Thing a day

Great story in the G&M - about the thing-a-day phenom. I think maybe I'll spend some of all this time at night freed up from the lack of TV doing a sketch a day. Maybe not for a year, but until the end of my Canadiania week. Which is sadely coming to an early end. I'm going to L.A. on March 11th, so the 10th will be the last day of Canadiania. Good way to wind it down- by diving right into the belly of the beast, home of Perez and Brit and all those puffed up cartoon renderings.

Ministry of Dirty

This is crazy. Is state-funded porn such a problem in Canada that a new propaganda reform need to be set in place? "Crash "would never be made if not for the funding of pornographic material by the Canadian government. There should be a Ministry of Porn, dedicated to the allocation of funds to smut-related products. Soon, we'll be as affraid of a few nips as our neighbours.

Gordon Pinsent on the Canadian film industry: "Each decade we ask `When are we going to have a full-grown film industry?' Well, I think we do have it. If we count them all up, there's some tremendous work being done.

Read the moving interview with the star of Away from Her here.

Canadian Trash - finally

Not that it's trash, as it's seriously a quality show, but Degrassi the Next Generation is totally addicting. The NYT's had a great piece about it about a year ago, and I would link to it if I could. But no wonder they're all hooked on it over in the US - rape, teen pregnancy, and drugs, all in the first four episodes. It doesn't pander to its teenage (and not so teenage anymore) audiences and accepts that they can handle the material without (too) heavily moralizing. Best line: "You can't fight cancer with your fists." I found myself getting choked up at one part featuring a girl getting back her chastity ring. Because, if it's rape, it doesn't count. THAT is quality programing.

Canadian Movies

I didn't realize "Up the YangZi" was Canadian (I assumed the title was a translation, well, because...) I definitely would have seen it had I known.

So, in 2006, Canadian film made up 4.1 per cent of our box office, 34.7 million bucks, according to Telefilm. French domestic is on a steep downward turn, and, although Canadian anglo films are on the up, they still only make 1.7 per cent of all box office returns. And 1.6 of that was "Men with Brooms."

Telefilm's answer? Spend more on comedy. Five or six comedies will be made a year, with Telefilm money. That's another six out of 32, the number of feature films made in Canada last year. I wonder how many docs were made, as they seem to be the medium of choice for many Canadian filmmakers. Cheap to make, I guess.

Another reason why there are so few Canadian feature films is because they never, ever make their money back. Obvious I guess. Features are expensive to make, and are almost always a loss. That's why funding agencies are a total necessity, and why Jim Shaw should go jump off a bridge, although that's the CTF. Anway. Vote with your dollar.

Canadian theatrical releases - Boo

So, there isn't one Canadian film in a theatre in Vancouver, Surrey, Burnaby or the rest. I was even looking for co-pro's, and in art-house theatres, too. Nothing. So we're staying home to watch The Delicate Art of Parking. Shameful.

A Canadian theatrical release

So this is the challenge right now - Boyfriend and I just went out for dinner, and haven't had a date-date in a while. So let's go see a movie. A Canadian movie in a theatre. I feel trepidatious but excited.

Week Two Begins...

Tonight's line up: 7:30 - Canada Reads. I want to hear them get really bitchy, real nasty-like. I'm so excited a new round has begun.

9:00 - MVP. I'm so curious about his show. There's sex, kidnapping, manicures. Could this be the Canadian trash I've been looking for? I had yesterday afternoon off, and wanted so very much, in my hung-over stupor, to watch Dr. Phil. After a lot of bitching and moaning about the impossibility of it, read Blind Assassin instead. God damn that's a good book.

Brie is sending me episodes of Moccasin Flats. Very excited for that as well.

Interesting article in the G&M about Hilary. I agree 100 per cent. The campaign has been giving me a sick feeling, like something just isn't right. Obama is behind in the polls - Americans aren't ready for a black prez. Hilary is, and it's because she's a wench in a bad pant-suit. There's a deep underling sexism going on. Sure, calling Hilary an "uppity woman" isn't like calling Obama an "uppity black," as the writer of the op-ed insists. It's more like "uppity man." But no one would ever call a man "uppity." It's something you only call a woman, like "bitch," an adjective reserved for a female who has crawled out of her place and thinks she's better than she is. Not that every Hilary supporter is full of sexist bile. But from some quarters, there's a kind of hate showing itself, one that is at best a double standard. Sad and creepy, and hopefully people will take a look at it nce Obama gets the nom.

