Heres an Idea for solving the Iraq situation

Some nutjobs in Iraq are giving the USA a 30 day truce on the condition they abandon their bases and leave Iraq.

Heres an idea, straight out of Star Trek, have some sort of self destruct sequence so when the Klingo--I mean Iraqis take over the base, kaboom! Then we steal their bird of prey and travel back in time.

I never thought I'd rant against Don Cherry, but for once he's actually gone too far. In this case, he's insulted the people who if they didn't exist, he wouldn't have his salary. The fans.

Now, I didn't watch Coaches Corner, as, unfortunately, I was busy christmas shopping and christmas shopping is more important than watching yet another crappy crappy pointless leafs game (I'd rather watch Anaheim play Pittsburgh than watch the Leafs play anybody) And, as a side complaint, Don Cherry's finally available in something other than RealVideo. It's about time, CBC. freakin Realvideo. honestly. Anything was better than that crap. Still its amusing that they can't get the rights to show NHL clips online. Wow. You can't even see online the clips that Don is discussing. Hey, NHL, it's a freakin CLIP. ITS FREE ADVERTISING FOR THE NHL. Man the NHL is really run by idiots. The CBC too, but we all know that. It's an interesting case study, an organization run by hippies, and an organization run by lawyers, and they amount to the same thing.

But that's irrelevant. We're talking about Rory Fitzpatrick. Now, I know Don didn't call him a Joke, but he's saying people are looking at this as a joke, and he's saying the NHL is NOT a joke. This is where I disagree. The *NHL* IS a joke. What with teams in cities that shouldn't have them, what with the league not wanting teams to move into Canada wheras doing less than nothing to prevent the opposite. What with everything Bettman has done over the years and is still planning to do in the next few. That people don't respect the institution enough anymore to vote overpayed millionaires to an all star game in Dallas. Why even have a vote then? Why not just pick whoever has the best stats and just automatically send them? The vote exists because the NHL wanted people to feel involved. Which is a surprisingly valid thought coming from those in charge of the NHL. I voted for Rory a few days ago. I ended up voting for a bunch of other players I wouldn't have even bothered voting for if I didn't feel like voting for Rory. Because of Rory, Teemu Selanne got another vote. Because of Rory, people are actually paying attention to a hockey game being played in the southern united states.

Rory IS an all star. He's an all star enough to play in todays NHL. If you say otherwise, it implies the quality of the game has gone downhill. He's no Wayne Gretzky, he's never going to try to sell me McDonald's Big Mac's, or a new car, or season tickets to a hockey team playing in a desert.. But to us fans he's an all star because he makes a living playing hockey. He's an all star because we say he is. He's a step away from being one of us, working our hum drum day to day jobs living our lives. The fans jumped on this bandwagon for a reason. Perhaps they're implying the league has become a joke, perhaps they're just having fun and poking fun at the apparent seriousness of the All Star game (Which should really just be a party celebrating the sport people enjoy watching and playing)...

In fact, Personally, I've never cared about All-Star games. I don't even think fans particularly care much about the All-star game either. If we want to watch the best players in the world play each other, thats what the Olympics are for.

Plus, for the record, we're not laughing at Rory. We like Rory. He knows how to have fun. We're laughing at all of you who are taking this so seriously. It's just a game, you know.

As for Cherry's line "They never saw him play, how could they say he's an all-star?", well, don't get me started on overrated Leafs players getting more recognition and fame than they deserve on account of the CBC.

Rocky Balboa (Rocky VI)

I went to see Rocky Balboa, it wasn't bad. It was better than Rocky V, and on par with Rocky's II through IV. It had a sympathetic plot, and was reasonably entertaining.

The actual fight scene was rather a letdown. Just didn't get me into it like any of the previous Rocky movies. I was also dissapointed at the lack of Mr. T. I mean, c'mon how hard would it have been to throw a Mr. T cameo in there. And no Eye of the Tiger either.

So Rocky is old, Adrian is dead, and his kid is still a putz. Rocky want's to fight a little bit more, nothing big, but then opportunity knocks and he gets to fight the world champion who nobody likes in a glorified sparring match that turns serious as Rocky shows he still has heart.

If they make Rocky VII (Adrians Revenge) they should make sure Stallone is replaced by a CGI Rocky. It'd look slightly more realistic than what they came up with. I'm sorry but Sly's gotten a few too many facelifts and botox injections and his face is starting to fall apart like Michael Jacksons.

So, not a bad movie like Rocky V, but it could have stepped it up a notch if they really wanted to. All in all, a better end to the franchise than Rocky V. Still they should have called it Rocky VI - Rocky Balboa.

and for those who are never sure which Rocky movie is which, here you go:

Rocky - the first one. he loses.
Rocky II - the second one - he wins
Rocky III - Mr T and Hulk Hogan!
Rocky IV - Rocky defeats communism
Rocky V - Rocky fights some punk
Rocky VI - Rocky is old.

Christmas Shopping Fa La La La La La LA La sucks

Well today I finally went out christmas shopping. I hate christmas shopping, my immediate family has everything they really need that I want to buy them (I refuse to buy clothes as I have no sense of style or taste, or Jewelery or Cosmetics for the same reason)

I went to a couple "big box" stores like Futureshop, where I learned about Satellite radio. XM doesn't carry CBC but sirius does, all of them feature "commercial free" radio, but when it comes to making it a worthwhile present (like having radio stations playing music or news from european countries where my parents come from) then they both fail. Plus, you can't really carry it around with you. Theres no real value in satellite radio aside from if you drive into the country a lot. Or if you really really really like commercial free world music, or perhaps you like to listen to hockey or baseball games.

I went to CD Plus, where I saw the new Simpsons season 9 DVD. I haven't bought them since they came out with the season 6 homer head style DVD case which I REFUSE TO BUY. I don't care if I can mail in for the old style DVD case which is what I heard in a rumour somewhere, I wan't to buy it like that. I bought Back to the Future when it came out and I still haven't replaced the disc (though I want to) that was recalled for being full frame or something. I want it right the first time. Fox DVD (I presume its FOX as its a fox show) seems to have fixed it for the following seasons, but I cannot buy them until I buy season 6. You can see my dilema. So, I browsed around a bit and saw Kenny vs Spenny season 2 on dvd for $25. I was set to buy it at first, but for some reason the case made it appear that there was only two episodes on the dvd. Well, I like Kenny and to a lesser degree Spenny.. Just kidding Spenny stop googling yourself you putz. But I hate buying crappy DVD's. I'm a cheap Winnipeger and I demand value. Anyways I ended up going to Zellers and noticing that they have both season 1 AND 2 for $25 each. Plus I had a gift card for $20 off. Yet I couldn't bring myself to buy it just then. I don't know why. I'll have to eventually though as it's a great show and everyone should watch it. Plus I assume it won't run for 20 seasons like the Simpsons and that it'l be less of a hassle to get the complete set.

