Fabric of life

Hello friends!

I am pretty sure we’ve talked about this before, about how childhood fascinations can stay with us for life. I just find it so interesting. And I am especially keen to see if the origin of the fascination is discoverable. Often it isn’t.

I, for example, have always been very keen on cars. I have no idea why. As a child I wanted Matchbox cars instead of dolls or other toys seen as more interesting to girls in that era. I loved my friend’s father’s car. It was a Rover, a unique car in a land of Chevs and Fords and Chryslers. I loved the shape of it, the deep green paint colour and the very fragrant leather interior. It was exotic in my world and I was a bit obsessed. I even went camping with the family once just to get a chance to ride in the car for a distance, though I was terrifically homesick the whole time I was away.

I can trace other interests back to early childhood too. My love for William Morris and Arts and Crafts seems to have roots in my love for two houses in Charlottetown. They were unusual in shape and exterior, both stucco, one pink and the other green. They were vaguely Arts and Crafts style. I loved driving by them and trying to see into the leaded glass windows. Again I have no idea why.

My guest on the podcast this week has been obsessed with fabric and sewing. As a child Dianna Coumont harvested fabric around the house to make dolls’ clothes and frequently got into trouble! As an adult she made an international business out of sewing and design. These days she’s created a home studio where she designs and sews bespoke and couture clothing for women. She calls it Valiente Couture, named for her beloved horse.

You can see Dianna in action on her YouTube channel. And you can hear my conversation with her on this week’s Listen with Sheryl MacKay episode. You’ll find that linked on my website or in any of the places you find podcasts.

All the best!

Sheryl

PS. If you have life time obsessions and theories about where they originated I’d love to hear about them!

Sabai with Pailin

Hello Friends!

When I was writing the heading I thought to write Sabai with an “!” after it. For one thing we’ve gotten so used to adding “!” to texts and emails to indicate enthusiasm or at least positivity; to avoid being misconstrued or seeming flat or disinterested. I also wanted to add the “!” because Sabai is the title of Pailin Chongchitnant’s latest cook book and it is so good! We have made a bunch of recipes for simple Thai, home cooked dishes and enjoyed them all.

But then I paused because Sabai translates (I learned from Pailin) to something like ease, taking it easy; which of course an “!” does not indicate.

It was great to talk to Pailin again about her passion for Thai cooking. We first met when her book Hot Thai Kitchen came out. At that time she had started a YouTube channel and was rapidly gaining followers. She was actually one of the early users of YouTube to create a program. These days she has over a million and a half subscribers to Pailin’s Kitchen and a website filled with ideas and information about Thai cooking. And she is just as passionate about showing off Thai cooking to audiences around the world as when she started.

I hope you enjoy our conversation!

https://listenwithsherylmackay.podbean.com/e/sabai-with-pailin/

PS. Christa Ovenell and I are planning another Legacy Story workshop in Vancouver in August and in Victoria in September. You will be able to find links on her website DeathsApprentice.ca

Escaping with art

For years I have listened to artists talk about how they can lose themselves in their work; how they can pass hours without even noticing, without thinking about anything but the matter at hand. I have always felt a kind of wonder and a bit of envy. I longed to find something that I could immerse in like that! And now I have.

When I left full time work I took up handbuilding pottery. I took a few classes and now do drop in at a local studio. I am obsessed. When I can’t actually be at the studio I think about clay, I read about clay, I watch videos of other people working with clay. When I have my hands on clay I am focussed and completely in the moment. As a person who tends to be anxious it is such a break. I have never known such peace!

I tell you all this because of this latest conversation that I have posted on the podcast. I talked to award winning water colour artist Sandhu Singh who has a show on now at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, and this time when he talked about being immersed in a piece of work I felt like I could understand and appreciate his experience in a whole new way.

I first met Sandhu when he won the Sydney Fine Art Show quite a few years ago. This was early in his painting career and he was delighted and surprised to win! I recorded a conversation with him then and was struck by his story and his way of talking about what painting means to him. Since then I have talked to Sandhu a few more times and I always relish the opportunity for another meeting.

