Category Archives: COMMENTARY

Read Any Good Books Lately? (#26) – “Wild Things”

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Living surrounded by the snow capped mountains of the East Kootenays in British Columbia, the concept of “wild” is not an unfamiliar notion. After all, on an almost daily basis, it is not unusual to see deer in our yard, herds of elk in adjacent fields, wild turkeys wandering down the street and the occasional moose and black bear. So when Alice Henderson’s environmentally themed novels hit my desk they were avidly devoured.

A Solitude of Wolverines: A Novel of Suspense (Alex Carter Series Book 1)

“The first book in a thrilling series featuring a wildlife biologist who courts trouble as she saves endangered species . . . and a mysterious killer who buries his dead in the land she helps preserve—a fast-paced, action-driven tale of suspense with the atmosphere and propulsive tension of works by Jane Harper, C. J. Box, William Kent Krueger, and Nevada Barr. While studying wolverines on a wildlife sanctuary in Montana, biologist Alex Carter is run off the road and threatened by locals determined to force her off the land. Undeterred in her mission to help save this threatened species, Alex tracks wolverines on foot and by cameras positioned in remote regions of the preserve. But when she reviews the photos, she discovers disturbing images of an animal of a different kind: a severely injured man seemingly lost and wandering in the wilds. After searches for the unknown man come up empty, local law enforcement is strangely set on dismissing the case altogether, raising Alex’s suspicions. Then another invasive predator trespasses onto the preserve. The hunter turns out to be another human—and the prey is the wildlife biologist herself. Alex realizes too late that she has seen too much—she’s stumbled onto a far-reaching illegal operation and now has become the biggest threat. In this wild and dangerous landscape, Alex’s life depends on staying one step ahead—using all she knows about the animal world and what it takes to win the brutal battle for survival.”   ……. Amazon Books

A Blizzard of Polar Bears: A Novel of Suspense (Alex Carter Series Book 2)

Wildlife biologist Alex Carter is back, fighting for endangered species in the Canadian Arctic and battling for her life in this action-packed follow-up to A Solitude of Wolverines, “a true stunner of a thriller debut” (James Rollins) and “a great read” (Nevada Barr). Fresh off her wolverine study in Montana, wildlife biologist Alex Carter lands a job studying a threatened population of polar bears in the Canadian Arctic. Embedded with a small team of Arctic researchers, she tracks the majestic bears by air, following them over vast, snowy terrain, spending days leaning precariously out of a helicopter with a tranquilizer gun, until she can get down on the ice to examine them up close. But as her study progresses, and she gathers data on the health of individual bears, things start to go awry. Her helicopter pilot quits unexpectedly, equipment goes missing, and a late-night intruder breaks into her lab and steals the samples she’s collected. She realizes that someone doesn’t want her to complete her study, but Alex is not easily deterred. Managing to find a replacement pilot, she returns to the icy expanses of Hudson Bay. But the helicopter catches fire in mid-flight, forcing the team to land on a vast sheet of white far from civilization. Surviving on the frozen landscape is difficult enough, but as armed assailants close in on snowmobiles, Alex must rely on her skills and tenacity to survive this onslaught and carry out her mission….. Amazon Books

A Ghost of Caribou: A Novel of Suspense (Alex Carter Series Book 3)

There are many threads in this third book in the Alex Carter series. This time our intrepid biologist is living in the forests of the northern U.S., on the borders of Idaho, Washington, and Canada. She is tasked with documenting a possible sighting of the elusive caribou, thought to be absent from the U.S. Alex encounters an ongoing feud between loggers and environmentalists, including a woman who has been living in a tree for months. In addition, a woman is missing, and another’s body has been discovered, leading to FBI and local police involvement. The writing here is as excellent as ever, and all the characters are believable and interesting………. Amazon Books. Some readers may find the issues of environmentalists versus every one else a little to black and white. The location of the novel is just immediately south of the East Kootenays and as such has an immediate appeal.
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Gordon Pinsent (July 12, 1930 – February 25, 2023)

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For me 1971 was a good year. It was the year I arrived in Canada and met my future wife.  1972 was an even a better year. It was the year I got married and, co-incidently, it was the year that the Canadian film The Rowdyman starring Gordon Pinsent hit the big screen. It was also marked the year I first heard Ian Tyson’s  Summer Wages and the music of Gordon Lightfoot. There you have it, three major Canadian icons in such a short time. I thought I had hit the mother load of Canadian culture. In the space of a little over a year I had slipped into the mainstream of Canadian life and found a Canadian soundtrack for the characters I met every day. I was just like in the movies. The people I was meeting could have stepped straight out of the Rowdyman. It was art imitating life.

So to hear of Gordon Pinsent’s death it was a reminder of those early days of my immersion and integration into Canadian society and culture. Thank you Gordon.

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Read Any Good Books Lately (#25) – Victoria Clark

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Victoria Clark is a writer of non-fiction who has has worked for The Observer in Romania, the former Yugoslavia and Russia from 1990 to 1996, reporting the Croatian, Bosnian and first Chechen wars. I first stumbled onto her book Why Angels Fall in an Australian second hand book shop over 25 years ago. I have read the book twice and. given enough time, I will probably read it again. To have any understanding of the Eastern European mind set this book is an essential read.

Why Angels Fall: A Journey Through Orthodox Europe from Byzantium to Kosovo  – Nov. 28 2000

Victoria Clark traveled across most of Eastern Europe to write Why Angels Fall. Having worked for six years as a journalist in Romania, the former Yugoslavia, and Russia, Clark was fascinated by the Eastern Orthodox churches and keen to unravel their histories and beliefs. To do so, she journeyed from Mount Athos, to Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, Romania, Russia, Cyprus, and finally Istanbul, interviewing clergy and other believers. We’re treated to a series of vivid cameos, a few of whose subjects glow almost visibly with holiness, a few terrify, and many show qualities rare and needed in the West. As Clark puts it, after the ancient split between eastern and western Christianity, “each side lost something it could not happily do without … at the risk of oversimplifying for the sake of clarity, western Christendom can be said to have lost its heart, eastern Christendom its mind.” Her keenness to explain Orthodoxy to Westerners stems from a fear that the continent is in the process of fracturing along a 1,000-year-old fault line, between the Catholic and Protestant west and the Orthodox east. The book combines high-quality, highly readable travel writing with a powerful mix of politics and religion. Most of all, perhaps, it demonstrates the power of history, and of different peoples’ conflicting versions of history. Again and again, Clark finds the present in the grip of the past. In Serbia, for example, she cannot escape the legends surrounding the destruction of the Serbs’ medieval empire in 1389, and the death of the venerated Prince Lazar: “the battle of Kosovo’s interruption of Serbia’s golden greatness has become a cataclysm to rival man’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden in the minds of Serbs…. Prince Lazar is the key to understanding the Serbs’ deep conviction that, however many wars they initiate, they remain a nation of victims and martyrs.” –David Pickering, Amazon.co.uk

Far-Farers Hardcover – Dec 31 2004

Just before the year 1000, a young Viking named Thorvald turned his back on the pagan gods of his fathers to preach the Christian gospel. But his Icelandic countrymen mocked and outlawed him. Abandoning his homeland, Thorvald embarked on an epic journey to the heart of all medieval world maps, Jerusalem. A thousand years later, Victoria Clark embarked on the same journey to discover to what extent the dramatic changes and conflicts sweeping Western Europe a millennium ago still resonate today. The Far-Farers is both the story of this twenty-first-century journey and a history of eleventh-century western Christendom.