Anyways after that the mall started to close. At 9:30. Seriously, TOMORROW they're open til 11, but tonight, 9:30. Well I'm fucking busy tomorrow, Polo Park mall! Now I have to go to walmart or something thats open 24 hours rather than shop at the mall. Sigh. I really hate shopping at walmart too. It's just so welfare.

Speaking of welfare, I saw a grown man pick his nose for 10 minutes on the #11 bus today. Maybe longer, but I had to get off. Seriously, what did he think was up there, an alien nose implant? Yeesh.

And so I ended up finding two gifts. I'll end up buying, I dunno,those fake turtles "pecan clusters" or whatever. I hate real turtles cause they're all individually wrapped nowadays you can't buy the big box where you just grab them no, you have to waste time and unwrap each and every one. Fake turtles taste just as good anyways, so screw you turtle manufacturing company whoever you are. Nestle maybe. I dunno. Maybe throw in some cash. I'd feel bad if I didn't spend at least $30 per person, which I have yet to do. I'll probably get my dad $20 in Tim Hortons gift certificates, since he goes there anyways.

Anyways Merry Christmas!

Pittsburgh Penguins for sale, unless you're Canadian and want to move them north

I just came across news that Blackberry Billionaire Jim Balsillie has withdrawn his offer to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Apparently, the NHL wants the Penguins to stay where they are. They certainly don't want them moving to Canada. Of course, those Lawyers like Gary Bettman NHL Commisioner who have ruined the game had no problem with Canadian teams moving south to places like Phoenix, Arizona. They didn't even try to stop Hartford or Winnipeg or Quebec City's teams from moving.

Of course, this is probably fine for Gary and pals, if a team with talent like Pittsburgh moves, they want it to be to a nice US city, like Kansas City (where a current owner has an arena apparently) or of course, Houston.

Disgusting.

And the thing is, Balsillie has even stated that if a new arena is built he'd keep the team in Pittsburgh. Thats more than any American did for Canadian teams like Winnipeg, or Quebec City.

The day Gary Bettman was made Commisioner of the NHL is the day hockey stopped being entertaining. Just like the NBA where he came from is not entertaining.

Gary Bettman runs the NHL the same way George W Bush runs Iraq. And he's been getting the same results for years.

Looks like it's more of the same ol' same old stuff from this gang of fools.

Whats amusing is the asking price for the Penguins only got that high because Canadians were interested. As nice as it'd be to have an NHL team back in Winnipeg, these jokers don't deserve any success such a move might bring them.

I'm going to bitch about blogger. I switched to Blogger version 2 and it's what it is, but if I search my comicbook related blog at http://zone-of-surly-geekery.blogspot.com on googles blog search or bloggers blog search (which are the same thing) nothing happens since I upgraded to version 2. Yet this blog works fine. What is the deal? How will people find out how I feel about the latest comicbook starring Guy Gardner? Or The Legion of superheroes? I even sent an email to google and they have yet to email me back and thank me for notifying them of this. Plus some blogger version 2 pages seem to somehow crash Konqueror, my web browser of choice on Linux (I think its rendering engine is what safari for macOSX uses). Granted it's an older version and I could upgrade, but its still peculiar. I can always use firefox, which I do, but I just like konqueror better. Also I've found the google adwords interesting. If I'm ranting how much I hate the toronto maple leafs, theres a click on the adwords for the maple leafs! Google Adsense should be smart enough to know that people who hate the leafs don't want to buy leafs merchandise and look like the biggest tool on the planet. Honestly. Put some Habs merchandise there. Heck you can still buy Winnipeg Jets Jerseys and stuff on the internet (new too) even though it's been a decade since they moved closer to their favourite golf courses (Phoenix sucks) And thats it for my rant today.

PS: GOOGLE/BLOGGER EMPLOYEES. you're smart enough to solve stupid riddles, fix it so that my other blog propogates on the blog search engines like this one does damnit. Also heres a riddle for you. If X+2=4000, and a train is heading towards baltimore at 66 parsecs per hour, why aren't you fixing my damn blog yet?!?!? You have no time for riddles! Get off your damn ball chairs and fix it!

Canadian Television

Today I came across a blog written by Denis McGrath, Who eloquently stated what the problems in Canadian Television are. I will sumarize them in point form.

- Canadian television companies re-air American network television shows and profit from them, and don't want to waste time producing anything themselves.

- The Canadian Cultural Elite doesn't want to create Canadian television shows that Canadians want to watch. Anything that has caught on has been accidental. The elite want to create shows that they themselves want to watch.

- The CRTC does not care about Canadian culture, neither do Canadians.

- Canadians wan't to watch Canadian television, but theres nothing to watch.

Canadians like watching Corner Gas. It's amusing, we relate to it even if we're not from Saskatchewan. It makes people laugh, The characters resonate with people, and thats great. Canadian's also like to watch Trailer Park Boys for similar reasons. I like both shows.

I also like Dragons Den. I'm not able to watch it all the time, but its a fun show and pairing it with Venture as it seems they did, was a splendidly clever move. I also like Doctor Who on CBC but that's technically a BBC co-production but who cares, its Doctor Who. Doctor Who is above such petty mundane things as cultural identity and Canadian Content. I also like Kenny vs Spenny, a very clever show concept, and amusing to watch as well -- but I never know when it's on so I don't watch it.

What would get me to watch TV more often? Well, if there was OTA digital broadcasting in Winnipeg, I'd be watching the CBC more than I am currently (Channel 6 has far too much ghosting.. I hate Analog transmission.. Just switch everything over to digital already!!!!)

These companies in Canada, Cable companies and satellite companies and terrestrial broadcasting channels, are in the business of reselling what American's get for free and sometimes throwing us a bone or two of Canadian content. Paying lip service to the people of this country whose corrupt politicians granted them their monopoly or broadcast rights in the first place. The rise of the internet is hopefully scaring them (OTA broadcasters anyways) enough that they hopefully invest in content people want to see.

