Columns

The Mindful Bard – Moneyland

CD: Moneyland Release date: 2008, McCoury Music Del McCoury, Bernard Smith, Marty Stuart, Merle Haggard, Mac Wiseman, Chris Knight, Patty Loveless, Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell, Dan Tyminski, Bruce Hornsby and the Fairfield Four Mama’s Hungry Eyes No Longer a Thing of the Past I’d rather live by the side of the road And try… Read more »

Porkpie Hat – October Street

To the untrained eye, there is a street, cleverly disguised, looking like any other quiet, suburban, tree-lined autumn street. Driving down it at night, you would see the usual sorts of things. Brightly lit windows filled with images of cut glass vases, watchful cats, families gathered around a dining table. You would see respectable homeowners… Read more »

The Mindful Bard – The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Book: Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog Publisher: Europa Editions, New York, 2008 English translation by Alison Anderson An Enchanting Postmodern Fairy Tale ?Now it happened that one day the three princes went out hunting in a large forest at some distance from their father’s palace, and the youngest prince lost his way, so… Read more »

From Where I Sit – Cold Cases

Each night this week, CTV Edmonton is airing a special assignment by David Ewasuk on some of Edmonton’s unsolved murders. We’ve all seen episodes of Cold Case and other prime-time dramas that show fictional detectives reopening murder cases that have gone cold. Inevitably there’s a grizzled old cop who’s spent the last 10 or 20… Read more »

Porkpie Hat – The Waking

So there you are, waking up in the middle of the night. There is moonlight leaking in through the curtains, and ghosts grumbling inside the pipes. You lie there for a while, and think that something is different. Gradually, you become aware of what it is: you have no pain in your back or in… Read more »

The Mindful Bard – T@b, Thugs at Bay

CD: T@b, Thugs at Bay Release date: December 2007 Mad Geniuses of the New Millennium I’m almost on the brink of being On the verge of being Very nearly close To bordering on the edge Of doing what I really wanna do. T@b, from ?On the Verge,? Thugs at Bay The first time I heard… Read more »

From Where I Sit – Say No to Chicken Little

Two days before the federal election, the world was in a state of disbelief. Few could have imagined the global political and financial storm that has unfolded with a vengeance in the last few weeks. Pundits and pollsters spent the early days of the campaign predicting the size of the Conservative majority. Then, the prospect… Read more »