What I'm Reading 2021: Loose Gravel by Ginny Fanthome

I received a random email from the author in which I was invited to review this book in the hopes of producing some positive press.

Here's what I came up with:

Loose Gravel by Ginny Fanthome – A Punk Band’s Blood, Sweat and Tears

Few fictional stories are written about the nightmare of being a musician in a band doing one nighters touring across the continent in a van. If you have been there and done that my guess is that it’s a memory you try to blot out of your mind. Also you are probably in your fifties by now.

Breaking news: the music business changed. Now there is no cash for anybody. Small and mid-sized town bars are poor. No money is left to pay bands doing one-nighters. Even back in The Day, ie. the era in which Loose Gravel takes place, there was barely enough money to cover the band’s gas, meals, and a poor performance fee. Accommodation was out of the question, hence sleeping in the van. And yet, bands could make a go of it if they didn’t self-destruct or kill each other.

We paid our dues, but very few actually made a career out of music. Hardly anyone even made a living wage.

To add to the suffering, the pandemic has kicked the music biz while it was already down. Beginning bands, one nighters, touring … the dream is dead.

We of the “older generation” have forgotten how bad life on the road was, and what we were willing to put up with to play. A fucking grind, it was. 

But I wouldn’t change a thing, because in the midst of all the idiocy there were life lessons. Loose Gravel has brought it all back. Therefore it is a worthwhile read.

Loose Gravel by Ginny Fanthome is a brutally honest, realistic yet fictional look at touring and playing in a punk band doing one night stands. The band’s name is Spooge. The four members are Steve: super-talented gay guy of Asian race who happens to sing and put on a good show; Marcus: A super smart, witty, closet writer/asshole and womanizer who happens to play guitar; Lion: A tall, tough dude from a poor and shitty childhood who thinks he’s Sam’s boyfriend who happens to play bass; and Sam: The chick drummer who has a heart of gold and a clear mind despite wrestling with her own demons.

The story is told from Sam’s perspective.

Loose Gravel thoroughly explores the personalities and relationships of the four bandmates. To sum it up: There is always much brokenness, but hope springs eternal.

Spooge is on an odyssey, an entry-level opportunity where the musicians will travel and sleep in the van to save money. They will sleep with their gear unless they can scrounge some sort of better sleeping arrangement. As they drive to the next gig they pray that the driver will stay awake and that the van will keep on running. They will try to give each other space. Of course, people will be inconsiderate; tempers will flare. Mix in some booze and fists will fly.

There is never a dull moment in Loose Gravel. It is a fun read, but it is much more than just the craziness of life on the road. Fantholme in telling the story through Sam’s eyes has carefully woven a thread of hope into the story. It’s all about relationships.

I enjoyed how Sam’s hopeful and reflective nature, particularly her compassion, developed as the tour’s chaos churned on, and I was happy to see how she did not stay down when knocked over emotionally. And believe me, there were some hard knocks! 

Loose Gravel is a reminder that every person has their own struggles and backstory, and how being on the road makes it possible to meet and even try to help all kinds of needy people.

Each of Sam’s bandmates show some growth, providing a few more glimmers of hope as the story developed. Loose Gravel didn’t have a perfect happily-ever-after ending, but I was left feeling satisfied.

Kudos to Ginny Fanthome. Loose Gravel is a gem of a story and would be a welcome addition to the musician lore section of any book collection.

Recipe List

Roasted Bone-in Chicken Breasts on America's Test Kitchen

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo on America's Test Kitchen

New England Baked Beans on America's Test Kitchen

Beef Stew Recipes

Oven-Baked French Fries

Cabbage Rolls

Chef John Hamburger Buns

Vietnamese or Filipino Spring Rolls aka Lumpia

Pork Stir-fry

Sam the Cooking Guy

Tuna Casserole

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo: America's Test Kitchen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxV4k76UawU

Pork Stir-fry

YouTuber channel: Souped-up Recipes

INGREDIENTS

300 grams of pork

1/4 tsp of salt

1/4 tsp of baking soda

1 tbsp of soy sauce [Pearl River Bridge Natural Brewed Light Soy Sauce: https://amzn.to/2TdlvOB]

2 tsp of Chinese cooking wine [Shaohsing Rice Cooking Winehttps://amzn.to/2RW4KWG]

2 tsp of cornstarch

A bunch of Chinese celery (you can use regular celery)

Some chilies (You can use bell pepper if you don’t eat spicy food)

Five cloves of garlic

Some salt to taste (Add when stir-frying the celery)

Oil to stir fry

Homemade Lumpia - Filipino Spring Rolls, Several Different Versions

Ingredients:

Meat: 1 kg ground pork

Veggies: Garlic, Chopped Onions, Shredded Carrot, Shredded Cabbage, Green Onions

Salt, Pepper, Soy Sauce, Packaged Spring Roll Pastry

Brown and drain the meat; Sweat the veggies until cabbage is limp; Mix together; Add 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper, 1 tbsp soy sauce. Make flour paste to seal the pastries, or use egg wash.

