Leeroy Stagger’s newest song was inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement. Head over to YouTube to get a copy of the song.

On October 15th, the 99% of Lethbridge will be holding their own “occupy” demonstration:

OCCUPY LETHBRIDGE

Saturday, October 15th, 2011
Lethbridge, Traditional Blackfoot Territory
Peacefully Assemble with The 99%!

10 am – Special “Not Your Mother’s Poetry” Broadcast on CKXU 88.3 FM.
Stop by the Station, Lower UofL SU Building

11 am – Sign making outside of City Hall

12 pm – Peaceful Assembly outside of City Hall – Beginning of the 99% Open Mic. Please keep it to under 5 minutes.

12:30 pm – March as part of the 99%. City Hall around downtown and back. Open Mic stops outside of financial institutions and Jim Hillyer, MP’s office. What is YOUR message to the 1%?

2:00 pm – Open Mic finishes at City Hall.

* The route is approximately 1km long and will be kept at a slow pace for those with limited mobility.

For those unable to march, there will be people with information mingling outside of City Hall. They would love to discuss how a better world is possible.

Occupy Lethbridge

I was unaware of the Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School until I saw this random tweet by Kelaine Divine, followed by a visit to her blog. Held in over 80 cities, Dr. Sketchy is what happens when cabaret meets art school; a burlesque show and life drawing event.

How is Dr. Sketchy’s different from a normal life drawing class?
In normal life classes, silent students sit in a silent room and draw a bored, oft-uninteresting model. In Dr. Sketchy’s we’ve got scandalous performers as models.

At Dr. Sketchy’s, we don’t care if you picked up a pad yesterday or 50 years ago. Come to drink or to draw. We’re happy to have you.

Kelaine Divine and Loralee Edwards will be putting on the event January 29th @ 7PM in the GCBC Lounge at Henotic. Bring a pad and some pencils – I know I will!

Dr. Sketchy: Lethbridge (Facebook group here)

Cory Armfelt, city consultant, writes:

Hey everybody the City Cirlces are up and running!

Get a group of friend’s together, record what you like about Lethbridge and/or what you don’t like (please include a way to solve the problem…) and submit it to the City. We are hoping for a variety of mediums- Personally I’m hoping that someone comes up with an interpretive dance about what Lethbridge means to them and is willing to present it at the ideas fair in October…

City Circles

Listen, Lethbridge matters to me, or else I wouldn’t have started this blog. If you’re a young person like me (I’m 28) who has ever referred to this city as “Deathbridge,” this should matter to you.

Not only is the city holding visioning workshops, which probably won’t give much true insight, they are also encouraging everyone to create their own “city circles.”

A City Circle is a self-formed and self-managed  group of Lethbridge residents who want to help with preparing the new Plan. To form a city circle get a group of friends together; they can be from work, school, sport, extracurricular activities, an existing organization, your family, all of the above – there are no rules for how your Circle organizes itself.

Your City Circle will meet when and where its members want and discuss any community related issue you choose such as: Arts, Heritage, CULTURE, Parks, recycling, SUSTAINABILITY, zoning, roads, CITY GROWTH, pesticide use, RECREATION, affordable housing, protecting the river valley.

The point of the circle is to submit your ideas for presentation to the public. These ideas will be published in the Plan Your City Ideas Book and presented at an Ideas Fair in October. Joanne and I plan on starting one very soon, so keep your eyes on Lethbian Love.

Over lunch, she and I ranted on numerous issues; things that should be addressed now and others worked towards. I feel we have a long way to go before becoming a progressive city, but the following is just a small sampling of the things we brought up.

Lethbridge:

• must be designed
• isn’t inspiring, especially to youth – why do they all want to leave?
• needs to cultivate culture, such as the arts – why are art collections locked up at the university and college?
• is not beautiful (save the coulees) – we need more architecture and green spaces
• has transportation woes: bus transit sucks, we need a third bridge, more bike paths & pedestrian streets
• needs more higher density & affordable housing
• needs curbside recycling, or even bins downtown, let alone more sustainable practices
• must pierce through the accepted norm or else change won’t happen
• and so much more (succulent bison steak has pervaded my thoughts)

I’m not a political person or anything like that, but I want to see this city change because I’d hope to stay here. I want an amazing city; not one to try and find excuses to love it.

