A small room behind a bay window. A single bed, a table and chair, and a sink. I could manage something larger, with more conveniences, but I could never match the view.

The door next door has a musical squeak. Every couple of days a new note enters its arpeggio. The most recent note allowed the arpeggio's middle section its major chord.

But it's not all melodies around here. There's rhythm, too. The hand that opens and closes the door is linked to a pair of heels that, en route to the water closet, pound like mallets on a timpani.

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Academy of Modern Art

It took over a hundred years, but Vancouver's Kerrisdale has an Academy of Modern Art. Located in a cheaply made Second Renaissance Revival Style redux building at the southwest corner of Balsam and 41st Avenue, the AOMA features all manner of instruction.

Here is the AOMA in its own words:

Vision:

To be Vancouver’s premiere Art Preparatory Academy.

Misson:

To inspire, guide, and educate talented art students on their way to achieving their post-secondary goals and dreams.

The Academy of Modern Art (AOMA) is a Vancouver based art education institution dedicated to transitioning art and design students to their post-secondary school of choice.

We train and guide passionate art students that are on their path to top art and design post secondary programs across North America and Europe. Our instructors include university professors, designers, artists and curators. They are all working professionals with first-hand knowledge and experience in their field of expertise.

AOMA’S teaching methods and art curriculum is designed by leading education experts and consultants. AOMA’s Young Artists Program provides recent art and design college graduates with internship and working opportunities. We believe these young and innovative new graduates contribute in a positive and meaningful way to AOMA’s development.

Our unique education system aims at assisting students to realize and achieve their full potential. AOMA students are equipped with professional competitiveness, artistic literacy, and a comprehensive understanding of their field of interest. Enrolling in some of the World’s top art and design institutions are dreams that AOMA is devoted to helping local and international art talents achieve.

Our “O” has a special meaning that represents the spirit of AOMA.

The Writer As Gunner not Hunter?

Flipping through Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, Third Edition (Macmillan, 1979), the copy given to me 39 years ago by Susan Currie after I told her I would like to spend more time writing.

In the "Approach to Style" chapter there is an analogy that had me wondering why E.B. White likened the writer to "a gunner" when the context for gunning is hunting (why not a hunter?).

“The mind travels faster than the pen; consequently, writing becomes a question of learning to make occasional wing shots, bringing down the bird of thought as it flashes by. A writer is a gunner, sometimes waiting in the blind for something to come in, sometimes roaming the countryside hoping to scare something up. Like other gunners, [s]he must cultivate patience; [s]he may have to work many covers to bring down one partridge." (69)

Una Mujer Fantástica (2017)

Last night Amy and I went to see Una Mujer Fantástica (2017) at the International Village theatres. I had no background on the film and did not know why the characters in the life of this grieving woman were treating her as if she were not a woman until the fifteenth minute. A feature of age? A mind preternaturally indisposed to the kinds of lines many are doing their best to collapse, redefine? Who I am for not noticing anything other than this character's wit, wisdom and beauty?

Lots in Space

Fight For Beauty is the latest campaign by Westbank to convince Vancouverites that it is not a developer but an artist practice. Last year, Westbank opened a pop-up museum that featured objects and gestures made by those eager to play along.

Last night Christopher Brayshaw sent a link to a more recent campaign.

Gryphon Development, LLC has chosen short fiction to solicit a subject in need of its fantasy. Entitled "Starting Your Day at Westbury", Gryphon employs that point-of-view favoured by self-help manuals and Jay McInerney to tell the story of a sun whose highest point in the day is 7am and a nameless property owner in the midst of "another hassle-free morning."

Here is the opening (click here for the rest):

It's 7am and you are just settling in for your morning coffee on your private rooftop terrace at Westbury, admiring the mountain views. The sun has just finished its ascending climb and you see your neighbours June and Ian returning home from their morning jog to prepare breakfast for there elementary school children. You wave hi as you sip on your coffee.

"Hey June, how's the parent school advisory role suiting you? You mentioned Crofton is doing a fundraiser luncheon next month?"

"Oh yes -- we'll have all the parents over to chat about the next overseas learning trip with their teachers to Europe and host a fundraiser to cover the cost of the trip. Will you be joining?"

"For sure -- Kathryn has been talking about this potential Europe travel-and-learn for a while now, would love to learn more about it and support in any way we can."

A Poem for James Luna (1950-2018)

Record Store Indian

you were so good at standing still

I never remember 

you stopping

how you got from one end of the stage

to the other

I remember only

your halting breaths

your widening eyes

you rarely said

more than five syllables at a time

the lights dimming

the needle

dropped

on that unpressed space

between songs