Mainstream news? Garbage. Bloggers are the new poets.

Sitting at my in-laws tonight, my brother-in-law Trevor and I were eating the last scraps of Sunday dessert. We looked at the news and saw a story about a tragic shooting. There was something all-encompassing that came to mind when I saw this story, and I think I began to rant.

There’s this massive disconnect between mass media and myself.

I’ll explain in the way I tried to explain to Trevor.

The world in which this guy murdered his mother and sister, is not the world I endorse. Reporting on this disgustingly painful story is not the news from the world as I hope to see it operated. I am not pulling a bag over my head, no, but simply sick of seeing no end to stories like this because of the way our world works.

These murders, and shootings, and thefts, and disrespectful behaviour, and desperation are symptoms of the way we live our lives. Consume, keep-up-with-the-Joneses, read terrible newspapers, watch terrible television, watch terrible disconnected (money-grabbing) news media; This is the recipe for a life that everyone (mostly everyone) has bought into for the worse.
It’s not a matter of taste either. It’s a matter of delivery, message, and content from these outlets that make us boondoggled and confused as to the real cause of these tragedies we see and hear about every damn day.

Poor people are committing crimes in poor areas because they are fighting for their lives. If they aren’t fighting for their lives, it’s for turf, custody, bravado, power, or because they’ve been backed into a corner by their environment and their circumstances. And that same environment and those same circumstances are the ones we all contribute to when we participate in the self-centered life we live.

I think of under-privileged areas of urban Canada. They are not just trouble makers, the kids going cuckoo and shooting up schoolyards. They are attending poorly run schools within poorly run neighbourhoods within unsympathetic cities within faceless, unaccountable, red-tape-loving provinces and states.  They may have been raised by single parents (who likely come from little education) and are spending less and less time with that parent because of the financial necessity (job) to keep them and their children simply alive.

We don’t realize that they are fighting to keep a roof over their head, and to keep money in the coffers, and all the while this happens, the kids in the schools still DESIRE that which the parent cannot provide. They want the status items. They still see and hear about the pseudo-heroes of our day (entertainers). They want the stuff we all “want”. Even if their needs are fulfilled (home, food, and family) it makes little difference to someone trying to socialize and stand out in the quickening homogenization of our world. The pressure to fit in and “seem” normal can drive people to do awful things, especially if they were never raised to think better of stealing. Nothing is yet being said about health-care needs that the family may be suffering, or members of the under-privileged community having mental disabilities with drugs they cannot afford.

This soup of misfortune added together makes for a lot of opportunity for abuse, crime, disgruntlement, and general malaise.

And what do we hear in the paper or on the TV?

“Man shoots his sister and mother to death over domestic dispute.”

And…?

Oh, he was just a maniac. A crazy person. A total sociopath.

You know, the real tragedy of this scene is the ignorance of all those gobbling up this news (drivel). The folks who just shake their heads.

I’ll give you a comic comparison. Dave Chapelle gave a telling example of this in a joke once. He was joking about how kids watch Sesame Street and learn terrible things…like the following.

Oscar is this poor dude that kids and adults are always picking on. “Gee Oscar, you’re such a grouch! / “Yeah! Oscar, you’re a GROUCH!”

Oscar replies, “Bitch I’m livin’ in a fuckin’ trash can! You’d be pretty unhappy too!….I’m the poorest motherfucker on Sesame Street and you guys want to rub it in…”

Chapelle carries on, “and we wonder why as adults we walk down the street and step over homeless people shaking our heads saying, ‘Get it together grouch! Get a job, grouch.’”

It’s all learned. We think these criminals are deplorable, but they are products of their environment, and their environment is a BY-PRODUCT of our way of life. Greed. Self-interest. “I don’t want to live in a community where POOR people live! I have a good job now, and I’m moving to the SUBURBS where it’s SAFE!”

Community has been sacrificed for the general isolation of our separated, designer neighbourhoods, and gadgets. Cable TV has taken place of talking to elders in the community. We used to get our stories from people in the community, not from the paper. The real story, the real details, before they were spun by a magazine, paper, or news program (because of political and financial agendas) used to actually get to the public. Today, we get nothing. We get the disconnected story.

Why?

The reporters aren’t even connected to the stories. Most of them anyway. They live in the same separated bedroom communities. They’re part of the class of people who want BETTER and MORE for their family. They are now a part of the class that are leaving their kids at home, flailing, without attention, without adult interaction who are now joining suburban gangs, and having lurid sex parties and overworked parents are shoving their kids out the door when they get home from the stressful job. Go play.

It’s really terrible.

I just realized that today, I have resigned myself from taking my news from sources that have completely lost touch with journalism, research, putting things into perspective, and doing HONEST, un-compromised by-the-sway-of-advertisers stories.

Bloggers, people of the community. People in the world, moving and still shaking, living a closer reality to “community” have the inside track today. Why? Because they are honest and they have no advertisers to pander to…

I’m no fool, as I know that everyone has a sway, and that partisan politicians have teams of people pushing their version of the facts on blogs, but I am talking in terms of community blogs. People on the ground level of cities, commenting on cities. They have more authority than someone being paid to deliver a version of the news.
To quote one of my brilliant brothers, Todd, “you, as a blogger are one of the poets of our generation.”

I encourage you to look deeper into your news sources. There is SO MUCH else out there besides the garbage that finds it’s way onto the major networks or local newspapers. I, frankly, have now given up on news-for-money and entertainment-sold-as-news (delivering us Spears, Kanye, Mary Hart, Madonna, TMZ and the other useless stuff) for good. In a moment of clarity, seeing those stories in the format of Victim/Perp/Conclusion finally made me crack.

That kind of irresponsibility needs to be quashed. Better yet, ignored.

There is also SO MUCH great news that could be shared with us, the citizens of the world, but we are disinterested. We want blood, drama, and, death in our news. Who cares about the good in the world? Boooooring! Good? People only want good if it is associated with overcoming evil. I, for one would prefer to get some good news about the efforts that have been organized within communities to improve those communities. These are the people I look up to. These are the stories I will retell my friends, family, and children. The hate and sadness can take a hike. I’m so over it. I hope you get over it too.

Tom’s News Tips (off the top of my head):

Get some more magazines that maybe tell another side of the story.

If the news you watch has a weather forecast, turn it off. Okay, get the weather and THEN turn it off.

Fox and CNN are the same thing, just on opposite sides of the spectrum. Junk.

If you read the New York Times, like I try to, check out the National Post online once in a while.

You are better off getting your news from Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Seriously.

Public radio…they answer to listeners, not politicians or advertisers.

Don’t believe everything you read/hear regardless of the source. They’re all human.

Big Walk stuff

There’s been some unexpected support of the Big Walk concept…from Scaledown (scaledown.ca). This is pretty cool, since these guys are all about USING your city. Taking advantage of your surroundings.

Chris Holt, who ran for the Green Party in Windsor, apparantly has a keen eye on the Windsor blog roll, as he spotted the post about the Big Walk, and wanted to get involved, which is pretty obviously – flattering.

Here’s the link:
http://www.scaledown.ca/2008/10/19/big-walks-big-tables-and-big-ideas/

On another note, I apologize for the lateness of posts recently, but the shows at Phog Lounge (where I book acts/bartend) were nearly impossible to manage for the last five weeks. Very hectic, very stressful times because when you promise money to a band(s) you NEED bodies in the building paying cover charges. It’s my job to promote. And for 5 weeks, we have had an unpresidented level of talent through the doors.

There is less stress for November. Then Christmas-season unloads on us. Nice.
Also, my father had some complications with his gallbladder operation, and it was important that I see him as often as possible.

Oh yeah, and lastly, my wife’s 4-Year-Anniversary gift to me has been a MAJOR time consumer…and I warned her…
More to come about THAT topic very soon! It’ll be the next post.

Big Walk

Yeah, I drew this thing.

It’s the “poster” for Big Walk. Big Walk is the realization of my discussion with Scott Knowles…the now-professor who was part of the 24Hrs. trio that began a series of 24-hour walks in American cities (among other things).

