Boardwalk Empire, 12 Episodes Later

By Jaime Weinman - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 11:46 AM - 9 Comments

So what did you think of the first season of Boardwalk Empire? Reaction to the show seems to have gone through several cycles in only one twelve episode season: from immense hype, to backlash (including a big drop in viewership from the inflated levels of the pilot) to renewed critical respectability. It now almost seems to be a show that is respected rather than loved; Emily Nussbaum put it on her list of the top 10 shows of 2010, even though she finds the violence and nudity “gratuitous” and the Sopranos-clone elements to be too blatant.

The show certainly has improved after hitting a rough patch soon after the pilot, but I don’t think it’s a show I feel compelled to return to very often. First, the Sopranos imitations are just too much to take sometimes; if you put some of the scenes in modern dress, they would seem really similar to HBO’s flagship show, but as it is, the formula seems to show through at times. Over a decade after The Sopranos, the time is long past when a show can seem unusual for being about scummy criminals, or having minimal music, or being morally ambiguous. These are all formula elements by now, and while there’s nothing wrong with formula in TV, I think Boardwalk Empire seems a bit by-the-numbers HBO, at least sometimes.

Second, I don’t feel a great sense of momentum from the show, even now. As I noted soon after it began, Boardwalk Empire is constructed a lot like a soap opera, where many episodes are built out of a bunch of scenes that might not be directly connected to one another. The structure and pace of the episode comes from alternating different types of scenes with different characters. This is fine if the scenes are good, but at some points I find myself drumming my fingers and waiting for the scenes to be over. Maybe it’s because the themes of the scenes can be a bit repetitive; maybe it’s a downside of a show trying to convey its chosen themes, that eventually you see one too many scenes where the underlying issues are similar.

But mostly it’s the guy at the centre. The Sopranos worked because Tony Soprano dominated the show; even when he wasn’t in a scene, you felt his presence and wondered what he was going to think about this. Just knowing that Tony was such a dominant figure gave momentum to any episode or season. Nucky, at least to me, is not like that — when he’s not on screen, I barely think about him. This is partly because Michael Pitt as Jimmy has become the closest thing to a breakout character, and it’s partly because the issues that Nucky’s life revolves around are more conventional and familiar than the funnier, weirder problems that Tony had. Being based on a real person, Nucky has to be more serious than Tony, just as the show has to take itself more seriously than The Sopranos did, but Deadwood has shown that reality-based characters can have more quirky individuality than I’m getting from this guy.

But I think some of it may be Steve Buscemi. As a character actor, we all know he’s good, but there’s a difference between a character actor and a lead. And the difference has nothing to do with good looks, or James Gandolfini would not be a star. It’s about presence. Physically, vocally and just in terms of acting style, Buscemi seems (to me) to have trouble dominating even the scenes he’s in — and if he can’t do that consistently, he sure can’t be an unseen presence in other people’s scenes.

'I have not willingly planted a thorn in any man’s bosom'

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 11:19 AM - 7 Comments

Peter Wehner notes the difference between civility and weakness.

Civility is not a synonym for lack of principles or lack of passion. They are entirely separate categories. Civility has to do with basic good manners and courtesy, the respect we owe others as fellow citizens and fellow human beings. It is both an animating spirit and a mode of discourse. It establishes limits so we don’t treat opponents as enemies. And it helps inoculate us against one of the unrelenting temptations in politics (and in life more broadly), which is to demonize and dehumanize those who hold views different from our own.

Canadian sentenced to death in Iran

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 10:50 AM - 28 Comments

Iranian-born Canadian Saeed Malekpour has reportedly been sentenced to death in Tehran. According to a Canadian Press report, the 35-year-old web developer’s conviction is linked to a program he made for what turned out to be an adult website. Malekpour was charged of “taking action against national security by designing and moderating adult content websites,” “agitation against the regime” and “insulting the sanctity of Islam.” Earlier this year, Malekpour penned an open letter to Iranian officials alleging forced confessions and torture. Malekpour’s supporters have sent a petition to the House of Commons in the hope that Ottawa will appeal the Iranian government and secure Malekpour’s release.

