what's so special about eastvan?

last week my friend and poet, sachiko murakami launched her new book of poetry with talon books, rebuild. the launch was in toronto where sachi is living now, but the book, i believe to be.... very vancouver. http://talonbooks.com/news/sachiko-murakami-s-launch-of-rebuild.  last year sachi asked some of her poet friends (myself included) to translate a poem she wrote on vancouver specials, as part of a project associated with her forthcoming book. if you are from vancouver you know exactly what a vancouver special is, but for all those transplants and other folks out there, a vancouver special is a type of house that was built in mass numbers from approximately 1965-1985. they were and are seen by some as ugly, but those in vancity have now embraced this house and tried to funkify or even upscale it.  i believe they are loved by many in my generation right now, like much of the 'retro'  80's style.  here are some cool links to check out the vancouver special,  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver_Special  http://www.vancouverspecial.com/ .  there is even a cool design store on main st. in vancouver with the namesake "vancouver special" http://www.vanspecial.com/.  my partner, who is an architect and builder really enjoys this "vancouver special" store; his opinion on the actual vancouver specials.... he believes when they were built they utilized space efficiently and thinks they probably have 'good bones', but aesthetically speaking, they don't appeal to his design sense; however, he thinks it would be a lot of fun to renovate one.

A recently renovated vancouver special in my hood

in regards to my poetry translation of sachi's vancouver special, somehow mine became very 'east vancouver'.  check-out my poem and translations of it on the project re-build website  http://www.projectrebuild.ca/ , you click on the little vancouver special house and a poet's name will pop-up and then you can read the poem. you are also able to renovate or translate these translations on the website . it is true there are more vancouver specials in east van, but other east van elements  popped up in my poem, and i guess because... this is my neighbourhood and where i feel truly most at home in this city. i have and may in the future, live in other vancouver neighbourhoods, but eastvan feels like it fits me most, my artsy, subversive, inclusive, community feelin' ways.  on that note, i thought i would add another poem to the mix about eastvan, it may come across as sentimental, but that's me i guess...what can i say, i love my hood.

east vancouver special

bike polo parties

caution crochet

moose walking underneath window ledges

wood shavings left on the sidewalk

#20 transit therapy

dyke marches, bike marches and

midnight marching bands

saxophone serenades 

accordions at the liquor store and

guitar parks

children carried close

to the heart

walking down streets 

wearing p.j's in the middle 

of the day 

jesus and his disciples' fashion shows

walking to 

the beat of many drums

a black dog, a rio and a

very wise hall

pink volkswagon vans 

the 'east' van

chili trucks

crazy cats

coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee

a lake right in the middle

plums falling in backyards

earth school

raised vegetable beds and

community plots and corners and 

every available space to

plant

the light 

on the hill 

at the corner of 

clark and east 6th ave

i've heard they even scrawl this 

on burning man bathroom walls

pink houses

yellow houses

cottages

and vancouver specials

with lion statues out front

april martin-september 2011

recent yarnbomb at the bike polo court: knitting contribution, karen martin, photo by holly hames

caution crochet by chacha

my friend celeste's bird yarnbomb; she was here from mexico for the summer she left her mark in the lovely park

april showers and foolish flowers

as my namesake month comes to an end i am reflecting upon....spring, and if it will ever really arrive.

 i've heard spring is being hampered by a la nina year. during a period of la niña, the sea surface temperature across the equatorial eastern central pacific ocean will be lower than normal by 3–5 °C. this translates into....brrr.... cold and has us throwing up our hands questioning "is spring really here?" the plethora of cherry blossoms blooming in the city does fool us into thinking spring is indeed here, however,  this april i was still wearing a scarf and a toque most days.

the cold april weather inspired me to continue knitting..... 

on the eve of april 1st i thought it would be fun to adorn my neighbourhood with some yarnbombing; a tribute to the day of fools, in honor of spring and homage to the month whose name i bear.  but the joke was on me, as it began to rain that day and did straight for two days after, but as they say....."april showers bring may flowers". this proverb has been traced back to about 1557. first attested in the united states in 'colonial american poetry:

"sweet april showers

do spring may flowers"

thomas tusser, a hundred good points of husbandry, april husbandry

From "Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings" by Gregory Y. Titelman (Random House, New York, 1996).

 in many parts of the world april does indeed bring rains to help encourage those blooms and plants emerging from the soil, but there isn't anything written about april sweaters.  i know as a resident of the west coast of canada i shouldn't complain, as many other parts of the country actually still receive snow in april.  however, i am used to donning a spring dress in april rather than a thick sweater and tights.  my recent obsession with knitting and the crisp april weather inspired me to knit more cherry blossoms for those trees pushing themselves to bloom, as well as little sweaters to keep those daffodils and tulips warm.  i felt sorry for these flowers who were probably thinking they were foolish to emerge from the ground.

