BLOG THIS | blog.thismagazine.ca: October 2005 Archives

Everyone should listen to and buy “Do they know it’s Halloween?,” a Geldof send-up performed by an ensemble calling itself the North American Halloween Prevention Initiative. Included in the group are some great and hot artists, such as Beck, The Arcade Fire’s Win and Regine, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, Sloan’s Chris Murphy, Feist, and so on. The song’s idea and execution came from ex-Unicorn Nick Diamonds, who worked with Vice guy Adam Gollner to record the song and bring in willing artistes.

Originally meant to be mostly a joke, the group is now asking for payment for the song, which they’ll pass on to Unicef. Sure beats carrying around those little orange boxes, eh?

Read more here, and for Beelzebub’s sake, buy the damn song!

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October 28, 2005

How Corporate Sponsorship Works—Lesson One, Weaseling

Posted by john_d at 10:46 AM ET | Comments (1)

Unlikely hero, Brian Diesbourg, hauled off and booted a football over fifty yards and put it through the uprights—for non-sports fans in the audience, this is a very, very long way, even for a professional football kicker, which Brian Diesbourg is not—last night at halftime during the Toronto/Hamilton CFL game (hey, guess who won), and for his efforts he will now receive ONE MILLION DOLLARS from hamburger-pusher Wendy’s, the contest sponsor.

Please Note: The one million dollars will be paid to Mr. Diesbourg in $25,000 installments once a year for… forty years. Not only that, but before the kick, Mr. Diesbourg was allowed to practice for only 30 minutes—carefully timed by the insurance company that would be on the hook should he make good. Finally, having set up for the final kick, he was required to wait during a commercial break to actually make his attempt—a cruel and, one can only assume, an intentional destabilization of his preparation.

Did the giant cheque afterwards say “First Installment of 40… see you in your 60’s sucker?”

Here’s the full story, from the Globe.

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Defending the indefensible?

Posted by annette at 10:42 AM ET | Comments (1)

I want to laugh at the idea of CBC president Robert Rabinovitch spilling water all over himself and then falling out of his chair, but I'm afraid I've done the same a few too many times to pass judgement.

However, I'm having trouble with his claim that the CBC lockout was justified. While his point about jumping the gun and locking employees out before they could walk out during the oh-so-profitable return of the NHL season could sound reasonable to some, it has a few noteworthy flaws. The fact that the guild's strike mandate expired Sept 6 is probably the biggest thorn poking holes in that logic.

Perhaps most troubling, though, is that the CBC didn't even save money with the lockout. Costs of flying in managers and putting them up in hotels -- not to mention the beefed-up security -- proved to be as pricey as paying the regular staff.

Lockouts are tough to justify in any circumstances, but I'm starting to think this one takes the cake. Maybe it's time for Rabinovitch to take the high road and admit it was a mistake...that might go a long way in terms of rebuilding shattered employee morale.

That said, his continued emphasis on the need for more government funding is certainly valid. Too bad the government is ignoring him on that point.

Antonia Zerbisias has a good piece on it in the Star today.

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October 26, 2005

English Canada, prostrate

Posted by andrew at 12:27 PM ET | Comments (0)

This is curious. The Governor General, defender of the constitution, decided to honour a dedicated and unambiguous secessionist poet by giving him some bling and a nice wad of cash. Fair enough. This is Canada, and rewarding disloyalty is how we do things here.

But after his secessionist friends found out that he was Uncle-Toming it and started razzing him for being a stooge of Les Anglos, Raymond Levesque had a sudden change of heart, and decided he couldn't accept the award. He made up some post-facto excuses about the GG being head of the Armed Forces that Canada sent into Quebec to arrest everyone back in 1970. Fair enough. If changing your mind is good enough for Lucien Bouchard, it's good enough for Raymond Levesque.

And that should be the end of it. Separatist gets award, accepts, changes mind, declines award. No harm, no foul, and the two solitudes continue on their merry, independent ways, right?

Wrong. According to the CBC story,

Members of the award foundation are scrambling to reorganize the Nov. 4 presentation ceremony at Rideau Hall, as well as the celebration dinner the following night, according to the Globe and Mail. However, officials are also trying to find another way to recognize Levesque.

Wha? Guys, he just chucked a moon at you, and you want to find another way of rewarding him?

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October 21, 2005

unsafe at any speech

Posted by john_d at 05:04 PM ET | Comments (1)

Ralph Nader is coming to the centre of the universe—wait, isn’t he already there?

Anywayyy, “The Nade” is speaking in Toronto next Friday (October 28), at the Ryerson Theatre (43 Gerrard St. East). His topic:

Innovative Solutions for our Survival: Connecting Climate Change with Social Justice

Of course, you don’t have to believe in either climate change or social justice to attend, but you might be a tad bored otherwise.

