comment 0
Double
Esoterica, Magic and The Occult
Special Bonus episode! From the Southwest Conference for American Popular Culture, The Agency presents a feature interview with George Sieg, a panel leader at the Conference, all about the study of Esoterica, Magic and The Occult.
You can listen to the episode here, or find us on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify or TuneIn.
After the Snowstorm
Garden Tour Planning
Here in Long Branch, a community tucked into the very southwest corner of the amalgamated Toronto, we have been putting on a huge and fabulous garden tour each June.
Today snow has started, the beginning of what forecasters have promised will be quite a snowstorm. It seems like an odd time to be thinking about gardening, but one thing we’ve learned is a successful garden tour requires careful planning.
There are a lot of things to consider, from funding to speakers, recruiting new gardeners, publicity, website, signs and more. February turns out to be a key time to make decisions. Planning is done by holding a few meetings beginning in the fall. We lay out all the tasks that have to be accomplished and volunteers make it all happen. Tonight we’ll be trundling out in the snow to the home of one of our gardeners to go through a busy agenda and get one step closer to a successful tour.
Everything is decided by consensus at the meetings. It isn’t necessary for participants to take part in the planning, but having a core group of people willing to come out and join in discussions and take on various tasks is what makes it all happen.
What is Fashion Activism?
Agent Candy Minx is in Albuquerque NM to deliver a paper at the Southwest Conference for American Popular Culture. On today’s episode we talk about Candy and Stagg’s visit to Sky City; we say goodbye to novelist Charles Portis; and we speak with fashion activist Abigail Roush, also in Albuquerque for the Conference.
You can listen to Fashion Activism here or find us at iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify and TuneIn.
Thank you to all the listeners who have taken the time to email us and comment on our Facebook posts as well. We’d also like to thank our patrons. If you would like to become a member of The Agency community by supporting this effort financially, please visit our Patreon page.
After talking about novelist Charles Portis on today’s episode, I’ve updated The Agency Reading List to include his books, Norwood, True Grit and Dog of the South.
What a way to go
“Mad Mike” Hughes is dead. He launched himself skyward in a steam-powered rocket yesterday in an effort to prove to himself that the earth is flat. He had to see for himself. Most of the rest of us have accepted that we live on a sphere-shaped planet which orbits the sun. We’ve seen lunar eclipses. We’ve watched ships seemingly sink out of sight on the horizon. We’ve taken elevators to the top of high buildings and noticed we can see further into the distance. I’ve just taken an airplane through many timezones and am experiencing jet-lag as a result.
Tragically, none of this was good enough for Mad Mike. Unfortunately, as stubborn as he was, he wasn’t capable of constructing a rocket which would return him safely to terra firma. Maybe he had no intention of coming home to the uncertainty of life on Earth. Likely, he was knocked unconscious on lift-off, and never got to see for himself how sadly wrong he really was.
New Tim Noonan Paintings
Our old friend Tim Noonan has an exhibition on right now at Yumart Gallery at 401 Richmond. I was unable to attend the opening event as I was in Hanoi, so I trundled down to see Tim’s new paintings today.
Tim has produced another high-energy, high-chroma set of paintings. From the gallery website: “My current exhibition consists of abstract paintings inspired by the city, gardens and landscape. I have experimented with thickness and viscosity by utilizing brushes, palette knives, scraping and squeezed from the tube techniques to create visually dense surfaces. The balanced contrasts, atmospheres and moods are energized by my explorations of colour, shapes, lines and a vigorous paint application.”
This time around, Tim has also been working with oil paints on some of these canvases as well as the acrylics he has been painting with as long as I’ve known him. I see this exhibition as one brimming with positive painterly energy.
The show is on for another week. If you’re in the Spadina and Richmond area of Toronto, stop by Yumart at 401 Richmond for a look.
Home, jet lag, and unexpected poems
As those readers who have followed my recent posts know, I had a great time hanging out in Hanoi, Vietnam. Of course, traveling on my own, I missed Sheila and our wacky menagerie of dogs and cats. I arrived home yesterday evening after a short flight to Taipei from Hanoi, and a long one from Taipei home. Fortunately, I was able to saw some wood on the flight home, and was more or less coherent when Sheila picked me up at the airport.
I stayed up for a while, my body unsure if it was supposed to be night or day, but finally I did go to bed and slept well. I’m hoping jet lag will be minor this time around. I’m writing this Thursday early afternoon, and while I do feel generally tired, not nearly so rocky as 2 years ago when Sheila and I returned from Asia.
Waiting for me beside the computer was a single piece of mail. Fabulous! – it didn’t look like a bill and I love mail. I opened it up to find the latest collection of poems by my friend Dr. K. Syinide, entitled, The Psalms of Poverty.
Dr. K’s poems resonate with me. Those of you who listen to the Agency Podcast heard Candy and I read a few of his works aloud during one of our recent episodes.
Here is one of Dr. K. Syinide’s poems from his latest collection:
STATIC WORKLOAD
out in the shed
where they keep the beer bottles
quart upon quart
of nothingness,
where the star faced mole lives
this is where we dream
lunar rakes, flowing guides
to oval eyed flamingo type
franchise rare infants
asserting their subtle tea time comments
concerning
the evangelization of a fluid workload
executing feeling in regards
to the pedagogy surrounding
voluntary serfdom,
sacrificial obligations…
will there ever be a remedy
for this feverishly think skin?
as the mole opens its head
to those transmissions
from the intuisphere
all communication abruptly stops
for once again
we have a problem
with the sensitivity readers
and all modes of emotional labour
becomes static
If you are interested in reading more of Dr. K. Syinide’s poems, I encourage you to contact him at:
SLAUGHTERHOUSE CONCEPTS
PO Box 98022
970 Queen St. East
Toronto, ON
M4M 1J0
Charles Portis RIP
Charles Portis died while I was off enjoying a trip to Hanoi, Vietnam.
A few years ago, I stumbled upon a book called Dog of the South by Mr.Portis. It’s about a guy named Ray, a guy on a mission. His wife Norma ran off with Dupree, her ex-husband. They’ve got Ray’s car and his credit cars. Ray went after them and took me with him. I was pretty much hooked.
Charles Portis has been called America’s least-known great writer. Even if you haven’t read any of his novels, you’ve likely seen one of the two versions of the film, True Grit, based on his novel of the same title. If you haven’t read his books, this is a good time to start. I’ve read a few but not all. Note to self: read the rest of them.
Read the NY Times obit here.
Living Donor – 6 years strong
Tuffy P here- sending prayers /good wishes to my liver sister and her family – 6 years since the surgery – thankful for the tremendous care I received from my Doctors and nurses, my husband, family and friends – all special angels by my side in hospital that kept me going.
Sign your organ donor card. Give the gift of time to someone in need.
27th Street 