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I read a very entertaining article in the Toronto Star this morning on Kevin Smith’s Toronto.   The 39 year old filmmaker/actor/comic book store owner talked about his favorite spots in Toronto including The Hockey Hall of Fame, the Eaton Centre and the Brass Rail strip club.  It got me thinking, could Kevin Smith secretly be a Canadian?  Although his birth certificate says Red Bank, New Jersey who’s to say that this couldn’t have been changed from its original birth place of Red Bank, New Brunswick .  Is this true, maybe, but you cannot deny the complete love affair Smith has with past television series, Kids of Degrassi, Degrassi Junior High and current Degrassi: The Next Generation.   Included in the Degrassi mess is his crush on Caitlin Ryan aka Stacie Mistysyn.  Alright  so maybe that’s a stretch too.

Kevin Smith plays Q&A at Roy Thomson Hall on February 6th in Toronto of course

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Kevin Love T-Dot

Part One

Part Two

You can read Kevin Smith’s Toronto here on Toronto Star.com

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They just keep on Rocking in the free world.  Canada’s continuous rock and roll prince, Neil Young and lyrical music poet Leonard Cohen will both be honored at 52nd Grammy Awards .  After watching Mr. Young spin is rock vibes singing, Long May You Run during the end of The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien and then team up with Dave Matthews to perform Hank Williams’ Alone and Foresaken; I had to dust off the old digital copies in iTunes plug back into my non existence years.

My parents have always loved Leonard Cohen.  My mom has said he has the musical presence of Trudeau.  Strong, present, soft and forceful all at the same time.

Apologies for the German Subtitles

Neil Young will be honored with the 2010 MusiCares Person of the Year award and Leonard Cohen will receive a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy.  Congrats to both men.

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Nick Patch’s full article in the Globe and Mail on Leonard Cohen can be read here

With the Grammy Awards about to honour Leonard Cohen, the 75-year-old Montreal legend decided to pay respect to his home country during a party at the Canadian consul general’s residence on Thursday.

Cohen, clad in a dark suit with his trademark fedora shading his eyes, climbed onstage alongside a group of other artists at the gathering – held annually in honour of Canadian Grammy nominees – before making a brief speech to the cheers of a grateful crowd.

“My great grandfather, Lazarus Cohen, came to Canada in 1869, to the county of Glengarry, a little town in Maberly,” Cohen said.

“It’s customary to thank people for the help and aid they’ve given. On this occasion, because of the great hospitality that was accorded my ancestor who came here over 140 years ago, I want to thank this country, Canada, for allowing us to live and work and flourish in a place that was different from all other places in the world.

“So I thank Canada for the opportunity that was given me to work and play and flourish. … Thank you, friends.”

~

Nick Patch also has an article on Neil Young that you can read in full here

By Nick Patch (CP) – 16 hours ago

LOS ANGELES — When Grammy gives its person of the year award to Neil Young this weekend, a star-studded cast of performers will be on hand to serenade the Toronto-born rock legend.

Sheryl Crow, Elton John, James Taylor, k.d. lang and John Mellencamp are just a few of the names who will perform at Friday’s MusiCares gala, and who will presumably have a chance to meet the elusive singer/songwriter.

Many Canadian artists who hold Young up as a Canuck icon still haven’t had the pleasure.

“I’ve always wanted to meet him,” Stompin’ Tom Connors told The Canadian Press in a recent interview.

“He’s got a great name for himself throughout the world and he’s well thought of back here in Canada. I’m looking forward to meeting him someday.

“If you see him before I do, let him know that I’d be willing to meet him, sit down and have a few beers.”

He’s not the only one.

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This is it.  The end of the decade.  Music and making music over the last 10 years has been, well…interesting.  After Metallica’s (Lars Ulrich’s) battle with Napster, the way we listened and consumed music would never be the same.  P2P, Bit Torrents, MP3s and iPods would be new norm when it came to the new words in the dictionary of Music Industry.  RIAA south of the boarder went to war with everyone.  Illegal downloading 1 or 100 songs didn’t really matter.  All would be taken down.  Even with the rise of legitimate downloading sites like iTunes, the music industry couldn’t flame the fires of how people, customers, music listeners consumed music.  Towards the end of this decade Canada has now become the new mecca of Goggle type listings of thousands, no millions of open torrents to free music.

My Top Ten Albums (in no particular order)

From Canadian Bands ~

Arcade Fire

Mother Mother

Theory of a Deadman

Hot Hot Heat

The Trews

Wintersleep

The Dears

Stars

Metric

Death From Above 1979

From Canadian Singer Songwriters ~

Rufus Wainwright

Sarah Hammer

Hawksley Workman

JackSoul

Sam Roberts

Matthew Good

Feist

K’naan

Esthero

Andrea Gauster

From UK Bands ~

The Good, The Bad and The Queen

Radiohead

Coldplay

Air Traffic

Bloc Party

Hard Fi

Oasis

Athlete

Elbow

Doves

From UK Singer Songwriters ~

David Gray

Damien Rice

Thom Yorke

(honestly they are the only three people I like)

From US Bands ~

Interpol

Foo Fighters

John Mayer Trio

Dave Matthews Band

Interpol

The White Stripes

Kings of Leon

Cold War Kids

Black Kids

Blonde Redhead

From US Singer Songwriters ~

Pete Yorn

Amos Lee

Jay-Z

Justine Timberlake

Outkast

Gnarls Barkley

John Legend

Kelly Clarkson

Kanye West

Fiona Apple

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Are the 2000s a decade without a ‘Thriller’ or ‘Nevermind’? Musicians say so

By Nick Patch (CP) TORONTO — In the 1990s, there was Nirvana’s “Nevermind.” In the ’80s, it was “Thriller.” But what was the album of the 2000s? Many musicians and tastemakers feel that the first decade of the 21st century is hurtling to a close without a similarly era-defining record. And in fact, with the music industry fractured and limping, and the Internet offering increasing access to an overwhelmingly massive pool of bands, is it still possible for a single album to amass the widespread cultural weight to capture the zeitgeist? “No, I think the Internet ruined that,” Tegan Quin of Tegan & Sara told The Canadian Press in a recent interview. “There’s too many groups now. It feels like everybody has a favourite band every five minutes.” Indeed, based on recent critical surveys of the past 10 years, a handful of albums have emerged as the cream of the decade’s crop, but no one record really stands out above the rest. Entertainment Weekly chose “The College Dropout,” the much-hyped 2004 debut of hip-hop producer extraordinaire Kanye West that tore down boundaries between underground and mainstream hip-hop and moved rap away from the gangsta trappings of the first part of the decade. NME, meanwhile, chose the Strokes’ “Is This It,” the uber-cool, garagey 2001 throwback to classic New York rock that, despite being a near-perfect pop record, had more of a lasting influence on hipster style (skinny jeans and Chuck Taylors) than on the future sound of rock music. The Onion’s AV Club picked the White Stripes’ “White Blood Cells,” which, in combination with “Is This It,” was tasked with saving rock ‘n’ roll following its ‘01 release. The Guardian thought that “Original Pirate Material,” the blurred, British stoner-rap effort from the Streets’ Mike Skinner, was the best musical achievement of the decade. Q Magazine awarded a different Brit, giving top honours to Amy Winehouse’s neo-soul sophomore record, “Back to Black,” a massive hit in 2006 that spawned a wave of imitators who cloned Winehouse’s Dusty Springfield-influenced croon. Venerable American rock mag Rolling Stone and the increasingly influential Chicago webzine Pitchfork agreed on their top choice: Radiohead’s 2000 reinvention “Kid A,” in which the British rockers mostly abandoned the Pink Floyd-influenced rock of their past in favour of voicing their technological paranoia through minimalist electronic means. All those records have something in common: before or after their release, a critical frenzy predicted that they would change music. And certainly, all of those records proved influential. But if they weren’t game-changers on the level of “Thriller” or “Nevermind,” it might be because the newly splintered record industry – where music listeners craft their own iPod playlists instead of necessarily being beholden to MTV, MuchMusic or the radio – just doesn’t produce records that everyone can agree on anymore. “I think we’ve reached a point where it’s no longer going to be about record of the decade, because everything moves too quickly and there’s too many examples and there’s too many bands,” said Alexisonfire singer Dallas Green. “It’d be against what’s going on this decade to have one album,” said Passion Pit drummer Nate Donmoyer, who singled out Radiohead’s “Hail to the Thief” and the Flaming Lips’ “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” as his personal records of the decade. “I think this decade’s about being able to get whatever you want, from old, bebop jazz to soul to punk to everything that’s ever happened in the musical world, all at the same time. “I think to reflect what’s happening now you’d have to have at least 20 albums of the decade.” Melissa Auf der Maur, who played with Hole and the Smashing Pumpkins while releasing solo material this past decade, agreed with Donmoyer – and saw the musical splintering as a positive. “I think what’s amazing about the 21st century is that it’s everything all the time,” she said. “It’s future, it’s revivalism, it’s all mixed and wacky. It’s a really cool time in music. … So I’d say the defining thing for the first part of the 21st century is that there’s no style – all style is wrapped up into one.” In fact, some say that a lack of definition is what really defined the past 10 years in music. “This decade is marked by the absence of that singular game-changing act,” said Alan Cross, host of “ExploreMusic with Alan Cross” and “The Ongoing History of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” in a recent telephone interview. “There really hasn’t been a defining band in the ’00s, but I would say it’s the indie sensibility, the rise of the indie band, and it wasn’t one particular band, but a series of them that showed how things could be done as an independent artist, and I would certainly include the Arcade Fire, along with the White Stripes and the Strokes in that number.” That rise was no doubt fuelled by the Internet, where the proliferation of music blogs helped small bands receive major press. Never before were bands able to find so many listeners without major-label backing and widespread radio play. Canadian acts including the Arcade Fire, Feist and Broken Social Scene found millions of ears around the world largely on the strength of word of mouth. Of course, the Internet also gave way to the era of the backlash, where some bands saw breathless adulation give way to visceral vitriol before their albums were even available for purchase – or download. Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend – those New York purveyors of preppy afro-pop and certainly one of the most divisive bands of the past 10 years – said it would be nearly impossible for a band to reach culture-defining status in a time where any criticism is amplified by the Internet’s open mike. “I think we’re past the point where a band can have the illusion that they’re on top of the world and everybody loves them,” Koenig, whose personal choice for the decade’s best album was the Walkmen’s “Bows & Arrows,” said in a recent interview. “People have more opportunities to voice their negativity. So I think that any band that becomes successful, or any band that gets a lot of critical praise, you will be able to find visceral and angry dissent. “Any band that could pretend that ‘everyone really likes our music’ – that was an illusion. We’re past the point where the illusion of total cultural dominance and agreeance can exist.” And yet, some musicians like the idea that an era-defining album that manages to unite disparate groups of music listeners could be waiting just around the corner. “If we didn’t believe that you could make an amazing record that everyone can love, we’d have to quit,” said Two Hours Traffic frontman Liam Corcoran. “Because every time out we’re trying to make the absolute best music we can.” The Canadian Press asked a number of musicians which album they thought defined the decade, drawing a diverse cross-section of responses. -Out of several dozen interviews, Green Day drummer Tre Cool was the only musician to select one of his own band’s records for album of the decade – and he made no apologies for doing so. “‘American Idiot’ and ’21st Century Breakdown’ are the albums of the decade,” Cool said in a telephone interview, without a trace of irony. In justifying his selections, Cool said that “American Idiot” perfectly summed up Bush-era frustration and disillusionment with a government that didn’t represent the majority of Americans. “It actually goes there and talks about the time … it takes a photograph of what’s going on,” he said. “I think it sort of it’s empowering also. It doesn’t just talk about you know, something mundane. I could use examples (of mundane albums) but I’m gonna keep it classy.” -Beck’s masterful 2002 album “Seachange” was a sublime breakup record, but lately it’s just bringing people together. Corcoran said he “played (the album) out for about two years” and called it his sentimental favourite, while the White Stripes’ Jack White only needed a few moments to consider the question before selecting “Seachange” as his album of the decade. “That’s an incredible record,” he said. But when members of his band, the Dead Weather, brought the Strokes’ debut into the discussion, White said he loved that record too. -Toronto hip-hop artist Kardinal Offishall was one of the few artists to make up his mind quickly. After noting that this decade wasn’t his favourite for music, and giving a shout-out to one of his preferred artists of the past 10 years (Outkast’s Andre 3000), the personable rapper settled on what he thought was the record of the ’00s: 50 Cent’s 2003 debut “Get Rich or Die Tryin’.” “I think that was a changing of the guard,” he said. “He generated a really organic … crazy buzz in hip-hop. He made a name out of a crazy hustle and a crazy grind. Whether you love 50 Cent or hate 50 Cent or whatever, just the way he was able to market himself and turn 50 Cent the rapper into 50 Cent the brand? That was really important for hip-hop. He opened a lot of doors … in an industry that really didn’t accept us in a lot of ways before.” -Wilco’s “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” and the Strokes’ “Is This It” have been popping up on more than their fair share of album-of-the-decade lists, but the principal songwriters in each band have no idea what they’d choose themselves. “That’s a tough one – I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know,” said Strokes singer Julian Casablancas in a recent telephone interview with The Canadian Press. “I’m a terrible judge. I’m a terrible person to pick.” He eventually tossed out a few names – the Arctic Monkeys, Dirty Projectors and 50 Cent – which is more than Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy would offer. “I can’t even remember my favourite records that I listened to today,” Tweedy said in a phone interview. “I don’t have that kind of energy to quantify things like that.” -In a telephone interview, Pet Shop Boys’ Chris Lowe was adamant that there was no album of the decade (“Does anybody buy albums anymore?” he wondered aloud), and that if anything, the ’00s were marked by singles, not LPs. But when bandmate Neil Tennant shouted his choice – Winehouse’s “Back to Black” – from the background, Lowe was quick to change his tune. “That’s inarguably the best album of the decade,” he declared. “It’s the only album of the decade. No question. We agree on that. (It’s got) fantastic songs, brilliant production, she’s got an amazing voice. Everything about is good. … She’s had quite a time following it up!”

