There have been a lot of plans announced and decisions made by city council in the last year that I haven’t agreed with, but the repeated deferral of the Green Bins programme is simply embarassing for a Canadian city in 2011. I think it is all in aid of the sacred 0% tax increase promised by Joe Fontana, and I am sick of good decisions being held hostage by a foolish election promise.

I have sent this letter to Joe and the whole city council, and I urge you to write your councillor as well.

Dear Mayor and Councillors,

I hope that you will read and consider my thoughts on this issue, and I would ask that this letter be included with the agenda for the August 29th meeting.

The decision not to fund a Green Bin program speaks volumes. Shelving the program sends lots of messages, and they are all negative.

To the students and young people that we should be encouraging to stay in London, this decision says “London doesn’t care about the future. London doesn’t value the things that you care about, like sustainability.”

To the rest of Ontario and Canada, this decision says “Here in London we can’t be bothered to clean our own messes. We’ll use up our landfills as fast as we want.”

To the average family, who may grumble at first but ultimately wants to do the right thing, this decision says “Don’t pay any attention to what you waste or throw away. What difference does it make?”

To the children that we should be teaching about responsibility and consequences, this descision says “It’s OK to just keep putting off a tough decision or pretending a problem doesn’t exist”

To me, a voter and taxpayer here in London, this decision says “City Council believes that honouring a rash and reckless election promise of 0% tax increases is more important than any other considerations.”

Like it or not, I think that’s what you’re saying if you vote against the Green Bin  program.

I hope that instead, you’ll do the right and responsible thing. I hope you will choose to say: “We’ve got to look after this place. We’re going to stop dumping our problems on future councils and future generations.”

Chris McInnis
299 Cheapside Street
London, ON

1. The merchants of crap.

I’m getting this one out of the way first, because it is the first thing most people bring up as a reason for not liking Sunfest. Fair dues.

There are far too many crap vendors. Spongebob towels, inflatable Spider-Men, belt buckles, and even the dreaded Wolf blankets… There is so much of this crap in the park, many people seem to not realize it is a music festival. They make the few interesting vendors too ahrd to be worth looking for, and worse, these tents are the prime cause of #2.

2. The Zombie Trudge.

I love this festival, but holy crap does it get crowded on the pathways.  Add in food purchases, looking at wolf blankets, and arguing about what to eat, and it’s like being in a mall, but with more sweat.

OK, now that the down sides have been called out, let’s count our blessings:

3.  Sunfest is free, homegrown and independant.

What more could you ask of a festival? Despite some dalliances with the dark side (Jazz music) Sunfest has remained incredibly true to its mission of bringing talented musicians to London from all around the world to celebrate their music and share a bit of their culture along the way.

4. Dancing babies.

I know you can see them at any outdoor concert, but I like ‘em best at Sunfest. They just seem more wholesome attached to a hippie dad than a soccer mom. Babies are usually the first ones up and dancing at afternoon shows. The usual order of how a dance crowd goes is:

a) Babies (and parents)

b) Hippie Librarian single women

c) Youngish-trying-to-be-free-sprit women

d) Shirtless guy trying to impress dancing women

The shirtless guy either means the crowd has hit critical mass and will snowball, or he oogs people out and the other dancers retreat. Interestingly, as if to prove his cool, shirtless guy is often the last one dancing.

5. Amazing Home-made Food

Nothing showcases London’s cultural diversity better than the community groups who cook at Sunfest. From my all-time favourite, the Nicaraguan Nacatamale to the Afghani spiced potatoes, there is a ton of great authentic food to gorge on. We typically eat there all weekend. I pity the fools eating pizza this weekend. Live a little!

6. My Sunfest hat.

A few years ago I found an old straw hat of my dad’s. It’s bright pink and we always mocked him for wearing it. Now, even though it’s practically disintegrating I love it. I don’t only wear it at Sunfest, but I always wear it at Sunfest.

7. Familiar Faces

I love running into people I haven’t seen in years. It always happens at Sunfest. I equally love recognizing Sunfest regulars on stage and in the crowds.

7. The music!!!

Year after year, Sunfest has not just introduced me to amazing artists and performances, it has broadened my taste and appreciation to include a ton of great musical styles and elements.

You have to do your homework – with so many bands and styles, a lot of it probably won’t appeal to you. But if you take the time to check the playlists, you are bound to find someone amazing to watch. (I must credit Jen who does most of the “triage” on the artists for us every year).

I could do a whole post on great artists and albums I discovered because of Sunfest. Instead, I’ll showcase a few artists I think will be the show-stoppers this year:

Five Alarm Funk (tons of fun – have seen them twice already)

Systema Solar (if these guys are 10% as fun as the video,it should be a great show)

Jayme Stone (amazing banjo player who fuses bluegrass with African and other elements)

I didn’t think comics should have to credentialize themselves or apologize for being comics. Over the last couple of years, however, I’ve been reading some illustrated sequential tomes that actually seem like novels.

