What, No Taylor Swift?

Top 100 songs of the first decade of the third millenium, courtesy Rolling Stone Magazine.

They Shoot, They Score!

Received an e-mail from the National Film Board today saying that 2009 marks the 30th anniversary of Sheldon Cohen and Roch Carrier's classic piece of Canadiana The Sweater. Happy anniversary! (NFB)

On the topic of graphic design...

In response to Stephen's previous post, someone named Olly Moss made these book covers based on video games.

Then, because this is the internet, a bunch of people started making them-- much to the overwhelming joy of those of us who enjoy looking at things that reference newer things but look like older things.



Ah, to live in a world where everything isn't generically airbrushed in Photoshop. I love these things! NERRRRRRrrrrr....

Today in Ridiculously Beautiful Graphic Design, Part 2

I read Kerouac's On the Road when I was younger, and I feel I've had enough. Consequently, I feel pretty much no desire to read The Dharma Bums.

The new cover by cartoonist Jason honestly has me thinking twice about it, simply by virtue of awesome. On the inside flaps, Jason illustrates a scene from the novel that does an excellent job of showing just how hillarious Kerouac could be.

A good cover should convince readers to pick up the book, and that's just what a lot of the Penguin Deluxe Classics do. They've been enlisting a lot of reputable graphic artists and cartoonists to make up new covers for classic books for a while, including Chris Ware doing Candide, Seth doing a Dorothy Parker anthology, Joe Sacco doing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and, my personal favourite, Tony Millionaire doing Moby-Dick.

Today In Ridiculously, Stupidly, Beautiful Graphic Design

Wow, I love this stuff. Some dude has designed a retro-looking faux-book cover poster series for several of the biggest Web services. They're so gorgeous, just looking at them I feel like my face will melt faster than that Nazi's in Raiders Of The Lost Art. Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty. The Youtube cover is probably my favourite, although the colour red works best with this style, to me.

I found this on Boingboing, Cory Doctorow's spectacular uberblog. You can buy work by this graphic designer here. His name's Stéphane Massa-Bidal, his handle's Retrofuturs, and I think I'm gonna break out my credit card now.

Six In The Morning

1 OUR ROUGH CITY The psycho who tore off a woman's toe with pliers has been sentenced to three years in jail. Between that and the two kids who burned a slain teenager last week, it's been a brutal stretch for Regina. (CBC)

2 GIVE THE CHAIR TO THE MAYOR WITH THE HAIR Rosie, who is bald, blogged this yesterday after a report on CJMA radio; today the Leader-Post has a story on Mayor Pat Fiacco's speech about the provincial government's rotten decision to scrap the new revenue-sharing formula.

3 POWER STRUGGLE IN ALBERTA? The chief executive of a private company says the province colluded with private companies to charge Albertans for unneeded power lines, all without approval from the Alberta Utilities Commission. Are the Imperial Alberta Conservatives in trouble? Ruh-roh! (Calgary Herald)

4 LET'S ALL KILL, KILL, KILL THE OCEANS Climate change is dangerously increasing ocean acidity. This could and probably will be catastrophic for the planet's food chain. If you or anyone you know is running around denying climate change, stop it/demand they stop it right the fuck now. Ut! I said NOW. (Guardian)

5 EUROPE'S BIG ATOM-BASHER The Large Hadron Collider is now officially the most powerful physics machine in the world. Booyah, Europe! (New York Times)

6 HEADLINE OF THE DAY Obama Accepts Nobel, Defends War. (Salon)

Pick of the Day: Chantal Kreviazuk

Hubbie Raine Maida was in town this July with his band Our Lady Peace. They played a Friday night gig at the SaskTel Summer Invasion that I caught from across Wascana Lake on what turned out to be one of the few gorgeous evenings we had last summer (although the mosquitoes were a little thick, if I recall).

No chance of that being a problem with Chantal Kreviazuk's concert at Conexus Arts Centre tonight. First off, it's indoors. Plus, it's winter. So all the moquitoes that menaced me are either dead or hibernating.

Kreviazuk celebrated her 35th birthday in May. Through Maida, she's the mother of three sons. In addition to her own solo career, she has extensive song-writing credits with a number of well-known artists from Avril Lavigne and Carrie Underwood to Kelly Clarkson and Gwen Stefani. She's had songs featured on a host of TV and movie soundtracks, and has even done a little acting herself.

To help set the mood for tonight's show, here's the video for "Is This Life" off Kreviazuk's 2002 album What If It All Means Something (YouTube)

And if that doesn't appeal, or you're looking to do something after the show, local space-time continuum rockers Intergalactic Virgin have a CD release tonight at Gabbo's Nightclub.

It's 1987 all over again

Mayor Pat Fiacco, on the surface, picked a real bad place to trash Brad Wall's government, but if I were Mayor Mullet, I would do the same thing (CJME). For the past two years, the Sask. Party government has conducted its financial affairs like a spoiled brat trust fund kid who has now run out of money, and much like what happened from 1987 to 2005, the senior levels of government will starve the lower levels for funds to balance their books.

Six in the Morning

1. IT'S REALLY COLD: The Globe and Mail says snow is hammering the east of Canada while a deep freeze has hit the west. Temperatures here, they say, are nearing minus 30°C. I have news for you, Globe and Mail, nearing minus 30°C nothing. The pipes in my back bathroom have frozen up. It's bloody colder than that. Minus 33°C last I checked the thermometer out my kitchen window. If I had anything scheduled to do outside the house today it isn't happening. (Globe and Mail)

2. DOC UNDER FIRE FOR ABUSING WELFARE REQUESTS: A Toronto doctor involved with the anti-poverty movement is accused of signing paperwork so that patients can get extra welfare money for food for medical problems they may or may not have. The doctor, Roland Wong, admits he's bending the rules but not breaking them. Some quotes from the good doctor:

"The first question always asked is, are these people scamming the system? I would say 'no.' When [former premier Mike] Harris came in, they reduced all benefits by 25 per cent ... rather than dismissing them as scammers, help them if you can."