Toronto Star

It's all a big conspiracy

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 10:09 AM - 32 Comments

A week after those by-elections you’ve already forgotten about, an anonymous Conservative steps forward to tell the Hill Times that the Conservatives purposefully lost Winnipeg-North.

A top Tory from Winnipeg told The Hill Times that had the Conservatives mounted the same candidate who ran in Winnipeg North in the 2008 election, Ray Larkin, whose daughter Marni Larkin is a senior director and organizer for the federal Conservatives in Manitoba, NDP candidate Kevin Chief would likely have won.

Instead, late last summer, after Mr. Lamoureux defeated a prominent member of the large Filipino community in the riding for the byelection nomination, the Conservatives dropped Mr. Larkin and selected a little-known member of the Filipino expatriate population, Julie Javier, who barely ran a campaign, avoided candidate debates and media interviews, featured a mobile poster mounted atop an automobile that sporadically appeared in the riding, and drew criticism from even Conservative party members for her lacklustre effort.

This no doubt explains why Conservatives were so reluctant to attack Mr. Ignatieff in the days leading up to that vote and why the Prime Minister made sure to avoid appearing in the riding.

Newsmaker of the Year: Sidney Crosby

By Charlie Gillis and Ken MacQueen - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 10:00 AM - 42 Comments

Newsmaker of the year - Sidney Crosby | Matt Slocum/AP

René Fasel is a small, brusque man whose greatest virtue—candour—is also his greatest flaw. The head of the International Ice Hockey Federation has more than once gotten himself into trouble by blurting out unwelcome thoughts on, say, fighting in hockey, or the parsimony of National Hockey League owners. But seldom has Fasel risked his own well-being so recklessly as he did after the second period of the gold medal hockey game between Canada and the United States at the Vancouver Olympics, when, with Canada leading 2-1, he turned to the man sitting next him.

“All we need now,” said Fasel gleefully, “is another American goal.” The man was John Furlong, and he was not so much offended as thunderstruck. As the Games’ chief organizer, Furlong knew better than anyone the gravity of the moment for the 22 million Canadians tuned in to the game. His country stood on the cusp of the greatest moment in its sporting history, he recalls in a forthcoming book Patriot Hearts: Inside the Olympics that Changed a Country—a gold medal win, on home soil, in the sport it gave the world. Yet here was Fasel, a sports bureaucrat from Switzerland, thinking about—what?—the impact of overtime on international television ratings?

Continue…

He sings all the parts—even the guitars

By Mike Doherty - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 9:40 AM - 7 Comments

The 23-year-old’s videos are G-rated covers of raunchy fare by Katy Perry and others—sometimes he has to change the lyrics a bit | Photograph by Cole Garside

In a World Wide Web full of bizarre celebrities, from the histrionic Chris “Leave Britney alone!” Crocker to the glassy-eyed Tay “Chocolate Rain” Zonday, one YouTube sensation stands out. His name is Mike Tompkins, and he’s… rather normal.

The London, Ont., vocalist and producer garners millions of hits for videos in which he cheerily recreates the multi-layered sounds of contemporary pop songs—using only his voice and mouth, and occasionally, a tambourine. In October, über-producer Timbaland (Nelly Furtado, Justin Timberlake) invited him to Miami, saying, “You’re doing something normal, but in a really cool way.”

Tompkins, 23, is clean-cut and well-mannered—over lunch at Duggan’s Brewery in Toronto, he even says grace before tucking into his burger. He’s the kind of guy his many teen-girl fans would like to take home to their parents, if he weren’t already married.

