Thursday 20 November 2014

Photography with a side of text



https://www.flickr.com/groups/essexmasque/


My original idea was to hunt down all the photographers in Windsor / Essex contributing to Flickr who were also providing some sort of written context of the shot, and then jam them all (with their permission of course) into a Flickr group. There are a few of course, and I also thought I could encourage those who were not doing it to start. This is a bit harder, but still possible.

Of course the audience size is a huge challenge, and really you need some momentum to get people to join anyway. Would you rather join a group that had three members, or three hundred?
This seemed a bit silly after a little while. I started "Pictures with a Story" in January of 2014 and was lucky enough to get a great shot of the huge stone cross on Windsor's riverside as the foreground, and the Ambassador Bridge as a background, with a great story of being harrassed about taking pictures of the bridge that accompanied it. I got this, but little else. The low numbers and global feel of Flickr inspired me to look further afield, digitally speaking, for those who like to write about the work that they do.
Since those humble beginnings I continue to see humble numbers and contributions, but am thankful for each of the 151 photographers and storytellers who contribute to the group, and each of the 1300 photographs and stories that have been shared.
There are stories about camera angles and lighting techniques, stories about timers and running across subway platforms to get the self-portrait, stories about African fauna and Canadian flora, stories about work getting in the way of demanding compositions and road trips, stories from South Africa and Morocco and Windsor and Toronto and ... well you get the picture (pun intended).
And people have been incredibly appreciative of the idea behind the group. Not all have thanked me for the invitation and starting up the group, but those who have say that they are never sure whether people are reading their written work, or whether they care. The opportunity to take a little more time to look at a photograph, to learn more about it, and to at least get a brief, paragraph experience of a "stranger's" life may only be appreciated by a small minority of Flickr users - as compared to a majority of flashing, moving awards, and favourite / view hoarding - it is nice to provide a small niche of storytelling in this vast photograph album.
You can consider this post to be an invitation as well. Feel free to visit the site, or any of my other social media presences where you can share your stories and photographs and whatever else, whether you be Windsorite or any other '-ite' '-an' '-er' you may happen to be.
Twitter: @EssexMasque
Facebook: www.facebook.com/essex.masque
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/146120-the-essex-masque-an-anecdotal-journey-through-windsor---essex

Tuesday 18 November 2014

(One of) My Favourite Author(s) just won the Governor General's Award






Though I try to focus on authors from Windsor - Essex on this blog, I really wanted to bring attention to the latest winner of the Governor General's Award. I was not born and raised in Windsor. That happened in Sarnia, ON, but I have also been "raised" all over Southern Ontario (as well as in Korea for one magical year). For a time I lived in Guelph, ON, which is where I ended up taking my Master's Degree in English Literature. The highlight of that time in my life, beyond the hours and hours of twitching eyes and cramping hands, was a novel writing course I took with Thomas King. I couldn't believe my luck as I had already fallen in love with his writing. Being able to learn from him and get feedback on my writing from this master storyteller has made an impression on me that will never disappear.


This is a somewhat roundabout, subjective way of saying, if you have never read anything by Thomas King you should do so now. While I love his non-fiction, if you experience him in any way, read his fiction. "One Good Story That One" (a collection of short stories) and "Green Grass Running Water" would be at the top of my recommendations.

Sadly I have not had the opportunity to read his winning novel yet. I will be as soon as possible.
Here is the link for the CBC article on this year's Governor General's Award:

http://www.cbc.ca/books/2014/11/the-2014-governor-generals-literary-award-winners.html

Let me know what you think!

Thursday 13 November 2014

(Amateur) Book Review #3 - Ghost Road and other forgotten stories of Windsor by Marty Gervais



I never expected, the first day I ever stepped foot in Windsor during the summer of ’09 - at the tail end of The Strike - that I would stay. The old advertisements in the vacant shop windows were sun bleached and dust coated. The garbage bins were overflowing, and the parks tangled and overgrown.
Can I spend two years here at the University, let alone stay?

But stay I did. I have lived all over Southern Ontario, as well as overseas, and yet Windsor – Essex is where I have settled and put down roots. Part of that is because Windsor – Essex has something that I appreciate, a sort of understated, humble magic that can be easily overlooked, and yet is just as present below the surface of things.

Marty Gervais captures this in “Ghost Road and other forgotten stories of Windsor,” an excellent collection of stories and photographs that spans our history from the 18th Century to 1980 and “Beyond.” No matter how accomplished the person, there is a celebration that their intentions were not necessarily to be a famous Baseball Player or Photographer, but rather people in a community who shares their talents and successes with the people who they love. 

