save the dragon

One of my favourite finds, as a new (vegan) Hamiltonian, was the Sky Dragon Centre. Being a homebody a lot of the time I haven't taken advantage of everything the Centre has to offer, and I haven't been there as often as I might like. Still I've enjoyed many non-dairy (and often non-soy) lattes, vegan baked treats, rice bowls, microbrews, and other yummy consumables there. I've shopped at the organic market, bought fair trade coffee for home, admired the art, enjoyed the ambiance. And that's just a taste of what's going on there.

It's been reassuring to know Hamilton can harbour this kind of sanctuary. But now that harbouring is in some doubt. Sky Dragon's mortgage is scheduled to be pulled on April 18th, leaving the coop in a very tenuous position. They need a new mortgage, and probably some restructuring to stay in operation. I'm not clear on all the details, but The Spec has published some information and the Sky Dragon blog has more info on the issues than I've had time to read. It sounds like it's going to take some community mobilization to keep the Centre going. If you're willing to help, read the blog, spread the word, and think about attending the community information meeting this Monday, March 29, 7pm – 9 at Ricca’s Furniture Building, 228 James St. North, Hamilton.

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And just a reminder for those of you in the Niagara area (I think I posted this before):

RADIO ACTION FOR ANIMALS BENEFIT CONCERT

WHEN: Sunday, April 11, 5:30pm- 11:00
LOCATION: L3 Nightclub, Downtown St. Catharines Ontario
DETAILS: $10 with all proceeds to Storybook Farm Primate Sanctuary. All ages. Free vegan food from Brooklyn's Restaurant. Live music from In Limbo, Chainsaw Lobotomy, Black Majik Movement, The Overfiend, and Sound Asleep. Raffles/door prizes. Contact BARC brockanimalrights@gmail.com for tickets.

winter reviews round-up

aka part 2...

The general trend? My ears have not been wowed much yet in 2010.

A few more reviews to check out at exclaim.ca if you're in the mood:

Orphaned Land - The Neverending Way of ORwarriOR

Borknagar - Universal

Dark Tranquillity - We Are the Void

Finntroll - Nifelvind

Pagan Metal: A Documentary (DVD)

And two for Hellbound.ca:

Shining - VI Klagopsalmer

Rotting Christ - Aeolo

One more - not by me but potentially interesting to anyone who's seen Heavy Metal in Baghdad:

Acrassicauda - Only The Dead See The End Of The War

Another DVD mention if not a full review: I got a chance to preview the Norwegian black metal doc Until the Light Takes Us, though I didn't make it out to the theatre in Toronto to see it. It's a strange film, attempting to tap into the atmosphere of the scene it infiltrates. It's not cinema verité but the interviewer(s) is absent, all part of shaping the mystique that pools around three very different characters: the violent ideologist, the passive nihilist, the masochistic goth. The film represents black metal as counterculture, art, ideology, and lifestyle, particularly catering to fans of Darkthrone, Burzum/early Mayhem, and Satyricon. It's worth seeing if you get a chance.

end of march events: for the music and for the animals

Of potential interest to the Southern Ontario folks...

For the animals:

OPIRG and BARC (Brock Animal Rights) are hosting a poetry reading / film screening event on March 29, 6-9 pm at OPIRG's downtown info shop, 10 Summer Street, St. Catharines. Poet James Strecker will be reading from his collection Beside the Hemlock Garden: On Life and Rights followed by a screening of the film Peaceable Kingdom by Tribe of Heart. Free event, everyone welcome, free vegan snacks provided.

Cats for convicts: not pet cats in the jail but a feral cat colony on Bath correctional institute property. Apparently the human–cat relationships involved here may be good for the inmates and for the cats. Read more (and/or sign a petition to keep the cats there).

And for the music:

In the mood for some theatrical, humorous but very frostbitten and grim black metal this weekend? The Iron Maiden of black metal - Immortal - hit the Opera House in Toronto on Saturday night, March 27.

And a pre-party of sorts: A FISTFUL OF METAL w/ DJ Miss Barbrafisch spinning all extreme metal all night, Friday, March 26 at Disgraceland, 965 Bloor St W of Ossington – "9pm till they kick us out!"

And if you want to start your weekend partying on Thursday, Nunslaughter and a bunch of other bands take over Sneaky Dee's Thursday night, March 25.

Plus Unearth close out the month at the Opera House on March 31.

If Hamilton's more your scene and you want to engage in a little community support, checkout Deathpoint, Subliminal Hate Machine, Aarsonist, and Rigorous Obliteration at Club Absinthe on March 26. The show (in collaboration with Social Service Worker students from Mohawk College) is a fundraiser for the It's My Dream scholarship program run through the Schizophrenia Society of Ontario.

And two more for my list (but far from the only events packed into the last week of March):

SONS OF BUTCHER CD Release Party with Paradox Hotel at Casbah in Hamilton, March 26 at 9 pm.

THE CREEPSHOW with The Barettas, Super Villains Exhumed, Die Standing, also at Casbah, March 31 starting at 8 pm.

and now for the good news...

A lost dog, trapped on a ledge, gets saved by firefighters in Port Hope, Ontario:

Dramatic rescue saves stranded dog: Husky stranded for at least two days on a CP Rail ledge.

Okay, yes, this is good news, but on a pretty small scale. So why am I repeating it? Well, partly because hearing about a real life happy ending for an animal never hurts, but also because of where I found the story – under the "Good News" heading on the CNEWS website.

I find it intriguing that they've had to create such a category. Are they suggesting that regular news is so overwhelmingly bad that we need a safe category to turn to when we'd rather not be depressed by what's going on in the world? Or are we all so numb to what's going on that we need to be told what's good news and what isn't? Oh, journalism, you are an endless source of entertainment...

virtual musicians: bringing back musical personalities from the dead

From Wired... this is a little neat and a little creepy – re-creations of a dead musician's distinctive performance style through computer technology:

Virtual Musicians, Real Performances: How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Music

My tech geek side likes the idea of re-performances, the possibilities for hearing things that should have been performed and recorded, and so on. But the cynic (and paranoiac) in me cringes at the use of dead musicians' style as a cheesy gimmick or advertising hook, and the idea of copyrighting and licensing a performance flavour is really distasteful. If you read the Wired story, you'll see I'm not alone here. On top of it all, the dystopian sf fan in me imagines musicians being kept semi-/digitally alive like Dixie Flatline in Neuromancer and feels a little ill at the prospect.

So how do we use this technological potential without turning it into another tool for corporate control over creativity? Or use it respectfully without turning dead artists into caricatures of themselves? Any ideas?

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side note: If you share your life with a pet or six, unless it's as long-lived as a tortoise, you're going to have to deal with animal mortality sooner or later – preferably later. I was hoping our next encounter with later was still a long ways away, but these things always loom sooner than you'd ever want.

If this blog is inspired, in part, by the seven cats I have shared my life with – four living with us now, two passed on, and one moved on to another family – this post is dedicated to one sick little cat who is very close to my heart. This AI stuff makes me wonder, would I hang onto him as a virtual kitty if I could? And I think no, that wouldn't be hanging on but starting a new relationship with a new different kind of cat, however closely he was related to the furry critter that was.