MUSIC: The Anti-Zeffirelli Conspiracy At the Met

By Jaime Weinman - Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 7:48 PM - 9 Comments

Even non-operaphiles might find it interesting what’s going on at the Metropolitan Opera as they unveil their 2010-11 schedule. Basically, the opera house most associated with “traditional” productions has made a decisive move toward, let’s say, what was traditional about 20 years ago. Zeffirelli was the Met’s most popular director in the ’70s and ’80s, creating productions with huge sets, lavish costumes, and lots of stuff going on around the stage. But the company has been, as the article says, “phasing out” his work in favour of stagings where the sets are spare (or nonexistent) and the director tries to focus attention on the overall concept or his/her interpretation of the lead characters.

So last season, the Met replaced Zeffirelli’s Tosca, one of their most lavish productions, with a starker, harsher Tosca by Luc Bondy. I wrote about this last year. Bondy is hardly a revolutionary and his Tosca was not a particularly shocking production. But at the Met, the production got boos, and it became the basis for another battle between the Met traditionalists, rallying behind Zeffirelli (who isn’t happy about being shoved aside, and has said so) and Met anti-traditionalists, who feel that his kind of production gives the audience a lot to look at but not much to think about. Anyway, the phasing-out of the traditional stuff is continuing: Zeffirelli’s Tosca won’t be brought back as previously rumoured; his La Traviata will be replaced with a Eurotrashy, minimalist, modern-dress production that already played at the Salzburg Festival (modified a bit for the more conservative New York audience). The Met’s Ring by director Otto Schenck, which was the most literal staging to be seen at any opera house in the world, is being replaced with a Robert Lepage production — which hopefully will be as good as his Nightingale at the CoC rather than as disappointing as some of his others. And Peter Sellars, the maverick American opera director who in the ’80s was the antithesis of the Met (staging Mozart in modern-dress productions that attempted to find a modern equivalent for everything that happened in the stories), is finally being invited to work there — albeit just to re-stage an opera he directed in the ’80s, John Adams’ Nixon in China. The traditionalists are pretty much on the way out.

Here’s the “traditional” Zeffirelli Tosca that won’t be coming back:

And here’s that same scene in the “modern” Bondy production that replaced it (shot by someone who apparently didn’t turn off his/her cellphone in the theatre). The scenery is much less detailed, the stage action is less crammed with naturalistic detail; it’s trying to be a stripped-down, focused interpretation of the scene.

It’s not as simple as that makes it sound, of course, especially because Zeffirelli’s approach (and that of his imitators) isn’t exactly “traditional”; his mentor, Luchino Visconti, helped to give opera a combination of spectacle and psychological insight that was similar to the movies (Visconti was one of a number of directors in the ’50s and ’60s who did both opera and film, and helped to bring cinematic techniques to the opera stage). As a movie director, Zeffirelli is no Visconti, and it might be that his opera productions aren’t in the same league either (I’ve only seen still photographs of Visconti’s). It seems like Visconti’s work might have been a little more spare and less overstuffed with detail. But his aim is the same, to present opera the way a film is presented, where every detail on stage matters just like every detail in a cinema frame. Zeffirelli’s production of La Boheme is still huge at the Met — they haven’t changed it since the ’80s and they will be throttled if they do — because it is like a movie, a spectacle with a point to it.

I think it is true that spectacular sets and literal interpretation of the story can sometimes get in the way of making us think about the story. On the other hand, I have a basic sympathy with the traditionalists. One complaint, which is also heard about theatre in general, is that as ticket prices go up you’re paying more to look at less. I felt that way when I saw the production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin that replaced the one the Met used to have (which I saw in the ’90s). The current production isn’t anything daring, but the direction (by Robert Carsen) strips everything to the bare minimum of sets and props. The idea is to focus us more on the story and characters — but for me, I was much more focused on the story and characters with the more literal, representational sets they used to have. Watching a bunch of people cavort around an almost-bare stage was deeply distracting.

Of course, it all depends on the director and the production, and any approach can be made to work, no matter which one you prefer as a rule.

On the other hand, things change, and one big thing that changes is that the Met has that HD simulcast program, where some of its productions are shown in movie theatres. And a production that tries to be “cinematic,” oddly enough, doesn’t always play great in an actual cinema. More minimalist set design, more emphasis on lighting effects, fewer extras in the background; all these things might actually help a production play better in the cinemas, where the cameras focus your attention on what the main characters — and only the main characters — are doing.