It’s unreasonable top make a poster for this, because I’m only taking 25 people with me. And of those 25 spots available, there are actually only 20 spots left (or so) and of those, I am sure that the group helping organize it will be taking up at least 8.

Big Table is a group of people I asked to get together with me every Thursday at 1pm. Why? These mentors of mine, doers in their own right, festival organizers, volunteers, idea-people, resource-collectors, arts-minded, cultural individuals are altruistic enablers. They come together every week to help anyone within the group to realize an event, project, festival, whatever…

Big Walk (the name takes the moniker from Big Table) was put together by the members of the group, and the trail has been plotted by the members of the group. I could not have planned it without them, and now I am super-anxious to see it come to fruition.

Big Walk is scheduled for 8am on November 8, and will finish at the starting point 16 hours later, at midnight. We will be walking across the city back and forth, up and down, north of Ottawa Street primarily…but keeping within the oldest quarter of the city (closest to the Detroit River).

We plan on stopping for four sit-down meals and some short tours of certain select spots. We also plan on visiting several local businesses, some you may know, some you may not, to increase awareness of what they have to offer. Most of these stops will be culturally significant or historically significant stops. So we’re not stopping at a car dealership, or a mall.

What will everyone take from this walk, besides sore feet? I think we will have a renewed sense of our city, in the area researched, because we will be unable to ignore the subtleties we are habitually glazing over when we drive or bike. These walkers will be seeing the trash (or lack thereof) in certain neighbourhoods, the road conditions, the abrupt endings to bike lanes, and the faces of many houses we have never turned our heads to enjoy.

Personally, I look forward to seeing how much environmentally significant spots we discover, or discover ruined. The city life finds us hunting for parks and green spots more and more, and I hope that I can leave this walk with the sense that not all is lost in the natural history of Windsor. My home.

If you want in, e-mail me. phoglounge@gmail.com

I will soon release the locations of our meals, snacks, breaks, etc.

Scott Knowles: Interview

24 Hrs. New Orleans map from Good Magazine.

A 24-hour walk.

Along with Scott Knowles, two guys named Kurt Braunohler and Calvin Johnson have created a series of psychogeography projects called 24 Hrs., of which I am a huge fan.

I read THIS article in Good Magazine (a wonderful mag you should check out).

In short, these guys take a group of 30-40 people and they walk around the city (New York, Philadelphia, New Orleans, etc.) for 24 hours, mimicking a 24-hour road trip, visiting unique businesses, cultural hot-spots, eating, drinking, performing tasks (cleaning a cemetery for an hour) until they are tired, disoriented, and experiencing their city in a mindset and time that they are unaccustomed to.

Since then, I have been having meetings about hosting a walk like this in Windsor. I want to make it a little different though. I want it specifically to be an orientation or re-introduction to our fine city of Windsor. I want it to run from 8am until midnight instead of being 24 hours.

The idea struck me so fascinating that I decided to find one of the organizers and interview them for Not In My Backyard, the new radio show on CJAM.

Scott Knowles, a professor of Urban History at Drexel University in Philadelphia, was an incredible person to talk to, and I felt a kinship to a man who has an explorer within him that has successfully reached the surface in the form of many psychogeographical projects like 24Hrs.

Before and after the recording, we spoke a little longer about the area of Windsor/Detroit and how I hoped his group would come and offer a walk in the Detroit area. Scott encouraged my participation in having a walk of my own, which was a fairly uplifting suggestion.

We discussed liability, which was a concern for the walk, and he offered his experience as an example. He tells his groups what’s a stake with their physical health, but he does not require a waiver to be signed. Why? Well, he feels similar to me on this, as the legality that people jump to when they are simply going on a friendly, organized walk is part of what ruins events just like this. It’s a sad commentary on society as a whole when the first thing you have to consider on a walk that will find you immersed on a ground level to your dwelling is liability waivers.

We talked about his other projects, including disorienting groups of blindfolded people by dropping them off in the middle of an urban centre, in the middle of a park or parking lot, and asking them to find their way back, as a group, to a particular spot. It is mostly a unnerving time when they first remove the blindfolds and try to figure out where they are. Secondly, it is a challenge to envision the city and the easiest route to the final spot. It’s a wonderfully fun idea I also plan on borrowing after the Big Walk.

