ZeitCast #7

Here is a special July edition of ZeitCast which is actually a music podcast the features only the best Winnipeg Folk Festival music.

Permission to use the music on this podcast was granted to me by John. K. Samson of The Weakerthans, Geoff Berner, Hayden, and Forro in the Dark.

ZeitCast July Edition Part 1

ZeitCast July Edition Part 2

I will also be doing a special August podcast with all Edmonton Folk Festival music.

Thank you for listening.

Outside the Blog

The Edmonton Folk Festival is coming up in a couple of weeks and I'll be sure to write on the blog about it. But I will also be writing about the folk fest outside the blog. The Edmonton Journal has asked me to write two articles about the folk fest for them. One article will be in the Wednesday newspaper and the other will be out the day after I write it.
So, because of this I wont be able to write as much as I will be writing my articles for the paper.

New Blogs

I have a couple new blogs for everyone to enjoy.
This time they are not written by other people but by me and my friends.
My friend Becca started a blog called The Circle of Music which recommends different songs and artists for people to listen to and enjoy. I will write on it sometimes too.
Becca and me have started a blog called Viewpoint '96 that talks about topics like politics and the environment but from a younger point of view than is usually expressed. We are looking for other kids who are interested to write for it too.
I hope you enjoy!
I also made a googlepages site for ZeitCasts. Here is the url for the home page: http://zeitcasts.googlepages.com/zeitcasthome
On the site you can listen to past episodes and see al the artists who have let me use their music.

On a Continuing Theme...

More about music festivals:

Next weekend in the small town of Pemberton, BC (there are about 2,000 people), there will be the biggest music festival in BC this year.

Somehow the festival has been able to bring huge names to the festival like Coldplay, The Tragically Hip, The Flaming Lips, Death Cab for Cutie, Wintersleep, Buck 65, METRIC and Kathleen Edwards. For me, the big question is: "how in the world can a small town like Pemberton get a band like Coldplay to play at one of their festivals?"

The answer: selling very, very large amounts of tickets. They have so far sold over 40,000 tickets to this year's festival. But the tickets of course are very expensive for a show like this. A 3 day pass is $260 and even a one day pass is still $150!

For more information about the Pemberton 2008 Festival visit: http://www.pembertonfestival.com/home/index.aspx

More about the Vancouver/Whistler 2010 Olympic Games:

People are now being tested to be volunteers for the games. The Olympics will have 25, 000 volunteers to deal with all sorts of things. From random drug testings and telling people where to go. Each person is first tested alone, and then in a group.

So when the Olympics come around in 2 years, we will be very prepared.

Geoff Berner's Folk Fest Controversy

I was at the Winnipeg Folk Fest last weekend to listen to and watch many of my favourite musicians such as The Weakerthans, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Calexico, and Geoff Berner. The Folk Festival was rainy, but great.
The Mainstage on Thursday night featured 3 of my favourite artists, including Geoff Berner as a "tweener". Though his set may only have been 15 minutes it still stirred up a lot of conversation a nervous laughter. Both the songs that he played I had heard already but for many people they were new. He kicked it off with the song that he claimed was the "Official Theme Song for the 2010 Vancouver/Whistler Olympic Games". Before playing he told the audience of near 10,000 people that to fund for the Olympic Games, the government was cutting a lot of money from different government organizations. He said that an organization that got lots of money cut from it was the organization that investigated children's deaths. With that, he started the song, saying it was a sing-along. He wanted everyone to sing along with the chorus which was: "The dead, dead children were worth it! The dead, dead children were worth it!" That brought up many disgusted faces and nervous laughter as the lyrics held graphic depictions of what the cuts from the organization entailed. To listen to the song, click The Official Theme Song for the 2010 Vancouver/Whistler Olympic Games (The Dead Children were Worth it).
Once this song was over, he pointed behind him, noticing that one of that nights biggest sponsors was Volkswagon, and that there was even a big Volkswagon logo plastered up behind him. He then stated that Volkswagon was sponsoring and agreed with every word that he said tonight. And with that he started another sing-along, this time called: "Maginot Line" which is a song about the French and the Germans in the 1st world war. When the line came in the song that talked about Hitler coming to call, Geoff Berner stopped and pointed again to the Volkswagon sign and reminded everyone that the Nazis were the ones who first made Volkswagon: "the peoples car." To listen to this song click: Maginot Line.
With that, the set was over and the nervous laughter died down to hear Michael Franti and Spearhead.
After the show, Geoff Berner said that this was an example of the clashes between protest singers and songwriters like himself and big advertising.
I think this is a good point and I congratulate Geoff Berner for his braveness.

