Yes, I went to Ellerslie in the rain and the wind and the hail and it was still beautiful. Wednesday night at my place featured very high winds and I kept thinking this will blow all the exhibits to pieces but gardeners must be extremely resourceful as there was absolutely no sign of damage yesterday. How did they manage to protect the displays of flowers? I don’t know but somehow they did and there they all were in their brilliant profusion, holding their heads up and looking perky.
I am the most resolute of non-gardeners (the trick is to live on a section so steep you can’t see the garden when you look out the window) but skill should be celebrated wherever you find it and there is skill here in spades (sorry). Those who come away resolved to turn over a new leaf (I can’t help myself) will find inspiration on Christchurch City Libraries gardening events page.
If you’re planning a visit don’t miss the scuplture garden and Solid Energy’s Wild West Coast garden – it should have won everything. Shangri-La Schmangri-La. Don’t make loud remarks of any kind about the exhibits as the exhibitors may be nearby. And watch out for the mobility scooters.
Are you a real geek? Do you find geology fascinating? Indulge your geekiness; here are three great books about geology.
The first is A continent on the move: New Zealand geoscience into the 21st century. This is an encylopaedic book about New Zealand geomorphology and the work of New Zealand geologists, covering all sorts of topics from forensic geology to plate tectonics. A thinking person’s coffee-table book.
The second book is The mountains of Saint Francis : discovering the geologic events that shaped our earth
by Walter Alvarez, about Italian geology. Alvarez is a great writer, managing to cover several subjects almost simultaneously. Geologic time scales, the history of geological inquiry in Italy, explanations of terms such as ignimbrite, and what he ate in the restaurant in Gubbio. This is Alvarez’ second book, his first the wonderfully-titled T-rex and the crater of doom about the discovery of a giant impact crater buried deep inside Mexico, the impact of which probably killed the dinosaurs. I haven’t read this yet, but have ordered it.
If all scientists wrote as well as these guys, the world would be all the better for it. Passion, knowledge and clarity, who could ask for more?
Having just celebrated a birthday that is one short of a milestone, I can’t help but notice the proliferation of books on how to stop the aging process. My rational brain tells me that aging is fine, it’s part of life and I should embrace and welcome the wisdom that comes with old age, but my mirror tells me otherwise.
My main complaint with travel books is that everyone thinks they canwrite one; which is why there are enough duds to make you wish people stayed at home more.
Britain’s Daily Telegraph has just compiled a list of the top 20 Travel Books and there’s much to agree and disagree with in its recommendations, even if it is illustrated with mouth watering photographs.
There’s also one or two titles that are more journalism than travel. Homage to Cataloniaand Naples’44 fall into this category.
I’ll get around to bemoaning the exclusions in a minute. Most of the authors are undisputed champions of the genre: Eric Newby, Paul Theroux, Colin Thubron, Jan Morris (though once a fan I can no longer bear her over-ripe prose) and Bruce Chatwin.
Regrettable omissions are Dervla Murphy and Tim Moore‘s humourous excursion around the London of the Monopoly Board. I’m also very fond of a U.S.A. road trip made by a Sioux Indian, William Least Heat Moon called Blue Highways that’s sadly no longer in our stock. Other writers seem to be represented by works wich are far from their best. I much prefer Raban’s Old Glory to Coasting and Bryson’s Lost Continent to his Small Island.
I simply revel in those books where everything goes wrong and the author is lucky to escape with life and limb intact whether it’s to devastated Haiti or bandit-ridden Mexico. What’s your favourite and do you consider fiction as worthy of inclusion?
Fans of Dunedin crime writer Vanda Symon will be pleased to learn she has finished the third novel in the Sam Shepherd-based crime series. Containment is going through the editing process, but should be out in September.
I caught up with Vanda when she visited Christchurch City Libraries for the Words on Wheels tour last week. This interview is about three minutes long. You can also read about Vanda’s experience on the book bus on her blog.
Ms Barbara Millicent Roberts better known as Barbie turns fascinating fifty this month. And while Barbie is still wrinkle free and slim as a pin, her implausible measurements are 36-18-33, it hasn’t all been plain sailing for the plastic-moulded icon. She recently had to kick some serious Bratz butt to maintain her superdoll status eventually winning a December 2008 court case which will see Bratz dolls pulled off the shelf. During the 60′s and 7o’s Pedigree’s Sindy doll provided competition outselling Barbie in the UK (I had a Sindy doll, called Jessica, who enjoyed a loving and committed relationship with “Eagle-eyes” Action Man).