Sandhu has quite a life story, which he alludes to in this conversation. It has lead him from his early life in India to his new home in Victoria and eventually a diagnosis with PTSD. He started painting after he moved to Canada and he talks about the vital role it now plays in his life.

I hope you enjoy the conversation and looking at Sandu’s webpage to see some of his very energetic paintings!

A passion for nursing!

Hello my friends,

Think of someone you talked to recently who left you with the feeling that at least their part of the world is in good hands; someone who is driven by integrity, curiosity and a commitment to making things better. I relish those moments!

Recently I had the opportunity to talk to one of those people. Sally Thorne is Associate Dean of Applied Sciences at UBC. Before that she was Dean of the School of Nursing for many years. Early in her career she became really interested in the experiences of patients with of cancer and chronic illness. She could see how the medical system was often failing these people and so set out to help change things.

More recently Sally has been interested in the ethical issues nurses face in talking to patients about Medical Assistance in Dying.

Sally Thorne plans to retire this year from her academic role but has no plans to stop her researching and writing. I wasn’t surprised to hear that. In our brief visit I was struck by her energy, enthusiasm and curiosity and by her desire to help make things better in the health system.

Given her passion for the field of nursing ( I would call her a champion of the profession) her story of how she ended up at nursing school is a funny one and a good example of how wonderfully random life can be!

I enjoyed my conversation with Sally Thorne so much. We covered a lot of ground but of course only scratched the surface of some of her work. You can find the podcast on any of the usual podcast apps and there are links on the home page of the website. The podcast is called Listen with Sheryl MacKay.

Events

April 27 at Esquimalt’s Gorge Pavilion I will be hosting a conversation with revered psychologist, author and researcher Dr Sue Johnson. She is the founder of the Emotionally Focused Therapy. Her book Hold Me Tight was an international best seller and helped countless couples in their relationships. I am delighted to have a chance to talk to Sue Johnson about her fascinating and ground breaking work! The event is a fund raiser for Human Nature Counselling Society in Victoria. You can find ticket and event information on their website. There is a streaming option for the event as well.

Pass the hot sauce!

Hello friends,

Hot sauce is a recent addition to my life and my meals. When I grew up in Prince Edward Island tea was orange pekoe, lettuce was iceberg and hot sauce was Tabasco. Every kitchen had a kind of artifact of a bottle of the stuff. Sometimes it lived in a slightly yellowed box which was rarely opened. I know a drop went into the rare Bloody something cocktail or perhaps a miniscule amount in a kind of sauce (probably a sauce to be served with fondue) but I don’t remember it emerging otherwise. I think I had seen people sloshing it onto fried eggs in restaurants but I have to say that it never occurred to me to try that.

Then somewhere in the past decade or two hot sauce found me, or I found hot sauce! I love the stuff. I have jars of it; different flavours and colours. I reach for it with almost every meal. (not, so far, on oatmeal at breakfast but I might….)

One day I spotted Sriracha Revolver hot sauce in a Vancouver shop. It was hard to miss. There were three bottles on the shelf, in three gorgeous colours; bright green, luminous yellow/orange and a deep red. I took them all home and devoured them. Since then there are other great flavours in the line up too!

Recently I contacted Jordan Hocking who is the founder and the maker of Sriracha Revolver hot sauces and she invited me in for a chat. We met at the commissary kitchen in east Vancouver where she works and which is filled with dozens of people making delicious looking and smelling food!

You can hear our conversation in this episode of Listen with Sheryl MacKay. I am so impressed with Jordan’s creativity and her entrepreneurial spirit! And I loved hearing about the interesting peppers people drop off for her, including some that have filled her with trepidation!

You can listen to the podcast on this website or by using any of the usual podcast apps.

Take good care,

Sheryl

That theme music

Hello my friends,

So many of you have asked me about the theme music that opens and closes my podcast Listen with Sheryl MacKay. It’s a gorgeous guitar composition that I loved the very first time I heard it.

The piece is composed and performed by Adam Dobres who is from Victoria and has performed in bands for years, touring all around the world. When I hosted the show on CBC I came across Adam’s solo album Kin and, as I had often seen his name in bands whose music I loved, I was keen to hear his instrumental work. I loved it! And I used a couple of his tunes as regular sub themes on the show.

