When I first heard of John K. Sampson it was as a member of the Canadian punk ensemble Propagandhi—a Winnipeg-based, liberal-minded, politically-charged group of young musicians looking to express their angst while making a difference in the world. To put it lightly. As a kid of, I guess, fourteen themes were largely lost on me but I loved the fast-paced, high-energy sound that the band managed and despite not really grasping what they were singing about a song that sounded like someone reading a textbook at an extremely rapid rate was nothing short of awesome.

Sampson ended up leaving Propagandhi, mellowing out, and putting together The Weakerthans— a Winnipeg-based, liberal-minded, poetically-poignant group of slightly older musicians looking to make good music and tell interesting stories. Occasionally, in concert, Sampson will revisit some of his old Propagandhi material and make it sound great. In this case, Sampson takes a high-tempo song and makes it sound awesome as a simple guitar and voice combination. In its stripped-down form, its the simplistic melody and the lyrics that really stand out. It’s Sampson’s overwhelming talent as a musician, I think, that really shows. Check it out, and enjoy.

Gifts

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OK, so I have a more than passing interest in the paranormal. So a new television show like Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files is going to, in the least, pique my interest for a few episodes. But can it hold it beyond that?

In my experience, paranormal TV runs the gamut from something very scientific and research-based like MonsterQuest (featuring actual tenured academics) to something more akin to a couple of guys running around in the dark without flashlights cursing and swearing to appear cool—like Extreme Paranormal. (For Extreme Paranormal, picture the Jackass franchise done with ghosts.) Somewhere in the middle, is a balanced show like Ghost Hunters, one of the original and most successful series in this genre. A show in which two plumbers and a rag-tag group of other investigators set out to use what they deem to be scientific tools to track and record ghosts. They’ve been doing it for a long time, seven years now, and they’re honest in their pursuit whether or not the “science” they use is altogether scientific.

But enter Fact or Faked.

The premise of this new some from the SyFy Network is that a former FBI Special Agent and his team of investigators set out to debunk popular paranormal videos gleaned from around the Internet. Now I don’t know about you but when I hear about a former FBI agent investigating the paranormal I’m getting set for a long-awaited sequel to the X-Files series. Sadly, that is not the case, and agent Ben Hansen is no Fox Mulder. Barely thirty years old, if Hansen really was an FBI agent (which I’m not sure they could necessarily lie about) then he must’ve been kicked out of the bureau after only a few months of service, presumably for being so emo. A veteran, seasoned FBI agent ready to tackle the paranormal he is not.

But surely his crack team of investigators bring some scientific background to the show, a serious research-based approach? Well, again, not so much. The team is comprised of a special effects technician, a journalist, a photography expert (who knows nothing of post-production methods), some other guy, and a gentleman who is credited only as an “investigator” but who also seems to have recently completed a degree in Biology, and shops exclusively at American Eagle. This crack team gathers every episode in what looks like somebody’s den and reviews a series of videos, each presented by a different member, before deciding which two they’d like to investigate.

The show’s investigative portion isn’t so bad—it’s awful. I mean, let’s be honest, despite the appearance of a scientific, investigative approach, these team members really don’t know what they’re doing. In the first two episodes they’ve actually hit on some good ideas, and debunked a couple of the videos they set out to investigate but it was really only by mistake. The fun part is if they can’t immediately debunk something, like a UFO sighting or the famous stick alien, they run around at night with infrared cameras scouring the area for clues, adopting a research method that is so mind-bogglingly absurd you worry about potential mental illness amongst the production staff.

In the end, Fact or Faked is a confusing show that leaves you wondering what its producers at the SyFy Network were really thinking. In a market already saturated with paranormal shows—few managing to survive passed their first season—it’s hard to believe that anyone thought this new entrant into the genre would last.

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Well, start bailing, this ship’s goin’ down.

Late yesterday afternoon word came out that Munir Sheikh, the head of Statistics Canada the body responsible for the national census, had canceled a town hall meeting, previously scheduled as an information session for StatsCan employees about the scrapped long-form census. The fact that the meeting was canceled at the last minute raised more than a few eyebrows, and we all waited to see what would happen next. Then, later into the night, the news came: Sheikh was resigning his position.

And now, the boat begins to sink in earnest.