In this remarkable book Clark illuminates a group of influential eleventh-century characters Thorvald, emperors of eastern and western Christendom, abbots, saints, princesses, Crusaders who form links in a historical chain extending down the century and all the way from Iceland to the Holy Land. Western Europe was struggling to unite then, expanding rapidly and changing utterly. Warfare, peacekeeping, multinational monasticism, institutional power struggles, mass pilgrim travel, and rising religious fundamentalism were a few salient characteristics of this world more like our own than we might imagine. The twenty-first-century people Clark encountered as she traveled through Iceland, central and Western Europe, the Balkans, Turkey, and the Middle East cast fresh light on both worlds. In the ancient capital of Poland, a young Catholic priest scorns the idea of Europe uniting in the name of human rights instead of Christ. At the Crusader stronghold of Krak les Chevaliers, a Syrian playboy highlights the deep and widening gulf between the West and Islam. A richly evocative and beautifully written work, The Far-Farers is neither conventional history nor travel, but a powerful and authoritative demonstration of our enduring connection with the distant past.

Allies for Armageddon: The Rise of Christian Zionism Hardcover – Illustrated, Nov. 28 2007

Millions of Christian Zionists in America believe that God requires them to offer Israel unconditional support—moral, financial, political, and military. Guided by a literal reading of the prophetic sections of the Bible, Christian Zionists are convinced that the world is hurtling toward a final Battle of Armageddon. They believe that war in the Middle East is God’s will for the region. In this timely book, Victoria Clark first explores the 400-year history of this powerful political ideology, laying to rest the idea that Christian Zionism is a passing craze or the province of a lunatic fringe. Then Clark surveys the contemporary Christian Zionist scene in Israel and in the United States, where the influence of the religious fundamentalists has never been greater.

Clark engages with Christian Zionism directly, interviewing leaders, attending events, and traveling with Christian Zionists in the Holy Land. She also investigates the Christian Zionist presence in Israel. She finds that the view through the Christian Zionist lens is dangerously simple: President Bush’s War on Terror is a mythic battle between good and evil, and Syria and Iran represent the powers of darkness. Such views are far from rare—an estimated fifteen to twenty million Americans share them. Almost one in three Americans believes Israel was given to the Jews by God as a prelude to the Battle of Armageddon and Jesus’ Second Coming. Clark concludes with an assessment of Christian Zionists’ impact on American foreign policy in the Middle East and on America’s relationships with European allies since the attacks of 9/11.

I currently have this book on my wish list.

Yemen: Dancing on the Heads of Snakes Kindle Edition (2010)

Although raised Catholic, Victoria Clark is a self-confessed agnostic who, in four non-fiction works, Why Angels Fall, Far-Farers, Allies for Armageddon, and Holy Fire       explores the Christian religious mind set and its impact on history.  Yemen: Dancing on the Heads of Snakes is a departure from the Christian themes explored in her previous works.

“Yemen is the dark horse of the Middle East. Every so often it enters the headlines for one alarming reason or another—links with al-Qaeda, kidnapped Westerners, explosive population growth—then sinks into obscurity again. But, as Victoria Clark argues in this riveting book, we ignore Yemen at our peril. The poorest state in the Arab world, it is still dominated by its tribal makeup and has become a perfect breeding ground for insurgent and terrorist movements. Clark returns to the country where she was born to discover a perilously fragile state that deserves more of our understanding and attention. On a series of visits to Yemen between 2004 and 2009, she meets politicians, influential tribesmen, oil workers and jihadists as well as ordinary Yemenis. Untangling Yemen’s history before examining the country’s role in both al-Qaeda and the wider jihadist movement today, Clark presents a lively, clear, and up-to-date account of a little-known state whose chronic instability is increasingly engaging the general reader.” ………..Amazon Books

I currently have this book on my wish list.

Holy Fire: The Battle for Christ’s Tomb (2011)

“Holy Fire invades the church, a fast-breeding light transfiguring faces, transforming the dark stone space. I hear gasps and cheers and sobs and tears. The emotion is overwhelming, the heat suffocating . . .’
Every Easter the ‘miracle’ of the Holy Fire is enacted in front of hundreds of the faithful in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. For centuries, Orthodox Christian pilgrims have made the arduous journey to witness it: the proof they need that God favors them far above all other Christians, as well as Jews and Moslems. Holy Fire presents the unending battle waged by various denominations of Christian churchmen for their savior’s empty tomb as the microcosm of centuries of wider Christian power struggles. Victoria Clark deftly weaves history, reportage and religion into a fluid and fascinating account that includes the aggressive campaigns of medieval Crusaders, the empire-building of the nineteenth-century European powers, Britain’s decision to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine in 1917, and today’s zealous, though unlikely, champions of Israel’s cause, the Christian Zionists. She explores the contribution that the Christian world has made to the unfolding tragedy of the Holy Land – at a time when it has never been more urgent for the West to see itself as others see it.

In Innocents Abroad (1869) Mark Twain wrote of the various Christian groups who had chapels in Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre: “It has been proven conclusively that they can not worship together around the grave of the Saviour of the World in peace.” Little has changed, and journalist Clark traces the historical reasons why this is so. Skillfully weaving narrative about contemporary Jerusalem and Israel with a history of the political and religious wrangling over the places deemed holy by Christians, Jews and Muslims, Clark’s book reads like a thriller. She follows the various Christian claims to the land (Orthodox and Roman Catholic) as well as the international ones (the Ottoman Empire and the more contemporary interests of England, France, Russia and the United States) from the time of Constantine up to the creation of the state of Israel. Though her personal dislike for evangelicals mars the book slightly, readers will come to understand why small incidents, such as an Egyptian Copt sitting in the Ethiopian section of the rooftop patio of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, can erupt in violence, and why so many nations today continue to take sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts. ………. Amazon Books

I currently have this book on my wish list.

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Post-script: After reading Victoria Clark’s books the temptation to go further down the Christian “rabbit hole” was just too overwhelming. So much so that I had to re-read some recent Irish history ….