Tickets—I know you’re all scrambling for your credit cards—are available from (where else?) Ticketmaster @ 416-870-8000 and ticketmaster.ca

You can also go to the Centre for Social Innovation at 215 Spadina Avenue, Suite 120, and buy tickets using cash—ask for the nice person named Audrey.

Also:

Grassroots Environmental @ 372 Danforth Avenue or 408 Bloor Street

Toronto Women’s Bookstore @ 73 Harbord Street

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Save our forests... unless the U.S. wants to put tariffs on them

Posted by mason at 11:37 AM ET | Comments (13)

In this week’s NOW Magazine, Wayne Roberts provides some much-needed perspective on the softwood lumber dispute. He wonders why many moderate, even progressive, Canadians are looking to the federal government to stand up to the United States on the issue of tariffs being applied to raw lumber imports from Canada:

“It disturbs me that any Canadians, let alone the almost unanimous mass of Canadians, are so lacking in self-confidence and respect for their ecological habitat as to consider Martin’s arguments anything but victim-position politicking.”

Overlooked is the fact that what the Canadian lumber industry wants is to sell our forests as cheaply as possible—and according to the Prime Minister’s latest public comments on the matter, we’re willing to seek out more compliant customers, such as China, if the U.S. doesn’t bend.

Framed in this way, shouldn’t progressives be more concerned about preserving Canadian forests than sticking to our southern neighbours? Environmentalists need to be aware that they’re not being heard in this debate, all because Canadians across the political spectrum seem to revel in beating the Americans above all else.

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October 20, 2005

Saturday Night Dead

Posted by joyceb at 02:46 PM ET | Comments (0)

Rest in Peace, Saturday Night magazine. Just learned from D.B. Scott's Canadian Magazines blog that St. Joseph's Media has decided to suspend publication of Saturday Night, yet again. The magazine has died and been resurrected more times in the last decade than I can remember. If this is it's last life, I will truly miss it.

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October 19, 2005

Lobby Night in Canada

Posted by john_d at 02:10 PM ET | Comments (2)

A loose coalition of Canadian arts groups is travelling to Ottawa next week to deliver an enormously important message to federal politicians — Canada’s arts and culture industry is a huge contributor to the Canadian economy, yet we continue to treat this sector like it can eat air.

From a recent Canadian Arts Coalition press release:

Canada’s artists and arts organizations are an economic force at the creative heart of the $39 billion cultural sector — bigger than the agriculture, forestry, mining and oil and gas sectors combined. Without the imagination and creative engagement of Canada’s artists, Canadian society would be impoverished.

Public investment is pivotal to the complex financing that supports the arts. Yet Canada’s current contribution to the arts lags far behind most of its European counterparts both in per capita spending and spending as a percentage of gross domestic product.

The federal government’s primary vehicle for arts support is the Canada Council for the Arts, which supports 2,100 arts organizations and a similar number of individual professional artists. Since 1998, the Canada Council has seen a 50 per cent increase in the number of applications from arts organizations and a 30 per cent increase from individual artists. Each year, 12,000 eligible arts organizations and artists must be turned down for support, resulting in an enormous loss of creative potential for Canada.

Oh, how many times have I counted myself among the dreaded 12,000? I’ll be knocking on office doors on the Hill next Tuesday. If you want to help, write your MP. MP addresses can be found at this link:

Members of Parliament

... and you don’t even need a stamp to send an actual letter—how cool is that?

Demand a doubled (at least) budget for the Canada Council.

You know, unless you DON’T believe in publicly funded culture (bring it on).

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Hu is the new leader of China?

Posted by mason at 01:23 AM ET | Comments (4)

Currently making the email rounds:

George: Condi! Nice to see you. What’s happening?

Condi: Sir, I have the report here about the new leader of China.

George: Great. Lay it on me.

Condi: Hu is the new leader of China.

George: That’s what I want to know.

Condi: That’s what I’m telling you.

George: That’s what I’m asking you. Who is the new leader of China?

Condi: Yes.

George: I mean the fellow’s name.

Condi: Hu.

George: The guy in China.

Condi: Hu.

George: The new leader of China.

Condi: Hu.

George: The main man in China!

Condi: Hu is leading China.

George: Now whaddya asking me for?

Condi: I’m telling you, Hu is leading China.

George: Well, I’m asking you. Who is leading China?

Condi: That’s the man’s name.

George: That’s who’s name?

Condi: Yes.

George: Will you, or will you not, tell me the name of the new leader of China?

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: Yassir? Yassir Arafat is in China? I thought he’s dead in the Middle East.

Condi: That’s correct.

George: Then who is in China?

