange juice concentrate and maple syrup until hot. Mash the sweet potatoes using a potato masher. Stir in the orange juice concentrate and maple syrup and season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a serving bowl and sprinkle with the reserved toasted pecans. Serves eight.

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Cranberry SalsA 2 cups fresh cranberries 1 clove minced garlic 1-2 seeded and minced jalape単o pepper 4 tbsp finely chopped cilantro 3 minced scallions 1/3 cup lime juice 1/2 cup sugar Salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Boil cranberries for one minute in one quart water. Drain well. Mince garlic. Seed and mince the chilies. Combine with chopped cilantro, scallions and cranberries in mixing bowl. Mix by hand, squeezing some of the berries to pulp, leaving the rest whole. Add lime juice, sugar, salt, pepper. The mixture should be a little sweet, a little sour and very spicy.

Shredded Brussels Sprouts with Bacon 1 1/2 lbs Brussels sprouts 4 slices bacon, chopped (about 1/2 cup) 1 large yellow onion, chopped (1 1/2 cups) 1/2 tsp dried thyme 14 1/2-oz can chicken broth Salt and ground black pepper, to taste 78

Cut and discard the stem ends of the Brussels sprouts, then pull off and discard any discoloured outer leaves. Halve each sprout lengthwise and then slice the halves thinly crosswise to make shreds. In a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, cook the bacon until it begins to brown, about four minutes. Add the onions and thyme and sauté until the onions are tender, about four minutes. Add the Brussels sprouts and broth. Cover the pan, adjusting the heat to maintain a simmer.

Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 10 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper. Serves eight. For variations try pancetta, prosciutto or serrano ham. V B

WINE PAiRINGS from boulevard WINE EXPERT SHARON MCLEAN The groaning table of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner is such a banquet of flavours and textures that finding the perfect wine pairing is a huge challenge.

The good news is that with all that variety, almost any wine you choose will match with something. So relax, pick a style that you enjoy and go with it.

But here are some of my picks.

Thanksgiving is a celebration and nothing celebrates like a sparkling wine. Champagne with its powerful character and high acidity is a perfect food partner.

Louis Roederer at $67.99 is a mid-price favourite.

A great BC (and less expensive!) option, is the Blue Mountain Brut (Everything Wine $29.99).

For whites, try a Riesling, Gewurztraminer or Viognier.

At a recent Riesling tasting, the 2009 Sperling, Old Vines Riesling from the Okanagan impressed ($27.99 from BC Wine Guys on Cadboro Bay Road) and its acidity is a perfect foil to all that richness. The Aussie 2009 Yalumba, Eden Valley Viognier ($27.99 at BCLDB) has gorgeous apricot, floral and orange notes and a richness that won’t be overpowered by the food.

For reds, consider a Pinot Noir or a Shiraz. Try the 2009 Pinot from Vancouver Islands newest winery, 40 Knots in Comox ($25 from the winery — they ship!). It has ripe red fruit, spice, floral and herbal notes that perfectly complement the cranberry sauce, spicy pumpkin and savoury Brussels sprouts. For those who love fullbodied reds, try a ripe Shiraz. It has a full body that will match the richness of the food. Try the Aussie 2009 Jim Barry Lodge Hill Shiraz ($25.99 at BCLDB).

79

WRY EYE

Whenever I wangle my mords,

our new hospital will improve the patient experience

Giving makes us all better the new Patient care centre at royal Jubilee hospital has been designed to create a world-class therapeutic environment for patients. funds raised by the Building Care Together campaign will equip this thoughtfully designed new hospital. together we can transform the future of patient care in our community.

For more information call 250-414-6688 or go to www.buildingcare.ca we gratefully acknowledge the support of boulevard magazine

80

JOB #V109-11820 PuBlicatiOn: BOuleVard

I think of dear old

Reverend Spooner

and his memorable tips of the slunge by anne mullens ILLUSTRATION SHELLEY DAVIES

I FEEL a great affection for the Reverend William Archibald Spooner, a nearsighted albino, who, a century ago, was a professor of classics and an Anglican minister at Oxford University. He was a brilliant man best remembered for his habit of mangling his words, or in his case, wangling his mords.

Spooner, of course, gave his name to the unintentional transposition of nearby consonant and vowel sounds, an age-old affliction the Greeks called metathesis. But isn’t “spoonerism” so much more memorable and easier to say?

The stories of Spooner at Oxford, and his tips of the slunge, are legendary. Spooner supposedly sputtered at a truant student who missed his lectures on history: “You have hissed all my mystery lessons and completely tasted two whole worms.”

Returning late from a walk while holidaying in Switzerland, he explained to those waiting that he and his wife, both fans of geology, had stumbled onto intriguing specimens of glaciation, or as he said “We turned a corner and suddenly

were surrounded by erotic blacks.” (Erratic blocks to you and me.)

According to his nephew, who wrote a memorable profile of him called Will Someone Please Hiccup My Pat (another spoonerism from the old man), Spooner disliked his reputation and only took credit for telling his congregation to turn to the hymn Kinkering Congs Their Titles Take.

