Hello my far flung and wonderfully wide-ranging friends, new and old, and hello to my somewhat grumpier listeners also – I sincerely hope this podcast will surprise you with new perspectives, unexpected fair mindedness and interesting insights, despite my unapologetically strong (and
Hi folks, time for a new song and video – also long past time for a brand new love song for my beautiful Catherine. Not conventional, of course (am I ever?) but I had a pretty good sense I was onto true
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
“Quasars family picnic” (top photo) Hello friends! The planet being rather depressing and hopeless of late, I thought I ought to add another piece to the “Reasons we bother” and “How we power that” file. A little while ago I posted some
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).
Like a lot of people, I’ve been reading books about creative people and approaches to life for most of my life. Some suggestions are inspiring but impractically exotic, relying upon settings or resources so difficult to secure as to obliterate the naturalness
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 friends! Here’s a poem I wrote a few years ago, going after an especially difficult and subtle problem. How do we become aware of the medium in which we are suspended? We can sort of see air indirectly, with a flag
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
Hello friends! I am overjoyed to announce my latest book – Stymie and Toffel – a whimsical Toronto tale of dystopian uplift for older kids and especially imaginative adults, with 19 superb illustrations by Andrew (Rewfoe) Foerster, has finally arrived, is utterly
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! Here is another piece based upon unexpected humane insight, from my poetry collection “Night Song for Cigar-Box Banjo” (and for those kind folks who have asked – yes, the long awaited Ebook edition is coming very soon). One of
I attempt to craft things in many forms – musical, graphic, long form writing and poetry. But just as the immediacy time-rootedness and dynamics of music make it the most directly impactful emotionally, poetry reacts to the outside world in extremely interesting
Hi folks, hope you are keeping well, mounting stressors notwithstanding. I’ve had an interesting week so far, wearing my publisher’s hat. I have had a lot of curious jobs and roles over the years, but right now my primary occupation is caregiver
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
Here’s an example of a very old idea with clear sharp modern relevance. The idea comes from Rumi’s father Bahauddin (apologies to my Persian friends if I got that wrong – spelling varies here for almost all of the greats). Very little
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
Loring, by Wyle (top photo) One of the biggest problems with so many oversimplifying explanations of how society ‘really’ works is that these theories always seem to leave out one of the most interesting and important parts of any society – its