Oct 21
The people at Open Book Toronto recently subjected me to the Proust Questionnaire. The Proust Questionnaire was not invented by Marcel Proust, but it was a much loved game by the French author and many of his contemporaries. The idea behind the questionnaire is that the answers are supposed to reveal the respondent’s “true” nature. …
Sep 25
With summer at an end, and inspired by the nude face of Zoetica Ebb during her No Make-Up Week at Biorequiem, I’m showing off my legs. That’s my house robe with shorts by Al Sharif of Syria. The slippers are Prince Alberts, the hat is something Father acquired while in Turkey, the couch is a new La-Z-Boy, …
Sep 06
Like any community of malcontents and weirdos, writers have certain quirks in common. One of these is the trunk. While it might look like someone just sits down and writes a novel, the process is much sloppier than that. Stories are started and abandoned. Some are finished but remain awful. There are pages of notes, …
Aug 27
Just found my baby book while cleaning. Here’s some of Mother’s notes: “Ryan was an extremely good-natured little fellow – crying only when he was hungry. He enjoyed travel; new places and faces and lots of attention. Ryan had a winning smile for everyone and was a true little “charmer.” By six weeks, he was …
Aug 21
I’ve been feeling strangely restless of late and last night, at about 2 am, I asked the wife if she intended to be awake until dawn. Like me, she’s a night owl and usually goes to bed shortly before the sun comes out. ”What time is dawn?” she asked. I checked the weather network …
Aug 20
A picture of me last winter, maybe the winter before. I’m not sure. Taken by ShoMerde.
Aug 03
I wrote a guest editorial for Auxiliary Magazine. You can download the pdf here. I did not write my bio and I’m not taking any responsibility for that. Auxiliary is an alternative fashion, music and lifestyle magazine - available online and in print– and I was asked to do something that related to alt culture. I don’t really know …
Jul 11
To impress a selection of war criminals, our government recently spent a small fortune on an artificial lake and some wooden deck chairs. Since the wife and I are not war criminals (yet) we were not allowed anywhere near this costly display. So we decided to accept the next best thing: A trip to the Muskokas. …
Jul 02
As I take people like Oscar Wilde, Cicero and Friedrich Reck-Malleczenwen as my models of political dissent, I think it’s important to remember that even in horrible times, especially then, beauty, dignity and basic human decency are of paramount importance. Although they are the first things to become improbable, you must never allow your better parts to …
Jun 01
Does this look like a trouble maker to you? Well, maybe . . . YOU’RE NOT MY MOTHER!!!
Although Ryan Oakley began his career as a simple rake (drunk) he has since become Toronto’s most renowned flaneur (no car) and notorious dandy (overdresses). A misanthropic composer of psycho-geographical fictions (sci-fi), he is also a server of food, a tender of bar and a washer of dishes. While performing all these functions with efficiency and elegance (disdain and malice), he somehow finds the time to publicly criticize friends, strangers and cultural crap.
