Late last week, I had the trailer for a potential new Canadian reality show emailed to me. The show is called The Boys of Paradise and the show’s trailer came with this description:
“It is about 3 homegrown Canadian boys who have left the cold winters of Canada to live on Paradise Island in the Bahamas and live every March breakers dream indefinately. Every week we will follow the boys as they cruise the beach, hit the bars, fall in love, get their hearts broken, cause some drama and drive their den mother crazy.”
After watching the trailer, I had to ask myself one single question: Why? Why would anyone watch a show about three guys on vacation, who from I can tell, aren’t doing anything that interesting or original. No one ever likes watching other people’s vacation videos, and while the quality of the trailer is impressive, it’s just that, a boring vacation video…just with a lot of puke.
I could see it maybe working as a scripted show or maybe a fun movie, but as a reality show, I can’t imagine these three guys being interesting enough to get people coming back week to week. As far as I can tell, it’s three rich friends who are pre-casting themselves in Intervention.
But maybe I’m getting old? The show already has 1700 Facebook fans and over 18,000 views on YouTube, so there is obviously an interest. Maybe it’s all the girls who possibly share an STD with one or more members of the cast? I thankfully missed The Jersey Shore train and have never been the crazy “all inclusive resort” kinda guy, so maybe this is a show worth watching? (I’m fairly certain it’s not, but I’m giving myself the benefit of the doubt.)
So what do you think? Would you watch The Boys of Paradise?
If there is one thing that people want when they read my Metro columns, it’s my opinion on politics. Actually, it’s probably the last thing anyone would care for me to talk about, but where’s the fun in the that? Just cause this isn’t a political blog, doesn’t mean I can’t have my opinion right?
This week’s Metro column is about the irony that Calgary constantly finds itself when it comes to the Federal elections. It’s well known that the Conservatives will always win their ridings here, but who is to blame? Is it the lazy electorate? The uninspired candidates or should we just blame the baby seals.
It was a great week to be online this week, from coast to coast, here are some of my favourite blog posts. Check out the amazing video above. SAIT (a post-secondary school in Calgary) collaborated with Calgary hip-hop artist Transit and put together a video that they hope will get students thinking about the May 2nd federal election. It’s pretty great. Your move Snow.
Bon Iver is finally coming back with a second album and this one has a special Calgary connection. (XOXO JES)
Art can sometimes be scary. Did I say scary? I meant beautiful. (Shape + Colour)
Woody Harrelson wants to play Toronto Mayor Rob Ford? YES PLEASE! (The Q)
What’s this? The Crackle application is finally the way for Canucks to watch steaming shows on our phones. But is it worth it? (The TV Addict)
I couldn’t agree more with Chart Attack’s ‘Song of the Day.’ (Chart Attack)
Sun TV launched earlier this week, how bright are the ratings? (TV Feeds My Family)
Spring has FINALLY sprung in Calgary and with it a flurry of fan activities to do this weekend. In between Easter Egg Hunts and yummy Ham dinners, here are Mark Hopkins’ top picks for this lovely long weekend!
We Should Know Each Other #75
Saturday, April 23, 2:00-11:00 pm
Endeavor Arts Gallery, #200 1209 1st St SW www.swallowabicycle.com
It can be hard to meet new people, but nothing beats the feeling of making a new friend. That’s the whole concept of We Should Know Each Other, which encourages you to step outside of your social comfort zone and meet some fascinating strangers!
I’ve been running WSKEO (what an acronym, hey?) for three years, and we’re celebrating the 75th edition with a massive event at Endeavor Arts Gallery. There will be games, interactive installations, prizes, musicians, LEGO and more – and, of course, tonnes of cool people to meet. Hope you can join us!
Kaboom… Hooray! Comedy!
Friday, April 22, 8:00 pm
Birds and Stone Theatre, 207 16th Ave NW www.kaboomhooray.com
I’m usually not a huge fan of stand-up comedy – when comedians use racism as humour, or attack the audience for laughs, it turns me off. Fortunately, Kaboom… Hooray! is a different brand of comedy, which mixes intelligence with hilarity for an evening of feel-good laughs! This weekend’s lineup includes local comedians Ryan Kukec, Jeff Kubik, Alan Cho, Amanda Brooke Perrin, Chris Griffin and Don Woods, who will do their best to melt your face with funny.
