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Gregory McCormick

@mcco12.bsky.social
164 followers 188 following 398 posts

Montrealer living in rural Ontario and working in Toronto.

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Reposted by Gregory McCormick
Steven Beschloss @stevenbeschloss.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
“Remember, the Constitution doesn’t begin with, ‘I, the president.’ It begins with, ‘We, the people.’ ” —Gloria Steinem at the 2017 Women’s March
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Here’s how a Claire Keegan story works: in a flash 40 pages have flown by because you are so absorbed and then once you reach the end of the story you have to just sit and think about what just happened. This is almost the best part. | Walk the Blue Fields by Claire Keegan
Claire Keegan’s book Walk the Blue Fields
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Federico García Lorca and Luis Buñuel shared one of the great friendships of the early 20th century. Lorca would become one of Spain's most beloved poets. Buñuel would become one of cinema's most daring directors. Lorca was murdered by Spanish Nationalists in 1936 and his body was never found.
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
Rain by Raymond Carver #poetry
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
It feels like a brag but The Screening Room in Kingston is playing the uncut Béla Tarr film, Sátántangó, on Friday - all 7.5 hours of it. I haven't looked forward to a film screening so much in a very long time! #filmsky #cinemasky #hungarianculture #krasznahorkai #belatarr
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Rembrandt painted old age like no one else. Look at this self-portrait from 1661 — the weathered skin, the tired, experienced eyes, wisps of white hair under the cloth cap. Rembrandt understood that a face full of years is a face full of stories. Getting old is a privilege. Beautiful. #artsky
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
On a Wednesday in 1961, the Metropolitan Museum of New York paid a record $2.3 million for Rembrandt's Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer (1653) and by that Saturday it was already on display. That first day, the painting attracted 50,000 people to see it. The 2nd day, 70,000 came. #artsky
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
Today I read in Anthony Amore's & Tom Mashberg's book Stealing Rembrandts that this painting, Jacob de Gheynt II by Rembrandt, is the most stolen painting in the world, having been stolen at least four times from various museums since 1966. #artsky #booksky
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
A PORTABLE PARADISE by Roger Robinson And if I speak of Paradise then I'm speaking of my grandmother who told me to carry it always on my person, concealed, so no one else would know but me. That way, they can't steal it, she'd say. ... #worldpoetryday #poetry
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
Been deep in Peter Cowie's biography of Ingmar Bergman this week — God and the Devil — and while the filmmaking detail is endlessly fascinating, what keeps stopping me cold are the contemporary reviews. #IngmarBergman #filmmaking #filmsky #cinema #filmcriticism
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
No words.
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
Wow what a feat and practically music to my ears: the prevalence of reading (falling) with references to Muriel Spark, Iris Murdoch AND Simone Weil! Could this piece by Mark Kingwell feel any more pertinent?! @theglobeandmail.com #booksky www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...
theglobeandmail.com
Opinion: We’ve got more content than ever. Why can’t we pay attention to it?
We inhabit a constant tyranny of choice, the trust-collapsing plenitude a contemporary psychologist calls ‘the claustrophobia of abundance’
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
And we were already getting used to grass and flowers budding #winter #spring #gananoque
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
I've been enjoying Eça de Queiros's The Crime of Father Amaro (handsome young man, forced into the priesthood by circumstance not devotion & his forbidden love affair with the daughter of a town aristocrat - mid-19th century Portugal). I asked AI to create an image of Father Amaro. Voilà! #booksky
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
I’m in the middle of reading Diana Marcum’s book The Tenth Island - a semi-journalistic account of the Azores and the Azorean diaspora — and really sad to learn that she died a few years ago. What an interesting writer and what a sad loss. #azores #travelwriting #booksky
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Really loving this Portuguese song which riffs on the traditions and tone of Fado but is also very 2026 | maria by Carolina Deslandes & Rodrigo Correia #portuguese #portugal open.spotify.com/track/0G7D0P...
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Reposted by Gregory McCormick
The Kingstonist @kingstonist.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
#ICYMI Let The Isabel Voices take you on The Journey, a moving, immersive musical experience that invites audiences to walk through stories of healing, resilience, and light, guided by the power of voice and strings. #YGK #YGKConcert All the details here: www.kingstonist.com/news/the-isa...
kingstonist.com
The Isabel Voices offer healing, humanity, and hope through ‘The Journey’
(Kingston, Ontario) Let The Isabel Voices take you on The Journey, a moving, immersive musical experience that invites audiences to walk through stories of healing, resilience, and light, guided by th...
