Quick! What’s the best Canadian city? The subject has led to a lively discussion on Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree, something so prickly that Toronto-based author Andrew Potter suggested could actually bring about a civil war. Most people equate Canada with its natural beauty, or hockey, or Mounties, or beaver nickels. Last year I visited Canada six times, mostly to focus on Canadian cities … Read on
Tomorrow I head on a three-city visit to Canada: Toronto, Montreal and St John’s in Newfoundland. It’s part of a series of seven videos of seven Canadian cities and how one can ‘experience a place like a local.’ It’s far from my first time there (that would be age nine to Alberta; above). But to prep, I’ve been reading books like mad. Canadian … Read on
I’ve long believed there are five principal reasons we travel: to see people we know (‘telephone travel’), to veg out (‘TV travel’), to learn stuff or work (‘ABC travel’), to stack up places visited (‘tick-off travel’) and to get experiences merely to boast about later (‘show-off travel’). So I’m going to show off a bit. There’s me, above, sitting at the Rush offices … Read on
Every time I hear a Rush song — which is often — I fall into a sad silence. Of triumphs unclaimed. Possibilities deflated. Failures realized. It’s not simple sentimentality, but the ’76-Second Travel Show’ episode that never was. A few months ago I went to Rush’s hometown Toronto and ‘followed the band’ — with stops at the Rush office, Alex Lifeson’s club, Alex … Read on
Just back from GoMedia, a Canadian tourism conference in Toronto. I squeaked out a little free time to follow Rush — the bronze medal winner in total gold and platinum records (after the Beatles and Stones), though completely snubbed by the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame, which found a place for the Hollies. More to come, but meanwhile, please enjoy a still of my … Read on
