John Fogerty: Revival

It was with some surprise that I found myself clicking the "Download All" button below the track list for John Fogerty's new album on eMusic.

Surprise, because I haven't paid any attention whatsoever to Fogerty's career for at least 20 years.

The second surprise came when I listened to it. Sure it has its nostalgic and hokey moments -- but so did CCR at their height. At the end of a couple of runs through the album, all I could think was damn, is it ever good to hear the guy who sang "Fortunate Song" still belting out lyrics like these with force:

You know you lied about the casualties
You know you lied about the WMD's
You know you lied about the detainees
All over this world

Stop talking about staying the course
You keep a-beating that old dead horse
You know you lied about how we went to war
I Can't Take It No More

...

I bet you never saw the old school yard
I bet you never saw the national guard
Your daddy wrote a check and there you are
Another fortunate son

Throughout the album Fogerty makes nods to the past, but you never get the feeling he is enslaved to it. Funny how a guy routinely labelled as playing oldies can produce music that sounds a lot fresher than a lot of that tiresome indie stuff that keeps droning on and on.

Yak: Great prices, sucky service

Well over a month ago, my long-distance stopped working. When I called my carrier, Yak, they told me it was because I had switched to a competitor. No, I said, I haven't. They gave me a number to call to confirm my long distance carrier. I called: "Your long distance carrier is Yak."

Back to Yak. Turns out they'd cut me off because my credit card had expired, and they'd never bothered to ask me for the new expiry date. I gave them the new card number. It was declined. I called the bank and confirmed there was nothing wrong with the card. Not only that, the bank guy said that when a transaction is attempted and declined, it shows up in their system. There was no transaction showing -- meaning the Yak person hadn't run the transaction properly. I was shocked to hear this, considering I'd had to repeat the card number three times for her, slower each time, and trying to remain polite as she hesitantly repeated the numbers back to me, with varying degrees of accuracy.

I tried emailing Yak. Ha! No acknowledgment of receipt. I figured it went into the vast junk bin where all those "info@" emails go.

Eventually, I got my long-distance running again (I was using a phone card in the meantime), after confirming that I wanted to "switch back" to Yak. (At this point it seemed hopeless to try to explain I'd never switched away.) I was told it would take 5 business days. A week later, still no long distance. When I tried to make a call, I got taken to the music you hear when you are on hold at Yak. I called customer service. I was told the problem was that I had not informed my previous long distance carrier I wanted to switch away from them. There was no previous carrier, but never mind. I was on the phone with perhaps the one competent person at Yak customer service. She actually opened my file and realized the company was still blocking my access because of the old, expired credit card. Voila.

It was all just a bad memory. Until yesterday, when I received an email -- twice -- from Yak customer service. Apparently the automated response to emails sent to the black hole of "info@" kicks in after a month or so. Here is what it said (italics in original, my commentary in bold):

We apologize for the lengthy delay of answering your customer request. Due to the overwhelming popularity of our recently added yak products & services, we have been inundated with email and telephone inquiries. (Translation: we do not have enough customer service reps. We are apologizing, but we don't feel bad enough to actually do anything about it -- like hire more people. Plus: "delay of answering"? Huh?)

If you still have an outstanding customer service issue, please accept our apologies and contact us by dialing toll-free to 1-877-445-0835 or resend your original request to info@yak.ca. (We have ignored your original request. If you would like the illusion that there is a faint hope your problem will be solved, send it to us again. Bwa-ha-ha-ha!)

We appreciate your enduring patience during this exciting time.

That last line really got me. "Enduring patience" is probably more apt than they realize. But "exciting time"? Exciting for whom? I tell ya, I am filled with excitement waiting for them to actually solve the problem they caused. And I am sure the poor souls in their call centre are brimming with excitement trying to do the work for which they have clearly not been trained.

Zippy goes all alternative weekly

I think Bill Griffith is bang-on with this Zipppy the Pinhead comic -- taking the piss out of so many lousy comics that run in "alternative" weeklies (many of which are owned by very well-funded corporations, including those running daily newspapers). And he does it all in three little panels, with only 8 words. Brilliant.

Randomness and bad art are poor substitutes for humour.

