Saturday Morning Cartoon

What great bit of vintage animation will the prairie dog feature this Saturday, you ask? Does the Three Robonic Stooges in Canada count?



No. I didn't think so.

Pick of the Day: Cold Souls

The thing that pisses me off most about market fundamentalism is that it turns everything (and everybody) into a commodity. Under this "philosophy" if you can't put a price tag on something, it has no value. I also reject the idea that the market, by allowing people to act on their self-interest in competition with each other under the constraints of the law of supply and demand, functions as some sort of super-efficient mechanism for allocating scarce resources (the so-called "invisible hand" that Adam Smith wrote of in the 18th century).


To begin with, markets focus on short-term outcomes. But what's good for a person/corporation/society short-term does not automatically translate into medium and long-term well-being. Currently, we have a system that rewards uber-selfish greedheads who have no qualms about grabbing as much as they can, and when called on their bullshit behaviour, they simply shrug and say they're charging what "the market" will bear. And if you happen to be a person who doesn't base their entire self-worth on the amount of money you've been able to accumulate, and baubles of conspicuous consumption you've been able to buy, and instead prefer to strive for personal fulfillment and the long-term best interest of society? Well, what do you know you pinko commie bastard?

I'm paraphrasing there. But I'm sure you're familiar with the rhetoric.

What does the above rant have to do with Cold Souls, which screens tonight at the RPL at 9 p.m. and tomorrow at 7 p.m.? Usually in our society, the idea of a "soul" is confined to religion. But for me, "soul" has a much broader meaning, encompassing a sense of social responsibility, and a recognition that while material needs are important, they do not define all that we are as human beings.

Probably the biggest existential crisis our culture faces is the need to realize that seeking self-fulfillment through material gain is an impossible proposition. We can never have it all. There's always a new product, a new service, being rolled out. It's the nature of our modern economy. True peace of mind stems not from having more than everyone else, and lording it over everyone with obscene displays of conspicuous consumption, but from being true to yourself, and not compromsing your principles in the pursuit of short-term rewards that are largely illusory anyway.

The challenge, of course, for those who wish to protect and nurture their souls is how to do so when we live in what amounts to a soul-destroying world. In this surreal U.S./French co-production directed by Andrij Parekh, Paul Giamatti stars as an actor in rehearsal for a production of Chekov's Uncle Vanya who decides to seek relief from the burden of his soul by visiting a New York company that specializes in the extraction and storage of souls.

Intrigued? Here's the trailer. (YouTube)

New Dog!

The new prairie dog should be just about everywhere by now. It's not too bad. You should grab a free copy. There's a thing on football, a report on the Saskatchewan government, a whole pile of stories on the Saskatchewan publishing scene, a really cranky column by John Conway, a super-snarky editorial by me that's a little wordy but overheats nicely by the end, a better-than usual letters page, Gwynne Dyer on the Fort Hood massacre, David Suzuki on the ocean ecosystem massacre, a preview of some of the bands playing soon, a bunch of movie and CD reviews and OF COURSE regulars like News Quirks, 14 Days, Queen City Confidential, a bunch of Top 6s, My Music and Street Wear.

The whole thing is more fun that a knapsnack of extra-cute kittens. Give a prairie dog a home today. Available at over 400 locations city-wide.

The Afternoon News

1 MURRAY MANDRYK TEARS THE SASK PARTY A NEW ASSHOLE Well said, sir. (Leader-Post) And here's my own editorial comment: is there anyone out there who doesn't honestly believe the NDP would've managed this situation better? Seriously? Because they would have. by far. They've earned their gloat. besides, the Sask. Party proved Sask. voters respond to attack politics. Karma's a bitch.

