Wow, did this show ever sneak up on me, I don’t know how I’m just finding about it now, but yes, Undercover Boss Canada is happening and it starts next week! Actually, upon reflection, I guess they couldn’t really announce the show, because that would essentially ruin the surprise premise of the series, so I guess it sorta makes sense.
The show will launch on the W Network on February 2nd at 9pm.
The companies participating in the series include Goodlife Fitness, Skyline International Development, The Toronto Zoo, Pizza Pizza, 1- 800 -GOT-JUNK?, Cineplex Entertainment, Molson Coors Canada, Second Cup and FedEx Express Canada.
I think the one I’m most excited to see is Karen Stintz, who is a Toronto city councillor and Toronto Transit Commission. The TTC always gets a ton of bad press for its employees, so it will be interesting to see how the transit system is portrayed for television.
If you’re surprised that the show was able to land such big companies for its first season, don’t be. The series is a public relations dream for any of these companies, because the entire episode is loitered with the company’s logo, it showcases its best employees and in the end, the secret boss looks like an angel.
But don’t think about that. The show is still immesley enjoyable and it will be great if the series does as well as it does in the States, where it originated.
One question: If the employees don’t know they are on Undercover Boss, what do they think they are being filmed for?
A few days ago, a small Canadian film got a lot of attention, when it nabbed one of the coveted Best Foreign picture film nominations at this year’s Oscars. Monsieur Lazhar was directed by acclaimed director Philippe Falardeau. The movie tells the story of Bachir Lazhar, an Algerian immigrant, who is hired to replace an elementary school teacher who died tragically. While the class goes through a long healing process, nobody in the school is aware of Bachir’s painful former life
You know, typical Quebec comedy…..
So if you’re like me, and you happen to enjoy movies, you’re probably wondering where you can see this small but acclaimed movie. Well, it isn’t on DVD yet, but it is still playing in some theatres across the country, although won’t likely ever receive a full across country rollout. I decided to do a little investigating and see where in Canada you can see the movie RIGHT NOW. I’m guessing, as Oscar night gets closer and closer, the film hopefully might start to pop up all over the country, but for now, here’s what I found, as of Friday, January 27th:
Vancouver, BC:
International Village Cinemas
Edmonton, AB:
City Centre
Calgary, AB
Eau Claire Market
Winnipeg, MB
Globe Cinema
Toronto, ON
TIFF Bell Lightbox
Sherbrooke, QC Galaxy @ Sherbrooke
Montreal, QC
AMC Forum 22
Happy viewing, make sure you report back and tell me if it’s worth the effort to see it…although I’m sure it is.
Admit it, when’s the last time you heard anything about Canadian darlin’ Nelly Furtado? I agree, it’s been way too long.
Well the singer burst out of her self-imposed break this week with a brand new song with none other than K’Naan. A match made in musical heaven. The song, “Is Anybody Out There” is AWESOME and it reminded me how much I missed her voice, K’Naan’s voice too, for that matter.
The song is the first release off of K’Naan’s new EP 5-track EP, “More Beautiful Than Silence”, which is out today!
Have a listen, and try to only listen to it once. Welcome back Nelly, we’ve missed you! There’s rumours of a new Nelly disc, her first in six years, that will be out in just a few months. If this song is any indication of what we’ll be expecting, the wait will be well worth it.
Last month, I wrote that The Bachelor was coming to Canada and Citvtv made the news official today, thanks to none other than Chris Harrison, who made the announcement on Breakfast Television.
For now, not a ton of the details of the show are known, but here’s what we do know:
-Chris Harrison will not be hosting, but he will make an appearance.
-Casting of the Bachelor is said to almost be complete.
-The series will last 9 episodes, including the “Women Tell All” and “After the Final Rose” specials.
-Principal photography is slated to begin this spring.
-There’s already a Twitter account, if you want to be sure that you don’t miss a single Tweet about the show.
-The show is being produced by Vancouver-based Force Four Entertainment
-Shooting will take place all across the country.
-The show will air this Fall, with the American edition returning in Winter 2013….
-Casting for the 25 “lucky” Bachelorettes has already started. Click here to see how you, or someone you know, can apply.
Two weeks into its third season, Republic of Doyle is one of Canada’s biggest shows. The episodes of both brought in audiences well over a million viewers and shows no sign of slowing down.
So who is behind the blockbuster show? Well, that would be the one and only Allan Hawco, who I recently got a chance to sit down with and chat about the show’s success, the big guest stars and why, no matter what, he always seems to have his shirt off.
The results of the Canadian Blog Awards were announced on Saturday and I’m so excited…and a little confused, to announce that I won an award for Best Culture and Literature Blog! I’m not saying that I’m confused to act like I’m being humble, I’m confused because Bloggity doesn’t really seem like a Culture and Literature blog to me, but hey, I guess it’s what the people want, so I will gladly accept it and say thank you very, very much!
