BLOG THIS | blog.thismagazine.ca: June 2006 Archives

If you’ve ever been curious about the differences between the labour movements in Canada and the U.S., have a look at this quirky little contest from Working America, an AFL-CIO affiliate. The winner of the best “bad boss” story competition wins a vacation (sorry, the voting period is already past), and there are some real doozies (click the Top Stories tab). One entrant tells of their boss, a dentist, who took $100 from every employee—after his clients cancelled their appointments during the week of 9/11. Ouch. Anyway, quite and innovative approach to raising a union’s profile, n’est pas?

More entries on: Labour days

June 29, 2006

O, Canada! Long Weekend Playlist

Posted by joyceb at 11:51 PM ET | Comments (5)

Inspired by the looming Dominion Day weekend, a 7 hour return "motor coach" ride to Calgary and Mason's earlier protest song playlist request, here is your all for singing you around (hee) Canada Day playlist request.

The Rules: 1. Can-con (obviously). 2. Sounds best with windows/top down and singing along out loud. (Even if you don't know all the words, you can't resist the catchy chorus.) Other than that, anything goes. Justification not mandatory, but who doesn't love liner notes?

Here's a couple to get us started. Trooper, "We're Here for a Good Time (Not a Long Time)" This one's a gimme for anyone over 30/has watched the Mercer Report or served in the armed forces/lives west of Winnipeg and frequents dingey rock and roll bars. Honestly friends, I have not actually sang along with Trooper in person thus far in 2006. The medication is working. Also, Metric, "Dead Disco" -- Replete with enough "lalalas" to make it easy enough for anyone to sing along to.

Hurry now and giver like 90, the weekend is nearly here. And don't forget to weigh in on Mason's earlier post.

More entries on: Ear candy

brilliant pass from Greene at left back

Posted by john_d at 01:20 PM ET | Comments (1)

Graham Greene-- thanks to wikipedia for the image.

I direct your attention to possibly the last interview ever with one of my all time favorite writers -- Graham Greene (thanks to Bookninja thru Maud Newton for the tip). Graham Greene died at age 86 in 1991. If you haven't read The Quiet American, you have missed something essential.

In these lengthening days of unsophisticated right/left debate, it is so refreshing to read the words of a brilliant observer of the human political condition -- one with an incredible wealth of first hand knowledge of the events and people who shaped our world before the marketing consultants took over. Some highlights (the interviewer is John R. MacArthur):

But I did ask if he was a man of the left. And whether such titles mean anything anymore.

"I don't know," he said. "I've always said that ever since the age of 19 I've been on the left, but I don't know if in means anything or whether it's just my way of thinking. I think it means being against dictatorship. And it's against the extremes of capitalism. Which I think is represented by the United States. I don't think we can do entirely without capitalism. But the extremes are disagreeable and dangerous"...

...Greene found the notion that US troops had "restored democracy" to Panama ridiculous. He was visibly angry about the Panamanian government's current anti-Torrijos campaign, and he termed the argument that Noriega and Torrijos were cut from the same cloth "absolutely absurd"

"Now you [the United States] have become dictators, and not such good ones as Torrijos."

What kind of dictator was Torrijos?

"Well, he was very benevolent. He was shifting more and more interest [away from the rich] toward the agricultural side of Panama, to the peasants and land. He had the reins of government in his hands, but he was trying to move toward parliamentary system. He started parties. And he was moving slowly toward democracy."

What about America's belief that the "restoration of democracy" in Panama was part and parcel of a general trend worldwide?

"Is it breaking out of the United States?" he asked sharply. "I hope it is [spreading], but I see no sign of it in Latin America thanks to the US, which is responsible for Pinochet and is responsible for Guatemala and El Salvador, and supported the contras. So that I don't see any sign of democracy coming in the American continent except a sort of patch that occasionally may emerge for a short time."

At various points in the conversation Greene launched questions at me. "And what is the difference between Kuwait and Panama?" He asked at one such moment.

"I don't know," I replied. "Except oil, I suppose there isn't much difference."

More entries on: Lit

June 28, 2006

excellence noted

Posted by john_d at 09:54 AM ET | Comments (0)

CBC's Middle East bureau chief Adrienne Arsenault is leaving Jerusalem for a new post in London (according to this report on the Zerb blog).

I've probably mentioned this before, but I consider Arsenault to be one of the best working Canadian journalists. I admire the subtle, difficult, balanced work she's done during her time in Israel. She's also a flat-out great writer. If the report is true, this is a loss to Middle East reporting. On the other hand, I look forward to seeing what she can do in London.

