September 19, 2015
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Hop into my time machine….

Let’s go to Buffalo NY’s historic Polonia district in the 1970s and 1980s, and check out the Broadway Grill. Back then, up here in Toronto, I had no interest in polka and had no idea that in Buffalo, just down the highway, some of the top polka bands anywhere, bands like the amazing Scrubby and the Dynatones. Here’s a great video I found on the Youtuber called Remembering the Broadway Grill.

This next video is from the Broadway Grill reunion in 2007. That must have been quite a night. Here’s Scrubby and Larry Trojak playing one of my personal favourite polkas, Zosia. Go! Go! Go!

September 19, 2015
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Star of Logy Bay

Back when I was playing a lot of button accordion, and hadn’t yet fallen hard for clawhammer banjo, I did a little busking in places like Kensington and St. Lawrence Markets. I played a hodgepodge of material, squeezebox music from various countries. I think the tune I got the best or the most response to was a little waltz from Newfoundland called The Star of Logy Bay. Just about anytime I played it somebody or another would come up to me and say, thank you this song reminds me of back home.

Back in 2007, my pal Candy Minx shot some video in Kensington Market that included me busking near the clothing store Tom’s Place. Some regular visitors will have seen this a few years ago, but I know there are a lots of visitors who did not know I was an accordion freak prior to becoming a banjo freak. Here’s a blast from the past: The Star of Logy Bay. I’m playing a triple row Hohner Corona II squeezebox.

September 15, 2015
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Tempy wants a $9 shawl….

….and I wish I was a mole in the ground.

Let’s have a listen to Bob Neuwirth and Eliza Carthy…

This performance also features Kate and Anna McGarrigle on banjo and button accordion.  I stumbled across this performance on the YouTuber and it stopped me in my tracks.

September 15, 2015
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Quebec Gardens Parc Marie-Victorin Kingsey Falls Part 2

Bananas for Cannas!
Trippy carving
September coneflowers
Yarrow!!
Parc Marie Victorin flower beds
from below
Mosaiculture at Parc Marie-Victorin
frere Marie-Victorin
Zinnia and impatiens
view from across the meadow

Hot sun, bees, flowers fading, flowers screaming colour, mosaic culture, living walls, waterfall, and so much more here in Parc Marie-Victorin, Kingsey Falls Quebec.

September 15, 2015
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Quebec Gardens Parc Marie-Victorin, Kingsey Falls Part 1

Incredible!!
T with the giant wasp nest
Turkish orange aubergines in the Potager Sante garden
Elephant Ear
Meet the carpenter ant from Parc Marie-Victorin
Atlantic Puffins at Parc Marie-Victorin
Canna Lilies
from the side
Admiral Butterfly mosaiculture

Looking for an off the beaten path road trip? Consider touring the gardens of Quebec. Tuffy P here, T and I have just come back from 2000 kms of driving through Quebec to see as many gardens as possible in September. Here are highlights from Parc Marie-Victorin, outside of Montreal. Enjoy the mosaiculture!

September 12, 2015
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The new Yumart gallery space has opened

I was at the grand opening of the new Yumart gallery space today, and was excited to see the new gallery, (which is wonderful), and also charged up seeing the first exhibition in the space, Collage Paintings, by Tim Deverell. IMG_4284I really enjoy Tim’s work. His paintings/collages present as fields of images that come together and gently hum, but as you get closer, more and more detail emerges. These works don’t give up everything on first blush. Instead they offer you different tastes as you get to know them. You make friends with them over time, and they continue to surprise. This is a really fine painting show. I highly recommend checking it out. Tim Deverell’s exhibition is on until October 3.

I think the new gallery space is a great move for Yumart. The gallery is a fine space in a good building, and  more and more art lovers will find the gallery now that they are at 401 Richmond. Of course I have a selfish reason for hoping this turns out to be true as I am represented by Yumart for my paintings.

Yumart is at 401 Richmond St. West, Suite B20.

Filed under: Art