Good for US but not in Canada

I was really interested in the Amazon print on demand arrangement for books that are all ready to go, and only need to be printed. This is different from their BookSurge service that does the kind of work we offer here at Alpha Glyph. At first I was very keen for it, because it combines the Amazon sales engine with your self-published books. This automatic listing is a real help, and they will also drop in an ISBN number for you, or you can use your own. I have liked using Lulu, and have been very happy with them, but there is still the issue of listing with Amazon, which this service solves. Or so I thought until I discovered the fatal hitch: US only. Drat. They don’t arrange the financials outside of the country. And this has nothing to do with amazon.ca, only .com. So I’m back to where I was before – recommending Printorium in Victoria or Lulu, or the venerable Blitzprint in Alberta (Venerable in print-on-demand years, which are kind of like dog-years.)

City Strike Grinds On

This post is a duplicate of a post in my Carrall Street Journal.

Carrall Street has been kept relatively clean by volunteers, the United We Can folks, and as a result the whole place doesn’t look too bad, or seem too terribly unhealthy, despite the city strike.

However, the Carrall Street Greenway has been very affected by the strike, and no work has been done on the whole thing for much of the summer. Tall grass and weeds are growing in the square areas that had been left for tree planting on the one area that had been constructed so far. The whole schedule for this improvement has been suspended, and this could have serious repercussions in the timeline. Hopefully there will be a resolution to the strike soon.

Meanwhile, September brings new exhibitions in the galleries, ACCESS, ArtSpeak, InterUrban and Centre A.

The New York Times Style Magazine this Sunday featured the designer at Richard Kidd, and positive mention of Carrall Street’s Irish Heather and Hunt and Gather.

Now equinox is past, we will see earlier nights, and that also means colder nights for the homeless. People are seriously nested in under the awning on Cordova Street just west of the old Pig and Whistle, and also in any nook to be found in doorways of the old Ranier Hotel. That place has been increasingly covered in graffiti through the summer, with more coming along through the month of August and early September. Almost every brick in the doorway to the former chicken place has a tag of some kind.

That’s the September wrap-up for this street of high contrast!

Wedding

Last month, before going to Nanoose, I was happy to officiate in the wonderful wedding ceremony of Kenneth and Aleksandra. It was a modified Universal Worship ritual, followed by an outdoor banquet and live gypsy music. The wedding was in their home, and these are a few photos of the ceremony.

I’m standing by the altar, waiting for the bride and groom to enter the room. At the lower left you can see one of the gamelan musicians who were playing as the couple came down the stairway into the living room. It was an exquisite atmosphere.

This is the little altar we used, with candles representing world religions, including Hindu, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Jewish, Christian and Islam. The flying heart symbol is on the gold altar-cloth. It was a very small space and we had to cluster around to fit everyone in.

The bride’s dress was hand-painted Indonesian silk.

After San Francisco poet Robert Anthony read a poem he specially composed for them, Aleksandra and Kenneth sealed the ceremony with a kiss.

(Surprise: Link here to see a random post from my blog.)

James’ Upcoming Exhibition

 Looking forward to going to the Kootenays for the opening of James’ exhibition of new paintings. Here’s the invitation:

You can see the paintings here, on his site, and here’s a link to the Kootenay Gallery for more on the show.

(Surprise: Link here to see a random post from my blog.)