Tonight is the second show in the “Webs in the Void” series. These shows will focus on a specific band, musician or artist and explore the musicians that seem to gravitate towards them.
The white poppy symbolizes peace. It is meant to remind us of the civilians that are killed in war — over 90% of the casualties in recent wars are civilians, not military troops. The white poppy shows us that we embrace a culture of peace, not the glorification of war. And the white poppy honours those people who practice that culture of peace by refusing to participate in military service.
In Canada Peace Poppies Vancouver have been distributing white lapel poppies. You can order from their website, White Poppies.
The book discussed is Disarming Conflict: Why Peace Cannot Be Won on the Battlefield by Ernie Regehr, not Tom Regehr. My apologies for the error.
Graham Hafey
Graham Hafey
Graham Hafey is a Canadian veteran who now runs V2V Black Hops Brewery in Victoria, British Columbia.
Nicodemus (Nicholas McEachern) Jenniefer Stronge and Jordan Dorans talk with Nicholas McEachern of Amity Operations. Nicholas is Nicodemus in Nicodemus And The Lost Rats, who appear on the Halloween Hotdog Hootenanny Compilation 2019
Tonight is the first show in the “Webs in the Void” series. These shows will focus on a specific band, musician or artist and explore the musicians that seem to gravitate towards them.
The interview with J.P. Mortier starts at 0h07m59s.
We talk about J.P.’s origins, travelling, touring, his new CD Nation Of Iron, his studio band, double albums, and the differences in performing live compared to studio recording.
—-
I didn’t talk much about Paragon Cause (actually, not at all) because I hope to have them in the studio for a live, on-air, in-studio concert when they come to Waterloo on their next tour!
Tonight is a different experience. It’s all about Halloween, Tonight features Scary Stories read by Me and Megan. If you are easily scared…good…I hope you are terrified!!!!
The Boys And I: Adom Postma, Marc Reilly, James Blacktop, Luke Ducharme
Show Notes
Today The Boys And I came into the studio to talk about their music and play some of it live on-air! The tracks are available on The Boys & I Songs on ReverbNation.
The Boys & I are a four-piece band: Marc Reilly on lead guitar, Luke Ducharme on percussion, Adom Postma on bass, and James Blacktop on guitar and vocals. Local to Kitchener, they play an assortment of classic rock, alternative, and lyrically driven original tunes.
Upcoming gigs:
Sat, 31 Aug 2019, 10pm — 1am: The Pick and Shovel, 30 Water St. S., Cambridge
Sat, 7 Sep 2019, 2pm — 1am: Harmony Lunch, 90 King St. N., Waterloo. Benefit for OneROOF
Sat, 14 Sep 2019: Bell City Brewing, #9-51 Woodyatt Drive, Brantford
Sat, 21 Sep 2019: StrykerZ Kitchen & Bar, 120 Ottawa St. N., Kitchener
Fri, 27 Sep 2019: Harmony Lunch, 90 King St. N., Waterloo
Marc Reilly, James Blacktop, Luke Ducharme, and Adom Postma in the studio for a live on-air performance on CKMS Community Connections at Radio Waterloo on Monday, 19 August 2019.
Bob Jonkman with Marc Reilly, James Blacktop, and Adom Postma in the studio for a live on-air performance on CKMS Community Connections at Radio Waterloo on Monday, 19 August 2019.
Luke Ducharme
Marc Reilly and James Blacktop
James Blacktop
Bob Jonkman preps Marc Reilly, Luke Ducharme, and James Blacktop
Elizabeth McCallister and Mark Kempf Today we’re joined by four members of The Arlington Six poetry society: Elizabeth McCallister, Mark Kempf, Lin Geary, and Jim Tomkins.
Lin Geary and Jim Tomkins
Show Notes
Here are some of the poems read on the show, along with a few others that we didn’t get to.
“Paintings are like poems, they are thoughts abandoned” Stan J. White
Music Hall
by Stan J. White
Sex is something
God has thrown in to ensure
We do not confuse ourselves
With deities, with angels –
a kind of tether
that never lets us stray too far
from freshly turned earth after rain
and in the pathos of it all
a constant reminder
of vaudeville, of burlesque.
An Ode to Beer
by Jim Tomkins, 7 November 2011
Oh, amber elixir crowned with golden head
whence came your magic mystical mixture
of barley mash, crystalline water and fruity hops?
Brewed hodgepodge in containers from Sumeria to China
through cellared wooden kegs to Pilzen caves
and glistening copper kettles row on row.
