Maria Tippett & Yousuf Karsh

Maria Tippett & Yousuf Karsh, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

THE LIFE OF YOUSUF KARSH
With Dr. Maria Tippett (Anansi Press, 2007) at the podium responding audience questions at the Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa, 30 November 2007.

From the OIWF online blurb:
"Yousuf Karsh is acknowledged to be the twentieth century's leading portrait photographer. His iconic images of Bogart, Hemingway, Churchill, the Kennedys, Auden, Castro, Einstein, the Clintons, Khrushchev, Casals, and Elizabeth II inhabit the mind's eye of anyone familiar with photographic history. A refugee from the ethnic cleansing of Turkish Armenians in 1916, Karsh made his home in Boston and Ottawa but travelled the globe during his sixty-year career, photographing political leaders, celebrities, monarchs, and movie stars.

He died in 2002, aged 94. He left a legacy of 50,000 portraits.Maria Tippett’s new book, Portrait in Light and Shadow: The Life of Yousuf Karsh, is the first biography, written with help from his family and colleagues and based on the Karsh archive in Ottawa, and reveals the technique behind the camera and the brilliant mastery of the photographer."

Oni on Shelagh Rogers' Sounds Like Canada

Oni on Shelagh Rogers' Sounds Like Canada, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

Canadian radio icon, Shelagh Rogers is in Ottawa this week. She hosted her radio show Sounds Like Canada in the CBC studio 30 November 2007. Here, she is interviewing Ottawa's Oni The Haitian Sensation.

Shelagh Rogers in Ottawa

Shelagh Rogers in Ottawa, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

Canadian radio icon, Shelagh Rogers is in Ottawa this week. She hosted her radio show Sounds Like Canada in the CBC studio today. At the mic standing on the left is the young Canadian folk singer Kyrie Kristmanson.

What an amazing, unique voice! She is up for the "Young Performer of the Year" award at the Canadian Folk Music Awards which will be held on Saturday December 1st, 2007.

Water Delivery

Water Delivery, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

Sparks St., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Drinking 8 cups of water a day is healthy. Delivering it is another matter.

Tom Hogan at Saint Brigid's

A vernissage of the paintings of Tom Hogan will be at Saint Brigid's Centre for the Arts and Humanities 1 December 2007. 179 Murray St. Ottawa. Thomas Hogan is an Ojibway artist who paints in the Woodland style first developed by the world-renowned artist, Norval Morrisseau.

The Paintball Office

link via Strobist.com

Yann Martel

Yann Martel, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

AN EVENING WITH YANN MARTEL
St. Brigid's Centre for the Arts and Humanities,
179 Murray St.
23 November 2007

From the OIWF online blurb:

"Winner of the Booker Prize, the Hugh MacLennan Prize and the Journey Prize, Yann Martel returns to celebrate the publication of a new, illustrated edition of his international bestseller Life of Pi.

An international competition was held to find the perfect artist. From thousands of entrants, Croatian artist Tomislav Torjanac was chosen. The result is a lavishly produced edition which features forty of Torjanac’s beautiful illustrations. Join us for a talk and on-stage conversation with one of Canada's most acclaimed authors complimented by projected images from the book."

Melissa A.Thompson

Melissa A.Thompson, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

Melissa A.Thompson read at Ottawa's Factory Reading Series on 22 March 2007. Here she is going over her notes just before the reading at the Ottawa Art Gallery. Her novel Dreadful Paris (snare books, 2006) is her first full-length publication.

Warren Kinsella

Warren Kinsella, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

Warren Kinsella at the Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa 21 November 2007.

From the OIWF online blurb: "Warren Kinsella's new book, The War Room, profiles and analyzes some of the best political warriors and spinners around. He employs personal anecdotes, political wisdom culled from his extensive experience on Liberal Party federal and provincial election campaigns, historical examples from other Canadian and American campaigns, and generous amounts of humour to deliver insight about what it takes to survive challenges not just in politics but in any kind of business or non-governmental agency, whether it sells music, movies, cars, or computers, or raises money to preserve the environment, combat cancer, or save animals."

The First Casualty? War, Truth & the Media Today

William Irwin Thompson

William Irwin Thompson, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

William Irwin Thompson read in Ottawa at St. Brigid's Centre for the Arts and Humanities,179 Murray St. (St. Patrick at Cumberland) 18 November 2007.

From the OIWF bio:;

"Thompson became nationally known for his best-selling book, At the Edge of History, which was nominated for the National Book Award in 1972. He received the Oslo International Poetry Festival Award in 1986 for his science fiction fantasy novel, Islands Out of Time. As a cultural historian, he is most widely known for his book, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality, and the Origins of Culture. As a philosopher of science, he is known for his three books, Imaginary Landscape: Making Worlds of Myth and Science, Gaia, A Way of Knowing, and Gaia Two: Emergence, the New Science of Becoming."

Feist

Feist, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

Leslie Feist played the evening show on Parliament Hill in Ottawa 1 July 2007.