One other detail from the Met announcement is that their capitulation to the Rossini cult is almost complete. Rossini was not a standard-rep composer in most non-Italian opera houses (except for The Barber of Seville, which he himself predicted was the only complete opera he wrote that would still be performed after his death), but the ’80s and ’90s produced so many outstanding Rossini singers that most houses pretty much had to take up his work. But the Met didn’t even stage Rossini’s Cinderella opera La Cenerentola, one of his most popular works, until 1997, and even then they probably wouldn’t have done it if Cecilia Bartoli hadn’t insisted. But Rossini has slowly taken hold at the Met, and the next season will feature another Rossini that’s never been performed at the Met: Le Comte Ory, his last comic opera and next-to-last opera. It doesn’t have much of a plot, mostly because half the music was re-used from another opera, but every number is absolute gold and it’s good to see it getting more of a foothold in North America.

The Met is bringing it in as a vehicle for the star Rossini tenor Juan Diego Florez; here he is doing a number from it in 1998 with soprano Annick Massis. And yes, he does spend the whole second act disguised as a nun.

LIVE BLOG: Ladies Figure Skating Short Program

By Cathy Gulli - Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 7:15 PM - 7 Comments

7:15pm
The competition will start in 15 minutes.  Forget hockey. This is where the drama will unfold.

7:22pm
Sportsnet is broadcasting the ladies skate, uninterrupted.

7:30pm
It’s on! Rochette, whose mother died of a heart attack on Sunday, is the talk tonight. She’ll take the ice late, 26th; there are 30 skaters vying for gold. Canadian Cynthania Phaneuf will also compete, she skates 15th.

7:33pm
The hype is that South Korean Yu-Na Kim will win gold. She’s coached by Brian Orser. Another favourite is Miki Ando of Japan. Between Rochette, Kim and Ando there is a real rivalry. Update: Also favoured is Mao Asada of Japan.

7:36pm
Rod Black just said the arena is “growing on” him.

7:39pm
Spain starts off, Lafuente. Black sequins costume, tango-y music. Type-casting?

7:40pm
No falls. No smiles either. Commentators say she’s unpolished.

7:42pm
Spain’s score: 49.74—which puts her in first! For now! A personal best.

7:44pm
Slovakia’s Reitmayerova is on. She’s wearing, um, a black sparkly costume…let this not be a theme.

7:46pm
Gorgeous spins, and the music is lovely—like you’d hear in a sappy movie.

7:48pm
We’re hearing spinning is what makes a great skater.

7:50pm
Slovakia is crying before she gets the marks. 41.something. That is sad.

7:51pm
Austria’s Ziegler is on. She’s 15! And wearing a black…flashy…costume…with her hair in a bun…just like the skaters before her…

7:52pm
She is flexible! Oh, she’s stumbles on her double axel.

7:53pm
And she out of sync with the music.

7:56pm
She is tiny. And unhappy. Score: 43.84. Wow, that’s higher than the Slovakian. Commentators don’t think that’s right.

7:57pm
Oh! We have colour: a little hem of purple on the BLACK SEQUINS costume of Jurkiewicz of Poland.

7:59pm
Commentators saying that skaters have to be insanely flexible these days. No kidding. And coordinated. And good on skates.

8:01pm
At the risk of losing readers, the Canada-Germany game score is 1-0. (Commentators say so.) No idea who is winning. Who cares? The ladies are skating!

8:02pm
Jurkiewicz’s score: 36.10. Ouch.

8:04pm
By the way, she’s wearing a black and purple sequins costume. Her music is a sultry fiddle. Yes, sultry fiddle.

8:06pm
She rotates in the opposite direction of most skaters—clockwise. Commentators said she was strong, good.

8:09pm
Aussie’s Lee scores 52.16. For first! Another personal best too. She is smothered with kisses from her coach. Big smiles.

8:11pm
While waiting for the next flight of skaters to take the ice, I’ve reread my comment from 10 minutes ago. Was I being presumptuous? Someone is watching skating, and reading this blog, right? (Family members do count.)

8:13pm
Or at least reading this blog, if not watching skating?

8:15pm
No matter. The live blog must go on. China’s Liu is about to take the ice. The other skaters in this flight are warming up too. Lots of colorful costumes.

8:16pm
One skater, unsure who (she was wearing black sequins), just blew her nose right into the camera. Unintentionally, no doubt. But really funny.

8:19pm
Liu of China is on. She’s wearing a vibrant turquois costume. We hear she’s light on her feet. Seems so.

8:22pm
Commentators saying we’ll seem some skaters wearing beige gloves. I have no idea why. Oh, it’s too protect their hands when they have to hang onto their blades while spinning, etc.

