Then came Thursday

You might want to read these posts in reverse order; if you weren't there, they'll make more sense.

The crowd started to pick up steam a bit on Thursday.  Certainly, part of that owes to the fact that we pitched a tent in some prime parking territory (I can only imagine the parking anxiety this induced! Oh, the humanity!).  If I had a dime for every craned neck that drove by, my student loan would nearly be paid.  But that's kind of the fun part too, doing something so unexpected that people's little worlds suddenly start misbehaving.  A little novelty is irresistable.

Lunchtime showcases started with a handful of people but Keith MacPherson and Kendra Gale started roping them in.  If you didn't catch this duo, you missed out.  Kendra is a multi-instrumentalist and fantastic singer, and Keith plays bass and sings along too.  They sound so great together, and when Kendra gets her foot tambourine going all is right with the world.  Loved that they made it here, and that they were willing to stick around for another go at the Queen Street Market on Saturday.  Not to be missed in the future, FYI.

Richard Wetmore played his food songs later in the afternoon, educating the crowd about corn, corn syrup, agribusiness, farming.  Richard's unique combination of Anglican singing, swearing and jokes really has a way of getting the point across, despite the fatigue we inevitably feel when someone starts telling us how truly messed up the world is.  Hats off to you, Richard, I'm happy to come along.

Evening entertainment was Marc Zsammer and Dianne Roxborough Brown at Connell House (classical music), Tracy Anderson solo debut at Fusion (jazz), Keith and Kendra at Dooly's, and a triple feature at the Mainstage - Lonesome Jim, the Beaters and Singing Bridge Orchestra.  Reports are that all went well - the classical musicians were impressed by the beautiful sound and setting at Connell House, the Fusion gig was wall-to-wall, and they were still dancing at Dooly's when I got there at 1am.  Tracy tucked away her butterflies long enough for her fingers to show us some of what she learned in Toronto this summer. And Lonesome Jim was his usual self- acerbic wit coupled with virtuosic strumming and inimitable harp playing, the Beaters got the party started, and the SBO managed to get all the way through our disco and funk set without anybody throwing things.  Life was good!

I need to pause here to re-iterate what a good job Dean Weeks did.  Our SBO is an eight-person band with everything from 5 vocalists to trumpets, trombones, cowbells and shakers.  Thursday night was the clearest we had ever heard ourselves, and we played with only a short, informal soundcheck.  It takes real talent for a soundman to deal with that and make it look natural.  And SOUND GOOD. So Dean, we salute you.  Thanks again :)

Thursday wrapped up with 152 through the gate at the mainstage.  By then people had caught on that they should walk from one place to another.  Don't ask me where they parked.  So once again people forgot that 10pm is 'bedtime' and walked from venue to venue, seeing what they were missing and marvelling that in a tiny town, people could have a choice of which event they wanted to take in. It was great - even the Mayor was there.  Again.  At every event.  Nice work, your Worship.

For the Faithful Who Have Answered

Well, we did it! I guess you can see how much time I had to blog.  Too bad.  But if I would've had time, here's what I might've said.....

Wednesday: We managed to get the mainstage site set-up without any major hitches.  Passed the building inspection and even had time to get a haircut.  Best not to look like a shaggy lion when so many people are coming to visit....Music and art at Connell House were well-received.  The crowd was smaller this year but also more thoughtful.  People who left early missed John Thompson playing the harp and the piano at the same time.  It was surreal!

The Transatlantic Zodiac Ensemble kicked things waaaay up at Fusion.  It's a miracle the band even fit in there - 9 players, including a regular drumset and percussionist, soprano sax, violin, accordian and more.  Wall-to-wall people ate up every morsel they played.  There are always moments as an organizer when you can't believe how little things can add up to something so exciting and that was definitely one of them

Over at Dooly's a few intrepid souls disregarded their Carleton County bedtime (ie. 10pm!) to stay up late and hear Atlantic Bridge.  I am now playing keys and singing with this group and thanks to the steller hosting and tech support of Peter McLaughlin, we managed to make some toes tap and even a few brave souls danced. 

The loudest show of the week was already underway at the Mainstage, sponsored by MES Music.  I didn't have a chance to get there but I heard people had a great time.  I can't say enough about Dean and Jennie Weeks and their support for this festival.  We would have fallen on our faces without Dean.  He had the gear, he was there all week with only a few breaks and made everyone sound fantastic.  So if you live around here, you'd better buy local, because we're screwed if something ever happens to MES Music!!

I'll write some more about the rest later.  Didn't realize there was this much to tell!  Stay tuned.....

How To Build A Dooryard

Step One: Get a bunch of rugged volunteers
Step Two: Disassemble 44 sections of steel 10 foot fencing
Step Three: Rent a mucho expensive tent ($$$$)
Step Four: Get a Building Permit
Step Five: Figure out how to secure said tent according to Building Code without going broke or crazy (cement blocks, thanks Town of Woodstock)
Step 6: Add caffeine and mix
Step 7: Rent a portable stage
Step 8: Add merch and bar tents
Step 9: Finish with PA Systems from busy local soundman
Step 10: Pray that the people come to enjoy it

See you in the Dooryard, I'll be blogging as much as I can for those who can't be here in person (or prefer the eerie glow of their computer monitor).

Like a Carleton County potluck, only for the arts . . .

The excitement surrounding this year's Dooryard Arts Festival is palpable.  Everyone is waiting to see how it's going to go, because this year it's waaay bigger than any one person or stereotype.  We've got rockers, we've got banjos, we've got violins, we've got paints, prints, kids, vendors, singers, songwriters, poets, body artists, knitters, potters, painters and writers. And more - really.

What excites me most about this festival is the variety - it's not just a rock fest for hipster teenagers.  It's not another gospel concert with the same old tunes, or another fancy fine arts show.  It's everything all mixed together, with everyone contributing in their own unique way.  Even the "steering committee" isn't really steering this bus - Dean Weeks booked the Indie Night, Valley Young Company chose their production, musicians built new bands, and the excitement just keeps growing. 

Don't get me wrong, we're readier than ever.  But if you're looking for a genre typecast for this festival, you'd best keep rolling down the river.  Because the only thing that really unifies this festival is our location - being here in (mostly) Carleton County, and having some form of individual or collective human expression. Expect the unexpected, expect to see, hear, taste, smell and even touch things you don't normally experience. 

This is the wonderful thing about the arts: it takes us beyond our puny and often self-absorbed personal identities (I put myself in this category too, don't worry) and takes us somewhere else.  Like trying that new dish at a potluck.  You don't have to eat a plateful, but just try it, already.  You might like it, and even if you don't, at least you will have experienced a little shred of personal growth.  This is the stuff that life is made of.

VYC: Never Swim Alone

VYC has changed its Dooryard Production to "Never Swim Alone" by Nova Scotia playwright Daniel McIvor.  If you've purchased an "Our Town" ticket, those will be honoured at the door and any difference in price refunded to you.  Full refunds will also be available should you choose not to attend "Never Swim Alone,"  but we encourage you to check out this great Maritime show.

Some info from Lee Kinney, Artistic Director of VYC:

Never Swim Alone by Nova Scotian playwright Daniel MacIvor. The play is a very contemporary piece with three actors - 2 men, 1 woman - with very minimal set, costume and lighting requirements. The piece is very engaging and exciting, and will introduce new staging and production styles for our company.


Russ Hunt, a STU professor, wrote a review of the a Hampton High production in 2003 that can be found here: http://www.stthomasu.ca/~hunt/reviews/swim.htm and is worth taking a look through for an idea of the play.

If you're not familiar with MacIvor, he is also well worth taking a look at. He is one of the most successful and prolific Canadian playwrights, specializing in meta-theatrical plays, and profound and hilarious one-man shows. He is originally from Sydney, NS, and has been working across Canada since the early 80s, continuing to write today (his latest play "His Greatness" about Tenessee Williams was published in 2008).

There's Something About Dooryard

Well, we've seen what's coming down the river, and it's a whole lot of festival fun. 

Last year's Dooryard Arts Festival was the first edition.  And we all know what "firsts" can be like: thrilling, hectic, terrifying, confusing, and unforgettable.  We ended last year sunburnt to a crisp, not quite broke and fiercely proud of what we managed to accomplish - despite needing Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, and Plan D to find a location, and figuring out how to close streets, recruit artists, pay musicians, power PA systems and countless other things.

This year we've made many improvements: cleaner porta potties (oh, YEAH!), a larger tent, food vendors, children's activities, art workshops for adults, more bands, more artists,  a great Saturday market lineup, new venues and much more.  I dare say this is the largest display of local talent anywhere in the province.  So, in keeping with last year's tradition, here are 10 things you do not want to miss at this year's Dooryard Arts Festival.