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Advice from the rich

By Chris Sorensen - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 9:40 AM - 3 Comments

Britt Erlanson/Getty Images

On an evening earlier this year, billionaire investor Michael Lee-Chin stood before an audience of elegantly dressed men and women inside an opulent 32,000-sq.-foot mansion in Oakville, Ont., an affluent town just west of Toronto. He had been invited by a developer to share investing tips with potential buyers in a luxury condo project on the sprawling $35-million Edgemere Estate, a clever way to attract the type of people able to spend up to $6.8 million for a single lakefront unit.

Though a contrarian investor (Lee-Chin doesn’t believe in broad-based, diversified holdings), many of his insights could have easily been applied to Canadians of any means—buy into a few high-quality businesses, understand what you own, and invest for the long run. But others were clearly aimed at the well-to-do crowd before him. “When you borrow from the bank, make sure you borrow enough money so when there’s a problem, the bank is worried, not you,” Lee-Chin said with a loopy grin. The audience, largely tanned and sipping wine, responded with hearty guffaws and knowing nods. He was only half-joking, mind you, having at age 32 convinced a bank manager to loan him $500,000, which he used to buy a stake in Mackenzie Financial that was eventually parlayed into a personal fortune.

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Barack Obama's not so good year

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 9:20 AM - 8 Comments

Jim Young/Reuters

It was the best of times, and the worst. Barack Obama did what Democratic presidents have been trying and failing to do since Harry Truman: deliver the policy Holy Grail of health reform that will extend insurance coverage to most of the millions of Americans who don’t have it. No longer will Americans lose their coverage if they get sick, or go without it on account of a pre-existing medical condition, to name just a few changes the new law introduces. When Obama signed the bill into law on March 23, he used 22 different pens so they could be handed out as historic souvenirs and archived for posterity. “Today we are affirming that essential truth, a truth every generation is called to rediscover for itself, that we are not a nation that scales back its aspirations,” he declared. An open microphone caught Vice President Joe Biden summing the occasion up more succinctly, as he turned to the President and said, “This is a big f–king deal.”

Obama had other successes: getting Congress to pass financial reform legislation to protect credit card users and people seeking mortgages, and to oversee risk in the financial system and prevent another collapse. He successfully confirmed his solicitor general, Elena Kagan, to be a Supreme Court justice, giving the nation’s highest judicial body three sitting women judges for the first time in history. He pushed through an overhaul and expansion of federal student loans.

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Dilma Rousseff: Her own woman

By Claire Ward - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 9:20 AM - 0 Comments

Eugenio Savio/AP

This time last year, many Brazilians didn’t even know her name. But on Jan. 1, she will be sworn in as Brazil’s first female president. Already, Dilma Rousseff, former chief of staff to populist president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil’s Workers Party, ranks 16th on Forbes’ “Powerful People 2010” list, the third most powerful woman behind Angela Merkel and India’s Sonia Gandhi.

Rousseff, known as a tough, pragmatic and demanding civil servant, is poised to inherit one of the world’s fastest-growing economies—an emerging market and global player alongside Russia, India and China. Her handling of a massive oil discovery—some 50 billion barrels beneath the ocean floor—could potentially send Brazil hurtling into developed country status. Rousseff has indicated that she plans to create millions of jobs, continue to improve the nation’s crumbling infrastructure and schools, and maintain her predecessor’s wildly popular social welfare programs and market-friendly policies.

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The Manitoba miracle

By Jason Kirby - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 9 Comments

PHOTOGRAPH BY MARIANNE HELM

Six years ago, Rylan Hart, a contractor from Winnipeg, packed up his tool box and headed west. While Manitoba’s economy was expected to continue plodding along, British Columbia was on the cusp of a housing boom, and as a skilled tradesman he was perfectly positioned for the windfall when it came. But Hart had been warned by veterans of B.C.’s “roller coaster” construction sector not to expect the good times to last, and they didn’t. The combination of recession, an Olympic hangover and the new harmonized sales tax sent shivers through his industry. “Everything just tanked,” says Hart, 35. So in July he did what a lot of others in the Manitoban diaspora have done over the last year—he packed up and headed back to the Prairies.

