Last week was event-full. In that it was full of events. Get it???
Last week I made great strides in my ongoing resolution to try new things, not so much because I was attempting to do so as because people kept inviting me to events that I would not normally have thought to attend.
Wednesday evening I was invited to not one but two events, both of which were conveniently located at the ROM.
Tangent: in case you hadn't heard, the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal has been named one of the Seven New Wonders of the World by Condé Nast Traveler magazine!
I know I was skeptical about "the thing that ate the ROM", and I still kind of think it looks like a spaceship flew into the side of the building... but I have to admit, I've really come around. I like the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal.
There, I said it.
The first event was by invitation of my friend Shawn (the LJ-elusive shaswell). Through McLean's magazine he'd ordered tickets to the launch of a book series called Extraordinary Canadians, and was wondering if I'd be interested in joining him.
Being a fan of all things book-related and enjoying the idea of an evening a) at an event at the ROM and b) hangin' with Shawn, who always makes me laugh and at least once per evening makes me laugh to the point of tears, I said yes. That said, I knew very little about the event and didn't get around to reading more about it before heading out that evening.
For those of you who don't want to read my entire description of the project, here's a quick summary I found in a press release: "These are pairings of some of Canada's most influential historical
figures, with Canada's most brilliant contemporary writers," said Publisher David Davidar. "Extraordinary Canadians will rediscover twenty Canadians - rebels, reformers, thinkers, writers, painters, political leaders - who built modern Canada - through the eyes of eighteen of today's most interesting writers. In 200 pages, these are short, fascinating biographies with appeal to a wide range of readers."
We decided to dress up, just for kicks, and we sure were relieved we did: when we arrived and Shawn stated that we his tickets were via McLean's, we suspect there was some sort of misunderstanding that he was in fact with McLean's, hence us being ushered up to the media reception (with open bar) taking place before the event, rather than just the theatre where the event was to be held shortly thereafter.
My funky new haircuit, shiny red shows and fab bolero jacket served me well as we ended up rubbing elbows not only with a variety of prominent people in the Canadian media and publishing industries, but also notable folk such as the series' editor John Ralston Saul, the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson (former Governor General of Canada, she wrote one of the books in the series and is also married to Mr. Saul), and authors such as David Adams Richards, Charlotte Gray, Lewis DeSoto and Vincent Lam.
Saul spoke about the concept behind the series, which I had kind of assumed would be another stereotypically understated Canadian rehashing of our most impressive citizens. He made an interesting point: that Canadians think Canadian history is boring largely because Canadian history has always been presented as boring. With this series, he explained, he was trying to tell the story of Canada in a different way: through the lens of the lives of some of our most extraordinary "sons and daughters", people he (and his colleagues) feel could only have been forged by the unique environment that is Canada.
Furthermore, rather than simply grouping together "the usual suspects", the project focuses almost exclusively on modern Canadians (that's modern in the "c. 1900+" sense, not in the 1960s art movement or colloquial "synonym for contemporary" sense). Controversial Canadians, for the most part.
And! If that's not enough, a significant portion of what makes this project so compelling is the fact that it's a series of books written about compelling Canadians... written by compelling Canadians.
So not only are the authors in the series a group of popular, contemporary Canadian writers. But they've also paired each subject with an author who is really passionate about the subject (not to mention, thematically appropriate).
For example, they had got Adrienne Clarkson writing about Norman Bethune. Or Jane Urquhart writing about L. M. Montgomery. Or my personal favourite--how freaking intriguing does this sound--the biography of Marshall "the medium is the message" McLuhan, as written by Douglas "generation x" Coupland?
This is not the traditional, almost-apologetic treatment of Canadian history. By a longshot.
And that's not all! There's another element to this project. In addition to the actually text of each book, a great deal of thought went into the design (yay!). Each cover features a painting of the subject, commissioned by the project (as in, a brand new work of art), by a popular or up-and-coming Canadian artist. So not only do the covers feature original artwork, but a series of portraits of these subjects has now been created as an off-shoot of this book series. I believe a series of photographs of the authors was also commissioned, so there's another gallery of new visual art generated by this project.
Finally, in case you thought there was a medium left uncovered, Penguin has partnered with Omni to create a series of documentaries in which each subject is discussed by the author of their biography.
And because they're working with Omni, the documentaries will be available not only in English and French, but also in Hindi, Cantonese and Italian.
So in general, we were impressed by the insights offered by Saul and the authors of the first three books, as well as the scope and reach of the project. Did I mention we also scored free wine at the media reception we weren't technically meant to be attending?
