I’m finding more tidbits of material and articles of interest as I go through files, newsfeeds and a rather stocked bookcase in my kitchen. Primarily a home for my many cookbooks, there are odds and sods of non food-related novels, appliance directions, clippings, etc. I find myself, over the years, spending more time dusting them off than actually using them. I confess I am a huge lover of food porn.
Hi, my name is Pat Blythe…..just in case you forgot!
Welcome to 2021! It’s been five weeks…..five columns since you’ve heard from me. Such a lot (and that’s putting it mildly) has happened globally, but especially south of our border. Every major news network is on it…..so I’m not. Today’s column will be one of lightness and fluff…..maybe a little fairy dust and little nonsense. I feel we could use some twaddle and trivia.
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.
I’ve been finding it difficult to focus on my column this week. Last Friday we received news that a much loved friend and musician had passed away. Chris Reed didn’t even achieve the revered status of joining “The 50 Club”. We’ve all been blindsided….totally stunned and still trying to absorb the news. I had to read his brother’s official FB announcement three times before it sunk in who he was really writing about. I thought for sure I was mistaken….but no, and then I burst into tears.
It’s a glorious fall day today (Tuesday), and my walk in the sunshine was equally wonderful. I needed it, not just to clear my head, but to rid myself of the crushing guilt of thoroughly enjoying a piece each of apple and pumpkin pie this morning. Open the fridge and there they are, staring me in the face, gently calling (nope screaming) my name. So coffee and pie it is for breakfast! C’est la vie as they say.
This is supposed to be a music column. I should be regaling you with all the Indie bands I’ve seen, the venues and clubs I’ve sashayed through, the festival stages I’ve covered, the photographs I’ve taken and cities I’ve traveled to (not to mention the food). The unfortunate thing is, for the past seven months I’ve done none of that (except for the food) and it’s starting to get damn frustrating!
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.
“Heeeeere’s Fall”…..my favourite time of year! Yes, I’m an autumn baby (and so are my kids) so maybe a yearly “rebirth” is what I’m feeling. The season of autumn, to me, is the sensation of new beginnings. The air is lighter, fresher and crisper. We can sweat off a rather thick and muggy, “I can’t even think I’m so hot” summer. The lounge lizard days are behind us. We’re back to work. A new school year begins. The lush vegetation is offering us the fruit of its summer labours, ripe for the picking and ready for us to savour. The trees slowly paint a riot of colour against striking blue skies, something Tom Thompson captured so perfectly in so many paintings. Drives through the country are invigorating and somehow more liberating.
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”.
Hot, hazy and humid…..well maybe not hazy…..maybe more like stifling and soggy? How about moist and muggy, or maybe sultry and sweaty? Scorching, sizzling, oppressive, sweltering…..an endless number of adjectives to describe the current heatwave. July 3-15 would have been a perfect Mariposa weekend running around covering 10 stages and sweating off these extra “COVID pounds”. Somehow I don’t associate “sultry” with weather that has the infinite ability to make one a squelchy, sodden, cranky mess. One short stroll out and I’m firmly planted in front of the air conditioner drying out.
Bullseye Records of Canada