But if the Winnipeg that Hart left was dull but stable—it’s often said Manitoba doesn’t suffer economic slumps because it never enjoys boom times in the first place—the Winnipeg he returned to, with its luxury condo projects, massive housing developments and stunningly low unemployment, is scarcely recognizable. “From the moment I got back I’ve been going full tilt,” he says. “I keep having to tell [potential clients], ‘No, I’m too busy.’ I’ve already got work until at least next spring lined up.”

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A grasping riot of mutual pocket-pickers

By Andrew Coyne - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 6:00 AM - 59 Comments

Artist's rendering of EXPO 2017

The writer for the Edmonton Sun was measuring his words. Edmontonians, he wrote, “don’t feel we have been kicked in the teeth by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Edmonton ‘lieutenant’ Rona Ambrose.” Pause. “Because it’s far more comparable to being kicked in the groin.”

He was hardly alone in the sentiment. It was a “cold shoulder to the jaw,” said the Edmonton Journal. A writer for the paper complained the city had been “stonewalled, snubbed and rejected without appeal.” As for the mayor, well, “this is the most disheartened day I’ve had as an Edmontonian, as a Canadian, as an Albertan,” he said, accusing Ambrose of having “failed the city.”

And everyone agreed: come the next election, local Tory MPs would pay with their seats.
What had set off all this rending of garments? What terrible injury had the city suffered? The federal government had failed to cough up the $706 million the city was hoping would help defray the costs of putting on Expo 2017, on which it has bid. Edmonton was a pleasant, prosperous place to live before it ever entered anyone’s head to host a world’s fair, as it will be long after Expo 2017, wherever it is eventually held, has been forgotten. But at this particular moment in time, the fair’s promoters had worked themselves up into the belief that the whole future of the city depended on it.

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Digital Evolution

By Jaime Weinman - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 2:02 AM - 5 Comments

Geoff Pevere in the Toronto Star has launched a series of articles on the effect the Digital Revolution is having on our consumption of media. His first piece in the series is about movie consumption, and I thought I would link to it because it is a pretty in-depth discussion of how movie-going has and hasn’t changed, and how it might change still more as time goes on and entertainment increasingly becomes something we don’t go out to enjoy.

My personal inclination is usually to be on the side of the people who say things haven’t changed as much as you think. There are always changes in technology and methods of delivery, and in the end people still want entertainment and companies still figure out how to make money off it.  The concept of “one-to-one Continue…

King of the Hill Revisited: "Pilot" and "Square Peg"

By Jaime Weinman - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 12:11 AM - 11 Comments

I’ve been meaning to do a series of episodic retrospective reviews (the way The AV Club and some other TV sites do), where I look at a show that’s no longer on the air and revisit the episodes from the beginning, two at a time. I’m going to try it with King of the Hill, at least the first 12-episode season; if it works I’ll move farther along in the series.

King of the Hill was somewhere near my favourite show in the early ’00s, when I was in law school watching the new episodes and catching up with the older ones back when The Comedy Network showed them. But it’s been a while since I’ve watched most of the episodes. It seems like the obvious choice for a retrospective, because it’s one of those shows that has a lot of cultural and pop-cultural baggage associated with it: it was the first post-Simpsons prime time cartoon to become a big hit (though it didn’t get back the genuine smash status it had in its first two seasons), paving the way for all the other Fox cartoons. It’s had a lot of influence on live-action comedy, through the differing projects of its creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels; comparisons to the U.S. version of The Office or Parks & Recreation are not made all that often, but their approaches have a lot in common, not to mention the writers they share. And it was a mildly political show that was on the air through three different U.S. Presidents, including one who was governing Hank Hill’s state when the series began. So here goes.