Fondue in Delta

Looks like I didn't miss much with the Oscars. Instead we visited good friends in Delta, drank too much wine and speared thick pieces of meat with fondue forks. A culdren of onion soup bubbled away on the table, into which we dunked the meats and veg. Good times. Banada dipped in chocolate is still the best thing you could hope for in a dessert.

A few questions this thing has brought to mind

Here are a few questions that have come to mind.

When you're talking about the buzzing hive of information into which we dip for entertainment/education, what defines a country? Lately, a country's borders, a land mass that through history has come to be defined as one thing, and the swarm of ideas that makes up its culture seem unrelated.

You read Harpers online because it represents a point of view that you agree with, not because it's from the US. A music collective out of Chicago expresses an aesthetic you find interesting. Has the internet killed "national" culture, eliminated history and replaced it with opinion and taste? Does "nationhood" have anything to do with it anymore, and should it, and if it does, what?

Obviously history has a lot to do with it, and ones personal experience of the environment. From John A. MacDonald to Fragle Rock, we have a shared history, and that binds us. That history, and the size of the land mass on which we live, and its temperature, gives us a certain shared perspective. And the culture that comes out of this land mass brings that perspective to life, injects it with meaning, creates new meanings from it, questions it, destroys it and builds it back up again.

So what does it mean now that Canada accepts 200,000 new immigrants a year? What if you take away that sense of shared history? Instead, we're a patchwork quilt of different, seperated histories. What if there is no interest in assimilation, and isolated cultural communities live in bubbles of self-sufficiancy and recreation of the culture that was left behind?

I don't know. The kids in those neighbourhoods grow up knowing a shoddy health care system that insists on fooling itself, but one that still provides for one's basic needs. In school, they learn about certain value systems we call Canadian, and bring new perspectives to it. If we can teach kids to respect where they come from, but not subject their future wives to a system of punishment that includes whipping or stoning, that would be a good thing. I love the neighbourhood I live in. Three block one way and you're in Indonesia, three blocks the other way hipsters are drinking bubble tea and buying funny T-Shirts, and then, Chinatown.

And more and more I'm realizing that absolutely everything comes down to the public education system. Invest loads in schools, and all social problems are solved. Not quite, but almost.

So what are the elements that make up that shared, Canadian perspective? If there's any common element to the stuff I've been taking in lately, it's sincerity. But that's just me - I'm not going to make some grand statement about this country's values based on my "Canadiana" playlist.

But still. There seems to be a sincerity to everything seen/listened to lately, a need to be emotionally honest. Nothing yet has been so highly stylized, so abstracted into an aesthetic, or sacrificed to irony, that it looses touch with its heart. So far, in my limited experience, Canadian culture has heart. It feels things very much. Although the Blind Assassin isn't exactly a sentimental journey. But take music - even the Wolf Parade side-projects have a certain light earnestness to them. Their music could float into the air and up through the sky, but it stays grounded in a kind of sincerity. Anyway.

Oscars

So, I have to miss the Oscars this year. In theory, this sucks, as it's usually a communal experience. Get together with friends, eat the nachos, rate the dresses. It's about clothes, and those 15 seconds between the end of the banter and the naming of the winner. Millions of dollars in advertising spent towards making those 15 seconds feel like some of the most suspenseful on TV.

There are about ten categories which are of any interest - so we're talking 150 seconds. Two and half minutes of nail-biting television out five-hours of blah. So, really, I'm only missing maybe three minutes of anything worth watching.

But I hope There Will be Blood wins everything, even in catagories for which it's not nominated. And I want to see what Ellen Page wears. Oh well. I'll put on a recording of last year's Gemini's and eat lime chips.

Props to Rachie, who was going to miss the Oscars with me to watch Independent Canadian Film from the late 80's. Our plans got foiled, but I appreciate it none the less. It's through the hard times that you learn who your real friends are. Boyfriend has been very good about this excersize as well, playing only from a selection of the 78 side-projects of Wolf Parade/Destroyer/Sunset Rubdown while I'm in the house.

