Sequel to Murder at the Mendel. Teenage pros­ti­tutes are being mutilated and murdered in Regina. Joanne Kilbourn and her family become entangled with some of these “dis­pos­able” girls, in a case that touches too closely to home.

In the previous novels, her children were important secondary characters. Here they become central to the story, each in their own way.

Greenstage continue their Shake­speare in the Park this year with per­for­mances of King John and Comedy of Errors at a number of Seattle-area parks over the summer. Emma and I enjoyed their Twelfth Night at Seward Park last year. Best of all, it’s free!

The play starts at 7:00pm. Come at 5:00 and have a picnic with us near the Am­phithe­ater. Bring food that’s ready to eat—the Seward Park PCC is less than a mile away. There’s some seating but you might want to bring your own chairs.

If you come even earlier, Seward Park is worth a trip in its own right. Old growth forest trails and a 2.5 mile lakefront walk.

Please …continue.

Joanne Kilbourn has moved to Saskatoon after the events of Deadly Ap­pear­ances, and renewed her childhood friendship with Sally Love. Sally is now a famous artist and the focus of con­tro­ver­sy: a huge fresco that she painted for the Mendel museum of the penises and vaginas of her former lovers is being picketed. As events turn ugly, Joanne will learn more than she ever wanted to know about Sally’s and her own history.

Bowen writes knowl­edge­ably about art and artists and frustrated ambitions. Joanne’s long, entangled history with …continue.

Up is another gem from Pixar. A shy little boy Carl Fredrick­sen meets the exuberant Ellie, who also hero worships Charles Muntz, noted explorer of Paradise Falls. They grow old together and Ellie dies before they can achieve their lifelong dream of an adventure. With nothing left to lose, Carl attaches 10,000 helium balloons to his house and floats off to South America in search of Paradise Falls, in­ad­ver­tent­ly taking Russell, a Wilderness Explorer, with him.

The movie appealed just as much to the kids at our showing as the adults. The sto­ry­telling is first rate, combining humor, adventure, love, and …continue.

Andy Boychuk has just become the leader of the opposition party in Saskatchewan when he is murdered. His advisor, Joanne Kilbourn, sees him drink the poison. Her own husband was sense­less­ly murdered a few years earlier, and Andy was not only her boss but an old friend, so it’s difficult for her. When she decides to write a biography of Andy and learns unexpected things about him, her health mys­te­ri­ous­ly begins to fail.

Joanne is a middle-aged widow with children, who has spent her life working behind the scenes in Saskatchewan …continue.

I complained a week ago about my display driver going berserk. I blamed Windows Update, since it happened within hours of a pile of updates being installed. I upgraded to the latest beta NVidia drivers on Monday and it helped for a while, but by Wednesday, it was almost as bad again as it had been last Friday. It was in­fu­ri­at­ing and I was both en­ter­tain­ing and alarming my neighbors with my cursing.

Today was the last day of a very busy sprint for me and at last I had the time to dig into it. I opened up the case and took a look at both video cards—I have …continue.

I walked past this truck at Second and Pike on Monday and did a double-take. Eric was intrigued too when I showed him a photo later, and we went back to in­ves­ti­gate yesterday.

They only opened a few weeks ago. As yet, the menu is limited. The Maximus is a pulled pork sandwich with a hot sauce, while the Minimus has a tangy sauce. They have a vegetarian sandwich, chips made from potatoes and vegetables, and hibiscus and ginger lemonades.

I don’t much care for barbecue as a rule. The Minimus with a sprinkling of Beecher’s cheese was good, but not out­stand­ing. The pork was flavorful and not over­whelmed by the sauce. The sandwich …continue.

Candidate Obama talked a great line in gay rights, selling himself as a “fierce advocate”. He’d get rid of the Defense of Marriage Act, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and more.

President Obama has been a big dis­ap­point­ment on gay rights. He hasn’t done anything about DADT, he hasn’t spoken out about gay marriage, he hasn’t made any gay ap­point­ments. John Aravosis has a good roundup at Salon.

But now a shitstorm has blown up. On Friday, the Department of Justice filed a brief in defense of DOMA. First of all, the DoJ is not actually required to defend all laws. More im­por­tant­ly, the brief was gra­tu­itous­ly offensive, invoking incest and pedophilia.

People are outraged. A major fundraiser for …continue.

Today, June 16th, is the actual Bloomsday. For expediency, we in the Wild Geese Players usually perform our reading at the nearest weekend.

The Irish Times writes its usual report of a crowd of posers re-enacting fragments of Ulysses in Dublin. Perhaps the best line:

Back in the city centre, a sign outside Davy Byrne’s advertised a Bloomsday special: Gorgonzola cheese sandwiches and burgundy for €12.90. Someone nearby complained loudly that prices had gone up since 1904.

A Spanish translator of Ulysses remarked:

“You don’t have to be a Joycean to enjoy this day,” he said. “It’s wonderful to see literature taking over the city and there are lots of ordinary people, not just scholars.

“That’s …continue.

Paul Christo­pher, sep­tu­a­ge­nar­i­an and former superspy, was last seen in a remote Chinese province. His ashes are delivered to his cousin Horace, also a retired spy, who is not convinced that the ashes belong to Paul. Then he learns that Paul is on the trail of Ibn Awad, a mad sultan with nukes who covets a first-century manuscript (a Roman spymaster’s report on Jesus) that is thought to be in the possession of Paul’s 94-year-old mother, who hasn’t seen since 1940, when she was abducted by the Nazi Reinhard Heydrich. So …continue.