iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Does anyone ever feel like they stick out in group settings?

Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

My current read: Bill McKibben’s look at the phenomenal growth of solar energy as a percentage of new power capacity and how this transition might help us avoid some of the worst effects of climate change in the coming years.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

My weekend read is Anna Seghers’ Blood Money, her 1933 novel translated from German to the English for the first time (this year) by Lucy Jones. Like her novel The Seventh Cross, this is a panoramic look at a Rhineland village and a man on the run from fascism.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Fall is a lovely time of year.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

My current read is The Unfinished Metropolis, Benjamin Schneider’s passionate plea for more/affordable housing, better transit/bike/pedestrian infrastructure, and “jobs of the future” in American cities.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

It’s a good day to have lunch in the food hall at Lonsdale Quay Market.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Years ago I purchased numbered serigraph 4/12 of Canadian abstract artist Helen Piddington’s “Away and Beyond.” It was an unexpected purchase at a charity sale: I paid just $20 without knowing the artist and it turns out that her work is in the National Gallery of Canada.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I’m reading Lady L, a 1958 novel by French writer Romain Gary that he originally wrote in English (and translated back to French). These Penguin Archive editions are beautiful…

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Well today I found out I don’t have prostate cancer; two weeks ago I found out I didn’t have colon cancer. So September is a good month.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I accompanied a friend who wanted to look at a few properties today in the West End of downtown Vancouver today. I took some pictures from the viewing deck at one of the buildings we visited; despite some haze it was a beautiful afternoon.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Today my partner has an appointment at the Eye Care Centre, an unapologetically Brutalist building near Vancouver General Hospital.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

$4 million in humanitarian aid - half of it coming from Robert Kraft, the stadium owner - will actually help people in Gaza more than Macklemore’s stage speeches.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Today I’ll finish reading The Typewriter and the Guillotine. Written by Vancouver-based Mark Braude, it’s the story of Janet Flanner- a 🏳️‍🌈 New Yorker magazine correspondent living in Paris in the 1930s- and a German serial killer she eventually wrote about.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

The new-ish EY Tower reminds me of a slightly askew Rubik’s Cube…

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Fast Iron Cleaners, located inside the Royal Centre in downtown Vancouver, wants its customers to be dirty!

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

It was not just the phrase “Free Palestine.” Macklemore has a long history of controversy over Jewish issues as he dressed up as a Hasidic man (with an oversized “hook nose”) several years ago. And they called out the Met Life Stadium performance as one-sided and biased.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Bears are my favourite animals, so I love the theme of this new cafe in Vancouver. Alas, I wish they had not used GenAI to advertise their food; the images look very unappetizing (note the Persian Herb Frittata at lower right).

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The Finnish artist Tove Jansson was most famous for the Moomins but she did so much other art & wrote some great fiction too. She was also a 🏳️‍🌈 person who lived life on her own terms; the world is still catching up to her…

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I’m reading Serena Kutchinsky’s *Kutchinsky’s Egg*, the story of how family built a successful London jewellery business only to lose it when her father built the world’s largest jewelled egg in 1990z. Serena is a journalist and this book is a great read so far…

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I read Arthur Schnitzler’s “A Confirmed Bachelor” cover-to-cover yesterday evening. It was my first book by the late Austrian writer and it was definitely a page-turner with a lot of “psychodrama”; Schnitzler regularly corresponded with Freud.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Here’s the 1965 Grade 12 reading list for Mater Christi HS (now St John’s Prep) in Astoria, Queens. It’s fascinating to think of the literary “canon” and its mutations/permutations over time…

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I’m reading The Sunday Book, an erudite essay collection from 🇨🇦 writer Michael Trussler; it was published in 2022. The author has Nonverbal Learning Disability and I am learning about that condition (and much more).

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

This curvy downtown building opened in 2017. The upper floors are condos and the lower floors were initially the Trump Hotel. The hotel operator licensed the Trump name, and the operator went into bankruptcy in 2020. The hotel eventually reopened as the Paradox Hotel.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

I was downtown today and I photographed a few more high-rises with curves…

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

This weekend I’m reading a memoir by a Canadian former Mormon, Greg Hudson. I once had LDS missionaries come to my apartment way back in 1997.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

I’m excited about Nicholas Delbanco’s upcoming memoir of the Bennington Collarge writing seminars & his 9 summers there. The memoir, Afterword, will be published by Godine in May. @vmspod.bsky.social do you plan to read this?

