Paying tribute

Notice anything familiar about the cover of the new Eagles of Death Metal album?

Let's just hope it's not actually the butt of a 14-year-old girl, like on this one:

Bye-bye

Off for a week of intensive writing (and no blogging).

Meanwhile, you can get a few musical laughs out of this.

Stursberg strikes again

So it seems the consensus is that The One -- the US simulcast wannabe-musician reality show the CBC is airing this summer -- stinks.

Why am I not surprised?

Richard Stursberg, the man in charge of CBC-TV, sees the show as

"borne of a strategy to fulfill the difficult, but not impossible, goal we have set for the network: to make CBC Television the most important and popular video platform for Canadian News, Current Affairs, Kids, and Entertainment programming."

This is the same guy who once enthused about the power of Men With Brooms to revitalize the Canadian box-office. Nice powers of judgment buddy.

Shades of Libby Wolfson

The local talk and oldies station, CJCH (let me tell you, that is some professional website they have) is running a new show called "Just Between Us." It's -- get this -- by, for, and about women. The promos (voiced by a man) have a nice soft tone to them.

What is this? The early 70s? A show by, for, and about women? All of them? There's no segmenting that market at all? Maybe because it's an oldies station. They're still catching up.

Great headline typo

And here I thought that Costa was a Greek name, not Spanish.

The letters page

The Halifax Chronicle-Herald runs its letters to the editor under the grandiose heading "Voice of the People."

It's one of the scariest things about living in Nova Scotia -- if these are really the voices of the people here, maybe it's time to get out.

When I first took to reading "Voice of the People" I couldn't figure out why so many of the letters were about stories that had run a week or so ago. Then I realized that the writers were actually mailing in their missives, not e-mailing them. Fair enough, I suppose. But what are the editors thinking when they run letters that may have made sense a week ago when a story first broke, but make no sense by the time they run, since they have been superceded by other events? (Sometimes, in this case, you get a note from the paper following the letter.)

There are a few different standard forms that letters to the Chronicle-Herald take. One is the "Nova Scotia is wonderful" letter -- the equivalent of the letters low-circulation magazine run (you know, the kind of publication that prints letters to the circulation department saying "please renew my subscription.") The other is the "Nova Scotia is terrible" letter -- usually referring to the state of our roads.

And then there is the "moral rot" letter, in which annoying, everyday occurrences are seen as evidence of widespread decay.

Yesterday's letters page featured a fine example of the "Nova Scotia is wonderful" letter and a couple of unintentionally hilarious examples of the "moral rot" variety.

My favourite? The one from one Henry Brenton of Eastern Passage, that lumps together all the great evils that face our nation -- and concludes that Pierre Trudeau is to blame for jaywalking. Take a look:

"This is the same attitude you see with speeders; jaywalkers; people who jump into crosswalks, expecting 4,000-pound cars to stop on a dime; drivers with cellphones stuck to the side of their face, not having care and control of their vehicles; bicycle riders passing lines of cars on the right, driving on sidewalks and crosswalks when it suits them: If you don’t like the law, ignore it or get a lawyer. This rot set in with Trudeau and his written Constitution. This country is on the slippery slope to anarchy."

They even play it backwards for you

101 versions of Stairway to Heaven. Here.

Worst blog ever?

Quite possibly.

Zippy explained

I've been reading Zippy the Pinhead comics for a good 20 years. When I've tried to share my enthusiasm for the comic with friends, they are typically baffled. How to explain this polka-dot-clad, non-sequitur-spouting junk-food junkie with at least six different "Origins of Zippy" stories?

Finally, creator Bill Griffith (aka Griffy) comes to the rescue, explaining all in "six easy lessons."

Canadian TV candour

I recently finished writing a story on a pair of TV writers who work on a Canadian show. Now, one thing about the world of Canadian television: it's tiny. People are hesitant to say the most mildly offensive things, in case they, well, offend someone and lose out on some hard-to-come-by work.

So it was refreshing to hear the exchange below, between the pair of writers I was interviewing. One note: the show they are referring to runs on the same network as the show they work on -- a good reason to play nicey-nice. Congrats to Writer 1 for being candid. I'm removing any references though, in fairness to the publication for whom I wrote the story (it hasn't appeared yet).

