Take a second look …
The yellow eyes of the Saw-whet Owl are so startling, their gaze so steady, that we tend to ignore everything else. It’s easy to miss the trace of blood just below the owl’s bill, a smear of something that changes the way we look at the bird, that deepens our understanding of it. What discoveries might we make if we took that second look more often, if we trained ourselves to see?
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Ten Influential Albums: Numbers 6-10
Here is the second instalment of the list I drew up in May for the so-called Ten Album Challenge. In revising the text for these last five albums, I discovered a rather pressing urge to say something more about Billie Holiday and Captain Beefheart in particular. The first because her far-reaching shadow seemed to touch, almost to the point of obscuring, every other artist on the list; and the second simply because I find his music, and the personality that animated it, to be endlessly fascinating. Number Six: Billie Holiday: All or Nothing at All. In his meditative long poem … Read more
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Ten Influential Albums: Numbers 1-5
Just as the Coronavirus settled in for its brutal, interminable visit, just as the remnants of life-as-we’ve-always-known-it shattered and collapsed around my ears, a friend nominated me for the Ten Album Challenge. In accepting this challenge, I agreed to post—on Facebook—the covers of ten albums that have influenced or inspired me in some meaningful way. Right at the beginning, it’s important to note what this isn’t. It’s not a Top-Ten List. These aren’t necessarily my favorite albums of all time. (After all, over time favorites change.) Rather, they are simply ten examples, chosen at random from many dozens, of 12-inch … Read more
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The Coronavirus Conundrum: You want I should hibernate in spring?
Two weeks ago, I biked down to the allotment garden in Toronto where my wife and I have been tending a plot for the better part of twenty years. On the gate where I usually enter, I found a sign stating that the allotments were closed indefinitely, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s possible to examine the coronavirus and the effects it’s having on human society in any number of ways. I’m doing so through the one focused lens of gardening, which is an activity I’ve always associated most closely with the spring. It’s one of the activities that calls … Read more
Read MoreWinged Creatures Photo Gallery
