December 23rd, 2007 writerspice
Yesterday, we had six foot snowbanks. Today, it’s pouring rain. On my first weekend of the two-week Christmas break I’m watching those grand piles of white stuff dwindle down to nothing while baking gluten-free shortbread and listening to Nat King Cole sing seasonal classics.
This weather is supposed to go on all day, long enough to erase any hope for a white Christmas. With the fall we’ve had – snow crazy enough to strand J. and I in Scarborough last weekend because our car couldn’t handle the two feet of unplowed snow blanketing the roads, for instance – everyone expected Santa wouldn’t have any trouble ‘dashing through the snow.’
Good joke, Global Warming.
If you’re the kind of person to say ‘rain, be damned!’, want to get back in the Christmas spirit, and are in Toronto, here’s your chance. CBC News at Six has posted a handy guide to over-the-top “holiday homes”, including address of residences from Burlington to downtown Toronto that are racking up their hydro bills for the sake of seasonal glitter (and, in some cases, charitable causes). Unknown Toronto also offers a few good suggestions for gazing at the annual glitz.
Rain on the windshield might blur the colours a bit, but it’s a good opportunity to actually earn that evening eggnog and rum.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Posted in Recommended, Seasons, Toronto | No Comments »
December 20th, 2007 writerspice
What to get for the nomad who has nothing? Here are a few items that he or she can easily slip in their backpack for a better life on the road.
Klean Kanteen: Hearing all the bad news about plastics lately? These stainless steel water bottles should be on everybody’s wish list.
LED Keychains: Tiny, wind-up LED lights on a keychain ring are perfect for digging through your backpack in the darkness of the hostel without disturbing all the other sleeping bodies. Wind for one minute, for five minutes of light.
This summer, in protest of the ballerina flat fad (can we say ‘lower back support?’), I bought a pair of orange casual shoes from El Naturalista and have worn them for several 12-hour press trip days without experiencing any foot fatigue. Coloured using natural dyes, the shoes also have soles made of recycled rubber and are the funkiest ones I own.
Soap Leaves: these thin sheafs of soap are enough to wash up before they melt away, eliminating the hassle of carrying around a gooey bar. Plus, the tiny size of the package means more room in a cosmetics bag and less hassle at security.
OHSO Travel Toothbrush: toothpaste is stored in its handle and a cap covers the bristles. Plus, it’s shiny and looks like it might be hiding a rocket launcher in its base.
These are, of course, just a few of many ideas. Travellers to exotic locales might appreciate compact hammocks, fold-away mosquito nets or bed-bug sheets, while any insightful traveller can always, always use a small journal for recording their trip’s intangible gifts.
Photo by Brungrrl
Posted in Recommended, Seasons | 1 Comment »
December 18th, 2007 writerspice
Travelling on my own in Argentina a few years back, I read about the ruins of San Jose de Lules, a Jesuit mission outside of the small city of Tucuman. There wasn’t much to do in Tucuman. I barely spoke Spanish and I’d already seen the sights of the town, so of course I decided to go. It seemed easy enough. Climb on the bus, get out at the chapel, wave down a bus going back when I wanted to return home. There was a museum there, my guidebook said, which in my mind meant people, especially since it was summer holidays. Mid-January; hot as blazes.
Let out on the dusty side of the road, I followed a quiet dirt path to the chapel. Nobody was there. This was okay by me, as it meant I could actually be alone for the first time in ages without having to hide away in my hotel room, buried in Dracula, the only English novel I’d been able to find.
But the lack of people meant the presence of something else.
Dogs.
They entered the chapel, their low growls resonating in the empty stone space. There were three of them. As I slowly backed up, they barked ferociously. When I was far enough away, I turned around and hustled back toward the road, their breath hot on my calves. When I got to the road, shaking, I discovered they had torn the leg of my cargo pants.
It was terrifying. Needless to say.
Once I returned home, for months afterward, I kept meaning to write to Lonely Planet, to tell them about this omission of information that could have cost me my life. But I didn’t ever get around to it, a fact that still makes me squirm.
This is what I thought about today when I read blogger and traveller Julie’s excellent post on Matador about the inadequacies of guidebooks and her reasons for not reading them. I still use guidebooks but I learned a big lesson in Argentina. Namely, they are not the authority on any given place.
