Alan Berger’s guide to urban wastelands DROSSCAPE has been reviewed by Erick Villagomez for Vancouver’s re:place Magazine:
Drosscape is a very important book - especially given the uncommon and increasingly relevant nature of the subject discussed. It is must-read for anybody seeking to understand the nature of residual space within the contemporary urban landscape and the processes that lead to their creation. After all, only through understanding can we attempt to develop relevant solutions.
Pages Books and Magazines in Toronto has posted my new author Q & A with writer and designer Ellen Lupton, the author, co-author or editor of SKIN: SURFACE, SUBSTANCE + DESIGN; THINKING WITH TYPE; D.I.Y.: DESIGN IT YOURSELF; D.I.Y. KIDS; and most recently GRAPHIC DESIGN: THE NEW BASICS. In the Q & A, Ellen I discuss design, typography, post-modernism, and the movie Helvetica amongst other things:
Anyone who wants to engage with typography should immerse themselves in some typographic history. If you are a designer, poet, writer, indie filmmaker, or underground craftista, it’s good to know where your fonts come from. The movie Helvetica did a fantastic job showing the origins of one particular font; more significantly, the film showed how the meaning of the font has changed from generation to generation.
Click here for the Pages Q & A with Ellen Lupton
Click here for Ellen Lupton’s webpage
Click here for Ellen’s blog Design Your Life
(Photo credit: Jason Knauer)
So you’re going to see the latest movie Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull movie and hope one day to become Dr. Jones. Well, we have the book for you. The Indiana Jones Handbook: The Complete Adventurer’s Guide written by Denise Kiernan and Joseph D’Agnese
Raiders of the Lost Ark! Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom! Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade! These are three of the biggest blockbusters of all time. Now George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford are teaming up for Indiana Jones 4—due in theatres today!!
The Indiana Jones Handbook follows in the grand tradition of The Batman Handbook, The Superman Handbook and The Spider-Man Handbook—but with an all-new four-colour format that highlights some of the greatest moments in the films. Readers will learn everything a modern archaeologist needs to know, including:
- How to ride an elephant
- How to identify booby traps
- How to fend off a gang of swordsmen
- How to blend into foreign cultures
- How to avoid the wrath of God
- And much, much more!
With the paperback edition of THE REPUBLIC OF PIRATES hitting the shelves this week, it seems only fair to tell those people who can’t get enough of eye-patches and peg-legs that author Colin Woodard is writing a blog to supplement his book on the Caribbean pirates.
Colin’s latest research solves one of the nagging mysteries of Blackbeard’s infamous career!
Here’s part two of our Q & A with wine writer Alice Feiring…
What inspired you to become a writer?
Like dancing, writing was what I did. I always wrote. First novel at 7 (all three pages of it.) It is more that after I got my masters degree I had the courage to go for it. I know this will sound absurd but it never occurred to me I could actually be a writer. It seemed way too impossible.
If you could give one piece of advice to aspiring writers (especially wine writers!), what would it be?
Learn how to tell when you should heed advice or ignore it. That’s tricky, but important if you’re ever going to develop a voice for yourself.
Do you have a particular ritual which you adhere to when you’re writing?
I don’t leave the house before I get at least 1000 words down. If that means I have to get up dawn, that’s what has to happen.
How do you relax when you’re not writing?
Hah! That’s funny. Me, relax? Dance class, contra-dancing, other dancing, biking. Reading has actually become a luxury.
What books are you reading at the moment and what made you pick them up?
Roth, My Life as a Man because it’s one that I’ve never read. I also just got Ancient Agriculture which is a translation of a 1500’s Spanish book on farming. I know. Odd mix. I’m also rereading Bukoswski’s Women.
Could you introduce an author you think people should read, and suggest a good book to start with?
That’s a hard one. Rosamond Lehmann, The Echoing Grove. Love those British Ladies. Then it comes down to favorite books from favorite authors, and those I read once a year: Letting Go and Sabbath’s Theater from Philip Roth. Shadows on the Hudson, I.B Singer and Hudson River Bracketed by Edith Wharton.
Will you be writing anything about Canadian wines any time soon?