this one i did in downtown vancouver right in the middle of the  fashion district, the girls in the window were looking out at me puzzled as i knit on this little daffodil sweater

we are now on the door step of may; belatane according to the celts.

this translates as "bright fires", lets hope the bright fires of the sun decide to bestow warmth upon us this month!

grandmother university

today marks the 100th anniversary of international women's day. on this significant day i had the privilege to participate in an aboriginal women's conference. the theme was... building success through education and wellness.  i had the opportunity to listen to well known aboriginal leader margaret harris, who is a respected cree elder from northern manitoba who has lived in prince rupert and vancouver throughout her adult life. starting in prince rupert she founded the we yah hani nah coastal first nations dance festival which was instrumental in reviving first nations culture in northwestern british columbia. she and other elders, who are part of grandparents group from raycam community centre came to share songs and dance.  i was inspired by grandma harris' (as she is known in her community) teachings today that emphasized the importance of connecting to cultural traditions and how they must be passed down among the generations.

warrior woman:  haida wolf and moon

she also emphasized that elders can learn from the vitality and creativity that is held by children.  this reminded me of why it is important that i share my sewing, and crafting skills i have learned from my mother and grandmothers with adaryn.  vedana shiva actualized this through her "grandmother university". she argues that passing down women's skills, which have often been labeled as craft, is an act of feminism "three centuries of marginalization of women's traditional knowledge needs to be corrected. The correction is vital for gender justice and women's empowerment and vital not only for women's equality, but for planetary health and humanity's survival" she argues for this last point because women's traditional knowledge is based on a holistic system, just like biodiversity. read more about the grandmother university at:   http://www.navdanya.org/diverse-women-for-diversity/grandmothers-university. 

on my way home after the conference i stopped by a used bookstore and as i usually say...' a book found me',  no idle hands: the social history of american knitting by anne l. macdonald. i thought this book was fitting regarding my renewed interest in the craft; i look forward to learning how women of the past used knitting to express themselves and mark their place in history... i hope it continues to feed my desire to keep this craft, which my fraternal grandmother loved to spend her time doing, alive.

cherry bombs

it feels like spring is about to bloom. today mr. and mrs. finch serenaded me as i surveyed my garden, making plans to get the fallow soil ready for bulbs.

yesterday crafters, knitters, authors and artists all gathered at the historic joy kogawa house to bestow some early spring in the form of wool and yarn on the cherry tree that inspired naomi's tree, read more at  http://www.fitzhenry.ca/detail.aspx?ID=10126.

the event was a partnership with the kogawa house and authors of yarn bombing: the art of crochet and knit graffiti, mandy moore and leanne prain http://yarnbombing.com/. it was a wonderful event of community art bringing together people from different areas of the city, diverse generations and backgrounds to string up hundreds and hundreds of knitted, crocheted and in my case, a felted cherry blossom, on the tree.  the local fire department even lent their ladder and i was told they were quite serious about where they were placing the woolly flowers. it was an inspiring experience to see all gathered lending their artistic hand to decorate the tree.

i felt especially inspired to attend this event, not only because of my love of cherry blossoms, spring, crafting and eagerness to learn how to knit again, but....also to re-connect with my childhood friend and author, leanne prain.  leanne and i grew-up on vancouver island playing together when our parents would have social gatherings; our parents being long time friends. both leanne and i had mothers who sewed; i think their interest in craft has seeped into our psyches and evolved our own passions.

unfortunately the knitting skills  i learned from my grandmother have been forgotten. i tried to learn crocheting from youtube before the knit in's but all i'm able to do at this point is make a chain, but that was all i needed on sunday to help string up the blossoms.  instead i made a needle felted a cherry blossom, which was welcomed.  i hope to re-learn my knitting skills with a stitch and bitch group so i can be ready to knit hats for next winter and maybe even yarnbomb my own yard this spring.

hearts, flowers and fairy tale moments: a valentine epilogue

my friends and family would confirm without a doubt, i am a hopeless romantic.  i blame it on my early exposure to movies like "gone with the wind".  but i think wistful thoughts of romance will always be a part of who i am.... as a girl they were carefully acted out with my barbies, of course.

i was watching one of those daytime television programs the other day, they were featuring a special relationship expert for valentines day. she talked of an interesting study about women's misconceptions and unrealistic expectations regarding romance.  the example she gave was one of a survey done on a group of women who watched the romantic comedy 'serendipity'.  these women were asked a week later about their belief in the idea 'there is only 'one' person out there for you'; they all agreed and said yes. they were compared with another group of women who had not watched the movie, these other women expressed they did not believe in 'fate', or the idea that there is only one true love out in the world for them. interesting..... life thus far has definitely taught me we can love in many forms; however, i have to admit this will not cause me to no longer believe in finding one spellbinding true love....i'm much too romantic to give up on this belief.

