Monday, February 04, 2013

George McWhirter

In the summer of 2011 I went to school reunion in Austin. At Holy Mass (my school is Roman Catholic) Father Rick Wilkinson, C.S.C. gave one of his always unforgettable sermons. He began this particular one that had all to do with sin: “There is a Greek proverb that says, ‘It is impossible for a man to hide two things. One, that he is in love, the other that he is drunk.’”

In fact I sometimes think that a well-studied first impression of a person we just met can be fairly accurate.

In my photography classes at Focal Point (which sadly closed as far as my pocketbook is concerned a few months ago) I used to break the ice in our studio sessions where we had a nude model with the following question to the model, “I divide mankind into two. There are those who throw dishes in the kitchen and those who don’t. I think you are of the first category.”

More often that not my guess was the correct one, considering that statistically, I had a 50/50 chance.

One easy one is to divide those you know or might know into those who studied ballet and those who didn’t.

Bif Naked

Some years ago I had the tough looking (but not so tough) Bif Naked in my studio and I asked her to put her hand on the top of the head. She did. I asked her, “You studied ballet.”

She said in return, “How did you know?”

I recently photographed poet George McWhirter who taught literature at UBC to many of my more literary friends or wrote introductions to the books of some of my poet friends. McWhirter was also Vancouver’s first Poet Laureate (followed by Brad Cran and then Evelyn Lau). As poets will he kindly gave me a book of his (poets aim to spread the word thusly) poetry. It is called The Book of Contradictions.

I was first struck by the cover illustration. It looked familiar (that moustache). I checked the credits which read:



The author is grateful for the use of the image “Rainbow Room” by Abel Quezada.

I am sure that the illustration of the restaurant at the top of Rockefeller Centre must have first appeared in the New Yorker. You will find some of Abel Quezada’s illustrations here.



If  I am given a book, even a book of poetry, I read it. What really floored me was McWhirter’s introduction to the fourth (of five) sections, one called: ¡And how is the weather in Vancouver, darling?¡

The introduction reads:

An Exchange in Verse
About Longitudes
And Longing
For Other Latitudes

I rest my case (the point made somewhere above) and I can only add that  Art Bergmann (be patient and scroll to the bottom) might have added to McWhirter’s lovely introductory to the verse/verse:

“Let’s go to fucking Hawaii!”

I shall give poet George McWhirter the last word.