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Putting the Blame Where it Belongs

This week I have two posts about exciting new initiatives taking place in opposite corners of North America. The first is about an initiative against sexual harassment in New York City Public Schools and the result is the book Hey, Shorty! The title is in reference to common cat call used to draw the attention of young women. Because sexual harassment is another form of bullying, parents looking for assistance in their public schools should take note.


The Feminist Press

Difficulties concentrating in school, shame, depression, guilt, fear, low self-esteem, poor body image and feelings of helplessness are just some of the repercussions that high school victims of sexual harassment experience, according to research conducted by Girls for Gender Equity (GGE). This Brooklyn-based non-profit organization works to “improve gender and race relations and socioeconomic conditions for the most vulnerable youth and communities of colour.” Joanne N. Smith, Mandy Van Deven and Megan Huppuch of GGE have collaboratively written Hey, Shorty!, which tells GGE’s story, while providing a model to teach their peers what constitutes sexual harassment and how to prevent it. The book also gives activists, educators, parents and students a hands-on guide to combat sexual harassment and violence in their schools and neighborhoods.

In September 2001, just a few months after GGE had started meeting to play basketball, an 8-year-old girl had been raped on her way to school in the area. In response to the victim blaming that GGE founder Joanne Smith heard, she decided to discuss gender stereotypes and discrimination with the girls in the league. This evolved into Gender Respect Workshops, developed and facilitated by Mandy Van Deven with male and female students in the classroom. She discovered that sexual harassment was a major issue in the lives of the students, particularly girls and LGBTQ youth. Soon after, the Sisters in Strength program was born, and today it has become a paid yearlong internship for teen girls of colour to advocate for the enforcement of sexual harassment policies in New York City Public schools through workshops and direct action.

The Sisters in Strength’s first task was to raise awareness about the problem in the community, which led to their making of “Hey, Shorty!,” a short-film that later won Best Youth Documentary at the Roxbury International Film Festival. They screened their film at the Street Harassment Summit where they shared what they had learned with other members of the community. A second Sisters in Strength project involved hands-on participatory action research. Interns collected information through surveys, focus groups and slam books, or notebooks with written prompts that students can respond to anonymously. After compiling their data, they concluded that sexual harassment was rampant and normalized. Their research results were presented at the Gender Equality Festival to other community organizations. Under Huppuch’s leadership, GGE went on to form the Coalition for Gender Equity in School with more than 20 other area organizations.

The work of GGE may well have given us the solution to bullying that we have so desperately sought for the past 20 years. When we are sexually harassed, we believe that we are alone and somehow deserve this treatment. In other words, we internalize our feelings and suffer in silence. But from GGE’s research and community action, we see that this pervasive problem lies not within the person being harassed but with the external forces that perpetuate and enable sexual harassment to exist in our schools and on our streets. GGE is an empowering initiative for teens, our future leaders, and Hey, Shorty! is an essential resource for parents, teachers and community leaders who want to take action against bullying and sexual harassment in their communities.Chock full of capacity-building activities and ideas, Hey, Shorty! is an indispensable resource for anyone who wants to create an environment where everyone thrives.

This review was cross-posted at Elevate Difference.

Related-posts
A Reason to Honk
Stephen Leacock's Last Laugh
The CBC Investigates Sexism in Publishing
Guerrilla Girls, Humour and Hope
Publishing: What If...?
Publishing: What's "Good" and "Important"  (Stats on the # of books authored by women that are reviewed)
CBC: The Elephant in the Room  (Terry Fallis's book beats Carol Shields in CanadaReads)
Reads from Men











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Dear Bixi Chairman Roger Plamondon

The recent inclement weather has prevented me from making the most of my $78-annual Bixi subscription. I've heard all about the advertising on the individual bikes and the necessity of paying down the crippling debt. But apparently this year, the fleet has expanded considerably to 5,050 bikes with 405 docking stations and now serves 4 additional Montreal boroughs. You've also raised our first free 30 minutes to 45. It's a shame. I loved that little adrenaline rush of trying to get to point B before I had to pay an additional $1.50. It was a fun way to get in shape, and whenever an errand had to be run, I was our family's gleeful volunteer. Funny how the Bixi has never been raised as a future savings to our overburdened health care system. If you read my list of previous posts, you will see that I have had nothing but praise for Bixi in the previous two years.

