Thank-you Jack Layton : They'll Call You Freedom

From Jack Layton, MP, Député

Re: Revocation of the CKLN-FM license
February 3, 2011
Dear Chairman von Finckenstein,
I am writing with regard to the CRTC’s recent decision to revoke the license of
CKLN-FM radio.
Independent, community-based radio is essential to our broadcasting system.
Diversity of ideas and analysis is important for a healthy democracy. For these
reasons, CKLN was created many years ago.
I understand that CKLN may have previously fallen out of compliance with CRTC
regulations. The station’s staff, however, has made efforts to remedy these past
problems. They are making progress and are determined to meet all the
requirements of their license renewal.
In light of these efforts, I believe the revocation of CKLN’s license to be
significantly premature. To echo the dissenting opinion of CRTC commissioner
Louise Poirier, I believe that the measure adopted is disproportionate to the fault
in question. It would have been more prudent and consistent with the
Commission’s common practices to issue a mandatory order accompanied by
close monitoring of the licensee. This would have constituted fair treatment for
CKLN Toronto.
CKLN has always worked hard to provide a voice to the marginalized and to
speak out against inequality.  It is vital that these voices not be silenced.

Should the decision of the CRTC to revoke CKLN’s license be appealed, I would
strongly urge the commission to reconsider the severity of the measure they
have decided to implement.
Yours Sincerely,
Hon. Jack Layton, MP, P.C.
Toronto-Danforth
Leader, New Democratic Party of Canada

Vintage Vinyl Paradise

1.      People who don't need air, food or money are sometimes referred to as vinyl collectors. As many as had heard were at CKLN today to pick up legendary amounts of rare and immaculate records, from over 30 years of programming in local community radio at their Vintage Vinyl Sale. Labelled "CRFM" or "CKLN Do Not Steal", thousands of disks passed into private collections and dealerships, at prices that would make a yard sale regular hesitate to bargain further.
        Surprising quantities of classical, soundtrack, jazz and even mainstream titles were stacked on floors, tables and corners amongst the alt. rock, funk and roots music that the station rose to prominence with in the 80's. (Hmm... not much reggae at all! ) The avalanche of Canadian content was inspiring, setting off memories of bands long forgotten. (Damn! Why didn't I grab that Vital Sines record?). Whole catalogues of artists were on sale. I realized that I had bought many of these titles from hearing them on CKLN in the first place.

      What DID I pick up? 

      Thanks for asking! 

      Here's an insight into my programming from now 'til Christmas:

1    Andre Previn  - Irma la Douce sdtrk. (scratchy but nice)

2.       Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers – New York Scene ( Live meditations with Blanchard, Mulgrew Miller, Donald Harrison)

3.       Bill Connors  -  Of Mist and Melting

4.       Bonnie Raitt  -  Home Plate (Her best band: Freebo, John Hall, Bill Payne, Gary Mallaber and Jim gordon's horns)

5.       Captain Beefheart Tribute Album, V.A.  – Fast ‘n’ Bulbous

6.       Carmen McRae -  Carmen Sings Monk ( Immaculate, one of the best jazz vocal albums ever made.)

7.       Crosby / Nash  -  The Best of… 

8.       David Bromberg  -  My Own House / Sideman Serenade

9.       Don Pullen / George Adams Quartet  - Song Everlasting

10.    Ed Bickert /Rob McConnell  -  Mutual Street (against all odds, the sweet interplay of trombobe and guitar duets)

11.    George Winston / Darol Anger / Mark Isham – Country

12.    Hot Tuna – Double Dose (Live)

13.    J.D. Souther  - Home By Dawn

14.    Jack Bruce / Robin Trower – Truce

15.    James Newton  -  Echo Canyon  / James Newton

16.    John Bottomley  -  Library of the Sun

17.    John Sebastian  -  The Four of Us  /  Real Live

18.    Kalahari Surfers – Living in the Heart of the Beast

19.    King Biscuit Boy w. Crowbar  - Official Music (Almost whooped when I saw this one)

20.    Kronos Quartet  -  White Man Sleeps

21.    Laura Nyro  - Season of Lights (Live)

22.    Maria Muldaur  -  Sweet and Slow

23.    Maxine Sullivan  -  1944-1948

24.    Mike Murley –The Curse

25.    Mimi Farina  -  Solo

26.    Muddy , Koko, Willy Dixon Etc. – Blues Deluxe

27.    Nadine Sutherland  -  Until

28.    Norman Blake & Tony Rice  -  Blake & Rice 

29.    Paul Kelly and the Messengers – So Much Water So Close To Home

30.    Paul Winter  - Earthbeat (with Russian Choir )

31.    Phil Ochs   - A Toast to Those Who Are Gone

32.    Ranking Roger  -  Radical Departure

33.    Richard Burton – The World of Dylan Thomas

34.    Rick Roberts – The Best Of…/ Windmills

35.    Ricky Skaggs & Tony Rice  - Skaggs & Rice

36.    Susannah McCorkle  -  No More Blues (with Emily Remler on half the record)

37.    The Double Six of Paris - The Double Six of Paris

38.    The Go-Betweens  - liberty Belle & the Black Diamond Express

39.    Tom Rush  - Ladies Love Outlaws

40.    Plus many e.p.’s and compilations 

     I would have gotten more, but, seriously, I took all I could carry.