I would love to. Just waiting for that assignment to roll in. I keep on hearing about the ones that don’t make it Stateside and am incredibly eager to discover them.
Thanks Alice!
THE BATTLE FOR WINE AND LOVE is available now.
The blurb to Alice Feiring’s wonderful new book, THE BATTLE FOR WINE AND LOVE, will tell you that she “is a James Beard Foundation Award-winning journalist whose blog, In Vino Veritas, was named one of the seven best by Food & Wine.”
The blurb also mentions that she was a wine and travel columnist for Time, and that she now writes for the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle and Gourmet, among many others.
All of which I believe is absolutely true. She is a wonderful writer.
However, the blurb doesn’t mention that Feiring is witty, irreverent, provocative and very, very passionate about her wine.
She was also gracious enough to supply her cheeky Canadian publicist (who shall remain nameless) with an impromptu wine recommendation for an unexpected dinner party last night. And who wouldn’t be charmed by that?
In THE BATTLE FOR WINE AND LOVE, Alice reveals just what goes in to an average bottle of wine (sawdust and oak chips anyone?) to score points with influential wine critics such as Robert Parker, and takes readers on a journey to find the self-confessed ‘Last of the Mohicans’: rebel winemakers who are making old-fashioned wines with new individuality and flair.
Alice lives in Manhattan, and we chatted over email.
What was the inspiration for THE BATTLE OF WINE AND LOVE?
I was so frustrated that getting a good glass of wine was so difficult. I was really frustrated that wines I loved were getting “modernized.” I felt like---there is another nail in that coffin. But the moment of inspiration was when I was coming back from Spain with Skinny, (chapter four) I was telling her how upset I was about Spanish wines at the tasting portion of Madrid Fusion and she said, that was it. I had to write this book. After she fell asleep listening to opera, I spent the next hour or two crying over another kind of lost love. When I landed at JFK I knit the two themes together.
What exactly is ‘Parkerization’?
(And if you could also explain the wonderful term “spoofulated” that would be great!)
I’m viewing Parkerization as the reduction of wines to suit one ‘mass’ palate. It is different than spoofulated. Quite. Spoof wines are tricked up with chemistry and process to look like the real thing, but it’s not.
How are the kinds of wine that Robert Parker rates highly different from the kinds of wine you prefer?
Of course there’s so overlap. For example, he and I both like Chave and Clape from the N. Rhone and Domaine Romanee Conti from Burgundy. But the wines that seem to get his highest accolades are massive with an overemphasis on fruit and wood.
What is it exactly that you look for in wine?
Kind of like love, when you see it you know it? But I do look for a sense of life and expression as well as good winemaking! Excellent wine comes in all weights as well as price points.
You often talk of a ‘sense of place’. Why is this important to wine?
Without it wine would be another beverage, a soft drink, something you could flick a switch and come out of a faucet. The place gives the wine the difference; the technology gives wine a sameness.
Why are terms like ‘natural’, ‘traditional’, ‘authentic’ so difficult with regard to wine production?
Because they are meaningless. There are no definitions. But I’m not sure there should be. There should be all sorts of wines, but one thing that I know, wines made as was made before technology should be taught as an alternative and not feared.
What’s the problem with using new technology in the wine-making process? Isn’t it introducing more consistency and reducing the risk of wine becoming vinegar?
If you view consistency as an ideal, there is nothing the matter with it. If you view wine as being a different being every year, and the best the winemaker can do, it is a problem. Every year I look forward to the winemakers I adore to see what they did. There is excitement. With controlling technology that is diminished.
Do you think there needs to be more transparency in the wine industry?
And yes, less marketing and more information, please!
Should wine makers include lists of ingredients and additives on their labels like food?
I recently got some samples from Oregon, Cooper Mountain that had ingredients, organic Grapes and So2. Because so few wineries can actually say that, I think it’s a great idea.
Researching the book, did you visit any vineyards or detect any trends that make you optimistic about the future?
Absolutely! There are plenty of them out there. True, mostly in France where there is a strong back to natural movement, but it is actually starting grassroots on this side of the Atlantic as well.
Read Part Two Tomorrow!
I hope all you moms out there had a lovely Mother’s day yesterday!