Frankly I think every major City in Canada should have digital standard definition broadcasting as of tomorrow. High Definition, while interesting, not a deal breaker for me watching Canadian content. Heck Canadians watch Trailer Park Boys and its filmed with handheld cameras apparently.

the CRTC has gone far too long scratching the backs of monopolists and not helping to ensure Canadian Culture survives in the globally connected digital realm.

Equal Marriage is still allowed in Canada. Sugar Twin marriage still illegal.

Well, Stephen Harper did what he said he'd do, have a free vote on the Gay marriage in Canada deal. Which is all most Canadians really wanted. Of course, those idiot NDP and Bloc Quebecois didn't allow their members to vote against the party line, and that gives the conservatives an excuse to revisit the issue one day in the future. Thanks, idiots. Did you really expect it to pass if you let people vote with their conscience? Honestly. I Personally don't care about the issue, though I live in a Conservative riding and my MP voted against Gay marriage (As is her right, she said she would, and she's entitled to her opinion just as gay people are entitled to theirs). Congratulations Gay people. Hopefully the conservatives don't turn things around just for fun and try to make divorce illegal for you guys.

Spirited Energy

In todays Winnipeg free press, which I only read out of desperation for something to pass the time, there was an article about Spirited Energy, Manitoba's crappy new slogan and waste of money.

Someone in the NDP, cabinet minister Eric Robinson, is, as per the article, "fed up with racist photos of aboriginals being forwarded by e-mail in Winnipeg and is asking Manitobans to put a stop to them."

"It saddens me," Robinson says. "It shows to me racism is alive and thriving in this province." Robinson believes if the community is aware the photos exist, Manitobans will be offended and will not pass them on if they receive them.

Racism eh. Let's look into this more closely.

Eric Robinson is the Minister of Culture, Heritage and Tourism. He is behind the spending of 4 million dollars (reportedly) on this blatant NDP advertising campaign. Of course, it seems to have gone horribly wrong, the only businesses who put any money into it are crown corporations who of course, have their profits taken by the NDP anyways so its a fair trade. An American company was of course, paid for the slogan itself.

Now, the picture in question (which I present to you here) shows 3 people, seemingly native, passed out at a bus stop.


Of course, I fail to see how it is racist. Because they are native? No, that makes it all the more IRONIC, someone is showing how hypocritical the NDP government is to spend 4 million on an innefective branding scheme when the reality of the situation in this city is we have people with far bigger problems than getting re-elected. It's ironic because every time I go downtown I see this sad state of affairs in this city. No, racist is trying to sweep such things under the rug by using labels and issuing false fatwas against people for calling you out, minister of culture, heritage, and tourism, Mr Eric Robinson. Want to talk about culture? How about that recent Pow Wow at the MTS centre. I saw people leaving the event accosted by street people, who after refusing to give them spare change were accused of being white. The ultimate insult, I'm sure. However, a daily inconvenience to Winnipegers and visitors to this city. Bravo on your waste of time, Mr Robinson. Good luck finding the real killers for OJ Simpson while you're at it. So is the spirited energy mock ad racist? I don't think so. Tactless? Maybe. Mean spirited? Sure. But hardly racist when it shows the reality of the situation certain people want to cover up.

The other picture, I hadn't heard of, So I went on a google search to find out. I could not find it. And I'm usually pretty good at finding things. Ah well. I would have posted the image simply to piss Eric Robinson off, if I had found it.

All That said, since when is being racist a crime? I doubt either photo was advocating hatred, so what is Eric Robinson supposed to be threatening in that article?

More from the article:

He has also asked his fellow cabinet ministers to ask staff members in their departments to report to their superiors if they are sent copies of these or any racist photos or e-mails.

He said maybe if that happens "we can track the offenders."

He has also engaged provincial technology support workers for help.
"I passed these on to the proper people here to see what they can do about tracing them," he said.

What is this, communist russia? I'm sure Comrade Eric Robinson wishes it were, but I fail to see what if anything he can do about such things. Although he'd be better off cancelling the whole spirited energy thing, making the drivers licenses actually pretty to look at instead of crappier looking than before, going back to the old buffalo logo that didn't look demonic, and maybe actually promoting culture and heritage in this province instead of trying to shut down peoples right to free speech.

Telus Mobility stole $50 of my money and insinuated I'm a criminal

I use Telus Mobility pay and talk, I have a rather old samsung uproar phone (because most of the current phones don't offer the right mix of what I wan't in a modern phone.. notably wifi and a clam shell that protects the screen from damage and mp3 all in one but that's neither here nor there)

This morning on my way to work I wen't to the local 7-11 to purchase a pay and talk "card" or printout in this case. They offer them in $10, $20, and $50 denominations, and I, having no time left on my phone, decided to splurge and get the $50 and not have to worry about my minutes over the holiday season.

Well I take my receipt and immediately punch in the numbers, and what happens? Why, it comes up as an invalid PIN. How in the world is that possible. The receipt itself states I had just purchased it a few minutes ago, and I had never gotten any air time from it. Telus now has $50, but all I have is a useless piece of paper. Whose fault is this? Mine? No. So I get through to Telus's so called "Customer Service" and have to go through a number of questions about where I live and what my home phone number is and whatever, you know what, that doesn't matter, FIX MY FUCKING PHONE SO THAT IT WORKS! I PAID for $50 of air time, give me $50 of air time. I didn't say what I was feeling right then, because you know, I'm not THAT much of an asshole. I'll give Telus time to look things through, besides I oddly enough had to work today, and was running late. Suffice it to say I ended up faxing a copy of my receipts to Telus and the guy who handled it in the morning said they'd be calling me back and fixing things. Ok fine, I've got work anyways.

So, it's been 8 hours of work, and no updates or anything from Telus. So I call them back. I get some guy with an attitude who tells me that NOBODY there is authorized to do anything and that the problem probably won't be solved (if it will) until the weekend. I paid $50 for a fucking PIN number that doesn't work, I can't return it to 7-11 cause they do not do that, and Telus won't give me my fucking minutes and is unable to figure things out over the weekend because they have to look into why their computer shit fucked up and gave me a faulty pin. Well

#1 : Why should I care why it gave me a faulty pin. I faxed the receipt, I paid $50, give me $50 damnit! or at least give me enough air time to last a couple days, it's not like you guys LOSE ANY MONEY by helping out a customer who just paid $50 to your company.