10.  Still-life drawing workshop for adults, Thursday, 7pm.  Yes, Virginia, adults can learn something new.

9.  Charlie Bomb: Hit and Run premiere, Wednesday night.  Charlie's worst nightmare and a few laughs too.

8. The opening cocktail party at Connell House.  Beautiful room, beautiful food, beautiful music. MMmm...

7. Writers! Jason Wilson on Thursday evening, Vagabond Trust on Friday afternoon, Beyond Words on Saturday afternoon.  Writers don't go out in public often, get a peek while you can.

6. The biggest little bands you can imagine stuffed into Fusion: Transatlantic Zodiac Ensemble (Wednesday ) and Oh No, Theodore! (Saturday).  No cover, but the Karma Cup will be in attendence.

5. New artworks from Jill Stephenson, Adam Atherton and Laurel Green. 

4. Tunes "from away:" Montreal's Abigail Lapell, NYC violinist Marc Zsammer and Nova Scotia's Mike Dalton.

3. The most rockin' evening Carleton County has seen since Woodstock. Oh wait....Mike Bochoff, Telfer, and Andrew Hunter & the Gatherers blow the roof off the mainstage Saturday night.

2. Juno Award Winner and banjo poet Old Man Luedecke makes you take back all those banjo jokes. Friday night on the mainstage.

1. Saturday. A full day of all-ages programming, including the return of the Queen Street Market.  Buskers, food, artist vendors, children's readings, drumming workshops, a magician, writers and songwriters.  This year, folks, the city comes to us. Say it with me: Saturday!

We've heard through the grapevine people are talking about the festival.  We hope so, it's for you!

Who Cares for the Body?

The random farmers near the roadside make me wonder.  They make my mouth water because I came from a family where you went outside to pick your supper, washed it and then put it on the table.  But these berry, egg and vegetable offerings next to commercial centres also make me uneasy - they shouldn't have to sit in deserted parking lots all day to get their produce to people. When farmers aren't in the grocery store, and aren't at the Farm Market, something is wrong.

I don't say this to upset any of the fine people on the Farm Market Board of Directors - they've worked hard to get a building and keep things going during times when food wasn't the blockbuster issue it seems to have become lately.  But we desperately need to have fresh local food at our Farm Market - not just for farmers, but for our bodies (not to mention the body politic).

But all this talk of food and the issues that surround it - corporate control of meat and grain production, obesity and diabetes, the death of cooking and the family meal, the separation that most people have from their food producers - really makes me think about the body and how uncared for it is nowadays.

For example: we're continually blasted with images and exhortations to buy food that is terrible for our bodies and for the planet.  And we're told it's a "treat."  No, it's not.  My mother's rasberry pie or string beans from the garden or real strawberries or a homemade cookie is a treat. 

We don't send kids outside to exercise and run around anymore, we don't go out dancing with our friends and spouses, we don't walk anywhere and we wonder why our ten year olds look sickly, our twenty year olds have back pain and everyone is depressed.  It's because we don't give proper consideration to our bodies anymore.  Using the phrase "my body" in most social situations will immediately make people suspect you are a wacko of some kind.  Too bad.

When I think back to my childhood, most of my good memories have something to do with my body: the smell of working men in my family coming in for supper (sawdust, hay and motor oil), the taste of food picked off the plant and eaten (carrots rinsed with the garden hose and devoured), long uphill bike rides and flying downhill on the other side, swims in the brook and lake, the homecooking of numerous aunts, mothers and grandmothers, mud pies, sandboxes, swing sets, sunsets, horses, long stories after supper. 

These are treats and not of the high-minded philosophical variety.  They are the things that form culture, keep us civilized and make us truly human.  I feel sad that we've lost the body.  I think the mind can be a terrible tyrant if it runs the show all the time.  A mind can be convinced of anything if you put the right message on 'repeat.'  The body is an ecosystem with its own internal balance.  When the environment of the body is off-kilter, it colours everything we see, hear, taste, touch, feel and think. 

Until we make peace with our bodies, we will never solve our overconsumption problems.  As goes the body, so goes the nation, perhaps....

Passivity

I'm nearly finished reading Richard Sennett's brilliant book "The Fall of Public Man."  I am on quest right now to understand why things are they way they are, both in general "society" and also in our little town.  It's pretty interesting, and beats watching the same commerical ten times in one evening.

I like Sennett because he doesn't just repeat the standard answers: ie. capitalism is bad, people are obsessed with material things, the political elite don't want an electoral system that actually reflects the priorities of working people. Spare me, please - it's not that simple.

Instead he looks at ideas of public and private and how our perception of what those mean has changed since the industrial revolution.  In the 17th and early 18th centuries people in public saw themselves as actors.  Showing your feelings was a well-practiced art, with specific ways of demonstrating each.  Talking to complete strangers in public was totally normal. Being social in a crowd was completely normal. Costumed public appearances were normal too.

Today people are absorped in the psychological dimensions of their families, living in neighbourhoods where people are just like them, and seeing crowds and strangers as something to be feared.  The most valued bonds are formed by sharing deep intimate thoughts. "Community" is made up of people forming these bonds. Narcissism is everywhere.

Our fundamental ideas about public and private have changed a lot, and where people used to be demonstrative in public, now they are passive, keeping their feelings on the inside and keeping their bodies still and silenced. We teach our children this all the time.

It was very common for people in the 18th century theatres to heckle, spit, boo, hiss, cry, laugh, and even sit on the stage.  They did this unabashedly.  Picture the House of Commons during Question Period - that's what it was like.

Now it's difficult to get people to respond or participate in ordinary situations.  I've seen it - audiences that won't laugh or can't decide if it's "okay" to clap, people who won't dance to music designed for dancing, people who won't introduce themselves to someone despite being in close proximity to a stranger, church congregations who won't sing above a whisper for fear of hearing their collective voice.  It's everywhere, pass the remote control. It has poltical implications - most people won't get organized enough to protest or to challenge systems which are actually doing harm to them or their compatriots.

Situations where people shun this passivity are seen as audacious and maybe slightly dangerous. Heaven forbid you might be seen enjoying yourself in public, or that you might experience something out of the ordinary in a crowd of strangers. You might actually change the system.

I think school has a large part in engraining passivity, as do television and advertising.  I think this passivity makes us insecure about ourselves and robs us of opportunities to express joy, sorrow and anger in a meaningful way in public.  We have a need to participate in something other than consumerism, whether it's collective joy, the political process, storytelling, or the social life of a town or city.

So get off the couch/internet/txt and go somewhere new today.  What you will see will change you.  And you'll be fine - slightly different, but more fully human.

How will I know what to "like" ?

I don't have time to fully explore this right now but it looks promising.  All you techno-punks (or people who value their private information) will likely find this interesting.

http://www.joindiaspora.com/project.html

More to come after I have a chance to digest...

That pesky Charter of Rights

A lot has been said and written about the G8/G20 events in Toronto.  Here's what I have to say about it.

A lot of the commentators seem to have really bizarre perceptions of people who protest.  There is generally no discussion about why normal people decide to skip the family BBQ, the trip to the movies, etc. to go and get their heads whacked by a bunch of agressive and.or frightened police officers. (I'm not convinced all police officers are inherently evil).

The assumptions tend to go one of two ways:
1. These "privileged kids" should stop whining and realize how good their lives are. 
2.  The protesters are trouble-makers who don't even know what they're protesting.

I have been to a couple of large protests (tear-gas included) and here's who goes to protests: old ladies who are concerned about cuts to public health care and pensions, students who feel that corporations have too much economic power/political influence/not enough responsibilty, union members who are concerned about their job security, indigenous people who have been kicked off their land, people concerned about climate change and environmental degradation.

There seems to be a real disconnect between Canadians' assumptions that we have "free speech" and supporting fellow Canadians in the exercise of those rights.  In case you forgot, here's what ye olde Charter of Rights and Freedoms has to say on the issue:

                     SECTION 2: Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:
(a) freedom of conscience and religion;
(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
Citizens have the right to challenge the legitimacy of corporate institutions like the G8 and the G20. Disagreeing with the government does not equal losing your democratic rights. 
(c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and
Standing with a sign and a message does not make you a terrorist.
(d) freedom of association.


If this G20 mess had happened in China, lots of self-righteous commentators would have disapprovingly mentioned that the government spent over a billion dollars on militarzed police, and that shortly after the singing of the national anthem, those police charged into a peaceful crowd, swinging clubs at the heads of mothers, grandmothers, uncles and brothers. 

But it wasn't China, it was Canada.  And lots of people on the sidelines seem to have forgotten that the majority of people who protested are people just like them.  And what I find the most disturbing is that the same people who want to pretend that protesters are "trouble-makers" also complain that corporations have too much power and that governments won't stand up to them. Well, you can't have it both ways, folks. 

One last thing: if people hadn't protested in the past, women would not be legal "persons" in Canada, there would be no regulations against child labour, there would be no health care, minimum wage, collective bargaining or environmental laws.  So maybe it's time to abandon the simplistic assumptions and take a closer look at why regular people would put themselves in harm's way.

