"An Object of Beauty" by Steve Martin

    The theme for this month’s Book Club at the McBride Library was “Art and Artists”.  I chose the book An Object of Beauty written by Steve Martin.  This is what I had to say about it:

            A couple of days ago, a painting by Gustav Klimt sold at auction for $32 million dollars.  Think about that, not $32 thousand, but $32 million dollars.  That is the world that Steve Martin lets the reader view in his novel, An Object of Beauty.

            This novel, written by Steve Martin, the well known comedian, is a serious work of fiction, it isn’t, as you might expect, “wild and crazy”.  It is set in the art districts of New York City, during the years, 1990 to about 2010.  While It is written in the first person through the eyes of a rather strait-laced person named Daniel, the novel is mostly about his female friend Lacey, who he had met in one of his university art classes. 

        Lacey, a fellow art student, was very attractive, flirty, spirited, ambitious, and fun to be with.  The two continued their friendship after graduating university, when they both ended up in the art district of New York City.  Daniel becomes a writer for the  Artnews magazine, and the two would occasionally meet for lunch to catch up on each other’s life.  The novel is basically Daniel telling the story of what Lacey was up to.

        Lacey’s career in the art world started with a low level job at Sotheby’s, the famous art auction house, but that first job was anything but glamorous.  It was a low paying job doing research in in the dingy basement of the business, but Lacey’s cleverness and good looks, soon enable her to move to a position upstairs, where she began working with the ultra-wealthy art buyers who streamed into the auction house, looking for the paintings that were to be auctioned off.  

        Lacey was a fast learner and became very effective in her work, schmoozing with the wealthy customers.   It enabled her to climb higher in the art house business.  Each advancement, increased her income.  As she came to understand the art trade and its wealthy customers, with her extra money, she began to dabble herself in purchasing some of the less expensive art.  

        She left the Sotheby’s job to begin working for a private art dealer who had noticed her at Sothebys.  This new job sometimes sent her on international trips to arrange art deals, giving her more knowledge of the art market, increasing her income, and allowing her more interaction with the very wealthy art buyers.  

        Eventually, with the nest egg she had saved, Lacey was able to set up her own gallery and be in business for herself.  Things really began to look up for Lacey, but soon the boom and bust cycles of the art industry began to complicate her life.

        I found the descriptions of the extremely wealthy art buyers and the fluctuations of the art business, one of the most interesting parts of the novel.  At one point, Lacy was sent on a commuter train with a $150,000 painting to deliver to a buyer, but as she got out of the taxi at the purchaser’s house, the owner come running out, telling her not to come any closer, and to go back to New York City with the painting.  It seems that if she had delivered the painting to the new owner’s house, he would have to pay $10,000 in sales tax, whereas if it was shipped by a reputable carrier, the sales tax would not apply. 

        It was interesting to see how fickle the price of art is.  Early on, Lacy bought herself a small rather uninteresting, Andy Warhol print of some flowers, for $16,000,   Sometimes later, after Warhol’s famous print of Marilyn Monroe sold for $11 million dollars, all of the other Warhol’s prints, including Lacey’s, skyrocketed in price, even though her’s really wasn’t very attractive, and was exactly the same print it was when Lacey purchased it.

        Shortly after Lacy bought her gallery, which really strained her finances, and days before her grand opening, 911 happened, and all of New York City and its art market was stopped in its tracks.  Lacy really struggled, but fortunately the art market rebounded rather quickly and she began to do well.  

        Years later, she decided to upscale and move her gallery to a better location, again pushing her finances to the brink.  This time, just as she was about to open, the 2008 stock market crash occurred. which dried up the art market.  

             Midway through the novel, Lacey had asked Daniel to come to one of Sotheby’s art auctions and keep bidding on a painting, until she signaled, Daniel questioned whether it was legal, and Lacey assured him that it was, so he did it. However, later in the novel, the FBI became involved, investigating the bid, and as a result, Lacey’s reputation as an honest broker dissolved, destroying her business, and Dan, because of his involvement, felt Lacey had betrayed their friendship, and also caused his relationship with another woman, who he who he really loved, and had hoped to marry, to come crashing to an end, because she no longer saw Dan as an honest person.

        The storyline of the novel was rather slow moving, but I did really enjoy all of the insights into the high-level art market, which was fascinating.

View my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

What's in the Backpack?

    A friend of mine who had been reading my blogs about the Ozalenka, contacted me, wondering what was carried in the backpacks he saw in the photos.  The trips I took up to the Ozalenka were just day trips, so in my backpack, I only took those things that I figured I would need for the day.  Because, you never really know what might happen while hiking up into the wilderness, I always take a few things that might come in handy in case something unexpected happens.