2 REGINA RECREATION PLAN A-COMING Much ado about hockey rinks and stuff like that. (CBC)

3 MORE MONEY FOR MELTDOWNS Right now if a Canadian nuclear reactor goes kerblooey, it's only liable for a maximum $75 million in damages. The government--in fact, the Conservative government, which readers may recall I slightly despise--is bringing in legislation to raise that limit to $650 million. Critics say it's not high enough, and they're probably right. But this sounds to me like a step in the right direction. So credit where due: good for Stephen Harper. (The Globe And Mail)

4 THEN AGAIN, THERE'S THAT WHOLE TORTURE THING The Toronto Star's editorial board slams the Conservatives for their reaction to Afghan prisoner torture revelations. (Toronto Star)

5 MONTREAL CAFES TORCHED, AND IT LOOKS SUSPICIOUS Molotov cocktails and mysteriously silent victims? Sounds like something from an early Scorsese movie to me. (CP/Winnipeg Free Press)

6 OPRAH'S GOING BYE-BYE Thanks to the power of prayer, apparently. (New York Times)

Friday Afternoon Kitty!

Special Call Of The (not so) Wild edition!

1.) A cougar! Being cute!



2.) Bobcat! Purring for two minutes! It just goes on and on! SOOOO HAPPY!



3.) Baby Black Panthers! Squeal!



4.) Extreme cougar violence! Adorable!



DISCLAIMER: Don't adopt a pet big cat. Even if they are totally woogy-boogy cute-ums. There is a 99.999999999% chance it's a terrible idea. They pee on EVERYTHING.

Pick of the Day: Genesis

It's a busy night in Regina. To begin with, Vancouver-based indie rockers Mother Mother, who you might remember from their main stage performance at the 2007 Regina Folk Festival, are playing a 19+ gig at Riddell Centre. To give you a taste of what they have to offer, here's the video for the title track off their 2008 album O My Heart (YouTube)

Local favourites The Polymaths, who graced the stage along with Rah Rah and These Estates at prairie dog's 15th anniversary party in February 2008, have a CD release scheduled for tonight at O'Hanlon's Pub. I wasn't able to dig up any video of the band on YouTube. I did learn, though, of the existence of a death metal band called The Polymath. Don't confuse the two. While a rockin' good band, The Polymaths won't make your ears bleed -- trust me. For more info on the band, which includes Craig Fink, Matthew Blackwell, Jenn Bergen, Patrick Barks and John Cameron, check out James Brotheridge's preview in our Nov. 19 issue.

Finally, tonight and tomorrow night at the Performing Arts Centre the Youth Ballet Company of Saskatchewan (pictured above) is presenting it's annual fall recital. A mix of contemporary dance and classical ballet works, Genesis, as the title implies, also marks a new beginning for the company. After 15 years at the helm, Connie Moker-Wernikowski stepped down as artistic director this spring. She was replaced by Richard Zimich.


To ease the transition, Zimich was joined this fall by guest artist-in-residence Karen Rose from Toronto. Works choreographed by both her and Zimich will be featured in Genesis. Also on the bill are excerpts from Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake. To whet your appetite, here's an excerpt from a 2004 performance of the former ballet by the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam. (YouTube)

Where Are The Women?

Dog Blog has over 60 posts this month. Only one is by a female contributor. This is ridiculous. Anyone have suggestions on how to fix our blog's heinous gender imbalance?

UPDATE: A friend just made the obvious suggestion: "encourage more women to write for Dog Blog." Good idea--why didn't I think of that? (Theory: I'm stupid. Fact: I have! But maybe I'm not trying hard enough. And I'm just stupid-looking, thank you.)

And so:

Are you a woman writer? Are you looking for the fame and glory that comes with contributing to a Regina, Saskatchewan blog read by LITERALLY HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE EVERY DAY? If so, we should talk. Dog Blog is looking to add one or two female writers who will contribute a minimum of two posts a week, because right now we're a total sausage factory and that sucks. We need smart people with strong writing skills and a voice that's compatible with what we're trying to do here (funny, insightful, informative, conversational, forward-looking, progressive). This is an unpaid opportunity (welcome to the realities of writing in the internet age), but strong writers will undoubtedly earn opportunities for paid freelance writing in our print magazine.

