Hot times in cold weather

Many of the performers who were part of the excitement of the East Coast Music Awards a week ago have been on stage on the South Shore over the winter, giving local people a chance to hear some really excellent music.

Anchored by the Astor, the granddaddy of performing venues in the province, theatres in Liverpool, Lunenburg and Chester are regular stops for the likes of J.P. Cormier, Jill Barber, David Myles, Rose Cousins, Matt Mays, Matt Anderson, and more. The Astor in Liverpool, the Pearl Theatre in Lunenburg and the Chester Playhouse have all seen these performers on stage in the last little while, or will soon.

We got to the Sunday night ECMA gala in the Metro Centre in Halifax, where J.P. Cormier and Jill Barber won several major awards. It was a fantastic show, played before a full house and broadcast to a national audience. It felt good to see familiar faces in the limelight.

Two of the awards presenters at the show comprise the Wilderbeats. Key to the Wilderbeats is Ashley Moffat, who works as an interpreter at Kejimkujik National Park. The Wilderbeats – Ashley and Joyce Saunders – sing catchy original songs for children, the kind that you find yourself humming days after you heard them.

The Wilderbeats were the first presenters at the gala, with Ashley, who delights scores of Keji visitors with her clowning around, coming on stage dressed as a bear. They were up for an award themselves, in the children’s album of the year category. They wuz robbed. When that award was announced, it went to a CD made of the PEI musical Anne and Gilbert, about the romance between the two. The people responsible for the award forgot that that the award was for children’s music.

Just last night, providing all went according to plan between this writing and publication of The Advance, we got to yet another show at the Astor, one featuring Canadian music icons Murray McLauchlan and Cindy Church, with Marc Jordan and Ian Thomas. They have formed a group called Lunch at Allen’s.

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Faithful readers of this column will know that I sometimes mention broadband internet, because not only is it critical for the economic health of an area, but it is light years ahead of what can be done with a dial-up connection. And another reason I mention it is because it is part of the great urban/rural divide, where the big companies like Eastlink and Aliant are unwilling to service rural areas unless government money is thrown at them.

I have received dozens and dozens of calls from people outside Queens anxious to be put in touch with the company responsible for “lighting up” the North Queens area. Many are desperate to get broadband service and wonder if TDC Broadband can be persuaded to move into their areas. I tell them I do not work for the company, but that I will give them their number.

Two of the three brothers in TDC – Ted and Dennis – were at the house the other day, helping us configure two different kinds of laptops (Apple and PC) for access to the net. They said their tower in Baker Settlement is almost ready to go, and that testing would begin in two weeks. When all works properly, they will be signing people up who are on their waiting list. That service, also utilizing another TDC tower coming on line soon, is expected to provide broadband for people in the southeastern part of Queens County, along with many parts of Lunenburg County (a list of communities and coverage map are available on their website). They hope to cover Greenfield, too, even though it is near the edge of the service area.

The company is growing organically, according to Ted and Dennis. They have reasonable numbers in North Queens, though they expected a few more. I said I knew of a number of households that were thinking of getting the service.

The way the company can continue to roll out new features – they want to be able to offer Internet phone service soon and multi-channel television over the system in the future – is if their customer base in a given area is strong. The company and the Region of Queens worked hard to bring us the kind of internet not available in many other parts of rural Nova Scotia, and those here who want to use it should get their names on the list. Service can be arranged for by calling 1-866-384-4832.

Tom Sheppard can be reached at tsheppard@tdcmail.ca.