Meet the "Meeting House"

I've heard good things about this little beauty in Bath!

Parking first, women and children second

Check out these incredibly depressing photos of downtown Atlanta.  Lots of parking! No people anywhere....just what you needed on a grey day like this, right?

Daily Dead Birds

You can find the numbers dead, oiled and released here. The BP spill is still gushing.

Woodstock: The City That Wasn't?

I finally finished "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" this spring, on my way to the placemaking workshop in NYC.  Since then I have been thinking continually about places in general, Woodstock in particular, and how our culture becomes visible in the buildings we construct, the town we live in, and our attitude towards public gatherings.

I've also been reading a lot by Richard Sennett, an academic who has a very interesting perspective on history, the private vs. public realms, buildings, theatre and culture. Right now I'm working through "The Fall of Public Man," which deals with the ways people present themselves in public now vs. they way they did in the 1700, 1800 and 1900's.  Apparently back then it was completely normal to address strangers in public, to see oneself as a 'performer' in public, much like an actor, and to assemble in public places for celebrations.

I look at a town like Woodstock, with its small but preserved public square and I start thinking about who really built this town, how it has evolved from two small settlements (one at Upper Woodstock, one at the Meduxnekeag and St. John rivers).

If you look at the Census information for Woodstock, the population really hasn't changed much since its founding.  Add to that the fact that Woodstock is at an ideal geographic location - the meeting point of two rivers, at the junction of TCH #2 and Interstate 95, the fact that it is equi-distant between Portland, Maine, Halifax, and Montreal, and it would appear that Woodstock has all the geographic characteristics of a city.

But it hasn't grown.  Why?

I think there are several reasons.  First, because the people who settled here were Loyalists, people who were averse to taking risks, preferring instead to follow rules and leave the American Colonies to preserve their social status and avoid conflict. 

Also, I think this conservativeness (and I mean that in a general sense, leave the blue guys out of this) has implications for public gatherings, the encouragement of creativity and the status of young people.  Creative young people want to socialize, try new things, experiment and take risks.  All of which are seen primarily as negatives around here.  Challenge me on that if you can think of examples of risk-takers being lionized in the public realsm, but I can't think of any ready examples.

A culture that sees young people as a threat or a liability or a culture that is uncomfortable with sexuality outside of monogamy/heterosexuality is not going to meet the needs of many young people. And many profitable enterprises are started by risk-taking, creative people in their teens and twenties.  Look at Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, etc.  This reticence has a big impact on the future of small towns.

An overemphasis on marriage and families causes people to withdraw from public life.  I think it would be fair to say that many people around here conside cities and families incompatible.  As in "you can't raise a good family in the city,"  or "I would never raise kids in the city." I guess cities are associated with crime, but there are break-ins (and even the occasional shooting) around here frequently and nobody labels Woodstock as a "dangerous" place to live.  So why do we feel that way about cities?

The other day my friend and I were listing all of the organizations that attempted to locate in Woodstock and were denied: King's Landing, McCain Foods, the Nackawic Pulp Mill.  Those are some pretty heavy hitters and if you took those and added them to Woodstock as it stands today, you would be well on your way to "city" status. 

I will likely write more on this topic, as it's something I think about a lot.  Add your two cents: why do you think Woodstock is not a city?

If people in Woodstock wanted to grow the town into a city, how could we go about doing that? 

Hmmm.

Can you say "escrow" ?

Looks like BP had better start saving for the billions they will have to pay out in damages and compensation.  Not that the ecosystem can put it in its RRSP, of course, but you know what I mean, right....??

More on NYC

Trying to balance my oily despair with something positive.  Here's more on what I learned in NYC.  This might appear soon in the Bugle-Observer.

What makes a good public place?
This is one of the questions I tried to answer during a short trip to New York City at the end of April. On April 29th and 30th, I was part of a group of businesspeople, city employees, sustainability advocates and students from around the world who came to learn "How to Turn a Place Around."

I went because I am concerned about Woodstock's downtown. When I look around downtown, I see two beautiful rivers, some remaining historical buildings, friendly people and high-quality small businesses.

But the downtown is also occupied by a large number of vacant lots, such as the one at the corner of Queen and Main streets. Many parking lots used during the day are vacant during evenings and weekends.

Thinking that workshops on "How to Turn a Place Around" could provide fresh ideas, strategies and insight, off I went to Manhattan, the only person from a small town in a room full of "city folk."

We looked at lots of photos of great public places, spaces where people go to relax, walk dogs, buy sandwiches, play with their kids or go on dates. These places were more than "parks" - they are intended to be the "backyards of people who live in the area." What a great notion!

Although Connell Park is the "backyard" of people living in the Creighton and Deacon neighbourhoods, downtown Woodstock doesn't really have a place where you can sit in the shade, take your shoes off and spend an afternoon or evening.

We also learned about "Placemaking" - that every successful public place needs four things: to be accessible and well-connected to other important places in the area, to be comfortable and project a good image, to host activities people can participate in, and to be a sociable place that people will gather over and
over again.

We learned about some very simple processes to engage local residents in improving public places. We also learned how to observe how people actually use a place - where they will and won't cross the street, how long they will stay, which age groups are or aren't present, etc. This information helps lead the improvement process.

One simple piece of advice we were given was "start with the petunias." If a place looks cared for, poeople are more likely to visit and also to respect the space.

During the sessions, we heard the fascinating story of Bryant Park, which is located just south of Times Square. Apparently it was a notorious haven for drug dealers and criminals in the late 1960's and early 1970's.

Using the "placemaking" process, some of our workshop presenters helped revitalize Bryant Park. They eliminated the concealing hedges, made the entryway open, added furniture and a sandwich stand to encourage people to frequent the park.

I visited Bryant Park the evening before I left and it was truly the most beautiful, serene, and magical place I have ever seen in a city.

Sometime in the future I would like to share some more information about what I learned and see what the residents of Woodstock can do to create a shared "backyard" in our downtown. Let's start with the petunias!

BP Oil Could Reach Atlantic Coast This Summer

It's a global village, alright.

The madness continues

Follow up to yesterday's post: Greece announces plans to sell its railways and public water systems as per its agreement with the IMF.  Bye, bye public assets.

On the oil front, the latest attempt is looking like a failure.  Had a dream last night I was clinging to a fake leather couch covered in oil, trying to avoid falling into the oily water.  Wonder what those pelicans must feel like...

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continues. I feel like this is exactly what's wrong with the western society - never mind just the United States, although it's easy to point the finger at them and safeguard our own superiority. 

Oil companies have manipulated legislatures, pressured and bought politicians in order to relax regulations intended to safeguard the common good.  That's what's really at stake here, some sense that the Gulf is important enough to belong to everyone - the people who depend on it for fishing, tourism or making a living, the marine life it contains, the birds that stop there along their many thousands of migratory miles. 

All of a sudden, we have a legal/political system that says that drilling for oil (and making profits for oil companies) is more important than safeguarding a body of water that controls a large part of the climate in the North Atlantic.  We're drowning in our own arrogance, to think that these kinds of policies are in our "best interest." Everything is connected and we've blown a large hole right into one very important link.  And judging from the latest reports, it's unlikely that the gusher will be silenced before August - after several hurricanes have likely had the chance to stir the oily ocean and wash it half-way to kingdom come. You're right, I'm mad. 

I'm mad because we live in a society that refuses to restructure itself away from oil dependency because it will be "too slow" or "too hard" or "too painful."  I doubt our grandparents who lived through the Depression or the World Wars were this wimpy and selfish. And I'm also upset that each person who drives everywhere, buys food shipped from the other side of the world, and can never have enough "stuff" doesn't want to admit that their personal choices are part of what created the demand that put the Deepwater Oil Rig in the Gulf to begin with. We can continue this kind of denial but the people, birds, animals and marine life off the coast of Louisiana are now paying the price for our actions.

One final thing - and I'm sorry if you find this depressing but it's the reality we have created for ourselves - if this crisis had been a crisis of public finance, or healthcare, or transportation, corporations would be banging down the doors of government demanding we privatize those resources.  If you don't think that's true, look at the recent IMF bailout of Greece, or read Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine."

If people and environmentalists are smart, they will use the current ecological tragedy to implement stiff environmental laws.  If you have a rig like this blow up, you should lose your drilling license in the U.S. for at least five years.  That would be the kind of deterrent big oil understands - a threat to the bottom line.  But of course, society is too addicted to oil to restrict our own access.  Will we continue to act like junkies who let their dealer burn down their house and ruin their neighbourhood, or will we see what's really coming down the pipeline if we don't change our ways?

Turning a Place Around: let's go!

It's hard to know where to begin writing about my recent trip to NYC.  I haven't travelled alone in a while and life is so busy here at the moment that it's hard to focus my reeling mind on anything other than what I have to get done tomorrow.  Nevertheless, it was a fabulous trip, and the workshop I attended, called "How to Turn a Place Around" was excellent.  I went because I think Woodstock could use a little turning around. Our downtown looks like it's been hit by a bomb, and it's been that way for over a year.  Here's my first in a series of posts.

