In the spirit of the Chinese New Year Celebrations by Synn Kune Loh* a poet and visual artist CELEBRATION Predisposed response to beauty Spring rain calls me to life random thoughts deeply transparent a sigh of forgiveness unfolds the beauty EARTH CALLING What fulfills an inner longing   Mountain storm had let up Winter retreated earth preserved A double rainbow framed the road From behind temple doors, golden faced buddhas take a peek at the world. *Born in China, Synn Kune grew up in Hong Kong. He completed a BA in Psychology from the University of Bridgeport in the USA before his graduate study in Cultural Psychology at Queen’s University, in Kingston, Ontaria. An accomplished painter, he studied experimental art at the Ontario College of Art in Tronto. In addition, Synn Kune holds a Master degree in Therapeutic Counseling from the International College of Spiritual and Psychic Science in Montreal, Quebec. Synn Kune found his inspiration through the abstraction of forms and ideas. What makes his paintings unique is the metaphysical content, which explores the relaity of the ideal. The artist steps outside of representation to create a visual language using dots, lines, circles, triangles, squares, color and form. The result is a vision of ecstatic wonder and astonishment. “These paintings are about nothing. Therefore they are about everything.” ~ Synn Kune...

Interviewed By Aryan Etesami Photographed by Noriko Nasu-Tidball   Born and raised in Prince Edward Island, Darrin McCloskeyis a successful local author with a mind full of imagination and creativity. Darrin obtained his Bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of Prince Edward Island in 1992, after which he decided to go on an adventurous odyssey to Europe. Following his passion for books and writing, Darrin spent a year working at the Dillon’s, The  Bookstore in Cambridge, England, and decided to travel around Europe. After returning to Prince Edward Island and being struck by the reality of the industrialized twenty-first century life, he found employment at a local gas station and later made the choice to move to beautiful British Columbia in 1995. Having arrived in BC, Darrin started a job as a dishwasher in Harrison Hot Springs and has taken on nearly a dozen of different jobs until 2001, when he started teaching ESL (English as a Second Language). Besides writing, he has been an ESL teacher, and has travelled to many different places around the world to teach English. Currently, Darrin runs his own publishing press named, ‘Black Ice Press’ and has already published two books:“Li’l Story: the true story of the rise and fall of the Great Canadian Novel” and “Garden of da Gulf”. Some random fact about Darrin: He is the youngest of six children (four sisters and one brother) and has run a half-marathon in 1:16:51!  Here is an interview I recently did with Darrin where he shared  some very interesting information about himself and his work: –       You have been in Vancouver since 1995, so would you now consider yourself a Vancouverite? A: I’ve been here since ’95, leaving my job as a gas jockey to find another out here as...

Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything