Mike's Bloggity Blog

I miss Canadian Idol. Yes, that Canadian Idol.  You’ve already forgotten about it haven’t you?  Well you should consider yourself lucky. For years now I’ve been tossing and turning at night struggling to forget about the glory days of Rex Goudy, Jaydee Bigsby, Ryan Malcom and Melissa O’Neil.   How have you been able to turn your back on these semi-celebs so quickly? Did you not vote for them thousands of times? Did you not buy all their CDs?  Did you not see Kalen Porter in concert three nights in a row?  What’s that?  No?  You didn’t? Shit.

Surely I’m not the only one that misses Ben, Sass and all the other barely qualified judges, right?

So this is my plea to any Canadian network. American Idol is evolving this season, so why can’t our Canadian edition do the same?  Hasn’t this “hiatus” gone on long enough?  If by simply reminding you that this show even existed isn’t enough to bring Canadian Idol back, I’ve prepared a list that can be brought up at any of the next month’s board meetings.

Three Reasons Why Canadian Idol Needs to Come Back:

1. I’m personally worried about Ben Mulroney.  There, I said it.  That took me a lot of therapy sessions to admit that I’m genuinely concerned about the guy whose dad paid CTV a lot of money to fast track his son’s fame and legitimacy…with little success.  But did you see Ben during TIFF? There’s a sadness in his eyes.  I don’t know if he just misses trying and failing at reading a teleprompter or what, but it’s like watching a puppy trying to not pee on himself. Sure he has a kid now, but does that fill the void of struggling to pretend you care about contestants?  No, no it doesn’t.  Most importantly, Etalk doesn’t give Ben the chance to remind us that he is fluent in French. You haven’t forgotten that he’s bilingual have you?  What have you done CTV, what have you done indeed.

2. Almost on a daily basis I get about a dozen or so Facebook event invites for someone who is singing at an Open Mic night or needs one more vote to win a song contest for a radio station.  Not that I don’t appreciate their efforts, but sometimes I’d like to know if I’m wasting my time or. Wouldn’t it just be easier if they could audition for Idol and find out for themselves if they are good or not?  While I know the judges for Canadian Idol were very cookie-cutter and rarely contributed anything that could even be considered close to helpful advise, I like to believe what they were doing was a way of culling my talentless friends.  It was a system that worked and quite frankly, I miss it.

3. Theo Tams would get work.  Think about it, they always bring back last season’s winner to mentor or at least perform.  That could result in a solid one or two days of employment for the fallen Idol, (three if they let him practice.)  And with winter coming, he’ll need the money to buy scarves.  Plus, I’m pretty sure the Canadian government would let CTV claim it as charity work.

CTV’s WE DAY festivities is one of the few things that make me wish being a teenager.  That and seeing ads for First Choice Haircutters.   In case you don’t know what WE DAY is, it’s an awesome day that celebrates the powerful youth with their favourite We Day supporters. Basically it has nothing to do with Twilight and that bodes well for this generation.

WE DAY takes places today in Toronto (September 20th), Vancouver (October 15th) and Montreal on November 12th. Since the first We Day in 2007, 5,000 action plans have been created, More than $5 million has been raised by participating students for diverse charities and by the end of the 2009/2010 school year, young people will have volunteered more than 1,000,000 hours in support of local and global causes.

Those involved in this year’s We Day include: Alexandre Bilodeau, Betty Williams, Cast members from Degrassi, Cast of MTV’s The Buried Life, Cherie Blair, Craig & Marc Kielburger, Deepak Chopra, Down With Webster, Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, Greyson Chance, Jacob Hoggard, K’naan, Michel Chikwanine, Rocky Dawuni, Scott Hammell, Spencer West, Wangari Maathai.

You can watch We Day today on CTV.ca

In case you don’t live in Calgary, this is a picture of Wednesday’s Calgary Sun.

Can I please just take a moment to apologize to the rest of this country?  I have no idea why does this paper continues to be so embarrassing?

Do you have to agree with James Cameron’s politics?  Absolutely not, that is what is great about North America.  But I’m getting so fed up with this paper disguising their personal attacks and playing to the lowest denominator and still calling itself a newspaper.  As a Calgarian, it is beyond frustrating.

Bloggers are constantly defending ourselves as semi-legitimate sources of information.  I’ve never called myself a journalist, yet even I don’t write childish things like the Calgary Sun continues to do.  How the heck does this paper continue to come up with such childish headlines?  Do they stand outside elementary schools and listen to what bullies call other kids?  Because that is essentially what the Calgary Sun seems to be doing.  Headlines like this are childish, immature and down right pathetic.

The only reason they get away with this is because we live in a province that is overwhelmingly conservative.  I get that.  But that doesn’t excuse the editors of the Calgary Sun to continue to be lazy and unoriginal.  Boohoo someone is attacking our oil sands, I’d rather see someone important like James Cameron and Time Magazine shed light on our province’s biggest resource, so we can learn more about it, than continue to ignore what the world has already told us is a major problem.  The entire world can’t be wrong Calgary Sun, luckily you always seem to be.

Your chances of winning a Juno just got a little bit better.

CARAS announced today that to celebrate it’s 40th Anniversary of the Junos, they’ll be adding a 40th category: Electronic Album of the Year.