Drunk in litres, pints and Aussie schooners,
halves, viertels and even once,
in six ounce ten cent drafts.
Oh, wine where is thy claim?
Full muted by this tasty honest brew
from ancient cloudy ale to new craft sips
past charcoal stout, beach blond lager
hoppy pale, sweet chocolate mild.
All sips tease lips, tempt discerning tongues
foaming moustaches form in the tingling wake
of fermented flavours gliding down.
Quaffed, not guzzled,
savoured, not chugged
each nuanced batch unique.
Taste, robust or delicate,
stirs heightened eloquence,
smooth patter, bravado’s hope.
Enter the intoxicating dreamland
of ambrosial brew
Biere, cervesa, live on!
Oh, amber elixir crowned with gold.
My Wreck Beach Haiku
by Lin Geary
my new raincoat
for Wreck Beach–
clear plastic
Buried Deep
by Becky D. Alexander
details from a memoir by Sergeant Jim Alexander (MM) Lincoln and Welland Regiment, Holland, 1945
In the kitchen, from the doorway to the hearth,
lying on the floor like some colossal cigarette –
a log , one end in the fire, burning slowly
as flames surround a bubbling pot.
It mystified the Canadian soldiers, those kept
after the war – troops retained
to rebuild a battered country, one
that refused to be swallowed back into the sea.
The explanation provided to the curious, Because the Nazis took all of our metal:
axes, pitchforks, scythes and hoes, even kitchen knives –
a last ditch effort to build more weapons.
Allied saviours shared meals of boiled tulip bulbs: ‘the most gawd-awful things you ever ate’
along with Red Cross chocolate and rationed tins
of bully beef: bitter meals of freedom.
Under our barn, wrapped in oiled burlap,
We have our tractor and plow – buried bits cloistered away
following the final swoop of the flag of black on red. They never found them. Soon, we will plant.
—
This poem appeared in the anthology Tamaracks: Canadian Poetry for the 21 st Century, edited by James Deahl, Lummox Press, California. This anthology is available through Amazon.ca.
The Muffin Man
by Elizabeth McCallister
At two and a half,
He’s got it all figured out.
How to find his T.V. shows
and how to reach those muffins.
He takes one glance over his shoulder
as he stretches out his fingers.
He’s a bad boy though.
It’s his third,
but Mommy’s talking on the phone
so she can’t stop him.
He fixes sad brown eyes
on her to say
“I need this chocolate chip muffin.”
To peel back the golden skin of enriched white flour
and get to the centre.
Pick out each chocolate chip.
Set it aside on the coffee table
filled with his sticky fingerprints
and the goo of cooked muffin and chips
mixed with his saliva.
Place them there for later.
Make a happy face with
eight chips curved in a smile,
three for the eyes and nose.
He’s got his time alone with Mommy.
His big brother and Daddy are
off at Scout Camp together.
At night, he sleeps on top of her
so she can’t get away and leave him.
Until he goes off to playschool,
and sees his girlfriend Chelsea.
He’s decided his name is Sean.
It sounds better.
One day, he’ll fix
those big brown eyes on another woman.
She’ll melt like those chocolate chips
in his hot little fingers.
That’s the way it works.
Not the least Oedipal.
Just practising on the first woman
who loves him, picks up after him, feeds him.
Poem for Reading in a Bar
by Dave Margoshes
Hey, you, you in the back,
come a little closer. The poem
is warm, but its voice is soft.
And you, you over there,
don’t be afraid, the poem
bites, but only the ones it loves.
And you, yeah, I mean you,
looking so smug, do you really
think you’re immune to poetry?
This poem will get under
your skin, you’ll find yourself
thinking about it tonight
as you’re trying to fall asleep,
your lips moving in the dark,
alone in your bed with a poem
you hardly know. When you wake
the bed will be empty, the sheets
soiled, only the poem’s scent
on your pillow to let you know
it was there, only its footprints
in the snow outside your heart
—
From his collection Purity of Absence , (2001) Porcepic Books. Still available for purchase.
Six for the Solstice
(haiku from my garden) by Lin Geary
first time for raised beds–
tender lettuce, red chard
chipmunk and sparrow
cirque du soleil–
these endless wire tents
for the seedling peas
brand-new
pistol-grip
econo-watering
thing
I water my shoes
the neighbour’s tom
brings his best invisible act–
doubtful blue jay
what will I serve with
this 64 dollar
vine-ripened tomato?
sister skunks
stroll under my hammock
lesson in prayer
Worship in the Boreal Forest
by Elizabeth McCallister
Our vespers were whispers to the moon,
and our matins sang the sun awake.
