Excerpt #21 from Adrift on an Ice Pan by Sir Wilfred Grenfell

Excerpt #21 from Adrift on an Ice Pan by Wilfred Thomasen Grenfell



(N.B. It was in 1908 that Grenfell, a medical missionary in northern Newfoundland was traveling by dog team to treat a patient, became stranded on an ice pan and came close to perishing. The following excerpt is from Grenfell's account of this adventure.)



Excerpt



Every soul in the village was on the beach as we neared the shore.
Every soul was waiting to shake hands when I landed. Even with the
grip that one after another gave me, some no longer trying to keep
back the tears, I did not find out my hands were frost-burnt,--a fact
I have not been slow to appreciate since, however. I must have been a
weird sight as I stepped ashore, tied up in rags, stuffed out with
oakum, wrapped in the bloody skins of dogs, with no hat, coat, or
gloves besides, and only a pair of short knickers. It must have seemed
to some as if it were the old man of the sea coming ashore.



But no time was wasted before a pot of tea was exactly where I wanted
it to be, and some hot stew was locating itself where I had intended
an hour before the blood of one of my remaining dogs should have gone.



Rigged out in the warm garments that fishermen wear, I started with a
large team as hard as I could race for the hospital, for I had learnt
that the news had gone over that I was lost. It was soon painfully
impressed upon me that I could not much enjoy the ride, for I had to
be hauled like a log up the hills, my feet being frost-burnt so that I
could not walk. Had I guessed this before going into the house, I
might have avoided much trouble.





To be continued.



**************



The above excerpt is from Adrift on an Ice-Pan by Wilfred Thomason Grenfell. A true account of Grenfell's near death experience, the story was first published in 1909 by Houghton Mifflin Company.



The unabridged audio edition, narrated by Chris Brookes, Jay Roberts and Janis Spence, is available from Rattling Books.

Getting Uncle Val cranked up again
CODCO veteran revisits character born in 1970s
Sep 28, 2008 04:30 AM
Susan Walker ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER

An actor, comic, writer, but most of all a storyteller with a great gift for mimicry and an ability to draw an audience into his wacky concepts, Andy Jones returns to his old haunts at Theatre Passe Muraille Wednesday with his latest one-man show.

An Evening with Uncle Val stars a character that Jones invented in 1978, a retired and ailing fisherman in his late 70s forced to move from his rural life in an outport to live with his daughter's family in the suburbs of St. John's.

In the 1970s, when Newfoundland was experiencing a cultural revival, Jones was at a folk festival when he met Francis Colbert, "a monologist from Job's Cove in Conception Bay and I struck up a friendship with him. I started to say things as him." Colbert never recognized himself as Uncle Val – a crusty crank with a dim view of contemporary mores – when Jones performed with him on the same festival stage.

Uncle Val's circumstances came out of Jones's own family life. He and his three siblings – TV veteran Cathy, filmmaker Mike, and health agency worker Mary Winifred – grew up in the St. John's suburbs. Some of Uncle Val's turns of phrase and ailments were borrowed from Jones's father, whom Andy credits as a co-writer on the CD, Letters from Uncle Val, released in 2006. As he was working up material to do a launch of the CD, he was pushed by his publisher to make a full show. With Lois Brown as his director, Jones went back to his writing desk and Uncle Val soon had company.

"I found this other thread that was this whole look at the cultural revolution in Newfoundland in the `70s. That's where Andy Jones comes in: my hopes, dreams and aspirations." As the piece grew, other figures emerged: John F. Kennedy, Bob Marley, people that loomed large in the years of Jones's coming of age.

If it all sounds a little surreal, that's to be expected. From the first of his five one-man shows, Out of the Bin in 1984, Jones has produced side-splitting scenarios with a lunatic edge. In Still Alive in 1994 he created a royal commission on reality and offered the audience a money-back guarantee if the show didn't generate 200 laughs.

Read the rest of this article.

***************************

Letters from Uncle Val, written and performed by Andy Jones is available as an Audio CD or Digital Download from Rattling Books.

