Just back from a great visit to the Bruce Trail. Owen Sound, Wiarton, Mono Cliffs. What a treasure we have here in Ontario.

The subject of temperament types came up in a recent conversation I had with a couple of friends of mine. We were trying to remember how many there were and could only think of two. I did a little research and found these definitions in a wikipedia article. I sent the definitions out to my friends. We agreed that a single description was not enough. It took a combination of two types to work, in a general way of course.

In my case, I am a blend of Melancholic and Choleric.

Which categories do you fit into?

Sanguine

The Sanguine temperament personality is fairly extroverted. People of a sanguine temperament tend to enjoy social gatherings and making new friends. They tend to be creative and often daydream. However, some alone time is crucial for those of this temperament. Sanguine can also mean very sensitive, compassionate and thoughtful. Sanguine personalities generally struggle with following tasks all the way through, are chronically late, and tend to be forgetful and sometimes a little sarcastic. Often, when pursuing a new hobby, interest is lost quickly when it ceases to be engaging or fun. They are very much people persons. They are talkative and not shy.

Choleric

A person who is choleric is a doer. They have a lot of ambition, energy, and passion, and try to instill it in others. They can dominate people of other temperaments, especially phlegmatic types. Many great charismatic military and political figures were cholerics. They like to be leaders and in charge of everything.

Melancholic

A person who is a thoughtful ponderer has a melancholic disposition. Often very considerate, melancholics can be highly creative in activities such as poetry and art - and can become occupied with the tragedy and cruelty in the world. A melancholic is also often a perfectionist. They are often self-reliant and independent.

Phlegmatic

Phlegmatics tend to be self-content and kind. They can be very accepting and affectionate. They may be very receptive and shy and often prefer stability to uncertainty and change. They are very consistent, relaxed, rational, curious, and observant, making them good administrators and diplomats.

Canada’s Birthday

It’s a common trait amongst hardcore Canadians, or so we’d like to think, to be more subtle in expressing our pride. Especially since we could never compete with the aggressive flag-wavers south of the border. (Keep your ear to the ground on July 4th.) But in the west end of Montreal the mood was rather sedate, almost dead.

Granted, N.D.G. is not the West Island, the part that goes to Canada if Québec were to separate. Though Notre-Dame-de-Grace is English-heavy it’s comfortably bilingual. As in most parts of Montreal speaking English first, though rarely done, is not considered an insult. Compared to how it was when I lived here in the 1970s, when the Separatists were in the spotlight, Montreal has found a more relaxed groove while maintaining it’s position as the coolest city in Canada. However, they had just finished celebrating Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day last week and probably felt a little disconnected from yesterday’s Canada Day celebrations.

Here’s a humorous video that captures the Canadian spirit.

P minor blue

is a novel about the struggles of P and Cliff, an aimless boy and his reluctant father. It’s set within the political tensions of Montreal in the early 1970s where P is befriended by a reckless thief and lured into stealing a car. They crash and P’s life unfolds before him, revealing the complex relationship he has with Cliff. After surviving the crash P seeks independence from the thief and forgiveness from his father. He also plans to become a musician but is unwillingly drawn back into crime and arrested, and it’s up to Cliff to save him.

The Glass Orchestra (a quartet I play with whose website is under construction) was invited to perform at IdeaCity, an annual three day conference that features a wide range of guest speakers and performers. This year’s focus is mostly from the perspective of women. It’s taking place at Koerner Hall in the conservatory (where I happen to teach guitar and lead mixed ensemble classes under the banner FUSIO). I wanted to mention a few of the extraordinary speakers I heard.

Liz Canner

American documentary filmmaker Liz Canner talked about her new film Orgasm Inc. Here is her synopsis:

In the shocking and hilarious documentary ORGASM INC., filmmaker Liz Canner takes a job editing erotic videos for a drug trial for a pharmaceutical company. Her employer is developing what they hope will be the first Viagra drug for women that wins FDA approval to treat a new disease: Female Sexual Dysfunction (FSD). Liz gains permission to film the company for her own documentary. Initially, she plans to create a movie about science and pleasure but she soon begins to suspect that her employer, along with a cadre of other medical companies, might be trying to take advantage of women (and potentially endanger their health) in pursuit of billion dollar profits. ORGASM INC. is a powerful look inside the medical industry and the marketing campaigns that are literally and figuratively reshaping our everyday lives around health, illness, desire — and that ultimate moment: orgasm.

Diane Francis

Canadian journalist Diane Francis talked about the response she’s received from her article in the National Post, The Inconvenient Truth? Overpopulation,

where she wrote,

The intelligence behind this is the following:

• If only one children per female was born as of now, the world’s population would drop from its current 6.5 billion to 5.5 billion by 2050, according to a study done for scientific academy Vienna Institute of Demography.