Fry in 1 inch of med-hot oil, or deep fry until brown on both sides. Dry on paper towel. 

This version from Natasha's Kitchen includes noodles. She recommends frozen egg roll pastry because it is thinner than refrigerator type. Correction from comments: Egg roll pastry is thicker than Spring Roll pastry. She uses Spring Roll pastry.

This version uses shrimp and other fresh vegetables in a rice paper wrapper and is not fried. The rolls are served cold. The sauce recipe is pretty easy.

This version is from YouTube channel Souped-up Recipes. She mixes pork and shrimp together with cabbage, shredded carrot, bean sprouts, leeks, chives, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, black pepper, and then flavours with onion powder, garlic powder, sugar, binds with two eggs. 

THE FILLING

- 7 ounces (200 grams) of ground pork

- 5.5 ounces (155 grams) of peeled shrimps, uncooked

- 1 cup of shredded cabbage (not Vietnamese tradition)

- 1 cup of shredded carrot

- 1 cup of leek

- 1 cup of chives (or substitute finely chopped shallots)

- 2 cups of glass noodles (aka mung bean noodles, bean vermicelli)

- 1 cup of bean sprouts

- 2 medium size eggs (this binds the ingredients together)

- salt, white pepper if you have it, fish sauce

This version explains very well about the rice paper wraps and the glass noodles. She also instructs how to minimize moisture content to prevent bursts while cooking. She gives a good basic recipe for the dipping sauce. Many of the comments are good advice on different variations, for example it is possible to add slices of taro root for a more traditional Vietnamese flavour.

And finally, this version is completely a different take. I am amazed at the variety of egg roll recipes! This one uses only cabbage and shrimp. The shrimp is chopped and fried with extensive add-ons such sesame oil, salt, oyster sauce, "five spice powder", black pepper, and smooth peanut butter, and then after removal from the heat, white sugar is added. The cabbage is cooked soft and wrung out. 

Roasted Bone-in Chicken Breasts with Jalapeño Sauce

Trim the extra fat.

Peel back the skin to make a pocket.

Salt under the skin and on the bottom

Replace skin and poke holes in fatty areas. Add a bit more salt (pepper optional)

Into oven at 325 for 40 minutes. Chicken will be pale brown.

Move into a lightly oiled frying pan. Start on low and raise to medium-high once chicken is in, to avoid splatter. Move chicken on edge to brown non-skinned areas.

Sauce: 1 cup Finely chopped peppers. 1 cup Cilantro (stems included) or parsley (no stems). All into blender with garlic. Add lime or lemon juice. Add 1 tbsp of mayonnaise. Blend.

Add 2 tbsp olive oil at the end. Sauce is done!

Let chicken stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Dehumanized Humanism aka “Flatland”

Some thoughts from Ken Wilber’s book “A Brief History of Everything” p. 244 

My own words: 

The modern and post-modern world has crippled itself because it has become overtaken by a mechanistic, science-driven, “seeing is believing” mindset. The author refers to this as the fallacy of simple location. The cost of our culture being driven and owned and sculpted by this mindset has been enormous. 

Quote begins. 

The fallacy of simple location:

If something can’t be simply located in physical space, then it isn’t really real. You can locate Gaia, so it exists. You can locate cells, so they exist. You can locate the brain, so it exists. You can locate the biosphere, so it exists.

But you can’t simply locate values and consciousness and beliefs and morals in the same way. You can’t point to them with your finger. You can’t see them or find them anywhere in the great web of sensory nature. They become rambling and ridiculed ghosts in the machine, pathetic illusions in the organic system. They are merely personal tastes and subjective fantasies. The interiors don’t count in a disqualified universe, the universe you can put your finger on.

The irony, of course, is that the universe you can put your finger on is the meaningless universe. So although consciousness and value and meaning are intrinsic to the depth of the Kosmos, they cannot be found in the cosmos. That is, they inhere in the Left-Hand dimensions of the Kosmos, not in the Right-Hand surfaces. And thus, if you are intent on only allowing the sensory surfaces, then you scrub the Kosmos clean of consciousness and meaning and depth, guaranteed.

And so it came about that the Great Holarchy was abandoned, essentially for the first time in history, because you couldn’t put your finger on it. The ghost in the machine was indeed a ghost, because it had just committed suicide.

Men and women have become subject to monological madness: They are objects of information, never subjects in communication. That is, human beings, like all holons, were studied only in their empirical and objective dimensions, and thus were reduced to mere its in the great interwoven web, with no depth and no intentionality and no personhood to speak of. The brutal world of the lab technician, slabs of meat and all.