My first issue with the Conservative move to cancel the mandatory long-form census was that it would mean that those that use this data—businesses, municipalities, charities—would no long have access to reliable, accurate data. Canadians would lose good data on their country’s population. My second concern was that the move to scrap the long-form census was a political decision, by a political party, and should never have been made to begin with. Statistics Canada should be at least an arm’s length organization, meaning that the government shouldn’t be able to interfere in it’s business by, for example, scrapping a super important national survey.

But it’s for the first reason I cited, the bad data concern, that Munir Sheikh tendered his resignation and it’s unclear how the Conservatives are going to proceed from here. Truly, it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. Early in the debate over the termination of the mandatory long-form census Ivan Fellegi, the former head of StatsCan for 23 years, became a vocal critic of the government’s new plan. Sheikh, the country’s top statistician, now adds how voice to the growing chorus of the concerned.

How can the government proceed with their plan to end the long-form census when there are so many critics lining up against them? One really has to wonder. But how did we even get this far to begin with? The timeline is interesting.

When Industry Minister Tony Clement says, as he often has, that their plan was based on the advice of Statistics Canada what he is doing is not really called lying but I think, rather, it’s called not telling the truth. As we’re hearing now, the real timeline is a bit different than he suggests. Clement approached StatsCan with the decision to scrap the long-form census already made. What he asked, then, was what would the best course of action be to take from there. Out of the list of suggestions provided Clement chose the voluntary census option. He has subsequently admitted that the experts within StatsCan would have preferred just to keep the mandatory long-form census. According to an article in the Toronto Star their inside experts at Statistics Canada argue that the voluntary long-form will produce data that is “less reliable and may even be useless.” We already knew that, of course, but now that their chief has stepped down it seems like the rank-and-file are ready to speak out, too.

The ship is sinking and if the government under Stephen Harper thought that they could quietly sneak this through in the middle of the night then they were wrong. It’s clear that the majority of Canadians, including those in the most important places, don’t agree with this move and Tony Clement, who has been obnoxiously vocal about this issue on his Twitter account, has suddenly gone silent. For what it’s worth, the rumour mills are turning out talk at top speed suggesting that Clement never really supported the plan to begin with, he was merely towing the party line, as is often the case in Harper’s government.

At any rate, I imagine that the Conservative caucus is hauled up in a little room somewhere in Ottawa deciding who’s going to man the life rafts, and who’s going to go down with the ship.

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Shad is a Toronto-based, Kenyan-born rapper who I have become absolutely obsessed with. Why? Because he is absolutely dripping in talent, and positivity. His lyrics are insightful, intelligent, and awesome.

His latest single, which samples from the Lynn Anderson song Rose Garden, is nothing short of incredible and I applaud the raw wisdom that he seems unashamed of sharing in his music. And, he’s hilarious as evidenced by some of his earlier material (which you should also have a look at).

Is that not enough for you? Should be.

PS: I’m buying a pair of those shoes, Maria!

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I love it, the debate surrounding the long form census. It’s exciting, it’s engaging, and if nothing else it’s great to see (and hear) that this kind of discussion can be had in this great country of ours. It can be, right?

If you’ve read my blog for more than a little bit then you know that I try my best to present a non-partisan view of things. Really, I try, but sometimes honesty can be mistaken for partisanship, I think, if you read me the wrong way. For example, I could say something like, “Stephen Harper runs a tight ship, giving little to no control over to his Ministers, with even the smallest governmental details passing across his desk,” and you could mistake that for a pot shot at our Prime Minister. But, truly, I’m not one for pot shots and when I say something like that I mean it as more of a fact than an opinion. The sentence following that one will be an opinion, but that’s more obvious. And why is this so important? Because I believe that a discussion about scrapping the mandatory long form census should be one that transcends politics altogether, let me tell you why.

Stephen Harper runs a tight ship, giving little to no control over to his Ministers, with even the smallest governmental details passing across his desk. I don’t necessarily agree with his style, but that’s why I didn’t vote for him. Still, while a lot of the time this kind of control factor can be nothing more than bothersome for policy makers and politicians it can be, at times, detrimental to our national health and identity. There are examples of this in the national housing strategy, our international agreements, and key pieces of criminal justice legislation. Harper has the final say and sometimes the only say, it seems. Discussion be damned, and for certain issues this simply does not fly; in my opinion the long form census is one of those issues.

