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Notes from a Garage

With John Gardiner

Lots of local talent; what I was really saying; and remembering Janis…..

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

I am an enormously huge fan of live theatre…..I’ve been lucky enough to review plays at Stratford Festival for almost two decades and I’ve seen a lot of other live theatre as well. One of the problems I face as the reporter/photographer for cktimes is that I’m usually busy in the evenings. I have few open nights so I get to see few local pieces of live theatre in their entirety. Last Wednesday, I took the evening off from my other duties and settled into my seat in the Kiwanis Theatre to see the Take-A_Bow production of the musical Rent. And as I was sitting there watching this great group of young people put through their paces in an extremely difficult piece of live musical theatre, I was reminded of everything I so enjoy about the experience – the tremendous energy and the enormous passion that a company of actors can bring to what starts as nothing more than pen on paper. I was greatly moved just to see how hard the cast of Rent worked and how they had learned to work as a unit and to play off each other wonderfully. It was great theatre and also reminded me of the wealth of talent in the local community – wonderful theatre companies in Bothwell and Wheatley, Ridgetown, Thamesville, Wallaceburg and Chatham. We are a talented bunch, I guess you could say. Heartfelt congratulations to Mary Ellen Herder, the driving force behind Take-A-Bow Productions, for having the vision and dedication to make Rent happen. And maybe I should take a night off more often….

Certainly got deluged with information about the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) after my diatribe last week decrying the provincial Liberal efforts to bring in such a tax….I clearly said in my piece last week that the HST might very well be the best thing since sliced bread…..I wasn’t arguing either for or against the tax. I was talking political suicide and perception. The media has latched onto the HST as being a tax grab by the government and I’ve talked to a passel of people who have bought into that interpretation….and what I was suggesting is that Dalton McGuinty may very well commit political suicide if he brings the tax in with a hellbent for leather attitude. Before the Liberals make any move on this, they’d better make sure they’ve got a whole lot of public support – and I mean a whole lot. Because this is what’s called a “wedge” issue in that the opposition parties will use it to drive a wedge between the Liberals and the voting public. And Tim Hudak has already declared that he’d like to return to the days of Mike Harris. Yikes! Please be careful, Mr. McGuinty.

You know, somehow I got into watching the American Music Awards on TV the other night……wasn’t going to watch it….don’t like awards shows…but was mesmerized by the sheer spectacle of it all. Got thinking about Janis Joplin and Sid Vicious and wondering what they’d think of all the flash and pizzazz that seems to dominate the music industry these days. It really isn’t that much about the music anymore. It’s more about the flash. I saw the rock band Green Day walking up to receive their award and I always thought they were sort of a grunge band. But they hardly looked the part with each hair on their heads perfectly coiffed and the perfect wardrobe and so on and so on. The music biz has really changed since the 1960’s – it’s a whole different ball game. I get a kick out of the country guys with their cowboy hats – man, that’s the fanciest bunch of head gear I’ve ever seen – and it’s sort of like a contest to see who’s got the best one. Anyway, I hear they “fix” live recordings these days and some of the world’s greatest singers use pitch correction machines in concert….strange, but true. And it’s too bad because it’s all about the energy and the passion – doesn’t matter much what it looks like – it’s what it sounds like and live is live. Anyway, I know I’m likely just out of the pop culture loop on this one – I know a lot of younger people who really dig the new music and all the rest of it. But I think I’ll throw some Janis on the turntable and remember what it used to be like back in the old days….

Well, out of time for another week and hoping things are going well for you….Listen to CKXS 99.1 to hear Notes From a Garage starting this week….take care and remember, “Hew to the line; let the chips fall where they may.”



John Gardiner is a 25-year-veteran of the community newspaper business, but he is also a prolific writer of moralistic short fiction he refers to as "emotional thoughtscapes" or "adult fables". Samples of his fiction can be found at:

He has also produced a noteworthy piece of humanist philosophy which can be found at: http://www.xs4all.nl/~aboiten/ad502.htm He welcomes comments on his work.