dear cbc,

i turned on the tv and stumbled across your an american in canada tv show.

please take this show off the air. it is bad. really bad.

at first i thought it was trying to be ironic. but it's not. it's simply some of the worst script-writing around - textbook in the worst kind of way. in trying to appeal to a traditional sitcom audience you've allowed these fools to make something that feels bland and icky. i think it probably even misses its target audience - frankly, i don't think there could be a target audience for this show.

and what's with the wise indian character? it used to be that we would pull out the token 'indian' and now we reach for the platitude preaching 'east indian'.

this show is nothing but a bucket of clichés and a silly soundtrack. you have taken a handful of well-known canadian actors and cast them in humiliatingly awful roles.

do we think this show will do well in the export market? let's put this one to rest and not inflict it on any more hapless victims.

expect some of ballard's standard fare in millennium people. a psychologist. a demented social architect. an ex-pilot. society in transformation.

and even though the characters are familiar and you probably know what's going to happen it's still a fun read. ballard presented a smaller version of this framework in cocaine nights, perfected it in supercannes, and now expands to a larger stage.

in cocaine nights he worked on the idea of the inclusive community that mutates out of boredom. supercannes takes these ideas a step further and has the faults of the community spill out to the outlying area. what we are given in millennium people is a frightening vision of a world in which ordinary citizens rip up their social contract and run amuck.

although we recognize some of the social decay ballard points to, it initially feels like a bit of a stretch. however, as the text unwraps you realize how probable some of what he's talking about is. ballard shows us a middle-class of unabombers. everyday folk descending into anarchy. rather than drowning in anomie, these citizens make molotov cocktails and construct meaning in their lives through confrontations with the authorities.

millennium people is filled with ideas that will creep up on you and ask you to reconsider some of your perceptions about society. in many ways i thought of the book as an extension of certain themes in palahniuk's fight club or as the continuation or commentary on some of what happened in houellebecq's platform.

ballard illustrates the borders of civilization, taking a step past them, and shows us possible futures of a world broken apart.

hitchens, writing with his usual clarity and style, puts orwell detractors on pointed sticks, carries them around a bit, and then reminds us why orwell is still an important figure to turn to.

why orwell matters is engaging and entertaining. the orwell presented within is a figure dedicated to fighting for his causes and then telling us about it.

the book does, however, address some of the standard attacks on orwell (his views on homosexuality, for one). i don't think hitchens is an orwell apologist on these types of issues, but places orwell's ideas in a context so we can better assess them.

with chapter headings like 'orwell and the left', 'orwell and the right', 'orwell and america', and 'orwell and the feminists' (to name a few), you know that hitchens is trying to cover all the ground. he succeeds in my mind, and with enough detail to leave you pleased with his arguments.

it would be great if people returned to classics like down and out in paris and london or the road to catalonia. these represent the orwell i am most familiar with - a strong voice of the left with a critical eye and pen. if you haven't read these books, do. if you've read these books years ago why orwell matters may prompt you to go back and remind yourself why orwell still matters.

or, autobiographical sketches presenting christopher hitchens' interesting ideas and sharp wit to the reader.

it's based, presumably, on a series of correspondences hitchens had with a young friend who was pounding his personal philosophy out and entering the world of politics and criticism. the letters are one-sided, but thread through hitchens' views on what it means to be at odds with general opinion.

hitchens has led a life of curious adventure and incident, all the while developing a world view based on being a contrarian. regardless of your take on hitchens and his views, letters is a worthwhile read. it reminds us of the fire and strong-mindedness of youth, and makes us feel painfully complacent in our everyday lives.

while recent events (hitchens' support of the invasion of iraq) show that he is making the age old left to right slide as he gets on in years, he is still insightful, well-written, and up to his armpits in debate. we can all learn a thing or two from a guy like hitchens.

bukowski splits readers into two camps. love or hate. perhaps there's a third: love and hate with a bit of respect. that's where i fall into.

ham on rye is one of the rare bukowski books that can appeal to all camps. the stories of young henry chinaski are terrific. they are filled with dysfunctional family crap seen through the eyes of a hardened youth. the kind of stories we would later see from writers like roddy doyle.

the stories in ham on rye are angry and funny. chinaski/bukowski had a rough upbringing, suffering abuse at his father's hand and from boils in his teenage years. they're the kind of stories you don't typically see in sanitized versions of what it was like growing up in the 30s and 40s. stories about beating other kids up (or getting beat up), jerking off, and being a psychological mess.

chinaski/bukowski is trying to defeat boredom throughout the stories. he tracks the schedules of airplanes that pass over his house. he becomes a writer. he gets into trouble. early on he meets the bottle and begins a life-long love affair. it's sad. but he's a guy with nothing to lose so he pushes on, regardless of his bitterness and loathing for everything.

reading these stories you are surprised that he didn't do himself in. for a guy like bukowski, though, that would have been too easy. he'd rather live an alcoholic skid-row lifestyle than let the world win. the book ends with the transition from disaffected youth to angry young man. the final stories give us a glimpse into the person chinaski/bukowski would become.

you don't feel sorry for a guy like bukowski when you read his books. he's too mean to let you feel sorry for him. through his writing you see the issues he's working out, his own form of therapy. he's proud and a bit of a braggart, but you can respect where he's coming from and appreciate his honesty.