It is always better to ask a local, especially when planning to head out, innocently enough, into open, empty, countryside with no idea exactly what you’ll find.
Photo by Ian Hsu
Posted in Contemplations, Issues, Recommended, World | 1 Comment »
December 13th, 2007 writerspice
Lately, I’ve been settling into another kind of place: made-up landscapes pieced together in my head and put on the page. I just finished a short story that unravels around and in an abandoned house perched beside a big lake. I grew up on the north shore of Lake Huron, where the horizon line is empty of anything but the slender, shimmering shapes of distant islands. That’s where the house is, a structure based on a few old farmhouses found and wandered through when I was a kid, but mostly made up.
The story I’ve gone on to involves a small town in New Mexico and a couple’s eye-opening journey across the canyon lands. It is very new and only just emerging, so that’s all I can say.
As I spend time in fictional places, I’ve been thinking a lot about travel writing and the process of reporting on actual locales. In this realm, there is the writing that offers a service, that more-or-less sells the location and offers ideas of what visitors can do while they’re there. But then there’s that other kind of travel writing. Creative non-fiction. Prose that brings to life landscape and the people that live there, that paints a picture, that draws a story-like description of some place that actually exists in some corner of the globe. The line is precarious. What is the difference, really, between fiction and fictionalizing?
A book I recently took out of the library – Fred Stenson’s Things Feigned and Imagined: The Craft in Fiction – says the difference is in the intent of the work. A colourful essay about a fascinating trip to Tahiti is true if it says it is. So are those tabloids claiming that twin aliens were born to some farmer’s 64-year-old wife. True, because they say they are.
This is interesting to me because it gets right at the root of story. Often we hear of taboos and cultural myths that hold incredible power in small villages disconnected from the modern world. They are true, for the people who live with them. And we all used to be like that. In fact, we all are like that, each of us carrying our own false beliefs. But these days if a writer uses fictional techniques to create a more engaging, more interesting myth, to draw his readers more deeply inside his truth, he faces public humiliation on international television. Strange.
I love tales of place and personal story told well. That’s one reason I read Worldhum more than any travel site that simply offers blow-by-blow accounts of we-went-there, we-did-this or go-there, do-this. It’s also why I’m moving over to writing fiction right now. As the outside world loses its colour and texture to one bland palate of white, I’m drawn inside to a rediscovery of all the places I’ve been. Some of the details are blurry, though. To fill in the gaps, I’m making stuff up.
Photo by Athena
Posted in Contemplations, Writing Life | No Comments »
December 10th, 2007 writerspice
The Festival of Lights is on right now in Niagara Falls and that’s where J. and I spent the weekend. The town sure has changed since we were kids. Back then, the two grand waterfalls and the amusement park atmosphere of Clifton Hill were the main draws. These days, the casino brings in countless visitors. As we took in the glittering light displays along the Niagara Parkway and wandered around during the day, we looked for signs of an even older Niagara Falls, one that drew 1950s honeymooners rather than visitors handing over coin at the casinos. This motel on Lundy’s Lane was one such sign: a perfect classic of kitsch.
Posted in Ontario, Pretty Pictures | No Comments »
December 6th, 2007 writerspice
A couple of odd bits of news from Miami, Florida popped into my in-box today, sent by TravelMole. Together, they summoned an image of that strange ocean-side world, so different from the wintry view out my window. How fun!
The first is a newly offered guarantee from Catalina Hotel & Beach Club. They’re promising a free indoor tanning session to any visiting tourist if it rains for more than two hours during “prime tanning hours.”
I’m sorry, but did you say prime tanning hours? Into my head popped an image of that cute little sun-bronzed Coppertop girl with the puppy dog pulling on her bathing suit, revealing a white bottom beneath. As in, uh, the 1980s. Forgive me, but I thought that decade was the last time anybody actually made an afternoon of lying under the sun.
But I suppose this is Miami Beach. And what do I know? I’ve only been there once, at the age of 13, in the backseat while my dad drove the family down the beach in our very uncool minivan. South Beach probably lay somewhere far to the south of us, but my sister and I were too busy looking for Sonny Crockett to care.
I wouldn’t mind going back – especially with all that Art Deco and Cuban flare. And with the hurricanes keeping their distance and winter continuing to pound the northern half of the continent, tourist season is looking up for Florida.