The new category is defined as an album-length original recordings composed with electronic equipment as the essential songwriting tools and defined by their electronic elements.  Hmm I wonder if audio-tune counts?  If not, that should eliminate most Canadian popstars.

Submissions for the 2011 JUNO Awards open October 1, 2010.

Happy early 40th Birthday Junos, see you in Toronto next year!

Why should all the TV and Movie stars get to have all the award shows?  Don’t we bloggers deserve to walk the red carpet* too?  Yeah, I think we do!

The nominations for the Canadian Blog Awards are now open and they’ll stay that way until October 9th!  That is just before Thanksgiving.

There are 22 blog categories in total, including:  Pop Culture, Legal, Photo/Art, Sports, Crafts, French Language and Literature!  Anyone can nominate any blog they want, so make sure you take a moment or two to nominate the blogs you read each and every day.

Click here to submit your nomination for the Canadian Blog Awards.

*okay, so there is no red carpet.  But winners do get a nifty badge.  Maybe one day they’ll do the awards over Skype!

I have a secret.  A couple of months ago I almost cracked and bought an Ipad. Yes, I was one of those people. Ugh.  Ipad.  Who needs them, right?  Wrong.  I needed one.  I wanted one.  I actually went all the way to the Apple store to buy one but finally came to my senses when I realized you couldn’t watch flash products on it.  Since my main reason for wanting to have it was to watch TV shows when I wasn’t home or too lazy to get out of bed, the Ipad instantly became unattractive.  And before you start getting your feathers all ruffled, I wasn’t planning on illegally downloading shows.  I was thinking more the streaming video that is available on Global TV, CityTV and CTV.

So I passed.  It hurt.  But it was what was best for me and more importantly, my bank account.

Now City TV is screwing everything up.  They are the first network to come up with a free Ipad App that allows you to watch their shows for free on your super geeky device.   How is annoying is that?  By annoying I mean, “shit, now I have to buy an Ipad.”

Thanks to the new App you can watch shows like Modern Family, 30 Rock, Cougar Town and Murdoch Mysteries (yes, MURDOCH MYSTERIES) all for free!  For free!  That’s worth buying the Ipad itself.

Great.  I’m already convincing myself.  Damn you City TV,

Ever since I heard about the probably demise of one of Calgary’s three indepdent movies theatres, I haven’t been able to sleep.  While I don’t feel like I’m an activist, I mean do like to shower and eat Froot Loops, it doesn’t mean that I can at least try to make other peple do something.

That’s why I wrote my new Metro column about The Uptown theatre.   Click here to read it.

The Uptown is one of my favourite places to catch obscure documentries and award winning films. I’m not just saying that because drunk homeless people always sneak in and end up being their own show too, which I obviously never mind.

Hopefully we can get the ball rolling on saving the Uptown!

A couple of days ago Netflix came to Canada during a hugely hyped debut in Toronto.

Since then people have been asking me:  What the hell is Netflix?

Well, I actually had access to the service about a week before it debuted, so I was able to give it a proper-go and I am happy to report that it is actually pretty cool.

But back to what it is:  Plain and simple it is the end of the video store.  Essentially it is no different than the services like Rogers or Shaw on Demand.  Except that instead of paying per view, you pay per month and at only $8 a month, you are getting a really good deal.

So what do you get exactly?  Well you get a lot of TV shows and movies.  Many you’ve never heard of before and some you’ve completely forgetton about.  The library is not that impressive but I’m told it will be growing as the service becomes more and more popular.

What’s great about Netflix is that it streams online, so you can watch it on your laptop or hook it up through your tv.  You can watch it on the Wii or PS3.   My nephew and niece tried it on the PS3 this weekend and loved it. And they are grumpy and bitter children, you take it from them.  Think Youtube without the pesky copyright laws and ads.

One week in, I’m kinda sorta enamoured Netflix.  The service is so user-friendly it is like they are in my mind.  I’m recommending it based on the fact that their library will hopefully be growing.  Right now, it could easily out-grow its often random selections of movie and tv titles. Yet it is able to get newer titles and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, then I will have no problem canceling my cable bill!

So today is a pretty big day!  I’m back in my hometown of Fredericton, NB to emcee my friend’s wedding!  I know, right?  Who the hell would give me a mic on a day that is supposed to be about love. This is what happens when they only see me once a year and forget that I’m not that good of a person!

But seriously folks, I’m so excited and feel honoured that I get to be here for their special day.  My two friends names are Andrew and Michelle.  I’ve actually known Andrew since I was about seven years old.  We used to go to gymnastics together!  I met Michelle in University and we studied Spanish together.

It was one of those rare instances when your two friends start dating and it doesn’t end in tears, fights and listening to The Cranberries while crying in the rain.  I’m not sure what love is, but I know they’ve found.

Happy Wedding Day Michelle and Andrew!  I’m sure of all the things you are doing today, it is reading this blog!

xoxo,

Mike

The other day, for the very first time in my life, I finally remembered my postal code.

Moments later, Mike Tompkins released this video.
These extra therapy appointments are getting expensive.

I have so many questions:
How does he do it?
When does he do it?
Does he know his postal code?
Why can’t I do that?
Will he ever do a Canadian song?
What’s my postal code?