Avant-Garde Bar

Avant-Garde Bar, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

Nothing says good times like a long exposed photo with a rear-curtain flash!
This poetry reading was hosted by the newly created AB Reading Series hosted by Max Middle. His website for the series is here:
theabseries.blogspot.com

Ottawa launch for Booty: Hurricane Jane and Typhoon Mary published by the Mercury Press www.themercurypress.ca on 14 November 2007

Christie Blatchford

Christie Blatchford, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

From the Ottawa International Writers Festival blurb:

"Long before she made her first trip to Afghanistan as an embedded reporter for The Globe and Mail, Christie Blatchford was already one of Canada’s most respected and eagerly read journalists. It is a testament to Christie Blatchford’s skills and integrity that along with the admiration of her readers, she won the respect and trust of the soldiers.

They share breathtakingly honest accounts of their desire to serve, their willingness to confront fear and danger in the battlefield, their loyalty towards each other and the heartbreak occasioned by the loss of one of their own. Grounded in insights gained over the course of three trips to Afghanistan in 2006, and drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews not only with the servicemen and -women with whom she shared so much, but with their commanders and family members as well, Christie Blatchford creates a detailed, complex and deeply affecting picture of military life in the twenty-first century."

Please contact me for usage rights for photograph. Please do not use this image without consent.

Jack Granatstein & Nathan Greenfield

Jack Granatstein & Nathan Greenfield, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

11 November 2007 at Library and Archives Canada. An Ottawa International Writers Festival event.

From OIWF Online blurb:
An evening with two of Canada's most respected military historians on Canada's contribution to the First World War and Canada's military in the 21st Century.

In Baptism of Fire, Nathan M. Greenfield turns his formidable storytelling skill to one of the defining battles of the First World War and a seminal event in the building of our country. The Second Battle of Ypres pitted the highly trained German soldiers - armed with the first weapon of mass destruction, chlorine gas - against the 1st Canadian Division, which had been in the trenches for just over a week. Yet it was the Canadians who ultimately triumphed, stopping the German advance that followed history's first poison-gas attacks. Greenfield explains how the untried Canadians, with their defective Ross rifles, breathing through urine-soaked handkerchiefs, successfully made one of the most important stands of the war - perhaps even staving off an ultimate German victory.

Jack Granatstein's book, Who Killed Canadian History? includes a hard-hitting, timely clarion call to arms, which argues that Canadians’ once-vaunted role of peacekeeping is no longer relevant in a post-9/11 world, since recent missions, from Somalia to Kosovo to Afghanistan, are akin to war. Granatstein also takes Canadian attitudes to task, criticizing our increasing reluctance to support a military presence in countries such as Afghanistan.

Wreaths at the National War Memorial

Wreaths at the National War Memorial, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

11 November 2007

11 November 2007, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

Waiting for the call to march to the National War Memorial, Ottawa.

Clydesdale Horses

Clydesdale Horses, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

Draft Horse Brewery

Draft Horse Brewery, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada

Michaelle Jean at SAW Gallery, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada, attended SAW Gallery in Ottawa on November 7, 2007 to explore the ways in which youth in Ottawa are using the urban arts to combat youth crime and improve their neighbourhoods.

Buddha, Oni & Michaëlle Jean

Buddha, Oni & Michaëlle Jean, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada, attended SAW Gallery in Ottawa on November 7, 2007 to explore the ways in which youth in Ottawa are using the urban arts to combat youth crime and improve their neighbourhoods.

Liz Hay - 2007 Scotiabank Giller Prize Winner

Congratulations to Ottawa's Liz Hay!

Ken Rockburn

Ken Rockburn, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

Interviewer extraordinaire, Ken Rockburn at the launch of his latest book, "Rockburn: The CPAC Interviews", at the Library & Archives Canada in Ottawa 6 November 2007. The book is published by Penumbra Press.

Oni at SAW

OTTAWA—Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada, will be at SAW Gallery and Club SAW in Ottawa on November 7, 2007, at 7:00 p.m., to explore the ways in which youth in Ottawa are using the urban arts to combat youth crime and improve their neighbourhoods.

As part of her national tour to encourage young Canadians from disenfranchised neighbourhoods in a dialogue to consider how they can use art to bring about change in their communities, the Governor General will participate in her seventh community forum on youth and the urban arts, two of which took place on foreign soil. The discussion will include approximately 125 young artists representing various neighbourhoods and organisations from the National Capital Region, as well as decision makers, Order of Canada recipients and philanthropists.

This event will be co-produced by the SAW Video Association and SAW Gallery, two centres that provide programs for emerging local artists, and will be hosted by Oni the Haitian Sensation and Buddha, both of the Canadian Floor Masters. Opening remarks will be given by representatives from the host organizations and the Governor General, and there will be a presentation of a video of highlights from SAW Video’s 2006 youth program. The Governor General will then launch a discussion on youth involvement in the urban arts. The evening will conclude with hip hop, spoken word and break-dancing performances.

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