Conversations Under Bridges at the Rivoli, Toronto

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Guns and Kids and a Couple of Benefit Shows

Guns gotta go folks. It’s that simple. I’m for an all out, global ban on the things (though I’m tempted to relax my stance slightly if they were permitted to be used in the service of protecting one’s garbage containers from scavenging and massively over sized raccoons). But whether you agree with me or not few can argue that if used as intended someone’s going to get hurt, likely seriously. Right? I think even Charlton Heston (RIP) would have agreed. But the bogus claim that guns simply protect the good guys from the bad dudes is underscored by the work of two very different groups for whom I am participating in benefit concerts this week and next.

This Thursday May 1 I’ll be at Mitzi’s Sister 1554 Queen West in the Parkdale neighbourhood of Toronto as part of a fund raiser for Soul2Soul, a small inner city program that helps kids who have lost loved ones, often through gun violence, deal with their grief in creative ways. Unfortunately, as happens so often in under serviced areas of the city, the funding for this program is on the chopping block and the very committed group who run it are trying to save it. Good for them. It’s 25 bucks a ticket, Ghostwalk Creek plays at 8:30, I’ll be on at 9:30. Tickets can be had by calling 416.440.0290 ext.13 or you can try your luck at the door.

The following Friday, May 9 I’ll be playing a couple tunes as part of a fund raiser in Ottawa for War Child
This is a world wide org that helps children who are affected by war. According to their stats 1 in 10 soldiers worldwide is a child. Weapons manufacturers have obliged by making machine guns lighter so kids can carry them more easily. (Place expletive here). It’s shaping up to be quite an interesting, eclectic night of music; some classical, some folk and me. It’s at St. Joseph’s Church (151 Laurier ave. East at Cumberland). Show time is 7pm. 10 bucks in advance through maplemusic.com. Tickets are also available at the venue office. $15 at the door.

The event, co-hosted by Catherine Lathem (CTV Ottawa) will also feature the Stellae Boreales ensemble as well as Doreen Taylor-Claxton.

There will also be a silent auction (with an interesting mix of items donated by Sen. Gen. Romeo Dallaire, Ishmael Baeh, Elizabeth May, Max Keeping, and others); and a fair-trade/organic/gourmet intermission café (courtesy of Bridgehead, Culinary Conspiracy, The Table Vegetarian Restaurant, & others)

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Green Buying Binge Doing Us In

Wow, I have a huge, honking new recycling bin. It seems like overkill, coming in just under the size of a Smart Car, and I really can’t tell if my household is up to the challenge of filling this baby on a regular basis.

After chucking in two weeks of recyclables, we’d barely reached the halfway mark at pickup time, a clear indication that we’ve been neglecting our role as citizens, er, I mean, consumers. Obviously, we need to start buying more.

Alas, what started all those years ago as a valiant effort to nudge residents to get with the three Rs (reduce, reuse and recycle) has morphed into a fervent consumer campaign that has vanquished “reduce.”

It’s not just evidenced by the new supersize bin, but also by the endless variety of ways we’re encouraged to be “green” while indulging unabated our addiction to shopping.

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Getting Past The Petty

Loath as I am to admit it, music alone won’t change our war-making ways.

That’s why the April 4 all-party (except the governing one) panel kicking off a conference the next day promoting the idea of a Canadian Department of Peace at Friends House on Lowther is such a tonic.

Not only do the 250 mostly veteran anti-war types in the pews at the Church of the Holy Trinity hear the Greens’ Elizabeth May, the NDP’s Olivia Chow and the Libs’ Borys Wrzesnewskyj sing from the same peace page, but the non-partisan collegiality of the event underscores the idea that, if peace-building is ever mainstreamed, humanity will make an evolutionary jump.

Speaking of neanderthals, politics is a blood sport. But when you see Wrzesnewskyj applauding Chow’s moving description of what NDPer Alexa McDonough could do if she were minister of peace, Chow praising May’s support for a federal conflict resolution department, and both May and Chow clearly sympathizing with Wrzesnewskyj as he guardedly describes tensions in the Liberal party over Afghanistan, it tends to stand out.

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Bell’s Web Choke

Okay, wag your finger at China all you want over Internet censorship in Tibet – then clench your fingers into a fist over how your very own Canadian service providers, Rogers and Bell, are limiting what you can access online.

It’s not the same as China’s blocking of YouTube and the BBC, but now that Bell and Rogers have admitted they are slowing online connections, it should make you very afraid.

Confirming what many had suspected for a year now, Bell last week was forced to admit that users of popular peer-to-peer software like BitTorrent, which facilitates quick, efficient sharing of large files, were having their connections slowed on its network during peak hours between 4 pm and 2 am. (Rogers engages in the same practice.)

Bell claims it’s necessary to “traffic-shape” because a small clutch of “bandwidth hogs” illegally sharing music and movies are clogging the pipeline for everyone else.

Bell’s decision plays into the popular spin promoted by Hollywood and the major record labels that everyone using BitTorrent is a thief.

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