Mike Mckenzie of Seed to Sausage took a risk when he decided to move the popular Day of the Pig event to the Sharbot Lake beach.

The event started back in 2012 as a party at the site of the Seed to Sausage factory and retail store on the May long weekend. Chefs from Ottawa and Kingston were invited, as were local and regional craft vendors and some musicians, and more people came than any one could have expected.

“What just happened?” Mike McKenzie posted on the Seed to Sausage twitter feed on the day of the first Day of the Pig event after the crowds had left and all the meat that had been prepared for sale was long gone.

Four years later, in 2016, it was more than clear that the Day of the Pig had outgrown the Seed to Sausage site.

McKenzie started talking with members of the District 3 Recreation Committee of Central Frontenac about moving the event to the beach at Sharbot Lake, which hosts the Farmers Market and Canada Day each year.

In early February, Central Frontenac Council came on board and the move was official.

Then came the tricky part. In order to turn The Day of the Pig into a real festival, a carnival atmosphere was the concept that was developed. And to make that happen, magician Eric Leclerc, the Blue Mushroom Psyshow circus act and musicians Tom Savage, Marc Charron and the Foley Mountain Playboys were brought in to supplement the restaurants, brewers and find food producers at the event. All of this cost money and instead of being a free event the Day of the Pig cost $15 in advance and $20 at the door.

That, combined with a forecast calling for rain all afternoon made things a bit dicey.

The weather held, and the people came. By noon the beach was full, the food was being eaten, the entertainment was getting underway and it was clear the move to the beach was a success.

“The beach is a good venue for all sorts of events, and once this event happens the site setup will be available to anyone who wants it”, he said

Tents were put  up to block the sun or rain while still leaving some open space in front of the bandshell. A second stage was set up facing in from the lake for musical acts and vendors were set up around the perimeter of the park, creating  a spacious, well defined space.

Local food vendors reported their sales were up or at least on par with previous years, and several sold out. Ten pigs, prepared by Seed to Sausage cooks, were served up, along with gallons of beans, cole slaw and roasted corn.

Members of the Rec Committee provided friendly security and the Day went off rather smoothly for a first time event at a new site.

The Seed to Sausage store is set to open in early June, and other local events are getting ready to ramp up for the Summer of 150 in Frontenac County. On June 3rd, it’s Anchors Aweigh Fish Fry Day at the Verona Lion’s Centre. On June 14 the Strawberry Moon Festival will be on at the Frontenac Arena, and two days later the focus will be on the Village of Arden’s weekend festival.  Up in Mississippi Station Back Forty Cheese is holding its second annual Open House and Food Festival on June 24th, and then its back to Sharbot Lake Beach for Canada Day.

For a complete slate of events in Frontenac County, Addington Highlands and Western Lanark, read your Northern Happenings or look to the events guide on our new website www.frontenac-live.ca, which includes maps and details about everything there is to see and do this summer.

There is a debate raging in the pages of Canada’s major old school media outlets, the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, CBC, etc., all Toronto based bastions of the written word. The rest of the world is preoccupied with other matters: melting ice caps, bombings in England, and the idea that the Russian government may be controlling the executive branch of the United States government. Still every day one or two articles are published in those publications about the “cultural appropriation” debate.

The whole thing was sparked off when the editor of Write Magazine, a quarterly publication for members of the Writers Union of Canada, wrote an unfortunate note to go with their spring edition, which featured indigenous writing. The now former editor, a novelist by the name of Hal Niedzviecki, wrote a 450 word piece asking non-indigenous writers to take the same kind of imaginative risks that the indigenous writers published in that edition had taken.

But, Mr. Niedzviecki got a bit too clever. He wanted to extol Canadian fiction writers of all backgrounds to take on diverse characters and situations, to quit writing what they know and explore other cultures, other ideas, other realities.  So he called the article “Winning the Appropriation Prize”  and in the first line of the article he said “I don’t believe in cultural appropriation”.

He thought that taking on the phrase “cultural appropriation” would garner more attention for his article. And it did. He was chastised for cultural insensitivity and soon resigned from the magazine. Other writers took up his defence, and the whole thing has turned into a back and forth battle about dominant and minority voices, who can speak for whom, and on and on and on.

