Living with Oedipus for 15 years

By Alex Shimo - Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 9:30 AM - 0 Comments

Many great writers from Sophocles to Voltaire have tackled the Oedipus myth. More contemporary interpretations include a film with Christopher Plummer, an opera by Stravinsky, even a pop song by New York singer Regina Spektor. None has the ambition of a new version by Kingston, Ont.-based playwright Ned Dickens, who is currently staging the family history of Oedipus, which takes place over 150 years.

Dickens’s production is a logistical challenge (some might say nightmare). The epic involves seven plays, each based on a character in the story. The seven plays have been divided up and are being staged locally by Canadian theatre students at Memorial, York, Concordia and Simon Fraser universities, George Brown and Humber colleges in Toronto, and Langara College in Vancouver. The student actors will then fly to Toronto to put on the whole series, called City of Wine. The shows will be staged over three days and the complete cycle will run twice, back to back, from May 5 to May 9.

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Trial by fire, flood, and crocodile

By Philippe Gohier - Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 9:20 AM - 0 Comments

While raging brush fires continue to devastate southeastern Australia, the northern state of Queensland is trying to recover after being overrun by giant crocodiles and snakes fleeing the worst flooding in years.

An area of more than one million square kilometres was declared a disaster zone last week after flash floods damaged almost 3,000 homes in the area. The town of Ingham was completely cut off by the monsoon, which drove freshwater crocodiles into the streets and snakes into residents’ bathrooms.

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Has Chávez worn out his welcome?

By Rachel Mendleson - Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 9:10 AM - 0 Comments

When Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez took office in 1999, he invoked 19th-century Latin American hero Simón Bolívar, vowing to combat poverty and secure economic independence. Ten years later, Chávez is refusing to give up control as he reaches the end of his two-term limit. Ironically, his opposition has turned to Bolívar’s teachings to make its case. “Nothing is as dangerous as letting the same citizen remain in power for a long time,” reads the 1819 quotation in their flyers.

This Sunday, there will be a referendum on whether Chávez can run for re-election in 2012. Fearing the outcome, hundreds of thousands of protesters are flooding the streets to oppose yet another effort by their president to cling to power. The socialist leader’s supporters, meanwhile, are growing more militant, throwing tear gas canisters at the homes of detractors.

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Prescription drug costs soaring: report

By macleans.ca - Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 9:00 AM - 1 Comment

A report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) indicates that prescription drug spending is the fastest growing segment of health costs. In 2005, the bill for medication topped out at nearly $25 billion, the report shows. One expert notes that keeping costs to $20 billion for just one year allow us to hire 8,000 new doctors or 20,000 nurses or fund programs which might have a great effect on Canadians’ heath. Prescription drugs account for $8 of every $10 spent. The bill for these medications is growing at a rate of $2 billion annually, and has doubled since the late ’90s. According to the report, there are major regional variations in the amount of money spent. Ontarians dole out $837 on drugs per capita per year compared to just $482 by Nunavut residents.

Canwest

Obama's Ottawa visit — in pictures

By macleans.ca - Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 9:00 AM - 2 Comments

Click here to see the photos from Obama’s Ottawa visit.

Bestsellers

By Brian Bethune - Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

Top-selling fiction and non-fiction titles (week of February 17th, 2009)

Fiction
1    THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND  POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY  by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows   1 (5)
2    THE ASSOCIATE by John Grisham    2 (3)
3    FOOL by Christopher Moore    (1)
4    A MERCY by Toni Morrison    5 (9)
5    THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE   by Alan Bradley  (1)
6    2666 by Roberto Bolano     4 (9)
7    THROUGH BLACK SPRUCE by Joseph Boyden    9 (23)
8    THE WOMEN by T.C. Boyle    10 (2)
9    THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON  TATTOO by Stieg Larsson   7 (20)
10    THE HOUR I FIRST BELIEVED  by Wally Lamb   3 (6)