To quickly sum up, what this week has done is prevented me from wolfing down drippy, spontaneous big macs every night, culturally speaking. I haven't been able to watch trashy TV; the momentarily-satisfying, voyeuristic junk that makes you feel ill afterwards. Or even Seinfeld reruns during dinner. I haven't watched much TV at all, in fact.

Next week, my goal is to watch way, way more; shows like MVP, and The Border - although I watched it once and had no idea what was going on. Anway, I'm also on the search for The Great Canadian Piece of Trash - no, not you, Rachel. Which Canadian show is as sickeningly satisfying as ANTM (and not CNTM) but is indiginous to our great land?

Saw Fido last night, and really enjoyed it. But even better was Andrew Curry's short film, added as an extra on the DVD. Very moving.

At the crux

This pretty much sums it up-

Ivan Ritchman's gripes on not being eligable for the Genies

Canadian Theatre. Yay!

Saw fantastic play last night called Leo, by Rosa Laborde, at the Firehall. So well written, and so well performed. Italians playing Chileans in Chinatown. It's about the fall of Alende and the rise of Pinochet in Chile, and about a trio of young people falling in and out of love and getting it on with each other. Emotionally engaging to the point that the end is a kind of torture in itself. Definetly a piece that brings the pain of a political persiod back to life for a moment. The weight behind what Pinochet did to that country flickered on stage for a moment in that last scene.

Also, in part because of this exersize, listened to Patrick Watson's album all the way through today on my run. So beautiful. It won the Polaris Prize this year, and deservedly so.

Dude with flag

Quite a few years ago, I was at a rave in Regina, long after everywhere else had stopped putting them on. We thought we'd go for a lark, but it was nasty; puke all over the Ukrainian centre's floor, 13 year olds on speed, fun stuff like that. Anyway, it was Canada Day, and this guy with coke-bottle glasses and bad teeth had painted a Canadian flag onto his face, and had one tied around his neck as a cape. He kept on running around, slipping in puke, yelling, "I'm Mr. Canada!" Everyone thought he was a huge loser, and I ended up having a smoke with him in the alley. He just jabbered on incoherently,the red and white paint swirling together and dripping down his neck. Anyway, I hope this blog doesn't turn into an online version of him. I'm starting to feel like Ms. Canada, running around with a flag on my back. But on less amounts of methamphetamine.

Some Fun Facts

Tried to find a book written and published in Canada about screenwriting yesterday. Out the shelves and shelves and shevles and shelves of books by Americans on how to write a movie, two lonely titles sat all droopey in the corner.

One, from 1995, is one of those small ratty hardcovers the library seems to multiply called "Telling it; writing for Canadian Film and Television" editied by Ann Frank. The other, from Biz Books, is called "The Way of the Screenwriter," by Amnon Buchbinder from York University. It relates the Toaist "Way" to the path of the screenwriter attempting to "let their story live." So far, so good.

But considering the success of the Canadian film industry, there should be way more than two Canadian books (accessable to me, anyway) on how to write a snappy little indie. Atom? Bruce? Peggy? No? Why do we have so few books about film industry in Canada? Obviously it's no match for the monolith next door. But still. Especially in Vancouver.

Fun Facts:



• Canadians spent $25 billion on culture in 2005




• In 2005, they spend more on non-school related books ($4.8 billion) than they did on going to see movies in the theatre ($1 billion).




• Alberta spent more on culture than any other province, at almost $1000 per capita, and waaay more on buying art than any other province. They have a lot of money, but they seem to be spending a lot of it on art.




• Canadians spent $13 billion, or 52% of all cultural spending on home entertainment.

I have no idea how much of that is indiginous culture. That's what I'm trying to find out. Surprisingly difficult to find those numbers.

ttfn

Rules and Regulations

Yesterday, I took Paco to our local branch of the library. Admitidly, it's a small branch, more of a hallway with bookshelves in it. But there were no Canadian Canadian dictionaries. The only Canadian cookbook was Baby Food Wonders, and one by Lumier Head Chef, and Vancouver celebrity Rob Feenie. If I want to whip up some Maple Glazed Pork Belly, I'm set.