DAY 1 - Thursday, April 29th. 

We gathered in a room full of anticipation, strangers with no common frame of reference except some vague affinity for "great public places," whatever that means.  We came because we were interested in change, because we could envision a world beyond the one we knew right now.  We were sick of being told it "couldn't be done" and that "nothing would ever change around here." Wherever "here" was, we had all been told the same thing.

Then the presentations began, with no manifestoes about "the man" or "the machine" or invectives against cars or capitalism, no conspiracy theories, no MBA's, nothing except discussions of benches, moveable furniture, garbage cans, crosswalks, sightlines, trees and bicycles.  Really elemental stuff, objects with which everyone has had direct contact, spaces we can experience in the flesh and report back on, whether we are homeless people or corporate executives.  It felt very liberating not to have to "apply the formula" or "read the manual" in order to give valid feedback on something we'd experienced.

It was really nice to study how to create a place that would acknowledge human needs and meet them, instead of rigidly demanding that humans set their deep needs aside and bow to "rational management." It felt good to acknowledge that people want to be in the presence of other humans in a way that isn't rabidly commercial or psychotically self-interested. That fullfillment isn't in staying home and surfing the thousand channel universe.

The workshop threw ideologies out the window and let us be ourselves.  We were glad.

Another reason to like Saint John

Great story here about a 1979 action by longshoremen in Saint John that prevented "heavy water" from reaching the military dictatorship in Argentina.  An excerpt:

As a result of the protest, 11 of the 17 political prisoners were released within days and three were sent into exile. Another of the prisoners identified by the NO CANDU campaign, union leader Alberto Piccinini, was released a year later. During a visit to Canada, he expressed his gratitude to a group of Canadian workers: “Unity is the unity of all of us; and it must go beyond national boundaries. I am very clear that I am free today because of the struggle first of the people in my country and second because of workers elsewhere – especially in this beautiful country.”

Chile under Pinochet was one of the most brutal regimes of the 20th century, and was supported by most governments, including Canada.  Luckily, the courage and common decency of people in Saint John was able to help a few Chileans. 

At long last, the facebook status blog

I knew it would come to this eventually.  Today I'm not writing about an article or podcast, but about a friend's facebook status.  She wrote:

JW is thinking about words: burqa, niqab, sharia, Europe, dhimmi, submission, identity, public security, social inclusion, choice, public/private dichotomy... and wondering whether it is possible to come to agreement on what these words mean.

It got me to thinkin'. 

I have read a bunch of books about the Muslim world and the veil and face-covering issues just never go away.  For women in the west, we've grown up hearing (if not always experiencing) that women and men deserve to participate equally in public life.  Canadian society is increasingly one in which women earn as much money or more than their partners, fathers take paternity leave or even stay at home with children, and the view that women belong in the kitchen, or are the property of their husbands and fathers is long since passed.  Thank goodness.

Of all the words in her status list, I think choice is the most important. Whether burqas are banned or not, either way you still have men (either Islamic fundamentalists or western lawmakers) telling women what is okay to wear.  They don't have a choice in the matter - their dress is dictated by someone else. 


I find this debate very difficult - Canada is supposed to be a nation of religious freedom. But when religious freedom means one gender oppresses the other it's a hard pill to swallow. The sad part is, most Muslim women don't even have any way to voice their opinions on the matter. They are mostly shut out from public participation.  That's what bugs me the most.

So then you have to ask yourself whether passing a law banning female face coverings will actually enhance quality of life for these women or further contribute to their seclusion. Looking at the examples of Muslim men murdering their wives or daughters for becoming "too westernized" you have to wonder if banning face coverings could mean putting a vulnerable group even more at risk. It could mean they will never be able to leave their houses.  Then you will have an entire sector of the population effectively under house arrest.
 
The other part of the debate that bothers me is that the law is aimed at Muslims.  I don't see anyone taking on the oppression of women within extreme Christian sects - and they do exist, in places where 14-year old girls are married off to old men who already have multiple wives.  And let's not forget that some religions don't allow women to wear pants or cut their hair. So it seems a bit hypocritical to me for western parliaments to point their fingers at Muslims only when religious "oppression" (if that's what you want to call it) exists in many forms. So to me the "human rights" argument feels a bit sanctimonious.
 
I don't believe a ban is the way to go. I believe it will do more harm than good. If we really wanted to do well for Muslim women, I think there are other things we could be doing, like education and job training.  Women will take off their veils when they have adequate social resources to do so.  When they can stand on their own feet economically and make their own choices financially and in terms of marriage then they will have a choice on how to clothe themselves, either at home or in public.

Not in my orchestra's back yard

Let me tell you a little bit about the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra.  It began back in the 1960's and up until a few years ago had a pretty low profile.  The budget was limited but the dedication of volunteers, players and the conductor, Dr. James Mark, kept it going.  Dr. Mark was my conducting teacher at Mount A. and never once have I heard a single person say anything negative about him.  Never once have I heard him raise his voice at a student or ensemble.  A true gentleman, to say the least.

Lately the NBYO has succeeded in taking some high profile trips such as China, Carnegie Hall and Italy.  Much of this was made possible by the hard work of the chair of NBYO's Board, Ken McLeod.  This Board also recently launched the 'Sistema' program, which is an excellent initiative that provides orchestral instruments and training to children in the Moncton area, regardless of their financial status.

But here's the conflict: it appears that the NBYO is considering replacing Dr. Mark with a Venezuelan conductor connected to Sistema.  After more than 15 years of dedication the Board is trying to push Dr. Mark aside over the objections of many in the orchestra, who feel that Dr. Mark is an excellent conductor.  Dr. Mark himself has said he does not want to leave the NBYO.  It really bugs me that such a dedicated man would be bulldozed in an attempt to build more prestige for Sistema. 

In NB we often think our people are not as good as outsiders but we need leaders who understand New Brunswick and its situation.  Dr. Mark rountinely travels all over our rural province in an attempt to give young musicians a chance to audition.  He knows who the active teachers are, and has given years of his life to build this orchestra. 

I support the Sistema program but I think NBYO is "cutting of its nose to spite its face," as we say around here.  Dr. Mark deserves our loyalty and he should leave at a time of his choosing, not because of someone else's ambition.

Attention mentors and teachers: you matter

Hopefully everyone can idenfity a person who helped them to build skills and character and become more successful.  These mentors are oftentimes more important than friends or family because they encourage us to overcome obstacles in our thinking that prevent us from putting our talents into the world. Here's a great list of famous people and their mentors from the Harvard Mentors Project, take a look. 

I've been reading a little bit by the Dalai Lama and the Buddhists believe we are reborn many times until we learn to transcend suffering.  One thing I have been thinking about is how our actions affect other people - the 'vibe' we give off translates to other people feeling worthy or worthless, scared or safe, joyful or depressed.  Sometimes we fool ourselves into thinking that our actions don't matter, that nobody sees or cares what we do.  But the truth is we have enormous power to inspire, motivate and support one another, if we choose.  As Yeats once wrote:

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

Busy Bee

The RiVA machine is working overtime right now, planning for summer and trying to get ye olde Victorian beauty at 702 Main prepared for its Dooryard debut. In the meantime, we've applied for our charity status (meaning we will *fingers crossed* be able to issue tax receipts for donations), completed our first AGM and welcomed new board members.

It's unbelievable how different the preparations feel this year - this time last year we didn't even know where to rent a large outdoor tent, knew nothing about permits, codes, by-laws or zoning (and believe me, there's a LOT to know), and weren't even incorporated.  So, with 70% of this year's festival confirmed, we're an excited bunch.  I can feel the community support starting to appear; maybe some people are curious to see what they missed last summer.

A brief list of things I've learned:
1. Most people are nice and want to help.
2. You will have to do it yourself at first.
3. Be patient.  Then wait longer and be more patient.
4. Look for the right helpers and find the right job for them to do.  This makes life wonderful and you have company in addition to help.
5. Change is possible but it moves at such a slow rate as to be nearly inconceivable in the short-term.
6. All successes are worth celebrating.
7. Passion can move mountains, if you're patient (see #3).

This pretty much sums it up

But what about your pension?  Your benefits? 

When I left teaching, a lot of people asked me these questions.  Here's a look at other people who have left the 9-5 life, because they realize that
            
            your well-being is not tied to finances. It’s tied to relationships, it’s tied to skills it’s tied to creativity, resourcefulness and a sense of peace, intellectual challenge –  these are the things that enable our well-being,” she says.

It doesn't seem that radical to me, but in an era where GDP rules it's an awkward thing to explain sometimes.

