Living in the country with my nearest neighbor being two miles away, isolation is not new phenomenon for me. But with the Canadian government warning travelers to stay home, or if abroad, to get home in the event they close borders to prevent the spread of COVID-19, i've decided to stay put and use the time to catch up on deadlines --- writing, editing, and firewood.

Leica Camera Song
words and music by Larry Towell


I bought here in a pawn shop in 1970

Since then she’s been around the world about thirty times with me

Seen in every civil war that I could stand to see

Been in every hurricane since 1983



Chorus- And the women never could have done me quite so well

As this old Leica camera that’s settin’ on the shelf

I'd take her up to heaven ‘cause she’s been through so much hell

This old Leica camera Oskar Barnack built so well



I took her to Alaska to shoot an oil spill

Then I took her to the Gaza Strip to shoot the final stills

For a film that I was working on and she still gives me a thrill

She’s a one-eyed revolution and she nearly got me killed



Chorus- But no woman could ever thrill me quite so well

As this old Leica camera that’s settin’ on the shelf

I'd take her up to heaven ‘cause she’s been through so much hell

This old Leica camera Oskar Barnack built so well



In the backwoods of Australia she shot a kangaroo

In the rice fields of Asia she got a shot of the Asian flu

In the wake of an earthquake she found a child’s shoe

And she cried at a famine that she really didn't want to do



(instrumental break)



She slept with me in hammocks with the Zapatista troops

She even shot the PLO in the suburbs of Beirut

From Apartheid South Africa to the landless of Brazil

She taught me how to see and she taught me how to feel



Chorus- And no woman could have ever taught me quite so well… etc.



When they closed the doors of LIFE Magazine the world became so small

The magazines on the newsstand became PEOPLE, US and SELF

Now there’s FACEBOOK and TWITTER and INSTAGRAM accounts

So now to make a living I just promote myself !



Chorus – But the women never could have done me quite so well

As this old Leica camera that now i've got to sell

I'd take her up to heaven ‘cause she’s been through so much hell

This old Leica camera Oskar Barnack built so well



Tag: I'd take her up to heaven ‘cause she’s been through so much else

This old Leica camera that’s settin’on the shelf.