I was singing Kpan Logo yesterday while preparing a meal and thinking about my friend and mentor, ManDido. I could hear him singing the call in my mind, “Kpaaa-an Logo” and I thought about the amount of things he taught me about West African drumming and life. On Sunday, July 26th, starting at 3pm there [...]
It is really important for me to try to connect to a larger community to try to get help with my project. I know that I will need to build support before I can get recognition and funding to enable me to encourage individuals to “Live More Lightly”. Today, I posted my solution, The Live [...]
I took this photo of Jack Velker at ManDido’s memorial service in January. At the time, it seemed like an unusual thing to do, but I wanted to remember all my friends that were there remembering ManDido. I didn’t have the courage to take photos of everyone, just the people I knew well. Now I [...]
Last year I was so excited to be going to Bellingham, USA for the Watcom County International Women’s Day Celebration. Womens_Day_Song08 This truly was an International Women’s Day for me! One of the best parts was marching through the streets chanting. In Vancouver, I had always had to be setting up and getting ready for [...]
Sometimes it is easy to forget that my friends are pillars of the Vancouver music community and have worked with and recorded with international music stars. As I work on their computers, jam with them or trade jibes about our love life — or lack of that sort of attraction — these magical musicians are [...]
I attended a workshop on grant writing yesterday and I realized I have to be able to convey the idea behind my whole project more clearly. So I am going to post some other projects that I have been paying attention to that have had some impact on the world. Where the Hell is Matt?” [...]
Schools are back in session and I am now trying to coordinate presenting a “Live More Lightly Workshop” to school-age youth. The deadline for a showcase application to Artstarts in Schools is October 17th and I must have a video by then. I am still working on preparing the book, but financial considerations have limited [...]
Now I have had the opportunity to look through two examples of excellent camera technology, I find myself increasingly attracted to continuing the experience. The first time I held such a camera was at the Madu Sari gamelan performance, “New Javanese Shadows“when a friend of mine asked me to hold his camera. My first impression [...]
I have been fascinated by the idea that I am being watched by surveillance cameras since they started to become more common in the 1980s. In 1989 I wrote a play that explored a vision of the future. It was rejected for a Canada Council Grant because it was too much like the novel 1984 [...]
This summer, more than one dual-sport motorcycle owner has looked at me and my bike with extreme pity and said, “Too bad you can’t ride that bike off the paved road . . . ” They then proceed to tell me about some beautiful alpine meadow or remote hot springs that can only be reached [...]