Real change for the real world

Ken Robinson is right, education is one of those topics that "goes deep with people."  Public education is such a complicated undertaking and we have industrialized our schools much in the same way we have factories and farming.  The end result of this is that students who are not in the middle of the bell curve are often stigmatized - and this takes place for both "gifted" kids and kids who "struggle." 

In reality, I believe that all kids are intelligent and talented; the problem comes from a system that won't/can't accomodate different kinds of learning.  Temple Grandin takes on the subject of Autistic learners in this great talk.  Mentors, unite!

I would love to see some down-home, hands-on experiential learning here in New Brunswick.  I think the best thing we can do for our young people is share our knowledge, skills and passion for our work.  I wish we were better at that.

The theatre is the best social secretary of the law

So says David Hare, the English playwright who writes plays based on current events such as the invasion of Iraq and the financial crisis of 2008.  Great thoughts on politics, economics, Shakespeare, and how power inevitably has its own way. To hear the podcast, click on "Writers and Company" and scroll down to David Hare.

There goes another piece of the neighbourhood

Well.  I left town for one day and came home only to discover that Joel Rose had the Broadway School demolished.  First, the facts:

1. JR has owned the school for years.
2. All he had to do was request a demo permit and there's nothing anyone could do.  That's how this private property thing works.
3. There are currently no heritage by-laws in Woodstock to prevent this from happening.

As for hearsay, I head that JR had attempted to reconfigure the building as apartments, but thought that the cost of bringing the building up to code (we're talking elevators, electrical overhaul, h-vac etc.) was too much.  Apparently he has 'no future plans' for the site - I'm guessing it was torn down so he wouldn't have to continue to pay property taxes.  All of which is his business, except....

When the Wesylan church was torn down, it was the Weslyan congregation's business, and the same for all those other historic buildings Woodstock continues to lose.  And people inevitably get upset but there is no way to channel the loss people experience when a beautiful and still structurally sound old building gets replaced by a newer, uglier chunk of vinyl. Our collective heritage is going the way of the dodo.

If we planned a forum about preserving historic buildings, would anybody come? This is something I have been thinking about for a long time.  If we're serious as a community about our built heritage, we need to get off the couch (or in my case, offline!) and do something about it.  And I don't just mean complain.  I mean come up with workable real-world solutions to alleviate the problem.

If you're game, let me know.  If not, see you on facebook.

So Sue Me

I taught public school for three years without obtaining the B. Ed. degree.  One of the courses the province made me take was school law, where I found out that teachers can be sued by anyone, at any time, for anything.  Later in my short teaching career, the Grade 7 trip to the waterslides was cancelled for fear of lawsuits.  Last summer, after I had resigned from public teaching, our non-profit organization got itself tangled up in zoning and building permit red tape.

 Legalities are everywhere, and everyone is terrified of that next lawsuit, which seems always to be just around the corner.  Here's one lawyer's proposal on how to restore the law to its rightful state of protecting common freedoms instead of hindering them.

Africville: a proper apology

Halifax Mayor Peter Kelly will apologize to former residents of Africville who were evicted and their homes bulldozed in the 1960's.  A bridge was built where their community used to be.

RiVA takes it to the streets....and youtube

Here is a great video prepared by my sister Tracy, about what we are planning for 702 Main Street in Woodstock.  It's super exciting and I would encourage you to dream big as you watch it!

One for all my homeboys in the woods

My grandfather shoed horses for men who worked in the woods and my dad worked in the woods.  Working in the woods is the New Brunswick way.

So, here's a cute little video for all you NB girls who 'get' what she's singing about. I can't imagine the liability insurance this guy would need in today's day and age.

Food Security in NB

People are working on it.

The heavy hitters and I agree, for once.....

Great article on the themes coming out of the World Economic Forum meetings in Davos.  While I am always concerned that too much power is concentrated in the hands of too few people, I think these observations are very astute.  The trends discussed in this article will continue to be relevant, methinks.

Re-thinking the Hallmark Holiday

I'm not much for Valetines' Day - one year my lovely sister and I decided we were going to have the anti-Valentine's Day. So we drank some beer, ate Doritos and watched Sigourney Weaver shoot aliens in outer space. Fun times.

But on a more serious note, with Valentine's Day coming up I read this essay and starting thinking about women and how they get treated sometimes.  Thankfully, misogyny and sexism have not been part of my everyday experiences.  In fact, the phrase that we heard from our father most often growing up was "Why can't you fellas show a little initiative and help your mother out?"  So, let's get those dishes done, shall we?

I was raised in a family with three girls, which meant that we didn't have any brothers around to fix things, lift heavy stuff or tell us how to behave.  With two egalitarian parents, gender roles were not especially defined and now, as adults, my sisters and I haul amplifiers, load trailers with horses, finish drywall, cook, and take care of whatever else life demands.

But still, there was the time I applied for a mortgage and was told (by a woman, no less) that "that's not the way this normally works.  Usually a man and a woman get married, and the woman has a baby, and then they buy a house."   Not in my world, lady!

So, as Valentine's Day approaches, take a minute and think about the women in your life, what they have accomplished and how they are treated.  Most people are caring and just, but there are still examples where women deserve more respect - and respect is the most powerful way to show your love for someone else, no brand name required.

You said it

"No one can fix all of Haiti, everyone has to fix his own part." A look at how one street in Port-au-Prince is coping.

Work, babies, families, and salaries: changes on the horizon

Here's a great article from the New York Times about the changing trends in birthrates, employment and attitudes towards children in Europe and the U.S.  Apparently most schools in Germany have been dismissing at noon ever since schooling became mandatory 250 years ago.  Now that's beginning to change because women want to be working or have to be employed to make ends meet.

A smart internet commentor?

I find the Globe and Mail's online comment boards particularly depressing.  Rarely do I read anything other than lots of partisan hacks accusing each other of partisan-hackery.  But this guy, who ever he is, is smart.  Here's what mystery commentator-man says about NB Power Sale, the sequel (coming soon to a political theatre near you):

When it comes to Plan B, the devil will definitely be in the details. The political about-face on the ownership of the grid is a major victory for New Brunswickers who were justifiably concerned that the original deal would have compromised provincial sovreignty and deprived future governments of any control over rates in the long term.

Lamrock: No Deal

It apppears the anger is starting to hit home.  Shawn Graham's #2 man has said he won't support the deal in its current form.  Apparently many other ministers and members of caucus feel this way too.  Shawn Graham has a revolt on his hands: without the support of his caucus he's dead in the water (in the political sense).

Resign now, Mr. Graham.  The people of NB and your colleagues have had enough.  It's time to scrap this deal and move on to fixing a valuable Crown Corporation that belongs to the people of New Brunswick.

One final word of skepticism - Graham may pull a last-ditch attempt at 'revamping' the deal to try and save his hide.  Whether we hear "my kingdom for a horse" or not, we need to keep an eye on a government whose only remaining fuel is desperation. NO means NO - not for sale.

A stranger is a friend I haven't met yet

How to live to be one hundred.

One Chimpanzee Does Not Make a Chimpanzee

I heard this line in a couple of days ago and it's rolling around in the back of my brain.

We are a social animal, and we need other people to make us who we are.  Listen to this great podcast about "attachment," which Susan Johnson believes will be the most influential psychological theory of the new century.  It stands opposed to behaviorism (ie. Pavlov's dogs) and Freudian psychoanalysis (ie. Oedipus et al). 

As Johnson says early on, it's basically a theory of love, but the man who came up with it couldn't call it that because he would have been ridiculed.   Teaching public school, we heard a lot of mumblings about "attachment disorders" - students who couldn't trust anyone, were oppositional, and didn't know how to interact with others in a positive way.  The research backing attachment theory shows that babies who don't get proper emotional nurturing don't develop properly, either emotionally or intellectually.

So, now we've reached the point where science is beginning to put names and theories on our intuitions - that mothers and babies need lots of time together, that every human needs other emotional connections, whether 7 years old or 75.  Until we abandon the ridiculous macho notion that we are better off doing everything for ourselves, we will continue to flounder as a group. 

This ties into much of what I think about New Brunswickers - we're very geographically isolated from one another.  And when you go to meetings (if you're lucky enough to be on a committee) it takes forever, because people aren't really there to conduct business.  They're there to enjoy each other's company and to remember they're not alone in this world.

Fundamentalism, by any other name

We were in the Old Home Week parade last August, and what struck me most was the facial expressions of people watching the parade. They didn't show any emotion: no pleasure or displeasure, recognition, fear, amusement, nothing. Very strange, to be on display in public in front of people who seemed totally immune from any kind of reaction. Like you were the television and they were passively 'viewing' but not engaged.

Great article from a Yemeni man in the Globe and Mail - talking about his family's gradual transition from progressive values to Wahabi-style fundamentalism. The paragraph that struck me most:

Collectively they have become television addicts. Satellite TV, featuring hundreds of channels from the Arab world and beyond, has taken over from reading and socializing as the main form of entertainment. Why? Because among the many channels you can watch are the more Islamist ones (Hezbollah's Manar TV, for example) that promote a rigid version of the faith.