Most recently, I picked up David Small‘s memoir Stitches. Not only was it fantastic, it felt like I had read a novel: the detailed evocation of place and time through little details; the powerful, painful moments of childhood torment; the powerful characters; and the sense it left me with – I absorbed and appreciated much of its greatness, but I will be coming back to read it again.

But here’s what floored me. I read the whole thing in 45 minutes.

This is not meant to belittle the book. It’s fantastic.

The art is great. Small is largely known as an illustrator of children’s books. He marries a fantastic gift for faces and expression with a very cinematic sense of perspective, framing and storyboarding.

The story is gripping and rewarding. It was powerful, and I’ve been thinking about it all day… since reading it last night in 45 minutes.

There is now so much amazing illustrated work being published across so many genres, choosing to read literary fiction almost seems spoiled to me – like watching a silent movie.

Go get Stitches. Treat yourself.

(If you need more convicing, David Small’s website has more art, interviews, etc. to give you the flavour of it.)

The Big Molice Pan and the Bertie Dumb

Once a big molice pan
Met a Bertie Dumb,
Sitting on a wide sock
Booing gubble chum.




“Hey,”  said the molice pan,
“Gum and simmy come.”
“Sot your rotten kicking pox!”
Cried the Bertie Dumb.




Then the big molice pan
Rank Jamaica drum,
Wide at dunce, but grows with runts.
(Kate to strinkum. DUM.)

I just stumbled across the apparent foofarah that TV’s Community actor Donald Glover is campaigning for an audition in the upcoming movie reboot of Spider-Man, and he’s (gasp) not white.

I love comic book movie adaptions and I’m a huge Spidey fan, but as much of a geek as I am, I only get hung up on the details that matter.

Yes, he’s always been drawn white, but in terms of impact on the character or story, Peter Parker’s ethnicity or family culture was never more specific in the books than “working-class New York.”

Frankly I’m much more dismayed that a reboot means they’ll likely waste a whole new movie re-hashing an origin instead of crafting a good story.

***

At the other end of the plausibility spectrum, I couldn’t believe it when I read that the upcoming Captain America movie has cast somebody (trust me, it doesn’t matter who) as none other than mad scientist Arnim Zola.

Zola was one of the freakiest artistic creations of Jack Kirby, who wasn’t exactly known for his restraint or attachment to realism.  He wasn’t exactly famous, though. Even as a life-long Marvel comics fan, all I really knew about the character was that he was that guy with a little box for a head and a face on his chest. Sound goofy? Weird? Oh yeah. Don’t believe me?  Click to reveal the craziness:

Frankly, the only cool thing about this character is how utterly ridiculous he is.

Do I have any faith that a major Hollywood studio is going to put something that nuts in a movie?

Well, let’s just review what happened a few years ago when Kirby’s greatest creation was brought to the big screen.  In the comics, Galactus is a 30-foot tall cosmic mo-fo who eats planets.

Pretty nifty-looking, huh?

So how does Hollywood portray him?

A cloud. Oooooo…. menacing.

Given that, I give you my prediction for the best we can expect for the 2011 cinematic Arnim Zola. You were warned!

It’s basically twitter with music: your feed is a constantly-updating playlist. I like music from all over the spectrum, so the people I listen to have pretty diverse taste. I’m currently listening to 60 people, of whom probably 15 are active daily, and at any given time I might be on at the same time as five or six.

It’s an amazing exercise in not-quite-randomness.  I get everything from lo-fi indie to 80s hardcore to techno washing over my eardrums in a glorious mix. Depending on my mood, and the mix of people on at the same time as me, I can focus on one genre for a night, or just bounce all over the place.  I get introduced to great new music every day, and sometimes get the joy of  introducing someone to a favourite of mine.

Even those friends with whom I share a major overlap in musical taste probably only like about 50% of the same stuff I do, so it’s pretty fantastic to swap tunes with people who share not only my taste, but my mix of tastes.

As a medium, Blip is interactive, but not really conversational. Between that and the fact that the content is pretty much completely confined to one topic, I have finally found a social network on which I feel absolutely no need to self-censor. I may not want to bore my friends with my professional life or feel the need to update my work colleagues about my weekend, but I am completely comfortable blipping Hank Williams, Radiohead and The Stooges in the same night – plus five other artists  you haven’t heard of (and I hadn’t two hours ago).

Like his protegés, Malcolm often reveled in telling people he was a pimp, a fake, a money-grubbing sleazebag. I have no inclination to contradict that.

I am grateful he was in the right place at the right time to bring the Pistols to fame.

Thanks for that, you filthy rotter.

This thing is cool. Very cool. Maybe too cool.

I suspect Cylons are involved.