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Living In Canada
Top Reasons To Live In British Columbia Top Reasons To Live In Alberta Top Reasons To Live In Saskatchewan Top Reasons To Live In Manitoba Top Reasons To Live In Ontario Top Reasons To Live In Quebec Ahhhh….Give me a minute here to think…….Gosh, this is hard…….OK, here are some: Top Reasons To Live In New Brunswick Top Reasons To Live In Nova Scotia Top Reasons To Live In Prince…
Growing Up With Canadian Bands
Growing up in Central Alberta during the 1970s, 630 CHED out of Edmonton and 1140 CKXL out of Calgary were the ultimate stations to listen to – they were 70s AM radio at it’s finest. I remember that if the weather and the night were clear, the reception from these two stations would be excellent. 630 CHED and 1140 CKXL played a lot of great Canadian content; I suspect that…
The Reason Rock & Roll Will Never Die
I swear this child has my musical soul…
Remembering Jake
I was digging through our filing cabinet yesterday in search of some receipt or other, when I came across the funeral memorabilia I had filed when Dad died in 2015. In the file I found Dad’s graveside eulogy delivered on May 13, 2015 by Tom Peters, a warm, wonderful, kind, intelligent man who was the funeral home Director at that time. Sadly, Tom passed in July, 2018, but he left…
Blackout!
On Thursday, August 14, 2003 at 4:11 PM, everything stopped. In my memory, two big events occurred in Toronto that summer of 2003: one was SARStock and the other was the power blackout that affected all of Ontario and parts of Northeastern and Midwestern United States. It was the world’s second most widespread power blackout in history, with 50 million people affected by the outage. For some, the blackout lasted…
Harvey Milk’s “Hope” Speech
As someone with a keen interest in 1970s pop/gay San Francisco culture, one of the characters I admire from that era is Harvey Milk. He is one of my heroes and has inspired me in so many ways. As a gay man living in the 21st century, many of the unprecedented gay rights I now enjoy can be linked back, directly or indirectly, to the work and struggle of Harvey…
Halloween On Church Street: A Look Back
Yet again, COVID-19 has squatted over something near and dear to my little heart and taken a huge dump: No Halloween street party on Church Street this year – BOO, HISS!!! To add insult to injury, Halloween falls on a Saturday night this year <ggrrrrr…> So, in lieu of the real thing this Halloween – as with our cancelled Pride Weekend earlier this year – I now present to you…
Cat vs. Dog — War Of The Diaries
This is an old one, but it’s so very true. Whoever wrote this understands the true essence of cats and dogs. The Dog’s Diary 8:00 am – Dog food! My favorite thing! 9:30 am – A car ride! My favorite thing! 9:40 am – A walk in the park! My favorite thing! 10:30 am – Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing! 12:00 pm – Milk bones! My favorite thing!…
Toronto Pride: A Look Back
Virtual Pride: June 26-28, 2020… say what???!!! As we all know, COVID-19 has squatted over Toronto Pride this summer of 2020 and taken a huge dump. When it was announced that all large events – or any event for that matter – in the City of Toronto would be cancelled this year, including my beloved Pride, I was crushed beyond measure. Toronto Pride will be celebrated this year with “Virtual…
SARStock / Toronto Rocks
There were two memorable events in Toronto during the summer of 2003: one was the massive power blackout covering most of northeast North America (read my post on that here) and the other was Toronto Rocks or, more informally, SARStock. Held on July 30, 2003 at Downsview Park (previously a former military air base in the north end of the city), the event was a gigantic, marathon rock concert to benefit Toronto’s economy and…
“…The Serious Moonlight”
What a night… Without a doubt, the best live concert I’ve ever attended in my entire life was David Bowie’s Serious Moonlight, here in Toronto on a hot, humid September night waaaaaay back in 1983 at the good old CNE Stadium, (remember that place?). Although I also went to his Glass Spider tour in 1987, it didn’t quite have the electrical spark that Serious Moonlight did. There was just something…
My Grandparents
This is a special post. Today I’d like to write about the grandparents I never knew: my paternal grandparents, John and Christina Job, who both died before I was born. When they immigrated to Canada, they brought with them a rich heritage. My grandparents were some of the “Germans from Russia”. Prior to a unified Germany, countless Germans were demoralized by years of religious strife, political chaos and economic hardship.…
Prairie Sunrise
This is such a peaceful shot. I captured this sunrise image while travelling southbound along Highway 2 in Alberta, en route to the Calgary International Airport to catch my plane back to Toronto: I had an early flight out from Calgary that morning which meant, naturally, an early departure. Even though it was about 8:00AM when I took this shot, it still felt awfully early to me. The sun rises…
Desert Island Songs
What is a desert island song? A desert island song is a special song. It makes me feel the sheer joy of living. It brings me to tears of joy or heartache within a minute of the start, sending goosebumps to my arms. A desert island song infuses me with a feeling of power, energy and well-being. It transports me intensely and succinctly back to a time and place in…
Jabberwocky
I’ve always enjoyed Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky and have studied it a couple of times during my education. For me, it conjures up images of monsters and an inverted, slightly mad world, such as Alice finds when she passes through the looking glass: ’Twas brillig, and the slithy tovesDid gyre and gimble in the wabe;All mimsy were the borogoves,And the mome raths outgrabe. “Beware the Jabberwock, my son!The jaws that bite,…
My Favourite Quotes
These are quotes I enjoy. They originate from various songs, movies, TV, pop culture and historical sources. Some quotes are profound, some silly, some introspective, some fun, and many are near and dear to my heart. Several of these quotes have permanently worked their way into the daily lexicon at our house over the years. This post is a work in progress and I’ll be adding more quotes here as…
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