In which we profile some of the unsung heroes and heroines of Toronto culture.

Shawna Caspi
Loft 404 (263 Adelaide Street West)
Friday April 20, 8:30 p.m. (doors at 8 p.m.)
$15

In music, the balance of proficiency in playing and proficiency in songwriting can be precarious. There are performers who, focusing specifically on one characteristic of the creative process, neglect the other, and it can show: technical know-how eclipses poetic sensitivity. Meanwhile, with other artists, you’ll have two or three repeating chords backing up a lyrically exhaustive piece, exhilarating to the mind but blandly conventional to the ears. There are very notable exceptions, of course, but it happens more than we’d like.

But with Toronto’s Shawna Caspi, that is certainly not the case.

Originally from Ottawa, Caspi has been gradually making a name for herself in Hogtown since her first compilation, 2005′s Trip the Light. Following up with 2008′s Paint by Numbers, Caspi emerged as a well-respected part of Toronto’s indie firmament, quickly becoming a local darling of musicians and critics. And rightly so. She’s one of those vivid, storied, shining talents, springing up in places ranging from Nathan Phillips Square to house parties. Coupling her virtuoso skills with a guitar—a product of her classical training, sweetened with a natural grace for all things folk—with an affecting, undeniably beautiful lyrical sense of nuance, Caspi is an artist’s artist, a musician’s musician.

“I have a classical background,” Caspi told Torontoist recently, “I took classical guitar for many, many years, which is where all the technique and finger-picking comes from. And I did continue studying guitar into university.” It’s been a traditionally solo effort, but with Skyline, her forthcoming 2012 release, Caspi is focusing on a fuller, bigger sound. With musicians like Murray Foster, Adam Warner, Joel Schwartz, Anne Davison, Rosemary Phelan, and Anne Lindsay on board, and producer Jason LaPrade at the helm, Caspi is presenting an epic, ambitious look at life in Ontario that celebrates its beautiful minutiae. It’s like a road trip put to music, alight with the haunting imagery of the Ottawa Valley, Toronto laneways, and our city’s unseen skyline, all flashing past the listeners’ ears.

Ultimately, it feels like a creation that’s been a long time coming. Along with performing in living rooms, a favourite format, she has also been a mainstay aboard the Ocean, VIA Rail’s Montreal-Halifax eastern flagship, playing for other passengers in what’s appropriately called the Skyline car. Knowing this, the arresting detail with which she describes places like farmers’ markets and bus stations becomes clear. This is the work of a person born to travel, both literally and in her music.

For tonight’s release party, Caspi is focusing on the intimate, stripped-down style that has brought her this far: “Often, when people have these big CD release parties, it’s a big deal, you get a whole band to play and it’s a huge thing. But this is actually going to be just me and the guitar, the way my live show is, with that kind of intimacy—that sort of honesty, because there’s nothing you can hide behind when it’s just you and your guitar on stage. And I love that about performing.”

Like much of what the city can expect this Record Store Day, Caspi suggests that these unconventional performances are a very inspiring way forward for Canadian music, perhaps resulting in a new scene, for lack of a better word. “There’s so much going on in Toronto,” she says, “and so much going on in people’s lives—everyone has a million channels on TV, everyone has the internet—that you don’t have to leave the house to go to something.” 



Tonight, this soulful artist is definitely a great reason to unplug and get out of the house.

