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Sean Orr: On Discorder…

April2010_coverI received an email the other day from a friend pleading for support to keep Discorder in print and free. “I’m looking for some input on what you guys think might improve Discorder, or what it provides (if anything?) to the music community”. Here is part of what I wrote to her in response:

In a city that has the most visible media concentration in the world (with the Canwest Empire and Bell Globe Canada sharing the spoils of lax CRTC laws), any and all independent media have struggled to survive in a city with an active outdoors population, a large English as a Second Language percentage, free commuter papers to a very large suburban readership, the age of the internet etc; it is as important now as ever to preserve the print medium as a vital way to communicate with a very select demographic. As a student at UBC, Discorder provided me with a creative outlet while I pursued strictly academic studies – only to abandon those to return to writing later in life. Furthermore, as a musician I found it an excellent resource, and always enjoyed the high level of writing.

Discorder is one of those secret treasures of Vancouver that we need to support. We may not have the cultural base to sustain it on any real economic level; it may look bad in the books; but surely since the Arts are under attack from government budgets and corporate boardrooms, it’s important to invest and pool our resources when assets like it are threatened. Just look at the CBC as an example, or even the much beleaguered CanCon system. Discorder in part defines who a lot of us are, and as a young and transient population we need it to continue (albeit in a way that might have to explore alternative measures in order to survive). I have no idea what this might look like, but surely there are ways…

There are 2 comments

  1. I read Discorder and would make a pen-pal type of donation if it were set up. Also, Chrisariffic is the king.

  2. Chrisariffic *is* the king. I would help out my friend with a CiTR radio show on Monday afternoons while I was a student at UBC. For about two years, we had the great pleasure of occupying the afternoon spot following Chrisarrific’s unsinkable “Parts Unknown,” an excellent indie rock broadcast that was my first real introduction to that world of music.

    I read Discorder as an undergrad and have been contributing to it for four years. I always pick it up when I see it around town and I’m always pleased to see the names of my friends within the pages of my magazine. If there’s any publication that I would consider to be my “home,” Discorder is it.

    Discorder’s fundraiser at the Biltmore in March was great fun. I know that those kinds of events can be a lot of work to put together, but I wonder if concert/silent auction/fundraisers like that could be an avenue of more funding in the future. I would also pay a pen pal-type donation if it were established, even as a small coin drop in some of the more prominent distribution areas like Zulu and Scratch.