Two things interest me about this whole debate. First, I know what it is like to try and make a point in a back handed, satirical way when plain speaking would be the smarter option. Fortunately a lot of editorials that I have written over the years have ended up being tossed out because they were somehow undercooked. I don’t mind offending people if I have to, if there is an important point to be made, but offending people without a purpose in mind is not a good career plan, and can also descend into cruelty if handled in too callous a manner.

The second, more important issue that has been raised out of this, is the way it has touched on a hole in the heart of this country, the question of how to face the past and then forge a future for indigenous and non-indigenous Canadians to live in together.

The celebration of the 150th anniversary this year lays bare the fact that one of the defining characteristics of Canada was the wilful destruction of the economy, environment, linguistic and social structures of indigenous peoples. This was done in a systematic manner, through the genocidal policies of all the powerful elements in society, from government to the mining industry to the churches and beyond.

As we fumble towards the future, it is abundantly clear that there will be no instant solution to any of the complex issues on and off reserve. There are issues of displacement, identity, poverty, and many others that will not be solved by decree. The survivors of this genocide, who very often face their own internal conflicts because they are descended from both sides of the chasm between indigenous and settler realities, need to be given space to create a new reality, and we all need to sit still, listen and learn. This will take time, effort and patience on all of our parts.

Even in the limited work I have done over the years covering local Algonquin politics and the Algonquin land claim it has become apparent to me that some of issues cannot be easily or quickly solved, and some political differences within the Algonquin community cannot be simply patched. The sad spectacle of the expulsion of at least 200 people from the land claim, and what that said about how a process that was supposed to secure peoples identity as Algonquin people could do the opposite, was a stark example of that. What is impressive, however, is how the local community has survived this bureaucratic indignity.

A writer recently reflected on this complicated reality and its effect on indigenous writing.

“Indigenous writing is the most vital and compelling force in writing and publishing in Canada today. And this is because, in large part, indigenous writers, buffeted by history and circumstance, so often must write down what they don’t know. What at first seems like a disadvantage also pushes many indigenous writers into the spotlight. They are on the vanguard, taking risks, bravely forging ahead into the unknown, seeking just the right formula to reclaim the other as their own.”
Hal Niedzviecki wrote that, in the second to last paragraph of the article that got him fired.

Perhaps he should have led with it.

This Sunday, May 28th, marks the second installment in the Port William Concert Series taking place at Cardinal Cafe in Sharbot Lake with two performances by Bry Webb and Evening Hymns.

Guelph-based Songwriter Bry Webb, best known as the lead vocalist for the indie rock band The Constantines, will be playing songs from his two critically-acclaimed folk records with lapsteel and hurdy-gurdy accompaniment.

Sharing the stage will be Evening Hymns, from Mountain Grove. The 4-piece will be playing songs from their previous three albums as well as new songs from their upcoming record that is being recorded in Frontenac County later this summer.

There is a matinee show with doors opening at 3pm and the concert starting at 4pm. The evening show will have doors at 7:30 and the concert beginning at 8pm.

The evening show is now sold out and there are limited tickets left for the matinee show.

Both performances are being recorded by BBC Radio 3 who are flying over to capture the show for their Canada 150 episode to be broadcast at a later date in the U.K.

As well, ticket buyers for this show will receive access to the audio from the first installment in the Port William series, a sold-out baroque performance, which took place in January of 2016.

The recorded concert from this weekend will be available to attendees when they purchase a ticket for the next show in the series, tentatively planned for late-summer.

There are only a few tickets left for the 4 o’clock show at $20. Contact Cardinal Cafe at 613-279-27634

MERA is proud to announce that the internationally claimed Celtic duo of Mairi Rankin and Allie Robertson will be presenting a concert at MERA in McDonald’s Corners on Sunday, June 4th at 2:00 PM.

Mairi Rankin brings all the talent and vibrancy of the esteemed Rankin family, with its deep Cape Breton Celtic roots.  She plays fiddle, sings and also step-dances up a storm.