Mr. Plamondon, with all due respect, I have heard your business arguments as to why you had to add the hideous corporate advertising to your fleet, which you only announced at the 11th hour. All the other cities are doin' it... It will pay off the debt faster, etc. But if you were experiencing financial uncertainty then why expand your fleet so dramatically and increase the free period. Hmmm...I have my suspicions.

I also suggest that you hire someone in your marketing department who can better profile a Bixi user. Like many other users, I've chosen a bike over a car because I have opted to live simply and have refused to buy into the corporate culture. Record profits amid massive layoffs are disgusting. I don't care about anyone's bottom line anymore because it's almost always bullshit. We are living in an age of greed in which end-users, the captive market, are force fed decisions made by company brass to increase their profit margins, which I suspect is the case here.

Mr. Plamondon, you have not honoured our agreement. You cannot add to an agreement that has already been made. I never agreed to corporate advertising on the bikes I ride, especially since I am the one creating visibility for your corporate sponsors! Not only was this advertising not part of our agreement, but it is also disrespectful and I am respectfully asking you to remove your corporate crap. Otherwise, I will let my subscription lapse...ping! Oh, I think it lapsed already.




Related posts
The Montreal Bixi v. the Denver B-Cycle
The Path of an Activist
Bixi: Success for All
Fun Way to Track Bike Use and Carbon Foot Print
3 Compelling Reason For A Bike Share Program in Your City
City Cycling: Why Renting Beats Owning
A Review of Montreal's Bixi Rental Bike

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Review: Drive-By Saviours by Chris Benjamin

Drive-By Saviours
Chris Benjamin
Fernwood Publishing

The narrative of Drive-By Saviours alternates between Mark McCloud, a social worker living in Toronto, and Bumi, a brilliant young boy from a fishing village in Indonesia living under the repressive Suharto regime. While Mark's lifelong goal is to help people, social working does not give him the hands-on work he craves. He lives with his partner, Sarah, who works as a model, and it would seem that he has everything to make him happy.

On the other side of the world, Bumi is given a unique opportunity to leave his tiny fishing island and go to school in a larger urban centre as part of a government initiative, escaping his regular beatings from his alcoholic father. But life is not easy for Bumi as a poor outsider, and he grows into a young man with series of nervous ticks and strange rituals that make onlookers uneasy. Bumi's strange behaviour eventually results in his being suspected of a series of heinous crimes, forcing him to flee Indonesia and live illegally in Toronto, where he eventually meets Mark. Through their budding friendship, Mark recognizes Bumi's obsessive compulsive disorder and is finally able to give someone hands-on assistance. Bumi's disorder also reminds him of some strange quirks his estranged sister Michelle showed as a child. He attempts to re-establish contact with her so that he might help her too.

The Bumi component of the story, particularly of his childhood and teenage years in Indonesia, was pure escapism, the reason we pick up a book in the first place. Author Chris Benjamin beautifully captures all of the delicious details of obsessive compulsive disorder. I was less keen on Mark's character, not because he wasn't well done, but because he reminded me of so many people today--those who appear to have everything on the outside, but still seem dissatisfied with their lives. And this may have well been the entire message of the book--the things that make us money are usually not what make us happy.

This was an ambitious first book in which the author demonstrated his fine storytelling skills. Still, I wished that the author had focused more on Mark's childhood with his sister and his wonderfully dysfunctional family rather than on the protagonist's daily slog in Toronto. I would have also liked to have seen sister Michelle brought into the story a little earlier on, and maybe saved the compelling character of Lily for another book.

Overall this was a good read, and I think many people will readily identify with protagonist Mark McCloud. Chris Benjamin is a great writer whom we will certainly be hearing more of in the future.

