Some Short Book Reviews

I'm trying to up my reading game, spending more time reading (which includes having the book read to me by Google Play or the Kinde app), and less time listening to podcasts or doom scrolling. This was also motivated by the need to read a few of the nominees for the Hugo Awards, since I bought a supporting membership to get the voters' packet.

So here are some short reviews of some of the books I've read in the last few months.

• Children of Time/Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky: I've been meaning to read something by Adrian Tchaikovsky for quite a while after recommendations by friends and family members, and I'm glad I did. Both Children of Time and Children of Ruin were highly readable SF with interesting and believable aliens, solid world building, and well-developed characters. I found the plot of Children of Ruin a bit hard to follow in places, but other than that I thoroughly enjoyed both books. 

 

• The Regicide Report by Charles Stross: With The Regicide Report, Charles Stross finally completes the main story arc of his long-running Laundry Files series. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who hasn't read at least some of the other books in the series. Given that the events in the book take place before the sequel New Management trilogy, it felt a bit redundant. 

• Death of the Author by Ndedi Okefor: This is a Hugo nominee and I might not have read it otherwise. In the near future, a university teacher of creative writing gets fired after criticizing a student and decides to write a science fiction novel. The book becomes a huge success, completely altering the author's life. In alternating sections, Okefor includes parts of the author's novel, gradually integrating the two stories. It's well done and very readable, if a bit heavy on family drama. 

• The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow: I am not a big fan of fantasy novels, but decided to read this based on some glowing reviews and its Hugo nomination. It's a riff on the Arthurian legend, with a time travel loop thrown in. I found it quite compelling; the setting, pacing, and characterization are first rate and Harrow is a top flight prose stylist. It may win the Hugo award this year and it would be well deserved. 

• Ancestral Night/Machine by Elizabeth Bear. I have read and enjoyed several shorter stories by Elizabeth Bear but have not read any of her novels until now. These are space operas with a large cast of aliens and a diverse human culture spreading through the galaxy. I liked the setting and stories but there was too much character introspection for my taste, and I found myself skimming a lot. I will read the third book in the series, Folded Sky, soon.. 

 

Coming soon, a review of Biological War: A Scenario, by Annie Jacobsen.

Photo of the Week - August 23, 3026

Today's photo is of marigolds that we planted along the side of our garden to attract pollinators. We've planted them before, but this year they really took off. Taken with my Pixel 8 Pro.

Marigolds

Saturday Sounds - The Tragically Hip - Live July 22 - August 20, 2016

Today's musical treat is something very special, especially if you are Canadian. Live July 22 - August 20, 2016 is a live album culled from the last concert tour of Canada's most beloved band, The Tragically Hip. 

That isn't hyperbole, by the way. Their last concert was broadcast live over the CBC and watched by an estimated 11, 700, 000 people, about one third of all Canadians. (The CBC will be rebroadcasting it tonight at 7:00 p.m. eastern, on TV and radio, CBC GEM on the web, Sirius XM and YouTube. I will be watching, with beer and Kleenex in hand).

As for the album, I think it will eventually become known as one of rock's greatest live albums. The band, and especially lead singer and lyricist Gord Downie, who was dying of brain cancer during the tourn, gave it their all. It's far more than a greatest hits album; the hits are there, but so are a large number of deep tracks from their catalog, all brilliantly played. If you are new to The Hip, check out "Nautical Disaster", "50 Mission Cap", "New Orleans Is Sinking", or "Bobcaygeon", to name a few of their most popular songs..

Play it often and play it loud.

 

Getting a Better List of Styles in Word

Styles are one of Microsoft Word's better features but Microsoft has never made them particularly easy to use and especially never easy to manage. In my last job, I eventually created a small set of templates with a common set of style names but with differing formats. Some documents could have more than thirty styles. Tracking changes to the styles across differnt documents was painful. 

Office Watch points outs that you can use AI tools like Copilot or Gemini to help you analyse and manage your styles. 

Copilot or any AI (Claude, ChatGPT etc.) can read a Word styles document and reorganize the contents into something more useful, such as:

• Hierarchy table
• Grouped Styles
• Style Guide
• Design System Diagram
• Visual Table
• Style Compliance Table

The article includes a sample prompt and some examples of reports and diagrams that you can create. 

As I recall, Adobe FrameMaker doesn't have many features for reporting on style properties, but there are third-party tools that you could probably use in conjunction with AI tools to create similar reports.

