What a great day! Oh boy. Had an amazing rehearsal with His Honour Steven Point, learning one of his songs which we will perform together at the Carnegie Volunteer Christmas Supper in December. Then had our Carnegie Jazz Band gig to a full packed house of jazz fans.  This is my church.

And if that wasn’t enough. The artists at the Aboriginal Artist Showcase blew me away. Such depth. Power. Commitment. Spoken from the heart.  So great to see our DTES own Muriel ‘X’ Williams up there with her powerful poem: “I love the Downtown Eastside community because of its beauty and its strength, its refusal to SHUT UP and its insistence upon justice.”

~ Terry

What a screwy wonderful day. Had a completely wacky morning complete with miscommunication. Missed the Carnegie Jazz Band rehearsal as I had understood it started at 12:30. Alas it was 11:30. A little hair raising as tomorrow we play our big gig – with guest Dal Richards – for His Honour Steven Point.

Then off to the Aboriginal Friendship Centre to see the film The Squaw Hall Project: A Community Remembers (urban ink/Twin Fish) and to meet the three young native (Chilcotin) woman who worked with these two wonderful companies to produce this film. So inspiring to see the work that Rosemary Georgeson, Nicola Harwood and the other artists from these two companies did together with the folks with Williams Lake area. And such a pleasure to help out to bring these three young woman – and their supporter Sage Birchwater – to Vancouver to show their work.  Youth learning from elders. Elders passing on knowledge, history and wisdom.

Exhausted at the end of the day. Slept nine hours.

~ Terry

Another stressful morning.  Up dark and early to prepare for the day, especially an afternoon rehearsal of songs from We Are the People, which we are presenting on Monday night at the CUPE national convention.  Too much on my plate, including preparing all the contracts for the folks in the CUPE gig. But saved by Savannah Tennessee who kindly took over hosting a walk I was supposed to do.

Got to the 2pm rehearsal at the Canadian Memorial Church with a very talented group of 10 DTES and pro musicians we have brought together to do the gig, led by the amazing Neil Weisensel.  It was so great to listen to the group rehearse, to relax,  and to do some yoga while the group practiced. They sounded fantastic. I was blown away, yet again, by the depth and power of the songs that are coming out of our community. And the talent of people from our community: Mike Richter, Gena Thompson, Robyn Livingstone, Andy Kostynuik and Rosanne Gervais. Really looking forward to this gig.

Despite my trepidations about doing this gig in the middle of our festival, I am now very glad to have made the choice to take it on.

~ Terry

Dear Diary:

A day without a single meeting on my plate (stunning surprise) except to meet with Khari McLelland and Savannah at the Ovaltine at 8am and to go over some ideas for internship with Khari. We are cooking up with Khari some great ideas around community, food, youth and rap. Really looking forward to seeing what arises from these seeds we will be planting with Khari.

Boy, did the pressure cooker head up the afternoon when I realized I had a ton of things that needed to get ready for Friday and the weekend’s Carnegie Jazz Band and Aboriginal Artist Showcase. Also tomorrow we start rehearsals on songs from We Are the People which we will present at the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) national convention on Monday night in front of hundreds of folks at the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre. It was totally crazy to take on this event in the middle of the festival, but it was too great an opportunity to pass up: to share – on a national stage – the extraordinary music and lyrics that are coming out of our community through the works of folks like Leith Harris, Wendy Chew, Patrick Foley, Earle Peach, Jason Logan, Mike Richter and others. Boy these people inspire me.  A good thing, as I can feel a cold coming on. Breathe.

~ Terry

Dear Diary:

What a day. Amazing Opening Ceremony with Mayor Gregor Robertson and Councillors Anton, Reimer and Woodsworth.  Our seniors’ Sunshine Choir charmed everyone, Diane Wood got to speak our community’s truth to power as she read Sandy Cameron’s 100 years of Struggle to the assembled members of City Council, Wayne Lavallee transported us with his beautiful acapella ‘plains style’ singing, and then the Mayor and Councillors joined the Carnegie Street Band on stage to take us home with ‘The City of Vancouver 125^th Anniversary Boogie’. The joint was rockin’. What a great way to start off the festival. I am a happy man.

