Barcelona reveals tapas with a tale
Mike Fisher reveals the tasty philosophy behind tapas in Spain…
On board the Yukon’s first northern lights flight
WHITEHORSE, YUKON-Sure, it’s a fine thing watching the aurora borealis from the ground, slack-jawed and staring heavenward. It’s quite another charging straight toward it in a B737 jet at 36,000 feet with your nose pressed to the window as the almighty thing hangs there, a great fiery green curtain, fluttering as if on an invisible line.
It’s tricky, the aurora.
Mexico’s Riviera Maya offers up adventures in learning
Opportunities for learning on vacation abound along Mexico’s Riviera Maya. Foodies, divers and snorkelers, history buffs, yoga enthusiasts, soul searchers and dancers can discover exhilarating experiences.
Austin, Texas, contender as live music capital of the world
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Play loud.
That’s what it says on The Bluebonnets T-shirt. They do.
I absorbed the all-female blues rock band’s full sonic force while at the front of the red Continental Club stage, a former la-dee-da supper venue that has slid from its 1950s heydays into a gloriously down-at-the-broken-heels, beloved music destination on South Congress Ave. in Austin.
Luxury cruise stops in three countries
Mike Fisher explores Spain, Italy and France aboard Seven Seas Explorer
Women singer-songwriters in spotlight in Music City
Mike Fisher visits bro country in Nashville and finds women songwriters are on the rise – Toronto Star
Living-large lifestyle seduces in Monaco
A love affair with this fairy tale kingdom gets the luxe treatment with Mike Fisher…
Find the beating heart of blues and rock in Memphis
Toronto Star
This story of my musical journey to Beale Street, Memphis, home of the blues, has won travel writing awards/honours from three different organizations (NATJA, TMAC, SFJ).
Cuban hero Che lives on, even as you visit his mausoleum
Che, one of history’s most enduring t-shirt images, defies death, Mike Fisher discovers.
Finding food, drink and joie de vivre in Quebec’s Eastern Townships
Ooh la la, the French in Quebec’s Eastern Townships know a thing or deux about indulgence, discovers Mike Fisher.
Rustic boating is mainly for the birds in La Tovara National Park
AWARD WINNER, Society for Features Journalism (SFJ) 2019 Awards, Short Features, third. Mike Fisher goes birding, learns how to survive in the Mexican mangroves and escapes being a lunch for large reptiles. — Toronto Star
Rustic boating is mainly for the birds in La Tovara National Park
A Seat at the Table
NEWS.UCALGARY.CA
Althea Francis was playing hopscotch, doing a one-two-three step in her neighbour’s tiny yard, a splash of dirt rising with each stamp of her bare feet. High in the hills of rural Jamaica, where she lived with her grandparents, it was hot and muggy and hard for anyone to scratch out a living. School loomed. Her dream was to rise above, become an airline hostess, fly over the treetops and far beyond to another world…
Bright Lights, Big City: UCalgary Alumni Shine in Top 40 Under 40
We are all, to some degree, celebrities. You’ve got your own spotlight and wattage. In your family or at your workplace or on an online platform or even a coffee shop where everyone, it seems, knows your name, you’re someone’s shining star. As the Avenue annual Top 40 Under 40 list celebrates its 25th year…
The Art of Designing a Life with Global Impact
Microsoft visionary and designer Edie Adams watched it from behind her condo window in Seattle, sipping her coffee. The little plot of land beckoned. She was living in Belltown in 1996, where the smell of salt and seaweed rose at low tide….
First-of-its-kind wine and islands voyage explores the Salish Sea
Sampling almost 50 wines on a nimble catamaran exploring Canada’s west coast while visiting pioneering wineries on remote islands. Guided nature hikes, too. Did I mention the onboard chef and innovative cuisine? Discover a bon voyage geared to the grapes that grow in and around islands in the Salish Sea.