This is the science of reduced humanism where humans are simply objects of information. Also called “dehumanized humanism.”

There is no translogical Spirit, no dialogical mind; there is just monological nature. Surface nature, mononature, the world of sensory and material forms––this is the “God,” this is the “Goddess,” of the modern and postmodern world.

Anand Giridharas - True American Book Club Excerpts

https://the.ink/p/thetrueamerican1

https://the.ink/p/thetrueamerican2

https://the.ink/p/thetrueamerican3

https://the.ink/p/thetrueamerican4

https://the.ink/p/thetrueamerican5

https://the.ink/p/thetrueamerican6

https://the.ink/p/thetrueamerican7

Shoutout to Sam the Cooking Guy

Channel link https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbRj3Tcy1Zoz3rcf83nW5kw

Timeline for Education and Teaching

September 1974 to June 1979 High School

September 1979 to August 1980 Work doing Vacuum Installs

September 1980 to December 1980 University of Guelph

January 1981 to August 1981 Work and Lessons and Auditions for Music School

August 1981 found apartment in Hamilton - 40 Oxford Street

September 1981 Started Mohawk College

July 1983 Summer Tour with Heartbeat Band

September 1983 to April 1984 Graduating Year of Mohawk College

May 1984

September 1984 started McMaster Music

May 1985 Trip to Colorado Springs

May 1986 Trip to Philippines

April 1987 graduated McMaster Music

September 1987 started Bachelor of Education at Faculty of Ed. University of Toronto (FEUT)

April 1988 graduated FEUT, granted Ontario Teaching Certificate

April/May 1988 AQ course in ESL part 1

June 1987 Supply teaching in Oakville

June 1987 Interviews in Mattawa and Sudbury. Hired for Music at Lockerby Composite School in Sudbury. Starting salary approximately $25,000/year.

September 1988 moved to own apartment in Garson, just outside of Sudbury. Began teaching music, adult art, history.

April 1989 Lockerby Jazz Band won Gold at Northern Ontario Band Festival

May 1989 trip to Musicfest Nationals in Toronto, won Bronze

July/August 1989 trip to England, Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Germany

August 1989 engagement with Brenda :)

December 1989 moved to Walford Road apartment in Sudbury

May 1990 band trip to Boston

July 1990 our wedding. Honeymoon at Pat Shaw's cottage on Pickerel River. Travel to Indianapolis for the coveted "Bill Gothard Institute" OMG OMG I can't believe it. Somebody stole Brenda's new compact bible LOL. We hated the teaching about music being evil. Damn straight we did.

July/August 1990 getting moved and settled in at Walford Road apartment in Sudbury.

September 1990 Brenda starts BA at Laurentian University, while I continue music teaching, we opened our piano lab and I was also picking up some history and basic math courses.

May 1991 band trip to Bahams.

May 1992 band trip to Hawaii. Brenda came along as an additional chaperone.

June 1992 last day teaching at Lockerby. Resigned from Sudbury Board of Ed. Packing up and moving to Hamilton.

July 1992 moved into our basement apartment on Harvest Road in Dundas. Resumes sent out in all directions.

August 1992 interviewed with Glenn Mallory for Hamilton Board of Ed and was hired to work in teaching music at Tweesdmuir Middle School.

September 1992 first day teaching at Tweedsmuir. Brenda babysat for Linda, I would drop her off on my way to work.

February 1993 bought our house on Adeline Avenue and moved in on the coldest day of the year!

June 1993 Olivia enters the world!

September 1995 first day at Memorial (City) School.

December 1995 Ian enters the world!

September 1998 first day at Viscount Montgomery School.

December 1999 Elinor enters the world!

September 2007 first day at Parkdale Elementary School, teaching grade two.

September 2014 first day teaching itinerant music at Adelaide Hoodless, Queen Victoria, Franklin Road and Mount Hope schools. 

November 30 2014 retirement date. November 28 last teaching day.

Space Girls a movie short on Dust

 

Delicious Beef Stew Recipe

Delicious Beef Stew Recipe 

This recipe is largely based on a few recipes: 

 Chef Jean Pierre

   

 Anthony Bourdain

 

 Tatyana Nesturuk

 

Ingredients: 

• 1kg Beef: The beef should be from the shoulder area. I used pre-cut stewing beef which comes from who knows where... Cut into chunks whatever size you like (doesn’t matter because it will be fall-apart tender when done). 
• 1/2 cup red wine (optional) 
• 1 big onion 
• 3 cloves garlic or 2 tbsp garlic paste 
• 1 tin tomato paste 
• 2 carrots 2 celery stalks 2 cups sliced/chopped mushrooms 
• possible herbs: thyme, basil, rosemary, cilantro, parsley 
• 1 litre beef stock (minimum) 
• 2 bay leaves paprika 
• Worcestershire sauce 
• 1/2 cup flour 
• salt pepper 

Preparations: 

• Chop up the veggies to whatever size you like. 
• Prepare the beef: Make sure the beef is room temperature. Optional salt at this time. Braise the beef chunks in olive oil at a high frying pan temperature so the beef will brown; turn to brown all sides. Keep spaces between the chunks. 