8:23pm
Liu’s score: 51.74, for second. Personal best.

8:24pm
Commentators saying that Turkey’s Karademir, who’s on now, looks just like Jennifer Robinson, who is broadcasting with them. I can’t tell if there’s a resemblance, but this reminds me of my favourite episode of King of Queens (that’s not the funny part) when Carrie is told by coworkers she looks just like the new girl that was hired. Only the new girl isn’t pretty. Hilarity ensues!

8:25pm
Karademir is wearing a beautiful red costume with gold flash. She skated nicely to an exotic tune.

8:29pm
Rod Black is talking about “good people” giving her parents tickets to watch tonight…?

8:30pm
Karademir’s score: 50.74, in third.

8:31pm
Commentators saying the crowd would watch 60 skaters if they could. Really? I think 30 is enough.

8:32pm
Russia’s Makarova lands a stunning triple-triple combination jump. She is wearing an equally stunning purple and pink costume.

8:34pm
She didn’t end with her music. Should lose points for that.

8:36pm
Makarova’s parents are Olympians. Crazy. Victor Petrenko is sitting with her. Score: 59.22. Takes first!

8:37pm
Korean Kwak is on, wearing a pretty one-strap costume in purple, white and black, which fade together like a water-colour. She is being compared to a competitor, a “mini Yu-Na”.

8:42pm
Replay: Her head was on the small of her back in one spin. Imagine that. Wow.

8:43pm
Kwak’s score is 53.16 for second place! The Korean cameramen have been staked out since 4 a.m. Korea loves skating.

8:44pm
“Solid double axel” for Brit McCorkell, and landed her triple lutz double toe. Costume isn’t so impressive: black sequins. Missed a double flip.

8:46pm
Her music was dramatic, a lot of sounds like a clock (Big Ben?) dong-ing repeatedly.

8:49pm
She looks disappointed, head in hand, eyes cast downward, head shaking. Score: 40.64. Woah. That’s why.

9:10pm
Canadian Phaneuf is in this flight of five skaters. They’re warming up now.

9:12pm
American Nagasu is up. She’s wearing a black and gold number. Smiles. First notes sound like music box.

9:14pm
Commentators say no one does the lay back better than Nagasu. Beautiful. It always reminds me of a water lily.

9:16pm
Nagasu finished with a stunning spin. Outstretched arms as music ended. Soft smile. Camera close up reveals nose is bleeding. An indication of her speed and the altitude of her jumps?

9:18pm
She just thanked someone making sure she didn’t forget her iPod. Her score: 63.76 for first! She shed blood for that, people.

9:20pm
Now this is a unique take on a black sequins number. Belgium’s Pieman is wearing a unitard—like the men do, only hers has a white sparkly band across the chest. Maybe some men do that too, actually. Her music is jazzy. Big smile for a solid skate.

9:25pm
She made a heart in the air, and yelled “I love you, Canada.” She’s not even representing this country. Score: 46.10. The judges didn’t love her.

9:26pm
Slovenian Postic just blew her nose and threw the tissue recklessly outside the rink before starting her program.

9:27pm
She’s wearing white and turquoise. OH! First fall of the night on a jump. Collective groan from the crowd.

9:30pm
Meek smile, double hand wave. Avoiding looking into the camera. Nearly speechless while awaiting score. 43.80. That’s what happens when you fall.

9:32pm
Gimazetdinova of Uzbekistan (do I get a medal for spelling that right?) is on. Wearing black and white flashy number. Commentators saying she’s better than ever. But how good?

9:34pm
Forward inside edge on her camel spin is apparently very difficult.

9:36pm
Canadian Phaneuf is next! Gorgeous ethereal costume.

9:37pm
Gimazetdinova held her hands up like in a prayer. Score: 49.02. An unanswered prayer.

9:39pm
Crowd is pumped for Phaneuf. She is landing her jumps, face is expressive. Her costume is glitterly soft blues, grays, greens, like she stepped out of the ocean.

9:40pm
OH NO. She slipped. Her mouth agape, she rebalanced. As stunned as anyone else. And more disappointed, surely.

9:41pm
Lovely spin to end. “It was going along so well,” says Black. WAS. She smiles to the crowd, but shakes her head.

9:42pm
Gets off the ice with her eyebrows raised, probably signally “What the hell just happened?” to her coach in their secret code.

9:43pm
She’s blowing kisses to the camera. Head in hand again, and seems to be laughing about it. Score: 57.13, for third. For now.

