Monthly Archives: July 2007

| Humour, Montreal, TV

Just for (American) Laughs (UPDATED)

ABC premiered the American version of Just for Laughs Gags tonight (there it’s just called Just for Laughs).

I’d heard all sort of rumours about this show. It was going to be re-shot with Americans. It was going to have Bob Saget-like voice-over stupidity.

Fortunately, none of these things happened. In fact, other than the ABC logo in the corner of the screen, it’s indistinguishable from the CBC version. The same cheesy music, same familiar locations (Dorchester Square, St. Louis Square, among others), same fake cops. The TV version doesn’t make it explicit that this is filmed in Montreal, which is kinda sad because there’ll probably be quite a lot of people confused at the French signs, red mailboxes and other things that make us not look like them. The website mentions that it’s a Canadian-made series, though the name of our fair city can’t be found (why is a goldmine of free publicity for our city not being pounced upon?).

If anything, it’s how little effort they put into changing the show that concerns me. They did a short graphic (with the familiar JFL logo) for before and after commercials, and they have this guy Rick Miller (yeah, I’d never heard of him either, but apparently he’s a Montrealer) introduce the show and say goodbye at the end. That’s it. I mean, the CBC show was bare-bones as it is. I’m not sure ABC can get away with just repackaging such a show, even over the summer.

From that and their website, which is about as bare-bones as you can get, I get the feeling ABC doesn’t expect this show to last through fall.

We’ll see. Maybe this can pick up an audience that thinks Punk’d and all its ilk are too aggressive or have too much dialogue or something.

UPDATE: Response from the blogosphere so far is not encouraging. The few media who mentioned it in advance gave it “something called” treatment. Blogger response fit that pretty well. “Disappointed.” “Not impressed.” “Beyond absurd” (from someone convinced it was shot in Mexico or Sao Paulo). “Desperately unfunny.” “Bland.” “The lamest.” And my favourite: “Absolute bullshit crap.” On the other side, as far as I can see, just one offhand “great” and one (albeit enthusiastic) “funny.”

LOST 2 this is not. And it’s hard to disagree. I would have rather seen gala stand-ups on U.S. television than a low-budget hidden camera gag show that, as far as they’re concerned, is a bad copy of all the other ones they’ve seen over the past half-decade.

What’s sad is this might give networks pause about importing other (good) Canadian television programming in the future.

UPDATED AGAIN: Overnight ratings for the show weren’t as bad as I thought they might be. They actually went up between shows, which shows it wasn’t advertised properly and viewers came in and stayed more than they left. Overall, it lost to America’s Got Talent, came in about tied with CBS’s NCIS repeat, and beat FOX’s On The Lot.

Could be I’ve written its obituary too soon.

| Humour, Media, TV, Video

Rock and … pretty ears?

I’m sad to say I’m a bad Quebecer (or, should I say, a bad québécois). I don’t watch Tout le monde en parle, I rarely flick by the local French-language TV stations unless there’s big local news, and I don’t read La Presse or the Journal de Montréal regularly. As a result, I’m missing out on an entire culture going on around me. I have only vague ideas of these shows, these personalities.

So, as I sit here watching 110% (I know, I know, but hockey’s my thing), I’m discovering, for the first time, the group Rock et Belles Oreilles. For those like me who hadn’t heard of them, they’re a 25-year-old sketch-comedy group whose members include the strangely-bearded Guy A. Lepage.

Their videos, most of which are from their 25th anniversary last year, are all over YouTube. Since I’m a media buff, I’ll highlight some that deal with the local French-language media:

| Blogosphere

The end of a blog is not the end of the world

Patrick Lagacé talks this week about local bloggers getting tired and shutting down their blogs, and suggests group blogging as a solution to this problem.

There’s an important point there: a blog about something (motherhood, drunk taxi customers, puppies) will be more interesting to a large number of people than a simple blog about what you ate for breakfast.

Whether group blogging is better than single blogging is up for debate. Compare Metroblogging Montreal with Montreal City Weblog and each has its strengths and weaknesses.

But there’s another point I’d like to make here: lack of time isn’t really a good reason to shut down a personal blog. Lots of bloggers seem to be under the impression that unless they can put up a new post every day like they used to, they have to have a dramatic goodbye post to solicit “please don’t go!” comments from friends and acquaintances.

