theMediaman.com

Following the dismissal of Peter Silverman and the final nail in the coffin of Speakers Corner, it’s been announced that Ed The Sock is also leaving the recently purchased station.

While it’s reasonable to think that Silverman can relax in a belated retirement his services have been invaluable to many “small guys” around the city, even helping out Simone’s parents at one point.

Speakers Corner has been absent for a year or two while the Queen and John corner has been undergoing renovations (although it turns out the episodes are still airing) The outright cancellation isn’t too shocking. However, they’ll soon move into the busiest pedestrian corner in this part of Canada. Why announce that they want to chop it?

Steve Kerzner (aka. Ed The Sock) is accepting it graciously, and I think in the ten years since I hosted the most popular site on the web dedicated to him (including his own, official site), I imagine he’s become tired of the role. What he could do with the character peaked years ago and has sort of lived on in spite of that.

An additional irony is the fact that Ed got his start on the Rogers community channel.

If they were replacing it with good material, then I could understand. Instead, Rogers is just positioning the cross-Canada CityTV stations with American syndicated shows that were rejected by Global and CTV. Pretty much the entire CityTV line-up is crappy Reality TV (not even “good” Reality TV).

My brother, John, hypothisized that the next thing that established CityTV as a unique broadcaster of niche content, Baby Blue movies, might be the next thing to go.

With my cable already cancelled, how could I further protest if such a horror were to come to pass?!?

Not that I’ve ever considered the Toronto Sun to be anything more than a cartoon version of a daily newspaper, but the last three days they’ve been running front-page articles on saving reindeer at the Toronto Zoo.

Canada lost another soldier to the war in Afghanistan, the Democratic nomination is coming down to the final stretch, and the Toronto Blue Jays had two players go on the disabled list last night. The Toronto Sun continues to play the holier-than-thou card and insist that the Toronto Zoo not euthanize overpopulated species in the budget-locked zoo.

It’s not a surprise that they could get the public behind this cause. Each day the cover page says “Rudolph” instead of “reindeer”, adding a childhood emotional personification of the young animals.

If they held a charity drive to save the animals, people would donate. If they insisted that people go visit the Toronto Zoo more, they would promise but I don’t think you’d see the turnout necessary once Summer hits. If they insist that the city raise taxes by 10 cents per-person and generating $300,000 so they could afford to keep them, there would be an outrage.

Of course killing reindeer isn’t a good thing, I’m not heartless. However I also have faith that the people who work at the Toronto Zoo are ‘animal-people’. They wouldn’t euthanize an animal unless it was essential… and it is. Reindeer, in spite of their cute, cartoon selves, are highly territorial. Too many males in a group and things get violent as well as dangerous for the animals and staff.

In a similar way, I pulled myself out of the CBC Radio2 protests when the organizers refused to listen to reason and hold protests outside 9 to 5, Monday to Friday. Face it, the kind of person who listens to symphony music tends to have an office job. I wouldn’t generalize, it’s not everyone. However, I’d be willing to bet serious money that the vast majority of listeners do work those hours.

The response from the Facebook branch organizing the cross-country event was that there would be enough “musicians, students and mothers(?)” out to support the group.

It seems that even the sophisticated protest-hippies don’t want anything to do with us ’suits’ who work day jobs. I had first considered switching my stance after reading the point that an in-house orchestra was once a necessity when recording equipment was heavy and expensive. Now a recording studio can be set up wherever a performance is held. The illogical actions of the protest organizers secured my position on the other side of the fence.

This was another situation where the masses want it all, but are not willing to accept that there are real costs involved… often tax-funded costs.

However, in the end, “Rudolph” was saved. This time. So my question is simply this:

For those of us who wish to be logical and reasonable in our efforts to better the world, does aligning ourselves with front-page grabbing, strategy-free neanderthals hurt or help?

Shortly after the breakdown of talks between the Sony camp and the Toshiba camp to release a unified HD disc format, avoiding a costly format war, I registered the domain name, “HDvsBlu.com”.

