October 6th, 2008 Andrew Cash
Most musicians never go to galas unless they’re working for the caterer or off in the corner playing in the jazz combo. The Artists’ Other Gala is a one night musical celebration that puts a hand full of well known Toronto musicians, Justin Rutledge, Andy Maize and Josh Finlayson from The Skydiggers, Andrew Cash from the Cash Brothers, and Bill Prittle, formerly of Treble Charger, together with emerging singer songwriters Corrina Keeling, Colin Wray Crawford, Blake Preston and others to draw attention to both the success of arts funding of Canadian musicians and the importance of this support to the next generation of Canadian artists.
Date: Friday October 10, 2998
Location: The Tranzac Club, 292 Brunswick Ave (3 blocks west of Spadina)
(416 923-8137)
Admission: pay what you’d like—proceeds going to Sketch- Toronto Art Studio For Street Youth
Did Prime Minister Stephen Harper really mean to suggest that Canadians don’t care about the art that gets public grants? Oops. Check out the iPods of the nation. They’re chock a block with Canadian artists. Arts funding especially through FACTOR, the mainly federal government funded program that assists the work of Canadian music artists, has played a pivotal role in the unprecedented success Canadian musicians enjoy today both domestically and internationally..
The careers of many beloved Canadian artists, from Blue Rodeo, to Feist to Hawksley Workman as well as many acts performing at this event were nurtured by FACTOR grants. Indeed since its inception in 1982 through to 2007 the federal government invested $87 million in Canadian artists through the FACTOR program. Not a huge expenditure over 25 years but it’s come with a whopping pay back. FACTOR supported sound recordings have sold over 31 million copies worldwide generating retail sales in excess of $705 million.
Arts funding of music in Canada has paid off culturally and economically. Musicians live and work in every community in this country. Whether they are playing an open mic at the local pub or arenas around the world musicians play a unique role in the country’s cultural life—and, oh yeah, they generate a lot of economic activity too.
For further information contact Andrew Cash at ac@andrewcash.net or Jeff Davidson at falgarwood@hotmail.com
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September 23rd, 2008 Andrew Cash
Tarnished golden boy tries to resurrect hope against people’s choice Nash
By Andrew Cash
It’s a glorious, sunny Saturday morning, the second-last day of summer, but Gerard Kennedy is standing in the middle of a shitstorm.
Mainstreeting on posh Bloor West Village, where even the No Frills seems high-end, Kennedy, shirt sleeves rolled up, suit jacket perpetually thrown over his shoulder, spends much of the morning sticking up for the guy he made Liberal boss, Stéphane Dion.
“You picked the wrong guy,” says more than one passerby.
“You should have been the leader,” remark others.
A number of the locals stop to give him an earful about how bad Dion’s sales job of the Green Shift has been.
While it isn’t all bad news, it’s clear that there’s more on the line for Kennedy than simply knocking off popular NDP incumbent Peggy Nash. Like maybe his political career.
September 17th, 2008 Andrew Cash
Cons shooting holes in global gun-control efforts
By Andrew Cash
If you’re wondering whether you’ve missed any gun talk thus far in the federal election, don’t worry. Not a single rhetorical shot’s been fired – yet.
One reason the issue is taking its time is that the Tories have put a muzzle on their gun-loving supporters in hopes of wooing urban voters with a piano-playing, cardiganed teddy bear.
But in rural areas, these Reformers in Tory blue continue to play the gun card, fanning the still seething flames of anger over the Liberal gun registry.
In one Tory election mail-out to the rural Ontario riding of Leeds-Grenville, a friendly-looking farmer is pictured beside the headline “Gun criminal, hmmmm not likely.” The flyer goes on to promise the scrapping of the long gun registry.
This urban-rural mixed message parallels yet another of the Tories’ duelling hypotheses – that it’s possible to crack down on crime and still allow the amassing of private firearms.
September 7th, 2008 Andrew Cash
What are the chances of a left-wing coalition government?
By Andrew Cash
The horses have left the corral: An election has been called.Governor General Michaelle Jean has seemingly had to swallow the fact that 15 months after she signed into law fixed election dates, her first minister has decided to do exactly what the law was supposed to prevent. Namely, enabling a sitting Prime Minister to control the timing of elections for pure political advantage.
But what now? The well financed Team Harper (which is really Team Harris with a new captain) has the right side of the field all to itself – roughly between 30 and 36 per cent of voters depending on what day it is.
The opposition parties crowd the left but their combined support represents a resounding majority of Canadians. What to do? How’s this: let’s forget about strategic voting.
April 10th, 2008 Andrew Cash
Getting past the petty
We can’t make peace our foreign policy till pols stop political blood sport
By Andrew Cash
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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June 28th, 2007 Andrew Cash
Indian in us all
The elephant in the room of my family history is same one haunting the Canadian family
By Andrew Cash
There must be an aboriginal guy out there with the same name as me.
That’s my initial reaction to an invitation I receive in the mail to participate in a Statistics Canada survey on the living standards of native Canadians.
And in fact there is an Aboriginal guy with my name. Me. But it takes the disembodied voice of the StatsCan official to convince me of the fact. “Why are you sending this to me?” I ask the polished voice on the other end of the phone line.
After all, I’ve never identified myself as Aboriginal. Sure, my paternal grandmother was half Mohawk, born on Tyendinaga near Deseronto. But what am I doing on this list?
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April 19th, 2007 Andrew Cash
Real dirt on the tar sands
Tories are pumping a fivefold increase in production while we worry ourselves sick about leaf blowers
By Andrew Cash
It’s no wonder Stephen Harper can’t say “Kyoto” without choking. After all, thanks to the huge oil sands deposit in his Alberta backyard, we’ve got the second-largest oil reserves in the entire world, next to Saudi Arabia.
You probably already know that the sticky goo in northeastern Alberta is the fastest-growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in the country. But while we’re all worrying ourselves sick about leaf blowers and incandescent bulbs, few realize the extent of the oil sands expansion being plotted. Do voters get that the Conservatives are expecting, and indeed pumping, a massive fivefold increase?
Welcome to the difference between official Harperspeak about going green and Tory tar sands machinations. And the politics are especially thick and sticky when Washington is factored in, since no matter who we elect, stopping any further development of our bituminous riches, or even slowing it down, is going to take a heroic rewiring of the Canada/U.S. power dynamic.
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