#2: Why should I have to wait all weekend for it to be fixed? ITS NOT MY FAULT! ITS YOURS! I BOUGHT THE CARD ON THE WEEKEND! FIX IT ON THE WEEKEND! I DONT CARE TO FIND OUT WHY IT DIDN'T WORK! I WANT IT FIXED AND YOU CAN FIGURE IT OUT ON MONDAY ON YOUR OWN TIME NOT MINE!

#3: Why is it so hard to get anybody to PROVIDE ME WITH ACTUAL CUSTOMER SERVICE! I asked not to get the runaround, I made it clear I would have none of the runaround, yet they insulted me by giving me the runaround.

#4: Telus is essentially implying that I am a criminal by calling me a liar. I paid for this air time and fulfilled my end of the bargain, they have their computers on their end and they're telling me they can't figure out that I purchased air time for $50 and that the pin was never accepted and they can't credit me with some air time? Why should I go buy another card when I already bought one?

So I'm fed up with this douchebag french guy who I've been reasonably nice to, he has no power to do anything, so I ask to talk to the highest ranking person there, who one would reasonably think would be able to make me, the customer, happy. Alas, no. First, he tells me they will call back. Ok, fine, I hang up and wait ANOTHER HOUR for them to call back. Then I get bored and call them back and get the french guy again, who says something like "oh you expected to get called back today? oh no they'll call you on monday" what the hell! So this time I'm adamant that I want to talk to the highest ranking person RIGHT NOW. THIS HAS GONE ON LONG ENOUGH. So eventually after 5 minutes of being on hold, I finally make contact with the fabled "Supervisor".. This sarcastic woman constantly read from the same script as the french guy, accused ME of going in circles (THIS seems to be a common TELUS line, don't give the customer what they wan't, then accuse THEM of being in the wrong for wanting what they paid for by saying that you're only going in circles) .. This woman, who claimed to be the supervisor named Christine (Employee ID # 7339) was completely unhelpful, telling me such lines to calm me down such as "ITS UNFORTUNATE YOU FEEL THIS WAY" "UNFORTUNATELY ITS THE WEEKEND!" (as if people who work on the weekend are inferior and incompetant.. oh no the weekend!) and of course "WE'RE GOING IN CIRCLES IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE I CAN HELP YOU WITH?" Well, you didn't solve the first problem. Let's solve that first, ok? Tell me why you haven't said anything helpful at all, instead you have been condescending, reading like a trained monkey from a script, been rude, and implied I'm a criminal for wanting a resolution to my problem that suits ME, the CUSTOMER. "UNFORTUNATELY THIS CONVERSATION IS GOING IN CIRCLES" well, whose fault is that, huh? You people stole $50 from me and won't give me what I paid for, and you're telling me the service is going in circles? gee, telus, thanks for fucking insulting me and then this woman has the nerve to hang up on me. Total amount of minutes spent on the phone with Telus: 40 minutes. Gee, you could have just given me 40 minutes of air time or something so I could use my phone over the weekend like I originally intended to. You know what else, when I asked for who to talk to at a higher level then her, she said look at the website. I've been to company websites, they're obfuscated. I wanted something a little more informative than that. I've wasted enough time talking to you I don't need to waste half my life looking over the website for a non existant company presidents email address that he doesn't likely read. Why would he? Obviously Telus has been around long enough that he's happy with the way customer service is set up. He's the one in charge. The only thing these people care about is bad publicity. Fortunately I have a blog that is read by tens of people. Hey Canadian media, feel free to quote my blog if you wan't to. I hereby grant you access to republish in whole or in part my entire rant against Telus and their obviously poor customer service and incompetant problem solving.

I plan to submit a complaint to the BBB and the CRTC (whatever good it'l do, bunch of useless liberal beurocrats) no matter how this turns out, but the worst part of this was how Telus treated me. They LIED to me, saying things would be fixed and then later telling me I have to wait til fucking monday. THEY WERE RUDE TO ME. THEY TREATED ME LIKE I WAS A NUISANCE. This is how Telus customer service works. They already have my money. That's why they don't care to talk to me. Digusting.

So to sum up:

Don't buy Telus pay and talk. If their service doesn't work, it's your fault. You're a criminal in their eyes, not a customer, and they couldn't care less about how happy you are with their service, as its your fault the conversation about your money is going around in circles. GOING AROUND IN CIRCLES.

Telus, this should have been solved as soon as I faxed my receipts and it was painfully obvious I was ripped off by you. It's one thing to blame the computers, but at this point it has nothing to do with computers and everything to do with your belief that customers are criminals, and your greed in not giving your customer service people anything more than an annoying insulting script to parrot to your customers. FOR SHAME.

Is it somehow unreasonable to expect to get what you pay for? According to telus customer service - Yes it is.

FUCK YOU BELL GLOBALMEDIA

Yes, you corporate big shots, guardians of canadian culture, owners of half this countries distribution networks for all media. FUCK YOU. FUCK YOU IN THE FACE.

Previous reader(s?) of my blog will note that I have referred to the movie "Death by Popcorn: The Tragedy of the Winnipeg Jets" in the past, pertaining to copyright and CTV (OWNED BY BELL GLOBAL MEDIA) and how this piece of Winnipeg history was salvaged by local artists when CTV and other such entertainment companies were throwing out all of this historical data into the BFI garbage bins.

As I don't read the Winnipeg Free Press (I truly refuse to buy another copy until they fire Lindor Reynolds and Gordon Sinclair Jr.) I missed this article about the final fate of "Death by Popcorn"

'To the BFI bin': local film will be destroyed
Sat Jul 8 2006
RANDALL KING - Winnipeg Free Press

IT looks as though L'Atelier national du Manitoba, the local collective responsible for the cheeky video Death by Popcorn: The Tragedy of the Winnipeg Jets, will destroy all copies of the work in response to CTV's hissy fit over its use of salvaged footage.

"(Death by Popcorn) will suffer the same fate as the hockey team it eulogized. It will be wiped from the face of the Earth, never to be seen again by anybody," vows collective member Matthew Rankin.

"It seems vaguely appropriate that a movie about an ephemeral hockey team made out of ephemeral video footage found in a dumpster should itself become an ephemeral work, doomed to the BFI bin."

