The Sylvia Hotel's Sylvia is dead
The Globe and Mail has some
outstandingly ugly-long URLs.
This one refers to an article about the passing of the "Sylvia" after whom
Vancouver's "Sylvia Hotel" was named:
Sylvia Ablowitz, who was just 12 years old when her father named his new hotel after her, has died in Vancouver. She was 102.
The Sylvia Hotel is a stately Edwardian building and a Vancouver landmark known for its brick and terra-cotta exterior, much of which is now covered in Virginia creeper.
[Found via
Roland Tanglao.]
But gosh, Roland, how could you mention this without linking it
to Cheryl Wheeler's
latest album,
titled "Sylvia Hotel" ???
Cheryl's one of the most amazing singer/songwriters I've ever seen/heard,
with an outstandingly clear, powerful voice, insightful, well-crafted lyrics that can turn
from funny to achingly beautiful to heartbreaking in seconds;
and if that weren't enough, she could easily be successful as a stand-up comic.
If she's ever touring in your town, be sure to check her out.
But the Sylvia story above reminds me of my mid-1990's backpack trip with
my son in the Desolation Wilderness, west of Lake Tahoe. One of the nights,
we stayed at one of the Velma Lakes. Later, when I described the trip for my
mother, she said "Oh, I was just talking to Velma last week."
Turns out that my mother had been writing a
history of the Lake Tahoe area
(called
"The Mountain Sea"), and had
interviewed Velma for it. Velma was in her 90's, and had been a wee child when
her father had named those lakes for her.
9:13:33 PM
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