In the immediate wake of the Academy Awards, it is interesting to note that it was not only King George VI who struggled with public oratory. For all his writing skill, Thomas Jefferson did not deliver most of his speeches aloud. That’s right – the eloquent statesman who penned the […]
Journal
Thomas Jefferson: Was the sage a hypocrite?
From TIME Magazine, July 5, 2004 By Annette Gordon-Reed Of all the Founding Fathers, it was Thomas Jefferson for whom the issue of race loomed largest. In the roles of slaveholder, public official and family man, the relationship between blacks and whites was something he thought about, wrote about and […]
Deutsch Filme
Jo-Ann Minden and I are watching German films as part of our preparation for our Made in Germany trip this June. By far, the best has been Heimat, a long trilogy of episodic films by Edgar Reitz which views life in Germany between 1919 and 2000 through the eyes of a […]
Literature, art and music teach us to stop, look and listen
I read this today in Frederick Buechner’s Listening to Your Life. ART An old silent pond. Into the pond a frong jumps. Splash! Silence again. It is perhaps the best known of all Japanese haiku. No subject could be more humdrum. No language could be more pedestrian. Basho, the poet, […]
Sean Forester invites you to explore Art and Life in Renaissance Florence
Dear Friends, I’ve lived in Florence for almost ten years; when I look out my window at the domes, spires, and red brick roofs of this Renaissance city, its beauty still captivates me. As a classical painter, I moved here for the great art of the past and the community […]
Robin Roger sends her brain to bootcamp.
I’M SENDING MY BRAIN TO BOOTCAMPby Robin Roger Published in the Globe and Mail, February 15, 2011 A few years ago, I read The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge and embraced the neuroplastician’s credo: Use it or lose it. Since then I have devoted myself to a […]
VIDEO – What keeps Gary Schoepfel, veteran discussion leader, coming back for more?
Gary has led discussions at Toronto Pursuits almost from its inception and has been on the road to Italy (twice), Paris, Cornwall (twice), Greece, Santa Fe, and Quebec City (3 times). He is on deck for Vietnam and Cambodia in 2012. Why does he do it?
Egypt – the keystroke revolution
Many of my generation awkard and way out of our depth in the brave new world of information technologies. We mourn the decline of what we believe are the more elegant and eloquent forms of the written word and programmed television broadcasts on few networks. But even luddites like me marvel […]
VIDEO – Classical Pursuits and the Pleasure Principle
Lynda Clark is a native Torontonian, a retired arts administrator, serious chorister, even more serious gardener, and curious about most things. Listen to why she has become a “repeat Classical Pursuits offender.” CLASSICAL PURSUITS – the pleasure principle
Don Whitfield invites you to join him in Germany this June.
What made me leap at the opportunity to lead the upcoming Travel Pursuits trip to Germany is the prospect of experiencing first-hand the places and people which are the source of so many of my lifelong impressions and interests. Most of us have lived through the decades in which Germany […]