Get to the Point- Make Poverty History Ad

George Stroumboulopoulos is one of many famous Canadian faces that can be seen in a new Make Poverty History ad pleading to the governement to reach their target and fulfill their promise to give .7% of our national income as foreign aid. This amount is necessary in order for the world to make any real progress towards alleviating extreme poverty in the world.

watch the video here:

 

TAKE ACTION! Learn More Here:

http://www.makepovertyhistory.ca/en

www.makepovertyhistory.ca/pointseven

 

 

George’s Exclusive With Coldplay

A couple of weeks ago George made a trip across the pond to do an exclusive interview Coldplay.  It will air Friday at 11pm. 

Go here for a preview.

It promises to be an interesting and entertaining hour!

Dr. Samantha Nutt knows who is to blame…

Dr. Samantha Nutt, former guest of the Hour was in Toronto this past March to lecture at the university of Toronto. A friend of the Red Chair Lounge was there, and found a message worth sharing. READ ON! 

 

CLUSTER BOMBS: We are all implicated.

 

In March I went to see Dr. Samantha Nutt, founder and executive director of War Child Canada lecture at UofT’s Hart House for their Hancock lecture series. To say that I learned a great deal of mostly troubling facts would be a bit of an understatement.
Dr. Samantha Nutt is incredibly knowledgeable, inspiringly stern in her convictions and it all stems from her first-hand experience in war zones. She knows what is wrong and who is to blame, and she is not afraid to state it, which is why her speech began with a disclaimer: “The opinions stated here are my own, and not necessarily those of War Child Canada”…etc.

There was one particular aspect of her speech that struck me as it exited her mouth, and has stuck with me since then.

Dr. Nutt spoke about cluster bombs.

“A cluster bomb is a cannister that opens in midair and ejects hundreds of “bomb-lets” across an area of more or less two football fields. These bomb-lets are little metal balls - as powerful as a hand grenade. When these bomb-lets explode, there’s a rain of jagged shrapnel. When they explode on the ground with a time delay they kill or maim anyone within a radius of 10 to 15 meters.” (The Real News Website)

These weapons of war are frightening, mostly because of the facts that come with them.

“as many as 1 in 4 of these bomb-lets never explode. The place where they fall becomes a minefield.” (The Real News Website)

Dr. Nutt explained that 98% of the victims of these unexploded bomblets are civilians, mostly children. Despite this the American Military maintain that they are a vital aspect of their war efforts and refuse to discontinue the practice.

And then there is us. What do we have to do with the problem, you wonder? 

ALL CANADIANS THAT HAVE EVER RECEIVED A PAYCHEQUE IN THIS COUNTRY ARE IMPLICATED.

Thats right. You are *unknowingly* paying for the production of cluster bombs, and the death of innocent people.

You know that bit of CPP you automatically pay into? that quiet deduction on your paystub? yeap, CPP invests “in corporations linked to the manufacture of anti-personnel landmines.” Thus, you also invest in corporations that manufacture cluster bombs. nice.

check out these links, or google this stuff for more information. Know what your government is doing, know where your money is going.

http://therealnews.com/id/1594/June 1, 2008/Cluster+bombs%3A+Hell+from+above

http://coat.openconcept.ca/cpp/

http://coat.openconcept.ca/cpp/overcoat/sanders-antipersonnelmines.html

Get Ready Folks!

After what seems like a very long time but was actually only three weeks, The Hour returns this week with brand new shows.  So far they’ve announced Pauly Shore, Gordon Lightfoot and Gordon Ramsey.  How’s that for an eclectic mix?   So welcome back folks.. it’s sad in a way though.. we’re only getting new episodes because the Canadian teams have all been tossed out of the playoffs. Let’s give a round of aplause to The Ottawa Sentators, The Calgary Flames and The Montreal Canadiens!! 

The Greatest Thing Ever is finally declared and an update

For those following along The Greatest Thing Ever competition has been building for weeks. Tonight they finally announced the winner. The big final match up was Velcro vs. Sex.  I’m sure you’ll all be very surprised to learn who won.  Go watch.

The Hour’s schedule is going to be adversely affected by the upcoming Stanley Cup Playoffs.  We have three Canadian teams in this year and it just works out that at least one of them will be playing every night of the week - at least for the first round.  So check The Hour’s site every so often to see when a new show will air. It looks like they are doing “best of” shows so now’s your chance to catch up on some great interviews. I’m hoping they take our suggestion and go back a bit further into the archives.    

A former travel writer and John F’n Cusack!

In the Cold Opener George attempted to explain to Adam the importance of John Cusack and his roll as a pop culture icon.  Adam may not quite have understood.  Poor Wendy!

Chuck Thomspon is a former travel writer who became disillusioned by the traditionally upbeat reporting demanded by travel publications.  His book Smile When You’re Lying exposes the truth about travel.  It’s not all sunshine and smiles folks.  There’s a down and dirty side of the most beautiful destination.  Be warned. That glossy gorgeous picture filled magazine you just paid 7 bucks for contains more advertising than actual facts.  The writer may not have even set foot in the city he/she is writing about. 