How Journalists Are Using AI

The Nieman Journalism Lab has published an article showing how several Pulitizer Prize-winning journalists used AI tools in their work. 

 A translation of a mass shooter’s cryptic journal in the days after an attack. A public records review that revealed failures to install flood warning systems in Central Texas. An exposé of American technology companies’ complicity in building the Chinese surveillance state. An audit of the SEC’s crypto lawsuits that showed weakening enforcement under the second Trump administration.

On May 4, the Pulitzer Prizes recognized these stories among the winners and finalists across 15 journalism categories. The reporters behind each of these stories also disclosed using AI to the judging committee. Ultimately, five award winners and three finalists this year disclosed AI adoption in their submissions — the most since the disclosure requirement was added in 2024.

The journalists use of AI fell into several key categories:

• Searching for information in a large number of public records
• Translating under deadline pressure
• Making a trove of documents searchable
• Checking other writers' work

Looking at the details of how these tools were used really makes me wish I had had them available when I was working as a technical writer at the TSX. Just the ability to search through the job control system or QA test databases would have been very useful. 

Photo of the Week - August 16, 2026

This week's photo is of our garlic harvest for the year. It wasn't our best; we got 30 heads out of about 36 planted, and they were mostly on the small side. Still, it's not a lot of work and they taste better than most of the supermarket garlic. 

Our garlic harvest for 2026

Saturday Sounds - Girma Woldemichael - Nafqóté

This week's musical treat is from Girma Woldemichael, an Ethiopian-Canadian saxophonist living in Toronto. I was completely unfamiliar with him or his music until hearing an interview with him on CBC radio. His music synthesizes African elements with jazz, and funk and I quite like it. Nafqóté is his most recent album. You can find several more on YouTube Music. 

It's Called a Polycrisis and We're In One

Recently, I read an article by Charlie Angus:  What Keeps Me Up at Night. 

In it he says: 

We are like the three little pigs hanging out in a straw house.

The war in Iran, climate fires across North America and Europe, the political chaos of Trump — would be a serious test of global resilience at the best of times. But now these issues are beginning to lay across each other like terrible ley lines.

So let me lay out four areas where global leaders have left us dangerously vulnerable.

He goes on to discuss four areas of vulnerability in more detail.

• The Strait of Hormuz and the Fertilizer Crisis
• A Planet on Fire
• Regulatory Suicide
• The Marine Super Spreader Event

For more on the El Nino event that Charlie Angus discusses in his article, see this: Okay, These El Niño Forecasts Are Getting Ridiculous.

An analysis published Wednesday by the United Nations’ World Food Programme shows that the strengthening El Niño is on track to significantly worsen food insecurity in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries. The record-strong El Niño that occurred between 2015 and 2016 impacted the food security of 60 million to 100 million people, and WFP’s preliminary analysis shows that the 2026-2027 El Niño could push at least 49 million more people into acute food insecurity by the end of 2027.

“El Niño is a massive threat to the food security of millions who are already vulnerable,” Carl Skau, WFP’s acting executive director, said in a statement. “The sooner we help families to prepare for these climate shocks, the greater our ability to save lives and protect livelihoods.”

All these events (and more) are part of a larger event: a polycrisis. 

Per Wikipedia:

A polycrisis is a situation where many different and separate crises happen at the same time. These problems mix and make each other worse. The total damage is much bigger than just adding the problems together.

Key Features of a Polycrisis

• Simultaneous timing: Multiple major shocks happen right next to each other or overlap. 

• Interconnection: Systems like the economy, the environment, and politics link together. A failure in one area feeds into another. 

• Amplification: Fixing one problem can accidentally make another problem worse. 

• Overwhelm: Governments and leaders struggle to handle everything at once

Things were bad enough before the current and burgeoning El Nino and the multiple economic and political crises caused by Trump's abysmally stupid attack on Iran. 

But now? There's another term for the situation we find ourselves now, coined by writer William Gibson in his wonderful novel, The Peripheral. The Jackpot. I hope I'm wrong about that, but I am very afraid that I'm not.  

2026 Aurora Award Winners

 The winners of the 2026 Aurora Awards for the best Canadian science fiction and fantasy were announced last weekend. 

These are the fiction winners.