More entries on: Media navel-gazing

Helen Thomas: American Hero

Posted by mason at 12:36 AM ET | Comments (0)

Helen Thomas, the long-time White House correspondent, was on the Daily Show tonight, and she said things like*:

"Democracy isn't spread with the barrell of a gun"
and
"I believe people have a right to know everything their government is doing."

Is this woman a defender of democracy or what?

* paraphrased, of course

More entries on: Media navel-gazing

June 27, 2006

Tease This

Posted by john_d at 02:25 PM ET | Comments (5)

THIS Magazine's super-efficient and ever-delightful new editor, Jessica Johnston dropped off an advance copy of the July/August THIS (her first) at my office this morning -- as she was also dropping off a small pile of poetry submissions to the literary contest (I am a panner for poetic ore). The mag will hit store shelves by the end of this week. In the meantime, sink into your fetid well of envy because I can read it now while you cannot. This is how the left engages in advance marketing.

I took the mag with me to my favorite little hole in the wall lunch joint on Dundas and laughed in my soup over Scott Piatkowski's account of not being invited back onto the Michael Coren television show for the unforgivable transgression of catching the host being wrong. Apparently Coren insisted that the right to marry is not one of those pesky rights covered by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (adopted by the UN way back in 1948).

This came up in the context of a discussion about same sex marriage. I'll let you folks figure out who was advocating which position -- rabble-columnist Scott Piatkowski v. Crossroads Television talk show host Michael Coren.

Annnyway, of course the right to marry is there in the declaration (article 16), which, as I've just proven, any boob with Google can call up on their computer in under ten seconds.

So, having publicly exposed Coren not knowing something he really should have known, our man Piatkowski finds himself frozen out of guest duty on the show. Not surprising really; this is standard fare with the neocon and religious right as they struggle to combat the evil and pervasive leftwing media bias -- see Fox's Bill O'Reilly, whose hypocritical froth is so well documented in Al Franken's Lies, And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, Chapter 13, Bill O'Reilly: Lying, Splotchy Bully.

What I wonder is how any "journalist" can still take himself seriously after such a display of intellectual bullying.

Hey, there's article 19 of the UDHR. What's it say?:

Article 19:

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers unless they publicly embarrass Michael Coren or Bill O'Reilly.

Oh, nevermind.

Go, buy THIS. Excellent Canada Day reading.

More entries on: Human rights | Media navel-gazing | THIS matters

June 23, 2006

Songs of resistance

Posted by mason at 11:43 AM ET | Comments (12)

What is your favourite protest song? I’m working on a very fun project for the magazine and I’m trying to compile as many essential songs of resistance as I can, from 1966 onward. Any genre, and country, any language—I’m trying to make this pretty comprehensive. Sure to make my list already are artists such as Phil Ochs (pictured), Rage Against the Machine, Le Tigre, the Weakerthans and Bob Marley. I’d love to hear what the Blog This community puts on to get inspired or feel grounded.

More entries on: Ear candy

June 21, 2006

Blame Canada for a Crappy Internet

Posted by john_d at 04:49 PM ET | Comments (0)

Checking out the link to The Nation in Mason's excellent post below, I noticed an ad promising to show me the future of the Internet. So I clicked, and got a lobby site for a group called Hands Off The Internet. I watched their little animation, which makes some clear and easy delineations between good guys and bad guys as we all move forward in building the Internet.

Clear and easy, but accurate? I have no idea.

Clue number one that I might not agree with these people: they make fun of my beloved country. Referring to Canada to make a point, the narrator audibly sneers, and the animation shows a Mountie atop a moose.The Mountie sings a bit of the national anthem and then some cartoon hearts appear, apparently to suggest our proud Mountie and his moose are more than just friends.

I have to say, I haven't a clue about "net neutrality" -- the issue at hand -- or any reasons to either love it or hate it, beyond this group's insistence that Canada is somehow diabolically involved and large corporations want net neutrality while consumers may not.

Check them out here:

http://www.dontregulate.org/

Some of the sponsor groups under the Hands Off umbrella:

The American Conservative Union
AT&T (hmmm, aren't they a large corporation?)
Center for Individual Freedom
Cingular

You see, this is exactly why I immediately distrust arguments that lean on the "we all know large corporations are evil" pillar of lefty thought.

More entries on: Interweb

Concentrate, now, concentrate!

