THE WEEKLY EH?! // December 4th, 2023
The latest highlight of FIVE things happening in the Kimberley/Cranbrook area this week + FOUR other items of some locals' interests (also a FREE email newsletter).
Hi!
Welcome to the 4/12/23 edition of ‘THE WEEKLY EH?!’ newsletter!
Here’s Five Things
Since The 95EH Events Calendar gets updated with Kimberley AND Cranbrook area events on the regular (and it’s FREE for anybody to get their local events listed, just visit moun.town/events for the simple details), I find it helpful to do a weekly HIGHlight of FIVE things happening FOR the current week EVERY Monday… and, believe it or not, it’s Monday again:
THING #1: And the award for the most “say what now?” event of the week goes to… A Christmas RockStory: A Holiday Circus Spectacular (happening this Tuesday at Western Financial Place in Cranbrook). “With its unique blend of rock music, circus arts, and holiday spirit, ‘A Christmas Rockstory’ is an AMAZING show that promises to captivate audiences of all ages and leave them with a heartwarming and memorable experience. So, get ready to be transported to a world of rock and circus magic in this one-of-a-kind holiday extravaganza.” Ho ho… heck ya 🤘
THING #2: With last week seeing Krampus come to town, and with this week seeing Santa perform in a rock n’ roll circus, you might find yourself questioning everything you know about the meaning behind the merry myths of this time of year — which makes the timing of this Tuesday’s ‘The Surprising Origins of Santa Claus with Robert Macrae’ zoom discussion feel extra timely:
And while we are on the topic of freely presented online Zoom presentations from our wonderful local libraries, this Wednesday at 6:30pm is ‘Poetry Reflections - From the Heart: With the Waters’ (“Three Indigenous poets will share their connection with water through their work and stories. James Pakootas, Stevey Seymour, and Smokii Sumac will be joining us live - don’t miss it!”):
And the free library Zooms don’t stop there, as the very next day (Thursday, December 7th), is ‘BC Libraries Present — Brandi Morin: On the Frontlines of Indigenous Land Defence’ at 7:30pm (“Indigenous communities are on the frontlines of the most devastating climate catastrophes across the world. And they are also leading the most powerful movements to stop the expansion of the fossil fuel industry, the culprits of these disasters. Brandi Morin risks her freedom to report on these protest movements, and brings us the most critical stories of how people are pushing back against the economic status quo. She will discuss her memoir, Our Voice of Fire, about overcoming adversity to find her purpose as a journalist—and share her experiences reporting on Indigenous activism that is pushing towards a brighter climate future.”):
THING #3: There’s a Christmas in Cranbrook Sip n’ Shop happening this Thursday from 6pm - 9pm on Baker Street in Cranbrook — “Come down to Baker Street on Thursday, December 7th, for sips, sales and socializing with some of your favorite local businesses! Nutter’s, Tare Necessities, Greystone Mercantile and Talaria Footwear will all have their doors open late for you to enjoy exclusive sales and some complimentary snacks and tasty adult bevvies!” (*insert saxophone solo from Gerry Rafferty’s classic Baker Street*)
THING #4: Also happening this Thursday in Cranbrook is a Christmas Charity Concert at Mt Zion Lutheran Church featuring Tom Bungay, Van Redecopp, Dave Prinn, James Neve, and The Two Ticks - Steve Knowles & Rollie Cummins (all proceeds go to The Caregivers Network for East Kootenay Seniors):
And while we’re on the topic of Christmas concerts happening at local churches, The Sun Valley Song Christmas Concert will be happening at Knox Presbyterian Church on Friday, December 8th (7:30pm) + Saturday, December 9th (2pm) and will include selections form the Messiah plus many more seasonal favourites:
THING #5: You’ve probably noticed that the last few newsletters have had their stockings stuffed pretty full with Xmas/Holiday markets and, well… that trend continues again this week (‘tis the season after all). First up, we have the 2023 Public Goods Market - Holiday Edition (who also did a recent LOCAL INTRODUCTIONS Q&A) that is happening up at the Kimberley Conference Centre this Saturday from 10am - 5pm (“featuring over 50 local vendors, live music, workshops, giveaways, and more!”):
And then in Cranbrook, on Saturday as well, there is the Friends' Winter Market at Cranbrook Public Library from 9am - 3pm (“Join the Friends of the Library for a creative market of local artisans and businesses with products perfect for gifting”):
And then, also this Saturday, there is a Christmas Craft Fair happening at Cranbrook History Centre from 1pm to 3pm (“Explore a wonderland of handmade items crafted by talented home learning students”):
Of course, there's always more than Five Things happening in any given week, so don't forget you can punch “moun.town/events” into any browser window at any time and be magically taken away to THE 95EH EVENTS CALENDAR… where you can always easily find the full gamut of Kimberley/Cranbrook area events happening this week & beyond (because there’s always way more going on than I can mention here, with new events added on the regular)!
+ Four Ehs
And because there’s also always way more going on than just the local area events that get added to The 95EH Events Calendar, here’s 4 other things that are proving to be top of mind for at least one local area person:
EH #1: In a few days from now, me & the missus will be departing for Denmark for the holiday season, so, if I’m being honest, most of the “EHs” circling around my head right now mostly have to do with what I need to pack + what I need to wrap-up before going — which probably doesn’t make for the greatest of newsletter content (although, for those wondering how much underwear I will be packing, I will let you in on a secret that I was let in on… I’m probably going to be receiving some Danish underwear as an xmas present, so I will be packing less underwear than one might expect for an almost 2-month trip #youhearditherefirst).
