Opening Statement



Friday 21 August 2020

David Chiarelli -My Blogsite Archives!

[More Coming ... ]



The original Kulture Kult Ink was a very limited edition, rather offbeat print 'zine, that I distributed myself. I wrote the script. Used my own photos and clip art. And published it, on the sly, via an office photocopier, during the early 90's.  

The basic premise? I was captured by space invaders. In flying saucers. Hiding behind the moon. 

Each story came with a warning. A case in point. They can unexpectedly show up anywhere! Anytime! Altering the course of human history. And our own lives too! 

Though, of course, the space invasion was actually just me reflecting on my own life and times, here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, as a young teacher. 

And so the title -Kulture Kult Ink! With capital K's, because it was counter cultural. Strictly underground. Rife with deconstructed cultural references. And printed in ink. 

Hey! It was a 90's cult zine. Lotsa fun while it lasted, but where to go from there?



Let's fast forward to 2011. The monikor now morphs into the url for the online "David Chiarelli -Latest Edition" blog site that you see today.


My blog site was originally a very useful organizing and communications tool at the teacher, grass root level. An excellent way to advocate for education! Social justice! And change!

It also helped me get elected OECTA [Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association] 3rd VP. While keeping directly in touch with our members, as I represented them on the TSU [Toronto Secondary Unit] Executive and PAC [Political Advisory Committee].

I retired in 2013. But Kulture Kult Ink still keeps it's counter cultural, educational and social justice focus. And
 I'm still a teacher activist at heart. 

So the good fight continues. Only I'm completely on my own again. I include lots of different points of view for more insight. But now, this site just represents me. 

Basically, it's just what I think. Nothing more. Nothing less. 


Sometimes with a little agit-prop thrown in, if things need stirring up. 

Progressive, but not party line, especially when I disagree.



For direction, I follow my muse to pick topics and issues I love writing about. To speak out. Advocate. Educate. And in my own way, perhaps help keep the ball rolling. The changes coming. 


Who knows? Maybe someday we might yet thwart the diabolical space invasion? You know -those nasties always getting in our face! Screwing up the works!

Anyway, there are two main corner stones for my blog site; Teacher Free Speech and Oh Cannabis. Each appears quarterly; during the winter, spring, summer and fall. Providing a compendium of the latest news and views links. 




Often both work together to further develop the underlying, progressive issues and themes. Boo to the corporate neo lib agenda! And corporate weed too! 

Oligarchical rigging? Inclusivity? Diversity, Privilege? Fake news? Oppression? 

A tip! Look carefully at both blogs to get the bigger picture!

Sound complicated? There's a guide for each of my news services: 

A Readers Guide to Teacher Free Speech News and Views @ [HERE!]


A Stoners Guide to Oh Cannabis News and Views @ [HERE!]


My Blog Archive, from 2011 until now, is located at the top left hand side of your screen. You'll find over 800 blogs, organized by date and title




That's a lot of blogs! On lots of topics! So here's a brief overview to help you out:


2011 


My blogs directly addressed our various teacher educational issues. Plus our local, backroom, political intrigues. Lots of the union members quite appreciated that. But not so the powers that be

Other blogs explained our OECTA government lobbying efforts from a PAC perspective, as we fought the good fight together. Everyone seemingly on the same page.

To get a better sense of where things were at, check out my original Blogspot Manifesto @ [HERE!

2012-13




The blogs main focus shifts to the OECTA MOU [Memo of Understanding]. They cover our difficult "austerity binge" provincial contract negotiations with the Liberal government, under Premier's McGuinty and then Wynne

Then comes the surprise betrayal of our most basic union principles through concession bargaining by OECTA's Provincial Executive. As approved by the Council of Presidents. All without a membership vote, while we were on holidays, during the summer of 2012. 

Not everyone was a big fan of my site. Far from it. But agree or disagree, the many unfiltered first hand insights from our members, as posted below each blog, are especially interesting. A real slice of life, from as it happened. Ahhh, free speech ....



My Teacher Free Speech News and Views blogs begin here. But in various formats. Under different names. With lots of the original documents and primary news links. A worth while resource!

From 2013 through 2016, I cover the rise and fall of Rob and Doug Ford on Toronto City CouncilFor a fascinating case of "history repeats", check out my Cracked blogs and news links for those years. Then compare them with those for Premier Doug Ford from 2018 on! Yikes! To get started, you'll find a useful summary of sorts and a list of links @ HERE!

2014-15 

I cover another round of contract negotiations, climaxing in strikes and job actions, from July through October 2015. But I'm retired. Can comment more openly. And impartially. 

My site's still mainly focused on teacher politics and educational issues, for now. Arguably, despite their importance, contract negotiations can be about as interesting as watching paint dry, unless you have some skin in the game. Teacher Free Speech and Grassroot Renewal summarizes my thoughts about Ontario's teacher union movement, as my own interests start to move on @ [HERE!

