A son of the circus

I didn't have anything new on the go so I picked A Son Of The Circus by John Irving off the shelf. I have read this a couple of times in the past. I have found it worthy of re-reading because it is, in my opinion, Irving's most entertaining effort. Not his most profound. That honour goes to A Prayer For Owen Meany

But if you are in the mood for a who done it that goes well beyond the regular shoddy fare of this genre, this book is for you. The murder is used as the mainline upon which several lines with hooks are strung. As is always the case with Irving the book is replete with references, symbolism and word games. Primary among the latter is the name of the protagonist. Darruwalla is an interesting play on the Indian method of designating the operator of a certain machine or function. E.G.: taxi-wallah is a term for cab driver.

An interesting review can be found here.

I recommended this to the wife of the company president at the Christmas party this weekend. I forgot that some parts are very sexually explicit as this is a method he uses to explore sexual identity and the awakening of Farrokh Daruwalla. Perhaps I shouldn't have done that. I guess I will find out shortly.

The provenance of this blog's name

It is a tribute both to Peter Gzowski, Heather Scott (the girl who won the contest. See this tribute from her Dad here) and the zen aspect to Canada. Part of the wonder of our country is that you can't quite pin it down. It is sort of like describing the perfect wine. You can't pin it down but you know it when you taste it.

David Hein and Home Routes

My wife and I had a wonderful evening of music and socializing at a friends house last night. Our friends hosted a concert by David Hein in their basement through the Home Routes program.

David is a very engaging entertainer who writes amusing songs. My favourite was Victoria which should be on his next album. I missed a bit of his show because I had to pop out to pick up my daughter so I did miss a few songs. He is also a graphic artist and has a precis of his career in comic form. I strongly recommend you go see him if you get a chance. A neighbour is hosting him at their house next week and we are thinking of going to see him again.

The Home Routes program helps organize just such shows in a circuit throughout Canada. I recommend you look into it if you enjoy live music. The concept is sort of like a standardization if the concept of the traveling minstrels. As a child, my parents had a recent immigrant friend from Scotland perform at our house to establish his musical career. It is great to see other musicians afforded this opportunity.