Saturday, 28 June 1997, 10:05 am, Vancouver, BC
Began discussions yesterday with the West End Community Centre regarding program offerings in the Winter session.
Had a telephone call from one R.B., an ex-convict, about editing his memoirs. Asked him to send me a sample chapter and his marketing ideas. Mr. B., who apparently had considerable notoriety and did 111 months of hard time, now runs a body-building business with the assistance of some of the B.C. Lions.
Got the poetry submission to Arc in Ottawa. Unbelievably, this is the first time I have placed a piece over four years.
Gloria and I then drove to west Vancouver to pick up her race identification at Forerunners on West 4th; and then to Arbutus and 12th to have the car’s oil changed and to have the engine flushed.
K. d. lang’s Alberta material, and Stompin’ Tom, hit the CD scrap heap in advance of dinner.
Sunday, 29 June 1997, 10:46 am
Siwash Rock, Stanley Park, Vancouver, Canada (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Spent the balance of yesterday morning, and the early afternoon, planning. Also put together the poetry submission for Winnipeg’s Prairie Fire. Then took advantage of the very fine weather to walk to Siwash Rock. The sunlight was brilliant and the sea high, and many people had had the same idea as I. Japanese tourists, and rollerbladers dressed in next to nothing, abounded.
In the evening, I contined studying the first act of Der fliegende Holländer, which has some remarkable passages and a libretto that, when the notion of Senta’s marriage is introduced, veers somewhat lamely from crest to trough. I also read the score to Schubert’s string quartet in d minor, D. 810. A very fine work, in which the second movement variations on Death and the Maiden are still, after 35 years, astonishingly remarkable to my ear. The first three movements are all of superb quality, but the fourth movement, another one of those Schubertian exercises in propulsive rhythm, I find not of the same quality.
English: Oil painting of Franz Schubert, after an 1825 watercolor (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This morning, Gloria away at half past six to the Sandcastle City 10K run in White Rock. It has been raining, often very hard, all morning; which will have made the run unpleasant. It appears that tomorrow’s intended hiking also will be washed out.
Monday, 30 June 1997, 11:35 am
The work yesterday:
Sent a query to NeWest Review in Saskatoon.
After much mental meandering, composed and sent a ten-page topic list of potential program offerings to the West End Community Centre.
This took me through to about half past four. The rains had then abated, and so I took the opportunity to walk to Siwash Rock.
Emblem of Hong Kong (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The transition of governance in Hong Kong seemed to have progressed nicely without our intensive scrutiny. I thought it a bit cheeky that the British selected Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture to accompany the fireworks. Russian liberation from Napoleon’s armies, and all that. God Preserve Thy People.
The more local news, at half past ten, was in a telephone call from the community centre. Staff want me to do three offerings in the Winter session: (1) the ten easiest hikes in the Lower Mainland; (2) practical small business management; and, (3) planning and time management.
