Editorial: The Sunday Muse

Today was a good day to live on the Drive. I woke up relatively early and went down to photocopy Commercial Drive – Live! flyers and posters and came home and hastily tacked up another 50 on the poles before going down to meet my friend Hinda, who was selling her delicious sauces and jams outside of Morning Glory Tea House.

I keep telling myself that one of these days I’ll do the smart thing and hire a street team to plaster the neighbourhood. I spent a good two hours last night walking along Commercial from Grant to Broadway and back again to Venables, then up again almost to Charles. As a matter of fact, my last poster ended up on the pole in front of the patio at Fets. A big thing I learned was it is important to poster late the night before or first thing the day of if you want your poster to remain up for Car-Free day. The poster racket is ruthless.

Next time I’ll be better prepared. No, really.

But my work did have some impact. By the time I came home I had an email from Karen Magill about her day on the Drive.

She wrote,

Dear Mr. Duncan,

I was at Britannia Centre and saw a flyer for thedriveisalive.blogspot. It was so great to see someone else blogging about Commercial Drive. I started my blog to promote my latest book but found that I got emails from people when I talked about walking through Hastings Park. People like to hear about my walking tours of Vancouver so that is what I blog about.

Thank you for your time.

Karen Magill

Read her Commercial Drive Day review here:

http://letusplaylovestory.blogspot.com/

We spent a lot of time last week talking about the sudden death of T. Paul Ste. Marie. His friends Frank and Claire opened up their beautiful home for us last weekend to celebrate his life. I wanted to steer you to the posting by Mom Poet about the lovely tribute. She does a fine job of summing up the event.

Check it out here...

By the way, fellow poet Susan Cormier took it upon herself to give T. Paul’s mom an anthology of stories and sentiments about T. Paul. She wants to give her a second edition. If you want to be included in this anthology please fire them her way at jaywalker@hotmail.com.

Finally, I just wanted to thank everyone who reads this blog, and tells their friends to do the same. As I was riding my bike last night, a young guy walking with a girl saw me passing and called out, “Hey, you’re the guy who rides that blog, The Drive is Alive, right?

Cool.

Drop me a line and say hi!

Wake & Tribute Anthology For T. Paul Ste. Marie

A memorial gathering for friends and family of T.Paul Ste Marie is being held at the home of Frank and Claire Roberts.

The gathering will be:
4:00 to 8:00pm on Sunday, June 10th
Address: #5 - 1227 East 7th Avenue.

Some food and drink will be served, and further contributions are welcome but not required. Gifts of flowers are respectfully declined, but donations to the family to assist with funeral expenses are appreciated.

For further information, please contact Claire at kazmira@telus.net

There will be no formal funeral service held in Vancouver, but one is being arranged in Ontario.

For those with pet allergies, please note that Frank and Claire have two cats.

Tribute and information page: http://tpaul.burnbc.com


This came to me from Susan Cormier:

Considering that many of us are writers or storytellers, I think it would be appropriate if we
compiled a collection of stories and memories about T. Paul Ste-Marie to give to his mom.

If everyone who has a fond or funny memory or two of T. Paul would please take a moment to write a paragraph or more (pages would be great!) about him, I
would be overjoyed. Talk about how he inspired you to
write or create art, that funny conversation you
shared with him, or that flirtatious crush you had.
Did he stand up for you in an argument, encourage you
to get onstage, work with you on a project?

Don't worry about editing or polishing -- just please
keep it positive, and avoid trendy shorthand (eg. LOL,
IMHO) as his mom is of an older generation.

Please send your memories/stories to me at
susangrad93@yahoo.ca no later than noon on Saturday,
June 9, and please specify if you would like to remain anonymous.

I'll save all these stories to Word, print them out,
bind the pages simply, and give the book to his mom at
the wake on Sunday.

I am hoping for at least a dozen responses to this. A
hundred or more would be fantastic.