We drank in the summer’s long afternoons.
Began knitting blankets with the first snowflake.
We fell in love to the dance of butterflies.
Their white wings wove a spell of enchantment.
Breezes’ touch on our needles were our lullabies
serenading our young to sleep’s contentment.
We were the high priests within our temple
celebrating rites to our gods’ abundance.
Air, earth, water, light – our needs were simple.
The two-footed fiends stole away our innocence.
There are no songs when each breath is an effort.
All the brown-needled branches are our scars.
Dying, we entwine our roots for comfort,
and sighing send our sorrows to the stars.
—
These two poems were in the collection Notes from Suburbia, 2013, published by Craigleigh Press, Cambridge, ON. It isn’t in print but you may be able to obtain some of the last copies at the Green Heron bookstore in Paris, ON.
Santiago
by Jim Tomkins
On his shoulder tilts a rod
pointing the path so often trod.
In this town of Ford and Chevy
he strides determined to the levee.
Dew-dappled Levis, faded cuff
along dusty curbsides scuff.
Runners crunch the pearly gravel
keen to angle migrants’ travel.
Slimy pylons split the stream
hindrance to the caster’s dream.
Breezes push the sightless odor
sulphuric-past the tugboat’s motor.
Through Ambassador’s massive arc
stand unlit towers of the park.
Oriole, Indian, Yankee teams
thwart the Tigers’ pennant schemes.
Today fishing is his only care
minnows splash, striped bodies glare.
The run is over school is out
time to sell the pseudo-trout.
Scale-stained pockets, shiny dimes
magic simple childhood times.
Two-scooper from the inverted cone
Young Santiago trundles home.
Ashes
by Jim Tomkins, May 9th 2012 Mothers’ day
Her grey ashes sit
in a pressed board box
on an attic shelf
next to light lace doilies
with lavender scent.
Below a trunk’s contents:
sepia family photos known to her
stamps from a bygone era
sleeved in cracking plastic,
crocheted samplers, musty address book
her favourite sherry glass.
I’m happy that is the scene.
No need for flashy urn
to adorn the mantel.
She is far from discarded
her memory’s embedded
a bond from womb to life’s end
Mother to son.
The haiku that won the 2012 International Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival: Haiku Invitational, and rode the Vancouver buses for a couple of months:
by Lin Geary
morning tai chi–
all the prams
slowly turning pink
at the cenotaph
by Lin Geary, 2018
on a skinny cold day
bespoke in black
the long lamb coat, the boot-lined comfort…
there, alongside my fellow Canadians
it’s time to jut out my chin
in once-a-year pride
to stand curbside guard
to miscount the endless placing of wreaths
to breathe out the thoughtless mind-frost
into thin, thin air….
and the mic kicks in, then out
as a faultless child sings the Queen’s old anthem
and we all raise out descant and filler voices
not missing a beat…
till Henry calls the Colour Guard to attention…
Present Flags!
it is only then the tears begin
cloud my eyes and bite my cheeks
because Henry has led the parade
because Henry is my long-widowed neighbour
because Henry is 92, bent and strong
and I think Happy Birthday, Canada
because it is the 11th of November…
100 years of armistice after a war
that birthed our nation
and here we stand, still firm, still cold
in perpetual grief
still hoping for peace
Maeve 3
Jim Tomkins, 2017
Rhythmic patter of sidewalk
slowly droops her eyes
gentle bump of each slab
confirms her comfort
a tiny hand protrudes
retreats returns to rest
wee nose below cap’s brim
contains genes of the stroller
as do tiny ears
peeking under pink flap
instinctual feeling confirms
the link
a generation apart
together strolling in the Annex
a primal confluence
pulses in the air.
