Hello my friends – here’s the latest episode of “Hard Truth and a Big Hug”. It’s a small part of a book that I haven’t yet got around to publishing – but I thought the big ideas and the final take-away were
Hi folks, I haven’t been sleeping well the last couple of weeks, so please pardon me if this one is a bit rough around the edges – promise it is part of a much larger theme which I will address more thoughtfully
I have talked a lot in my essays, posts, podcasts and even my songs about self-delusion, especially the way our negative emotionality (fear/anger) causes all sorts of destruction which we are extremely good at ignoring, or pretending comes from somewhere else. Some
This is an extremely difficult time to write about the reality and history of the world and of our various nested cultures, from a standpoint of firm and ever expanding compassion. I have said it before, but I have to repeat –
Hi friends – time for a brand new song and video! I swear I keep thinking of Bill Withers when I start these free-form songs – simple, heartfelt and compelling are my picks for the strongest virtues a song can have (Woody
Hey, what do you know? Right in the middle of an unwholesome national festival of Schadenfreude (pleasure in other people’s suffering) about our neighbours’ absolutely insane, and yet also hilariously pathetic politics, Canada up and finds a way to prove that politically,
I must admit that when I say it simply, it still sounds like a silly bit of dinner party wit, even to me, but I actually was part of a socialist comics collective way back in the late 1980s (my early twenties).
Hello folks – time for some full-strength politics once again! It is such a strange moment right now – I’d really like to be able to link directly to my most passionate friends on the right, middle and left and ask them
What is reality, really? This is one of those strangely tricky questions humans have been asking for a very long time. On an emotional level we often feel as if the answer should be obvious, or at least very clear and stable
Hello my friends! One of the curious things about the way covid has overturned everyone’s normalcy, all at once, is that many of us have been reminded about the value of pleasure and creativity, as a mentally and emotionally positive and stabilizing
Hi Folks. I’ve had some wonderful stimulus lately. Met a dear old friend on Friday for a lovely nature walk and energizing conversation (you have to love The Vale of Avoca – and right in midtown, too!) then yesterday I walked nine
I don’t want to sound like a snob, a luddite, or a weirdo, but I sometimes feel like the only person around who isn’t addicted to television. People get mad at me for my strong objection to hate powered factionalism,
Hi folks – so happy to announce that “Stymie and Toffel” my first book for younger and especially enchanted folks is on its way to the printer – the final proof copies should be here soon. Very excited to finally put a
Image from the brilliant game artists at Ubisoft Montreal(the startlingly beautiful – Assassin’s Creed: Origins – to be specific) There are a few tough themes which I have been working on steadily ever since I was a teenager, but I have to
Hello my friends – time for a podcast once again. Afghanistan is the subject of the hour – but I haven’t heard a single word said yet, which reflects context or memory. Never in my own living memory has the professional news
Hey folks! Isn’t it funny how wonky and non-linear creativity is? Even when you develop various mental tools of envisioning (important in every art) you still need a combination of motivational drive, and some direction in which to deliver your work. My
Who is a rebel – what is the system? What is oppressive conformity, and what is heroic resistance? Where is corruption? Who and what holds real power? When is knowledge dangerous, who gets to decide? How free are we really willing to
Photo Credit: Catherine Barnes I had a strange experience this week, which seemed to bring together a number of questions which have been troubling me recently, and also suggest a curious new arrangement and focus for some answering ideas. For the first
Top photo – One part Osiris, two parts Horus Hello my friends, time for another podcast. This time some ideas about how we all got here, to this rather fraught moment. By ‘we’ I often mean western civilization in general, but I
What is a person? What is a statement, a critique, an opinion? What is the value of a very loud and egotistical person screaming about a petty injustice? What is the weight of a modest and self-effacing person’s quiet sober testimony? What
Do you have a “Luminato” festival in your town? A urban art festival full of light sculpture and insomniacs? I’m starting to wonder if it might be time to introduce a ‘Fulminato’ festival as well – one night every year dedicated to