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

The Butterfly- a downtown Vancouver condo tower built on land formerly owned by the church in the foreground- is visually striking and adds some needed housing. John and I live in a condo but would avoid this tower: we like right angles too much!

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

I got to check out Breka Bakery & Cafe last weekend; this pic was taken inside their W Hastings St location. The lemon shortbread was awesome!

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

John and I have spent a lot of time at St Paul’s Hospital in recent weeks; I took this pic just now. We’ll be back for his follow up and my colonoscopy in a few weeks. I imagine the new St Paul’s Hospital (opening in Feb) will be state-of-the-art.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Throwback Thursday: me in 2003

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Dolly Parton appears with Keith Haring in 1985. Parton was one of the only country artists speaking out on HIV/AIDS in the 1980s; she co-produced and financed a documentary on the AIDS Quilt. She was an amazing human being…

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

I’m reading Peter Ackroyd’s new biography of Wystan Hughes (W.H.) Auden.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

My second #WomenInTranslation month read is Anna Seghers’ The Seventh Cross, translated from German by Margot Dembo. Originally published in 1942, this novel tells the story of an escape from a Nazi concentration camp. I started the book yesterday; it reads like a thriller.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

I’m reading Decadence, an autobiographical essay collection from Vancouver writer Richard Kelly Kemick.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

I grew up eating Mexican food, and I like maple, but this “crossover” menu item from Quesada strikes me as odd & unappealing (though it doubtlessly appeals to many other ppl)! I took this picture at their Commercial/Broadway franchise.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

My first #WomenInTranslation month read is Happy New Years by Maya Arad, translated from Hebrew by Jessica Cohen. It’s an epistolary novel about an Israel teacher who moves to the US and sends an annual Yom Kippur letter home to family. I read 100 pages yesterday!

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Bill Traylor was born into slavery in 1853 and became an artist at age 85. Am I the only one who thinks he influenced Kara Walker?

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

I’m reading this book on becoming better friends with my brain. Barr is a Scottish neuroscientist living in Quebec.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

I’m about to finish The Forbidden Experiment, the late Roger Shattuck’s tragic account of the “wild boy” found in Aveyron, France in 1800.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

The view today at Iona Beach Regional Park near Vancouver International Airport.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

The Lego Ninjago character rode SkyTrain with me today.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Disappointed to see that this merch will be sold at tomorrow’s Dyke March in Vancouver. Intifada = violent uprising, 2nd intifada & rejection of the 2000 peace plan (it incl. a Palestinian state) killed thousands of 🇮🇱 ppl. All 🏳️‍🌈 ppl should reject terrorism & support true peace.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

I’m reading Hank Idsinga’s memoir of his Toronto policing career. His book is a page-turner and I’m learning a lot about law enforcement…

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

My last read was pretty heavy, so I’m now reading Quebec writer Jacques Poulin’s novel Spring Tides, translated into English by Sheila Fischman.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

This week I’m reading Philippe Sands’ memoir of his involvement as a lawyer in the criminal case against Pinochet. The book also explores Pinochet’s ties to Nazi war criminal Walter Rauff, who apparently used his Holocaust “experience” to set up a detention centre in Patagonia.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

This is my personal favourite of the paintings we have at home. We purchased it in the mid/late 00s; the work is by Salt Spring Island Metís artist Sherry Leigh Williams.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

I’m reading The Golden Daughter, 🇨🇦 journalist Halina St James’ story of her Ukrainian mother’s enslavement by Nazis and the postwar life she made in Canada.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

I like pizza and I like tiramisu, but this “pizza tiramisu” concept from Canada’s leading frozen pizza brand (Dr. Oetker) is a no-go for me.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

It’s been a dryer-than-normal year in Vancouver; I wouldn’t mind several days of drenching rain.

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Jerry @jerryfaust.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

I’m reading the Summer House, the first novel by Japanese writer Masashu Matsuie to be translated into English (tr. by Margaret Mitsutani). It’s a story of a group of architects trying to win a competition for a library design, an uncommon premise in literary fiction.

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