Part of the appeal of Windsor – Essex for me is that the magic of our history takes some digging to find, that it isn’t necessarily thrown in our faces. I know this is true, in part, with everywhere I have lived. On a subjective level, however, I believe that it is more characteristic of Windsor – Essex.

Mr. Gervais has done some of the work for us, and I am sure you will thank him for it when you read this book. The true success of this book is what it does for the reader. Namely, it makes you stop and think as you walk down that old familiar road, to look a little more carefully when you are driving past fields in the county, or even as you are going through the stuff packed away in boxes in your basement or attic, and to really think there is history and magic here in the mundane. There are stories in the bricks and mortar of the towns and streets and houses in which we live. It just takes a little work to find them, but it is definitely worth the effort.

Do you have any stories about Windsor – Essex that you want to share, or ones that Mr. Gervais has made you think of after reading Ghost Road?

Tuesday 11 November 2014

(Amateur) Book Review #2 - The River: A Memoir of Life in the Border Cities by Paul Vasey

Ready yourself for another amateur review. 

If you are looking for a very linear, objective history of Windsor – Detroit, I still want you to read The River – even though it is neither of these things. Our experience of time is not linear. Whenever I think of that idea it brings to mind something  John Edgar Wideman, author of Philiadelphia Fire, said in an interview I watched in my English Literature days. This is beyond paraphrasing and comes straight from my memory, but the image has always stuck with me. Wideman described the perception of time as being in the middle of a lake, with snapshots and other memories floating around us and bumping into us as we live our lives. I can imagine the same thing in Paul Vasey’s The River. I could just imagine, as I read it, drifting down the river and bumping into his old memories of being a young journalist in Windsor, of getting caught in the calm spots of the islands dotting the waters of Detroit and being surrounded by snapshots of the misfits and “larger than life” personalities that come alive to us through Vasey’s words. This is a people’s history, with a touch of official history, of the richness of Windsor – Essex. Just as you could expect from being surrounded by snapshots of these retired boxers, residents of a lost riverfront village, and “repeat offenders,” the history drifts towards us and then away, then back to us again. Just as they came in and out of Vasey’s life, so do they come into The River’s narrative, leave again, only to return.  Definitely worth the read, especially if you want to experience the often overlooked magic of Windsor – Essex.
 
Give it a read and let me know what you think.

Tuesday 4 November 2014

(Amateur) Book Review #1 - She Dreamed of Dragons by Elizabeth J. M. Walker




A couple of grains of salt before carrying on with this review (also maybe an indirect Spoiler Warning):

-          - I do not often read YA fantasy novels, but have been known to
-          - My “three stars” rating for this book is meant to show that I think the author is on track, but has not blown me away (4 stars), or has ranked up with my favourite books (5 stars)
-          - My review is of course subjective, but also comes from years of book-nerdiness and some training on fiction writing
-        -  I am not a book critic! But I can be (constructively) critical of literature nonetheless.

She Dreamed of Dragons really is well done, especially for a first novel. Many of the early novels and self-published stories I have read – due in part to my relatively recent acquisition of an E-reader – have been bitter disappointments: no editing to speak of; not well composed; cheesy to the extreme. I would never fault anyone for the attempt, but it also doesn’t stop me from dropping the E-reader (on some cushy surface) and never, ever reading anything from that author again. That is definitely not the case with Elizabeth J. M. Walker’s world of mages, witches, dragons, and baked delicacy obsessed characters. The story is well constructed, obviously edited (thank you Elizabeth), and imaginative. I am always attracted to the misfits and marginalized people of literature, and am happy that the author chose to use them as the protagonists of the story. There is a great conspiracy and twist in the narrative that provides a good deal of complexity to the reading experience.

However, this does lead into my one of my criticisms (I still shudder at this word). Considering the complexity of the narrative, and the conspiracies that both help and hinder the main character, there was a lot more potential to bring it into the narrative from a very early stage. I think I felt too comfortable throughout that things would turn out for the good. When things started to go South by the crisis point, orchestrated by the antagonist, it was almost a surprise and did not make logical sense given all the previous successes of the protagonist. Maybe I wanted things a little more dire at this point, and for there to be more significant challenges leading up to it.

This leads to my second thought. While I know the end should ramp up in pace, the triumph of the main character seemed rushed and almost separate from the previous efforts of the characters. There was a good pace throughout, and then suddenly the crisis, and then suddenly the end of the crisis with barely a moment to catch my breath. This is of course highly subjective, but figure I would make the suggestion anyway.

I will agree with another review as well. This book had a younger feel than I expected. This may have had something to do with the comfort I felt throughout. Ultimately though, I would definitely recommend the read, and not just because the author is a fellow Windsorite / Essex County resident. It would be especially good for “younger” young adults looking for a fun adventure with a little romance thrown in. I look forward to reading more stories from Elizabeth.