Learning to Use AI Tools Can Pay Off for REALTORS
The swift growth of generative artificial intelligence (AI) presents REALTORS® with new ways to research and create marketing materials, interact with the public and crunch data. And for REALTORS® this means more time dedicated to their clients…
Something Brewing
What if the path not taken is the path you’ve been intending to take all along? It’s rooted inwardly but it needs to be expressed within the world. At night, before you sleep, it haunts you like a phantom limb…
International Call For Freedom Leads To UCalgary
AWARDS WINNER, Society for Features Journalism (SFJ) 2019, Diversity in Digital Features, second; also, CASE 2020 Platinum award. “In a wide Rwandan field, six-year-old Jean-Claude Munyezamu kicked a soccer ball up and down, keeping it aloft with his bare foot. The ball was made with plastic bags, one inside the other, held with twine. A dirt road led to his village at the edge of the city of Kigali, where the few cars and trucks that visited churned a trail of dust. A few boys straggled to the field’s edge, calling him, eager to play…
REALTORS® Deploy Country Music and Love
More than 20 years of remarkable fundraising and community building by REALTORS® and twin brothers Chris and Jamie Ruscheinski, started with one fraught sentence from their mother: “I have cancer.”
New Brunswick REALTOR® Helping Transform Health Care in Saint John
Li Song, a New Brunswick REALTOR® and sales person with EXIT Realty Specialists, is helping to build a game-changing medical and health care centre in Saint John…
International Call For Freedom Leads To UCalgary
AWARDS WINNER, Society for Features Journalism (SFJ) 2019, Diversity in Digital Features, second; also, CASE 2020 Platinum award. “In a wide Rwandan field, six-year-old Jean-Claude Munyezamu kicked a soccer ball up and down, keeping it aloft with his bare foot. The ball was made with plastic bags, one inside the other, held with twine. A dirt road led to his village at the edge of the city of Kigali, where the few cars and trucks that visited churned a trail of dust. A few boys straggled to the field’s edge, calling him, eager to play…
Cuba’s Music Offers Insights Into its Past
Pull on a loose thread of Cuba’s interwoven musical genres, and you’ll unravel a history of farmer’s folk songs, gut-punch drumming, romantic ballads, old religious rites and seductive urban rhythms. Mike Fisher travels with photographer Liz Beddall to discover the country’s history in its music.
Washington, D.C.’s eclectic music scene is remarkably cool
Gold Award, NATJA, photography, Arts/Culture. IPW Travel Writing Award, 2018, finalist, feature writing.
How Do We Protect the Most Vulnerable?
AWARDS: SFJ 2020, digital features, CASE 2020, feature writing, AMPA 2020, Finalist
A working physician in his fourth year of residency as a pulmonology specialist at Damascus University, he was enjoying a bright spring day. The passenger window eased down and a bulky man with a shaved head and dark sunglasses motioned to him. “Can I help you?” asked AlMasri, figuring the four men in the car needed directions.
Help? No.
They jumped out of the car, pulled AlMasri’s hands behind his back, ratcheted plastic ties around his wrists, pulled his shirt up to cover his eyes and…
Emerging technologies rise in real estate
Realtors have nimbly adjusted how they conduct business with their colleagues and clients since the advent of Covid. One trend that shows no sign of slowing is the adaptation of emerging technologies.
Remote work policies upend real estate norms
At this moment, somewhere in Canada, someone is sitting in a makeshift office chair in their home, staring into a laptop for another Zoom meeting. They’re wearing a carefully chosen buttoned shirt for the upper camera angle, while their legs dangle out of sight below, clad in pajamas. Maybe it’s you.
What is Metaverse Real Estate?
What is the metaverse and should you care about virtual real estate? The technology and vocabulary are still developing, but let’s take a closer look…
Halloween horror stories anytime of the year
Every property has a story. Some are terrifying, depending on the owner and the buyer.
AI, crypto, the blockchain and DeFi to fuel data-driven economy
Artificial intelligence (AI), cryptocurrencies, blockchain-based payment services and applications for decentralized finance (DeFi) feed Fetsami Araya’s curiosity about how economics and data can be explored to gain insights. It’s perfect timing.
