What’s Goin On Magazine became “Cape Breton’s Arts & Entertainment Magazine” because the Cape Breton Post stopped covering the music and musicians of our area. They sometimes rewrite or reprint a press release these days, or reprint an article off the wire about Cape Breton musicians but they very rarely offer any local perspective (with the occasional exception of Ken MacLeod and Elizabeth Patterson). So I was understandably amused to come across this ad one day in the Post. When’s the last time you read about a play or concert of art exhibit or dance recital in the Cape Breton Post? Did you read about Canadian supergroup Blue Rodeo’s sold out January show at Glace Bay’s Savoy Theatre in the Post? No, you didn’t. That’s because they didn’t send anybody out to review the show. Is that covering the arts? What about the recent East Coast Music Awards? What did the local daily newspaper report about that? I remember seeing a blurb about two winners, J.P. Cormier and Michelle Boudreau Samson, with misinformation about Another Morning being J.P.’s first album. What about the upcoming CBC tv special Celtic Electric? Did you know that the Salter Street Films / CBC co-production boasts Big Ponder Gordie Sampson and Musical Director, with Ed Woodsworth the leader of the house band which includes Matt Foulds and J.P. Cormier? Did you know that the show features Cape Bretoners Bruce Guthro, Heather Rankin, Natalie MacMaster, Ashley MacIsaac, and Mary Jane Lamond among its roster of international stars in the world of Celtic music and dance? Was any of that information in the Cape Breton Post? I don’t think so. But what are the alternatives? What other sources are out there?
I don’t watch tv news all that often, but I’m gonna check out Global News because they have introduced local input through New Waterford native Peter Angione who does daily reports for the nightly newscast. I usually get my daily information from CBC radio throughout the day. By the end of the day, I have heard the same news enough times to tune it out. I look through the Cape Breton Post every day but very rarely is there anything there I’m interested in reading, except the local sports coverage. Remember that the medium is the message, what you learn from the Cape Breton Post, from Live at 5, what you find out about through Talk Back or morn ing tea is influenced by that mode of communication. So I guess if you wanted to read about the arts in your community, you wouldn’t look to the Cape Breton Post, would you?