For a lack of recipes, I dropped all of the old, freezer-burnt chicken into a pot with some water and onions, rolled up eight gooeyMatza balls, and three hours later, I eliminated any need to take Jewish classes in case Michael asks me to convert. This excersize in Canadiana is bringing me closer to being a Jew.

Anyway - the DJ question. Ben's totally right, finding a DJ that only mixes Canadian material would be impossible. But I think it's still legal in this excersize. It's actually similar to a copyright case that came down against a mash-up arists a couple of years ago, where he was sued successfully for copyright violation for using other songs without permission. I think that in both cases, the song is an original creation, made using a medium that recycles information. And the fact that it's original piece of work by a Canadian artist, means I can listen to it. I can't find the link because it's on an American site. I'm starting to be annoyed at this.

Watched "Prisoners of Beckett" last night, a NFB-Swedish co-pro. "Stars" one of the most unintentionally funny people I've ever seen. It's worth seeing for him alone.

starches and staples

So my Canadian dictionary isn't Canadian enough. It's published by Oxford University Press, which has an office in Toronto, but is still a UK company. So it's a no go. I'm probably taking this a bit too seriously, but whatever. I want to know if I can exist on Canadian informational products alone. So, off to the library to find a Canadian Canadian dictionary. Not that I use them, as is obvious. Also, I need Can Con Cookbooks, which should be easy. A bit more difficult will be finding a Canadian published/written book about screenwriting. They are all by Mckee minions in LA. But the search continues.

Also - need a playlist I can work out to. Today, on my run, Kala was replaced with Tiga, Led Zep with Black Mountain. (Kala was actually my first craving of this process. I really wanted to listen to it last night while washing the dishes.) But those were the only hard rock'n Canadian bands on my i-pod. The rest are pleasant, acustic guitar playing poets. Jason Collette and Martha Wainwright, as fantastic as they are, don't get my blood pumping. So my mission today - finding Canadian DJ's and other musicians that make kick-ass, hard-bass running tunes. Shout Out Out Out Out is #1 on that list.

Started Soucouyant last night. It's so beautiful. Also, discovered bookninja.com. Very good lit blog out of Toronto. To replace my twitchy scroll-down habits I'm clicking that instead of Perez. Good start, I think. http://chromewaves.net/ is fun too. Fun in that serious emo kind of way.

Boyfriend watched this face-off between Colbert, Stewart and O'Brian last night, (each were on the other's show, waiting in the alley to beat each other up. Wanting to watch that was the second craving of the day.) and it all seemed very loud and noisey. It might be the placebo effect, but things seem a bit quieter already, a little less frantic. Some pop culture infantalizes both its subjects and its consumers, and I feel like I'm starting to seperate myself from that process a bit more now. But I still miss Go Fug Yourself.

My Search for Canadain Search Engines

So in my journey to find a Canadian search engine, I came across many sites that looked as if they were created in 1994, abandoned by their basement web guy and are now floating in space like junk satellites. Sites such as this one, or this one, or my favourite - It makes no sense at all.

This one is pretty much the best I could find, is run out of a small town in Ontario and the one I’ll be using. If you are looking for a search engine AND a place to express your extremist right wing views about “turban heads” and our place in Afghanistan, try here.

I've put all the Canadian books that are on my “to read” list on one shelf; one small, rather pathetic shelf. All the chestnuts are on there: Monroe, Ondaatje, and good ol’ reliable Atwood. I could simply relive Can Lit 250 for the next four weeks, and write essays on the Rural Vs. Urban Identities in Canadian Literature. But I'm looking foreward to checking out some newer stuff as well, like David Chariandy’s “Soucouyant” and Heather O’Neil’s “Lullabies for Little Children.” I'm curious what they have to say about Rural Vs. Urban Indentities in Canadian Literature.

It's already different not having the freedom to simply sit down and flick through channels, or click on YouTube and eat a chicken sandwich (I am so glad I am not actually on a cleanse right now. I can still eat a cheesy, yummy chicken sadwich, just in front of a propped-up ipod playing "The Best of The Current" instead.). After a long day of work, you feel entitled to trash, as if it's the ultimate reward for being productive in any way. I cleaned the house for a few hours the other day, and just felt so satisfied hunkering down to an episode of Project Runway and a rice bowl afterwards. (TV and food are like the same thing in my mind.) If there's anything I've noticed already, other than the sorry state of Canadian search engines, is that just in this first day, I've already consumed a lot less sugary, processed information.

