Life in Calgary
It’s Stampede time! For ten days every July, the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth takes over the city and turns it into a very large punch bowl.
Folks outside town tend to think of The Stampede as an excuse to wear a cowboy hat and get drunk (and they’re generally correct), but there’s also an international cultural aspect that often gets overlooked.
Take, for instance, the Mexifest located across the street from our condo in a downtown parking lot. Mariachi bands and churro vendors compete with Lucha Libre wrestlers for the admiration of thousands of Mexican people who now call Calgary home.
Until you hear La Bamba sung with a country twang, you ain’t heard nothing yet.
Coming this Fall: The Official Launch of my latest FBI Agent Jack Kenyon series takes place at Owls Nest Books in Calgary on Sunday, September 15, 2024, at 4 pm.
I’ll be doing a reading and signing paperbacks. You can also order previous books in the series on Amazon.
Book Review
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder
By Holly Jackson
I love reading (and writing) murder mysteries. I enjoy everything from police procedurals (Michael Connelly’s Detective Bosch series), to ‘cozy’ murder mysteries in which an amateur sleuth finds the killer when the authorities are baffled.
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder falls into the latter category. The town of Fairview is rocked when high-school sweetheart Andie Bell goes missing. Her body is never discovered, but her boyfriend Sal commits suicide, leaving behind a note confessing to murder.
The police close the file, but enough disturbing questions remain to motivate young Pippi to dig further; as her senior high-school assignment, she chooses to investigate the tragedy. Along with the help of Sal’s older brother Raji, she interviews Andie’s gang, sifting through their recollections and social media postings for inconsistencies.
Her snooping soon attracts scoundrels who threaten her with harm if she doesn’t desist. Like all good sleuths, however, she toils on, placing herself at personal risk in order to uncover the truth.
The author (pictured) has written two sequels, and the series has just been made into a TV series by the BBC. I highly recommend you check out the novel first, however; it’s a great summer read!
Recipe: Ceviche
This is the perfect summer meal, and easy to prepare!
Ingredients
1/2 lb. of raw chopped white fish (basa)
1/2 lb. raw chopped shrimp.
1 cup lime juice
1 Tsp salt
1 tomato, chopped
1 mango, diced
½ red onion, slivered
1 avocado, diced
3 Tsp cilantro, diced
½ chili pepper, diced
Tortilla chips
Directions
Mix fish, lime juice and salt. Seal in a container and marinate in fridge for at least 4 hours (this cures the raw fish).
In a bowl, mix tomato, mango, onion, avocado, cilantro and chili.
Add cured fish. Garnish with cilantro and sliced onion.
Serve with tortilla chips and lots of cold cerveza.
Enjoy!
TV Series
The Sopranos
Created by David Chase
It’s been 25 years since the launch of The Sopranos? Fuggedaboudit!
For a quarter of a century, Tony, Carmela, Christopher, Silvio and the rest of the crew have been robbing, racketeering, whacking and screwing each other with criminal abandon.
This isn’t one of the best TV series every made, it’s the best TV series ever made. The show was so faithful to the mob life that James Gandolfini, who played the patriarch of the family, noted that he was frequently complimented by real ‘wise guys’ on its authenticity.
But most of all, it was tremendously entertaining. The mix of violence, irony and slapstick keeps you constantly riveted, even when you’ve seen each episode time and time again.
Creator David Chase and HBO, of course, had no idea how much the series would change modern American culture. The set, which is available on DVD and download, contains never-before-seen clips, as well as a documentary in which the cast and crew reflect on the show.
You don’t have to be a die-hard fan to enjoy it, but if you are, then no matter how hard you try to get out, they’ll pull you back in!