Many of the slips attributed to him, like “The Lord is a shoving leopard,” may have, in fact, been devised by clever Oxford students who were known to stand outside his window yelling “Speech! Speech!” in the hope of hearing him utter a new one. “You only want me to say one of those things!” he supposedly yelled back.

Speech specialists say that spoonerisms may arise from brains working too quickly for tongues to keep up. I like that explanation because, as my family and a few close friends know, when I am stressed, tired, or excited, I say them all the time. A simple request such as “make your beds” becomes “bake your meds.” Phone call will become comb fall. “Spit it out, Mom,” my kids say.

Perhaps my affinity for mord wangling is the reason I keep track of journalists who inadvertently transpose sounds in the line of work. This past spring the Osama/Obama mix-ups were so common that comedian Jimmy Kimmel had his audience in stitches with a video montage of them. In Canada, both Carolyn Jarvis of Global National and Wendy Mesley of CBC repeatedly tripped up.

Radio spoonerisms go a long way back. CBS announcer Harry Van Zell in the 1930s called Herbert Hoover on air, “Hoobert Heever.” There is a radio recording of an Alaskan radio host saying, not that he will “take a look out the window,” but instead “take a leak out the window.” A muchrepeated, but hard to confirm slip is that a BBC announcer (some say CBC) once identified the network on air as the British Broadcorping Castration.

Just a few years ago, BBC announcer James Naughtie (no, I did not make that name up) did do a classic, muchreplayed obscene spoonerism (some say Freudian slip) when he introduced the Hon. James Hunt, Culture Minister of Britain. He applied the C to the Hunt but caught himself before he uttering, “Hulture Minister.” But his slip, and his paroxysms of laughter that followed, are on YouTube.

Of course, Facebook now has a group site for celebrity name spoonerisms in which, as my daughter notes, “people with way too much time on their hands” transpose the first and last letters of famous names. The results are Hom Tanks, Swatrick Payze, Haris Pilton and Snesley Wipes, and many hundreds more.

But with transposing consonants such a natural silly pastime, and spoonerisms such a human predilection, it does make one wonder: What in God’s name were Angelina and Brad thinking when they named their daughter Shiloh Pitt? VB

Nutritiontalk with

Jessalyn

81

SECRETS & LIVES

By shannon moneo

You’re a leading world authority on tarantulas. What’s the biggest myth about them? People believe they’re deadly, and they’re not. Of the 933 species of tarantulas, no human fatality has been directly related to their bite.

Are any spiders in Victoria dangerous? None are of any medical significance other than black widows. Its bite can cause muscle spasms, but as far as I’m aware, there’s never been a human fatality in BC.

Why have tarantulas been demonized? It’s ingrained into us from B movies and horror stories. Horror films know a lot of people are afraid of spiders so they choose the tarantula because it’s the largest.

You ate barbecued tarantulas with the Piaroa Indians from southern Venezuela. What do they taste like? Any indigestion?

No indigestion and they did taste good. They have white muscle meat and are similar to prawn. (The Indians) use the fangs as toothpicks.

Describe tarantulas. They can be larger than a dinner plate and weigh upwards of a quarter of pound, abdomen the size of a tennis ball. They’re docile. They hide during the day, come out at night and sit at the burrow entrance, waiting for anything to happen by. They’re beneficial. They eat a lot of injurious insects that would attack lumber, crops, even carry disease that can affect people. They eat venomous snakes and scorpions. They’re not found north of Sacramento, California.

You never find them in Victoria unless they’ve escaped from someone’s collection. They are under threat anywhere you find tarantulas and human expansion.

How do you change the tarantula’s image? I used to take tarantulas to schools and teach children. Researchers are using their venom to find cures for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, heart arrhythmia.

How did your love affair with tarantulas start? I was 13 and visiting relatives in California. I had always been fascinated by this huge tarantula (my grandmother) had pinned in her display case. When my cousins told me they had some in their back yard, that was it. I had to have one. Before that I was always dragging home caterpillars, snakes or lizards. We lived in Cordova Bay, near the ocean, near frog ponds. I was always combing tidal pools or catching tadpoles.

Of your work on books, movies, the Royal BC Museum and for science and conservation, what is the most gratifying? All of it, because when I was a child I had teachers tell me I’d never amount to anything because of my hyperactivity, my low grades. I had very low selfesteem. I stuttered. I was picked on. It continued into university, even with professors. But I think I’ve accomplished a lot. A lot of people out there are jealous. I find people more venomous than spiders. VB Interview has been condensed and edited.

Should people keep tarantulas as pets? I am opposed to keeping exotic animals in captivity. There’s a lot of cruelty in the exotic pet trade. A large percentage die before they make it to the pet store. The only reason I keep tarantulas is to bring new species to the attention of the scientific community.

Do you give your tarantulas free reign in the house? No. I keep them in a room the three cats can’t access. They’re sent to me from all over the world for identification. I’ve published a number of papers describing new species.

I’ve had two species named after me. Phoneyusa westi, from Angola, and Melloina rickwesti from Panama, a specimen I found, and managed not to lose, before a dip in the quicksand, in the Panamanian jungle.

“Tarantula King” Rick West, 59 scientific consultant, writer, arachnoculturist PHOTO BY GARY MCKINSTRY