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Reposted by Gregory McCormick
The History of Literature Podcast @holpod.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
For more about Richardson's book, take a listen to @jackewilson.bsky.social's conversation with author Megan Marshall who wrote the forward to this book. #books @princetonupress.bsky.social
historyofliterature.com
494 Three Roads Back - How Emerson, Thoreau, and William James R…
In a final powerful book , acclaimed literary biographer Robert Richardson told the story of how Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and William James dealt w…
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
Day 8 of Graphic Novels I Love: Albert Camus - The First Man by Jacques Ferrandez, translated by Ryan Bloom. #graphicnovels #booksky #camus #france #algeria #bandedessinee #comics
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
The woods looked like a painting this morning
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
This is such a loss: his books that explored the brutality of Portuguese colonialism, his love of Africa, his use of language and his pushing out the boundaries of what a novel is and can be. He was miraculous. #booksky #portugal #portugueseliterature www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/b...
nytimes.com
António Lobo Antunes, One of Europe’s Most Revered Writers, Dies at 83
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Reposted by Gregory McCormick
The Kingstonist @kingstonist.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
According to KCFF, the 2026 festival set a new attendance record with 16,000 tickets sold, selling out 85 per cent of the screenings, and handing out a record 13 awards at a ceremony on Sunday evening. #YGK #FilmFestival More details here: www.kingstonist.com/news/french-...
kingstonist.com
French-language films win major KCFF awards for second year in a row – Kingston News
(Kingston, Ontario) The 26th Kingston Canadian Film Festival (KCFF) wrapped up on Sunday, Mar. 1, 2026, handing out a record 13 awards at a ceremony on Sunday evening.
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Reposted by Gregory McCormick
The Kingstonist @kingstonist.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
#ICYMI Special guest JP Longboat will join The Isabel Voices to enhance the immersive experience of 'The Wound in the Water', one of the many pieces audiences will experience at 'The Journey', their upcoming #concert event. #YGK Full details here: www.kingstonist.com/news/first-n...
kingstonist.com
First Nations artist JP Longboat to join The Isabel Voices for ‘The Journey’ – Kingston News
(Kingston, Ontario) he Isabel Voices invite audiences on The Journey, an afternoon performance that weaves together dramatic oratorio and contemporary choral storytelling to explore urgent ecological,...
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Carney’s India strategy promises many benefits www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...
theglobeandmail.com
Opinion: Carney’s India strategy promises many benefits
The Prime Minister’s recent visit is a step toward co-operation, although one in the shadow of unresolved foreign interference claims
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
This NYT living room collection drives me crazy. Beautiful, sure, but maybe one actually looks like somewhere you'd want to hang out. It's a pretentious, consumerist fantasy of how wealthy people want you to think they live. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/t...
nytimes.com
Our Favorite Living Rooms
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
I'm so excited to share that I'll be singing with the Isabel Voices in The Journey on March 15, 2026 at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts in #Kingston 🎶 www.kingstonist.com/news/the-isa...
kingstonist.com
The Isabel Voices offer healing, humanity, and hope through ‘The Journey’
(Kingston, Ontario) Let The Isabel Voices take you on The Journey, a moving, immersive musical experience that invites audiences to walk through stories of healing, resilience, and light, guided by th...
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Picked up a old copy of *The Razor's Edge* by Somerset Maugham — spine cracked, pages slightly yellow — and I've barely surfaced since. There's something about reading a book that's passed through other hands, other lives. I'm really loving this novel. #booksky
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
Moving from Shanghai to Canada 20 years ago taught me something that took a decade to sink in: the best way to survive winter is to go outside in it (with the right gear). I won't pretend I love it. But out in the open air, it's more than manageable — it might even be fun.