I intended to make it a central hub analysing the war and how it affects the most important side, the consumers - a group rarely represented in such discussions. However, for one reason or another, I never finished development.

Tomorrow, the domain renewal is up. After a few years of spending a ten-spot renewing it, I’m going to let it expire. The war is over, and Sony is rewarding itself for the win by jacking up the price of players.

I think I’m sticking with DVDs for the time being. Unfortunately, it looks like some material I want might never be released.  A favourite mini-series of mine was the “Biography of the Millennium: 100 People - 1000 Years”. I remember being particularly proud of myself at guessing the number one and two spots as going to Johannes Gutenburg and Isaac Newton respectively.

Regularly, I would check the Internet to see if they had released it on DVD. I remember seeing it on VHS a while ago, and it can still be found on that antiquated format. However, even if the next-gen format may not make it into my home entertainment system anytime soon, I can’t imagine VHS staying much longer.

I contacted A&E to see if they were planning to redistribute it anytime soon. To be frank, I was a bit surprised at the speed of the reponse. About one hour after sending an email, this is what I got.

Unfortunately, this program is no longer available for sale. Most likely due to a rights expiration issue with certain key elements within the program.

Stupid copyright law. Basically what is being said is that, short of going to work for A&E and getting access to their library of episodes, I’m never going to get to see that mini-series again. What a waste.

Thank goodness the 2nd season of “Joey” is coming out next month. Now there’s something the world needs more of. Short-run spinoff series that history will judge as little more than the answer to a trivia question.

Filling up valuable relax-time on the weekend, Simone and I watched Minority Report - a movie that has, over time, floated up near the top of my list of Favourite Spielberg Flicks. The Phillip K. Dick short story is really quite difficult to follow, and I’m impressed they were able to simplify the plot while extending it out to a feature length film. Look to “Paycheck” to see an excellent example of failing to extend a short story to feature-length.

Five years after the movie (and six years following 9/11), there are some near-futuristic elements that seem right around the corner. 

The transit system of cars driving themselves got a boost last week when the DARPA  Awards held the first Urban Competition.  The first few years of the DARPA awards required that cars, trucks, and even a motorbike try to drive themselves through a desert course. The first few years, no vehicle was able to make it, but eventually one did.

This year, the competition involved driving 60 miles in under 6 hours, avoiding collisions with other robotic drivers as well as human drivers, through an urban setting.  No less than three teams managed to complete the challenge in under 6 hours, and a total of eight were able to complete the course. Self-driving cars likely won’t be in the 2009 lineup at your local GM dealer, but it will certainly arrive before 2055 (when the events in the movie take place).

Driving up to, and parking in a garage on the same floor as your condo is already something being built into some ultra-rich apartments in Manhatten. Right now, it’s for the ultra-rich, but once upon a time, cars were for the ultra-rich. By 2055 it may become a common feature.

RFID tags have started being implanted in some employees, depending on where you work. The state of California has ruled it unconstitutional to force someone to have an RFID tag implanted, and I believe there’s something similar in Canada (although I can’t find reference to it). RFID tags can be read from a distance. While this is more low-tech than the cornea scans used in Minority Report, it still works the same.

Access to secure areas, police identification, and even targeted advertising by billboards can all be accomplished with RFID implants. There are conveniences allowed to those who give up a piece of their privacy. The “Powers That Be” can really get this done by getting parents to have one inserted into their kids. Growing up with the convenience that comes with an RFID tag solves the Convenience vs. Privacy issue in no more than one generation.

There’s already a cell phone out there that lets parents track their kids online using the embedded GPS. I’m sure that a 12 year old would be happy to have the leash extended for the value of being one of the first kids in your grade to get a cell phone. They will grow up comfortable with a perpetual watching eye.

Don’t believe me?  Why do you use credit/debit cards? It’s more convenient then cash. But you can’t think that the credit card companies and banks never take advantage and sell your buying habits, do you? You’ve just given up a small piece of your privacy for convenience. It doesn’t feel like much, but it’s still been done.

