Author: Bill

No need to name these two famous Canadian jazz musicians, captured in a rare daylight sighting by alert photographer Rebecca Staton. I think she was attracted by the hats.

Brian phoned up with a mystery offer. He would pick us up and whisk us away for a 3 hour excursion to an undisclosed cultural event. Brian went to the Picasso exhibit with us recently. He assured us that his event would be quite different from that one.

More pictures after the break.

Back in 1939, a mother told her daughter to go ahead and live in her “Fool’s Paradise”… an isolated, electricity-free cottage by Lake Ontario. Doris McCarthy liked the name for her $1250 real estate purchase and kept it. She lived and worked in this dream location her whole life, gradually adding on rooms. She did without electricity for the first 7 years or so.
Interior photos after the break.

Click image and do some shooting.
Thanks for the link, Brian and Paul.

Danica and I enjoyed a visit with Ray Souster at his place on Bloor Street yesterday. John Robert Colombo had given me a book of Ray’s most recent poems and when I said how much I liked them, John said we should meet the author.

Isn’t this a beautifully rendered piece? So brief, simple and direct, yet so dramatic. Masterful.

WHILE SHE WAS SOUNDLY SLEEPING
he was nervously awake in his bed,
every now and then
peaking cautiously
around tomorrow’s corner.

When you know that the poet is now over 90, another layer of meaning emerges.
Ray Souster is one of Toronto’s great poets but frankly, I hadn’t read a word of his until John Robert Colombo introduced me to this lively, very readable book. It’s full of life and it’s as fresh as can be. One more? OK… here’s one on Toronto’s mayor.

I’m sitting in the backyard, reacquainting myself with Paul Graham’s delightful book Hackers & Painters. I bought it a while ago, liked what I found in it, but set it aside before I finished it.

I don’t love every iPhone doodle that Hockney puts out, but quite a few do appeal to me. They show, in quite a raw and simple way, how Hockney’s practiced eye and mind work to build images. They are smart, they are crafty, and quite often they evoke emotional response… at least in me.
Here are a few more for you to check out.
Whether or not you like his work, I think anyone who knows anything about the history of Western Art must grant that Hockney knows his stuff. He has studied everybody and has appropriated an amazing amount of what he has learned.

The Golden Pen documentary airs tonight on TV for the first time, so Kash Kashmeri is doing the rounds, giving it a publicity boost. His CBC radio interview starts in about half an hour. Here’s a bit of his announcement.

… I present Danica’s photo of the newborn robins that just hatched on our front porch pillar. Messy eaters. Danica calls my attention to the worm goop spattered above the nest.
So who’s Charlotte Jane Magill? None other than the latest addition to the family of Chrissy and Barry Magill in Tonbridge, England. Chrissy is the daughter of our friend Kathleen Tatham who is there to help and to enjoy the company of Charlotte Jane’s big sister, Kaitlyn. Everybody is doing well.