Tag: quebec

Hasselblad

~ Live & Learn ~ 13 Comments

Patience please. Don’t quit too soon…

“Jean-Michel Blais is a 31-year-old pianist from Montreal. He grew up in a rural French Catholic town in Quebec, and at age nine began tinkering with his family’s organ. By 16, he was invited by a conservatory to train as a classical pianist. Deep in the throes of teenage rebellion, Blais found the constraints of formal training cumbersome and, after two years of study, he decided to trade the conservatory for a life of world travel. Blais then spent his 20s living around the world — including stints in Berlin and South America — before finally settling in Montreal where he began to work on his debut album, entitled Il, which was released on Arts & Crafts on April 8, 2016.”

If you liked this, you’ll love this tune: Jean-Michel Blais | Il.

Saturday Morning

~ Live & Learn ~ 8 Comments

Wales

Of life are woven woes
the days dissolve to live a bit
a lot!
dissolve.

—Anne-Marie Alonzo, from “Lead Blues,” Voices in the Desert: The Anthology of Arabic-Canadian Women Writers

Anne-Marie Alonzo is a Quebec poet, translator, literary critic and editor who made a major contribution to the culture of Canada despite her severe physical disabilities. Alonzo was born in Alexandria Egypt in 1951 and came to Quebec with her family in 1963. In 1966 she was the victim of a car accident which left her quadriplegic and confined to a wheelchair. She earned a B.A. in 1976, an M.A. in 1978 and a Ph.D. in French studies in 1989 from the Université de Montréal.

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