We moved!!!

Hi everybody!

We’ve outgrown our WordPress site and have set up on another host. You can find us here: www.serfcitysj.com.

– Mike Parker

Podcast: The Fredericton Connection

On the Jan. 21st episode of ‘Serf City’: John Leroux is in town Friday night to talk about Saint John architecture, and The Olympic Symphonium is here for a show Saturday with Isaac & Blewett. Listen to interviews with both of them on this week’s podcast.

Area musicians headline benefit for Allison Cran

The Allison Cran Benefit show is tonight at 7 pm at the Blue Olive on Rothesay Avenue. There will be a silent auction at 7 pm. Area musicians will take the stage at 8. The lineup includes Brent Mason, Clinton Charlton, John Brown, Curtis Basque, Peter Doyle, Jennifer Power and Jeff Scott. From the benefit Facebook page: “I’m sure many of you know Allison Cran – think of Pegasus and you’ll recall Allison playing the flute. Many, many times, Allison has played for free and has been a wonderful supporter of many people and organizations in Saint John.” Allison has breast cancer and benefit organizers are looking to the community to help support her through treatment and recovery. “She is an hourly employee and will need good food, transportation, a little time off,” reads the post on the Facebook page.

The Fredericton Connection

On this week’s show – the Fredericton Connection. By sheer coincidence, we are featuring either people living in Fredericton or performing there. All of them, though, will of great interest to our Saint John audience. 

First off, we’re giving away two free tickets to the Ani DiFranco show Jan. 25 in Fredericton, so tune in for your chance to win!

Then we’ll chat with architect John Leroux about architecture in Saint John. Though he lives in Fredericton he takes great interest in our city. He recently wrote an in-depth article about the world-class architect who is designing the proposed Irving building on the waterfront. Leroux has also been critical of the city’s plan to bury the steps of the Saint John Arts Centre in the proposed Peel Plaza development. He’s giving a public lecture about Saint John architecture Friday evening at Inprint Bookstore on King St.

Last but not least, we’ll interview Graeme Walker from Olympic Symphonium. The Fredericton-based trio will perform with Isaac and Blewett on Saturday night in Saint John. Walker, a Saint John native, will talk about their upcoming touring season, which includes an appearance at the Olympics in late February.

Tune in at 6:30 pm, Thursday, on CFMH 107.3 FM.

Singer-songwriter, master of the Rubik’s Cube

Wes Jagoe: singer-songwriter, artist, teacher…former skateboard champion, master of the Rubik’s Cube. On the January 7th episode of Serf City, Jagoe joined us for a chat and played some tunes. Listen to the podcast here.

Serf City Christmas Vacation

There will be no new shows before the new year, but please tune in to a few rebroadcasts featuring some of Saint John’s finest musicians. On tonight’s show at 6:30 pm on CFMH 107.3 FM, we’re replaying our interview with Mike Biggar. He also plays some tunes from his new album, “Mike Biggar and The Big Breakfast Special.” Biggar is performing this Saturday night with Wes Jagoe at the Urban Deli on King Street.

If you can’t tune into tonight’s show, but want to hear Biggar play some tunes and chat about his music, you can listen to the podcast here. You’ll also find video clips along the right side of this page.

A moving piece of public art

 On the December 10th edition of ‘Serf City’ we spoke with Stephen Kopp and Monica Adair about ‘In Transit,’ their new work of public art at the city bus terminal on the east side. We also spoke with Chris Lloyd, a Saint John born artist living in Montreal, about the cultural significance of public art in our cities. Listen to the full episode here. The following commentary kicked off this week’s show.

 

By Mark Leger

Saint John has long had highly visible pieces of public art. The Hooper statues in Market Square and now at the foot of King Street come immediately to mind. So does Claude Roussell’s “Progression” on the front of the city hall building.

But it wasn’t until I took a trip to Prague in 2004 that I fully appreciated how public art transforms a cityscape. There the playful works of David Cerny captured my attention as I wandered city streets and cast my eye over the skyline. Two works in particular stood out.

One is called The Pissing Men, located in a centrally located public square. Two full-size sculpted men face each other, standing in an encased pool of water the shape of the territory of Czech Republic. They are fountains except that the water comes out through the penis rather than the mouth or some other opening.

Sunday afternoon at Starbucks

I must admit that, years ago, I pined for a Starbucks and an Indigo in Saint John. But that was before Java Moose and more recently, Inprint, came on the scene – a local coffee shop and a local bookstore that filled a void long felt by Saint Johners with a taste for strong, high-quality coffee and a good book store to browse through on a Sunday afternoon. Along came Indigo and Starbucks anyway, in spite of – or perhaps because of – existing local options that demonstrated a market was there for quality coffee and book shops.

Perhaps fitting for Saint John, Starbucks first opened a stand-alone, box-store-style outlet on the east side – a striking departure from their urban roots on big-city street corners. It comes as no surprise then that they would open uptown in a mall, rather than in an historic building with a street view. I spent this afternoon marking papers in the new outlet in Brunswick Square. Note to Randy and Glen: A loyal Java Moose person, I promise I won’t go to Starbucks during the week, and I’ll stop going at all if you open the Prince William Java Moose Sunday afternoons. – Mark Leger

Liberty celebrates ECMA nominations, 40th b-day

About a year ago, I wrote a commentary about the most intimate and unexpected music venues in Saint John: the old Sessions cafe in Rothesay, Shadow Lawn Inn, and The Blue Olive on Rothesay Avenue. And now you can add the Vintage Bistro in Hampton to that list. Behind many of the first-rate shows at these venues is promoter Jeff Liberty, recently nominated for two 2010 ECMA awards – Manager of the Year, and Media Person of the Year.

Low-income residents encouraged by reforms

The following commentary kicked off the November 19th episode of ‘Serf City’, which featured an interview with Juanita Black, a Crescent Valley resident and community activist, about how low-income New Brunswickers will benefit from sweeping reforms to the province’s social assistance program. Listen to the interview here.

By Mark Leger

Last Friday, I led a workshop with women from Saint John’s low-income neighbourhoods. We were talking about how get media outlets to do stories on initiatives that would improve the lives of people living below the poverty line.

They aired a list of long-standing complaints against a provincial government that made it harder for them to get off social assistance and back into the workforce.

If you’re on social assistance, for example, you get health coverage for prescription drugs, dental work and eye care. If you get a job, you lose the coverage after a year. This is a big deal because most low-wage, entry level jobs have a health plan for employees.

If you and a friend are both collecting social assistance, you’re not allowed to live together. This makes life difficult because assistance rates are often not high enough to help get your life on track by paying down debts, saving money and covering day-to-day living expenses.

So here we have two impediments to living a comfortable, secure life, things most of us take for granted – adequate health coverage and economic stability.