At like 12:30 at night, when I’m zonked in front of the computer putting off going to bed, I’ll be startled out of my gourd to hear a certain set of guitar chords blaring out of CBC Television. I look up in shock only to watch two full minutes of beauty shots of condors gliding […]
Monthly Archives: August 2008
Not watching the Olympics
August 19, 2008 – 10:30 pm
A subscriber on the BlindCanadians mailing list (identity withheld, though it’s hardly a state secret) writes: Has anyone tried to access [usage as a verb sic – Ed.] the CBC’s Web site on the Olympics? I keep entering on buttons, and not getting anything I’m looking for. I’m disappointed that none of the boxing or […]
2
August 19, 2008 – 2:00 pm
Today I attended the superglamorous “launch†of the “new†CBC Radio 2, which shall début to howls of geriatric outrage on September 2. (Full photos.) The graphic-design approach was not original, but was typographic and well-executed. The event was held in Studio 41 way up on the top floor. You had to walk though a […]
Moving On from Search Engine
August 19, 2008 – 6:19 am
Can everyone stop acting like the cancellation of Search Engine is a fatal wound to the heart of the nation, sort of like Gzowski’s calling it quits or the shitcanning of This Hour Has Seven Days? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Host Jesse Brown is waaay funnier in person than in […]
Quoted
August 17, 2008 – 9:18 pm
Part 3 of the Tea Makers “Copyright is hard. Let’s go shopping!†series The CBC “hockey-anthem†“challenge†receives extensive coverage in Maclean’s (not onliné). Sarmishta Subramanian, “Settling the Score,â€Â 2008.08.25: Like some insiders, [Larry LeBlanc] was also put off buy the contract terms…. While it’s increasingly common for private production companies to squeeze a portion of […]
‘Clod’
August 15, 2008 – 12:14 pm
Claude Galipeau is VP of interactive at Astral, the people who bring us captioned hetero porn and illegal billboards. (Watch him live. Look at photos of him. Read his LinkedInâ„¢ profile.) Previously, Galipeau had essentially the same job at Alliance Atlantis, now owned by the people bringing us a “human-rights museum.†And before that he […]
Where’s CBC Watch when you need ’em?
August 15, 2008 – 5:16 am
“CBC running out of excuses for Canada’s slow start†Commentary on sports talk radio rarely reflects the sentiments of normal people, but the radio ranting this week is probably not far off the feelings of the folks at home in front of the TV. It’s getting ugly for the team. And Canadians are wondering why…. […]
Parallel Universe Watchâ„¢ (1)
August 13, 2008 – 12:05 pm
“The French answer to CBCR3,†Bande à part. They kind of blew their chance to improve on official Quebec French, which insists that “podcast†be translated as baladodiffusion. Just say balado. (Cf. the wonderfully concise courriel for “E-mailâ€; a baladeur is a player, i.e., an MP3 player, i.e., an iPod.)
corpsePlayer
August 13, 2008 – 12:05 pm
Can we all agree that the CBC online-video-player project is a non-starter? The time to launch it is well past. There was a brief three-month window of plausibility – between the launch of the BBC iPlayer and that of NBC’s Web player, Hulu. At this point it’s too late. Ordinarily you’d just assume, because of […]
Who’s the FOI requester?
August 12, 2008 – 6:07 am
That is, who’s been filing hundreds and hundreds of what are accurately called access-to-information requests with the CBC, made possible under the curiously-named Accountability Act? Simple: It’s retired colonel Michel Drapeau of Barrick Poulsen. Apparently. David Akin of the Asper empire acts as though Drapeau cannot be named due to “privacy.†But the CBC is […]
Deposed
August 11, 2008 – 6:37 am
Part 2 of the Tea Makers “Copyright is hard. Let’s go shopping!†series (MINOR CORRECTION INCORPORATED) By now you know that CTV bought all the rights to the Hockey Night in Canada theme song, composed by Dolores Claman, after CBC failed to come to an agreement with the holder of the rights to that […]
An immodest proposal: Eat a Big Meal
August 6, 2008 – 10:05 am
Name three actual music shows on Canadian television today. Any network. (English only to start, please – I’ll have a piece about the French later.) Give up? If it is axiomatic that CBC makes the same mistake over and over again, let’s set up the Corpse to make a mistake but have a good time […]
‘Everything’s Gone jPod’
August 4, 2008 – 10:24 am
In an unwelcome development, unloved, unlovely queen of twee Douglas Coupland wrote a movie. Everything’s Gone Green is functionally equivalent to jPod (not JPod [D. Coupland, author]): Underemployed “slacker,†echt-Vancouver setting, complications with Chinese immigrants, parents who run a grow-op, crimelord connections (and more). The main difference is computers – the movie has fewer of them. […]
