A Moment of Noise

Last night I attended the memorial for my friend, T-Paul Ste Marie. T-Paul is a legend in the Vancouver counter culture community-a beat poet laureate, swank hipster, rockabilly, psychobilly, firebreathing performer. Born too late, or too early, he wandered Main Street with his died black pompadour and tattooed arms with a cigarette pack in his sleeve and a smirk on his face looking like Jack Kerouac's long lost soulmate. He did NOT suffer fools lightly and loved people unconditionally. We met while acting in Tony and Tina's Wedding. He was larger than life, and through that largeness, had the ability to bring everyone together, as was evident by the impromptu memorial last night.

The Cafe Deux Soliels was packed with people of all shapes, sizes and background. A bunch of us who had done TnT sat together, looking on at the freaks and geeks in attendance. From aging hippies, to tattooed bikers to 65 year old overweight men in blue overalls, we were all in attendance to celebrate the life force that was T-Paul Ste. Marie. He certainly did not go gently into that good night.

Instead of a moment of silence, we had a moment of noise for the crazy, wacky, beat poet, emcee, freakshow passion monkey that T-Paul was. He would have loved every ear drum blasting moment of it.

T-Paul lived every moment to the fullest. I challenge you all to do the same, if not for him, then for yourselves because we never know which day may be our last.

I give you...T-Paul with his moment of noise-his signature performance piece "Invocation".


Rest well T-Paul. You will be missed but never forgotten...

Reading: Sarah Vowell-Assassination Vacation

I just finished devouring Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell. I picked up this book because of a glowing review in Nick Hornby's book Housekeeping Vs the Dirt.

Sarah Vowell is perhaps best known as the voice of Violet Parr from the Pixar animated film, The Incredibles. In addition to having mad voice over skills, she is a incredibly talented author who has published several books and who is a regular contributer to This American Life on NPR.

Vowell is one odd cookie. She is obsessed with death and US History. So of course she wrote a book about the first three US presidential assassinations-Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley- and the obscure facts surrounding them. She is witty, highly irreverent, and fascinated with the minutiae of history.

I knew I would love the book when I read the first line...

Going to Ford's Theatre to watch the play is like going to Hooters for the food.

Vowell takes readers on a pilgrimage to the sites and monuments that pay homage to Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley, visiting everything from grave sites and simple plaques to places like the National Museum of Health and Medicine, where fragments of Lincoln's skull are on display. She talks about not only the figures involved in the assassinations, but the social and political circumstances that led to each-and in a fabulously entertaining manner. She also drew some fascinating connections between past events and the present, noting similarities between McKinley's war against Cuba and the Philippines and the current war in Iraq. History at its best, most educational, and most twisted.

I am a total trivia nerd and retain useless facts that I can spit out at inappropriate times OR when I play Trivial Pursuit type games. This book was a GOLD MINE for me! Did you know that Robert Todd Lincoln, son of Abe, was present at all THREE assassinations? He was a presidential death hex! OR that he saved the life of Edwin Booth, brother of John Wilkes Booth, the man who assassinated Lincoln? OR (and this is my favourite one) that Garfield's assassin , Charles Guiteau, was an occasional member of The Oneida Society . The Oneida Society practiced communalism-free love. Basically, every man was married to every woman. most adults had continuous sexual access to a partner. Guiteau however "was the one guy in a free love commune who could not get laid." hee hee hee.

Three dead presidents up for Assassination Vacation! I can't wait to read her other books!

Literary crushes: Nick Hornby

I love Nick Hornby wholly and unabashedly. I devour his books and essays with fervor. He ROCKS MY WORLD!

I have just finished "Housekeeping vs the Dirt" which is a collection of essays printed monthly in Believer magazine. These essays offer witty, intelligent, and unique accounts of the stuff Hornby has been reading, and more importantly, has CHOSEN to read...not books that he has been given to review. He provides a list of Books Bought and Books read at the beginning of every month and these books range from a Michael Connelly thriller to Voltaire. No literary snob is Hornby, and that is why I have so enjoyed reading these essays. I am now rereading the Polysyllabic Spree, which is the first collection of essays from the Believer, and have recently become a subscriber to the magazine (oh WHY do we not have a Canadian equivalent?) in order to follow the essays in a more timely manner, and to enjoy reading about reading.

I quote...

The Believer is a monthly magazine where length is no object. There are book reviews that are not necessarily timely, and that are very often very long. There are interviews that are also very long.

We will focus on writers and books we like.

We will give people and books the benefit of the doubt.

Oh so fun...

One of the things that I really enjoy about Hornby's essays is is insistence that reading should be enjoyable. You shouldn't head out and read the most recent contemporary literary masterpiece because people TELL you to. You should read what you like, for it is the act of reading that is important, not necessarily WHAT. So what if what you are reading didn't win a Pulitzer Prize? There is no shame in not finishing Catch 22 the FIVE (yup, that 's right FIVE) times you have tried to read it as every person you know keeps telling you that it is the best comic novel ever written and all you can think is WHY does Yossarian not get shot so I can stop reading this stupid freaking whiny-ass book?

The stats used to say that the biggest readers were aged 18-34 (thats me!). Now, not so much, as the 18-34 year olds are attached to their computers and their ican'tbelieveitsnotlive music players. Pick up a book dammit!

Much to the chagrin of my fiance, I have an irrational addiction to books. They are everywhere in our house. I consume them with veracity, I reread my favourites, I get excited about reading new ones and I LOVE them all. Sadly for the affianced one, these two books of Nick Hornby essays come with LISTS of new books that I might just LOVE!

WOO HOO!

I gotta get a bigger house...