Posted by mason at 02:57 PM ET | Comments (0)

The Nation magazine will print in its July 3 issue an updated chart detailing media concentration in the U.S., which of course spills over to affect Canadian news audiences on a daily basis. Follow the link and download the PDF to see who owns what news outlets. Heck, why not print it out and post it on your fridge or in your office as a friendly reminder and conversation piece?

In related news, the Canadian Senate's report on the state of Canada's media is set to be released today, and while CanWest's David Asper has called for greater consolidation of media, the report will recommend a revamping of the Competition Act to require an automatic review of news media ownership when one proprietor's holdings exceed a certain percentage of a single market's audience.

However, given the history of Parliament ignoring recommendations from Senate reports, expect media ownership in Canada to continue reaching concentration levels close to that in the U.S.

More entries on: Media navel-gazing

June 19, 2006

Fragging conservatives

Posted by joyceb at 03:22 PM ET | Comments (11)

Editor and publisher weighs in today on the (latest) Ann Coulter controversy with an interesting editorial on how conservatives like Coulter can demonstrably go much further over the line than progressives without jeapordizing their jobs or their audience.

As long as Coulter jokes about killing people in her books and on TV, her column is in no jeapardy. Universal Press Syndicate, which distributes her column, says "the syndicate is only concerned about "what is in the columns that we distribute.""

Another Universal creator, liberal editorial cartoonist Ted Rall, was hurt financially by fallout from a 2002 cartoon that lost him the WashingtonPost.com as well as work at Men's Health magazine due to right-wing bloggers "flooding that site". "In the end, Rall figures the backlash cost him $40,000 to $50,000 in business."

More entries on: Media navel-gazing

Oilers, shmoilers, let's talk Stanley

Posted by mason at 01:52 PM ET | Comments (1)

If we can take a break from all the Oiler-adulation for a sec, thanks…. I’d like to direct your attention to more worthy Stanley-Cup-related pursuits, such as the first novel by our own John Degen, The Uninvited Guest. Actually, to call this a hockey novel would be a mistake, since it seems (114 pages in) to be more about human contact and companionship. Regardless, it’s a beautifully written and imagined work thus far.

Want to sample it for yourself? Chapter excerpts are available here. But really, you don’t want to be left without a copy of your own, do you?

More entries on: Lit | Sport | THIS matters

Vancouver UnReal Estate prices

Posted by calvin at 11:02 AM ET | Comments (1)

I was just in Vancouver the past week and happened to take a tour de-ville with a real estate friend of mine. She happened to inform me on the various prices of average homes and condominiums. Is it possible that tag team of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics combine with cottage industry grow-ops are inflating the Vancouver real estate market? The thought of it is totally bustin my trip.

More entries on: Signs of the Apocalypse

"Tell your god to get ready for blood"

Posted by joyceb at 10:52 AM ET | Comments (10)

That's Deadwood's Al Swearengen from last week's season three opener. It's appropriate today.

Believe as we do: Edmonton is going to wipe the floor with Carolina. The Stanley Cup is coming home.

More entries on: Sport

June 17, 2006

mustn't... reveal... geekiness

Posted by john_d at 09:58 PM ET | Comments (7)

Just read about this in the New York Times today and, I admit, I've been watching the online episodes while rocking back and forth with glee.

Fan fiction meets digital video. Star Trek fans recreate -- extremely well, like, down to the schlockiness -- the look and feel of the original Star Trek franchise, and offer free online views. Sleeping children in the next room. This will be my Saturday night:

http://www.starshipexeter.com/

Wondering when they will be sued by a large studio, or the remaining, unorbiting, dust of Gene Roddenberry? Me too.

But... but... Captain. He's dead.

Seriously, I have no idea if the Star Trek copyright protection allows for this kind of brand borrowing. And, once I finish my, uh, research here, I'll check into it.

More entries on: Interweb

June 15, 2006

and also get one of them nifty power washers

Posted by john_d at 09:46 AM ET | Comments (3)

Ten years ago, I swear, a decade in the past, I had this conversation with a friend:

She: "Why can't I go to Canadian Tire and buy an affordable wind turbine or solar panel set for the roof of my house?"

Me: "I know. It's, like, a market crying out to be serviced by a big company-- what with the high cost of hydro, and the do-it-yourself craze."

She: "Dumb bastards. It'll probably take them a decade to figure out that people acually want to generate their own power."

Me: "Well, what do you expect? From my experience, it looks like the entire company is staffed by sullen teenagers with their first ever hangover."

