A MATTER OF PRIDE

In this week's Now Magazine is a four-colour supplement titled "Pride Guide 2010". Needless to say, I spent some time scrutinizing the welcome addition to my magazine rack.

What struck me about the abundant photos was that snaps of revelers (posing for the camera) from past Pride Days depict people who generally don't exactly fit the bill or stereotype of those who look as though they spend a lot of time in the gym -- lots of extra weight and handles for careful handling. Of course, the "dedicated" adverts show engaged men who are rather buff and toned; in addition to looking as though they cannot wait for the photographer to leave the room.

Back to my guide...


(Now I know why I get hit on all the time.)

KEVIN COSTNER'S OIL SPILL SOLUTION

A friend sent me this link a few minutes ago...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4eSqSu2hWk

Actor Kevin Costner invested 20 million dollars of his own money into a device which looks like it gets the job done -- that of cleaning up oil spills.

I really don't get the feeling that the major oil spill happening in the Gulf of Mexico right now is being treated as a major problem, which it clearly is. "Oh, let BP be responsible for capping the pipe and containing the oil." (The oil is forming "oil clouds" under water. This is so great.)


(As I told my friend who sent me the link, I guess I have not seen Kevin Costner in quite a while. To me he now looks like an executive from Citibank, or something.)

WORLD CUP ON CBC - WEBSITE

About forty minutes ago I felt some pangs of guilt as I popped on the tube to watch World Cup Soccer action on the CBC. South Africa and Mexico are playing. While I allowed my optical receptors to scan the television, I made sure my work was getting done on my laptop. (Laptop: The machine of everything.)

Then I remembered that the CBC has games streaming live on their site (http://www.cbc.ca/). By flipping the double-throw-switch, I made the big change-over to my laptop. Technology!

A lot less power consumption, too. Go South Africa!


(After turning on the television to watch the game I could not help but notice the constant and loud droning sound emanating from my speakers. The noise could be best described as sounding like a bunch of giant bees hovering over the football stadium. In fact they are "vuvuzelas".)

FOX-LIKE NEWS CHANNEL IN CANADA?

Run like a Fox. Whatever.

Quebecor -- for you non-Canadians, a big and rich company -- is bidding to start a Fox News kind of station to promote the 'fair and balanced' right wing television perspective in our wonderful land.

Fine. I'm all for freedom of speech. What mixes up such a pure and noble idea is that the typical right-winger actually does not like freedom of speech -- hence their hatred of the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). Show two sides to any given story and you are not fair and balanced. Show one side only, of course the right side, pushed with single-minded ferocity, and things are just hunky-dory.

Here's a toast to another possible station which I will not watch... I don't have cable.


The news from a real newspaper...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/quebecor-eyes-fox-news-style-tv-for-canada/article1598301/

CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS WIN STANLEY CUP

The Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup tonight. I'm pretty happy. Not only did I want them to win tonight so they did not have to go back to Chicago for that deciding game seven but also because I did not want the NHL's 2009-2010 season to go on a minute longer. It was way too long; as it is every year.

As much as I love ice hockey, June is not the right time of year to be deciding who wins sport's most beautiful trophy.

FIFA World Cup Football starts Friday! Go Deutschland!

G20 GO HOME!

At the very real risk of producing an editorial in the style of Earl Camembert, I have something important to say...

Toronto will be hosting the upcoming "G20" Summit and already things are ugly, including a security cost of over 1 billion dollars. (You read that right.) "Over one billion dollars." And sure to go up; way up.

The funny thing is, the G20 members are not welcome here in the Big Smoke. Not only that, but stories have come out that some leaders are inquiring about where they can catch some World Cup Football action. Well, I've got an answer for them: They can watch it at home!

Where's my garden hose?...

BALOK'S ALTER EGO FOR SALE

I missed this in yesterday's Toronto Star...
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/television/article/819305--salem-making-a-bid-for-stardom

Props and costumes, many of them iconic, from various movies and television series are up for auction this coming Thursday to Saturday. Everything from Star Trek to The Sopranos is on the block. I bid 20 Quatloos on the Balok alter-ego-puppet from "The Corbomite Maneuver"...

CANADIAN NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION

I am a newspaper reader. And I admit it. Also, I consider myself to be a media watchdog.

Part of the fun for me is knowing who the owners are of the various papers and predicting which way a given columnist will lean, politcally, based on who he or she answers to.

Toronto area residents will not find the following to be "news", but for those who are not, this is a breakdown: As a general rule, the National Post and the Toronto Sun are both very right wing -- in U.S. terms, more right-of-centre but the leaning is there. The Toronto Star is left for sure, with its focus on social policy and the plight of the poor (which is a good thing). The Globe and Mail is a mix. While it is by far and away my favourite of the Toronto dailies, it is typically conservative being 'the paper of business', and its editorial spewings are not often in synch with my own. But contrary to what a left-wing chum of mine said, the Globe and Mail does not ignore social concerns. Even I have been amazed at what appears in its pages. What I like is the Globe's level of writing... especially in regards to analysis.

The Canadian Newspaper Association (www.cna-acj.ca/en) publishes circulation and ownership data. Check out pages 14-18...
http://www.cna-acj.ca/en/system/files/2009CirculationDataReport_1.pdf

GWYNNE DYER'S WAR

After my previous posting about writer Gywnne Dyer, I decided to bounce over to Youtube to see if anyone had uploaded any episodes of the 1983 Canadian television documentary miniseries, War.

Indeed...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCAOlDwCKiE&feature=related

The link is for the first episode, "The Road to Total War". I've noticed that a few other episodes are there... maybe the whole thing is viewable.

These are the episodes...

1. "The Road to Total War"
2. "Anybody's Son Will Do"
3. "The Profession of Arms"
4. "The Deadly Game of Nations"
5. "Keeping the Old Game Alive"
6. "Notes on Nuclear War"
7. "Goodbye War"
8. "The Knife Edge of Deterrence"


Brilliant series.

THRILLER OF DVD DETAILS

As I posted previously, the 1960s television series Thriller is coming out on DVD on August 31st. And it's a slam-bang of a home-video production containing not only the entire series (two years worth) but a whack of extras such as 29 separate episode audio commentaries, and select isolated music and effects tracks.


The details...
http://tvshowsondvd.com/news/Thriller-Complete-Series-Press-Release/13763