Entertainment

A Few Officially Loose Screws

Mulder

It’s a ticketmaster before the Stones show up in town… It’s the willcall at Scotiabank Place before the Sens playoff tickets go on sale… nooooo… It’s actually a Futureshop the day before the Sony Playstation 3 arrives.

Futureshop-PS3Day

Tomorrow the gaming unit is released and this location in Kanata has 12 units coming in and 12 people have already pitched tents or set up a mini scaffold with some tarps to cover themselves from the constant drizzle we have had here in Ottawa.

It just goes to show you that there are some really screwed up people out there. The good news is that with the weather, these overnighters are probably going to get sick in the cold and rain and then they can stay home… and play with their new toy.

Is Kylie Minogue Really Worthy Of All The Press?

Mulder

Or is CTV Newsnet pimping itself?

When I was attending the University of Western Ontario, I remember the re-release ofkylie minogue Locomotion by Kylie Minogue. I didn’t hear boo from the Australian pop star for 15 or 20 years until a week or two ago.

CTV newsnet ran a piece on how she had recovered from cancer and was expecting to be back on tour soon. Considering I didn’t even KNOW she had been touring or heard boo from her since the Locomotion release, I found the story odd.

Today, the CTV has done it again. They had footage of Kylie on stage kicking off her new tour. They even went so far as to say that she would be doing 20 or so shows in Australia before heading overseas but no Canadian dates have been announced.

Is it me, or is this shameless promotion? What are the odds that the CTV is getting paid to promote Kylie Minogue in an effort to see if there is enough interest for her to come to Canada?

I know this is a very cynical view of the press but TV shows and movies have gone to integrating advertising into the background for extra income. So why wouldn’t a network that lives on news stories like CTV Newsnet do the same by integrating some advertising into a story?

If this is the case then it crosses a line as a news agency goes from reporting the news to promoting and creating via a news broadcast. It’s a fine line that the press should not cross. I’ll be watching this because I am really curious if Bell Globemedia is going to sponsor her tour in Canada.

Your opinions and comments are welcome.

CTV Jumps On Sexual Innuendo Bandwagon

Mulder

When it comes to the MSM, I am usually pretty fond of the CTV when comparing them to other choices out there. However, I woke up this morning to watch my recording of the Daily Show/Colbert Report and forgetting to skip through a commercial I noticed one for the new Tina Fey/Alec Baldwin TV show called 30 Rock.

I like Alec Baldwin in straight faced comedic roles, and being Greek, I am also a big fan of Tina Fey and her writing for Saturday Night Live. I have no beef with the show or the actors.

But in the commercial, there is a clip of Alec Baldwin saying:

Five inches … but it’s thick

It is obviously meant to be a wisecrack about the size of the rise in his Levis.

As the commercial was being aired on a late night program, I smiled at the overall commercial and thought that I will probably enjoy this show.

And then they announced the time this show would air.

730pm EST, 10 Central.

730pm? Are they serious? It reminded me of hearing the term “Cleveland Steamer” on The Family Guy, a show no child should be allowed to watch.

What’s going on with TV these days? It seems that sexual innuendo has taken over every single comedy out there.

I’m all for good parenting and I keep a close eye on the TV shows my kids watch, but I just have to say that I am disappointed at the CTV for airing a show with comments like the one above at a pre 8pm time slot. Call me a prude but shows with comments like that shouldn’t be on before 9 or 10pm.

Movie Entertainment Magazine Goes Political

Mulder

In the October issue of Movie Entertainment, the magazine sent to pay TV subscribers, Gordon McCall gets all political about the Conservative plan to cut funding to the Canada Council for the Arts.

In true spirit of the Brothers Grimm, and in his apparent quest to make us all things American, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s minority government seems prepared to put an end to the Maple Leaf model of government funding for the performaing arts.

Maple Leaf model?? More like socialist model. Where do you get off with such preposterous rubbish? The American model is truly successful because a) they have big name talent b) they let the market dictate what is successful and what is not and c) they don’t suck money out of government programs to make dog movies.

These folks wonk around in their tuxedos on tax payer dollars like it was theirs to spend. Why don’t they take some pride in their work and put out a movie that is entertaining. Or even better, why not learn to market a movie that actually may have some legs instead of pumping out ridiculous junk with the millions in funding that the Liberals were going to give them?