Make the stew: 

1. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil. Sauteé the chopped onion for 3 or 4 minutes, add the garlic. 
2. Add the tomato paste and all the herbs, paprika and Worcestershire sauce. 
3. Add the mushrooms, salt and pepper, continue the sauteé to reduce the mushrooms, 3 or 4 minutes. 
4. Add the flour, stir to coat everything and begin cooking the flour, 2 minutes. 
5. Add the beef. 
6. Add all the beef stock. 
7. Add 2 bay leaves, salt and pepper. 
8. Once boiling, bring back down to low simmer for a minimum of 2 hours. 
9. Check the beef for tenderness; it should break apart with a nudge of a spoon. If thickening is needed at the end, mix some corn starch with some of the pot stock and add the slurry back to the stew. 

Makes 6 big servings or 10 small servings.

Corona Virus and the News Media

 No matter what else you show, make sure you show the following at least 50 times during the news broadcast:

1. Little tiny bottles of vaccines scooting through a drug manufacturing facility. My favourite is the ones with little purple caps.
2. Show people getting needles in their arm. Doesn't matter if they have a fucking ugly arm full of wrinkles and weird spots, just show as many arms getting jabbed with needles.
3. Show the mandatory stock video clips of kids in classrooms, so that by the end of the pandemic the average viewer will have seen the same clip about 1000 times.
4. Show the required clowns aka Health Care Officials talking on a Zoom meeting and commenting that they don't know for sure what is happening, but let's wait and see.
5. Don't commit to any kind of commentary (that would be bad journalism). Just report the required information backed up by no helpful information.
6. If there is some doubt about a vaccine or anything related to helping people, then make that the main story so as to be sure to inflame and increase the amount of worry. Whatever you do, don't share helpful information or communicate in any way that vaccinations are going great, and that most people are doing the right thing.

Book and Podcast: Jesus and John Wayne – How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation

I admit that my training with the Navigators is right in line with this. Navigators founder Dawson Trotman was touted as a tough heroic figure. His drowning was shared like a legend. The key leaders of the campus Nagivators movement that were our guest speakers at Glen Eyrie Discipleship Training were of the same ilk. They were tough dudes. Many of them military vets. The were guys guys. 

Let me tell you, if one of the young women at those training sessions argued for equality in leadership the whole leadership team would have come down all around them. They could have brought the entire fucking discipleship training to a screeching halt. Those young women could have had those old Navigators running round holding their dicks. 

How sad, that many of them did not see what was happening. And how sad for me, that at the time I didn't think it was okay for a young woman to be lesbian, or for guys to be gay. Hence my complete and utter confusion and my pathetic inability to process what was happening when I learned that some of my co-leader young women were, in fact, gay. Or they were struggling as leaders. They were "having trouble" or they were "struggling" in some way. But lots of hush hush, etc. 

For fuck's sake, one of our new young leaders in Sudbury ended up being convicted of child molesting.

My leader of my Lessons On Assurance bible study (BS for short) as a new believer was a Navigator staff member. He ended up being unfaithful to his wife and got divorced. Same thing happened to another long time staffer; his wife had an affair.

The failings and weakness, hell the outright humanity, of Christian leaders and workers in my Evangelical circles were like warning lights on the dashboard. But I wasn't ready to take it in. I was complicit because I was getting something helpful out of the church. 

But it wasn't God. 

It was an authoritarian, male-centred, comfort community.

It would be another twenty years before the scales fell away from my eyes and I was able to see things as they were. Just a bunch of useless, stupid people acting like they care for other people and acting like they love God and Jesus while in reality they were just full of shit.

Here is the podcast link:

https://lukejjanssen.files.wordpress.com/2021/07/48-kristin-du-mez.mp3

The Evangelical Christian church has become unplugged and detached from the theological basis for its existence and has replaced it with a cultural/political identity that is basically a lie and a distortion.

How can a believer in an evangelical church stay there when they realize that they are being sold out in terms of their standing as human beings?

For example, women in evangelical circles women are absolutely barred from holding ministry leadership roles. They can't take leadership roles where they would take authority. Women find it that they can't bring their whole selves to church. And they are okay with it. They swallow the kool-ade.

Boys and Girls clubs. Cadets for boys and Calvinettes for girls. The girls learned how to pick fashionable colours that match their hair, and do crafts. The boys would go out a learn survival skills. They would march into their meetings, etc. Structure, authority, expectations and gender distinctions ruled the day.

