Occupy Toronto – Day One
So it begins. The Occupy Movement rolls into Toronto. I couldn’t get to the kick off in the financial district, but went to St. James Park in the early afternoon. Below are a few photos and comments. You can view more photos on my flickr space. Early on, I saw a sign I liked: “Let [...]
Continue reading...Hogtown – my gift to the Occupy Movement
Friday, October 14, 2011
Toronto had a dry run for the Occupy Movement. It was called the G20 Summit. There’s the same feel to things now as last year. Frustration. Disbelief. Anger. Overwhelm. A confrontational rhetoric that threatens to explode. A painfully disengaged middle class more inclined to sidle up to power than trouble itself with issues or long-term [...]
Continue reading...Occupy Wall Street – But Keep It Simple
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
As the Occupy movement creeps ever closer to Toronto, we who support it brace ourselves for the inevitable backlash, not only from voices of power, but also from an eerily complacent middle class. Toronto had a foretaste of this more than a year ago when the G20 leaders came to town and those who spoke [...]
Continue reading...We Can’t Af Ford This
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
After being away for a month, I returned home to Toronto with a question burning on my lips: So how’s Rob Ford’s War on Graffiti going? On Friday, I went downtown to get some answers. I can’t speak for the city at large because I sampled only a narrow sliver of streets downtown. The reason [...]
Continue reading...Thanksgiving: a turkey of a holiday
Saturday, October 8, 2011
I took this photo at the petting zoo in Victoria’s Beacon Hill Park. This is one ugly creature. Personally, I don’t see the appeal of slaughtering, plucking and skinning one them, letting it simmer in its own juices for five hours, then serving it up on a platter of bread crumbs and whatnot that have [...]
Continue reading...Graffiti in Victoria
Friday, October 7, 2011
When people go on holidays, they like to see the sights, or shop, or lie on a beach, or dine in nice restaurants. Me? I like to hunt for graffiti. While I was in Victoria, I did a lot of walking and found graffiti everywhere. Tags. Bombs. Walls. Stencils. Even dust on bus shelters. Some [...]
Continue reading...RIP Steve Jobs
Thursday, October 6, 2011
At the news of Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ death, I pulled out my very first Mac and held an interment ceremony. This is one of the original 128k RAM Macs. No hard drive. It boots from a 3.5 inch floppy disc. I bought it in 1984 after I saw one at a trade show. I [...]
Continue reading...Vancouver Is A Strange Place
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
After a month of driving to from in and around western Canada, I’m wondering what to do next. While on the road, I did as I intended, writing poems as I went. Maybe not as many poems as I would have liked, but enough that I have the raw material for a chapbook. Maybe that’s [...]
Continue reading...Poem #22: Back by Popular Demand
Saturday, October 1, 2011
what a fucked up thing to nail Jesus Is Coming to a tree beside a highway in north ontario a via dolorosa which is latin for road through the middle of nowhere and prompts an eternal question: if a soul declares its christ in a forest and there is no GOD to hear it… a [...]
Continue reading...Poem #21: The Canadian Museum for Human Rights
Thursday, September 29, 2011
“As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down.” – Luke 21:6 there’s a path in The Forks where we stumbled on a humble little man dressed in a loincloth and armed with a walking stick a [...]
Continue reading...Poem #20: The Legend of Lanigan
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
as we drive into Lanigan population next to nothing a pull out and a sign and on the sign a map and above the map in bold- faced caps the word LEGEND I’m not thinking cartography and imagine a bright marquee flashing The Legend of Lanigan like The Legend of Zelda every place has its [...]
Continue reading...Poem #19: Boring
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
I hate to drive through the prairies. It’s boring. It all looks the same. I love to shop at Wal*Mart. All across this great country, Wal*Mart is the place for me. (if performed, this verse should be repeated at least 300 times, once for each Wal*Mart in the country)
Continue reading...Poem #18: West Edmonton Mall
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Imagine our world is dying. Imagine survival depends on journeys to distant suns settling strange planets colonists voyaging for generations whirling in cigar-shaped tubes tribes of ten thousand adrift between the stars. Now imagine these crafts of our salvation are designed by the Ghermezian brothers: worlds of endless shopping salted by breaks in water parks, [...]
Continue reading...Poem #17: Stolen from a New World
Monday, September 26, 2011
1. You can tell I’m not from here the way my jaw drops to let out a gobsmacked wow the way I pull out my camera wield it like a geologist’s hammer try to hack away a piece of beauty and haul it home with me. You can tell the ones who are from here [...]
Continue reading...Poem #16: The Wildest Thing
Sunday, September 25, 2011
What was the wildest thing you saw in all of wild Canada? Was it the roaring waters of Rearguard Falls? Or the black bear swimming across Mud Lake? Or the pine beetle chewing its way down the North Thompson River Valley? Or the protesters haranguing politicians on the steps of the Victoria Legislature? Or the [...]
Continue reading...New eFiction from David Allan Barker
Hogtown is my gift to the Occupy Movement. Download from Smashwords for free.
Sex With Dead People is an ebook collection of short stories. Download from Smashwords for free.
The Land is an enovel. Preview here or buy for your favourite ereader. Also available as an audiobook.
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Saturday, October 15, 2011
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