Out and About

We might be entering the darkest days of the year, but that isn't stopping me from getting out and about. On Thursday night, a neighbour and I went to see Margie Gillis. She was simply amazing - I've never seen anyone dance like that before. Her piece, A Stone's Poem, was in part inspired by time spent in Whitehorse last year. It made my heart sing to see that both Margie, and Holly Bright who performed the opening piece, The Hem of My Northern Coastal Cloud, are both 50 or older. Younger women might have more flexibility, but I would bet that there are few young dancers who could come close to having the depth that Gillis has. Last night, it was back to the Arts Centre to see Ian Parker. Joe and I sat in the balcony, so we had a wonderful view of Parker's hands - so relaxed and expressive. I particularly enjoyed his rendition of Alexina Louie's "Memories in an Ancient Garden". And I was pleasantly surprised to hear him play Beethoven's Sonata No. 14 in C Minor, better known as the Moonlight Sonata. It's such a well known piece that it's unusual to hear it played at a formal concert. He performed it well...not overdone as can sometimes be the case with this sonata. Tonight I'm off to hear J. B. MacKinnon, co-author of The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating. His story is by now a familiar one. After discovering that the food eaten by most North Americans travels an average of 1,500 gas-guzzling miles from farm to grocery store, he and his partner Alisa Smith decided to spend a year eating only food grown within a 100-mile radius of their downtown Vancouver apartment. It's an interesting book, especially the part where they make their own salt! I continue my own search for local food. My meal tonight, a potato and chick-pea curry with chicken, is far from local. Sadly, only the potatoes are from the Yukon. But I have big plans to change that come this summer...stay tuned!