This is a fun part of what I get to do. Each of the links below means something to me, or to Janice & Jim. Sometimes people just list links but it is important to give some context to the reason the link is there.
Janice’s Website and Facebook page –
www.janicecolbert.com
www.facebook.com/public/Janice-Colbert
Well, this doesn’t take a lot of explanation. Janice is an artist, a poet, a great mom, and partner and gives back. She is also part of the reason I am getting a second life. Thanks Janice.
Jade Colbert on Books – http://jadecolbertbooks.tumblr.com/
If you haven’t read a lot on my website you might not know that Jade is Janice and Jim’s daughter. She is a freelance editor and writes two book review columns for The Globe & Mail, Canada’s national newspaper. This website of hers has most of the reviews she has done. She also sits on some boards and supports various causes and does some writing and editing for some other publications.
What I found really cool to learn last year is what she does with the sixty or so books she gets every month from publishers. After taking out the ones that are advance reading copies which have to go into recycling she gives the rest to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. Time for a little shout out for this great facility in Toronto www.camh.ca
The librarian for this amazing facility grabs the ones she wants and then the rest are available for anyone being treated there for free. Good on ya Jade. Two thumbs up from Django.
Jason Colbert music.
What a challenge – trying to break into the music world. Jason studied music, art and music production in school and spends his time today doing social media management for companies (connect with him if you want an inexpensive way to keep your profile up), but in his spare time works on his music. He has done music videos for The Roots when they played at Luminato in Toronto and continues to produce music alone and in collaboration with other Toronto musicians and producers. Watch this space for his new website!
Music Is Ageless – www.musicisageless.com
This is the site of J&J’s good buddy Adrian. Adrian is a composer, musician, and producer of music and is probably best known as the lead guitarist at various times for Drake, The Wkend, Nelly Furtado, Kylie Minogue, Marla Joy, Liz Lockre, Serena Ryder, …
Need I say more?
The Chef Upstairs. – www.thechefupstairs.com
This business J& J no longer own but sold to a brother and sister team of Lori and Greg. This project occurred after Jim retired and he went back to George Brown College in Toronto to try to figure out something in culinary arts. So if you want to go out for a custom special evening ….. Tell them that Jim or Janice sent you. (they don’t know Django yet).
Lucky Street Gallery – www.luckystreetgallery.com
The amazing Betty Gay runs this gallery. They represent Janice in Key West.
While they are open all year and have regular shows the action really heats up from December to April when there is a stack of shows.
Curve Music and Cerberus Artist Management – www.curvemusic.com
Through their friend Adrian (see above) J & J really got into the music world and funded some startup acts. Along the way, they also met Brian Hetherman and invested in Curve Music. It was a fun part of their life for many years and actually owned a music venue in Toronto (www.thegreathall.ca) for a few years where they would make music videos. One highlight was doing a tribute album of the music from The Band with Garth Hudson. Garth was able to pull in a lot of amazing artists to work with including Neil Young. They no longer own an interest in Curve but continue to enjoy a great relationship with Brian.
University of Toronto – www.learn.utoronto.ca/courses-programs/creative-writing
So what is this one doing here? Well between J& J they have multiple graduate degrees from other universities but love this place. Jade is also a graduate of U of T and when there was the Editor in Chief of the Varsity, the school newspaper. The University of Toronto with over 50,00 full-time students is Canadas largest university and their continuing ed program is also the largest of its kind.
If I am ever in Toronto for any length of time I might take a course. U of T is a mainstream school with undergraduate, graduate and professional programs but the Continuing Education Program is more flowing in its focus than the regular programs. You have to have a degree to take courses, but it does not lead to a graduate degree (although they do have some diploma and certificate programs) they can offer things that are not as academic but are still rigorous. Janice sits on the advisory board for creative writing and poetry courses. If your polking around their website check out the poetry award they offer!
Textile Museum of Canada – www.textilemuseum.ca
If you are a keen reader of this website you know that Janice studied fashion design originally and that when she had her fashion design business and label Jim was her sales guy. Textiles have continued to be part of their life, both with Janice’s art, their quilt collection and something most people don’t know – until Jim bumped into this neurological condition that he and I share he was on a couple of the committees of the board of the Textile Museum of Canada.
Jamie Oliver – www.jamieoliver.com
This lad is not really a buddy of either Jim or Janice or me, but Jim and Janice have met him in London, when they were trying to figure out the concept for The Chef Upstairs (see reference above) and when later he came over and did a book launch at TCU. Check out the pics in one of my posts on The Chef Upstairs.
For Jim who only took up cooking when he retired in his 40’s (yeah, how rude is that), it was about the same time Jamie was really getting momentum and he (Jim) devoured Jamie’s books.
I never met Jamie Oliver (so I am a bit jealous of Jim) but was often at the place he worked and loved the food when he was starting out at The River Café as it was close to where we were docked at the time and as a young cook myself was always inspired.