Death by Popcorn screened without incident to sold-out crowds at Winnipeg's Cinematheque last year. But Rankin and collaborators Walter Forsberg and Mike Maryniuk have been compelled to pull the 60-minute video from From the Peg!, the festival of Winnipeg culture at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre, July 28-30.

At issue is the ownership of some of the video's raw material -- video news and promotional footage culled last year from thousands of discarded videocassettes L'Atelier saved from CKY's garbage bin.

"The issue is, they didn't receive written permission to use our material," Ken Peron, operations manager of CTV Winnipeg, told the Globe and Mail earlier this week. Rankin says L'Atelier received a "threatening letter" from CTV, demanding that they cease screening the project.

"Ken Peron did tell us we could keep showing the movie as long as the CKY excerpts were removed. But we've decided that it is better to simply let the film die rather than recut it according to corporate, rather than artistic, imperatives."

Yes, thanks to BELL GLOBAL MEDIA, FASCISTS AT THE SUBSIDIARY CTV, Canadian Culture is taking a step backwards! This obese and corrupt company wants to throw it away. They repackage and resell American television to us and throw us a bone like Corner Gas once in a while.
But should someone turn their garbage into art, they'll send the lawyers. What does Bell Global Media care about Winnipeg? What does Bell Global Media care about CANADA? NOTHING. They are PARASITES. They use the LIE of Canadian Culture and the CBC to ensure it remains so. They want to change the copyright laws to benefit American interests and have Canada remain a small player artistically forevermore.. because its in their best interests. You disgust me, CTV, Bell Global Media. Your lack of interest in this country should be made obvious to all who you profit off of. Your lack of interest in continuing Over the air broadcasts in major Canadian markets in favour of making yourselves a bell expressvu exclusive, well, maybe you as a company need to be broken up. Maybe THAT is in the best interests of Canadians. As I don't see keeping a company like yours together as beneficial as people who care about what they are doing preserving and promoting our Canadian Culture, while you as a company only have an interest in killing and profiting from the people of this country. FUCK YOU.

This is the best photo I've ever come across on the internets.

LEAFS SUCK!!!!!!!

HDTV in Canada - How the CRTC ruins canadian culture

Fark.com pointed me to a story at http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2006/11/24/hdtv-canada.html on the subject of HDTV in Canada. CBC's slant was obvious, CBC thinks that American competition is bad for Canadian Television and that we should not be allowed to watch american television.

The article basically quotes and spins what two University of Calgary professors, Bart Beaty and Rebecca Sullivan state - that Canadian interests are essentially too slow to adopt digital terrestrial broadcasting of their programming, leaving a majority of the HDTV programming American. This is blatantly true to anyone who has gone shopping for an HDTV in Canada (or alternately some sort of HDTV tuner)

the CRTC had issued a call for comments a while back, It slipped my mind, but truly the opinion of the average canadian citizen who knows anything does not matter, fortuitously some people managed to sift through the politico-speak on the website and submit their personal feelings.

Take the following statements in a letter to the CRTC posted to the crtc website (which is really poorly designed by the way.. bleh) by Jon LeBlanc, of Delta BC, one of few individual Canadians intelligent enough to understand the issues and one of the few people who submitted a comment to the CRTC on the subject who did not represent a media interest.

- OTA is the original method of TV broadcasting in Canada
- satellite and cable tv are just supersets of that
- satellite and cable companies have business plans that are based on value-added features over OTA
- they are not meant to replace OTA
- they offer quantity of channels over quality of signal reception, as OTA DTV is technically superior
- citizens do not owe private satellite and cable companies a living if their business plans are not able to keep up with modern technology
- citizens have the right to not pay for television service to their homes
I feel that the baseline of Canadian broadcasting is OTA, and so the adoption of digital OTA transmissions nationwide is not a want, but a need. I believe that Canada requires a specific, static, mandatory cutover date by which all analogue TV transmissions must be replaced by digital versions. Further, given the large savings in energy costs required to transmit digital television over analogue, I do not accept that broadcasters face ongoing higher costs of transmission, given that the new equipment is a one-time only expense. Many modern stations have already updated to digital studios and equipment since analogue gear is rapidly becoming obsolete, so it is my firm belief that complaints of higher equipment costs for digital transmission are red herrings. Thank you for considering my thoughts.

Jon LeBlanc
Delta, BC

Kudos to you, Jon LeBlanc. You are a HERO. A testiment to Democracy. I award you the first ever Reed Solomon Hero award for heroism. Congratulations. Everything he states in his letter to the CRTC is quoted for TRUTH. The CRTC is not interested in Canadian Television, nor are the media companies that exist in Canada interested in providing Canadian television. Theres no gauranteed profit in it! They want us to pay the cable or satellite companies in order to watch American television . They want to profit off american television.


How do we know this for certain? The public hearing on the future of television for all Canadians is being held in Gatineau Quebec. Why Gatineau Quebec? Who in Quebec watches American Television? This hearing should be taking place in Toronto or Vancouver or even in Winnipeg, where people watch American Television and want to watch it because Canadian television tends to be garbage, and as we already pay for the CBC through our taxes we should get digital over the air broadcasting.

At the same time, I must commend Shaw Cable, my own former cable provider (I still pay them for the internet but I found I just don't want to pay extra for any television I should be getting for free) for stating:

Consumers Should Not Have to Pay for What is Free Over-the-Air

Specialty and pay television services do not transmit free over-the-air and thus consumers understand and accept the logic of an associated fee. However, the signals of Canadian television stations are available to consumers free over-the-air. Canadians will resent and resist being forced to pay for these signals and many will find alternative sources of programming, including the black and grey market and web-based services. As a result, such measures will actually undermine the viability of all programming services.

Ken Stein of ShawCable is QUITE RIGHT about this, I WOULD RESENT having to pay for what I should be getting free over the air. I should NOT have to pay even for american signals that make it over the border. The frightening thing for broadcasters is that the digital signal stays clear for longer distances. They shouldn't really be frightened, as every Canadian watches these channels already. And if they are worried about the fact that it will eat into their advertising dollars by airing the same programming, well, thats your fault isn't it for not airing Canadian programming Canadians want to watch?