“Pilot”

The first thing anyone notices upon watching the King of the Hill pilot is that the opening is slow — the slowest opening scene of a prime-time cartoon and possibly any prime-time comedy in the modern era. Since no one knew yet except the creators that “Yep/Yep/Yep/M-hm” was going to be a running gag, it’s almost a minute until the first line that’s clearly identifiable as a joke (Dale thinking “Fix It Again, Tony” forms the acronym “FORD”), and a minute in a 22-minute show is a lifetime. The topic of discussion, fixing a truck, is mundane; there are long, non-comic silences; the background noise of birds is amped up to make it sound more like a real outdoor scene. It doesn’t even identify who the main character is; Hank Hill sort of comes off as in control of the scene because it’s his truck, but we don’t clearly know he’s the hero until director Wes Archer’s famous main title begins.

Greg Daniels says on his DVD commentary for the pilot that, watching this scene shortly before it was due to air, he was worried that it was too slow, that people would tune out. But I think the way he and Mike Judge did this cold open may have helped contribute to the show’s success. People were used to seeing prime-time cartoons that were more or less like The Simpsons in their approach. Instead, the first thing they saw after The Simpsons was a scene that could never have happened on that show. It was a surprise, and it instantly differentiated the new show from the king of prime-time animation. That sense of being different may have helped to deflect the “Simpsons-wannabe” accusations that every cartoon was subject to — and when you consider that the basic plot conceit of this episode (a series of misunderstandings lead child services people to think the hero is a child abuser) had already been done on The Simpsons, this pilot needed all the differentiation it could get.

Having made it clear that this show is not a Simpsons clone, the rest of the pilot can concentrate on the other important task (apart from the usual pilot tasks of introducing the characters and their relationships), getting us to Continue…

Sky-high airfares

By Jason Kirby - Sunday, December 5, 2010 at 12:00 PM - 17 Comments

Steve Russell/Toronto Star

Back in 2008, the world’s airlines were in survival mode. Fuel prices had soared and consumers were cutting back. With analysts openly fretting about whether Air Canada might once again crash-land in bankruptcy court, mass layoffs of front-line staff and an array of new fees and penalties were but the most visible changes impacting travellers. Some foreign carriers took even more drastic measures to cut costs, ripping out entertainment systems and even ordering passengers not to flush toilets, lest they burn precious fuel in the process.

The mood in the skies these days couldn’t be more different. Over the past year, carriers have been able to drive down costs, fill their planes to the brim, and chart a path to stellar financial results. In November, Air Canada’s operating income quadrupled to $327 million, while WestJet’s third-quarter profits jumped 72 per cent to $54 million. So far this year Air Canada’s share price has surged 176 per cent, to $3.70, while WestJet recently instituted its first-ever quarterly dividend to investors.

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Julian Fantino’s correspondence as a child

By Scott Feschuk - Saturday, December 4, 2010 at 4:52 PM - 55 Comments

In the aftermath of today’s Globe story, a closer look at Conservative MP Julian Fantino’s formative years…

• • •

Dear Santa Claus,

You call this a sweater? Eight years I’ve worn sweaters. Eight. Years.

And you come at me with acrylic?

I would rather stare into the barrel of a loaded .45 than this garish shade of royal blue.

I am driven by three things: I know who I am, I know what I’m here to do and acrylic sucks arse. You just pushed the wrong buttons, red.

Bought into the whole jolly elf thing. Four minutes I spent sitting on the knee. Specific mentions made of natural fibers. And then this.

And all the nonsense about me Continue…

WikiLeaks founder calls for former Harper adviser's arrest

By macleans.ca - Friday, December 3, 2010 at 5:49 PM - 51 Comments

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange lashed out at Stephen Harper’s former adviser Tom Flanagan on Friday after Flanagan suggested Assange should be assassinated. During an online Q&A with readers of The Guardian, Assange riposted that Flanagan should be charged with “incitement to commit murder.” Flanagan has since said the remark was “glib” and that he “never seriously intended to advocate or propose the assassination of Mr. Assange.” While conceding it is very unlikely the political science professor would be charged under Canada’s criminal code, NDP MP Joe Comartin suggested the government should repudiate Flanagan’s comments. The Conservatives have instead sought to distance themselves from Flanagan, insisting he no longer serves the prime minister. Meanwhile, Flanagan’s current employer, the University of Calgary, has said it is “not considering any disciplinary action.”