"Poverty is pervasive, and we know that poverty is the major determinant of health. Given that, can we just let it go on?"

"You realize this whole thing is brought against me by politicians - not patients.

You know what, I don't care if he is scamming the system. Scam away. This guy's my hero for 2009. (Globe and Mail)

3. RENTERS EVICTED IN WINTER: Saying they want to send a clear signal to landlords, the Fire Commissioner evicted the tenants of a Halifax Street apartment building. The building was apparently not up to fire safety codes -- not by a long shot -- and for everybody's safety, the tenants had to get out. Now the tenants are being put up in a motel by Social Services and are being forced to find new places to live in the midst of a brutal cold snap while Regina's vacancy rate is still punishingly low. Way to stick it to the... erm... landlords there. (Leader Post)

4. BRITS TAX BANK BONUSES: In a pre-budget document the UK government is rolling out a one-off "super tax" of fifty per cent on bonuses over 25,000 pounds. (Globe and Mail)

5. WHAT? FIVE POINTS IN AND NO CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE NEWS: Still too fucking angry to type about anything climate-change related. According to Murray Dobbin, Harper was caught out earlier this year pledging to derail any climate deal but it hasn't been reported in the media anywhere (but by Murray Dobbin, of course). Climate deniers are holding a counter summit and continuing to flog the email scandal horse. And as far as George Monbiot is concerned, all these denier's efforts to dupe the public about climate change are working. On a slightly happier note, at least the White House realizes the whole email scandal is silly. (DeSmogBlog and Guardian)

6. GATORADE DROPS TIGER WOODS DRINK: Okaaay, I'm sure the talk show hosts are all over this one. "Are you kidding me? I want me some of what Tiger's been drinking." My question: has anyone made the crack that they should rename the drink Wood's Wood? Because if they had... it wouldn't be very funny. But it's one of those things that, you know, popped into my head and I couldn't get it out. Until now. Sorry to inflict that on you. Won't happen again. (Globe and Mail)

UPDATE: In case you were worried, the temp's gone up a smidge and my pipes have thawed. I'm still not going the hell outside.

Anti-Abortion Religious Fascists Piss Me Off

So my sadistic, Whitworth-poking publisher handed me a press release from LifeCanada. The release was about a survey LifeCanada commissioned on Canadians' attitudes toward abortion.

According to LifeCanada, Canadians don't much like abortion. Surprise!

The headline reads "Poll: Canadians Favour Abortion Limits", and the press release opens thusly: "For the ninth year in a row a majority of Canadians have rejected the status quo on abortion. Over half say there should be legal protection for human life before birth and over two-thirds say abortions should only be paid for by taxpayers in medical emergencies or in cases of rape or incest."

Now, I'd be curious to hear what percentage of Canadians agree with LifeCanada's mission statement: "To promote the sanctity of all human life from fertilization to natural death through public education. To advocate for the preborn, the disabled, the infirm and the elderly who are all uniquely created by God."

The Toronto Star has a column on LifeCanada here.

You might think LifeCanada is a kooky extreme Christian group with little to no real power, but I say the thinking they represent is dangerous and becoming more popular. More and more Canadians--especially in Saskatchewan--are electing politicians to the governing Conservative party who share LifeCanada's desire to impose their pushy, old-fashioned religious garbage on the rest of us through laws and/or the sneaky and underhanded de-funding of services. For example, just within the last month, Conservative Saskatoon-Dumbolt MP Brad Trost helped organize a petition to defund Planned Parenthood International and Conservative MP Maurice Vellacott (Ass-katoon-Wanuskewin) praised the inadequate abortion services in his city.

This holy-rollers can't separate their extreme religious beliefs from their public jobs serving ALL Canadians, and have no business being in politics--but Canadians keep electing them.

This American-style right-wing garbage is moving from the fringes to the mainstream. It has to stop.

We're living in degenerating times. From tax-cut anarchists getting away with saying whatever stupid crap they want in public without being laughed off their podiums, to wanton enviroment destruction, to health care privatization to freedom of (AND FROM) religion, Canada is descending into ignorant and mean-spirited politics.

Yeah, we're all going to have to get a little more political to fight these shenanigans.

Things we can all do: donate to our favourite, non-Conservative political party and/or publicly active, non-profit advocacy group (Council Of Canadians, David Suzuki Foundation, Planned Parenthood, habitat for Humanity, etc.).

E-mail letters to newspapers magazines and other media. (Make your letters relevent to something they've published/broadcast recently, stick to the word limits and don't ramble: keep to one topic.)

Make it known to loudmouths and idiots around you that you have zero patience for the idea that their goofy personal religious views should be enshrined in law. When some jackass starts talking about saving babies or how immigration is ruining the country, don't just sit there and take it. Tell them they're a jerk and demand they shape up. We've got to get peer pressure working for us.

There's your Wednesday pep talk, fellow heroes. Now get to work. You and me, we've got to save this country from the hobgoblins who want to take hard-won rights away and drag us back to the 17th century.

And by the power of Greyskull, we're going to have fun doing it.

Grrrr!