You know, I think if the big city television stations all switched to digital OTA tomorrow (nevermind HDTV, thats neither here nor there) most Canadians would be more than happy to watch their local Canadian channels. Cable and Satellite have been eating into terrestrial broadcasts for years because frankly, until now, the quality afforded sucked. Now all these companies want to control their profit stream to the detriment of the average canadian getting to watch what they want to watch. Well guess what, If I can't watch what I want to watch, I will download it, or find some other way. I can live without television. I cancelled my cable tv connection in february and I'm doing fine. Stop trying to gouge my wallet and start trying to create something worth paying for.

Salisbury House 75 cent tuesdays

The local restaurant chain here in Winnipeg, Salisbury house, is having 75 cent tuesdays all october and november in celebration of their 75th anniversary.. which is actually quite a remarkable achievement. So I've been eating there every tuesday the last few weeks, and I really can't wait til it's over as I'm going to gain weight at the pace I'm gulping down their burgers (they call them nips.. don't ask)

ah well ill have all of december to starve myself down to a respectable body mass.

Still, their promotion is working, I really do like their food and I just never really got into going there for some reason. Sure I've gone there on occasion but I never really put it at the top of my list of fast food restaurants to go to. Though it's not at the bottom, thats McDonald's. Can't even think of eating their food or I'll get flashbacks to when I got food poisoning eating there. I don't blame McDonald's more than I blame myself. Apparently they offer healthier food now.. meh. But this isn't a post about crappy McDonald's.. who used to have good tasting pizza, hotcakes that were edible, and reasonably tasty scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast. This was back in the 80's. Is that still the case? Nope, not anymore. Now they've got cardboard tasting crap. No, this is a post about salisbury house, a local institution. I wonder why they never jumped on the drive-thru bandwagon. If you're not from Winnipeg and ever end up here, check out Salsbury house, theres one in the middle of the footbridge by the forks near st boniface. It's a nice view.

Ignore the man behind the curtain!

wow my last post really was rather incoherant wasn't it. (I just read it for the first time) I had kind of a bad day after taking the bus and then reading an article with the spin that some UN group speaking in Kenya for some reason was whining about Canada winning some sort of poor environmental award and i just kindof went off on a rambling tirade for no reason. I've never been convinced that climate change is necessarily a bad thing by these scientists. It COULD be bad, sure, but we could be wiped out by, i dunno, the moon exploding tomorrow. The universe was here before humanity ruined it all, it'l be here long after. We're just an anomaly. We're a hemeroid on the universe and on a cosmic timeframe will be gone in the blink of an eye. So, please kindly ignore my previous post or take it with a grain of salt. I'm not letting Winnipeg transit off the hook, as they really do need separate compartments for disease ridden people and us healthy non morlocks.

Climate Change, Kyoto, Winnipeg Transit, and Canada

I Am not an environmentalist. I don't care what conflicting scientists data says about climate change. I don't care what activists with Greenpeace or politicians from countries that aren't cold 7 months of the year. Guess what, we need energy to keep warm, to type on our blogs, to keep food on the table, and to operate our neon lights above our mini bars. Maybe you, mister and mrs Kyoto, eat bean paste and live off the grid. Maybe you live in a country thats blessed with beautiful weather and no hippies and live in mud huts and that's great. But I don't. I live in Winnipeg, The only city in the only province where the outcome of climate change really doesn't make much of a difference. Floods you say? We have a freakin dike built around the city to divert excess waters. Floods happen naturally anyways. No, I don't give a crap about climate change. The climate has changed frequently over the history of the earth and your chicken little scientists won't easily convince me to abandon any of my poor environmental habits.

Consider this,

Non Environmental - Drive your car, get somewhere quickly and warmly
Environmental - Take a bus, get their after half the day is done after waiting in the bitter cold for a bus to come cause you just missed it, plus theres snot nosed kids and gutter people coughing and sneezing and wiping their filthy germs on the rails, pissing themselves on the seats.

Yes, that is my sacrifice for the environment. Because I live in a city where you can't leave your car outside for any 4 hour period without some meth addict or underage troublemaker breaking your windows (thanks gutless socialist liberal laws) forcing you to pay at least a $200 deductible to replace them, I sold my car and take the bus. Yay.

Feh to Kyoto. Feh to David Suzuki who acts as if anyone who isn't screaming their heads off that the end is nigh is an idiot. Feh to Meth addicts who made it so the last time I got a cold cause I take the bus with disgusting disease ridden freaks, who are responsible for me taking the bus in the first place cause I hate replacing car windows, made it so that safeway can't freakin sell cough syrup when the pharmacist isn't there. The pharmacist doesn't watch for people anyways!!!!!! cause cough syrup is a major component of meth. Feh to people who are against euthenasia, as people who are so drug wasted are beyond redemption and should just be put to work in diamond mines up north or killed.

Should there be better laws on maintaining our environment? sure! But kyoto solves nothing. It's a tax on rich colder northern countries who use energy. Yes lets pay credits to some freakin island country who doesn't use energy cause they live in mudhuts.

Am I worried about polution in the earths oceans? Yes. How does kyoto stop this pollution? It doesn't. Am I worried about extinction of fishing stocks? Sure but Kyoto doesn't do anything about it. Passing law's against speeding doesn't stop speeding. If people think that the speed limit should be 70, they're going to go 70. Screw the speed limit (the other reason I stopped driving, god damn speeding/red light cameras.. anyone who destroys them is like Robin Hood in my books.. and anyone who thinks they stop speeding and save lives needs to be shot)

Yes I'm grumpy right now.

