Muskeg

The narrative of an experience during the 2013 flood in Soutern Alberta by a Calgary resident of Erlton Road.

An imagined dialogue by the spirit of the Bow River in Alberta

Recollection of a conversation with a street person.

On the morning of June 19th of 1914, a massive methane and coal dust explosion rocked the Hillcrest Collieries coal mine in the Crowsnest Pass of south western Alberta, Canada. The death toll stood at 189. Of the 235 men who entered the mine that morning, only 46 survived. It remains to this day, the worst mining disaster in Canadian history.

In 2011, I flew to Cuba to photograph what I saw. I stayed six nights in what is known as Old Havana, and a seventh in the airport in Veradero because I missed my plane. Cuba is an example of the misery created by socialism, Marxism, or totalitarianism under any name. The music bed is by the Cuban singer, Waldo Mendoza. I chose it without understanding the lyrics, because it sounds so sad. I spoke to a Cuban man who tried to sell me an old worn paperback book with yellowed pages. He said to me in a low voice so that no one else could hear, "Cuba is a prison." I could feel the sadness that emanated like sour sweat, from Cubans, the buildings, the streets with their massive propaganda signs, and even from animals lying in the streets.

Through the 1990s most of Alberta's wooden grain elevators were demolished, replaced by giant concrete "super elevators". The wooden grain elevators were literally pushed over. This video shows the slow-motion fall of some of them in southern Alberta.