Large Ess Small Press is a creator-run Toronto publishing house dedicated to bringing you works of compassion, fun, curiosity, wisdom and humour. Along with our already available launch volumes of poetry, short stories from life and whimsical writings about humans and happiness,
I talk a lot about unconventional learning – getting philosophical insights from biography, or finding life-hacks within innovative and courageous approaches to music. But I don’t want to sound pompous or fancy – nor is my sincere atheist spiritual-seeking merely a trick
I want to be this playful in my late eighties! On the surface, visual arts are all about looking – which feels like obvious and objective stuff – but sculpture is always a tricky challenge for a photographer, because a sculpture can
I mentioned some months ago that working as a model has given me a funny insight into self control. With practise (and the right exercises) one can extend one’s ability to tolerate discomfort to an extraordinary degree. But even though my experience
While researching an article about the Black Panthers not too long ago, I came across their splendid and still powerful ten points and added them as a footnote to the story. For today’s show I found this. In 1851, Pierre Joseph Proudhon,
Hi folks As my friends of longstanding will have already noticed, I seem to have wound up with a little bit of talent at almost everything – except for that small but important range of mercenary skills. This is by no means
I’m only asking Santa for one thing this year – patience. The fact that patience is something that I usually have easily available in unusual quantity suggests that I am not the only one concerned by a worrisomely short supply, who is
There are a lot of people out there, far better studied and credentialed than I, who are eager to tell you emotionally engaging tales about what’s wrong with the world and who is to blame for our problems. But when I think
I have to open this with an apology – I have been meaning to get it done and posted or awhile now. On the other hand, this may be the perfect moment. By now most of us are facing the prospect of
Have you ever actually sat down and read Leviticus, from start to finish? The other day I was thinking hard about how to carefully describe some of the serious problems of reason and compassion in the political correctness movement, and I realized
Internet and social media are strange beasts. It is a really wonderful thing to have friends from the far corners of the world – and to share our ideas and passions with people who have very different experiences and circumstances. But there
Hi folks! Right now (end of November, 2020) we are fortunate to have some very good mid and long-term news on several fronts at once about our globally stressful and depressing pandemic. The fact that manufacturers all around the world are seeing
Toffel digs inIllustrations by Andrew Rewfoe Foerster, from the upcoming book – “Stymie and Toffel” This is a weird and difficult time to be a kid. Childhood has actually been increasingly weird and difficult for several generations now, but the truly shocking
March of the Weavers (top image) I am continually amazed by the valuable clues we uncover when we dig into art history. These clues are never confined to the artist themselves or their work, but enrich our understanding of the places and
Hi Folks Just working on making Large Ess Small Press more fun to browse and more enjoyable to read. Might take me a few days to get all of the appropriate switches flipped appropriately. Do please bear with me in the meantime.
Hello my friends – time for a new song! I wrote this one a couple of years ago, and I’ve been playing with the arrangement in my head (mentally multi-tracking it) ever since, but it wasn’t until Catherine ordered me not to
I did a show awhile ago called, “You can’t guilt a fascist” and I don’t think this point can be made enough. Appeals to the powerful to amend their ways and show more grace to their serfs are structurally doomed, because there
Captain Bananas – Millennium Gorilla There is an old idea in Buddhism – attachment is suffering – which has always bothered me in a very stimulating way – because it is at once obviously true, right from the very first time we
Hello my friends! I am sorry to have been silent so long since my last episode. I have been trying (as I explain within) but like everyone else, I am finding many things more of a struggle than usual lately. This one
Dragon at Croydon – For a story from youth, a picture by the youth at the time I’m working on putting together two books at once right now, and this feels like a very cheering and natural publisher growth process. I have
I keep working over and over again on the one great essay which can make everything important clear at last. Of course, with every pass the goal recedes for a very obvious reason – as simple as my desire to be helpful
Eternal proof – one person’s mind can change the world Here’s one for my pal David Spencer – a fellow fan of longstanding. It also serves as a funny sidebar to my lovely Vale of Avoca walk a few days ago. For
The Quarry and the Years of Growth (as always, click top pic for high-res gallery) Yellow Creek may be mediated by stone – but nature works with what it finds Like many of my photographically inclined friends around the world, I’ve been
So, funny thing, my back is twisted into a pretzel, my time-tapping foot was twitching in my sleep last night (and may be in spasm by tonight), every one of my fingertips is raw, and the associated muscles along my forearms ache
Note: these images were photographed at the Ryerson Image Centre (which does expressly allow non-flash photography) as part of their excellent 2017 show: Attica USA 1971: Images and sounds of a rebellion. And do visit the (free) Ryerson Image Centre when they
This is a moment of high passion and righteous calls for justice. Good time also to think about the history of advances in rights, and the outcomes of previous movements – so we can incorporate lessons about strategy – and make sure
Apologies for my absence – not ’cause I don’t love ya, I promise! More essays, podcasts, photography, poetry and my usual general craziness are definitely on their way. Managed to get some creative energy going – weirdly difficult nowadays – especially since