Professional theatres are dependent on the small current government subsidy to, in some cases, simply stay afloat and, in others, to keep ticket prices in line with audience expectations.”

What the heck is that? $50 Million isn’t enough for you? Did you ever think that if ticket prices were at a level equal to the value of what the theatre was showing that the market would dictate whether or not the show should go on?? If enough flops start showing up then the person selecting plays or movies for that theatre doesn’t DESERVE to get paid. Like the real world, they should get fired. What gives you the right to keep asking for more money to keep opening more theatres so that more and more Canadians can be dependent on tax dollars for a living? Get stuffed.

You know Canada’s entertainment business would die without sucking money out of the public coffers. And why is that Mr. McCall? Is it because most of the movies made in Canada are crap that would never have seen the light of day were it not for the money you leech off of people with real jobs that are productive to society?

Why don’t you take a page out of the book of good solid comedic TV like Corner Gas. The advertisers pay more for that one because it is a solid winner. It deserves to make money and be successful because it’s good. Not because it’s supported by a socialist attitude.

So when you get on your political soapbox to get the average “sitting at home on the sofa” citizen to listen to you mangle the Prime Minister for saving our tax dollars, think about all the people who’s taxes paid for that tuxedo you sport at the film festivals and how most of them don’t even own a tux.

Liberal Vixens

Mulder

If you go to google’s online translator and plug in the word “Volpe” and have it translate from Italian to English, it spits out the word “Vixen”.

If you then go to Dictionary.com and plug in the word “Vixen” you get the definition:

1. a female fox.
2. an ill-tempered or quarrelsome woman.

Considering Joe is fighting on despite having signed up dead people and having taken donations from teenagers, we know he is quarrelsome. Considering he is a wiley politician who decided to play the ethnicity card by screaming “It’s because I am Italian” when he got caught signing up the dead people, I would consider him as sly as a fox.

In other news, on Mike Duffy Live tonight Belinda Stronach politicianed her way around the question on whether or not she and Tie Domi are/were having an affair that ruined his marriage. She made a point to comment that the allegations were exactly that, but then she said it would not be prudent for her to comment on a case that was before the courts. (meaning Tie Domi’s divorce battle with his wife).

All I can say is that if Stronach had not had an affair, she would most certainly have been denying it.

Belinda seems to be more of a vixen than Volpe!

PM Paul Martin A Shitty Tipper?

Mulder

Talk about a crazy websurf.

I start off reading Steve Janke’s article about a holocaust cartoon contest put on by an Iranian newspaper.

While looking at the list of submitters I see the name Aaron Heineman.

Being a fan of Discover Channel’s Mythbusters starring Jamie Hyneman (I was never sure how he spelled his name), I google the name Aaron Heineman and find myself at a website called “Kiss My Bitter Ass” that has a poor tipper database.

Seeing a couple of celebrities like Chris Rock, Kirsten Dunst and Ted Knight on the list, I start surfing the database for shits and giggles and poof, Paul Martin’s name shows up.

The Shitty Tipper Database!
Tipper’s Name: Paul Martin
Where it happened: Ottawa
Total bill / Tip amount / Percentage: $1556.22 / $0.00 / 0%
What happened:
Former PM and some buddies came in and proceeded to get drunk and loud. I got moved to their table because they were harassing the poor server that had them to the point she was almost in tears.In the end they paid their tab and left a ZERO tip. Even after I ran between their section and my own and made sure they had everything they wanted.I guess when you’re not spending the taxpayers dollars its hard to be generous.Bastard Politicians.

Why do I have a feeling if he was still Prime Minister the tip would have been a heck of a lot bigger?

Disclaimer: The information above is part of a user submitted info database like wikipedia so I take no credit for the accuracy of the tip information or the validity of the statements on the bitterwaitress.com website.

CBC Circles The Wagons, Competitors Smell Blood

Mulder

We all know the MSM has been getting pounded for their primarily left leaning bias. Well things are getting quite interesting on two fronts.
One is when Stephen Taylor busted Christina Lawand of the CBC for juxtaposing a comment by the Prime Minister right after a Lebanese protesters statement that made him look quite cold and uncaring towards the Lebanese. The two clips took place in two different places and the PM’s statement was the tail end of a quote which asked him about much more than just the Lebanese Canadian feelings.