Another event involved people keeping track, on paper, of every single minute that passed (in a given time frame of an hour or two) while walking through the city. It was an experiment and observation of the passage of time. The amount of things that occur in a given minute that we don’t bother consciously recognizing because of our haze of hurry we immerse ourselves within.

The last event he told me about was equally incredible. Artists, urban planners, etc. go to a venue (restaurant, coffee shop, McDonald’s, whatever) with tons of drafting paper and pens and markers. Then they decide, individually or in groups, what SHOULD be in the place of the building they are sitting in. They tape up the designs and ideas on the front of the building and debate the worthiness of their designs/arguments. It’s a beautiful concept because it’s an imagining. It allows those capable of envisioning better, to dream. It encourages wild-eyed hope and appreciation for a city, a surrounding that we want.

Talking with him was as uplifting an experience that an interview can be because of the clarity of his intentions and penchant for the less ordinary.

My interview with Mr. Knowles will run on October 7th at noon.

As it stands, with some unexpected and expected obstacles, the Big Walk will happen on Saturday, November 8th. I am only taking 25 people on this walk, and it will be first-come, first-serve. Interested? E-mail me at phoglounge@gmail.com

New Radio Show on CJAM: Not In My Backyard

I’m always running my mouth. In one of my bouts of loose-lippedness I disclosed to someone that I had th desire to do another talk radio show on CJAM.

Reading articles about the world, technology, etc., can be a little insular. It’s a LOT insular actually, because I don’t really get to discuss the  topics I read. I know there are people out there who would love to get into the topics, but most of the time, they’re too heavy to discuss at work…a downer.

So I thought I’d do a show and invite calls, feedback.

As I ran my mouth one night about this desire to do a show, in front of one L. Adam Fox, he replied, ” I was ust going to fill out a program request form for a show like that…wanna do the show together?”

Well geez.

Adam is FAR more experienced with radio, and is kind of “in charge” of stuff with regards to CJAM 91.5 FM here in Windsor/Detroit. To do a show with him would be a great learning experience for me, and it would be done correctly. He told me his idea for his show. It was clearer, smarter, and better than my original vision. We would cover local stories regarding culture, arts, music, whatever…and report it professionally, while also being ourselves. Cutting loose a little bit here and there.

The first show arrived in a flash. The first thirty-minute episode of Not In My Backyard (Adam’s idea for a name that I liked immediately) was a bit clunky, but aimed toward a place I am happy heading toward. Adam interviewed the people responsible for the (now) successful Fahrenheit Fire Festival. My story was a post-event look at the FAM Festival with the creator, Murad Erzinclioglu. FAM Fest found scores of bands, artists and film-makers and organized them on display at several venues in downtown Windsor.

The second episode of the show was much cleaner, and smooth, and I am far more confident in having you hear THAT one. In that show, I interviewed Tony Gray, a local artist who has become a syndicated cartoonist with not one comic, but TWO! Yeah, he sits next to Garfield and strips of the like. Adam spoke with local music marvel Johnny West. Awesome interview. Especially because no one really knows ANYTHING about this guy who has been impressing people with his music for years almost anonymously

If you live in Windsor or Detroit and you want to hear our show when it airs, it is on every Tuesday at noon. If you would rather live stream it or listen to archived versions of the show, you can do so at cjam.ca by finding the archives, clicking on the Tuesday you want to hear, and selecting the 12:00pm start time.

In parting, I want to give you a heads-up that this awesome community radio station is having its annual pledge drive in a couple of weeks, and I invite you to contribute to see that the station makes it’s goal of $25,000. The programming is top-notch whether we’re talking about spoken word or music programming. It is a station that represents a lot of what’s great about radio, commercial-free radio. That’s a beautiful group of words, commercial-free radio. If it’s something you believe in, like I do, you can contribute with Pay Pal on the CJAM site, or you can call in and pledge during the drive.

It’s a station I believe in, and am genuinely proud of, and I think it is a treasure that needs to be nurtured.

More about that in a later post.