Non-fiction
1   OUTLIERS by Malcolm Gladwell    1 (12)
2   SHOCK TROOPS  by Tim Cook  (1)
3    THE ASCENT OF MONEY  by Niall Ferguson        2 (13)
4     ANGELS AND AGES  by Adam Gopnik  3 (2)
5    THE YANKEE YEARS   by Joe Torres and Tom Verducci  6 (2)
6    THE GREAT DEPRESSION AHEAD by Harry S. Dent   4 (3)
7    THINGS I’VE BEEN SILENT ABOUT by Azar Nafisi   5 (4)
8    IN SPITE OF MYSELF  by Christopher Plummer   9 (7)
9    ANIMALS MAKE US HUMAN  by Temple Grandin  (1)
10    NOTHING TO BE FRIGHTENED OF  by Julian Barnes   8 (2)

LAST WEEK (WEEKS ON LIST)

Liveblog: Layover of the Century

By kadyomalley - Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 8:54 AM - 118 Comments

Pics! Check ‘em out!
Even more Pics!

8:47:40 AM
Good morning, ITQ O-Watchers! Remember when I said that I’d probably make it to the Hill by 9am? Well, I’m currently on Sussex, about a block down from Wellington, and I can see two separate security checkpoints between here and the corner, so I’m thinking it might take a little bit longer than anticipated, especially given the fact that I apparently was drinking crack-laced Red Bull this morning and decided to wear my trusty platform Mary Janes, instead of — you know, winter boots. Anyway, I’ll report in from the Hot Room as soon as I make it through the obstacle course. Wish me luck!

8:58:44 AM
Good news! Those weren’t checkpoints, they were just traffic barricades manned by Mounties!

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A billionaire, the law, his Brazilian ex

By Martin Patriquin - Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 8:40 AM - 10 Comments

She met the Quebec billionaire in early 1992 when he wasn’t even a millionaire, just a wild-eyed goofball with thinning blond hair, strolling aimlessly in the sand. She was in her bikini, tanning on a Brazilian beach near her home when the stranger approached and asked her name. Though she didn’t have a clue what he was saying—she spoke Portuguese and he could just muster a few words in Spanish—it was evident enough that this shirtless stranger was enthralled with her. He hung around, and though she didn’t like him at first, she was charmed by his persistence. Plus, he was hilarious. One night when they were out, she was refused entry into a club because of her age. Other men might have been angry; this one made a funny face, dropped his pants and mooned the bouncer. “He was always making me laugh,” she told Maclean’s recently, reminiscing about the long-ago fairy tale that turned nightmarish as the years wore on. “He did things other people thought of doing but didn’t have the guts.”

At one point, his friend, the son of a minister in the government, came along. Fluent in Portuguese, he tried convincing her parents this stranger from Quebec was worthy of their daughter’s affections. She was 17; he was 32. Her father didn’t approve, but the man who was courting her told her not to worry. “I’ll take care of you,” he told her, according to her testimony.

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Gold fever hits crazy new highs

By Jason Kirby - Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 8:20 AM - 2 Comments

The world is being gripped by gold fever—if you doubt it, you need only look at John Clifford’s latest enterprise. He pays top dollar to dentists for the shiny metal after they pull it from patients’ mouths. When people get dentures, they sometimes leave gold fillings and bridges behind at the clinic, says Clifford, owner of Guaranteed Green. It’s not always pretty. The fillings often come attached with “bits of porcelain and tooth matter.” Yet a large filling can fetch $50. “Dentists could easily accumulate $10,000 worth of gold over the course of a career,” he says.

Clifford is part of a booming industry capitalizing on the soaring price of gold, which recently hit US$914 an ounce, up 30 per cent since October, and up nearly 240 per cent since 2001. Investors keep bidding the price higher because they’re betting the massive stimulus plans in the U.S. and other countries will spark an era of hyper-inflation. As the price rises, companies like Clifford’s are making big profits by buying gold at big discounts to the market price. Hence the disturbing image of Ed McMahon flogging his gold toilet in a Super Bowl commercial.

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A running diary of TV coverage of the Obama visit

By Scott Feschuk - Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 8:10 AM - 17 Comments

8:05 a.m. ET To paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld – and there’s a phrase you don’t hear very often today outside of Donald Rumsfeld’s house – there are three main kinds of news events covered by the cable news networks.

There are the known knowns. These are the news stories that can be covered in real time as they happen, in full view of the cameras. We’re talking about events that are guaranteed to be news, such as the release of a critical government report or Joe Biden opening his mouth.