Writer 1: ... a crappy [popular Canadian program]-type show.

Writer 2: Not that we're calling [the show] crappy.

Writer 1: I am.

Writer 2: You're going to do that?

Writer 1: Yes. I'm going to go out on a limb and call [the show] crappy. It's crappy. It's garbage. I hate it.

It may seem relatively mild to you, but for Canadian broadcasting and production, this is a nearly revolutionary level of sedition.

PR: How not to do it

Case #1: Poor Dirk Romyn, spokesman for Atlantic Superstores in Nova Scotia. He's the guy who has to explain, over and over again, why his grocery chain is going against the will of the people of the province and insisting on finding loopholes allowing them to open on Sunday. Well, that's not quite how he puts it of course. He says things like "We're in full compliance of the legislation and the new regulations as far as we're concerned." (Quoted from a June 29 CP story).

As tough as it's got to be giving all those interviews, when your chain is putting the government on the spot, you've got to be there to answer the questions. Which makes this claim in a recent Roger Taylor column in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald a bit strange: "It appears the pressure is getting to the company’s spokesman, Dirk Romyn. Romyn has told reporters he refuses to talk to The Chronicle Herald because he isn’t happy with how this newspaper covers the Sunday shopping issue."

A PR guy won't talk to the media because he doesn't like how they're spinning his story? Romyn has been putting in long hours, I'm sure. Maybe he just needs a break.

Case #2: Had a great afternoon at the Nova Scotia Multicultural Festival a few weekends ago. It's the kind of event people who poo-poo multiculturalism love to loathe for what they see as its shallow, feel-good view of us all getting along together nicely. But you know, there's nothing wrong with all getting along for a weekend, eating each other's food, listening to each other's music, and enjoying the sunshine. Everybody shows a happy face at these events.

We visited on a Saturday, which meant that the space showcasing a local Jewish group was unstaffed, because of the Sabbath. You'd think they would leave us some eye candy though. What do visitors get instead? A tourism poster promoting Israel and a painting of attack helicopters. That stacks up real nice when it's not too far from the banner proclaiming "Islam is a religion of peace and justice."

Ewww

I was cheered to hear that the federal government (in the person of the loathsome Peter Mackay) announced today that Bras d'Or Lake in Cape Breton is going to be offered special protection.

But was I ever grossed out to learn what it was: no more dumping raw sewage into the lakes from boats. I guess that is a big step forward. As a non-boater, though, I was disgusted to learn that boats can dump out their raw sewage pretty much anywhere they want in this country, and that designating a lake as a "no discharge zone" is actually a pretty big deal.

Just how many bodies of water in Canada are no discharge zones? It's a very short list.

Stating the facts

I can understand journalists exercising caution when it comes to making statements. Better to quote somebody or attribute to a source than to go out on a limb yourself.

But it often gets ridiculous.

Is there any excuse for insisting on attributing undisputable facts? We get treated to this all the time -- particularly, it seems, in radio journalism. Yesterday I heard a story on the end of the St. John, NB - Digby, NS ferry. A radio report informed me that fishermen claim that without the ferry, they will have to drive the long way round from Digby. That's like saying that experts report that December will follow November this year. It's a fact. There's no disputing it. No attribution needed.

Free agency

Lots of complaints this year about how late the Stanley Cup playoffs went. Personally, I didn't mind watching hockey on June 19. But what I do mind is that the late date meant the annual free agent rush started less than two weeks after the Hurricanes hoisted the Cup.

At a time when there still ought to be a bit of an afterglow from an amazing playoff season, the mercenary and business aspects of the game are what get highlighted. Sure that's going to happen anyway. Sure, free agency is better than servitude to one team, no matter how well-paying. Sure, it's kind of fun to follow all the free agency activity and start plotting next year's hockey pool picks. And sure there will always be jerks like Chris Pronger, who asks for a trade, skips town, then announces he's relieved that he was "out of sight, out of mind" (you wish!) .

The point is, this year it all happened way too soon after the highlight of the season. It's like having a restaurant cleanup crew come in and start vacuuming just as you're swallowing your last bite of dessert.