Tag Archives: bad ideas

| Uncategorized

Yes, Your Grandma Majesty, I’m fine

The fact that Gilles Duceppe would so rudely rebuke a theoretical invitation of a foreign head of state to Quebec City’s 400th anniversary celebration bothers me somewhat, but what really gets me is that he endorses grandmothers getting involved in their grandchildren’s romantic affairs:

“[The Queen] has enough matters to settle at home, starting with her grandson,” Duceppe told reporters outside the House of Commons yesterday. “He has problems with his romantic relations. That’s enough for Madame.”

| Blogosphere, Business, Technology

It’s the Internet. Ethics don’t matter here.

Montreal Tech Watch points out the stupidity of a group giving website awards to companies like Bell, Videotron and Desjardins. These are big companies with complex websites, but are they really all award-worthy?

A theory:

The answer lies on the “experts” who choose the winner. There was SECOR Conseil, s2i web, Conseil Action and CogniLab. If I could make a hall of shame, I would put them on the list. These companies have Videotron, and all other companies on their customer lists. They are obviously praising these companies in order to get lucrative contracts; because you have to recognize their websites are not a model of excellence, accessibility and user experience.

Doesn’t that sound a tad fishy to anyone else?

I’ll add that in their press release announcing the winners, they don’t bother linking to the websites they mention. I know “A HREF” is a difficult tag to understand, but you’d think these people would get basic HTML down before judging websites for usability.

| Montreal, Public transit

Bonaventure Boulevard?

So the city wants to take down one of its elevated highways, now that green and grounded is the new civic planning method. The three-phase project would replace the Bonaventure Expressway – the main artery into downtown from the south shore, into a redirected “urban boulevard” that diverts away from the waterfront and then splits in two as it turns into the city. The Gazette today focuses on the latter part. Depending on who you talk to, it’ll either be a wide-median green-as-all-hell fantastic-view gateway to the city centre, or two parallel roads with big buildings between them to make up for some of the money they’ll be spending.

Columnist James Mennie is rightfully skeptical about the plan, because while an “urban boulevard” sounds all cool and stuff, it won’t look that great when 18-wheelers are spewing carbon monoxide all over the place.

Of course, the biggest problem for me is that everyone coming into downtown will now have six new traffic lights to go through, even if they’re just using the Bonaventure to get to the Ville-Marie expressway. Though they don’t specify it exactly, Mennie hints that their solution to this problem will be to convince motorists to use public transit, and will include a bus-only lane to help facilitate this.

Yeah, good luck with that.

| Media

Haven’t we been through this before?

Sun Media, owners of the Sun papers, is implementing a national editorial policy, which the Canadian Association of Journalists is blasting as a threat to local editorial independence.

Sound familiar? CanWest tried to pull this lame-brained stunt five years ago, which led to a very strong backlash (including Gazette writers pulling their bylines in protest). Though the policy was eventually canned, to this day there are people I talk to who think it’s still in effect. The damage is done and will take quite a while to undo.

Are we going to see the same at Sun? Though there are people at the chain who care about their papers, I’m not sure there will be enough resistance inside and outside the company to force it to reverse its position.

While I realize Sun wants to save money (like Global, CityTV, Standard Radio, Corus and others, they want to be the fast-food of journalism, repackaging cheap, generic content and producing little of real value of their own), I think in the end this is going to cost them. People don’t pick up papers to read wire stories any more. They can get that stuff for free now. Instead, they pick up papers for original coverage, original commentary, personalities and, you know, crosswords and stuff.

We’ll see if the Sun policy follows the same path as CanWest’s.

| Business, Media, Montreal, Slow News Day

Newspaper takes Grocery Store Economics 101

Apparently, they needed a study to show that buying from big grocery stores like Loblaws is cheaper than smaller ones like the dep across the street.

Really? What will civilization do once this news gets out? How will we live with this new reality? How will we raise our children? Do I have to accept a new religion because of this?

Yeah, yeah, the study also says, perhaps more significantly, that food in poorer places isn’t cheaper or more expensive, but that’s not what the headline focuses on.

| Blogosphere, In the news, Montreal, Slow News Day, Video

Since when is a vigilante a hero?

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.

| Uncategorized

Ever wonder what the inside of a jail cell looks like?

So did I, until now.

I just got back home from spending the night (or a few hours of it) in a holding cell at Station 11. I was covering Faceless Invasion, a scavenger-hunt-style competition which involved a naked race on St. Denis. Technically it was illegal (as were other things they were doing) but nobody ever thought they would be harassed about it.

Well, turns out the local constabulary doesn’t take kindly to these kinds of pranks. And since I was there (and had no fancy “journalist card” to prove I was one), I was lumped in with the rest of them (though I was not naked).

Long story short, I was arrested and charged with some charges I don’t quite understand but seem pretty minor (public nuisance and such). I was also charged with resisting arrest.

The guy at the station told me most of the charges would probably be dropped once I proved to them I was there as a journalist and not a participant.

In the meantime, I look forward to pleading my case when it goes in front of a judge.

Now the journalistic dilemma: Should I include my arrest into the story, or just talk about their troubles with the law?

Continue reading →

| Uncategorized

The boring life of a photographer

I feel for professional photographers. Today’s cameras have automatic focus, automatic exposure, automatic white balance, and basically do everything by themselves. News photographers can’t play around in Photoshop to be creative, and there’s just so many angles you can use to take a portrait of a guy in a suit.

So every now and then, these people try experiments. They set the exposure very low, taking photos that look dark and mysterious, except for the politician’s face captured in the bright light of a television camera. They set the shutter very slow, to show a sense of movement.

But Marie-France Coallier’s shot in today’s business section just looks bad, like someone accidentally smudged the photo by wiping it down:

Blur