We recently watched “Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song,” a documentary we found on Kanopy. Kanopy’s catalogue includes a vast number of documentaries, many of dubious quality; we’re skeptical every time we click on one. “Strange Fruit” was good — not great, but solid, and worth watching. Strange Fruit:
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Dead Wild Roses: DWR Service Note – Vacactions, Colds, Hell Divers 2
Good morning faithful readers. I must apologize for the blogging interruption. The plan was to go on a lovely choral retreat to the Banff Centre – including a attending a Master Class on solo singing, and workshops with the estimable Lona Larson, Eva Bostrand, and Micheal Zaugg. It was
Continue readingwmtc: the ballad of polly bee: in which newbie homeowners learn things they didn’t want to know, but turn annoyance into opportunity
Evil! As you may or may not recall, Allan and I are first-time homeowners. In 2019, both of us in our late 50s, we bought a home in Port Hardy, BC, on the northern tip of Vancouver Island. We were lifelong renters, and had no desire to change that. But
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: AI does Dead Wild Roses
This was the first AI iteration. I’m suitably impressed. 🙂
Continue readingwmtc: i used to be an activist: another piece of myself has gone missing. or maybe it’s on hiatus.
In my experience, the best activism begins like this. I used to be an activist. Not being actively involved in a grassroots movement, a part of myself is lost. It’s an intentional choice, given the realities that I cannot change. It’s what I need. But it’s a loss. There’s a
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Pardon for the Blog Interruption – Bad Lettuce
Apologies for the blogus-interuptus, but I had a run in with some lettuce (yes, I washed it thoroughly) that gave me a severe case of food poisoning. Nothing life threatening, but it made regularly scheduled activities impossible. Back on the horse now and thus the blog goodness can continue. 🙂
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: New Year’s wishes for 2024
Maybe I’m getting too old to change, but rather than making resolutions for the New Year, I decided to do wishes instead. My number one wish, of course, is health and happiness for all my friends and family. And for all other good and decent people. From there I drew
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: A DWR Merry Christmas
Harmony and peace would be good as well I suppose. I hope everyone has a great Holiday Season!
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: A DWR Holiday Wish – Arvo Pärt – Da pacem Domine
Give us peace… It is a wish I think we can all get behind. Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to all. ‘Give Us Peace In Our Time, Oh Lord.’
Continue readingwmtc: five years on: reflections on the big life change
The Port Hardy skyline Since starting this blog in 2004, I’ve experienced three Big Life Changes. The first, of course, was emigrating to Canada. The second was becoming a librarian. More than a career change, this was a huge shift in lifestyle and identity. The third Big Life Change was
Continue readingwmtc: an obvious life hack: how to make streaming more affordable and still enjoy ad-free viewing
Much ink is being spilled, metaphorically speaking, about the changing trends in subscription-based streaming services. Headlines scream that shows on Netflix and Prime will now include ads, implying that users will pay the same rates plus see ads, as we did with cable TV. But that’s not true (at least not
Continue readingwmtc: rip robbie robertson
The news that Robbie Robertson died hit me hard. Although he’s not the last surviving member of The Band (Garth Hudson recently turned 80), he was my last surviving deep connection to music that is so close to my heart. I rarely feel a famous person’s death in a personal way.
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Looking For New Maxims – Freedom, Exchange of Ideas, and Rights
I’m tired of being lied to by the Left and the Right. It’s been a rough couple of years for me as I’ve been riding a bit of a roller-coaster when it comes to demarcating my political position and adopting a cognitive frame in which to reasonably process the world.
Continue readingwmtc: too much honesty can be a very bad thing: a story about a birthday present
This post is written with permission. Recently on Facebook I announced that Allan, my partner, turns 60 this year, and he has already chosen a very special birthday present. We are going to buy him an electric guitar and amp, and he’s going to learn how to play an instrument
Continue readingwmtc: in which a restaurant server protects my alone time and i am very grateful
One day last week, I drove from Vancouver to Tacoma. It was raining the whole way, visibility was poor, and I had car trouble. It wasn’t horrendous, but it was stressful. Then that night, I attended a program. The following day, before beginning a full day of programming, I decided
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Celebrating Making Music
Just finished up the classical portion of our choir’s repertoire. We sang a Bach Motet (BWV 227), Durante’s Magnificat, and Mozart’s Laudate Dominum and Ave verum corpus. Keen readers of DWR may have noticed these works featured on the Friday Musical Interludes. We started working on these pieces in late
Continue readingwmtc: oregon family visit, part 6 and final (portland to port angeles to victoria)
On our way out of Portland, we stopped at the home of R, the well-known baseball writer who Allan had met at Powell’s. By sheer coincidence, he had some research materials that he was looking to re-home — on the exact topic Allan is currently working on! Amazing! This took
Continue readingwmtc: oregon family visit, part 5 (portland)
Our full day in Portland was almost entirely about books and food, with a little shopping-I-can’t-do-at-home thrown in. I thought I was going to do a bit of tourism — the Beverly Cleary Sculpture Garden was calling — but I ran out of time and energy. As my mother used
Continue readingwmtc: oregon family visit, part 4
We stopped briefly at my mom’s place in the morning. Allan was interested in some old family photos — from my mother’s childhood, and from family before I was born. (Allan does the genealogy thing. I do not.) We managed to identify everyone: my great-grandparents (who were still alive when
Continue readingwmtc: oregon family visit, part 3
On Saturday, we had a lazy day at the M&M homestead. The big outing of the day was to Harry & David, the specialty food store, where we all spent too much money and bought too much food. That night, our nephew and grand-niece, now 7 years old, joined us
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