Seriously, it’s up to you – the people who read this blog! Don’t let the nearly-dead or religious conservatives dictate the future of this city – it’s yours!

If you want to know more, get in touch with the City Circle coordinator, Brian Conger at 403-329-7139.

You want a reason why? Kyle from Andrew Hilton writes:

In less exciting news, I wanted to let everyone know how the new Alberta Liquor Tax that went into effect this past Tuesday (April 7) is going to affect prices in the store. There is no point in sugarcoating it, this is an absolutely huge increase in taxes (about 25% more tax per bottle) that makes a very obvious difference on the shelf. The taxes will add the following amounts to the price of every bottle:

- To a 750mL (standard bottle) of wine, the increase will add $0.75 – $1.00 per bottle. This can be upped to $1.50 – $2.00 for a 1.5L bottle, and over $4.00 for a 4L bag-in-box cask wine.

- To a 750mL bottle of spirits, including liqueurs, the increase will be approximately $3.00. 1140mL bottles will be increased by approximately $4.50 and 1750mL bottles by about $6.75.

- Beer will be a little more complicated, as the tax varies based on the size of the brewery. Larger breweries, such as Molsons and Labatts, will see about $1.50 per dozen increase, while very small breweries like Wild Rose will only see about a $0.40/doz. increase. Medium-sized breweries, like Big Rock and Sam Adams will fall somewhere in between.

Sin tax, my ass. Isn’t eating babies also sinful? If there’s one thing I’d like to see change in Lethbridge and Alberta, is that more young people started voting (period) for change and voted for a more progressive party like the NDP. Isn’t it about time we had a prime minister with a mustache?

Well it looks like I won’t be showering for a while…now I have to resort to making bathtub gin.

Alberta raises taxes on cigarettes, liquor

Brocket 99 News

But before I continue, I’d like to add a caveat to this article. I don’t agree with its portrayal of our aboriginal community, and only offer this as an insight into a subject unfamiliar to many. For years I’ve heard mention of Brocket 99, but had never been exposed to it. That is until a few weeks ago, when my curiousity finally led me to downloading (discretion advised), listening and learning more about it.

Lethbridge is a multi-cultural community with a flourishing population of First Nations people, many from surrounding reserves in Southern Alberta. Brocket is a small town on the Piikani Nation Reserve, located roughly 70KM west of Lethbridge on Highway 3 (between Pincher Creek and Fort Macleod). Brocket 99 is a fake, satirical FM radio station (that broadcasts in mono) set upon this reserve.

There are many stories as to the origins of this recording. Some say it was a group of university radio students, expelled for trying to sell the tape in the U of L bookstore. More popular is the rumour of it being our local celebrity and former radio DJ, Mark Campbell. Mark, being interviewed on the Michael Anthony Show, was quoted as saying:

The tape sounded an awful lot like me so the people in Southern Alberta who had heard me, and they had only heard me because I was just here longer than anyone else because I never left. So people would automatically assume. (They would say) ‘Hey that tape there. That racy native tape. That’s Mark Campbell.’

Although Mark flat out denies any involvement in the production, it seems he does have some knowledge of those involved. In particular is one fellow who goes by the name of “Ernie Scar,” the main host for Brocket 99.

Back in 1986, a cassette tape of a fake radio show called “AIDS Radio” fell upon the ears of Ernie, a local DJ. A spoof of a gay radio station, it featured characters with names like “Hugh Jardon.” The tape provided inspiration for Brocket 99, a show hosted by “indians” that parodied the stereotypes of our aboriginal population, and radio stations in general.

A few copies of the 45-minute cassette were made for friends, who made copies for their friends. Going viral, it became notorious for being offensive and politically-incorrect. Even condemned as racist material, the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission once sought the public to come forward any information.

