Yesterday evening, cried twice listening to CBC radio - one, a report from Montreal on the 25th anniversary of the murder of 14 young women, whose names were slowly read out, one by one - unbearably sad, especially given the hatred against women being played out daily in accusations in the media.
And then an Ideas program on Martin Luther King - a beautiful portrayal of an extraordinary man, who knew he was going to be killed for his beliefs. All that, on my beloved CBC radio. Also reports on the one year anniversary of the death of Mandela and the usual dreadful news from around the world. Otherwise, HUNKY DORY.
Also, a documentary on Doc Pomus, a huge talent who wrote a thousand pop songs, many of them the Brill Building's greatest hits, including Up on the Roof, Teenager in Love, Sweets for my sweet, This magic moment, Little sister, Suspicion, Vive Las Vegas, and Save the last dance for me. Especially moving when you learn that he was, as he described himself, a "fat Jewish cripple," afflicted with polio in childhood, who wrote "the last dance" for his wife because at their wedding, he could not dance with her. And then he wrote "Can't get used to losing you," Andy Williams's greatest hit, after she left. An autobiography in song.
I'm off in a few minutes to Union Station. Today Anna, Eli and I are getting the train to Ottawa, to visit Auntie Do, who - as I report periodically - at 94 is still not only living in her condo and driving, but winning against her much younger friends at Scrabble. I have packed enough toys and food for a small army, because it's five hours in a train with a wriggler. Easier for Eli than driving, I hope - at least he can move. And move and move.
I hope we make it. I have a cold, not too bad but there. Anna has been feeling terrible this last while, and Eli puked yesterday morning. Today she says he sounds terrible but seems fine. So we're going to go, if necessary to greet Auntie Do and give her her Christmas goodies - all kinds of English treats, mince pies, Jaffa cakes, Eccles cakes and fruit jellies - through surgical masks. But we're going.
Carol will hold down the fort, if you happen to be passing by and urgently need to buy a book or four.
Saturday, December 6, 2014
Friday, December 5, 2014
British Beatles Fan Club Magazine - woo hoo!
Thrilling - Piers Hemmingsen, Canadian Beatles' expert who has a new book coming out soon himself, sent a review of the memoir to the British Beatles Fan Club Magazine - a huge resource for Beatle people - and it just came out.
http://www.britishbeatlesfanclub.co.uk/p/magazine.html
Thank you, Piers. Perhaps this will bump up my readership from 74 to - dare I dream? - 82.
http://www.britishbeatlesfanclub.co.uk/p/magazine.html
Thank you, Piers. Perhaps this will bump up my readership from 74 to - dare I dream? - 82.
Thursday, December 4, 2014
Beth on the 49th Shelf
The amazing Kerry Clare, who writes stories and edits books, raises two small book-loving daughters and keeps the influential Canadian book website 49th Shelf going as well, asked me for a list of recommended Canadian coming-of-age memoirs - including my own. So I compiled this list and she has put it up on the site. Thank you for all you do for literature and the world, Kerry. Her tweet about my list was instantly retweeted by the Creative Non-Fiction Collective of which I'm a proud member. And so, ideas, thoughts and lists are passed quickly around.
http://49thshelf.com/Blog/2014/12/04/Beth-Kaplan-On-Coming-of-Age-Memoirs
http://49thshelf.com/Blog/2014/12/04/Beth-Kaplan-On-Coming-of-Age-Memoirs
It's nice to see that little effort in print, because I've just received word from my publisher about my two fabulous spectacularly popular best-selling books. His report on the on-line sales in the year to date: All My Loving has sold 74 copies, True to Life 38.
That's not including, of course, the vast number of sales at the book launch and from home. With my best marketing efforts - including recently hiring a publicist for a month, at a cost of $800 - 74 and 38.
Well, it could make me sad but it won't. I am now working on a children's nonsense rhyme picture book that will unquestionably make me rich and famous. I'll tell you about it later. After I dab away my tears.
Joking.
Kind of.
Joking.
Kind of.
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
Stephen Hawking and Alex Colville - lucky husbands
A marvellous girl child exhorts us all about the importance of the Little Free Library and books. She made me cry.
http://qz.com/304932/this-8-year-olds-passionate-speech-about-books-is-the-best-thing-on-the-internet-today/
Catch-up time: days have gone by, whole days! Where do they go? A brief overview:
- "The Theory of Everything" - a stunning bio-pic about Stephen Hawking and his wife Jane. Of course, I rushed home to check Google about how much was true and how much was invented for the film. Beware the second wife - if only Paul McCartney had known the truth about Stephen's #2 who apparently abused and assaulted him, which isn't shown in the film. But overall, it's gorgeous - fantastic acting, script, beautifully moving. The man was given 2 years to live and more than 50 years later is still going strong. If that isn't heartening, I don't know what is. Highly recommended.
