Big Ass Fun Friday #8: DNTO does Halifax

I'm mid-way through listening to this week's podcast of CBC's Definitely Not The Opera. It's all about Halifax, and how the city is of just the right size and with overlapping social circles that virtually ensure that you'll run into people you know on an astonishingly frustrating basis. I'm not the most social or networked of individuals, but even I've noticed this!

From cbc.ca:

We're packing our bags and heading to guest host Jonathan Torrens' hometown... Halifax! This week, we're following "Six Degrees of Jonathan Torrens." He'll be constructing his dream Halifax 'super band' to play a Canadian classic; we'll eavesdrop on his '80s cover band; and we'll tell you how to become a Hali "superconnector."

Visit the DNTO podcast page or just open the MP3 right here.

As much as I love Toronto and was proud as heck to live there, Halifax is super-neat and keen and has an extra layer of "hey, you ought to check this place out". I can only hope I'll be as impressed with Timberlea, which is technically part of the same municipality as Halifax (much as Etobicoke is Toronto).

Comments

Today was my last day at work, and I'm okay with that

Today marks a weird spot on the calendar for me. It’s one of those landmarks that really doesn’t mean anything, other than to illustrate the weirdness of time and how we feel it. As of today, my son Gordon has been without his mother longer than he was with her. The length of time Amanda has been gone is now longer than the length of time we were a family of three. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like it’s been that long, but that dangblasted calendar tells me it’s almost three years. I have not said a word about it to G, but tonight, for the first time in a long time, he pulled out the Missing Mummy book for bedtime. Today was my last day in broadcasting for a while, as far as I can tell. I spent the past five years as Program Director at Newstalk 1290 CJBK in London, Ontario. And in recent years, I was also the noon-hour show host, afternoon news anchor, a commercial voice guy, TV news promo voice guy, and more. Also in the past five years, I’ve bought a house, endured renovation

A request, as we reach two years

Wow, long time no write. I didn't enjoy this past winter. I was certainly in a long slump. Things were very challenging at work. Gordon was awesome, as always, but I was just in a sustained funk from last summer on. And I'm not sure I'm all the way out of it yet. I'm still largely in quiet hermit mode, but have been making progress at resuming social contact. Little dude and I have a very busy summer that will go by in a flash. This Thursday will mark two years since Amanda died. I still replay the events of that night in my head almost every day. I'd like to not. Sometimes it feels like forever ago, but sometimes I'm right there all over again. Hey, can I ask for your help with something? Two years ago, so many wonderful people told me that if there was anything they could do to help .... Well, I don't ask often. And I should've asked more. And I should ask more even now. I'm still not comfortable asking. But I'm asking for this. I put

Hard to believe it's been a year - but it has

One year ago today, we lost Amanda. Time plays tricks on all of us. We can think "that was so long ago" at the same time as "it feels like yesterday." I run into this all the time with Amanda's death. Yes, it feels like just yesterday, or last night, or later today, that Amanda collapsed in the kitchen and died after that long, brutal battle with ovarian cancer. But every day has ticked by at a pace like any other, and it's been a whole year of those days, with incremental and sometimes revolutionary change. As I move about our home, it's hard to fathom that she's been gone a whole year. Amanda's garden awakens, early Spring 2017. Many of the decorative items she carefully arranged throughout the house are in the exact same place as the last time she touched them. She had the vision, not me, so I've been reluctant to disturb her decisions on what looks good and works. In other places, I'm reminded that it's been at least

The Simpson Blog

Search This Blog