nonamedufus

The theme of this month's photo challenge coordinated by P.J. over at a 'lilhoohaa is "new". Now I wasn't able to participate in the last couple of challenges so I'm happy to be back for the first one of the New Year. Speaking of New Year I spent the first couple of weeks of January in Panama. While the so-called Polar Vortex roared to record low temperatures at home, I spent my days on the beach, in the ocean and playing golf in sunny 90F temperatures. It's all a distant memory now, save the photos…

2014 is off to a good start. I leafed through 8 books in January. Not bad. Among the highlights this month was the first book I read, The Goldfinch. This is a fabulous coming of age story that sprawled over more than 900 pages on my e-reader. Sure it was a tad long but it really held my interest and when I rated it on Goodreads I give it 5/5. Music played prominently this month with Americana by former Kinks founder and frontman Ray Davies and two books he actually recommended in his book - Dusty! Queen of the Postmods and Beatles vs Stones.  I found Davies book interesting and entertaining although it practically skipped over the early days of the Kinks. The Dusty Springfield book was intriguing but I found it's style to take too much of an academic approach. I really enjoyed Beatles vs Stones where the author compares the groups via their musical output and cultural influence on both teenagers and their parents, not to mention each other. I read some books from my favour...

It's that time again. My brother Steve's birthday? Yeah, that too. Happy Birthday Happy Wanderer.  Meanwhile, February is almost upon us and that means another round of 30 Minus 2 Days of Writing - or as some would call it "Pass the Vodka" - as coordinated by the lovely and talented Montreal blogger extraordinaire Nicky Eff . I think the equally talented but not nearly as lovely  Cheesy Mike may have a role in this too. They both are the well-known and much-loved proprietors of We Work For Cheese . Although, coming back with another round of this writing exercise they are really starting to push their luck. What do they have in store for us this time around? 1. Gouda 2. It was no accident 3. Temporary insanity 4. When Hell freezes over 5. The empty bottle 6. Scatterbrained 7. Hint, hint 8. Damn 9. Dylan 10. Zombies 11. Succubus 12. One bite 13. Incommunicado 14. It has to be aliens 15. My ears are ringing 16. Shakespearean English 17. I faked ...

Unless you've been living under a rock, you'll know that Neil Young was on a mini Canadian tour last week wherein he blasted the western oil sands, not to mention the Alberta and Canadian governments. In comments that were widely quoted he compared Fort McMurray, where many of the oil sands workers live, to Hiroshima. Sure that might have been a little over the top but hell, the guy's a rock star not a diplomat. It was called the Honour The Treaties Tour and Young was raising funds for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation who say the government is ignoring their treaty rights through oil sands development. I like Neil Young. I've followed his career and bought his records and CDs for years. I've attended his concerts. This isn't the first time Young has spoken out against things that don't sit right with him. The best and earliest example is the quickly-penned Ohio, a best-selling effort critical of the Kent State shootings in 1970. The most recen...

There's a rumour going around that blogging is dead. I read this on the internet so I'm sure it's true. Sad, but true. And last week I hit a new personal low with all of 23 people visiting my blog one day. Of course I haven't created any content since Christmas and that might have something to do with it. And I did taunt everyone over the last two weeks when I sent pictures of the ocean, the beach, the pool, the golf course in 90F Bijao, Panama to all my pals caught in that Polar Vortex. Nah, that possibly couldn't have had anything to do with it. Anyway, the blog is dying? I mean really? I'm a blogger. I like to blog. Sure I may have creativity lapses now and then but then a brain fart'll come along and away I go spouting off on one thing or another. And on those occasions I find I really have more to say than Twitter's 144 characters would allow. Or a picture on Pinterest. How creative is that? Sure I'll post funny pictures or cartoons ...

I normally would have summed up my month's reads sooner but I spent 2 weeks in Panama in late December/early January. So like they say better late than never. My monthly average dipped somewhat in December to 7 books. But add that to the 101 volumes I'd already read this year and the year-end total climbs to 108 books for 2013. Highlights this month include finally getting to Outliers an interesting take on how success is achieved. Read it. I'm not going to give it away. I also enjoyed Inside the Dream Palace, a somewhat historical overview of New York's Chelsea Hotel. The book makes it clear it's famous - or infamous perhaps - for more than the one night fling Leonard Cohen sings about having with Janis Joplin. And I really enjoyed He Died With His Eyes Open by Derek Raymond. Raymond's name came up in another book I read this month by one of my all time favourites Ken Bruen.  Raymond is a nom de plume for British crime writer Robert William Arthur C...

Hey, how'd that one get in here?

I just got back from  2 weeks in Panama where I was taunting my fellow bloggers and Facebook buddies caught back north in the deep freeze with pictures of 90F heat from the beach, the ocean, the pool and so on. But while there I got to thinking, "This is where I first met Donnie." Oh he wasn't actually in Panama but on the other end of an e-mail as a moderator for the original Humor Bloggers Dot Com telling me humour was subjective but I just wasn't funny and that my application had been turned down. Turns out, Chelle, the owner of HBDC had already approved my application and suggested I e-mail back in several days to confirm. Donnie didn't know that but, lucky for me,  over the years his opinion of me changed. Donnie Kingery ran a blog called Beyond Left Field under the nom de blog Red Raider . And it was hilarious. I'm what Donnie might have referred to as a milquetoast, forever apologetic resident of the great white North, and Donnie - from Hattiesb...