Then there are the unknown unknowns – the events where TV news doesn’t know what it doesn’t know. Larry King spends most of his life in this blissful state.

What we’ll be experiencing today is a case study in the known unknown. Everyone knows that news will be happening today on Parliament Hill, but no one will have any idea what that news is. There will be infinite coverage of finite information – leaving hours upon hours of airtime to be devoted to speculation, colour, pale panelists and the staple of coverage of the known unknown: stalling. Hope Don Newman had a big breakfast.

Join me around 10 a.m. ET or so Continue…

Why it pays to run ads in bad times

By Colin Campbell - Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 8:10 AM - 0 Comments

Anyone watching the Super Bowl earlier this month could be forgiven for momentarily forgetting all about the recession. After all, along with some good football to take their minds off of the economic turmoil, there was the barrage of advertising, pushing everything from beer and chips to cars and Internet firms.

Ad budgets are typically easy cuts when times are tough, but last week NBC reported that it broke an advertising record during the game, with $206 million in sales. It turns out that when it comes to advertising, a few savvy companies are saying: what recession?

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Billion Dollar Baby?

By macleans.ca - Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 8:00 AM - 4 Comments

For the first time since 1993, the Alberta government is set to report a $1-billion deficit—more than double that of B.C. Alberta’s finance minister Iris Evans blames the implosion of commodities prices, and declines in the value of the $16-billion Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund, which, like all other large investment funds has taken a beating since the market crash this fall.

Edmonton Journal

Don’t lie to me. You’re not American.

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments

Tim Roth is best known for getting shot in the stomach in Reservoir Dogs and robbing a diner in Pulp Fiction, but now he’s doing something more dangerous: using a British accent on a U.S. TV show. When the London-born Roth agreed to play “human lie detector” Dr. Cal Lightman on Fox’s new show Lie to Me, the network probably figured he would play the part as an American; he’s done U.S. accents before in many movies, including Reservoir Dogs. Instead, Roth decided that, unlike most British or Australian actors on TV, he would pronounce “can’t” as “cahnt.” Paul Meier, an English dialect coach who has worked with such actors as Jonathan Rhys Meyers (The Tudors) and Tobey Maguire, says that U.S. producers usually save British accents for “the villain’s role, or, and I don’t know which is less rewarding, the role that lends the project some cultural heft.” But if Lie to Me succeeds, Meier says it might prove that “we are approaching the point when the American prime-time viewer can accept a ‘furriner’ in the starring role.”

American producers love English actors, and English actors like the higher pay and steadier employment of a hit American series. But there’s also a long-standing feeling among U.S. entertainment executives that Americans won’t accept a hero who doesn’t sound like them, particularly on television, where even the most anti-social heroes need to have an Everyman quality. The solution is for transplanted Brits to learn how to sound American. Hugh Laurie as Dr. House is the most famous fake American in the world, but there’s also Damian Lewis on Life, Jamie Bamber on Battlestar Galactica, and Anna Friel on the recently cancelled Pushing Daisies. They’re all English, but even Englishmen can’t tell; Roth told fancast.com that “I didn’t know the guy in The Wire [Dominic West] was English. He’s that good.” Aussies like Simon Baker on The Mentalist, Rose Byrne on Damages and Yvonne Strahovski as a CIA agent on Chuck are all equally adept at disguising their accents. New Zealander Anna Paquin doesn’t have a convincing southern accent on True Blood, but it’s better than most Americans who do fake southern accents.

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UPDATED: Wake up, O-Town – it's O-Day!

By kadyomalley - Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 7:20 AM - 7 Comments

Courtesy of Colleague Potter, we now have a pretty good idea of how the day is going to unfold, if some uncertainty as to whether or not “farewell” can legitimately be used as a verb.

ITQ’s O-Day agenda, meanwhile, is still somewhat in flux. As livebloggers are not (yet) considered to be pool media, most of the official events will be off-limits, but that won’t stop the signal — at least, unless the Secret Service decides to get scrambly with the berry frequency. (They wouldn’t do that, would they? I mean, the president might get ticked if he couldn’t check his email.)

After watching the O-rrival from the Hot Room, I’ll head down to the front lawn to wait for the motorcade — which means I won’t get to watch the PM greet the president, but it’s not like I was going to be able to see anything from behind the security cordon. (See above re: pool media; stubborn refusal to recognize liveblogging as such.)