There are plenty of great blogs that aren’t updated that often. Yeah, it sucks for people who check blog updates the old-fashioned way, but with feed readers becoming a more common way for people to keep updated on their favourite blogs, you end up not even noticing that a blog has stopped being updated until you notice the “goodbye” post (followed inevitably by the “and just one more thing” post and the “maybe I’ll update every now and then” post).

If you can’t update as often, we understand. If you don’t enjoy blogging anymore, we understand. If you’re moving to a country that doesn’t have Internet access, we understand. But don’t get all emotional just because you’ll only want to update once a week instead of once a day.

There’s no “use it or lose it” law for blogs.

| Fun, Navel-gazing

A Wii console-ation prize

The film(s) I wanted to see last night were sold out. Dang. Hope everyone else enjoyed themselves. As I stood near the Fantasia ticket booth wondering what to do, I noticed some Wii promotional stations. Nintendo’s doing some marketing at one of the biggest geek events of the year. It was the first time I ever used a Wii, and though I played some silly kids game instead of using the wiimote for the cool stuff that it was designed for (the tennis game was busy), I still got to enjoy myself trying to move a pointer on a screen by moving the remote itself.

For my trouble, I got a white promotional Wii lanyard, to which I’m going to attach my MP3 player.

Now I’m cool. Yay!

| Technology

Old bridges aren’t better

There’s a point that’s been made in the debate over bridge construction in Quebec that needs to be attacked for a logical fallacy.

The point, which was repeated in a letter to the editor this morning, basically goes like this: Bridges constructed centuries ago are still standing because they’re well constructed. Why can’t we build bridges like this today?

The problem with the argument is that it’s based on observing only those bridges which are still standing today. It ignores all those whose weaker construction led to their collapse not long after they were built. It ignores those rope-and-wood-plank bridges we see in the movies. It ignores things like the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which collapsed spectacularly months after being built in 1940.

Some bridges still stand today, because they were very well built. That’s not because engineers of the time knew more than we do now, or that they were more cautious about introducing safety margins than we are. It’s because natural selection has already weeded out those bridges whose construction wasn’t strong enough, leaving us the mistaken impression that bridges from back then were better constructed than those of today.

| In the news, Montreal

Balconies

One of my worst nightmares: A balcony collapsed yesterday on Mackay St., causing minor injuries to a man who was on it.

I’ve always been nervous about balconies, especially those which showed any sort of movement when you walk on them or whose railings seemed inadequate to prevent an accidental fall. Montreal has plenty of these cheap wooden balconies whose floorboards are so old and rotten that they sag slightly when you step on them. Fortunately, there’s usually more structure underneath that actually supports your weight, so there’s very little chance of it collapsing.

Last month I moved into my first apartment with a balcony (in fact it has two: a private one in front and a shared one in back). The construction seems solid (at least on the front one – the back balconies are being replaced this summer), but there’s always that thought at the back of my mind. One of the screws that holds the railing to the balcony has come out in the centre. This can either be because the railing has bowed about an inch upwards, or because the balcony has sagged slightly down.

But at least it doesn’t shake.

The worst balcony collapse in recent history happened in Chicago in 2003, killing 13 people. The balcony was poorly constructed, much larger than it was supposed to be, and was overloaded.

Some signs of serious trouble on a balcony include:

  • Rotting structural supports (the important vertical posts that hold the balcony up)
  • Loose attachment to the building
  • Rusted joints
  • Wood that is soft and spongy
  • Falling blocks of concrete
  • Exposed steel bars (especially if they’re rusting)

If you’re unsure, have a professional structural engineer take a look.

And be sure not to get one from Transport Quebec.

| Blogosphere, My articles

OMG. Puppy!

This week’s blog is Christelle FV, whom I emailed almost six months ago. So long, in fact, that the primary focus of her blog, Happy the Most Adorable Puppy in the World, wasn’t even a factor back then.

For those who don’t know, Happy is a Mira dog, part of the foundation’s Foster Families program, where you get to take in a puppy, do basic training and then give it back so it can get specialized training to be a guide dog or service dog.

Imagine: taking in a puppy, and exchanging it for a new puppy when it gets old. All for a good cause!

| Montreal

The Decarie Canal & Car Wash: 20 years later

Coolopolis reminds us of an anniversary anyone over 30 remembers vividly: July 14, 1987. On one hand, Tim Raines of the Montreal Expos was named the MVP of the Major-League Baseball All-Star game. On the other hand, overnight rainfall was measured not in millimetres but in feet, and the Decarie Expressway became so flooded cars had to be abandoned in place.

