October 27, 2011
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Spreading Roots

The Toronto Botanical Garden is hosting a three day symposium called Spreading Roots, celebrating the UN International Year of Forests, and exploring critical issues affecting urban trees. I won’t be able to attend this but I thought I’d spread the word because it looks very interesting and worthwhile.

Spreading Roots is the result of a creative partnership between Toronto Botanical Garden and the Ontario Urban Forest Council, two leading not-for-profit organizations with a strong environmental education mandate. The symposium spans two days and is comprised of 2 days of inspiring panel discussions, speakers, and one day of outdoor tours. This dynamic schedule is designed to engage and inform, and offers ample opportunities for everyone concerned about the welfare of our tree to connect, learn and together, develop a stronger mission to protect urban trees across the province.

I should mention that I heard about this from the regular email newsletter sent to the community from Councillor Grimes office. I think they’ve been doing a good job on this, particularly in the past few months.

Here’s another event listed on that newsletter for those in the neighbourhood who might be interested.

October 26, 2011
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Mine

Last night I broke my own rule. I watched a movie involving dogs. I knew better but I did it anyway. Tuffy P came home with the film on DVD. What could I do?

Mine is a documentary about animals stranded, and rescued, after Katrina. As you can imagine, there were a lot of them. It was a huge disaster. People got separated from their dogs. Animal rescue workers got a lot of dogs and cats out safe and sent them to shelters across North America. It wasn’t a situation where people were back to their homes in a day or two. Some people were forced to live out of town for months or more. What were the shelters to do? They adopted out a lot of unclaimed pets. But some people searched for their pets far and wide, only to find that their dog or cat had been sent to another home. The film focuses on a few of these situations. In some cases the original owners were reunited with their pets and in others, it didn’t happen.

There were a lot of issues at play. Some people believed that Katrina pets were better off in new homes, that if their owners really loved them, they wouldn’t have abandoned them. I suppose those people were not faced with the destruction of large chunks of their own cities.  Mine is a tough documentary to watch, but I’m glad I saw it. That’s it though…no more films involving dogs.

October 23, 2011
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Fernest and the Thunders

Way back in the 80s, there were a few Zydeco bands coming up to Toronto. Queen Ida played up here a couple times at the Bamboo and maybe at the Horseshoe and once I saw Terence Simien and his group down at Harbourfront. The best of the Zydeco groups I saw at the time though, was Fernest Arceneaux and the Thunders. I loved the way those guys played. The frattior player stood centre stage and Fernest, with his triple row accordion, stood off to the side and played and sang. I think it was that night that I decided the triple row diatonic button accordion was the coolest instrument around.

October 23, 2011
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Yesterday: a good day to stay off the roads

A trailblazer for the Gardiner Expressway on Y...

Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday in Toronto, the Gardiner Expressway was closed, the Occupy folks were occupying, and to top things off there was a Zombie walk.

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October 22, 2011
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Albolka

I find Basque music to be very compelling. It seems to me as if this music comes from someplace far away, from another time. There are three important instruments in Basque music today, the tamborine, the double-row diatonic button accordion, known as the trikitixa, and the albolka.  The albolka is a hand-made reed instrument that has a sound that reminds me more of pipes than of reeds. The sounds it makes are nothing short of remarkable. I found an excellent sample on YouTube.

Wow!

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October 22, 2011
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Tales

Those of you who enjoyed the Hinterland Who’s Who post the other day will hopefully appreciate that I couldn’t also resist posting Tales of the Riverbank, another childhood favourite. This particular video is very strange, and surprisingly violent. Hammy Hamster really gets carried away firing off his cannon. And the idea of having a hamster in a diving bell is a scream too.