In today's paper, amidst all the Expo 67 retrospectives, is a profile of Taxi de nuit, one of three blogger-cum-author pieces I put together about a month ago. The other two should follow in coming weeks.
For those of you confused (and you should be, the media hasn't been very clear on this), public transit is free throughout the STM and STL networks, including the metro and its three new stations.
Little mentioned so far is that the AMT will be running special free trains from the De la Concorde metro to Saint-Jerome to celebrate its new intermodal station. The line, which normally only runs on weekdays, will have four special round trips during the day Saturday and Sunday.
Just when Jean Charest and company were worried about protests as they "opened" the Laval metro stations today, a sad event transpired with piss-poor timing: a transit worker died of a heart attack.
Heart attacks aren't usually news, even when they happen on the job site. But the media was already there, so should they cover it? I imagine it was a dilemma for a few local agencies. Here's what they did:
- CBC.ca packaged the three events (opening, heart attack, protest) together.
- The Gazette covered the opening but made no mention of either the protest or heart attack.
- CTV also made no mention of the heart attack, but did briefly mention the protest.
- Global TV talked about the heart attack over B-roll of a stretcher passing an ambulance.
It's at best a footnote to two more important stories. But how would you have covered it?
The locked-out workers at the Journal de Québec have started their own newspaper, MédiaMatinQuébec, using the talents of the temporarily unemployed journalists and other staff to create 40,000 copies a day and distribute them freely, while the Journal tries to run its paper with a skeleton management staff.
I must say, it's hard not to be impressed by this. Continuing to report is one thing, but actually printing and distributing another newspaper isn't an easy task.
The group hasn't yet setup a website, though the mediamatinquebec.com domain has been reserved. If this lockout goes on longer we might see something similar to the CBC lockout campaign that workers put on, with podcasts and other special reporting from all over the country.
Perhaps the thing this demonstrates most, though, is that these people are probably worth the $50-100,000 their paid to do their jobs (even though I'd kill for such a salary), and that the people who seem most dispensable in all of this are the managers left behind.
April 26, 2007 – 2:47 pm|
Posted in Uncategorized
So apparently the NDP in Ontario is all lit up about the provincial government's light use campaign called "flick off", in which a Richard Branson campaign uses a rounded font and tight tracking to encourage teenagers' dirty minds (kind of like what FCUK has been doing since ... well, ever). This is their logo:
Tabs on the website include "Who needs to flick off?" and "Go flick yourself".
Here's the NDP's response to the juvenile innuendo of the campaign:
The slogan's font is clearly designed to make flick look like a four-letter-word. New Democrat Peter Kormos reacted by saying it "blows his flicking mind" how Broten could be involved with the campaign, which includes stickers and T-shirts. "I think it's a flicking embarrassment."
Maybe I'm being silly about this, but does it make sense to criticize juvenile wordplay with the same juvenile wordplay?
The latest petition being circulated online is for the removal of "ad trucks" from downtown roads. Its 142 signatures so far is nothing compared to the signatures on petitions such as putting more Habs games on Hockey Night in Canada (3690), stop the renaming of Avenue du Parc (5353), save the Fraser Hickson library (1441) and the whopping 24,279 on the Save the Expos petition, which I guess wasn't quite enough.
The problem with the ad trucks, as the politicians would tell us, is what kind of appropriate legislation there is to curb their use. Should they be banned outright, or just downtown? How do you define what an "ad truck" is, exactly? Is a plumber's van with lettering on the side also something we should ban? What if that lettering was with lights? What if it was spinning?
If you're interested in supporting other Montreal petitions online, here are some others to check out:
And, of course, the most important one: Bring Guns N Roses back to Montreal on their next tour (a paltry 14 signatures).
It seems Global's second network of stations they don't know what else to do with is being rebranded. Starting in September, CH stations (including Montreal's CJNT-62) will become E! Yes, that E! Only it's E! in Canada.
This is significant for a number of reasons, the most distressing of which is that CJNT is supposed to be Montreal's ethnic station, but because ethnic programming isn't a money-maker, the station was bought out by a company which was in turn bought out by CanWest/Global. They petitioned the CRTC to agree to only 50% ethnic programming during prime time, and though they were denied that request, they still have quite a bit of U.S. network programming in their prime time schedule.
So what was once a struggling 100% ethnic programming station (albeit one that only broadcast for about 12 hours a day) will now include programming that Canadians clearly need on an over-the-air channel: Celebrity gossip and second-rate U.S. network TV shows.
They even have a video with Ryan Seacresty good ness (he even mentions our country's name!)
April 25, 2007 – 1:24 pm
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Posted in Montreal
Friday Thursday, 8 p.m.: Capture the Flag at Westmount Park.
Saturday, 5:24 a.m.: First metro train departs Montmorency station for Montreal. Various meetups throughout the morning.
Saturday, 9 a.m.: City of Montreal abandoned bicycle sale. 969 de Louvain St. E., near St. Hubert St. The doors open at 8 a.m.
Saturday, 9:30 a.m.: BarCamp at SAT. Continues all day.
Saturday, 5 p.m.: Manhunt at UQAM.
And that's just the stuff I know of so far.
The Montreal blogger wars have begun. And the first shot across the bow is filled with expletive-laced goodness.
A non-renewed contract will take local podcaster Julien Smith's In Over Your Head hip hop podcast off Sirius radio. But he says he'll enjoy the freedom it'll give him to produce shorter podcasts.
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