Category: People
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Finding the Best Use For Our Time and Talents (In Light of the World Going to Hell in a Handbasket)
I just can’t seem to visualize my role in the big picture while I’m blinded by the pursuit of The American (sic) Dream. Or exhausted from cleaning up after it. Read more
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Dipping a Toe in Urban Waters
New York has a trip-hammer vitality which drives you insane with restlessness if you have no inner stabilizer. – Henry Miller Husband and I spent an extended weekend in NYC, compliments of our friends Dan and Shaleen at Magellan Vacations. They flew us down and put us up in a gorgeous corner suite at the… Read more
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A Man’s Home is His Castle
The mission of the Fortune Society, founded in 1967 in New York City, “is to support successful reentry from prison and promote alternatives to incarcerations, thus strengthening the fabric of our communities.” Their slogan is “Building people not prisons.” Read more
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Grandma Craft On Acid
Don’t like your current home or apartment? Then crochet yourself a new one! New York artist Agata Oleksiak has crocheted fitted coverings for EVERY object in her “apartment”, including the real (but inoperable) sink, telephone, tv, walls and the clawfoot tub and hairdryer I’m demoing above. She incorporates text messages into her wall hangings, transforming… Read more
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Nowhere to Go But Up
I am always left a little breathless when Mr. Fredericksson’s house lifts into the air with the aid of a million or so jellybean-coloured balloons. Read more
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Dust to Dust
What better day than a Sunday for some early morning reflection on our corporeal deficiencies and the fleeting nature of our built legacy? Take it away Percy Bysshe. Ozymandias I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,… Read more
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The Trades As Art
Somewhere in the mid-20th century working with one’s hands lost its caché. As machines produced more and people less, it became déclassé to work as a tradesperson; the trades became a perceived dumping ground for those who lacked the capacity to reach a higher socio-economic level. About the same time, a great many people were… Read more
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The More Things Change
This past summer I spent way more time than I cared to attending council meetings, writing letters and talking to neighbours about a proposed Heritage Conservation District (HCD) for our tiny historic hamlet, when I really needed to be up on the scaffolding. I am hardly anti-heritage but I also don’t believe that the benefits… Read more
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All Moshe, All Afternoon
I remember when my eldest was about five and we headed to the National Gallery in Ottawa for some regular cultural exploration to keep me from going bonkers. D fell asleep in the van and I carried him into the building. Once inside he stirred and, looking up into the sweeping glass ceilings filled with… Read more
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Cheerios in the Floorboards and Other Assorted Commonalities
Most people pick their friends based on sympathetic personalities, socio-economic similarities, common interests, or the age of their children. But we seem to be collecting friends who, like us, live in old and partially renovated houses. I can’t decide whether our rural roots or similar value sets are bringing us together or whether there is… Read more