On February 5th, 2010 I shared with Canadians that I, like 25,000 other Canadian men every year, had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
I have received overwhelming support from my loving family, my friends, my caucus and party, and thousands of everyday Canadians.
Their stories and support have touched me. And I have drawn strength and inspiration from them.
In the closing days of the most recent session of the House of Commons, I suffered from some stiffness and pain.
After the House rose, I undertook a series of tests at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto.
My battle against prostate cancer is going very well. My PSA levels remain virtually undetectable.
However, these tests, whose results I received last week, also indicate that I have a new, non-prostate cancer that will require further treatment.
So, on the advice of my doctors, I am going to focus on treatment and recovery.
I will therefore be taking a temporary leave of absence as Leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada. I’m going to fight this cancer now, so I can be back to fight for families when Parliament resumes.
To that end, I have requested that the President of our party, Brian Topp, consult our Parliamentary caucus and then convene a meeting of our party’s federal council to appoint an interim leader.
The interim leader will serve until I resume my duties.
I intend to do so when Parliament meets on September 19th.
I am also making a recommendation on who the interim leader should be.
I suggest that Hull-Aylmer MP Nycole Turmel be named interim leader during this period.
Ms. Turmel enjoys unanimous support as the national chair of our Parliamentary caucus. She is an experienced national leader in both official languages. And she will do an excellent job as our national interim leader.
Let me conclude by saying this.
If I have tried to bring anything to federal politics, it is the idea that hope and optimism should be at their heart.
We CAN look after each other better than we do today. We CAN have a fiscally responsible government. We CAN have a strong economy; greater equality; a clean environment.
We CAN be a force for peace in the world.
I am as hopeful and optimistic about all of this as I was the day I began my political work, many years ago.
I am hopeful and optimistic about the personal battle that lies before me in the weeks to come.
And I am very hopeful and optimistic that our party will continue to move forward.
We WILL replace the Conservative government, a few short years from now.
And we WILL work with Canadians to build the country of our hopes
Of our dreams
Of our optimism
Of our determination
Of our values…
Of our love.
Thank you.
Jack Layton

Text of the statement courtesy of the NDP.

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This ad, which appeared on page 14 of the March 10 issue of Business Week and on page 93 of the April 19-25 issue of The Economist, kicked off the recent debate about selling naming rights to Toronto subway stations, when, as reported by the Post, Commissioner Peter Milczyn pulled out the ad at last week’s TTC meeting and remarked, “I was flipping through The Economist the other day. One of the world’s wealthiest jurisdictions is selling naming rights. It would be interesting to see what we could do here in Toronto.” (See also the Star, Globe, Sun, Torontoist, blogTO, and Steve Munro coverage and discussions, as well as this detached-from-reality Sun editorial.)

Beyond all of the obvious philosophical issues surrounding the corporatization of public space, and the questionable suggestion that we should be taking city-building tips from Dubai, some of the problems with this idea include:
• No company, as noted by Steve Munro, could or would shell out for more than a fraction of the cost of building a station. As basic, non-interchange stations come with a price tag of $70-100 million, the majority of the money would necessarily have to come from government sources. Even the highest-end naming-rights opportunities for private facilities rarely exceed half that much. (Bell, for example, put up $25 million to turn the Toronto International Film Festival Group’s now-under-construction HQ into the Bell Lightbox; Air Canada paid $40 million to gets its name on MLSE’s arena.) When it comes to funding public infrastructure with private money (problematic in itself), it’s important to consider what sort of investment might entitle the transference of (symbolic) ownership. If the public pays for something, why should someone else get their name on it? Why are we subsidizing their advertising?
• Naming rights aren’t sold so much as rented. Air Canada’s deal with MLSE is up in 2015. Sony’s deal with the City of Toronto for the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts is up in 2017. Buildings, public and private, are becoming like banners ads on a website.
• The public doesn’t get to find out with whom the City is negotiating a naming-rights deal until a contract has already been signed. That means the public gets no opportunity to express concerns if a particular company is especially inappropriate for whatever reason.
• The last thing the federal and provincial governments need is one more excuse to not adequately fund transit. Once something is paid for with private money, it’s extremely difficult to convince a government to restore public funding to it, even if the public purse overflows in the future. Privatization is most often a gradual process of the erosion of the public realm, and accepting corporate contributions (whether “donations” or sponsorships) is one way to absolve the government of its responsibilities. Philanthropy is not a sustainable way to build infrastructure.
• Even a “donation,” as opposed to an explicit sponsorship opportunity, would not be much better, as the company would receive a generous tax break: it would still be our money going into building or maintaining a station, someone else would just get their name on it.
• Lifted entirely from Munro: “Station naming will be very much like the One Stop situation: companies would line up around the block to name Bloor-Yonge because of the exposure, but nobody will want Chester (although I kind of like the idea of a Big Carrot Station). Do we start choosing where to build stations based on whether they can get sponsors?”
The TTC ended up voting to ask staff to report on the matter. The Post notes that only Vice-Chair Joe Mihevc and Commissioner Sandra Bussin dissented, although Chair Adam Giambrone expressed his distaste for the concept in the Star. While it wouldn’t have been entirely unreasonable to argue that there would be no harm in asking for a report (aside from the wasted staff hours), that didn’t turn out to be the case. OC Transpo, the Ottawa region’s transit agency, is now seriously considering the idea as a direct result of the TTC’s move; the Canwest-owned Ottawa Citizen published an editorial in favour, as well as a subsequent letter in response.
Says the original Citizen report, “If [OC Transpo Manager of Business Development and Community Partnerships Patrick] Curran had his way, the Terry Fox transit station could become, say, the Terry Matthews station — if the price is right and the name sits well with bus riders.” Because, of course, the people in our society most deserving of public recognition are those who can afford to pay for it.
Scan taken from hypermediate. Graphic at left by Jonathan Goldsbie, modified from one by Dave Meslin.