9:52pm
We’re halfway through the 30 skaters. Next is Georgian Gedevanishvili. Wearing black sequins. Jazzy tune…”You give me fevah!” Solid triple lutz.

9:54pm
She’s spunky! Lots of energy, and smiles.

9:55pm
She finished with a huge grin, threw her arm down (which she had across her forehead, like she had a fever) and hollered, “YES!”

9:57pm
She says “Hi everyone” and made a heart in the air. That’s a popular move. She is spunky. Score: 61.92, for second. Just before that was announced it sounded like she said, “I’m happy.”

10:00pm
Meier of Switzerland, who we hear is a “wonderful spinner”, is on. She’s wearing bright yellow and pink and skating to the samba. She’s nimble for a 25 year old.

10:01pm
With 40 seconds left in her program she stepped out of her double axel. Boo.

10:04pm
Meier is stoic while waiting for the score: 56.70. She cocks her head to the side, shrugs.

10:05pm
Estonian Glebova is on. Wearing a bright green checkered number. Like a picnic blanket. I don’t mean that to be pithy.

10:07pm
She slipped on a jump. But landed a double axel.

10:11pm
Glebova is also stoic while awaiting her score. 50.80. Purses her lips.

10:12pm
Finn Korpi falls out of her first jump, a triple lutz. But looks fab doing it in a bright green and sparkly costume.

10:14pm
Pardon me. Commentators not fans of the costume. One said, “Outside of the glowing costume, she does have a wonderful presence on the ice.” Touché.

10:16pm
Korpi’s father was an Olympian. She looks like a doll. Double wave, forced wide smile, deep breaths. Coach just said something and showed two fingers, and they laughed. Score: 52.96. Definitely not second place.

10:19pm
German Hecken on. Wearing fuschia and black costume. Smooth triple triple.

10:20pm
She singled what should have been a triple jump. Music changed, sounds like pots banging and clanging, make it stop.

10:22pm
Skates off ice, shaking head, hands on hips.

10:24pm
Hecken looks like she will cry any second. Score: 49.04.

10:40pm
It’s down to the last 10 skaters, among them the best and most captivating.

10:43pm
In an interview earlier today but airing now, Brian Orser said his best advice is to “Trust your training.” And anticipates that “It should be a good show.” Indeed.

10:45pm
Bar graph showing how skaters compare. No idea how, exactly. But Yu-Na is “off the charts” and Rochette is second best.

10:47pm
Lepisto from Finland is on. Wearing purple glitz. Took her time getting settled on the ice to start, say commentators.

10:48pm
She doubled her second triple jump. Lots of expression, and speed.

10:51pm
“Sophisticated” performance say commentators.

10:53pm
Smiling Lepisto earns 61.36, for third. Swigs water in response.

10:54pm
The heat is on. Japan’s Asada takes the stage in a red burlesque-inspired number. AMAZING combination jump.

10:56pm
Big smile! while gliding.

10:57pm
She’s the second woman ever to land a triple axel at the Olympics! Crowd goes wild as she finishes. Standing O! She jumps for joy on her toes picks! Update: Midori Ito did it for Japan in 1992.

10:59pm
Asada: 73.78 for FIRST! Wow, it is game on. She seems stunned. Joyfully stunned.

11:00pm
The pressure is on for South Korean Yu-Na. She is taking the ice, in a gorgeous black costume with colorful sequins. Imagine the intensity of this moment for her. She needs the triple axel.

11:02pm
She nails her triple triple!

11:03pm
Lots of facial expressions. The music is James Bond. Amazing spins.

11:04pm
She’s finished. Amazing. Blacks says, “Holy smokes!”

11:05pm
She smiles, waves, and as she lifts her arms up to salute the crowd the fans erupt in cheers. She picks up a purple toy animal from the ice. Orser hugs her. She says, “Yay!”

11:05pm
Black says she melted the ice.

11:06pm
Score for Yu-Na, who is calm and composed. 78.50—a WORLD RECORD, for first place. Orser looks like his head is going to pop off, his face is so red.

11:08pm
Pressure much? Japan’s Suzuki touches the ice with her hand on her first jump. She is wearing black and red, skating to a tango or flamenco.

11:11pm
Suzuki is smiling, double waving, seems happy while waiting for her score. Holding orange Gerber daisies. 61.02, for sixth spot. She nods and smiles.

11:13pm
Russian Leonova, wearing red and gold. Folk music, crowd clapping to the beat. Lovely spins. Smiling, commentators say she always “turns it on” and “brings the house down.” Let’s see. Fun, anyway.

11:17pm
Finishes with an enthusiastic fist pump at her hip.