arsenal (1929)
the ukranian silent film arsenal carries several images that i can't get out of my head. one is the long shot of the mother, standing alone and traumatized in her little house. her look is of pure anguish, and is unforgettable. another is of all the townspeople standing outside their houses, shocked into immobility. a man without legs crosses the screen, using his arms to move along.

lead actor semyon svashenko has a stunning face, projecting the emotional depth silent cinema demands. determination, madness, faith in his cause.

the local silent music specialists, eye of newt collective, provided a soundscape of violin and various electronics. it worked for the most part, capturing the rhythm and emotional contexts of the film. other times it fell apart into musical wanking. some of the musical themes used were picked up from the score of dovzhenko's ivan.

ivan (1932)
by the time dovzhenko's ivan came on we were completely exhausted. it was already 9:30 and arsenal had taken a lot out of us. double bills at the pacific cinemateque are wonderful, but i'm often a zombie during the 30 min drive home.

regardless of my whining, ivan is filled with great images and themes. if i'm not mistaken there is a bunch of scenes with umbrellas in the rain. beautifully shot cinema. reminded me of joris ivens' the bridge.

the sound of this picture helped carry me through. i'm glad i kept my lids nailed to the top of my skull for this one.

[11/01/02]

the assasin [l'assassino] (1961)
marcello mastroianni is without doubt the coolest actor to have ever graced cinema, italian or otherwise. the man defines charm as he carries his roles with ease.

mastroianni is nello poletti, accused of murdering his mistress (micheline presle), and involved in a compelling situation with the police. petri called the character "guilty of inhumanity", and i couldn't agree more.

the 10th victim [la decima vittima] (1965)
we went to this one entirely for the camp. marcello mastroianni and ursula andress give us b-grade action about a future world's tv game show called "man hunt." the film follows this literal man hunt as mastroianni runs from andress. it's fun, it's silly, and, sadly, it's dubbed (which i guess helps give it the b-film flavour). this is the type of film you watch while sitting around drinking with friends.

we still kill the old way [a ciascuno il suo] aka to each his own (1967)
more gian maria volonté! my memory is fuzzy here. does volonté play a woodcutter who becomes a suspect of various crimes, including arson, that are in fact being perpetrated by the female lead? if so, this movie followed a peculiar plot that left me feeling satisfied. if this isn't the same movie, where the hell was i?

a quiet place in the country [un tranquillo posto di campagna] (1969)
described as an "erotic, intellectual horror film". franco nero and vanessa redgrave star as an abstract painter and his mistress/manager. while some of the film is over the top, it has style and intensity, with great acting all around. features some of jim dine's canvases. worth watching for the strangeness factor.

the working class go to heaven [la classe operaia va in paradiso] (1972)
elio petri had a knack for casting some of the best male actors of all time. two incredible examples are gian maria volonté and the irrepressible marcello mastroianni.

in the working class go to heaven volonté stars as lulu, the extraordinary factory worker who is the subject of much hatred from his (slower working) coworkers. soon the plot introduces organized labour. an accident at the factory brings lulu's sympathies into line with the labour movement. soon he is provoking the masses and losing his mind.

the catchy score is by enio morricone, who works his magic over this high-energy film.

elio petri reminds me why i love italian cinema.

property is no longer theft [la proprietà non è più un furto] (1973)
flavio bucci plays a bank clerk that is allergic to money. he slowly steals items from a butcher (ugo tognazzi) in what becomes a class commentary. there's some serious laughs in this one.

good news [buone notizie] (1979)
an attack on the media. a peculiar film about a tv executive (giancarlo giannini) who has problems with his wife and with a crazed old friend. a healthy dose of black humour, topped off with another ennio morricone score. i recall enjoying this one a great deal. unfortunately, it's also petri's last movie.

[09/25/02]

peter watkins - filmmaker and media critic. "with extracts from his writings on the role of the mass audiovisual media in contemporary society."

vancouver mayor larry campbell is pushing to open a second safe injection clinic. though there's no funding for this, it'll be a good thing when it eventually happens.

since the original site opened, the first in north america, there has definitely been a drop in the amount of intravenous drug users you see in the laneways around the downtown eastside.

i used to see an absurd number of users every day - while heaps of people continue shooting up in plain sight, the numbers are noticeably lower. the change was evident almost immediately after the injection site opened.

fewer people are dying from overdoses, but it hasn't made a major dent in the desperation you see in canada's poorest postal code. let's get moving on the rest of the social changes this area needs.

although i previously joked about writing a monograph on the mating rituals of the common pigeon due to the amount of time i spend staring at the ones on the roof across from me, there are people who take this stuff seriously. i was looking up how to tell the difference between male and female pigeons and ran across project pigeonwatch at cornell university.

some other interesting reads from their publication birdscope include:

a short, illustrated article on pigeon courtship that finally puts to rest my confusion about this behaviour. and i thought they were two males fighting...

and a longer, intriguing, piece on pigeon courtship from the same publication.

it should be noted that seagulls are also predators of pigeons. i saw a seagull finish off a live one and proceed to eat it a few weeks ago (the pigeon may have already been wounded). pretty gross stuff. also saw a seagull pack off a presumably dead pigeon yesterday.