cktimes.ca Archives for Notes from a Garage


Notes from a Garage

With John Gardiner

Accumulation for the Nation

Tuesday, December 17, 2002

My wife and I enjoy watching "Saturday Night at the Movies" each Saturday evening (when I'm not bombing all over Chatham-Kent these days). We particularly enjoy watching most of the really old films. This past Saturday, TVO was featuring a movie called "That's Entertainment", which is really a compilation of clips about the great MGM musicals of the 40's and 50's, introduced by some of the stars of those musicals – folks like Donald O'Connor and Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. It was a truly enjoyable time watching clips from "Singing in the Rain", "On the Town", "Wizard of Oz" and many, many more. At one point, as I was watching, I noticed something that is very different from the way they make movies today. It was a dance number with Gene Kelly. The scene, which lasted several minutes, was shot entirely with one camera – it literally glided around the set with the dancers. And it was a very relaxing thing to watch. Unlike in today's movies and TV, where they flash images at us at an amazing rate of speed – almost strobe-like. In fact, I think the way the media presents its information to us these days has a lot to do with the way we all think we're rushing through our lives and that life is moving faster and faster. The reason for this is that our society is based on relentless consumption and each day we've got to consume more than we did the day before. If we don't, our economy will grind to a halt and we'll be in deep trouble. So, get going, folks! Watch TV and movies and videos, let them speed up your metabolism to the point where you can't get your breath. Then, get out your plastic money and get out there and buy, buy, buy – it's the least you can do to protect your way of life.

I've had a great week out and about in the community again this week. I must say that I'm getting plenty of support from you and it's great. Special mention to Dave Houston who's heading up the Dresden United Way campaign and Diane LeCour who's the District Manager for the Easter Seal Society. Both of these fine folks work very hard for their community and it's good to see. Hats off to them both.

Was down to the ROCK radio station the other day to do a story on their 12 Hours of Morning Rock. Must say that I'm most impressed with the level of community commitment from our local radio station. Station General Manager Carl Veroba and the rest of Beavar Communications should be commended for keeping the station out front in Chatham-Kent and helping many, many local charities and non profit organizations go about their business. It is vitally important for a community to have ownership of its own media and CFCO is a great example of that. Really, I'm working on the same model in cktimes. I want to work with the community to create cktimes and I want it to be a big part of the community both during and after its construction. Great work to our local radio station and keep up the good work.

Made my first visit to the Imperial Club this last week, dropping in for the Chatham Jaycees annual induction ceremony and the handing out of a few awards. Incoming President Mike Brown wasn't in attendance because he'd had a problem with a foot earlier in the day, but it was great to see the others. Mike not only missed his induction as president (by Jerry Pickard), but missed picking up the hardware as Jaycee of the Year as well. He heard the news of his selection by phone from his home. ROCK radio morning man Chris McLeod was Rookie of the Year. Thanks to John VanVeen, Past President, for helping me get the story and photos of the event. Really, John has been one of cktimes best supporters over these last few months. Thanks for that, John.

Big news from the wallaceburg.ca committee earlier in the week. This homegrown, grassroots committee from Wallaceburg has announced the opening of an office in the community to help with business and economic development. Wallaceburg has been ravaged by job losses in recent years and this should help turn things around. Congrats to Dave Elliott, Kevin Cavanagh, Kim Murray and the rest of the committee. Great work by Monica Shurgold of KITAC, which sponsors wallaceburg.ca, to help secure funding for the project. We're trying to build a world class community in Wallaceburg.

Time to go for another week. Hope you're getting into the Christmas spirit. 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.