Love and Rivalries at a CBC Station

When I arrived at News of the North in 1978, the editor Craig McInnes, was leaving, along with his partner of the time, Elizabeth Hay who worked at CBC radio. So I never really go to know them. But I read Craig's articles while he was at the Globe and followed Liz's career as a writer. Her upcoming newest work of fiction is creating a buzz up here. It's set in the 70's in Yellowknife--and, well, here's the description on Liz's website:

Elizabeth Hay's new novel is set in motion when a man hears a voice on the radio and falls in love. The story is set in 1970s Yellowknife and centres around the loves, rivalries, and entanglements of a small and unlikely group who work at the local radio station. One summer they embark on a canoe trip that takes them into the arctic wilderness, following in the footsteps of the legendary Englishman John Hornby, who starved to death in the Barrens in 1927. In the wilds they find the balance of love shifting, much as the balance of power in the North is being changed by the proposed Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline. Weaving stories from the past into the present, Hay builds a fresh, erotic, darkly witty and moving tale about the power of a voice and of a place to generate love and haunt the memory. Like radio, the novel creates sudden intimacy over long distances, and like the North, it is spare, compelling, and charged with unusual life.

A lot of people will be reading this one, trying to match the characters with people from the past--even though we all know authors never base their characters on real people ... I'm just glad I arrived after she gathered her material.

Michael Moore and Old Friends

At the end of a week when the Canadian Medical Association elected a president who wants to expand the role of private health care delivery, it's rather fitting that I went to see "Sicko" tonight. Michael Moore, as usual, takes the viewer on a journey that is both entertaining and enraging. Ok, so he sees universal health care, from Canada to Cuba, through rose coloured glasses, but it's the contrast with the American system he's after. What a storyteller--and humourist.

I dropped in to see Aggie this morning to return some books and we decided to go see Moore's doc together. Afterwards, we had some mint tea at Javaroma which holds open mic night on Saturdays. The son of senator NWT Nick Sibbeston was performing, while an older gentleman played his flute. It's been a week of getting together with a number of people I knew from the late 70's. After having dinner with Marie on Thursday night, I had lunch with Anne Crossman Friday. She too worked at News of the North, but left to take up various CBC posts, most recently in Inuvik where she was station manager. Now, she's living in the Valley in Nova Scotia where she edits an online newsletter called Permafrost. It's a digest of articles about the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline and other resource related issues. Anne came back to Yellowknife for a wedding this weekend, and this is the first we've seen each other since 1979. We met at the museum restaurant, then that night Judy and I had dinner at the Office, a dark old style restaurant with a great bison steak. It's too bad the group of us couldn't have connected at the same time--just like in the old days when we might meet at the press club, or for Women's Night Out. And then there was the time we printed up t-shirts declaring "This is Not a Wet T-shirt" to protest the wet t-shirt contests at the Explorer Hotel... I still have that shirt.

(And thanks to two of my dedicated readers, I have amended the previous sentence to read "Wet" instead of "Dry". Thank you truenorth and Eustacia Vye.)

Folk on the Rocks

A warm gorgeous day unfolded for the annual Folk on the Rocks festival, which takes place on the sandy shores of Long Lake. Carsten and I spent the afternoon there, rotating back and forth between the beer garden and main stage. The sun and hard lemonade were both cumulatively strong, and he has an early morning flight, so we didn't stay late into the night. But we took in a lot in those few hours. Sarah Harmer was there, performing with the Bebop Cowboys from Ontario. It was another trip down memory lane for me when The Sadies got on stage: two of the members are the sons of The Good Brothers, a band from my high school days, who performed regularly at a coffee club in Richmond Hill. We also heard and saw the Great Slave Swimmers play with the Greasy Twigs. And below are emcees Mr. Lahey and Randy of theTrailer Park Boys, entertaining the crowd before the Tulita drummers performed on the main stage. One of the drummers is a reporter on Northbeat, the supper hour TV show. The money shot is this volunteer with his Jack Russell terrier.

Hooping it Up

Summer Solstice activities started today in the Sombe K'e Park near city hall. I wandered over after work, on the eve of the longest day. A Cree dancer from Alberta had just begun two traditional dances. This is the Hoop dance, which the emcee said women never performed in the early days.

She also did a traditional dance, a very subtle routine, set to a "story song", about girls taken and abandoned by fur traders when they returned to their women back home. They were called "country wives".

The usual festival fare of hot dogs and cotton candy was supplemented by the surprising offering of perogies and sausage ($5) from the Yk Ukranian Association.

Tomorrow the park will be abuzz with music. And CBC will do six hours of live programming from noon to six. The aboriginal broadcasters don't book guests ahead of time--they find people in the crowd to bring into the tent for interviews. Now that's spontaneous programming! Last year none of the guests lined up for the English afternoon program showed up. So they went into the crowd, roped in some people the host knew and the show, I'm told, was terrific. I think of all the hours we put into preparation for our remote shows in Halifax...

Nova Scotia Connections

I had to pick up my White Stripes concert ticket today, at the Birchwood Gallery, which features a spectrum of northern and Canadian artists.

There, I discovered Rod Charlesworth, who has a couple of paintings with Nova Scotian themes. He's from B.C., but apparently his work is in galleries throughout Canada and overseas.

"Inukshuk sun" ______________________________"Annapolis Royal"

There are lots of Nova Scotian connections here: the supper hour TV show has a regular columnist, originally from Middleton. The same night he was on the program, there was an item about an art camp for kids, led by a NASCAD grad.

While I was downtown I dropped into Overlander, the MEC of Yellowknife. I was all set to buy some kind of bear repellant, after hearing our first Bear Report broadcast on the morning show Friday. But I couldn't decide between the spray, which is in a hefty canister and the bangers, which consist of a launcher and pak of flares.
The spray would be like carting a fire extinguisher around with you and the bangers seem far too complicated in a moment when steady hands are required to assemble and set them off. Both cost around $31, though the spray is usable only once and there are six flares. Not sure if the idea is to launch them all, or keep them for separate encounters.
I think I'll wait for Carsten's upcoming visit on July 7th before venturing into the bush again. He can be my bear bait...

Soaking up the culture

Call me crazy, but I'm going to see the White Stripes on June 26th, the 3rd stop in their upcoming Canadian tour. Hey, any band that wants to perform in Glace Bay and Iqaluit is worth checking out. There was a bit of a stink over the Iqaluit gig when it was revealed kids under 19 couldn't get tickets because of liquor regulations.

My ticket cost $40 for a bleacher seat at the Multiplex Arena--same place I went to the flea market a couple of weeks ago. And the proceeds go to the SPCA, so I'm doing a good deed at the same time!

Bronwyn is a huge White Stripes fans, and has a ticket for their Toronto performance, which is on my birthday in July. It all seems so connected.