The long form census and Statistics Canada fall within the portfolio of Industry Minister Tony Clement but it’s never been a politicized piece, it’s meant to not be. Stats Canada has the job of collecting information on the Canadian population to improve our quality of life and to protect our democratic society not to bolster the ranks of any particular political party or cause. It’s arms-length from the governing parties and it’s objective. So when a political party, nay, a Prime Minister, decides that the mandatory long form census is too coercive and too intrusive it does tend to rattle the cage a little bit. And the birds no like.

Remember, it wasn’t Statistic Canada that spoke out about abolishing the mandatory census, it was the Conservatives. It wasn’t the minority governing party along with its opposition that agreed that the survey was an unnecessary intrusion, it was the Prime Minister’s Office. It wasn’t a consensus of Canadians that raised their voices in support of such a move, it was a man. And if the firestorm of protest against canceling the long form census is any indication, there won’t be anyone raising their voices in support and if they are, they’re going to be awfully late to the party. Indeed, the list of long form census supporters is long in itself and it isn’t merely political groups that are raising their concern (the majority are non-partisan). Included on the list are municipalities, cities, towns, charity groups, businesses, think tanks, and even some of the most conservative newspapers in Canada. All agree that scrapping the long form census is wrong.

The political argument against the mandatory long form census is that it’s too intrusive and that Canadians who receive it can face jail time for not completing it. That does sound scary but we live in a liberal democracy and we have to make some choices. Do you want the government to build a school in your neighbourhood to accommodate all of the new, young families moving into the area? Do you want proper and decent health care services available within a short drive from where you live? Do the working poor in the impoverished area across town need more suitable housing that they can afford? Are these things important to you because the information that drives these decisions is what we lose if we lose the long form census.

But there is a sensible solution to the census situation, and it’s simple: revise and revisit the census questions.

From the sounds of it I can agree that some of the questions on our last long form census were a bit ridiculous and, sure, a bit intrusive. I’m not sure the government needs to know how many hours a week I spend doing housework, so there’s room to improve, but should the whole thing be scraped because of some poorly-conceived questions? I don’t think so. Is that decision to be made by a political party in a minority governing situation? Certainly not. Do national statistics organizations need to exist far and away from the political government itself? I would say, yes indeed. Forget the political sensationalism, forget the partisanship, and focus on making decisions and having discussions that deal with the fundamental values of Canadian society. The census does not need to be scrapped, at most it needs to be fixed. That is all I’m saying.

But anyway, maybe that solution is a little too naive. No fear, I have another. Make the long form census mandatory for all Canadians but add a bonus question on the end: Does this seem too intrusive to you?

Let democracy decide.

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One doesn’t always think to search for truth in a small wooden shack amidst the company of two shaggy white men and a black panting dog. Yet The Avett Brothers’ acoustic take on their song 10,000 Words proves that this isn’t a hopeless pursuit.

I first started listening to The Avett Brothers during my initial fascination with string bands last year. As an eMusic article explained to me, “A string band isn’t exactly cut-and-dried… generally speaking, it [refers to] groups whose foundations are in the old-time music of the ’20s and ’30s, before the early heyday of commercial country music and the subsequent rise of rock & roll.” In my experience, this usually means at least three things: acoustic instrumentation, vocal harmonization, and lots of twang.

And so we have the musical backdrop for the timeless wisdom of 10,000 Words:

Ain’t it like most people? I’m no different. We love to talk about things we don’t know about.

How often I feel the need to pontificate about how others choose to live their lives and to act as if I had a privileged perspective that they were not privy to. When I act this way, I know I play the fool and talk on things I don’t know about.

The Epistle of James, written nearly 2,000 years ago also dealt with similar concerns when the author reminded his recipients that they should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry (James 1:19b). Because The Avett Brothers remind me that in the age of Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus, musicians might still have something intelligent to say, 10,000 Words is one of my favourite tracks.

10,000 Words

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“[To] those 83 people that missed the like button… may God have mercy on your soul.”

He was referring, of course, to Regina Spektor’s music video for the song Us. And his sentiment is spot on.

There are so many things that make this song a favourite track that I don’t know where to begin. It’s infectious, to start. It’s frenzied pace, coupled with Spektor’s absolutely acrobatic vocals results in a down right stunning sound. She sings, “it’s contagious” and she’s right—and do you think she knows it?

