Monday, July 13, 2009

My Mom's Book Reading (Portland)

My Mom at her book reading for Sisters Singing! last week in Portland. She looks so cool! (And she is!)

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Devo - Uncontrollable Urge

1978

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Today: My Mom's Book Reading for Sisters Singing


This evening, if you happen to be in Portland, go check out my Mom's book reading at Annie Bloom's Books! If you don't happen to be in Portland, you can check out my Mom's blog here, or just go buy a copy of Sisters Singing!

Saturday, July 04, 2009

The Star-Spangled Banner - Jimi Hendrix

Happy 4th of July Americans!

(I love this performance!)

Thursday, July 02, 2009

I Like It Like This

Jay Adams, Dogtown. Mid-1970s.

"There were many good skaters who contributed positively to the sport and somehow Skateboarder magazine chose to promote a gang of kids who only sought to destroy the sport on an organized level." -Russ Howell

[Yes!]

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Where Kool-Aid was invented.

Looks fun, doesn't it?

Read more here if you want.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Roots Festival



I love rootsy reggae from the 1975-1985 era. Almost all the reggae albums I originally had from this period I picked up used at Logo's Bookstore in Santa Cruz, California -- at first mostly based on the cover art alone. I found some great music. Sadly, a lot of it isn't available digitally (and my albums all melted in the hot sun one summer ....).

Roots Archive is a great site for digging into old reggae.

...and this is the Farrah I want to remember

...along with millions of other men (mostly) my age. Yes, I actually did have this poster on my wall when I was in high school.

Of course, wanting to remember anybody only in their prime and youth is a horrible denial of all the twists and turns we all go through in life. But after observing what happened to both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson over the course of their careers, who in their right mind would want what they had? Who would want to be a star? Not me.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Jackson Five - ABC

This is the Michael Jackson I want to remember...

Monday, June 22, 2009

Sometimes it's fun to wait for the bus...

...even if you don't get on when it comes.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Toronto Junction

I know everyone who visits my blog probably already saw this picture on my Facebook page, but I still wanted to post it here. (I still love the old blog, even if I don't have time for it like I used to -- damn you Facebook! damn you Twitter!).

This beautiful car pulled up to us in the Junction yesterday. What it was doing in that neighbourhood I can only imagine. But it did remind me that the Junction is where Wendy's dad saw Queen Elizabeth I during a train stop in the 1930s. This could have been her car! It was that out of place!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Obama Reveals His Killer Instinct

Thomas Edison: The Trick Cyclist 1899 / 1901

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Spiderman Climbs Walls at Home

...and Amado's inspired by this!

Spider-man Original Cartoon Theme Song

I grew up on this, and now Amado is as well!

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Iran Elections

Let me tell you - Andrew Sullivan at Daily Dish is nailing this news story big time....
I approached an elderly gentleman who seemed riveted, but disgusted by the scene in the street in front of him. “I’ve seen violence like this before,” he remarked, “What can one expect when you disrespect the people. This is a coup d’etat. After blatantly cheating the people they won’t be able to turn this off.”

Graduation Day!

I have no idea who any of these people are. I stumbled upon this post-graduation celebration at the University of Toronto yesterday afternoon. Everyone seemed so awkwardly happy as we walked together into the bright future. (Of course, I was just randomly along for the ride.)

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Over Ontario

...on the flight home this evening from Winnipeg to Toronto.

Sunday, June 07, 2009

Mmm, ice cream.....


(Frozen juice bar actually.)

Saturday, June 06, 2009

Rahaf Harfoush

I'm in this picture from a book release by Rahaf Harfoush at Toronto's Rotman School of Management. I'm almost right in the centre. Can you find me?

Rahaf Harfoush, a twenty-something Torontonian, was the new media strategist for the Obama campaign and is a brilliant speaker. She has written a cool book revealing all the secrets of Obama's ground-breaking (and many say, election-winning) use of social media to rally his folks and get out the vote.

Thursday, June 04, 2009

Tag Cloud of Obama's Speech in Cairo

Here's a tag cloud of Obama's speech in Cairo. I love tag clouds.

Monday, June 01, 2009

Downtown Toronto

...taken the other day with my cell phone while walking out of the ball game. These condo towers are popping up like dandelions all over Toronto. Probably in your city too.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Santana Plays Vegas


Carlos Santana is beginning a two-year residency at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas. I never thought of Carlos as a Vegas act, but there you go. Maybe Vegas has changed. But Carlos is still Carlos....

