Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Dana Sipos, Charlie Houston, Ariel Posen, Belle Tower, Conrad Bigknife, K.Flay, Tim Kile, Daysormay, Lipstick Jodi, and Shane Ghostkeeper

By Will McGuirk

“are you afraid? Are you ready? Do you have any sense of what's to come?”

Loss, its nibbling around the edges, biting, stalking, looming, this global so local, this so many down to just one, one life lived in one time, each one begats one, each one regrets one, each one meets one, and each one repeats. . . until silence.

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“My grandmother, a grand storyteller her whole life, lost the ability to speak due to a severe stroke and has been living between the earthly and astral plane for some time. In this song I am coming to terms with this impending transition, loss. I am also asking my grandmother all the questions that I can't ask her in real life - are you afraid? Are you ready? Do you have any sense of what's to come? I am peeking into the future while keeping one eye on the past of my grandmother's storied life and reflecting on the profound impact her life has had on mine.” - Dana Sipos

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Belle Tower · Fear

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Shane Ghostkeeper · One More Name

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Laila Biali, Sarah Neufeld, Nathaniel Rateliff, Daysormay, Charles Ellsworth, Mark Nyvlt, Black River Delta, Frànçois & The Atlas Mountains, Buscabulla, and Jack Kays,

By Will McGuirk

“Just before our love got lost you said,
I am as constant as a northern star
And I said, "Constantly in the darkness,
Where's that at?
If you want me I'll be in the bar."

Its the broadness of Joni Mitchell, her artistic scope, the length and breadth of her, truly authentic, really a badass, impossible to capture, an artist as an environment. If there was one to have spent some moments with, oh man!!, but we have the music, and we can spend more than moments with it, we can live inside of it, alongside of Joni.

“My first experience hearing Joni Mitchell's music was when I was still a music student at Humber College. Hejira and Mingus were the obvious starting point for a Jazz novice as equally interested in the musicians accompanying Joni as in Joni herself. But then along came Blue. That was the one, the album that triggered a lifelong fascination with Joni and her songwriting. She made my heart ache with every feeling, love and loss in the same breath. No song captures that more for me than A Case of You. I think it's the ultimate Valentine's song because it can reach you no matter where you're at – whether you're in love, longing for it, or mourning it.” - Laila Biali

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Mark J. NYVLT · MARK J. NYVLT - THIS N THAT - 02 - RUSSIAN LULLABY - IRVIN BERLIN

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“This song is about being obsessed with someone. Spinning round and round, your mind goes in circles and you never change your position. The fantasy remains a distant galaxy. Love is a mental projection. Somehow, this vivid tune resonates with our recent lockdown lifestyle. On loop.” - Frànçois Marry

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Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Sameer Cash, Katie Pruitt, Troy Junker, Juke Ross, Gold Star Gold Star, Leela Gilday, Soccer Mommy, Daysormay

By Will McGuirk

Watched a piece today on art galleries opening. Options included drive-thru and route markers. Most of these solutions seemed geared to getting numbers into the gallery and had little to do with the focus of a gallery which is, or at least should be, the artist and the art. In some of the galleries people were giving a certain amount of time and then had to move on. What a ridiculous and disrespectful notion! One needs time with art, the best art demands time, and rewards the time spent. One can read a novel several times over a lifetime and get something different each time. Art does that, art transcends time. Any gallery which puts a time limit on the experience of art is away in the before times and those times and infrastructures gave a platform for this Covid-19 virus. The same infrastructures will not offer us a way out. What will will be the creativity and invention and ingenuity of the artist. Rather than limiting exposure to art we should be maximizing it in all ways possibles. Art is the roadway we need to take to get out.

“With the rest of the world tucked under their covers endlessly scanning the news, we were present for the shift in real life, minute by minute. It all seemed so surreal, it was hard to relate to. Hard not to joke about. That night, we were all living in the active transition from one world to the next, we could feel it, it felt so close, yet so large and so out of reach.” - Sameer Cash

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“To me, Pride Month is all about celebrating self-love. This year, we might not have the parties or parades, but it’s never really been about that. ‘Pride’ is a feeling that we find within ourselves. It’s a sigh of relief that we don’t have to hide anymore or alter our personality or preferences in order to make a Cisgender society more comfortable. So, when straight people ask, ‘Why don’t we have straight pride?’ I always respond with, ‘because society never told you to be ashamed.’” - Katie Pruitt

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Leela Gilday · Giants

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