- The Alex Colville exhibit at AGO - wonderful. I knew too little about this first-rate Canadian artist, such as that his pictures appear four times in the background of Kubrick's "The Shining," and have inspired other filmmakers, including the Coen Brothers and Wes Anderson. What's most moving is that - just like the Hawking film - this exhibit about a brilliant man becomes the story of a sustaining marriage. Alex and Rhoda were married more than 70 years; she raised four children and was his muse, often nude, which she did not enjoy. (Of one painting of her stark naked looking in the fridge, she says, "I would never go into the kitchen with no clothes on.")
But the incredible story I didn't know is that when she was nine, in the Twenties, her father, siblings and other relatives were in a car which was struck by a train, and all were killed. And Colville himself was a war artist who was there when Bergen-Belsen was liberated, and saw sights that haunted him forever. Suddenly, Colville's horse running straight at a train - his sense of drama, foreboding, evil and danger - guns, hidden faces, murky darkness - all make sense.
Colville is quoted as saying, "The difference between a person who's an artist and one who's not is that the artist is always gnawing away at this stuff." Love that, as someone who has spent a lifetime gnawing away. Highly recommended.
- "Page Eight", the first part of the fantastic BBC series written by David Hare starring Bill Nighy - as always, riveting television. At one point, Nighy's character is asked about his faith. "Faith?" he replies. "I have faith the sun will rise in the morning and I'll have a drink at six. That's my faith."
To which I said, Mine too! Only my drink is at five. Great writing. My friend Debra told me the brilliant play "Starlight," by Hare, starring Nighy and Carey Mulligan, is going to open on Broadway in April. Worth a trip to NYC.
And - a PBS special on Peter, Paul and Mary. Many tears. In the early morning rain, Oh Stewball was a racehorse, How many seas must the white dove sail ... My nylon string guitar and I knew them all. Such idealism and heart. A history of their times, too - 58,000 soldiers killed in Vietnam. The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind. The wind is still blowin', Bob, and I ain't heard no answers yet.
It's cold.
http://qz.com/304932/this-8-year-olds-passionate-speech-about-books-is-the-best-thing-on-the-internet-today/
Catch-up time: days have gone by, whole days! Where do they go? A brief overview:
- "The Theory of Everything" - a stunning bio-pic about Stephen Hawking and his wife Jane. Of course, I rushed home to check Google about how much was true and how much was invented for the film. Beware the second wife - if only Paul McCartney had known the truth about Stephen's #2 who apparently abused and assaulted him, which isn't shown in the film. But overall, it's gorgeous - fantastic acting, script, beautifully moving. The man was given 2 years to live and more than 50 years later is still going strong. If that isn't heartening, I don't know what is. Highly recommended.
- The Alex Colville exhibit at AGO - wonderful. I knew too little about this first-rate Canadian artist, such as that his pictures appear four times in the background of Kubrick's "The Shining," and have inspired other filmmakers, including the Coen Brothers and Wes Anderson. What's most moving is that - just like the Hawking film - this exhibit about a brilliant man becomes the story of a sustaining marriage. Alex and Rhoda were married more than 70 years; she raised four children and was his muse, often nude, which she did not enjoy. (Of one painting of her stark naked looking in the fridge, she says, "I would never go into the kitchen with no clothes on.")
But the incredible story I didn't know is that when she was nine, in the Twenties, her father, siblings and other relatives were in a car which was struck by a train, and all were killed. And Colville himself was a war artist who was there when Bergen-Belsen was liberated, and saw sights that haunted him forever. Suddenly, Colville's horse running straight at a train - his sense of drama, foreboding, evil and danger - guns, hidden faces, murky darkness - all make sense.
Colville is quoted as saying, "The difference between a person who's an artist and one who's not is that the artist is always gnawing away at this stuff." Love that, as someone who has spent a lifetime gnawing away. Highly recommended.
- "Page Eight", the first part of the fantastic BBC series written by David Hare starring Bill Nighy - as always, riveting television. At one point, Nighy's character is asked about his faith. "Faith?" he replies. "I have faith the sun will rise in the morning and I'll have a drink at six. That's my faith."
To which I said, Mine too! Only my drink is at five. Great writing. My friend Debra told me the brilliant play "Starlight," by Hare, starring Nighy and Carey Mulligan, is going to open on Broadway in April. Worth a trip to NYC.
And - a PBS special on Peter, Paul and Mary. Many tears. In the early morning rain, Oh Stewball was a racehorse, How many seas must the white dove sail ... My nylon string guitar and I knew them all. Such idealism and heart. A history of their times, too - 58,000 soldiers killed in Vietnam. The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind. The wind is still blowin', Bob, and I ain't heard no answers yet.
It's cold.
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