Ailie Robertson is from Edinburgh, Scotland and brings to the duo a wealth of musical experience as a composer, arranger, improviser and clarsach or Celtic harp player.  She is recognized as one of the world’s leading clarsach harpers, as they like to be called.

Together, Rankin and Robertson have won the “Best Group” award at the Live Ireland awards, where they were touted to be “Among the best bands in world”.

Their marriage of Celtic music, song and dance has been rapturously received around the world. They blend fiddle, harp, step-dance and vocals with breathtaking vitality. Their blend of boundless energy and unmistakable joie de vivre has won them a large following around the globe.

Tickets are available for $25 plus surcharge on-line at Ticketsplease.ca, by telephone 613-485-6434 or in person at the Matheson House Museum, 11 Gore St., Perth. Students under 16 are free.

A dedicated crowd defied some rainy weather on Saturday to celebrate concurrent events, the ribbon cutting of a newly constructed rest stop in Ompah and the unveiling of 5 murals painted by North Frontenac artists Fred Fowler, Marlene Leeson, Cathy Owen, Linda Rush and Katie Ohlke.

North Frontenac Mayor Ron Higgins, flanked by Council and resident members of the township economic development task force, welcomed everyone and presided over a ribbon cutting ceremony in front of a modern, aluminum enclosure that is one of the key elements to the rest stop, which also includes a porta-potty and a gravel parking lot.

The lot where the rest stop is located steeped in recent North Frontenac history as it was purchased by the township several years ago as the preferred location for a new township fire hall/Frontenac County ambulance base.

That project went to tender, but the projected price for the fire hall portion was higher than North Frontenac Council were prepared to go. The ambulance base was built at Robertsville, and a set of upgrades were done to the existing Ompah fire hall across the road. The towsnhip did have to invest more into what is now the rest stop lot because of soil contamination from a former gas station on the site.

As part of the ceremony, committee member Darwyn Sproule recalled the history of site, which was originally the location of a primary grade school which burned down, then a store and service station, which also burned.

“It’s a good thing the structure we put up here is made of metal,” Sproule said.

The project was completed with support from a number of groups, organizations, and businesses, including; Hydro One, the Frontenac Community Futures Development Corporation, Francis Manion Construction, and West Palmerston Cottages, the Easter Ontario Trails Association, and the Ottawa Valley ATV club among others.

“Providing a welcome place to stop while driving along one of our scenic roads is part pf our economic development strategy,” said Higgins. “You can see how much community involvement it takes to make things happen.”

The second part of the ceremony was certainly more colourful, as the five murals, which were leaning against pickup turcks in the lot, were unveiled one by one by the artists who took up the challenge to crate them. Sgt. Sharron Brown, detachment commander of the Frontenac OPP supervised a lottery of sorts, as the location where each of the murals are being installed was determined by each artists pulling the name of a township hall out of a hat.

The results were as follows. The Fred Fowler mural is going to Snow Road, Marlene Leeson’s is already installed at the Ompah hall, Cathy Owen’s will go down the road to the Clar-Mill hall in Plevna, the Linda Rush’s is bound for the Barrie Hall, and the Harlow hall will be the home of the Katie Ohlke mural.

The murals will be installed on outside walls of the halls for maximum exposure to the viewing public.

The project was inspired by Arlene Uens of Mountain Grove who initiated and completed her own mural project, putting hers up on private property throughout Mountain Grove.

Uens was on hand at the unveiling and said is nice to see how North Frontenac Township has supported the local project.

With the work all done, the crowd headed over the hall for a free BBQ courtesy of the fire department, and cake and coffee in the hall.

For its 10th edition, the Fieldworks installation ‘gallery’ on Old Brooke Road southeast of Maberly decided to explore the world of sound, adding six new interactive installations by artists Jesse Stewart & Matt Edwards, Hilary Martin & Ranjit Bhatnagar, Annette Hegel & Deborah Margo, Matt Rogalsky & Laura Cameron, Doug Van Nort and Nicola Oddy.

“We’d like to begin by acknowledging that this is on traditional Algonquin land,” said Susie Osler, one of the original four collective members in her opening remarks. “And we pay homage to one of the four Algonquin elements, the air, with sonic representations.”

As such, this year’s edition is entitled Soundwork — An exploration of sound in art.