National Post

Canadians who fibbed on taxes come forward in record numbers

By macleans.ca - Friday, December 3, 2010 at 5:22 PM - 8 Comments

More Canadians than ever before are confessing to having dodged taxes, according to an investigation by iPolitics. Numbers from Canada Revenue Agency reveal that 12,128 people declared unpaid taxes in 2009-10—up nearly 14 per cent from 2007-08. The unreported income amounted to $1.8 billion, resulting in $550 million in federal taxes. Disclosures are increasing on all fronts, but most significantly in the category of offshore bank accounts. Former revenue minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn attributes the increase to his publicized efforts to obtain lists of Canadian clients of banks in offshore tax havens like Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

Vancouver Sun

iPolitics

The way we were

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, December 3, 2010 at 5:20 PM - 46 Comments

A week ago the Public Safety Minister recalled words uttered 39 years ago by a former solicitor general to explain the current Conservative government’s differences with the current Liberal party when it comes to current crime policy. The specific comment of Jean-Pierre Goyer’s that Mr. Toews seems to have been referring are as follows.

“Consequently, we have decided from now to stress the rehabilitation of individuals rather than protection of society.”

Mr. Goyer made these comments during a speech in the House on the afternoon of October 7, 1971. Specifically, and for the record, he was addressing proposed reforms to the prison system. Concerned about both the cost of an imprisoning an individual and the rate of recidivism, Mr. Goyer had introduced various measures: from new haircuts and clothing to new housing arrangements and greater access to work and education.

The first response to the solicitor general’s comments that day was offered by Eldon M. Woolliams, the MP for Calgary North and the justice critic for the Progressive Conservative party. His speech is noteworthy in its own right. A few excerpts. Continue…

Obama makes surprise trip to Afghanistan

By macleans.ca - Friday, December 3, 2010 at 5:15 PM - 0 Comments

U.S. President Barack Obama made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Friday, spending a brief four hours at Bagram Air Base. While warning of “difficult days ahead,” Obama nonetheless told some 3,800 U.S. troops they were winning the war in Afghanistan. “You’re achieving your objectives, you will succeed in your mission,” Obama said. “We said we were going to break the Taliban’s momentum. That’s what you’re doing.” A planned trip to Kabul to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai was scuttled by inclement weather. It was instead replaced with a 15-minute phone call.

AFP

Quebec electoral officer dismisses one of Bellemare's claims

By macleans.ca - Friday, December 3, 2010 at 4:33 PM - 3 Comments

Quebec’s election chief has called off the investigation into corruption allegation made against the Charest government by former Justice Minister Marc Bellemare. After a lengthy investigation, Marcel Blanchet announced Friday there is simply no evidence to back up Bellemare’s claims the provincial Liberals in Quebec illegally accepted cash-stuffed envelopes. “[Bellemare] did not witness any collection of money that would have been in violation of the provisions of the Elections Act. Similarly, he cannot attest to, or cite concrete facts, suggesting that any violations of the act occurred,” the electoral officer said in a statement. “Therefore, no action will be taken on this issue.”

