September 2, 2012
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Perfect afternoon for a swim

We took the dogs out for a walk this afternoon over to the dog-swimming beach. Now this isn’t a beach designated by the City for dogs to swim or anything like that. It’s just an excellent beach for dogs to swim, and lots of the local dogs and humans have figured that out.  Today it was busy because several people had decided to watch the Air Show from the dog beach. Families were bringing picnic lunches down and I saw one family coming down to the beach with an extra-large pizza box. Fortunately for everyone involved, Memphis and Ellie Mae didn’t see the pizza box. Pizza is their very favourite  food. In that way I suppose Newfoundland dogs are a lot like humans.

Memphis likes to swim out after a red ball. She’ll go after a tennis ball or a stick but she really likes the rubber red balls. You know, the expensive kind. Memphis will fetch a red-ball from the lake over and over and over again. The trick is to figure out when she’s finally tuckered out one throw before she shows you by watching the expensive red ball being hurled in the lake and then lying down in the sand for a wee rest.

While Memphis likes to swim for quite a while, Ellie Mae prefers to go in for a dip then roll around on the sand enjoying the beach. Sometimes she’ll get up for a second dip. Once swimming is done, her goal is to have the maximum amount of sand stick to her fur for the walk back so she can deposit it on the floor at home later. In the picture above, you can just see the red ball that Memphis is chasing.

September 1, 2012
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Old St. Anne

Tonight’s Daily Dose features a venerable old tune and one I never tire of, The St. Anne’s Reel or the Reel de Sainte-Anne.

This one features Aly Bain on fiddle and Jerry Douglas on Dobro…

Geez, that’s beautiful. Ask me why I love traditional music so much and I’ll just point to a performance like this that says it all.

Here’s an unusual banjo version by Jim Rchter…

And of course we need an accordion version…

 

August 30, 2012
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There are worlds they have not told you of…

Occasionally a musician comes along who must come from some other place, somewhere else, another planet perhaps. As Sun Ra wrote, there are worlds they have not told you of… One of those musicians was Rahsaan Roland Kirk. He came from a very special planet, located far far away. Kirk gave a whole new meaning to the idea of a one-man band, sometimes playing several instruments, including some kind of nose flute, at once. The planet he was born on is called Columbus Ohio. He was born Ronald Kirk but Wikipedia tells me that he was compelled by a dream to transpose letters and make it Roland. After another dream in 1970, he added Rahsaan to his name. Why not. Kirk was born in 1935 and died in 1977 after a second stroke.

Tonight’s Daily Dose features the amazing Rahsaan Roland Kirk….

August 29, 2012
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In the Studio

It’s been a while since I’ve shared anything from down in the studio. Here are some paintings I have on the go. These works are so fresh I can’t even tell you if they’re finished or not.  These are small oil paintings and by small I mean they’re maybe 18-24 inches wide.

I haven’t titled any of these yet. Sometimes I’ll have a title early on in a painting and other times I’ll make one up after the fact. Sometimes I simply associate a name for a painting as I’m working on it, like an internal reference code. That could become a title but often it remains just a personal way of referring to a picture I have on the go.

I think I’ve used more yellow in these paintings than I’ve used in years.

I’ve been enjoying the painting sessions on these tremendously. There are times when painting isn’t all that much fun, when the works are anxious and full of worry and sweat and doubt. These are not like that. These pictures are born of free association and playful improvisation and a devil-may-care attitude.  They’re surprising me in lots of ways.

Filed under: Art
August 28, 2012
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If I had my way….

I don’t know that the Daily Dose has ventured into Rev. Gary Davis territory before. If not, it’s about time. Way back when I was a teen-aged blues freak, I found a Rev. Gary Davis record in some little record shop, just sitting there waiting for me in the blues section. It was in the blues section because there wasn’t any other place in this record shop to put it. Rev. Gary Davis played music that messed with gospel, ragtime and blues too. He was a very powerful performer. I was maybe 14 or 15 when I heard a recording of Davis singing Twelve Gates to the City and I had never heard anything like it before.

Here’s some stories about Rev. Gary Davis.

 

August 28, 2012
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Birds, birds, birds….

Tuffy P signed us up somewhere or another to receive emailed birding reports. I thought that might mean an email every few days but it turns out that birders are a very industrious lot and they take their hobby oh so seriously. Here are some sample headers from the emails we’ve been receiving:

Hudsonian Godwits @ West perth…
Hudsonian Godwit- Yes, American Golden Plover – Yes, at West Perth Wetlands
Eared Grebe still present at Townsend Sewage Lagoons
Short billed Dowitchers and 6 Black bellied Plovers over Andrew Haydon Park (west)
Jaegerless day at Van Wagner’s, Hamilton
Toronto Islands fall migration – Blue-winged and Prairie Warblers etc.
James Bay shorebirds — Chickney Point
Buff-breasted Sandpiper at Whitby

We’re getting dozens of birding reports. We have more information on bird sightings in Ontario than I imagined possible.