[caption id="attachment_6492" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Tanya Davis"][/caption] Sandbar Music of Charlottetown, PEI, has released a soundtrack MP3 of  the hit YouTube video, How To Be Alone. Tanya Davis wrote and performed the poetry and music at the heart of the piece; Andrea Dorfman directed the film, which had been viewed just over 600 times when featured here July 30. (Find a partial account of its viral progress toward the current 1.4 million hits here.) It's plain that, aside from one crankypants Globe and Mail reviewer, lots of people want to hear music and poetry like Davis's, and see moving pictures like Dorfman's. The traditional distribution...

08 September, 2010

Janet Evaline Moore, founder of L'Arche Cape Breton, died peacefully last night at her home in Orangedale, two days before her 63rd birthday. [caption id="attachment_5983" align="alignleft" width="250" caption="Tom and Ann Gunn and Janet Moore"][/caption] Tom and Ann Gunn invited Janet to live with their family in 1983, marking the start of an intentional community that is now home to some 25 Core Members and a varied group of assistants from Cape Breton and around the world. Janet Moore was a gentle, funny, loving woman, with an out-sized capacity to move and inspire people around her. She and her long-time...

16 July, 2010

If you are in or near Sydney this Saturday, here's an event to enjoy: The L'Arche Cape Breton Springfest show, an annual tradition in Judique, expands this year to Sydney. The program features two short videos produced at the community, a short play featuring L'Arche core members and assistants, and a selection of desserts from the Cocoa Pod—all for $15. There's also an auction with Leo Cox of Mabou swinging the gavel....

03 June, 2010

Motherlode, a New York Times blog on parenting, has picked up on Contrarian's discussion about potential treatments for the intellectual impairment associated with Down syndrome — and touched off quite a debate of it its own. Our own discussion began with L'Arche Cape Breton Community Leader Jenn Power's disquiet at the assumption that Down syndrome constitutes a disease in need of curing. Jenn, who is both the adopted mother of identical twins with Down Syndrome and — disclosure — my daughter-in-law, spoke eloquently of Down traits that don't need fixing: [I]ncredible smiles, overflowing affection, stubbornness, great sense of humour, cute toes, love...

13 January, 2010

The Harper Government's ambivalent attitude toward immigration deserves more thoughtful consideration than I have time for this morning, but in light of yesterday's release of a new guide for prospective Canadian Immigrants, a manual high in testosterone and shy on environmental values, I flag it here for future discussion. An immigrant himself, Contrarian left yesterday's Film Series benefit for L'Arche Cape Breton* thinking about the Senegalese immigrant cab driver at the centre of the featured movie — an ebullient character named Solo, brilliantly played by Souleymane Sy Savane, himself an immigrant to the US from the Ivory Coast.  Solo is one...

13 November, 2009

At Sydney's Waterfront Pavillion Thursday night, it's The Party Of The Year — and that's saying something in Cape Breton! The Cape Breton Island Film Series' 4th annual benefit for L'Arche Cape Breton gets under way at 7 pm at the Empire Theatre with the acclaimed indie film GOODBYE SOLO, the story of two men from completely different backgrounds who form an unlikely friendship. At 9, the action shifts to the Joan Harriss Cruise Pavillion, next to the Big Fiddle, for live music and dancing to the Blues Merchants and Cape Breton's best Lebanese buffet. The whole L'Arche Community will be there,...

11 November, 2009

Josh and Jacob belt out the national anthem: ...

08 November, 2009