A New Ireland: How Europe’s Most Conservative Country Became Its Most Liberal  …… (2020)

by Niall O’Dowd
Theocracies are never a good idea. Just look at the recent news coming out of Iran. The amalgamation of Church and state seems to be a recipe for pain and violence.  It was in Ireland and it continues to be so in Iran. This is an important book about the Irish theocracy of the last 100 years. It is slightly off topic from Victoria Clark’s books but not by much. The historical threads of 2,000 years of Christianity have been played out in the history of the Irish Republic. The very recent demise of the Irish theocracy  demonstrates that  even in the most entrenched circumstances there is possibilities for progressive change.
“It’s not your father’s Ireland. Not anymore. This is a story of a modern revolution in Ireland told by the founder of Irish Central, Irish America magazine, and The Irish Voice newspaper.
In a May 2019 countrywide referendum, Ireland voted overwhelmingly to make abortion legal; three years earlier, it had done the same with same-sex marriage, becoming the only country in the world to pass such a law by universal suffrage. In 2018 the visit by Pope Francis  to Ireland saw protests and a fraction of the emphatic welcome that Pope John Paul had seen forty years earlier. There have been two female heads of state since 1990, the first two in Ireland’s history. Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, an openly gay man of Indian heritage, declared that “a quiet revolution had taken place.” It had. For nearly all of its modern history, Ireland was Europe’s most conservative country. The Catholic Church was its most powerful institution and held power over all facets of Irish life. But as scandal eroded the Church’s hold on Irish life, a new Ireland has flourished. War in the North has ended. EU membership and an influx of American multinational corporations have helped Ireland weather economic depression and transform into Europe’s headquarters for Apple, Facebook, and Google. With help from prominent Irish and Irish American voices like historian and bestselling author Tim Pat Coogan and the New York Times’s Maureen Dowd, A New Ireland tells the story of a modern revolution against all odds.”
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The Magdalen Girls Kindle Edition (2016)

by V.S. Alexander. This is a novel that explores one of the unsavory facets of the Catholic Church’s grip on Irish politics, culture and mentality.

“Dublin, 1962. Within the gated grounds of the convent of The Sisters of the Holy Redemption lies one of the city’s Magdalen Laundries. Once places of refuge, the laundries have evolved into grim workhouses. Some inmates are “fallen” women—unwed mothers, prostitutes, or petty criminals. Most are ordinary girls whose only sin lies in being too pretty, too independent, or tempting the wrong man. Among them is sixteen-year-old Teagan Tiernan, sent by her family when her beauty provokes a lustful revelation from a young priest.

Teagan soon befriends Nora Craven, a new arrival who thought nothing could be worse than living in a squalid tenement flat. Stripped of their freedom and dignity, the girls are given new names and denied contact with the outside world. The Mother Superior, Sister Anne, who has secrets of her own, inflicts cruel, dehumanizing punishments—but always in the name of love. Finally, Nora and Teagan find an ally in the reclusive Lea, who helps them endure—and plot an escape. But as they will discover, the outside world has dangers too, especially for young women with soiled reputations.

Told with candor, compassion, and vivid historical detail, The Magdalen Girls is a masterfully written novel of life within the era’s notorious institutions—and an inspiring story of friendship, hope, and unyielding courage.  ”    Amazon Books

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Joni Mitchell’s “The Magdalene Laundries”

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Banjo Pickers – Listen Up

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Full disclosure – I play banjo but I am not ” A Banjo Player”…… Understand? I know enough to pick up a banjo and have some understanding of a few of the tuning systems and playing styles, but I am not prepared to play one in public. I have a bit of a love / hate relationship with the instrument. After years of playing guitar I find the banjo heavy and the strings too soft. I love clawhammer, folk music, old times styles and Celtic tunes on tenor banjo but do not care for rapid-fire blue grass. It was once described to me as “heavy metal” played on banjo. I love Bela Fleck’s non-bluegrass performances and the Chris Coole’s clawhammer tunes I regard as gifts from God.

The banjo is a uniquely American instrument with roots that can be traced back to pre- civil war days, the slave trade and further back to Africa. In the film Throw Down Your Heart Bela Fleck tried to do exactly that. It is a full length movie that probably says more about African music and culture than about the modern banjo. However, it is well worth spending 90 minutes to watch.

There are many YouTube tutorials and video performances out there. Most are about the more common aspects of the instrument. However, as people explore the history of the banjo some unusual aspects of the instrument are becoming available. Interest is growing in the Gourd and Civil War Minstrel banjos and several master musicians are now  playing the instruments in public. The first clip is by Laurel Premo, a Michigan based multi-instrumentalist with strong academic credentials  and folk music roots. She is playing a Gourd banjo. She is accompanied by Anna Gustavsson on the Swedish Nyckelharpa.

The second clip is Rhiannon Giddens, a conservatory trained musician with deep folkloric roots,  performing on a reproduction of a Minstrel Banjo.

Both instruments are recognizable as banjos but not the usual music store models that we would readily recognize. Both instruments have fretless necks, nylon strings and sound like they are tuned lower than a conventional banjo. Modern banjos are usually strung with metal strings while the older instruments would have been strung with “gut” strings. In this day and age that is neither practical or even environmentally sensible. There are a number of nylon substitutes now available.

To effectively play a fretless instrument is probably beyond my capabilities.  I have an 100 year old Washburn banjo that is a little fragile but maybe could be a suitable candidate for nylon strings. It is an option that I am in the process of exploring. I have done my home work, read the reviews and have decided to try the Aquila Classic Banjo – Red Series. The product information describes “A unique feeling and a strong, consistent sound. Until now, it was necessary to increase the gauge of a string for it to produce a lower-pitched note. But increasing the string’s diameter also increases internal dampening. That makes the string less bright, less responsive and more muffled; the thicker the string, the duller the sound. Our revolutionary new approach — unique to us — changes the specific weight of the material, increasing it progressively to leave the gauge almost unchanged.” Depending on the basic note required for the individual string the composition (density) of the string is designed at the point of manufacture. “The result is amazing: instruments sound brighter, more powerful and more responsive through the entire range of the fret board. The strings also maintain their intonation better, because thicker strings need to be fretted harder, pulling them further out of tune. ” At least that is the claim.

Fresh out of the packet the first thing to notice is that the plastic envelopes for the individual strings are color coded. For a banjo tuned in the traditional G tuning (gDGBD) the coding is (g) yellow, D white, G green, B blue and D red.

The second thing to notice is that the strings do not have the usual loops for attachment at the bottom end. At first sight that is a little disconcerting. However, here is a video demonstrating how to overcome that problem. The solution is pretty simple and straight forward.

Attaching the string at the top end requires threading the string through the tuning peg and cinching as described below.

Here is another video on Nylon Strings.

As an after thought I might try tuning the nylon set down at least a tone to either (fCFAC) a tone down from standard G; or (f Bb F Bb C) a tone down from Double C. The fingering you are used to will be the same. Only the Key will change.

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Postscript: Just because of the huge variety of instruments and string sets available it may be difficult to purchase some speciality sets locally so I tend to buy strings on line from https://www.stringsandbeyond.com/ . I have been purchasing strings from this site for years without problems.

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Read Any Good Books Lately (#24) – Down the Rabbit Hole

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There are masses of literature out there devoted to politicians and geopolitics and it is a realm that one enters with some risk. Many preconceived notions go there to die or be forever altered. In the search for what is true or real, one book always leads to another and another and the whole effort ends up being a trip down “a rabbit hole”. Here are some books I encountered in a recent trip down “the rabbit hole”.

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ASSASSINATION ON EMBASSY ROW  by John Dinges

“Edgar Award Finalist: The gripping account of an assassination on US soil and the violent foreign conspiracy that stretched from Pinochet’s Chile to the streets of Washington, DC, with a new introduction by Ariel Dorfman.

