Entertainment
Terrific Tunes… Tasty Food… It’s Foodstock!!! Saturday at Elks Lodge
Terrific tunes and tasty fare for a great cause – gearing up for Foodstock
By Mark Weber
A partnership between the Red Deer Food Bank and the Central Music Festival Society continues to not only spread the joy of music but also helps meet a critical need in the community.
Foodstock runs Sept. 14th.
There will be plenty of food, festivities and a ‘mini-international’ music festival at the Elks Lodge featuring the exemplary talents of David Essig, Nine Second Ride, Rob Lamonica, Laurelle, and the mesmerizing magic of Kyle Key.
The fun kicks off at 5 p.m. and runs through to 11 p.m.
As the Society’s web site points out, ‘Thousands are expected to pack the parking lot with donations (for the Food Bank) while feasting on the Red Deer Food Bank BBQ Crue’s sizzling fare.”
At 7 p.m. the music starts inside and runs through to around 11 p.m. All profits go to the Red Deer Food Bank.
Tickets are $30 each in advance or $35 at the door. Kids aged 12 and under are admitted free when with a responsible adult.
“Our goal for this event is to raise over $5,000 for the Red Deer Food Bank to help meet the demand for the holiday season,” said Mike Bradford, president of the Central Music Festival Society.
“We like to create a festive atmosphere,” he explained, pointing out that stilt walkers will be onsite to showcase their skills as well.
“They will also be giving lessons to interested kids on shorter stilts.”
After everyone eats and takes in the fun outside, the tunes kick off in the Elks Lodge.
“If you look around, and you are in a position to help somebody out, the very basic need for all of us is food,” he added. “That’s what it’s all about. “So in my mind, it’s just a way of giving back to the community,” he said. Indeed, it’s a service that is always in high demand as well. “There is no shame in needing a helping hand.”
The partnership at the annual Foodstock event also led to the Food Bank setting up at Central Music Festival Society shows through the year as well. The Society also matches Food Bank financial contributions dollar for dollar, said Bradford.
To date, close to $9,000 has been raised. “It’s something that has worked out pretty well for both of us! If we can help out, we are glad to do it.”
Feedback from all sides has always been fantastic, he added.
It’s a rewarding experience for Society volunteers to be a part of and the Food Bank is always very happy for the solid support of course. The musicians are also thrilled to pool their efforts behind such a great community cause as well.
“It’s also about raising the awareness of the Food Bank. Anyone can fall on hard times, and anyone can lend a helping hand.
“We are all human, and we have to get through this life together.”
As for the folks at the Food Bank, they couldn’t be more pleased – or thankful – about this terrific partnership.
“It’s been a tremendous relationship, and it’s been ongoing for a couple of years now,” said Fred Scaife, executive director of the Red Deer Food Bank.
“They invite us to all of their events, too,” he noted, pointing out that Food Bank representatives, as mentioned, are at performances through the year to receive donations from patrons and also make further connections in the community.
“And the shows are always so good!”
But ultimately, Scaife emphasized that it’s partnerships like these that really help to make such a critical difference in the day-to-day operations of the Food Bank.
And with Foodstock, the timing of the event couldn’t be better as food and financial reserves at the Food Bank can be running quite low at that point of the year, said Scaife. “Not only does it give us an opportunity to solicit some donations that we need at that time of year, it also gives us the opportunity to be in front of the public,” he noted.
Scaife also explained that the consistent support of the Central Music Festival Society is what helps with the unpredictable nature of collecting food and funds through the year for the charity.
“It’s such a good, solid relationship. It’s great for us.”
For more info and tickets… www.centralmusicfest.com
Business
Donald Trump appoints Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone as special ambassadors to Hollywood
From LifeSiteNews
In a surprise post on Truth Social, Trump announced, ‘It is my honor to announce Jon Voight, Mel Gibson, and Sylvester Stallone, to be Special Ambassadors to a great but very troubled place, Hollywood, California.’
In an unexpected move, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has selected Mel Gibson, along with Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight, to be “special ambassadors” to Hollywood in his next administration.
“It is my honor to announce Jon Voight, Mel Gibson, and Sylvester Stallone, to be Special Ambassadors to a great but very troubled place, Hollywood, California,” Trump announced on his social media platform Truth Social on Thursday.
Elaborating on his decision, Trump continued:
They will serve as Special Envoys to me for the purpose of bringing Hollywood, which has lost much business over the last four years to Foreign Countries, BACK—BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!
These three very talented people will be my eyes and ears, and I will get done what they suggest. It will again be, like The United States of America itself, The Golden Age of Hollywood!
All three of the Hollywood stars are baptized Catholics and have, to varying degrees, professed and defended their beliefs both in God and in conservative principles more generally.
The appointments come just days after Gibson, who is well-known as an outspoken Catholic actor and director, appeared on the popular Joe Rogan Experience podcast, making headlines for defending the resurrection of Christ, talking about the post-Vatican II crisis in the Catholic Church, and speaking candidly about the important role his faith has played in his life. Gibson’s house was also one of many to have burned down in the fires ravaging Los Angeles, describing it as a form of “purification.”
Similarly, Stallone, who talked about his return to Christianity in the early 2000s after drifting away in his younger years, was also in the news recently for saying for the first time publicly that he is the survivor of abortion.
As for Voight, he was raised Catholic and attended the Catholic University of America, and is well-known for holding conservative views and talking openly about his belief in God. He is also the father of famous actress Angelina Jolie.
Censorship Industrial Complex
UNESCO’s New Mission: Train Influencers About Combatting Online “Misinformation”
The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is now incorporating teaching influencers how to “fact check” into its activities.
UNESCO claims that influencers have become “primary sources of news and cultural information” around the world – which prompted it to carry out a survey into how these online personalities verify the “news” they present.
Citizens in UN member-countries may or may not be happy that this is how their taxpayer money funding the world organization is being spent these days. But UNESCO is not only conducting surveys; it is also developing a training course for said influencers (which are also interchangeably referred to as content creators in press releases).
It’s meant to teach them not only to “report misinformation, disinformation and hate speech” but also to collaborate with legacy media and these outlets’ journalists, in order to “amplify fact-based information.”
The survey, “Behind the screens,” was done together with researchers from the US Bowling Green State University. 500 influencers from 45 countries took part, and the key findings, UNESCO said, are that 63 percent of them “lack rigorous and systematic fact-checking protocols” – but also, that 73% said they “want to be trained.”
This UN agency also frames the results as showing that respondents are “struggling” with disinformation and hate speech and are “calling for more training.”
UNESCO is justifying its effort to teach influencers to “rigorously” check facts by referring to its media and information literacy mandate. The report laments that mainstream media has become “only the third most common source (36.9%) for content creators, after their own experience and their own research and interviews.”
It would seem content creators/influencers are driven by common sense, but UNESCO wants them to forge closer ties with journalists (specifically those from legacy, i.e., traditional media – UNESCO appears very eager to stress that multiple times.)
Related: United Nations Development Program Urges Governments to Push Digital ID
Under the guise of concern, the agency also essentially warns creators/influencers that they should be better aware of regulations and “international standards” that pertain to digital media – in order to avoid “legal uncertainty” that exposes them to “prosecution and conviction in some countries.”
And now, UNESCO and US-based Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas have launched a one-month course which is currently involving 9,000 people from 160 countries. The goal is to train them to “address disinformation and hate speech and provide them with a solid grounding in global human rights standards.”
The initiative looks like an attempt to get “traditional” journalists to influence the influencers, and try to prop up their outlets, that are experiencing an erosion in trust among their audiences.
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