Ron and Joel Thomas Hynes to perform at Canadian Mental Health Fundraiser Oct 9

St. John's, Newfoundland Fundraising Gala (Canadian Mental Health Assoc) October 9

Three course meal & entertainment by Ron Hynes & Joel Thomas Hynes, $100, Delta Hotel 757-7218

1965 Stamp commemorated Wilfred Grenfell and his hospital ship Strathcona II

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Sir Wilfred Grenfell, British sailor, author and medical missionary who founded a series of hospitals, nursing stations and orphanages along the New¬foundland and Labrador coasts, the Canadian Post Office, on June 9th 1965, issued a 5 cents stamp depicting Sir Wilfred at the wheel of his hospital ship Strathcona II.

Read more and view the stamp here at shipstamps.co.uk.

****************

Wilfred Thomason Grenfell, became a household name in the early 1900's with the publication of Adrift on an Ice-Pan . A true account of Grenfell's near death experience, the story was first published in 1909 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

bangbelly (Recipe References from the Dictionary of Newfoundland English)

Until we announce the winner of our Recipe Redux Contest we're posting some recipe references found in the Dictionary of Newfoundland English to inspire you. Here's one reproduced as found in the online Dictionary of Newfoundland English.(cartoon by Jennifer Barrett)

bangbelly n

Cp N & Q ([1914] 1940) 22 June, p. 434 W. A pudding, cake or pancake, originally prepared by fishermen and men in the woods, made with flour, fat pork, etc, and boiled, baked or fried, now usu served as dessert; also attrib. 1896 J A Folklore ix, 35 ~ a low and coarse word denoting a boiled pudding consisting of flour, molasses, soda, etc, and not uncommonly seal-fat instead of suet. 1937 DEVINE 7 Bangbellies. Pancakes made of flour, fat and molasses, fried on a pan. 1939 DULEY 17 In the winter the stomach was frequently filled with the bulk of pea-soup floating with fat white bang-bellies. [1894-1929] [1960 BURKE] (ed White) 41 "McGinnis at the Rink": And his bullseyes were plastered all over his face / Like the whorts in a bang-belly pie. T 96-642 You can make up the bangbelly with bread soda and flour, mix it together and fat pork in it, cut it into squares; it's lovely. C 69-10 To make bangbelly you put blueberries, sugar and hot water in a pot and add a pinch of salt. When it begins to boil you drop in doughballs and let it continue boiling until the doughballs are cooked and the blueberries are thick. Serve it hot. 1973 BARBOUR 47 [Tea] consisted of a slice of molasses bread, raisin buns, pork toutons, or bang-belly.

************* Rattling Books is running a recipe contest inspired by the Dictionary of Newfoundland English. We call it Recipe Redux, aka Not Much Meat on a Carey Chick, Recipe Contest.

Interview with Andy Jones about Uncle Val on eyeweekly.com

Andy Jones in Uncle Val
by Alex Nino Gheciu September 24, 2008

eyeweekly.com

A retired fisherman wrested from his outharbor home to live in “big city” St. John’s, Uncle Val is cranky, despondent, and utterly sidesplitting in this one-man, one-act play, written and performed by Gemini Award–winner Andy Jones (of CODCO fame). Trapped in suburban hell with his daughter, her nauseating husband and their spoiled-rotten children, Uncle Val struggles to find a purpose in his old age while coming to grips with a modernizing Newfoundland. Set in the late ’80s, Val’s fear of mortality is mirrored by his uncertainty about the changing province. “It’s ultimately a story of hope for Newfoundland and it’s sort of reflected in [Val’s] hope for himself,” explains Jones. “At first he thinks he’s finished, but suddenly he realizes he’s got a role to play in the family. So at the end, things are looking bad, but he’s full of hope that things will change.”

I understand Uncle Val is a character you’ve been refining for the past 30 years. How did he originate?

[Laughs] Refining is right. He’s a character that I started to write around 1978. He’s an outport Newfoundlander, a retired fisherman, who through a series of unfortunate events ends up living in St. John. So he moves from a very rural traditional Newfoundland lifestyle to the suburbs of St. John’s. He was really based on friend of mine who actually was retired fisherman and a storyteller, and his name was Francis Colbert. He was a very funny guy, a very witty, dry fellow. I often used to imitate him and then, after a while, a character started to form and I came up with Uncle Val. Because I grew up in the suburbs myself, I started incorporating some ideas of the suburbs into some little monologues I started to do for CBC and the radio, and then it grew.

