Monday October 3rd, 7pm
Ballroom of the Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen Street W.)
Free

The first round of the Difference Engine Initiative, a six week gamemaking incubator for women, is nearly over and we will be presenting the games that they made at this Hand Eye Society Social for the community to play!

Most of the creators will be in attendance and Mare Sheppard, co-coordinator of the DEI, will be hosting the evening. In addition to the usual drinking and chatting, this Social also features a special guest from Chicago, Erin Robinson, who will be doing a presentation touching on her experiences as a game developer (including Puzzle Bots and the freeware Nanobots) as well as her role helping highschool girls make games.

The first and second rounds of the Difference Engine Initiative are part of the OMDC-funded TIFF Nexus.

Calling all artists who love the birds and bees!

The Pollinators Festival is coming to Evergreen Brick Works on Saturday June 25^th, 2011. The Festival is in honor of International Pollinator Week and seeks to raise awareness and appreciation for the birds, bees, flies and butterflies that pollinate our fruits, veggies and flowers.

We want to integrate the arts into the festival and will do so by hosting a community art exhibit. We are looking for any pollinator-inspired artwork (poetry, paintings, photographs, etc) to share with the public. If you have any existing work of anything pollinator related, send it to us. If you don’t have anything yet, go outside and make something! Please email a jpeg of your work to Madeleine.lavin@gmail.com by June 15^th, 2011. We will print a copy of your masterpiece and hang it up at Evergreen Brick Works during the Festival. With your permission, we will sell the work and donate all of the proceeds to Pollination Canada.

Help us spread the word and pass this on to your artist friends. The exhibit is open to all!

Here are the details about the festival (see attached flier for more):

Saturday June 25, 2011

9 am-2 pm

Evergreen Brick Works (map)

Join us on Facebook here.

Sabrina

Toronto Public Space Committee
Organizing Meeting for De-fencing project
Tonight, Aug. 4 @ Trinity Bellwoods Park
7 pm (at the painted dog)

chain link fence.

a self-imposed rusty barrier between neighbours.

properties surrounded by chain link look more like jailyards than homes.

fences create feelings of isolation and detachment.

by taking them down, we encourage a process of community building.

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De-Fencing is good exercise, lots of fun and opens up our neighbourhoods! Join us for our first Volunteer Meeting of the year! We need help to get this project off the ground in ’09.

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Other good things happening in the park on the same day:

BEFORE: 3pm to 7pm – Trinity Bellwoods Farmers’ Market at Crawford & Dundas.

AFTER: Weekly Drum Circle in the pit.

HUGE RALLY TO SAVE CBC RADIO ORCHESTRA
SUNDAY APRIL 20 AT 2 P.M. AT THE CHAN CENTRE AT UBC

Wednesday April 16, 2008 … Standing on guard for the CBC Radio Orchestra, April 20 at 2:00 pm CBC Radio Two listeners are following up on last week’s successful staging of a coast to coast National Day Of Action to demand CBC brass back down on their apparent systematic destruction of the Radio 2 network and their decision to replace it with programming completely foreign to its core audiences. The rally Sunday is a call to the CBC Board and Management to restore the CBC Radio Orchestra within a revitalized CBC Radio Two.

The rally on Sunday starting at 2:00 pm is an hour before the orchestra’s regularly scheduled, and nearly sold-out, performance at 3:00 pm.

The natural amphitheatre at the Chan entrance is a dramatic location, which will accommodate an impressive number of supporters, while allowing the 1,200 concert-goers easy access.

“It’s not the usual sort of prelude to an afternoon of live music at the Chan” said Canadian Music Centre head Colin Miles. “This situation has become a flashpoint for the general downgrading of CBC by the people who have been entrusted with our precious public broadcasting system.”

“We are seeing the end of a cultural treasure that serves Canadians coast to coast and is an essential player in our musical exports to the world. Elimination of the CBC Orchestra is the destruction of our ability to tell our stories. It amounts to censorship and stifling of free expression of our composers” he stated.

“At 2 cents per year per person, how can CBC management, the board and Parliament agree to this? The issue has now been raised on the floor of the House of Commons and we will be keeping the pressure up.” added Colin Miles.

Three years ago CBC management stopped the CBC Orchestra from working in the studio to record music for broadcast and CDs and told they could only give public performances. Renting concert halls and paying for publicity to promote concerts is expensive. This orchestra has a recording studio that was built for them and well trained creative producer, recording engineer and orchestra librarian on staff. CBC management needs to be reminded what power in creating programming they have by keeping their orchestra. We are calling on CBC to restore the orchestra and get the musicians back into the studio to do what they do best for the benefit of all of Canada. As the CBC Radio Orchestra’s own webpage states “With an audience as diverse as the Canadian experience, we create engaging musical radio programs, commission and perform new works as well as established classics, and showcase exceptional Canadian performers and conductors.”

Rally organized by:
Save the CBC Orchestra Committee
Based in Vancouver, Reaching Across the Country

For more information:
Joan Athey 250-294-6040 to April 18; 604-908-9124 April 18, 19 & 20.
Laurie Townsend 604-822-9161
www.StandOnGuardforCBC.ca

published with permission of the author:

Dear members of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage,

I am writing to you as President of the Canadian League of Composers, and request that you enforce the Broadcast Act of 1991 with regard to CBC radio.

Recent changes in CBC’s broadcasts diminish the long-standing working relationship between Canadian composers of concert music and the CBC, as well as their required commitment as public broadcaster to provide rich, original content that reflects the diversity of Canada.

You may refer to my report on the meeting I had with CBC Senior Management <http://www.stopcbcpop.ca/CBC_New%20Music_Dec05.htm>.

Please note the lack of commitment to the Canadian Music composed by our membership of 400 composers (which, when added with the Canadian Music Centre’s Associate Composers equals 1000 artists).

Most importantly, recent changes at CBC Radio Two meant the cancellation of Two New Hours, the only program dedicated to Canadian Art Music. It had a devoted and plentiful following, and its loss is devastating to our field. Moving more closely to the commercial broadcasting category of “Adult Contemporary”. the CBC begins to emulate commercial radio, counter to its mandate as a culture-driven–not numbers-driven broadcaster. Radio One’s programs Freestyle and The National Playlist are two recent examples of the move to commercialism prior to the recent changes at Radio Two.

Significantly, Canada was instrumental in formulating and signing a recent UNESCO act pledging to support and respect diversity of creation in all its forms. In making the current changes, we feel that the CBC is, by including content available on commercial radio, reducing the diversity of public broadcasting. Canadian poets, scientists, writers, composers, etc. are losing their place on Canadian Public Radio, and we request that the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage carefully review and enforce the CBC mandated role in our culture.

Unfortunately, as stakeholders in the CBC, we were not informed of this meeting, and are therefore unable to arrange our presence on such short notice, but as president of the organization representing Canadian Composers, I represent to you the collective views and concerns of our membership.

Sincerely,

Dr. Paul Steenhuisen

Tags: CBC, New Music, Public Radio