a little shuffle

oh, what a night in weissensee we had! thanks again to the marvellous guys thomas and willem, who have built a wonderful studio/arts centre/dinner party place. iris and thomas and wolfgang gave me shivers with their excellent brecht arrangements. and i can’t wait for the next kim barlow record, with all those songs about escaping from danger.

a shift in berlin gigs: we have been offered a chance to go to a little cabin on the north sea in denmark, and so i will now play at madame claude’s on nov 3 instead of oct 6. (sorry raff.) and i also have another show at lagari on nov 19, where i will hopefully have some new songs to play from my time here. songs about peter pan, the danish bogs, and family life.

it is also time to mention that while i am here in berlin, attempting to write the aforementioned songs and experiencing life in this most cultured of cities, both the Canadian government and the BC government are announcing some incredibly devastating cuts to arts funding. the Canada Council program for Specialized Sound Recording no longer exists. this program has funded almost every album i have made, starting with Spine. this is the reason i have been able to afford such great musicians and engineers, and i have had the luxury of a bit of time in studio to make these records. certainly the upcoming record, Young Saint Marie, would have been impossible for me to afford without funding since I am paying an entire orchestra for their wonderful performance. and back in BC the liberal government has announced that arts funding will be cut by 91% by 2011. this is the money that keeps so many organizations alive. companies like Theatre Replacement, Leaky Heaven Circus, the Push Festival, the Fringe, the Folk Fest….it is a long list. who wants to live in a province without these things? it seems very shortsighted to me. people are rallying, and there will be a strong protest. i encourage everyone to join in.