I greet you in rusty Spanish because I will take off in a few days on a huge adventure. I plan to walk the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, an ancient 800 km (500 mi.) pilgrimage which stretches from the French town of St. Jean Pied de Port, at the foot of the Pyrenees, to the city of Santiago de Compostela, close to the Atlantic coast of Spain. Some of you will have heard of the Camino; others, not. I am simultaneiously excited and nervous. I will be gone until early October and will not be issuing Convivium for the month of September. If I have the chance, I will post occasional bulletins on Facebook. Two talented Toronto artists have recorded their Camino experiences. Click here to see and hear Oliver Schroer, a gentle giant of a violinist, who managed to play his fiddle along the long way. And Lupe Rodriquez, gifted artist and art educator, used sketches she made as she walked to create large canvasses, bursting with colour and energy. Sadly, Toronto's two most celebrated Camino artists succumbed to leukemia in 2008, but their experiences live on in their artistic expression.
"The landscape fascinated me. The journey covers a terrain which is both beautiful and dramatically diversified. The art and culture is an endless journey of inspiration from the exquisite beauty of Romanesque architecture to the conceptual works created by the pilgrims along the path."
- Lupe Rodriguez
OPERATORS ARE STANDING BY
Our plans for 2011 are now posted on the website, and we're ready to sign you up or answer your questions. In addition to our flagship Toronto Pursuits program in July, we are offering seven fabulous Travel Pursuits to Key West, India, Charlottesville, Germany, Newfoundland, Vienna/Hungary, and Florence. Our print brochure will be sent out in early September.
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if you have friends who would like to receive it.
Although the trip this fall to Egypt is full, we do have room for one or two more people on our late September trip to Santa Fe, The American Southwest: the power of place.
TORONTO PURSUITS
Toronto Pursuits this past July was perhaps the best yet. We settled in well to Victoria College, our new home. As is the case generally when one makes a move, there were some changes and, happily, some lovely surprises. To glimpse more of our carryings-on, click here.
TRAVEL PURSUITS
In anticipation to our 2011 trip to Northern India, I chose to participate in the session, The Muddle & Mystery of India. One of our readings was Rohinton Mistry's witty and compassionate Tales of Firozsha Baag. This collection of stories explores the lives of several residents in a Bombay apartment complex, focussing particularly on the Parsi community, a small religious minority that traces its roots to Zorostrianism and ancient Persia. Conflicts arise as some individuals reject Parsi tradition and embrace more modern and secular customs. In “The Exercisers,” the young protagonist defies his parents and their spiritual advisor by dating a woman who is not a Parsi. I found a short video enactment of this story, renamed "The Homecoming" that captures the pathos but not the humour in Mistry's stories. Both Mistry's stores and Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger were excellent appetizers for The Real Thing, when we will experience, on location, India's enduring fascination through engagement with her culture, her places, her people, her literature. Click here to view the film clip.
TODAY IN LITERATURE
Food has become a highly charged subject in recent years. Organic, local, slow food, food as medicine, fair trade, genetically-modified, world hunger, artisanal production - eating has never been more complicated. But the matter of food has also been a common subject of literature. In January 2011, the Key West Literary Seminar will convene for the time to explore this subject with a big cast of authors with something important to say about food and literature. As we did last year, we will follow the KWLS with our own Feast, Famine and Strange Appetites trip.
"Babette's Feast" by Danish writer, Isak Dinesen is one of the works we will discuss. The story was first published in the Ladies' Home Journal in June 1950 when Dinesen, in need of money and eager to break into the lucrative American magazine market, took up the advice of a friend who urged, "Write about food. Americans are obsessed with food." Children’s writer Rachel Rashkin questions what exactly this story says about food. Click here.
MYSTERY PRIZE-WINNING PHOTOGRAPHER IDENTIFIED
In July, I posted the winning photo from our May trip to Cornwall, but confessed I had lost track of who submitted it. The image was several travellers resting on a high rock overlooking the sea - looking both tired and happy. The winner turned out to be Brigitte Rivard from Ottawa who made her maiden voyage with Classical Pursuits. Chaleureuses félicitations, Brigitte, and hope to see you again soon.
All good wishes and hasta luego,