So when I wanted to commission a theme for the podcast my first thought was to ask Adam. And thankfully he said yes.

There was a bit of a wait before I heard what he came up with. He and his wife and child had travelled to Australia, her home, for an extended visit. I was so curious about what he might create.

Then one day and email popped up from Adam. He said he was sending a couple of “ideas” to see what I thought, one upbeat and one more mellow. As soon as I heard the upbeat one I knew it was perfect for the sound and the mood I wanted to create with the podcast. Everyone I played it for agreed. So that was it! I also loved the mellow one and will use that as a sub theme sometimes when a little break is needed after a conversation that is sad or upsetting in any way.

I am not a musician in any way (no matter how many different instruments I’ve taken a dash at playing) and I am not in any way a composer either so it is delightful to me to be in a small way responsible for these two lovely pieces of music being in the world!

I recorded the conversation you’ll hear in the podcast with Adam while he was still in Australia. I love how he described the whole web of musicians he’s worked with over the years and how so many of his wonderful musical experiences and associations all trace back to the amazing Daniel Lapp!

One small request; I am looking for titles for these two pieces. After you’ve heard them please send ideas to hello@sherylmackay.com

Event

As I write this there are 4 tickets left for the Fashion Show Fund Raiser in Victoria on Saturday March 25 in the afternoon. It will be such fun! There will be fashions from Valiente Couture. Dianna creates clothes for real people of all ages! We will be at artist and author Helen Stewart’s wonderful historic house and will be helping to launch her new book. My Garden; Beauty Above and Wonders Below. There will be music and snacks from Good Side Pastry House. And it’s all a fund raiser for Ballet Victoria. You can get tickets through them!

Have a wonderful week!

Sheryl

Vicky Chow

This week my guest is pianist Vicky Chow. I talked to her from her home in New York. I was in my “studio” (which these days looks a lot like a big blue tent) which is set up in a little kind of porch/store room at my apartment! Let’s just say it is a work in progress. And really, it’s the sound that matters ultimately.

Vicky Chow has had a remarkable career since her early debut (10 years old with the Vancouver Symphony). She’s studied at Julliard and performed in more than 40 countries around the world, to rave reviews which include words like brilliant, feisty, and monster! She is a member of Bang on a Can ensemble and tours with them and she collaborates with many composers, artists and ensembles.

New music is Vicky’s passion. And it was one of those random accidents that brought contemporary composition to her attention. In our conversation on my podcast she talks about that and about some of the challenges she’s dealt with in the past few years too.

Vicky Chow is performing in Vancouver on March 28 at Christ Church Cathedral as part of the Music on Main series. She’ll be playing Etudes by Philip Glass, pieces that she recorded recently.

Events

It’s only a week away now! I am talking about the Fashion Show Fundraiser for Ballet Victoria happening at Helen Stewart’s beautiful historic house near Victoria. The fashions are from Valiente Couture and Bespoke, (makers of beautiful clothing for real people) the models are 20-80 years old and it’s also a book launch for Helen Stewart’s latest book My Garden; Beauty Above and Wonders Below.

There are only 19 tickets left as I write this!

Smitten Kitchen

I first met Deb Perelman just after her first book Smitten Kitchen Cookbook came out. She had been blogging for a few years by then and had no idea when she started if anyone would be interested in the recipes she was creating or want to hear her opinions on food and cooking. Well she sure found out how interested they were on that first book tour! We had all been devouring her blog and loving her sense of humour and hearing all about her tiny apartment kitchen in New York City. And at every stop on the tour followers of Smitten Kitchen turned out in droves!

I can still remember her look of bewilderment when we taped that Cooking Club with her at Barbara Jo’s Books to Cooks in Vancouver. People were jammed into the shop, people were lined up on the sidewalk, noses pressed to the window! I think she spent the whole book tour being surprised, moved and rather awed by the response to her work!

These days Deb Perelman, who is a self taught home cook, has more than a million followers on Instagram and has just published her third cookbook, a best seller like the previous two! It’s called Keepers and in my conversation with Deb Perelman on the podcast she explains where that title came from.

