A "trotbo" is a cross between a a "trottoir" and a "lavabo", the french words for "sidewalk" and "sink" - a bit of Heikalo's surrealist humour, created in 1972, during an OULIPO word-dismantling session with his friend Gérald Lavoie.  It became the name of Daniel's music group of that time, and then one of Daniel's nicknames, as well as the name of a little character drawing, like the one above.
Oulipo?  The Ouvroir De Littérature Potentielle, in Paris, where they do a lot of research on the potential of words, and more.
 

More about Tam and Dan...

   We presently operate in a beautiful corner of Nova Scotia, and are working towards having a piece of earth to steward, possibly a sharing situation, and build a house and studio; a dwelling of minimal environmental impact.  The recording studio is planned to be accessible to musician wheel-chair users.

Tamara...
   I love to get my hands dirty, working a garden; it's a political act, it's my kind of church -  composting is my religion, and we get great food!  I try to mix the worlds of being an artist, and of being socially and environmentally considerate. 
"In the Spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt." - Margaret Atwood
"To cultivate one's garden is the politics of the humble (wo)man." - Chinese proverb
I like to hear other people's life stories, because we all have one, and if we can tell our stories and be heard, this is a better planet to live on.

Daniel...
   I collect weird objects, keys, old books, not for value, I don't care about the value of things except the spiritual one.  I use spiritual here in a non-theist way.  I like collaborating with other musicians, and to host wild, drug-free jamming parties where everything and anything is musically possible - participants must be willing to let loose!  No constipation allowed!
 

   Much thanks go to Pogo and Betsy Blackmer for their extraordinary generosity; also to to our fabulous farmer neighbours, the Currys; and to our magnificent friend Heike!
 


 
Some of the people out there whose work and ideas reflect our own perspectives about life...

Carl Sagan
Stephen Hawking
Matthew Fox
Stephen J. Gould
Frank Zappa
David Suzuki
Judy Rebick (of the column: Straight from the Hip)
Pierre Foglia (award-winning journalist with Montréal's LaPresse)

 

 A few of the individuals whose artistic integrity and vision have caught our attention, because they skirt the edge of conventional expression, fearlessly pushing the boundaries of the status quo, making new discoveries, providing new ideas, as a result...

Harry Parch
Imogen Cunningham
John Cage
Meredith Monk
John Fahey
Eugène Atget
Joane Hétu
Lee Pui Ming
René Lussier
Jean Derome
André Duchesne
Sainkho Namchylak
Fred Frith
Django Reinhardt
Leonora Carrington
André Kertèsz
Luigi Serafini
Clara Gutsche
Tristan Honsinger
Pierre Bastien
Margaret Leng-Tan
Diane Arbus
Brassaï
Cartier-Bresson
André Breton
Benjamin Péret
Jean-Louis Barrault
Jacques Prévert
Thelonious Monk
D'Gary
Iva Bittova
Eugene Chadbourne
Derek Bailey
Joëlle Léandre
Jean-Pierre Bouchard
Hans Reichel
Valentin Clastrier
Markos Vamvakaris
Evan Parker
Maria Farandouri
Louis-Pierre Bougie
Claude Gauvreau
Robert Lepage
Josef Sudek
Remedios Varo
Fred
Paul-Emile Borduas
Honoré Daumier
Granville
Johannes Bergmark

 
Fridge Door  Postings...

"Look.  Talking about the spiritual life is a lot of crap.  You just live it."
  - a trappist Monk, from Blue Highways, by William Least Heat-Moon, pg 78

"There are many incidents which can eviscerate the stalwart and bring the mighty down.  In order to survive, the ample soul needs refreshments and reminders daily of its right to be and to be wherever it finds itself."   Maya Angelou

Realist: what you see is what you get.
Imaginist:  what you imagine is what you get.
Messist:  a mess is what you get.
Practicalist:  has a practical view.
Infinitist:  the possibilities are infinite.
Finitist:  the possibilities are finite.
Possibilist:  someone who believes it's possible.
Cartoonist:  the world and everything in it is flat.

From the dedication page of the book, The Chosen, by Chaim Potok:

 When a trout rising to a fly gets hooked on a line and finds himself unable to swim about freely, he begins with a fight which results in struggles and splashes and sometimes an escape.  Often, of course, the situation is too tough for him.
 In the same way the human being struggles with his environment and with the hooks that catch him.  Sometimes he masters his difficulties; sometimes they are too much for him.  His struggles are all that the world sees and it naturally misunderstands them.  It is hard for a free fish to understand what is happening to a hooked one.
    Karl A. Menninger


  True Happiness 
Consists not in the multitude of friends,
But in the worth and choice. 
   Ben Jonson
 

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