The concept of obedience is central to Evangelicalism but it is abused. There is a flawed power dynamic. The idea of submission to authority is a big deal. If you don't submit to the (men) in charge, then how can you be respecting God's authority? goes the saying.

Who gets to wield authority? Only men. The evangelical church is authoritarian and sexist.

So what then is the lifeline to faith for an honest and "woke" evangelical church-goer? How do we deal with a new awareness of our own complicity in going along with so many lies and distortions? Why would anybody be so comfortable in an obviously historically false institution? 

Where are the evangelical leaders who are trying to make corrections as leaders? Where are the introspections where leaders explore their complicity?

Can evangelicalism be saved or reformed? Not likely.

"Powerful evangelical men giving each other cover. When they really need to use their leadership to call things out, they don't. The tension between the mainstream leadership and the fringe is huge."

Evangelicalism is not christianity. And yet evangelicals have been taught to defend the institution. Why the effort to save a denomination that clearly has lost its way?

One solution may be to travel to where christianity is flourishing, whether it is in the same city or another country.

"Jesus doesn't need your protection, nor does your denomination."

Why do we even need to have this special category of christian believer called Evangelical? 

I say it's time for the evangelicals to walk away. Leave the fucking church empty just like the pandemic.

The Status Report, July 27th 2021

Here we are, it's mid-summer Olympics time! The 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, which are actually happening in 2021. Some of the hottest summer temperatures are making athletics hard. The skateboarders were dying in the mid-day heat, for example. Canada has six medals at this point. Swimming, diving, judo.

My birthday was fun. I'm sixty now - woohoo! I feel great, all things considered. Was great to catch up with Arlene and John and have the kids there to celebrate.

Olivia performed in Fiddler on the Roof in the orchestra last weekend. I enjoyed the streamed performance with Dad.

Yesterday, Monday, Elinor led the making a music video for George Lardie. The song is High Park Summer Song. We gathered in the back yard in the burning sunshine of mid-summer. Temperature was something like 30 degrees Celsius. Thanks to Carm Milioto owner of Studio410 for coming to participate, and George's guitarist friend Robert Nind also. Plus we had Ian, Janelle, and Olivia. Lot's of fun!

Ian made a soundtrack for my Deck Rebuild Time-lapse movie, which is now posted to YouTube. Here's the video:

Brenda is on a cottage sabbatical for the week. She needs her alone time to think and exhale. You can't inhale new energy without having time to exhale first. I'll be looking forward to seeing her at the end of the week. We've made an appointment for coffee and catch-up with Brent and Janna Malseed of the Musicians Guild.

Meeting with Jeff Martin on Thursday. He has launched a new local magazine with some friends and wants to involve me somehow. Sounds intriguing. We've been kicking around such possibilities for a couple of years now, ever since the Music Advisory Committee was thrown under the bus.

Meeting at Sunrise Living where Dad is staying for a few months. This is the transition residence where Dad has been cared for since being released from the OTMH at the end of May. Arlene and I will be reviewing Dad's care plan with the Care Coordinator. Should be interesting. Tomorrow Dad takes delivery of his new wheelchair, so I'll be attending that as well. Dad has been doing fairly well in his recovery from his stroke. I suppose there is a faint and reasonable hope that he may gain enough strength to stand up and perhaps walk again. We'll see.

Brenda and Finnegin

 Photo taken in fall of 2020, just before Finn's eye surgery.

Last Day of Being 50-Something

 July 22, 2021

On the eve of my sixtieth birthday what do I have to say?

Yesterday Brenda and I celebrated our 31st anniversary. We went out for dinner and sat in a restaurant for the first time in a year and a half. We had a nice meal at the Radius Cafe on James Street.

First, I don't feel sixty years old. I don't feel a day over... thirty?

Adulthood has now worn a couple of lines in my face and I've got a little extra flab in a couple of places, but the face in the mirror is not a wrinkled mess. And despite my heart disease and some high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol which is being managed successfully with meds, and despite my recent commencement of drug therapy for hypothyroidism, well, I feel really good.

I'm learning the value of stretching out my back and hips thanks to my girls.

As I reflect on where each of us in the family are I can't help but feel happy and content. We have come through the Covid19 epidemic and are still in one piece. There may be some kind of "fourth wave" with the variant of the disease wreaking havoc on the unvaccinated, but it is sporadic. We are all doubly immunized and we are still taking precautions as the economy in Ontario slowly comes back to fully functional. Elinor is looking forward to starting at McMaster in September. Olivia will soon complete her Office Administration certificate. Ian is starting up his music teaching in September also after being out of it for over a year. And Brenda is looking forward to returning to some semblance of a normal classroom routine.

