It started with a kiss. Forty years ago today: July 30. Sometimes I think my life really started with that kiss. The kiss wasn’t planned. It just happened. It was the night before we opened our show: Nails. A bunch of us had gone out drinking to celebrate Deb’s birthday. And her friend dropped me…
Yesterday, I made a thing. A reel, actually. A short video. And it wasn’t for a play I’m in. Or for a concert I’m promoting. It was just a message about creativity. You can check it out here. I’ll confess. It was an exercise for video bootcamp that I’m taking. But I did it. I…
Our nephew was getting married in Alberta and we arrived a week early to rendezvous with Keaton, Kate, and Atlas. To go camping for a few days. Tara and Dan were with us, too. It would have been perfect if Caileigh, Chris, and our granddaughter were there too. But we’ll all be together in August.…
There’s a time in the writing process, at the beginning, where it’s just hard. It’s a lot of effort to write when the story isn’t quite there. Every day, you struggle to get things moving until you get a rhythm going. At some point, if you’re lucky, you get the snowball effect where the idea starts…
I’ve been working on my new play idea since March. I keep calling it draft zero, because I really don’t know what it is about yet. I have a vague big picture idea. I can sort of see the forest. But I don’t know the story. I don’t know what happens. I can’t see the…
The Mega 80s Mixtape concerts are done now. A pleasant memory and a great time! Sean, Matt, and I (The Three Amigos) had fun emceeing. We got to be silly and stand in front of the choir instead of being at the back for the whole show. 😉 We had even more fun planning and…
I started May writing a post about creativity. Here we are into the final week of the month and that’s the only post that I’ve written so far. But it has been a very creative month! I’ve spent my creativity in other areas than blog post writing. It’s been a great month for my playwriting.…
In February, I said that my word for the Year of the Groon 63 was “create”. I’m a couple of months into Groon 63 and it’s been going well. As usual, I was a bit slow getting started with my creating. But by mid-March, I had a rhythm going of writing 100 words a day…
Around the Bay 2026 is done. And I survived. I completed the race in 3 hours 53 minutes and 36 seconds. I was about 4 minutes slower than my time last year. A mantra that I kept repeating to myself during the run was: You are running your race. You are only competing against yourself.…
Tomorrow is the Around The Bay road race 2026 edition. I’ve picked up my Race Kit: my race bib and shirt. I did my last training run yesterday. I can take it easy until tomorrow morning. I signed up for the race in September, so there’s been a few months to prepare for it. Unlike…
We just got back from Easter dinner at my sister’s place. And I’m feeling grateful. It was a lovely family gathering. Most of my immediate family was there. The only ones missing were our son and his family and two nieces and a nephew. But my sister also invited some of our cousins. We had…
This week, I was at a play reading committee for a community theatre group. We were discussing twelve plays that we had all read over the last few weeks. The group is trying to determine the playbill for an upcoming season. We come from different walks of life and have different tastes. It wasn’t easy…
The Around the Bay race is only two weeks away. The countdown is on. Today, I ran my last long run before the race. 26 km. Next week’s “long run” will be half that distance. It was hard. I didn’t feel like running today. And I definitely didn’t feel like running 26 km. But I…
What lengths would you go to pretend you remembered someone’s name? Would you lie? Would you hug a stranger? Last year, I was at a talk that Alex Neve was giving. He was delivering his first of five Massey Lectures. Pat, Alex’s wife, is Deb’s best friend. Deb and I got married a couple of…
I remember when the book The Creative Act by Rick Rubin came out a few years ago. I didn’t read it then, but I was aware of it. I considered buying the book because I’m fascinated with creativity. I decided to take it out of the library instead of buying it. It wasn’t available at…
peter gruner 