I often wonder about the worlds we close out - for example, how we don't gather in public anymore, we go to people's houses.  There's a thriving business in Christian subculture sanitizing Hollywood movies-  removing all swearing, nudity or violence to make them 'safe' for viewing.  I think media - be it TV, the intermet, movies, plays a huge role in shaping our realities.  And it's interesting to see that it's the same phenomenon in Yemen - except it's not American Idol, it's Manar TV.

You think so, young whipper-snapper?

So do I. Way to go Brett!

He oughta know.

So, the former 'top economist in Canada' thinks we've already reached peak oil, and are going back to local sooner rather than later.  As in $7 per gallon gasoline.  Great interview.

Music and poverty - making the connection

In 1975 in Venezuela, a man named Jose Abreu began rehearsing an orchestra in a parking garage. Thirty years later his "Sistema" has changed the lives of tens of thousands of Venezuelans, and produced some of the finest classical musicians on the planet.

This fall, Moncton became the first "Sistema" pilot site in Canada.

VYC want YOU to audition

Happy Holidays from Valley Young Company!

We’re working hard to finalize our 2010 Season and plan to announce the full production schedule by the end of the week. In the mean time, we have scheduled auditions in Woodstock and will be running things a bit differently this year.

We’ll be holding auditions for our full 2010 company in one audition this year, to be held at 6:00 January 3 & 4, 2010 at the WHS theatre (you only need to attend one of the two audition dates). The season this year is going to consist of 3 - 4 shows (look for an email with all the production details in the next few days) and we’ll be auditioning all the shows at this time.

Books: the dark side?

I remember yearning to read, and write. One of my best Christmas presents ever was a set of Disney books on tape (yeah, cassette tape, that's right) that chimed when it was time to turn the page. I read those things until the books fell apart, and got to know a lot of great fairy tales.

Now, humour me for a minute and watch this clip from "Good Will Hunting." They're talking about soul mates and Will is giving the list of authors he counts as soul mates. Then read this column by Rick Salutin and you really see where Robin Williams is coming from. Great thinking, great writing.

Too bad I'm not there in person for the dialogue. I think there's something to be said for oral traditions, and I think we have a strong one here. There's no doubt we have problems with literacy and I'm not saying that's not important; however, the flip side is we have people whose skill at storytelling needs to be heard, not read. Old school, campfire-style.

Bach, mein freude

I've been reading a lot about climate change and peak oil. One man was asked what gave him hope in the face of considering the bleak statistics. Apparently he paused for a minute and then replied: Bach.

Read about the first replica of a Bach-era organ on this side of the Atlantic. I've always said, if I could go back in time to one place, it would be mass at Bach's church. To see the master at the keyboard, improvising a fugue or conducting yet another (almost) brand-new cantata, and hear the mammoth machine sing at his behest, now you're talking!

A change is gonna come

These days I am thinking about the industrial way of living - working away from home, driving everywhere, being stressed out, angry and demoralized because of our schedules, eating food shipped across the globe, buying everything instead of making things, standardization, not having time for social relationships, the elevation of 'knowledge' over 'wisdom.' The list of ways industrialism impacts our lives is huge.

At the same time, I am realizing that we are in the twilight of the industrial age - with oil running low, climate change on the horizon, and many people wondering if this hyper consumer state is the 'it' we have been waiting for. We're told we're rich but we don't always feel rich. The human needs below the surface aren't satisfied by the latest greatest gadget.

You had a choice, sir

This is one of the most famous lines in Canadian political history, when Brian Mulroney turned the tables on John Turner during an election debate.

Read this story of the Halifax NDP MP who is using her 'ten percenters' to advertise art exhibits in her home riding. Typically MP's use these pamphlets to attack the 'other guys' and they're usually Rush Limbaugh-type arguments.

It's about time someone used her power for good. We need more creative people like Meghan Leslie in the House of Commons. Good ideas don't need to cost money.

And on the flip side

An anonymous donor gives free Turkey dinner and a concert to 1000 people in need. Good stories deserve to be re-told.

Information is power

Here's a great video from the courageous journalist Amy Goodman. If you haven't heard of her, take some time to check her out. She tells it like it is.

As you have probably gathered, I am watching this NB Power thing very closely. Most mornings I read the Telegraph Journal online and I am disgusted at their editorial pages lately. They seem to think most New Brunswickers are too dumb to 'see the truth' about this deal, and their condescension is nauseating. I find it sickening that they only seem to parrot what the Liberal PR firms are saying, without fact checking or giving print space to other viewpoints, such as the AIMS report.

Amy Goodman says the first credo of journalists should be 'follow the money.' The TJ certainly isn't doing that in this case and they are doing a disservice to all their readers. Super thumbs down to them.

Weekend ahoy!

For those who truly do work for the weekend, two pieces about pirates, and one about thieves.

Enjoy ye olde nerdy choir cartoon below, and read this story about a young man in Ottawa who actually tried to start a pirate radio station. No doubt he would have called it W-R-R-R, get it?Ye blasted permits can dampen the souls of the saltiest of sea-faring men.


And, for those who enjoy a good political duel, the latest gauntlet is here. If you're not into long reports, fast forward to the last page and read the summary. Not to sound like a country song, but they get the transmission lines, we get the shaft.

Don't be a turkey, slow down and eat

I know it's not Canadian Thanksgiving, but I sure do love food. Here's a great little piece from the NYT for you to enjoy. Interesting to note how well the methods of food production would fit in Carleton County...

And take some time to savour these photographs. Metaphorically, of course. Next year's Dooryard Festival is going to be unreal!

I've changed my mind

I am reading a fantastic new book called "Evolve Your Brain." If you are are interested in brain science, how we learn or how our thoughts affect our bodies, you should read this book too. In it, Dr. Dispenza talks about how we create our personalities through habitual thoughts, and the biochemistry and physiology of how that works.

Repeated thought patterns lead to habits, and those are hard to change if we don't acknowledge that we have created them, that they are not innate. I think this has a lot to do with the NB Power deal, for a couple of reasons:

1. NB'ers historically have been a "have-not" province and we are used to that. By selling NB Power, the government is only reactivating that network in our brains that we can't have anything important or profitable.

2. We do not see ourselves as "fighters" so the public is hesitant to speak up and oppose the deal.
As opposed to our francophone neighbours, who probably would have rioted by now if Hydro Quebec was being sold to Ontario Hydro....

In the book, Dispenza talks about how people say they've "changed their mind" about things. What that really means is their brain has been rewired to consider things differently than before. Your mind has changed, along with your opinion.

Interesting to think about how our thoughts create our realities, isn't it?

In defense of faith

I have a small but rotating list of personal heroes. Feels cheesy to use that word, since we're all supposed to be cynical now, and believe only in the power of money and not the power of people. But nevertheless, some people are inspiring, and not because they have the letters after their names to prove it.

I love hearing about people who have triumphed over adversity. There was a book about Martin Luther King Jr. in my grade 6 classroom and I must have read that book once a week all year. Of course, it was the closest thing to my desk, and I was usually done my work early, but it was worth reading again and again because of the courage of the characters.

David Adams Richards is on my list of 'heroes,' mostly because he is an excellent writer, but also because he didn't follow the conventional path in life. He has a new book out called "God Is" and here's a great interview talking about it (fast forward 3/4 of the way, he's at the end). His honesty cuts to the bone. He can see people for who they are, flaws and all, and yet still sees them with such dignity.

I think New Brunswickers have a salt and a sophistication to them that most people will never comprehend (you gotta live here to get it, right...). Talking about hell being his drinking habit and sitting at bars with murderers and realizing that as the start of his faith. Although he doesn't claim to have answers, he gives a very dignified defense of people's right to choose a faith tradition for the right reasons. These dark months are good times to think about this stuff.

The Joy

... is about enabling other people's stories to be heard, at the same time.

Enjoy this video. Then think about what it means for your life.

And one final word of advice, from Ricard Strauss - "never look at the trombones, it only encourages them."

They're still dancing in Montreal

This comment was made yesterday by the leader of a Madawaska union local, outside the legislature.

It was an interesting event, fairly well-attended for a workday. New Brunwsickers are the most polite protesters ever. They don't want to yell because it's rude and they don't want to say mean things because it might hurt somebody's feelings. Which is good at the dinner table, but problematic when your own Premier is selling you down the river.

Apparently the protest could be heard inside the legislature, and everyone who spoke against the deal acknowledged that it's going to be a long battle. Take the time to email if you haven't already - Shawn Graham is going to pretent to consult people and let his PR spin team do the talking instead.

Our democracy at work

So, the legislature resumes tomorrow. The Graham government will introduce its agenda and outside the 'people's house' citizens will protest the proposed sale of NB Power.

Shawn Graham has made it very clear that he intends to proceed with this deal without a mandate, contrary to his own campaign promises, and over the objections of the auditor general and the owners of NB Power, the people of New Brunswick.