Copyright © 2009 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Heroes in this day and age don’t usually come with a cape,  mask or utility belt.  Nope they’re usually just a regular guy or girl who does something that they feel will make a difference for someone else.  Kenneth, I didn’t know you, but from what I’ve read about who you were and what you were doing in this community, you seem like someone I would have enjoyed meeting.  Now that you’re in a better place, make sure to keep on looking over us.  I’m sure your presence will be missed but your memory will continue on strong.

If you have any information please call Police or Crime Stoppers

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Junction murder victim, 29, stood up to thugs, family says

Robyn Doolittle

December 31, 2009

Kenneth Mark likely never knew his life was in danger when he walked outside a Junction pizzeria Tuesday night.

The 29-year-old had grabbed a snack before his night shift at the local Wal-Mart. Around 10 p.m. he stepped outside, where two men were waiting for him. He was putting on a pair of headphones when the fatal bullet struck the back of his head.

“He was ambushed,” said Det. Hank Idsinga, standing outside the corner pizza and wings shop. “He probably didn’t hear them coming. He probably didn’t see them coming.”

Homicide No. 62 has all the markings of a run-of-the-mill gang hit. But police say Mark was the furthest thing from a criminal. He had no record. And he was a hard-working, honest guy who liked to play basketball and DJ at community events.

His friends and family say his death was retribution for Mark standing up to some local thugs.

Continue Reading at The Star.com

Gunmen likely targeted store manager because he helped police, investigators say

By Rebecca Ryall, National Post, December 30th, 2009

A 29-year-old man shot in the back of the head in the Junction last night may have been targeted because he was a police community liaison, investigators said today.

Kenneth Mark was found on Gilmour Avenue just north of Dundas Street West; he had stopped for pizza en route to a nearby Wal-Mart, where he was night manager. Police said he was wearing headphones and likely didn’t hear anyone as he was approached from behind.

Paramedics performed CPR for 20 minutes before taking him to hospital, where he later died.

‘‘He was the salt of the earth,’’ said Detective Hank Idsinga, the homicide officer in charge of the investigation, who said Mr. Mark had no criminal record and had done ‘‘some community work,’’ for police in the neighbourhood.

Continue Reading at The National Post

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It’s three days before Christmas, and all through my head, I’m wondering how I’ll explain to Zoe that there is no such thing as Santa?  True I have a couple of years for sure, but the time is going to come.  By next year she’ll understand that jolly St. Nick is “The Man” and writing to the North Pole, HOHOHO and getting an answer back (Thanks Canada Post) is not going to make it an easier.  Maybe I’ll try to explain that he’s really just an old ad man from Coca Cola or that he works for CSIS as an under cover spy.  A few more years to come up with the right way to lower the boom.  Santa isn’t real.  Yes I’ll have my na sayers (that would be everyone that I’ve even partially broke this thought to) but it has to be done… doesn’t it?

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You can read the full text at here

Spoiler Alert | The federal government is not going to blow the whistle on Santa. The United States Postal Service caused an outcry last month when it decided to stop delivering letters addressed to “Santa Claus, North Pole.” It quickly reversed itself after members of Congress intervened. “We never wanted to spoil people’s Christmas,” an agency spokesman said.

So it’s up to families. How and when should parents come clean?

Alison Gopnik, psychologist, U.C. Berkeley

Karen Karbo, novelist

Carole S. Slotterback, author, “The Psychology of Santa”

Bruce Henderson, psychologist, Western Carolina University

1. The Importance of Imagination

Alison Gopnik, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley, is the author, most recently, of “The Philosophical Baby: What Children’s Minds Tell Us About Truth, Love and the Meaning of Life.”

Contrary to what we once thought, even the youngest children are adept at distinguishing imagination and reality. Children may seem confused about the distinction because they are such vivid, emotional pretenders. But psychologists have discovered that children know that pretending and imagining are different from reality — that you can’t write with a pretend pencil or eat an imaginary hot-dog and that no one else can see the fairies and monsters.

Why do children love imaginary figures like Santa Claus, then? Because they like to pretend. And when children pretend, they are exercising the evolutionarily crucial human ability to envision alternative ways the world could be. In adults that ability is at the core of our very real capacities for invention and innovation.

At the same time, though, young children often take what adults say seriously. Children are particularly likely to believe what adults say if they have what looks like firsthand evidence. The psychologist Jacqui Wooley introduced 3- to 5-year-old children to a Santa Claus-like figure called the Candy Witch who gave children candy at Halloween. About half the children said the Candy Witch was real, but that number increased if the children saw the candy the witch had left. The disappearing cookies and milk may be what convinces children that Santa is real.

2. Yes, Fiona, There Isn’t a Santa Claus

Karen Karbo, a novelist and memoirist, is the author of “The Gospel According to Coco Chanel: Life Lessons from the World’s Most Elegant Woman.”

When my daughter, Fiona, was 8, the age when a lot of children begin to ponder the logistics of Santa’s magical journey (How does he make it around the world in one day? How does he get back up the chimney?), she experienced a Christmas miracle.

On Christmas Eve she and her father were doing some last minute shopping at a funky secondhand shop and she came upon a model horse she wanted for her collection. She said she knew it was too late to add it to her official Christmas list, so she was just going to make a last minute request to Santa.

Her quick-thinking dad made some hurried arrangements with the shop owner, and picked up the horse that night after Fiona went to bed. The next morning our girl was ecstatic, mostly because the presence of the model horse beneath the tree also confirmed the existence of Santa. I thought she would be a believer for the rest of her life.

3. What Children Want to Hear

Carole S. Slotterback is a professor of psychology at the University of Scranton, Scranton, Penn. She is the author of “The Psychology of Santa.”

Myths and stories about Santa Claus permeate our society. Even if your family doesn’t celebrate Christmas, your children may still believe in the big man. For example, psychological research in the 1980s found that even Jewish children believed in Santa. But at some point these beliefs change.

The change in children’s conceptualization of Santa is driven in part by cognitive development: as level of reasoning increases, belief in Santa will decrease. But this relationship is not perfect.

Some children, though advanced in reasoning abilities, still believe in Santa, perhaps because of incentives from parents and others. Some of the children’s letters to Santa in my study (I analyzed 1,235 letters to Santa from 1998 to 2003, going through the main post office in Scranton) expressed questions about how Santa is able to do all that he does, but typically end averring their belief in him.

Research in the 1960s demonstrated that a child’s conceptualization of Santa goes through a series of adjustments where their information about Christmas gets reorganized — it doesn’t simply disappear.

4. Give Honest, Discreet Answers

Bruce Henderson is professor of psychology at Western Carolina University. Most of his research has been on the development of children’s curiosity and exploratory behavior. He has three grown children, each of whom were curious about Santa for a time.

Parents should tell their children the truth about Santa Claus when their children signal they are ready to hear it. When are they likely to be ready?

Before the age of six, most children’s thinking will make questions and doubting about magical figures unlikely. The richly novel environment of Christmas will pique their curiosity. By the age of seven, as their thinking becomes more concrete and logical, many will wonder why there are so many Santas, how all homes can be visited in one night, or why last year’s request for a pony for the apartment was denied. Also by seven, some precocious peers or an older sibling will have (often gleefully) sown doubts.

So the key time for parents to be sensitive to signals is probably from the age of five and a half to seven. The signals are most likely to come in the form of direct questions about Santa-related inconsistencies, or more subtle comments. Children may also show less interest in seeing Santa, writing to Santa, or talking about Santa.

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Yup a week late but I wanted to post this on a Monday!  With the third year of this awesome project coming next May 3rd, the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) is bringing this newly minted Canadian tradition to the US in 2010.   With over 2000 schools participating in last 2 years throughout North America this could be grow into a fantastic annual event for songwriters, singers, musicians and music fans in general.

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http://www.musicmonday.ca/ NAMM Brings Canadian Tradition of ‘Music Monday’ to U.S. for Third Year to Inspire Appreciation of Music Making in U.S. Schools and Communities Simultaneous North American Musical Performance Aims to Promote the Benefits of Making Music for Everyone and Kicks off NAMM’s National Wanna Play Music Week In May CARLSBAD, Calif., Nov. 16 /PRNewswire/ — NAMM, the National Association of Music Merchants, announced today that it will join the Coalition for Music Education in Canada in its sixth annual Music Monday event May 3, 2010, to demonstrate the importance of music education programs throughout North America, and to celebrate the many proven benefits of playing music for people of all ages. The two organizations are encouraging schools and after-school programs, organizations, groups and individuals across the U.S. and Canada to participate in Music Monday by either performing the designated Music Monday piece or a song of their choice at the exactly the same time on May 3. The song will be sung and played by all schools and participants across the U.S. and Canada at 10 a.m. Pacific time, 11 a.m. Mountain time, 12 p.m. Central time, 1 p.m. Eastern time and 2 p.m. Atlantic time, and 2:30 in Newfoundland. NAMM is also encouraging people to pick up any instrument of their choice and play anytime on that day. NAMM has supported the Coalition for Music Education in Canada’s Music Monday event since its inception in 2004. This is the third year that NAMM has hosted this galvanizing event in the United States and featured it as the kick off event for its “National Wanna Play Music Week.” The number of North American schools participating in this annual event has grown to more than 2,000, representing nearly 700,000 students. “This partnership highlights the many benefits that music making brings to our children and to our schools,” said NAMM President and CEO Joe Lamond. “We hope to see more countries join in to support music education around the world.” Help grow participation in this event and register your school or organization as a participant in Music Monday by e-mailingmusicmonday@namm.org. Upon your registration, NAMM will provide you with a free support kit specifically created for schools, after-school programs, groups or organizations to implement a Music Monday event in your community. To learn about past U.S. Music Monday events, or to find a music store or music lessons in your area, visitwww.wannaplaymusic.com. This year’s Music Monday song will be announced shortly by the Coalition for Music Education in Canada. Many arrangements of the designated song will be added to the Coalition for Music Education in Canada’s Web site atwww.musicmonday.ca by the end of the year. As a not-for-profit association, NAMM has supported research to examine the effects of music on children and adolescents. The studies have shown that playing music positively affects the development of cognitive skills in children and teens. The activity also builds confidence, instills self-discipline, increases productivity and helps kids and teens connect socially with their peers. Studies specifically show that playing music:

• Develops skills needed by the 21st century workforce: critical thinking, creative problem solving, effective communication, and teamwork
• Keeps students engaged in school and less likely to drop out
• Improves the atmosphere for learning
• Helps communities share ideas and values among cultures and generations
• Provides a sense of belonging for teens
• Gives teens the freedom to be themselves, to be different, to be something they thought they could never be; to be comfortable and relaxed in school and elsewhere in their lives
• Helps adolescents release or control emotions and coping with difficult situations such as peer pressure, substance abuse, pressures of study and family, the dynamics of friendships and social life, and the pain of loss or abuse.

This year, NAMM is encouraging more U.S. schools and organizations to sing and play together and heighten the public’s awareness about how music education empowers children with important tools such as creativity, achievement and social engagement. Many schools across the country have cut music programs because of lack of funding and cannot offer students the proven benefits associated with hands-on musical training. About Music Monday Music Monday is hosted annually on the first Monday of May in North America by the Coalition for Music Education in Canada and the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM). The special event demonstrates an appreciation for music in our lives and in our schools. Many schools, along with community and professional organizations, perform one piece of music at 10 a.m. Pacific Time, 11 a.m. Mountain Time, 12 p.m. Central Time, 1 p.m. Eastern Time, 2 p.m. Atlantic Time and 2:30 p.m. in Newfoundland. The performance is intended to transcend all genres and unite people through the melody and the act of performing the piece at the same time. The idea is that if one were to open the front door of his or her home and stand on the street on the first Monday in May, one would hear music and the skies would be filled with melody. For more information, visit www.musicmonday.ca. About NAMM NAMM is the not-for-profit association that unifies, leads and strengthens the international musical instruments and products industry. NAMM’s activities and programs are designed to promote music making to people of all ages. NAMM is comprised of approximately 9,000 Member companies. For more information about NAMM or the proven benefits of making music, interested parties can visit www.namm.org or call 800-767-NAMM (6266). MEDIA CONTACT:  Kymberly Drake                Scott Robertson, APR Public Relations Manager      Director of MarCom NAMM                          NAMM 760-438-8007, ext. 162        760-438-8007, ext. 102 Fax: 760-438-8257             Fax: 760-438-8257 kymberlyd@namm.org scottr@namm.org SOURCE NAMM

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With Sesame Street celebrating its 40^th Anniversary this year it’s nice to know that there has been some famous Canadians that have roamed around 123 Sesame Street. Yes we had our own Sesame Street called Sesame Park (but that didn’t last that long).  Before Jim Carrey, Celine Dion, Ed Grimly (Martin Short), Sandra Oh and most notably Fiest with 1,2,3,4 there was Buffy Sainte-Marie.  Buffy made many appearances on Sesame Street.