Well in the follow up post which Stephen takes a well deserved bow after Warren Kinsella comments on the bust, a commenter, Jay, posts his feedback from Jonathan Whitten, producer of CBC’s The National. You can read the comment and response here. Whitten doesn’t admit there was any wrong doing, but does admit they could have clarified the Prime Minister’s position a little better.

I do, however, agree with your concern about the structure of the report. The construction of the piece did make it appear the Prime Minister was responding directly to the woman protester, and that was not the case. We should have taken the time to make it clear that the Prime Minister was responding to a general question, and not a specific question about the woman’s concerns, and I regret that. While this does not constitute a misrepresentation of Mr. Harper’s position, or the position of his Government, the program could have, and should have, taken the time to be clear about what prompted the response.

The second front is the CTV hostile takeover attempt at the rights to Hockey Night in Canada. I have blogged about this before and the HNIC rights are one of the only profitable divisions of the CBC.

Right now, the CBC is paying about $65-million a year for broadcasting; TSN’s cable deal is worth about $15-million; and CTV-owned RDS’s Montreal Canadiens’ French-language agreement is for about $12-million.

That adds up to $92-million, meaning a CTV-TSN bid of $140-million would exceed the current amount by almost $50-million a year.

Could the CBC match that offer? Not likely. For starters, it doesn’t have a sports cable outlet. Therefore, it would bid only for English-language broadcast rights and perhaps French-language rights for Radio-Canada.

If the CTV offer gets accepted then you can pretty much kiss either the CBC goodbye, or a big whack of your tax dollars as the national entity appeals to the government for more financing to support itself.

Can we all start singing it now?

Ding dong the witch is dead…which old witch, the CBC Witch…
Ding dong the wicked witch is dead…..

Algonquin, Muskoka, and Toronto – A Vacation Made In Heaven

Mulder

Why is it that when you return from a vacation you need another vacation to unwind? After rolling through Algonquin park on Thursday, we made our way west to to cottage country.
The family and I spent three nights at a small resort right on the Muskoka River and despite no air conditioning, we didn’t complain. The first night, our cottage had no power due to the storms that rolled through the area the night before, but we made the most of it playing cards by moonlight and candlelight.

The rest of the time it was swimming, kayaking, peddleboating and hiking around the area. We were blessed at a part of the river that was pretty much a lake with a very light current and we had the beautiful view of the waterfalls below.

Muskoka 1

We took a small hike around the river up to the falls where I proceeded to find a rock out in the middle of the falls. And as sure footed as I think I am, there is always room for a spill into the river as I made my way back to shore. The funny part is that I enjoyed every second of the splashing.

Muskoka 2

After three solid days of living by the river, we headed down to the Big Smoke where we spent a couple of nights with my family.

We spent the Civic Day holiday at Canada’s Wonderland (a yearly excursion for us), where we proceeded to make our way onto just about every rollercoaster the park had to offer. This was the first year Cookie was tall enough to ride every major ride so we had a blast.

Now it’s back to the grind.

P.S. For Joanne, we didn’t make it to Weber’s burger joint, but we did see it on our cruise down to Toronto. It was just too early in the day to be eating burgers Maybe next year.

The Tao Of Steve (Harper)

Mulder

Stephen Harper and the whole “Steve” thing got quite a bit of play last week and I think my view on this counts somewhat since my name is Steve.

Now I must add, my legal name is Steve. (not Stephen or Steven) and every conversation with an administrator who took information inevitably ended up like this.

Admin: First name?
Me: Steve
Admin: Is that with a V or a PH?
Me: I said Steve, not Stephen

And I would then proceed to receive a dirty look. That was the only negative.

Positive Number 1

There is this Indie movie called The Tao Of Steve which an old co-worker told me about.

The “Steve” whose philosophy is espoused in Jenniphr Goodman’s indie film is every studly Steve who ever lived in movies, Steve McQueen being the prime example.

These are the men who never seemed to care about getting the girl, but who always got them anyway. “Steve is the prototypical cool American male,” says Dex (Donal Logue), the film’s protagonist and chief advocate of the Tao of Steve.

It’s a really good feel good movie for the average guy and worth a rental.

Positive Number 2

Then there is the whole one syllable angle. One syllable names just sound “cooler” (in general). In multicultural Canada, only Stefano might be slightly cooler.

Positive Number 3

Moving from a 7 letter name to a 5 letter name means less paper so it is more environmentally friendly. (ok, that one’s stretching it)