11:18pm
Watching Rochette tie her skates, prep to hit the ice next. Wearing a stunning black costume with red sequins in the shape of a rose.

11:19pm
Leonova is smiling wide. Score: 62.14. So so.

11:20pm
Rochette is next, right after a quick warm up. She’s taking the ice. The crowd is going crazy. She is speeding around the rink, gliding, swinging her arms. Bells are ringing.

11:25pm
Six-time Canadian champion, Rochette, warming up with a solid jump combination.

11:26pm
She is alone on the ice now. “She will skate for the first time without her mom watching,” says Black.

11:27pm
The crowd is cheering like crazy. She swigs water. The coach is talking o her. She is nodding, breathing deeply. We see she is holding back tears.

11:28pm
The crowd quiets, except for a few hollers of her name. The music starts, a tango-type. She nails her first jump. And her second. She spins quickly. And her third.

11:29pm
Her face is full of emotion, her eyebrows are furrowed.

11:31pm
Gorgeous spins. She is finished. She cries. She is crying. She bends over and glides. Puts her hand to her mouth. Her hand to her chest. The crowd is cheering and bouquets of flowers shower the ice. “One of the bravest young ladies,” says Black.

11:32pm
She rushes into her coach’s arms, Perron, who is a second mother to her. You can hear her muffled sobs.

11:34pm
She is crying, and touches her heart. Score: 71.36, ranked third, and a season’s best. She is in a spot to take a medal. She stands up, nods, cries, blows kisses to the crowd.

11:35pm
Hungarian Sebestyen in bright red or hot pink costume. Fumbled.

11:38pm
We see Rochette with her coach, sitting and sobbing. As Perron says whatever to her, Rochette nods.

11:39pm
Sebestyen is soft-spoken, double wave, seems emotional too, rubbing her thighs. Score: 57.46.

11:40pm
American Flatt in hot pink. Head toss, and the music starts, “Sing, sing, sing.”

11:41pm
Solid triple flip triple toe wows the crowd. Lots of smiles. Double axel. This program is too fun to watch. Pumps both fists as she finishes.

11:45pm
Flatt, who goes to Stanford, is a serious contender, say commentators, gutsy. She is smiling wide. Score: 64.64, for fourth. She says “WOW!”

11:47pm
Italian Kostner is up, in a pink, red and black costume.

11:48pm
Hand down on a jump. Commentators say she goes too close to the boards, carries too much speed.

11:51pm
Kostner is putting her skate guards on in the kiss and cry area. That’s different. A good way to get out of those forced smiles and double waves. Score: 63.02, for sixth.

11:53pm
WHEW! Last skater of the night. Japan’s Ando, wearing a flowy red and black costume, with a sparkly cross down her chest. Lots of pink eye makeup. She is all business.

11:54pm
Lands combination jump. And next jump. Very fast. She “attacks” her programs, say commentators.

11:57pm
Ando, finished, smiles for the first time since taking the ice.

11:59pm
She is expressionless while awaiting her score. Big, deep sighs say it all. Ando’s score: 64.76. For fourth.

Rochette is still in third. Thursday, all that may change. For tonight, she stole the show.

Men's hockey: Canada-Germany live blog

By Scott Feschuk - Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 6:14 PM - 33 Comments

The official Maclean’s liveblog of tonight’s win-or-else-continue-to-be-millionaires-with-no-lasting-repercussions game for members of Team Canada is being written by Yoni Goldstein. Think of him as Batman and me as his boyish ward. If it helps complete the picture in your mind, I’m wearing a mask and tight green shorts. (UPDATE: Jacques Rogge just handed me a robe.)

Note: I’d like to provide you with as much hilarious, never-watched-hockey-before cluelessness as Wells did last week, but alas I am both a Canadian and a guy.

OOPS: Turns out Yoni won’t be liveblogging, so I’m your only Maclean’s-based source for tonight – unless you want to dig up one of Coyne’s old posts and substitute in the word “hockey” wherever it says “equalization.” Which I recommend, by the way.

4:04 p.m. PT A comprehensive compilation of all the important information I have gleaned from tonight’s warmup, which is currently underway: Canada is wearing red.

4:15 Hello Canada, and hockey fans in the United States, including Danny Williams’ mitral valve. I am at Canada Hockey Place, sitting in primo seats reserved for the members of the Continue…

First Olympic ski cross gold medal to Canadian Ashleigh McIvor

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 5:50 PM - 3 Comments

The first Olympic champion in ski cross is a Canadian, Ashleigh McIvor of Whistler, B.C. The 26-year-old is the current reigning champion. Silver and bronze went to Norway’s Hedda Berntsen and Julie Jensen Brendengen, respectively. Her teammate Kelsey Serwa placed fifth after winning the small final.

