Bio

I was born in 1965 in Cornwall, Ontario (Canada).  My mother was a teacher and my father a millwright.  I have a sister named Suzy-Q and a brother named Pollywog.  My family moved to Bright's Grove when I was just six months old.  Thus, my hometown has always been and will be Sarnia (Bright's Grove is a idyllic lakeside community on the outskirts of Sarnia)!

Here's my favourite memory as a child back in the early 1970s:  I grew up in Bright's Groves near Sarnia, Ontario, and when I was five to ten years old, I used to spend my summers wandering the shores of beautiful Lake Huron, literally at my doorstep.  So, here's an mpeg video (8 megs) of Bright's Grove beach where I grew up that I took last summer!  Nothing has changed really in 30 years!  It's still James Street East!  In those early days, I became a Houdini fan.

I still remember that there was a local woman (Vicki) who used to find old coins washing up on the shore. Everyone knew about her. As a kid, she seemed mythical as we would walk by her house which was brand new. My friend told me that every brick in her house was paid for from the coins she found on the shores of Lake Huron. One time, I was with a friend of mine and we ran into this eclectic woman on the beach. She said "hi" to us as we balanced ourselves along the old rusty pier that was like a concert of soft waves breaking the surf. Suddenly, she knelt down, started digging in the sand and I saw her unearth old coins on the beach. My friend turned to me and said, "You see," and then he dived into the chilly summer waters of Lake Huron. 

When I was 10 years old (1976), my family moved into Sarnia proper due to the fact we needed a bigger house.  I went to King George the VI and Lakeroad public schools.   I eventually attended Northern Collegiate high school (1980) until I graduated from Grade 13 (1984).  Thus,  I had spent my youth lounging around Sarnia hanging around the various marinas and beaches with friends.   I had always had a passion for learning the German language since an early age (probably due to my brother's Sgt. Rock army comic books) so my goal in life was to study the German language at university.  

I lived for six months in London, Ontario (1985) working at the Holiday Inn as a cleaner and I ran into the famous jazz drummer Buddy Rich just before he died.  I eventually went to Quebec City to learn French,  and then moved to Montreal (1986) to complete my life's education in the language of Molière and the Québécois culture.  I settled into Montreal,  somewhat slowly,  and eventually enrolled at the l'Université de Montréal in German Studies.   I later switched over to Concordia University to finish by BA in German Studies (1991) and then did my Masters at McGill in Library Studies (1993).  Why Library Studies you might ask?  So,  I could eventually learn how to file my life away!!!   hehe

photo by Butch Gerald

So, I eventually ended up in Ottawa due to job opportunities.

So, now here is the artsy (rather batty) side of my existence!

Dressing in Black 

Dressing in black is not an art form, but it is the necessity of the inspired (Gothic) artist to facilitate the inspired thought down to paper or into music.  Black is not only the absence of color,  but it is a mood!  The great composer Schubert once said, "It seems people like best what I have written in my greatest misery." Seriously, at 42 years old, I'm too old to be a Goth.  However, I've noticed a pattern of my artistic pursuits over my entire life and I seem to be part of their sub-culture, albeit on my own insane branch. So,  as a woman once told me, "Peter, you're easy to spot in town because you're always dressed the same--in black."  So many moons ago (back in 1995), I created the web's first fan site for Edgar Allan Poe called The House of Usher since I had been reading Edgar Allan Poe as a kid from my mother's book club books.      

So, I still adhere to this POEtic image after all these years.   Artistic gothic self-expression is the skeleton KEY to life!

A 'Monster' Challenge

However you choose to express yourself, just go ahead and take the plunge.   Take a guitar, a piano, a rock, or a pen and paper to write out your angst, inspirations, and even speculations.  Don't let anyone tell you can't be original. Your own originality is a prophetic mirror of your existence and the others who sit in judgment just reflect their banality into mirrors of mediocrity.  Don't worry about me in this photo; I was just trying to imitate a monster in a B-film who hurls a rock for the release of my Frankenstein Files CD for kids! hehe  That slimy rock was covered in slugs and dripping wet.

Une raison d'être (Reichenbach Falls)

I compose, play piano (RCM Grade 8), guitar, sing, and have studied Gregorian Chant.  I love the soul wrenching music of J.S. Bach and the dark literature of great novels such as:  Dracula, Frankenstein, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Dorian Gray, Shakespeare's MacBeth,  and Goethe's Die Leiden des jungen Werthers.  As the great pianist Liszt once said:  he was happy to be surrounded by great works of literature near his piano.   I feel that same inspiration calling as I love dwelling in those great writings and those also of Edgar Allan Poe.  This recent picture of me is not at the real "Reichenbach Falls."   That's a joke!   I am a big Sherlock Holmes fan so I thought I'd have a mini spoof of the falls where Holmes supposedly falls into the chasm.   Except, it was his arch-enemy Moriarty after all!