Salut!

Covid-19 Diaries. Toronto (30) baby steps in a frightening end game

Sweden never locked down and not everyone is sure they were right. Trump is intent on removing any remaining doubt that Kim Jong-un is not the craziest head of state after all. Germany locked down, relaxed and is wavering. New Zealand played it tough and the signs are encouraging, France is looking promising enough ... Bill Taylor wonders whether we should be careful about what we are wishing for. See all the Salut! Covid-19 Diaries at this link 

 

Covid-19 Diaries. Toronto (29) elephantine Trump and his Flu Klux Klan infantry

 

Bill Taylor is often whimsical in his lockdown notes from Toronto. Today, glancing to the south at what passes in Washington, DC for statesmanship, he is angry and apprehensive ....

Covid-19 Diaries. Madrid (3): 'my heart bleeds for Spain'

My friend Richard Pretorius, an American stuck for now in Madrid, not normally any kind of hardship, resumes his part of Salut!'s Covid-19 Diaries series with a heartwarming letter to his late mother ....

Covid-19 Diaries. Toronto: (28) 'end times' will tell

 

 

Bill Taylor is on a roll. When I said the Covid-19 Diaries series was winding down, I didn't mean nothing more would appear (occasionally, friends even offer new entries). And when Bill writes like this - I call it Toronto (28) but it's been many more, all posted by him at Facebook - it would be a crime to call a halt ...

Covid-19 Diaries. Toronto (27) when not in Rome ...

 

I looked up Brunello wine and one of the commonly asked questions was 'why is it so expensive?'. Such detail will not get in the way of Bill Taylor's plans to ensure Lesley's cooking is paid the compliment of a wine of appropriate quality.  This is not really Bill's 27th instalment of lockdown notes from Toronto; he posts one edition a day at Facebook and I reproduce his writing here, only no longer every single day. That said, they are always interesting to read and confirm a serious writing talent. Canadian publishers would doubtless have launched a bidding war already, but for the circumstances ...

Covid-19 Diaries. Toronto: (26) man's inhumanity blights Nova Scotia

The only part of Canada I have visited is Nova Scotia. It was an uplifting experience which enabled me to write at first hand about a great music festival, Celtic Colours, held at the very time of year when the colours are quite sensational. From Nova Scotia last night came news of a shocking, tragic event. A worthless and presumably deranged individual identified as Gabriel Wortman, 51, had dressed himself as a policeman and shot dead 'at least 16 people' in a grotesque act of mass murder following which he, too, was killed.

I re-open the Covid-19 Diaries series to allow Bill Taylor to reflect, briefly from Toronto, on the 'evil and insanity' that may have combined in a bleak drama that started in the village of Portapique but spread ...

 

Lockdown music: recall your 10 favourite live bands. Fairport Convention, Coldplay and Cranberries feature for me

Chris While, superb in place of the late Sandy Denny, at the 2007 Cropredy festival, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Liege and Lief album, the original band - including Richard Thompson, shown - otherwise intact. Image: Brian Marks

 

 

Readers of my music site Salut! Live, and friends who see references on social media, know I have been inviting them to submit lists of all-time favourite singers - male and female - and now bands. Just a little lockdown fun.

In the case of bands, my own list would stretch for miles beyond the designated 10. So I restricted myself to those I have seen live. Even then, I found it impossible to avoid difficult choices.

Covid-19 Diaries. Small northern town (3) teacher’s blunt mid-term report on Government

I said the Covid-19 Diaries series was more or less done and it is. But I also said anyone who still sent contributions would see them published. Bill Taylor is a different matter - he simply includes me when firing off his daily chunk of life under lockdown in Toronto to Facebook. I've reproduced 25 here and am glad I have done so, but Bill and I agree the series has probably run its course.

Still time and space, though, for more thoughts from my home town of Shildon, Co Durham and my great friend Pete Sixsmith, retired teacher (head of history, no less), returning paper boy and suffering fellow Sunderland supporter ....

Lockdown blues, or any music that rocks your boat. Name your top 10 singers, male and female

Image: Jef Aerosol

 

Over at my music site, Salut! Live, I have been inviting readers to nominate their favourite 10 male singers and their favourite 10 female ones.

Any genre or mix of genres is encouraged. No one is required to share my own tastes and few will.

The comments you find at the two items linked above were posted direct to Salut! Live or transferred there after being left at Facebook or Twitter. Feel free to add your thoughts and lists at either web site or if you find references to this spot of fun on social media.

 

Covid-19 Diaries. Toronto: (25) end of the trail

 

Bill Taylor chalks up his quarter-century of lockdown notes from Toronto. His offerings have been the prolific heart and soul of Salut!'s series of Covid-19 Diaries and he will continue to post his thoughts at Facebook for those of you who know him there. The series has been worthwhile - just look to the left for a glance at the menu - but will be added to only occasionally from now. Thanks once again to all contributors and most of all, of course, to Bill ...