On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams

Go have a look if you like!

https://secure.flickr.com/photos/dwight_ew/sets/72157646508442951

From the Uptown Rideau Community Development Plan Workshop:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dwight_ew/sets/72157644893311446/

From the Spur Authors' Festival discussion of "The Language of Politics" as moderated by CBC's Evan Solomon:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dwight_ew/sets/72157644533411207/

You'll probably see me with camera at hand over at the Knox Presbyterian Church this afternoon. There's a couple of events at the Ottawa International Writers Festival I've agreed to cover today, and I've got to get out the door shortly about that.

See you later...

The anthem of CBC Radio's As It Happens is being remixed, even as that of the Current has already been.

Author Ann Crispin has announced that she's bracing for the end of her cancer battle.

The Irish Rovers are calling it quits as a band.

Not sure what I make of all this yet...

For a man so well-informed about so much else in the worlds today, Terry Deary seems to have lost a few clues about the value of public libraries, particularly in these days of Austerianism-enforced Precariat life.

Thanks to james_nicoll for this particular heads-up about this particular author...whom, I note, seems an anomaly amongst authors.

Update:

Two well-said counter-arguments I know of: scalzi's "Personal History of Libraries" essay, and seanan_mcguire's own defence of these halls of personal learning.

The latter is not a new posting, but it points to issues that still need the proper level attention to be given them, and it started a new friendship for me.

Jonathan Goldstein:
https://secure.flickr.com/photos/dwight_ew/sets/72157631880717927/

John Ralston Saul:
https://secure.flickr.com/photos/dwight_ew/sets/72157631882756796/

Minky Worden of Human Rights Watch:
https://secure.flickr.com/photos/dwight_ew/sets/72157631882534249/

My feet are sore. I'd been standing on them - backpack firmly strapped on - for much of the evening before getting home about twenty minutes ago.

I can safely say that the evening was worth the pain, though.

Spent much of the late afternoon and early evening at Knox Presbyterian Church, having done more of that volunteer photography stuff with the WritersFest crew. First up was Mario Beauregard from Montréal, in town to discuss his new book Brain Wars. The tone was, to be honest and fair, more academic than anything, complete with slideshow via computer/projector. Lots of discussion of whether or not materialism as a way of thinking about neuroscience was worth anything anymore, courtesy of quantum physics, or so it seemed to me.

Later on was the main event: Jian Ghomeshi.

If you listen to CBC Radio One, you'll already know him as host of Q, that channel's arts/culture talk show airing Monday thru Friday at 10 AM as a rule. If you're of a certain age range and lived in Canada at a particular timeframe, then you'll certainly recall his musical career as part of the band Moxy Früvous.

Tonight, though, he was wearing his author's hat. He's got a book out, 1982, about life as he understood it and lived it at age 14 in the Toronto suburb of Thornhill, and so far as he knew at the time, his family was the only one of Iranian ancestry - they moved to Canada by way of London, England - in the neighbourhood.

Also, he was a David Bowie fan, and was, from time to time, dressed accordingly.

Not quite a recipe for complete social isolation, but it could have gone either way for a while there.

So Ghomeshi was on fire tonight as a guest speaker and interviewee, and he had good help from CBC Ottawa's TV News anchor Lucy Van Oldenbarneveld. I'm sure the WritersFest people will have either podcast or video up somewhere sooner than later, and I'm sorting through the pix I took tonight of both the Beauregard and Ghomeshi sessions to see which ones are ready for Flickr.

More on other stuff as time allows...

So. I've recycled a TV set, a tape recorder, a VCR and an alarm clock/radio/tape recorder combo-gadget this morning. I saw Nahlah Ayed speak about the experiences that filled her first book downtown at WritersFest this afternoon. And got some further progress on restoring my library storage tonight.

All in all, a productive and entertaining day.