Royal City Rag, December 12 – Climate Change, Supporting Local Artisans And Songs For A Miserable Holiday Season

On December 12, we were pleased to welcome Sally Ludwig from Transition Guelph back to Royal City Rag to talk about the Candlelight Vigil For A Real Deal On Climate Change taking place at 4.30 p.m.in St. George’s Square, Downtown Guelph and the progress in the Copenhagen climate talks.

This event is part of an unprecedented mass mobilisation on climate action, The World Wants A Real Deal and sponsored by Transition Guelph, the TckTckTck campaign and other local NGOs and environmental groups. The participants will join hundreds of other events in countries around the world as part of a global day of action. They will urge world leaders to take bold and immediate steps to sign a fair, ambitious and binding climate deal in Copenhagen. 

10 year old Lil Peppi, The King of Eco-Rap: “My goal is to get young people to realise that saving the planet is a big deal and we should all do our part to keep her beautiful”

Melting Ice (2009)

Listen to Hour 1:

In the second half of the show, Guelph potter Bunny Safari joined us live from the Guelph Farmer’s Market to talk about why you should support local artisans this holiday season.

We also played some decidedly miserable holiday tunes; tales of what happens when things don’t go quite as planned and you find your (often unreal) expectations for the season unmet. I’m sure we’ve all experienced that.

Enjoy these songs to please your inner curmudgeon. Bah humbug!

Listen to Hour 2:

Music:
Loreena McKennitt, Snow from Maybe This Christmas (Compilation)
Sufjan Stevens, Sister Winter from Songs for Christmas Vol VI, Peace (2006)
The Nylons, This Island Earth from Happy Together
Will.i.am, Take Our Planet Back (YouTube)
Dean Martin, Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! from Christmas With Dino
Bob Dylan, Winter Wonderland from Christmas In The Heart
Be Good Tanyas, Rudy from Maybe This Christmas Too (Compilation)
Teddy Thompson and Jude Rogers, I Won’t Kill You This Christmas (Digital Download, http://www.Guardian.co.uk)
The Handsome Family, So Much Wine from Blue Christmas (Compilation)
Sufjan Stevens That Was The Worst Christmas Ever from Songs for Christmas Vol III, Ding Dong (2003)
Graham Parker, Christmas Is For Mugs from Leather Canary Xmas Mix

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Coming Up on Royal City Rag – A Real Deal, Go With The Flo And Buy Local!

On December 12, we are pleased to welcome Sally Ludwig from Transition Guelph back to Royal City Rag to talk about the Candlelight Vigil For A Real Deal On Climate Change taking place downtown in St. George’s Square at 4.30 p.m.

This event is part of an unprecedented mass mobilisation on climate action, The World Wants A Real Deal and sponsored by Transition Guelph, the TckTckTck campaign and other local NGOs and environmental groups. The participants will join hundreds of other events in countries around the world as part of a global day of action. They will urge world leaders to take bold and immediate steps to sign a fair, ambitious and binding climate deal in Copenhagen. 

Will.i.am with Al Gore… on the need to push our leaders to take serious action on climate change and take our planet back!

10 year old Lil Peppi, The King of Eco-Rap: “My goal is to get young people to realise that saving the planet is a big deal and we should all do our part to keep her beautiful”

Mother Nature’s Crying (2006)

Later in the show, Guelph potter Bunny Safari will be joining us live from the Guelph Farmer’s Market to talk about why if you indulge in gift-giving this holiday season you should support local artisans.

Royal City Rag, Saturdays 7-9 a.m. on CFRU 93.3fm. Don’t miss it!

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Royal City Rag – September 5

Billy Bragg

The start of Royal City Rag on September 5 had a distinct labour flavour, with music by icons Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and Billy Bragg. There may be some of you who would quibble about including the Bard of Barking (Bragg) in such exalted company but over the years he really has done a great deal to support the rights of the downtrodden worker. You can catch Billy Bragg in Hamilton at the Studio in Hamilton Place on November 18.

Later in the first hour, freelance journalist Bob Gordon and Judy Martin from the Sierra Club joined us to for the latest installment in what is rapidly becoming the Hanlon Creek Business Park fiasco. 

The City of Guelph spinmeisters have been falling over themselves to paint the opposition to the business park as just a small band of misguided activists holding the city to ransom.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

As Judy pointed out, well-known and respected local organisations such as the Sierra Club, Guelph Chapter of the Council of Canadians, Wellington Waterwatchers and Guelph Urban Forest Friends have all expressed concern about the project as currently envisaged.

They don’t necessarily want it stopped but they would like more changes made to protect the area’s sensitive ecology, endangered wildlife, and aquifier groundwater recharge important for our water supply.

Read this post to get a better understanding of the well-orchestrated public relations campaign the city has been running.

As Bob Gordon put it, it may be a well-run campaign and you can admire it for that but is it fair or accurate?

The Guelph Mercury, in a recent editorial, called the city out over the hyperbole they have been using,  in what some would say, is a deliberate attempt by the City to demonize the occupation and alienate the activists from the general population of Guelph.

The project is now on hold to next Spring which hopefully will give the City time to consider re-engaging some of those with concerns or, of course, they could just try bullying everyone into submission.

What seems clear is that it ain’t over till it’s over, and this issue is far from over.

Look for it to be an issue in next year’s municipal elections if it doesn’t get resolved fairly swiftly.  We’ll endevour to keep you updated.

In the second hour, we caught with Magee McGuire at the Big Umbrella at the Guelph Farmers Market and talked to local author Sandra Sabatini, about her most recent book, Dante’s War. Sandra will be reading at the Eden Mills Writers Festival  on September 20.

We  finished the show with a conversation with Culture Vulture Marie about some of the other authors to look out for at the festival. Check out the cool festival website  at www.edenmillswritersfestival.ca for more details.