i think this is just part of the world vision i hold...  that our lives do indeed follow paths based on opportunity, chance and fate. when i met my true love it was serendipitous, so many circumstances presented themselves to us that caused us to stop in our tracks and give our heads a little shake. our story is one of magic. this leads me to the other point the relationship expert made.... life is not a romantic comedy or jane austen novel, but we can relish in those fairy tale moments when they happen, like when my love and i were dancing our toes off the other night, or when i opened up a box beautifully embellished with birds and flowers to reveal a turquoise raw silk cheongsam; a family heirloom..... or the look on ed's face when i gave him my carefully stitched valentine.  these enchanting little flashes, like dreams or tiny films in our minds are ones we can return to when we hear a familiar tune, catch a wift of a particular aroma, or brush our hand across an acquainted piece of fabric.

cheongsam

well, today is officially the start of the new year....because my spouse is chinese and i hold to the traditions of jewish and celtic calendars the lunar new year represents more significance in our household. in chinese culture this is the year of the metal rabbit. the rabbit year is to be one of peace, calm and love. metal in chinese philosophy is associated with the planet venus, intuition and yin energy; yin energy is marked by sensitivity and a readiness to receive. it is  a very quiet symbol, linked to thoughtfulness, resting. according to feng shui it is about looking west, round shapes and the colour purple (this may explain my fascination with this colour recently).  overall, the bunny year is one i feel very ready to hop into.

whenever this time of year comes i reflect on my beautiful chinese 'long dress' ed gave me when we had our first lunar new year together....the cheongsam.  I had always loved the cheongsam, so elegant and classic. the cheongsam's history is one from shanghai during the 1920's where women, in so many words... wanted to look more chic.  some of my favorite images of the cheongsam are the old chinese advertisements of the 1930's; paintings of women so delicately portrayed, known as shanghai ladies.  in the early decades of the 20th century, advertising came to china. beginning mostly with foreign companies that wished to sell their products more effectively in china, advertising posters became a fad among many corporations. these posters were usually produced by in-house art departments and given away free as calendars or wall hangings to clients around chinese new year. (fr. squidoo.com)  reproductions of these are easily found in china town shops today.

the other images of the cheongsam that have also inspired me came from watching wong-kar-wai's film in the mood for love and the portrayal of hong kong during the 1960's. these cheongsams are accentuated so beautifully in his film by his choice of colour pallet, sets and use of lighting in the cinematography. 

adaryn received a new fuscia cheongsam this year. the original one ed gave me is a more non-traditional blue colour but with lucky gold and red.

this year my modern ways have lead me to a velvet shorter version (though red) found at a vintage shop. i hope it will bring me luck as i wear it to welcome the year of the rabbit.

gong shi gong shi.

an interesting link with photos and uses of the cheongsam
www.squidoo.com/shanghai-lady-poster

history of the cheongsam
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheongsam

new moon

it seems appropriate that i would be entering my moon time on the new moon; a time to reflect, shed away the old and start new projects.

i always think of the book the red tent by anita diamant when my moon time arrives....this book is a favourite and i even gave a copy to my cousin for her bat mitzvah this last summer; seemed an appropriate gift to give a younger cousin as she enters 'womanhood'. many see this book as the old testament written from a woman's perspective, but what i loved about it was the celebration and ritual of what it means to be a woman regarding menstruation, birth and really bonding through gathering.  i wish it was a part of modern society's mores that women could take time off to work to rest, take care of body, mind and spirit during moon time; gather the important women around her so they may impart their wisdom and allow hers to open.  in aboriginal culture women are not allowed to take part in smudges or sweats because she is seen as 'too powerful' during her moon time.  but alas, our modern culture sees taking time away for this as a weakness, worrying that we may be viewed as frail in comparison to men. these days when a woman enters her moon time she is lucky if she can squeeze in an extra hour of sleep with all the demands and pressures put on her.  so as i mourn the loss of these rituals no longer integrated into our daily lives, i carve out time in my life to pitch the canopy of my own red tent.... baths with clary sage and geranium, herbal teas, chocolate, as much sleep as i can fit in, intimate talks with my women friends and lots of time to reflect... think about how i can be wiser and more powerful as i move through life.

"finally, she spoke with careful words about the moon. she told me how much she loved the white light, and how she spoke to the moon and called her by name every month. Leah said the moon was the only face of the goddess that seemed open to her because of the way the moon called forth the filling and emptying of her body. "my sister is wise" said zilpah. "she stopped and faced me and took both my hands in hers and asked, 'are you ready to swallow the moon at last?'

excerpt from the red tent by anita diamant
http://www.anitadiamant.com/theredtent.asp