“We all have our own time machines. Sometimes we travel on laughter, sometimes on sorrow... Sometimes in the most unexpected of vehicles. A leaf blows down an alley, the wind ripples a lake, a faraway smell that you can't identify but can almost taste. Some unexpected thing taps you on your shoulder and you're gone--whisked away from the clang of time present.”
—Stuart McLean, The Vinyl CafeListen
This is a phone conversation with CBC Radio’s Stuart Mclean, edited down to just Stuart’s fake stutters.
I don’t know if there’s a point to this. It’s not good to say “uh…” on the radio, so sometimes y- y- you gotta s- stutter. Plus it- it… well, it makes your… speech sound more sentimental and… and heartfelt.
Stuart McLean's Vinyl Cafe: Morley's Christmas Play and Dave and The Turkey
castroller.comthe holidays aren’t the same without Dave Cooks the Turkey.
also Stuart says “schedule” just like my dad.
Canadian classic.
Stuart Mclean to 'Young Writers'
Stuart Mclean“The idea we started with is not nearly as important as the fact that we started. And most importantly, kept going.”
excerpt from the ‘Young Writers’ episode of The Vinyl Cafe broadcast June 23rd 2011 on CBC Radio.
“I found myself ... trying to assimilate everything I'd seen. To do what I suppose you do with a new story - to impose some sort of meaning, or truth on it. 'What does all this add up to?' I was wondering. Is it just another totem pole, one story stacked upon the other, the Raven on top of the Bear, the soldier on top of the sailor? Is it a great drama - or a great tragedy? Have we made great progress? Or any progress at all? Is it a coming together - or a coming apart? That's what I was thinking when I came to the end of the Great Hall, and stumbled upon the work of another of Canada's great Native artists, the original plaster sculpture used to cast Bill Reid's two great bronze pieces - The Spirit of Haida Gwaii. The two great bronze sculptures can be seen on either side of this continent - the first, the Black Canoe, in the lobby of the Canadian Embassy in Washington. The second - the Jade Canoe - in the Vancouver International Airport. It's a magnificent piece - an oversized canoe filled with legendary Haida figures. The Raven, the Grandmother Mouse, the Mother Bear with her two cubs, the Eagle, the Wolf - each one with a paddle in the water, and each one paddling in the same direction. The canoe may be forever frozen in bronze, but you can see the way that it's going.”
—Stuart McLean, speaking about his experiences at the Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Quebec.“It's unnerving to think you've figured out the world only to see it move on ahead of you, to find that the things that bring you comfort are obsolete, vanishing. To know that all of the signposts and symbols, all the information and skills you had spent your life mastering might be of no help to you in the future.”
—Stuart McLean (Extreme Vinyl Cafe)Sunday Afternoons Chez Nous.
cbc.ca…or anytime, thanks to the CBC app and podcasting. Pretty sure that if you look up Canadian in the dictionary, Stuart McLean’s picture is there. At least he sure makes you feel that way when you listen to his stories.
But I hear you don’t have to be Canadian to love him.
“A bookshelf is a highly personal thing, and often the books on it bristle with emotional connections that no one would ever guess. There are the old friends that you put on the shelf and return to often, acquaintances that sit there for years, untouched; there are the ones that slip away and are forgotten, and those that seem to wander off on their own accord, yet remain, ghostlike, to haunt the library, like an old lover, with feelings of regret, or sorrow, or confusion. These are the books you think of from time to time and wonder what became of them, and if you would have anything to say to one another if you were in touch again. ”
—Stuart McLean
“September is the most beguiling of the months. It is the month that won’t let go of summer, and it is the month that calls from the crow’s nest of the year and announces, in thinning air, that summer is gone and autumn is already here. One day in September will lull you into believing that you should assemble your things and mount a picnic on a Saturday afternoon—September is made for Saturdays. But when Saturday comes, you spend the morning fumbling around in the attic, looking for sweaters, because it is raining and cold. You look at the picnic supplies you gathered and wonder how you could have been so misguided. September is a month for plans and a month for no plans. The month of full shelves and empty fields. A time for leave-taking and taking stock. It is the end of summer and the beginning of all that is to come.”
—Stuart McLean, from the Vinyl Café story School DaysStuart McLean Vinyl Cafe: Anthems
radioexchange.orgAn epic look at some of the music industry’s greatest anthems. Songs that make you want to stand up and fight for something you believe in. It only graces the surface but gets you thinking. Some examples included:
Arcade Fire - Wake Up
Beethoven -Ode to Joy
Queen - We Will Rock You/ We Are the Champions
The Good Lovelies - Auld Lang Syne
Michael Buble - Maple Leaf Ever
Stan Rogers - Northwest Passage
Neil Young - Rockin in the Free World
We Shall Overcome