             Thanks to Mike and Chris (above) and Jacky for organizing a smooth, fun and unique shopping experience.

Thank-you Jive Aces

Tune in Friday August 26th at 11:00 for Extreme Song-boarder Mike Angus Riding his six string acoustic direct into Live Orbit

Expresso Abso Tracto at the AGO Toronto

Dave and Linda and I went in out of the solar geometry of the August gorgeosity yesterday and visited the tracings, marks, stains, and discolourations that were jammed into the fuel lines of art in the late forties and burst into Abstract Expressionism New York.
Arshile Gorky, the Groucho Marx of the anti-glyph, met us at the door, with three succinct arguments against symbolism. "What do you feel?", he asked, and we had to dig deep, because we already knew his answers. Tragedy. Loss. Pain. And the intangible secret wind blowing behind the canvas draperies of beauty.
Big paintings were in scarce supply, but two huge exclamations by women dominated the next level of revelation. Eliminating the figures and organic imagery characteristic of the feminine eye, Joan Mitchell and Helen Frankenthaler bend us backwards, up into the scrutiny of emotional calligraphy.
Jackson Pollock is well represented, though nothing big enough to get lost in has travelled from New York. His Easter lily painting is a generous moment of pure colour in the complex grotto of his famous splatter.
Louise Bourgeois, on paper, and a wall or two of black and white photography by Siskind and Harry Calahan illustrate how second-nature this way of seeing has become to our strategic repertoires in these later days of image solution.
A totemic sculpture of wood, rope and ceramic opened the way to the colourfield experiment. As the pretense of connection to the visceral starts to dissolve in the far expeditions of Rothko and Motherwell and the chill of Franz Kline, our interest became critical.
After the drunken collapse of the AbEx style near the end of the exhibit and the gift shop hazard, I suggested we return to the front hall to thank Gorky (and his brothers, William Baziotes and De Kooning, who was playing jazz on the harp of the traditional female figure in a well-lit corner) for a wonderful eye-party. No one had invited Paul Klee or Charlie Parker, who would have been honoured to have been thought of as the most original of expressive avatars. Invite yourself sometime, see what you think. And feel.

Playlist for August 19, 2011

Illustration by  BlackJonc

Host Paul Corby, guests David Francey and Steven Ambrose

 (brought to you by antique apparati, tears of the Amazon and Abstract Expressionism,)

11-2 p.m. online. Canadians in red.

11:00 New Canadian Mysticians

Ian Kelly – What You Like

Shelly O’Brien – Gather In The Clouds

The Weather Station – Know It To See It

The Deep Dark Woods – Sugar Mama

Library Voices – Anthem for a New Canadia

Whitehorse – Broken

Jennifer LFO – The Whale

Song Generators

Danny Schmidt – Houses Sing

Howard Baer – My Luve is Like A Red Red Rose

Jorma Kaukonen – Izze’s Lullaby

Bonnie Ste-Croix – Gone Without a Word

Lindi Ortega – I’m No Elvis Presley

World Doctors

Gilles Peterson – Como Como

Nana Vasconcelos, Mauricio Maestro – Chegada

Interview with Bob Timmins re: Brazilian Consulate Protest Monday

12:00 David Francey Visits

David Francey – Morning Train, Interview, The Waking Hour

Country Show-offs

Chet Atkins – Mountain Melody

The Modern Grass Quartet – Back to Mexico

Organic Jazz Orgy

Heavyweights Brass Band – The Plunge

Gypsophilia – Skirmish

Hoagy Carmichael – Billy-a dick / Look Out Below

Terry Clarke – Flanders Road

1:00 Steven Ambrose Visits: All Rise

WTAL – Be Glorified

Steven Ambrose – Start All Over

Interview with Steve

Steven Ambrose – Love’s Breaking Out / Fiddlin’ With The Funk

Stevie Wonder – Stubborn Kind of Fellow

Disciples of Soul

Asa – Why Can’t We?

Selah Sue – This World

Beres Hammond – Live On / Celebrate Life

Sounds of Blackness / Craig Mack – Spirit

J.J. Mofro – Country Ghetto (Live)

 Illustration by Dan Arbro

What Music Says: Act Now!

The Brazilian Congress is on the verge of approving a major rollback of the Brazilian Forestry 
Code, already causing a huge spike in deforestation.
Leading forest guardians have been victims of murder and intimidation.

This is one of the defining environmental struggles of our times; the assault on the Amazon 
must stop! We, the international community, need to stand in solidarity with the growing 
numbers of Brazilians calling for environmental sanity and respect for human rights in the 
Amazon. Together, we can make a difference.

take action!  Monday, August 22 · 3:00pm - 4:30pm

at the Embassy of Brazil in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

77. Bloor Street West

In Toronto we will be painting our hands RED and placing red war paint on our face to be in 
solidarity with the Indigenous People!

Aquecimento Global by