Mark Tewksbury on creating a winning mindset in uncertain times
Rollercoaster COVID-19 numbers. Virus mutations. Getting the kids back to school. Getting yourself back to work. Squeezing into a seat and nervously looking around to see who might be near you. It’s enough to frazzle anyone’s nerves in these turbulent, uncertain times.
You’re not alone.
Working with New Canadians: Tips on Understanding and Meeting the Needs of This Fast-Growing Segment of Home Buyers
Li Song was working three different jobs as a new Canadian, struggling to make ends meet. Coming from China, she went through considerable culture shock, even though she’d had a bit of English to get started.
Now Song is a successful salesperson and REALTOR® in Saint John, New Brunswick, not only helping immigrants buy their dream home, but serving as a valuable resource for other REALTORS® seeking to tap into a growing market.
Microbiome discovery may open new doors to development of treatments for gastrointestinal diseases
University of Calgary researchers probing the gut — “the inner tube of life” — have for the first time discovered specific factors in its workings that in the future may help improve treatment for patients facing gut damage or gastrointestinal disease.
Indigenous knowledge meets Western science
Do Indigenous and Western systems of knowledge offer multiple points of entry into knowledge of the world, past and present? Prominent thinkers examine the parallels…
The future of DeFi, Fintech and making banking accessible to all
Most of us take banking and the ability to do so quickly and without much trouble as a given in Canada, as we go about transacting and spending almost daily, often with the convenience of digital services that have arisen from innovations in financial technologies (fintech).
Not everyone has it so good.
Who Will Help Mom?
Preparing for a rising tide of seniors
AWARDS: AMPA 2020 finalist.
The brunt of caregiving for aging and ailing parents usually falls to women. The daily, overwhelming problems that Coles and others like her face are multiplied by millions across the country and swell into every corner of society…
Helping Clients Navigate Death, Divorce or Job Loss
Aside from gauging the inevitable ups and downs of the housing market, REALTORS® must be sensitive to the peaks and valleys that run through their clients’ lives. Guiding clients through difficult changes—such as death, divorce or job loss—is among the most challenging aspects of the business.
What’s the best way to handle these delicate scenarios?
The backstage pass that rocks at NMC
Go behind the scenes with Mike Fisher to tour the legendary Rolling Stones Mobile Studio at Studio Bell, home of the National Music Centre (NMC) in Calgary + more with the new Backstage Pass.
VIEW STORY
Is mental health a gut feeling?
Does your gut affect your mental health? Only recently, the idea that your gut could be shaping your mental health was considered far-fetched, more science fiction than actual science.
Now, UCalgary researchers are at the vanguard of worldwide research into what’s known as the gut-brain axis and how it may affect the way you think and feel, hoping their work will hold clues to causes of illness and perhaps novel new treatments.
How to thrive when a dream dies: Olympic athlete’s tips
It was a beautiful day in February when Charmaine Ironside, a gifted snowboarder training for the Olympics, landed hard and shattered her back — and her dreams.
The lifelong journey to medical discovery
The journey toward a remarkable scientific discovery is often long and winding. It can be a hard road, without a compass, that’s sure to reveal character. Discovery doesn’t arise magically. Clues are unearthed gradually, for the explorer who is clear-sighted and determined to see them and has the experience to recognize where they lead.
Dr. Pere Santamaria, MD, PhD, knows the journey well.
Do our brains and guts talk to each other?
Got a gut feeling about something that might happen in your life today? You’re not alone.
“Whether we know it or not, we’ve all experienced the sensation of the connection between our gut and our brain,” says Dr. Braedon McDonald, MD, PhD.
The assistant professor in the departments of Critical Care Medicine and Medicine and a member of the Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases in UCalgary’s Cumming School of Medicine says: “People with an upset stomach or the feeling of butterflies when nervous…