• By 2075, there would be 3.43 billion humans on the planet. This would have immediate positive effects on the world’s forests, other species, the oceans, atmospheric quality and living standards.

• Doing nothing, by contrast, will result in an unsustainable population of 9 billion by 2050.

Margaret Atwood

One of Canada’s literary treasures Margaret Atwood was a pleasure to listen to. She mentioned some of the topics she’s been asked to write about recently, all of which she declined, including the subject of death. But, although she didn’t want to write about it, she shared a number of humorous and insightful stories about death, including her plan to be buried with a toaster or a make-up kit as a way to give future archeologists something to think about when they discovered these things along with her bones.

Dr. Rachel Armstrong

Dr. Armstrong spoke about living architecture. I don’t quite understand what she does or her vision, but she presented a fascinating integration of science, architecture, and art that strives to reshape our sense of space, both external and internal, with the hope of creating a new and better world.

Polaroids

A friend of mine sent me the above polaroid by Andrei Tarkovsky, the great Russian filmmaker (1932 – 1986). She knew I was a fan of his work. I had never seen this or any of the other polaroids you’ll see if you click the link: Tarkovsky’s Polaroids. They’re wonderful. They capture the feeling of his films.

Films

My favorite filmmaker, if I had to pick one, would have to be Andrei Tarkovsky. His films question the nature of what is being shown. Whether it’s the story, the characters, or the interconnection of images, all the elements are shaped like a poem “sculpted in time” drawing you into a metaphysical universe. The pacing of his films are exacting and profound.

In today’s digital world – where it’s hard to keep your focus on anything longer than a few minutes and watching snippets of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 on a cell phone is not considered sacrilegious, we have access to, what seems to be, almost everything, from the banal to the sublime. It’s an incredible but overwhelming time to be alive.

It’s hard not to have mixed feelings about where we’re going with all this, pornography for example – was the Marquis de Sade a prophet?, or is the internet morphing into a giant catalogue where all is viewed as a commodity?

But on a clearly more positive side, if you want to learn about say, Andrei Tarkovsky, all you have to do is type in a search engine: who is the greatest russian filmmaker? and you get 1,470,000 hits, and there’s a lot of great material on Tarkovsky to choose from.

Sculpting in Time

If you have an interest in the nature of film, Sculpting in Time is a great book to read. Written by Andrei Tarkovsky it captures the essence of the film experience, from its creative conception through its production to its viewing. The poetry found in his films is also present in his writing about his art.

Andrei Rublev

The one film I would recommend for anyone interested in Tarkovsky who has never seen any of his work is Andrei Rublev. The story is transcendent and it’s beautifully shot in black and white.

The Mirror

If you need color see The Mirror.

A exhilarating collection of skillful games. Philadelphia was close to doing the impossible. But, Chicago’s the better team. And, Kane’s overtime, game-winning goal, which should have sent glee screaming down my spine, proved to be the most anti-climatic moment of the series. The puck disappeared under the goalie. Only Kane knew it went in. Both teams, the referees, the fans did nothing. Gradually the visiting team realized their win. The Philadelphia fans were not impressed. As the hardly regal Stanley Cup was carried out by a pair of men in white gloves, the victory still hadn’t sunk in. Everyone was stupefied. So, I turned off the television and went upstairs wondering how I was going to make it through the summer with no high quality hockey to watch. I’m just not into soccer.

Eric Cadesky and I represented Glass Orchestra for The Weird Instruments show on CBC radio’s GO. It was a lot of fun and got to meet a number of interesting people who come to music from different directions and intentions, like a visual artist, Iner Souster, who transforms found objects into musical instruments. Here’s a link to part two of the show: streaming radio. The Glass Orchestra segment occurs around 37:00 and the jam occurs at 48:00.

In front of a studio audience at the end of the jam:

I was recently checking out Why We Make Miztakes in Book City (Toronto/by the Carrot Common). I like the feel of it – the writing style, the insights, and what seems to be the idea for the book. I want to read it. But after I finish Margaret Atwood’s Payback, which I started a while ago and put down to finish Jhumpa Lahiri’s Namesake.

(I liked Mira Nair’s movie better, which is rarely the case with books turned into films, usually books are more effective. Except for The Shining where the book and movie are both strong, or Psycho – not the Van Sandt version, whose idea I loved but the execution was disappointing – where the movie is much more visceral and voyeuristic.)

But then a student lent me The 4-Hour Workweek – written by an ambitious American bulldog of an entrepreneur with the zeal of Vince Offer (the ShamWow guy) – which effectively explains how to manage your time. Speaking of which, I should get to work on my other website, 6stringMosaic.com, so I’ll conclude in saying that I’m currently reading Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road, the tale of a one-legged Cree soldier, hooked on a dwindling supply of morphine, who struggles with the horrific memories that flood his mind.