Monthly Archives: September 2015
CityFolk III – Why Bother?
Maybe it’s being in a crowd that does it. Or a general narcissism in our culture. But it was definitely in evidence Friday as Van Morrison delivered a strong set at CityFolk 2015. This was the big event of the festival. There were more people there than the previous two nights combined. Anticipation was high, […]
Cityfolk II – Confessions Of A Music Junkie
Once upon a time music pretty much defined my life. From waking to sleeping I was always listening to something. That isn’t the case anymore. If I have the radio on I am more likely to be listening to public affairs programming than to music. I still listen to a lot of music though; I […]
War Room
Hollywood does not have a monopoly on film making, though the movie moguls there wish they did. I’m sure it galls them when a movie like War Room tops the box office as it did a couple of weekends ago in the United States. War Room is the latest from the Kendrick Brothers, whose most […]
CityFolk I – Opening Night
I’m not sure how this qualifies as folk music. The Tubes were the first act on the main stage at CityFolk 2015, the Ottawa Folk Festival with a new name and location. I have no emotional investment in The Tubes. I have never owned any of their records, never seen them live before and would […]
Refugees and Migrants II – The Logistics
I said yesterday that someone needs to talk about the logistics involved in Canada opening its doors to an increased number of refugees fleeing the war in Syria. It is not enough just to be moved by the pictures, there are practical considerations. Canada took in 40,000 Vietnamese refugees in 1979-1980, a number made possible […]
Refugees and Migrants I – Election Fodder
It suddenly became the biggest issue of the Canadian federal election, sparked by a photograph of a dead Syrian boy whose family had supposedly desired to emigrate Canada. He (and other family members) had drowned trying to get from Turkey to Greece. According to the news media, the family had applied to for refugee status […]
No Parking
The sign seems pretty self-explanatory, doesn’t it? I mean, what part of “reserved” is unclear? The sign marks my parking spot. Our complex has assigned parking, with an exclusive spot for each homeowner. Every couple of months though I come home and find someone parking in that spot. I have never been able to figure […]
On Church and State in Rowan County
The case was huge on Twitter and Facebook. Depending on your slant, either a Christian was jailed for her faith or a scoff-law was put in her place, when Kim Davis, County Clerk in Rowan County, Kentucky, was jailed for contempt of court (she has since been released). Her crime was to defy a court […]
Spencerville Fair – April Wine
The first time I saw April Wine in concert there were 30,000 people who came out to see them. Or so their manger claimed in a series of advertisements he took out after the show to promote the band. The whole truth was a little different. Yes, there were 30,000 people there. However no more […]
Bumbling Bureaucracy
I got a letter from the government. They wanted me to get a new health card. I ignored it. Ontario has been “upgrading” the cards citizens use to access our healthcare system. When I first moved to the province the cards were paper. Sometime in the 1970s they switched to plastic cards, red and white […]
random thoughts from lorne 
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