His timing is good too – his younger sister was very angry that she had to have a virtual birthday last month but now that covid restrictions are loosening up a bit and we can have “family bubbles”, Pace got not only an in-person instead of virtual birthday but also *multiple* birthdays with two different sets of grandparents over the long weekend – one at Nickle Lake Regional Park on Saturday and again yesterday at my parents’ in Indian Head. He’ll even get another special supper with his immediate family tonight so he’s had way more birthday parties than his little sister this year but we can at least reassure her that she still got way more presents! 🙂
Jason Isbell, one of the greatest living songwriters today, did a free concert to promote the release of his new album, “Reunions”, and though lots of artists are doing live streams from their living rooms and their music rooms and so on, this might be the first one I’ve seen that’s tried to re-create much of what you’d get in a “real” concert – two people (who are fortunately married – gotta watch those social distancing rules!) on stage in a theatre that, other than some camera and lighting people in the distance, is otherwise empty.
But one cool feature is that people could join the original livestream via Zoom and they might pop up on screens around the theatre where the artists could see (and via unmuting at the end of songs, hear) them holding up signs and playing along on their own guitars (something you don’t see at a normal concert for sure!) and sitting outside in backyards and so on.
Shea and I saw Isbell and Shires at the Regina Folk Fest last summer. But I can’t help but wonder if this was maybe a glimpse of the future of concerts? Hopefully not.
I’ve been joking about it since about week two of quarantine but as we head into the third month of quarantine, the family decided it was time for me to have a haircut and beard trim.
They also decided they should all help.
This is the result… (and I wish I could blame the scratch on my neck in the “After” photo on one of my helpers but alas, that was me forgetting how to use a razor after months without touching one!) 😉
Oh, and we’ve talked lots about how Covid will change our world in ways big and small. Who knows – maybe I might be less likely to pay for haircuts knowing that I have my own team of professionals in-house? 🙂
I don’t do warnings on this blog very often but I know the photo shows a dead animal and so may bother some people.
You’ve been warned.
So anyhow, we went out to Weyburn all day yesterday. Last fall, we applied for and received a transfer to a new seasonal campsite – bigger, closer to Shea’s parents’ site, more trees – so had to spend a busy day moving all the stuff we’d left at our old site – shed, content, decks, etc. – to our new site.
I’d seen some deer in the ditch on the drive down which always gives me pause (knock on wood – I’ve never hit a deer in years of Saskatchewan driving at all hours of the day and along highways and back roads!) but it was a much smaller critter that I hit on the way back when a partridge flew out of the ditch in front of our vehicle a few miles outside of Regina.
When I looked in the rearview mirror, I didn’t see it on the road but just assumed it had bounced off to the side or whatever and carried on home, forgetting about it…
…at least until we got to our driveway and we found that the bird hadn’t cleared the vehicle at all but had instead, ended up embedded in our van’s grille!
The worst/funniest part – we had actually gone through a drive-thru to pick up fried chicken when we got to the city which means we went through a drive-thru with a bird driven-thru our grille! 😮
This had been a shitty year for me, even before the COVID pandemic hit.
Coteau Books, which was a long-standing literary press in Canada for nearly half a century, and which I’d served on the board of directors of for nearly a decade, entered bankruptcy protection in late February.
I’ll likely do a longer post about some of what happened at Coteau at some point far far down the road.
But the main thing to mention, at least from my perspective as someone who was at the table as the entire situation developed, is that this bankruptcy happened due to a long series of unfortunate events, some within board control but many beyond our control; it was not the fault of any one individual or any one decision; and it was reflective of numerous arts and/or book-related organizations that have gone through similar financial difficulties in Saskatchewan and across Canada in the past but which almost always manage to pull out of the nose dive – something Coteau simply wasn’t able to do in the end despite incredible efforts of many involved.
I guess the other thing to note is this isn’t a convenience store or a clothing store going bankrupt – this is a part of Saskatchewan’s cultural fabric gone. I was as excited for some of our upcoming titles for this fall as I was for any Coteau had *ever* released and I only hope most of them can find new homes with other publishers.
Anyhow, one of the steps in this bankruptcy process is to have an auction of Coteau’s assets including computers, office equipment and a ton (literally!) of books.
