Day 811: Sympathy For The Sixties

originally published March 21, 2014 Growing up as I did amid hippie anthems, psychedelic living room lighting fixtures and the notorious sweet smell of those skinny little cigarettes my parents would pass back and forth, it was easy to romanticize the Woodstock culture. When I attended high school, anti-war activism (to boot Iraq out of […]

Day 810: Where Commerce Screams In Glittering Light

originally published March 20, 2014 Without question, Times Square is the center of the urban-tourist universe, and all other city cores are distant suburbs. The splashy lights and night-defying non-stop glow are mesmerizing, intoxicating… until you realize that most of the magic around you are advertisements. Even then, all those pleas for the pennies in […]

Day 809: Crimea River

originally published March 19, 2014 This past weekend the citizens of Crimea voted to break up with Ukraine and run away with their old lover, Russia. What does this mean to you? Unless you have a personal stake in the matter – relatives in Simferopol or perhaps you’re reading this from your котедж in Alushta […]

Day 808: Gnomes Akimbo

originally published March 18, 2014 Somehow I have resisted the overwhelming urge to adorn my lawn with kitschy trinkets and cutesy personalization. I prefer to express my individuality with my neighbors via the curious stench of empty liquor bottles and spring-thaw dog poo that meanders with the wind around my block. If someone opted to […]

Day 807: Movies On The Wall

originally published March 17, 2014 While an inherent nobility may lie in ‘art for art’s sake’, occasionally we should lease a dollop of contemplation for art for the sake of someone else’s art. Film posters serve the purpose of sufficiently piquing our minds (and wallets) to lure us into a theatre. But the best of […]

Day 806: Ending It All, But With Panache

originally published March 16, 2014 When that icy murk of depression sinks into the soul and plants its jagged spiky heels into one’s chest-flesh, thoughts of ending it all tend to squirt to the surface. It’s a dark reality that such notions dance a step or two through most brains at some point or another. […]

Day 805: Smile, You’re Always On Candid Camera

originally published March 15, 2014 Right this very minute, unless you’re in your own home with the windows blacked out, under three layers of blankets with aluminum foil insulating every crook of the room, you are being watched. Perhaps not actively watched by anyone with a pulse, but there are electronic eyes everywhere. City streets, […]

Day 804: The Dance Sensation That Swept The First Nations

originally published March 14, 2014 As a fiercely devout skeptic I have little patience for incorporating any spiritual routine into my life, apart from a daily dose of Otis Redding and/or Etta James, both of whom possessed vocal talents that by their very nature taunted non-believers with their otherworldly oomph. Religious rituals, from Cree to […]

Day 803: The Shocking (Pun Tragically Intended) War Of Currents

originally published March 13, 2014 While ruminating on beer and movies and the mighty Cleveland Browns may fuel the tip-tap-thump of my dancing fingers, every so often I owe it to myself and to my rapt and generous audience to dip into the unknown. A project such as this is by necessity a learning experience, […]

Day 802: Edmonton – The Opening Credits

originally published March 12, 2014 Last week, while another icy winter blast was gossiping through our beloved city streets, I heard a familiar question discreetly uttered in my office tower elevator. It’s a question that inevitably falls from the cliffs of quivering lips every year when the onset of March is mocked by November-esque climate. […]