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: Yassir is in China?

Condi: No, sir.

George: Then who is?

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: Yassir?

Condi: No, sir.

George: Look Condi. I need to know the name of the new leader of China. Get me the Secretary General of the U.N. on the phone.

Condi: Kofi?

George: No, thanks.

Condi: You want Kofi?

George: No.

Condi: You don’t want Kofi.

George: No. But now that you mention it, I could use a glass of milk. And then get me the U.N.

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: Not Yassir! The guy at the U.N.

Condi: Kofi?

George: Milk! Will you please make the call?

Condi: And call who?

George: Who is the guy at the U.N?

Condi: Hu is the guy in China

George: Will you stay out of China?!

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: And stay out of the Middle East! Just get me the guy at the U.N.

Condi: Kofi.

George: All right! With cream and two sugars.

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October 17, 2005

Look up and listen up, Calgary

Posted by mason at 09:53 AM ET | Comments (7)

This Magazine’s new co-editor of This & That, Shawn Micallef, has brought his [murmur] project to Calgary. Made popular in Toronto’s Kensington Market and Annex neighbourhoods, [murmur] is a story-telling tool that allows passersby to hear tales of the city told through their cellphones—simply look for green [murmur] signs in key locations, call the number listed and punch in the appropriate code, and someone with a story about the site will let fly in a pre-recorded snippet of history.

Apparently Calgary’s [murmur] project needs more stories. Vist Shawn and his project colleagues at http://murmur.info to contribute.

Also of note, there’s a new Toronto [murmur] for Spadina Avenue, set to launch shortly.

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October 13, 2005

Supporting the Hoops

Posted by john_d at 06:36 PM ET | Comments (2)

Reporting in from my vacation in the heartland of America. I’ve been spending a bit of time reading and writing on a typical American college campus. Lots of football players practicing for the big game on Saturday, and the basketball team has started early training—season starts in November. Browsing the off-campus bookstores, I ran across a US Army recruitment office—empty like a desert, but for the lonely, lonely recruiter in dress uniform and his gigantic, gold-fringed flag.

Outside on the main street, there was a banner proclaiming “We Support Our Troops: Past, Present, and Future!”

It’s good to plan ahead, I guess.

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Now that the decision is final, we welcome your input

Posted by joyceb at 04:48 PM ET | Comments (16)

The powers that be at the Edmonton Art Gallery (soon to be renamed THE ART GALLERY OF ALBERTA) have announced their choice to design the brand new art gallery. The headline in today's Edmonton Journal reads

Art gallery designed as work of art
What do you think? Post your opinions

...hence the entry title. The winning architect is Los Angelean Randall Stout, who beat out three other entries including one pink polka dotted entry from Allsop and Partners, and my personal fave from architectural superstar Zaha Hadid. Here's a picture of the winning design:

Interestingly, a lot of the focus of the news in print on the competition has been on the personalities of the designers, to the point of bashing in some cases. Unsurprisingly then, our winning architect spent several months in Edmonton getting to know the city and has been quoted ad nauseum talking about how friendly and charming Edmonton is.

Here's a crucial question for all you non-Edmontonians. How important is a public building, and specifically a world class art gallery (including it's external appearance) to the world class impression a city gives? And to the vitality of its downtown?

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Has BSS Jumped the Shark?

Posted by joyceb at 04:38 PM ET | Comments (3)

My favourite indie band Broken Social Scene is discussed in a feature in the October 7 issue of Maclean's magazine.

It's a good read (it's not particularly deep or anything, but it quotes Leslie Feist), and don't get me wrong, this is not another gratuitous bash at Maclean's (cause it just as easily could be a feature profile on E! Talk Daily), but what does it mean to an indie music artist to be profiled in one of Canada's largest circulation mainstream publications? To BSS I'm guessing bigger record sales (although the link to an mp3 off the new album might put off potential fans in Tweed). But to fans, does it mean they've jumped the shark? Please discuss.

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October 12, 2005

Let's hear it for the little people

Posted by mason at 02:11 AM ET | Comments (0)

News that evidence of a distinct species of man has been found in Indonesia has to be one of the more exciting developments of the year. Scientists believe the homonids, nicknamed hobbits because they only grew to be three feet tall, were alive as recently as 12,000 years ago. Not only is this long after all other human species (aside from ours) died out, it is also longer than the federal Liberals have been in power! Wow!

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October 11, 2005

Telus, TWU reach agreement

Posted by mason at 01:11 PM ET | Comments (6)

As CBC employees get back to work today (thankfully), the Globe is reporting that Telus and the Telecommunications Workers Union have agreed to a new contract. Workers at the country's second-largest telecom have been locked out since July 21, mainly in Western Canada. It's been a bitter struggle, and from what I can tell it's not over until ratification. The Edmonton Journal has a story about picketing workers approaching the news with caution, and some are concerned that key issues of outsourcing and job security have not been addressed.

