April 13, 2010
comment 1

Ellie Mae and Mornings

Before we got Ellie Mae, Tuffy took Memphis for an early morning walk each day. We’ve continued that now that we have two dogs. The only problem is that Ellie Mae is a deep sleeper and doesn’t like to wake up in the morning.

Hey Ellie, wake up. Come on, wake up Ellie Mae. I shake her. Nothing. I shake her again. Nothing. Ellie Mae.

Ellie Mae Wake Up

I roll her off her doggy bed, shaking her again. Finally, I physically sit her up. She opens her eyes for a second, then slides down to sleeping position.

Ellie Mae

I lock my arms around her and pull her up into a standing position. She stands there, eyes closed. I hook up the leash to her collar and start her walking toward the door before she falls asleep again. By the time she gets out of the house, she’s fine.

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

April 12, 2010
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My Lucky Day

This just showed up in my gmail box. It’s my lucky day (Dear Rosemary Russell, yes, yes, yes, you’ve found the right email…please send me my money right away…oh, there’s a problem? I see. So I should send you the $20,000 first then. OK. I’ll get right on that. Mrs. Russell, you’re not related to the Prince of Nigeria are you?):

Dear Beneficiary,

I have a very important information to pass to you. I wrote to
know if this is your valid email. Please, let me know if this email
is valid .

FUND FINAL PAYMENT BOARD/PAYMENT SETTLEMENT VALUE AMOUNT: $850,000.00USD:

We Apologize for the delay of your payment and all the Inconveniences and
hiccups that we might have caused you. However, we were having some minor
problem with our payment systems, which is Inexplicable, and have held us
stranded and Indolent, not having the Prerequisite to
devote our 100% endowment in accrediting foreign payments.
We apologized once again, for the delay. From the Record of outstanding
Debts due for payment to you for { AWARD LOTTERY FUND CLAIMS/ AND
INHERITANCE CLAIM}

Mrs.Rosemary Russell.
VICE PRESIDENT
FUND FINAL PAYMENT BOARD

April 12, 2010
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St. Phillips

When Tuffy P and I got married back in 2001, we honeymooned in Newfoundland. Just about every day, we went for a hike – we had a book of hikes on the Avalon Peninsula and we completed several of them. I did some charcoal drawings on those hikes that inspired a large series of paintings over the following winter. I painted them in a converted shed behind Anchovy World Headquarters on Blackthorn Ave. and so I called the series the Blackthorn Paintings. It was a really prolific time for me. I made something like 50 small paintings over that winter. Quite a number of those paintings still resonate with me. I was looking at a picture of one of them tonight, a painting called St. Phillips, and I decided to mess around with it digitally, just a little bit. I’m not sure what got into me really – I still like the painting fine as I painted it back then. You can see a photo of the painting here, and the digital job below.

Filed under: Art
April 12, 2010
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A Good First Step

The Toronto transit union held the first of a series of town-halls yesterday to hear from Torontonians about issues with public transit in Toronto. This is a brave step by a union reeling from photos of sleeping employees and the like. It marked recognition by the union that they are in the customer service business. Union members apologized to the public repeatedly, and I think those apologies were well taken.

However, we shouldn’t think the problems with public transit in Toronto are all the fault of the transit employees. Keep in mind that our provincial government just shelved promises of some regular reasonable funding. Tough times and all that.

I don’t mind paying increased taxes for better transit. However, if I pay more taxes I have some expectations that go along with that. I don’t want my increased taxes to go to fund trips to conferences around the world (sorry Mr. Giambrone) and I expect some much better planning in the future.

The town-halls are a good start, and good for the union for getting them going. Let’s hear what the public wants to see improved. Proceed with much consultation. Let’s avoid a repetition of the terrible St. Clair project in the future. As for the province, they’re going to have to belly up to the bar, so to speak, and work out a way to fund a top rate transit system.

April 11, 2010
comments 2

All these noble search terms…

and they all land here…you go figure:

  • kelligrews soiree 2010
  • betty goodwin gairloch galleries
  • jesse winchester hugh’ room
  • portuguese accordion
  • c&a tune back in your heart
  • vallenatos colombianos
  • stinkhorn eggs
  • songs about cars
  • энтолома абортов
April 11, 2010
comments 3

Jesse Winchester at Hugh’s Room

We’ve been waiting for Jesse Winchester to play Hugh’s Room for months. In fact, I bought tickets back in January. Jesse Winchester was the first person to play Hugh’s Room when it opened 9 years ago, and he’s been coming every year since. Mr. Winchester is an unassuming, laid back fellow. He came with a classical style guitar he bought yesterday at The 12th Fret.

He told a few stories, and played and sang a most fantastic array of songs. It was really one of the most intimate shows I’ve attended – in part because it felt like we were gently invited into Winchester’s world – and in part because our table was just a few feet from the performer.

Here’s Jesse Winchester on Elvis Costello’s tv show:

Here’s another little taste, I found on YouTube, called Hank and Lefty:

If you ever get a chance to see Jesse Winchester perform, don’t miss it.