The Rocky Horror Easter Show
Saturday, April 23, 11:30 pm
Plaza Theatre, 1133 Kensington Rd NW www.holeinthewallstudios.ca
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is truly a rite of passage. If you’ve never thrown toast, danced the Time Warp or yelled “Buy an umbrella, you cheap bitch!” at the screen… have you truly lived? This midnight cult-movie experience is one of the weirdest and most strangely compelling things you’ll ever see, and you’ll wake up in the morning feeling slightly dirty. But hey, it’s a long weekend – you were probably going to do that, anyway.
After a little bit of a mysterious exit from Dragon’s Den, Brett Wilson’s return to TV was announced this morning with a completely new series on Slice.
The show is called Risky Business and will feature Wilson as he guides Canadians who are risking their life savings to make their investment dreams come true! Yikes! Sound scary. Unless you’re like me and your life savings total a solid three month bus pass, then you don’t really have much to lose.
The series is currently casting for novice investors, ranging from friends and family duos to married and unmarried couples, who are interested in making big money in new ways. It is also casting for entrepreneurs offering unique high-risk, high-reward investment opportunities.
Risky Business actually doesn’t stray that far from Dragon’s Den. Brett will give the daring couple a chance to risk big and win big. As host, he will guide the investors as they choose between pitches made by two different entrepreneurs, each looking for capital and offering a big return. The options will be unusual – such as investing in undervalued vintage wine labels or betting it all on a high stakes one-night-only event. The duo will stake their life savings on one investment, and Brett will invest in the other. It isn’t until the end of the episode that it is revealed how each investment performed.
If I had known that Canada’s most succesful reality shows were going to be about investing, I would have paid in attention in math classes. I knew taking “Marrying a Reality Star” was a bad idea.
Do you text on date? What about BBM? How long should you wait to answer a text after the first date? If technology is supposed to be making our lives easier, why does it seem to be making dating more complicated than ever?
Textuality is a new movie that explores a subject that my therapist (see: Starbucks barista) and I have been tackling for months: Dating in the mobile age. It seems all the rules have changed and we’re left wondering who can make sense of them?
Textuality stars Jason Lewis (Sex and the City), Canadian actress Carly Pope (Young People F**king, Popular) and Eric McCormack (Will & Grace). Here’s the preview:
Textuality opens up in theatres across the country this Friday!
To celebrate the opening and hopefully help out your dating life, TWO lucky Bloggity Blog readers will win a Blackberry Bold 9780s + 2 months of service from WIND Mobile.
Two ways to enter:
1) Leave a comment with your thoughts on the “Do’s and Dont’s of dating in the digital age”. When, if ever, is it okay to dump on a text? Are mirror shots on dating profiles annoying? Why can’t someone just take the picture for them? What is one rule every dater should know in the mobile age? I have no many questions!
2) Tweet this super text tweet: “I wanna win a Blackberry Bold from @mikesbloggity, @windmobile and @textualitymovie! http://goo.gl/ObzRG”
Remember, there’s two Blackberrys up for grabs!
Rules:
1) You’ll probably want to be sure you live in a WIND zone (Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton.)
2) Two entries per person.
3)Contest closes Sunday April 24th at 11:59mst.
4) Promise to never to text someone to ask them out.
Tonight the fast moving fancy-free feet of Riverdance came to Calgary for an exclusive one week engagement. If I’m being honest, I’ve probably never had Riverdance on top of my MUST SEE list, instead the show was probably always on my HAVE TO SEE list. Ever since the show premiered nearly seventeen years ago, I’ve had memories of sitting around the TV with my mom watching show after show on CBC. Seeing Riverdance is a Canadian rite of passage and tonight was the night.
Because I’m a good audience member, I didn’t tweet during the show but sometimes, I find myself thinking in short 140 character bursts. Am I saying that I think in tweets? Yes, Yes I do.
