Up in Ontario

Canadian Filmmakers Festival's blockbusters north

I know, I hadn't heard of it either. What's it? The Canadian Filmmakers Festival.

But they've done some killer spoof adverts, as seen below. And they just wrapped up in Toronto, where they were celebrating, promoting and advancing (?) Canadian films and filmmakers from March 22 to 25. "By exclusively featuring Canadian films, our goal is to provide filmmakers with valuable showcasing and networking opportunities and to offer the public homegrown productions to view and enjoy." Wow. Talk about copy that comes from grant applications.

Even better, how cool would a sweater like the one below be? I'd learn to knit just to knock one out.

Thanks to Shewda for tha pointa.

March 23: Patrick Brealey and the Knive at The Main

Arriving in the inbox this week was an invitation from Patrick Brealey to join him for a show on Friday night.

More details? Alright: an intimate show, at The Main, which has excellent calamari that I recommend and also good roast lamb. What else might you want on a rainy Friday night? Soulful music and hearty food. Nourishing.

I will be playing a solo show (well actually, I will have one Knive with me -- slide guitarist extraordinaire, Jay Slye) at the Main Restaurant this Friday, March 23. The evening begins at 10pm with singer-songwriter Farrell Spence, who will do plenty of wooing with her great voice. I will hit the stage soon after Farrell's set.

For those of you who don't know, The Main is located at 4210 Main Street on the corner of 26th. It is a Greek restaurant so come dine and make a night of it with moussaka and all. Hope to see you there! 

Patrick Brealey
w/ Farrell Spence
The Main Restaurant (4210 Main Street)
Friday, March 23, 2007

Until soon,
Patrick

ps. I will have my new album, "City Blood, Country Heart" for sale if you would like to get your hands on one. Plus there are some new photos from the most recent live show on my website -- thanks to photographer Sean Wood -- check them out!

Into a hectic week, a list

To do list for tomorrow:

• Attend Think Salmon launch event
• Prepare papers for taxes, bloody taxes
• Roast a chicken
• Go to swim practice
• Bring sexy back
• Plan fishing trip for dad's 60th birthday

Crows and peanuts

It has been bothering me for some time that I don't give this space as much time, effort or attention as it deserves. My focus is intermittent, like wipers smearing raindrops on a windshield.

For that, I'm sorry. In retribution, I offer a story.

The flowers are up here on the left coast of Canada -- daffodils, tulips and rosebuds from the beds along with cherry blossoms on the trees. We still suffer rain heavy enough to creep up the cuffs of our jackets, but it's a temperate rain now. A Pineapple Express, the newspapers call it.

Some days full of sunshine come blasting out of the sky. When one arrives, I take my chance to march out into the light and feel that warming, blinding light on my pale, winter skin.

The other day I was walking in the sun, back from my local coffee shop where I refilled my insulated cup and browsed the newspapers and tipped twenty cents into the jar of change at the counter. The day was glorious and the city all around me felt like a mildewed old mattress that had been stuffed into a shed somewhere for the winter then dragged out into the sun. It felt great.

On the way home crows perched on the top of a fence surrounding a schoolyard cawed at me. One flew down to the grass beside the sidewalk and pecked at something. I came closer and the crow flew off, dropping what turned out to be a peanut in its shell. All along the grass were peanuts, invincible in their shells.

Under my shoe I rolled a peanet and the shell broke open, spilling out the nut. I walked a few more steps and rolled more peanuts. A few more steps and a few more peanuts later brought me to the end of the trail and the crows perched on the fence. The bold crow who had been last to alight rushed back to its peanut and gobbled down the nut. Another crow joined the first and a battle of flapping and cawing erupted.

I walked home and wondered if I had made friends with the crows or just set them off. Either way, would the same crows return to my neighbourhood tomorrow?

I wonder because every day at around 5 pm a line of crows stretching as far as I've ever been able to see wings its way to a rookery in Burnaby. To see the mass migration from any height gives the city an ominous tone, as crows stream past in dark clouds, murders of them.

City Farmer matches gardeners to gardens

No land is no longer an excuse to have no garden. City Farmer has created Sharing Backyards in Greater Vancouver, a website where you can meet people for gardening. I know, it sounds pretty hot.

Here's how it works.

If you want to garden a plot of land, you sign up and post your location. If you have a plot of land you want gardened, you sign up and post your location.

All the locations appear on a Google map. Find a location or a gardener near you and contact the poster. Simple. I love it.

I'm even considering starting a garden, since the amount of 'land' in the pots on our balcony just won't sustain my kind of plantation. Does anyone out there want to party up to share the labour? I'm a hard worker, I just don't know if I'll always be available.

Many hands make light work.

March 9: Patrick Brealey and the Knives concert

March 9th at the Railway Club. Yes: awesome.