The tallest free-standing structure in the Czech Republic is a 305-meter chimney built in 1977 at the Chvaletice power plant. 90 km from Prague the plant burns lignite, a moist, soft brown coal susceptible to spontaneous combustion and considered to be the most harmful to human health. In October of 2016, Greenpeace activists occupied one …
My Father’s family is from Poland but they didn’t talk about it. His parents got out in the 30’s and never looked back. Dad was born soon after in Toronto. When a close family friend invited us to Wroclaw and Krakow it seemed like a great opportunity to get to know some of our heritage. …
Everything white. My nose and throat full of mist, my feet disappeared, I can see no further than the variometer in my lap, which reads 832 meters- surely that can’t be right? I jumped 270-feet in five seconds? Alex’s voice crackles on the radio. “Go west, go to the beach. West!” The compass says I’m …
The Canadian shield appears slowly, patches of granite flooring alongside the road. Then tables. Then shelves. Somewhere north of Port Severn the low walls begin to climb until fortified corridors become two-story faces with dynamite-scarred cheeks, the ground below littered with their pre-cambrian stubble. I feel safe here. No matter how old I get, driving …
Do you know the story of the boiling frog? It’s a metaphor for the risks of not noticing gradual change that ends in disaster. The frog gets used to warming water until it boils to death. Even uncomfortable change can be normalized as this compelling video describes about the current situation in Venezuela. Watching it …
This little critter was curled up in my friend’s shoe yesterday. It’s the tail end of summer here, hot as hell and just weeks away from rainy season. Prime time for hatching snakes to leave their burrows for higher ground before the inevitable flooding. Red touch yellow kill a fellow, red touch black venom lack. …
“There was a fire”, he said. My mechanic Heiner and I stood in front of a burnt out Mitsubishi 4×4. The engine compartment was already empty and the body of the car had both fire and smoke damage. The ‘Firestone Destination’ tires however looked OK and I needed some. When I lived in San Diego …
I love coconuts. With a few strokes of the machete I can have a belly full of delicious, potassium-rich pipa (coconut water). Several more whacks reveal a chewy, health-filled snack and, with a little more effort, the perfect vessel for eating and drinking at the beach. Easily found just about anywhere around here, coconuts are …
When I sang this to my Producer and co-creator Mitch Girio for the first time his only comment was, “Are you sure you want to record this? It’s kind of mean”. Perhaps. But it is a true story. Had my friend and I spent fewer days with the girl we met in an airport lounge …
I think when it’s time to go, I think that we always know… but I don’t know what comes next. That’s a line from the song ‘Until it Don’t Happen’. At the time I wrote it I was contemplating changes in my life I knew I needed to make but had yet to do so. …