    The most important thing I always carry is water.  While there are usually clear safe streams that drinkable,  they are not always readily available, so I always take a couple of water bottles.  Water always adds a lot of weight to the daypack, so I always have to carefully judge how much water weight, I want to carry around. 

    Another important thing I always pack is a warm hat, as well as the sun hat that I will wear.  I also take a windbreaker  jacket.  The winds can be very strong in the alpine.  If you get caught in the rain, or have to spend an unexpected night up in the alpine, getting hypothermia can happen, so having some extra layers of clothing is very important. 

        These days, I would certainly take my cell phone, even though in the alpine, there would probably not be any cell signal, but you might get lucky and catch a signal in an emergency.

    Naturally, the main thing on a day trip of hiking, is a lunch.  It doesn’t take long expending a lot of energy, to start thinking about snacks and food.  Beside a sandwich and an apple, trail mix, and maybe a candy bar are always appreciated.  When you are working hard, extra salt and sugar are important, even if they are not very nourishing.

    I don’t take any bear spray.  Usually I hike in a group, and trust that all the noise we make will scare most wildlife away.

    I once was proud of myself for buying a whistle to take along on hikes, thinking that blowing a whistle would be a lot better than yelling for help, if I got lost.  Then Glen, the most experienced hiker in the valley, told me a story about a friend who used a whistle.  As he blew, he noticed that a grizzly bear he spotted in the distance began moving toward him.  It seemed that the grizzly bear thought that the whistling was coming from a marmot, a groundhog sized rodent that lives in the alpine that makes a whistling sound.  The hiker immediately stopped his whistling and got out of the area.

    A really heavy backpack is not much fun to lug around, but as you use the water and food inside it, it gets lighter.

View my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Ten Years of Jamming

   Yesterday, I was thinking about our jam, and trying to come up with what song we should start with (Will the Circle Be Unbroken), then for some reason, my brain flashed onto the fact that it was 2024.   That was followed by remembering that our jam first started in 2014, ten years ago.  I decided to check to see what the date of that first jam was, and when I checked the photo I had, it was dated April 22, 2014, exactly 10 years and 1 day ago.  I thought that was quite a coincidence.

    That first jam started when I overheard a conversation between a few people who were getting together to play music, and I asked to be invited.  That jam was held at the Curling Lounge at the McBride Arena.  There were four of us, who gathered around to play music, while most of the curlers in the lounge, just continued with their conversations. 

    The four of us had fun playing, so in the weeks that followed, we met at different houses to play.   I wanted to set up something regular and asked Naomi, the McBride Librarian, if we would be able to use the Library Annex (an empty house next to the library, that the library owned and used for some of their activities).  “Sure,” Naomi said, and since the library was opened nights on Tuesday, that is when we gathered to play.   We became the Tuesday Night Jam. 

    We were an “open” jam, that welcomed anyone who wanted to play.  As word got around the community, more and more closet musicians started coming, and every Tuesday, the rather dingy-looking annex rang out with music.  Visiting guitar-playing tourists and young guitar-playing international volunteering farm workers would show up to join us.  Below is a 2016 photo from one of those Tuesday nights.

    When the McBride Library moved to its fancy new “digs” on Main Street, our jam started playing there, right in the library, on Tuesday nights.  This caused our numbers to really swell, as unknowing locals came in to the library and discovered us playing.  Below is a 2019 photo showing our Tuesday Night Jam at our peak density.

    In 2020, Covid 19 and the many restrictions that it caused, basically closed down normal library operations, and the jam was no longer able to play there, and gatherings were considered a “No-No” anyway, so the jam went on a long hiatus, and we all were doomed to do our playing alone, at home.  Covid really did have a negative effect on the jam.  We lost a lot of our players, when many moved away.

    A couple of years later, when things began to loosen up, during the winter I started renting the Legion Hall, a large open hall, where we could all spread out when we played.  (Photo below)

    When the summers arrived, The Tuesday Night Jam, started to play on the porch of McBride’s Train Station.  While it was nice to be outside watching the setting sun illuminate the view of McBride, weather was always an issue.  It often cold or it rained, so we would end up back in the Legion Hall.

    This past winter we started playing in the lobby of the train station, which although small, has wonderfully loud acoustics.  The photo at the top of the blog shows most of our basic group at last night’s jam.  Absent in the photo were three people who generally come to sing or watch, and a few of our regular musicians, who weren’t there last night.

    Our jam plays a wide spectrum of the music, songs that our musicians bring in and want to try.  Folk, Blues, Rock, Country, and even some show tunes.  Songs by Woody Guthrie, Chuck Berry, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Box Car Willy, Randy Newman, The Byrds, The Beatles, Tom Petty, Joni Mitchell, Rogers and Hammerstein, Neil Young, Hank Williams, Gordon Lightfoot, The Band, and Don Henley, to name a few.