Please forward this email to anyone whose life was
touched by T. Paul.

Thank you,
Susan Cormier

Poetry: Guerrilla Poetry Series @ Morning Glory Tea House Today

Warren Dean Fulton brings his street level Poetry reading to Commercial Drive's Morning Glory Tea House (1340 Commercial Drive) at 3pm this afternoon (Sunday) featuring Trevor Spilchen with a special tribute to friend and fellow poet T. Paul Ste. Marie by long time friend Susan Cormier.
Drop in, pay your respects, have a tea.

Local Poet T Paul Ste. Marie Passes Away

Poet, Promoter, Actor, Artist T. Paul Ste Marie found dead in his home. This email came from friend and fellow poet, Susan Cormier.

He passed away in his home in his home in the last 24 hrs. His good friend Ru found him this morning in his house on his couch. It looked like another anuerism or possibly a stroke. Not much is known at this time.
Arrangements are being made and you will all be informed about any services or gatherings held on his behalf.
It is a loss to the community and to all the people who knew him.
Please spread the word to anyone you know.

This is what T. Paul wrote about himself in his Facebook profile:

SOME OF MY FAVE THINGS...

*cooking!!!
*watching fantastic live music/cabaret/vaudeville/sideshow gigs when I'm not performing in them

*bebop & hardbop jazz
* believer in the traditions and teachings of If the Afro-Cuban form of what's best known as Santeria or Voudon
* low brow art
*old, strong poster designs like saul bass' work (all the hitchcock posters - west side story etc...)
*cheesey pulp fiction novels & particularly the great cover designs
*bad puns...i mean really bad puns!
*solid rockabilly & psychobilly music
*scrabble !
* my sharkskin suit collection
* simple pleasures
* anything timeless and classic
*purely amazing, hot, fun, raw sex!
* honesty and forthrightness
*photography
*painting, sketching, illustrating
*being onstage! emceeing amazing shows!
*GOOD musicals (cabaret, sweet charity, chicago, west side story, the producers)
*i love kitsch!!!!
*children's laughter
*collecting: dice, old playing cards, vintage lamps, side show paraphenalia,shoes (vintage), books of all kinds, masks, strange ornaments (glittery devil's head, odd ceramic figurines, wooden roosters and the like), vintage posters and tons of other stuff!
*cinema noir
* cinema vrit
*cinema neo-noir
*great indie flix
* the constant coincidence- like non-coincidences that life presents, one after another after another always the right time; the right place
* the clean, fresh look & feel of a new haircut
* the smell of a good hair pomade
* the astounding summarizations of moments, lifetimes & experiences richly whipped into good poetry
* all of the warm and passionate smoochin & huggin that goes with love or just plain fun lust!
* devouring books of all kinds as if they were sweet, ripe, nutritious fruits
* facilitating the artistic endeavours of others
* the touch of a loving hand
* smiling randomly at people, disarming them completely
* MUSIC! the sound of life!
* engaging, stimulating converstaions
* the scent of a babys head (maple syrupy, icing sugar, soapy clean-like)
* the satisfying sensuality of a flavouful meal
* rain...real rain with drops all thick & heavy & thunder & lightning
* the horror/beauty of Las Vegas
* straight from the belly/heart laughter
* the smooth lines & boss looks of classic cars
* under used words & phrases like nifty, boss, the cats pyjamas, the bees knees
* breaking barriers
* surprising myself
* writing as if with a paintbrush, painting as if with a violin, spilling inky music out of the end of a pen
* positive & optimistic realists who maintain a certain safe amount of humorous cynicism

learning, absorbing, adapting -i am a polymorph...an adaptable creature by nature, slipping in and out from beneath a multitude of different hats that will have me emceeing a Ska & Punk show one moment, performing vaudeville/burlesque/cabaret gigs, and a posh award's dinner the next - i am here to learn and to absorb and reflect and to be reflected

T. Paul was 41.