Tomorrow, on my birthday, the Tokyo Olympics will begin. How thoughtful of them to hold an Olympic Celebration on my special day!

Here's to sixty.

Covid19 Absurdity Theatre

These images came off a news video on June 28, 2021

Can you believe that somebody let this clown put on this getup and go on camera?

What the actual fuck?

Bully standing in front of idiot

Longview Road Names

This news makes me incredibly happy. I worked for about three months with Peter to determine the names of the roads at Longview. This motion represents the culmination of all of our work together.

Oven Baked French Fries

 That Dude Can Cook - Russet potatoes rinsed, then blanched for 10 min in brine, leave to air dry for a couple minutes. Pre-heat roasting pan, add oil, pre-heat with oil. Then bake at 400 C flipping to brown all sides.

The Best Composting Video

 Richard Perkins, King of Compost and other things

This video is a perfect supplement to Perkins' video

New England Baked Beans

From America's Test Kitchen with input from Chef John too!

Brining the beans overnight helped jump-start hydration and also softened their skins so they cooked up tender in the oven, with few blowouts. Uncovering the pot for the last hour of cooking ensured that the liquid reduced sufficiently to coat the beans in a thick sauce. Flavorings such as molasses, brown sugar, dry mustard, bay leaf, onion, and salt pork, plus one nontraditional ingredient (soy sauce), gave the beans rich flavor.

Notes for 2.5 lbs (big batch!) of beans, which is 3 cups of dry beans.

• soak in brine overnight to make skins softer
• cover in water, add a tsp of baking soda, bring to a boil for 10 mins.
• drain cooking water but keep handy
• add 2 halved onions, bay leaf, 1 tbsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 3/4 cup molasses, 2 tsp dry mustard powder, 3/4 cup brown sugar (optional maple syrup)
• add meat
• cover with cook water and bake covered for 1 hr at 300 F
• check for water coverage, add more if needed, bake for another hour
• when soft enough, remove lid, bake for another hour (max) at 350 to brown and condense.
• re-lid to steam off fondant on side of pot and scrape into beans

Photograph by Ed Sheeran

We keep this love in a photograph 

We made these memories for ourselves 

Where our eyes are always open 

Hearts are never broken

And time's forever frozen, still

Inside theses pages you just hold me

And I won't ever let you go

When I'm away I'll remember how you kissed me

The Best Take on Why Canada Is Not Getting Vaccinated

 

Taken from The Line

Yard Tour 2021 Springtime

This property is located in Hamilton which is at the west end of Lake Ontario. The soil is clay-based ancient lake bottom. There once was a rich and wild forest here for thousands of years after the glaciers receded. 

Indigenous peoples called the Mississaugas and Haudenosanee travelled to and fro over the forested area to hunt and to fish in the waters of Ontario which means "sparkling water". 

Next the area was transformed by piecemeal settlement in the late 1700s when United Empire Loyalists moved in after being granted land rights by the British Crown. Deforestation began and agricultural activity ramped up along with it. 

An early industrial town called Dundas was established at the mouth of Spencer's Creek based around a mill at Crook's Hollow, but the town's growth and long term success was hindered by the expense of building and maintaining a canal to reach the lake. 

Eventually the city of Hamilton overtook Dundas due to its more favourable location on the shore of the beautiful natural harbour now called Hamilton Harbour. The industrialization of Hamilton Harbour during the pre-War and post-War period is a sad tale of pollution and short term consumption. The entire shoreline of Hamilton Harbour which included miles of wetlands has been lost to coal piles and slag from steelmaking. 

The area is beginning to recover so I'm trying to do my little tiny part starting where I live, and starting with the soil under my feet. 

With that said, welcome to Hamilton. This is my dwelling place. My home is a small post-war house constructed on a former farmer's field. The land may have had orchards or other crops on it for a hundred years or so before they plunked my house down here. Let's see how much goodness I can coax out of this little bit of Earth!

Environmental, Social, Governance

 The three guiding categories for the Ontario Teacher's Pension Plan.

A Planting Experiment

 How to put plastic cutlery to good use, I suppose.

Teachers Incessantly Being Hated On by Provincial Government

 In the latest chapter of what is now becoming a boring and predictable story, the provincial government continues to pretend it knows what it is doing while it actually does nothing at all.

All special assignment education workers, school administrators, cleaners and custodians are eligible for vaccinations beginning this week, the second week of April.

Teachers on the other hand can wait their turn. At this point Brenda's "turn" is sometime in May, maybe June. At that rate she'll be getting her second dose during the first week of September.

And in other equally boring news, Minister of Education S. Lecce made an announcement yesterday (Sunday) to parents that the provincial government intends (wants) schools to remain open for in-school learning when the April Break ends. Today, however the government is saying it is considering closing schools after the April Break.