    Our Tuesday Night Jam is always the highlight of my week, something I start looking forward to  starting the Wednesday, the day after our last jam.  I have been amazed at how much we all have increased our musical skills, and how much fun we still have playing together, after all these years.

You can view my paintings (my other passion) at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Flowers in the Ozalenka

    On those hikes I have taken to the Ozalenka Valley, it is not only the mountain vistas that catch my eye; it is also the many varieties of flowers that can only  be seen growing the rarified extremes of the alpine.  I don’t know the names of most of these plants, and am happy just to be able to enjoy their uniqueness and beauty.  

    I was surprised to come upon the Indian paintbrushes that grow up there.  Paintbrushes  are common enough growing down on the Robson Valley lowlands, but the ones up on the alpine have a different color.  Those in the alpine have developed a more reddish-rose color (photo below left), while the native ones growing around our property are orangish (below right).

    Below is a low growing, thick leaved plant that appears to be a variety of Violet.

 

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Exploring the Ozalenka Alpine

    While most touristy mountain areas are overrun with people, the Ozalenka Alpine allows one pristine and extraordinary views in an atmosphere that makes you think that you are one of the first people to explore the area.  This “private” viewing allows for time to contemplate what you are seeing without all the noise and distractions of well known tourist destinations.  You can sit down on a rock and enjoy the quiet, as you scan the horizons.

    The times I have been up in the Ozalenka, it has been in a small group, so there were some conversations as we hiked, and while we stopped to rest, but I still felt like I was alone in the wilderness.   Even if there was another party up there hiking, the area is so huge, you would probably not be aware of their presence.

    Here are some photos from one of our hikes.

Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

Those Damn Porcupines Will Eat Anything

    Growing up in Indiana, I never knew much about porcupines.  I did know that they had sharp quills, that they could throw at you if they thought they were in danger, but that was about the extent of my knowledge.  

    One of the things I loved during all my years working at the BC Forest Service were the coffee breaks, and all of the stories that were told by the “old timers”.   It was there that I learned some fascinating things about porcupines; their strange tastes, and destructive appetite.  It seems that porcupines crave and chew on things that I always thought were inedible.  They love to eat plywood and the car parts.

    Porcupines love salt and that includes the salt in plywood glue and wood preservatives.  They will eat the creosote coating on fence posts, tires on vehicles, radiator hoses, and even objects covered in human sweat, like tool handles, clothes, and leather.

    During our Forestry coffee breaks, I heard many a story about the damage that porcupines did to structures made of plywood out in the bush.  They would gnaw away big chucks of unprotected plywood.  When we made the cabins or outhouses in the Ozalenka Valley or in other wilderness areas, the lower part of the buildings were always covered with tin roofing, or else they would fall victim to the porcupine’s appetite.  

    The biggest surprise to me about porcupine appetites was their love for tires and the plastic insulation that coated wires.  I heard many stories about hikers and hunters who had driven way out in the bush, leaving their trucks parked and alone for several days, as they ventured off into the wilderness.    Days later, when they returned, they tried unsuccessfully to start their trucks, only to discover that porcupines had chewed up the vehicle’s wiring or tires.  These events always ended in a very long and unexpected hike back to civilization for help.

    In the photo above, avid hiker Glen Stanley, secures his truck behind the fencing around the perimeter of Ozalenka Valley Trail parking area.  The fencing was put up to keep the porcupines from damaging the vehicles.

Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Old Bridges of the Ozalenka Trail

    On that first hike up to the Ozalenka Valley, one of the most memorable experiences I had was crossing over the many creeks, carefully balancing with my arms out, as I slowly and carefully, made my way over the logs suspended over the roaring creeks.  After the Ozalenka Alpine Club was formed and many volunteer hours of work, make-shift bridges were constructed.  Above are some photos of some of those old, retired first bridges, which have now been replaced by wider and more substantial bridges.  

    It is no longer necessary to ford the big creek at the trailhead, because there is well-built bridge for hikers to cross.   On the many crossings over creeks up the 7 km (4 mile) trail, regular bridges now provide a much easier and safer hike.  Below is an example of one of the newer bridges that now dot the trail.

    Certainly, not enough praise can be showered upon all of those volunteers, who spent days making the trail better for everyone who wants to make the hike.  A mountain trail like the Ozalenka needs constant maintenance, as trees fall, and high rushing water from snowmelt, wash away bridges. 

    The steep uphill trail can be exhausting enough without having to worry about falling into a rushing creek.

View my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca