Off for the Long Weekend

It's another long weekend up here in the Great Green North; this one is known as Simcoe Day in Ontario. July wasn't as hot as last year but the episodes of wildfire smoke were worse, so enjoying the outside was difficult. This weekend looks more pleasant, at least when it won't be raining, so I'm taking the weekend off to enjoy it and give my yard some TLC. I'll be back here on Tuesday. 

In the meantime, here's a picture of a couple of sailboats on Frenchman's Bay. I wish I was out there with them. 

Boats on the bay

The US Versus Canada 16

It's time for another compilation of articles about the continuing frosty relationship between Canada and the US. At least the Gordie Howe bridge is finally open and the wildfire smoke has abated somehat, here at least. 

Trump’s New Tariffs Are Designed to Tear Canada Apart. "Washington can now reward some provinces and punish others. The political danger may be considerable."

Lessons We've Learned from Gordie Howe - Elbows Up and Beyond. "his new Canadian built and paid for Gordie Howe Bridge celebrates a Canadian icon who played all his hockey for American teams but was always one of ours."

As Wildfires Ravage Canada, A Trump Puppet From Michigan Is Now Threatening Canada To "Stop The Smoke" Or Else. LOL. "Toronto has the worst air on Earth this week. The north is burning, people are fleeing their homes by boat, and a Congressman from Michigan thinks the problem is that Canada won’t rake its forest."

Mark Carney won’t let Donald Trump see him sweat, but it comes at a cost (gift link). "Watch Mark Carney, not long ago thought to be a political novice, work a press scrum. We’re now used to the half-beat pause before the prime minister answers, the banker’s habit of restating the question in duller language, draining it of drama, and the refusal, almost physical, to take the bait. That composure can come across as a personality quirk but it’s more likely a construction. This week, a remarkable two-part Wall Street Journal (WSJ) investigation shows us what it was built to withstand."

Canada is taking an outsized role in the construction of the post-American world. "Mr. Carney is a continentalist, too – he just has a different continent in mind. But his ardent pursuit of the European connection is in the same counter-balancing mould, not only of Liberal leaders past, but of statesmen through the ages: calling the Old World back into our existence, to redress the balance of the New."

Trump's Threat to Canada is Deadly Serious. "A new report in the Daily Beast has revealed just how far the White House is willing to go to upend international law and to attack allies."

Midwestern Republicans blame Canada, level threats for drifting wildfire smoke. "'FINAL WARNING TO CANADA: Manage your forests to prevent these fires. American lungs are paying the price for Canadian inaction, year after year,' wrote a Michigan congressman running for governor."

Why this Toronto man is being flooded with requests from Americans about their Canadian ancestors (gift link). "The Canadian Citizenship Act has opened doors to foreign nationals who want to reclaim citizenship by descent. Archivists are suddenly in demand."

The Future File 3 - Will Putin's Russia Collapse?

Here's another predictive post from Dean Blundell, who does like predictions. This is from Russia Is Out Of Gas. Literally. And Trump Just Switched Teams Mid-Russian Collapse As Ukraine Overwhelms Russia EVERYWHERE posted on July 24. 

Why This Might Actually Be The Beginning Of The End In Moscow

Here’s the historical part, and I want to be careful: nobody can predict the end of a regime, and Putin has survived plenty. But Russian regimes don’t fall to elections. They fall to lost wars. The Russo-Japanese War gave you the 1905 revolution. World War I ended the Romanovs. Afghanistan helped bury the Soviet Union. The pattern is losing a war while the economy collapses and the elites lose faith — and check the scoreboard: growth stagnant at 1 percent, the deficit doubled, Putin reportedly passing the hat to oligarchs for “donations,” fuel rationing for 50 million people, an army losing more men than it can recruit, and Sberbank’s own CEO, German Gref, telling shareholders in June that nobody in Russia cares about anything except ending the war as fast as possible.

That’s the head of Russia’s biggest bank saying the quiet part into a microphone. When the money men start talking like that in public, it’s because they’ve already said worse in private.

It's a bit loose as a prediction, but I think the intent is clear. Let's check on this one on October 31. 

 

Photo of the Week - July 26, 2026

This week's photo is of our younger cat, CJ, who found the perfect spot to rest. Cats and boxes is a real thing. 

CJ in a box

Saturday Sounds - The Rolling Stones - Foreign Tongues

This week's musical treat is a new album from none other than The Rolling Stones: Foreign Tongues. It's a good one, as the last couple of their albums have been. It's not Exile on Main Street but it's a pretty decent effort for a group of 80-year-olds. Play it loud. 

 

The Future File 2

This is part of a series of posts to feature articles that make verifiable predictions. My intent is to review them at a later date to see how accurate they were. 

Today's post references an article by Dean Blundell published on July 21: Trump Just Declared Economic War on Canada. Again, and Mark Carney Just Eviscerated Him For It. "He did it on a Monday. Of course he did it on a Monday. Set your TACO timer for 30 days."

At the end of the article, he says:

Here’s the punchline, and you already know it: these tariffs don’t take effect for 30 days.

Thirty days. The standard Trump escalation window. The exact runway he always builds himself so he can strut, threaten, watch the markets gag, watch American consumers scream about prices, watch the lawsuits pile up — Section 338 is going to get shredded in court, just like the Supreme Court already shredded his emergency tariffs in February — and then “graciously” announce a pause, a deal, a framework, a beautiful letter from Mark. Trump Always Chickens Out. He did it after “Liberation Day” cratered the markets. He does it every single time the bill comes due.

Review on August 21.  

Saturday Sounds - Philip Glass: The Hours performed live by Anton Batagov, piano

This week's musical treat once again features the music of Philip Glass. It's a live performance by pianist Anton Batagov of Glass's music for the soundtrack of the movie, The Hours. 

I've heard some of this played by the Philip Glass Ensemble, but I much prefer the solo piano version. It's lovely, contemplative music; just what I need to take my mind off the chaos of the current political scene. Enjoy.

The Future File 1

I'm starting a new series of posts to feature articles that make verifiable predictions. My intent is to review them at a later date to see how accurate they were. Today, I'm starting with two articles.