This scene is with her son speaking about breast feeding with Big Bird of all people.

If that wasn’t cutting age for Children’s Television in the 1970s she was also one of the first Native Indians to grace Sesame Street.  Almost 40 years later, with over 20 albums, awards from the UN, The Junos and Gemini’s and the Order of Canada and Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, Buffy has continued her quest to bring learning to children of all ages and races through her Cradleboard Teaching Project. ~ http://www.cradleboard.org/ This is a Canadian to be proud of.

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First Person: Buffy Sainte-Marie ‘was the first’

Buffy Sainte-Marie on fighting LBJ and being inspired by Sesame Street

Ben Kaplan, Weekend Post Published: Friday, November 20, 2009

Originally Post at the National Post ~  http://www.nationalpost.com/arts/story.html?id=2247243

With Lyndon Johnson, it was the F.B.I., with Richard Nixon, it was the C.I.A., but it’s always really been about the ego of presidents. I was an embarrassment to them. I was outspoken about Wounded Knee, about Nixon’s transferring the lands of the Pine Ridge reservation to the U.S., the part that contained coal and uranium. I was explaining this to people on television and so I wasn’t surprised I had upset some people in the administration. I don’t see myself as dangerous, but I’m not naive: My case isn’t the first time an elected leader had done something illegal.

I never linked being outspoken with the way I was raised, but I think I can find a connection. My upbringing was very difficult. Not because I was Aboriginal in a white town — that has its challenges — but because I was in a family with predators. Growing up as an abused child, connecting that to presidential abuses of power? Maybe it connects. I figured that’s why I like to travel: to find better things. I knew I needed to get out of that town.

I’ve made up songs since I was about three. As soon as I realized the sounds the piano made, my ear figured out octaves — instead of sports and Barbies, I’ve written tunes. I used to think I’d become a veterinarian, but when I got to university, I was amazed by all of my choices. I’d read the catalogue and dream. I ended up with a double major in education and Oriental philosophy. I thought I’d go on a reservation and teach. Instead, I got lucky in the music business.

I started in the very early ’60s, before the hippies but after the beatniks. My music was coming out of the student movement, there was a message and we wanted to be heard. Phil Ochs, Bob Dylan, people were doing things rich in content, but the Mamas & the Papas were not – they were professionally packaged, but what interested me was the truth. Screaming, ‘We’re not going to go to Mr. Johnson’s war!’ We were going to put an end to it! I was a little around the corner back then. Several corners at the same time, I guess.

Nobody was doing Aboriginal music, I was the first. Rolling Stone didn’t want to know about that stuff, they wanted the Mamas & the Papas approach. Fine, I travelled all the time.

The ‘aha moment’ for me was in the middle of February, 19… I don’t know, but someone gave me a bus ticket to Florida and I continued travelling around by myself. I was 21 and had almost no overhead and, since I didn’t drink, I would play the student venues and the coffee shops and then go to the nearest indigenous area and learn and meet people and have fun. I knew I’d be a bridge between cultures. I just didn’t know Sesame Street would become such an important approach.

Originally, they asked me to come on and sing the Alphabet Song. I didn’t want to do that, but I asked if they’d done any native programming. I thought I was finished, but I was on for five and a half years. That show plays in 73 countries. You can change minds with art and implant positive messages before narrow-mindedness sets in. When I was pregnant with my son, I asked if they would do something on breast-feeding. I became the first and only person to breast-feed on TV. I’ve always been inspired by their hipness.

When my son was in grade five, his teacher came to me and said she was required by law to teach an Indian studies unit and that she knew the material she had was baloney. It was dead text about dead Indians. They had the same 30 pictures that get recycled year after year. I’d known how to write curriculum from college and I wanted to give my son’s grade five class – and all the classes thereafter – the living, breathing experience I’d had on reservations. I started the Cradleboard Teaching Project to connect my son’s class with my cousin’s class on a reservation in Saskatchewan and put Natives in charge of delivering their own self-identity.

Cradleboard isn’t about looking in the past and complaining about how things happened. It isn’t about feathers and beads. This is contemporary science and social studies, through Native perspectives. We’re a continuous flow from ancient times to right now, not bogged down in why the white man screwed the Indians- we’re the first Native teaching project with an interactive science CD.

It was always my dream to have Cradleboard free and online and two years ago, when that finally came true and my scholarship foundation no longer needed me, I called my co-producer in France and flew him to my farm in Hawaii. It was time to record an album again.

- Buffy Sainte-Marie will be performing at the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards on Nov. 27 at The Hamilton Theatre. Her most recent album, Running For the Drum, is nominated for record of the year. For more information on The Cradleboard Teaching Project, visit cradleboard.org.

Just a tad…

First Google digitally copies our books now the worlds largest online bookstore throws it’s weight around by offering us the Kindle.  A black and white, digital ink eReader.  The Kindle allows downloading of books without having to dock with your desktop.  It has what is called Whipernet as an always connect internet feed instead of using WiFi.  Not sure who the Canadian cellphone provider is that’s powering the 3G connection.  The Kindle has been hit (depending on who’s number you look at) in the US and no doubt, main Canadians have been waiting for this device, but is it to late?  Apple’s rumored tablet is at best 4 months away and there is surely up coming want for Barnes & Noble to see their ‘Nook’ to Indigo to compete.  You don’t want to forget Sony’s eReaders that has been sellingin  Canada for the last year or so..but you probably will.  (Don’t tell some of the private schools in Toronto that just plotted some good money on them) Oh well.  Let the book..er digital book wars begin!

OCC

Amazon’s Kindle now available to Canadians

by Michael Bettiol on November 17th, 2009

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/11/17/amazons-kindle-now-available-to-canadians/

Canadians that have long been jealous of their Southern neighbours ability to procure an Amazon Kindle need no longer feel hostile, for today Amazon announced it will ship the Kindle to its Canadian customers. To offer over 300,000 books and a wide assortment of international newspapers, a bunch of unique Canadian content has also been added with The Globe and Mail and The National Post having signed up to deliver their dailies to those that wish to subscribe (Canwest’s publications are said to be coming soon if they don’t get visited by the repo man first). The Kindle will set Canadians back $259 USD ($275 CDN) on Amazon’s American website.

Toronto private school ditches textbooks for digital books

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2009/11/17/toronto-private-school-ditches-textbooks-for-digital-books.aspx

Posted: November 17, 2009, 6:45 AM by Rob Roberts

By Steph Davidson, National Post

Students at a Toronto private school are trading in their textbooks for e-books today.

Blyth Academy, which has campuses in Yorkville, Thornhill and at the ROM, is the first in the world to switch to the new technology.

The move will save students hundreds of dollars in textbook fees, according to Sam Blyth, the school’s managing director. He said students spend about $700 a year on traditional texts.

“It will eliminate the cost of textbooks,” said Blyth. “It’s completely free.”

Each student will receive a Sony Reader Digital Book for the duration of their studies. Required e-books will be loaded every term, and students can keep the readers during school holidays. Students will also have access to free e-books via the Sony bookstore and the Toronto Public Library.

Grade 12 students at the academy have the first 150 readers, and the rest of the student body will receive theirs within a couple months, said Mr. Blyth.

Mr. Blyth said the devices were paid for by “the school and Sony. The school paid for most of them. I don’t really want to get into the internal arrangement with Sony.”

Candice Hayman, a public relations specialist for Sony, also refused to ‘‘disclose the financial agreement between the two.”

Just a tad…

Welcome to some campy campus fun.  l’Université du Québec à Montréal UQAM students pay homage to the Black Eyed Peas.

OCC

Just a tad…

I wasn’t even born when the Beatles started making music in the 60’s and missed out by five years when they broke up, but they still rank as one of the most amazing bands in my opinion.  Today EMI is releasing two re-mastered box sets in Stereo and Mono and of course Harmonix Music Systems’ The Beatles: Rockband.  Though I’m excited about the reissue I am a cynical about why EMI decided to clean up now.  This is a huge cash grab.  Reports have it that the Beatles name sake could rake in over a Billion dollars by Christmas and that’s before Paul’s Wing: Rockband and John’s Yoko and I take on the world: Rockband get released.  The Beatles last touched Canadian soil in 1966 at Maple Leafs Gardens on Wednesday Aug 16^th pulling nearly 32,000 people.  You figure if a good majority of those fans bought a box set before Christmas, EMI would pull in a cool seven million plus.  Yup a cash grab indeed.

Finally beyond all of this money money, money, a very heart felt congrats to Jerry Levitan.  A week late I know Jerry but I figure a few more people would read this today.  Although snub by the Oscars, Mr. Levitan won a Daytime Emmy for I Met The Walrus.  How cool must it have been for a 14 year old to talk his way into an interview with John Lennon. Kudos Jerry! Great interview here ~ http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/videos.html?id=728754579 and check out Jerry’s wacky site here ~ http://sir-jerry.com/

OCC

Canadian’s Lennon peace film nabs Emmy

Last Updated: Sunday, August 30, 2009

Canadian Jerry Levitan has collected yet another accolade for his short animated film I Met The Walrus, garnering a Daytime Emmy.

The Torontonian’s six-minute film, using pen and ink-style animation, features audio of John Lennon ruminating on global conflict and the need for peace.

“I am stunned that the kindness John Lennon extended to me as a child reverberates to this day around the world,” said Levitan in a message to CBCNews.ca on Sunday.

“The support Yoko Ono has given me in telling my story has been a blessing to me.”

The audio was recorded by a 14-year-old Levitan, a rabid Beatles fan, who banged on every door of a Toronto hotel until he found Lennon — in Canada for his Montreal bed-in for peace with wife Yoko Ono.

Directed by Josh Raskin, the film captured the Emmy for New Approaches, Daytime Entertainment for its YouTube appearance.

The award acknowledges the team that put the unique film together, which includes pen illustrator and animator James Braithwaite and digital illustrator Alex Kurina, as well as Raskin and Levitan, who is listed as the producer.

The film has been collecting acclaim ever since its first unspooling in late 2007. It also garnered an Oscar nod for best animated short film in 2008.

Levitan recently released it as a book.

I Met The Walrus has travelled the world at various festivals, winning awards at the Middle East International Film Festival, the Manhattan Short Film Festival and the Hawaii Film Festival.

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2009/08/30/walrus-film-emmy.html

Teen’s Interview with John Lennon yields Oscar nod

Friday Feb 15, 2008

By Etan Vlessing

TORONTO (Hollywood Reporter) – A 1969 encounter between a 14 year-old Beatles fan and John Lennon has inspired “I Met the Walrus,” a five-minute Canadian film contending for an Oscar for best animated short.

Think “Almost Famous” with the Beatles. Except this portrait of a young boy in a dream landscape is told from his lips. The voice track for “I Met the Walrus” is based on an interview Jerry Levitan did 39 years ago with a surprisingly accommodating John Lennon.

Levitan, now a lawyer in Toronto, recalls doorstepping as a fake photographer to get into Lennon and Yoko Ono’s room at the city’s King Edward Hotel.

“My heart was beating so fast. I was like Al Pacino in ‘The Godfather,’ where he’s in the restaurant with the planted gun and about to kill the cop,” he says, remembering how he summoned the courage to knock at Lennon’s door.

When Levitan did knock, the door opened a crack, he uttered “Canadian News,” and was led in.

Levitan recalls Lennon throwing him a broad smile as he entered the crowded room. He fumbled with a Super 8 camera and an old Kodak Brownie around his neck to maintain his ruse.

After Levitan got Lennon to sign his copy of the “Two Virgins” album, he summoned yet more chutzpah.

“I just said to John, ‘Can I come back later and bring a tape recorder and do an interview on peace so I can let kids listen to it?’” he recalls.

To his surprise, Lennon agreed. Later that day, Levitan jumped a long line of media, including U.S. network news reporters, to do a 40-minute interview with Lennon and Ono.

For 36 years, Levitan sat on the audiotape, until 2005 when he met Toronto-based animator Josh Raskin.

The duo agreed to pare the 1969 interview down to five minutes and overlay the voice track with a visual narrative of pen sketches by James Braithwaite and digital illustrations from Alex Kurina.