In an interview with Ernie Scar, he disputed its roots in racism and questioned the show’s popularity:

This is actually quite absurd, and to a degree even distressing that someone can be considered a star over an underground, infantile, profane gag.

Yet the tape still continued to surface over the years. Fast-forward to 2009 and it’s still talked about. There are even two documentaries – one produced in 2007 and the other in-development. The latter features Ernie Scar himself. But unfortunately, I was unable to get a hold of either. My hopes are that they do become publicly available, since there is a lot of insight to be gleaned from the people interviewed.

The question remains of why this thing has not died out yet? Is there some relevance to this day that keeps it going, and what is it? Or is it just entertainment, appealing to some sub-culture of Lethbridge?

So there’s a little background to Brocket 99 – I’ll leave you to formulate your own opinion on this subject. Let me know in the comments what your thoughts are.

Brocket 99

Lethbridge is a mash up of students and townies. It’s a little like “The Outsiders,” only less hair grease and more church (and I have yet to meet Pony Boy). Students, who make up 12% of the population, are gently tolerated by the rest of city and exist in their own little worlds. Shy and retiring, they live in small clumps, preferring to breed amongst each other. Although they don’t avoid interaction with the “townies,” they do have an annoying habit of assuming everyone under the age of 25 is one of their own.

Berkeley Place, residence buildings and most low-income housing heave with this segment of the Lethbridge population. Rarely venturing outside their invisible boundaries, they prefer to find sustenance in the form of $5 pizzas and Duke wings, and take for granted the endless opportunity for activity at their fingertips.

Then there are the townies, who are better known here (and it seems only here) as Lethbians. They are a specific breed of people who have chosen to call this place home for a period of time not defined by terms and summer breaks. With the off chance that students encounter these people, they are often gazed upon with a certain awe; a respect hard-earned by their diligent insistence that the high level bridge is really cool and that closing shop at 5PM does not inconvenience anyone. During these chance encounters, Lethbians react similarly; a general inquiry as to where one is from quickly determines the level of further interaction to be had.

If a young person heralds from anywhere farther than Coaldale, they are instantly relegated to the “student” status. A fine person to be had, but certainly not one of “us.” These meetings are usually marked with some kind of investigative inquiring:

“What is your major?”
“What do you plan on doing with that?”

…all code for “Why are you HERE and when are you leaving?”

Townies seem content to see the ebb and flow of student population continue as is. Change seems to be accepted slowly and with skepticism. A novel idea, store or program is carefully surveyed for the better part of a decade before it becomes truly accepted. Responsive is most definitely not Lethbridge’s middle name.

But there are those brave few, both townies and students, who venture into the unknown and embrace what they have not had the chance to dissect. These are those Lethbians who come together to see greats like Bob Dylan in our town, who hail sustainable fashion, flock to 4AM poutine and proudly wave their art gallery memberships at SAAG events.

These few are a special group who choose to be embrace the true Lethbian way – the way of openness and welcoming. They cross the river several times a day and venture into the concrete walls of the university, drink at the neighbourhood pub, volunteer and write letters to the Herald. Sure, some may take classes but do not let the “student lifestyle” define who they are, while others don’t just lie in complacency and ignorance. We here at Lethbian Love embrace these rarities and hold them up as true Lethbians!

So often, books are censored or removed from bookshelves in libraries and schools because their content is deemed unsuitable for children or audiences in general. I remember reading “To Kill a Mockingbird” in school as a part of my curriculum; it’s now banned. Another childhood favourite, Huckleberry Finn, is considered racist, yet (to many scholars’ opinion) it was written against that.

We sometimes take for granted the freedoms we have available to us, whether it be net neutrality, free speech or the books that sit on our shelves. This week, I encourage you to be subversive; go to your nearest library and read a “challenged book,” if you can find one. Make Mark Twain proud:

I am always reading immoral books on the sly, and then selfishly trying to prevent other people from having the same wicked good time.
- Mark Twain (regarding banning of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the Denver Library)

Freedom to Read