But while there have been many cheap and vulgar imitations no other doll could ever be as accomplished as Barbie; she’s had around 100 careers including stints as a paediatrician, jet pilot, NASCAR driver and even President of the United States and all the while enjoying a turbulent on/off relationship with Ken plus acting as mentor to her numerous siblings, cousins and friends, attagirl!
New York Fashion Week celebrated Ms Robert’s birthday with a show featuring frocks from 51 illustrious designers including Donna Karan, fashion house Marchesa, Calvin Klein and Karen Walker some of whom created special pieces in homage to la Barbie.
If Barbie fans out there in library-land want to craft some funky duds to keep Barbie looking fabulous as she enters her second decade, pick up your pins and try someKnits for Barbie doll, or even Crochet for Barbie doll.
Or if your Barbies survived teenage disinterest the Barbie doll field guidecould tell you if you are sitting on a Barbie doll goldmine.
I am completely in awe of the films of Andrei Tarkovsky. The Russian director, who died in 1986, created an ouevre of films that are singularly profound, powerful and beautiful.
There is no doubt that his films are long, slow, and difficult (kind of like a good book) and in no way do they belong within the same classification as most modern cinematic fare. Many are in Russian of course, though after his funding was cut off by the Communist Party he defected to the West and his last two films were made in Italian and Swedish. His masterpiece Andrei Rublev is three hours long, in black and white with Russian subtitles and tells the story of the 14th Century Russian Orthodox monk and religious icon painter in seven chronologically disparate episodes. What I can’t describe in this facetious plot summary is the use of sound and music, the beautiful cinematography and the sense of profound wisdom emanating through the film straight from the auteur himself. It is also a cutting allegory about the plight of the artist in Russia under it’s varying political regimes (in this example feudal Russian lords and Mongol hordes, but clearly meant to include Tarkovsky’s own repressive Communist Party funders).
If these details fail to put you off, I highly recommend his breathtaking films which reward in ways more profound than any other films I’ve seen. Unfortunately, not all of his films are currently held by the library (you can borrow most from Alice’s), though you could watch the Steven Soderbergh remake of Solaris(both are based on the novel by Polish author Stanislaw Lem) which isn’t a bad film but is nothing like the Tarkovsky. The titles the Library does hold are Ivan’s Childhood which is his first film, it is an interesting watch though not as full-developed stylistically as his later works. There is also The Mirror, which is a stunning autobiographical work. This is a difficult first Tarkovsky to watch as it uses images amd techniques from his other films to tell an elliptical and non-linear autobiographical story. It is still very beautiful though and rewards after a few viewings. At 108 minutes it’s also mercifully short compared to his other films.
What the library has recently acquired, and this is very exciting, is a new volume edited by Nathan Dunne on the work of Tarkovsky. It contains a series of chapters which collect together critical essays written by various authorities on aspects of Tarkovsky’s work. The written pieces are quite academic and are not all adulatory, which is refreshing. Contributors include critical heavyweight Jean Paul Sartre and contemporary directors who say things like; “I have a picture of Tarkovsky on the wall of my office, when I’m making an aesthetic decision I look at it and think ‘What would he do?’” The book is also generously filled with beautiful still images from the films, and it is marvellous just to open it and browse through without reading a word. Also featured are a chronology and translations of some of Arseni Tarkovksy’s (the director’s famous poet father) poems which are used in the films.
This book is highly recommended, though if anybody wants to read it I suppose I’ll have to return my copy, which I really, really don’t want to do.
Among the economic doom and gloom, the dropping New Zealand dollar might turn out to be very good news for the Kiwi writers chasing the thousands of pounds on offer in the Commonwealth Writers Prize competition.
Finalists in each of the four regional areas are announced mid-March with the winners announced at the Auckland Readers and Writers Festival in May. All of the finalists are taking part in the festival.
The full list of short-listed entries can be found on the Commonwealth Foundation website. Head to the library website for more literary prize news.
