Wellington Oracle

By Stephen Brockwell

Photo by Steve Boyton

Thursday evening, November 27^th, the GCTC presented the English world premiere of Coma Unplugged, Pierre-Michel Tremblay’s award winning one act play first presented at Théatre de la Manufacture in Montréal. It is a play about differences of class, culture and the male experience of lightning-speed cultural change. In the face of this change, Daniel, a well-regarded newspaper humorist has lost his sense of humour and, perhaps, his will to live.

Marjorie, the wife Daniel still loves has left him because he has lost his “spontaneity” and become a cynic; Daniel is bereft of the daughter he adores until Marjorie feels that Daniel is ready receive her at his condominium – a chaotic space composed of a collection (more…)

By Evan Thornton

Martes pennanti — the fisher – is large member the of marten family.

Also related to the weasel, fishers are increasingly being seen in urban contexts and are known to prey on cats.

Just how they negotiate living in built-up areas is still somewhat of mystery but this writer recently had an experience on Hinton Avenue that may shed some light on their habits.

While walking southbound at about 11.00 P.M., I spotted a fisher calmly walking across the street from the west to the east; this individual was nearly twice the size of a typical housecat.  On gaining the eastern side of the street it went into a pool of shadow and never came out. Closer inspection revealed a storm sewer entrance under the sidewalk where the animal had disappeared.

It is known that fishers often live close to streams and rivers; in this case it appears the fisher had found a watercourse that also offered perfect cover.

Fishers are the only animal known to regularly prey on porcupines; a domestic cat has no chance whatsoever against this long-clawed and sharp-toothed predator. Cat owners are reminded to keep their pets indoors especially at night when fishers are most active.

On a recent quiet Sunday afternoon the Oracle was contacted by a Hamilton Street resident who couldn’t believe what she was hearing coming from near the intersection with Spencer Street.

We sent a photographer with an audio recorder and captured some of the sights and sounds of a contractor cutting through a series solid concrete bollards with a chainsaw concrete saw in the service entrance of the old Canada Wire building which takes up the block of Hamilton between Spencer and Armstrong.

Gina Kalekis told the Oracle she had dialled 311 but “hadn’t been able to persuade them to come out and listen for themselves – and the noise kept coming and going for nearly an hour”.

The Oracle spoke with Cathy McEwen of the city bylaw office who confirmed that other than the bylaw-mandated quiet hours extending to 9.00 am in the morning, instead of 7.00 a.m as is the case on weekdays, for all intents and purposes “Sunday is just another day of the week”.

“If it was going to be a continual thing we’d have some recourse”, McEwen continued, “but for a one-off, well, Sunday is no longer a day of rest and we do let the work proceed”

She did advise Oracle readers that frequent noise from “home garage workshops” can be mediated; the city can compel such operations to install noise insulation if they are continually disturbing residents nearby.

For a sample of the kind of Sunday afternoon noise the city bylaw is unable to restrain, click the audio link below.

 

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This month city council will be considering a bylaw that would make it mandatory for outdoor market produce vendors to properly label their fruits and vegetables as to place of origin.

According to a Hickory Street resident who agreed to make his letter to Councilor Leadman public, the bylaw has clear implications for both the Parkdale Market and surrounding retailers.

Councilor Leadman:

I live in your ward at 167 Hickory Street and strongly support bylaws to identify local content at the Byward and Parkdale markets.

I used to shop at the Parkdale Market, but no longer do for this very reason – making the weekly trek to the local farmers market at Lansdowne instead.

If this bylaw passes and local produce is clearly identified at the Parkdale Market, we shall be spending our money at the Parkdale Market once again – which also means supporting other area retailers while we are there.

I urge you to support strong and enforceable bylaws identifying local content.

The piece of the puzzle still missing is to have bylaws favour organic producers thus reducing the amount of pesticides our children are ingesting.

Bruce Tate
Hickory Street

If Oracle readers would like to add their voices to the debate Councilor Leadman can be reached at christine.leadman(at sign)ottawa.ca

As the years go by a couple of hundred Ottawa residents will have exactly the same answer to the question “where were you when you heard that America elected its first black president?”.

“The Carleton Tavern” will be their answer and that is because the local chapter of Democrats Abroad chose the Armstrong Street institution for their keenly-awaited election-watching party.

We’ve captured something of the heady atmosphere in the old saloon as one state after another was called for Barack; click on the photo to see a short slide show of the evening and listen to the roar that went up at 11.00 PM as CNN called the election for Obama.

In the audio clip below we hear how the event was organized from Bayswater Avenue’s Rachel Eugster, a dual citizen who is proud of both her passports but who, like millions of other Americans, thought the time was right for change.

 

 Rachel Eugster: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The Uth Ink “voices in the community” youth playwright program has been a long time coming but despite hiccups with fussy city bureaucracy the signs — and the stories–are finally on the street.

Though expected to roll out across the entire west end next year, it is historic Hintonburg that once again plays host to urban innovation by being the setting for all seven installations in the debut season of Uth Ink in Ottawa.

In a nutshell, these new street features are short plays about specific Hintonburg locations, written by young writers from the area under the guidance of theatre professionals from the Playwrights Guild of Canada and GCTC. Green sign postings alert passers-by to the location of the stories, which can be accessed by phone or on the web.

We’ll be showcasing many of them in the weeks to come, starting with a piece by Hamilton Avenue resident Petra Smith. Click below to hear a story set in the venerable and, according to the story, angelic, Iona Mansions at Wellington and Carruthers.

 

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Most residents of Hintonburg and West Wellington will have to wait for the diggers, pavers, and pipe-layers to vacate the main street before they enjoy the attractive new streetscape that promises to be on offer.

But area artist Gordon Wallace isn’t one to wait for beautification to be officially declared before taking an aesthetic interest in infrastructure renewal. His Leighton Terrace backyard is a base from which he forays out to harvest off-cuts and other unwanted “left-behinds” from street work in his area; combining this material with other found objects — and the occasional trip to to the hardware store — has produced a mysterious and challenging body of work.

Join Gordon as he gives us a glimpse of his working methods in the narrated slideshow above.

Review by Lesley Buxton

When I was a drama student in the late eighties John Patrick Shanley’s play, “Danny And The Deep Blue Sea,” was all the rage. I never liked it. In contrast most of my peers adored this two-hander. After all, this play, set in a bar in the Bronx, is about a man called Danny who thinks he might have killed a man who meets a woman called Roberta, a woman who bears the burden of a secret so terrible that she believes she cannot be redeemed. Perfect for those dying to do real theatre. It has all the ingredients: gritty language, violence and sex. (more…)