Food Fights

Yesterday, I decided to try reading two books more or less simultaneously (not a successful experiment in the past),took Black Jack for a walk, observed some bird disagreements over food, had a latte at The Wicked (superb), went to the gym, met Bill downtown to see Art and the Feminist Revolution exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery, had a latte afterwards at Artigiano's (Bill and I agreed it was good, but not up to Wicked standard) on Hornby Street directly across from the gallery, and came home to another of Bill's wonderful suppers.

The books I've started are: Harvest for Hope - A Guide to Mindful Eating by Jane Goodall and Sweetness in the Belly 

by Camilla Gibb, the latter a kind recommendation from dp.  A non-fiction and a fiction.  So far, I see a link between the two books, with talk of hyenas and hunger and the phenomena of food wastage.  There's even a link to the art exhibit, one which I'll think about a bit more.  I'll only say for now, after about ten pages of Sweetness, that it's a really easy book to get into, and my favorite descriptive line is ...his whole body an exclamation mark as he stood on his toes and paused for effect.  As for Jane Goodall, she talks about the natural habit of animals and man to fight for food.  I have hated that greed for land and organized religion are the two causes that I see for war.  I hadn't thought it through another step to realize land is food, and food is survival. Higher dominance rank gets the best food and thus a more successful reproductive career.  Little scenes seemed to pop up yesterday to keep that thought spinning.

Two starlings argue over the suet that I finally bought and installed in our back yard.

One is forced to wait its turn.
Some pigeons spar over a dirty piece of old pizza at the corner of Davie and Granville.  The lovely one with the map on its back (that's how it appeared to me) stands on its toes to shove the black one out of the way.
Map continues to shove, but Black appears to stand his/her ground.
Black retaliates.
Fairly even match, it seemed to me.
Black was the winner.
Maybe not?
Map is leaving.  In disgust?  Pizza wasn't worth fighting for?
These three seemed to share the goods more or less equally.  Who said pigeons lack intelligence?
I followed Map for a bit, who, Bill thought, danced a jig in this one.
Slim pickings along Davie Street, but Map didn't appear discouraged.  I kept trying to capture the map affect with my camera, but it isn't immediately obvious in any of the three photos to follow.


And WACK? I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it left me cold.  It came highly recommended by art people who know, and I came of age (if indeed I ever did manage to do that) in a historically important time for women.  I'm thinking I just didn't give it the time and energy it deserved.  It also occurred to me that if I had lived in some of the places the protagonist talks about in Gibb's novel, I may have had a very different response.  I left without my customary "I'll have to go back and see this again before it leaves" feeling.  Still, I did find an interesting site with lots of information to wake up my reluctant curiosity.  My favorite of all the works was one done completely with pebbles, but the feminism aspect in that piece completely escaped me.  I haven't located any more information on it, but that will be my first step in response to the show.

Just three and a half days left until school begins.  It's raining now, but I'm beginning to think it could be a long time before my beautiful bike feels the road.  Just for the record, I'm not whining:)  The bus isn't all that bad.  There is more time for reading,  And stop-offs at transfer-point cafes sweeten the inconvenience quite a bit.