As interesting as I found Chuck I really only half listened to him.  Probably unfair to him, but really, who could be expected to pay attention to anyone opening for John Cusack?  To be perfectly honest I haven’t been this excited about a guest since Robbie the tiger.  If I could have found a way to get to Toronto I would have been front row for this interview!

Cusack was on The Hour a while back when George went to the Sundance Film Festival. Go watch it. It’s a much shorter interview and it’s not entirely a comfortable one.  It was interesting all the same.  Tonight’s interview took up the entire last half of the show.  It didn’t even occur to me that the show wasn’t the standard three guest format until I sat down to write this post. 

John Cusack is among a hand full of actors who at once define a certain generation and can accurately portray any time period.  He is the 80’s. He is also one of the most provocative and relevant artists working today.  He plays characters all guys wish they could be.  His work varies from romantic comedy to drama and yet each character is a rich tapestry of humanity. 

On tonight’s show John seemed much more engaged and at ease than in the previous interview.  Maybe it was the less chaotic setting. Maybe I imagined it.  At any rate, he was there to talk about War, Inc. which he co-wrote and appears in along side: his sister, the great Joan Cusack, Dan Aykroyd, Ben Kingsley, Marisa Tomei and Hilary Duff.   It is a satire about America’s newest hobby - war profiteering.  As John put it “Government has no more to do with governing than Nike does by just putting that swoosh on a shoe. It just puts its stamp on it, or its brand on it, and the rest just gets out sourced to profit.”  Put simply - the U.S government has become one giant ATM for major corporations.   George asked him about working with his sister.  John said he’ll work with Joan until someone tells him he can’t.  The woman is a legend in her own right. A fact John acknowledged by admitting that whenever she’s in a scene he knows it will turn out perfectly and that she’ll “run you over and steal the scene”.  Best quote of the night - “everybody’s full of shit”.

The interview ended on a very serious note.  Both John and George are huge fans of Joe Strummer and The Clash and George asked what’s the Clash song that doesn’t get played on the radio enough.  Both boys gave the question some thought. Here’s the list of songs they came up with:  Clampdown, Bankrobber, Armageddon Time, Police On My Back, Safe European Home and one I couldn’t quite catch but may have been Street Parade.

There are some new things up on the After The Hour page including an awesome prank and some old stuff (from the pre-audience days).

Bill C-10 - McVety on The Hour

From the Wednesday March 26th, 2008 Episode

Charles McVety’s arguments in favour of Bill C-10 were mind blowing - and not in a good way. He seemed to have a script and was sticking to it no matter what, essentially spewing rhetoric and dancing around George’s questions and observations. Who determines what is ‘grossly obscene’ content? George asked the question of him more than once and it was only in the last few moments of the interview that Charles McVety gave reply (and his words said so much about his true agenda - not violence, not hate - he does not want funding for any kind of depiction of sex - oh, dirty movies - oh my!).

At one point George brought up certain Canadian movies, such as Exotica and Crash, that had received international critical acclaim and without federal funding through tax credits might not have been made. Mr. McVety said that such movies could still be made, but would have to find other funding and doing so is not paramount to censorship.

McVety: They can make their movies on their own dime, but the government should not have to pay for it.

George: But realistically speaking, in this country if there is not funding a lot of these projects don’t get made.

McVety: Well, maybe that’d be a better thing because unfortunately Canadian films only make up 1.7% of the Canadian box office.

George: Well, there’s a lot of reasons for that though and it has nothing to do with the quality of the film. The films are great. That’s why they get recognized around the world.

McVety: Well, if they’d be recognized they they’d make more money.

George: That’s not true.

McVety: If they weren’t as offensive then they would be better recognized and more people would watch it so I think this will actually help the film industry.

Huh? I am confused.

Did he just say that Canadian films do not get critical acclaim? Exotica won 8 Genies and the International Film Critics Award at Cannes while Crash won 5 Genies and the Special Jury Prize at Cannes. Sounds pretty good to me.

Is he saying that the funding of a variety of Canadian projects, including provocative and controversial material, is the reason that Canadian films only make up 1.7% of the box office? Would cutting funding to such projects improve that percentage? Does he think the rest of the box office, the overwhelming majority being American films, are all free of controversial content like sex and violence and that is why we pay to watch ‘em?

This man made no sense to me. None.

I’ll stop summarizing here because this situation and interview are both rife with things that clearly frustrate me and I could go on and on. Check out the interview for yourself if you want to learn more.

For more information on Bill C-10, from a few different sources, here are some links.

“If these people are so artistic and the product of their creativity is so magnificent — why do they need any money whatsoever from the Canadian taxpayer?” - Canadian Family Action Coalition

(Oh, I wonder if this applies to corporate tax rebates for other industries in our free trade economy?)

ACTRA response to Bill C-10

OK, one final thought from me - I do not elect politicians for their artistic judgment.

