Blog Archive
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Returning to an Old Friend: Al-Andalus
We first ate at al-Andalus in 2013, on our first visit to Mexico City. A Mexican friend who had moved to Montreal told us it was her favorite restaurant in the city. We took that as a high recommendation and went. We have gone back almost every time since. But with the pandemic there was…
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Being Somewhere Different
Sometimes it’s good to be in a place that’s the opposite of where you call home. In some ways Mexico City plays that role for me. In spite of all its problems it still has a lot going for it…
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Beaming Color
As we took off from the Montreal airport the landscape was a frozen monochrome white. Beautiful, in a graphic way, once you got off the ground but still hard ice. This photo essay beams back some color to warm things up.
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Making a Difference
My mother experienced the Armenian genocide as a young child. It never really left her. She was born in 1915, the oldest of three children. To us, her children, she was not open about her early life as an Armenian growing up in the Anatolian highlands. Under sustained questioning she would say that she didn’t…
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Exploring Neopolitan Pizza – Starita
One of the reasons, maybe even the main reason – I wanted to go to Naples, was to eat Neopolitan pizza on its home turf. I was surprised how my priority faded away as I jumped into this truly rich and alive city. I was also surprised at how, instead of me leading the pizza…
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Serendipity
From the time I started using a camera I’ve photographed people. Most of the time I’m completely open about what I’m doing, but I also like swinging the other direction and taking pictures where I’m more surreptitious and people are unaware of the camera. When miniature cameras came into play in the 1930s photographers quickly…
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Meteora II
The fog rolls in before dawn, thick as wool and heavy with moisture. It slides down the stone towers of Meteora, wrapping itself around ledges, dripping from the pine needles, muting the world into a hush. The monastery bells sound closer in this weather, their slow toll absorbed by the air before it can echo…
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The Administrator’s Year: Running Vermont’s Most Radical CETA Arts Program
The history of American federal spending is littered with contradictions — moments when even unlikely leaders championed programs that would have lasting cultural impact. Such was the case with the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA), signed into law by President Richard Nixon in December 1973, not out of any particular regard for artists, but…
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Side by Side with Don Cherry: Notes from the Moki Years
Don Cherry was always evolving, both a teacher and a student, moving on a musical and personal journey through many related but different landscapes. In the six years (1970 to 1976) when I knew him well, he was exploring a holistic fusion of life, art, and sound developed with his wife, Moki Cherry. For much…
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Meteora
We had come to see Meteora on a misty morning in November, 2018. The ground-hugging fog drifted like a low cloud across the Thessalian plain, swallowing the road ahead and the hulking silhouettes of rock that we knew were there but could not yet see. Somewhere above, the monasteries of Meteora – “suspended in the…
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Latitude Adjustment | Mexico City
If you wanted to choose a city that’s diametrically opposed to Montreal’s cranky winters, Mexico City would be a good choice. The high altitude brings spring-like weather all year round, with warm days and cool nights. In February the mornings start at 12C warming to 20-25. Only pollution downgrades its perfect ranking. As penance for…