For those unfamiliar with the Fieldworks concept, it’s essentially an ‘art walk’ consisting of various ‘permanent’ installations, augmented with yearly theme shows such as this year’s Soundwork.

It was begun 10 years ago by Osler, her brother Chris Osler, Erin Robertson and Chris Grosset and since 2008 it has been funded by the Ontario Arts Council and donations “of any size” by visitors and supporters. They’ve also received support from businesses in the area including Tackaberry Construction, who donated stone for one of this year’s installations. It’s open to the public all year round free of charge.

“It’s important that it’s free and generally accessible so that people can wander around and be surprised,” Osler said. “We’re not looking to grow and grow and grow.

“It’s a gift to the public that grew out of the ’70s land art movement . . . only different.”

They encourage people to come and have a picnic with their family.

“It’s an interesting public space that happens to be on private property,” she said.

Osler is particularly pleased to have attracted “artists who are highly regarded in their field” this year and for the unique pieces they’ve designed as “site specific” just for this venue.

For example, Hegel and Margo, inspired by the “1,200 kinds of bees in Ontario” created an interactive walk through bumble bee nectar pods while solar powered audio players generate a variety of bee sounds.

“It’s based on the flight path of these bees and features local bee sounds,” Hegel said. “It will change through the summer as we collect sounds from bees visiting the installation.

And then there’s Singwalk!, a project designed by music therapist Nicola Oddy to express her love of interacting with the environment through her voice. Participants are invited to stroll along a predetermined path stopping at various points to listen to the sounds around them and interact with the environment by singing suggested notes like an octave (like some-where [over the rainbow]) and a perfect fifth (twinkle-twinkle [little star]).

At times, you could almost feel like you were on a Caribbean beach sipping pina coladas.

Of course you were in The Crossing Pub in Sharbot Lake sipping beers but hey  . . .

At any rate, the combination of Mario Franco and Dennis Larocque (backed by drummer Leo Vervuurt) produced a unique soundscape that is unlikely to be reproduced in the local music scene for some time, if ever.

Franco, who grew up in Santiago, Cuba, has a personable approach to his native Cuban sound, a sound that carries an almost mystical reverence to it in many music circles.

“Syncopation is the key thing,” he said in an interview after the show. “With balance.

“But it’s not something you learn in school — you have to feel it.”

The audience certainly felt it as he swept through two sets full of originals and latin standards like Tito Puente’s Oye Como Va, Cielito Lindo (the Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay Song), Blue Moon (more the Ella Fitzgerald version as opposed to the Marcels’) and the Cuban classic Guantanamera (from the poem by Cuban independence hero Jose Marti).

Franco didn’t really grow up playing music however. He came to it in a rather roundabout way and perhaps that’s a key factor in his distinctiveness.

In the ’80s, Franco went to the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv to become a mechanical engineer. He also learned to play guitar there. After graduating, he went to Siberia to build houses.

“On the train going there, some heard me singing and said ‘we have to get you into this music festival,’” he said. “I won second place.”

He formed a little band which was invited to play another festival and before he knew it, he was working for the Canadian tourism industry.

In 2004, as Cuba began to relax its emigration policies, especially to Canada, Franco came here and began performing in several international festivals, as well as venues in and around Kingston.

“I used to play Fridays in Westport (at The Cove) for about five years,” he said.

Which is where he met Larocque, who would make the trek eastward to hear Franco play.

“We met at The Cove seven or eight years ago and our families became friends,” Larocque said. “He stopped playing professionally for awhile and we’d jam sometimes.”

When they decided to do The Crossing gig, Larocque had reservations.

“The music he plays and what I’ve done is night and day,” Larocque said. “I’ve been learning different rhythms, scales, patterns, chords — you name it.

“And I’m still just along for the ride.”

Well, the Crossing audience, which consisted of a considerable number of musicians curious about what this collaboration would produce, would probably disagree with Larocque, at it certainly appeared they were enjoying ‘the ride.’

As for future collaborations, Franco said he certainly enjoys playing with Larocque and their families are “good friends.”

Larocque too left open the possibility, saying “I look forward to feeling more comfortable (with this style of music) in the future.”

