True Story
So, I’m at a 70th wedding anniversary of my great aunt and uncle in Chilliwack. One of my 3rd cousins from Montreal is talking to me about Winnipeg and asks, “have you ever been to this great bookstore in downtown Winnipeg, Aqua Books?”
Awesome.
(This just in from ex-emp Dave Burrows)
Canadian SF writer Robert J. Sawyer watches the world premiere of his new ABC series FlashForward, last night at McNally Robinson Booksellers. (Fellow Canuck SFer Robert Charles Wilson is to his left. They’re both here as part of THIN AIR 2009: The Winnipeg International Writers Festival.)
photo by Chandra Mayor
GPOYW: The Hard Rock Version
(American hard rockers Rev Theory waiting for some taco salads at EAT! before a show at the Pyramid 9.22.09)
THIN AIR 2009 Winnipeg International Writers Festival
gimmetruth:Another book jacket as a personal project; maybe we’ll actually see some on the shelves soon.
Kelly Hughes Live! featuring yours truly is Winnipeg’s only live talk show. This week (Friday, Sept 4 at 7pm) we have guests Catherine Hunter and Michael Van Rooy, with the Mennonite Blues music of Bush Wiebe. It’s the perfect place to see the Mayor of Winnipeg’s Cultural City Hall in his own habitat.
Jan Andrews is the new storyteller in residence at the University of Manitoba’s Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture. (Sounds like they must brush their teeth a lot.) The Welcome Event for Jan will take place on Wednesday, September 16th at 1:30 pm in University College’s Great Hall. It will include readings by student writers Barbara Romanik and Ashley Sy, a storytelling performance by Jan Andrews, and a reception. If you can’t make that, Jan will be at Aqua a few times over the next few months, including Kelly Hughes Live! on September 11.
Uptown Magazine ran an article this week on Winnipeg staple, Red River Books. You read the article and decide if it’s supposed to be positive or negative. I can’t tell. Honestly, there’s no way to spin it positively, from my experience. The place looks like a bomb went off in it (this pic must be photoshopped). Watch for the line about the owner using pre-used and still-dirty bags to put books in. Super gross. It may seem cute and quaint, but it gives used bookstores a bad, dirty, stinky, sticky name.
My wife Candace and her Dad, George Nickel, in Winnipeg in the mid ’70s. We’re having a big surprise 80th party for him in a few hours. (I can say that here. I’m pretty sure he’s not on Tumblr.)
This is the postscript to this post I made.
The City of Winnipeg has been illegally charging downtown drivers for parking for over a year. When customers’ confusion about Saturday parking was brought to my attention, I contacted the City. Long story short, they ran out of the stickers that they put on the parking paystations that tell you you get two hours of free parking. They ran out of stickers. A year ago. And still haven’t managed to produce any new ones. As a result, most people are paying for parking when they don’t have to, and the City is happily taking the money in. (They claim to be encouraging people to come downtown, but they can’t fix this? Did they run out of money in the label budget?)
So, being the proactive, community-minded citizen that I am, I came up with a solution for our label-challenged civic administration. I made some informative stickers for them (free of charge), and have applied them to all the meters within a block of Aqua Books/EAT! bistro (Winnipeg’s Cultural City Hall). I expect to be receiving a thank you call from someone at the other City Hall very soon.
UPDATE: This is what happened next
On July 7th, 1931 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Ernie Defort was born with a parasitic twin attached to his sternum. Here is a photograph of Ernie and Len Defort, from their brief years of exhibition.
Two Boys, One Head
On July 7th, 1931 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Ernie Defort was born with a parasitic twin attached to his sternum.
An article on Ernie Defort from Time Magazine, 1944. Note the phrasing of this article: “Ever since he was born, Ernie had carried around a repulsive parasitic growth on his lower chest.”
The contrast between the article in Time Magazine and this biography at Human Marvels is marked: “Ernie physically survived the more than two hour operation and reportedly suffered depression and some psychological problems after the loss of the parasitic twin he regarded as a brother.” Neither gives the actual voice of Ernie himself; Human Marvels voices him as “once [being] quoted,” but the supposed quote smacks of carnival ad copy. One of the fascinating things about researching the freak show is the way that the research comes to replicate the freak show itself. There’s no way to climb on stage, so to speak, and interview the performer; you just have to look, and question or believe the bally.
