Taking the Long Way Home

It's a pretty big week for anniversaries. Today was the second anniversary of the huge Japanese earthquake, one of the largest every recorded, but 10 years ago yesterday the Earth moved in a different, very specific, way.

Guelph Music to Help Japan

Trying to do our part for the people of Japan suffering the after effects of the 9.1 earthquake and accompanying tsunami earlier this month, a group of Guelph-based organizers and musicians are pulling together for the victims. Find the details and line-up in the below press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“Raise the Sun” – a benefit concert for Japan

April 10, 2011 at Norfolk United Church at 3:00 pm.

Join us for an afternoon of Guelph musicians and dancers and a tribute to the art and culture of Japan.

Following the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan, members of the Guelph community have pulled together to organize a benefit event featuring a wide selection of our amazing and world-class local-area talent. With overwhelming support from the local community, event organizers (Paul Clarkson, Ajay Heble, and Marie Zimmerman) have come together in the strong belief that music and artistic expression can create opportunities for hope and help to mobilize new communities of involvement. Proceeds will go to the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre Foundation Earthquake Relief Fund. (All donations are guaranteed to go to the Japanese Red Cross and to infrastructure in Japan.)

The afternoon will be both a gift from Guelph musicians and dancers as well as a tribute to the art and culture of Japan through the performance of Nagata Shachu, a six-member ensemble who perform Japanese taiko drumming and music. We are also very happy to welcome Joy Kogawa, a brilliant Japanese-Canadian writer whose work, Obasan, was instrumental in the redress movement of Japanese Canadians interned in Canada during WWII.

The “Raise the Sun” concert will begin and end with contemporary dance and music by the Fall On Your Feet dance lab working with improvisational greats such as Jane Bunnett, Matt Brubeck, Kevin Breit, Amadeo Ventura, Larry Cramer and Colin Couch.

Improvised jazz by the Vertical Squirrels, dance by David Earle's famous company, and folk music by acclaimed singer-songwriter Tannis Slimmon will round out a tribute to the resilience of the Japanese people and our wish to support their recovery efforts.

Details:

Date: April 10, 2011

Time: 3:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Title of Concert: "Raise the Sun: a benefit concert for Japan."

Place: Norfolk United Church, (Norfolk St. and Cork St. in Guelph)

Tickets: $30 available through the River Run Centre (35 Woolwich St., Guelph; http://riverrun.ca/tickets; 519.763.3000; 1-877-520-2408)

Proceeds: JCCC Earthquake Relief Fund (http://www.jccc.on.ca/japan_earthquake_relief_fund.htm)

Organization: "Small" (Spirit, Music/Movement and Literature for Love)

Website: www.raisethesun.ca

Performers:

Dancetheatre David Earle - www.dtde.ca

Fall on Your Feet Dance Lab

Jane Bunnett -www.janebunnett.com

Kevin Breit -www.kevinbreit.com

Amadeo Ventura

Colin Couch

Matt Brubeck -www.mattbrubeck.com

Joy Kogawa

Nagata Shachu- http://www.nagatashachu.com

Tannis Slimmon- www.tannis.ca

Vertical Squirrels- www.verticalsquirrels.com

Is This Really That Offensive?

I was scrolling through the "From the Editors" blog on the Guelph Mercury website and came across a post by Managing Editor Phil Andrews in regards to the above political cartoon. Apparently, some people found this cartoon, published in Tuesday's paper, to be offensive. My question is why? Because cartoons are supposed to be funny? Just like all animated films are for kids, and all comic books are about strong men in tights, right?

I'm a big fan of the work of Aislin (real name Christopher Terry Mosher), who does cartoons for the Montreal Gazette. His work typically walks a fine line between pointed social commentary and taking that commentary a step too far, but I like his style. He has a voice, and is able to express that voice without hesitation or reservation. 

 This cartoon seems to me to really capture in graphic form the terrible video captured after the quake, with entire neighbourhoods carried away in a torrent of sea water. There's something haunting in the way Aislin drew the water, as the crashing waves almost look like teeth. Perhaps the combination of the message and the artist's personal style fostered the supposed offense.

But really, the cartoon is not supposed to be offensive. But then again, it's not supposed to be funny either. Tell me if there's anything funny in this cartoon. Tell me this is a joke and not a horrifying mirror held up to today's media. It's an Aislin cartoon from a few days before the Japan earthquake.

You know what I find offensive? People running out to buy iodine pills. I don't mean the people that live in the potentially affected area around the Fukushima nuclear power plan, I mean the people that live near nuclear plants in southern Ontario and the northeastern U.S.,or the people living on the west coast of North America who think that radiation exposure will magically travel with incredible potency across the Pacific Ocean. The shallowness of these people offends me. Their ignorance offends me. The general tendency to make tragedy abroad about us, offends me. And the fact that all those things on front of that fake paper above were eating up all the time dedicated news lately, offends me. 

If you really want to be offended, be offended by the fact that it takes a tragedy on the magnitude of that suffered by Japan to bring us back to a reality that doesn't involve wasted sitcom stars and pointless gadgets.