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
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
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
I got this lovely picture and quote from my brilliant cartoonist and illustrator friend Joseph Salina a few years ago, and I’ve kept it on my desktop ever since. Doris Lessing has been one of my greatest heroes since I was a
Hello my friends – here’s a podcast which brings together our shared strange experience of pausing normalcy, and several themes I’ve talked about before, and makes something of them. You don’t have to have listened to anything else I’ve posted for it
Somebody still has to shift these boxes (top photo) Hello, my friends – podcast time once again. Today I’m looking at a bunch of things which are popularly misunderstood on purpose, to support myths that we rather like. I don’t challenge these
Today’s podcast is about some of the reasons that sincere people have fought for progress for many years, and yet have somehow lost ground. It is also about the sort of opposition which really scares the forces which conspire to deny our
Hi folks! Time for another hard truth and a big hug. Today: “You can’t guilt a fascist.” But so what – what harm is there in any catharsis – ultimately paradoxical or not? The harm is that it throws off our aim,
King meets de Gaulle (top photo) Black and white photos from an exhibition of American press images of Canada – at the fantastic Ryerson Image Centre – Mount Pleasant cemetery contains the graves of many Canadian notables, but few who are more
Hey folks – seems a good time for a rainy-day show, with a few ideas about things we can do to stave off frustration, when we are forced to put all of the projects we’d planned on-hold, for an indefinite time. Part
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
Our friends already know that my extraordinary wife Catherine and I have been facing down a frightening health challenge lately. She was hospitalized a few months ago, and again more recently, for comparatively minor complications to a previously undiagnosed and life threatening
Hey friends, here’s another brand new all original edition of Hard Truth and a Big Hug – by far the most topical episode I have yet attempted – pandemic edition, no less – though my points are still, as usual, braced very
Hello friends – here’s a brand new episode of – Hard Truth and a Big Hug – today I’m talking about what we care most about, what we pay attention to – and what gets ignored and begins to wither away, when
Tradesmen must not (top photo) Let me begin by saying the sort of discrimination and mentality indicated by the sign above is not my idea of excellent at all – except – by the time I grew familiar with this sign –
Hello, my friends – time for another episode of Hard Truth and a Big Hug – this time I want to talk about some forgotten history, which might add some new perspective to struggles too often seen and felt only in the
I decided to take this week off from podcasting (back next week, fear not) so that I could put together a silly little video for my true love (and wife) Catherine. The video is for a song I wrote for her and