Media Setting Up

This is the view from the hall. We're sitting next to News Talk, educational listening on their pre-show patter.

Awesome big screens, eh.

Election Night Begins!

We made it! The media are setting up and I'm feeling like a total twit. Haven't got a clue what I'm doing here. Over to Steve.....

Whitworth here. Dechene's got us set up and we're ready to roll. We've never covered an election live and we have no idea what we're doing. I predict awesomeness.

UPDATE: Dechene says there's only one "G" in "blogapalooza". I guess we don't want to steal the "OO"'s thunder. Edit made.

Paul's Picks: The Envelope

Here they are. Sealed up in an envelope and not to be opened until after all the votes are in. My pics for mayor, city council and public school board. (Sorry, catholic school board. I just didn't have a clue how that race is going to go....)

For the record, these are not necessarily the people I would've voted for, they're the people I think will win tonight. Tune in after the results come in (sometime between 8:30pm and 10pm, I'm guessing) and I'll open the envelope and you can see how close I came.

Stephen and I will be at city hall tonight pretending to be press as candidates wait nervously to discover their fate. Apparently, election central is open to the public so if you want to be where the municipal election action is -- and action aplenty there will be -- or if you're just looking for a way to kill the evening, come on out to Henry Baker Hall. If you can't make it, we'll try to "live blog" or some such "online" nonsense.

Ricky Talks!

And writes! And makes a whole bunch of sense in the Canadian cable vs Canadian television companies steel cage match. (Montreal Gazette). Told you getting your Grade 10 is important.

Rider Pride's Dubious anniversary

Rob Vanstone’s article in today’s Leader-Post (LP) details the 30^th anniversary of the famous ‘Rider Pride game, where the Riders were mired in a sea of debt, unable to muster fans, and during the $200-a-plate bun-toss, Winnipeg sportswriter John Robertson railed at Saskatchewan the way Bluto rallied Delta House to glory in the last reel of Animal House. Robertson didn’t utter the famous quote ‘WAS IT OVER WHEN THE GERMANS BOMBED PEARL HARBOUR?’ But he may as well have.

Like about 28,000 people, my father and I attended the following home game against the British Columbia Lions, and the Riders won and everyone went home happy. But in the end, there was a shift in Roughrider fans’ mentality, and in the mentality of the Roughrider board of directors (The Powers That be). Saskatchewan people stopped being football fans, and became ‘enablers’ in the 12-step sense of the word. (Alcohol Self Help News). Roughrider fans became known for accepting any crap inserted into green-and-white jerseys, no matter how badly the game was played or how little, um, ‘entertainment’ was in the match.

Season ticket campaigns took the “Ol’ Yeller” routine: unless people bought tickets, they would kill the club … and if that threat were raised, there were a lot of businessmen and sportswriters, their eyes drooling like Glenn Beck, crying about The Need To Save An Important Part of Our Heritage. In many ways, it was a con job – the Riders were in better financial shape than some of the teams that folded (Montreal Alouettes/Concordes, Ottawa Rough Riders) and had better connections to its local business community than other teams in Toronto, Hamilton, and Vancouver. The Roughriders’ real problem was that they didn’t use those connections and financial stability (in relative terms, this was the CFL after all) as a springboard to bigger and better things – they used it as a crutch to have the club limp along a road to nowhere, both in the stands and as an organization.

Except for a couple of years during the Bill Baker era, the Roughriders didn’t seem to operate like a football club whose main ambition in life was to win football games. Instead, the Riders seemed to be run like, say, the Weyburn Exhibition Board. A bunch of businessmen would get together, hire a couple of people to run the show, and give them the order Don’t Lose Money. If you could bring in the same number of people to the grandstand with ‘family entertainment’ rather than a legitimate act that will draw in people, get the ‘family entertainment’ even though in a couple of years the kids are going, “Well, this sucks,’ and are going somewhere else.

I would argue that one of the two most important games in the history of the Saskatchewan Roughriders was not that game, but a game on Thanksgiving Sunday in 1999, when the Riders played Montreal (I think it was the only game that year that the CBC picked up involving the Riders). It was a beautiful fall afternoon in Montreal, and Percival Molson Stadium probably never looked better, as just over 20,000 jammed into the stands at McGill University to see one of the finest, best run best-cached, and best supported football teams in Canada. And the Roughriders.