ROM event #2 up next...
Wednesday evening I was invited to not one but two events, both of which were conveniently located at the ROM.
Tangent: in case you hadn't heard, the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal has been named one of the Seven New Wonders of the World by Condé Nast Traveler magazine!
I know I was skeptical about "the thing that ate the ROM", and I still kind of think it looks like a spaceship flew into the side of the building... but I have to admit, I've really come around. I like the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal.
There, I said it.
The first event was by invitation of my friend Shawn (the LJ-elusive shaswell). Through McLean's magazine he'd ordered tickets to the launch of a book series called Extraordinary Canadians, and was wondering if I'd be interested in joining him.
Being a fan of all things book-related and enjoying the idea of an evening a) at an event at the ROM and b) hangin' with Shawn, who always makes me laugh and at least once per evening makes me laugh to the point of tears, I said yes. That said, I knew very little about the event and didn't get around to reading more about it before heading out that evening.
For those of you who don't want to read my entire description of the project, here's a quick summary I found in a press release: "These are pairings of some of Canada's most influential historical
figures, with Canada's most brilliant contemporary writers," said Publisher David Davidar. "Extraordinary Canadians will rediscover twenty Canadians - rebels, reformers, thinkers, writers, painters, political leaders - who built modern Canada - through the eyes of eighteen of today's most interesting writers. In 200 pages, these are short, fascinating biographies with appeal to a wide range of readers."
We decided to dress up, just for kicks, and we sure were relieved we did: when we arrived and Shawn stated that we his tickets were via McLean's, we suspect there was some sort of misunderstanding that he was in fact with McLean's, hence us being ushered up to the media reception (with open bar) taking place before the event, rather than just the theatre where the event was to be held shortly thereafter.
My funky new haircuit, shiny red shows and fab bolero jacket served me well as we ended up rubbing elbows not only with a variety of prominent people in the Canadian media and publishing industries, but also notable folk such as the series' editor John Ralston Saul, the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson (former Governor General of Canada, she wrote one of the books in the series and is also married to Mr. Saul), and authors such as David Adams Richards, Charlotte Gray, Lewis DeSoto and Vincent Lam.
Saul spoke about the concept behind the series, which I had kind of assumed would be another stereotypically understated Canadian rehashing of our most impressive citizens. He made an interesting point: that Canadians think Canadian history is boring largely because Canadian history has always been presented as boring. With this series, he explained, he was trying to tell the story of Canada in a different way: through the lens of the lives of some of our most extraordinary "sons and daughters", people he (and his colleagues) feel could only have been forged by the unique environment that is Canada.
Furthermore, rather than simply grouping together "the usual suspects", the project focuses almost exclusively on modern Canadians (that's modern in the "c. 1900+" sense, not in the 1960s art movement or colloquial "synonym for contemporary" sense). Controversial Canadians, for the most part.
And! If that's not enough, a significant portion of what makes this project so compelling is the fact that it's a series of books written about compelling Canadians... written by compelling Canadians.
So not only are the authors in the series a group of popular, contemporary Canadian writers. But they've also paired each subject with an author who is really passionate about the subject (not to mention, thematically appropriate).
For example, they had got Adrienne Clarkson writing about Norman Bethune. Or Jane Urquhart writing about L. M. Montgomery. Or my personal favourite--how freaking intriguing does this sound--the biography of Marshall "the medium is the message" McLuhan, as written by Douglas "generation x" Coupland?
This is not the traditional, almost-apologetic treatment of Canadian history. By a longshot.
And that's not all! There's another element to this project. In addition to the actually text of each book, a great deal of thought went into the design (yay!). Each cover features a painting of the subject, commissioned by the project (as in, a brand new work of art), by a popular or up-and-coming Canadian artist. So not only do the covers feature original artwork, but a series of portraits of these subjects has now been created as an off-shoot of this book series. I believe a series of photographs of the authors was also commissioned, so there's another gallery of new visual art generated by this project.
Finally, in case you thought there was a medium left uncovered, Penguin has partnered with Omni to create a series of documentaries in which each subject is discussed by the author of their biography.
And because they're working with Omni, the documentaries will be available not only in English and French, but also in Hindi, Cantonese and Italian.
So in general, we were impressed by the insights offered by Saul and the authors of the first three books, as well as the scope and reach of the project. Did I mention we also scored free wine at the media reception we weren't technically meant to be attending?
ROM event #2 up next...