Public Events for July 13, 2008

Urgg - I wish I was there, don't you?:

Public events for July 13, 2008


July 12, 2008
Ottawa, Ontario

Public event for Prime Minister Stephen Harper for Sunday, July 13th is:

7:00 p.m. – Prime Minister Stephen Harper will host the Calgary Southwest BBQ. He will be joined by members of the Conservative Caucus.

Heritage Park
1900 Heritage Drive SW
Chautauqua Tent
Calgary, AB
T2V 2X3

*Open to media*

NOTE: Members of the media should be onsite no later than 6:30 and will be accredited at the main gate.

Busy Times...

I haven't posted for a while, I'm sure that you've noticed that. I have VERY good reasons for that though.

First of all, school's out!! And for the past few weeks me and my class have been trying to rap up our World Vision project just in time for the last day of school. We ended up asking two companies to donate money to our project to help us reach our goal. And we did do it just in time after reaching our fundraising goal of $4 000 and even going over to raise $6 000, $4 000 of that was from the companies who so generously donated their money!! On the last day of school (yesterday) we held a little press conference in our class with the two donating companies (the Flaman Foundation and Mill Creek Developments). And of course in a press conference there has to be press!! The Edmonton Journal came for an interview and Global Edmonton came to film the event. You might have seen it last night on TV.

So this has been a very exciting week for our class and World Vision. With our $6 000 we will be buying these items for people around the world who need it most:

1. Fill a Stable for a Community


2. 2 Alpacas for a South American family


3. 4 Hens and 2 Roosters for a struggling family


4. Stock 4 Medical Clinics for 4 Communities


5. 2 Goats for a Family


6. Pitch in for a Share of a Well (Many people will buy a share of a well and that money will come together to buy one whole well)


7. 6 Agriculteral Packs for 6 Families


8. 1 Dairy Cow for a Family


9. 4 Rabbits for a Family


10. Supply 3 Classrooms

Now I think I will be taking a bit of a break from writing on my blog for the summer. But still check every week because I might still be writing about my many trips.

Here's the article in the Edmonton Journal: Students Vow to Send Health and Hope Overseas.

Who's Left and Who's Leaving

I started this blog many years ago, when I was probably eight years old. Off the top of my head I thought of the name: "The World of Isaac" for this blog. Well, now this blog isn't just about my world, it's about the whole world, in all perspectives.
So I changed the name to "Who's Left and Who's Leaving" because it seemed fitting as I was trying to talk about all perspectives of a topic. And I need to find out who to represent who's left to talk about in my writings.
This new title is also a line in one of my favourite Weakerthans songs called "Left and Leaving".

Lawn, Health - Make Your Choice

There is a condo beside my house (it is finished) that always has strangely green grass. Of course unfortunately I know why. The condo owner uses pesticides as he is obsessed with the cleanliness and beautification of his lawn. Why? - who knows. All I know is that he really is obsessed with it. A couple years ago he purposely killed the strip of grass in between our lawn and his so that no weeds could migrate over to his lawn. I don't know what he used to do that but it looks bad because it didn't just kill the weeds, it also killed all the grass. So now there is still an ugly yellow strip of lawn in between our lawns. Over the past few years he has also come onto out lawn a couple of times when we were outside and start talking to us. What he talks about I think is kind of crazy. He says that we better get our weeds in our lawn under control or he would sue our landlord. That is crazy!! I mean it's our lawn! Anyway - our weeds aren't that bad...
I have recently been researching the effects of pesticides to ones health. There are actually many effects - all of them of course bad. Some of the effects of your common lawn pesticide are asthma, birth defects, neurological effects, cancer and hormone disruption.
For me I think it would be an easy choice between your lawn or someones health. For some people it may not be easy.

Unspoken Anniversary

Yesterday (June 4) was the 19th (I think) anniversary of the Tian An Men Square protests of 1989. For those of you who aren't familiar with these protests, they were a protest that was led by students who wanted democracy. They stayed for weeks in Tian An Men Square, even after Beijing was put under martial law. On June 4 the military PLA came into Tian An Man square and started attacking the students. Thousands were killed.

In class we are learning about the protests and yesterday we held a gathering to mourn for all the students who died. We did this because we learned that people in China are not aloud to even mention the event that happened. On the anniversaries in the past they do not let the families of the students who died mourn or get together to mourn. They do not even let the people into the graveyards where the dead were buried.

I think this was and still is shocking to many people. In Canada we are so fortunate because something like that could never have happened.

What I think was crazy was that 1000's of people, most of the students, were killed in the massacre but the government of China, after the fighting was over, told the rest of the world that no one was killed.

This was a huge moment in China's history and yet what is so sad is that it isn't spoken of where it actually happened.