Category: Story & Song

  • Winnipeg 2004 – Friday

    The rain stopped, the clouds broke up and the sun came out by about 1:00 PM. There was a steady breeze. The sunshine and wind helped to dry out the festival site, which returned to a pretty good condition. There were some areas of the parking lot, including the area leading to the main gate…

  • Winnipeg 2004 – Thursday – Rain

    Forecasts and opinion polls seem to be pretty much equally unreliable. It was cloudy when the gates opened and when the Winnipeg Festival started, but a light rain started around 7:30 PM and kept up all evening. The ground began to get wet, although I did not see any accumulations of standing water in my…

  • Winnipeg 2004 – Showtime

    The countdown is over. It’s Thursday. I’ve read my manuals and practiced radio speak and I’m ready to face life as blue vest volunteer at 8:00 PM. The campground opened yesterday, the main gate opens today and the opening night mainstage concert starts at 6:00 PM with the Perpetrators followed by Spirt of the West,…

  • Winnipeg 2004 – Countdown: 1 day

    The weather forecast has changed for the better. The forecast for rain on Thursday has been changed to mixed sun and clouds, high of 24. It will probably be cool later in the evening, but a dry day guarantees that the site will not be turned to mud on the first night. The forecast for…

  • Winnipeg 2004 – Countdown: 2 days

    Two more days to the Winnipeg Folk Festival. On June 21, I spent a couple of hours being oriented and instructed in the duties of the Site Security volunteer crew. On June 30 I went to the T-shirt meeting to get my volunteer’s pass, T-shirt and Festival program. The weather has been reasonable. There has…

  • Resistance

    I wrote a review of “Resistance” by Barry Lopez for the Winnipeg Free Press, which was published on Sunday July 4, 2004. This post is a longer version of the same review. Barry Lopez was honoured for his nature writing with an American National Book Award for “Arctic Dreams” in 1986 and a nomination for…

  • American Gods

    Until “American Gods” swept up most of the significant SF and horror writing awards in 2002, Neil Gaiman was known for his work on the DC comic series “Sandman”. He was writing for print all along. His online biography provides details for the curious. The premise of “American Gods” is that the gods of all…

  • Winnipeg Festival Countdown

    The Winnipeg Folk Festival is only 3 weeks away, Thursday July 8 to Sunday July 11. This year, I asked to be a Folk Festival Volunteer. I volunteered to become more actively engaged in the Festival, to try to avoid drowning in memories of attending as a happily married husband and father, and to meet…

  • Jennifer Government

    Australian writer Max Barry’s second book, “Jennifer Government” is a well-crafted light satire. It could be called speculative fiction or science fiction. It’s set in a dystopian near-future in which governments have been downsized and government functions privatized. People take the name of their employer as their surname – Hack Nike, John Nike, Billy NRA,…

  • White Teeth

    “White Teeth” was British writer Zadie Smith’s first novel. It was critically acclaimed, it won awards and it was turned into a mini-series on British television. We saw it last winter on PBS – Masterpiece Theater. My daughter Claire was caught by the story and bought the book. In looking up Smith on Google, I…