You grew up in St. John’s suburbs, but Uncle Val is disdainful of them. Why is that?

Well, there is a kind of an arc to the story. He arrives in St. John’s and he hates it; he hates his grandchildren, he hates everything and he’s very unhappy. But then he comes to realize that the suburbs are kind of interesting. Eventually, his daughter has another child and he’s in good shape physically, so he starts helping around the house with babysitting and stuff. So, he becomes more useful and fits into the family. So that’s kind of the end of the story in a way, as things are going well for him.

Read the rest here at eyeweekly.com

**************

An Evening with Uncle Val previews Tue 8pm. Opens Oct 1. Runs to Oct 19. Wed 8pm. Preview $15. $30-$35. Theatre Passe Muraille, 16 Ryerson. Toronto, Ontario

416-504-7529. http://www.passemuraille.on.ca/.

Letters from Uncle Val written and performed by Andy Jones is available as an Audio CD or digital download from Rattling Books.

Excerpt #20 from Adrift on an Ice Pan by Sir Wilfred Grenfell

Excerpt #20 from Adrift on an Ice Pan by Wilfred Thomasen Grenfell



(N.B. It was in 1908 that Grenfell, a medical missionary in northern Newfoundland was traveling by dog team to treat a patient, became stranded on an ice pan and came close to perishing. The following excerpt is from Grenfell's account of this adventure.)



Excerpt



All the time I had been driving along I knew that there was one man on
that coast who had a good spy-glass. He tells me he instantly got up
in the midst of his supper, on hearing the news, and hurried over the
cliffs to the lookout, carrying his trusty spy-glass with him.
Immediately, dark as it was, he saw that without any doubt there was a
man out on the ice. Indeed, he saw me wave my hands every now and
again towards the shore. By a very easy process of reasoning on so
uninhabited a shore, he at once knew who it was, though some of the
men argued that it must be some one else. Little had I thought, as
night was closing in, that away on that snowy hilltop lay a man with a
telescope patiently searching those miles of ice for _me_. Hastily
they rushed back to the village and at once went down to try to launch
a boat, but that proved to be impossible. Miles of ice lay between
them and me, the heavy sea was hurling great blocks on the landwash,
and night was already falling, the wind blowing hard on shore.



The whole village was aroused, and messengers were despatched at once
along the coast, and lookouts told off to all the favorable points,
so that while I considered myself a laughing-stock, bowing with my
flag to those unresponsive cliffs, there were really many eyes
watching me. One man told me that with his glass he distinctly saw me
waving the shirt flag. There was little slumber that night in the
villages, and even the men told me there were few dry eyes, as they
thought of the impossibility of saving me from perishing. We are not
given to weeping overmuch on this shore, but there are tears that do a
man honor.



Before daybreak this fine volunteer crew had been gotten together. The
boat, with such a force behind it of will power, would, I believe,
have gone through anything. And, after seeing the heavy breakers
through which we were guided, loaded with their heavy ice
battering-rams, when at last we ran through the harbor-mouth with the
boat on our return, I knew well what wives and children had been
thinking of when they saw their loved ones put out. Only two years ago
I remember a fisherman's wife watching her husband and three sons take
out a boat to bring in a stranger that was showing flags for a pilot.
But the boat and its occupants have not yet come back.






To be continued.



**************



The above excerpt is from Adrift on an Ice-Pan by Wilfred Thomason Grenfell. A true account of Grenfell's near death experience, the story was first published in 1909 by Houghton Mifflin Company.



The unabridged audio edition, narrated by Chris Brookes, Jay Roberts and Janis Spence, is available from Rattling Books.

Riddle Fence: Journal of Arts & Culture Returns for Second Issue

Journal of Arts & Culture Returns for Second Issue
For Immediate Release

September 22, 2008

Riddle Fence, a St. John's-based journal of arts & culture, is launching its second issue at 3:30 PM on October 6th at a private ceremony at Government House. A public launch party will follow at 8 PM at The Ship Pub.