CBC News

Afghan corruption made ambassador’s “blood boil”

By macleans.ca - Friday, December 3, 2010 at 2:58 PM - 3 Comments

A WikiLeaks cable released Thursday shows Canada’s ambassador to Afghanistan told his U.S. counterpart last February that the level of corruption in Hamid Karzai’s government made his “blood boil.” The document also quoted Ambassador William Crosbie as having said “getting the electoral process right is a bottom-line position for Canada,” and “we risk losing credibility among our own population if we go along with a rigged election.” Crosbie reportedly offered to quit over the leak, which is embarrassing for the Karzai government, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper defended Crosby. Harper told reporters Friday that Canada is already known to be “outspoken in its concerns about some aspects of governance in Afghanistan.” The Sept. 18 election was marked by bloodshed, intimidation and ballot-stuffing by many parties, include Karzai supporters and the election commission only just certified the results on Wednesday. The U.S. and E.U. both said Wednesday that despite evidence of fraud, they are pleased to see the results certified.

Wall Street Journal

Winnipeg Free Press

Why Can't Our TV Promos Be Like This?

By Jaime Weinman - Friday, December 3, 2010 at 2:47 PM - 7 Comments

No, really, why can’t they? This video started circulating on blogs and Twitter yesterday; it’s a promo for a Norwegian show called Gylne Tider (Golden Years) which has been on since 2002 and does documentary-style interview profiles on celebrities, apparently with a particular focus on U.S. celebrities from the ’80s and ’90s. The show promotes itself by getting the various stars they’ve profiled to lip-synch a little bit to a popular song. So:

The show did a similar promo a couple of years ago, with a different song (“We Are the World”) and a different assortment of lip-synching celebrities.

Here’s an example of what the actual show is like, an interview with Josie Bissett from Melrose Place. It is more or less as I would have expected from the promos. But we’ve had those kinds of interviews with B-list U.S. celebrities in Canada, to say nothing of the U.S. So it’s the promotional videos that really make the show.

Straight outta Winnipeg

By Martin Patriquin - Friday, December 3, 2010 at 2:40 PM - 115 Comments

Brooklyn, Jon-C and Charlie Fettah (left to right) of Winnipeg’s Most | Photograph Marianne Helm

The West End Cultural Centre’s home is a former church located in the not-quite-gentrified Spence neighbourhood near downtown Winnipeg. The band posters lining the wall confirm the pedigree of the venue: everyone from Montreal’s Planet Smashers to Loudon Wainwright has played here. But the music of Winnipeg’s Most, a three-man native rap crew, is beyond even those eclectic boundaries.

On a recent Wednesday night, Charlie Fettah stomped around the stage, spitting tales of drugs, money and the dangerous allure of both into the microphone held tight against his lips. “The game got a funny way of pulling me back / Try to stay on the right side by making these tracks / Get away from the bad life, pushing it back / But I’m addicted to the fast life, I gotta get stacked.” Fettah and band members Jon-C and Brooklyn sported standard-issue rap gear: gold chains, tattoos, baseball caps turned sideways, oversized pants and T-shirts.

RELATED: A selection of videos from some of Winnipeg’s rappers and groups

The crowd of about 200 was almost entirely native—young kids, women pushing strollers, entire families and, in particular, teenage girls in crop tops and too much makeup. They bumped to the thick, droning beats and crowded the stage, mouthing the lyrics and shrieking whenever these included the “Northside,” the poor neighbourhood in the city’s north end mythologized on the band’s first album, Northside Connection.

Continue…

Our democracy runneth over (II)

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, December 3, 2010 at 2:23 PM - 22 Comments

Rob Silver calls for the outing of misleading sources.

I have lost count of how many stories in Canada over just the last 12 months have been mirror images of this case. Writer puts forward juicy story based on unnamed sources, PMO denies any truth to the story, life goes on as if the story was never filed. It is certainly not confined to The Globe as pretty much every paper has been “burned” this way.

There are two solutions – and only two solutions – to this problem. Either papers should stop relying on unnamed sources and given the impossibility that this will happen, the other option is this: When a source burns a paper – when they put something out that turns out to be patently false – the affected paper should immediately refile the story with the names of the sources relied on included.

Alex Panetta points out what Canadian Press did five years ago when it felt it had been misled.