[UPDATED AUGUST 1]. The final “Streetfest” phase of the 29th annual Beaches International Jazz Festival is now over, and we’ve asked our wayward staff  to submit their favourite key current late news extras for post-festival tabulation. Without further ado : (1) “Bill Shorten renews push for Australian republic, vows to hold referendum within first term […]

[UPDATED JULY 21]. “This may be the hottest day we’ve had this summer,” someone said in the parking lot. I don’t know myself. In any case that’s just up here – north of the lakes. Contemplating the more southerly climate of la démocratie en Amérique, I’m still thinking about two world-wide web reports from this […]

At last we have summer in the city 2017 up here on the northwest shore of the most easterly great lake (well, sort of …). Back from a short communion with early July mosquitoes further north, I somehow bumped into a YouTube clip called “Paul Desmond & Gerry Mulligan – Stardust.” As happens in the […]

For those who do feel inclined to celebrate the occasion, Happy Canada Day, July 1, 2017 – also the 150th anniversary of the northern North American confederation of 1867, established just after the American Civil War (1861—65) and just before the 1868 “Meiji Restoration” in Japan. (Other notable events of  1867 include the Second Reform […]