Formerly a publication of the Writers' Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador, Riddle Fence is now published by Riddle Fence Inc. and managed by a nine member board of directors; editorial content is selected by a six member editorial board.

"We're thrilled to be launching the second issue," says managing editor Mark Callanan. "When the first Riddle Fence came out, it wasn't clear that there would be another, but we received such an enthusiastic response, and such support from the community, that we were determined to make it work. The launch of our second issue has great symbolic significance: We're back and we're going to continue producing this journal for a long time."

The deadline for submissions to issue number three is October 10, 2008. Riddle Fence accepts "high quality fiction, non-fiction, poetry, artwork, and anything else that fits on paper and punches above its own artistic weight."

For submissions and general Riddle Fence information, see our website (riddlefence.com) or contact Mark Callanan (riddlefence@gmail.com; 709-739-6484).


Background Notes

Riddle Fence #2 Contributors
John Andrews, Nick Avis, Libby Creelman, Richard Cumyn, Tom Dawe, Danielle Devereaux, Stan Dragland, Terri Favro, Kym Greeley, Jason Guriel, Tonja Gunvaldsen Klaassen, Jim Hansen, Mike Heffernan, David B. Hickey, Joel Thomas Hynes, Steve McOrmond, David O'Meara, Elise Partridge, Michael Pittman, Gerald Squires, John Steffler, Lee D. Thompson, Leslie Vryenhoek

From Mark Callanan's Editorial, Riddle Fence #1

The title is a term recorded in the Dictionary of Newfoundland English. You may know it as wriggle or riddling or wriggling fence; these are all permutations of the same basic element. The phrase has a great music to it—a vibrancy, an impish energy. What's more, the riddle is one of the oldest forms of literature; it is steeped in a history that reaches back even further than the printed medium, into the oral tradition. But mostly, the title owes its genesis to the fact that I've been thinking about fences and boundaries a lot lately in relation to this province. Fences keep things out or keep things in. They bisect land and define territory. I like to think of Newfoundland and Labrador as being constantly stuck between two things, two states—occupying a liminal space. It is partway between the Old World and the New, partway between being a country and a province; it is torn between its storied past (which is both burden and blessing) and the allure of the future; we love the word Newfie/we hate the word Newfie. The people here are border dwellers—lodged between the earth and the sea.

Riddle Fence
PO Box 7092
St. John's, NL
A1E 3Y3
709.739.6484
www.riddlefence.com

Inviting submissions of short fiction for EarLit Shorts: a series of audio anthologies

Rattling Books invites submissions for EarLit Shorts

Have you got a gem of a story hiding underneath grandma’s aviator helmet in the back of the back of your closet? Or a diamond in the rough waiting to be pried out of its Word matrix, cut, polished and displayed before the world?

If you can provide the "jewels" Rattling Books might be able to give you the setting you're looking for. We're seeking previously unpublished short fiction for EarLit Shorts, a series of audio anthologies. Stories will be available on-line, singly or collectively, as digital downloads. Each anthology will also be published in MP3 CD format.

The series will launch this fall with works by Joel Thomas Hynes, Kathleen Winter, Carmelita McGrath, Russell Wangersky, Catherine Hogan Safer and others. If you would like a shot at being one of the "others," please read the following guidelines.

To be eligible, submissions must

· be previously unpublished;
· be between 500 and 10,000 words in length.

There are two ways to submit:

Send previously unpublished stories with self-addressed stamped envelope to Rattling Books, General Delivery, Tors Cove, NL, Canada A0A 4A0.

Send your story or stories and covering letter to earlit.submissions@gmail.com.

Deadline for submissions is October 6, 2008.

Website: rattlingbooks.com

Word of the Week over at REDEFiNE iT (Sept 21 - 27) brewis

Word of the Week over at our REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English Blog (Sept 21 - 27):

brewis

Recipe References from the Dictionary of Newfoundland English: scotch dumpling

Until we announce the winner of our Recipe Redux Contest we're posting some recipe references found in the Dictionary of Newfoundland English to inspire you. Here's one reproduced as found in the online Dictionary of Newfoundland English.(cartoon by Jennifer Barrett)

scotch dumpling:

kind of haggis made with cod-livers. 1975 The Rounder Sep, p. 12 It was common for fishermen on the Labrador to bake and eat the fresh livers [of cod] as a cure for night blindness. Livers form the main ingredient for 'Scotch Dumplings' which consist of cods' stomachs stuffed with chopped liver and cornmeal.

