James Howden
My blogs
| Gender | Male |
|---|---|
| Industry | Education |
| Occupation | WordsmithTeacherCoach |
| Location | Ottawa, National Capital Region, Canada |
| Introduction | I grew up in a hockey town where the arts were more rumour than reality, but there were always books. My love for reading was matched only by my hunger for sport. I slept with footballs, dreamed of spectacular saves and line drive hits, and by high school was shovelling snow to play frozen-fingered basketball. I found the Baha'i Faith at 16, and have been trying to know and live its hopeful message ever since. (Occasionally, a light goes on.) I spent years as a chalk-stained wretch, teaching mainly high school readin' an' writin'. I was also an avid basketball coach. I have been working as a writer for several years, including two as the speech writer to Canadian Governor General Adrienne Clarkson. I am married to EcoWoman. I am a community builder and the proud father of four mighty sons. |
| Interests | How we learn, how we change, how we got into this mess, fiction, film, non-fiction with a pulse, youth and maturity, spirit and reason, planet and neighbourhood, men and women. And sports. And coaching. And ice cream. |
| Favorite movies | Jesus of Montreal, Mystery Science Theatre 3000, Prairie Home Companion, It's a Wonderful Life, Until the End of the World, Broadcast News, Citizen Kane, Crash, Children of Men, The Lives of Others, An Inconvenient Truth, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and any 3 or 4 things at the Bytowne Cinema this month... |
| Favorite music | Where jazz meets blues, where rock meets folk, early Chicago, Talking Heads, Bruce Cockburn, Radiohead, Cake, Roy Buchanan, early Seals and Crofts, Michael Franti, Bruce Springsteen, the Propeller Heads, most things that feel like a train wreck coming but stay on the rails... |
| Favorite books | Slaughterhouse Five, Fates Worse Than Death (others by Vonnegut),The War of Art,Larry's Party (Shields), Life of Pi, Amusing Ourselves to Death (Postman), Memory of Fire (Galeano), The Heart of the Gospel, Lord of the Rings,They Call Me Coach (Wooden), Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury), and especially Gleanings From the Writings of Baha'u'llah and The Promised Day is Come and all that follows from them... |
When you've got water stuck in your ear, how do you get it out?
I call a diviner.