Related book-related posts
Interview with Author Billie Livingston
Review: The Trouble with Marlene by Billie Livingston
Review: Greedy Little Eyes by Billie Livingston
Interview: Christy Ann Conlin Author of Dead Time
Review of Girls' History and Culture Reader: The Twentieth Century
Dead Time by Christy Ann Conlin
The Social Media Survival Guide by Deltina Hay
The Birth House by Ami McKay
The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis
The Bone Cage by Angie Abdou
Unless by Carol Shields
Essex County by Jeff Lemire


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Almonds: Perfect Recipe For Dry Skin

In some recent experimentation, I tried some Dr. Bonner's Almond castile soap along with sweet almond oil in a shower gel, and the results were great, particularly for dry skin. Depending on your skin type, you may not even need to use a moisturizer after your shower.

Although I added just a few drops of lemon and grapefruit essential oil to the mix, the overall scent was almondy, so I would suggest you add more than a few drops to smell those citrus notes. If you like the almond scent and decide to save your essential oils for an occasion when they will be better appreciated I suggest you forego the grapefruit because the lemon still acts as a preservative, extending the shelf-life of your shower gel.

The following non-toxic biodegradable ingredients can all be found at your local health food store:


Shower Gel
1/4 cup (125 ml) of Almond liquid castile soap
1/4 cup (125 ml) of aloe vera gel. If you like a thicker consistency add more aloe vera.
1 teaspoon of glycerin
1/4 cup (125 ml) of sweet almond oil
Several drops of lemon essential oil (Preservative)
Several drops of grapefruit essential oil (Anti-oxidant)

Mix it all together and put it in a sterilized squeeze bottle. This recipe should give you enough shower gel to last about a month. If there is a noticeable change in the scent then your gel has surpassed its best before date and should be discarded.

Related posts:
Lucie's Zesty Tester
Update: DIY Cosmetics
DIY: Moisturizer and Shampoo
Cosmetics: the Dirty Dozen
DIY: Home Spa Salt Scrub
Dirty Dozen in my Personal Care Products
Living Downstream by Sandra Steingraber
Airing our Dirty Laundry
The Mile End Buzz around Beekeeping


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A Reason to Honk

It's My Body. It's My Choice
On this blustery Sunday afternoon, I was crossing St-Joseph Blvd at St-Dominique on my bike when someone honked at me for no apparent reason. A few more cars honked before I arrived at the other side of the Boulevard. From the sidewalk, I saw two groups of demonstrators: Pro-life and Pro-choice. The latter group was asking drivers to honk to show their support.

Although abortion is more of an issue in the US than here in Canada, I was wondering why the number of protesters had increased in recent weeks. In addition, I wanted to know why they had chosen to demonstrate on the St-Joseph side of Park Lahaie in front of the St-Enfant Jesus Church. Yes, there's high visibility at this intersection, but was that the only factor...

I crossed the street and attempted to have a chat with the Pro-life group and spoke momentarily with two young men. As I asked them about the religious leanings of their group, I noticed a middle-aged driver and his passenger honking and giving me the finger. The two young pro-lifers said that their group was an interdenominational Christian group that emphasized prayer and reflection regarding abortion. As I pressed further for answers about the location, one man left while the other backed away from me. I walked over to the pro-choice camp.

My reception was pretty frosty. In hindsight, I should have started with some questions for the pro-choice group first. I counted at least 15 pro-choice supporters, many carrying handmade signs. My favourite placard was "Keep Your Crosses out of our Crotches." The person who agreed to talk to me told me that the pro-choice demonstrators were from all over Canada and didn't belong to any specific group. They just wanted to make sure that the Pro-life group faced some opposition. I said that I'd noticed a lone pro-choice woman who had demonstrated on that corner for what seemed like a few years.

"So why do you think, she has chosen this corner?" I asked.
"Because it's right in front of the Morgentaler Clinic," said the young pro-choice demonstrator, who refused to disclose her name.

Aha! This was a protest against the famous Morgentaler Clinic. For those of you unfamiliar with Dr. Henry Morgentaler, he began performing illegal abortions in 1968. He was arrested on several occasions and even served 10 months in prison. Nevertheless, he continued his crusade for a woman's right to choose until the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 1988 that the law Morgentaler had been convicted under was unconstitutional, which ended all statutory restrictions on abortion in Canada. Today, Dr. Morgentaler is 88 years old but still oversees six of his private clinics.

