From Victoria Buzz by Mike Kelly It turns out horse manure can be worth $1,800—you just need a canvas, some charcoal and the right subject. A portrait of US President Donald Trump created partly with horse manure was quickly snapped up at the Sooke Fine Arts Show, selling on Saturday, July 25, the exhibition’s first... Continue Reading →
Composite by Ken Gray by Alex Coghe - Fstoppers Original First there was the word, from a creative point of view, but in terms of reasoning, first there was light. Image and content travel within it. If light travels faster than sound, its content is also received much earlier. If, before speaking, we communicate through... Continue Reading →
Gee, but it’s great to be back home;Home is where I want to be—Paul Simon Back home after a super trip to Ontario and back. If you missed a couple of posts go here for the cabin and here for the creativity. Otherwise a great trip on Porter Airlines. Only one bathroom; WIFI a bit... Continue Reading →
Writing today from an undisclosed location in central Ontario 90 minutes’ drive and boat ride north of Peterborough. It’s summer here at a lovely cottage thanks to a kind invitation from a new family member and her parents. I say “cottage,” having originally typed “cabin” inappropriately. There is an important distinction between the two monikers.... Continue Reading →
I lost touch with Bill and Anne Osborne many years ago. An online search tells me that Bill died in 2018; Anne is likely still living in Victoria somewhere. (Please forward this blog to her if you are in contact with her.) We shared music, church, and the arts together in the mid-1970s. Bill was... Continue Reading →
Benjamin Britten conducting a rehearsal for the opening of the Snape Maltings Concert Hall in June 1967, with Anita Lasker-Wallfisch the second cellist on the right. Photograph: Hans Wild/Britten Pears Arts Three months after Bergen-Belsen was liberated, Britten and Yehudi Menuhin performed there. Survivor and cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch was ‘transfixed’ – as she told the... Continue Reading →
[Ken Gray] As I continue my own healing and reconciliation journey both in church and in community I was so pleased to stumble across a Facebook post from critically acclaimed and award-winning mezzo-soprano Marian Newman. As I preside today at an Anglican service here in Summerland honouring Indigenous Peoples Day I will share some of... Continue Reading →
A sermon for the congregation of St. Saviour Anglican Church, Penticton // Sunday June 7, 2026 by the Very Rev. Ken Gray I am sure that Archdeacon Peter (O'Flynn) and I have both struggled on occasion to find just the right sermon topic. At times, there are far too many options. Today is a good... Continue Reading →
This story was originally published by Grist and later in the National Observer appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration [Naveena Sadasivam for the National Observer] About six years ago, law students at the University of the South Pacific convinced the government of the small island nation of Vanuatu to take the harms... Continue Reading →
I have a long relationship with the Requiem by French composer Gabriel Faure. Unlike the bombastic operatic showpiece by Verdi, the intensely dramatic rendering by Mozart, or the massive work by Benjamin Britten, Faure’s Requiem is intimate, melodic, of small scale, and sublime. It whispers, though never shouts. Surely we all want to drift off... Continue Reading →
Take Note - Reflections on life, music, politics, retirement and more by Ken Gray 