Glenn Kubish

Once a week I put out a podcast episode chronicling three things that left behind marks of happiness and gratitude. In part to keep the noticing equipment from rusting over completely. If you listen, you are guaranteed to smile. I mean, if you’re not smiling after thing 2, you qualify for a full refund, operators are standing by.                               1. Remains   I have a passing acquaintance with debris and litter. As I pedal through the city I make and then instantly erase a visual catalogue of things blown away or tossed away or lost: pine cones, branches, cigarette butts, lotsa them, busted coffee lids, plastic wrappers, cash register receipts, soiled tissue, dirty string, candy bar wrappers, ketchup packets, feathers, straws, bus transfers, tape, cardboard, napkins, shoes, hats, pants, fragments of shingles, shattered ballpoint pen barrels, balloons, old election candidate signs. I see and then...

I can't quite fix the year in my mind, maybe 1995, maybe 1996, maybe a little later, but Blue Rodeo was at The Sidetrack, the live music club that used to be on 104 Ave in Edmonton, and, among the shining songs they sent out that night was Side Of The Road. Shelagh and I were there, we were young parents, and it was a special evening apart from the little ones for a few hours. Keelor now and then Keelor sang wistfully. I pulled over to the side of the road I was feeling kind of sad, I was feeling kind of blue And Cuddy brought a soaring ache to the harmony. I just wanna hold on to you Yeah, your eyes They were in my mind I just wanna hold Onto  You. (It's a lovely song, and it gets you thinking about the way her eyes save his I's.) Somehow, I still have a VHS tape of the night. I vaguely remember having sent a cameraman to the concert to record and microwave a few seconds back live into the 10 pm news on ITV, where I worked as assignment editor. The p...