Mark’s Flowers

Ever since Mark Warner was fired as my Conservative opponent for being too focused on progressive and urban issues (and not focused enough on the national “cookie cutter” campaign), we’ve met to chat over some pints every few weeks at a politically-active pub on Parliament street. It’s an interesting relationship. When Mark was still the candidate, we traded barbs with some frequency and generally treated each other as sworn opponents. We even had a few debates via email, even though no one else was able to observe them (at least, I wasn’t BCCing anyone). As soon as he was no longer the candidate, however, our conversations suddenly transformed and now resemble more closely those of old friends than political adversaries. (My understanding is that Mark has had similarly friendly conversations with Bob Rae and El-Farouk Khaki.) A few nights ago Mark apparently felt guilty for keeping me out so late and away from my fiancée Claire, so he bought a rose for me to give her as an apology. Half a year ago, neither one of us would have seen that coming.

El-Farouk’s Rings

Over the past year, of all my opponents, I’ve gotten along with El-Farouk Khaki the best. He has been the most genuine and friendly. We’ve made it clear to each other that we don’t have any particular desire to specifically go after each other’s support base or attack each other’s campaigns. Our sights have been set higher than that. Unfortunately (and, perhaps, inevitably), that appears to have started to change. Right before our first candidates debate a week ago, El-Farouk, Liz White (the Animal Alliance Environment Voters Party candidate) and I were having a discussion about El-Farouk’s many large metal rings. I made some (admittedly awkward and not very funny) joke about how they must come in handy when he gets into fights. El-Farouk looked genuinely offended that I’d even joke about him getting into a fist fight. Then, when he made his opening statement, he begun by recounting our conversation to the whole room, except the words he attributed to me were much more violent than the ones I’d actually used (he quoted me as saying the rings were for when he wanted to “beat someone down,” among other colourful imagery). It seemed like an attempt to paint me as someone who advocated violence. Over the course of the debate he took a few more swipes at me, so I guess the truce is over. Oh well, that’s politics. Hopefully it only lasts the duration of the campaign. On my end, I’ll still continue to tell people that I think he would make a good MP (which I do).

Bob’s Distance

Most of my friends are very interested to know what it’s like to meet and debate Bob Rae. I don’t really have a good response. In a strange coincidence, I continue to feel like I know his daughter (we have some mutual friends and have hung out a few times) better than I know him. The first time I met Bob was by chance, outside the Starbucks on Church near Wellesley. I introduced myself as his nominated Green opponent, but he kept moving almost as soon as we finished shaking hands. Later, I’d hear from one of his campaign workers that the rumor going around the campaign office was that the Green candidate worked at Starbucks and had served Bob a coffee. (I’m unclear as to whether Bob started that rumor himself, or if it was the product of a game of broken telephone.) The next few times I spoke with him (at his nomination meeting, at a community festival, at Bill Graham’s farewell party) he never greeted me by name, leaving me to suspect that he couldn’t remember it. The above photo was taken at one of those events, and I have no reason to believe he thought I was anyone other than a random supporter. So, unlike with my other opponents (and Bill Graham during the last election), I can’t say I’ve ever had a conversation with Bob. I’ll keep trying, but he doesn’t seem that interested.