Once the president has been whisked away for his “tete a tete” and subsequent working lunch, the liveblogging will move indoors as I wander the hallways of Centre Block until the president finally reappears, just in time for the joint press conference — which I’ll try to watch from the shared filing room — and the aforementioned “farewelling” (not a word) of the president by the Prime Minister.

Finally, ITQ will be on the scene for Michael Ignatieff’s post-Obama press conference, which will take place at around 5pm.

Anyway, depending on how long it takes me to make it through security — which, by the way, even those of us with full accreditation and the magic O-pass will have to do every single time we set foot outside Centre Block — there will be an all-day liveblog thread going up on ITQ a little later this morning, so check back around 9am.

UPDATE: The promised thread is now live, and open for all your idle commentary and helpful suggestions about footwear, so head on over for all the excitement!

Inauthenticity Watch: Welcome to the heartbreak

By Andrew Potter - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 11:57 PM - 0 Comments

The whole video is made up of pixelations and other artifacts of the compression process. Meanwhile, the vocals themselves are completely fake, pumped through auto-tune to correct the fact that Kanye can’t sing. But still… kinda cool:

KANYE WEST “Welcome To Heartbreak” Directed by Nabil from nabil elderkin on Vimeo.

Your official representatives

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 11:21 PM - 1 Comment

The official list of those taking in part in the pomp and circumstance has been released.

Note that the three cabinet ministers joining the Prime Minister and President for lunch will be Lawrence Cannon, Jim Flaherty and Jim Prentice.

John Baird has been given the duty of bidding Mr. Obama the official farewell at the airport after the President’s meeting with Michael Ignatieff. It’s not presently clear what the official protocol is on heckling the leader of the free world.

Obamawa — the official agenda

By Andrew Potter - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 11:08 PM - 26 Comments

Hot off the presses.  I’d like to see how Harper “farewells the president”. Will he give him the terrorist fist jab? The whole kaboodle after the break:

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The William S. Paley Festival Celebrates "The Hills" And Its Contribution To Television Culture

By Jaime Weinman - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 10:42 PM - 3 Comments

I have to admit I’m disappointed with the way the Museum of Television and Radio’s William S. Paley Festival has turned into a slightly more candid version of the upfronts. When they originally got the idea of assembling the casts and crews of various TV shows and having them come out on stage for a panel discussion, they emphasized current shows — as they should — but always tried to include a few older shows in the mix. Even in the earlier part of this decade, they’d throw in an In Living Color or a St. Elsewhere. But this year’s festival doesn’t have a single non-current show unless you count Swingtown and Pushing Daisies (and I don’t, though I envy the audience members who will get a first look at the unaired PD episodes).

The fest, which will take place April 10-23 at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, will open with FX’s “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”

Other programs to be honored are “90210” (April 11), “True Blood” (April 13), “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” (April 14), “Dollhouse” (April 15), “The Big Bang Theory” (April 16), “The Mentalist” (April 17), “Desperate Housewives” (April 18), the unaired episodes of “Pushing Daisies” (April 19), “Battlestar Galactica”/”Caprica” (April 20), “The Hills” (April 21), “Big Love” (April 22), “Fringe” (April 23) and “Swingtown” (April 24).

I’m not saying anything against those shows — well, okay, I have something to say against several of them, but that’s not the issue here – but it seems like all you need to get the cast and crew recognized up on the stage at the Paley Centre is to have had a new episode listed in TV Guide within the past year. Look at the list of Paley Festival lineups over the years and it’s clear that they used to have some kind of willingness to honour the history of the medium, even the recent history (10 years ago still counts as history). But now it’s, as I said, just the upfronts under a different name. Not to begrudge any of those casts/crews their spot on the stage, even The Hills, but it’s ironic that a festival organized by a museum has chosen to completely ignore the past.

Update: See Daniel Fienberg’s post “Has the Paley Festival Lost Its Way?” for more on how the festival has done away (this year, at least) with  panels that are often the most interesting and valuable. And I also agree with him that The Hills could actually make a decent panel if they get a good moderator.

'Pro-Gitmo'

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 9:40 PM - 13 Comments

Lawrence Martin, who literally wrote the book on presidents and prime ministers, previews tomorrow’s meeting.

