Pat Blythe – Christmas lockdown…..other stuff and music

This whole COVID thing is getting long, tiring, confusing and extremely exasperating for most of us. People start to rebel like children in a sandbox who don’t play fair. They confront each other in anger like the bully in the schoolyard. In many instances we seem to live in a rather thoughtless society whose three favourite people seem to be me, myself and I. It doesn’t seem to matter what part of this mudball we inhabit, everyone is infected…..not by the virus, but by fear, bad attitude, frustration, annoyance, (add your own descriptive here). Information, misinformation, ignorance, conspiracy theories, protests and riots, the numbers are over/under inflated/aren’t real….the list goes on. It doesn’t really matter what you believe, it’s affecting all of us. COVID fatigue is real and should have been considered by minds much greater than mine, long before now.

Pat Blythe – Reflections…..music memories…..and tunes

I’ve had all sorts of ideas and nonsense going through my mind for the past several days. Some quiet reflection in a totally silent house (that means no music), some on walks in this spectacular weather, memories that keep replaying in my mind translating into some very weird and disjointed dreams, very late nights and very late mornings. It’s a strange sensation feeling like everything rapidly circles around me while I stand still, unsure of the direction I should move in. Like you’re a part of something…..but then you’re not, standing on the outside looking in. I have no idea what’s going on, maybe the planets have misaligned or someone’s in retrograde, or maybe this whole fucking COVID thing has finally hit me. This too shall pass…..it always does.

Roxanne Tellier – A Pocketful of Rudy

It’s been eye-opening (if you’ll pardon the pun) to discover how I time waste while I recover from this eye surgery. It’s hard to see print, on screen or paper, so I’m spending a lot of time on YouTube, watching a ton of political and comedy entries, but also getting knee deep into the murky waters of decluttering and crafting. Should this next Covid wave hit hard, I’m swimming in craft supplies, so no one need worry that their holiday stockings will be empty come December – Glitter R Us! (I’M KIDDING! Or … am I?)

Roxanne Tellier – King of the World Ma! As the

As the Church Lady used to say on Saturday Night Live – Well! Isn’t that special!

Roxanne Tellier – I’m Afraid of Americans

Man, it’s exhausting, living in 2020. If it ain’t the COVID, it’s the capricious and malicious capering of the Great Pumpkin/Dictator-in-Waiting, aka POTUS.

Pat Blythe – Ageism….agism…..aging…..and music

Last week music. This week a new topic. No…..not COVID. There’s enough written about that already and it’s a subject I’m starting to grow weary of. We’re in the middle of a worldwide “situation” that requires diligence, clean hands, keeping a distance of 6.5 feet (when did two metres becomes six feet…..that’s a fail in math class?!) and a disguise when showing your face (or 1/3 of it) in public.

Roxanne Tellier – God Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise

We at DBAWIS will be on hiatus from this afternoon, when this column drops, until we return on Monday, September 11th. (Editor’s Note – I will be reprinting a column on Monday because it is relevant more today than ever).

That’s quite a while, in these troubled times. Kind of makes you wonder how different our world will look by then. After all, it’s certainly seemed like every day for the last few years has been an endless, nauseating, roller coaster ride. Fires, floods, droughts, plagues, economic turmoil, murder hornets – kind of frightening to think what might be next.

Pat Blythe – The year the music died…..the pandemic interviews…..and music

Tuesday, July 21…..the column writing begins. I sit here staring at four walls desperately missing the music, the people, the clubs and the noise. At least four nights a week I was out prowling the various music venues in the GTA, Hamilton, even London until the wee hours of the morning. The music was always happening somewhere. Now it’s eerily quiet. Yes, there are a few outdoor shows scattered about. Suzi Kory produced and presented her first hugely successful drive-in country music festival called “Love Revolution” in Cavan, Ontario. Country artists Joe McCaughley, Colin Amey, The Housecall, Bree Taylor, Nicole Rayy, Alessia Cohle, Brian John Harwood, MacKenzie Leigh Myer and of course Kory herself all performed. Where was I? In Hamilton and St. Catharines on other business. Damn!!!

Love Revolution also happens to be the name of Kory’s latest release, and a timely one it is. Give it a listen below in the “music section”.

Pat Blythe – This is not about COVID……and music

This column is usually about the clubs, the music, the bands, the nightlife and the denizens of Toronto who haunt those places. The clubs are shuttered, the live music has stopped, bands are silent and the nightlife…..well there isn’t any. Yes musicians (solo or otherwise) are busy streaming on any platform possible. Artists from the around the world record themselves in isolation and then join together via video to perform, Brady Bunch style. All around the world people are trying to keep everyone’s spirits up as we sit, isolated in our homes, many alone, having had no physical human contact in almost three months.

Roxanne Tellier – Hang in There, Baby

Argggh!!! Woke up in a ‘mood’ this morning, and the weather – grey, cold and damp – isn’t helping at all.

It’s not that I woke up on the wrong side of the bed, it’s more that I’m just tired of playing pandemic. In February, I could still see a path ahead, even though it wasn’t clear how long our preparations and quarantine would last. Still, I had hopes that the light at the end of the tunnel was a bright future. Turned out it was an oncoming train.