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May 19, 2009Sugar Belly, the Bamboo Saxophone, and Slide Mongoose
Sugar Belly, the Jamaican mento musician who invented the bamboo saxophone, explains how he made it, and plays a Jamaican folk tune, "Slide Mongoose"
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May 19, 2009
Sugar Belly's Bamboo Sax
We were teenagers, older teens.On Saturday morning, we’d go down to Victoria Pier, named after the Queen whose Day we celebrate as I type, so that I just found myself ducking fireworks that seemed dangerously ...
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May 07, 2009
Cool Stuff
Yesterday’s NEW YORK TIMES carried an article in their “Dining” section about Shave Ice, which Florence Fabricant, the author, describes as “popular in Hawaii and Japan as well as other parts ...
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May 04, 2009
It’s About Time
I once told my next door neighbour that I was eighty-seven.It was meant to be a joke.“No…” said she, unbelieving. “You couldn’t be…”“No,” said I. “I’m really not!” And we both ...
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May 03, 2009
Our Town, 2009 Edition
Come the goodweather folks inthis Portuguese-Italian neighbourhoodhang their clothesout to dryso stirring linesof laundryin the breezeare a sure signit’s warming up.Come fill the cupthe poet said…Of ...
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February 07, 2015
Re: (Whether It Is) Becoming (To Be) a Lady and the Use of the Word in Jamaican Creole (Jc)
News flash! Author copies of my novel, Red Jacket, arrived in the mail yesterday. https://www.dundurn.com/books/... About to post this exploration of the use of the word ‘lady’ in the land of my birth ...
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May 30, 2009
Walk Good
If you had asked me I’dhave said that whenthe time had come for meto say au revoirofficially by thenit would be warmand we would be outsidein shorts and T’s.But it ain’t so.Of course each year there ...
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November 05, 2020
25 Writing Rules & Routines
I'm trying my best not to write about the moon, but it’s hard, isn’t it?Sometimes a poem just needs to be a diary entry. Sometimes a diary entry just needs to be a poem. Same goes for tweets.Try keeping ...
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November 16, 2020
Things I Love About Readings: In-Person vs. Virtual
In-Person ReadingsPutting on my lipstick (burgundy), earrings (fake gold), and favourite clothes (burgundy again).Listening to music on public transit on the way over.Seeing familiar faces and hearing ...
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November 30, 2020
Playlist for How Do I Look?
To wrap up my Open Book Residency, and to lead us into December, I thought I’d leave with a little goodbye present: a good ‘ol playlist! I don’t ever listen to music while I write - I get distracted ...