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Three new Ontario musicians for you to listen to

August 22, 2010 By Music 2 Comments

From the Ontario trip, three new musicians:

I saw Michael Ketemer playing a beaten up old Larrivee at the Peterborough Farmer’s Market on Saturday.  He bore a little resemblance to Neil Young, with long stringy hair under a ball cap, but he is a much different kind of guitarist.  Lovely virtuoso finger picking Celtic guy.  He played a few very unusual set dances and some jigs and reels for me and we talked a little.  I asked him which of his albums he was most proud of and he handed me “Yellow Stockings” which I bought.  You can listen to some it here.  Michael really made me regret that had not started playing Irish music when I lived in Peterborough 20 years ago.

The previous weekend, in Thornbury we partied at Bridges, which is a bar right on the Beaver River.  Pat Robitaille is the house guitarist there, a very soulful singer who plays a lot of big chord melodies and has a very heartfelt indy vibe about him.  He plays the gamut of music contemporary and classic and is a fine interpreter of folk rock and acoustic indy music.   Pat moved to Thornbury from Windsor, and if you are ever in the Collingwood area it’s worth a drive to see him and to drink fine beer and eat good food at Bridges.

Oh and I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention that my almost cousin Keith Shiner has a new album out too.  He’s gonna put one in the mail for me.  In the meantime, you can stream him at his myspace page.

The week’s tweets

August 22, 2010 By Notes

  • Humid air full of cicada song, crickets and the slow drawl of tires on gravel roads. Ontario summer rural. #
  • Pink thunder heads full of lightning rising out of the twilight. Ringed by storms on an evening swim in the clear waters of Georgian Bay. #
  • Humidity broken, crisp clear Beaver Valley summer air. Now is the time the local apples take in their sweetness. #
  • COME ON YOU SPURS!!! that is all… #coys #
  • The hush of wind in the poplars and a mourning dove. Sometimes Victorian Ontario awakens to the present. #
  • Off to Peterborough today for more sister wedding celebrations. Staying at Best West till Saturday. #
  • In a commonplace situation, in an inappropriate hour, do we pay attention to beauty? Google Joshua Bell and subway. #
  • A week of wedding festivities draws to a close. Off to Toronto today and thence to work in Alaska. #

Summer turning over

August 22, 2010 By Travel

My summer is drawing to a close, although the weather is still lovely and I’m only easing back into work.  Coming off ten days in Ontario where I was at my sister’s wedding, enjoying some extended time with an extended family that lives all over the world.  We only come together for weddings and funerals and this is the far better reason of the two.

The wedding was in Thornbury Ontario, where my parents live, in the heart of Ontario’s apple growing country.  From there we went down to Peterborough where my new brother in law Steve Weir is from.  It was delightful cruising around a town I lived in for five glorious years, from the age of 18 to 23.  It was in Peterborough that I met my wife Caitlin, and it was really fun to take our kids to the exact spot where we first met one another, in the exhibit space of the Peterborough Art Gallery.

Last night we stayed in Toronto and visited a little more with my brother’s family.  We went downtown to Yonge and Dundas Square to see a movie.  I was shocked by the changes there.  I used to hang around Yonge and Dundas back in my high school days and it looks more like what my brother calls “a poor man’s Times Square” now.  With the buckets of warm rain coming down it reminded me starkly of Bladerunner.  The city I grew up in is gone.

Heading west this morning first to Vancouver and then on to Anchorage.  I’ll be there for a couple of days and then a couple out in the Aleutians in Unalaska aka Dutch Harbor.  I’ve never been out there before, on a thin island between the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea.  It’s my first of two far north trips this month, with another going to Kuujjuaq in Nunavik, northern Quebec later in September.

Back to the arts of travelling, hosting, reflecting, and blogging.

Johnnie Moore says we can’t go on meeting like this

August 17, 2010 By Uncategorized One Comment

And he’s right.

If you’re in London UK, you might want to think about this free evening offering on September 6 with Johnnie and friends:  We can’t go on meeting like this.

This emerges from my experience of all sorts of events of late. I think there may be a gap in the market for something that allows us to meet in ways that are more satisfying. The focus is on connecting with others in engaging ways – without resorting to formats of expert speakers or simply pouring drinks, putting on music and hoping for the best.

I’d go.  Heck, maybe I’ll offer a local one.

What is Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit?

August 16, 2010 By First Nations One Comment

What is Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit?.

Principles of the Inuit way of life that are finding their way into decision making and governance in Nunavut and other Inuit governments and authorities.

1. Pijitsirniq (or the concept of serving) This principle lays out the roles and relationships between the organization and the people it serves;

2. Aajiiqatigiingniq (or the concept of consensus decision-making) Tied in with this concept is the need to develop a standardized consultation process for the Government of Nunavut and the Inuit oganizations;

3. Pilimmaksarniq (or the concept of skills and knowledge acquisition) This concept was added to ensure a meaningful capacity-building adjunct to all government community-empowerment exercises. More research into teaching and learning practices needs to be done, obviously;

4. Piliriqatigiingniq (or the concept of collaborative relationships or working together for a common purpose) The initial research that Joelie Sanguya, an Inuit consultant from Clyde River, conducted with Inuit elders for Sustainable Development suggested strongly that the communities wanted to be full and meaningful partners in all community and social development activities;

5. Avatimik Kamattiarniq (or the concept of environmental stewardship) This planet is all we’ve got. Since we are the only creatures capable of massive, irreparable damage to the environment, this makes our stewardship all that much more serious;

6. Qanuqtuurunnarniq (or the concept of being resourceful to solve problems) There is no single defining factor of being Inuit, but this comes close. Inuit culture is qanuqtuurniq.

This inquiry has accelerated for me, even though it has been the basis for my life and work for more than 20 years. Since the experience I had in Hawaii in June and susbsequent conversations and musings, deeply understanding the intersections between worldviews, and especially indigenous and settler worldviews has been the focus of my work. More than ever, and especially with some projects I have been engaged in recently, I’m falling deeply into this space of inquiry.

Applying values like these is not only possible, it is necessary and important. Our world is at a place where a strong understanding of indigenous science is necessary if we are to transcend all kinds of old ways of being. The above is a very crystallized version of what Inuit communities and families bring to the table.