Hey there!
How have you been? Me, I’ve been dealing with computer issues that forced me to retreat to real life for a few days. (Damn you, jamieoliver.com!) But, well, I’m still here.
And, uh, let’s see…
Well, consider this: Late last month, Nickelback postponed the remainder of its tour.
And there was much rejoicing.
There was, however, surprisingly little reference in the press to the fact that it took an act of God to stop the band. ‘God hates Nickelback!’ Hard to believe the press missed that opportunity.
The fact that I, like you, had no idea Nickelback was even poised to descend on our unsuspecting town prior to the cancellation demonstrates how easy it is, when you think about it, to avoid the band every music lover loves to not love.
And while it may seem blasphemous for me to say so, I think we as a society have in recent years devoted far too much energy to hating Nickelback. I mean, this is Canada. Aren’t we supposed to be nice, or something? Or, more accurately, aren’t we supposed to try to try to be nice?
Not where Nickelback is concerned. And, again, while I couldn’t tell you the last time I had to endure more than five or 10 seconds of a Nickelback song, I understand the hostility. What concerns me is that in citing Nickelback as the worst thing ever to happen to popular culture, we are perhaps being a bit rash.
Indeed, we as an officially bilingual society are arguably being downright discriminatory. Remember, folks, there’s more badness out there than you might suspect. And let us never forget that there is something rotten in the state of Québec.
That something’s name is Eric Lapointe. And every time we cast-out Nickelback as all that is wrong with contemporary music, Eric Lapointe wins.
Skeptical? Check this out.
Exactly. You owe Nickelback an apology.
But I won’t blame you if you keep that to yourself.
Even after enduring this Lapointe classic.
Let’s leave it there for now, eh?
Ah, you say, but is this Eric Lapointe a megastar on the scale of Nickelback?
I think we both know the answer to that. And yes, it’s rather sad.
Think of it as an illustration of the two solitudes that remain at the essence of this nation’s dual identity.
OK, so we now realize it’s a case of several solitudes, rather than two. But there’s no getting around that anglophone-francophone divide. And until we accept that Eric Lapointe is in every sense the equal of Nickelback, we’ll never truly bridge that divide.
Bienvenue, Canada.
Wig Bubbles 