Archive for August, 2012
Happy birthday, Dad!
George Basil turns 80 today. He’s the handsome guy in the photo above, next to my Mom, a few years ago in Montreal.
American Senses
Apartments above the great Fifth Avenue Sandwich Shop, in Olympia Washington
There’s barely a week left in my Olympian summer.
New mural (detail) near Percival Landing, Olympia
I would return in a minute.
Band of Olympians
The vibe is civilized and tolerant – that is to say, it is truly *hip*. On many nights there’s a happy racket of music and loud post-outings conversation in my neck of the woods, downtown in the historic district. I’m going to feel very much like an American again when I get off the train in Vancouver this Labo(u)r Day.
Old cities, old friends …
The proud seal for the Buffalo Seminary, “Western New York’s Only Independent College Preparatory School for Girls”
A few years back, Kato Kaelin (OJ Simpson’s noted house-guest) was being interviewed by Jay Leno, who asked Kaelin how he dealt with all of the derision and mockery he’d received. “My old friends were with me. You can’t make new old friends,” he said, with a wisdom I hadn’t anticipated.
I think of that line a lot.
It seems perhaps too obvious even to note, but you have to be well into middle age before you can have the experience of enjoying things that go on and on for a very long time, like decades-long friendship, and like loyalty that lasts even when you are being a problem, and like the way a city like Buffalo, NY – its people and indeed the neighborhoods themselves, too, it seems – can remember and welcome you.
– Photo by Miles Basil
Kwantlen colleagues moving on …
You can’t step into the same river twice.
Since I started at Kwantlen in 2003, I have been helped every step of the way by two people: Dr. Arthur Coren, Dean of the School of Business, and David Wiens, Associate Dean of the School of Business and formerly a faculty member in my home department, Applied Communications.
In July it was announced that Arthur had accepted the presidency of University Canada West and would assume his new position there on September 4. Then last week, Kwantlen announced that David would be retiring this fall, after 28 years at the school.
I welcome a new era, as we all must, because the river flows, but I’m going to miss having these two fabulous people around, very very much.
[Other recent changes among the Kwantlen administration were mentioned below.]
This Train Goes …
… where I want to go, up and down across the border between the United States and Canada. I ride the Cascades Line.
My iPhone blog has been pretty active this summer, recording sights and thoughts from these two nations that enchant me, and where people I love live.
basil.CA 