All in all, I thought it was a great show. Feedback would, of course, be appreciated.

Music:
Eve Goldberg, Rosie The Riveter Revisited from Crossing The Water
Pete Seeger, Deliver The Goods from Talking Union
Billy Bragg, There Is Power In Union from The Essential Billy Bragg
Woody Guthrie, This Land Is Your Land from The Ultimate Collection
Billy Bragg, Waiting For The Great Leap Forward from The Essential Billy Bragg
Nina Simone, Backlash Blues from The Nina Simone Story
Scott Merritt, Moving Day from Gravity Is Mutual
Steve Earle, To Live Is To Fly from Townes
Catie Curtis, 100 Miles from Hello Stranger
Sam Turton, Without Love from Feel

Listen to the show:
Part 1:

Part 2:

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Coming Up On Royal City Rag… A Mixed Bag Of Nuts!

Not sure what to do on a Saturday morning?

I’d suggest that you head downtown to the Guelph Farmers Market to buy some local produce and sample the delights this city has to offer. 

But, before you do that, why not start your day with a nice cup of coffee and CFRU 93.3fm’s Royal City Rag?

Two hours of chat about community issues and coming events in Guelph with some cool music thrown into the mix.

This week we’ll be talking about the true meaning of Labour Day, and following up on this week’s exciting installment of the local soap opera known as the Hanlon Creek Business Park with local freelance journalist Bob Gordon and Judy Martin from the Sierra Club.

The big question we’ll be asking this week is…

Will the Hanlon Creek Business Park and Jefferson Salamander come back to haunt Karen Farbridge in 2010?

After all, it is an election year. Promises to be an interesting twelve months.

In the second hour, we’ll be catching up on some of the artistic goings-on around town with a special emphasis on the upcoming Eden Mills Writers Festival featuring Culture Vulture, Marie and local author, Sandra Sabatini.

We’ll also touch base with Magee McGuire at the Big Umbrella Table at the Guelph Farmers Market.

Sounds like it will be lots of fun. Don’t miss it!

Royal City Rag, Saturday 7-9 a.m. on CFRU 93.3fm. A great way to start your day!

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Royal City Rag – August 22

On August 22, Bob Gordon joined us to follow up his great coverage of the Hanlon Creek Business Park Stand-Off with a report on how other Guelph environmental groups have reacted to the business park occupation.

Later in the show we checked in with Magee McGuire at the Big Umbrella , a great community information resource at the Guelph Farmers Market.

Finally, local heritage activist Susan Ratcliffe joined us to give her perspective on some of the featured authors at the upcoming Eden Mills Writers Festival.

Music:
Proclaimers, Love Can Move Mountains from Notes And Rhymes
Wilco, You Never Know from Wilco (The Album)  
Les Paul/Mary Ford, The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise from The Ultimate Collection 
Sonny Boy Williamson, Don’t Start Me To Talkin’ from His Best  
Walela, I’ll Turn My Radio On from Walela 
James Gordon, Mr. Developer Man (Demo/Youtube)    
Jayhawks, Two Angels from Music from The North Country, An Anthology 
Conor Oberst And The Mystic Valley Band, To All The Lights In The Windows from Outer South 
Mike Mucci, On The Sunny Side Of Guelph from M Mucci E.P.
Mike Stevens & Raymond McClain, I Am A Pilgrim from On The Mojo
Carolyn Mark, The One That Got Away With It from Nothing Is Free

Listen to the show:
Part 1

Part 2

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Royal City Rag, November 5 2008 – Municipal Beat

We started the show with a two song tribute to the elevation of the first African American to the highest position in the United States; Bruce Springsteen’s “Long Time Coming” followed by Ben Harper’s version of Maya Angelou’s “I’ll Rise”.

America has finally turned away from the dark side. Let’s hope they make the effort to truly close the book on the dark days of the last eight years.

Brian Holstein was back in the studio for a wide-ranging conversation that covered far more than the usual municipal goings-on… including the election of Barack Obama, uniting the centre left in Canada and transit in Prague.

Getting back to City goings-on we chatted about downtown pedestrianization and parking, the development of the new City Hall, the Guelph Civic League’s new offices opposite City Hall, a possible city community art centre in the museum or library, and, finally, rude people at the farmers market. Phew!

Brian’s rant focused on the Upper Grand District School Board’s controversial plan to convert Victory School in Exhibition Park to a french-immersion program only facility. There will be a public meeting at this issue on November 19 at College Heights School.

Music:
Bruce Springsteen and the Sessions Band – Long Time Coming from Bruce Springsteen and the Sessions Band Live in Dublin
Ben Harper – I’ll Rise from Welcome to the Cruel World
Ian McNamara – The Last Post/Waltzing Maltida from Sunday Morning with Macca

The audio for this show is no longer available on the website.  If however you wish to hear it again, please contact us at info@royalcityrag.ca. Thank You.

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Worth Repeating – Visit to Shepherd’s Watch Dairy Sheep Farm

The field trip to Shepherd’s Watch Dairy Sheep Farm in Arthur that took place in April 2007 was great fun. It certainly bears repeating. I really think the audio brings the visit to life.  I was also pleased to be able to weave Pink Floyd’s “Sheep” into the piece too.

Unfortunately this recording drew the only piece of really negative correspondence I’ve had since I started the show. For the record, the sheep at Shepherd’s Watch are very well looked after by two wonderful and very caring individuals, Karen and Linda.  If there wasn’t a dairy sheep farm there wouldn’t be any sheep. I’m also a veterinarian, and eat meat.

I hope you enjoy it. If you have very strong feelings about eating animals you may want to skip this one. (:

You can visit the Shepherd’s Watch booth at the Guelph Farmers Market every Saturday morning.

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