If you are interested in sound, music, perception and the links between these things then this is a great podcast for you! Fascinating.

http://www.radiolab.org/2007/sep/24/

I was hired to play on a folk album recently and got to meet the owners of Constant Sound Studio.  Truly great people, and amazing sound.  If you need some recording or web-design in or around Ottawa, you should consider Kate and Hollis.

We sang songs around the ping-pong table this weekend at Mount Washington.

Just to explain the SPAM numbering system here; you’ll notice that the number of Spontaneous Acts of Music does not correspond to the number of acts that I have committed. That is because, thankfully, other people have taken this project on as well. My daily act that I am blogging about here is only part of what is going on, you could check in with the actual Spontaneous Acts of Music event page on Facebook. if you want to see what other people have been up to.

I committed a Spontaneous Act of Music (SPAM) at the Athlone Court in Oak Bay, Victoria BC on Feb.1st, by showing up with a double bass and a sign saying that “I’m not busking, I’m committing a Spontaneous Act of Music”. I was playing for pleasure, yours and mine.
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I’ve chosen to begin a community project called Spontaneous Acts of Music.  It comes in response my feeling that I’ve been playing music mostly for money and professional reasons lately and not enough for fun.  I haven’t been sharing the fun with my community, only the planned performances make it to the public.  There is so much music out there being played behind closed doors!  So….

Welcome to Spontaneous Acts of Music!

This is a musical invitation. It’s simple. I’m inviting you to take your music and share it, somewhere in your community in a new way.

Don’t over-think it, just go play, sing for you neighbor. Take your music to a dinner party, play it on the ferry, on the street, or in the park. Sing with your friends, your kids, your choir, play with your band, the key is to do something that’s new for you.

My goal is to reach 280 Spontaneous Acts of Music by the end of February. I hope you will help!

Commit an Act, and go to the Facebook Spontaneous Acts of Music event page and leave a comment saying what you did. Post pictures, post videos!

I think that when people see your music, they will smile and be inspired. And that’s worth doing.

I’m going down to the legislature today to protest the BC  Arts funding cuts that this government has dropped on its populace.  So I thought it would be a good idea to freshen up on some of the relevant numbers, ya know… get a look at the lay of the land.  Guess what?, it don’t look good.

Here’s a good piece of news about the BC Arts Cuts of 2009 from the Tyee, including some very important numbers to understand if you live in BC. According to the Tyee the BC government itself has done the research necessary to calculate that it makes back $1.38 tax dollars for every $1.00 dollar it spends in arts support.  With that in mind it is incredible that the BC Liberals have put in place a plan to cut 88 percent of the BC government’s arts funding, over the next two years. Those are the numbers I was looking to brush up on, but there are plenty more interesting things to consider in the article itself.

Here’s a more recent tyee article with similar cutting numbers and some fresher statements from ministers.

In August of 2008 the federal government had The Conference Board of Canada do some research to understand how to “Value” the Canadian creative economy.  What they produced is a 72 page report called,

Valuing Culture: Measuring and Understanding Canada’s Creative Economy
Report by The Conference Board of Canada
July 2008, Source: The Conference Board of Canada, 72 pages

if you don’t mind signing in to the free e-library, feel free to Download document*

Here’s a couple of my favorite parts, that I’d like to share with you.

“The economic contribution of the culture sector to Canada in 2007 was 84.6 billion, or 7.4 per cent of the total GDP, taking into account direct, indirect and induced contributions.  Over a million people are employed directly or indirectly as a result of cultural economic activity in Canada.”

I’m sure BC fits into those canadian statistics somewhere….but not as largely as it could.  Would you believe that even with the positive returns it would get on its tax dollars that I mentioned before, BC spends the least on the arts sector of all the provinces?

The report mentions repeatedly the connections between arts & culture, and tourism, the high tech sector, and the general welfare and happiness of the population.

The report concludes with this as one of its final recommendations,

“Creative communities are important drivers in Canada’s economy.  They project unique identities that act a magnets for skilled and creative people and for business investment.  An important challenge for all levels of government is to ensure that communities have the means necessary to support creativity and diversity and to build a thriving culture sector.”

I wonder if anyone from the BC liberal government ever read or even skimmed it?  Because the word on the street is that a lot of the familiar types of arts organizations you’ve seen and enjoyed d0n’t know how they’ll survive without any government funding.  Which is what a 88 per cent cut amounts to I’d say.

Well that’s enough for me today.  I’m off to the legislature to complain and shout.

Hope to see you there.

Anybody need a bow?  If you do this is the place to get it.  And they are on sale! Over the years I’ve done quite a bit of business with Lemur Basses; rosin, music, bows, cases, stool…. etc.  Not only do I like their business and their prices, but I also happen to really think lemurs are cool.

Recently I played at the Fiddlefest on Saltstpring Island which was a heck of a lot of fun and an opportunity to learn some fiddle tunes.  While there I also got to meet some of the West Coast fiddling community, like Zav RT for example.  jaimert.com/

While on Saltspring I took some time to check out several of the alternative building styles that are being used there.  If cob is your thing I suggest checking out the Mud Girls at mudgirls.ca  they offer workshops where you get to actually go through the process of making a building with them.  In a nutshell, Cob housing uses mud mixed with straw to create your walls.

“Rammed earth” building, which I’d never heard of before going to Saltspring, turned out to be a process using earth mixed with a small amount of concrete and then pounded down into wall moulds.  This technique produces something close to a concrete wall but with 90% less concrete.  It’s actually alot like making a sandstone structure.  Incidentally it ouly makes sense for your first floor as it becomes no longer cost effective after about 12 feet.  Check out sirewall.com/ for the scoop on the Saltspring’s rammed earth house maker.  Incidentally if you like Randy Bachman you should know that he has a huge rammed earth home on Saltspring with all kinds of cool features like sculptures chiselled out of the walls themselves.