It was great to have the opportunity to talk to Deb Perelman again. Like many of you who turn to Smitten Kitchen for great recipes, when I use her books or her blog I feel like I am cooking with a friend. Her recipes are great and straightforward and I enjoy her sense of humour and her down to earth advice. And the results are consistently delicious!

Here is the recipe for those Thick Molasses Spice Cookies she was throwing off her balcony in the testing phase!!

And here is one we didn’t talk about in the podcast. But I have made the Charred Brussels Sprout Toast with Ricotta and it is delicious!

The conversation is in this week’s episode of my podcast! Warning: It will surely make you hungry!!

Listen with Sheryl MacKay is available on all the usual podcast apps, Apple, Spotify, Audible, iTunes and more.

Podcast Episode Three

I love listening to people! I love hearing their stories and their family stories and about the times when things happened that changed the course of their lives! So working as a radio host, doing interviews with creative people was my idea of the perfect kind of job! I am so glad to have this way of continuing the conversations.

I’ve just posted the third episode of my podcast. For this one my guest is esteemed Haida artist Guud San Glans, Robert Davidson. I always love the opportunity to talk to Robert. He is wise and has such interesting stories and perspectives and he is a very funny man! Robert Davidson is also a revered artist whose work is collected internationally. Since the 1960’s he has been instrumental in the revival of Haida Art and Culture. Besides his work as a carver, jewellery maker painter and print maker Robert is also a singer and song writer and a dancer.

There is a moment in the late 1960’s, and he he talks about in our conversation, when his life changed and really the lives of many Haida people changed too. It is something I have asked him about before and I find that I always want to hear about it again. It is a story that moves me and is still emotional for Robert Davidson too, all these years later.

On another note, in this conversation we hear a confession from Robert about shirts!

There is a show of Robert Davidson’s paintings and prints at the Vancouver Art Gallery until April 16. There is also a gorgeous book that has been created in collaboration with Gary Wyatt titled Echoes of the Supernatural.

The podcast….episode two!

Hello again! Well I am a week late with this episode. The technical challenges have been many and mighty but I think (I say with some trepidation) that I am now over the hump! I have the good fortune of having a wonderful gang of folks who know about editing programs and audio set ups and who have been so helpful with all my questions. Thank you to Matthew and Flosi and Jenn especially!

I am delighted to offer this conversation with Dr John Woods. He is a zoologist and an avid bird watcher and bird listener. He’s worked as a naturalist, a nature recordist and a field researcher and in many other capacities in the outdoors for many decades.

In the past few years he’s been part of an international team working on a bird sound expert you can take out in your pocket! It’s a free app called Merlin and it can help identify the bird sounds and calls you hear on your outings. If you are anything like me you might have trouble remembering that what you are hearing is a Flicker for example. Merlin to the rescue!

In this conversation you’ll hear John’s passion for birds and all of nature really. I love his suggestions of ways to really deepen your own experience in the wide world of birds!

Update!

Listen with Sheryl MacKay is now available as an Apple podcast and through Pocket Cast and other affiliated apps. Search for it on the app you use and if you don’t see it there let me know!

Events

For friends in Greater Victoria…or anyone planning to be there on March 25! There is a great collaboration under way with Valiente Couture, Helen Stewart and Ballet Victoria. The afternoon will feature a fashion show of elegant and comfortable designs from Valiente (with models from 20 to 80 years old), a look at Helen Stewart’s beautiful new book (just off the press!) about her garden, and a visit with some dancers from Ballet Victoria. Plus there will be treats from Haley Landa at Good Side Pastry House! It is all taking place in a gorgeous heritage home and it’s a fund raiser for Ballet Victoria. There will be details about tickets coming soon. Space is limited!

Podcast episode one!

It was a bit like giving birth but now the first episode of Listen with Sheryl MacKay has launched!

It was my great pleasure to interview artist Corey Hardeman for this one. I’ve talked to her in the past about her work, which is both beautiful and mysterious. Corey paints nature; water, landscapes, skies, flowers, bird nests, and bees with a real sense of reverence. And for me her works always seem to pose a question. What is really happening here? What is just out of sight?

There is a show of Corey’s work on now at the Aesthete Fine Arts Gallery in Prince George until the 25th of February. It would make a great escape from the cold!