Art Matters
All Party Townhall on matters of Art
Tuesday, April 19, 6:30 – 8pm

Plan to attend this public forum at the Cube Gallery discussing and debating the role of art in our lives, our cities, our country.

Do the candidates in the upcoming federal election have a vision for the role of art in Canada? Do they understand how art enhances our communities, educates our minds and broadens our vistas?

...Come and join this lively debate with candidates from all of the politicial parties as they discuss where they stand on the arts.

Does art matter? Should we remove taxes on original art? Should Canadian theatre, music, and other cultural events be taxed? What would our lives, our communities, our workspaces be without art?

This will be an important opportunity for anyone involved in the arts community, including artists, audiences, academics, the people who work and play in our public spaces. Don't miss this opportunity to be heard.

Confirmed participants include:
• Paul Dewar (NDP, Ottawa Centre)
• Jen Hunter (Green, Ottawa Centre)
• Scott Bradley (Liberal, Ottawa Centre)
• Stuart Ryan (Communist, Ottawa Centre)

ABSENT from the Debate
• Damian Konstantinakos (Conservative, Ottawa Centre) (Although his campaign office is directly across the street he has declined our offer)

This forum will be free of charge. Open to the public and wheelchair accessible.

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Cube Gallery
1285 Wellington St. W.  Ottawa, K1Y 3A8
613 728 1750   ~   613 728 2111
Cubegallery.ca
don@cubegallery.ca

Even though Fridays make everyone happy because it's finally the end of the week, they can also be totally depressing because 1) you still have to make 'til the end of the work day and 2) it's the end of the week. That's okay, friends. I have two pieces of news that ought to bring you cheer.

1. Sticky
   There is a Canadian goose evading the capture attempts of park authorities in Prospect Park, NYC. Why are they trying to capture Sticky? Because he's got an arrow through his neck. He has had for three weeks now. Apparently an arrow through the neck is no big deal to Sticky, who keeps on running, flying, and swimming away. That's some serious badassery, Sticky. No wonder we love those geese.
2. Tim Riggins and Eric Northman, Two Great Tastes That Taste Great Together
   Yes, there is going to be a movie based on Battleship, the board game, and that's a real shame. But it stars Taylor Kitsch (a.k.a Tim Riggins) and Alexander Skarsgård (a.k.a. Eric Northman), so how bad could it be, really? Just so you understand, we're talking about these guys:
   

As mentioned before, Ayaan Hirsi Ali will be in Ottawa on June 10, as part of the Ottawa International Writers Festival. The event coincides with the publication of her third book, "Nomad," which is primarily a charting of her alienation from the Muslim faith she grew up in. The Globe and Mail's reviewer, Theodore Dalrymple, is, on the whole, very positive and notes that she states her case "with both modesty and great eloquence." His sole caveat is that "the Enlightenment ideal that she espouses is rather too simple as an answer to the problems of human existence."

The latest issue of Brick magazine contains a series of three essays on the passing of Allan King, the versatile Canadian filmmaker most known for his powerful documentaries on social issues such as race, poverty, domestic abuse, and death. (Here is an insightful youtube clip incorporating an interview with King and footage from some of his films. It also has Orson Welles, smoking a cigar and saying that movie directing is "the only profession in the world where you can be incompetent and go on being successful for thirty years with nobody ever discovering.")

And Prairie Fire magazine contains an interview with Austin Clarke, the author of the Giller Prize-winning The Polished Hoe, in which he discusses race, immigration, and the concept of "home."

The New Quarterly's latest issue -- No. 114, "To List is Human" -- is guest edited by Diane Schoemperlen, and contains, among other things, a charming story by Julie Paul, "The Black Forest."

The esteemed New Brunswick journal The Fiddlehead celebrates its 65th anniversary with stories by Deborah-Anne Tunney and Julie Curwin, and poems by Emily Carr and charles c. smith.

And finally, a note on Yann Martel's Beatrice and Virgil, which, while it was lauded in the Globe and Mail as "ingenious," the New Yorker has, in a mini-review, derided Martel for making "a series of baffling choices" in his attempt to create thoughtful art out of the Holocaust. Sounds like the only way to decide which one is more accurate is to read it yourself.

Days 8-11: The Problems with the Podium

Medals:

Canada's medal haul has slowed down in the past three days, and as of Monday evening, we have only earned two more (bringing our total to 9) (another medal is expected in the Ice Dance competition). In an exciting Men's skeleton race, Jon Montgomery edged out Latvian slider Martins Dukurs. His gregarious personality left few Canadians wondering how he felt about his win: the man was ecstatic. It is nice to see someone celebrating their medal, when so much of the news lately has been about disappointments and apologies (more on that in a minute). The other medal for Canada came from speed-skater Kristina Groves, who added a silver to go with her bronze (from the 3000 meters). Her silver medal came in the 1500 meters, an event won by Ireen Wust of the Netherlands.

We are sitting here listening to Darren Dreger ask if Canadians should be worried that both Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo were both pulled in their most recent NHL games. Meanwhile, professional misanthrope Christopher Hitchens has an interesting take on this whole Olympics thing. Initial reaction: get a grip, Hitch! Sure, sports are not a cure-all for the ills of the world, and athletes can be unpleasant jerks, if not downright slimy (including, sometimes, Canadians). But you could make similar claims about, say, free speech: it often leads to conflict and suffering, and  people who exercise their right of free speech to the fullest often reveal themselves to be cruel, ignorant or both. (There are lots of people we'd like to see contract lockjaw.) But that's a poor argument for scorning the practice as a whole.

I can understand part of Hitchens's point, though. All the headlines about skiing, skating and sledding obscure other important stories. There is, for example, a new development in the war in Afghanistan -- involving Canadians, of course.

And finally, something totally unrelated: this, friends, is what an imaginative, top-notch piece of short fiction looks like.

It was an exciting weekend for Canadian sports fans, with the start of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver and the very first gold medal for Canada won here at home. In case you weren't glued to CTV all weekend, here is what you missed:

Day 1, Opening Ceremonies:

The unfortunate death of a young luger from Georgia put a bit of a shadow on the games before they officially began. Nodar Kumaritashvili flew off his sled and crashed into a steel pole on the course in a training run on Friday morning. He was honored in the opening ceremonies with a moment of silence and through the somber entrance of his Georgian teammates who wore black armbands and scarves in his honor.