Comments and Digital Montages

During this time of lockdown, I live much as usual since I am, by nature, a solitary soul.   I'm doing a lot of Zoom Meetings with my senior's group, my 2 plant groups, my longtime computer geeks group EMCC and a Canadian Science Fiction Writer's group on Meetup.  Because of my Broadcast and Podcast experience, I shine during these events.  In fact, I am doing hour-long presentations for my senior's group based on my podcast transcripts where the formula is while I am speaking anyone can interrupt with a question or comment and there are frequent pauses for discussion.  Since my 'stories' are, in some sense, universal they tend to evoke a response. The hope is that the listeners will tell their stories as well. Other than that I don't leave my premises except for a cab ride to my Podiatrist every 6 weeks.  Have to look after those diabetic feet :-) I'm writing a bit after taking a short writing course with my  Sunshine senior's group.

Resistence I remember street agitation in New York City in the late 60s.  I was living then on the Lower East Side.  There were demonstrations around and about us.  The sight I most remember were tanks rolling by on Houston Street which I could see from the back window of the apartment. This was gunboat diplomacy i.e. a show of force meant to intimidate rioters/demonstrators. It's happening again!  June 4, 2020

When I first came back to Canada from New York City, I was shocked by the audience's reaction to performers. They just sat there and then, at the end, they would clap, sometimes politely, sometimes very heartily, but just clap. Nobody moved to the music. Nobody grooved to the music. They just sat there and, at the end, they clapped. In New York, on the folk scene in the 60s, those were our people up there on stage and we were listening to them and watching them make mistakes but hearing what they were doing. It was a creative period happening with people we knew personally up on a stage and singing songs that we were familiar with. It was part of our subculture, I guess you could call it. I had the good fortune to attend several performances at New York City's Apollo Theatre up in Harlem and I saw there an audience like you would not believe. The black culture there was embodied in the music. Embodied is a good word for it. What was going on there on stage was refle...

As promised Barbie with my Raspberry Pi mini computer running  Raspbian Linux

My latest venture was to put together the bits of hardware surrounds a really tiny Linux computer called an Raspberry Pi. Most expensive part was the adapter to connect the tiny motherboard to a computer monitor.  Got ripped off by a company I will not name for both the price and the delivery fee. When put together it worked just fine.  Stay tuned for a photo of a Barbie doll holding the CPU :-)

Reading Oxford History of Biblical Lands but I have supplemented it with a fine volume (strange to call it thus when it is an ebook) on ancient Sumeria. Such scholarly texts are a relief from more ephemeral fare. They require concentration and thought. I am less pleased with the Biblical characters and society and more inclined to see the larger picture. What defines the bible cast is a book of carefully crafted propaganda, beautifully written about folk more legendary than real.

I have 3 eReader devices,, 2 Kindles and an Kobo, plus 4 desktop applications which also allow me to peruse the world's literature. My shelves are crowded with books made of paper and I wish there was some way to bequeath them all since my reading lately is electronic through my devices and on my computer desktop Perversely, I seem to prefer reading material from 1912. I am now reading H.G. Wells' "Lost World", an interesting series on common life in Victorian London and have just purchased a Neal Stephenson book "Quicksilver" set in Colonial times.