After reading about how the religious right is pushing for anti-abortion legislation in the US and given the threat of a Conservative majority in this country, a woman's right to a safe and legal abortion may once again become an issue for Canadians to fight for. Kudos to the Pro-choice supporters who have used their Sunday to defend our rights. If you drive by our Pro-choice demonstrators make sure you honk for choice!

Related posts:
Stephen Leacock's Last Laugh
The CBC Investigates Sexism in Publishing
Guerrilla Girls, Humour and Hope
Publishing: What If...?
Publishing: What's "Good" and "Important"  (Stats on the # of books authored by women that are reviewed)
CBC: The Elephant in the Room  (Terry Fallis's book beats Carol Shields in CanadaReads)
Reads from Men


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Interview With Author Billie Livingston

Since I started reading YA novels, I have asked many adults about the books they read when they were a teen. Everyone had at least one book that spoke to them or held some special meaning. Knowing that someone understands you or validates your feelings as a teen can be very powerful. This made me all the more curious about YA writers and their favourite novel(s) growing up.

I recently read The Trouble with Marlene by Billie Livingston, a compelling novella that I know many teens will treasure (full review click here). I wanted to find out a little bit more about our author and her latest novella. As you'll see, the teen years were trying for Billie, as they were for many of us. But she survived and still went on to author two novels, Going Down Swinging and Cease to Blush, and a collection of short stories, Greedy Little Eyes (for full review click here). She is also a poet and her book of poetry, The Chick at the Back of the Church,  was nominated for the Pat Lowther Award. What's more, when Billie is not writing, you'll find her working as stand-in or an extra in Vancouver's bustling film industry. FYI: a stand-in is a person who is a substitute for an actor for technical purposes, such as lighting. Billie has stood in for everyone, from Faye Dunaway to James Earl Jones. In the interview below, our author tells us not only about her YA favourites but also about a special development for  The Trouble with Marlene.


Here's our interview:

H-Which YA novels or adult novels did you read that had the greatest impact on you growing up?

BL-The first YA book that I remember devouring—or trying to—was Go Ask Alice.  I got my hands on it when I was about nine-years-old, but my mother took it away before I could finish.  She thought that the book glorified drugs. Ironic considering that the narrator, Alice, OD’s and dies.  I secretly got a copy of it again when I was about eleven and lapped up every word. Around the same time, I was also absorbed in a completely different book series: The Black Stallion. I loved the adventure of it and the way the kid and the horse were both misfits who were able to make a go of it together. Other favorites were The Pigman, Lord of the Flies, and The Outsiders. I suppose these books all depicted teenagers as somewhat agitated and floundering, struggling in a way that I could relate to.


H-Our 16-year-old protagonist Samantha uses a pretty crafty ruse to get money for food--finding a receipt, going to a store, picking up the exact products and then returning them for cash. Where did you hear about this trick? 

BL-There are a couple of shadier characters in my family who have always been willing to share a story or two.This particular ruse I got from a friend of my husband’s in Brooklyn. He’s an actor now, plays a lot of gangster types, but he was a pretty active street-con when he was younger. And I think he still likes to take an edge where he can.


H-The dynamic between Marlene and her 16-year-old daughter Samantha is pretty toxic. Where did you find your inspiration for these two characters?


BL-I had originally conceived of the Bell family, Marlene, Samantha and Sam (Samantha’s father) as the lead characters in a full-length adult novel. I drew from people in my family, and girls I’d known in high school.  I was in a foster home myself as a kid and I met a lot of people like the Bells. While fleshing out the story and characters, I decided to start writing Samantha’s world in short bursts first, chunks of life that would let me experiment with voice.