I have a feeling I’m going to a lot more time on my hands.

Tonight: A Canadian playlist to which I’ll be confined, and The Week the Women Went.

Day One...the nuts and bolts

The spell check isn't working on this, so you're going to get to see just how atrocious my spelling is.

Today is all about little necessities. Like, where the hell am I going to find a 100 per cent Canadian search engine? This is feeling a lot like the Wild Rose cleanse, where suddenly, that ingredient at the bottom of the list, that drop of white vinigar or soy sauce, makes the food contraband, and you throw it back on the shelf in frustration. Big surprise, Googel rules the world, and Yahoo is in sore second place. For now, I am using Canoe.ca as my search engine. Yes, it is "enhanced by Yahoo," which is as Canadian as the US flag. But all of its founding partners are from Quebec, it is a very successful Canadian internet comglomerate, so it'll have to do the trick. In the meantime, I'll keep searching for a 100 per cent Canadian search engine. But I have a feeling it'll be as appetizing as Vegan chocolate cookies. We'll see. Any suggestions?

Day one approaching...

I have a confession to make. It's a dirty one, so lean in close. I consume way too much US culture. Slate, Nytimes, Perez, CNN, Go Fug Yourself - these are the sites I frequent. I watch CNN, for the latest fast-paced, interactive graphics on the scores from the President Cup. (http://www.slatev.com/player.html?id=1370845042) I watch BBC World for badly-lit, rambling interviews on the President Cup. There's only one day left before my four weeks of Canadiana begins. I'll take this opportunity to set out the rules.

1) For four weeks, I can't consume any cultural product from outside of Canada. This includes websites, TV, movies, music, newspapers, or magazines.

2) By "Canadian" I mean produced by a Canadian company, in Canada. So despite the fact that it has a Canadian star and director, "Juno" wouldn't count. Celine Dion doesn't count, as she produces her music in the States, and is an alien. The album has to have been made in Canada, by a Canadian record label. Ann Murrey counts. Broken Social Scene counts. Beverly Hills 90210, although almost entirely made by a cast and crew of Canadians, doesn't count.

3) Due to the nature of my work, I may have to read international stuff for research. But I'll try to keep this to a minimum, and not browse in a non-work kind of way, which I do a lot of anyway. This might be a good opportunity to curb that habit.

There are a few reasons I'm doing this.

1) To imagine what it would be like if Canada was a giant Island floating in the Pacific ocean. What if there was no loud, attention seeking neighbour who kept coming up to borrow cups of oil and leaving their pyramid-scheme catalogs on your hallway table? What if we had to produce our own culture by necessity, motivated by the purest form of supply and demand? I want to live in this ideal state of unsaturated "Canada" for a month, whatever that means.

2) I want to know what happens when one exists off a steady diet of canned Can Con. Will my perspective change? Will I become a Better Person? Or... will there be absolutely no difference?

2) It's a great excuse to discover new Canadian artists and writers. This is the part I'm most looking foreward to. I'm going to be publishing lists of the hot stuff that comes my way while trying to fill the void left by Project Runway. And, yes, I have seen Project Runway Canada. Maybe PRC will begin airing their secnd season during my four weeks. That would be a gift from the angels.

So this blog will consist of a daily update on the expereince, it's level of difficulty and the period of withdrawl I'm about the enter (I hate PerezHilton, but I love reading about the pretty, messy people.) It'll have updated lists on great Canadian bands, book, mags, websites, TV shows and people.

By people, I mean I will periodically interview some of the artists and writers I come across, and post the interviews.

I would love to hear from anyone who comes across this blog, as it floats in space. I'd love tips on great Canadian songs, sites, music or mags that no one has heard of but everyone should see. Anyway. I'm going to spend some time prepping today. I'll erasing my web history, find someone new (In my head, this was said in Neil Young's voice. Good start.)

PS - If it weren't to a trip to LA planned in March, I would make it two months. But maybe that'll be an extra challenge.

PSS- The Blogger site needs to be the one exception. Ooops. Oh, and gmail. Blogger and Gmail and the only two exceptions.