Sunday, February 28, 2010

African Vibes 28 Feb 2010 set list

African Vibes is every Sunday on www.coopradio.org 102.7FM in Vancouver area,


I host the show the last Sunday of the month

set list 28 Feb
Speak the word - Tracy Chapman
Niteka Nela - Dieneba Seck
Ogun la ka aiye - Babatunde Olatunji
Lady - Fela Kuti
Driving - Kaboom
Love is real - Glen Washington
CNN - Kaboom
Strangers in the night - Glen Washington
Without greed - Kaboom
Immigration officer - Dubin Hood
Moonbeams of dubwood - Dubin Hood
Soobax - K'Naan
Coulibaly - Amadou & Mariam
I'm not afraid - Thomas Mapfumo
I'm mad as hell - Thomas Mapfumo
G8 - Lazare S Halk
Six love - The Luge Sessions
Sportif - Youssou N'Dour
Hard End - The Luge Sessions
Saturdays - Nelly Furtado
Good golly Miss Molly - Little Richard
Party for your right to fight - Public Enemy

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Tent City at 58 West Hastings

The Olympic tent village is well established at the notorious Concord Pacific property across from Save On Meats (58 West Hastings), proposed for condos. The lot is a half-block long with buildings at either end. It is fenced in with chain link and now has banners and tarps strung along. The irony of this site is perfect: Concord, one of the largest real estate company in Canada gave up one of their vacant lots of VANOC tents on False Creek and now 58 W Hastings is nicely covered in tents too. The demands at the site are: more social housing, stop gentrification and criminalizing those living in poverty or homeless.



Rider from Citywide Housing Coalition estimated about 25 tents last night about 50 who stayed the night last night. Many of us stayed at the campfire and the 50 gal drum fire until late. Last night there was a strong UBC student/Stop War presence but also strong Power of Women, Streams of Justice presence. Three CCAP members chose to take a night away from their crappy hotel rooms and sleep out. Two CCAP members who are homeless went back to their shelters late at night because of the rain.



Bernie and Stella from the Power of Women group worked out a list of things they need as soon as possible:



Firewood

Chairs

Hats

Scarves

Mitts

Socks

Fresh fruit

A hatchet

A mallet for tent pegs



Requests from other squatters:



Plastic twine to string tarps

A guitar for Rickie Lavallie

Cigarettes



Requests listed on Tent Village website:

Tents

Tarps

Wood

Sleeping bags

Blankets



The tent village website also has links to recent media articles.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Greetings from Vancouver # 1

Clog the Heart of the city. Autonomous demo, pretty much a non-starter.

Peaceful until Cambie Street. From then on metro and other newspaper boxes began to litter the streets.

Others were used as missiles into the Hudson Bay store window, TD Bank. Some grafitti on olympic vehicles.

Riot police with large guns appeared on Georgia. Peaceful demo well and truly over.

Saw several people being led away - cherry picking.

A charge by police on activists further down Georgia failed.

A later charge managed to get activists surrounded, on Robson.

Pretty much cat and mouse by this time. Protestors chants "Let them go" or "Peace" ringing a bit hollow given the violence post Cambie.

Friday, February 12, 2010

olympic highlights

Australians defiant and fly the Kicking Kangaroo flag. Vanoc pissed off. The Aussies win.
Doping - athletes can forget their Olympics.
Cypress Mtn has considerable lack of snow. Snow being trucked in from as far as Manning Park.
Athletes denied practice time on Cypress. Athletes practicing in the Okanagan.
Commercial Drive 1 Torch Relay 0. Olympic flame gets blocked by hundreds of people on the Drive.
Luge athlete dead hours before opening ceremonies

Belated birthday gifts

Well it's ten days since I had my landmark birthday and today feels like the breather, the breath of fresh air that I've been waiting for.

School is on 'olympic break', and for me who chose not to have any involvement with the olympic broadcast work, it is a welcome rest.

With pancakes made, coffee and fruit and The Dead Letters on the cd player things are good.

My thinking is turning to the prospect of paid radio work and internships, in Grand Prairie and Vancouver/Winnipeg respectively.

Yes I could soon be on the move. But first I am going to enjoy this weekend of resistance. I cycled up to the Drive too late to see the people take over the Drive but still time enough to see about 40 anarchists walk back onto the Drive at Grant (I think).

All the old faces were out today, Sam Sullivan stuck on a side street, with half a dozen police in guard.

The fun continues later at the Art Gallery.

Peace

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Last Call set list

Last Call every Wednesday 12am - 2am ish Pacific time
www.coopradio.org

This is an Ashanti Proverb
By your side - Sade
Beloved wife - Natalie Merchant
Sun, drums & soil - Four Tet
Transmission - Joy Division
Fun to be had - Nitzer Ebb
She's lost control - Joy Division
Idiot joy showland - The Fall
Clampdown - The Clash
Rat race - The Specials
In the rain - Madness
Walking wounded - Everything but the Girl
Stereotype - The Specials
Ghost town - The Specials
Ignition - The Charlatans
Slow learners - The Paperbacks
I hate it when we fight - Joy Williams
Roxy - Supergrass
How soon is now? - The Smiths
Take down the union jack - Billy Bragg & The Blokes
Common people - Pulp
Out to get you - James
Runaground - James
Quiet little voices - We were promised jetpacks
Born of frustration - James

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Helicopters, traffic and non communication

Welcome to Vancouver, welcome to the home of the 2010 Winter Games.

It is not pretty out there. My angst towards the Games heightened by lack of sleep thanks to a helicopter buzzing over Victory Park last night for more than one hour.

Resigned to the fact that I wasn't going to get a decent sleep I got up and went for a walk to find out what all the noise was about. Walking west on Water Street, saw the inevitable flashing lights at Cambie and Hastings.

Only when I asked, the dozen police walking in line combing Victory Park, would what has happened be of any interest to the media, did I get a decent answer - "a stabbing in the park". Thank you.

My first question "What happened?" was met with jokes between themselves. You've got to love the VPD.

Note for transit users - don't ride the buses on Main between Hastings and Terminal. It's better to walk. The gridlock caused by the closing of the viaducts is insane. Why did they close the viaducts?