Jack, Alexis and Rack of Lamb
Tuesday my uncle Jack’s life will be commemorated at a funeral service in Walla Walla, WA where he was born. He was 83 when he died last week, leaving three…
Mary Soderstrom
Saturday Photo: New Grown Everywhere
Evergreens are just that: trees which don’t lose their leaves in the fall, but keep them (or the needles which are a manifestation of leaves) all year round. This is…
Friends from the Bay Area Arriving, and the Weather’s Great
So unless things change drastically I’m taking the day off.
Pot Protests Spread in Montreal (No, Not That Kind)
Saturday May 19, there weren’t many poople out pounding on pots and pans in Montreal to protest emergency legislation limiting public demonstrations and many other things as the long student…
Let’s Not Go the Way the US Dept: Debt and Students and Massive Demonstrations
The New York Times lead editorial today is extremely pertinent as regional cyberspace swirls with analysis and pictures from yesterday’s huge (and probably illegal) demonstration in Montreal. “Full Disclosure for…
Lots of Political Action Today: Demonstration and Discussion
It’s raining but a big crowd is expected this afternoon for a demonstration to protest tuition fee hikes, and the provincial government’s draconian law on demonstrations, return to classes, and…
Robert Nelson, and the Journée des Patriotes
The Quebec flag is up in front of our place on this Journée des Patriotes. One of the little known things about the Rebellions of 1837-38 (the nearest thing Canada…
Satuday Photo: Zen and the Art of Spring Gardening
Actually I think the stone statute isn’t Japanese but is a kind of inukshuk, those Inuit signs of greeting. But the minalist balance of this spring garden is quite lovely,…
Death of the Confidence Fairy Bis: NDP Hearing on the Budget
If it wasn’t enough that Europeans are registering their disatisfaction with the idea of cutting budgets as a way to economic recovery by voting out parties preach austerity, a headline…
Making Music Together: Young Musicans against the Free Hike
Last night was the second concert of the Orchestre de la solidarité sociale, bringing together music students from nearly all of Montreal’s music faculties. Some of them have been on…
Sexing the Kiwi (With Apologies to New Zealanders)
Several years ago I bought two kiwi plants, a male and a female. One grew, the other didn’t, but I didn’t know which one survived. So the following year I…
Saturday Photo: Bleeding Heart in Bloom
Most years there is an explosion of growth here the first week in May. Bleeding heart, which dies back to nothing at all in early September, grows so fast that…
Fallout from Protests and Smoke Bombs: Quietness?
This was book club week, and a strange thing happened. In all four groups, we had much less attendance than normal. The weather has been cold and damp, which might…
Smoke in the Metro Means Fire under Agents Provcateurs, Me Thinks
This morning after Montreal’s Metro was closed during rush hours because of smoke bombs planted in several stations, I spent far too much time looking for references to “agents provocateurs”…
Oil Sounds Mean "Game over" for Climate
Oil sands exploitation means the end of hope for controlling climate change, according to James Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. In op-ed piece in today’s…
Cold Today: Gonna Take a Nap
After passing the winter without getting sick, I seem to have been wacked with something. So no post today.
Speak Red! A Dramatic Reading of a Quebec Classic Poem Transformed for the Current Crisis
“Speak White” by Quebec poet Michèle Lalonde was written and first performed in 1968 during the great rising wave of Quebec nationalism. It refers to an epithet many Francophones heard…
Pele’s Hair and Pele’s Tears: The Hawaiian Goddess and Lava
I’m back to working on the short story collection. The current story is one that has quite a bit about volcanos, and as I speak, a small bottle of ash…