The entire awards are volunteer run and all the voting is done by anyone that has a computer, that puts the decision process completely out of my hands, so I appreciate every single person that took even a second to send a vote my way. It’s really incredible.
If you’re looking for new blogs to discover, now is the time. There are a ton of amazing blogs that were nominated and eventually won some pretty cool awards and now they are just waiting for you to read them.
So, how did I celebrate? Well, I enjoyed my favourite snack (room temperature milk and popcorn) and watched The Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King, of course! I mean what were you really expecting? After all, I am full of culture now.
In a couple of months, Alberta will be holding it’s first provincial election in a few years. As always, the Conversatives are expected to win big, but that doesn’t mean the excitement of an election is any less.
While I don’t consider myself Aaron Sorkin, I do like to follow politics and find elections particularly interesting. For this week’s Metro column, I wanted to talk about the a trend that I’ve noticed across the country, but in particular here in Calgary. It always happens in an election year that tv personalities decide to leave their TV jobs in hopes of winning the elections, whether it be municipal, provincial or federal.
I’m not sure why they want to run, or even if they should be running in the first place. With my small 400 word limit, I did the best to figure out why TV personalities like Sandra Jansen and Bruce McAllister want to be MLAs. And yes, I’ve already gotten hate mail over this one.
I’d actually never heard of James Struthers before today, but when his video showed up my inbox, I had to check it out. Why? Well, because it’s called “You, Me and Optimus Prime.” How could you not click on that? Even more surprising than the name of the song, was the fact that it not just a comedic song, it’s actually a really nice diddy (I can still use that, right?) about a man who has a special friendship with everyone’s favourite robot.
Haters of the Transformers movies will probably love this video much more the films because the leader of the Autobots is really, well, in his prime.
Struthers is a 22 year old singer from Winnipeg, who’s already toured the country 5 times, released 2 EPs, 4 music videos, and has cracked the Canadian AC charts with his festive single ‘Blue Christmas’ in under 2 years. You know it’s interesting, this is really the kind of world that we live in now, isn’t it? For musicians to stick out, they have to be creative and how better to stick out than to write a great song and produce an even better video about Optimus Prime? (There’s an acoustic version of the song available too…where James is randomly singing in a bathtub!)
Hope you have as good of a time listening to the song as I did.
I’m sorta nervous that my fascination with Carly Rae Jepsen is reaching a sketchy level, but let’s ignore that for now and instead focus on the hugeness that is her new single. “Call Me Maybe,” the first single from her sophomore album, “Curiosity”. This week, the catchy tuned jumped five spots from 9 to4 on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 chart, and LEAPS 6-1 on the Digital Songs chart!
The song, which has already gone platinum, sold 21,000 downloads this week to take the top spot. Actually, it’s the first song by a Canadian artist to reach the top of the digital chart since Justin Bieber’s “Baby” in January 2010. Coincidently enough, Jepsen has to credit Bieber for helping her reach the top spot so quickly. Since he tweeted how addictive he found the song to be, the song has pretty much gone viral. His girlfriend, Selena Gomez, also tweeted her praises for the song, which she included with a photo of Justin, saying “This smile is because of Carly Rae Jepsen. We have not stopped listening your song girl!” A few days later, Justin Bieber’s best friend, Ryan Good and his girlfriend Ashley Bensen (Pretty Little Liars) posted a video of her singing the song 35,000 feet in the air.
I’ve never really been a Bieber fan, but I’ve always, and still do, admire him for using his social media power to do some pretty amazing things.
Fun Fact: Call Me Maybe is only the 11th song by aCanadian artist to reach No. 1 on the Digital Songs chart since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking digital download sales in 2005.
The video is also doing really well, it’s currently sitting just below a million views. Not bad, consider her next most viewed topped out at 114,000!
Check it out below, not only is the song great, the video offers up a pretty hilarious twist. But before you do, I just need to say that I’m not jumping on the Carly Rae Jepsen bandwagon, I’ve been writing about her awesomeness since all the way back in 2008. Take that Bieber!
You’ve all seen the Honey Badger video right, right?
Okay, well there’s no point in going any further unless you’ve seen the insanely popular video that has already been viewed by more than 33 million people.
Hilarious, right?
Okay, well if you want more, get ready because the Honey Badger is coming to Canada…and he’ll be animated! A Canadian production company by the name ofSix Eleven Media, based in Halifax, is hoping sell an animated/live actions series called Honey Badger U! The show will center around Randall, a professor of life sciences, and his students. The honey badger will be the school’s mascot. You know what, it sounds kinda awesome. And why not, the video has already inspired an iPhone game,a book and a clothing line. The Honey Badger really does not give a shit and I love it!
Let’s hope this takes off, I could definitely do with some more Randall and Honey Badger in my life
Actually, upon reflection, I guess they couldn’t really announce the show, because that would essentially ruin the surprise premise of the series, so I guess it sorta makes sense.