Well, hats off to Canadian Tire. I got their flyer in the mail the other day, pointing me in the direction of this website:

Canadian Tire Power

Now, while I'm shopping for that great seat warmer for my four-wheel ATV, I can also pick up a planet saving, zero-emissions turbine generator.

The revolution will be suburbanized.

More entries on: Planet Earth

June 14, 2006

Go Oilers!

Posted by joyceb at 11:10 PM ET | Comments (18)

Seriously. Go Oilers! Woohoo!

More entries on: Sport

June 13, 2006

Most annoying Canadian on TV

Posted by Lisa at 01:19 PM ET | Comments (3)

A friend was telling me the other day about a contest currently running to pick the most annoying Canadian on tv. I'm hunting around for a link for the contest, but can't seem to find one (will keep looking). There are some pretty obvious choices: Don Cherry, Ben Mulroney, the Body Break couple (damn them and their healthy snacks) and some not so obvious choices. My favourite vote is for the guy from the CIBC commercials who looks pretty jazzed cause not only did he impregnate his wife, but he ALSO painted the nursery (from the look on the wife's face he's been "gettin" around to the nursery for a while now). My vote would have to go to anyone affiliated with a Canadian Idol franchise and that dude from the hardware commercial who does the little churning butter dance at the end of the spot cause his wing nuts are just that cheap. Most annoying Canadian on tv anyone?

More entries on: Friends of Canadian Broadcasting

June 12, 2006

Can we really turn the tide?

Posted by mason at 01:29 PM ET | Comments (5)

From Mother Jones magazine in the United States comes an innovative campaign to educate people about the threats to the world’s oceans and help them to take action. Signing up to be an Ocean Voyager means you’ll get a new message each week for five weeks featuring video episodes about the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, orcas under siege and real-life pirates, among other things.

Each episode concludes with a simple action you can do to make a difference, such as participating in a letter-writing campaign for tougher legislation or making better shopping choices. The campaign is aimed at an American audience, but still the episodes are informative and, at times, even shocking.

The big question is, will the campaign actually translate into action? I’ll be interested to see how MoJo measures its success and what concrete changes, if any, come about.

More entries on: Planet Earth

June 07, 2006

Captain Copyright! -- where is the love?

Posted by john_d at 04:06 PM ET | Comments (0)

Access Copyright, the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency has recently launched a superhero -- Captain Copyright -- as a tool for teaching basic concepts of copyright to a generation that maybe is not getting a lot of "fun" information on the concept.

The character is silly, dumb, over-the-top and even, dare I say, derivative (in the critical sense). And I love him. I have a Captain Copyright sticker on my laptop... and I had vowed to never put a sticker on my beautiful little computer, but this guy is too great. He is way cooler than Elmer the Safety Elephant. I hope someday he too gets his own flag.

The website offers games, comics, and sometimes bizarre lesson plans for teachers. This stuff is straight out of the duck and cover days of instruction on how to survive a nucular attack.

What's the reaction to Captain Copyright out there in the broader discussion of copyright? Are folks laughing? Oh bother:

"These materials, targeting kids as young as six years old, misrepresents many issues and proposes classroom activities that are offensive." -- Michael Geist

"They also neglect to mention that Canadians pay a tax on blank media that is meant to compensate artists for downloads."-- Slashdot News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters.

"Also, ironic that most of the elements of his costume are borrowed from elsewhere: Shazam's arm protector thingees, the Sentry's belt, and the Spectre's color scheme." -- Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing

"Captain Copyright is the propaganda cartoon character created by Canada's Access Copyright agency to "educate kids about copyright, in the most biased, one-sided and intellectually dishonest way imaginable."" -- same as above

I think it is just fine to disagree with Captain Copyright's message, and I am in no way defending what has been pointed out about the good captain's criticism-shielding linking policy (which seems a rather unfortunate decision and appears to have been removed), but the tone of this pile-on strikes me as a sad missed opportunity to bring this ongoing argument out of the land of super-charged emotionalism where it seems to really, really want to live for some reason.

Better, much better, are the inevitable parodies of CC. Check it out:

Hey Kids. It's Captain Copyright

More entries on: Copyright/left

June 06, 2006

Encouraging The Public To Celebrate So The Government Doesn't Have To

Posted by ron at 12:24 PM ET | Comments (0)

I ran into this press release from Environment Minister Rona Ambrose which calls on Canadians to celebrate Canadian Environment Week which runs until June 10th.

