This is my personal blog through which I share observations about my creative passions — and everything in between.
Unless you’re a fly angler, you probably don’t know that Southwestern Ontario is an oasis of piscatorial delight for those who cast fur and feather. The Grand River’s tailwater attracts fly anglers from far and wide in pursuit of hatchery raised brown trout. The Canadian Heritage River boasts a variety of sports species including smallmouth bass, steelhead and pike. The Maitland, Saugeen and Bighead rivers…
I’ve spent a pleasurable summer in companionship with Henry David Thoreau as homage to the bicentenary of his birth on July 12, 1817. In addition to sauntering through Walden, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, The Maine Woods and Cape Cod and selections from his monumental Journal, essays, letters and poetry, I have enjoyed a trio of excellent biographies including Henry Thoreau: A…
Tom Thomson went missing on Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park on July 8, 1917. His body was recovered on July 16, 1917. To commemorate the centenary of the death of one of Canada’s great national icons, I am posting a blog each day throughout these days of mystery devoted to aspects of the painter’s life, art and legacy. The fifth instalment, Tom As Rock Star, takes…
Although he never played the sport, my dad loved baseball. He not only watched it religiously on TV, he coached a very good community industrial fastball team in our hometown of London, Ontario for many years. I was the team’s batboy for a few years while attending senior elementary school. I even got a team jacket commemorating a championship season. I wore it as proudly…
The Registry Theatre is my favourite live performance venue in Waterloo Region. It has the inspired and affordable programming, the staff starting with program director Lawrence McNaught and the warmth, accessibility and intimacy to satisfy all my entertainment needs. The vibrant performing arts presenter located in the heart of downtown Kitchener has unveiled its playbill for its 16th season. For less than $250,000 annually, the Registry…
A cinematic river runs through Waterloo for the fourth consecutive year with the return of the International Fly Fishing Festival. Founded in 2011, the festival — popularly known as IF4 — grew from a handful of screenings in western Canada to more than 100 screenings across the country and the U.S., as well as internationally. ‘We’re truly international,’ confirmed Jennifer Bird, publisher of Fly Fusion,…
Bush land scrub land — Cashel Township and Wollaston Elvezir McClure and Dungannon green lands of Weslemkoon Lake where a man might have some opinion of what beauty is and none deny him …
The Group of Seven remains a paradox. No Canadian artists are more familiar in terms of simple identification. Everyone has heard of the Group of Seven, right? But, after a century, do we really know the group’s seven founding members — Lawren Harris, J.E.H. MacDonald, A.Y. Jackson, Franz (Frank) Johnston, Arthur Lismer, Franklin Carmichael and Fred Varley — as individuals? Do we really know what…
It’s never a wise investment for municipalities to throw good public money after bad private profit. Nonetheless, municipal bureaucrats and politicians are often seduced by big, inefficient operators at the expense of small, efficient, community based groups. It’s amazing how readily gullible politicians, aided and abetted by a misguided bureaucracy, parted with $270,000 of taxpayers’ money to underwrite the Big Music Fest. Mark Higgins, the smooth-talking promoter…