We’d also like to celebrate the moms-to-be - so we’ve partnered with our friends at Canadian Family magazine to bring you a special contest. Two contests, actually…
Contest #1:
Read and Roll!
Enter online for a chance to win a stroller full of books!
One grand-prize winner receives:
- Zooper “Everyday Jazz” stroller
- 30 books and board books for new parents and newborns
The “Read and Roll!” contest will run until June 30th on www.raincoast.com/baby/
Contest #2:
Read and Relax!
Visit a participating store to enter to win a “Parent’s Care Kit” prize-pack (1 winner per store). We know parents need pampering, too, so this is a collection of items for you to enjoy in your spare moments, however brief they may be!
Each “Parent’s Care Kit” contains:
- The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig
- Merle’s Door by Ted Kerasote
- Lavinia by Ursula K. LeGuin
- The Spanish Bow by Andromeda Romano-Lax
- Canadian Family magazine
- Body Shop gift pack
- Purdy’s chocolate bar
- Starbucks card
For a list of participating stores, visit www.raincoast.com/baby/.
Bonus Prize!
Keep an eye out for books stickered with a special offer from Raincoast and Canadian Family magazine: free with purchase of a specially stickered book, you will receive a complimentary copy of the magazine!
Find out more...
To find out more about some great books for newborns and new parents, plus info on the contests and a list of participating stores, please visit:
www.raincoast.com/baby/
Powell’s City of Books in Portland, Oregon have posted a wonderful video of author Ursula K. Le Guin reading from her fantastic new novel LAVINIA and answering questions from the audience about the book and her writing:
LAVINIA is Le Guin’s interpretation of the Virgil’s THE AENEID. It focuses on Lavinia, who appears in the poem, but never speaks.
Here’s what the reviewers are saying:
“Le Guin is famous for creating alternative worlds (as in Left Hand of Darkness), and she approaches Lavinia’s world, from which Western civilization took its course, as unique and strange as any fantasy. It’s a novel that deserves to be ranked with Robert Graves’s I, Claudius.”—Publishers’ Weekly (starred review)
“Le Guin has researched this ancient world assiduously, and her measured, understated prose captures with equal skill the permutations of established ritual and ceremony and the sensations of the battlefield ... Arguably her best novel, and an altogether worthy companion volume to one of the Western world’s greatest stories.“—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“[A]pproaching a new book by Le Guin is like discovering a new Rembrandt. In some ways, the quality of the work is irrelevant, as it’s sure to be declared a new masterpiece—which it will be by most standards. The only thing to do is to judge the work against its creator’s own rigorous standards. Even in comparison to the rest of Le Guin’s body of work, Lavinia stands very high.“—The Winnipeg Free Press
“In one of the more impressive displays of feminist reconstruction since Margaret Atwood wrested Penelope out of the hands of Homer, National Book Award-winner Le Guin has rewritten the last six books of Vergil’s epic poem to create a rich life of the mind for the Latin princess. Unlike Atwood’s “Penelopiad,” the novel, as Le Guin writes in an afterword, is a “love offering,” and she writes with great affection for both the poet and his hero.“—The Christian Science Monitor
“This is a powerful and rewarding novel, a intricately layered narrative that weaves many themes into its rich tapestry, and touches on subjects that remain urgent in our own time.“—The Globe and Mail
“Le Guin does a fantastic job of bringing a tertiary character to life… Trojan horses, Vergil’s The Aeneid, ancient Italy, prophecies and quick witted maidens: Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin offers a lot to like. I give it a 4 out of 5. High entertainment value.“—So Misguided
“Well-researched with epic battles and many interwoven threads, Le Guin has captured the spirit of Virgil’s work and presented it faithfully in her own measured, lyric prose. Le Guin’s Lavinia is a strong, fascinating woman, with a tale to rival any hero of old.”—Eclectic Closet
Dan Vyleta, the Edmonton-based author of the excellent thriller 
Raincoast podcasts are available from iTunes by searching for "Raincoast" or the RSS feed is available from Feedburner at 
Check out our NEWEST Podcast for Clancy with the Puck, a hilarious tale of hockey hubris.