Something about fibre art is particularly enticing: Phillida Hargreaves, some of whose work is on display at Grace Hall from now until the end of summer, says texture was what first drew her to fabric as an art medium.

Hargreaves spoke Sunday afternoon to a fascinated audience of over thirty people who came to see her work and hear her talk to them about it.

“With fibre art,” she said, “you learn to use a multitude of techniques: stitching, dyeing, knitting, cutting, drawing, printing, felting and painting, to name a few.” She described how the very thing some thought of as daunting — the huge amount of time and stitching required to create some of her pictures — could be soothing and relaxing with its calm repetition that freed up the mind to daydream. “And if you don’t like what you’ve done, fibre art can always be changed. You can pick out a line of stitching and start over with another colour. Or cut it up and use bits in something else!”

Much of Hargreaves’ work is landscape based, inspired by travels in the Arctic, New Zealand and Morocco. It features textures of rocks, buildings, trees and water, and the lure of light shining through narrow spaces. One small narrative piece recalls the daily letters her grandfather wrote to her grandmother when he was on the battlefield in WWI, every letter beginning with the words, “My dear old girl”, seldom mentioning the horrors he was living through.

The pictures can be viewed Monday - Friday, whenever the hall is not in use: either phone SFCSC (613 376-6477) or drop by, using the side door. 4295 Stage Coach Road, Sydenham: just up the hill from the flashing light.

Each year the Limestone District school Board gathers thousands of students together for a dance party known as the Celebration of Dance. This large gathering of students (which was held at Old Fort Henry again this year) provides an opportunity to celebrate movement and expression through dance.

"Celebration of Dance helps students to increase their levels of physical activity while having a lot of fun," said Lara Paterson, a physical activity specialist with KFLA Public Health and the Limestone District School Board, in a statement.
All LDSB elementary schools are invited to apply to have a dance team lead one of the dances each year.

This year, Land O' Lakes Public School was lucky enough to be chosen to enter a team and choreograph a routine. Nine students worked diligently in the fall to learn their dance. They were videotaped and added to a YouTube link (along with the rest of the dance teams who were chosen from other schools). All schools participating have used these YouTube videos to teach the selected dances to the rest of the students in preparation for the big day. The students at Land O' Lakes Public School have been practicing their dances for the past several weeks and the school was  an empty place on Tuesday, May 9th, as almost the entire student population traveled by bus to Old Fort Henry to participate in this year's Celebration of Dance!

Well, they weren’t Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and the other guy, but in this case, that turned out to be a good thing.

“We’re a classic rock group that does some tenor stuff,” said Jack (The Happy Chef) Francis, one of the three lead singers of The Kings Town Tenors, who brought their brand of ‘classic’ rock to Bellrock Hall last Friday night.

They did do Puccini’s Nessun dorma (None shall sleep) from the opera Turandot (“to prove we have some chops in that area”) but mostly it was ‘stuff’ like CCR’s Have You Ever Seen the Rain, Jim Croce’s Bad, Bad Leroy Brown and Leonard Cohen’s Bird on the Wire.

Along with Tim Torgersen and Danny Young, and backed by Tony Negus on keys and acoustic guitar, Doug Smith on drums, Chris Petersen on bass and Brandon Amey on guitar, (think Three Dog Night setup) the Tenors rolled out an evening of familiar tunes and endless banter, most of which was courtesy of Francis.

For example, while singing and dancing was encouraged, when they did Michael Buble’s Home, Francis quipped “If you like singing along  . . . don’t.”

The Tenors first got together about six years ago during a Kingston production of The King and I, which featured Torgeersen in the title role.

“We are really baritones with a couple of extra notes,” Francis said. “Except for Danny.

“He’s a tenor’s tenor who can do an awesome falsetto.”

It was an interesting evening made even more so by Francis’s alter ego — Jack The Happy Chef.

As patrons were filing in before the music, they were offered a variety of canapes and sweets including skewers of chicken, spanakopita, Bailey’s espresso brownies and meatballs with a sauce like nothing you’ve ever tasted before.

Bellrock Hall’s next musical offering is the LaSalle Causeway Swing Band May 28 at 2 p.m.