Here are five tweets that came to mind during Riverdance:
-Are they making it look easy, or is it just easy? Not that the spectacle of the show wasn’t impressive, but really aren’t they just doing the same five moves over and over? Intro to Irish Dance must be the shortest class in the entire dance school.
-These dancers easily must have the weakest upper bodies (outside of curlers.) Even ballet has a few lifts? In Irish Dance the hands barely get higher than their wastes. Their arms are probably 1/32nd the size of their thighs.
-This show has remained untouched since it premiered in 1994. This is great if you’re like me and you’ve never seen the show. But if you’re a repeat viewer, you might be disappointed. Kinda like the second time I saw Elton John. It was exactly the same show two years later. If artists know this is the case, they should post a warning: “Show remains the same, check back soon.”
-Why am I such a sucker for large group dance numbers? Even the most cynical person would have a hard time resisting the excitement that comes from watching Riverdance’s huge dance numbers. They are stirring, exciting and dizzying. They get me every.single.time.
-Poor Riverdance, they really felt the wrath of Calgary’s “I’m not clapping unless everyone else is clapping” unspoken rule tonight. You may or may not have heard that Calgary has one of the worst reputations for being a cold audience. I’ve seen people sit through an entire Jason Mraz concert, Swell Season essentially told the audience to fuck off at last year’s Folk Fest and at that same festival, another artist left the stage in tears. Yes, this city can be brutal. Tonight it took an hour and forty five minutes for the audience to finally get behind the dancers, and that’s after they were essentially begging the crowd to clap. I’d love to be a fly on the dressing room when they are talking about Calgary crowds. Even the standing ovation was weak, it’s Canada, you know you are going to get one. But I think most people in the audience were just getting up. Oh well, a standing O is a standing O.
Riverdance is playing in Calgary until Sunday, April 24th.
Edmonton, AB (April 26 – May 1, 2011)
Regina, SK (May 3 – May 5, 2011)
Saskatoon, SK (May 6 – May 8, 2011)
Victoria, BC (May 30 – June 1, 2011)
If not, it’s alright, before Juno Weekend neither had I. But now that I have heard of the Ontario band, they are quickly moving up my Must Listen to Daily Play-list. Hailing from Windsor, ON, MICHOU is Mike Hargreaves (vocals), Sasha Appler (keys/trumpet), Ryan Frith (bass), and Stefan Cvetkovic (drums). I don’t know about you, but there were probably lots of ways I was going to hear about the band. Whether it was on CBC Radio 3, Itunes or randomly on Myspace. Yes, I still use Myspace. But no, I found out about the band in much stranger way.
My friends always say that I suffer from FOMA or Fear of Missing Out. So when I was in Toronto for the Junos and heard about any parties that I wasn’t invited to, I got really annoyed. I really wanted to go to this one specific party sponsored by Gibson guitars. My emails to the party’s publicist went ignored, so I thought I was out of luck. Well as chance would have it, my friend knew some people who had been invited and it was implied that if I used one of their names, it wouldn’t be a problem to get in. All I had to do was say that my name was Mike Hargreaves and I was the lead singer of a band called Michou. Easy right? Wrong. I’m the worst liar in the world. Even though I was assured that Hargreaves wouldn’t be coming to the party, I was convinced that the people at the door would know that I wasn’t who I was saying I was. Mostly because if there is anything I look like, it’s not the lead singer of a band. Unless that band is fronted by Moby.
Well after a few preparatory shots, my friend and I checked into the party with zero problem. For the rest of the night, I would be Mike Hargreaves (Far right in above photo.) No problem right? Wrong again. After wandering around the party and saying hi to a few people, I ended up talking to a nice group of party-goers. I asked the usual networking questions like, “What to you do?” and “Where ya from?” One guy mentioned that his name was Ryan and he was in a band. “Oh cool, what band?” I asked. “This band called Michou.” Shit.
I must have turned eight colours of red because I was completely embarrassed and I could tell that people were alarmed by instantly bright red complexion. Typical Mike – Of course one of the first people I ran at the party, that I had snuck into, was the bass player for the band that I was pretending to be in. Classy bloggity, real classy.
