BEST BETS Saturday CentreFest International Street Performer Festival runs 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, July 28 and 12 to 6 p.m. Sunday, July 29 at the intersection of 49th Ave. and Ross St. in downtown Red Deer for the whole family. Phone 403-340-8696 or email info@centrefest. ca. New this year — A Late Night Adult Variety Show! adults-only cabaret that will be cheeky, naughty, and eye-popping at the City Centre Stage after the festival wraps up for the day. Tickets are very limited and available exclusively through the Black Knight Ticket Centre 403-755-6626.
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Will that be swap, borrow or barter?
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HIDDEN GEM The Chemistry of Tears By Peter Carey Faber It is not an exaggeration to say that Peter Carey has given new meaning to the term “historical fiction”. His modus operandi is to intertwine fictions with historical documents. In this, his 12th novel, imperial patronage takes a bashing and Victoria and Albert are glimpsed in their nighties, but the seed of historical truth is the 18th-century inventor Jacques de Vaucanson’s mechanical duck. This famed automaton supposedly ate, digested and excreted grain in front of an audience. In The Chemistry of Tears, Catherine Gehrig, a conservator at London’s Swinburne Museum, learns of the death of her married lover and colleague. In the midst of her secret grief Catherine’s boss gives her a mysterious object to reconstruct. It is a copy of the famous duck, commissioned by one Henry Brandling. His notebooks, written in 1854, detail his intention to build Vaucanson’s duck to enliven the spirits of his dangerously ill son. In the notebooks, Henry travels to the Black Forest in search of a talented cuckoo clockmaker. Instead he meets Sumper, one of Carey’s sinister, finagling, monstrous characters, who appears to be a thief and charlatan, but may be a deranged genius. As poor, cuckolded Henry edgily awaits his creature’s birth, Catherine, rebuilding and restoring the automaton, becomes obsessed. Her work – dissecting the guts of the historical machinery, finally making it come to an eerie simulation of life – has obvious parallels with the work of the historical novelist. A “facsimile of life” is the phrase Carey uses. And the meanings of artificial life are multiple. —The Telegraph
Thursday, July 26, 2012
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Sunday Afternoon at the Museum 2 p.m. at the Dickson Store Museum. Live music, readings, a one-act play entitled More Letters to Grandma and Grandpa, and refreshments will be offered. 403-728-3355. Scott Block Theatre presents Andrew McLaren and Karl Neumann. Folk/ bluegrass style music. $15 in advance, $20 at the door. Proceeds go towards the hockey team’s trip to Poland for a series of Friendship Games. Doors open at 7 p.m., concert starts at 8. Open to ages twelve and over. Edith McLaren at 403347-8129 or Crystal Neumann at 403-5971526.
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Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS
Diana Dang carries used books at a swap event in Toronto: finding bargains by looking beyond standard purchasing patterns.
Cash-pinched consumers rediscover old-style exchange tering of many rental stores which impacts both availability and supply, she noted. “I’m finding it’s very difficult,” said Hirji. “A lot of the independent stores have TORONTO — Andrea Ata and Dominika raised their prices and they’re hard to acGutkowska arrived toting carts with more cess. And a lot of times, they’re out of stock than 100 books, CDs on what you want.” and DVDs between barterthem — and their ex‘YOUR TALENT, YOUR THINGS, YOUR TIME — THAT HAS VALUE ing,Beyond the online pectations in check. realm is proving to AND IT CAN BE TRADED FOR SOMETHING ELSE.’ “There was no wish be fertile ground list because coming to — SWAPISTY FOUNDER for cost-conscious these things, you don’t MARTA NOWINSKA consumers seeking know what you’re goto borrow items on ing to get,” Ata said a short-term basis. outside Swapsity’s Sara Da Costa of recent Book Movie the online rental Music Eco-Swap at the marketplace RentLive Green Toronto Things.ca said the Festival. website has been “We’re just hoping up and running for (for) even one good a year. book that we wanted After her fato read.” ther died about But the 16-year-olds 5 ½ years ago, Da ended up doing far Costa’s mother had better, scoring a copy a garage packed of The Girl with the full of his belongDragon Tattoo, a numings which her ber of teen books and daughter offered DVDs like the recent Planet of the Apes reto give away or make — with no monsell. Her mother ey changing hands. told Da Costa she “There’s a lot of couldn’t part with things that we have the items. at home and (they’re) They decided just going to end up to start making nowhere. There’s so some of the items many unused things,” (including tools) said Ata. available for rent, “We think comstarting a website ing down to the swap similar to one in and being able to exFrance. change (them) is not Da Costa said only eco-friendly, but there are now a a great way to reuse lot of rental rethings and make a quests for big-tickdifference.” et items such as Of more than 6,200 cars, motorcycles items contributed, Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS and jet skis. more than 4,900 were She also conPeople browse used DVDs at a swap event in Toronto. Swap events and online rental swapped during the nine-hour event, said marketplaces are offering individuals a multitude of opportunities to barter or borrow — tinues to rent out her father’s tools. Swapsity founder and not just for fresh flicks. “It’s a way of my Marta Nowinska. dad being alive Some of the remainfor us.” ing 1,300 items were desserts made for the big day. Nowinska isn’t surprised to see interest donated to the YMCA and the balance was The IT recruiter has offered to help indi- in short-term rentals, particularly since the being saved for a swap on Sunday in Toviduals with interview skills and any other value of the item isn’t necessarily vested in ronto’s Kensington Market. job-related expertise required. The Swappossessing it full-time. Swapsity has staged numerous face-tosity volunteer and her fiance, Avi Bhatt, “At the end of the day, we don’t need the face swaps, which have included events even scored a personalized song from a drill — we need the hole. We don’t need where deal-seekers exchanged for accesrecording artist — which the couple plans the CD — we need the music. So this idea of sories, clothing and Halloween costumes. to use at their wedding — in exchange for ownership is starting to diminish in imporBut Nowinska said the concept originally working on his resume. tance,” she said. launched as, and mainly remains as, an on“There’s a whole other form of currency “Using a community — like some sort of line swapping community. and bartering that people don’t even realswapping or sharing community — it cre“I see swapping and the sharing econoize,” said Hirji. ates this marketplace for items which are my as a way to stretch your budget and be The 38-year-old has also been able to kinder to the planet,” said Nowinska. no longer used by one person, but could be scoop up some classic TV shows through “So if you tap into this community of of value to someone else.” swaps, DVDs she said are often difficult cashless transactions — a community like Online: and costly to find elsewhere. Swapsity —you get access to a sharing netRentThings: www.rentthings.ca Compounding the challenge is the shutwork in our community. Your talent, your Swapsity: www.swapsity.ca BY LAUREN LA ROSE THE CANADIAN PRESS
things, your time — that has value and it can be traded for something else.” Soon-to-be-newlywed Fahrin Hirji has embraced bartering as she parlays her own skills in exchange for services for her upcoming nuptials, like having appetizers and