The Riders were still in some form of a playoff ‘hunt,’ even though they had a 3-11 record at the time. Reggie Slack was the starting quarterback, who had come down with substance abuse issues and the whole squad looked dead on its feet. I remember the Riders down 35-0 at the half, then the first play from scrimmage to begin the third quarter – Tracy Ham of the Als had all day, all freaking day, to decide where he was going to throw, and lobbed the ball to a wide receiver who ran for paydirt … even as the camera pulled the shot back, there wasn’t a Roughrider player in range. I was editing the Fort Qu’Appelle Times at the time and thought, ‘the closest person from Saskatchewan on that play was my member of parliament, in a hot tub in the Gatineaus.’

I watched that game in the kitchen of my parent’s home, while my father, who was about to finish off his combining, finished his lunch. A few years previous, I bought for him a gag gift at a sporting goods store that was going out of business – a ball cap with the Montreal Alouettes logo – the one they used in the mid-70s before they went bankrupt in 1986. When the Als scored that touchdown, he shook his head, looked at his lynch-lid, now covered in durum dust and sweat, and quipped, ‘Gonna have to buy another hat.’

Later on, I did an op-ed piece for the CBC (actually a rewrite of my Fort Times column) that pronounced not just Rider Pride but the Roughriders dead. There was no way that the Riders’ Powers That Be had the vision or the guts to make the sort of changes that would be needed to make the team a contender. There was a generation of Saskatchewan residents who had grown up knowing the Riders as nothing but a pitiful, helpless excuse of an organization. Nothing like it is today.

Vanstone can wax as eloquently as he wishes about the Riders’ Good Old Days, as he has in two recent books, (LP) but for the Roughriders, these days are the good old days. The Roughriders, by all accounts, are the strongest and wealthiest franchise in the CFL, with the Leafs and Canadiens as one of the most recognizable sporting teams in Canada, the top draw for road teams and worth at least a quarter of a million extra viewers per TSN telecast. (SLAM Sports/Sun Media) Rider Pride was a celebration of wimpdom, in that the Riders needed pity and fear to sell tickets: for all the grousing about the greater corporate entity that’s now the Saskatchewan Roughriders, it’s hard to argue with success, on and off the field. Even if they’re a little less loveable in a teddy-bear sort of way.

Six in the Morning: the How to Vote Edition

Election day is here. Not sure how to go about voting? This six-question FAQ should cover everything you need to know....

1. WHERE DO I VOTE? There are 52 polling locations in the city. The city has set up a handy tool on their website where you type in your address and it tells you where to go vote. Find it here. Alternately, you can phone the city's information line, 777-7000, and someone from city staff can help you find your polling station.

2. WHEN CAN I VOTE? Today. October 28. The polls open at 9 am and will remain open until 8 pm.

3. AM I EVEN ALLOWED TO VOTE? If you're 18 or older, the answer is probably yes. The only catch is on the day of the election you have to be a Canadian citizen, have been a resident of Saskatchewan for six months and a resident of Regina for three months.

And don't think that just because you didn't get a voter card in the mail you're off the hook. You can fill out a voter registration card when you get to the polling station.

4. WHAT WARD AM I IN? The city has a ward map you can consult here.

5. WHAT ABOUT SCHOOL BOARD? If you're voting for a public school trustee, you can find out what subdivision you're in by checking the map on the Public School Board website here. If you're voting for the catholic school board, they use an at-large system so you can vote for any of the candidates running. The seven receiving the most votes will become board members.

6. WHO SHOULD I VOTE FOR? Can't tell you that. But we can tell you how to get more information on everyone who's running.

prairie dog Candidate Profiles
You can pick up one of our latest issues in which you'll find candidate profiles for everyone running for mayor or council (plus great suggestions for Halloween movies). But if you're the type who needs more info, over the last few days we've posted longer profiles for everyone running including those in the school board races. Follow these links to get to them....

• mayoral candidate profiles
• city council candidate profiles
• public school board candidate profiles
• catholic school board candidate profiles

City of Regina profiles
The city has lists of candidates with photos and short bios on their website. You can check the mayoral candidates here, the candidates for council here, the candidates for public school board here and the candidates for separate school board here.

Candidate video profiles
The city has also set up a YouTube channel with video clips of each candidate talking about why they're running and what they hope to accomplish. Find it here.

Pick of the Day: Hair

Regina's municipal election is today. Make sure you do your part for democracy and vote for who you think should represent you as mayor, city councillor and school board trustee. If you need incentive, think about checking out this Do-It-With-Class production of the notorious Broadway musical afterwards. It closes out a two-night run with a performance at Conexus Arts Centre at 8 p.m.