The one area where our PM could be embarrassed today is on the Omar Khadr file. Mr. Obama has moved to close the Guantanamo Bay prison and return America to the norms of international law and human rights.

Mr. Harper has shamefully backed away from supporting the rights of a Canadian locked up in that dungeon; he has almost come across as pro-Gitmo. Understandably, therefore, his team has been pressing to keep this issue off the agenda. It will be left to Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff to raise it in his brief session with the President.

What are the odds one of the four questions at tomorrow afternoon’s press conference is used to raise the subject of Mr. Khadr? 10-1? 100-1?

'One neat diplomatic move'

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 7:32 PM - 17 Comments

Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick reviews all the reasons why Barack Obama should discuss Omar Khadr tomorrow.

Videos of him weeping during an interrogation surfaced last year and served only to remind the world that he was a teenager confined at Guantanamo among “the worst of the worst.” Khadr was allegedly shackled in stress positions until he urinated on himself, then covered with pine solvent and used as a “human mop” to clean his own urine. He was beaten, nearly suffocated, beset by attack dogs, and threatened with rape. In May 2008, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in Canada v. Khadr that the detention of Khadr at Guantanamo Bay “constituted a clear violation of fundamental human rights protected by international law.”

Khadr isn’t just a poster boy for closing Gitmo; he’s a poster boy for the prisoner abuse of children there. If you haven’t yet read the new testimony of Army Spc. Brandon Neely about the sexual and physical sadism that went on at Gitmo, it’s worth your time. It’s not enough for the United States to renounce torture, although that’s a good start. We need to start to make amends for the fact that children in our custody were tortured.

Stephen Harper in the Situation Room

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 6:18 PM - 29 Comments

Video of this historic meeting, does not yet seem to be available, but  Here’s the text of the Prime Minister’s interview with Wolf Blitzer today—noteworthy, if nothing else, for the fact that CNN feels the need to capitalize THE SITUATION ROOM in its transcripts. (Video is now here. Note that the Canadian flag is not positioned directly behind Mr. Harper.)

Blitzer promises more tomorrow. 

One can only hope it turns out to be as exciting as Lou Dobbs v. Jack Layton.

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The case for carbon sequestration

By Alex Shimo - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 5:58 PM - 16 Comments

An excellent article here from Business Week on carbon sequestration. Many consider the technology essential, if not a much-needed saviour for our warming planet. According to Emerging Energy Research (EER), it could offset our carbon dioxide emissions by 15 per cent by 2030. Indeed Alberta’s plans – a 14 per cent cut of emissions levels by 2050 from their 2005 levels – relies on this technology to be up and working quickly – in the next 5-10 years.

What’s needed to kick start the technology is a massive investment of funds, according to the EER. At the moment, the biggest investors are the EU, with $11.6 billion in research, then the US at $6 billion, then Canada at $2.7 billion. Much of the investment has been done by the oil companies themselves, but governments are also heavy investors. Last July, Stelmach announced a $2 billion fund for the new technology. And this week, Obama signed onto $3.4 billion for carbon capture and sequestration projects.

Still, for carbon sequestration to really deliver, it’s going to take massive investments – $30 to $70 billion per year by 2030, according to the EER. Of course, oil and gas companies are already heavily committed and are the key players in this developing industry. There are huge profits to be made in carbon sequestration, especially if there is a market on carbon dioxide gas, when companies will be able to trade the right to pollute. What’s needed now is a cap and trade system so companies know that any investments they make will have definite payoffs, beyond helping the planet. Obama has pledged to make this a reality in his presidency, and it cannot come quickly enough.

Hope you're right about being able to handle snow, Mr. President

By Paul Wells - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 5:18 PM - 15 Comments

Ottawa, half an hour ago:

O-Day Pic o' the Day: The closest ITQ is likely to get to the Obama-Harper press conference

By kadyomalley - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 5:12 PM - 24 Comments

Note: I'm not actually that short -- Colleague Maher from the Halifax Chronicle Herald is just really tall.

I plan on having the BerryCam at the ready tomorrow  — yes, I’ll be liveblogging throughout the day; really, what else would I be doing? — so I’ll do my best to post pics throughout the day, although not from this particular room, alas.