The CBC yet again

So I was listening to the CBC Radio this morning, all morning, cause I had nothing better to do. Every hour at the top of the hour they led the local news with a story about how for the Grey Cup festivities this year people who use the food bank will be given a special treat, dinner and tickets to watch the Grey Cup on the screen at the MTS Centre downtown. That's all nice and all, but who really cares? This is their lead story? Every hour on the hour people in Winnipeg gotta know that we're feeding poor people and treating them to a big screen presentation of the CFL game at a local arena? I don't get it. Why is this interesting? Why does the CBC have to do everything they can to make it seem like anyone cares about segments of society nobody cares about? That said, I'll say something nice about the CBC, they had some interesting shows this morning and Brent Butt from canadian TV series Corner Gas was there to promote some sort of book that I'm not going to read about Corner Gas.. and then Margaret Atwood was on as well, those were mildly interesting interviews, plus the fact that Brent Butt finally put to rest the rumour that CBC could have gotten Corner Gas (It was never offered to the CBC, it was only offered to CTV), because why offer something that has a chance of success to a television station that only wants to air uninteresting drama's (Aside from Doctor Who, the one good hour long show the CBC spent my tax dollars on)

Deoderant

There is nothing worse than trying to find a new deoderant. Right Guard Sport, Clean deoderant stick, seen here, is what I have found to be the most effective at keeping away the rank. Well, nobody sells it anymore. At least it doesn't look like it's the same stuff, it has a completely different packaging and probably a different formula. This stuff never gave me a rash (I'm looking at YOU, Speed Stick, in any case, I must say to Gillette, if you read my blog, I demand restitution. I will be calling 1-800-GILLETTE or visiting www.Gillette.com with a piece of my mind and If I cannot find a suitable replacement, I'm coming over there the minute my last stick of deoderant runs out (luckily I bought a couple extra last time I was at the store) and I WILL FORCE MY FILTHY STINKY SELF ON YOU. You have a RESPONSIBILITY as purveyors of such products to keep your existing customers like me smelling good and clean.

Dismantle the CBC

the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation continues to annoy the hell out of me. Based in Toronto, the least Canadian of all canadian cities.

In the first place, there was no Doctor Who on this week. Well now, what the hell was the point in coming home to watch Doctor Who if it's not on? Why can't they air a repeat on like Saturday morning or something. Back when the CBC wasn't completely run by out of touch Toronto elitist socialists, they aired entertaining stuff on occasion and made an effort to appeal to a broad demographic. Not anymore.

Secondly, I read here at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061101.wspttruth1/TPStory/Sports/columnists that the CBC won't be airing any CFL semi-final games in HDTV. Why? Because the precious Leafs play the day before and they only have one piece of equipment, and it's too precious to move all the way from freakin buffalo (where the the maple laughs will LOSE ANYWAYS) .. so two hours away and they cant lug the HDTV equipment to air something that will appeal to the rest of Canada because the CBC MUST air EVERY SINGLE LEAFS GAME on TV always in HDTV and nothing else.

Screw the CBC, they are inconsequential. They infuriate me frequently. They haven't produced television of any interest since Fred Penner's place, and I hated that show and word bird. Complete fools. Plus, you know what, It'd be nice to have the Friendly Giant on DVD. I'd buy that and I'm in my late twenties.

Hockey: A moonbats history on CBC

Well today I watched "Hockey: A People's History" , on CBC. Some sort of attempt to capitalise on the fact that they still have the contract for Hockey Night in Canada for a year or so more, they're milking it for all its worth. Normally I avoid watching the CBC, as it has become a bastion for really annoying politically correct stupidity. I had tried to watch the series last week, but it was basically a masturbatory celebration of the Toronto Maple Leafs, which coming from the publically funded crap that is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the same people that think HDTV broadcasts should be reserved for only the Toronto Maple Laughs, well.. I should have seen it coming. This week was supposed to feature the Summit Series, and the birth of the WHA. The Summit Series stuff was alright to watch, but the WHA was almost completely glossed over. Surely they would be aware of the book "The Rebel League" by Ed Willes a GREAT book and required reading for any Winnipeg Jets or Edmonton Oilers fan. I was very dissapointed in the rest of the show as well, some equal opportunity stuff about womens hockey. Normally I wouldn't have cared, but after the poor treatment of the WHA storyline, the womens hockey stuff went on for like 45 minutes. That's why nobody watches the CBC. Priorities not in line with what people care about. I'll watch it tomorow cause the new season of Doctor Who starts, and I'll be watching Corner Gas on the competing superior network CTV. So as of this moment CBC has two shows not produced by radical feminists or former Liberal backbenchers, Doctor Who and whatever the hell Rick Mercers show is called that I always kind of want to watch, but never do. Ah well, sooner or later the Conservatives will do something to make the CBC less annoying and CTV will get the Hockey Night In Canada contract.

Comicbooks and Movies and Manga and Media

Recently I've been stopping by the comicbook store and reading comicbooks again. Surprisingly enough, north american comicbooks are still being published, the generic superhero storylines from DC and Marvel. I've pondered the decline of the north american comic book in the past. Less and Less people in North America seem to want to have anything to do with comicbooks, they've got a nerdy stereotype to them, probably due to the fact that the major comicbooks sold in stores and shops are still Superhero comics. Certainly there are less well known comics out there, independant stuff thats interesting and decent quality. But Superheroes still own the north american comic culture. That, to me, is one of the reasons I think comics are seen as trash entertainment by the general populace. What is with the north american obsession with Superheroes? Spider-Man is a great character, batman is also interesting, Superman has a new movie out. All three characters get reasonably good box office numbers as films. But how many times can you read a comicbook where Lex Luthor is fighting superman in some sort of robotic suit? It just gets monotonous. These characters are owned by companies, and their four colour lives are dictated and manipulated by marketing people. In contrast, the Manga and Anime industry in Japan seems to have a lot of independant (and unique) creations more in the forefront than anything else. To be sure, they have elements of superhero comics. Dragonball Z could basically be seen as a Japanese answer to Superman (Adopted super powered alien grows up on earth and is incredibly powerful) , but if you watch it they aren't really superheroes in the same sense, wearing spandex and fighting crime. Gantz is a fascinating Manga about people plucked from just before death by a strange entity and forced to fight aliens/creatures that the rest of us cannot see, almost like a live action video game, the characters are given suits by the creature Gantz and sent on missions to destroy creatures living amongst humans. Are they superheroes? They have powers that transcend humans with their suits and guns, so they're definitely super, but are they heroes? Well they have saved people from the alien creatures, but they're not necessarily doing it for any noble goal other than that they're thrust into the situation and forced by the mysterious Gantz character to fight and regain their lives if they win enough points. These two examples are the closest to what we think of as superhero comics in North America. Manga covers a broader spectrum from Sports stories to horror to love and romance stories to comedies. And they're popular. But in North America comics are seen as a waste of money, or from the viewpoint of the major American movie studios, a test ground for popular movies. However, the independant artist and writer is unlikely to meet as much success as the average Manga artist might (I mean of course critical success and not necessarily monetary success). I postulate that the media being under the control of backwards thinking robots that don't take too many risks might be why.