• This could be the strongest El Niño on record. "With the July runs now in from 667 ensemble members across 14 different seasonal forecast models, it looks like this year’s El Niño is not only very likely to be the strongest event since reliable records began – it may end up the strongest by a truly mind-blowing margin." Review on November 30.
• The Forever War Gets Scary. "But we are really now at the point where it’s pretty clear that Trump and the people around him have given up on actually winning the election. They’ve decided instead that somecombination of propaganda, misinformation, disinformation, and possibly massive illegality is their way forward." Review November 15.

Photo of the Week - July 12, 2026

This week's photo is of a sail boat in Frenchman's Bay. Despite there being a couple of marinas on the bay, we don't see a lot of boats on the bay, probably because it's shallow and gets choked with vegetation by the end of the summer. Taken with my Pixel 8 Pro using the full 50 MP sensor setting.

Sail boat on the bay

Saturday Sounds - Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble

Today's musical treat is from Don Was, a Detroit-based musician and producer who, over the last few years, has been playing bass with Bob Weir and Wolf Brothers. He's currently touring with a new group, Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble. It's a large group, playing jazz, funk, and R&B; as he says in a "mission to chronicle the native sounds of our home city, Detroit". It reminds me a bit of Kamasi Washington's band. To sweeten the mix, he's been throwing in some Grateful Dead covers into his sets. 

They'll be playing in Toronto at Koerner Hall on January 30, 2027. I might go. 

Here are three recent sets that have shown up on YouTube. 

Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble: Tiny Desk Concert

WNRN In-Studio Session: Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble

Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble - 15 January 2026 - The Atlantis, Washington, D.C. (full show)

The US Versus Canada 15

Canada and the US celebrated their respective national anniversaries this week, so it seems like a good time to post another set of articles about the relationship between our two countries. Let's start with Bryan Adams and his new song, "51st State".

  

• Trump Regime Lists "Nine Canadian Grievances" Of Unfair Canadian Trade Practices Ahead Of Free Trade Negotiation Deadline That MIGHT Have Been Written By A Three-Year-Old. "The Trump regime’s “key complaints” against Canada are, honestly, REALLY f***** funny."
• Canada and America Are Drifting Apart. The Pentagon Just Made It Official. "A surprise defence decision reveals the depth of the political rupture."
• Canada won’t drop fees on big American streaming services (gift link). "The Trump administration has explicitly opposed any such charges levied against the big streaming firms, most of which are U.S.-based giants."
• Stop Panicking about CUSMA. Canada’s Trade Future Isn’t as Dire as It Looks. "Trump can talk tough, but supply chains still bind North America together."
• Sorry, Mark Carney, ‘Shakedown in Windsor’ is a true crime drama where Donald Trump holds a bridge, and a nation, hostage (gift link). "Prime Minister Mark Carney said it was “no drama” that the Gordie Howe International Bridge opening ceremony had to be cancelled. He is wrong about that, writes Andrew Phillips. It’s actually a true crime story being played out for all to see."
• Trump Says He Won't Renew Free Trade Agreement (CUSMA) With Canada/Mexico. "A ruthless, fully-sourced fact-check of the dumbest eight words Trump has said this week — delivered the same day US inflation hit 4.2%."
• The Threat to Canada Is Coming From the White House. "This past week, the ambassador of a foreign country, Pete Hoekstra, publicly stated that Canada’s sovereignty would be a “great discussion” in the upcoming trade negotiations with the Trump administration."
• Why this Toronto man is being flooded with requests from Americans about their Canadian ancestors (gift link). "The Canadian Citizenship Act has opened doors to foreign nationals who want to reclaim citizenship by descent. Archivists are suddenly in demand."
  

Photo of the Week - July 5, 2026

Today's photo is of a yucca growing in our front yard. We had a brief thunderstorm yesterday afternoon and after the sun had come out, the rain drops were glowing like diamonds on the top of the yucca. Taken with my Pixel 8 Pro. 

Raindrops on the yucca

 

Saturday Sounds - Garnet Rogers - Burnham 2026/03/07

This week's musical treat is a live performance by Garnet Rogers, who Nancy and I have seen more times than I can remember. We haven't seen him perform in a couple of years, so finding this recent performance is a treat. I don't know anything about the venue, but it's a professional recording with good sound. Enjoy.

Carney's Capitulation

This article by Charlie Angus eviscerates the oil companies and the Carney government for caving to them. The government's capitulation to big oil is going to hurt us all in the long run and shows a distinct lack of vision.

It seems darkly ironic that, in a summer of heat domes and climate stress, the PM has announced his “win-win” strategy to build another pipeline.

There is zero business case for this pipeline. It is a total subsidy to the industry. Nonetheless, Mr. Carney assures us it will be a “public-private” partnership.

It is the public who will pay.

The private interests of the oil giants will make out like bandits. They win.

Our children and the planet will lose.

What Marcus Aurelius Can Tell Us Today

I found this article by historian Timothy Snyder particularly insightful. Coincidentally, I've been reading a series of novels by S. M. Stirling, (TO TURN THE TIDE and THE WINDS OF FATE). They postulate time travellers trying to avoid a nuclear war by returning to the Roman Empire of Marcus Aurelius and changing history. Marcus Aurelius, the subject of Snyder's article, is an important character in the novels. . 

In the late second century AD, the Roman Empire confronted armies that had crossed the border at the Danube River and even broached the Alps in northern Italy. Among them were the Iazyges, speakers of an Iranian language, who hailed from the Ukrainian steppe.

In Ukraine this February, I was learning about an archaeological find which reveals the interactions of the Romans and the Iazyges, which included alliance as well as enmity. The Roman war against the Iazyges allies was commanded personally by Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who spent the years between 171 and 180 AD at the front. During that time he kept a philosophical diary, probably written at night in his tent. Discovered after his death, that text, known as the Meditations, is a great work of Stoic philosophy.

I turned to the Meditations to see if I could learn anything that would help me to understand the work of Ukrainian archaeologists about the interactions between Romans and Iazyges. I found something else: perspective on the wars of today, and a sense of why, beyond his obvious incompetence in military matters, Trump had to lose his.

Movie and TV Reviews - June 2026

Short reviews of movies and TV shows I watched in June. Now that we're watching the Blue Jays, there won't be as much here.

Movies

• Disclosure Day: It was good, not great. I enjoyed it, but it was overlong and a bit muddled in the final third. Emily Blunt is really good. Overall, it was more X Files than Close Encounters. (IMAX)
• Sheep Dogs: I didn't think I would enjoy this, but it turned out to be bettr than I expected. It's a witty sendup of the murder mystery genre with some sharp and funny writing. (Amazon Prime)

TV Shows

• For All Mankind (season 5): Most of this season focused on the increasing conflict between Earth and Mars over asteroid resources. The best part though was the subplot about the search for life on Titan. t's still a great show but I hope the final season is more SFnal. (Apple TV)
• The Boroughs: The tag line for this could be "Stranger Things for Boomers" A widowers family consign him to a retirement community in the desert and bad things start happening. It's funny, touching, and scary.  I liked it a lot. (Netflix)
• Bon Cop: Bad Cop: This is a limited series based on the excellent Canadian films. I was really looking forward to this one but it was unwatchable. Reflecting the French/English Canadian duality, the dialog is pretty much evenly split between the two languages with subtitles. Unfortunately, the dialog is too fast-paced and neither Nancy or I could keep up with it. We gave up after half an hour. What we could follow was good. (Crave)
• The Gentlemen: This is another series based on a movie. I enjoyed the original film and the series, created by Guy Ritchie, is just as enjoyable. (Netflix)
• Celebrity Antiques Road Trip (season 4): Continuing on with our tour of the antique shops of Britain. (BritBox)
• Death in Paradise (season 15): The cast keeps changing but the murders still keep the cops of Sainte Pierre busy. (BritBox)
• Silent Witness (season 29): The forensic experts at the Bowman Institute continue on in Birmingham. Still the best of the forensic TV shows. (BritBox)

Happy Canada Day!

Today is Canada Day, the celebration of our nationhood. I'll probably watch the Blue Jays game in the afternoon as they play in their Canada Day red and white uniforms. There will be fireworks, of course, and if it doesn't rain I'll be out in my front yard watching them.

I am proud of Canada. We're not perfect and there are many things I would change if I could (better treatment of our indigenous peoples, and an government that wasn't so in thrall to the fossil fuel industry, to name just two). But all I have to do is look south to know how lucky I am to have been born here. 

Coincidentally, I came across this article this evening and thought I should include it here. Anyone who grew up in Canada in the last half century will be familiar with most of the objects cited in the article. (It's an Apple News+ link and I can't find a more open link to it, sorry). 

Finally, here's a column from Dean Blundell, who expresses his love for Canada much better than I can. 

Thank you for being the country that runs toward the ambulance instead of billing it. Thank you for a Charter that treats my humanity as a starting assumption instead of a negotiation. Thank you for leaders who, whatever their flaws, at least know the job is about us and not about them. Thank you for two official languages, for a hundred unofficial ones, for a mosaic that never asked anyone to melt away who they are.

Thank you for being close to perfect in a world that’s forgotten what perfect was even supposed to look like.

I’ve never been more aware of what democracy actually costs, or how fast it can be stolen by a man who mistakes a nation for a mirror. And I’ve never been more grateful that I get to raise my glass tonight in a country that still knows the difference.

You’re 159 today, Canada. You don’t look a day over indispensable.

Happy birthday. I stand on guard for thee. I always will.

Gardening as a Metaphor for Politics

I've been reading Geddry's Newsletter for some time now. It's a mother-daughter news column written by Mary Geddry and Shanley Hurt.

Recently they've published a couple of articles on the theme of gardening and how it relates to politics that I found especially perceptive. 

• The Hidden Allies of the Underground Republic. What mycorrhizal networks, beneficial insects, and the underground republic can teach us about resisting collapse. 
• The False Flower in the Underground Republic. A dispatch from the garden bed, on what bindweed can teach us about Trumpism, entanglement, and the danger of mistaking strangulation for strength,

From the second column:

A living system is not healthy because nothing grows wildly, it’s healthy because the wildness doesn’t all belong to one thing, and a democracy is not healthy because nobody fights, it’s healthy because no one hungry vine is allowed to wrap itself around every structure and call the suffocation unity.

So yes, the false flower is pretty, yes, it’s persistent, yes, it will be back tomorrow. But so will we.

Photo of the Week - June 28, 2026

Today's photo is of a rose in our front yard. When we bought the house, there was a rose bush full of gorgeous pink/orange roses. A severe winter about 10 years ago killed the bush, but to our surprise and pleasure, it started coming back a couple of years ago. Taken with my Pixel 8 Pro.

A rose in our front yard

Saturday Sounds - Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts - Corduroy Plants

This week's musical treat features Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts. It's a concert film from last year's tour called Corduroy Plants. 

From Live for Live Music: 

Neil Young surprised fans this week with the release of Corduroy Plants, a free one-hour concert film documenting his 2025 tour with The Chrome Hearts. The film follows last month’s release of As Time Explodes, a live album culled from the same tour and featuring all the same songs except for “After the Gold Rush” and “Looking Forward.”

If you like Neil's electric playing, you're going to love "Cortez the Killer" and "Like a Hurricane". 

 

The Philip Glass Ensemble - 2026/06/20 - A review

Nancy and I headed into a very lively Toronto last night to see the Philip Glass Ensemble at Koerner Hall. I've been a fan of Glass's music since I first heard it in the late 1970s and I've seen him and/or the Ensemble at least nine times. 

The concert highlighted Glass's works from the late 1970s and early 1980s. The first set was the entire Glassworks album and was, for me, the highlight of the evening. I much prefer the Ensemble's arrangements to the more orchestral recording. The second set was music from Satyagraha, Koyaanisqatsi, Einstein on the Beach, and Akhnaten. 

I enjoyed it much more than Nancy, who is not a fan of Glass's music. That being said, "Dance 1" from Einstein on the Beach wasn't the best choice to highlight music from that opera; I told Nancy it should have been titled "Enough Already". They did do "Spaceship" as an encore which is somewhat more succinct. .

I'm glad I had a chance to see the Ensemble again. Now if only the COC would perform Satyagraha or Akhnaten. 

Setlist:

Glassworks (1981

1. Opening 2. Floe 3. Islands 4. Rubric

5. Facades

6. Closing 

Rescue from Satyagraha (1979)

Grid from Koyaanisqatsi (1982)

Dance 1 from Einstein on the Beach  (1976)

Funeral from Akhnaten (1983)

Spaceship (Encore) from Einstein on the Beach (19776)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo of the Week

This is the Philip Glass Ensemble at Koerner Hall in Toronto last night. It was an excellent concert and I especially enjoyed hearing the suite of pieces from Glassworks. My view was restricted by the heads of the people in front of me so I couldn't get the two musicians on the far right of the stage in the frame. 

The Philip Glass Ensemble at Koerner Hall

Saturday Sounds - Relisten and Ratdog

Today's musical treat isn't an album or a concert but instead an app: Relisten. 

I have been a fan and a user of the Internet Archive's Live Music Archive for many years. I have downloaded gigabytes of music from the Grateful Dead, Phish, and many other bands. But trying to find a specific show or band is painful. It's not quite like trying to find a needle in a haystack, but it comes close.

Relisten solves that problem. It's a front end to the live music archive and gives you easy browsable and searchable access live music recordings from more than 4,300 artists. You can easily filter by popularity (a list of a few hundred artists), date, or venue, keep a list of favourite songs or performance, and download to your device. There are three verions: a web interface and Android and IOS apps. And it's free and open source.

Note that Relisten doesn't share information between platforms so if you have favourites in your app list, they won't show up in the web version. 

Major failing: The web interface is pretty basic and doesn't seem to offer all the features of the apps. For example, I can't switch from the Featured to All Artists views and I can't find a way to save or view favourites, and there's no searching. 

I found about Relisten from The Intelligence's Cool Tools newsletter. There doesn't seem to be an archive of back issues so I can't share the original newsletter article. If anyone knows how, please leave the info in a comment and I'll update this. 

Relisten is a great way to follow current bands that allow taping and an even better way to delve into a lot of musical history.

Since my Saturday posts usually feature some music, here's a concert from Ratdog at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York on March 2, 2014. It's a soundboard recording and features the great Steve Kimock on lead guitar. 

Spielberg's Disclosure Day Disappoints

On Sunday, Nancy and I drove over to Whitby to see Disclosure Day at the IMAX theatre. Even though we could walk up to the local Crappyplex, seeing big movies on the biggest screen available has become our preference. 

Based on the initial reviews, I was looking forward to seeing Spielberg's latest epic, but it didn't live up to my hopes. It was good, but not great. I enjoyed it, but it was overlong and muddled in the final third. On the positive side, Emily Blunt is really good and some of the action scenes were impressive, especially on the IMAX screen. Unfortunately, the big reveal at the end felt contrived and unrealistically optimistic. Overall, it was more like a long X Files episode than Close Encounters. Let's call it "Disappointment Day". 

As The Guardian reports, I'm not the only one to feel this way. 

Yet if early box office has been solid enough, secondary indices – not least a slew of disappointed foyer texts from friends and loved ones – would suggest the film has itself proved distinctly polarising. In the US, market research firm CinemaScore – which polls opening-day cinemagoers to assess a film’s commercial prospects – graded Disclosure Day a B, the joint second-worst for a Spielberg film, ahead of AI: Artificial Intelligence (recipient of a harsh C), dead level with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Headmaster Haneke again shakes his weary head.

Saturday Sounds - Pharoah Sanders Live

Since I've been featuring jazz saxophonists here recently, I thought it was time to post some performances from the great Pharoah Sanders. I first heard his music when I was in university and his "The Creator Has a Master Plan" has been the soundtrack to much of my life. I was fortunate to have seen him play four times and wish there had been more. 

These are a few of the many videos of his live performances on YouTube.  Four are good quality, pro-shot videos. The Grace Cathedral performance is an audience audio recording but I've included it because of the way Pharoah plays off of the cathedral's acoustics. It's a beautiful and  spiritual performance. Enjoy. 

Pharoah Sanders/John Hicks Live in Frankfurt 1986

Pharoah Sanders Quartet with Tony Hewitt, Live at Dizzy's, 2015/01/31 

Pharoah Sanders - 1995/11/17 - Late Show

Pharoah Sanders & William Henderson - 2006-04-21, Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, CA

Pharoah Sanders - Iowa City Jazz Festival - 2013/07/07

I Finally Ditched Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom

I've been a user of Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom for more than 15 years when I bought my first DSLR, a Nikon D5200. I've since moved on to a Fujifilm X-S10 and a Pixel 8 Pro phone. When I started using Adobe's products the monthly subscription to Photoshop/Lightroom was a reasonable $10/moth. Eventually they raised it to around $15 and then last year to $25 (in Canadian dollar). 

That's a lot of money for a tool that I use only rarely. I have been shooting both RAW and JPEG on my Fujifim X-S10, (Fujifilm names them as RAF files) so using Adobe Camera RAW or Lightroom made sense. But Fujifilm's JPEGs are good enough that most editing can be done using JPEGs in free and simpler tools. 

I was also finding it harder to use Adobe's products. My vision has deteriorated over the last few years and I now find using Photoshop or Lightroom difficult because icons are too small and text and interface text lacks contrast. 

Last month I finally gave up after getting a renewal notice from Adobe. If I kept the subscription, I'd have to wait another year to cancel it or pay a substantial cancellation fee. So I cancelled my subscription. 

By that point, I had identified several free alternatives to Adobe's software.. Here I'm going to briefly describe several tools that I looked at. 

Adobe Express Photos (formerly Photoshop Express)

Adobe Express Photos offers a good selection of basic editing tools and limited AI functions including object removal. RAW files can be edited but have to be saved in another format, and there's no support for Fujifilm's film simulations. There is a mobile version. It's probably what I will use most for simple edits. 

Adobe Photos Express

Canva Affinity

Affinity has a similar interface to Photoshop and contains all of the tools I'm likely to need and more. However I find the interface difficult to use because of the small interface text and icons, although it's a bit better than Photoshop.  It can open and modify RAW files but the image has to be saved in a different format. I'm still going to play around with it, but it won't be my first choice of tools. 

Canva Affinity

Capture One Fujifilm RAW Converter

This is a free tool offered by Capture One to convert Fujifilm's RAF files to other formats. It offers a basic subset of the features in the full Capture One and support Fujifilm's film simulations. Unfortunately, the interface was unusable due to small text and icons. Finding no way to customize the interface for my needs, I uninstalled it. 

Fujifilm X RAW Studio

Fujifilm X RAW Studio is a bit of an odd duck as it uses your Fujifilm camera for processing RAW files with the camera connected to your computer by a USB cable. Processing is limited to whatever functions are built into the camera. The advantage of this approach is that it allows you to use film recipes (modified film simulations). For my purposes, it's easier to use Silkypix's converter. 

Microsoft Photos

Microsoft Photos is the built-in photo editor for Windows 11, offering the usual selection of basic editing tools, with a few extras like background selection and generative erase. There's a good selection of filters which also include a handy slider for controlling intensity. I find the icon-based interface awkward to use, given my vision. Still, it includes enough functionality that it may be all that many people may need. As for RAW files, you can open and edit them, but changes have to be saved in another format. 

Microsoft Photos

Pixlr Express

Pixlr Express is a web-based tool with free and paid subscription versions. Pixlr Express is a basic editor similar to Adobe Express Photos but with more features including some AI tools with 20 AI credits/month. (Subscription plans offer more AI credits). It won't open RAW files. 

Pixlr Express

Pixlr Editor

Pixlr Editor is a more advanced web-based tool with free and paid subscription versions. The interface uses a side panel and menus with a level of features comparable to Affinity or Photoshop. Given that it's web-based, I find easier to use. As with Pixlr Express, the free version includes 20 AI credits/month with subscription plans  offering more credits so you can use the advanced AI functions. It won't open RAW files. This will likely be my choice for more advanced editing of JPEGs. 

Pixlr Editpr

Silkypix RAW File Converter EX

Siklypix RAW File Converter EX is provided free to Fujifilm camera users. It's similar in features and functionality to Adobe Camera RAW. There's a full range of editing tools available and because it's made for Fujifilm cameras, you can access film simulations and modify camera settings. Changes to RAW files are saved in a separ .spd file. Skins are available for different monitor resolutions and I was able to find one that I could use. This will probably be my first choice for working directly with RAW files, although it's probably overkill for what I usually need to do.

Silkypix RAW File Converter EX

Summary

So to summarize:

• For simple editing of JPGs, Adobe Express Photos or Pixlr Express.
• For advanced editing of JPGs, Pixlr Editor or Affinity
• For direct editing or conversion of RAW/RAF files, Silkypix RAW File Converter EX

I may do more detailed write-ups on the programs mentioned above after I've had more time to use them.

61st (2025) Nebula Award Winners

SFWA (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association) has announced the winners of the 61st Nebula Awards for works published in 2025. 

These are the novel and short fiction awards,

• Best Novel: The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, by Stephen Graham Jones 
• Best Novella: The River Has Roots, by Amal El-Mohtar 
• Best Novelette: “Uncertain Sons”, by Thomas Ha 
• Best Short Story: “Laser Eyes Ain’t Everything”,

Photo of the Week -- June 7, 2026

The photo this week is one I took a couple of years ago with my Fujifilm X-S10. I used Silkpix RAW File Converter to switch the film simulation from Velvia to Acros + G Filter, boost the contrast, and crop. I thought this one worked better in black and white than the original colour exposure. 

Fujifilm X-S10 with Fujinon 27mm/F2.8 WR at F8, 1/450 second, ISO 320, Acros + R Filter film simulation

Tree roots in black and white

For contrast, this is the JPG of the original image, straight out of the camera. Which do you think is better?

Tree roots in colour

Saturday Sounds -- Sonny Rollins

Sadly, the great jazz saxophonist, Sonny Rollins, died recently. I never got to see him perform but have listened to and enjoyed many of his albums. For this week's musical treat, here are three concert videos of his performances, starting with a BBC recoding of a 1974 gig at Ronnie Scott's famous London club. 

Next up, the Sonny Rollins Quintet Live at Jazz Festival Bern, Kursaal, Bern, Switzerland - 1985.

Finally, here's the Sonny Rollins Sextet live in Munich in 1992.

A Deep Dive Into Alberta Separatism

The possibility of Alberta separating from Canada and becoming an independent state has suddenly become a major news item in Canada. I've posted about this quite frequently in the last year, including links to several articles discussing US interference in our politics. 

Now there will be a referendum in Alberta in October with one of the questions being: ""Should Alberta remain a province of Canada, or should the Government of Alberta commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada?"

Distrust of the federal government and resentment about Alberta's place in the Canadian federation has long been a part of politics in Alberta. I lived in Grande Prairie for five years in the early 1980s and it was certainly evident then but there was no serious discussion of separating on the part of the Alberta government. That has changed with the rise of the UCP and Premier Danielle Smith. 

The best article about the subject that I have seen so far is Alberta: the jilted lover of Confederation, by Jared Wesley, who is a professor of political science at the University of Alberta. The article is the text of a speech that he delivered to the Rideau Club Roundtable in Ottawa, on June 3, 2026.

The talk is divided into these sections:

• So, where are we?
• So, how did we get here?
• So, what can we do?
• What can the rest of Canada do?

In conclusion, he says:

The overall message should be simple: Alberta is not a problem to be managed. Alberta is not a spoiled child to be disciplined or dismissed. Alberta is not an alien province to be decoded from afar. Alberta is a respected, heard, and valued partner in Confederation.

That is the message Canadians need to send. And it is the message Albertans need to hear from one another. Because the choice before Alberta this fall is not simply whether to remain in Canada. It is whether we can imagine a version of Alberta big enough to include all of us. And whether Canada can imagine a version of itself that has room for Alberta not at the margins, not alone at the centre, but in a leadership role in creating a better country.

 It is a long article but you won't find a better analysis of the current situation in any of the major news outlets.

More Scams to Watch Out For

The internet is a dangerous place these days and there's always one more new thing to watch out for. Right now, it's fake  CAPTCHAs. 

A real CAPTCHA (which stands for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart,” by the way — just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?) runs in your browser. It might ask you to click a box, identify images, or wait for a quick verification. What it shouldn’t do is ask you to send a text message, open your phone’s SMS app, tell you to press a strange combination of keys, or ask you to copy and paste anything into your computer.

Take a couple of minutes to read the article. It may save you a lot of grief later.  

2026 Locus Awards Winners

 The winners of the 2026 Locus Awards have been announced. The awards are voted on by subscribers and readers of Locus, the long-running newsmagazine of the science fiction and fantasy field. 

SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL:  Death of the Author, Nnedi Okorafor 

FANTASY NOVEL: The Everlasting, Alix E. Harrow 

NOVELLA: The River Has Roots, Amal El-Mohtar

NOVELETTE: “We Begin Where Infinity Ends“, Somto Ihezue 

SHORT STORY: “In My Country“, Thomas Ha

The full list, including nominees, are listed on the Locus site.

Movie and TV Reviews - May 2026

Short reviews of movies and TV shows I watched in May. Now that we're watching the Blue Jays, there won't be as much here.

Movies

• Greenland 2: Migration. I saw a review that suggested that this was better than the first movie. It wasn't. 
• Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan: Ghost War. Yet another Jack Ryan thriller. Lots of action and not a lot of plausibility, as usual. This one was OK until about halfway through, then started to run off the rails. I did enjoy the parts that were set in Dubai.  (Amazon Prime)
• The Mandalorian and Grogu. See my review from last week. (IMAX)

TV Shows

• Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (season 2). Lots of big monster battles in the middle of a muddled plot with too many jumps in time. The final episode ended with a setup for the next season, but I don't really care.(Apple TV)
• Dept. Q: This is a police procedural billed as "tartan noir" and it is indeed gloomy and you'll probably want closed captioning on. Unfortunately the plot stretches my "willing suspension of disbelief" past the breaking point and the characters are mostly standard tropes. (Netflix)
• A Taste for Murder: A grieving British detective travels to Italy to restore the relationship with his daughter and gets involved in all sorts of crimes. The best parts are the setting (Naples and Croatia, subbing for Capri) and Patricia Logan, of Downton Abbey fame. (BritBox)
• Good Omens (season 3): A one episode, 97-minute season, largely because Neil Gaiman wasn't involved. And it shows. You can probably skip this one. 
• Law and Order: Criminal Intent: Toronto (season 3). It's very formulaic. We like it for the Toronto settings and the stories that are sometimes taken from local news. (City TV)

Photo of the Week - May 31, 2026

I took this photo earlier this week when Nancy and I travelled in to Toronto for a fancy supper to celebrate our anniversary. This is Yonge Street, about a block north of Dundas, showing what's left of what was once known as the Yonge Street strip, partly because of its many strip clubs. The large building on the right is part of Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), formerly Ryerson Polytechnic. It stands on the former site of SAM The Record Man and A and A's, two great record stores that are long gone. The Zanzibar Tavern, one of Toronto's few remaining strip club, still stands. 

Taken with my Pixel 8 Pro and cropped and straightened in Google Photos. 

What's left of the Yonge Street strip

Saturday Sounds - New Riders of the Purple Sage - Powerglide

I first discovered the New Riders of The Purple Sage through their association with the Grateful Dead, who they opened for when I saw the Dead in 1970 and 1971. I enjoyed their music; I guess you could say they were my gateway to country and western.

From a post by Peter Christiansen in the Grateful Dead group on Facebook

"Powerglide".  Second album by the New Riders of the Purple Sage.  Wonderful followup to that most excellent first album.  Buddy Cage replaces Jerry Garcia on pedal steel.  A number of guest appearances including Jerry Garcia (banjo) and Bill Kreutzmann (percussion) from the Grateful Dead, and noted session player Nicky Hopkins (piano).  Another fun, sing along, toe tapping collection of songs. Covers "Hello Mary Lou",  "Willie and the Hand Jive",  "I Don't Need No Doctor" "Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (And Loud, Loud Music)" take on the energy of the band while original writing on the others contributes significantly.  Another important part of my high school days.

Of their albums, Powerglide was my favourite. It still holds up well after more than fifty years.

Avoiding a Lockout of Your Google Account

If you had to pick an account that getting locked out of would cause the most headaches, your Google account would probably be up near the top of the list. That is assuming that you have a Windows PC and use Google Chrome, or an Android phone. Mac users may be able to skip this article.

Google, rightly. doesn't make it simple to get back into a locked out account. But they do provide more than one way of restoring your account access, including a new one mentioned in this article.

We'll start with the newest feature for account recovery, which is Recovery Contacts. This is a list of up to 10 people you specify, and when you're trying to get back into your Google account, they can be asked to confirm access in the same way that you might normally approve a prompt on your own phone (which is helpful if your phone is lost, for example).

I have a friend whose phone was stolen while travelling. He was not able to recover his account and lost access to many valuable photos and a YouTube account he used to promote his business. If he'd followed some of the steps in this article, that wouldn't have happened. 

It may take some time and be a bit of a hassle to get your account set up so you can recover it, but it's worth it. 

 

Review: The Mandalorian and Grogu

Nancy and I went to see The Mandalorian and Grogu last night at the IMAX theatre in Whitby. I didn't enjoy it. There was enough plot to fill out an average episode of the TV show, padded into a 2-hour-plus movie with a lot of pointless action scenes. No character development at all. The Mandalorian might as well have been a 2nd-tier Marvel superhero. Even in the IMAX format, much of the movie was dark and hard to follow. 

Wait for it to show up on Disney+ if you want to see it. (That may be a general reaction; the theatre was maybe 10 percent full). 

Modern Movies: The Dark Ages

I've been having a lot of trouble watching movies, and some TV shows, these days. Part of that is due to my eyes lacking enough rods to give me proper vision in dim light, but that's only part. I've talked about this with my family and friends and they agree that a lot of what their watching is darker than it used to be. 

The New York Times has a feature article (gift link) about this. It starts with a reference to the recent movie, The Devil Wears Prada 2. 

“The heartbreaking story of a woman who can no longer afford lamps in her office,” read one viral post, showing Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly of yore alongside a screenshot from the new dimly-lit trailer. “So did we just forget how to light movies?” asked another, above bright images from the 2006 film beside shadowy, shrouded shots from the sequel. Noting that the sequel employs the same director and cinematographer as the original, one poster lamented “that isn’t a skill issue it’s a choice. So why DO new movies insist on looking like that. Absolutely lifeless.”

That's someting I noticed when I saw Project Hail Mary recently; it was dim, even in the IMAX format. But there are other things going on. 

The article goes on to reference a YouTube video titled 'Why Movies Just Don't Feel 'Real' Any More" by Tom van der Linden. It's a bit on the nerdy side but I highly recommended. He talks about the various factors influencing the look of modern movies and makes some very incisive points, including the lack of depth-of-field in many shots. 

 

From the Times: 

For van der Linden, the blurry-background conundrum is exacerbated by “fake-looking C.G.I. elements.” He pointed to 2025’s “Jurassic World Rebirth”: Compared to the technically-jankier but actually-superior “Jurassic Park” (1993), the latest installment’s backgrounds are constantly out of focus. The environments — even in scenes shot on location — are rendered “faker” through digital visual effects that undermine the world-building. “Subconsciously, I’m not registering that landscape as a real place, and that detracts from the reality of the movie as a whole,” he said.

I've watched the video and found it quite illuminating (pun intended). It's definitely worth half and hour of your time, though it may make you a lot more ciritical about what you're seeing on screen.  

 

 

Phish Have Transformed The Sphere

Phish were one of the first bands to play Las Vegas' futuristic venu, The Sphere. Given the band's penchant for theatrical extravaganzas as seen at their New Years concerts, fans expected quite a bit fromt he band's performances there and they weren't disappointed. But with their latest residency there in Apri, they've taken the visual elements offered by The Sphere's technology to a new level, as described in this article from GQ (archive link). 

Most bands have used The Sphere's immense screen to display various images and computerized animations. Phish have done something different and new; they've created a virtual version of their touring lighting rig and expanded it many times over to fill the screen, then added effects that aren't possible with a physical rig. The results are stunning. 

It was late April, the fourth night of a nine-show run at Sphere in Las Vegas, and the band had just begun its second set. As they slid from a thin boogie into an atonal blur, the screen that swallowed them took the sold-audience of about 17,000 on a grisly animated tour of a damaged body—teeth pocked with fillings, a tummy laden with plastic toys, lungs puffing hard. As the camera wormed its way up and out of the body and back to the mouth, a wrecking ball swung toward the teeth, smashing them with three terrifying hits. The image faded. The room went dark. The band kept playing. The crowd erupted.

The screen needed to go black because a fleet of video teams with a squadron of computers and servers at their command needed time to load a system that has forever reinvented the way Sphere can work: a physics-defying virtual model of Phish’s famous light rig, programmed and run by a pair of technicians so legendary in lighting and jam circles that they have been profiled by The New York Times. The system, the most expensive visual element of Phish’s two Sphere residences, allows Chris Kuroda and Andrew Giffin to control 7,080 individual sources of light, all designed to look like they’re part of physical light fixtures flying above the band. Because it is not mechanical, it can move in directions and with a nimbleness that traditional lighting rigs could never match. It can charge the audience like a bull or pull back into a bright vanishing point.

WATCH

I've included some videos of their performance that show off the new capabilities. The first includes the songs mentioned in the above quote.

  

And here's one more that gives a sense of the scale of the venue.

Finally, here's a review of one of the concerts from the April residency. The author isn't a Phish fan but he was impressed by the visuals and has some advice about the best seating locations if you are planning to attend a concert at The Sphere. 

Photo of the Week

 This week's photo is from one of the few warm days we've had in the last couple of weeks. It was warm enough to go for an evening walk down to the lakefront; an activity that we gladly shared with many other people who crowded the waterfront area. This picture is from my Pixel 8 Pro and was slightly cropped and touched up in Google Photos. 

Sunset at the marina

Saturday Sounds - Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Bright Moments and More

More and more, I'm finding that jazz is the music that gives me the most comfort and enjoyment right now. This week's musical treat is a from an artist that I've not listened to much, Rahsaan Roland Kirk. I've known about him since I started listening to jazz and I knew he was a multi-instrumentalist (sax and flute, mostly) but for some reason never paid much attentin to his music.

One night recently, I was listening to the jazz channel on Sirius XM, as I often do at bedtime, and was blown away by what I was hearing. It was "You'll Never Get to Heaven" from Kirk's live album, Bright Moments. From Wikipedia: 

Rahsaan Roland Kirk (born Ronald Theodore Kirk; August 7, 1935[1] – December 5, 1977),[2] known earlier in his career simply as Roland Kirk, was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist who played tenor saxophone, flute, and many other instruments. He was renowned for his onstage vitality; in his shows, virtuoso improvisation was accompanied by comic banter, political ranting, and the simultaneous playing of several instruments.

Bright Moments seems to be a good representation of Kirk's music. It was recorded in 1973, just a couple of years before a stroke restricted his playing and four years before his untimely death. I regret not paying more attention to his music before this, an oversight that I will be trying to rectify. 

Here's something I didn't expect to find; a performance from the Montreux Jazz Festival, filmed in 1972. As you might expect given the period, the video quality isn't great but the audio is fine. It's an energetic  performance and fascinating to see his multi-instrument technique in action.

 

Finally, here's a short (27 minute) documentary about his life.

Interview with Ray Nayler

I've become a big fan of SF author Ray Nayler since reading his first novel, The Mountain in the Sea. It's a near-future thriller about first contact with an alien species: octopuses. It's one of the best SF novels I've read in the last few years and a far more polished work than you'd expect for a first novel. 

Since then I've read several short stories by him and two longer works, the novella, The Tusks of Extinction and a novel, Where the Axe Is Buried. Both are excellent. 

I haven't been able to find out much about Nayler until recently, when I read a long interview with him published in Andrew Liptak's Transfer Orbit blog. Nayler has an unusual and interesting background and the interview is quite fascinating. 

When I was going to university, I thought I was going to be a writer. I was then rejected from the creative writing program and went into the straight literature program. The process of trying to get published over the next 10 or 15 years, I think killed any idea that I was going to be able to be a writer as a profession. But that didn't affect my desire to continue to write and publish. So I just got up in the morning and then wrote, then went to to whatever job I had and I never stopped thinking of myself as a writer, but I did stop thinking of it as a career.

I also saw what writers did in general, that a great number of them taught at universities. I have no interest in doing that. That a lot of people have MFAs, which I had no interest in getting. That they treated writing as a group activity, which I had no interest in. You know, there were there was really very little attraction to the other things around writing that typically constitute what being a professional writer is.

And so once I became a Foreign Service officer, I had a fascinating job that was really interesting to me, where I got to learn new things every couple of years. And, I was constantly moving from one place to another and learning a lot, and I felt that it was really also feeding my writing very well with new information and new ideas and, and so I thought "well, this is, good. I can continue to just be a Foreign Service officer and write on the side and publish in Asimovs and Clarkesworld and get some nice feedback from my work and talk about the things I'm interested in, but I don't have to worry about making money on it." And so that's been good.

His new novel, Palaces of the Crow, has just been published. It's a bit different from his other books, being set in World War II, but has a speculative element. 

How To Get Rid of Goog;le's AI Weights File

If you use Google's Chrome browser under Windows and don't want to use it's AI features, then you should read this. 

Google has been downloading a 4 GB file called weights.bin that's used by Gemini Nano, which runs locally on your PC. If you don't want this file, or the AI functionality, you can set up a registry key to block it, then delete the file. Instructions are in the article linked above.

The file is installed on my PC and I'm leaving it alone as I occasinally use Gemini in Chrome. Still, it would be nice if they told you about it and gave you the choice before using up such a big chunk of your disk. 

Getting Dark Mode in Acrobat Reader

Here's a tip for fans of dark mode: how to get white text on a black background in Acrobat Reader. 

These instructions are for the latest (and highly enshittified) release of Acrobat Reader. 

1. Click the hamburger menu icon in the upper left.

2. From the menu,, click Preferences.

3. In the Categories list, click Accessibility.

4. Select Replace Document Colors.

5. Then select Use High-Contrast colors and choose White text on black from the High-contrast color combination list.

6. Click OK. 

In step 5, you could select Custom Color and then pick your text and background colours. 

I'm posting this because I cannot easily read PDFs with black text on a white background. The current release of Acrobat Reader changed whatever settings I had in the past to give me dark mode in PDFs, and it's been driving me crazy for a while now. 

Some PDFs may not work well with these settings;. for example, tables with shading will be a problem. I will have to experiment more to see if other settings in the Accessibility dialog will help.

If you know of a (preferably free) PDF reader that works well in dark mode, please leave me a comment.

 

The Hugo Voter Packet Is a Bargain

Thanks are due to Elizabeth Bear for reminding me to check out the 2026 Hugo Voter Packet. I wasn't planning on buying a voting membership for the 2026 WorldCon, but including 16 GB of ebooks in the voter packet made me reconsider.

Included are:

• Full ebooks of 4 of the 6 finalists for best novel. Unfortunately the one I was most interested in, Adrian Tchaikovsky's SHROUD, is only an excerpt as is A DROP OF CORRUPTION by Robert Jackson Bennett.
• All of the short fiction finalists.
• Most of the finalists for best series:, 36 books in total!
• Many ebooks from finalists for the Lodestar Award, the Astounding Award, and best editor (long form).
• Most of the finalists for the other awards.

It's a huge amount of fiction and non-fiction. Most books are in EPUB format, some are PDFs, and some also include audiobooks in MP3 format. 

It is not cheap ($50 US), but given that it includes several books that I likely would have bought, it's worth it. (Just INVENTING THE RENAISSANCE by Ada Palmer would justify the cost). And there's so much more. It'll keep me reading all summer. 

And of course, you get to vote for the Hugo Awards. I have a lot of reading to do before the voting deadline of Ausust 8. 

A Note About Posting

I've been thinking about what I want to do with this blog and I'm going to change my posting routine a bit. 

Going forward, I'm going to stop doing most of the regular link posts like Featured Links and We're Toast. I'll continue the Saturday Sounds posts and probably occasional posts about Canada - US relations.

I'll continue posting about things that interest me or that I want to record here for future reference, like the next couple of posts that will be up tomorrow and Wednesday. 

Given that it's summer and I want to spend more time outside, I probably won't be posting as much. 

Off for the May 24 Weekend

Yes, I know May 24th isn't until next weekend, but up here in the Great White North, 24 means something other than the date. Look up what 24 means in Canadian slang. I won't be consuming one (just a few tall boys), but I will be cleaning the BBQ, mowing the lawn, raking over the garden, and staying away from my computer and the news as much as possible.

I'll be back here sometime next week. In the meantime, here's a tulip from our front yard that somehow survived having two metres of snow dumped on it over the winter.

A hardy tulip

More on Disinformation 9

It's time for another post about disinformation and misinformation. I could probably do a post a day like this if I had the time and the stomach for it.  

• The War Against Misinformation Is Over. The Lies Won. "New research suggests people know images and headlines are false but share them anyway." What a journalist has to cope with. 
• "Klansplaining": A Field Guide to The Term And Language Trump/MAGA Have Perfected. 'A new word — Klansplaining — for rhetoric engineered so racists hear racism and everyone else hears "concerns about crime"'
• Russia and U.S. amplifying Alberta separatist narratives to stoke division, distrust: report. "Moscow's influence scheme is covert, while Trump-aligned meddling is overt and public." Just one of many articles on the subject: see also my blog post from earlier this week. 
• Canada Is Building a Firewall Around, Disinformation, Hate Speech And Democracy. "While the U.S. is busy letting the president sign executive orders restricting who can vote by mail, Canada just quietly dropped two of the most consequential pieces of legislation to protect democracy from foreign-funded gaslighting machines."
• AI Fakes Spread Disinformation. Is the Distrust They Create Even Worse? "Manipulated images undermine our shared reality—and the democracy built upon it."
• Scientists warn fake research is spreading faster than real science. "A major investigation found organized networks producing fake scientific papers, selling authorships, and manipulating journals to mass-publish fraudulent research."
• 5 (more) logical fallacies in the era of RFK Jr. "Common rhetorical tricks that are used to spread false health information."
• The Nursery Is No Place for Misinformation. "A basic newborn shot has become another target of the distrust machine, and the consequences can be devastating."