Turns out, Ryan was really cool and thought the whole story was hilarious. Phew. It could have been way worse. So on my way home from the Junos, I knew I owed it to myself to give the band a listen to. As luck would have it, Michou is good. Like really good. Picture a great blend of Death Cab for Cutie, with a dash of Jason Mraz. And I’m happy to report that unlike most Canadian bands, these guys seem to wear clothes that fit them and don’t seem to own a hair straightner. This, Canadian music industry, is what I call progress!
The boys from Michou are about to embark on a national tour and I’m highly recommending that you check them out. Their music is fun, catchy and when you go, say that you know me. Actually don’t, they might still let you in.
Here’s their upcoming tour schedule and check out one of my favourite Michou videos below. Single shot, bikes and unicycles. What more could you want?
In the next few weeks, networks from above and below the border will be announcing their new Fall schedules. This also happens to be my favourite time of the year because we get a sneak peak at what we’ll be spending our night’s watching in just a few months. I’m not alone in that right? Other people get excited for new schedules too?
In anticipation of the new fall line-ups, I’ve sorta developed a wish list of shows I wish networks would bring back. Maybe it’s because my birthday is around the corner and I’m feeling nostalgic, but I’d love to see some shows return for fresh, new audiences.
Street Cents: How can any Canadian that grew up in the 90′s not remember and love Street Cents? Filmed in Halifax, the show about saving money, being a smart consumer and essentially knowing your shit, would be a perfect fit for the new and improved Muchmusic. The network has done an amazing job at bouncing back from being a bad Canadian VH1 and is now really appealing to an engaged and young demographic. The world is drastically different than it was ten years ago and a show like Street Cents could teach Canada’s youth about this big, bad scary country. And who would host? I just checked my scheduled and it’s free…painfully so.
1 Girl, 5 Gays: Celebrity Edition
I feel like this one is pretty self-explanatory, but how fun would it be to watch five gay Canadian celebs sitting around, shouting the shit about being gay in Canada. Especially because we have so many that are regularly in the spotlight. Canada AM’s Seamus O’Regan, CBC’s Rick Mercer, musician Ashley McIsaac…wait…why are all our gay people from islands on the East Coast? Let’s throw in Degrassi’s Adamo Ruggiero and Olympian Mark Tewksbury just to get the cross-country perspective.
While the perspective of Toronto party boys are one thing, it would be cool to hear from some of this country’s biggest celebrities too!
The Rockets: The Next Generation
AS IF Glee is not a total rip-off of Canada’s favourite singing group, The Rockets. Not very many people remember this show, but hopefully this flashback will help.
How can you not instantly love a show where a character’s name is MUFFY?!? I love it. I think the advantage of not having a ton of memories of The Rockets, Canadians will feel more accepting of welcoming a new generation into their home. I don’t think the story lines have to stray to far from my Degrassi: TNG did, the Rockets are now parents (grandparents?) and their kids are equally as awkward and mildly adequate singers. Out of all of these shows, this is the one I want and need the most.
Have you seen this ad yet? Apparantly Ke$ha and Peta have a problem with Canada’s little hobby of clubbing seals to death. Which, for the record, I think is horrendous and incredibly embarrasing, but I’m just not sure that Ke$ha is exactly the person that should be telling us what we should or shouldn’t be doing in our country. Yes, I get that she knows clubs, but this is a whole other kind. (See what I did there?)
Given Ke$ha’s rise to fame, her track record for what is best for Canada, seems a big dodgy.
Lets’ take a look at some of her lyrics shall we:
Blah, Blah, Blah:
“I dont really care where you live at just turn around boy and let me hit that
Dont be a little bitch with your chit chat just show me where your dick’s at.”
Ki$$ ‘n Tell:
“You’re looking like a tool not a baller
You’re acting like a chick, why bother?
I can find someone way hotter
With a bigger… ”
Sleazy:
“And get sleazy. Sick of all your lines, so cheesy
Sorry daddy, but I’m not that easy
I’m not gonna sit here while you circle jerk it and work it
I’mma take it back to where my man and my girls is”
Yes folks, this is the person that Peta has designated to direct our moral compass. I’m guessing the given the choice of Ke$ha representing them, or dying a horrible death, the seals might just club themselves.