So the most boring story ever continues to not unfold. "Let's make an announcement, and then let's not actually say anything decisive or helpful. Let's not move anything forward or solve any real-life problems. Let's just keep pretending that we're in control and that we know what we're doing. The people will be happy to know that we're on it; that we're on our game; that we are tirelessly working on behalf of Ontarians..."

Here's an exercise in ghosts of Education past: Name former ministers of Education who have also been tasked with hating teachers and dismantling public education:

John Snobelen

Kathleen Wynne

Laurel Broten

Liz Sandals

Steven Lecce

Signs of the Times

 

For some perspective, check out this tweet from Canada's top doctor Theresa Tam. Back in February 2020 when the virus was just starting to enter Canada, she had NO IDEA that it would wash over Canada and the world like a tsunami.

NO FUCKING IDEA.

Covid19 Third Wave Update: The Parade of Clowns Continues

Yeah. So here we are 13 months after this pandemic started and we're still being played with. I'm reminded of the general level of incompetence of our provincial governing systems. The operations of the health system is greatly distorted and divided for-profit and private interests so that when a pandemic steps in the weaknesses and failings are obvious.

We are now in a news cycle that is truly pathetic. A daily parade of clowns known as Local Health Officials or Ontario's Top Doctor or The Minister of Health etc etc tell us - nothing.

We don't know yet. We're making an announcement soon. There's a press meeting tomorrow.

We're blaming the feds. We're blaming the people. We're reminding the people. We want the people to do better. 

Slap me on the wrist one more time. Go ahead. Slap me down. Blame the pandemic spread on me.

And then while you're at it, refuse to vaccinate teachers early as priority caregivers while claiming that schools are safe and that cases come into the schools from the community but don't begin or spread in schools. 

And then, in the middle of the third wave with the highest hospitalization rates make an announcement that the province would like to offer online remote learning to all families in September.

Of course, nobody knows the details. Just make an announcement that something could happen.

Yeah. Lots of disappointment. Lots of disillusionment with my government's lack of ability to execute a quick and effective plan to save thousands of lives.

We are addicted to our freedoms. Our government doesn't plan for drastic measures to deal with serious medical crises head-on. Our government is afraid to restrict freedoms, and afraid of inducing panic. We are so dependent on food supply chains across borders that in a true transportational/transpirational crisis we would be so absolutely fucked. Our stores would be looted. As soon as people catch wind that they won't be able to get groceries or toilet paper for fuck's sake all hell will break loose.

Yeah. So lock down "everything" and close all the restaurants and exercise studios and personal services, and penalize business owners for not having a bottle of hand sanitizer at their doorway while at the same time ramping up the construction industry to full throttle. Get that concrete poured. Build those fucking apartments and condos. Sell that real estate. Make those Greenbelt deals. Keep those liquor stores open. Keep pretending. Keep up the ruse. 

The fire completely destroys the building while the government twiddles a few knobs on the side and claims that it's all under control, "we got this."

The truth of governance in Canada: If you have no real power, just pretend like you do.

via GIPHY

Doug Ford. Blames the victims by calling them Yahoos.

Cries out "try walking in my shoes for a day" then goes off to make a video about making cheesecake. Then goes out to some warehouse where PPE from China is being unloaded to gather applause for doing wonderful shit, meanwhile presides over the most fucked up vaccination rollout known to humankind.

The chief of all dinks. 

Presiding supreme commander of the planet of complete assholes.

Postponed March Break for public schools but not private schools.

Makes announcements about useless shit that means nothing.

Useless bureaucrat, zombie, Stepford wife with dead battery

aka Hamilton's Chief Medical Officer

This woman did not sleep between March 2020 and August 2021. She also never arose from this chair. She crawled under the table to eat a snack and check her briefs and then reappeared again to resume her perpetual on-camera existence.

This guy is a meme for all things totally useless, name is fucking something Williams...

I prefer, "he whom we ignore" 

aka Ontario's Chief Medical Officer

Some precious Brown family photos

Two young adults in love, mid 1950s 

Jean and Ron at the Glass House on their honeymoon, April 1955

That's Jean likely pregnant with Gerry, Grampa Brown (Bill), Gramma Brown (Marie) with Doug on her lap, and Ron. A typical summer's day, probably in Kelowna.

That's Jean with Great Grampa Brown, Doug, Gerry and Arlene. Edmonton or Kelowna, 1960.

A busy family with four kids and one more soon on the way. Taken in Edmonton. Probably 1964.

Edmonton, 1962. Ron, Gerry, Arlene, Doug, Glen, Jean.

This is Jean Hepburn sometime in the 1940s in Edmonton. Probably high school age.  That might be a CGIT uniform - Christian Girls In Training. That's at Gramma Hepburn's house in Edmonton.