But for those who are about to make the ultimate trip, TravelMole and assorted media today reported on an interesting option.
In a sandy, barren area just off Miami, an artist-designed underwater city is being established by the Neptune Society. Set up to restore fish habitat and reestablish coral reef, the concrete lions, columns and other architectural features are also available as enclosed receptacles for anyone looking for a unique burial option for their ashes.
From guaranteed tanning to underwater burial in a recreated Atlantis. Fitting, in an odd sorta Florida way.
Photo by Mike Schinkel
Posted in Going Green, Just For Fun, United States | No Comments »
December 5th, 2007 writerspice
When I was a kid growing up in Northern Ontario, getting a Christmas tree often involved bumping down some icy back road, breaking trail into the forest and cutting one down. That might make some environmentalists cringe, but not as much as plastic. The verdict has long been out and it’s pretty clear. Buy real.
Plastic trees have a lot of strikes against them. They’re made from petroleum products, will never, ever decompose, are mass produced in what must be somewhat unsavoury conditions in overseas factories, use lots of fossil fuels just to get here and, simply, do not smell as nice.
Real trees, on the other hand, have more than just that bewitching aroma. They also provide oxygen, local jobs (five to six million are grown in Canada) and are biodegradable. In my town, discarded Christmas trees are mulched at the landfill, a product then sold back to gardeners in the warmer months.
Besides, getting a real tree can be a great reason for a family outing. And if you’re lucky enough to live in one of the regions now fully embraced by snow, the experience this year will be truly traditional. At tree farms around my area, the work horses won’t have to drag their jingling sleighs through the mud and that much-needed hot chocolate will steam in the crisp, cold air.
In Central Ontario, Drysdale’s, near Alliston, is the big draw, with 400 acres of balsam, pine, fir and spruce trees. With wagon rides, face painting and other activities, it’s so popular that Santa even drops by with the Mrs. on December weekends.
But there are lots of other tree farms to choose from. Close to Orillia, Gillespie U-Cut is down a rolling country road in rural Oro-Medonte while Hawkins Tree Farm (705-325-0277), near Casino Rama, sells Scotch Pine.
And for the ultimate in earth-friendly accessorizing in your living room, as Forest Ethics suggests, buy a potted tree that can be replanted later or purchase one from an organic farm that doesn’t use pesticides like Orchard Hill Farm in St. Thomas, Ontario.
Posted in Going Green, Seasons, Simcoe County | 3 Comments »
December 3rd, 2007 writerspice
Last year, my family went for a walk on Christmas Day. The grass was green. The sky was blue. Halfway down the road to the park, I took off my jacket. With predictions for the coldest winter in fifteen years, it’s pretty clear we won’t be doing that this year. “A good old fashioned Canadian winter,” is how one newscaster described what’s happening with the weather these days, not only in my part of the world, but across the country. Snow, snow and, oh, yeah, some snow. It’s more like the deep heart of winter than late fall. This picture is what we woke up to this morning, with buses shut down and schools closed.
In Wasaga Beach, Ontario, another town in Simcoe County, this weekend was a bit more like the middle level of hell than any winter wonderland. On Friday, most of the arcade of historic buildings along the longest freshwater beach in the world were consumed by fire. Ankle deep in white sand, these wooden storefronts and snackbars were a relic of the easygoing past of Georgian Bay’s Wasaga Beach. Built in the 1930s, many were already faced with possible demolition. A developer has been buying them up, armed with a plan to turn the whole area into a mock New Orleans. Thankfully, the city has not given consent.
These kinds of developments really bug me. Travellers crave authenticity and so resorts and tourist towns give it to them – creating false ‘villages’ and ‘small towns’ at the expense of their own history and heritage. Case in point: Collingwood, where the historic downtown is often overshadowed by Blue Mountain’s faux alpine village. Many people simple stay in the Village and don’t even venture into the first historically-designated downtown in Ontario.
Several people have lost their businesses in Wasaga Beach but the community has also lost a little bit of itself. The wonderfully ramshackle arcade area where sunbathers bought hot-dogs and ice cream cones in their bare feet will never be the same. No matter what sort of fresh face they put on the area, that summer memory is sadly long gone.
Posted in Ontario, Simcoe County | No Comments »