The resulting animated short has earned a host of awards on the festival circuit on its way to the Oscars.

Animator Raskin says festival audiences empathize with a young boy’s nervousness and disorientation in his hero’s midst while a visionary Lennon boldly riffs on youth culture and global conflict.

“You hear a larger-than-life figure interviewed by a relatively naive, over-excited teenager,” Raskin observes.

Levitan, who produced “I Met the Walrus,” says his Beatles encounter forever changed his life, not least because knocking at Lennon’s hotel room door could have gone horribly wrong had the famed Beatle or his handlers turned him away.

“My big fear (was) someone (saying), ‘Who are you? You’re nothing, go away!’ How would I have picked myself up from that?” Levitan says.

Instead, Lennon welcomed the Beatles fan across the threshold and saw value in making a recording with a 14-year-old to reach yet more young people with his message.

“The most important thing (for Lennon) at that moment wasn’t getting on CBS or ABC, but talking to this kid for a long time,” Levitan marvels.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

http://www.reuters.com/article/filmNews/idUSN1451136220080216?sp=true

Just a tad…

As a kid my enjoyment of the CNE was unstoppable.  Riding a four wheel ATV for the first time, going on my first roller coaster, winning a big blue fluffy toy elephant, I even got to see a model layout of Expo86 in 1984!.  Yup those were the days.  And maybe that is the problem.  I’ve grown up but my CNE hasn’t.  30 plus years old, why do I need to hang out at the EX.  Sure in a couple of years my 15 month old will be primed to go, but since us grown up hold the purse strings, if there isn’t an eye catching draw for me (battling thousands of other parents with their children is not a draw), I’m more likely to chill in High Park.  The CNE need to bring the fun to all ages! Keep the midway game, level everything else and rethink why people want to go to an Exhibition.  We try to push the fact that learning can be fun.  It really can be.  Plot in a car show.  Yes there is an International Car Show every year at MTCC, but maybe make this one all about concept cars from around the world.  Food is a huge draw.  Open up an organic farm that you and the family can spend time learning about the foods that we eat and take the time to plant and pick foods.  It’s been a few years since I actually went to the CNE but if they still have the taste from around the world ‘BIG IT UP’.  Here’s another one.  Show off Canada.  I wouldn’t mind knowing what’s going on in Manitoba or P.E.I. or The Yukon.  Create pavilions that give us look into all of the 10 provinces and 3 territories that make up our home.  CNE you need to shake out the old school thought of one mold fits and move with the times.  We (myself and I’m sure a lot of other people) want the EX to succeed.  So if you need ideas, we are all here to help.  Cheers!

OCC

The incredible shrinking CNE

Nostalgia’s still big, but glory days of cutting-edge exhibits long gone

September 07, 2009

Adrian Morrow
Staff Reporter

Mike Filey can remember many of the Canadian National Exhibition’s high points, but one in particular sticks out. It was in 1977, when the Ex unveiled its iconic flagpole.

Then serving as special projects manager, he recalls how the CNE purchased a redwood from British Columbia so huge it took three railway cars to transport it.

“Everybody stopped to watch,” says Filey of the day the tree itself arrived in Toronto, its progress down the Don Valley Parkway announced over the radio. Hewn in the Horticulture Building, the pole was the tallest in the world at the time, standing 60 metres and hung with a 6-by-12 metre Canadian flag.

The fair itself would also reach its greatest size during that era: more than 3 million people came through the gates some years.

They were greeted with the newest technological innovations, including the CLRV, which would soon enter service as Toronto’s new streetcar and the Atari, one of the world’s first personal computers, Filey remembers.

Some of the biggest stars of the day provided the entertainment at the grandstand – the Beach Boys, Queen, Rush, Johnny Cash, Bachman-Turner Overdrive and Diana Ross.

Last year, just under 1.4 million people attended. The CNE’s place as the exhibitor of new technology is long gone, as is the grandstand.

Even the flagpole, which had begun to rot, has been taken down.

“It’s not what it was,” Filey says of the fair. “It’s an anachronism – it’s going on nostalgia these days.”

The CNE isn’t dying. On the contrary, its attendance numbers have held relatively steady in the last few years and the Ex has returned about $6 million in profits to the city between 1999 and 2008.

Most, however, agree that it has fallen in stature over time, and general manager David Bednar suggests several reasons for the drop in attendance.

Moving the Blue Jays out of Exhibition Stadium to the SkyDome in 1989 lessened the park’s draw, he says.

What’s more, the advent of the Internet means people can view the latest technology without having to leave their homes.

“People don’t have as much interest in an exhibit where you walk around and look at captions,” says Bednar.

Money is also part of the problem: the proliferation of arenas and other concert venues has made it more expensive to book major musical acts. The Ex also risks having a show get rained out.

The CNE isn’t the only fair facing the same problems.

“Pre-MTV, pre much of anything on TV … your only chance to see (big concerts) was at the fair. Some people (still) want to see that kind of entertainment, but many fairs can’t afford to do it,” says Marla Calico of the International Association of Fairs and Expositions, who previously spent more than two decades working for a fair in Missouri.

Many, however, are still thriving and breaking attendance records.

The Calgary Stampede, for instance, drew just under 1.2 million this year (its record attendance, 1.26 million, was set in 2006).

Observers attribute its success to the connection it has with the city and its heritage: many companies give their employees time off to watch the fair’s opening-day parade, revellers in cowboy dress pack local bars playing country music and businesses are often decorated with hitching-posts and hay bales for the duration of the fair.

“The Calgary Stampede is truly a city-wide celebration. It’s not just down at Stampede Park,” says spokesman Doug Fraser.

The Stampede also offers unique attractions in the form of a large rodeo and chuck-wagon races, plus concerts by major country stars.

Finding something unique key to holding and attracting an audience for the Ex, says Gabor Forgacs, a Ryerson business professor.

“You have to give (people) a reason to go, something that they haven’t seen yet,” he says.

Bednar agrees, citing a speech at the Ex this year by former U.S. president Bill Clinton and a soccer game between European giants Celtic FC and SL Benfica as examples.

“One of the challenges we have is that we’re competing with peoples’ memories of the CNE,” he says.

Still, nostalgia is a powerful draw – Bednar cites it as the main reason people come back, and Filey admits that while the CNE’s attraction for adults may have diminished, it still holds excitement for their children.

“And they will probably bring their own kids, if (the CNE) is still around,” says Filey.

http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/691893

Just a tad…

Guns! You can’t get away from them.  If it’s a break and enter down the street, an assault in the east or west end or a murder somewhere in the city, guns are playing a huge part in the not so great part of living in Toronto. This weekend the CBC has a two night mini-series called ironically, Guns.  A dramatic, thought provoking, slam it in your head and heart look at guns in the big city.  Directed and Produced by husband-and-wife filmmakers David Sudz Sutherland (Love, Sex and Eating the Bones) and Jennifer Holness, it just might take people living in Toronto to show what it’s like to have guns end up in the wrong place, within the wrong hands in Toronto.  Guns begins on CBC Television Sunday at 8 p.m., with the second part to follow Monday at 8 p.m.

OCC

OPINION

Which 5-year-old will end up lying in an alley?

Sep 03, 2009 04:30 AM

SUDZ SUTHERLAND

I happened to be in my 5-year-old daughter’s class, reading to them, when I was struck with the question of who in 15 years would be the victim of a homicide?

This is not a thought I normally have, because mostly I think about work, what I am going to get for lunch today, and why the hell the Leafs can’t get it together. But on this particular occasion I could not get that thought out of my head.

Reading this newspaper from week to week, I am struck when I see the faces of the young men who are felled by gun violence. I think back to when these men were little boys with toothy grins instead of sullen, expressionless faces. Back to when their parents read to them and tucked them in at night, just like I will tuck my daughters in tonight after they beg for just one more story.

Which one of you 5-year-olds will be lying in an alley, alone?

I grew up in Scarborough, specifically Malvern. But that was the Malvern of the 1980s, which isn’t the Malvern of now. Back in the day, there wasn’t the trade in guns or drugs like there is currently. I had never seen a gun in person until I joined the militia. Growing up, the worst we had to fear was that someone was going to try to beat you up.

“After school, man, you are dead!”

Now, those words carry much more weight. We send our kids off to school and pray that we don’t get the phone call. We pray that we don’t see a colleague rush up to us at lunch asking if our kid goes to such and such school, because they heard it was on lockdown after shots were fired.

Lockdown?

For the uninitiated, lockdown is the procedure where a school goes into battle mode – all doors are locked, the windows shuttered, curtains drawn and no one goes in or out of the building. Some schools go through this more than others.

When my niece was in her kindergarten to Grade 8 years, her school went through this three times in a year. K to 8. Fast forward to her high school and the number still hovers around three to four. On what planet is this acceptable?

Which one of you 5-year-olds…?

I knew one of those former 5-year-olds who showed up in the pages of the daily newspapers. He was a fixture at my niece’s birthday parties. If you pay attention to these things, you might recognize his name: Keyon Campbell. He was shot in his driveway after warming up his mother’s car. He was a good kid who had a part-time job, liked to play ball, and had ideas about his future.

Almost 20 months after his murder no arrests have been made in the case. This is altogether too typical. My question here isn’t how this murder is going to be solved. That’s police work, and ultimately that will be found out when Keyon’s murderer is caught for another crime, possibly after another life is lost. More than likely, his. My question here is how do we prevent another former 5-year-old from picking up the gun in the first place?

This violence isn’t localized any more, and it’s not just criminals killing criminals, as some of the voices on the call-in radio shows would have us believe. It isn’t staying in places like Malvern or Rexdale. Or on Gottingen St. if you happen to live in Halifax. Or in Surrey if you live in Vancouver. It’s all over. It’s in the 905. It’s in the Annex. It reaches the Rosedales and the Forest Hills through murders like Dylan Ellis and Oliver Martin. The circle of violence is widening and the young men involved are getting more diverse, more desperate and harder to reach.

There’s been a call for doing big things like banning guns. I don’t know how that is going to change anything because the guns used in these crimes are illegal.

One thing that can make a big difference is thinking small. By thinking small, I mean person-to-person contact. My wife, Jen Holness, and I run a small film production company and we worked with a teacher and principal at Elia Middle School, a feeder school for C.W. Jefferys, the school where a student named Jordan Manners was killed.

Through a four-month period we taught 25 kids – 12- to 14-year-olds – how to make movies and we called this program “Through Our Eyes.” We brought in talented film professionals such as cinematographers and costume designers to speak to our group. They also mentored the kids, and we had them write scripts and practise shooting. Every week. These kids made seven great films (which you can see at hungryeyes.ca) but they also made huge inroads in finding out things about themselves they never knew; pushing themselves out of their comfort zone to achieve stuff they thought impossible.

Teachers and parents told us that the experience had an impact on the kid’s lives, both inside and outside the school. One of our kids had been really introverted and he had a mentor, a director named Aaron Woodley. As Woodley was prepping a movie starring Mariah Carey, he was helping our student make an animated film. This experience helped transform a shy kid into a class leader.

There are a few people and small companies doing similar initiatives, and not just in film. I think most fields can get kids excited if the experience is informal education and it’s project based. A lot of us talk about these problems as if some government body will enact a bill that will magically make the problems go away. If more of us from a variety of different fields got involved with the schools and started thinking small, I wonder what would happen to these 5-year-olds and former 5-year-olds?

Sudz Sutherland is a Toronto-based filmmaker. His two-part dramatic miniseries Guns, starring Colm Feore and Elisha Cuthbert, airs on CBC Sun., Sept. 6 at 9 p.m. and Mon., Sept. 7 at 8 p.m.

http://www.thestar.com/article/690190

Just a tad…

25 years of Much Music…again showing my age since MM is almost 10 years younger than I am.  What has it brought us over the years?  Some pretty good stuff actually.  My top 5 Much Music shows that mattered.

5. Test Pattern ~ It wasn’t a good game show.  Actually it was down right horrible but it was one of the first Much Music shows I watched every chance I could.  I thought Dan Gallagher was horrible host but funny none the less.

4.  Intimate & Interactive ~ This series brought some of the very best up, close and within grabbing distance.  My Sarah Mclachlan crush was on cloud nine after witnessing her perform Ice Cream live in studio.  Yup those we the days.

3.  The Coco-Cola Countdown  ~ I haven’t watched the countdown in ages but when it was CC it was at it’s prime.  I had also figured a way hooking up my VCR’s audio output to my computer.  Yeah my friends had mixed cassette tapes from the radio, but I had music video mixes of all of the best songs that you couldn’t buy in stores.  Yeah I’m a nerd

2. Ren & Stimpy Show ~ Before Family Guy, Robot Chicken or any other cartoon that made you laugh you out loud, there was Ren & Stimpy.  I remember; not completely understanding at the time why: the show being taken off the air.  CRTC at the time complained that a music station needed to play programs that had..well music in it.  Ren & Stimpy was raw and nasty but it was the best half hour you could have without music playing in the background.