How about security? A lot of the “suspect your neighbour” rhetoric had died down in Canada and mainstream media since the initial reaction after 9/11, but I was still surprised by the shear quantity of “Report Anyone Suspicious” posters littering New York City six years later. I have to admit I was a little saddened by the fact they’re still not in a state of mind where they can trust.

Even now, they’re looking at installing cameras on all busses and streetcars in Toronto. It improves security for the drivers and the riders, but again you’ve given up a small part of your privacy for security.

I’m sorry if this is turning a little “Big Brother”, but that’s really a major thematic element of Minority Report. The difference between 1949 and “Nineteen Eighty-Four” may have seemed drastic, so naturally we would never let any government invoke “Thought Police”.  However, if it came as a pilot project, then was implemented on a test area, then was voted by the public to go national after resounding success, then such a transition is feasible and frightfully real.

So much of Minority Report was near-future, but still “Futuristic” in 2002. In just five years since the movie came out, a lot has happened to bring 2055 towards the present. The movie feels even more chilling now than it did then.

At least we can hope for a Spielberg Happy Ending^©.

In spite of the title, microbrews in Toronto and elsewhere around South Central Ontario don’t tend to disappint me.  Just yesterday I had a Tank House Ale (Mill St. Brewery) while on a patio in the Distillery District, and it was one of the tastiest beers I’ve had in a while.

My issue is with the cost of beer.  At the Queens in Barrie, a ten-spot could buy you three bottles of Canadian. In Waterloo, a ‘premium’ beer would usually go for around $4.75 (give or take 50 cents depending on how reputable the place was). As soon as I moved to Toronto in 1999, I was upset to find pints for over 5 bucks, and over 6 for premiums. I probably wouldn’t have as much of an issue with it if the “domestics” weren’t always the same Golden 4… Canadian, Blue, Coors Light and Bud. A “premium” beer includes Rickards Red and Alexander Keiths.

It took me a loooong time to get used to six dollar pints. For many years I was always on the lookout for places that had it cheaper… even by half a dollar. Usually such places served highly carbonated beers, or were notorious for recycling beer.

When the beers are poured the same everywhere, I am offended by such pricing schemes. In 98% of the establishments with taps throughout the GTA, if you order a beer for $3 or $6, you usually get the same crappy pour - opening the tap with the glass underneath, leaving large bubbles on top, and when the glass overflows there is no effort - NO EFFORT - in cleaning off the sides.

Participate in some (but by no means all) of the steps for pulling a perfect pint of Stella.

In spite of my gross disappointment with 98% of bartenders in this city, after eight years of living in Toronto (and the GTA), I’ve finally decided I’m ready to be comfortable paying six bucks for a premium pint…

…sometime recently they’ve moved to $7.

Six-ninety-nine, six ninety-five, seven even, whatever. I’ve only just adjusted to paying that previously unearned value and they’ve raised it again. Why must they mock me?

Simone, Michelle and I went to the Pickel Barrel Grande at Yonge/Dundas Saturday night. The pints were once again, seven bucks for a 20 oz. pint of “premium” Keiths. Since the ‘fancy’ drinks were the same price, I figured that I’d make them work for their seven bucks.

I ordered a Toronto Margarita. Whatever connection that has to Toronto I haven’t figured yet, but it was the least sweet and sugary drink on the menu. Basically, it was Gold tequila, triple sec, lime juice, and some other crap. Very tasty, and I felt so content in making them work for the money that I didn’t care that I had ordered a girly drink.

One of - if not my absolute favourite drinking holes is still The Gem. When Simone used to live right around the corner, we would often drop in. I’d order a pint of whatever of two or three beers were on tap (usually microbrews or Amsterdam discount beer), and Simone would get a glass of wine. The beers were poured to the brim, and the wine would be served in a drinking glass, again filled almost to the brim. The whole cost after taxes would come to $10 even.

Still, by the city as a whole, I feel cheated.  $7 for a pint is too damned much, unless you earn it.