On September 10, 1976, exiled Chilean leader Orlando Letelier delivered a blistering rebuke of Augusto Pinochet’s brutal right-wing regime in a speech at Madison Square Garden. Eleven days later, while Letelier was on Embassy Row in Washington, DC, a bomb affixed to the bottom of his car exploded, killing him and his coworker Ronni Moffitt. The slaying, staggering in its own right, exposed an international conspiracy that reached well into US territory. Pinochet had targeted Letelier, a former Chilean foreign minister and ambassador to the United States, and carried out the attack with the help of Operation Condor, the secret alliance of South America’s military dictatorships dedicated to wiping out their most influential opponents.

This gripping account tells the story not only of a political plot that ended in murder, but also of the FBI’s inquiry into the affair. Definitive in its examination both of Letelier’s murder and of the subsequent investigations carried out by American intelligence, Assassination on Embassy Row is equal parts keen analysis and true-life spy thriller……… Amazon Books”

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Of course it can’t end there one must investigate what actually happened in Chile back in the 1970s and there is no better guide than –

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

by Naomi Klein (Author)

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I read this book many years ago and I am in the process of a re-read. Second time around the book is just as gripping and disturbing as the first time.

“The shock doctrine is the unofficial story of how the “free market” came to dominate the world, from Chile to Russia, China to Iraq, South Africa to Canada. But it is a story radically different from the one usually told. It is a story about violence and shock perpetrated on people, on countries, on economies. About a program of social and economic engineering that Naomi Klein calls “disaster capitalism.”

Based on breakthrough historical research and 4 years of reporting in disaster zones, Klein explodes the myth that the global free market triumphed democratically, and that unfettered capitalism goes hand-in-hand with democracy. Instead, she argues it has consistently relied on violence and shock, and reveals the puppet strings behind the critical events of the last 40 years.

“The shock doctrine” is the influential but little understood theory that in order to push through profoundly unpopular policies that enrich the few and impoverish the many, there must be a collective crisis or disaster—real or manufactured. Klein vividly traces the origins of modern shock tactics to the economic lab of the University of Chicago under Milton Friedman in the 60s, and beyond to the CIA-funded electroshock experiments at McGill in the 50s which helped write the torture manuals used today at Guantanamo Bay. She details the events of the recent past that have been deliberate theatres for the shock doctrine: among them, Pinochet’s coup in Chile in 1973, the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991; and, more recently, the September 11 attacks, the invasion of Iraq, the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. And she shows how—in the hands of the Bush Administration—the “war on terror” is a thin cover for a thriving destruction/reconstruction complex, with disasters, wars and homeland security fuelling a booming new economy. Naomi Klein has once again written a book that will change the way we see the world.” ………. Amazon Books

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I have always had a belief that as a nation or a culture we are trapped by our mythologies that some times bears no relationship to what actually happened way back when. Americans are trapped by myths surrounding the Founding Fathers, the Wild West and so on. Australians  and Canadians are trapped “Birth of Nation” myths spawned by the ANZAC Tradition and involvements in The Great War.

The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America 

by Greg Grandin (Author)

A new and eye-opening interpretation of the meaning of the frontier, from early westward expansion to Trump’s border wall.

Ever since this nation’s inception, the idea of an open and ever-expanding frontier has been central to American identity. Symbolizing a future of endless promise, it was the foundation of the United States’ belief in itself as an exceptional nation – democratic, individualistic, forward-looking. Today, though, America has a new symbol: the border wall.

In The End of the Myth, acclaimed historian Greg Grandin explores the meaning of the frontier throughout the full sweep of U.S. history – from the American Revolution to the War of 1898, the New Deal to the election of 2016. For centuries, he shows, America’s constant expansion – fighting wars and opening markets – served as a “gate of escape,” helping to deflect domestic political and economic conflicts outward. But this deflection meant that the country’s problems, from racism to inequality, were never confronted directly. And now, the combined catastrophe of the 2008 financial meltdown and our unwinnable wars in the Middle East have slammed this gate shut, bringing political passions that had long been directed elsewhere back home.

It is this new reality, Grandin says, that explains the rise of reactionary populism and racist nationalism, the extreme anger and polarization that catapulted Trump to the presidency. The border wall may or may not be built, but it will survive as a rallying point, an allegorical tombstone marking the end of American exceptionalism.” …… Amazon Books

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Here is another myth that has little or no basis in fact. It didn’t happen the way it has been portrayed in earlier books and films. There was no last stand and Mexico prohibited the owning of slaves and was actually on the side of freedom. This is one of a number of recent books that has exploded the myth. One wonders how the Texas tourist industry will address the demise of the myth.

Exodus from the Alamo: The Anatomy of the Last Stand Myth

by Phillip Thomas Tucker(Author)
“A startling new analysis of one of America’s most glorious battles . . . Contrary to movie and legend, we now know that the defenders of the Alamo in the war for Texan independence—including Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie and William B. Travis—did not die under brilliant sunlight, defending their positions against hordes of Mexican infantry. Instead the Mexicans launched a predawn attack, surmounting the walls in darkness, forcing a wild melee inside the fort before many of its defenders had even awoken. In this book, Dr. Tucker, after deep research into recently discovered Mexican accounts and the forensic evidence, informs us that the traditional myth of the Alamo is even more off-base: most of the Alamo’s defenders died in breakouts from the fort, cut down by Santa Anna’s cavalry that had been pre-positioned to intercept the escapees. To be clear, a number of the Alamo’s defenders hung on inside the fort, fighting back every way they could. Captain Dickinson, with cannon atop the chapel (in which his wife hid), fired repeatedly into the Mexican throng of enemy cavalry until he was finally cut down. The controversy on Crockett still remains, though the recently authenticated diary of the Mexican de la Pena offers evidence that he surrendered. The most startling aspect of this book is that most of the Texans, in two gallantly led groups, broke out of the fort after the enemy had broken in, and the primary fights took place on the plain outside. Still fighting desperately, the Texans’ retreat was halted by cavalry, and afterward Mexican lancers plied their trade with bloodcurdling charges into the midst of the remaining resisters. Notoriously, Santa Anna burned the bodies of the Texans who had dared stand against him. As this book proves in thorough detail, the funeral pyres were well outside the fort—that is, where the two separate groups of escapers fell on the plain, rather than in the Alamo itself. PHILLIP THOMAS TUCKER earned his Ph.D. in American History from St. Louis University in 1990. The author or editor of more than 20 books on military history, several of which have won national and state awards for scholarship, he has worked as a U.S. Air Force Historian for nearly two decades in Washington, DC.”  ….. Amazon Books
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This recent rewriting of history is having  almost explosive consequences for our perception of race and racism in the USA. I found there was a lot of poetry and padding in the book that I tended to skip over. However, the essence of the premise is compelling.

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

by Nikole Hannah-Jones (Author), The New York Times Magazine, Caitlin Ropder (editor), Ilena Silverman (editor) and others 

“ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, NPR, Esquire, Marie Claire, Electric Lit, Ms. magazine, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist

In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country’s original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much that still defines the United States.

The New York Times Magazine’s award-winning “1619 Project” issue reframed our understanding of American history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative. This new book substantially expands on that work, weaving together eighteen essays that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America with thirty-six poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression, struggle, and resistance. The essays show how the inheritance of 1619 reaches into every part of contemporary American society, from politics, music, diet, traffic, and citizenship to capitalism, religion, and our democracy itself.