This is probably 1972. We traveled out west and ended up visiting our old family friends the Husbands. We were so fucking cool in those bell bottoms and fat belts and shaggy haircuts. Doug is wearing an epic Perdue Band t-shirt.

Taking a Sabbatical

To the BFOGA executive board, and the bylaws committee and bylaws subcommittee,

I am now taking a sabbatical from my volunteer duties as by-laws committee chair and as communications committee chair for a period of one year.

This is an act of necessity since my father is ill, and my sister and I will be helping to look after him as he is now failing at the age of ninety.

Moreover this is an act of preserving what remains of my passion and interest in being a long-term supportive member of our Longview community. I have spent hundreds of hours of interesting work on various projects including the bylaws editing and the Longview Network. I have been glad to help organize sessions for gathering member input. I had a blast working through the naming of our roads.

My rationale is that to continue editing and updating the new version of our bylaws would be ineffective under the present conditions of our community. To give a single example (of many possible), our meeting of March 7 was recessed before an unexpected motion from the floor was presented which would direct the bylaws committee to conduct an investigation into errors and procedural failings. This is not the job of the bylaws committee and should never be. And yet, we were on the brink of allowing a single impromptu motion to direct and expand the work of the committee. I recognize now that my role as seconder was out of order and so now with this writing I officially withdraw my offer to second this motion affirming two principles: One, as the acting chair of the meeting I was out of order to place my name as seconder. Two, this contravenes the bylaw committee's purpose as stated in our current bylaws. As acting chair of the meeting I also accept my part in allowing these unapproved agenda items to come forward. I regret that there was no intervention from the elected leaders or members who should know this is an error. Now we can see the elephant in the room.

The uncomfortable fact that executive board members did not stop this obvious departure from the agenda and the out of order proceedings which followed is just more confirmation that I need to step back, and that our elected leaders do not collectively know how to stand up for good procedure. I would suggest the complete state of exhaustion of the board members contributed to this unfortunate situation, but it is not the main reason.

Dammit, our community does not agree on how to meet together! We do not know how to do it. We have repeatedly bypassed the basics of conducting effective meetings and now it has become very clear that our elected leaders have not been properly trained or prepared. We are getting nowhere. Four and six hour meetings are evidence that we have failed at the most basic level.

I hope that this will remove the time pressure to push a set of documents through. My fear is that we would continue to create confusion by presenting documents that are not based on proven practice and truly shared values.

After a year I sincerely hope our elected leaders will have begun to implement a system that sets and follows priorities, uses proven procedures for conducting meetings, systematically and effectively communicates regularly, and coordinates all committees to help our community to thrive. At that time it will be much more effective to then codify our proven practices.

I am willing to leave the bylaws committee altogether if that is what the elected leadership desires. I am also not opposed to someone else taking over in my place. I will await your reply when an answer is ready.

Thank-you everyone. I remain a fellow member of our community.

Glen Brown

Extreme Disappointment

 At what point do you say your voluntarism is no longer worth it? At what point do you just say it's time to quit because I really don't feel like having my balls cut off?

How do you cut your losses and jam on the brakes before you go careening over the edge into a free-fall of unexpected stress? How do you withdraw from a war that you never chose to enter?

How do you stop a situation that has sucked you in like a force of gravity, and now you are circling the planet and unable to escape the grasp, going round and round?

How do freeze time, or go back in time and undo decisions that were foolishly made? How do you go back and take the eyes of the present with you so you can see more clearly?

How do you ever work with groups of people and come out with no regrets? How do you justify fighting to stand firm for a cause that is worth it, but which also requires you to face opposition and emotional challenges that you never expected?

How do you clean up your heart and wash away feelings of failure, disillusionment and sadness? Is removing yourself from a situation the only way to save yourself?

Why are people so unable to trust when they can see the people who are helping them standing right in front of them? How is it that trust cannot be built and maintained? How is it that someone can stand back and criticize and stir up suspicion and then not offer to be part of the solution?

I am feeling so done with volunteerism, with being the helper, with freely adding my own value and insight, whatever that may (or may not) be! 

How do you not let small potatoes drive you fucking insane?

A Beautiful Description for End of Life Reality

 We laugh, cry, and feel that bond we humans share when a person crosses over from sharp individual existence to the more diffuse persistence of collective influence, memory, and love, their microbiota shuffling off in search of other mortal coils, new living collectives to animate for awhile. ~ David Grinspoon in his memorial of Lynn Margulis in Earth in Human Hands

Here's another gem from Grinspoon, on his reflection of discovering the fact of greenhouse effect as a wondrous example of earth's system of life:

"The satisfaction has its own specific flavour. You feel that you have really figured out some small part of nature, not conquering it, but learning to hear its music, and to sing along."