Archive for the ‘Jude Dillon’ Tag

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bhouse_logosoloA number of years ago my friend Michael Finner and I started up a small publishing house in Calgary called B House. It has gone through good times and bad, happy and sad. It’s obviously interesting times in the publishing world. Everything is up in the air. Everything is topsy-turvy. The old rules no longer apply and no one really knows what the new rules are.

In this regard, we are certainly living in interesting times.

While we have been down, we have never really been out. And now, amazingly, we are having an omnibus launch of 5 new books this spring.

Here is the press release I wrote about the launch:

B House Publications is pleased to announce an Omnibus launch of 5 new B House publications featuring the work of some of Calgary’s finest writers. The books will be launched in one evening at Calgary’s Shelf Books, at the corner of 4th Street and 13th Avenue SW on Thursday, June 6 beginning at 7:00 PM.

The evening will be hosted by B House editor in chief, Eugene Stickland. There will be readings by our authors from their books, in the following order.

1. Neil Fleming will read from his play, “Last Christmas.”

2. Eugene Stickland will read from “Cartwheels,” a collections of letters written by Amy Doolittle chronicling her experience with ALS.

3. Virginia Nemitz will read from her volume of poetry, “Swans I have Known.”

4. Jude Dillon will read from his volume of poetry, “The Fractured Garden.”

5. Kirk Miles will read from his volume of poetry, his second with B House, “Hotel on the Cliffs of the Heart.”

There will be an intermission so our friends can look around this beautiful book store and mingle with the authors. There will be a reasonably-priced cash bar and some nibblies.  All in all, it will be a rare experience to launch so many books by so many great writers at the same event. Please share this with as many people as you can.

All of these books will also be (or have also been) launched individually by their author, so please check with them to see if there will be other events to celebrate these books. 

See you at Shelf Life June 6.

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On the night, I will speak on the ever-changing mandate of B House and offer some insight into what I think is going on in the publishing world. I certainly invite friends in Calgary to take in this event and support our local writers.

There is a link to Shelf Life on the left side of this screen.

Thanks for reading.

Posted June 5, 2013 by Eugene Stickland in Uncategorized

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In Search of the Elusive Chucks: Photo Essay   5 comments

My friend the poet and photographer Jude Dillon accompanied me recently on a shopping expedition to Divine Decadence on 17th Avenue SW for my annual spring acquisition of a new pair of Converse All Stars — aka Chucks.

At the front door of Divine Decadence. Obviously I’ve already been next door to Reid’s Stationers where I bought a notebook which I did need and a fountain pen that I didn’t need.I have so many fountain pens now that I don’t need, but I can’t seem to help myself. The same could be said of Chucks. This pair I am in search of today will be pair #4. Oh well.

 

 

Atop the stairs preparing for the descent into Decadence. A tad apprehensive, perhaps. It’s a major undertaking that I don’t take lightly.

 

 

Holy Moses! Decisions, decisions! Do you ever find that too much choice can lead to paralysis?

 

 

A Prufrock moment: Do I dare wear a pair of peach-coloured Chucks?(Or are they tangello? Or is there such a thing as tangello Chucks? What would Prufrock have done? Or for that matter, Elliot? An existential conundrum . . .)

 

 

 

The lovely Megan helping me with the all important decision. We consulted for several hours, I had her people call my people, they did, they took a lunch, I took a nap, but when I woke up I was hungry because I hadn’t had my own lunch. Buying shoes can be exhausting.

 

 

The moment of truth. Yes they had the style I wanted and they even had my size, which is no small feat, so to speak, when you’re size 13. A small village of small people could live in one of my shoes. A hamlet. I wonder if Hamlet wore Chucks? If I were directing it, I’d put him in the exact same pair as I’m buying for myself.

 

Lacing up! This black on black style was recommended to me by my daughter Johanna Stickland who is the most famous fashion model I know and whom I trust entirely as my fashion adviser. She’s in Portugal right now, in case you’re wondering. But she’s going to Concordia in the fall to study photography.

 

Success! Over the years, my definition of success has become admittedly somewhat narrow. But you can never have too many shoes!

 

 

 

Hopefully I have enough in my account to pay for these suckers! I was once on a date and I had to stop off at the ATM to get some cash. I told my date I wasn’t sure if I had any money in my account. But then I took some out. And so she asked me how much I had in my account and I said around $1,000.00. She said, “So you don’t really know within $1,000.00 what your bank balance is?” And I said “That’s right.” She just shook her head, and then we had a drink.

 

The photographer. This is as much of the mysterious Jude Dillon as you’re likely to see.

 

 

 

Love yourself: why not? Better than the alternative! A nice reminder. Our trip to Divine was a lovely interlude. I make no secret that I love to support local businesses. Divine is an institution on 17th Ave., the people are friendly, what’s not to like? By the way, Megan asked me to put in a plug for their big sale coming up called Midnight Madness. It’s on April 27th from 7PM till Midnight. Everything in the store on sale up to 80%! (Details at divineplanet.com)

(I think I’ll head back and reconsider those peach coloured high tops)

Thanks for reading!

Posted April 21, 2012 by Eugene Stickland in Uncategorized

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