The iPaul has landed.
Speaking of brain drain…
From today’s Globe and Mail: TORONTO — Internationally renowned urban thinker and best-selling author Richard Florida was formally welcomed to the University of Toronto’s business school last night – and he plans on jumping straight into his research next week. Prof. Florida, whose arrival is a coup for the university, will lead the newly established [...]
Some good advice for the first day of school….
Michael Leddy has some great words of wisdom today for students about how to read: My advice: slow down. Here’s what the poet Ezra Pound says about reading literature: “no reader ever read anything the first time he saw it.” Or consider this exchange between Oprah Winfrey and the novelist Toni Morrison: “Do people tell [...]
The future of the book….
Wow, so much to say about this topic with the prospect of Espresso Book Machines, higher quality e-book readers, and new models of publishing headed our way. Unfortunately, pending deadlines leave me no time to say it! (how’s that for a cop out?) In the meantime (and please don’t hold your breath — I would [...]
Reasons that Vermont is cool #17: Patrick Leahy
Part of my ongoing series of reasons that I love being in Vermont. Patrick Leahy makes the list for more than just helping get me into the US one night after I was refused entry into the US. It’s a long story, but I was headed here on a brief visit a few months before [...]
Canadian indie bands of the 1980s
(Artist: the inimitable Rick Clegg; source: http://www.punkhistorycanada.ca; this three-night benefit gig was put on by my pals Rob Stocks and Nick Copus in [1987]; I played on the Tuesday night as part of “i remember not,” a one-time spinoff of my band Aardvark Safari) This week’s Radio3 podcast is a glorious (for me anyhow) [...]
Tags: Radio3
Border issues going in to Canada
Just to show that border frustrations go both ways, this story about hockey player Brandon Nolan (son of Ted Nolan) getting hassled and subject to racist insinuations at the Canadian border is worth reading. The fact that his status card was disregarded by the border guards is shameful.
Tags: borders Canada hockey
Big Brother is watching, or at least googling
Thanks to my colleague and pal Richard Parent for writing about this story on his blog. This is a chilling story for all of us who depend on crossing the Canada/US border on a regular basis. It’s also an important reminder of how cautious we need to be about what we post online. When Feldmar [...]
Canadian literature in the news
A few things I’ve been meaning to blog about over the last few days as I settle back into work after a week off. I was saddened a few days back to hear of the death of Margaret Avison, one of Canada’s great poets of the 20th century, I think. You can find a few [...]
More on the Espresso Book Machine
From an article in today’s NY Times: Mr. Neller’s firm is pitching the book machine, which may eventually sell for $20,000 or more, principally toward the nation’s 16,000 public libraries and 25,000 bookstores. A 300-page book costs about $3 to produce with the machine. A bookstore or library could then sell it to customers or [...]