11 Days
by Jim Tomkins, 2013
ebony locks beside miniscule digits
snorfly flared nose, flint coal eyes
endlessly curious in bright moments
of sight
one tiny nicked ear, peach-tinted cheeks
insatiable mouth, slight doubling chin
eagerly chomping in maternal moments
of milk
fuzzy cute sleeper housing jiggling legs
scrunched like a turtle thrusting out
kicking, declaring the embracing
Of life
The Poet
by Jim Tomkins
He sits
Glasses perched
Contemplative frown
Over hunched shoulders
Ancient desk and messy pen
His hair
Stands alert in silver halo
Around his warty pate
The lidded eyes closed in reverie
His thoughts
Provoke tugs of mustache
On bristled upper lip
Above careless shaving scar
He ponders
Lists of grasped images
Written on scraps
And stuffed in random pockets
He recalls
An endless selection
Of captured memories
That rooted themselves over time like saplings
His scribbling
Whisk him back in time
And force his aging brain
To organize. To prioritize. To choose
His words
Spill forth and write themselves
In haste and fear of loss
Like escaping prisoners
His poems
Speak not to another
Not to his audience
But to him alone
As he sits, glasses perched
At ancient desk and quill.
Death of the voice
by Jim Tomkins
For generations they came
first with mouth pieces
mounted on walls with hand held
receiver cones in touch by party line
then with dials and cradles
for decades used to keep in touch
clunky cordless devolved to flip
to ironic smart
communication ended
dumbed down by texting
muffled by instagram
silenced by Facebook
voices no longer heard
or listened to
the chat castrated
the telephone a eunuch
in the harem of the algorithm
A correction — Mark Kempf writes: “I am so embarrassed to say but happy to report Wendell Berry is not dead as I so confidently mentioned yesterday — I wanted to let you know as soon as I could.
My confusion is completely indefensible, and not sure why I thought it now.”
The #Lights4LibertyKW vigil was held on Friday, 12 July 2019 in Waterloo Town Square to call for an end to both the migrant detention camps in the United States and those in Canada.
Christine Mayor a PhD student at Laurier University and a trauma therapist, spoke on the vigil organization and Canada’s own problems with refugee detention.
Kira Williams, a post-doctoral student from the International Migration Research Centre at the University of Waterloo spoke about international migrant detention issues.
“Lights for Liberty is not about one lone day of action. It’s a chance to elevate orgs that’ve been doing this work for years, to get involved, to demand change AND to fight for it. Join us.”
—Lights for Liberty international organizers/hosts
Write to and call your MP calling on them to end migrant detention in Canada and to end the Safe Third Party Agreement with the United States.
Write to and call the Minister and Deputy Minister of Immigration Refugees and Citizenships and of Public Safety Canada calling on them to end migrant detention in Canada and to end the Safe Third Party Agreement with the United States.
Donate to an organization in the United States that is working to support migrants and refugees. There are a lot of options including RAICES, Immigrant Families Together, and ACLU.
Share articles on social media about the migrant detention camps in the U.S. and about migrant detention in Canada. Encourage others to take action and help them figure out how.
Write a letter to the editor of a newspaper about some aspect of this work that’s important to you – ending migrant detention; being a welcome community for refugees and immigrants; the racist past and present of immigration policy in the U.S. and Canada, or closing the camps in the United States.
Donate to an organization in Canada that supports immigrants and refugees. There are lots of options including Canadian Council for Refugees, Migrante, No One Is Illegal Toronto, and Sanctuary Refugee Health Centre.
Write to and call your MPP about reversing the Ford government’s cuts to legal aid for refugees and immigrants.
Advocate for a professional association or community organization that you’re a part of to formally call for an end to migrant detention and join relevant coalitions or working groups.
Connect with other participants from the Lights for Liberty event to organize another event – panel discussion on migrant discussion, fundraiser, film festival, demonstration, etc.
Get involved in Provincial and Federal politics – ensuring that migrant detention and services for immigrants and refugees are key election issues.
Join the mailing list for and follow immigrants’ rights groups on social media so that you can continue to learn and take action
The Lights For Liberty vigil was announced on CKMS Community Connections on 8 July 2019.
Music List
The playlist today is entirely from Nation of Iron by J.P. Mortier, a singer, song writer and artist from Montreal. It’s a double album consisting of 24 songs clocking in at 2 hours and 19 minutes. On this album, he targets the totalitarian powers that be: governments, corporate power, religion, ideology, technology and other tools of destruction that want to rule our society. It seemed appropriate, given the topic for today’s show.
We dip into the album selections throughout the show, interspersed with talking to our in-studio guests.
Tonight is all about opening acts that blew my mind. Some I wasn’t expecting, some I knew would blow me away. This is a two part series with this one focusing on the groovier side of things.
Tonight is all about opening acts that blew my mind. Some I wasn’t expecting, some I knew would blow me away. This is a two part series with this one focusing on the heavy side of things.
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