The Cost of Canadian Oil and a Canadian Rock Star

Episode aired 080312

The Cold Opener was a silly and cute one shot in the UK. George was the fox in a reformed version of the hunt. Beagles chased him. I love beagles. My first dog was half beagle. Cannot resist them. Afterwards there was some more humour on the Eliot Spitzer situation (a little insight into what his wife must have been thinking during his resignation announcement) . All very fun. Much preferred by this viewer to the moralistic judgment and exposés that many news and pundits shows have been featuring. I like the late night talk show take on it much better. I wonder what Saturday Night Live will say.

OK, back to The Hour. The first segment was with Peter Raymont, the producer of a documentary about the tar sands in Alberta. The doc looks at the cost of exploiting the tar sands. He of course mentioned the environmental impact, but the doc’s focus was on the cost to Canada of developing the tar sands too fast and selling off rights to it too cheaply to Americans. Check out the full interview. I have watched it twice because I think as someone who lives in the east I tend to only hear about the boomtown situation, but not enough about the bigger picture. It is a finite resource and the demand for it is not going anywhere soon (it is only rising). It does seem better to do things as they have in Newfoundland - charge royalties that are in Canadians long term best interest. Not the Americans. It is a provincially controlled issue, but it affects us all. A very interesting and important issue.

Tar Sands: The Selling Of Alberta airs Thursday at 9pm on the Doc Zone on CBC.

Next up was the Bryan Adams interview. During his radio show and in previous episodes of The Hour George has said the interview was a little tense. Not a lie. Bryan had his arms crossed for much of the beginning and then he seemed to loosen up a bit and got a little snarky. The conversation began with a question about songwriting featuring a popular George theme (the journey from boy to man) and then hit different aspects of his process as a musician. It was kind of neat to see him interviewed given how little press he does.

Fighting for Food and One Day at a Time

Episode Aired 080311

The Cold Opener had a bit of school lesson in it. They explained our country’s history of democracy (or version of it anyway). Amusing an educational. I like.

Author Raj Patel was on the show talking about his book Stuffed and Starved. He spoke about who has control of food distribution (mainly corporations and cartels) and who does not (consumers). He made the point that our power as consumers cannot change things. Instead we need to put a focus getting feedback from farmers - especially the large groups of poor farmers. He spoke of the power of large groups of people being able to affect change to the way things are structured - by speaking up and getting angry. This kind of disappointed me because I would like to think my consumer choices have power, but I might be a bit idealist about things. It is not enough. There are many other things required for serious change to our food distribution.

I really enjoyed the Valerie Bertinelli interview. I have seen her on other programmes about her book and her weight loss and this interview was refreshing. She was refreshing. I liked her goofy energy and her candour. It was neat to see her just go off about her political point views (always in a cute way - I think her charm is not faked). It seemed she had a sense of relief in being in a media situation (in Canada) where she could say what she feels without getting a bunch of hate mail her way (ah, the Internet might change that). It is a shame though that George could not pursue his question about how it was behind the scenes of One Day at Time when they tackled controversial and new-t0-sitcoms issues.

The show included an Everything You Wanted to Know  segment (one of my favourites). This time around it was about John A MacDonald. The expert interviewed was funny (maybe it was the editing though his choice of words certainly helped it along) and I learned a few things (a binge drinker, you say? used corruption in a focused manner to attain a goal? interesting).

Home & Garden - Sorta

First up was Michael Pollan author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and his latest book In Defense of Food. I was eagerly anticipating this interview. I am a bit of a foodie - especially real food. Sure, I enjoy the processed stuff from time to time, but on a day-to-day basis I aim to lessen the pseudo-food and increase the real stuff. In fact, just yesterday I finished reading a book about the evils of artificial sweetners and high fructose corn syrup (evil is not hyperbole in this case).

With humour and ease Pollan did not disappoint.  The interview I am sure was eye opening for some and I hope more and more people take what he has said to heart (I’ve lost loved ones to cancer and heart disease - diet related - real food can help prevent these kinds of things). His guidelines? Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Another important quote? If bacteria won’t eat something (like a Twinkie) then neither should you. Smart advice.

He also mentioned how it is a shame that good for you food can be expensive (i.e. the organic stuff) or time consuming to make (convenience foods are so rarely good for you) and how it has nothing to do with actual cost of food but because of the way things are set up. I wonder if his book addresses how to change that. In the meantime, may I suggest  my own little plan that I used to get me through my lean university days - frozen vegetables, dried beans, and rice. With the right seasonings and various sauces you can have a variety of meals. Not terribly exciting or perfect, but it is a start. Way better for you than KD and the like.

Oh! Mike Holmes! Sitting at home on the couch we were looking forward to this one too. Big fans of the show. It  has been on for 7 years. Wow! Time flies. And it is coming to an end. Sigh. But he has a new show in the works. I hope he gets a good sponsor because it seems he puts a heck of a lot of his own money into cleaning up after other people’s mistakes for his current show.  Such a good guy. So no-nonsense too. He is to build the first house for Brad Pitt’s Make it Right project in New Orleans. Neat that the project has the same name as Holmes’ book.

The show had a bit of a Closer if you will. Brian Stewart read the Spice Girls’ goodbye letter. I cracked up.