Gregory McCormick

James Wilson Morrice (Canadian 1865-1924), The Pond, West Indies, 1920

Which Is Better, One Long Walk or Many Short Ones?

I mean it's interesting, but leave it to an American media outlet to call a 15-minute walk a "long walk." Fifteen minutes?! www.nytimes.com/2025/10/27/w...

"We need maximalist, forward-charging art that can compete with, not simply provide refuge from, the attention-scrambling modern forces that might otherwise drive us into a dark age." - Spencer Kornhaber #art #atlanticmonthly

YouTube video by Toronto Public Library Helping Toronto adapt, connect and thrive

My workplace as it starts a new era!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uML5...

Sunlit fall morning on the water

Georgia O’Keeffe, Nude Series VIII, 1917

Sunday morning tunes = Sunday at the Village Vanguard by Bill Evans Trio

Yeah traditional is relative isn’t it!

TIL that Day of the Dead isn't celebrated in every part of Mexico and there was never a big DoD celebration in Mexico City until the 2015 James Bond film Spectre was shot there. The parade organized for the movie shoot - as well as the movie itself - was so popular, it started an annual tradition.

lol sent by a friend

I'm in Toronto at least once a week and this almost always means that new books are sitting on my desk (or my holds shelf) and days like today is like WOW I've got a great job! John Banville, Martín Kohan and Zora Neale Hurston what a week of reading I have ahead of me! #booksky

So much in this excellent book to think about. Including this: "Virginia Woolf felt strongly that human beings ought to be thought about in the language of verbs not nouns; what they DO matters more than what they ARE." #virginiawoolf #mrsdalloway #edwardmendelson

In an era of AI slop and mid TV, is it time for cultural snobbery to make a comeback? The lowbrow dominates culture and anyone who questions the status quo is dismissed as an elitist killjoy. But with bland algorithmic content on the rise, perhaps we consumers should start taking our a...

This is what I've been saying for ages (though I wouldn't call it cultural snobbery per se)
www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

Someone convince me not to buy tix to Charleston and spend a week at literary events. So many great events at this year's Charleston Literary Festival my head is spinning
www.charlestonliteraryfestival.com/tickets

This Tiny Museum in Coastal Denmark Just Surpassed the Louvre in One Big Way.
Following its latest acquisition, the Nivaagaard Collection has become a global leader in Renaissance and Baroque-period female painters.
www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/t... #globalmuseum #museums #art #Denmark

Nice! I was thinking about a SW US jaunt soon so perfect timing

Ahhhh 5pm on a Friday a kind of heaven

📚 "Arvo Pärt in Conversation" If you've ever been moved by "Spiegel im Spiegel" or "Tabula Rasa," this intimate look at Pärt's creative process and philosophy is essential reading. Sometimes the most profound art comes from the simplest ideas. 🎼
#ArvoPart #MinimalistMusic #ContemporaryClassical

Tess Johnston, Diplomat Who Helped Preserve ‘Old Shanghai,’ Dies at 93

Awwww she was one of the first people I knew when I first arrived in Shanghai in 1998, in my mid-twenties, and ready to join her battle to preserve the historic parts of the city. Her book is still one my favourites when I want to recall how much the city's changed. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/w...

As fall sets in the front garden is still blooming away!

I’m enjoying reading this novel, The Living and the Rest, so much - and it’s amazing that more people don’t know it: it’s funny, complex, playful and really unusual. José Eduardo Agualusa should be far better known! #booksky

Should we laugh or weep lol

Funny. I drink beer but M almost never does but mosquitoes tend to leave me alone and attack him vociferously.

Tonight I was reading about Herodotus who talks about a specific group of Thracians, the Trausi, who would cry at the birth of a child, lamenting the hardships to come; and conversely, they would laugh and rejoice when a person died, viewing it as a happy release from suffering.

Arvo Pärt Centre The Arvo Pärt Centre combines the composer’s personal archive with an information and music centre. It is an open meeting place for musicians, researc...

www.arvopart.ee/en/

There was a great article in today's NYT about Arvo Pärt celebrating his 90th birthday and I was so happy to learn about this centre of his in Estonia - the drone shot here is stunning. Another place I'm going to have to add to my list of must-see places.

Best line said by a friend on the recent death of her mother: “Being dead is not going to suit her. at. all.”

One of the best things about the dropping of American products from the LCBO is the discovery of all these really excellent German and Belgian beers! (Not that I habitually drank much American beer, but now it's not even on the shelves). Case in point: Kloster Andechs Weißbier - sooo good!

TIL that there's a small town in Northern Ontario called Swastika. Post WWII, when officials tried to change its name to Winston, the residents ripped down the new sign and replaced with with "Swastika: to hell with Hitler, we had the Swastika first."