I will be going to Fredericton to show my opposition to this deal. Many people are uncomfortable with protests but in this case, your silence will be interpreted as support for the deal. Failure to speak up, either via email or in person, will lend support to this backroom deal.

It is tempting to let apathy take over at times like this, but if you are oppose to this deal it is your responsibility to speak up now. Complaining after the fact will do nothing to absolve our inaction when it counted most. Get in touch with me if you'd like a drive to Fredericton, the rally starts at noon. If you can't or won't go, you can contact all the provincial MLA's at the same time using these addresses:

Liberal MLA's - leglibmla@gnb.ca PC MLA's - legpcmla@gnb.ca

From the air

People out fishing and working in the woods are being sprayed with pesticides. Companies have admitted there are ways to clear brush from tree plantations without using chemicals, but it costs so much money and labour.

Hiding in the "Heritage Pool"

are lots of details that will cost New Brunwsickers continued rate increases, even with the HQ takeover.

Plus more detailed analsyis here and here. Educate yourself, it's your civic duty.

Now There's a Staff Room I'd like to visit!

Found this paragraph is Claude Levi-Strauss' obituary in the NYT this morning:

From 1927 to 1932, Claude obtained degrees in law and philosophy at the University of Paris, then taught in a local high school, the Lycée Janson de Sailly, where his fellow teachers included Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. He later became a professor of sociology at the French-influenced University of São Paulo in Brazil.

Must have been interesting to teach at that school....

Liberals hire Gulf War PR Firm to sell us the deal

Shawn Graham's government is preparing to spend 1 million dollars to convince us that we should let him sell NB Power out from underneath us. There are less than a million people in the province, so that tells you Graham knows that it will be an uphill battle.

Among the PR firms he's retained? Hill & Knowlton, best known for their misinformation campaign during the first Gulf War. Don't be surprised if fake citizen's groups promoting the benefits of this deal start to appear. Here's what they did during GWI:

Hill & Knowlton, then the world's largest PR firm, served as mastermind for the Kuwaiti campaign. Its activities alone would have constituted the largest foreign-funded campaign ever aimed at manipulating American public opinion. By law, the Foreign Agents Registration Act should have exposed this propaganda campaign to the American people, but the Justice Department chose not to enforce it. Nine days after Saddam's army marched into Kuwait, the Emir's government agreed to fund a contract under which Hill & Knowlton would represent "Citizens for a Free Kuwait," a classic PR front group designed to hide the real role of the Kuwaiti government and its collusion with the Bush administration. Over the next six months, the Kuwaiti government channeled $11.9 million dollars to Citizens for a Free Kuwait, whose only other funding totalled $17,861 from 78 individuals. Virtually all of CFK's budget - $10.8 million - went to Hill & Knowlton in the form of fees.

Just thought y'all should be aware of the tactics. One million dollars would put a lot of books on library shelves, provide legal aid to a lot of people, provide social assistance to others who need it. That money could also be used for a referendum or listening tour or meaningful public consultations, however you like it.

Well, I've been doing my homework on this NB Power deal. I read the Wikipedia articles about Churchill Falls and Hydro Quebec, the Memo of Understanding (terms of the deal proposed), and this great commentary from the Gleaner.

My major misgivings:

1. NB'ers will pay to decomission plants Hydro Quebec doesn't want - 4.7 billion won't cover this.
2. The transmission lines will not be open to small producers in NB (ie. wind/tidal projects).
3. Hydro Quebec will not pay corporate taxes in NB.
4. We will have to pay for power consumed (in excess of the "Heritage Pool") after 5 years. This could be a lot of money, nobody knows right now.
5. Our residential rates will be frozen but not taken down to HQ current rates.
6. Does HQ intend to rebuild or decomission the Mactaquac dam in 15 years?
6b.) If they decomission it, what are they going to do with the reclaimed land along the banks of the Saint John River?
7. HQ gets to keep the carbon credits from hydro electricity generated in NB.
8. NB will pay Lepreau cost overruns the feds decide not to cover.
9. There are no guarantees or rate caps on our power after 5 years, and the deal allows for more energy "generation expenses" to raise our rates.
9b.)If HQ wants to expand their reach to Pensylvania or Maryland, will our plants/rates be paying for that?
10. If selling electricity to other jurisdictions is so profitable, why not do it ourselves and make a profit for the shareholders, the citizens of NB?

Frankly, I think an election needs to be called. This deal is a direct violation of the Shawn Graham's"Charter for Change" and New Brunswickers deserve a better democracy than poorly-negotiated backroom deals are going to give us. A rally is being held Nov. 17th at 11am, when the legislature resumes.

All she wants to do is dance, dance, dance

This poem, written by the wonderful Don McKay, is dedicated to my hardworking band of RiVa buddies, you throw one heck of a Halloween partay. And also to Mr. Dancing Dracula, who ever he is. That guy can really cut a rug!

TO DANCELAND

No one is ever happier than when they're dancing
--Margaret McKay

South through bumper crops we are driving to Danceland, barley
oats, canola, wheat, thick as beaver pelt, but late, she said,
late, since June had been so cold already we were deep
in August and still mostly green so it was nip
and tuck with frost and somewhere between Nipawin and
Tisdale finally

I found the way to say, um, I can't dance
you know, I can't dance don't ask me
why I am driving like a fool to Danceland have flunked it
twenty-seven years ago in the kitchen where my mother,
bless her, tried to teach me while I passively resisted,
doing the jerk-step while she tried to slow, slow, quick quick
slow between the table and the fridge, her face fading
like someone trying to start a cranky Lawnboy
nevertheless
step by sidestep
we are driving down the grid, Swainson's hawks occurring every
thirty hydro poles, on average
to Danceland
where the dancefloor floats on rolled horsehair
and the farmers dance with their wives even though it is
not Chicago
where the mirror ball blesses everyone with flecks from
another, less rigorous dimension
where the Westeel granary dances with the weathervane,
the parent with the child, the John Deere with the mortgage
where you may glimpse the occasional coyote lopes and gopher hops
where the dark may become curious and curl one long arm
around us
as we pause for a moment, and I think about my mother and her
wishes in that kitchen, then
we feed ourselves to the world's most amiable animal,
in Danceland.

from Apparatus (1997)

Uncle Sam says: we want your power

A little background from the Globe and Mail on why Hydro Quebec wants to buy NB Power:

This comes as U.S. officials pressure eastern Canadian utilities to merge, a move that would make it easier to co-ordinate production and transmission of electricity to the eastern United States. Given that the region's most important source of electricity is Hydro-Québec, U.S. officials are eager to see it take over its smaller rivals in the Maritimes, the government official said.

Full analysis here. This is a very, very bad move, selling public assets. Contact your MLA and the Premier and tell them they don't have the authority to sell NB Power without a public debate. All it is going to take to stop this deal is for a couple of Liberal MLA's to cross the floor and trigger an election. The consequences are going to be enormous, and shady backroom deals are never in the interest of regular people - our residential rates are not going to decline under these terms of sale.

Let the waiting begin

Packed house for the meeting last night - ten times more than I've ever seen. The proposal for rezoning was put on hold in order for PAC and Council to review the new drawings submitted by Mr. Cronkite. If Council proceeds with the next step and public hearing, they will likely take place in early December. I'll keep you updated.

In other news, Kerry O'Toole won a national sculpture contest at St. Andrew's Kingsbrae Gardens. His flying geese will be installed permanently in the gardens. Congratulations Kerry! Kerry had originally offered this sculpture to the Town of Woodstock for placement downtown but they declined to purchase it.

Speak up for the Weslyan church

Boy, there's a lot going down in the downtown.

The Weslyan church will be torn down and replaced with another vinyl apartment building unless Woodstock Town Council votes "no" on the rezoning next Monday night. October 27th will be the first of three readings necessary to demolish the historic church and establish apartments. Neighbourhood residents are opposed to the demolition.

I will be going to council and I encourage YOU to make time and go, if you're concerned about the preservation of historic buildings in "New Brunswick's First Town." We need a vision for our historic downtown, and vinyl isn't it! Sorry to be so blunt but if this keeps up we are going to be another drive-through town in the drive through province.

Make your municipal democracy work and get out there!

Ahoy, me Canadian pirates

Turns out we host 4 of 5 of the world's best/worst file sharing websites. This is a complicated situation, but three things are for sure:

1. The downloading genie will never go back into the copyright box.

2. Internet file-sharing has changed the role of information and culture in our society.

3. Our "intellectual property" laws and ways of thinking about information sorely need updating.

Over and out.

We're gonna kick it up a notch

So, RiVA is having its first ever membership drive. At the oh-so-obvious risk of appearing recklessly partisan, here's why you should go to Fusion Thursday night at 8pm and buy a membership (or several):

1. Carleton County needs an arts centre and that takes money.
2. It will get you into the Halloween party for FREE, and your name on our VIP list.
3. The more members we have, the more clout we have locally in lobbying for cool projects.
4. You will have a chance to make a cool mask and hear some good tunes.
5. You never know what might happen. Really.