Amazingly (especially given his predilection for adopting a variety of drawing styles when it suits the comic), Griffith reports that he got emails from readers wondering if "I'd abandoned my usual drawing style for the trendy minimalist look."

If you are a Zippy fan, make sure to sign up for the strip of the day, and get the ol' Zipster delivered straight to your inbox daily. If you want more from me, I wrote about Zippy (briefly) in this post.

Thanks to Bill Griffith for permission to post the comic.

Reader's Digest courtesy testing

The November 2007 issue of the Canadian edition of Reader's Digest has a cover story on courtesy in cities across the Canada.

I was one of the researchers who worked on the story, spending a couple of days with one of the magazines editors walking through doors, dropping papers on the ground and buying small items in shops. The point was to see if people would hold the doors, help pick up the papers, and thank us for our purchases. The cities I worked in were St. John's and Halifax.

The first few times I had to look like a goof by scattering a sheaf of papers, I felt pretty self-conscious. But eventually I got used to it -- and even began to have fun.

The magazine has put some behind-the-scenes stuff on their website, as well as this video from Halifax. (I'm the one in the black jacket dropping papers in front of the city's main library.)

One of the interesting things about working on this project was seeing how everyone came up with an excuse for why they hadn't been courteous, often beginning with "I usually am." I actually quite liked the young guy with the backpack who failed to help me. Even though he made excuses, he'd started off by saying, "Oh, I'm an ass!" Then he told us he was from Montreal.

Bob Dylan quote of the week

This one -- the opening of Blind Willie McTell -- sets a tone of Biblical prophecy. I want to know what "this land" is. Not the US, because it extends to Jerusalem. Probably all of modernity.

Seen the arrow on the doorpost
Saying, "This land is condemned
All the way from New Orleans
To Jerusalem."

So-called

I don't understand why propaganda efforts rely on the phrase "so-called" so often. Do they think that denying that something is called by its real name makes it less effective? Don't they realize it tips off anyone paying attention to the fact that they are engaging in propaganda?

China is upset about the Dalai Lama being awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. The Associated Press reports that

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said that "China resolutely opposes the U.S. Congress awarding the Dalai its so-called Congressional Gold Medal, and firmly opposes any country or any person using the Dalai issue to interfere in China's internal affairs."

I think it's probably safe to say that the name of the Congressional Gold Medal is factual. It is, in fact, called the Congressional Medal of Honor. I am at a loss to understand how anyone would think that trying to cast doubt on its legitimacy by using "so-called" weakens it.

Toothbrush inspiration

Have you seen the old-school Oral-B ads on TV for the $29 toothbrush? ($29! I still feel like I'm being ripped off if I spend more than about $3.)

In the style of a Viagra commercial, the ad features lots of singing and smiling people (but with an emphasis on white teeth). The ad copy slides by as a kind of reassuring background, hitting some of those scientific-sounding notes without putting lots of guys in lab coats on the screen.

My favourite of those lines: "Inspired by dentists..."

Got that? Inspired by. The toothbrush doesn't have to be designed by dentists, or specifically recommended by dentists. It is inspired by dentists. Dentists are its muse. Or its designers' muse. How inspiring.

Doing the math

I don't pretend to understand the intricacies of the mixed proportional/first-past-the-post system rejected yesterday by Ontario voters, or even to have an intelligent opinion (other than thinking that seat counts and popular vote results should be closer to each other).

However, I note the following:

• McGuinty's Liberals won 71 of 107 seats. They did this with 42% of the ballots cast. (Voter turnout was less than 50%). The party's popular vote dropped, but their seat count went up. Headline on the front page of The Globe and Mail's website: "McGuinty cruises to victory."

• Electoral reform -- which was considered marginal at best not all that long ago -- received the support of 54% of the voters. This is a far greater number than supported the Liberals. Globe subhead? "Electoral reform soundly rejected."

New feed

I've changed the feed settings for this blog, and made it easier (I hope) to subscribe. This shouldn't affect any existing subscriptions. If it does, please accept my apologies -- and I hope you'll drop by and hit the new subscription link to stay up-to-date.

Rick Mercer and paying for free content

In the September 2007 issue of The Walrus, Jon Evans makes the case that writers ought to be putting their content free online, and that this will not hurt book sales.

He points to the music industry to illustrate the point. Anybody can download as much music as they want, risk-free, for free, by doing it at a public location (say a library that's a Wi-Fi hotspot, or an Internet cafe). Even doing it from home is almost risk-free, given the tiny number of people charged with pirating music. Yet, millions and millions of dollars are spent annually on purchasing digital music. (Not just that, but digital music that often has digital rights management limiting what you can do with that music built in.)

Evans also points to the case of The Java Tutorial:

Online reference works can make use of endless space for appendices, unlimited full-colour graphics, examples that run on the user’s screen, discussion boards, and chat rooms. Given this interactivity and timeliness, why would anyone want to buy, say, The Java Tutorial onpaper?

And yet people do. The book is a worldwide bestseller for technical manuals. The physical Java Tutorial is, compared to what’s freely available and downloadable online, limited in scope and out of date; but its readers — overwhelmingly web programmers — purchase the bound sheaf version anyway.

For years, I was convinced that having your content available free online was a bad thing. I still think there are circumstances in which it is a bad thing -- say, when a freelance writer owns the copyright, but a publication (like a newspaper) is profiting from the sale of digital versions of the work without the writer seeing a penny.

I also think that providing free content to major media -- which more and more people are happy to do -- makes it harder for anyone in the business of creating to make a living.

At the same time, reading something online and reading a book are clearly different experiences. And that brings us to Rick Mercer.

Mercer's new book, The Rick Mercer Report: The Book, is #3 on the Globe and Mail's bestseller list a week after its release. Clearly, many of us are willing to buy it, even though most of its content is freely available online, on Mercer's blog, and on his TV show's archive site.

Buying a book like this is like buying a collection of comics. Who wants to clip Zippy the Pinhead every day (or Baby Blues, if that kind of thing turns your crank)? Or store post links in a feed reader for permanent reference? Or continually return to bookmarks? You liked it the first time, you want to return to it again, and it's handy to have it all in a book to which you can easily return anytime.

Top 25 documentaries

The International Documentary Association has published their list of the Top 25 documentaries of all time. I've only seen seven of the films (Hoop Dreams, Bowling for Columbine, Gimme Shelter, Super Size Me, Don't Look Back, Fahrenheit 9/11, and Woodstock) so I've got a ways to go.

I'm surprised to see Fahrenheit 9/11 on the list, because I thought it was a sloppy and sometimes incoherent piece of work. Powerful, yes, but powerful in the way Spielberg movies are powerful. You feel moved, until you start to feel icky for having been manipulated.

Some of the other documentaries on the list have been on my want-to-see list for far too long.

Writin' your life away

The CBC is running a contest called Canada Writes. One of the rights the Writes people want (you agree to it by entering) is that contestants waive their moral rights.

Here's what I wrote the CBC about it, not that I expect it to either make a difference or get me a response.

The Rules and Regulations for Canada Writes include the following sentence:

"By entering the contest, each participant shall waive any and all moral rights over his/her entry."

I can understand that every legal department wants to protect itself from every circumstance, but I cannot understand why CBC would insist on this right.

Moral rights have no financial value. They include a) the right of the creator to be identified as such; b) the right to the integrity of the work (so that it is not altered or mutilated in a way that damages the creator's reputation); and c) the right of the creator to refuse to have the work used in a way that damages his or her honour or reputation.

The CBC does not require any of these in order to run its competition. Once a creator has given up moral rights, the CBC could, conceivably, sell contestants' entries to advertisers, publish entries written by one person under another's name, or mashup entries until they were unrecognizable.

There would likely be an outcry if the CBC did any of these things. So why insist that people give up the most fundamental right related to something they have created? It is obnoxious.

If it is too late for this year, perhaps the rules could be revised prior to next year's competition. I can't imagine anyone who truly understood the impact of waiving moral rights wanting to enter.

Will the moral rights clause stop people from entering this contest? Yeah, right. But it lowers the bar even further -- like, below the floor -- when it comes to acting decently. Once enough people sign over these rights it becomes no big deal. And it should be a big deal.

