Author: Bill

It has been more than 3 years since friend and composer/musician Jay Telfer passed away, but tributes keep coming in to the web page I put up about the guy.
This morning, a comment arrived from Marc Coulavin, saying that he had helped produce a reissue (on vinyl!) of A Passing Fancy‘s first single. Read all about it here… and thanks, Marc.

Stick around for the whole show. If you don’t love it, check your pulse.

Bill Byres introduced me to one of his long time favourite restaurants today. Bright, airy and spacious under high ceilings, the place looked promising and the food delivered on the promise. I had a cup of wonderful French Onion soup, a chef’s salad with feta-garlic dressing and two fresh, delicious samosas. My coffee came in a nice little French press for one. Perfect. I needed a cashew cookie to go with it. Total, $15.99 including tax. Perfect. The background music was pleasant and muted. Perfect.

Our walk today took us by Alastair Dickson’s window again so I took a shot at getting more photos of his surreal installation.

These are the bottom 3 sections of a set of 9 boxes. The hard thing is avoiding reflections in the glass, as I’ve whined before in earlier entries.

Not really. But there’s a quirky window installation across the street (and west a bit) from sculptor Alastair Dickson’s window. It contains a delightful display of BIG bugs… on the window sill and climbing strings. Props like a termite-chewed rolling pin round out the scene. Purpose? To show you exactly why you may want to call on the services of the Aetna Pest Control company.
These beauties are a few inches long and look vintage. Maybe enamel painted iron?

An email message I received from author John Robert Colombo today contained a word I’d never seen before, describing Rob Ford as our “nightmayor”. I love it.
[John confirmed that he coined the word.]

Five stars for the documentary… a beautiful story, beautifully told. Five hearts for Rodriguez, the subject of the story. See it or buy it and you’ll understand why. The audio CD is available, too.
Thanks to a tip from Brian Hickey, Danica and I headed over to the Bloor Cinema and caught the matinée today. My photo (above) shows you what a nice cinema it is. We arrived early and got perfect seats in the balcony front row. Only one other person was ahead of us… a real fan… she sat smack-dab in the centre seat.

Learn how the tragic legacy of the residential school catastrophe has been passed on from directly affected individuals to their children.
I know many intelligent, good spirited non-aboriginal adults who are unable to comprehend the depth and breadth of the residential school aftermath. Perhaps Chief Spence’s account will shed some light.

That’s me over Jack McClelland’s shoulder, intent upon getting as many free books as possible. First, I got a paperback copy of Margaret Atwood’s Edible Woman. Then I took off my coat to change the appearance of my outstretched arm and went in for a forbidden second freebie. I didn’t fool Mr McClelland. He looked me in the eye and said, “You’ve already gotten one”. He gave me the second one anyway… I forget its title.
Danica found the old newspaper clipping. I wasn’t going to post it because she says I looked like Charles Manson but I showed it to John Robert Colombo and he upgraded me to a glum Marxist revolutionary.

Maybe 15 centimetres. Not much, but enough to use the snowblower for the first time in 2 years. Up until now, we’ve only had dustings that didn’t stick. I’m happy to see the white stuff… as long as we don’t get too much of it, and as long as it stops by May. (It did snow on May 6th one year, the day after Danica and I got married. Our West Coast guests mocked our climate merrily, I recall.)