Stronger Together: hooray for Canada!

Watched the Stronger Together benefit concert last night and cried a bunch, extremely proud to be Canadian. It was magnificent - technically flawless though put together with clips from people's living rooms - in English, French, Cree. How they did it, I don't know, though I know from my friend Tara that David Suzuki was filmed on a cellphone at his country place with very spotty internet, yet there he was, along with Justin Bieber (hugging a pillow), Shania Twain, Ryan Reynolds, Mike Myers, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and many more, ending with a rather portentous Drake. The clips of front line workers, children - an amazing kid who has designed earpieces for masks so they don't hurt and prints them on his 3-D printer - plus acknowledgement of the mourning in Nova Scotia - the sense of a country pulling together...It was very moving. Especially when viewed after clips of the demonstrations in the States, encouraged by their president, screaming about ending the lockdown.

Otherwise, not much to tell you. Yesterday at 5 for aperitif Monique and Cathy were sitting under umbrellas in the drizzle so I invited them in; we sat distanced in my kitchen and jabbered for over an hour, as we do. It may be ill-advised but it's a godsend.

I spent time today looking out photos, because my actor friend Allan Gray had a birthday and his husband Larry posted a series of elegant pictures of his very handsome self. I wanted to show all sides of the talented Mr. Gray with these shots of us from 1979:

After I posted them, Allan wrote, "I can find out where you live!" But then he shared them, well, at least the top one, so I hope he doesn't mind.

While I was delving into the theatre box, I found this one of yours truly in a musical called The Club, where all the men were played by women. My brief time as a sex symbol - as a man with a moustache painted on with eyeliner, an experience described in my new memoir. It's been suggested that I should post short excerpts from the book here on the blog. Would you be interested?

And here's Ben this morning turning into his grandmother, seriously at work with a notebook. Nothing could make me happier.

It's a beautiful day. The forsythia in front of my house is glorious; here it is with Robin, my friend and upstairs tenant, taking a break from work on the steps.

My stomach is slowly getting better as the stress lessens. Life goes on. The sun shines. We're alive, my friends. Praise be.