Have I signed away moral rights in the past? Yes, occasionally. But only if I really, really trusted the clients and I was getting paid generously. I've also successfully fought off moral rights clauses in freelance writing contracts before.

Bob Dylan quote of the day

I won't keep this up forever. Maybe it should become the Bob Dylan quote of the week. Today, an incoherence/brilliance mix that does what he does best: sets mood.

Ain't nothin' left here partner, just the dust of a plague that has left this whole town afraid
From now on, this'll be where you're from
Let the dead bury the dead. Your time will come
Let hot iron blow as he raised the shade
"Foot of Pride" from The Bootleg Series Volume 3

Will I end up in the money?

This year's hockey pool picks. Year after year, I ignore St. Louis and Alfredsson. Will that finally work in my favour?

Sidney Crosby, Evgeny Malkin, Marian Hossa, Vincent Lecavalier, Maxim Afinogenov, Marc Savard, Jaromir Jagr, Michael Nylander, Scott Gomez, Dany Heatley, Jason Spezza, Joe Thornton.

Nicklas Lidstrom, Sheldon Souray, Chris Pronger, Lubomir Visnovsky, Sergei Gonchar, Tomas Kaberle.

Martin Brodeur, Roberto Luongo

Bob Dylan quote of the day

So many weird and wonderful song lyrics. Let's enjoy some of them.

Today:

"He can ride down Niagara Falls in the barrels of your skull"
from "Man of Peace", Infidels

Why I hate Purolator

Here's how FedEx works. When someone sends me a package with FedEx, the company's local driver comes to my house to deliver it. It used to be that if I wasn't home, they would call me to see if I would be around soon so they could drop it off. If I wasn't, they would come back the next day. (Now the way it works is they leave it in a pre-arranged spot whether I'm home or not.) When I want to send something via FedEx, I call them and they come pick it up. Or I take it to the local drop, and they pick it up from there.

Here is how Purolator works. They come to my house with a package. If I'm not home, they don't try to deliver it again. Instead, they leave a note saying the package is available for pickup at their local agent. Is their local agent the post office? You know, an outlet of Canada Post, which actually owns Purolator and has convenient hours, like opening at 8 AM?

No, their agent is a local business that sells wine and beer-making supplies and bottled water, and offers dry cleaning and a Sears pickup service. They open at 10 AM most days.

I take the note off my door, and naively head down to the local agent to pick up my package. "Oh no, it won't be here today. He'll drop it off when he comes back tomorrow." Because they only open at 10, of course, if you have a job in the city or somewhere else to be that takes you out of the community earlier in the morning, you are screwed.

How about using Purolator to send packages? 1) Go to the post office (a branch of the corporation that owns Purolator, remember). 2) Hand over the package. 3) Be told that Purolator won't deliver to that address. 4) Listen to suggestion that maybe the UPS store or the local weird little bottled-water-and-whatever store might know if there's a way to get Purolator to deliver that address ("They really don't tell us anything about Purolator") and 5) Send package using another company before 6) Remembering to ask clients to please use FedEx instead.

Late 60s Spiderman

Posted this on my other blog, but I figured it belongs here too.

I recently read a collection of old Spiderman comics, dating from the 60s. This was the era that gave birth to lots of the villains who've been in Spidey's world ever since (or until recently). I'm talking about sweethearts like Doc Oc, the Green Goblin, the Kingpin and Kraven the Hunter.

There are also tons of totally forgettable villains who appear for an issue or two and never come back again. Guys like Blackie Drago, aka the second Vulture.

A few things really struck me about these comics.

1. The stories are set in New York City, but it's a New York with no Jews and almost no Blacks.
2. Inventiveness! Stan Lee and his gang could come up with villain after villain after villain. Awesome.
3. Boy Peter Parker spends an awful lot of time worrying about poor, frail Aunt May.
   
4. Sound effects. When I write the Daisy Dreamer comic I am not great at doing sound effects. They wind up being things like "Pop!" But Stan Lee -- Stan Lee strings letters together that look crazy on the page, but work as sounds. Words like Bzok! and Spanng! and Btok! I think reading the sound effects was the most fun I had with these comics.
   

And now, just for fun, someone's list of Spidey's 21 worst villains here.