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
This painting faintly resembles our small town at the moment (only cars and parking lots somewhere in the distance). | Hunters in the Snow (Jagers in de Sneeuw) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Dutch, 1525-1569)
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
When brutal winter feels cozy and full of hygge from the backyard. #WinterCozy #HomeLife
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
A John Berger biography is coming in September and honestly? I'm considering taking a week's leave, disappearing somewhere quiet, and reading nothing else. Some books deserve that kind of attention. This feels like one of them. 📖 www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/790677...
penguinrandomhouse.ca
John Berger by Tom Overton | Penguin Random House Canada
A magisterial biography of novelist and critic John Berger, whose work—including Ways of Seeing and the Booker-prize winning G.—revolutionized the critical tradition in the twentieth century
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
Brett and Jocelyn were so devastated at the disappointing Olympic performance, I got a little teary for them.
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
From Gold by Rumi (translated by Haleh Liza Gafori) #booksky #poetry #rumi #farsi
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
Paul Theroux has this lovely story about sitting with Pico Iyer in a Maui café when Obama happened to walk in. No appointment, no agenda — just a chance encounter. And what Theroux remembered most was how Obama talked about their books with genuine understanding.
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
I feel kind of bad for the guy, but I feel much worse for the countless others in his position who are just trying to keep their heads down. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Brazilian influencer who defended US immigration crackdown arrested by ICE
Trump supporter Júnior Pena falsely claimed migrants being rounded up, including Brazilians, were ‘all crooks’
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
This interview + game with Jody Foster is super charming. I just saw La vie privée on the weekend and she's so serious in it, you forget how funny she can be. youtu.be/DjljoQI_5Ys?...
youtu.be
Does Jodie Foster Know Her Lines?
YouTube video by Variety
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
One of my favourite (small) roles of Catherine O'Hara was Gail in Scorsese's excellent film After Hours (1985) where she plays a Softee Ice Cream truck driver and who joins the mob searching for Paul (played by Griffin Dunne). She's psycho level scary. And funny.
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
Registration for this goes live at 10am ET today and tickets will go fast! | Toni at Random Mon Feb 23, 7pm at Toronto Reference Library. Free registration | www.eventbrite.ca/e/1976931144...
eventbrite.ca
Dana A. Williams: Toni at Random
Dr. Dana A. Williams unveils the untold story of Morrison's sixteen years behind the editorial desk with host Garvia Bailey
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
What do you do when your mother leaves you a letter addressed to your future self—and she's the poet Anne Sexton? In this 1994 archival recording, Linda Gray Sexton speaks with devastating honesty about loving someone who was both mentor and burden. www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgzn...
youtube.com
Writers Off the Page: S3E1 Linda Gray Sexton
YouTube video by Toronto Public Library
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” - Orwell's '1984'
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
Julius Tutsch (1890-1944), Nakampe, Prague (c. 1930)
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Canadian artwork of the day is yet another Louis Muhlstock (1904-2001) piece, this one entitled Supper for Two (circa 1935). | I've long admired the work of the Belgian woodcut artist, Frans Masereel (1889-1972) and Muhlstock's woodcuts very much remind me of Masereel's quieter moments.
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
"We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition." - Mark Carney at Davos. I love this framework of the sign in the window courtesy of Václav Havel. I feel Havel's loss deeply—he'd have much to say about this moment. Carney does right by him, at any rate. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg4r...
youtube.com
Canada engaging 'with open eyes' as great powers use economic integration as 'weapons,' PM says
YouTube video by CBC News
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
"The idea of resurrection is, I think, a botanical idea...All plants, which we view as less evolved that us, actually know how to die in such a way that they can come back to life again." - Georgi Gospodinov, Death and the Gardener
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
My nightstand is getting a little overloaded.
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
From last week’s New Yorker lol
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
Canadian painting of the day is another Louis Muhlstock (1904-2001) piece, Ruelle Leduc (c. 1940), in an area of Montreal that has totally disappeared. This is the site now of Habitations Jeanne Mance, the oldest existing public housing project in Canada at 100 Boulevard De Maisonneuve.
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Reposted by Gregory McCormick
EL PAÍS @elpais.com · 17/01/2026
📹 Vídeo | En Groenlandia y Copenague los manifestantes le dicen Trump que la isla “no está en venta”. “Que América se vaya”. social.elpais.com/f_7…
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
Just a block from home, the morning was magic.
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Gregory McCormick @mcco12.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
Linda, Dolly, Emmylou ❤️
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