1.  Electric Circus ~ For the peeps out there that know me, they’ll know why this is number one.  For everyone else, heading down to Queen and John on a Friday night after 9 was crazy town.  The Entertainment District on Richmond maybe alive and kicking now, but before then this was a place to be seen on and off the camera.

OCC

Remembering MuchMusic’s birth days

Veejays, musicans recall the thrill of shaping the nation’s music station

August 29, 2009

NICK PATCH
THE CANADIAN PRESS

It was Aug. 31, 1984, when J.D. Roberts, his hair styled in a bushy mullet, and Christopher Ward – sporting pleated pants, a shiny grey jacket and a goofy smile – introduced “Canada’s first 24-hour music channel” with the help of some decidedly low-budget special effects and the promise of upcoming videos by the Spoons, Human League and Culture Club.

Yes, it’s been nearly 25 years since MuchMusic launched with Rush’s “The Enemy Within,” followed by an interview with singer Geddy Lee and a Day 1 playlist that also included the Fixx, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Yes and Slade.

Those moments – created spontaneously, with no scripts to speak of – have left an indelible mark on those who grew up basking in Much’s glow, the fans who curated VHS cassette compilations and scribbled down the names of tunes played during the station’s countdown of top videos.

Much was launched some three years after MTV pioneered music-video television in the United States. It began by broadcasting a six-hour block of live programming each day, which would then be rerun. Early promotional materials broke down the typical hour of MuchMusic programming as follows: 10 to 12 music videos, eight minutes maximum of commercials, news, gossip, concert info and time with the VJs. For a fledgling, shoestring operation, filling six hours a day was no small order.

“At the time, I was like: `Okay, it’s only six hours, that shouldn’t be a problem, right?’” Ward said. “Now when you think of that, it’s kind of TV by the pound.”

“We were all naïve, and we were all very young. … We just didn’t know any better, we thought we could do anything,” said Roberts, now the anchor of CNN’s American Morning, over the telephone from his New York office. “And sometimes we’d get involved in a project and we’d say: `Oh my God? What have we gotten into here?’”

The station’s eventual success was owed largely to the passion with which the staff approached their developing craft.

“What they looked for then are people who live it, who breathe it, who are characters, who would be doing this if there was no MuchMusic, which is who I was,” said Erica Ehm, a VJ from 1984-94, in an interview at her Toronto home.

“We were breaking and forging new ground at the time … We were the ones doing the difficult work, which is developing new ways of doing things – not so much me, but there were people who were editing, directing and producing who really created a new style of television.”

Even abroad, Much had an influence.

“I remember back when satellite dishes were quite new, we would watch MuchMusic because it was cooler than MTV,” Green Day drummer Tré Cool said. “`Listen to the accents! They’re cool, man – you can cuss!’”

http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/687560

MuchMusic shows its age

It turns 25 on Monday, but these days the once-innovative music station looks more like a flighty teen

August 29, 2009

GREG QUILL
ENTERTAINMENT COLUMNIST

Just as video killed the radio star three decades ago, the Internet has killed music television in the new millennium.

MuchMusic, MTV, CMT and VH1, once the powerhouses that fuelled the mainstream pop music industry with round-the-clock videos and created a cultural tidal wave, are mere shadows of their former selves, clinging to their increasingly adolescent audiences with celebrity-gossip-as-news programs, wacky reality shows, TV dramas, comedies with tenuous connections to the entertainment world, and … well, more of the same. Actual music videos are pretty much sidelined.

Indeed, a lamenting chorus of musicians, music fans and industry watchers is heaping scorn on Toronto-based MuchMusic, just as the channel indifferently marks its 25th anniversary. So much for the memories of a generation raised on Much’s feisty blend of slick major-label productions and cheap-and-cheerful homemade videos, cheeky interview programs, excited, camera-ready veejays and chaotic annual video awards spectaculars.

“The Web is the new video universe,” says veteran Canadian music journalist and documentary maker Nicholas Jennings (Shakin’ All Over and its sequels This Beat Goes On and Rise Up, airing this month on CBC-TV). “It used to be `I want my MTV!’; now it’s `I want my YouTube!’, `I Want my MySpace!’

“There’s no reason to watch MuchMusic if you’re a music fan. And that’s sad when you think of how many Canadian music acts that channel helped launch internationally in the 1980s.

“The groundwork (expat British documentary/current affairs specialist) John Martin prepared, and the galaxy of stars he helped to create are all gone, completely decimated, and in their place there’s a no man’s land of talk shows and content that’s only tangentially related to music or to Canada.

“John must be spinning in his grave.”

With files from Canadian Press

http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/687558

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If you’re a fan of Canadian Music, or just wonder why at times, Metric, Tegan and Sara, Nickelback and KO-s seem to be played back to back to back on Canadian radio (right like that playlist would ever happen) Tune into ‘The Beat Goes On” on the CBC.  Let’s see if we can get atleast 30% of the population to watch.

OCC

This Beat Goes On

Two-part series premiering: Thursday August 27, 2009 at 9 pm & Thursday September 3, 2009 on CBC-TV

This Beat Goes On chronicles a jukebox full of Canadian classics from Gordon Lightfoot’s “Sundown” to Troopers “Raise a Little Hell”. Narrated by Jian Ghomeshi of CBC Radio’s Q, the documentary is a combination of rare archival footage and candid interview clips with artists from the time such as Randy Bachman and Danny Marks, as well as interviews with current Canadian artists Serena Ryder and Sam Roberts.

The first hour focuses on the formative years: a time of shag hair, bellbottoms and chart-topping sounds of folk singers, blues artists and heavy metal rockers like Prism and Bachman-Turner Overdrive. The decade starts out on a controversial note, with a government ruling forcing radio stations to play 30 per cent Canadian content. But the ruling soon pays dividends, laying the groundwork for the incredible rock ‘n roll era that was the 70s. And, the Juno Awards, launched under that name in 1971, create a star system for Canadian musicians who rock audiences and the charts from coast-to-coast.

The second hour of This Beat Goes On keeps the Canadian hit parade rocking, set to the tune of classics like Burton Cummings’ “Stand Tall” and Loverboy’s “Turn me Loose”. The program documents Canadian music’s international breakthrough in the latter half of the 70’s. Solo artists like Joni Mitchell and progressive rockers such as Rush still rule but it is also a time for punk and new wave artists to push their way into the spotlight. Music sounds from around the world, including Celtic and reggae beats work their way into the Canadian mainstream. With guaranteed airtime at home, the Canadian rock revolution impacts audiences, both here and abroad.

http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/doczone/2009/beatgoeson/index.html

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Radio just doesn’t do it for me anymore.  Beyond CBC Radio 1, my iPod is on about 6 to 8 hours a day with podcasts and music blasting though.  What’s happening in BC might change my mind about how to make Music Matter here in Toronto and the rest of Ontario.  Now how do we get a Peek radio station to set it sights on the unofficial centre of the universe?  Local music can work.  You don’t need a major label to get your stuff out there, but placing music on MySpace and hoping beyond hope that some will see the sight, listen to the music and then share with others becomes a longer than long shot in most situations.  A station like The Peek could really be a beacon for the lost gen x, y and upcoming Zed’s that see the role of radio as nothing but ads and boring DJ surrounded by looping boring music.  Mr. Pattison if have some extra cash left over, do a bit of investing here in TO.  I’d sign up to help.  I’d even be willing to put my iPod down.  Long live Canadian Local Music.

OCC

The Peak, Shore and Seeds: The changing role of radio

The Peak Performance Project is committed to making B.C.’s musical talent a global phenomenon

BY RANDY SHORE, VANCOUVER SUN

AUGUST 21, 200

VANCOUVER — When radio lost its way, Tamara Stanners got out.

“I got into radio because I was really passionate about local artists and music,” she said. “In the ’60s and ’70s, people like Red Robinson used to do all kinds of local showcases for B.C.’s emerging artists and promote them and for years nobody has done that.

“Something happened to the industry. Everything got centralized and only the artists who were big money-makers — national and international stars — got any backing,” Stanners recalled. “It’s terrible to do that to your artists.”

“What I was doing didn’t have anything to do with the music,” she said. The corporate money machine had swallowed everything and co-opted commercial radio.

So she left.

Stanners pursued a career as a news anchor and television host for 18 years before being lured back to radio by a unique offer: the opportunity to help run a radio station with a real commitment to local music and a mandate to make the best music B.C. has to offer even better.

And it was all to be backed by Vancouver’s most successful entrepreneur. In the growing garden of Vancouver’s local music scene, Jimmy Pattison is the fertilizer.

When the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group pitched its new radio station to the mandarins at the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission, a promise was made to support local emerging talent. The new station — The Peak 100.5 FM — was granted and went on the air late last year with a mission, the tools and the money to make it happen.

Peak FM’s Peak Performance Project is about keeping B.C.’s young talents from ending up in history’s dustbin. Pattison dug deep, putting a total of $12 million into local music development projects, including almost $6 million for PPP over the next seven years.

In the era of iTunes and file-sharing, the all-powerful record labels are foundering and the playing field for artists large and small is more level than ever. Anyone with a four-track recorder, a PC and a MySpace page can distribute his or her music worldwide or build audiences the old-fashioned way: playing live.

That’s where radio can help — by building real-world communities that are geographically based. In other words, radio helps get the word out in a band’s hometown, gets people out to their gigs, and helps them build a fan base that goes viral online.

Vancouver radio stations — and their listeners — are becoming more community-oriented, according to Shore 104 music director Patrick Zulinov.

“I’m running into people all the time who say, ‘Wow, I heard you play this great artist that I never knew about, and they’re from right here in my hometown.’

“We ourselves are Vancouver people — there’s not the big corporate thing hanging over us,” Zulinov says of Shore 104. “Sometimes you can’t always do what you want to do when you’ve got a head office in Toronto to answer to.”

Of course, supporting local artists is not a new concept. The folks at 99.3 The Fox have been running the Vancouver Seeds new artist competition for 30 years.

More than a few “seeds” have sprouted into towering musical behemoths, the competition boasting such notable alumni as Nickelback, Matthew Good and Bif Naked.

But even Vancouver Seeds is changing with the times. This year, the program teamed up with Supernova.com to create an online community where bands could share their music and fans could vote with their mouse-clicks.

The result, says Fox program director Chris “Dunner” Duncombe, was one of the most exciting competitions in the Seeds’ three-decade-long history.

“Radio is still an important part of the strategy when [artists] are breaking out,” said Dunner. “Radio has a role to play, but that role has changed. Stations have to understand how to play in that online world.”

Then, of course, there’s good old-fashioned airplay.

Peak FM music programmer James Sutton keeps the CanCon ratio high, about 43 per cent. In fact two of The Peak’s seven high rotation songs on this day are Victoria’s Jets Overhead and Vancouver’s Dan Mangan.

It’s not that he’s a patriot (though he might be). It’s what people want.

“Giving a local artist a few spins at midnight to satisfy your CanCon quotas doesn’t accomplish anything,” Sutton said. “Real support is treating the Dan Mangans of the world the same way I treat the Coldplays of the world. There’s no difference.”

Vancouver has always been knee-deep in raw talent. But in the music business, young artists are like new restaurants: Failure is not just an option, it’s the most likely outcome.

The pressure is on artists to create, market and distribute their wares like never before, and they need new kinds of support to do it.

With the shift in power away from the big labels, the music industry has come back to its grassroots, Stanners said.

“One of our goals at The Peak is to work with local talent and it’s always been my dream to do that,” she said. “It’s very easy for people to fall in love with these artists once you start playing them because they are so good.”

The Peak Performance Project is about to enter its Boot Camp phase. About 450 applicants have been winnowed down to just 20 and they are preparing for an intensive week-long retreat on a lakeside near Princeton with industry mentors such as Sean Verreault of Wide Mouth Mason and Barney Bentall.

The 20 finalists are getting airtime on the station and have been charged with attracting as much attention as possible to their music, gigging, using social media and taking responsibility for their careers.

“It’s really about maintaining their independence and being in control using the tools that we give them,” Stanners said. “The big labels don’t do it for you anymore.”

Stanners sees a future in which many more musicians will be able to make a living rather than just a rare few anointed by industry moguls raking in billions.

And won’t that be a more interesting place to live?

rshore@vancouversun.com

http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Peak+Shore+Seeds+changing+role+radio/1917546/story.html

Just a tad…

This article made me wonder aloud, when my daughter begins to talk and ask questions will she laugh in my face when I explain to her that I use to use a tape recorder to make my playlisted mixed tapes and that my first official digital music player was a CD boom box that had Dolby 2.1 playing through the speakers.  At her age she gets frustrated playing with our Canon digital camera.  You see it doesn’t have a touch screen like iPhone.  Yes my 14 month old knows how to use an iPhone.  She flicks through the pictures, can pick her songs and playlists and I even have touch sensitive games like Zoo & Farm Sounds that have pictures of animals that when pressed Moo, Roar and Squeel at you.  The digital camera, not so much.  She’s totally confused about the big button on the top, and why does it have this telescopic lens? My iPhone (umm Dad’s iPhone) does it all with a press on the screen.  Don’t even get me started with how she gets into a fit using the Rogers converter instead of the AppleTV’s one button approach.  She hates that she can’t read yet, so all of these numbers mean nothing to her.  Treehouse, press 6 and 5 I tell her jokingly.  Nope just give me the Apple remote and I’ll have fun with that.  She can start and stop moves on the fly with it.  We’ve already spoken about the fact that we’ll have to get her a netbook with a video camera and wifi soon, so she can Skype with her grandparents.  Man I feel old.

