Peter Rukavina's Podcast

I received the sad news this morning that my friend Allan Rankin has died.I was introduced to Allan many years ago: he and Roy Johnstone and I got together to see about having me make websites for them. Both had just released albums, and there was a sense in the air—a tentative, early, faint sense—that musicians should have websites. And so was hatched AllanRankin.com. In the process I became a fa...

In the season 7 episode of Billions, Original Sin, political consultant Bradford Luke walks into (billionaire and possible presidential candidate) Mike Prince’s office:Prince: How do you have Leo McGarry-like walk in privileges before you’ve even taken the job? Luke: Walk with a true sense of purpose. No one ever stops you. The Leo McGarry reference is, of course, to The W...

From a conversation between Rick Rubin of the poet David Whyte on Rubin’s Tetragrammaton podcast:And then the last step I call harvest, and that’s the ability to bring in the harvest of everything you’ve been working towards.Both in the sense of, it might be harvesting a profit, but harvest in the sense of when you’ve produced a piece, it’s making sure it gets out in the world, and that you’r...

The awards for the 2024 edition of Island Fringe were presented last night, and among them was The Oscar Wilde Award, which I sponsor every year, presented to the show that “most effectively celebrates non-conformity.” This year the jury selected the show So an Autistic Priest and Dog Walk into a Bar…, written and presented by Jean-Daniel O’Donncada, described in the program as...

We’re posted up 50 m from the Adriatic, in Numana.About 280 km across the water in Croatia is where my grandfather was born.It is warm and, at least today, gloriously sunny.

While the La Festa dei Ceri on May 15 has a well-documented program, figuring out the timing and route of today’s first-Sunday-in-May repositioning event was more challenging, and involved piecing together bits of information from the web and Google Translated conversations.As it happens, we need not have worried, as it all played out on our doorstep on the Via dei Consoli.Anything we might...

Sunday morning in Serrazzano.

Lisa and I walked up to CBC Charlottetown this morning to record an interview with Matt Rainnie about our This Box is for Good project. As usual, Matt was an amiable and welcoming host.

Every year I sponsor the Oscar Wilde Award at Island Fringe, given to the show that “most effectively celebrates non-conformity.” The award-winning show is chosen by a jury, and evidence suggests that the process of jurying the shows is done with considerable thoughtfulness. Island Fringe is one of my favourite things, and watching the Oscar Wilde take on a life of its own continues to be a l...

The birds were alive and musical as I was pottering around with my bicycle in the back yard yesterday.

Sitting by the ocean on the western shore of Cape Breton. 

I have long enjoyed the 1980 Christopher Cross song Ride Like the Wind. Listening to it this morning I realized that one of the reasons I like it so much is the backing vocals by the estimable Michael McDonald (he of the Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, and a successful solo career).Oliver and I listened to the song this morning in the car: McDonald’s contribution–we counted–amounts to only four...

The generous helping of topsy-turvy in the air caused me to think Thursday was Wednesday and thus to miss my scheduled 5:00 p.m. Charlottetown Farmers’ Market pickup.My penance was to ride my bicycle up today, a day late and in the rain; I was happy to find Caledonia House Coffee still open, and so I am currently fortifying myself with an espresso macchiato before heading back into the now-cats-an...

Back in mid-March I received an email from Matt Rainnie, personable host of CBC Mainstreet: would I be interested, he asked, in being the “Spin Time DJ” for the show on an upcoming Friday.Would I be interested? Of course I’d be interested. Had I not been dreaming of this very moment for years!“Spin Time DJ,” for those from away, is a regular Friday feature o...

I love Siri’s enthusiasm with this answer.

A previously-unreleased episode recorded on October 1, 2020, Oliver’s 20th birthday. Earlier in the day he’d received a negative COVID-19 test.

It’s tricky to get my Google Home to play CBC Radio One: depending on the way I ask, it’s as likely, for reasons unknown, to play the private radio station CFCY instead.Here’s a transcript of my attempts:Me:OK Google, play CBC Radio One.Google Home: Streaming 95.1 FMCFCY from Tunein.Me:OK Google, stop. OK Google, play CBC Radio.Google Home: Streaming 95.1 FMCFCY from Tunei...

I sat down in the studio the Matt Rainnie yesterday morning (although I wasn’t in the studio, I was on Skype, and Matt, oddly, was standing not sitting) to have a conversation about Using Her Marbles.You can listen to our conversation, which aired between 5:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. last night on Mainstreet.Update: the CBC has posted a “web story” version of the interview. 

Shortcuts are a delightfully powerful set of digital Lego blocks for iOS, a modern day HyperCard, in a way. This guide from Apple to creating Siri Shortcuts using web APIs prompted me to try creating one for myself, a Shortcut to retrieve the percentage of PEI’s electricity load generated from the wind.As a starting place, I used this wind energy API endpoint, the same endpoint that...

Back in the day, when it seemed like Nickelback was playing at the Charlottetown waterfront every second weekend, I developed the reputation of being something of a curmudgeon. Truth be told my protests were always rooted in a feeling that public land should remain public, not given over to concert prompters, but the subtlety was often lost on the readership.As such, I celebrate the sweet sou...

When Oliver and I were on the beach at Wood Islands Provincial Park on Sunday, I recorded just under two minutes of the same of the water lapping against the rocks. You’ll hear birdsong in the background if you listen carefully.An interesting project in these pandemic times would be to stick a permanent microphone at the shore to broadcast sounds of the PEI surf 24/7 to those unable to be on...

I was saddened to read of the death of former Member of Parliament, Member of the Legislative Assembly, and Speaker Wilbur Macdonald this morning.I could not help but think back to the warm summer afternoon of June 27, 2006 when, from the public gallery in Province House, I witnessed him hold forth at some length so as to keep the Legislative Assembly busy while, behind the scenes, the Pat Bi...

My friend Dave Atkinson mused that an oral history of how I learned the things I learned the other day came to be learned.So I recorded one.

In this brave new world we’re all jacked into Zoom (or, maybe, Jitsi) all day long. We’ve been at this for a month, and it’s remarkable how little most of us continue to pay attention to video and audio, as if living the Dick Tracy future is enough, and we don’t really need to be concerned with seeing and hearing other clearly.Here in my office I mostly use the “Display Audio” microphone buil...

Recorded eight days ago (8 months in quarantine years) on the Charlottetown waterfront at the end of a drive in the countryside on a sunny Sunday.