Remember those ashtray-video guys who we later learned had faked their video? They’re at it again, “returning” some doggie doo left in a park to its owner.
Calling themselves “Les Réparateurs“, they want to cure the world of its a-holes.
But now that the truth is out, you’d think they’d clean up their videos a bit and be a little more professional about this entertainment of theirs.
Apparently not.
Shortly after the Dawson shootings last September, an unknown local singer (annoying Flash warning) wrote a cheesy pop song about it. Of course, being a cheesy pop song, teenage CEGEP students ate it up, and everyone grieved together supportively.
The song was turned into a fundraising campaign (with its own MySpace page – standard MySpace warnings apply), which unsuccessfully tried to raise serious money for the college.
I wrote about the artist and campaign for The Gazette (no link, since it’s not online anymore). I pointed out that on one hand, this event brought a lot of people together and the song has been getting a lot of support. On the other hand, the song’s creator never attended Dawson, and admitted part of the reason she created the song was to increase her public profile in the hope of being signed.
Well now there’s an official video for the song. Like just about every YouTube video about things like this, it’s a slideshow of (unlicensed) wire service photos of people screaming and crying set to the tune of a song.
Forgive me, because I haven’t been involved in a catastrophic event such as this one, but I fail to see how seeing photos of people crying and running for their lives is supposed to help me emotionally. It seems to me such a thing would only make it worse. The media focused enough on the violence — perhaps we should be focusing on something else?
Some bloggers are discovering some interesting and eyebrow-raising posts on Montreal Craigslist (whose best-of listing leaves a little to be desired).
Wikitravel, the user-edited travel site I wrote about last month, has won a Webby Award as the Web’s best travel site.
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).
I’m sorry, maybe my mad newz ski11z are lacking, but how is this newsworthy? A guy puts a video on YouTube inviting people to call him, yak and run up his cellphone minutes. The point? Who knows! The impact on society? None! The news value? Tremendous!
The thing that gets me about these stories is that they aren’t interesting, but because aging baby-boomer editors are too scared to admit they don’t understand blogging and the Internet, they jump at these non-stories to hide their online illiteracy. Nobody wants to be the one news outlet not to cover the story, so it spreads like crazy, and suddenly everyone is talking about this guy like he’s doing something important.
He’s not. In fact, what he’s doing isn’t even new. Someone else did the exact same thing last fall.
So why all the attention?
There are a lot of interesting pornographic websites out there (don’t ask me how I know this): porn involving pregnant women, porn involving books, glasses and all sorts of other inanimate objects you wouldn’t consider sexual.
Now a Quebec entrepreneur is filling the gap of smoking porn. It’s not actually porn, since the girls aren’t naked or anything. They’re just smoking suggestively. And you have to pay to see it.
Dominic Arpin asks the obvious question: What are they smoking? And how smoke-deprived do you have to be to pay to watch other people smoke?
(WARNING: French content ahead)
There’s a story in The Gazette today by me (you’ll have to take my word for that, since my byline accidentally disappeared during editing — my editor has promised alcohol as compensation).
It’s about Tivijournal, a group of young journalists who poke fun at Quebec media and politicians in a monthly satire show. I interviewed them last month as they were preparing their March episode of post-election humour. Pictured above is Félix B. Desfossés, the charismatic host who looks far more confident than he is in his trademark pink shirt and exposed chest hair.
It’s spring. High winds, melting snow, and Yvon Tripper is back with more political videos. This time it’s new Conservative attack ads on Stéphane Dion.
Remember kids, be careful when burning things in effigy. Habs T-shirts are quite flammable.
I used to think I was the only one who did this.
xkcd, folks. If you’re a geek, and you’re not reading it, you’re not a geek.
Not that it changes the ethical debate, or that everyone didn’t basically suspect as much, but yeah, the ashtray video was staged. Which makes it, like, the worst staged video ever.
I was thinking today about an episode of Frasier, where our lovable Dr. Crane is annoyed by being the butt of repeated impoliteness. The last straw breaks the camel’s back as a table he had been waiting for at a café is taken by a man who just arrived. Frasier loses it, decides to give him an “etiquette lesson” and physically throws him out.
The moral of the story becomes clear later, as his show’s listeners hear of his “heroic” act and teach others “etiquette lessons” of their own, answering inconsiderateness with more and more violent acts. Frasier appeals for calm, having learned his lesson that fighting fire with fire doesn’t work.
Claude Landry clearly hasn’t seen that episode, or he wouldn’t be whoring this YouTube video to the media. In it, he spots a man emptying his car’s ashtray onto the sidewalk, grabs a handful of it and throws it in the driver’s lap.
Now, the story has been picked up by CTV, CBC and The Gazette (who are still unable to link to YouTube videos in their stories), skyrocketing its exposure to over 35,000 views. According to CTV, the video even got the mayor’s blessing (this according to his brother Marcel — I guess CTV is unable to get quotes from the mayor himself). Since when is assault something that is encouraged by politicians? Did it come in a package deal with the new pro-racist agenda of the Quebec election campaign?
I’m not saying I’m perfect. Just yesterday on my way home, I got one of my buttons pushed as some inconsiderate kid tried to get on the bus without waiting in line. I nudged my way in front of him, pushing him back lightly in the process. I thought it was a bad-ass move, but I don’t consider myself a hero for it.
None of the mainstream press is making this point yet, and the blogosphere (well, the four posts I’ve found so far) is split. Basil is on my side. Dave is not. Neither is Mark. Or Grame. What’s your take?
UPDATE: Dave has a lengthy reply to my post on his blog.
As is the tradition, the monthly Yulblog meeting is tonight at La Quincaillerie. But I’ll be across the street at Les Pas Sages for the monthly screening of Tivijournal. I interviewed them during the filming of this month’s episode for an upcoming article, and I’m looking forward to seeing the fruits of their labour.
Montreal Tech Watch points out that RDS has launched its new video portal. Though Heri makes some pointed criticisms (like not being able to link directly to videos), I’m still impressed by it. I quickly looked for their highlight reel clips (30 images/seconde), which are all there for easy viewing. Unfortunately, either because of my computer’s processing speed or the bandwidth I was getting, the video is a bit choppy, and the fast-moving pace of top 10 hockey goals makes it difficult to follow on low-resolution, choppy online video.