OCC

OLD VIBES

Giving 20th Century technology to 21st Century kids

August 22, 2009

JERRY LANGTON

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Kids never know how good they have it.

My sons like their iPods but have let me know in no uncertain terms that they wouldn’t mind upgrading. So, when they asked me what iPods were like when I was young, I was on it like Donkey Kong.

To show them exactly what media technology was like when I was young, I had to bring them to the predigital era. Damian, 11, and Hewitt, 9, would be forced to use a Walkman, a turntable and, yeah, even an 8-track.

Walkmans were easy to find. A friend still listens to one she received as a 19th birthday present more than 20 years ago and a Star employee offered us the one she uses to listen to the commentary at Blue Jays games – often to hoots of derision from passersby.

My boys are bright kids but the troubles start immediately.

“Okay,” Damian asks about the cassette in its original case, “how do you get the disc out of here? Don’t tell me, just give me a hint.”

He eventually figures it out, then struggles to put the cassette in the player. Once he gets it going, he’s totally impressed by the mechanical wonder. “Look! You can actually see the wheels turning.”

Hewitt follows what his brother has done and when he opens up the Walkman, he sounds triumphant.

“I know how to get to the video player!” he says.

I tell him there is no video player. He looks confused, then astonished.

“Weird,” he says.

He also has a hard time with headphones. “How do you put them in your ears?” he wonders aloud. I tell him they go on your ears, not in them.

“Weird.”

He likes the cassette my editor supplied. “These guys are good,” he says.

I ask him who they are, even though I can tell from the sound leaking out his headphones. He looks at the Walkman’s window quizzically.

“I don’t know,” he says, and goes back to listening. I ask him to find out.

He tries to open the Walkman without stopping it but it won’t let him. He finally stops it, pulls out the cassette and tells me he’s listening to The Specials.

Damian says he doesn’t like the choice of music and I ask him who it is. He had read his on the way in.

“The Rose,” he says. “By Betty Milder.”

I correct him and let him know that kind of music isn’t really meant for 11-year-old boys. He changes cassettes and tells me his second one is better.

“With an iPod, you get the music you want,” he says, summing up his opinion of cassette tapes. “But, with this, it’s a Prince song, then another Prince song, then a Prince song after that. Prince is pretty good but it’s hard to listen to the same guy over and over again.”

As we go along the boardwalk at Woodbine Beach, Hewitt asks me to carry his Walkman. “It’s too big to fit in my pocket,” he points out.

I clip it to his clothes. The weight almost pulls his trendy loose-fitting shorts down to his ankles.

“What if you wanted to listen to other tapes?” he asks. I tell him he would have to carry them along.

“No way!” he says, shocked.

I don’t bother telling him about the extra pair of AA batteries Walkman users traditionally kept with them.

At about this time, they discover their radios. Damian’s is FM, while Hewitt’s is AM.

“Everything is so fuzzy,” Damian says. “When you’re not exactly on the channel, it sounds like someone tearing Styrofoam apart. And even when you are on the channel, it’s still fuzzy.”

I ask Hewitt what he listened to. “It was news – something about golf or astronauts, it was hard to tell,” he reports. “Oh, and it’s gonna rain in Vancouver.”

Even without experiencing tape stretch, tape breakage or the dreaded Walkman-ate-my-cassette, the boys feel life with the iPod’s ancestor would have been a hardship.

The next part of the experiment was harder. It took hours of calling and emailing to find what may be the GTA’s last surviving 8-track players. Ted Syperek has them.

He looks like a more benign version of Billy Bob Thornton and he runs Ring Audio, an electronics sales and repair shop on Queen St. E. It’s jam-packed with so many old, fascinating and odd devices that it’s like a storage room at a technology museum.

Syperek has a curator’s love and encyclopedic knowledge of his craft. While others in his field said I was nuts to try to find an 8-track, a proud Syperek had three – “and two of them probably work.”

Is there an 8-track cult? “Yeah, there’s a few of them out there,” he says, sighing. “But they’re all cheapskates.”

The boys are sort of familiar with 8-tracks from a song they’d heard on Hannah Montana.

“They’ve got the rotating thing and a tuba-shaped thing on top,” Damian says.

It takes a minute before I realize he means a gramophone.

I hold my tongue, although I’m shocked and dismayed that my son believes I spent formative years listening to something his great-grandparents would have found old-fashioned.

Presented with a real 8-track, the boys are impressed.

“It’s huge,” Hewitt says. “It like a DVD player you stick iPods into.”

They admire the faux-wood finish and choose a cassette based on a picture of a guy with mutton-chop sideburns.

Their Walkman experience prepared them for fast forward and rewind, but the 8-track surprises them. The slow-moving motor takes a half-second or so to get going and every input results in a strange growl from the machine.

The boys love it for all the wrong reasons. They push the button that advances the track and are shocked that it catches up midsong.

“Weird,” Hewitt says.

They like the format – especially how it’s turned on and off by inserting and pulling out the cassettes – but are a little freaked out by the choice of music.

“Country and Western was very big with the 8-track fans,” Syperek explains. “It started as an in-car format, so it was big in places where people drove a lot. It was never that popular in cities.”

When Syperek pulls out a turntable, Damian – born in Brooklyn and a huge fan of the Beastie Boys – proudly announces: “I know how to play that.”

Interestingly, he sees a record player as a musical instrument, not a music player.

Syperek, without missing a beat, tells him: “This one’s not for scratching, you need a special needle for that.”

He demonstrates the turntable’s use, gently lifting the arm with a single finger and effortlessly dropping it exactly where he intends. The boys are rapt.

There’s a satisfying crackle and pop, then the beautiful sound of cool ’50s jazz. The boys are stunned by the sound. It’s like night and day when compared to the Walkman or the 8-track. They like it even better than their iPods.

Hewitt decides to take a crack at the turntable. He grasps the arm with a whole fist and drags it across the record with a sickening squeal. Luckily, Syperek is dealing with a customer. Hewitt tries again, digging deep grooves into the vinyl.

Damian gives it a go. The scrapes get smaller every time he lifts and drops. Hewitt joins him and does a similarly expert job. They love the turntable.

“The sound is great,” Damian says. “And it’s a fun activity.”

On the way home, we discuss the technologies from the mechanical era. Their verdict: The Walkman is okay but a lot of work. The 8-track is ridiculous, verging on useless. And the turntable is awesome but more of an interactive art than a passive entertainment provider.

Damian sums it up. “Everything when you were young was really big and hard to operate,” he says.

It’s a great moment – like they are admitting that my trip to school was uphill both ways and always waist-deep in snow.

http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/newsfeatures/article/682650

When you meet Sam Roberts in person he is the antithesis of a rock star; soft spoken, polite, attentive – when he speaks to you, you are quite literally the only person in the room. But there is an intensity there too just below the surface, and it comes boiling up and out the second that Sam steps out onto stage with his band.

I’ve heard nothing but positive things about Sam Roberts Band live and the show I attended the other night proved that everything I’ve heard is an understatement!

Ten minutes before show time, venue security was suddenly beefed up and you could feel the anticipation mounting. Five minutes before show time, the fans were on their feet but still respecting the boundary line between audience and security personnel. One minute before show time and eager fans were pressed up against the fencing, with the security personnel on the opposite side. There was no element of danger to it though; it was all in good fun … and then bang! the show started.

Read the entire review HERE

Sam Roberts Band website
Sam Roberts Band Myspace

Just a tad…

This is exactly what we need to spice up TIFF this year.  A cat fight between Rick the “Temp” Campanelli and the Chin 2 aka Ben Mulroney.  I can just see it now.  Slicked back hair, Armani dress shirts with the collars up!  Cheryl Hickey starts the cat calling and Tanya Kim screams out, “Who my bitch?”

Now as I remember it, oh not so long ago, both CTV and CanWest both cried poor.  Shutting down television stations across the country, staging protests against the big Cable companies to start paying their fair share of what gets put on the tube.  Begging the CRTC to allow just a bit more non-Canadian content on the screen, because Canadians don’t enjoy watching other Canadians.  Now if Ted Rogers was still around, I’d e-mail him to drop the needle and create the largest 10 day block party every.  Shut down Bloor between Yonge and Avenue and show these party wannabes how to get things done.  Bring out the Rogers Cable 10 trucks, Go-go dancers on the top red carpet from one end of the street to the other.  Get all of the news reporters from Omni 1 and 2 to do all of the interviews and make this a real Multicultural and multilingual MAJAMA!!

Of interest ~ National ratings show ET Canada in the lead with 479,000 viewers, followed by eTalk with 466,000. In the key Adults 18-49 demographic, ET Canada’s 232,000 beat eTalk’s 150,000.

OCC

TIFF turf wars: eTalk and ET Canada have started to mark their territory and announce parties

August 18, 2009

Karon Liu

Broadcast stations are starting to claim their territory for the 10 days of TIFF, mostly setting up headquarters from where they will navigate the circus of galas, schmoozing, parties and possible Oprah sightings.

The folks at ET Canada, Global’s major entertainment show, have claimed a parking lot rooftop in Yorkville, directly across from theHazelton Hotel, where all of the show’s interviews will be held. A temporary floor is being installed, and the space is being decorated completely in white and accented with crystal chandeliers and an elevated DJ booth. The location is quite a departure from ET Canada’s Casa Loma headquarters in 2007 and 2008—it’s a smart move from a logistical standpoint (Austin Terrace isn’t exactly party central) but could potentially take the grandeur down a notch.

Senior executive producer Tamara Simoneau assures us, however, that this is not a cost-cutting move. “We were looking to evolve and not do the same thing again this year, even though it’s hard to leave a castle with its wow factor. The new venue is not cheaper because we’re building something from the ground up,” Simoneau says of the 600-person-capacity tented rooftop that ET Canada has dubbed Festival Central. “We’re hoping the buzz will be big and we’ll be getting more foot traffic.” She adds that since the venue will be smaller than last year’s, the parties will be more exclusive.

As for the other entertainment news giant, eTalk took the crown last year for its massive CTV block party at which Diddy performed, Sam Ronson spun records and Lindsay Lohanplayed with her cellphone. But CTV publicist Eleni Tenuta told us there are currently no plans to have another party on that scale. She did tell us, however, that celebrity interviews will be conducted at the InterContinental in Yorkville, and she let us in on some of the eTalkevents that will be open to the public:

• One party will be in a tent at the back of the Four Seasons, where a DJ will be spinning and stylists from the Blo Bar (a blow-dry hair salon) will be showing off their skills.
Four Seasons Hotel, 21 Avenue Rd. Open September 11 to 15, 2 p.m.–7 p.m.

• Those needing a break from watching big screens can scale down to a small version at the Yorkville Roots. The second floor of the flagship store will be taken over by Nintendo, and visitors can drop by to test the company’s newest games.
Roots, 100 Bloor St. W. Open September 11 to 17, 10–8.

• CTV is sponsoring an event at the Hyatt at which Dior staff will man a “beauty station.”
Park Hyatt, 4 Avenue Rd. Open September 11 to 16, 10–7.

Just a tad…

I couldn’t find a proper picture of the logo this morning, but if you go to Hockey Canada’s website you can see it and purchase it in all it’s beautiful glory.  Again remember this name Debra Sparrow!

OCC

Take a look at my new friend… http://www.hockeycanada.ca/

Just a tad…

I was just leaving to pick up my daughter at daycare when I saw the police block off Humberside and Keele.  I knew there was an accident but I had no idea what had actually happen until today.  Reading this article I was hoping they would have said he was wearing a helmet.  Unfortunately there was no report of him wearing any protective gear. I wrote a piece a couple weeks ago about speeding bikers.  Totally forgot about our boarding community.  How do we get these kids (and adults) to learn the proper ways of protecting themselves on our shared roadways?  The fun doesn’t need to taken out of this, but this accident, on top of many other before and after could and will be worse.

OCC

Skateboarder, 12, struck by police car

Boy trying to cross on red not seriously hurt, police say

Aug 18, 2009 04:30 AM

JESSE MCLEAN
STAFF REPORTER

Just seconds after skateboarding through a High Park intersection, the 17-year-old glanced behind him to see his 12-year-old friend get hit by a car – a car that turned out to be an undercover police cruiser.

Tale Dimitrijevic’s small body bounced off the front of the dark grey Pontiac, leaving a basketball-sized crack in the front window.

He then fell onto the pavement where he muttered in pain as blood pooled around him.

“It all happened so fast. In like, five seconds he was on the ground,” said Maciej, who declined to give his last name.

The pair had been skateboarding down the sloping hill of Glenlake Ave. just before 3 p.m. yesterday, building up speed to jet across Keele St. before the light turned red.