At 16, you’re on the cusp–not a child anymore but not an adult either. You’re almost full-grown and you’re drawn to adult indulgences but with a young, inexperienced mind that is full of all kinds of fear and bravado at once. Just as I was moving into a new piece of Samantha’s world, I got an email from editor, Melanie Little, asking if I’d like to contribute a story to Annick Press’s new Single Voice series.  Melanie had such a terrific reputation that I was quite excited to work with her. I decided it might be interesting to take Marlene and Samantha out for test drive and see what the response was. Much to my surprise, they were embraced with open arms.

I’m back to working on the adult novel now where Samantha, Marlene and Sam can open wide and tell it all, no holds barred.  The pleasure of an adult novel is that I can set it in a real city (The story takes place in Vancouver —Burnaby, actually, which is a suburb close to Vancouver) and I can use any kind of regional slang I like. 


H-There's a potentially explosive situation developing between Marlene and her daughter. Luckily, Samantha lets someone in on what's going on and asks for help. The ending was tragic for the 16-year-old having to get her mom out of jail, but it could have been much worse. Did you ever consider an even more tragic ending?

BL-Though Marlene is a mess, she’s not a malicious person but rather someone who is so child-like in many ways that she’s not very capable. Selfish as she is, she adores Samantha, loves her in a way that she isn’t capable of with anyone else. And perhaps counter-intuitively, Marlene’s dependence and crippled sort of love helps Samantha see herself as worthy. I think that once you come to a place where you value yourself, you can’t help but value who and what you touch. (Assuming you’re not a sociopath!) I always envisioned Samantha, even when exercising her criminal skills, as a girl with an instinct for change and light, the desire to connect with something greater than herself rather than one who’s bent on destruction.  


H-I've heard rumours that The Trouble with Marlene has been optioned for a film directed by an award-winning director. Is there any truth to this?

BL-Yes!  Ana Valine, who has won several awards for her short subjects, has optioned The Trouble with Marlene as her first feature film.  She’s working on the script now and plans to use my original title, Sitting on the Edge of Marlene. Ana has been racking up the accolades for her most recent short film, “How Eunice Got Her Baby,” and in March she received word that, based on her Marlene script, she had won the Women in the Director’s Chair Award, which brings with it a big chunk of funding.  You can read more about that here.

H-Well, let's hear it for women directors! Congratulations to both Billie and Ana Valine.

Thanks so much Billie for taking the time to talk with us today.

Related posts:
Review: The Trouble with Marlene by Billie Livingston
Review: Greedy Little Eyes by Billie Livingston
Interview: Christy Ann Conlin Author of Dead Time
Review of Girls' History and Culture Reader: The Twentieth Century
Dead Time by Christy Ann Conlin
The Social Media Survival Guide by Deltina Hay
The Birth House by Ami McKay
The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis
The Bone Cage by Angie Abdou
Unless by Carol Shields
Essex County by Jeff Lemire


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Stephen Leacock's Last Laugh

I couldn't believe my eyes this morning when I read about the CBC's "disappointment" that the Stephen Leacock Association had announced an all-male shortlist for the 2011 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. It expressed its dismay and then went on to name 10 "rich, hilarious" Canadian women writers.

That's quite an about-face for our publicly funded radio and television network, which just two months ago bestowed the 2011 Canada Reads and best book of the decade award on a self-published male novelist, the 8th male writer in its 10 year history. Among calls of sexism in the publishing world, the CBC's Michael Enright looked into sexist practices at major literary publications a few weeks later. Enright's question--why are there so few women with bylines at major literary publications? And there were some funny reasons. But progress is progress, right?

Anyway, I decided to do a little bit of research into the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, and once again, I was astounded. In the 63 years that the Stephen Leacock Association has been awarding medals for humour, only five recipients have been women, or one shy of the number of male winners with the surname Ferguson. Hilarious! Unfortunately, the Stephen Leacock Award was fair in the beginning with three women winners in the first eight years. Then the next female winner wasn't until 1979. The winner of the Stephen Leacock medal receives $15,000, while the other short-listed writers receive "a cheque." But it's not really about the money, is it?