This is a book that speaks directly to our current moment, contextualizing the systems of race and caste within which we operate today. It reveals long-glossed-over truths around our nation’s founding and construction—and the way that the legacy of slavery did not end with emancipation, but continues to shape contemporary American life.

Featuring contributions from: Leslie Alexander • Michelle Alexander • Carol Anderson • Joshua Bennett • Reginald Dwayne Betts • Jamelle Bouie • Anthea Butler • Matthew Desmond • Rita Dove • Camille T. Dungy • Cornelius Eady • Eve L. Ewing • Nikky Finney • Vievee Francis • Yaa Gyasi • Forrest Hamer • Terrance Hayes • Kimberly Annece Henderson • Jeneen Interlandi • Honorée Fanonne Jeffers • Barry Jenkins • Tyehimba Jess • Martha S. Jones • Robert Jones, Jr. • A. Van Jordan • Ibram X. Kendi • Eddie Kendricks • Yusef Komunyakaa • Kevin M. Kruse • Kiese Laymon • Trymaine Lee • Jasmine Mans • Terry McMillan • Tiya Miles • Wesley Morris • Khalil Gibran Muhammad • Lynn Nottage • ZZ Packer • Gregory Pardlo • Darryl Pinckney • Claudia Rankine • Jason Reynolds • Dorothy Roberts • Sonia Sanchez • Tim Seibles • Evie Shockley • Clint Smith • Danez Smith • Patricia Smith • Tracy K. Smith • Bryan Stevenson • Nafissa Thompson-Spires • Natasha Trethewey • Linda Villarosa • Jesmyn Ward ” ….. Amazon Books

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Although I haven’t finished reading this book it did seem appropriate to add it to the list.

Hidden Terrors: The Truth About U.S. Police Operations in Latin America

by A.J. Langguth(Author), Mark Crispin Miller (Introduction)

A “devastating” exposé of the United States’ Latin American policy and the infamous career and assassination of agent Dan Mitrione (Kirkus Reviews).

In 1960, former Richmond, Indiana, police chief Dan Mitrione moved to Brazil to begin a new career with the United States Agency for International Development. During his ten years with the USAID, Mitrione trained and oversaw foreign police forces in extreme counterinsurgency tactics—including torture—aimed at stomping out communism across South America. Though he was only a foot soldier in a larger secret campaign, he became a symbol of America’s brutal interventionism when he was kidnapped and executed by Tupamaro rebels in Montevideo, Uruguay.

In Hidden Terrors, former New York Times Saigon bureau chief A. J. Langguth chronicles with chilling detail Mitrione’s work for the USAID on the ground in South America and Washington, DC, where he shared his expertise. Along the way, Langguth provides an authoritative overview of America’s efforts to destabilize communist movements and prop up military dictators in South America, presenting a “powerful indictment of what the United States helped to bring about in this hemisphere” (The New York Times). Even today, the tactics Mitrione helped develop continue to influence operations in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and black sites around the globe.”……… Amazon Books

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Last, but not least, this book is a recent addition to my reading list. It was prompted by a reader’s comment “That this book exists at all is a small miracle. When it was published in 1950, to one good review and one mixed, it disappeared from store shelves overnight. It wasn’t a hit; the CIA bought up every copy it could for destruction. That’s the workaround for a country that does not ban books per se.” How could one not want to read it?

All Honorable Men: The Story of the Men on Both Sides of the Atlantic Who Successfully Thwarted Plans to Dismantle the Nazi Cartel System

by James Stewart Martin (Author), Mark Crispin Miller (Editor), Hank Albarelli (Foreword), Christopher Simpson (Introduction).

“A scathing attack on Wall Street’s illegal ties to Nazi Germany before WWII—and the postwar whitewashing of Nazi business leaders by the US government

Prior to World War II, German industry was controlled by an elite group who had used their money and influence to help bring the Nazi Party to power. After the Allies had successfully occupied Germany and removed the Third Reich, the process of reconstructing the devastated nation’s economy began under supervision of the US government. James Stewart Martin, who had assisted the Allied forces in targeting key areas of German industry for aerial bombardment, returned to Germany as the director of the Division for Investigation of Cartels and External Assets in American Military Government, a position he held until 1947. Martin was to break up the industrial machine these cartels controlled and investigate their ties to Wall Street. What he discovered was shocking.

Many American corporations had done business with German corporations who helped fund the Nazi Party, despite knowing what their money was supporting. Effectively, Wall Street’s greed had led them to aid Hitler and hinder the Allied effort. Martin’s efforts at decartelization were unsuccessful though, largely due to hindrance from his superior officer, an investment banker in peacetime. In conclusion, he said, “We had not been stopped in Germany by German business. We had been stopped in Germany by American business.”

This exposé on economic warfare, Wall Street, and America’s military industrial complex includes a new introduction by Christopher Simpson, author of Blowback:America’s Recruitment of Nazis and Its Destructive Impact on Our Domestic and Foreign Policy, and a new foreword from investigative journalist Hank Albarelli.” ……. Amazon Books

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There you have it. Welcome to the “rabbit hole”
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Red Dirt Skinners at Studio 64

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Studio 64 (Kimberley) Spring 2022 Jazz and Blues Concert Series – Red Dirt Skinners.    – 2022/05/13,8pm

This was the original poster for the Red Dirt Skinners concert  but as we all know the pandemic has ruined many a plan of mice and men and here we are two years further down the road………..

Music is a performance art that, at its best exists at the moment of creation. It requires performers (obviously) and an audience in a physical environment that promotes the interaction between the two. Given the right mix the experience can be transcendental. During the pandemic there has been no shortage of downloadable digital music. Music is just about every where, but live performances have virtually disappeared. This has been extremely hard on performers. Incomes have disappeared and the emotional feed back required for the self actualization of the artist is non-existent. That has been the situation for over two years but now appears to be becoming to an end. The Pandemic is not over but restrictions on social and cultural gatherings are easing to the point where live music is emerging from its enforced hibernation. The Kimberly Arts Council Spring Jazz and Blues Concert Series is part of the renewal of the live music scene in Kimberley. The Melody Diachun Quartet concert in April was the very first in the 2022 Spring Jazz and Blues Concert Series. It was a very tentative step with only about 40 patrons in the audience. In this, the second concert in the series, the audience has been  increased to around 75. It is anticipated that for the third and final concert in the series the audience numbers will be back up to full capacity.

Keith Nicolas, on behalf of the Kimberley Arts Council, has been negotiating with The Red Dirt Skinners for over two years and after numerous cancellations and postponements, The Red Dirt Skinners (Rob Skinner – guitar, vocals and foot percussion; Sarah Skinner – back up vocals and soprano sax) finally made it to Kimberley for a much-anticipated concert. “The Red Dirt Skinners are an Anglo-Canadian multi-genre duo, who formed in 2011”. They had been very active in Britain and Europe before their “accidental” relocation to Canada about five years ago. As the duo explains it, they were contacted by the Stratford Festival for an engagement. It wasn’t until the festival organizers sent them airline tickets that they realized that it was Stratford Ontario and not Stratford, England. Driving to the gig would not be an option. They ended up doing 12 shows over 17 days. During that time they were exposed to some Canadian cultural norms such as Bear Spray and a whole new understanding of distances between gigs.  The engagement was so successful that the duo started looking at the possibility and final relocation to Canada.

