Book review: Richard Manuel: His Life and Music, from the Hawks and Bob Dylan to The Band
by Stephen T. Lewis The lives of the members of The Band, all of whom are no longer with us, have been heavily documented. Levon Helm started it off with…
Blog
Mastodon and Bluesky
I don’t blog as often as I once did. That will change now and then. For now, I’m mostly posting on Bluesky, but that might switch to Mastodon at any…
Book Review: The McCartney Legacy, Volume 2
By Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair This is the second book of a series by Kozinn and Sinclair. I reviewed the first one here. Like the first one, it's a…
Book review: A Freewheelin’ Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties, by Suze Rotolo
This book was published in 2008, and the author died in 2011. However, the film "A Complete Unknown" has created a resurgence of interest in Bob Dylan and the 1960's…
Civil rights in Cuba and Idaho
You can attract police attention for practicing journalism in either place. I went to Cuba in 2014. Among the things I did there was to attend three baseball games -…
Unconventional approaches
Has anyone suggested movie night at the White House? I suggest Ferris Bueller’s day off for the first movie.
Book review: The Wild Horses of the Chilcotin: Their History and Future, by Wayne McCrory
I am stating up front that there is no pretense of objectivity in this review. The Chilcotin is my favourite area of British Columbia, and I had the good fortune…
What went wrong in the 2024 U.S. election
One of the candidates in the 2024 presidential election organized an uprising to storm the Capitol to prevent Congress from certifying the 2020 election result. There was a conspiracy to…
Book review: Beneath the Surface of Things, by Wade Davis
This is a collection of 13 essays by Canadian anthropologist Wade Davis. There isn't any overall theme to them, other than they are all well worth reading. Two of them,…
This is the blog we need right now
We all have little things that irk us, things that other, more normal people would never notice or care about. In my case, it’s lazy and/or stupid media blather. I…
Book review: The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World, by Wade Davis
I have had the privilege of attending two lectures by Wade Davis, and he knows how to hold the attention of an audience. I have also read several books and…
Book review: The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World, by Wade Davis
I have had the privilege of attending two lectures by Wade Davis, and he knows how to hold the attention of an audience. I have also read several books and…
The Conservative Party of Canada’s spending reduction fantasy
I was listening to CBC Radio Monday afternoon, and the topic was the proposal from the Federal Liberal Government to increase Canada’s capital gains inclusion rate from 50% to 67%…
The Conservative Party of Canada’s spending reduction fantasy
I was listening to CBC Radio Monday afternoon, and the topic was the proposal from the Federal Liberal Government to increase Canada's capital gains inclusion rate from 50% to 67%…
Eclipse Totality in Pictures
Capturing the sun’s corona during totality is a difficult challenge. The area of the corona near the edge of the surface of the sun is much brighter than its outer…
Chasing the Sun, for a Glimpse of Totality
Totality as seen in Mena Arkansas on April 8, 2024. A composite of 9 images taken at different exposures This was supposed to be an easy eclipse to watch. I…
Book review: Overlook: A Rock and Roll Fable, by Paul Smart
This is a story of two men on road trips toward Woodstock, New York in 1986. This is not the Woodstock made famous by a music festival; that was actually…
Book review: Overlook: A Rock and Roll Fable, by Paul Smart
This is a story of two men on road trips toward Woodstock, New York in 1986. This is not the Woodstock made famous by a music festival; that was actually…
Plague Update: From The Past
It’s January 27th, 2022, but you’re reading this in the future. I’m writing this after my intended bed time, having just helped a friend learn how to purchase an NFT.…
Book review: George Harrison: the Reluctant Beatle, by Philip Norman
There are some stories I never get tired of hearing. One of them is the formation of the Jefferson Airplane; how they were rehearsing twelve hours a day and seven…