Thinking inside the Bandshell
So I was reading the Mother Paper (The Star) as one does on a Saturday morning and it occurred to me that there was quite a lot worth noting. In a series of articles there were much that those in the D-Rock and those who make the rules at Oshawa's City Hall could consider. In the article headlined Cultural resolutions.... some quotes stood out for me...maybe they will resonate with you lot too...
"No offence to those of you who buy all your books online, but whenever anyone asks why I invariably prefer to purchase my reading matter in a bricks-and-mortar establishment, I have one simple answer: because I don't want to live in a world without bookstores". Vit Wagner
"But the kind of excitement that wins over new audiences demands risk. My big hope is that our most conservative and prudent classical-music presenter, the Toronto Symphony, will finally try to step outside of its concrete-and-glass bunker (a.k.a. Roy Thomson Hall, right) on Simcoe St. and resolve to connect better with the city around it by performing a free concert at Nathan Phillips Square for Canada Day or at Yonge-Dundas Square during a summer music evening." John Terauds
"Toronto collectors and institutions should stop looking past the city they live in and start looking under their noses at the dynamic, creative Toronto art scene" Murray Whyte
"Necessity being the mother of invention and all that, the growing legions of musicians plying today's overcrowded touring circuit have already spilled beyond the city's usual venues, forcing some new and previously underused spaces — Parkdale's Wrongbar, College Street's WhipperSnapper Gallery and the Queen Elizabeth Theatre at Exhibition Place, for instance — into regular rotation amongst Toronto promoters." Ben Rayner
"When money is tight and apathy reigns supreme, the same-old, same-old won't necessarily get you into the car to make that long haul from suburbia." Richard Ouzounian
Some economic stimuli better than others
"Retrofit thousands of homes, offices and factories to reduce our energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Tie this investment into local production of the materials needed, and you maximize the benefits all around. The same principle should apply to new transit vehicles, which should require at least 50 per cent Canadian content to match the policies of all our trading partners."
"While pumping lots of money into "bricks and mortar," don't forget the social infrastructure that is essential to our quality of life. A good place to start would be restoring a national child care program, with well-regulated non-profit delivery at its core. This would create thousands of new jobs, spread across every community, most of them for women. When there are decent wages paid for the vital work of nurturing the next generation, it's well worth the effort."
For London, the golded age is over
"The Spectator's year-end editorial observed as much, noting that after a phenomenal 16 years of unbridled prosperity, a culture of entitlement now is melting in the face of massive debt.
" 'What is wrong is the assumption that affluence – especially affluence propped up by monstrous debt – is a given, and that luxury is right," the magazine concluded. "Those assumptions have now been brutally shattered.' "
Less is more. Think local. Do it yourself....
"In the midst of financial collapse, we should remember that recessions are often the occasions for cultural rebirth. It may be dirty and ragged, but the new will appear. If we're lucky, it will be something like the early '90s or late '70s, when recessions stripped away the hulls of cultural excess and left a DIY spirit and a hunger for the real. Perhaps 2009 will contain glimmers of hope after all."
"No offence to those of you who buy all your books online, but whenever anyone asks why I invariably prefer to purchase my reading matter in a bricks-and-mortar establishment, I have one simple answer: because I don't want to live in a world without bookstores". Vit Wagner
"But the kind of excitement that wins over new audiences demands risk. My big hope is that our most conservative and prudent classical-music presenter, the Toronto Symphony, will finally try to step outside of its concrete-and-glass bunker (a.k.a. Roy Thomson Hall, right) on Simcoe St. and resolve to connect better with the city around it by performing a free concert at Nathan Phillips Square for Canada Day or at Yonge-Dundas Square during a summer music evening." John Terauds
"Toronto collectors and institutions should stop looking past the city they live in and start looking under their noses at the dynamic, creative Toronto art scene" Murray Whyte
"Necessity being the mother of invention and all that, the growing legions of musicians plying today's overcrowded touring circuit have already spilled beyond the city's usual venues, forcing some new and previously underused spaces — Parkdale's Wrongbar, College Street's WhipperSnapper Gallery and the Queen Elizabeth Theatre at Exhibition Place, for instance — into regular rotation amongst Toronto promoters." Ben Rayner
"When money is tight and apathy reigns supreme, the same-old, same-old won't necessarily get you into the car to make that long haul from suburbia." Richard Ouzounian
Some economic stimuli better than others
"Retrofit thousands of homes, offices and factories to reduce our energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Tie this investment into local production of the materials needed, and you maximize the benefits all around. The same principle should apply to new transit vehicles, which should require at least 50 per cent Canadian content to match the policies of all our trading partners."
"While pumping lots of money into "bricks and mortar," don't forget the social infrastructure that is essential to our quality of life. A good place to start would be restoring a national child care program, with well-regulated non-profit delivery at its core. This would create thousands of new jobs, spread across every community, most of them for women. When there are decent wages paid for the vital work of nurturing the next generation, it's well worth the effort."
For London, the golded age is over
"The Spectator's year-end editorial observed as much, noting that after a phenomenal 16 years of unbridled prosperity, a culture of entitlement now is melting in the face of massive debt.
" 'What is wrong is the assumption that affluence – especially affluence propped up by monstrous debt – is a given, and that luxury is right," the magazine concluded. "Those assumptions have now been brutally shattered.' "
Less is more. Think local. Do it yourself....
"In the midst of financial collapse, we should remember that recessions are often the occasions for cultural rebirth. It may be dirty and ragged, but the new will appear. If we're lucky, it will be something like the early '90s or late '70s, when recessions stripped away the hulls of cultural excess and left a DIY spirit and a hunger for the real. Perhaps 2009 will contain glimmers of hope after all."
Nice Cuff photo haha!
Posted by: dave | January 07, 2009 at 10:17 AM