It was something they had done before but this time Dimitrijevic was just too slow, his friend said.

“I swear the light was green when I went through. I don’t know what happened,” Maciej said.

Investigators, however, said the two crossed on a red and that the officer had the right of way.

The province’s Special Investigations Unit was not called in because the injuries were not serious enough to warrant a probe, police said. The SIU is a civilian body that investigates serious injuries to the public involving police.

Lawrence Dostert was in his kitchen preparing lunch with his older brother, Jake Marren, when he heard the crash.

“It sounded like a car hitting a car. It was that loud,” he said, standing on his driveway, a few houses south of the intersection.

The brothers ran outside to help the boy, who was drifting in and out of consciousness. Dostert, 21, bolted back to the house to grab a first-aid kit while Marren, a former infantryman, put pressure on the boy’s cuts.

Within a minute, an ambulance and a police cruiser had arrived.

“The injuries looked really bad,” Marren said. “We rolled him on his side, in the recovery position, because we thought he might have internal bleeding. There was a lot of blood.”

As paramedics loaded the wounded boy into the ambulance, Maciej ran up the hill to Dimitrijevic’s apartment and told his friend’s aunt what happened.

Dimitrijevic was taken to the Hospital for Sick Children in serious condition, but hospital staff later upgraded his condition and expected him to be released last night or today.

A cadre of emergency vehicles closed down the intersection as a collision reconstruction unit pieced together what happened.

Meanwhile, a group of boys looked on, several holding skateboards.

“Everyone’s got to be careful, I guess,” said 14-year-old Patrick Grygowski.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/682425

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Who is Debra Sparrow?  An artist from the Musqueam First Nation, who traditional maintained there territory where the City of Vancouver now resides.  Ms. Sparrow has saved Hockey Canada and Bob Nicholson’s bacon by creating a new logo for the Mens and Ladies Olympic and Paralympic Hockey teams.  The IOC for some reason has cracked down on Hockey Canada’s use of the previous logo within the Olympics so this is a major win for them.  Hockey will be the biggest thing about the Games in Vancouver.  No more pressure needs to placed on all four teams, but we all know it will get tougher. With a little over 6 months left before puck drops, no other gold metals will matter more than these one.

OCC

Hockey Canada unveils Olympic jerseys

CTVOlympics.ca

Posted Monday, August 17, 2009

Canada’s hockey teams will have a local flair as they gun for gold at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics next February.

After five attempts at designing a new logo, Hockey Canada officially unveiled its Olympic jerseys Monday at a news conference at UBC Thunderbird Arena.

The jerseys are red and white with stripes across the arms and bottom. A red maple leaf embossed with traditional Musqueam art replaces the previous logo of a hockey player’s silhouette skating through a black and red maple leaf.

The men’s and women’s sweaters have the Canadian Olympic Committee and VANOC logos on them, and the sledge hockey team has the VANOC Paraylmpic and Canadian Paralympic logos.

Inside the crest, there are smaller Maple Leafs depicting the number of gold medals won by Canadian men’s, women’s and sledge hockey teams; the thunderbird and eagle, two First Nations symbols; and a hockey player and stick.

“Hockey will be front and centre in February and it will be felt right down to the grassroots of hockey in Canada,” said Hockey Canada chairman Ken Corbett, before gigantic replicas of the jersey were hoisted at the arena, a hockey venue for the 2010 Games.

The new sweater was designed by Debra Sparrow, an artist of the Musqueam First Nation, and Nike Canada after the International Olympic Committee forbade national sports federations from displaying their logo at the Games.

“I think that it’s going to be a great jersey that every Canadian can be proud of, but most importantly, that our men’s, women’s and sledge team players will wear with pride,” said Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson, who reiterated the organization’s goal of winning triple gold in the men’s, women’s and sledge hockey Olympic tournament.

Jayna Hefford, one of 26 players currently in Calgary to battle for a spot on the women’s Olympic roster, was pleased to see that the design on the 2010 jerseys don’t stray far from past models.

“I think they look great and it would be an honour to wear it,” she said in an interview with CTV. “We take a lot of pride in the jersey each time we put it on and to have one that is familiar and comfortable and that looks fairly similar to the traditional Hockey Canada logo is important.”

The past logo, which Hockey Canada will still use corporately, was in use on its jerseys since 1994, but the IOC started cracking down on nations at the Summer Olympics.

Nicholson explained that outside of the 2010 Olympics, Canadian national hockey teams will continue to wear the traditional Hockey Canada logo. This would include teams at world championship and world junior competitions. That said, Nicholson said he also expects the new jerseys to play a big role at the Vancouver Games.

“We’re very fortunate that this artist did a great job with the renderings within the logo,” Nicholson said, “I think this will be the jersey that not only hockey players wear but that all Canadians and all Canadian athletes will be proud of. This might become the jersey for not just hockey but for all sports.”

At the announcement Monday, John Furlong, Vancouver Organizing Committee president, recalled a recent conversation he had with Pat Quinn, coach of the gold-medal winning men’s squad in 2002.

Quinn told Furlong that there has never been a Canadian team that has more expectations than the Canadian Olympians who will be competing on home soil next February.

“This jersey will be the most sought after, most inspiring jersey that any of us have ever worn,” said Furlong, who used the occasion to also announce Nike Canada as an official supplier for the Games.

In addition to the jerseys, Nike will supply the organizing committee with other high-performance sporting goods.

In exchange, they’ll get the right to market and brand some of their products as officially Olympic.

With six months to go until the Games, the deal could be the final domestic partnership for 2010 organizers.

But they are still hopeful the International Olympic Committee will sign up two more international sponsors for the Games.

Without them, the committee is facing a $30-million hole in its budget creating major pressure on their $1.75 billion bottom line.

Nicholson does not expect the change to hurt the Hockey Canada brand. “I think the key in all of this is that the jerseys … will have our traditional mark on the sleeve,” said Nicholson. “So that will still be the jersey that all young girls and boys will wear and (they will) hopefully keep their dreams alive to play for Canada not just at the Olympics but at all tournaments in the future.”

The announcement coincided with the commercial release for the 2010 jersey: a replica jersey is available now with a suggested retail price of $134.95 and an authentic jersey, available in October, will be $399.95.

With a report from The Canadian Press

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/hockey/news/newsid=14226.html#hockey+canada+unveils+olympic+jerseys

Just a tad…

Good Morning Monday!  Here’s a smile, nod and wink to Canada.  The news coming next.

OCC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWQf13B8epw

Just a tad…

Talking about the Toronto Sport scene, there is only one name.  The Leafs!  Sure the Blue Jays won back to back World Series in the 90’s and The Rock lacrosse team won at least 5 championships in the last 10 years.  The Argos have the historical edge and the Raports, well they have a purple dinosaur.  No other team makes you bleed for your teams colour in Toronto like the Leafs, but could a white and black ball make the grade to dethrone the hockey puck?  Toronto FC started it’s life in 2006.  In the shadow of years gone by subpar Soccer team Toronto Blizzard, has won a championship.  It only has seating for just over 20,000 fans, but you try and get a ticket to see these guys.  With 16,000 season ticket holders and another 14,000 on a waiting list, this is the future of sports in Toronto.  In a sea of Red and White, anything blue just doesn’t seem to come close.  Would you wear a scarf for your team?  FC fans do.  Take a look at King Street, Queen Street, Yonge Street for that matter 2 hours before a game.  You’ll see a parade of people deck out Red and White marching to BMO field.  It’s a pretty amazing sight to see.  I’m a Leafs fan for life, but if you cut me, do I not bleed red too?

OCC

Young guns propel Toronto FC

Future looks very bright as six rookies start for home side in key victory over DC United

4 consecutive games with a goal for Reds’ Dwayne De Rosario

Aug 16, 2009 04:30 AM

Be the first to comment on this article…

DANIEL GIRARD
SPORTS REPORTER

It was a convincing victory as Toronto FC pushes for the playoffs – but the more impressive aspect of yesterday’s 2-0 win over DC United was the message it sends about the team’s prospects for success in the future.

With a lineup boasting six rookie starters, including three making the first of their career, TFC took the play to DC, outrunning the visitors, creating scoring chances and defending strongly on the way to a comfortable win before a crowd of 20,638 at BMO Field.

“The young players are the future of this club,” said head coach Chris Cummins. “And, if they go and perform like that, this club’s really going to kick on.”

A combination of injuries and the desire to jump-start his team as it begins the final third of the season led Cummins to give O’Brian White, Emmanuel Gomez and Amadou Sanyang the first starts of their Major League Soccer career.

Throw in rookies Stefan Frei in goal, Sam Cronin at midfield, Pablo Vitti up front and 20-year-old second-year defender Nana Attakora, and seven of the 11 TFC players on the field at kickoff were 24 or younger.

“Of course it’s a risk,” Cummins said of the young lineup. “But they’ve got legs and they’ve got energy.

“It gives the more experienced players a kick in the backside to say: `Listen, you’re not guaranteed that slot.’”

And the youngsters made an impact. Cronin set up Dwayne De Rosario for the opening goal in the 30th minute. White made it 2-0 with a rocket from 18 yards in the 65th off a set-up from Attakora.

“It was a great day for the club seeing all the youngsters come in and work that hard and see how committed they are,” said Brennan, the first player signed by the team in 2006.

Brennan, who started the play on the opening goal, later picked a yellow card and will have to miss next week’s game in California against Chivas USA for accumulating five this season.

With the win, TFC (8-7-6) leapfrog DC (6-5-10) into third place in the tight Eastern Conference. But with six of their final nine games on the road, including the next three, the Reds are still a long way from securing their first playoff birth.

White, a graduate of Lester B. Pearson Collegiate in Scarborough showed the goal-scoring finish that made him a star at the University of Connecticut.

Off a corner from Amado Guevara, who started the game on the substitute’s bench, White calmly took a pass from Attakora, side-stepped a defender and drilled a shot high over diving goalkeeper Josh Wicks to make it 2-0.

“I’m just grateful for the opportunity to be playing,” said the 23-year-old, Jamaican-born White, who missed eight months rehabbing a surgically-repaired knee he hurt last fall.

White, who had about 30 family and friends in the stands watching his first start, was mobbed by his teammates after the goal and saluted by staff and substitutes on the bench.

“They’re just happy for me,” said White, the ball from his first goal in his locker-room stall.

“They saw what I had to go through when I was doing my therapy all the time.”

On De Rosario’s goal, his club-record ninth of the season, De Rosario got a step on defender Dejan Jakovic inside the DC penalty area and flicked a perfect cross from Cronin past Wicks and just inside the far left post.

“Hats off to young lads who came in,” De Rosario said. “They worked extremely hard and did extremely well.

“They really showed a lot of class today.”

Frei, who picked up his fourth shutout of the season, faced just one stern test, palming over the crossbar a 51st minute free kick by Marc Burch of DC, which came in as the league’s most potent offence with 34 goals in 20 games.

Frei got some help in second-half injury-time when Guevara headed a shot by Santino Quaranta off the line to preserve the clean sheet.

“We have a healthy mix on this team with veterans who can show rookies how it’s done and rookies who are willing to listen and have the talent and brains to do well,” Frei said.

http://www.thestar.com/sports/soccer/article/681905

Just a tad…

Maybe an apology was a too much for the government of Canada.  Is this what we expect the government to do when one of its citizens need help.  Suaad Hagi Mohamud committed no wrongs, no crimes.  She had the misfortune of having someone look at a picture in her passport and not believe it was her.  Then things got ugly…

OCC

Vindicated by her DNA

For three months, Suaad Hagi Mohamud has been stuck in Nairobi as an ‘imposter.’ Now genetic tests prove she is her son’s mother. Will Canada finally believe her?

August 11, 2009

JOHN GODDARD
STAFF REPORTER

Nearly three months after Canadian officials in Africa dismissed her as an “imposter” and stopped her from returning to her 12-year-old son in Toronto, Suaad Hagi Mohamud has proved to be who she says she is: a Canadian.

Results of a DNA test released last night show a 99.99 per cent match with her son, Mohamed Hussein, who has been waiting for his mother since an airport official in Nairobi, Kenya, stopped her for not looking like her Canadian passport picture.

The Star broke the news of the DNA results to Mohamud.

“Oh my God,” she said by phone in Nairobi, where for weeks she has depended on charity for food and accommodation. “Thank you very, very, very, very, very, very much. I’m glad this is over now.”

But it might not be over.

Asked last night if Ottawa accepts the DNA result as proof of identity and, if so, when the government will send her home, Canada Border Services Agency spokeswoman Tracie LeBlanc replied: “It would be inappropriate to comment … as this matter is still before the courts.”

Speaking through a spokesperson, Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan also had “no comment.”

Mohamud went to federal court last month to force Ottawa to test her DNA in order to prove her identity. Her Toronto lawyer, Raoul Boulakia, said last night he will immediately ask Ottawa to issue Mohamud an emergency passport, ask Kenya to let her go and then get her on a plane home.