• Novel: The Downloaded 2: Ghosts in the Machine, Robert J. Sawyer
• YA Novel:  Breath of the Dragon, Fonda Lee & Shannon Lee
• Novelette/Novella:  The River Has Roots, Amal El-Mohtar 
• Short Story: “The Stone Played at Tengen”, R.H. Wesley
• Graphic Novel/Comic: Shark Girl, Kate Beaton

A Brief Trip on Toronto's Eglinton LRT

Last week, I had to be up in North Toronto so I took a ride on the new Eglinton LRT. I got off the bus on the southeast corner of  Avenue Road and Eglinton but had to cross to the northwest corner  to get to the LRT station. 

I was surprised at how deep it is, nine flights of stairs or five escalators to the platform level. The train cars are more like streetcars than subway cars. I didn't think the layout and seating made good use of the space and the doors are very narrow. The cars are also noise in the tunnel than the subway.  It was half full at around 2:00 p.m. which is a good sign.

I got off at Eglinton and took the elevator up to the subway level. If you do that, make sure you go two stops up to the upper concourse. (I mistakenly got off first on the lower concourse.) I don't know why there is a lower concourse as it doesn't seem to go anywhere. 

It's unfortunate that Metrolinx didn't run the line the extra mile to Eglinton GO station instead of ending it at Kennedy. That would have made an easy connection for anyone coming in from the east and wanting to take the LRT to midtown. As it is, I probably won't be using the line much. 

First and second sets of nine escalators

The platform at Avenue Road station

Photo of the Week - August 9, 2026

This week's photo is of the marina at the foot of Liverpool Road. I should have taken a picture of the excellent ice cream cone I had just before taking this picture. Taken with my Pixel 8 Pro and unedited.

The marina at sunset.

Saturday Sounds - Philip Glass

I recently broke down and subscribed to YouTube Premium because the ads were getting too annoying. A subscription to YouTube Music Premium was also included, and I've been browsing through the music library. So today,  here are three recent albums of Philip Glass's music and one special treat. (YouTube Music doesn't allow embeds so I'm just providing links to the albums). 

• Einstein on the Beach: Ictus, Suzanne Vega, Collegium Vocale Gent, and Tom De Cock. Einstein on the Beach is perhaps Glass's best known work but its a monumental piece and rarely performed in its entirely. I was fortunate to see it in Toronto in 2014, and it was one of the musical highlights of my life. This recording is a new arrangement for performance as a concert and is somewhat shorter than the original opera. It's been performed in Europe since 2018.

• Knee Plays from Einstein on the Beach: Arranged by Vox Sarenrae. The Knee Plays are my favourite pieces of music from the opera so I'm glad to see them excerpted in an album. The orchestration makes me think of what Einstein on the Beach would sound like if it had been performed by Emerson Lake and Palmer. 

• The Tao of Glass: Philip Glass and Phelim McDermott. This EP has five of the pieces of music featured in the theatrical production currently playing in London. You can buy the EP on Bandcamp. 

• And finally, we have this: Philip Glass: Etudes Polka by Joseph. C. Krause. It's short, which is probably a good thing. 

Movie and TV Reviews - July 2026

Short reviews of movies and TV shows I watched in July. 

Movies

• Remarkably Bright Creatures: A quirky romantic drama featuring Sally Field and octopuses. We liked it a lot. (Netflix)
• Enola Holmes (1 - 3): A wildly implausible but entertaining series of movies featuring a teenage sister of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes. Light but well made. (Netflix)
• Afterburn: Half the Earth gets hit by a super solar flare and the bad guys take control. B+ for the production values; B- for everything else. (Amazon Prime)

TV Shows

• Beyond Paradise (season 4): The Death in Paradise spinoff continues. Light but likeable. I like it that not all the plots involve murders. (BritBox)
• Criminal Record (season 2): A gritty British Police procedural. More intense than the first season but not quite as good, though Peter Capaldi is great, as usual. (Apple TV)
• One Piece (seasons 1 & 2): A live action remake of a long-running anime series. Not very deep but fun to watch. (Netflix)
• Widow's Bay: This series starts out as a comedy following the mayor of a small town in Maine trying to get more tourist visits and shifts into a horror mode. I thought the comedy element was more successful.  (Apple TV)
• Blue Lights (season 3): A police procedural set in Belfast. Gripping and intense. One of the best examples of the genre. (BritBox)
• Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed: A comedic drama featuring the wonderful Tatiana Maslany (star of Orphan Black) "as a divorced fact checker who falls into a web of murder, blackmail, and youth soccer." Fast moving, funny, and worth watching just for Maslany's performance. (Apple TV)

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.