The Stephen Leacock Award for Humour still carries a lot of weight in the eyes of the Canadian public, and it can be said that Terry Fallis's 2011 Canada Reads nomination for the Best Laid Plans had a lot to do with his Stephen Leacock Medal in 2008. After all, it was given the label "the funniest," which like "the best" and "most important," are completely subjective terms that nevertheless go a long way in selling books.

But how many women would even submit their book when the last woman winner was in 1996? Or the fact that only five women writers have been shortlisted since 2002? (Sorry, I couldn't find any data farther back than that.) It brings us back to the same line of questioning that Michael Enright raised with his panelists: why are there so few women writers with bylines at major literary publications? The reason the panelists gave was because men tried harder and resubmitted their work after they were rejected. Ergo women are quitters? No, women are smart enough to realize that when they see one woman's name among 10 men with bylines that they're better off putting their energy elsewhere. Ditto for women writers looking at a winner's list with 63 names and seeing only five that belong to women. There you have it: sexism in black and white.

As we have seen, the Stephen Leacock Award can launch a literary career, so in the interest of fairness, shouldn't the Association be looking into its own practices? Or rather shouldn't its sponsors, the Ontario Trillium Foundation, funded by Ontario taxpayers, be pressuring the Stephen Leacock Association to make some much-needed changes. Calls of sexism also reflect poorly on the other sponsors: the TD Financial Group, the City of Orillia, Lakehead University, Osprey Media Group and Sun Media, not to mention Stephen Leacock himself.

Sexism is no laughing matter.

Here's the link to the podcast of Michael Enright's program: CBC.ca | The Sunday Edition | Women in Publishing - MMR Autism Scandal - Phil Ochs Documentary

Related posts
The CBC Investigates Sexism in Publishing
Guerrilla Girls, Humour and Hope
Publishing: What If...?
Publishing: What's "Good" and "Important"  (Stats on the # of books authored by women that are reviewed)
CBC: The Elephant in the Room  (Terry Fallis's book beats Carol Shields in CanadaReads)
Reads from Men


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Pssst...Closeted Beef Lovers


If you read Marco Pagliarulo's Going Vegan for the Environment in Rabble.ca this week, then you know that it takes a whopping 40-kcal input of energy to produce 1 kcal of beef protein, whereas it takes just 2.2 kcal to produce the same quantity of plant protein. And let's not forget the gazillion gallons of water inputs it takes to create meat protein or the pollution outputs intensive livestock operations create.

This is disheartening news for die hard beef eaters. But there's no need to feel like human Hummers. There is a similar red meat that offers more protein and iron, plus less fat and fewer calories. This option is bison meat.

Here are a few facts on bison and other conventional animal meats from the USDA Handbook:

Bison (100 g)          fat: 2.42 g     calories:143kcal     cholesterol: 82mg     iron: 3.42mg
Beef (100 g)           fat: 9.32g      calories: 211kcal     cholesterol: 86mg     iron: 2.00mg
Pork (100 g)           fat: 9.66g      calories: 212kcal     cholesterol: 86mg     iron: 1.10mg
Chicken (100 g)      fat: 3.90g      calories: 158kcal     cholesterol: 89mg     iron: 1.21mg


Vito Himself with Some Horns
Environmentally conscious Mile End beef lovers are in luck. Our favourite butcher, Vito, sells bison from its supplier, Ferme Takwanaw, in Thurso, Quebec, about 150 km north-east of Montreal in the Outaouais. Bison from the Petite Nation are obviously free-range (apparently 600 acres for 300 heads of bison) and hormone-free. You can buy bison steaks at $34.99/kilo or the ground variety at $13.99/kilo. Suppliers deliver on Wednesdays! Or if you're feeling particularly wealthy one week you can enjoy bison au Pied du cochon, which uses the same supplier as Vito.

We prepared our first bison burgers on Friday. My husband thought it was delicious, and my daughter thought it tasted like a hamburger. I enjoyed it too, but was happier than most to get a big shot of iron for a much-needed energy boost.

If you want to try something a little more creative. Here are some recipes for  Marinated Bison Stew, Bison Osso Bucco, and Pepper Bison Roast.

