|
A SHORT HISTORY OF
LONDON'S GRAND THEATRE A talk delivered at the London Public Library on September 18, 2017 THE GRAND THEATRE has been the primary theatrical venue of London Ontario for 136 richly storied years and I’ve been told I have 35 . . . 40 minutes tops, to fill you in on its history. So by necessity this is going to be a decidedly skeletal survey of milestones in the Grand’s development with occasional glances at highlights and catastrophes along the way. Continue Reading . . . |
|
SAINT AUGUSTINE BUILT A BRIDGE
BETWEEN TWO WORLDS HAVING RECENTLY STRETCHED myself quite fruitfully with my reading of The Divine Comedy on the occasion of Dante’s 750th birthday, this year I decided it was time to finally immerse myself in the writings of St. Augustine (354-430 A.D.) and read the two works for which he is best known, Confessions and The City of God. Continue Reading . . . [Left] CARAVAGGIO: SAINT AUGUSTINE |
|
GREG CURNOE TAKING A STAND IN LONDON IN THIS EXCERPT from Three Artists: Kurelek, Chambers & Curnoe, (Elmwood Publications, 2016) Herman Goodden examines two of Greg Curnoe’s most pronounced qualities – his utter lack of a religious gene and his impassioned devotion to London, Ontario – and muses on some of the higher mysteries of projection, substitution and rechanneling. Continue Reading . . . [Left] GREG CURNOE: MYSELF WORKING NORTH IN THE TWEED COAT, oil on plywood, 183 x 122 cm, November, 1963. VAG, purchased with the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition Assistance Program, VAG64.23 Greg Curnoe © The Estate of Greg Curnoe / Courtesy of Sheila Curnoe (Photo: Trevors Mills, VAG) |
|
JACK CHAMBERS EUROPE WAS THE PLACE TO BE IN THIS EXCERPT from Three Artists: Kurelek, Chambers & Curnoe (Elmwood Publications, 2016) Herman Goodden recounts London artist Jack Chambers’ first encounter with the Old World. As one of very few Canadian artists of his generation who undertook the full regimen of classical training, the 22 year-old Chambers was looking to Europe for nothing less than a total reorientation of his perceptual habits and skills. Continue Reading . . . [Left] JACK CHAMBERS: PORTRAIT OF MARION AND ROSS WOODMAN, oil on wood, 80.5 x 91.5 cm, 1961. AGO, Toronto. From the collection of Ross and Marion Woodman. 98835 / Jack Chambers © The Estate of Jack Chambers. Courtesy of John and Diego Chambers |
KATE NELLIGAN
|
THE NELLIGANS
"IT'S NOTHING IF A LOSER LOSES. But when someone with so much force, energy, potential blows it or it all slips away or those same great energies turn destructive – that’s the stuff of tragedy.” – Father Joe Nelligan KATE NELLIGAN USED HER OLD HOME TOWN like a swimmer uses the wall of a pool. As a very ambitious, complex and highly charged sixteen year old kid, she assumed the lightest of grips on the rim of that pool, set her feet against the wall, collected all the strength and energy she could summon into her legs and kicked off into the great unexplored centre where no Londoner had ever gone before. Continue Reading . . . |
RICHARD B. WRIGHT
|
A CELEBRATION OF
THE NOVELS OF RICHARD B. WRIGHT IN 1970 AT THE AGE OF 18 I happened upon an American edition of Richard B. Wright’s very first novel, The Weekend Man, remaindered for 99 cents at Coles, and read it in one delirious go, thus commencing my four and a half decades-long campaign to spread the good word on my favourite Canadian writer. Continue Reading . . . |