Dōmo Arigatō, Mr. Roboto

Pretty impressive, although I'd like to see it handle an icy Regina sidewalk in the middle of winter. (Break)

It's more than irony ...

Bono has no shame ... U2 erects a wall at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate so people can't see a free concert. (globeandmial.com)

New Dog!

There's no ginormous overblown overwrought multi-page feature in the new prairie dog, out today at streetboxes, supermarkets, convenience stores, coffee shops, restaurants and all manner of local nooks and crannies. Come on, don't be sad. It's a nice change of pace from pages and pages of municipal election coverage. Instead of throwing all our mighty intellectual weight (such as it is) at a single topic (that most people don't give a rat's behind about) this time we're covering a whole, exciting spectrum of issues. (That's right, I said "spectrum" and we all know what that rhymes with.) For example we've got:

OHBIJOU! James Brotheridge calls their heavy-on-the-strings music chamber-pop and it's a good description of this rising indie band's sound. But what's the deal with their mold situation? Sure, they've fixed it--but at what cost? You'll have to read the interview to find out.

ELECTION WRAP UP! Paul Dechene caps off last week's City election and praises the lovable losers who were mowed down by the indestructible Pat Fiacco juggernaut.

NEEDLE INSANE The Saskatchewan Party goverment wants to reduce the number of needles available to addicts through harm reduction programs. Is this a good idea? Duh, no, of course not. Learn more in Stephen LaRose's action-packed and entertainingly-written report.

CARLE'S DAD DOESN'T LOVE HER ENOUGH Steel checks out the Rich Dad, Poor Dad real estate seminar that just blew through town and finds their advice.... expensive.

AND THERE'S MORE, MORE, MOREMOREMOREMOREMOREMORE!!! Dining Dave reviews the Crushed Grape, News Quirks is super funny, David Suzuki talks about something other than global warming (J/K), I forget what Gwynne Dyer's column's about, there's CD reviews and film reviews and news briefs and art and Street Wear, and snakes, bugs and rats and female comics characters and Queen City Confidential and all kinds of good stuff.

BONUS: This will be the last John Conway-free issue for awhile--that's right, he lost the civic election so he gets his column back November 19. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Six In The Morning

KABOOM! Special extra-furious and sarcastic human rights edition! Hooray for rage!

1 NOW WHAT? Supporters of same-sex marriage contemplate their next move after Maine voters vote to discriminate against gays. (New York Times)

2 TYRANNY OF THE MAJORITY Linda Herschman patiently explains why rights and freedoms should be determined by courts, not by voters. (The Daily Beast)

3 DON'T TREAD ON MY RIFLE So federal politicians vote to scrap the long gun registry. Let's scrap car registration next. Oh, licenses to practice medicine and law? That's socialism--let's scrap those. Hey let's just dismantle government all together. What ever could possibly go wrong? (CBC)

4 MAHER ARAR CAN'T SUE THE COUNTRY THAT SHIPPED HIM TO SYRIA TO BE TORTURED? Gimme a break. And while we're on the topic did you guys catch this bullshit from the new head of CSIS about liberal media supporting terrorists, boo hoo hoo? Tell you what dude, you spook guys stop sending innocent people to be tortured (in fact torture is evil and doesn't work so just knock it the fuck off altogether) and do your jobs competently and we whiners will dial it back. (Globe and Mail)

5 AND SPEAKING OF EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION How many CIA agents does it take to kidnap a Muslim cleric? Twenty-three, says an Italian judge. (Okay, technically 22 because one perp wasn't a CIA agent. But I didn't want to clutter up the punchline with trivia.) (Toronto Star)

6 KEEP YOUR FUCKING STUPID PERSONAL RELIGIOUS VIEWS OUT OF MY GOVERNMENT Reasonable, tolerant people do not launch petitions against Planned Parenthood because it provides legal abortions. I'm officially calling it and I'm sticking to it: Saskatoon MP Brad Trost is unfit for public office and frankly he's a threat to human rights, freedoms and civil society. Saskatoon-Humboldt voters, what the fuck exactly are you doing electing this guy? Are you crazy? Or ignorant? Or assholes? Or all three? Please seek professional help, all of you. And next time you have the chance, vote this guy out. I'll be watching you. (Star Phoenix)

Pick of the Day: One-Take Super 8 Festival

We actually contemplated signing up for this festival, picking up a camera and cartridge, and making a film when the call for entries went out in early September -- or, at least, I did.

But my idea didn't scare up much interest among the rest of the prairie dog crew. It's just as well, as I ended up having some parental health issues to deal with in Victoria and wouldn't have been able to devote much time to the project. But it would have given us an interesting jumping off point for covering the festival. Instead of just interviewing organizer Alex Rogalski, or a couple of participating local filmmakers, as we've done in past years, we could've done an insider type article describing the process we went through to create what undoubtedly would've been a cinematic masterpiece (albeit one that likely would've entailed more than a few humourous screw-ups along the way).

Oh well, maybe next year.

Tonight at 8 p.m., the ninth annual One-Take Super 8 Festival screens at the RPL Theatre. Over 20 filmmakers are participating. Films generally run around three minutes, so you're bound to see some pretty neat stuff. To give you a sense of what you're likely to see if you attend, here's a film by Shawn Fulton called C6 H12 O6 from a past festival. (YouTube)