Wow. What an intense day preparing for tomorrow grand Opening Ceremony. Will the Mayor play congas with the Carnegie Street Band at the event?

~ Terry

Dear Diary:

Carrie Campbell’s first day as Managerial Intern (thanks City of Vancouver Great Beginnings Program!) She is a pleasure to work with. So much experience in community art practice, visual arts, office administration, production and DTES community know how. Savannah and I ask her to do something and she understands right away. An angel has arrived on our doorsteps.

~ Terry

Dear Diary:

Spent all day today catching up on my massive-far-too-long to do list. And getting ready for our new Managerial Intern Carrie Campbell – who starts tomorrow. Also preparing for Opening Ceremony, Carnegie Jazz Band concert and Aboriginal Artist Showcase this coming week. Three events I have been spending a lot of time working on. Good to catch up and to work on a day without a lot of emails coming in and the phone ringing. The excitement is building.

~ Terry

Saturday October 22, 2011

Dear Diary:

What a great day yesterday. At least, it ended great. The morning was another story: woke up with a head cold, very exhausted and still stressed from the work load. Dragged my butt around all morning trying to get my mojo root force going.

Ended up at Si Garber’s workshop on how to work with microphones: great workshop. After years on stage in front of a mic and the peanut gallery I finally learnt how to use a mic properly. In essence: keep the mic just below your chin at a vertical angle so the audience can see your face; have your mouth about one fist distance from the mic; and speak over the top of the mic. Simple things. Great results.

Then came home exhausted, took some Tylenol for my aching head, had a long hot shower, and headed to bed for a nap. Woke up refreshed and ready to roar.

Headed to the Ovaltine to meet Sarah Berman, a recent UBC journalism grad who often works for Megaphone. Had chicken. For my cold. Sarah and I talked about what is going on the neighbourhood and this year’s festival. What struck me is that this year there is a lot of great grassroots arts activity going on with local residents and non-arts organizations.

Then my big lift came: walked out of the Ovaltine and who should be coming down the street? The Carnegie Street Band playing soulful uplifting music. I joined the procession as they headed to Oppenheimer Park for the Oppenheimer Park Community Arts Show Opening Reception. They are doing such wonderful work there: great nutritious homemade food for the folks, local entertainment. Everyone was in a great mood. After the meal and entertainment The Carnegie Street Band struck up “And When the Saints Go Marching In”, and everyone in the crowd, as if following some collective memory cue, starting the procession across the park and down Hastings Street to the Gallery Gachet where the party continued. What a great way to end the day. A community together. Celebrating. Sharing good food. Sharing their art, their voice and their love for this extraordinary community. I am blessed to live and work here with these great people.

Terry

Thursday October 20, 2011

Dear Diary:

Did you know you are my first Dear Diary? Sweet 60 and never wrote a diary.

Really looking forward to the festival when it starts next week. The wonderful festival team is working so hard now. Putting in long hours to make it all happen. This is the toughest time for everyone on the team as there is so much to do, so many details to attend to. (I made a couple of embarrassing errors in the program guide, which have been noted on the home page).

We just got the 48-page program guide out a few days ago and have been working hard now on distribution, production coordination, promotion, crew schedules, artist fee payment plans and a whole long list of to do’s. It is a ton of work. But so worth it. Thanks to our great community for supporting the festival!  Your very positive response to the program guide has been so encouraging, which really helps us get through our mountain of pre festival work.

Thrilled too that AHA Media is providing social media coverage of the festival. I will be able to see photos and videos of events I attended, and events I couldn’t make it to. The DTES is so fortunate to have AHA in our community.

Back to festival planning. See you soon.

Terry