The vote is expected to take place on Oct. 23.

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October 06, 2005

Senators 3 – Leafs 2

Posted by john_d at 10:55 AM ET | Comments (9)

photo credit: HANS DERYK / TORONTO STAR

I hope Ottawa takes some time to really celebrate last night’s season opening shoot-out victory, so when they inevitably lose to Toronto in the first round of the playoffs, they will have some emotional buffer.

(Thank god hockey’s back. Now we can stop thinking about politics.)

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October 03, 2005

Holy jesus! That’s a lot of explosives

Posted by john_d at 01:10 PM ET | Comments (5)

I think the thing that surprises me the most about the IRA arsenal, which was destroyed in its entirety last week according to retired Canadian general John de Chastelain (who oversaw the weapons destruction), is how few weapons this group had. Only about 750 really nasty rifles and but one (one!) surface to air (SAM) missile, and still they kept an entire crumbling empire on its toes for a couple hundred years or so. Then I got to the line item about Semtex explosives. 3 tonnes!

A little perspective: Semtex is a Czech-made plastic explosive that is odourless and therefore damn hard to detect. Here are some details from a global security, explosives website:

Three pounds of Semtex plastique packs enough punch to raze a two-story building. Terrorists attack with no warning and no rationale. Their weapon of choice is a pliable, odorless substance that is twice as powerful as TNT and is virtually invisible to conventional security devices. It can be hidden in a brief case or a small cassette recorder.

So let me just say—three tonnes less of the damn stuff in the world. Happy day!

Here’s the whole IRA cache, according to the story in the Guardian:

650 Kalashnikov assault rifles

40 Armalite assault rifles, smuggled from America, often stolen from US army stores

50 machine guns

60 Webley revolvers

2 Barret high-powered US sniper rifles

40 rocket launchers

6 flame throwers

1 SAM-7 surface-to-air missile

600 bomb detonators

3 tonnes of Semtex explosives

Plus Hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition

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Where's my $1,000 signing bonus?

Posted by mason at 09:15 AM ET | Comments (4)

The CBC and its employees have reached a tentative agreement to end the 50-day-old lockout. Terms of the deal include a $1,000 signing bonus for each worker, a 9.5% cap of contract workers on the staff and a wage increase of 12.6% over the life of the contract (through March, 2009), according to the Canadian Media Guild union.

Sounds like a victory for CBC workers, not to mention for hockey fans! Glad to hear it.

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October 02, 2005

Free from Danger

Posted by mason at 03:56 PM ET | Comments (0)

Some people might consider Seattle foursome Harvey Danger to be a one-hit wonder, owing to the 1998 song that made them semi-famous: “Flagpole Sitta.” I actually really liked the whole Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone? album, which featured clever lyrical wordplay and bright, heavy rock ‘n’ roll. Now the band has decided to release their new album, Little By Little, as a completely free download from their website or via Bittorrent. It’s a gutsy move that will directly impact record sales (obviously), but having listened to the first five tracks I feel inclined to keep an eye out for their tour and buy a ticket to see them live. Little By Little is something of a departure -- the band has retained the witty lyrics I liked but added lots of piano and toned down the heavy a bit -- and the end result is catchy, somewhat soulful and reminds me of Spoon. To me, a decision like this shows a lot of smarts on Harvey Danger’s part, and I like them all the more for it.

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THIS MAGAZINE. BECAUSE EVERYTHING IS POLITICAL

Please note that all writers hold the copyright for their pieces and it is illegal for any portion of them to be copied or distributed without their expressed permission. So please don't steal.

THIS MAGAZINE: BECAUSE EVERTHING IS POLITICAL

October 29, 2005

Us kids know

October 28, 2005

How Corporate Sponsorship Works—Lesson One, Weaseling

Defending the indefensible?

October 26, 2005

English Canada, prostrate

October 21, 2005

unsafe at any speech

Save our forests... unless the U.S. wants to put tariffs on them

October 20, 2005

Saturday Night Dead

October 19, 2005

Lobby Night in Canada

Hu is the new leader of China?

October 17, 2005

Look up and listen up, Calgary

October 13, 2005

Supporting the Hoops

Now that the decision is final, we welcome your input

Has BSS Jumped the Shark?

October 12, 2005

Let's hear it for the little people

October 11, 2005

Telus, TWU reach agreement

October 06, 2005

Senators 3 – Leafs 2

October 03, 2005

Holy jesus! That’s a lot of explosives

Where's my $1,000 signing bonus?

October 02, 2005

Free from Danger