Patrons may have a hard time categorizing their music. Based on the Kimberley performance I suggest they have a very unique blend of a “classic rock” vibe, singer/song writer sensibilities with jazzy melodic enhancements provided by the soprano sax. Their acknowledged musical influences include Supertramp, Pink Floyd, David Bowie and Queen.  Their repertoire is mostly original material with the occasional cover songs. As with the best of song writers their songs and stories have come out of a wealth of personal encounters and experiences. Currently their use of soprano sax in a rock environment is unusual. The only other similar use of the soprano sax that I can recall is Branford Marsalis performing with Sting in the mid 80s and 90s.

The evening kicked off with an original song advising young performers to follow their muse (“Why Don’t you listen to your own dreams?”). What followed was a number of songs that included an ode to the pandemic A Life on Pause; Hey Crawford – a nod to a long-time teacher they met in Ontario; Your Hearts Not Here – a song lamenting dementia; Bad Apple; Brighter Days Ahead; Blossoms and Rain (a day in Brussels); Lay Me Down; Day Break and a cover of David Bowie’s Space Oddity (“Ground Control to Major Tom”). For me the best story of the evening was “Frank’s” persistent request for Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb. The final song of the evening, Feet of Clay, celebrated Fionna Campbell’s eleven-year 20,000 mile walk around the world.

Here are some images from the evening ……..

    

     

Once again thanks must go to the Kimberley Arts Council,  the organizing Committee and the volunteers who made the evening possible. In keeping live music, well “Live”, they have stepped up to the plate in these difficult times. Thank you, Thank you, Thank You.

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POSTSCRIPT:

Here is a Youtube video that I think captures the essence of the Red Dirt Skinners in performance. It is a cover version of Dave Bowie’s Space Oddity. The vocals are spot on, the guitar is nice and crisp and the soprano sax intro and solo has a nice wailing aura. I have never been a fan of Dave Bowie’s music but after hearing this version perhaps I will have to reevaluate my opinion of his music.

Here is another couple of clips:

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COVID 19 – An ill-wind that blew some good.

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In late December 2019, a previous unidentified coronavirus, currently named as the 2019 novel coronavirus, emerged from Wuhan, China, and resulted in a formidable outbreak in many cities in China and expanded to every country on the globe. Millions of people have become infected and many millions have died. It is the greatest pandemic since the “Spanish Flu”  of 1919.  We have all experienced enough death, disruption and economic hardship to agree with the notion that the Covid-19 pandemic is an ill wind.

However, there is one impact of the pandemic that cannot be denied. The Covid-19 pandemic ended Donald Trump’s dream of a second term as the President of the United States. Despite a record number of lies, political fumbles and gross incompetence he had every chance of winning a second term but his mishandling of the pandemic brought that possibility crashing down. Personally I think that was a good thing. Consider the political events in the Ukraine over the last six months. Donald Trump had managed to muddle through most of his first term, by lying, firing staff, ignoring sound advice, shifting blame and, as I said muddling through. But Putin’s invasion of Ukraine imposed a whole new set of realities. Ones that could not be dismissed with unthinking random off the top of the head solutions. It required a realistic measured response based on good advice, knowledge of the issues, sound judgement and an ability to work with allies. So as terrible as it has been just imagine how much worse it could have been if Donald Trump was still in the White House with his finger on the “Nuclear button”

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Postscript: UNFIT – A trailer of an Anti-Trump documentary

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Melody Diachun Quartet at Studio 64

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Studio 64 (Kimberley) Spring 2022 Jazz and Blues Concert Series – Melody Diachun Quartet. (2022/04/16)

When starting out on a new project it is always a good idea to have a clear goal in mind. It provides stimulus and focus. Last time round (2017) the Nelson musician Melody Daichun zeroed in on the music of Brazil and the Beatles. It informed the program for a brilliant concert held on October 28,2017 at the Studio 64. This time round the goal of choice for Melody and her quartet was the music of Sting. Now, Sting is best known as the front man for the band The Police. This loud, powerhouse trio of Sting (Bass, vocals), Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (percussion) dominated the international pop scene in the years 1977 through 1986. While, I always thought that Sting was a bit of a poser, the band’s mixture of Punk, Reggae and Jazz appealed to me. Once I overlooked the abrasive loudness and hype of the band I realized their music had substance. Maybe it was just the jazz influences that appealed to me.  Post-Police, with his strong song writing skills, Sting emerged as a solo performer with musicality and an uncanny ability to form brilliant collaborations with musicians from across the musical spectrum. At one stage he was fronting “the best jazz band in the world”. An exaggeration perhaps but not by much. That band included saxophonist Branford Marsalis and pianist Kenny Kirkland and they definitely had solid jazz credentials. Their performances provided a whole new sophisticated way of presenting the music of Sting. In light of this new perspective it is no wonder that Melody Diachun (vocals) Doug Stephenson (bass), David Restivo (piano) and Tony Ferraro (drums) chose a program of Sting’s music. Originally, the intent was to go into the studio and record the material for a new CD. Of course, the Covid pandemic put that on pause for over two years. We are slowly emerging from the shadow of the last two years and the recording project is back on track. This concert was a preview of the CD that will be released later this year.

The first tune of the evening was the reggae inspired Walking on the Moon. Originally recorded by The Police in October 1979 the title is a euphemism for walking on air i.e.. “falling in Love”. The second song was The Shape of my Heart, a song that reveals Sting’s nice gift for crafting words.

I know that the spades are the swords of a soldier
I know that the clubs are weapons of war
I know that diamonds mean money for this art
But that’s not the shape of my heart

Fragile is my all time favorite song by Sting and the 5/4 bass intro by Doug Stephenson took the performance to another level. Don’t Stand So Close to Me, also from The Police repertoire, is a rumination on the mixed feelings of lust, fear and guilt. Roxanne is one of those songs that lends itself to a myriad of interpretations. From a soft bossa nova to ear numbing power house rock. The songs and the brilliant interpretations rolled on through the evening with sparkling instrumental solos on bass, piano and drums interspersed among the lyrics. It was nice to hear David Restivo on the Centre’s grand piano and, of course, the Kootenay’s “go to drummer” Tony Ferraro with all his tasty licks, fills, punctuations and sonic shadings.  Other songs included When we Dance, Tea in Sahara, Love is a Seventh Wave (with some great brushwork by Tony Ferraro), Consider Me Gone (based on Shakespeare’s Sonnet #35 and featuring a great bass line explored on the piano), We Worked the Black Seam, I Burn for You and Fields of Barley. The song lyrics for  Russians, written in another time, in another place and in a different set of circumstances are  so appropriate for today that they could have been written any time in the past month.

There is no monopoly on common sense

On either side of the political fence

We share the same biology, regardless of ideology

Believe me when I say to you

I hope the Russians love their children too

The audience participation on the final line “I hope the Russians love their children too” was a nice touch.

