Strummerfest

Tonight, TVO offers the World Broadcast Premiere of the TVO Original documentary 'Picture My Face: The Story of TEENAGE HEAD". One of Canada's great #punk rock stories. Watch it at 9pm on TVO, http://tvo.org, and YouTube.

Our sincerest congratulations to 98.5 CKWR Real Community Radio and Coral Andrews! Obviously you won because you are so supportive of us! ;) Well, okay, maybe it's just because you are an awesome choice for radio listening! https://www.facebook.com/CoralAndrewsKW/posts/10160319398713032

The Joe Strummer account on Twitter shared this today: "Comeback rock! Triumphant return by the former Clash legend," @uncutmagazine 5/5 review of ‘Rock Art and the X-Ray Style’, which was released on this day, October 18th 1999. What’s your favorite track?... Click here - http://linktr.ee/JoeStrummer - to listen to the album now! ***** We responded: While I love The Clash, I have always felt Joe Strummer hit his most superb musical stride while leading the Mescaleros. We lost him way too early. It sure seemed like the very, very best was yet to come. #joestrummer #JoeStrummerandTheMescaleros ***** And then, on my personal Twitter account I wrote this: I'm not a fan of anyone much. I love #Beethoven and #VanGogh, but I mean that being-a-fan kind of stuff. But I wept when Joe Strummer died, wrote a tribute (for the Waterloo Region Record), wept again when I heard Redemption Song with #JohnnyCash, eventually started a music festival. ***** That's pretty much our history there in a nutshell.

This has never happened to any #Strummerfest post before. And the post in question has only been up for 3 hours. I am more than a little pleased that the post that inspired such a response is not one that contained a joke, or an old picture of Joe, or even a video or ad for a show, but a message about #humanrights, human #dignity and #reconciliation. I knew that the majority of #Strummerfest fans had their heads on straight. This proves it.

Every country has darkness in its history. For Canada, there are several such times. One of the most tragic - the wounds of which we continue to deal with - is the legacy of our #residentialschools. We taught a generation that their heritages, their languages, their cultures, their families... their dignity, their integrity, their individuality, their security... didn't matter. The wounds, and the wounded, of those days are still with us. It is essential that we continue i...n healing, not just on a single day with an #orangeshirt, but every day. #orangeshirtday2020