If you're interested e-mail us at freelance@prairiedogmag.com. Write DOG BLOG in the subject field, please. And please include short writing samples or links to same.

The Final Word On Carrie Prejean

Wondering what to make of fired, disgraced and all-around tragic beauty queen and right-wing, Christian faux-martyr Carrie Prejean after sex pics and vids showed her to be a double-talking hypocrite who opposes same-sex marriage and showing off one's body but took pics of herself masturbating and sent them to the boyfriend she wasn't married to? I don't think you'll find a better summary than this one by Seattle editor, pundit and sex columnist Dan Savage. A quote:

And now we have proof that the person Prejean pretended to be after that pageant—the good Christian girl with a strong moral code who was chosen by God to stick it to the homos—doesn't jibe with the person she was before the pageant, i.e. a highly sexual and sexually active young woman with breast implants and a string of ex-boyfriends to her name. Carrie Prejean was not the very model of modern right-wing Christian conservatism that she pretended to be to ingratiate herself with the likes of Maggie Gallagher. She was an average young American woman, a little prettier and dimmer than most, with sexual urges and desires and agency. She was just another young woman aware of her own erotic power, a young woman with a digital camera, another young woman sexting her boyfriend because it turned her on to turn him on.

Worth 10 minutes of your time if this is a topic you're even slightly interested in.

Six In The Morning

1 WE MUST HAVE 1.8 BILLION LYING AROUND HERE SOMEWHERE Thanks to incredible, shrinking potash revenues, Saskatchewan moves into budget deficit. NDP to have a field day in the legislature in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... (CBC)

2 HOTEL GROUP PLEDGES $10 MILLION FOR DOME Read about it here in the Leader-Post. This was before the news, by the way. (Leader-Post)

3 FOOD BANK USE RISING IN REGINA It's true. But I thought that if the economy was strong everything else would take care of itself. (Leader-Post)

4 IS CANADA COMPLICIT IN TORTURE? Probably. (Globe And Mail)

5 CONSERVATIVE PLAY THE ISRAELI CARD Federal opposition politicians attack Tory ads for grotesquely pandering to pro-Israeli voters. (Globe And Mail)

6 DEADLY DELAY The Copenhagen collapse is bad news for green industries, because it's causing wealthy countries to dawdle on climate plans and funding. (Guardian) Case in point... (Globe And Mail)

Pick of the Day: The Trews

This gig by the Trews at the Drink Nightclub tonight is billed as a special acoustic show. Acoustic is a relative term, I suppose. At the very least, it means that bands don't resort to electric guitars and generally tone down the intensity of their sound. In front of the right audience, that can be an intriguing musical experiment. In front of the wrong audience, though, it can be a recipe for disaster.

Maybe seven years ago, I remember Feist playing a Wednesday night show at what is now the Distrikt. She hadn't hit it big yet, but she was definitely a name artist. Had she played the club on another night, I likely would have gone. But back then, Wednesday was cheap draft night, and with a bunch of people stumbling around guzzling watery beer, I knew the gig would be a joke. A subsequent conversation with a filmmaker of my acquaintence who did attend confirmed my suspicion. If memory serves, I believe Feist even cut her set short and stormed off the stage, so inattentive was the majority of the crowd.


On the other hand, I caught that legendary Supersuckers show at the same club in 2004 where their drummer got hung up at the border and Eddie Spaghetti and the boys sat down on stools and played an acoustic set that was pure magic. Then at the end, an audience member familiar with the band's then-current release The Evil Powers of Rock 'n' Roll stepped forward with an offer to sit in on drums, and the band plugged in and ripped through a six-song electric set (including the title track) to close out the show. Good times! (YouTube)


How this gig will turn out is anybody's guess. If the audience is attentive, it could be great. But if they're a bunch of loud mouth drunks, it could suck big-time. Just so you know what to expect, here's video of the Trews performing an acoustic version of "So She's Leaving" on MuchOnDemand. (YouTube)