{"id":23764,"date":"2019-05-09T19:02:41","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T23:02:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23764"},"modified":"2019-05-09T19:02:50","modified_gmt":"2019-05-09T23:02:50","slug":"speakeasy-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/speakeasy-9\/","title":{"rendered":"SPEAKEASY"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Jane Taylor & Reccia Mandelcorn<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Speakeasy broadcast opened to the contemplative sounds of Eric Satie\n\u2013 perfect for getting us in the mood to chat with photographer Gary Johnson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gary has always lived the life of a \u201cCreative\u201d. He has been a film and\nvideo writer and producer, spun jazz selections on air and has a book of poetry\nout. His upcoming exhibit, Photographic Abstraction, opens May 13 in the\nColleen Abbott Gallery at Aurora Public Library and we were very interested in\nhearing the back-story to the exhibit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gary\u2019s work is abstract, photography with a beautiful painterly quality.\nHis love for words and images crosses genres – hunting with his camera, looking\nfor random views off the beaten track, creating textures, colours, scenes and\nout-of-the-ordinary juxtapositions; often adding a few lines of verse to\nfurther engage the viewer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gary is a thoughtful man, and that comes across in his art and his\nwriting. He mused about looking at life through a different perspective than he\ndid as a young man. What was then impressive no longer rings true; he looks\nback at a life that has been lived knowing there are only so many years ahead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exhibit is rich, featuring abstract images \u2013 something Gary, like\nmany artists, only fully embraced as he matured in his craft. We think this\nwill be an exhibit that will stay with you long after you leave. Photographic\nAbstraction continues through June 15. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving into the dance groove of R&B, Motown, Funk and Disco was the\nenergetic Steve Falk of Soul Benefit. This band of 12 musicians has contributed\nto the musical landscape of Aurora for over 20 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soul Benefit, formally known as The Thursday Night Jam, started when a\nfew musicians got together at local jam nights and decided that they would get\ntogether on a weekly basis and form a band. Over the years, about 55 musicians\nhave passed through Soul Benefit, some professional, others just loving the joy\nof performing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steve sings lead vocals, plays guitar, harmonica, occasionally flute and\nrecently has picked up the trumpet. Although there was a piano in his home,\nSteve didn\u2019t take to formal lessons. But he loved to play music and formed a\nharmonica band in Grade Three with instruments purchased at Second Hand Betty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is really unique about this group of musicians is their giveback to\nour community. Soul Benefit makes itself available to local charities about\nevery six weeks during the year, taking a break in the summer. Steve estimates\nthat they\u2019ve played over 100 fundraising gigs that have raised over two million\ndollars for charitable organizations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out their website (soulbenefit.band) or follow them on Facebook.\nTheir next fundraiser will be at the Aurora Legion in support of Commons Coffee\n& Catering on <\/p>\n\n\n\n

June 15, 7 pm. Tickets are now available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With spring in the air, we captured some of our seasonal favourites in a\nround-up of \u201cmust-experience\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merlin\u2019s Hollow, David and Dierdre Tomlinson\u2019s 1,500-plant English\nflower garden, opens to the public the second Saturday of May and June (for\nfull schedule, call 905-727-8979), the Aurora Farmers\u2019 Market happens Saturday\nmornings in Town Park from 8 am \u2013 1 pm; and the York Chamber\nEnsemble presents \u201cThe Age of Elegance and Romanticism\u201d on Saturday,\nMay 11 at the Trinity Anglican Church. Not to be missed is the Spring\nDocumentary Film Festival at Aurora\nPublic Library, Wednesdays at 7 pm, and artist Daniel St-Amant invites you to\nexperience his artistic process and even take part in the creation of a new\npainting at the Aurora Cultural Centre on May 11, 12 pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is so much to see and do in Aurora this month, we\u2019re definitely\nnot leaving Town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jane Taylor is Communications & Events Manager at\nthe Aurora Cultural Centre, and Reccia Mandelcorn is Manager of Community\nCollaboration at Aurora Public Library. They co-host The Speakeasy on the first\nWednesday of each month on 102.7 CHOP-FM.<\/em><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jane Taylor & Reccia Mandelcorn Our Speakeasy broadcast opened to the contemplative sounds of Eric Satie \u2013 perfect for getting us in the mood to chat with photographer Gary Johnson. Gary has always lived the life of a \u201cCreative\u201d. He has been a film and video writer and producer, spun jazz selections on air […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6bi","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-01 14:16:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23764\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}