CTV’s Rob Lurie has a lookback at the Flood of ’87 with some memorable (and to us young’uns, unbelievable) pictures like this one:

The Flood of ‘87

For more reminiscing, check out Radio-Canada’s archives. (Wow, did people really dress like that?)

| Humour, Movies, TV, Video

The worst of Québécois film and television for your viewing pleasure

A friend pointed out to me today that he was planning to pop his Fantasia cherry by going to an interesting showing this evening. One mention of the words “Total Crap” and I knew exactly what he was talking about.

For those who don’t know, Total Crap is the brainchild of Simon Lacroix, who has for some reason taken it upon himself to collect the worst of Quebec television, from dancing lessons for overweight baby-boomers, to local wrestling previews, cheesy commercials and, every now and then, an appearance by Celine Dion. This is a pretty good example, but there’s much better.

Now, you might think “wow, that’s a really weird hobby”, and you would be wrong. You see, there’s someone else in town who’s doing the same thing. DJ XL5 (Myspace link, sorry) is also a local practitioner of what they call “zapping” and showing awful clips to eager audiences.

Last fall, someone had the brilliant idea to have them square off against each other. On Halloween at Club Soda, they did battle. The audience couldn’t decide between them, and there was no winner declared, but they did agree they wanted more.

So today at 7 p.m. at Concordia’s DB Clarke Theatre (Hall Building, 1455 de Maisonneuve W., corner Mackay), comes DJ XL5 versus Total Crap: La revanche. Here’s the teaser.

Next Friday afternoon, DJ XL5 returns solo with a showing of some pretty insane shorts with DJ XL5’s Kaleidoscopic Zappin’ Party (Teaser).

Tickets to both are $7.50, which you can get at Admission or on-site. (Bell Mobility is running a promotion with $5 tickets if you want to play their cellphone games)

| Uncategorized

The Gazette: a tabloid?

The Gazette is asking its readers about moving toward more tabloid sections.

There’s precedent for this. Lots of serious papers are considering the move to tabloid format, mostly because of the perception that tabloids are easier to manage on public transit (where you can’t get the Internet cheaply) and due to the success of other papers like the free dailies which are in the tabloid format.

In a survey given to select readers, Montreal’s only English daily asked about theoretically changing its daily Arts & Life section from the current broadsheet to a tabloid format, and about whether people would prefer shorter, “easier to read” articles. It doesn’t look like they’re going to become another Journal de Montréal, but it still got readers riled up. Most of the responses fell into one of the following:

  • Tabloids are easier to read on the move.
  • Tabloids are junk, yellow journalism and I’ll cancel my subscription if you switch
  • I don’t care about the format, as long as the quality doesn’t suffer (all of these responses recall the Gazette’s “words matter” motto)
  • I hate the Sunday paper, lumping three sections into one and putting classifieds in the middle of a two-page feature story in sports.
  • Put the staples back into my TV Times!

Currently, only three sections during the week are tabloids at the Gazette: Sunday Sports, Books (Saturday) and West Island (Thursday), and the first two of these date only from the February 2006 redesign.

We’ll see what they’ll do. What do you think? Should the paper be of a smaller format? Should the stories be shorter?

| Business, Media

Hey hey! Bark bark! Why are we protesting in an industrial park?

Journal de Québec employees have taken to the picket lines for the first time since they went off the job in April. (Previously, they argued, the office’s remote location would not have gotten them much publicity, and they were working on the strike paper MediaMatinQuebec.)

Kevin Dougherty’s Gazette story also mentions that a major JDQ advertiser has stopped putting ads until the strike is over.

| Media, Video

It’s just cruel to not provide the video (UPDATED)

Local news is abuzz (well, kinda, when they’re not blowing Harry Potter) about Global Action Network volunteers infiltrating a Quebec foie gras producer and gathering some awful footage of what they call animal cruelty.

Today they supposedly released video of their findings. So you’d think that the news websites would at least provide a link.

So once again Fagstein steps in where others have failed. Check out the four-minute video on YouTube.

UPDATE: The above video was for some reason taken down. Here’s another link to another video with the same scenes.