Set in the mid-1960s in New York, Hair concerns a group of long-haired "hippies" who, having rejected the conservative values of their parents, embark on a counter-culture lifestyle of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll while waging a political battle against conscription and the immorality of their country's growing involvement in the Vietnam War.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since the musical debuted. Most of it polluted with ideals that are the polar opposite of those espoused in the musical related to individual freedom, peace, ethnic tolerance and sexual liberation. Earlier this year, though, a revival of Hair opened on Broadway, earning strong reviews along with a Tony Award for best revival of a musical, so maybe the tide truly is starting to turn again.

Do-It-With-Class will doubtlessly have their own take on Hair. But here's video of the Broadway cast performing the title song at the Tony Awards. (YouTube)

And don't forget to vote, okay.

31 Days of Horror: El espinazo del diablo

El espinazo del diablo aka The Devil's Backbone (2001) was director Guillermo del Toro's stab at a creepy little ghost story that he made after his disastrous attempt at making a Hollywood horror film - Mimic (1997). Where he failed in Hollywood he succeeds here in this low budget Mexican/Spanish gothic horror film.

The story takes place in 1939 Spain during the civil war. A new boy named Carlos (Fernando Tielve) arrives at an orphanage thinking that it's temporary stay while his father is off fighting in the war. The orphanage is a creepy old place - there's a defused bomb sitting in the middle of the courtyard and in one of the buildings is a basement with a man made pool of water filled with the most disgusting looking muddy yellow brown water that you ever saw.

Some terrible things have happened at the orphanage and it becomes quickly clear that the place is haunted. The ghost is one of the orphan boys and Carlos is drawn into finding out what happened to him.

Del Toro is a really gifted director - he knows how to build tension and to tell a tale to make your hair stand on end. But he seems to lose his gift when he's making Hollywood movies. Films like Blade 2 and Hellboy are all right but they are nothing compared to his independent film ventures like Pan's Labyrinth and this film.

And now for something completely different – Rosie LaRose’s Top Six

How did you know I spent the weekend watching Bravo TV’s Monty Python special?

1. BOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE Last December Saskatoon police arrested an 18-year-old university student for possessing ‘explosives’ – actually, a high-school chemistry set. (cbc.ca) Earlier this month, all the charges were dropped. (cbc.ca) Since ammonia fertilizer and diesel fuel were the substances used in the Murrah Building bombing in Oklahoma City in 1994, (Wikipedia) Saskatoon police should be arresting every Saskatchewan farmer for possession of explosive devices.

2. COLLATERAL DAMAGE FROM THE COLLAPSE OF CORPORATE MEDIA I always thought Adbusters (their home page) was an organization dedicated, in part to combating the media oligarchy and consumerism. So why does Canwest Global’s television station and National Post divisions – the ones in bankruptcy protection – owe Adbusters more than $9,000? (Media Union of British Columbia). UPDATE: Paul tells me that the money Canwest Owes Adbusters stems from lawsuits stemming from Canwest refusing to air Adbusters anti-commercials. More here (Adbusters). Gee, you'd think Canwest would be happy to have a paying customer ...

3. NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT Remember when the Tories and right wing groups such as the National Citizens’ Coalition would get on about Liberal and NDP MPs being eligible for gold plated pensions? Now that the Cons are in power, there’s not much talk about it … except for Rick Mercer (Rick Mercer Report via YouTube)

4. NOT JUST STEPHEN HARPER GETS BUY WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM HIS FRIENDS … Ohhh, look. A Cons bagman in Quebec seems to have interesting friends … who are caught up in a Montreal municipal government scandal (Canadian Press via The Globe and Mail)

5. IN OTHER NEWS, THE NUMBER OF CARDIAC PATIENTS AT REYKJAVIK GENERAL HOSPITAL HAS DECREASED BY 50 PER CENT Iceland’s collapsed economy means people having a Big Mac Attack will have to leave the island. McDonald's is pulling out. (Globe and Mail)

6. THINK ABOUT THIS WHEN YOU BUY STUFF China Hush (home page) is a website dedicated to stories that the Chinese government and the international business community would rather you didn’t see. Such as these pictures of China’s industrial pollution. Weep for the planet, and for humanity. (China Hush via The Galloping Beaver)

Oh Happy Day

This is what's going on on my little bit of Albert street:

Not only a new Japanese/Korean restaurant but a Karaoke place! If it gets even a portion the lost crowd from the Plains Hotel it should be good and weird. Juba Grocery seems to be hanging in (and have very good hours, so shop there and keep it going!). The Chamber of Commerce seems to be putting more windows in. Maybe it will help them see more clearly.

Will keep you posted. Karaoke!