Monthly Archives: May 2006

The protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expression

There were muted cries of booya! in certain circles when this was passed yesterday: “That, in view of the ratification by Canada of the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, the House insist that the government, its departments and agencies maintain the program policies and regulations in support of […]

Surrender the Mövenpick

Few tears were shed at the CBC when the Mövenpick Palavrion closed its doors last year. It was a ridiculous place, trying to look jaunty but coming off corporate, with its casual airs of pretension, incongruous off-track betting, “no photography” rules, Jian Ghomeshi, mediocre food, cramped bar, and clattering spiral staircase. If the CBC gets […]

Ouimet’s mailbag

I hope you enjoyed our Sovereign’s birthday yesterday. For my part I received varied correspondence from across the Dominion, which I faithfully reprint here unmolested: Are parts of La Maison to be rented out? There have been rumours of it for years, but Montréal newspapers reported last week that condos will be built into certain […]

The Kirstine Layfield show

My apologies to any of my regular readers who may have been looking for free pizza in Simcoe park today. If any was there, I didn’t see it. Plenty of croissants inside though. Nothing illustrated the current divide better than the CMG tent out in the rain with the soggy cookies, and the multiscreen Kirstine […]

Free pizza (also: stop the sellout)

If there’s one thing a CBCer loves more than complaining, it’s free food. You can get a bellyful of both in Simcoe Park on Thursday from noon to 2, as part of the CMG’s stop the sellout campaign. There were posters for the event all over the TBC this morning, but they seem to have […]

CBC-TV Avengers #1

Sent to me by an anonymous reader.

This is a public service announcement — with guitars!

Jowi Taylor has this crazy idea to build a guitar out of pieces Canadian history and geography and have its first notes ring out across the country from Parliament Hill on Canada Day. Actually, he wants to build 2 guitars. The second one will also be made of Canadiana, but will have a GPS, feedback […]

CBC Video

This CBC Video page is a pretty good start at something that could be much bigger. And I do think it’s a start – an unfinished page that somehow escaped the firewall. There are some clips that can be found at other places on CBC.ca, but some entirely new ones, and the beginnings of a […]

Lessons from ZeD

Did you know that they got the name for the tv show ZeD from a CBC in-house contest? I can’t remember what my entry was, but it was better than “ZeD.” The show was nigh unwatchable. At times fascinating, at others infuriating. I had friends who begged at me to change the channel, because they […]

Don’t fear the Maffin

There’s a lot to like about the CBC’s new blast of podcasts. First and foremost is 20-odd mp3s of some of the best goddamn radio in the free world. Everything else is secondary. It’s a big step forward for an place that is often criticized for being 2 steps behind. We have a ways to […]

The CBC Radio 2 death rattle sounds, strangely enough, like a trombone

The CBC Radio Orchestra gots a new conductor. As the website says: “As North America’s last remaining broadcast ensemble, we are a legacy of the days when radio orchestras were to be found all over our continent, as they still are in Europe.” Is there anything more elitist, presumptuous, white and geriatric than that simple […]