All posts by Wayne K. Spear

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Books, Updates, Writers and Writing

RTRPARD at 20: Yes, I have a book that’s old enough to buy booze

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LATER THIS MONTH, I’ll be releasing a special 20th anniversary edition of my 1994 hit collection of stories entitled Real Things Real People Are Really Doing. Available as a download at waynekspear.com—for a limited time only!—this 20th anniversary edition will include a new story and my reflections on the making of RTRPARD. What a time it was. My only regret is that my book can’t actually drink beer. Look for it July 30, 2014.

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Current Events, First Nations, Politics

Why Would Anyone Want to Be the National Chief of the AFN?

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Why Would Anyone Want to Be the National Chief of the AFN?

THE ASSEMBLY of First Nations 35th Annual General Assembly, held last week in Halifax, was remarkable more for what wasn’t said than what was. The name of the former national chief was seldom spoken, and the consensus appeared to be for a reconstitution of the leadership as quickly as possible, better to put behind the recent—and unprecedented—disruption.

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Current Events, First Nations

The Long Tsilhqot’in Journey to Aboriginal Title

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THE WEBSITE of the Xeni Gwet’in (pronounced Honey Gwi-deen) reads like a manifesto:

In a world full of travel promises, some kept others not, the Xeni Gwet’in people offer none. The Xeni prefer to simply share their home with respectful travelers—those who follow their hearts, live their passion and still have the capacity to be awestruck by mountain peaks reflecting on sparkling alpine lakes and by magnificent creatures at home in a pristine wilderness. This is a place of freedom and of contentment—a place to be shared with friends, new and old.

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Ontario, Politics

The Ontario Liberals Did Not Win: The Other Parties Lost

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EARLIER THIS WEEK, on CTV news, I predicted that two political parties would be looking for new leaders if the Ontario Liberals prevailed. Election day had yet to expire when Tim Hudak announced he would be stepping down, fulfilling a half of my proposition.

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Writers and Writing

Jeremy Paxman and Poetry’s Bad Rap

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A GUARDIAN UK article, written by Alison Flood and published over the weekend, quotes the Forward prize judge and TV presenter Jeremy Paxman as wishing aloud that “poetry ‘would raise its game a little bit, raise its sights’, and ‘aim to engage with ordinary people much more.’” Every so often you encounter this lament, often uttered by poets, that poetry has become irrelevant to the great mass of plain old folk.

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Humor

That Month I Decided to Respond To All My Spam

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It’s Friday and sunny out, so here is a welcome-to-the-weekend post. Hope you enjoy it.

A FEW YEARS BACK I got tired of getting spam email. For some reason, there was a month when I suddenly got a huge surge of it. Now, most spam is just nonsense email generated by a computer somewhere. But some of it is less spam than scam, and as we all know a lot of spam nowadays preys on older folks who are vulnerable and not especially Internet saavy. This kind of spammer is particularly reprehensible, and I decided to do something about it. I started to mess with them. I set up an email account under the name Tyler H. Masterson, and for a month I responded to every spam message that looked like a real person was behind it. Some of these ended up being weeks of exchanges. I’ve lost most of them, and some were just me being rude, so rather than post a bunch of mean emails, I’ve selected a few of the more lighthearted, funny ones. Here we go ….

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Canada, Politics

Romeo Dallaire and the 80/20 Rule

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THE DATE WAS Thursday February 15, 2007, and I was on my way to a parliamentary Senate breakfast on Ottawa’s Wellington Street. With me was the former long-time CBC national reporter, Whit Fraser, a man who is never lacking for a quip of the moment. As I opened the door to the Senate building, keen to escape Ottawa’s notorious winds, he remarked: “eighty percent of these people are useless. But the other twenty make up for it.”

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Promotions, Updates

“A Life Sentence,” the monthly newsletter: sign up today

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CLICK ON THE big blue Subscribe button, below, to receive my newsletter (in Adobe Acrobat PDF format) at the end of each month. I hope you’ll enjoy it. The newsletter includes things like news on my forthcoming books, reviews and profiles of interesting stuff I’ve come across, as well as updates on my adventures. Each month I pick a featured website from among my subscribers. If you’re a follower of waynekspear.com, your work may be highlighted. The subscription is free, and I promise I won’t harass you with spam emails! You can also cancel at any time.
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Current Events

We Simply Can’t Explain Mass Murderers

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HOW MANY INDIVIDUALS commit themselves to the business of random mass killing? It’s a small number, only a fraction of one percent of the human family. So why do we look for an explanation of the extraordinary in ordinary things, like video games or Hollywood or even Aspergers? There are millions of people who would be murderers if the cause were something as relatively commonplace as these. To reach in this way, into the bag of easy prejudices forever at one’s feet, is to go for the scoring of a cheap ideological point.

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Writers and Writing

Led Zeppelin vs Spirit: What Is a Million Dollar Idea?

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I READ WITH INTEREST Vernon Silver’s May 15 Business Week article concerning a lawsuit about to advance against Led Zeppelin, filed by living members of a 1970s band named Spirit. The closest this group came to a number one hit was the 1968 song “I Got A Line On You,” which reached position 25 on the Billboard Hot 100. If you accept some accounts, however, the late Randy Wolfe, better known by his stage name Randy California, is at least partly the composer of a #1 hit which also happens to be the number one rock song of all time.

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