"In my own vision, I feel like we're bringing a Trojan horse to Las Vegas," Carlos Santana says.

"Not necessarily to infiltrate or to infect," he is quick to add. "But Las Vegas is basically realized on luck, chance and fortune. ... We're bringing something really different. It's called power to God's grace. There's no chance with that one."

The Santana sound can be "sexy, swampy and funky, but it still has the element of (John) Coltrane and Mahalia Jackson in it," he says. "It makes your hair stand up beyond the illusion of entertainment or show business.

"I love infusing and activating people with knowing that you and everyone in your family has a spark of the divine and you can make a difference."

[From "Spiritual Validation: Carlos Santana calls still being relevant an incredible blessing." May 29, 2009. Las Vegas Journal-Review]

Friday, May 29, 2009

The Sixties

I'm glad I'm old enough to remember the 1960s. And I'm glad my parents were, like, with it, and not fuddy duds living in some fuddy dud place. It seemed like everything was possible then. But maybe that's just because I was a kid. Either way, everyone should have such a powerful feeling of endless, open possibility at least once in their life.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Strike Vote!

Wendy and Amado at yesterday's strike vote for Cupe 79, which is Wendy's union. We really hope there won't have to be a strike, but it's a real possibility now that it was approved by more than 90% of the members.

Amado has a new haircut he just got that morning. (Though we couldn't quite capture him smiling in a photo!) He's not actually taller than Wendy yet. That's just trick photography.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Just looking at this picture makes me feel cool....

Missing Santa Cruz again today....

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Talking Woodstock

From an article on Ang Lee's new movie, "Talking Woodstock":

Lee ran a hippie camp to teach the extras the right way to behave and carry themselves. The filmmakers said their hardest task was getting the extras to look like '60s youths.

Screenwriter James Schamus, who heads Focus Features, which is releasing "Taking Woodstock," said there's a different look to today's young people, with their passion for fitness and disdain for pubic hair.

Said Schamus: "When you think about it, a generation of people who weren't fat, who weren't staring at themselves in the mirror all the time, and not shaving everything off down there, it captures the difference of 40 years right there."

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

VICTORVILLE MODEL HOMES DEMOLISHED - SHOCKING VIDEO: Part 5

Wow, cheaper to destroy these new houses than to sell them! Does my brother know about this? It's right near his house. In fact, he may have built them! Sol, what's going on out there?

Monday, May 11, 2009

Tamil Protest

A huge Tamil protest shut down Toronto last night, including the Gardiner Expressway. Tamils are demanding the Canadian government do something to stop the violence in Sri Lanka, which has truly been horrible - more than 300 civilians were killed and thousands more were injured in just the past few days, most of them Tamils.

Protest tactics like this aren't helping their cause in public opinion, that's for sure. Also, if Canada did act to sanction Sri Lanka would that stop the violence? I don't think so. The Sri Lanka war is coming to a brutal end and perhaps the thing that would save the most lives at this point is for the Tamil Tigers to surrender. At this point they can't win the war anyway. Wouldn't that force the Sri Lankan government to declare a ceasefire and deal with the Tamils as people, instead of indiscriminately shelling civilian areas?

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Happy Mother's Day!

Mom, you're the greatest! Thank you for everything, including life-long memories such as the one pictured above! (1976 :-)

Friday, May 08, 2009

Awkward Family Photos

http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/

Wow! I have a blog!


Sunday, May 03, 2009

Meditation


Nothing in the world
is as soft and yielding as water.
Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible,
nothing can surpass it.

The soft overcomes the hard;
the gentle overcomes the rigid.
Everyone knows this is true,
but few can put it into practice.

-Tao Te Ching

Saturday, May 02, 2009

I may not be in California...

...but sometimes surfing photos are the next best thing.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Amado Draws Toronto

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Banana Times 5

Thursday, April 16, 2009

The World Weary

I love this picture of our nephew Caleb and I from 2002. It's understandable that I look a little world weary, but Caleb? He was only 6 at the time.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Nana Mouskouri Comes to Town


Yes, that Nana Mouskouri.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Down the Rabbit Hole

Easter morning, 2009

Friday, April 10, 2009

Good Friday

Today would be the perfect day to share the shade with a few migrant farmworkers, drinking tequila and eating barbacoa, and singing the old rancheras about love lost and found.

All of us are too far from our homes.