Your support means a lot. We have spent the past six months working, sweating, dreaming, and fighting for this to happen. The parking situation at 702 is coming to a head and whatever happens, we'd love to know you're on our side. Cheers!

Support the library book rate

The library book rate is a partnership between Canada Post and libraries. It helps reduce the cost of sending books and information across our sprawling country. It will expire at the end of 2009 unless the public demands the government support it.

Do your part, take 15 seconds to email Harper here. Happy reading!

Two nightcaps on writing

So, a reporter's paper shuts down, throwing him out of work. His response: buy his own paper, get back to work, double time.

Also, here's an excerpt from an interview with Toni Morrison. She was asked where her ideas come from and how she overcomes the difficulty of the blank page.

TM: It's that being open - not scratching for it, not digging for it, not constructing something but being open to the situation and trusting that what you don't know will be available to you. It's bigger than your overt consciousnessor your intelligence or even your gifts; it is out there somewhere and you have to let it in.

PH: And does being open in that way to your writing spill over into other areas of your life?

TM: I feel more friendly when I am writing, nicer to people, much more generous, also wiser. I am full of a kind of tenderness towards people and all they have to hide, all they have to construct. Not pity, not sympathy, just tenderness. Knowing that the job of being human is so hard, and it is the only job there is left - though we keep on pretending otherwise. If I am in that good place, and I run into someone I dislike, I feel more human and they seem more human.

PH: Connected.

TM:Precisely. I keep telling everyone whenever I get a chance that it took 60 million years to make a human eye. And before that, it was just a little cell at the bottom of the ocean that was sensitive to light. Just think of how complicated and truly magnificent a human being is. When you think of all we are capable of - being able to love each other, and being willing to do something good in the world for no recognition . . . I am not saying there are not people who want to step over each other, who want to maim and kill, but that is a perversion of the beautiful things human beings are made for.

There are all sorts of ways people try to stay connected, try not to live in hate. Religion may be one of them, but for me the central thing is the writing. The art itself. Putting my intelligence and my humanity to the best possible use, and I get better because I am doing it. The writing teaches me that I can't just reach some little plateau and say that's it, this is the place. It is always a search.

PH: And that's the good news.

TM: That is the good news.

The Good Place or No Place

Before you get finished your turkey day, or your Tofurkey day, take 15 minutes to listen to this excellent talk about food and how it should be central to our thinking. My life in large part revolves around food, so of course I liked this talk, but I think when we get back in touch with real food and real human company, we will be on the road to recovering from this industrial hangover.

Bon appetit!

Local Links

Lee and Yolande Clark have a beautiful new pottery website! Read about their process and see the amazingly unique work they produce. What a great gift for that person who has everything . . . hint, hint.

The lady's got brains

This year, four Nobel Prizes were awarded to women. In the history of the Nobel Prize, only 35 have gone to females, including this year. This post is dedicated to my grandmother's father, who encouraged her to get an education and become a teacher, despite the objections of her mother and brothers. My grandmother's education had a tremendous influence on me, so it would be fair to say I owe her father a debt of gratitude as well.

Educate yourself about these hard-working thinkers and their accomplishments. The human brain is a pretty miraculous device.

Stranger than fiction

Bizarre claims from this article in the New York Times:

Researchers have long known that people cling to their personal biases more tightly when feeling threatened. After thinking about their own inevitable death, they become more patriotic, more religious and less tolerant of outsiders, studies find. When insulted, they profess more loyalty to friends — and when told they’ve done poorly on a trivia test, they even identify more strongly with their school’s winning teams.

The theory is exposure to bizarre and unexpected things could actually stimulate creativity. Tim Burton would be a prime example, I suppose.

Also: James P. Johnson gets his propers, finally, after 50 years in an obscure grave in Queens.

Your two cents worth

That pun was for you, KD. The NB government is asking for your "pre-budget input." Click on the link below and say which things you think should be cut or enhanced.

For my part, I said they need to cut executive bonuses at NB Power, enhance legal aid and education, and look into the "creative economy."

Just some thoughts . . . take a minute and pretend you're running this province - where would you spend it?

Give us libraries and librarians

So say the children of South Africa. Sigh. If only Lamrock had listened to them...

Being gay in middle school

I knew when the girl's hockey team won the NB Human Rights award for their anti-homophobia campaign that school culture was changing to accomodate GLBT youth. But I didn't know how much....

Maritime Jazz Mash-up

So, a weekend of mind-busting great musicians, just the way I like it. I've posted a bunch of links to highlight the great stuff I heard at Harvest. After all the work we put into organizing Dooryard, it was a real treat to park myself in a chair and soak up the music.

Although jazz is increasingly removed from the mainstream, listeners are as passionate as ever about the music, and my overall feeling about this weekend's performances was one of gratitude. Improvising musicians have a special place in my heart. They spend years and years and hours upon hours learning to compose music spontaneously - how's that for a paradox?

Every time a politician cut arts funding, they should be sent to see this guy play. I have never seen that much joy in concert. Period. And his band was killing, it was like watching a sailboat turn on a dime. No set list, no predictable arrangements, no cliches.

At the other end of the jazz spectrum, the East Delta Trio played mainly improvised music, with tabla in place of a drumset. Three very talented musicians playing complex but heartfelt sounds. A special Carleton County "yessir" is due to Evan Shaw, raised in Hartland, now improvising in Toronto.

Over the past eight years I've seen Joel Miller perform with several different groups and his compositions are always engaging - he uses a fairly traditional jazz framework, but the melodies are interesting and the playing is fiery.

More great music from Easley, Stevenson and Arsenault, and lots of random one liners from this fine drummer. Because we all know jazz is about guilt. And money. And if you don't get the joke, that means you'll have to check it out in person next year. These musicians are worth every cent and more.

To those who say change is impossible

Ten years ago I heard homophobic comments all the time at WHS. Today the girl's hockey team is the recipient of an NB Human Rights Award for defending their gay teammates. A great example of how small town culture changes so slowly that some people don't even notice. To me, it's a wonderful example of a big change that's happened in a relatively short time. Well done, gals!

Yasmina Khadra

Months ago, I read a commentary by the bibliophile Alberto Manguel, who suggested that many of the world's best author's are writing in languages other than English. Manguel gave the 2007 Massey Lectures entitled "The City of Words," a series which I listened to in podcast form. After my brain finished exploding with his ideas, I bought a copy and read it many times over. So, when I read that Manguel thought English readers overlook non-English novels to their detriment, I started keeping my eyes open.

Enter Yasmina Khadra, who is actually a former Algerian army officer named Mohammed Moulassehoul. He now lives in France and has published several novels in French. His novel "The Attack" grabbed me by the throat in my lovely local independent bookstore.

I know lots of people whose opinions are set when it comes to suicide bombers, religious fundamentalism and the state of Israel vs. the Palestinian diaspora. Reading this book took away the stale political arguments and brought to life the human complexities of the situation, the suffering and blindness on both sides. Very, very interesting read, and I suggest anyone who thinks they know "how the feel about that situation" pick up "The Attack" and then reconsider.

Here's what Khadra has to say about the Arab world:

It's a pity that you do not have access to our culture. The Arab world is not just a postcard with dunes and caravans, nor is it only terrorist attacks. The Arab world is more generous and more inspired than yours. Do you know that El Moutannabi is humanity's greatest poet since the dawn of time? … It's a pity that you do not know anything of it. I was initially inspired by mine. I have had the chance to get maximum benefit from a double culture, Western and Eastern, without ever losing sight of where I come from.

To close, verses from El Moutannabi:

Every day you load up fresh
and journey to glory, there to dwell
And our wont is comely patience
were it with anything but your absence that we were tried
Every life you don’t grace is death
every sun that you are not is darkness.

(Arberry, Poems 5)

Bon appetit!

What's in a name?

You might recall that a couple of years ago the Harper government eliminated "gender equality" from the court challenges program. Now it appears they have taken the same tack on the international level, reversing efforts by previous Canadian governments.

"Canada worked hard and long to include gender-based violence in international documents, in the world of children and armed conflict where Canada is a leader, we've worked very hard to include gender-based violence as a serious violation. So removing that is a serious step backward and I would argue that the Canadian public would not agree with that," said Kathy Vandergrift, chair of the Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children.

According to this article, the Harper government has also quietly axed "child soldiers" and "international humanitarian law" from our statements on human rights abuses, including sexual abuse in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where rape is a routine political weapon. Details are here.

I think this is a major step backward for Canada, and I don't think many Canadians would agree with the government's attempt to sidestep justice for such vulnerable people. This is not how we should be treating people suffering in other countries.

Sorry mom, but Tetris did make me smarter

Here's the study... love that pop science.