Glad I’m Already Home for the Holidays

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Hard to believe it’s 62 degrees in NYC while the temp is a bit above and a bit below freezing in Toronto and eastern parts of Canada, where I know people who are trying to get places this weekend. I bet some folks wish it was snow, which they know, and not freezing rain and black ice, which is often a winter-time problem in more southern climes. It’s a pity people have to go places this time of year.

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A Belated #FridayReads–Peter Warner’s Smart Spy Novel “The Mole”

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In early November I’d been to the launch party for the spy novel The Mole: The Cold War Memoir of Winston Bates, and am only now getting around to reading it. I’m really enjoying this heady thriller whose narrator and protagonist is a Canadian transplant to the U.S. that finds himself on the staff of the real-life senator from Georgia, Richard Russell. I tweeted about the book last Friday and neglected to share about it here until now. Highly recommended, the sort of book for which I’d like to put my work aside so I can burrow deeper in to the unfolding tale.

Note: This piece is cross-posted at my other blog, The Great Gray Bridge.

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Discovering a Surprising Bit of Vancouver in New York City

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Serendipity in the City

The Vancouver Though I’ve lived in New York City for the past 27 years, there are still many city blocks, even in my own familiar neighborhood of the upper west side, that I’ve never traversed. Recently I was strolling on West 94th Street between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive, and was surprised to find a named apartment building, The Vancouver. (it is one of the charming things about NY real estate that many buildings were named back in the day, and they used to even be listed in the phone book under their name. They may still be, but I haven’t looked at an actual White Pages directory for so many years, I’m not sure. My own building where I’ve lived for 22 years is called “West End Manor.” I know this only from my lease, since the name doesn’t appear on an awning or plaque of any kind. Seeing The Vancouver made me wonder if, just as there are “sister cities,” if there might be “sister buildings,” at least in a parallel urban universe–is there a named building in Vancouver called “The New York”? Hmm, perhaps one of my friends in British Columbia will keep an eye out for me. . .Vancouver

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Thinking of My Friend, Lt. General Roméo Dallaire

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Enduring PTSD Ten Years Later

Sunday Morning Update: Lt. General Roméo Dallaire, about whom I’ve been writing in recent days, was a guest for an excellent interview with Michael Enright on CBC Sunday Edition today. Please find the link here.

 

With Lt. General Roméo Dallaire’s flareup of PTSD this week, at the sister blog to this one, The Great Gray Bridge, I’ve written a full post about my experience publishing his book Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda. Here’s the last paragraph:

With the 20th anniversary of the genocide approaching next year, and four recent suicides of Canadian veterans of the Afghan War, Dallaire had a traffic accident this week due to severe insomnia and sleeplessness he’s been enduring as these events prey on him. He was uninjured but shaken by the crash. The same day he made a statement of apology to his colleagues in the Canadian Senate, ironic since so few others in that body have been anywhere near as forthright in admitting their own missteps.

I invite you to read the whole post.

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Loving Megan Bonnell’s new album “Hunt & Chase”

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Megan BonnellI first heard Megan Bonnell at the SaskMusic.org showcase during the CMJ festival in October, and was immediately captivated by her warm dusky voice and compelling performance style. She phrases her lyrics in shard-like fragments that become poetic vapor trails, accompanied, the day I heard her, mostly by her own solo piano, or occasionally on guitar. I got a preview copy of her first full-length album, “Hunt & Chase,” released by Nevado Records, and have been listening to it obsessively the past few weeks. In Toronto’s online magazine Now, Julia LeConte has given it a great review, quoted below in full.

“Megan Bonnell’s first full-length album walks the line between reverie and reality. The more dreamlike, the better – like opening track Coming Home, which combines surreal lyrics, almost tribal chanting and ethereal, echoey flourishes. Or the strange title tune, which bubbles over with musical-theatre-worthy drama. All of this is enhanced by Bonnell’s husky, versatile voice. In her upper register she sounds more than a little like Joni Mitchell, though the artist most immediately called to mind is Damien Rice. We Are Strangers Now is so very O-like, and even the vocals on Say My Name nod to the Irish singer/songwriter. Bonnell isn’t nearly as depressing, but she does channel Rice’s ‘once heartbroken never healed’ melancholy, which, via affecting piano and guitar melodies fleshed out with spooky, fantastical production, grows more interesting with each listen.”

I’m eager to hear her live again sometime soon. Meantime, I’ll continue enjoying the album.

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