The last quote puts things into perspective "I encourage Canadians to think about their impact on the environment and to act all year round to protect it. Let's take this week to celebrate our accomplishments."

Ok Rona, you first and don't think too hard.

More entries on: Planet Earth

June 05, 2006

Untitled

Posted by annette at 11:32 AM ET | Comments (8)

I must admit, I was caught off-guard by this weekend's "terror-takedowns" in Toronto. Despite all of the terrorism fear mongering these past few years, I've been of the (apparently naive) mindset that Canada wouldn't be a target.

The Toronto Star and CBC's The Current have had some good coverage exploring what prompted seemingly normal, happy, popular high school kids to turn into alleged terrorist wannabes.

Tarek Fatah, communications director for the Muslim Canadian Congress, raised an interesting point on The Current this morning, wondering aloud why community leaders like Toronto police chief Bill Blair tend to meet only with Muslim religious leaders as opposed to "regular," working community members to get more diverse perspectives about issues in the community.

Any thoughts? Was I the only one surprised by this weekend's takedown?

More entries on: Terrorism (not the state-sponsored kind)

June 02, 2006

At last, an anti-Juno award

Posted by mason at 03:55 PM ET | Comments (2)

Carl Wilson at Zoilus has an entry about the Polaris Music Prize, a new Canadian music award born from the desire to recognize recordings on the basis of artistic merit instead of commercial success (fingers pointed at you, Juno Awards).

The winner of this year's Polaris, which counts albums released between June 2005 and May 2006 as eligible, gets $20,000, a pretty penny in Canadian music. Similar to the Mercury Prize in the U.K., a shortlist will be published on July 4, from which the winner will be chosen in September. A jury of more than 100 critics will make the selection.

Sounds like a long overdue idea to me, although I wonder how soon before a backlash will kick in, again similar to the Mercury. (Last year's winner was Antony & the Johnsons, a U.K.-born artist who calls America home -- hence the backlash.)

For what it's worth, my nominees would have to include:
Islands, Return to the Sea
Destroyer, Destroyer's Rubies
Parlour Steps, The Great Perhaps
Broken Social Scene, self-titled
Sarah Harmer, I'm A Mountain
The New Pornographers, Twin Cinema

More entries on: Ear candy

June 01, 2006

Homo Heroes WTF?

Posted by calvin at 03:32 PM ET | Comments (2)

What started out as a mild Saturday Night Live satire, i.e. the Ambiguously Gay Duo, has metamorphasized into a bona fide homosexual superhero/superheroine zeitgeist. Not one, but two significant superhero closet door splinterings have occured within the span of days. DC comics, announcing the newly revamped Batwoman as a full fledged queer, finally acknowledges that the majority of their actual comic-book reading female fans are, indeed, lesbians. Furthermore, and coincidentally timed with the release of the Brett Ratner ~~butchered~~ lensed X-Men 3 movie, Marvel Comic mutant "Colossus" was outed as a gay man. Colossus's mutant power is to turn his circuit-boy physique into solid, organic steel -- a pairing of steel and gay maleness that puts copyright lawyers of a notorius Toronto gay male strip revue into a heel-grinding frenzy. Personally, I've always found comic book heroes, with their improbable musculature and obsession with spandex codpieces, to hint, if not outright burn, of homosexual proclivities. Plus with the anti-gay-marriage electioneering going on in the U.S., it just goes to prove you can't keep a fierce faggot down.

More entries on: Lit

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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

June 30, 2006

Bad boss stories

June 29, 2006

O, Canada! Long Weekend Playlist

brilliant pass from Greene at left back

June 28, 2006

excellence noted

Helen Thomas: American Hero

June 27, 2006

Tease This

June 23, 2006

Songs of resistance

June 21, 2006

Blame Canada for a Crappy Internet

Concentrate, now, concentrate!

June 19, 2006

Fragging conservatives

Oilers, shmoilers, let's talk Stanley

Vancouver UnReal Estate prices

"Tell your god to get ready for blood"

June 17, 2006

mustn't... reveal... geekiness

June 15, 2006

and also get one of them nifty power washers

June 14, 2006

Go Oilers!

June 13, 2006

Most annoying Canadian on TV

June 12, 2006

Can we really turn the tide?

June 07, 2006

Captain Copyright! -- where is the love?

June 06, 2006

Encouraging The Public To Celebrate So The Government Doesn't Have To

June 05, 2006

Untitled

June 02, 2006

At last, an anti-Juno award

June 01, 2006

Homo Heroes WTF?