See too, my original Teacher Free Speech News Archive 2011-15 blog for a final "you are there" overview of these very disturbing union times @ [HERE!]



2016-18: 

The Trudeau government gets elected with a federal legalization mandate. The main focus on my site shifts to cannabis; as a medical and recreational "gray power" and inclusivity issue. Rife with troubling socio economic, political and legal concerns. Once again, viewed from a grassroot, if not blatantly counterculture perspective. Now with a much more action orientated, protest-civil disobedience directed thrust. 

I review the Toronto Karma Cup in September or October of each year. There are my blogs on the Toronto Project Claudia and Project Gator pot shop busts from Fall 2016 through Spring 2017. Followed by my
 Toronto Green and High 5 market, and various lounge, event, dinner club and product reviews, mostly from December 2017 on. 


My Toronto court coverage of Marc Emery and the Cannabis Culture 5's bust, continues throughout the year. With coverage of Canada's new highly flawed, corporate legalization model. Verses our flourishing unregulated cannabis market. And the ridiculous commercial and legal mess that follows legalization come October 2018. 

Oh Cannabis News and Views starts in earnest in December 2016. It's monthly at first. Then like Teacher Free Speech News and Views, on a quarterly basis.

My blogs on the Toronto Nugswap, and teachers in the weed patch, are located in my  November to December 2018 and April 2019 archives.


My "Medical Cannabis Statement ", a new "Pot Manifesto" of sorts, appears as a youtube video @ [HERE!]. Also see my accompanying Project Claudia blog @ HERE!

2019-20


Each year, I provide a January news prospectus of sorts. Surprise! This years got interrupted in no time flat by the Cover-19 pandemic! So too the wide spread protests! Political unrest! And total chaos! Especially south of our border!

As I write, our world is seemingly pivoting in a major, unpredictable, paradigm shift. Our life and times heading off in so many, new directions. With my blog site, I plan to be there too!

Music



In another lifetime, I was a DJ and a university radio programmer. Plus I've been music collector, since I was a teen. You'll find a series I wrote on site avatars John Lennon and the Beatles. They're located in my Blog Archive, from December 2013 through December 2014. There's another on Bob Marley and the Wailers, from August into September 2015. Plus I regularly provide a wide variety of free stoner tune links via Twitter. See below ...

Travel Blogs




Cuba: I have travelled and taught in Cuba for many years. My original Cuban School Project blogs were posted on the ENO [Education Network of Ontario] website back throughout the Harris years, and the "Great Tory Demise" from the mid to late 90's til 2003. 


Now they're archived here on my blog site. Check out August 2011. November and December 2013. December 2014 through May 2015. March 2016. November 2016 to April 2017. June 2018. And Spring 2020.


There are also two helpful directories, with detailed links to my Cuba blogs @ HERE! and @ THERE!


Europe: So far, Janet and I went there twice. See August 2013 and July 2014.


Jamaica: See August to September 2014 and March 2018.


Mexico: See July 2011 and 2012, June 2016, and November 2018  


Janet's Retirement Tour: My wife and I hit the road from November 2019 through March 2020 visiting, Japan, Florida and Cuba. 


My Toronto Covid-19 Diaries: We arrived back just in time for the pandemic! Check out March through May 2020.


Other



Twitter: I regularly retweet the latest relevant news and views links to the issues of the day. Then condense them for my quarterly Teacher Free Speech and Oh Cannabis News y Views blogs. Always throwing in lots of trez kool free music, video and movie links, with a kounter kulture bent, along the way @ DavidChiarelli

Enjoy!

David C



Comments:

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Art at the Paris Louvre: What does it mean?!?

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A careful analytical study!

Help! I Have No Arms!

Help! I Have No Arms!
Please scratch my back.

I can't find my underwear!.

I can't find my underwear!.
Have you seen them!

Weee! I can fly!

Weee! I can fly!
Look! I can crawl thru walls!

I have a headache!

I have a headache!
And a broken nose.

I have a square hole in my bum!

I have a square hole in my bum!

Here try this, it's very good!

Here try this, it's very good!
No. You have a bird face.

I have an ugly baby!

I have an ugly baby!
No I'm not!

Let's save all our money + buy pants!

Let's save all our money + buy pants!
OK but I need a new hand too!

Oh no! I got something in my eye!

Oh no! I got something in my eye!

You don't look well.

You don't look well.
No. My head hurts +I have a sore chest.

Would you like a bun?

Would you like a bun?

Chichen-Itza: Lost Maya City of Ruins!

Chichen-Itza: Lost Maya City of Ruins!
The Temple of Kukulkan!

Gotta love it!

Gotta love it!
Truly amazing!

Under Reconstruction!

Under Reconstruction!

Temples + Snakes!

Temples + Snakes!

The Snake!

The Snake!
It runs the length of the ball field!