We seem to be living in a society where culture and interesting things are eschewed for conformity. A recent article on the globe and mail had (though not necessarily comicbook related) an article about a local movie called 'Death by Popcorn: The trajedy of the Winnipeg Jets' entitled 'Who's killing Death by Popcorn'?, about a local Winnipeg group of folks known as L'Atelier national du Manitoba. These creative guys have gone around the city posting 70's posters of Guess Who musician Burton Cummings with the words "Stand Tall" on abandoned buildings. The first time I saw these things they immediately cheered me up, not knowing why it was being done (They just adopted his amusing 70's visage as their logo or calling card or something) I have yet to see the film (though I wish I could get a DVD copy or something!) but the article is about how they managed to salvage old media that the company CTV - Owned by Bell GlobalMedia, was throwing out. Old video footage from the 70's and 80's. Historic Winnipeg cultural stuff was going to be destroyed. So these guys salvaged this supposed 'trash' and made a few films out of them. Now that the film has been entered into a Toronto Film Festival Bell GlobalMedia seems to be angry that 'their' 'trash' is being used without their permission. Whats disturbing is that our government is being influenced by these media interests. Newspapers, Music Cartels, Media Cartels all owned by the same government granted and backscratched corporate types, who want to stifle the next age in creativity by adapting crippling copyright legislation that will destroy anything creative, destroy the public domain, make it so that if a wedding photographer is hired for your daughters wedding you don't own the rights to the photos (and you hired him and paid him!) make it so that you can't create a HD-DVD on your home computer without pointlessly expensive technology rather than Linux. These Cartels want to own everything and meter is out to us and tell us which hootie and the blowfish or some other crappy band to like today. Which bad movie we should be watching. Force us to run Microsoft Windows because we can't reverse engineer it. Sell our souls even moreso to the american entertainment machine, who are the ones really pushing for these disgusting copyright reforms, as they are the ones who benefit since they have the leverage of having one of the largest english speaking media markets out there. And yet, the disneys and Warner Brothers of the world would never allow some story about the Winnipeg Jets to appear in american theatres.

Yes, that is my conclusion, we are at a crossroads here in Canada with regards to copyright and patent legislation, and how our country stifles creativity amongst the creative. And Canadians are very creative people if given a chance. Yet the Liberals wanted to sell us off to the American Media interests, and the Conservatives, though slightly less corrupted and influenced by the media, still are interested in adapting a new copyright measure just as the Liberals here were. Yet both the tories and grits and even those idiot hippies in the NDP are equally ignorant about this issue, and equally frightened of it becoming an issue (They want this selling out of our culture through international treaty to be done quietly and gradually so that we dont notice our rights, as few as we have, being trickled away just as they have been stateside)

In any case, having postulated about why things media-wise are currently in the state they are in here in North America culture-wise, we now go back to comics. Comicbooks seem to be getting mildly interesting again to me. Especially my favourite superhero of all time, Green Lantern, or more specifically Guy Gardner, the brash complicated jerk of them all. (Though I do like all the Green Lantern Corps to some extent) The Green Lantern Corps as a sort of collection of space sherrifs has always appealed to me. For a time, as a gimmick to increase sales (which are probably worse off now as a result of the gimmick than improved) DC Comics destroyed the concept of the Green Lantern Corps, and Guy Gardner, who had his own comicbook at the time, was forced to go a peculiar character change whereby he was made into a half-alien hybrid that could morph weapons from his body. While not a bad idea in itself, the idea of turning him into an alien was idiotic. Guy Gardner was the most human of the Green Lanterns, in my opinion, having suffered brain damage, trauma, deceit from a close friend (Hal Jordan, his Green Lantern predecessor), being used by the Guardians of the universe, and later the destruction of the GL Corps at the hands of Hal Jordan (Probably Guy was the only person in the DC Universe not particularly surprised by his actions).. in any case, the group mind at DC didn't want Guy to have anything to do with the Green Lantern Corps anymore, but he was a popular character in his own right. So they gave him a backstory of being descended from aliens. I never got over that, and the comic just eventually ran out of steam as a result of what I believe to be this basic premise. And that, coming full circle, is why I think comicbooks and media in general have gone into decline in north america. Committee group based story writing, shock value for the sake of it. And yet, I have to give DC credit for realising their mistake after one and a half decades, and making Guy Gardner a green lantern again. Yet, here again there is no explanation other than that his DNA was being rewritten by the Green Lantern ring? Why?! Certainly I'm a creative enough person that I could speculate that he never was an alien at all. Listen, he had no powers until he drank from some strange vuldarian bowl of water and all of a sudden he's a vuldarian? Preposterous. Guy Gardner used the ring to keep himself artificially younger than his age and physically fit. Other Green Lanterns have done the same to lesser extents. So, the vuldarian thing he drank probably simply reacted to his DNA as a result of being altered and unreadable by Oan technology, namely the power ring. There, a simple excuse for the warrior years and his being a Green Lantern again. Also , he had a villain named Dementor who claimed to be his brother. What if this villain was a creature from the Alan Moore penned storyline which featured the Demons of Ysmault? He certainly looked like them and has impressive powers. What if he had some connection to these characters chained up by the guardians on a far away planet. I think such a premise would write itself, explain why the Guardians are wary of Guy Gardner the character (they wanted nothing to do with him until the Crisis on infinite earths storyline made healing him and giving him a power ring necessary.. why?)

Well, if you're not a green lantern fan, the previous paragraph is probably nonsense to you, but nevertheless that's what got me thinking about the sad state of affairs in regards to modern media and politics. Yes, Guy Gardner's status in the DC Universe has me thinking about the DMCA and culture and (though I didn't talk about it) the european union and downtown Winnipeg, but I'm not going to go into that today. Perhaps some other time.

Greetings Internet Friends!

Hello Internets and various other interlopers. I am Reed Solomon and this is my Blog. Here forthwith you will find my outlet for various rantings pertaining to things that are relevant. I reside in the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, where I have been made privy to the secrets of everything that ever was. It is a heavy burden, so fortunately the good google owned folks at blogger.com have offered me a free web site in order to alleviate this terrible albatros off my back like in the story of Atlas in greek mythology. Or Astro Boy. I can't remember, but I do believe he was covered in gold and the snow made machines go haywire perhaps. In any case, Stay tuned for creative writing, rants against stupidity, rants in favour of stupidity, nonsense, and perhaps news and made up personal stories about me.