TSN

CBC

Forget the Senate

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 5:14 PM - 13 Comments

A new poll taken during the Harper government’s second prorogation of parliament has revealed some ironic statistics. Despite the Prime Minister’s trumpeting of the need for Senate reform, only 33 per cent of Canadians feel that the body too powerful, whereas 42 per cent think the Prime Minister’s Office itself needs to have its influence checked. Nik Nanos, head of the firm that conducted the study, said prorogation is probably to blame for the focus on the PMO. The poll also found that Canadians think the most under-influential branch of government is the House of Commons, with 20 per cent saying it needed more power and only 13 per cent thinking it had too much.

Globe and Mail

Royal Cheerleaders

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 4:57 PM - 0 Comments

User pay: how lucid

By Paul Wells - Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 4:51 PM - 55 Comments

Lucien Bouchard, whose government maintained a cap on tuitions at Quebec universities, urges Jean Charest, whose government has been increasing tuition fees at a timid rate of $50 per semester, to blow the doors off and let tuition rates rise to the national (that is, Canadian) average. I am hunkering down while the CFS loads its muskets. Many years ago I spent weeks here writing arguments that closely resemble Bouchard’s. The archives of this blog being a bit of a fragile flower, you’ll just have to take my word for it.

Owning a general sense of accomplishment regardless of result

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 4:43 PM - 17 Comments

Gary Lunn brings us full circle and back to our time-honoured approach to Canadian athletics.

Lunn says Canada’s medal total does not fully reflect the progress made by Canadian athletes. ”Just in these Olympics, I think in top ten finishes, 51 top ten finishes as of today. So, you know, instead of saying, ‘You didn’t win this medal’ or ‘You didn’t win that medal,’ focus on our successes and also salute the Americans.”

Virtue and Moir take the gold

By Katie Engelhart - Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 4:40 PM - 0 Comments

Canadian ice dance duo Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir took home the gold medal with a stunning 221.57-point program. The pair inched ahead of their American rivals (and best friends) Charlie White and Meryl Davis, who took second place with 215.57 points. In the ice dance world, the win is a historic one. Since the sport was invented in 1976, no North American team had ever won gold. Virtue and Moir began skating together when she was seven and he was nine; they were so small that Tessa was able to lift Scott on the ice.

For more on Moir and Virtue’s unusually friendly rivalry with Americans Charlie White and Meryl Davis, click here.

Karzai Washes his Hands

By Andrew Potter - Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 4:37 PM - 6 Comments

Last Friday, the IHT carried a piece by an intelligence analyst named Lara Dadkah, complaining about US General Stanley McChrystal’s new directive on the use of air power in Afghanistan. He required that it be used only under “very limited and prescribed conditions”; Dadkah worried that the pendulum had swung too far in favour of avoiding civilian deaths. She called it a “well-intentioned directive” that is based on an immoral lie – “that war can be fair or humane.”

If anything, the last week has shown that the pendulum probably hasn’t yet swung far enough. Continue…

10-year old TIME For Kids Reporter interviews Jamie Salé

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 4:22 PM - 0 Comments

Homeopathic remedies are just "sugar pills containing no active ingredients"

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 3:53 PM - 17 Comments

Britain’s House of Commons Science and Technology Committee is urging the government to quit funding homeopathic research. The committee made the
recommendation in a report released Monday that looked into the scientific value of homeopathic remedies. It found the non-traditional cures to be no more effective than placebos and dismissed claims an “important homeopathic tradition” deserves to be upheld. “Witchcraft is traditional,” said committee chairman Phil Willis, “so does that mean the [Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency] should endorse that too?” It’s not clear how much London spends on homeopathic medicine, with estimates ranging from less than $250,000 to more than $6 million a year.

New Scientist

Olympic Photos: Tuesday February 23rd, 2010

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 2:58 PM - 0 Comments

Mother charged in Alberta boys’ death

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 2:50 PM - 1 Comment

Three weeks after the boys’ father discovered their bodies in the family’s bathtub, the mother of 2 ½ year old Connor and 10 month old Jayden has been charged with their murder. The RCMP said it waited to lay charges in order to establish “reasonable and probable grounds,” that McConnell had “committed an offence.” She’s been remanded into custody but will be under 24-hour supervision at a medical facility until deemed well enough to be moved to a correctional facility. Privacy issues prevent her illness from being made public, but McConnell is expected to appear in provincial court on March 16.