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Brief Visit to Mauritania

A culinary experience not to be missed in the Mile End is a visit to la Khaima at 142 Fairmount West. Last Friday night, the charismatic Atigh welcomed us into his exotic restaurant that specializes in dishes from North Africa and his native Mauritania. Our experience started with our host giving us a list of the ingredients in the lentil appetizer. Here's the unusual albeit delicious combination of spices.

Ingredients
lentils, tomatoes, bulgur, diced onion, cilantro, ground coriander seed, cumin, harissa, paprika, ginger, cinnamon, lemon, limes, parsley, garlic, black pepper, olive oil and salt.
 
This was served with pita bread cut into quarters. I'm not sure that I would try this on my own. Too much of a few of these spices could spell disaster.

The main course was a choice of olive lamb tagine, delicate-tasting lamb sausages or vegetables cooked in peanut sauce. It was an impossible choice, so we opted for a little of all three, which appeared to be the choice of most of the tables. The main dish was served with a cold hibiscus tea, which Atigh is famous for. We had just enough room for the best mint tea I have ever tasted and a small honey and pistachio pastry.
A Chest that belonged to Atigh's Grandmother

This is a great and inexpensive place to go with a large group of friends. But it's also very popular, so I would suggest making reservations in advance.

Here's a link to a post on Atigh's hibiscus drink, which he makes and bottles on the restaurant premises. You can find it at corner stores throughout Montreal.

Other posts about the Mile End
Mile End Flavour of the Summer--Hibiscus
Hidden Beauty of the Rialto Theatre
Images de femmes at Rialto Theatre
Guerrilla in the Midst
Bagel Conundrum
Mile End's Ring of Fame
What it is by Lynda Barry
The True Gender
Almost a Visit to Gender
St-Viateur: the Polish Bazaar
The Mile End Buzz Around Beekeeping
For the Love of Vinyl
Airing Our Dirty Laundry





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Review: The Trouble With Marlene by Billie Livingston

Annick Press was kind enough to send me another little gem from its YA Single Voice series: The Trouble with Marlene by Billie Livingston. I will also have a few words to say about Film Studies by Caroline Adderson, the flipside of this book, which I think was a great pairing.

The Trouble With Marlene by Billie Livingston
 
Samantha is a teen living with her pill-popping, wine-swilling mother, who openly expresses her desire to take her own life. Her parents were small-time hustlers until her father was caught and thrown in jail. Although he has apparently been released, he has yet to contact his daughter. Her mother, Marlene, botched a robbery attempt two years before and was severely beaten. As a result, she is psychologically unstable and has developed a dependence on alcohol and drugs.

The various men Marlene drags home, her yelling at the landlady, the immature arguments with her daughter, a home without food and often without a mom or any indication of her whereabouts are just some of the details of Sammie's unsettling life. She has Drew whom she met at a welfare-funded Christian summer camp. Although Sammie needs Drew, she's unsure of her feelings for him and is reluctant to let anyone see her real life. But Marlene's increasing instability leaves poor Sammie with little choice. Marlene's repeated desire to die leads poor Sammie to actually contemplate giving her mother what she wants--her own death. Then at least, she would have some peace in her life, which she so desperately needs.

Livingston has crafted a fast-moving and intensely dark story that makes the reader extremely sympathetic to Sammie's plight and desperation. Told entirely from the 16-year-old's point of view, the story gives the reader a very realistic and chilling account of what it might be like to be Sammie. Unlike her mother, Sammie is resourceful enough to use a clever trick to buy food and has the good sense to reach out to Drew when she really needs help. Marlene is the one who is completely helpless. Livingston did a great job of creating an immature and needy Marlene, who is too ill-equipped to look after herself, let alone a teenage daughter.

Kudos to Livingston for shedding light on a very dysfunctional situation that we all know exists, but refuse to acknowledge. Maybe now both parents and teens will look at that young panhandler on the corner a little differently.

Film Studies by Caroline Adderson is the story of 16-year-old Cassandra who also has a very needy, depressive mother and an absent father who is a film-maker. Cassandra like Samantha has to be a parent to her faltering mother, calling in sick for her and consoling her after she is dumped by a string of "inappropriate men." Seemingly oblivious to Cassandra's feelings, her mother briefly reconciles with Cassandra's father without telling her.

