Still Playing... & Campaigning

Well, I sure have been delinquent in my efforts here at my jazz blog. With the recent update to the new blogger version I'm putting a little extra time into my Green Party blog, and I thought maybe I should post here as well.

I'm still playing in my rhythm & blues/classic rock band here but it's not very fast paced. I'm partly to blame; I could help chase down gigs but I'm far more focussed on taking care of business with the federal Green Party. Things would be a lot different if I was back in the big city.

I have a very keen sax student. The kid is really on the ball and I'm enjoying teaching. I miss having multiple students and teaching jazz improvisation. One day if this student sticks with it maybe we'll be jamming together.

Anyways, as always the archives are here for you to browse and I'm always available to answer questions by email.

Cheers,

Cam

Jazz on Wikipedia

“There are four qualities essential to a great jazzman. They are taste, courage, individuality, and irreverence. These are the qualities I want to retain in my music.”

“The saxophone is actually a translation of the human voice, in my conception. All you can do is play melody. No matter how complicated it gets, it’s still a melody.”

“It’s like a language. You learn the alphabet, which are the scales. You learn sentences, which are the chords. And then you talk extemporaneously with the horn. It’s a wonderful thing to speak extemporaneously, which is something I’ve never gotten the hang of. But musically I love to talk just off the top of my head. And that’s what jazz music is all about.”

“My life is music, and in some vague, mysterious and subconscious way, I have always been driven by a taut inner spring which has propelled me to almost compulsively reach for perfection in music, often—in fact, mostly—at the expense of everything else in my life.”

- Stan Getz

For those of you who aren't familiar with Getz, I urge you to dig up some of his stuff and really check it out.

I love Wikipedia. The jazz entry has a comprehensive history of jazz. There's more though - you can click on any word in blue and it'll link to an entry on that word. This format is right in line with my flowing stream of consiousness (a nice way to say that my mind wanders off topic a lot).

Click on the title of this post for the link to that page, or copy and paste the url below into your browser.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz

L8R


Bandleader sends his son to take piano lessons. The teacher's first question was whether the boy knew the scale, to which he replied, "Oh, yes,ma'am--$150 for the leader and $75 for the sidemen."

Election Over... Back To Life As Usual

Thanks For The Green Support

By Cameron Wigmore

I'd like to thank everyone who participated in this election by voting. You've helped make democracy happen. A special thank you goes out to my supporters, volunteers and those who voted for me; your efforts and votes have shown that people in the Crowfoot riding believe in me. It's good to know that you want to see green values represented in parliament. I received 2347 votes, up from 1795 last election. This is an increase from 3.9% of the vote to 4.5%, which is the new national average for the Green Party. The Canadian government has realized that green principles matter to Canadians. I believe that by winning votes we make the government take notice of us, and we will continue to see other parties adopt green values and policies in their platforms.

I've found this experience to be very spiritually rewarding, and will definitely run again next election. I'm excited about doing service work in our communities over the next few years. My involvement in the Drumheller community will include volunteering with addiction recovery programs, and looking into furthering our local recycling programs and efforts. I'm anticipating talking with farmers about their concerns, as the agricultural crisis hasn't been corrected, and I want to bring your concerns to the Green Party. I look forward to speaking with you, working to learn what your opinions, beliefs and values are.

Our voter turnout here in Crowfoot was 65.1% and I want to see it go higher. Choosing to not vote because you are uninformed, disillusioned or you just don't care is a symptom of a larger problem, a generational problem; the average age of membership to a political party is 63. There is an entire generation of beliefs and ideals that are not being represented.

The majority of ridings in this country have an overwhelming support for one candidate or another. If you live in one of those ridings and made a "strategic vote", you voted for someone you don't necessarily agree with the most, in an attempt to keep someone you really dislike out of office.

Now that the Bloc holds the balance of power in parliament, maybe Canadians will be more in favour of electoral reform. Proportional representation would give the fair amount of seats to a party as reflected by the percentage of the vote they received. The advanced televised polls during elections lead voters to believe that the percentages shown translate into how much power a party a party will receive. Sadly, with 10.5% of the vote, the Bloc now has 51 seats in parliament, out of a total 308. With 17.5% of the vote, the NDP has only 29 seats. Does our government represent our votes? Obviously the answer is no. The Green Party's 4.5% of the vote is equal to 13 or 14 seats in a proportional system. In our riding Mr. Sorenson received over forty three thousand votes, when he only needed a tenth of that to win. Those votes are not transferred to elect another candidate, and effectively almost 40,000 people voted for no reason. We need electoral reform now so that your votes will be fairly reflected in government. Learn more on this subject by visiting the fair vote website at www.fairvotecanada.org

I ran in this election with every effort to win and every hope of winning, because that's what I think I owe my voters and my party. I'll continue to enjoy sharing the message that the Green Party appeals to all voters with a full platform that covers all issues. I realized this was a 'David & Goliath' battle, but as the underdog I know that courage and tenacity will lead me to success. Slow and steady wins the race.

Sincerely,

Cameron Wigmore

By the way, this ends my political posting here. I'll be creating my own political blog, and getting back on the jazz track here. Unfortunately Blogger lost my template for this blog due to a glitch, but I'll survive.

Lost template for this blog!

Oh boy. Blogger lost my template, along with all the modifications and additions I made. Bummer. It'll take me hours upon hours to put it all back up. For now, enjoy the archives, and stay tuned for more solid jazz content!

Two and a half weeks left!

Two and a half weeks left and I'm very busy with the campaign. I've been participating in forums and debates, putting up lawn signs (to later be collected and re-used ;-) and canvassing throughout my riding, which is very big.

As a Green Party candidate I'm being received surprisingly well out here in southern Alberta. People are excited about our platform when they find out that the Green Party has a platform that covers all issues, and is socially progressive, fiscally conservative, and ecologically focussed. Yes, that was a bit of political promotion there, but hey, it's my blog.

I'll be back at the music posts after the election is over (Jan23). GO VOTE!!!

I had a new years gig and late in the night (early morning) a couple of girls came up on the stage to sing, and one of them grabbed the mic and turned to me and said, "hey everybody, here is your Green Party candidate! Vote Green! Wooooo!!!". Funny.