Over the Moon
I was honoured to have been in some pretty remarkable company this morning at a speakers' showcase put on by my agency, the National Speakers Bureau, at the Glenn Gould Theatre in Toronto.
It was a chance for meeting and event planners to see a few folks on the NSB roster, including Lt. Gen. Roméo Dallaire (pictured), performance coach Sunjay Nath, Dragon's Den advisor Sean Wise, Olympic medalist Jennifer Botterill and Canadian astronaut Dafydd "Dave" Williams. Dini Petty was the host. It was illustrious company to be sure, an inspiring morning of talks and a great opportunity to get Voyageur in front of an audience who can help me deliver the project across the country but also to meet such cool people and get the guitar in their hands.
Dr. Williams and I hit it off really well backstage. Such an interesting person with a life that would be fascinating even if he hadn't done two space shuttle missions and three space-walks (a Canadian record) but it really is something to sit with someone who has been somewhere so few human beings have been to; and who described to me the phenomenon of "Zero-G Flashbacks" - where he'll be mid-conversation sometimes and all of a sudden get that feeling of the arbitrariness of the floor being "below" and the ceiling being "above".
We connected both on our enthusiasm for our iPads as well as the guitar. It turns out that Chris Hadfield is not the only guitar-playing Canadian astronaut!
Thanks to Theresa, Amanda, Jeff, Jeanne-Marie and the rest of the NSB staff and all of the folks who came up to meet the guitar in the lobby reception after the talks.
Posted at 8:58 PM
Cheers to Naomi from Hallowed Halls
Naomi MacDougall is the designer, for Douglas & McIntyre, of the "Six String Nation" book. The fact that she was honoured by the Alcuin Society for her design would be worth blogging about on its own. But last night I was invited to give a presentation at the award ceremony in Toronto (Naomi will attend a separate ceremony in Vancouver later this month) at the renowned Arts & Letters Club on Elm St. We dined and the presentations were made there in the very same room at the very same tables where the painters of the Group of Seven first came together.
That environment was made even more poignant for me by the fact that the guitar includes wood from the Studio Building on Severn St., commissioned by G7 painter Lawren Harris and former A&L Club president Dr. James McCallum. But the synchronicities didn't stop there.
While accepting the award for his book, author Greg Kehm of EcoTrust Canada told the room that he had been a guest at the Copper Beach House in Haida Gwaii at the same time as we were there to obtain the piece of the Golden Spruce and had held the raw wood that we brought back from the local mill. The designer of John Vaillant's "Golden Spruce" book, C.S. Richardson, was also present at the dinner receiving an award.
And to really put a cap on the evening, Martin Gould (pictured), whom I originally met on David Neale's porch on a summer guitar-playing evening - and who happens to be a former Alcuin Award winner - was there and agreed to play at the end of my presentation. He did a gorgeous version of "When First I Came to Caledonia"
All in all, it was a magical evening. Thanks to Linda Gustafson and the Alcuin Society, the Arts & Letters Club staff and members and president Diane Kruger.
Posted at 8:01 AM