I get the feeling that Spektor’s pop sensibilities are so finely attuned that she can manage to do nothing more than bang a bunch of keys and make it sound like a beautiful work of art. But that’s the beauty of a song like Us, I think. It’s really uncomplicated, perhaps even unmusical at times, but it sounds great and it works so well. It’s lyrics, a kind of end-of-the-world love theme, fit perfectly with the collapsing and expanding sound of the piano and her voice. I love it and anyone that doesn’t, I’m certain, must be already dead on the inside.

Us

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It’s a great gag, and worth the watch.

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What makes these commercials so successful, I think, is that they’re hilarious, pretty clever, and just absolutely outrageous.

It’s obvious that Old Spice is going through a complete rebranding but perhaps the less obvious thing is that whoever they’ve got at the wheel is a complete genius. This is marketing for the 21st century. Their rebrand, “Smell like a man, man,” has become a complete Internet sensation. Their YouTube channel is getting a bazillion hits from people wanting to watch their hilarious TV spots and, what’s more, they’re pumping out new content daily online. They’re skipping the networks, skipping the distribution and putting it right online, for free, all by themselves giving people what they want which is, ironically, instant access to their commercials… and we’re eating them up!

They’ve gone even one step further by launching a new series, yesterday, of the Old Spice Man responding to messages from Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites. He has even gotten into a back-and-forth with Alyssa Milano culminating in him sending actual flowers to her house. We’ll have to wait and see if the Old Spice Man wishes to continue their relationship—only possible if he next donates $100,000 to the Gulf Oil Spill clean up, according to Milano.

But the kicker is that we will wait and see what happens next… this is an ad campaign that’s actually grabbed our interest and kept us entertained. Rarely, would a person go out of their way to watch ads, but Old Spice has got us doing exactly that. If anyone was wondering how to make money in a modern society where people skip the TV networks, download programs themselves, and watch ad-free television on their computers, I think Old Spice has hit upon the formula, and it’s pretty common sense actually, make ads that are entertaining.

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I apologize to readers who are bored to death by two politically-minded articles in a row, I promise to provide you with the lighter stuff tomorrow.

A little over a month ago I warned you of the upcoming copyright reform proposed by our politicians. I warned you that it imposes certain restrictions on how you own things and what you can do with those things. I mentioned, too, that it wasn’t the first time that the Conservatives tried to pass this kind of reform legislation,

The last time the Tories tried to pass new copyright legislation was two years ago. Jim Prentice was the Minister in charge back then and he was widely seen as being in the pocket of American interests. In fact, the Bill he originally introduced was so backward, so heavily favoured towards huge American media conglomerates that the public outcry was simply impossible to ignore. As a result of the outcry, the Conservatives put the legislation on the back burner and, last summer, went on a whirlwind tour across the country soliciting public opinion and feedback on copyright.

That Bill died, on the table, after Parliament adjourned for the summer because it had no support, because it wasn’t the result of consultation with the public, because it was seen as merely pandering to American big media, and because the government clearly underestimated the powerful and vocal grassroots fair copyright movement in Canada.

Well it appears that this second attempt at copyright reform is also going the way of the Dodo.

After declaring war on the “radical extremists” who were opposed to the new reform bill, Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore is now refusing to comment on the legislation according to copyright watcher, author and blogger Cory Doctorow.

Is this a sign of what happens when an unpopular bill is introduced, and introduced again, largely ignoring public consultation?

Like many, I agree that this most recent reform bill included some of the aspects that came out of the public consultation but at the same time it ignored many important aspects as well. The legislation, like its predecessor, still includes significant rights-impeding digital lock provisions—the same kind of provisions which were protested in the last incarnation of the bill. But despite all that consultation, the Conservative government chose to ignore the rights and requests of the Canadian population and again include those provisions. And again the ground swell of support for fair copyright reform has grown and immediately after announcing the bill, and in the time since, media focus has largely centred around the controversial digital locks.

But, if Moore’s refusal to comment is any indication, this bill is fit for the same destiny as its fore bearer. Let’s just hope that, if this is truly the case, the next time around the government will get things right. This second time around, the media was well informed on how and what to report—they got their focus right by honing in on the digital lock provision—and, as a result, the public has been kept up to date, and kept well informed themselves. If the Conservatives tried to sneak a copyright bill through the House of Commons the first time, they failed. This second time the media and copyright watchers the world over were ready, and they spoke loud and clear. If this bill dies there will be a third attempt, no doubt, and maybe then they’ll finally get it right.

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