This week, Snorri’s chewing on a new vinyl toy in a dubstyle, as he sniffs out Dub to the Bone, an instrumental excursion into roots rhythms by Brooklyn’s Super Hi-Fi. King Snorri meets the rockers uptown. The result?
media cutbacks
Pity poor Marshall McLuhan.
The man achieved greatness and inadvertently thrust greatness upon generations of would-be intellectuals proud to parrot his words of wisdom. Alas, though celebrated and admired during his lifetime (if not so much for his hippie musical-comedy project The Medium is the Massage), the philosopher experienced a death that was not all it could have been. See, the media guru chose to leave this world Dec. 31, 1980. And, as writers, editors and readers alike well know, it is accepted practice for public figures to expire no later than mid-December. Deadlines being what they are, celebrities owe us at least that much; to hang on longer is to tarnish the hard work that goes into compiling those year-in-review magazine and newspaper features. Continue reading
Filed under Media
The wide world of w
It’s the listeners I feel sorry for.
Another Alpha Beats down, and it all happened so quickly I barely had time to enjoy it. I hope you did/will. Alas, when your theme is the letter “W” and you have only one hour to explore its riches, there are bound to be omissions. Off the top, I chose to leave my Bob Wills, Sonny Boy Williamson and Hank Williams records at home. A steep price to pay, but I was aiming to explore dark corners of my collection (I must get that light fixed) and to avoid the obvious. But, you ask, wouldn’t Loudon Wainwright III’s cover of Kate McGarrigle’s Come a Long Way be considered obvious? Hey, who’s show is this, anyway? Besides, I’ll be you didn’t see “whistling” Roger Whittaker coming, right? Continue reading
Filed under CKCU
guidance councillors
So what does one do for fun in this town? Perhaps the most effective way to answer that eternal question is through process of elimination. Determine what is not fun, and the rest writes itself. And not being in the mood for a colonoscopy at the moment, I decided this week the logical place to start was with two days of observing Ottawa City Council in action.
In light of the snail’s pace of progress in our city, I have at times wondered what exactly goes on at council meetings. Surely, proposals are made and discussed, in the hope of in some way moving Ottawa forward. For all we know, council meetings may well be knock-down-drag-out affairs where only the strong survive. Or not. The public is welcome to attend such meetings; few do. Fortunately, dear reader, I am here for you. Continue reading
Filed under Ottawa
Canada’s next top author
“It’s so Canadian.”
That, Jian Ghomeshi told an interviewer today, is how “somebody in the States” described Canada Reads to him in a Facebook message, after posing the telling question: “A reality show for books?”
Exactly. Canada Reads, the long-running literary series to which that somebody referred, is indeed so Canadian. A celebration of Canadian writing, the CBC Radio annual event has shone a light on many a fine book during its 11 editions. The concept is simple: each of five Canadians of moderate celebrity status champions a deserving book, the better to alert listeners to its presence and to celebrate this nation’s literary landscape. Since 2002, the informative and entertaining five-episode segment has given props to and alerted people to the existence of page-turners such as Lawrence Hill‘s The Book of Negroes, Paul Quarrington‘s King Leary and Yann Martel‘s Life of Pi (which lost the inaugural competition to Hubert Aquin‘s Next Episode). The choice of winner has been determined not so much by the merits of each work, as by the passion and persuasiveness of its corresponding celebrity. Continue reading
Wig Bubbles 