Oct 12, 2009
Finding Solstice

Finding the Café Solstice was actually pretty easy. It’s right at one end of Fan Tan Alley, which I had a few reasons to visit during my stay in Victoria. One of those reasons was a photo shoot for the Victoria Times-Colonist newspaper for the article that published this weekend. After the Fan Tan Alley shoot, I hooked up with Lisa Cole, who has been so helpful on this trip, and we went to do a few location shots with Voyageur and the case: the blue bridge whose days are numbered, Mile Zero where Terry Fox was meant to wrap up his cross-Canada run (and where Steve Fonyo did manage to complete Terry’s quest) and a quick visit with Lisa’s boyfriend Randy, who busks a Victoria street corner as Darth Fiddler.

After all the picture taking, it was off to Victoria’s most famous bookstore, Munro’s, for a brief in-store signing session and a Mexican dinner with the family.

And then the return to Solstice. Lisa had managed to enlist Danielle Lebeau-Peterson, who put her Victoria musicians contact list to good use, bringing out fellow musicians Lisa Ogden, April Gislason, Ira Smolkin, Randy McKenna, Sian, Colin McTaggart and a bluegrass trio out to perform. Danielle’s parents Niels and Connie also joined her for a couple of songs.

In spite of some technical glitches with the presentation, it was a fantastic evening and I think everyone there found it to be a pretty special evening. I had been warned that getting an event together in Victoria without months of planning would be tough but everyone from the musicians to the audience to the Cafe staff proved them wrong.

Thanks to Lisa Cole, Danielle, Shayne, the Solstice Cafe, all the musicians and audience who turned out and a special thanks to Annalisa, Neil, Callum and Anika for making my trip to Victoria feel like such a homecoming.

Posted at 12:04 AM

Wind in the Willows

My sister Annalisa in Victoria helped in all kinds of ways on this last leg of the tour. She was instrumental in getting the book signing event happening at Crown Publishing and she got my niece Anika’s school interested in bringing me in to do a presentation.

It was a pretty big group of grade 3 and 4 students who filled the gymnasium at École Willows in their temporary home on Richmond Rd. (while their own building gets earthquake proofed!). The kids were fantastically attentive and I think they really enjoyed the presentation. Word is they’ve been talking about it at home ever since and I really hope the kids there make a connection with the kids at Nelson Mandela Park Public School in Toronto as I suggested.

Two of the teachers played songs on Voyageur (including a francophone sing-a-long complete with wavy tree motions from the students) and students Jack and David each took a turn playing for the classmates.

Thanks to Annalisa Taylor and Marilyn Fox.

Posted at 12:02 AM

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