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.

Peter – Lois: The Anniversary and Her Celebration of Life

Today is a hard day for me to get through. 18 years ago, I met Lois Forbes for the first time. I miss her terribly, while admiring her courage as she battled cancer. We made each other try to be better people, and I think that’s a pretty good achievement. I know I would  have rather made her angry than disappoint her. I will always hold her in my heart and I miss her terribly.

Pat Blythe – Thoughts & Tyler Simmons, Beach Jazz Festival & Riverboat Mondays

My heart is heavy and my brain is trying to digest what has happened because it doesn’t make any sense. But then, suicide never does, at least not to the living.  ….and so I start with the first new column in five weeks talking about a topic that has been highlighted in the news far too much lately……but the famous are not alone in their despair. I know, I know, not a very uplifting subject but it’s one that has hit precariously close to home…..twice in exactly one week.

Roxanne Tellier – Canadian Music Week 2017

My CMW is always a little bit different than most other people’s. Some go for the conferences, some are all about the music. Still others go for the trade show and the mentoring. But me – I go to people watch.

Like, on the first day I hit the Sheraton, to pick up my pass and get the lay of the land. Some people were looking for their friends, or checking out those who tend to get their names in newspaper bold face …  Me, I was in the lobby of the crowded Sheraton Hotel, watching a young male couple dress their teensy tiny pocket puppy in all new Hudson’s Bay swag.

Pat Blythe – Summertime Blues and Jazzin’ Around….

I’ve started a “reminder” page and called it “column ideas”. Not sure what the point was since I never follow it. There’s always something else that catches my eye….or ear. Lately I’ve had the attention span of a gnat. In fact…..no, never mind. It’s been a busy seven days, just not sure what the hell I’ve accomplished short of pissing off CRA and a couple of telemarketers, oh, and changing passwords on damn near everything….one of my lesser brilliant moves. Now I can’t remember how to log into anything. So, jotting down reminders (and new passwords) on scraps of paper. High security, that’s me!

Pat Blythe – It’s April….

…..and my lovely purple crocuses are out….sprouting in places I don’t remember planting them. I think the squirrels and anything else that’s been rooting around in my gardens have taken the liberty to relocate some of my bulbs. The birds have also been disposing rose hips seeds out their back ends and I have tiny, wild rose bushes sprouting up everywhere. Yes, I realize we had a bit of snow and freezing rain last week but I for one sense that Old Man Winter is done with us….at least until the end of the year. I’ve set up new (for me) outdoor furniture on the deck with the hope I’ll be enjoying my morning coffee out there very soon. Some of the detritus has now been cleared out from under my deck so this weekend it’s time to start the yard cleanup. Fingers crossed Mother Nature goes along with the idea. So far, sun and decent temps are scheduled.

RoxanneTellier – Life’s Been Good To Me So Far …

Life’s been pretty good, overall, since I shook the dust of Scarborough off my shoes, and returned to my old Danforth stomping grounds. It’s such a treat to just walk up the street to a good restaurant, or to pop into a local bar to hear friends playing. I no longer have to pack my purse with overnight supplies before heading out to do groceries, or to visit my chums in the downtown core.

Pat Blythe: Music, Mayhem and Marvelous People

The weeks are just flying by. As a matter of fact, I think I missed a few just by blinking. This summer was one of the best ever in terms of music, mayhem and marvelous people. I have met countless new faces, made some brilliant new friends and reconnected with numerous folks, long thought fallen through the many cracks of life. It’s been a unending discovery, a wide-eyed, deer-in-the-headlights discovery, of going places and doing things that never, not even in my wildest neurons, would I have even remotely considered. It’s been a mind-bending, life altering, rollercoaster ride and I don’t want to ever get off. It’s called living!