The evening had some touches of humor. Melody gave up on her high, high, training heels and opted for gym shoes in the second half and we thought we had lost her for the rest of the evening when she accidently locked her self out of the performance area when the musicians were taking extended solos on a tune.

The audience for the evening was small. That was a shame because it was a stellar performance and if the musicians decide to come back and do a repeat show then it should not be missed. The numbers of patrons  may have been low because of pandemic hesitancy or just the fact that it was Easter Saturday.

Thanks must go to the Kimberley Arts Council and the organizing Committee. In keeping live music, well “Live”, they stepped up to the plate in these difficult times. Thank you, Thank you, Thank You. And thanks Ray for the excellent sound and lights.

I am looking forward to the release of the CD later in the year. In the meantime here are some images from the evening………….

          

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POSTSCRIPT:

Rick Beato’s interview with Sting –

Fragile – The Jazz Baltica 2003 Performance –

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Shortly after this concert Melody and a crew of musicians went into a studio in Vancouver and recorded the album Sumners Tales – The Music of Sting that will be released in October 2022. This is Fields of Barley from the album.

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The Name Has Changed ………

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I knew it as “The Bower”, short for Fairy Bower, a right hand reef break off the headland just beyond the south end of Manly Beach in Sydney Australia.  In days gone bye, as the story goes, the bush land trails there about was notorious as a meeting places for gays.  But that is another story. The break was not often in good condition but when the swell was up and coming from the right direction it was a magnet for aspiring “hard men”. There were a number of ways to get to the break. You could walk the promenade from Manly beach to the Milk Bar mid-way between Manly and Shelley  Beach and hop the sea wall to a  convenient launching spot for the short paddle across the bay.. Alternatively one could drive to the side road that lead down to the Milk Bar and that adjacent launching spot. Because of the lack of parking that was not usually advised. The final route was to drive to the parking spot on the top of the Fairy Bower headland, unload your surf board  and walk down through the bush or down by Shelley Beach  to find a convenient launching spot at the base of the cliff. The surf was the stuff of legends. The take off spot was as close to the cliff as one dared to go. The idea was to  jockey for the ideal take off spot, paddle in, drop down into a bottom turn, climb up the wave high enough to navigate around Surge Rock then settle in for The Race Track out into the channel. In days before leg leashes it was inevitable that at some time during the day you would take a tumble and have to swim out into the middle of channel to retrieve your surf board. It was always a little unsettling to look down as you swam over the reef and watched it drop away below you into the deep dark water of the channel. I often wondered who or what actually lived down there.

A lot depended on the tide and the direction of the swell to create a quality wave but when the quality arrived the  spot had its legends and heroes. In the mid-1960s “Nipper” Williams, Glenn Ritchie and Robbie Lane were the acknowledged masters.  There was one very famous photo of “Nipper” Williams taking off way “inside” and navigating around the top of Surge Rock. One day, in a monumental breach  of surfing etiquette I made the mistake of “dropping in” on “Nipper” Williams as he came roaring out of the inside take off area. At the end of the ride he reminded me of my breach of etiquette. No harsh words,  just a gentlemanly reminder to do the right thing in future.  Those were kinder, gentler days and in modern times it might have lead to a punch up in the water or a later altercation on the beach. Over the years surfers started pushing the boundaries of what was possible by moving into more dangerous take off spots closer and closer to the cliff face.  Warren Smith opened up one such spot that became known as Winky Pop. At the time we thought he was insane.

I did have one monumental day. I think it was an early morning session before heading off to work.The surf was up, way, way up. I drove to the Milk Bar and parked the car. There were lots of available parking spaces. That should have been my first clue. Even though it was very early in the day it was still unusual for so many parking spots to be available. I looked across the bay and it did look big. That should have been my second clue.  I paddled across the bay and further and further out to what I assumed would be the take off spot. I was getting more nervous by the minute. The swell was absolutely massive. Probably fifteen foot plus and thick, thick, thick…….. and the roar of the breaking waves that filled the air was thunderous.  Eventually, I realized I was the only surfer in the water and maybe there was reason for that. That was clue number three. In the past I had ridden beach breaks of over ten feet or so and I thought maybe I could handle this. But on reconsidering the situation I realized that this swell was way out of my league. If I got into trouble it would be big, big trouble and I was out here all alone. In the end I chickened out, counted my blessings and paddled back across the bay to the Milk Bar. I can’t remember if it was the same day, same weekend end or even the same storm swell but around that time there was a photo story in the local surf magazine of a big surf day at the Fairy Bower. It featured a photo of  Billy Hannah racing across the bottom of a massive twenty foot face that hovered over him like the “hammer of doom”. He took a pounding and lost his board. It was last seen being swept out to sea. It was never recovered. For all we knew it could have ended up in New Zealand.

That was then and this is now. We are fifty years further on into April 2022 with big storm swells hitting the East Coast of Australia. There are many YouTube videos of a surf spot called Deadman’s at Manly Beach in Sydney Australia. I had never heard of this spot but after viewing the videos it became evident to my eyes this was the old surf spot I knew as The Fairy Bower. Somewhere along the way the prissy name had been replaced with the more threatening Deadman’s. Considering the size of the waves, “the do or die” take off spot right in front of the cliff it is a very apt name. Over the past fifty years big wave riding has evolved to the point where surfers are attacking giant swells in a manner that in former times would have been considered suicidal. This is a big wave surfing spot almost in the middle of big city suburbia that rivals some of the legendary big wave spots in Hawaii and California. Check out the following video of a big day at Deadman’s ………

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Read any Good Books lately ? (#23)- Truckers eh!

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Well, the reputation of tuckers has recently taken a pounding so it is good to read some novels that portray these knights of the road  in a more pleasing light. Better  yet, these are Canadian stories written by the Canadian author  R.E.Donald. This series of six stories is called The  Hunter Rayne Highway Mystery Books.

” Ruth E. Donald was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She worked in the transportation industry in various capacities for 25 years (from 1972 until 2001) and draws on this experience, as well as those of Jim Donald (her late husband), in creating the realistic situations and characters in her novels. She went to the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, B.C., where she studied creative writing and languages (French, Russian, and German) to get a Bachelor of Arts degree. Ruth’s always been an avid reader and has been especially attracted to murder mysteries. She loves the puzzle and loves the satisfaction that comes with solving the crime and seeing justice done. ” The novels in the series include:

  • Slow Curve on the Coquihalla (2011)
  • Ice on the Grapevine (2011)
  • Sea to Sky (2012)
  • Sundown on Top of the World ( 2015)
  • White Liners (2015
  • Yellowhead Blues (2019)

