Bruce
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Bruce
Bruce
The Partners
Memphis & George
Basketeers 2014
So excited to sign in and see all the AMAZING BASKETS! HERE WE GO – with Cathy P who just delivered her 2 baskets!
AMAZING BASKETS from the US with lights! Way to shine!
Getting ideas for next year! Bundles of inspiration packed into this gym. YAY BASKETEERS!!
Regular visitors to this blog may recall that for several years Tuffy P has been a supporter of Basketeers. From the Basketeers website:
It’s hard to believe that one small idea in the year 2000 to support women leaving the shelter system, would turn into the success it is today: over 3500 volunteers in ten chapters create beautiful baskets to be distributed to 47 Ontario and British Columbia women’s shelters. The continued success of the Basketeers is due entirely to all the people who generously either adopt a basket or contribute to one. Thank you from me and all the women we are able to assist.
Shortly I’ll be loading Tuffy P’s two heaping baskets into the car for delivery. This year, her friend Cathy P will also be delivering two baskets.
Photos from the delivery point to follow later today. This is a great community initiative to assist women leaving shelters to re-establish themselves.
Le Soleil est Levé
Time for a shot of creole button accordion music. I know you’ve been waiting for it….
Here’s Cedric Watson performing Le Soleil est Levé
Mr. Watson is also a fiddler and recently some videos featuring him playing gourd banjo have appeared on the YouTube. Here is Cedric Watson performing the murder ballad Little Sadie…
Out back
Imagination Station with Grizzly Bear
Imagination Station in need of renovation
The Architect
Here’s another blast from the past. This is an oil painting I made back in the 80s. It’s an oil painting. I don’t recall the exact size – I think it is around 3 feet wide. I don’t have much to say about this painting except that I’ve long been fond of it. This one hung at a friend’s place for several years. I don’t know if he tired of it or what, but at a certain point he gave it back, and I still have this one here at 27th Street. I might have exhibited The Architect in one of a couple studio exhibitions I had in my old store-front studio on Ossington Ave, but then again maybe I didn’t – I’m just not sure now.
The Architect
Coyote
I took the dogs out for our after dinner walk this evening as usual. We headed over toward the water filtration plant on the other side of 23rd St. My plan was to walk over to the edge of the hill and see if there was anyone in the leash-free area. There are no lights there and no shelter from the cold winds and lately dog owners have been clearing out early.
The leash-free area was empty. I thought for a second I’d take the dogs down the hill and over to the path by the lake, when I saw a coyote out in the field. It was rooting around in the field and I’m guessing it was mousing. For a brief second, the coyote looked up at me, and then started moving slowly closer to the hill. I turned the dogs around and we jogged back toward the road. I’m happy to avoid any kind of encounters with our dogs and wildlife.
By the time we got to the road, the coyote had emerged at the top of the hill and was a third of the way across the field, coming toward us slowly but with some determination. We crossed 23rd and headed down Iris. Halfway to 25th, Memphis had to stop to pull out the little snowballs that build up between her paw pads. I looked back and the coyote was still in the field but only 15 or 20 feet away from the road.
The dogs were oblivious to this action. If they could smell the coyote, they showed no sign of it. Maybe the wind was in the wrong direction for that. They were only concerned that we were heading home so fast instead of completing our usual full walk. The coyote looked pretty scrawny except for its tail but it was hard to tell if it was healthy or not. This was not the first time I’ve seen coyotes in the park or the filtration plant lands – but it was the first time one followed me.
Of course there are different types of coyotes. Here is Guy Clark singing about the other kind…
Tecumseh Valley
We’re always making value judgements, and we do it at lightning speed. I like this, I don’t care for that, that’s ok, oh no, not that. We do it about art and music and literature and everything else. I’m OK with that. For instance with music, I listen to a broad range of material, some of it very disparate. I don’t listen to everything though and I know there are some things I don’t give half a chance. Oh well.
I was on a roadtrip once with East Texas Red. We were out west somewhere chasing trout and at this particular moment we were having mediocre pizza with bottomless Coca Cola at some roadside joint and we were talking about music. East Texas Red asked me what made Townes van Zandt such a great song writer. Why did I admire his tunes so much? Fair question.
The first Townes van Zandt record I had was Live and Obscure. It was on vinyl. Remember vinyl? I played that record until it was scratched and it skipped. It seemed like Townes carried all the worries of the world on his shoulders. He sang terribly sad songs and he brought out every ounce of melancholy and hopelessness. He must have been one troubled guy.
I didn’t say that to East Texas Red though. At the time I didn’t really have an answer to his question beyond, “because his songs are really good.” This was quite a few years ago. Since then I’ve listened to those Townes van Zandt tunes hundreds of times. If East Texas Red asked me the question now in the fullness of time, I’d say, “because you can listen to them over and over and over for years and years and never get tired of them. That’s saying something. I get tired of most songs I hear on the radio really quickly.
Here’s Townes van Zandt performing Tecumseh Valley with Nanci Griffith…
Underground
Underground #4
I’ve been thinking about a series of paintings I made quite a number of years ago called Underground, so I thought I’d share one of these images tonight. Underground is actually a title I’ve applied to other paintings as well, and I suspect at some point in the future there may be more Underground paintings. This particular series is distinguished from the all the other paintings I’ve made because it is on a strange material that was described to me as aluminum foam.
A friend of mine was involved with the company that made this weird material, and he provided some pieces for me to try out as a painting ground. The first thing I did was to break the sheets into irregularly shaped chunks, with each chunk destined to become a painting. I think there were 8 in all. The one pictured is #4 – but keep in mind the numbers were just added in order to distinguish one from the other for practical purposes.
I found the material to be very challenging to work on, and the irregular shapes added to the difficulty. The resulting paintings were highly organic and highly textured, somewhat awkward and anything but pretty. The material and the shapes created the sense that these paintings were like core samples from my imagination.
I exhibited some of the paintings from this series at the old Loop Gallery on Queen St. West here in Toronto. A couple of them sold along the way. I gave one to a friend as a gift and I still have a few of these unusual paintings here at 27th Street.
Serenade to a Cuckoo
These days I’ve been listening to a lot of stringband music, as regular visitors to this joint can attest. Still sometimes I need a dose of jazz, I need to hear the horns, those fantastic extensions of the human voice.
Here’s Rahsaan Roland Kirk performing Serenade to a Cuckoo…
27th Street 