CBC News

Idea alert

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 2:45 PM - 40 Comments

The RCMP report tabled yesterday by Colin Kenny and a delegation of Liberal senators is here. A few of its notable recommendations are as follows.

We recommend that the federal government move quickly to establish a civilian review authority to deal openly with serious grievances concerning the conduct of the RCMP; that this body possess full audit authority, power to subpoena, and have full access to RCMP records except for Cabinet confidences; and that it also have the power to initiate legal proceedings and recommend redress in cases in which it concludes that RCMP officers have broken the law…

RCMP marked vehicles and uniformed officers should be equipped with miniature cameras that would enhance transparency for both officers and citizens from false accusations of improper behaviour…

We recommend that the federal government provide funding to increase RCMP personnel by 5,000 (or more) regular members in approximately equal increments over the next decade…

Senator Kenny told the Sun the government could pay for various improvements with an increase to the GST.

Women's hockey: U.S. vs. Canada

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 2:31 PM - 0 Comments

Moir, Virtue take ice dancing to a new level

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 2:23 PM - 0 Comments

Sven Kramer

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 2:20 PM - 0 Comments

Brodeur out, Luongo in

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 2:13 PM - 0 Comments

Second Olympic mailbag anyone?

By Scott Feschuk - Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 2:10 PM - 40 Comments

Submit your Olympics-themed queries below. And remember – there is no such thing as a stupid question, unless you’re asking whether Galen Weston should just keep on airing those ads where he crows about how his President’s Choice frozen salmon is going to help Canada’s skiers kick some international ass.

UPDATED: Karzai takes control of Afghan elections watchdog

By John Geddes - Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 1:59 PM - 4 Comments

[UPDATED BELOW]

A few days ago I posted a report here on the disturbing prospect that Afghan President Hamid Karzai was about to issue a decree eliminating foreign members from his country’s Electoral Complaints Commission. Reports from Kabul today confirm he has done just that.

Karzai’s reasons for taking this outrageous step are not mysterious. Last year, the ECC, headed by Canadian Grant Kippen, thoroughly investigated Afghanistan’s presidential election and found clear evidence of extensive fraud by Karzai’s campaign. Nobody I’ve spoken with who has experience with Afghanistan’s politics thinks the ECC would have acted so professionally had it been made up of only Afghan members.

Continue…

Stories That Matter

By Jaime Weinman - Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 1:42 PM - 1 Comment

This is sort of a follow-up to an earlier post about how almost all TV dramas are actually melodramas, leaving the smaller stories to comedy (and hour-long “dramedies”). A corollary is that half-hour comedies don’t always deal with stories that are particularly lighthearted or lightweight. I’m not talking about Very Special Episodes, either; I’m talking about small stories that play as comedy, but deal with emotional issues that are very high-stakes for the characters involved. Because TV drama rarely deals with this kind of story, comedy has the field wide open, and some of the most successful comedies focus on things that are really, really significant to the people living through them, no matter how funny they may seem to us.

This was particularly true in the ’70s, when, as I like to point out, the sitcom was a more genuinely serious TV form than the hour-long weekly drama. The sixth season of The Mary Tyler Moore Show was just released on DVD, and looking at that set, it’s striking that almost every story could be done as a serious drama — though the lack of melodrama means that they probably wouldn’t be, even today. The season opener has Lou trying to go to his ex-wife’s remarriage without breaking down in depression and despair; another episode has Murray deciding that he’s fallen hopelessly in love with a woman he can never have (Mary); another episode ends with Sue Ann breaking down in tears after her boyfriend turns out to be unfaithful; and I haven’t even brought up the death of Chuckles the Clown. None of these episodes actually play as drama; they don’t even have completely serious scenes the way some sitcoms would have. But nearly all the episodes raise the stakes about as high as they can possibly go for characters who don’t lead particularly exciting lives. Some of the most successful sitcoms of all time, like All in the Family or Roseanne, have chosen a lot of their stories this way. You take stories that are small in the sense that they don’t have much impact on anyone beyond this family or office, but that are huge in terms of what they mean to the characters or the emotional fault lines they expose.

Even though non-melodramatic drama is not much more common on TV now than it was then, comedies have backed away from this to a large extent. The Office usually does it, or tries to; it’s the Greg Daniels method to try and connect the main story to some kind of deeper emotional issue. But a lot of comedies, both traditional and single-camera, get a lot of their stories from issues that are basically as small as the stories. The stories on  Cougar Town or 30 Rock or Big Bang Theory will be tied to some kind of emotional issue with the characters; that’s just good TV structuring. But the issues are usually a little trivial, like when the brother and sister on Modern Family mildly worry that they’re not as close as they’d like to be. Even the quest of Ted from HIMYM to find a mate, no matter how much of an epic feel the narration tries to give it, is really just a guy whining about how he’s over 30 and hasn’t found the perfect girl yet.