Ruth’s debut novel, called “Slow Curve on the Coquihalla”. In this novel a well respected truck driver and owner of a family trucking business, is discovered dead in his truck down a steep embankment along the Coquihalla highway which winds through the mountains in British Columbia, his distraught daughter wants to know how and why his truck left the highway on an easy uphill curve. This compels Hunter Rayne, a fellow trucker and retired RCMP detective with daughters of his own, to help her find answers. As he uncovers signs of illegal cross border activity originating in a Seattle warehouse, Hunter recruits an old friend, an outlaw biker, to infiltrate what appears to be an international smuggling ring. But while Hunter follows up clues and waits for critical information from his old friend, the wily biker starts to play his own angles. Finally, putting all the pieces together, there in the dark on the same uphill curve on the Coquihalla highway, Hunter risks it all to confront the murderer. Slow Curve on the Coquihalla is the first in a traditional mystery series featuring “semi-” professional sleuth, Hunter Rayne. After serving over 20 years in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and becoming a skilled detective, Hunter resigned from the force and took to the road as a long haul trucker. His ex-wife is convinced he is running away from the personal tragedy that made him leave a job he loved. Hunter himself doesn’t know why, he only knows he has to keep following the white lines. ……… Amazon Books

Ice on the Grapevine – “On a warm July morning in L.A. County, a frozen corpse turns up at a highway brake check just south of the Grapevine Pass. Ex-homicide detective Hunter Rayne, who now drives an eighteen wheeler, is persuaded by his irascible dispatcher, Elspeth Watson, to help clear two fellow truck drivers who are arrested for the murder. His job is made more difficult by the fact that the suspects, a newlywed couple, won’t speak up in their own defense. The circumstantial evidence is strong, and a rookie detective from the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department is eager to score a win. The investigation crosses the Canada-U.S. border when the victim is identified as a second rate musician from Vancouver, and it turns out there were more than a few desperate people happy to see him dead, including the accused couple. Hunter has to use all his investigative skills to uncover the truth.Hunter’s ex-wife maintains that by taking to the highway Hunter is running away from his past, but he believes that the solitude of days on the road is helping him to heal from guilt over the failure of his marriage and the suicide of his best friend. Tangled relationships and multiple suspects emerge throughout the novel, as Hunter butts heads with more than one officer of the law to solve the crime”………… Amazon Books

Sea to Sky – “ During what was supposed to be a few days of skiing at the Whistler Mountain resort with an attractive female acquaintance, former homicide detective Hunter Rayne finds himself the prime suspect in the RCMP’s hunt for “The Chairlift Killer”. Hunter has no choice but to get involved in the investigation in order to clear his name.Scheduled to haul a load of freight to Northern California, trucker Hunter calls up his old friend, biker Dan Sorenson, to take his place behind the wheel. What connects the badass biker from Yreka, California to the most prolific female serial killer in US history? And what happens when dispatcher El Watson ignores Hunter’s warning and sends the biker on a search for clues to the motive behind the murder? In the midst of the investigation, Hunter’s life gets complicated when the progress of his new relationship is hampered by the appearance of a woman from his troubled past. ………. Amazon Books

Sundown on Top of World – ” Former homicide investigator Hunter Rayne follows the white lines north on the Alaska Highway, but a truck breakdown forces him to take an unscheduled stop in Whitehorse, Yukon, where he started his career as a rookie cop. While his Freightliner is awaiting repairs, Hunter takes a side trip to bush Alaska where a chance meeting with a young Alaskan woman reawakens his interest in a baffling cold case. A reclusive trapper and his young girlfriend disappeared from a bloody cabin in 1972, leaving their sled dogs chained outside. Riddles from the past coupled with a recent murder find Hunter back in investigative mode with the blessings of Whitehorse RCMP boss Bartholomew Sam, son of a shaman and Hunter’s old friend. He finds himself searching the banks of the mighty Yukon River for a tough old bush woman who may hold the key to more than one bloody death. It’s a vivid reminder that the breathtaking beauty of the northern wilderness camouflages its brutal indifference to human life. What readers are saying about ‘Sundown on Top of the World’ and the Hunter Rayne Highway Mysteries: “Very good continuation of a strong series, and the best so far.” “I have read and enjoyed all of the Hunter Rayne series. This is the best one to date with more intriguing characters and lots of action” ………. Amazon Books

White Liners – “Love a good mystery? Three short stories introduce the three main characters from R.E. Donald’s Highway Mysteries series, traditional mysteries featuring Hunter Rayne, a former homicide detective turned long haul truck driver. His boss is Elspeth Watson, also known to her drivers as Big Mother Trucker. In spite of being a woman in a man’s world, she has no trouble keeping her drivers in line. Hunter also has a friend and sometime co-driver named Dan Sorenson. He’s a garrulous biker who sometimes has difficulty with impulse control. Meet these three characters for free (in Kindle eBooks) and if you like spending time with them, you might just have found yourself a favorite new mystery series.” ………. Amazon Books

Yellowhead Blues – “Just west of the Rocky Mountains, a frightened horse with a bloody saddle is found running loose on the Yellowhead highway. Former RCMP investigator Hunter Rayne is on the road in his eighteen-wheeler when he’s flagged down to help calm the horse and find its missing rider. The horse with the bloody saddle leads Hunter and a good-natured French Canadian cowboy into a complicated murder mystery. The police are none too happy with his interference, but Hunter strongly believes the RCMP has arrested the wrong man and sets out to uncover who stood to gain from the death of a wealthy ranch owner. His belief in the suspect’s innocence is shared by a rookie female RCMP constable who joins him in the search for the truth. She befriends the dead man’s young fiancé in an effort to get answers, and discovers that the vulnerable Texas beauty is not who the victim’s family believes her to be. This is the fifth novel in a unique mystery series set on the highways of North America.What readers are saying about the Highway Mysteries:“Love the author’s books. Excellent characters and settings. She is now on my short list of current favorite authors.” “This series is beautifully researched, vividly written, and always captivating. It respects the nobility which resides in everyone while portraying some unforgettable characters.”“… great writing, excellent pacing that sucks you in right away and makes you forget about the world around you, characters you like and who talk and act the way real people do, set in a place that makes it feel like an adventure, and best of all– a wicked smart plot.“I love the way the main character, Hunter Rayne, thinks, interacts with people, and in general would put him into the lofty echelons with Adam Dalgliesh, Morse and the Hon. Det Lynley. Great and satisfying series.“ Hunter is the man. Donald has written a super story that would make a good movie. I think we have another Harry Bosch character.” …….. Amazon Books

Ruth lives on a ranch in Lone Butte, BC, where she and Gilbert Roy (her partner) enjoy their Canadian Horses and other assorted animals.

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We, British Columbians  that is, have a knee jerk mental response to think of other places and situations in the wider world as “Exotic”. Yet when we realistically look around at our immediate environment we are actually the  “Exotic”. It is not some far off land. It’s right here. Just take a look at the scenery outside our window. Snow capped mountains and glaciers; forests as far as the eye can see; deer and elk in the front yard; cougars, black bear, mountain goats etc just down the road. All of this populated by citizens as varied and exotic as anywhere else in the world.  Each morning I look out the window and I say to myself “another rotten day in paradise”. So when I pick up a novel, or in this case a series of novels that celebrates the “exotic” of my day to day world I am entranced. And when they are just good reads to boot then I only think it is fair to spread the news far and wide. This series of novels may not be monumental literature but they are good reads so go ahead and visit our “Exotic” world. So treat yourself, pick up one up today.

Also, do not let your opinion of truckers be colored by the political nonsense of recent days in Ottawa. That was an aberration and has little to do with the day to day life of your average trucker.

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