EH #2: Despite how many local area events you can find in The 95EH Events Calendar at any time, there are still a handful of local events that don’t get added to the calendar each week because not all locals create public Facebook events for their events nor do they use the ‘Submit Event’ button over at moun.town/events (despite both those options being completely FREE ways to get the word out to more people, fyi anyone reading this who puts on local events) — BUT — that doesn’t mean that some of those local happenings don’t still end up on my radar while I peruse social media for things to share as a #TheDailyEh.
And since I’m in the market for some newsletter EHs to share this week that aren’t about what I will be packing for my upcoming European Vacation (as enticing and top of mind as that information may be), and even though I’ve already hit my quota of ‘5 things happening this week’ above, I recently stumbled upon a FB post about another festive event happening this weekend that some might be interested in — SO — if you think you might fancy a skate around with Santa AND the Kimberley Dynamiters, make sure you find yourself at the Civic Arena from 4:30pm to 5:30pm this Sunday (“Come skate or just stop in to meet Santa and the players! There will be goodie bags and pictures with Santa!”):
EH #3: And since not all events are the kind of “events” that make sense for creating event listings for, it’s also worth noting that donations for the Cranbrook Chamber’s 2023 TURKEY DRIVE (in support of the Salvation Army & Cranbrook Food Bank) is only open until December 7th… and they appear to still be about half way to their goal of $60k raised. So CLICK HERE to read more about this ongoing local initiative and how you can participate:
And on a similar note, the Kimberley Public Library is accepting donations of non-perishable items for the Kimberley Helping Hands Food Bank Society throughout December while also offering a ‘Library Free Pantry’ for people to “take what you need, leave what you can” (and if you missed yesterday’s Ugly Sweater run, pop over to the Kimberley Food Bank’s Facebook page to see pictures of their successful event that raised “about $4,000 and a whole lot of food from [their] 110 enthusiastic participants”).
EH #4: Finally, when I said that I mostly had packing for our trip on my mind, that wasn’t entirely true, because I’ve also been grappling with how to bring up the hushed reality that the country where Jesus was born in is currently being bombed into a genocide during this Christmas shopping season (ie. “Bethlehem is a Palestinian town south of Jerusalem in the West Bank”). And it is happening with arms and obstruction being supplied by our Christmas loving countries (yes, Canada too).
Even though for years us North Americans have had to hear about a so-called ‘War on Christmas’ every December because people were saying “happy holidays” and supposedly not “keeping the ‘Christ’ in Christmas”… but now that the birthplace of Jesus Christ is literally being bombed off the map (including the humans who live there), it’s all ‘keep calm and carry on xmas shopping’? I don’t know, but it feels more than a bit ho ho horribly hypocritical.
And this is not me trying to make anybody feel guilt or shame for what they do or don’t speak up about publicly, this time of year or any other time of year. Life is hard enough as it is, so find joy where you can — and, trust me, I understand the societal pressures to not bring up the things we are told not to bring up by those who benefit from us not openly talking out loud about our concerns with all this stuff. But I also don’t see how we address any of these extremely serious issues if we keep sweeping all the painful & unpleasant things under the rug while constantly looking away (and I don’t think it is good for our mental/spiritual health to act like we can just ‘out of sight, out of mind’ all the parts of our shared reality that are hard to deal with) — which reminds me of a Ram Dass story:
“Part of the pain of this culture is our denial of sisters and brothers and other parts of humanity, and it just doesn't work. It leads to sleeping pills and to a kind of nervous fun which isn't a deep happiness. The example I use is that image of me at the beach in Marin County, throwing a frisbee in the sunlight. As I was about to throw the frisbee, into my mind came the inscription over Gandhi's tomb which is, "Think of the poorest person you've ever seen and ask whether your next act will be of any use." And then the question is, do you throw the frisbee or don't you? That's a whole discourse right there. And what does it mean to be an American, what does it mean to be affluent, what is our dharma that involves the poorest person we've ever seen without looking away...and it also involves the frisbee. And that's the balance I'm trying to explore in myself.”
And since there’s too much to unpack with this topic in the last EH of a newsletter that’s already run too long, and since I really should get back to packing for my trip, I will just leave you with the above thoughts to ponder however/whenever you see fit (but if you’d like some extra audio context for the above Ram Dass quote, I recommend checking out the first chapter of this ‘Becoming Nobody’ audiobook).
And that’ll be that from me for this week.
Of course, there’s always more ‘eh?!’ to share than the 4 EHs that came to my mind while putting together this week’s newsletter, so please make sure to follow/frequent 95EH on the Facebook & Instagram & Tumblr (as I share “ehs” on the daily). And for more Jeremy/HI54-specific stuff, you can also follow @HI54LOFI on the Instagram & Twitter & Facebook.
Because, hey… there’s a lot of stuff going on out there, eh?!
And until next week…
Please feel free to reach out to ‘hey@95eh.ca’ if you have any questions, comments, ideas and/or schemes — AND — if you think you know anybody else that might enjoy receiving this weekly newsletter about “some locals’ interests” in the highway 95/a area, please feel warmly encouraged to send them a link so they can have a think about signing up too!
And I’ll see you out on the URLs and/or IRLs… whichever comes first 🤘
🍻
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Jeremy // HI54LOFI