Monthly Archives: December 2019

Atonal Jazz at Its Best: “Straight No Chaser”

The 1988 black and white film rescued from the “Dead Sea Scrolls of Jazz” featuring live performances and documentary footage produced by Clint Eastwood, directed by important ’60s filmmaker Charlotte Zwerin. We see Thelonious Monk in the studio, on tour, … Continue reading

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Christmas Reading

(The cover and illustrations are by Thoreau MacDonald, artist-son of Group of 7 painter J.E.H. MacDonald) This time around I am reading a delightful account of a Maine farm in 1948. The author uses a lot of descriptive detail and … Continue reading

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Christmas is especially

  for kids.

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Christmas Memory, 1954

I was five-years-old. We were living a year with my father’s mother in a big old house on Thompson Drive, then in the outskirts of St. James with only Kirkfield Park west of us. My grandmother always had men rooming … Continue reading

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Winter Weather Forecast

In deep November there is disbelief A loss of faith that winter, not yet here, Will go about its business and be brief. Instead the season generates a fear That winter, once in place will stay that way Forever–cold and … Continue reading

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Season’s greeting

after the toasters the mints and scented soaps after the widescreens the gift cards and mugs after the oranges the laptops and socks after the Botox the iPhones and gold chains after the Lindor the Blu-rays and spiced teas after … Continue reading

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Language, Music, the Arts, Nature, Poetry,

Reading, Writing, Literature, Pattern Recognition, and Ideas determined the consciousness, trajectory, and quality of my life. Those and a lot of luck along with the true love and support of one remarkable woman: my wife. (Best/most important choice I ever … Continue reading

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The Great Canadian Poem (Still)

since 1942: Birney’s best–“David”. Illustration of “the Finger” on front dust jacket. No, I wouldn’t put “In Flanders Fields” or any Service work over this one which is a beautiful, artistic tapestry of diction, imagery, and a terrific narrative. (an … Continue reading

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Quite the 70th Year

after the eye surgeries and change to a new (woman) doctor after my two (male) doctors’ retirements. The above pic from a nicely-timed getaway trip to Jasper in June before the summer crowds arrived.

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The Best Reading of Robert Browning’s Poems

is by James Mason, who had one of the top spoken word voices in English ever. He brings this selection of Browning’s work to life and then some. A wonderful use of tone, irony, and performance. Highly recommended for olde … Continue reading

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