That’s not a criticism of those shows, since many comedies can, do, and should find their stories in the minutia of everyday life; trivial things can be interesting too, and often are on these shows. But there aren’t a lot of shows that pick up the slack from TV drama, doing the small-scale, high-stakes stories that dramas won’t do.

I actually think one reason why Two and a Half Men is the most popular comedy on TV, despite the despicability of most of the characters, is precisely that it has a certain substance to it. Because the characters are constantly hurting each other, and because every story is built on the fact that they are truly miserable, damaged people, the stories tend to come from very dark places and deal with things that really matter to the characters — their broken-ness, their inability to love, their open hatred of their mother. It doesn’t make for a likable show, but it does make for a show that’s more substantial than most.

The show that it used to be paired with, Everybody Loves Raymond, was a show that took the same approach; every story would start with something small and seemingly trivial, but it always blew up into a bigger argument as the little thing became a proxy for a fight about some big, serious issue that had stunted the emotional growth of these sad people. Raymond was a better show than Men because it didn’t make its characters completely hateful, but once Raymond went off the air, Men became — strangely enough — the place TV viewers went to get some stories with meat to them, as opposed to stories about the tiny relationship problems of well-adjusted people, or the cartoonish and therefore less-relatable problems of the Arrested Development or 30 Rock gang.

Of course, there’s still plenty of room for someone to create a half-hour comedy show that has real substance and isn’t about a bunch of jerks. But it still seems that there’s a default assumption that a comedy should be about very little things that don’t really matter much in the characters’ lives. In fact, comedy often takes off most strongly when it’s about really dark or important problems played for laughs. Since hardly anybody’s going to do a drama about everyday problems, the door is still wide open for comedy to once again become the real drama of TV.

I tell you naught for your comfort…

By Colby Cosh - Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 1:33 PM - 23 Comments

Leading hockey stat-wrangler Gabe Desjardins offers a sobering statistical treatment of Canada’s chances for hockey gold. It’s sobering because it’s not at all based on a pessimistic view of the preliminary round—which, indeed, went some way toward vindicating Steve Yzerman’s roster selection and had the useful effect of clearing away the irrelevant detritus of past trophies from the goaltending question. (When was the last time you saw a Canadian team dominate a U.S. one from goal line to goal line so decisively?) Even on the explicit, historically derived premise that Canada has the strongest team in the tournament, it would be hard to peg our chances of winning gold at much higher than 25%. On Desjardins’ pretty reasonable estimates of underlying national team strength, the figure is not close to 25%. I crunched the numbers, leaving room for the possibility of being helped somewhere along the way by an upset of a strong rival, and I get about 19%. That’s assuming we have a 100% chance of beating Germany tonight, when the real figure is probably more like 93-95%.

Even Canada supporters who don’t quantify this stuff instinctively have probably already grimaced at the terrible logic. What are the most generous possible probabilities you could assign to Canada beating Russia and beating Sweden? Even if it’s 70% for both, that leaves us, basically, with only a (.7)² shot at merely making the final. In other words, about 50-50.

The historic estimate of our chances in a single game against Russia, even taking into account some weak pre-Ovechkin Russian teams, isn’t 70%; it’s 57%. Which feels approximately right. Home ice helps, but a lot of the home-ice advantage is really a “home time-zone advantage”, and the Rooskies have had a week to adjust to the new clock. And the chance of Slovakia bumping Sweden out of our way helps too, but then, Slovakia isn’t chopped liver. The sky grows darker yet, and the sea rises higher.

This looks familiar

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 1:27 PM - 19 Comments

Two months after the Conservatives prorogued Parliament to “consult” with Canadians, government officials have revealed the broad outlines of Ottawa’s plans for the March 4 budget. In short, it’s more of the same—it includes no new spending or tax measures, and no cuts to pensions, health care or education transfers to the provinces. Despite signs the worst of the economic crisis has passed, the federal government will push ahead with $19 billion worth of stimulus spending announced last year. “Having prorogued Parliament ostensibly to recalibrate and plan the budget, the government is now saying the budget will contain essentially nothing,” said Liberal finance critic John McCallum. “That kind of contradicts their rationale for prorogation.”

CBC News