“I have a teleconference with the judge in the morning,” Boulakia said.

For every Canadian, Mohamud’s ordeal raises the question: What proof of identity will Ottawa accept from a stranded citizen abroad?

On May 21, after a Kenyan airport official suggested Mohamud’s lips and eyeglasses were different from her four-year-old passport photo, the hapless traveller laid out all her ID at the Canadian High Commission.

She displayed her Ontario driver’s licence, OHIP card, social insurance card and Canadian citizenship certificate.

She showed her credit card, two bank cards, Shoppers Drug Mart Optimum card, Humber River Regional Hospital Card and a recent dry cleaning receipt from One Hour Brighten Cleaners on Lawrence Ave. W., near her Toronto address.

She produced a letter from her Toronto employer, ATS courier service, about a recent promotion.

The high commission rejected them all. Worse, instead of helping Mohamud, they sent her voided passport to Kenyan immigration authorities to help them prosecute her.

“We have carried out conclusive investigations including an interview and have confirmed that the person brought to (us) on suspicion of being an imposter is not the rightful holder of the aforementioned Canadian passport,” Canadian High Commission first secretary Liliane Khadour wrote to Kenyan immigration authorities on May 28.

Mohamud faced serious charges: being in Kenya illegally and using a passport not her own. The penalty would be either jail in Kenya or deportation to her native Somalia.

On two occasions, federal officials in Canada appeared to suggest Mohamud had switched identities with a sister. She has four half-sisters by the same father.

But the DNA results confirm Mohamud is not an aunt. In statistical terms, she is 282 times more likely to be the boy’s mother, says a letter faxed to her lawyer from laboratory director Debra Davis of the Vancouver testing company Orchid Cellmark.

With Canadian officials refusing to help her, Mohamud surrendered to Kenyan authorities on June 3 and was locked in Langata Women’s Prison. She got out after eight days when a friend posted bail.

The Canadian High Commission reopened her case only after the Star began reporting on her plight on July 1. Officials agreed to take fingerprints, and when they proved to be no use, agreed to take DNA.

Ottawa’s attitude toward her has remained consistent.

After Mohamud surrendered fingerprints and DNA, Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Emma Welford said she could not comment because Ottawa must protect the woman’s privacy.

Two weeks ago, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Mohamud must try harder to prove herself: “The individual … has to let us know whether or not she is a Canadian citizen,” he said.

Asked if he would accept a DNA match, Cannon replied last week through a spokesperson: “I cannot answer a hypothetical question.”

http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/679235

Just a tad…

Another session of music that matters.

A tale of two cities, well actually of one group and one singer

In this corner we have KaraMel.  A not so likely duo that had no love here in Canada but is making the European end run to hopefully make it big on this side of the pond.

.Mr. Bieber is part of the new  block of post ‘Jonas Brothers’ singers.  The surprise here is he’s Canadian, he’s only 15 years old and he’s from Stratford..Stratford?  You can listen two both here.

http://www.clyde1.com/Article.asp?id=1375578&spid=20190 ~ KaraMel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0tQ_4ntLGY&feature=related ~ Justin Bieber

OCC

They’ve been shunned by Canadian record labels and given the “thumbs down” from MuchMusic, but the kids in KaraMel are having a hearty last laugh thanks to an out-of-nowhere radio hit on the other side of the Atlantic.

Glasgow’s Clyde 1 station – the largest in Scotland, with a weekly reach of more than half a million listeners – has been fending off endless requests for KaraMel’s striking piano-and-voice cover of Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance” since popular DJ Colin Kelly came across the tune online a few weeks ago and decided to share it with his listeners. He was utterly unprepared for the response, nor did he have any idea the teenaged Port Credit pop group is all but unknown at home.

“I just thought the song was amazing, so I asked them if they could send me an MP3 that I could play on my radio show. I assumed that it was a band that maybe was quite big somewhere else,” says Kelly. “Then I realized they weren’t well-known, that they didn’t have a record deal, that they weren’t really that famous at all. So, I suppose, I kind of felt like I’d discovered something a bit special and played it on my show.

“Straight away people were sending messages saying: ‘What’s the name of that band? Who are those girls? Where can we get this song?’ And I had to say: ‘They’re just a couple of girls from Canada who no one’s ever heard of.’ The next day there were more, saying: ‘Can you play it again?’ I just had text messages and emails piling up all week of people asking could they get a copy or could I tell them who this band was.” His curiosity moved him to ring up KaraMel – singers Kara Lane and Mel Labelle (get it?) and composer/instrumentalist Chris Lee – for an on-air interview last week. KaraMel has been around a few years, ever since Lee heard Lane belt out “Wanting” from the musical Rags in drama class at Cawthra Park high school and got her to lend her powerhouse vocals to a pop tune he’d been slogging away at in his parents’ basement.

The friends, both 19, have weathered the loss of the original “Mel” (the quiet Labelle, slightly younger than her bandmates, came on board less than six months ago), a discouraging turn on MuchMusic’s disBAND and – as Lee laughingly puts it – generally being told “You suck” to become a fun little bubblegum outfit in the vein of the Spice Girls or Aqua. Still, in a musical climate that favours dirtier, clubbier electro-pop over more lighthearted fare, KaraMel has had a harder time getting the right people to listen than it might have during, say, the peak years of Britney-and-Backstreet mania at the end of the 1990s.

News a Top 40 radio station in the U.K. had gotten behind one of its tunes was what the doctor ordered.

“At first, I was, like: ‘A Scottish radio station? Great. Just what we need. The band’s gonna have to move to Scotland because that’s the only place we’re gonna have a career,’ ” says Lee. “But it’s a lot different than when your mom tells you your song is a hit when a radio DJ tells you your song is a hit.”Granted, Lane’s husky ballad take on “Just Dance” – slower and darker than Lady Gaga’s original – isn’t representative of the sassy ear candy populating the more upbeat reaches of the KaraMel catalogue.

“Straight away, you realize that the girl’s got a great voice,” enthuses Kelly. “And secondly, they’ve completely changed the song. They’ve done it in a way that I’ve not heard anybody else doing. They’ve slowed it right down. It just really stood out. I just thought: ‘Here’s someone who obviously really understands music and has a really special talent.’ “

With “quite a buzz” about KaraMel in Scotland, he says, Clyde 1 is mulling putting more of the group’s tunes in rotation; no mean feat considering how “tightly formatted and market researched” commercial radio has become.

KaraMel recently signed on with Kuya Productions – which has worked on songs for Akon and the Pussycat Dolls – and now hopes to shop its demos in Los Angeles with a little extra “oomph.”

For now, though, the band would be pleased with a few more shows like its opening gig for R&B singer Shiloh at Square One on Friday.

“It’s hard to get shows in Toronto because there’s no pop `scene,’” says Lane. “It’s funny, but hey, you’ve gotta start somewhere.”

http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/675300

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Home Entertainment
Young singer’s rise means it’s Justin time

August 9, 2009
Nick Krewen
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
Bieber Fever has arrived, and it’s an epidemic of teenage proportions.

The first symptoms are obvious: the 150 or so love-smitten lasses who lined up last Friday around the block of MuchMusic, are declaring their devotion to pop music’s latest cherub – Justin Bieber – through homemade “I Heart Justin” T-shirts, handheld posters and banners.

The number may seem small at first glance, but it’s only 9:40 a.m. When the fresh-faced mop-top finally takes to the stage for his debut Much on Demand performance eight hours later, the sizeable armada flotilla of transfixed teenagers – numbering around 1,000 as they lay siege to the corner of Queen and John – unleash siren squeals of eardrum-shattering adoration.

“Marry me!” screams one decibel-smasher, managing to cut the air amidst a sea of unabashed love declarations, as Bieber slaps hands with the crowd and never loses his charismatic smile, walking through a gauntlet of outstretched hands straining to touch the latest Adonis.

“You fans are amazing!” shouts Bieber. The claim to fame of the 15-year-old – a protégé of R&B superstar Usher – rests on “One Time,” a single upbeat pronouncement of puppy love that’s still very much in the embryonic stages of becoming a U.S. hit.

To this shrieking wall of teeming estrogen, however, Justin Bieber has already penetrated the Jonas Brothers stratosphere of popularity. What’s more, he’s one of us: Canadian, hailing from nearby Stratford.

So how did Bieber Fever infect so many so quickly? Virally, of course: While there’s no shortage of Disney (Miley Cyrus, the aforementioned Jonas trio, and Demi Lovato) and non-Disney (16-year-old Shiloh, another Canadian) teen talent flooding the market, none has exploited the YouTube, Twitter, MySpace and Facebook social networks quite as effectively as young Bieber.

YouTube has been his biggest coup: as of Friday, almost 3.8 million viewers have seen Bieber’s official video at least “One Time.” Ten million more have witnessed his performance of Chris Brown’s “With You.”

Even when Bieber simply plays the drums – one of four instrumental talents self-taught by ear that include guitar, piano and trumpet – spectators are attracted: almost 500,000 at last count.

Thrown in over 278,000 Facebook fans, 105,000 Twitter followers and 2.5 million MySpace fans, and Bieber is helping to Usher in a new era of music marketing: immediacy.

“I think Twitter has allowed the average fan to feel like they’re hanging out with the artist,” says Daniel Mekinda, whose Toronto firm tanjola manages the career of Universal recording artist Shiloh.

“It allows for a much quicker, simpler dialogue between the artist and their fans, and created a new, closer relationship between the artist and the fan.”

It’s certainly benefited Bieber, who regularly Twitters his whereabouts his promotional travels. The young singer, now based in Atlanta after signing a record deal eight months ago backed by label powerhouse Island Def Jam Records, handles such duties with aplomb.

“It’s been awesome,” he smiles, a little groggy during this early morning interview at a downtown hotel.

“At first, I didn’t know if this is what I wanted. But I really love to be in the spotlight, and just be the centre of the attention.”

In fact, a year ago, he claims his aspirations were much different. He attended Stratford’s Northwestern Secondary, dated a few girls, and lived the life of a “regular kid.

“Before, I was really concentrating on sports,” says Bieber, who lives with Pattie, his mother. “I played hockey a lot. I was really focused on sports.”

However, three years ago, he entered the local contest Stratford Idol, and decided to bring a camera to record his performance for absent family members.

“I put videos of the competition on YouTube for them to see, and it just kind of blew up,” Bieber recalls.

“I got a couple thousand hits, and then I got a couple million hits.”

Bieber posted more videos of himself covering hits, but it was his version of Ne-Yo’s “So Sick” that caught the attention of Scooter Braun, a former marketing executive with Jermaine Dupri’s So So Def Records. Braun was engaged in some consulting work for Akon when he discovered Bieber.

“I was online doing research – and Akon’s kid was singing Aretha Franklin’s `Respect,’” Braun remembers. “There was a related video – and I clicked it, thinking it was the same person – and it was Justin in his first-ever singing competition at 12 years old.”

Braun found more Bieber videos, including one of him busking in front of the Avon Theatre, but was sold by his Ne-Yo rendition.

“I was blown away that a little kid had a range like that,” admits Braun, who also manages rapper Asher Roth. “Then I stalked him.”

Braun left messages at school and with anyone he could think of to reach Bieber, who said his mother initially called his future manager back “to shut him up.”

Instead, a two-and-a-half hour conversation ensued.

“It turned out he was a cool guy,” say Bieber. “He flew me out to Atlanta where I went to a studio to meet some people, and Usher was there. It was an accident that we met. I went up to him and said, `Usher, Usher! I love your songs. You want me to sing you one?’

“And he politely denied me.”

Usher eventually came around, flying the youth back to Atlanta for an audition, and then emerging victorious in a bidding war against Justin Timberlake to partner in Bieber’s recording career with manager Braun.

“Usher is very passionate about this project,” states Scooter Braun.

“He’s very protective of Justin. He sees himself at that age, and he doesn’t want Justin making any of the mistakes he made. He wants Justin to win.

“And one of the best things about having Usher as part of the team, is that he will understand what Justin is going through. To have that outlet for Justin is invaluable and really a blessing.”

The odds seem to be stacked in Bieber’s favour. “One Time,” which has already been a Top-10 hit on iTunes Canada, is written by Chris “Tricky” Stewart and Terius “the-Dream” Nash, authors of Rihanna’s mega-hit “Umbrella” and Beyoncé’s chart-topping “Single Ladies (Put A Ring on It)”; his debut album My World will be dropping before the end of the year (a release date is still being mulled over) and he’s appearing in an upcoming Nickelodeon movie called School Gyrls with Mr. Mariah Carey, Nick Cannon.

At the moment, however, Bieber is trying to retain as much normalcy as he can with a hectic promotion schedule that finds him in Florida, Michigan, Kentucky, New Jersey and New York before September.

“I sort of set out one day a week at least to myself, to just be a regular kid and do regular things,” he says.

“I think it’s really important, because I’ll never get these years back. I’m working a lot now, and I’ll never get these years back.

“I don’t want to be 30 and say, `Wow, I didn’t really do anything with my childhood,’ so, I’m trying to do what I’m doing and trying to be a kid

http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/678416