The 16-year-old, who puts on a cool "Ice Queen" exterior to keep her classmates at a distance, is enrolled in film studies in an attempt to better understand her father and his art. In a film project, she pushes her performance with her new boyfriend a little too far in an attention-seeking ploy to exact revenge on her parents, who are too self-involved to think about their daughter's feelings.

Film Studies was a great match for Livingston's The Trouble With Marlene. FS is not as dark, but it mirrors the situation of a daughter parenting her mother, a situation that is more common than we think. In Film Studies, many teens will find some validation for their contradictory feelings towards their parents.

Psst...Billie Livingston has agreed to answer some of my questions about The Trouble with Marlene. I'm thrilled to have a chance to speak with this original author who gives a voice to so many women without one in mainstream culture.






Other reviews:
The Girls’ History and Culture Reader: The Twentieth Century
Greedy Little Eyes by Billie Livingston
Dead Time by Christy Ann Conlin
The Social Media Survival Guide by Deltina Hay
The Birth House by Ami McKay
The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis
The Bone Cage by Angie Abdou
Unless by Carol Shields
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Hidden Beauty of the Rialto Theatre

Original Jester Embellishment
Last Friday night my husband and I accepted an invitation to take a closer look at the hidden beauty of the Rialto Theatre. We met Co-owner Ezio Carosielli on the balcony, and he gave us a brief history of the movie palace and some of the details that few people know about.

The Rialto was built in 1923-1924 by Montreal architect Louis-Raoul Gariépy, but the interior design was the work of Emmanuel Briffa, who designed 60 other Canadian movie palaces in the Louis the XVI style. Montrealers may remember more of Briffa's artistry at the Snowden, the Seville Theatre, the York and Cinema 5.

Asbestos on the Original Curtain
The gold embellishment throughout the Canadian Heritage building is made of plaster rather than wood as a safeguard against fire. In the 1920s, the film used in cinemas was highly flammable, as were the projectors, which used powerful lamps and produced intense heat. Now if you consider that the theatre could accommodate 1,330 people at a time, with 630 seats on the balcony and 700 on the main floor, a fire could cause a major calamity. When I was taking pictures of the Images de Femmes, I noticed the word "Asbestos" on the curtain. Ezio explained that this was the original curtain and that asbestos was used for its flame-retardant qualities.

Stained Glass Ceiling and the Original Colours
Carosielli pointed out the various panels of angels on the sides of the balcony and said that, as they peeled back years of previous owners' renovations they expected to find many more cherubs. He also showed us a plaster wall in one of the box seats that they had uncovered after taking out another wall.

Angel Panels on Balcony
Carosielli and his partner Luisa Sassano have found themselves in a genuine treasure trove. They recently discovered  that the initial lighting system used to illuminate the stairs of the balcony had been filled in. When they dug out the light beds, they discovered that the original electrical wiring was still intact and were later able to find outer brass coverings. I asked how they managed to change lights behind the stained glass in the ceiling. Our tour guide said that there were upper passageways leading to every light fixture. He also told us that below the theatre, there was 10,000 square feet of unused space, where they had future plans to create a 125-seat venue for more intimate performances.

The mandate of Carosielli and Sassano is to restore the theatre to its original colours. There are apparently 16 different shades of green and beige to replicate, and unfortunately, there is no cheap and easy way to do this. The pair is busy taking reservations, while pursuing renovation plans, one stage at a time.

After witnessing the beauty and acoustics of the Rialto, we have no doubt that in the near future it will once again become the venue of choice for Montrealers.

For further reading on the Rialto's history and future plans click here.


Other Mile End related posts:
Images de femmes at Rialto Theatre
Guerrilla in the Midst
Bagel Conundrum
Mile End's Ring of Fame
What it is by Lynda Barry
The True Gender
Almost a Visit to Gender
St-Viateur: the Polish Bazaar
The Mile End Buzz Around Beekeeping
For the Love of Vinyl
Airing Our Dirty Laundry


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