*************
Rattling Books is running a recipe contest inspired by the Dictionary of Newfoundland English. We call it Recipe Redux, aka Not Much Meat on a Carey Chick, Recipe Contest.

Excerpt #19 from Adrift on an Ice Pan by Sir Wilfred Grenfell

Excerpt #19 from Adrift on an Ice Pan by Wilfred Thomasen Grenfell



(N.B. It was in 1908 that Grenfell, a medical missionary in northern Newfoundland was traveling by dog team to treat a patient, became stranded on an ice pan and came close to perishing. The following excerpt is from Grenfell's account of this adventure.)



Excerpt




So, slowly but steadily, we forged through to the shore, now jumping
out on to larger pans and forcing them apart with the oars, now
hauling the boat out and dragging her over, when the jam of ice packed
tightly in by the rising wind was impossible to get through otherwise.



My first question, when at last we found our tongues, was, "How ever
did you happen to be out in the boat in this ice?" To my astonishment
they told me that the previous night four men had been away on a long
headland cutting out some dead harp seals that they had killed in the
fall and left to freeze up in a rough wooden store they had built
there, and that as they were leaving for home, my pan of ice had
drifted out clear of Hare Island, and one of them, with his keen
fisherman's eyes, had seen something unusual. They at once returned to
their village, saying there was something alive drifting out to sea on
the floe ice. But their report had been discredited, for the people
thought that it could be only the top of some tree.






To be continued.



**************



The above excerpt is from Adrift on an Ice-Pan by Wilfred Thomason Grenfell. A true account of Grenfell's near death experience, the story was first published in 1909 by Houghton Mifflin Company.



The unabridged audio edition, narrated by Chris Brookes, Jay Roberts and Janis Spence, is available from Rattling Books.

Word of the Week over at REDEFiNE iT (Sept 14-20) duff; figgy duff

Word of the week over at REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

duff; figgy duff

Recipe References from the Dictionary of Newfoundland English: flummy

Until we announce the winner of our Recipe Redux Contest we're posting some recipe references found in the Dictionary of Newfoundland English to inspire you. Here's one reproduced as found in the online Dictionary of Newfoundland English.(cartoon by Jennifer Barrett)

flummy n also flummy dum [phonetics unavailable].

A kind of bread made by hunters and trappers. Cp FUNNEL BUN. P 130-67 The bread is all gone, we'll have to make some flummies. C 71-27 A common dish among hunters is known as flummy dum. It consists of a dough made of flour, bread soda and water which is wrapped on a stick and then toasted over an open fire in the woods, [and] when cooked is somewhat like unleavened bread. C 74-94 In North West River I heard of a concoction made up by trappers called a flummedum, a mixture of flour, salt, butter and sugar. It was mixed in the morning, rolled up in a long string, wrapped around the funnel of a stove and left to bake.

*************

Rattling Books is running a recipe contest inspired by the Dictionary of Newfoundland English. We call it Recipe Redux, aka Not Much Meat on a Carey Chick, Recipe Contest.

Damper Dogs: Recipes from the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

Until we announce the winner of our Recipe Redux Contest we'll be posting some recipes references found in the Dictionary of Newfoundland English to inspire you. Here's one reproduced as found in the online Dictionary of Newfoundland English.

(cartoon by Jennifer Barrett)

damper boy, ~ cake, ~ devil, ~ dog.

P 224-67 Damper boys are made from fried dough.

1976 GUY 61 Home made bread, pork buns, figgy duff ... damper cakes.

1969 HORWOOD 84 And my old grandmother, running short of bread with the new batch not yet ready to bake, often made damper devils by cooking small pieces of risen dough like pancakes on top of the stove.

1958 Nfld Dishes 19 Flacoons or damper dogs—pan-cakes. Pan-cakes made of a flour and water mixture and cooked on top of the stove.

*************
Rattling Books is running a recipe contest inspired by the Dictionary of Newfoundland English. We call it Recipe Redux, aka Not Much Meat on a Carey Chick, Recipe Contest. Deadline for Entry submissions is October 1.

Recipe Redux (aka Not Much Meat on a Carey Chick Recipe Contest)

Through our REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English campaign (includes a Blog, a facebook group and a weekly appearance on CBC Radio's Weekend Arts Magazine)

Rattling Books invites you

to participate in

Recipe Redux (aka Not Much Meat on a Carey Chick Recipe Contest).

Visit our website for complete details.

Excerpt #18 from Adrift on an Ice Pan by Sir Wilfred Grenfell

Excerpt #18 from Adrift on an Ice Pan by Wilfred Thomasen Grenfell



(N.B. It was in 1908 that Grenfell, a medical missionary in northern Newfoundland was traveling by dog team to treat a patient, became stranded on an ice pan and came close to perishing. The following excerpt is from Grenfell's account of this adventure.)



Excerpt

As the man in the bow leaped from the boat on to my ice raft and
grasped both my hands in his, not a word was uttered. I could see in
his face the strong emotions he was trying hard to force back, though
in spite of himself tears trickled down his cheeks. It was the same
with each of the others of my rescuers, nor was there any reason to be
ashamed of them. These were not the emblems of weak sentimentality,
but the evidences of the realization of the deepest and noblest
emotion of which the human heart is capable, the vision that God has
use for us his creatures, the sense of that supreme joy of the
Christ,--the joy of unselfish service. After the hand-shake and
swallowing a cup of warm tea that had been thoughtfully packed in a
bottle, we hoisted in my remaining dogs and started for home. To drive
the boat home there were not only five Newfoundland fishermen at the
oars, but five men with Newfoundland muscles in their backs, and five
as brave hearts as ever beat in the bodies of human beings.


To be continued.



**************



The above excerpt is from Adrift on an Ice-Pan by Wilfred Thomason Grenfell. A true account of Grenfell's near death experience, the story was first published in 1909 by Houghton Mifflin Company.



The unabridged audio edition, narrated by Chris Brookes, Jay Roberts and Janis Spence, is available from Rattling Books.

Thank-you Ken Campbell

Listening to the radio this weekend I learned that theatre artist Ken Campbell has died.

Ken Campbell was a gift to the world.

My own life was enriched by being in the audience at the LSPU Hall at some of his several one man shows which he performed in Newfoundland. How lucky are we at all. He would push his pram of props out and for the next few hours it would be Ken Campbell and whatever was in that pram. He would revel and regale, pull out book after book, meander through a convoluted trail of absurd theories, truth, and foolishness with a connoisseur's appreciation for the ridiculous and charm your very nervous system. He was funny in a way that made you think in ways you couldn't describe, laugh both audibly and inaudibly, experience humour in ways only detectable far in the future by beings not yet sentient.

I remember hearing that Italians throw flowers at their beloved opera singers. At the end of every Ken Campbell show I felt a pang of loss that the experience was over and regret that I could not possibly clap and cheer enough to express my gratitude for the gut laughs of the brain he had given me and why oh why didn't I have a bouquet of the most beautiful flowers to throw at his feet.

I always hoped that someday Ken Campbell would return to the Newfoundland stage - it's a long while since he's been here. It was a wonderful thing to look forward to - with his passing, a loss in deed.

Someone irrepressible is no longer with us. But such gifts left in their wake. So many experiential artefacts to be thankful for. I for one will have unpredictable ironic absurd sardonic brain chuckles for the rest of my laugh, I mean life, thanks to Ken Campbell.

Here is a link to the Gaurdian Obituary on the passing of Ken Campbell:

Obituary
Ken Campbell
Experimental writer, theatre director and improviser, he was one of the strangest people in Britain
Michael Coveney
guardian.co.uk,
Monday September 01 2008 13:15

Announcing the Not Much Meat on a Carey Chick Recipe Contest

Announcing the
Not Much Meat on a Carey Chick
Recipe Contest

brought to you by Rattling Books REDEFiNE iT Word of the Week and CBC Radio's Weekend Arts Magazine

To enter:

submit one or more recipes that comply with the following guidelines:

1. must include atleast 3 ingredients found in the Dictionary of Newfoundland English

2. must include directions to do things to those ingredients that include atleast 3 additional words found in the Dictionary of Newfoundland English

3. must be fit for human consumption or be of some other use to people eating a Thanksgiving Dinner.

You may redefine existing recipes, renew old acquaintances or go where no cook has gone before.

By submitting your recipe you agree that we may post it on the internet, read it on the radio or feed it to the gulls.

Angela Antle of CBC Radio's Weekend Arts Magazine (WAM) will select a winning entry to recieve a copy of the Dictionary of Newfoundland English.

The weekend before the Canadian Thanksgiving Day we will provide a multi-course Thanksgiving Day Dinner Menu based on entries.

Ponder this while you pick your blue berries.

Two Public Screenings of Down to the Dirt at the Toronto International Film Festiva

Down to the Dirt at the Toronto International Film Festival

Tuesday September 09
08:45PM
SCOTIABANK THEATRE 4


Thursday September 11
03:00PM
SCOTIABANK THEATRE 3


Joel Thomas Hynes's celebrated novel about a wounded young Newfoundlander struggling to make sense of his drug-infused, not-terribly-promising existence has been given new life in one of the best page-to-screen adaptations of the year. Hynes himself stars as Keith Kavanagh, a bruised protagonist whose life is raw and cluttered with various strained relationships. He is hostile to his parents, yearns for his girlfriend and is eager to leave the Rock, believing his life would be much better elsewhere. This instantly recognizable “I'm outta here” wanderlust will ring familiar to Canadian film aficionados, evoking early classics like Nobody Waved Good-bye and Goin' Down the Road.

Country: Canada Year: 2008

Language: English

Runtime: 110 minutes

Format: Colour/35mm

Rating: 18A
Production Company: Newfound Films Inc./Darius Films Executive Producer: Nicholas D. Tabarrok, Jennice Ripley

Producer: Anna Petras, Justin Simms

Screenplay: Justin Simms, Sherry White, based on the novel by Joel Thomas Hynes

Cinematographer: Jordan Lynn

Editor: Justin Simms

Sound: Peter Clements, Harvey Hyslop

Principal Cast: Joel Thomas Hynes, Mylène Savoie, Robert Joy, Sherry White, Hugh Dillon
Canadian Distributor: Mongrel Media

read more here



****************

The unabridged audio book of Down to the Dirt narrated by Joel Thomas Hynes, Sherry White and Jonny Harris is available from Rattling Books.

National Post Blog Review of Michael Winter's The Architects are Here

The First 50: The Architects Are Here by Michael Winter
Posted: September 04, 2008, 4:00 PM by Brad Frenette
Books, The First 50

Daryl Sneath on the writing of Michael Winter in The Architects are Here:

He can stop you with a sentence; he can make you shake your head, look away, contemplate what you’ve just read, and then scramble back to the page for the same sentence to read again. His writing will move you ‘in a way gravity moves things. In a way that is impossible to reverse.’

Read the rest here.

***************

Michael Winter is also the author of The Big Why, the unabridged audio book of which is narrated by Robert Joy.

Toronto launch of Down to the Dirt soundtrack album: join Mark Bragg and friends this Sunday

Mark Bragg and Friends are celebrating the launch of the official soundtrack album for the Justin Simms movie "Down To The Dirt", produced by Anna Petras, directed by Justin Simms, and based on the celebrated Joel Hynes novel.

Down to the Dirt is Bragg's first film score, and with only two preview screenings under its belt (Cannes Film Festival in france, and the Nickel Independant Film Festival in St. John's), the movie and its music are already receiving critical accolades.

The official release of the movies soundtrack album is scheduled for the same week as the films debut at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Down To The Dirt (The album) features instrumental music, guest tracks from Blair Harvey, Liz Pickard, and Persona, plus six new Mark Bragg songs written specifically for the film. Twenty tracks in total.

The release party is this sunday at "The Boat", in the heart of Torontos Kensington Market.

Bragg will join musicians Patrick Boyle, Brad Kilpatrick, and Jon Hynes to blow the roof off like only reunited townies can.This crew will also enjoy guest appearances by the movies musical cast, including Jody Richardson (Francey the pedophile), Phil Churchill (Andy the good buddy), and more.Warming up the night is Jody Richardson backed by the Mark Bragg Band (who can't believe their luck. Getting Jody Richardson to warm up for you is like getting Bob Vila to hand you your tools....)

Details:Down To The Dirt Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Official CD Release

Sunday, September 7th @ 9PM

The Boat @ 158 Augusta Avenue, Toronto

Admission $10 at the door ($20 with CD purchase)

Links:

Release Party Facebook event (Let us know you're coming!)

Movies Official Website (Download a sample track!)

Tickets to the Screening (See the movie!)

Stay tuned for release show notices for St. John's and Halifax.

Down To The Dirt Original Motion Picture Soundtrack will be available at Fred's Records on Thursday, September 11th.

************

And remember, Down to the Dirt is also an Audio Book, narrated by Joel Thomas Hynes, Sherry White and Jonny Harris.

Mary Dalton launching Between You and the Weather with Running the Goat

Running the Goat
Books & Broadsides

is launching its newest publication
Between You and the Weather
Poems by

Mary Dalton
with original wood engravings by

Wesley W. Bates


Friday, September 12th

4:30 to 6:30
at the A1C Gallery

8 Clift's Baird's Cove
St. John's

Newfoundland and Labrador

Mary will give a short reading at 5:30

Grenfell properties get infusion of federal cash, Western Star article

Grenfell properties get infusion of federal cash

The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) has given the Sir Wilfred Grenfell Historical Society $200,000 for facility upgrades and new marketing activities.The work will include changes to the layout of the Grenfell Interpretation Centre to better manage visitor movement through the exhibits and the shop. The Grenfell Dock will be upgraded to improve its accessibility for wheelchairs and walkers.The project will also support renewed marketing activities to increase future visits to the site, which also includes the Grenfell House Museum.

***************

Adrift on an Ice Pan by Wilfred Grenfell, the unabridged audio book is available from Rattling Books as either an Audio CD or Digital Download. It is also available at the Grenfell Interpretation Centre mentioned above.

Word of the Week over at REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English: carey chicks

Word of the Week over at REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

Carey chicks

Excerpt #17 from Adrift on an Ice Pan by Sir Wilfred Grenfell

Excerpt #17 from Adrift on an Ice Pan by Wilfred Thomasen Grenfell



(N.B. It was in 1908 that Grenfell, a medical missionary in northern Newfoundland was traveling by dog team to treat a patient, became stranded on an ice pan and came close to perishing. The following excerpt is from Grenfell's account of this adventure.)



Excerpt




I waved my flag as high as I could raise it, broadside on. At last,
beside the glint of the white oar, I made out the black streak of the
hull. I knew that, if the pan held on for another hour, I should be
all right.



With that strange perversity of the human intellect, the first thing I
thought of was what trophies I could carry with my luggage from the
pan, and I pictured the dog-bone flagstaff adorning my study. (The
dogs actually ate it afterwards.) I thought of preserving my ragged
puttees with our collection of curiosities. I lost no time now at the
burning-glass. My whole mind was devoted to making sure I should be
seen, and I moved about as much as I dared on the raft, waving my
sorry token aloft.



At last there could be no doubt about it: the boat was getting nearer
and nearer. I could see that my rescuers were frantically waving,
and, when they came within shouting distance, I heard some one cry
out, "Don't get excited. Keep on the pan where you are." They were
infinitely more excited than I. Already to me it seemed just as
natural now to be saved as, half an hour before, it had seemed
inevitable I should be lost, and had my rescuers only known, as I did,
the sensation of a bath in that ice when you could not dry yourself
afterwards, they need not have expected me to follow the example of
the apostle Peter and throw myself into the water.





To be continued.



**************



The above excerpt is from Adrift on an Ice-Pan by Wilfred Thomason Grenfell. A true account of Grenfell's near death experience, the story was first published in 1909 by Houghton Mifflin Company.



The unabridged audio edition, narrated by Chris Brookes, Jay Roberts and Janis Spence, is available from Rattling Books.