cktimes.ca Archives for Notes from a Garage


Notes from a Garage

With John Gardiner

Talking about music, a goofy smoking law and living our dreams

Tuesday, May 6, 2003

So, my wife and I are sitting out the back of our house in our screened-in porch and there's a car across the road at the variety store. And my wife and I can't really hear what we're saying to each other because the stereo in the car is so loud that it's drowning out any hope of conversation. How loud do you think the stereo sounds if you're inside the car? Wow! And what do you think that amount of sound does to humans when they're subjected to it for long periods of time in an enclosed space? Call it extreme sound, I guess, and I think it's darned dangerous. Perhaps this is another area where government should legislate before there's a huge outbreak of hearing problems about 40 years down the line. Strange, but true.

And speaking of music, I was up to Walkerton over the weekend for one huge jam session in the old Hartley House. It was a big "music party" hosted by Dick and Jop Knechtel and it was a great evening if you're a fan of live music. Things got started with bluegrass, strayed into blues and rythym and blues – there was even a little Nancy Sinatra and Jefferson Airplane and Everly Brothers. It was tremendous. There were likely about 30 musicians in attendance and most took a turn on the stage doing their particular variety of music. I even had my turn and it was a great thrill for me to play a few tunes with my good friend Richard Knechtel on guitar, Matt Whale on keyboards, Bill McWatters on drums and a couple of guys I'd not met wailing away on the blues harp. I thought we really had a couple of the tunes hopping and left the stage feeling rather happy with my effort. Great to see old friends like Andy Burgess, Bob Garcia and Dave "Tweets" Oppermann (sp.) back in action with new bands on the go. I really enjoyed myself at this event and I'm going to try to talk Dick into holding another, perhaps in Hanover in conjunction with the town reunion being planned for next year. I'd love to play some tunes back in my home town.

And continuing to talk music, how about this one, folks? There's a question that's plaguing many people from my generation these days. It goes like this: Does the new music really suck or are we just getting old? We try to be fair about this by rationalizing that our parents weren't big fans of Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison or Janice Joplin – and if you listen to Jimi do eight minutes of feedback while he lights his guitar on fire, you can sort of see the point. Still, I've been attending the Band Spotlight at the Eightball Tavern the past few weeks and I've noticed a couple of things about the "new" music. First, let me say that I've admired the bands and rather enjoyed their performances. Still, most of the music is very angry sounding – and there are very few leads (solos). The bands look like they've got some great players in them, but they never really get the chance to shine. Also, all of the guitar players in those bands use HUGE amounts of distortion so that the real sound of the guitar is usually lost. But maybe this is just the new "style" and I'm behind the times and I'm "old". Still, are there young versions of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young bands out there and I'm just not hearing them? I'm not sure the new music sucks, but I'm almost certain it's not as good as the music we grew up with. There don't seem to be brilliant solos and soaring vocal harmonies and deliciously poignant lyrics. But I might just be old. And I can accept that.

The deadline for the smoking ban continues to creep closer in Chatham-Kent and I continue to feel it is a mean-spirited law intended to punish law-abiding people for practicing a bad habit. I am angry and disappointed that one group of people in society would do this to another group – regardless of the good intentions. I have absolutely no idea why businesses that wanted to continue to allow smoking couldn't have applied for exemptions, posted appropriate signage warning of the dangers of second-hand smoke, and been allowed to carry on business as they pleased. This is supposed to be a free country, and this is a draconian law that should be revisited. Stop trying to save me from myself, folks.

And speaking of revisiting decisions, I'd like to see Chatham-Kent Council revisit the issue of the Capitol Theatre. There have been some eloquent appeals on the pages of cktimes calling for a revisiting of the issue and I'd add my voice to those. I'd like to see us have some vision and aim high here in Chatham-Kent. You never get anywhere if you don't go anywhere. Remember what James T. Kirk used to say....go where no man has gone before – and the Capitol Theatre is one of those dreams and communities need them just like people do. And I understand that things aren't going well financially in the community right now in certain sectors – still, we need to make positive things happen.

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.