Mike's Bloggity Blog

Whether you live in Alberta or not, you’ve probably heard that this province is enjoying (or being crippled by) a Conservative government.  Forty straights years of one government majority.

So this weekend, when the Albertans gather to vote for a new leader of the PC, a lot of people will be really, especially because this campaign has been going on for an almost a year, and three people running couldn’t be more different.

So why don’t I care?

I like politics, I like voting, but this whole election process has passed me by, I don’t think I’m the only one.

That’s what I decided to write about in this week’s Metro column.  If we’re choosing the next leader of our province, why don’t we care, or more importantly, why should we?

Click here to read the column.

An Ottawa mom has announced that she will give birth next week, live on the internet.

FIRST THOUGHT:  Your kid is you going to hate yoooooooooooooooooooou!

Dr. Nancy Salgueiro is due to give birth next week to her third child, and if you’re interested in seeing where babies come from, specifically her’s, then you can register to watch her give birth.

People she is a doctor!

The website is called Your Birth Coach and the Salgueiro says that she is doing it to change the perception of fear about giving birth.  She also says that she “loves giving birth.”  How can she love giving birth?  I hate going number one and I do that like twelve times a day.

While I get the initial concept, sure, I get that new moms to be would be scared.  But this is the internet, there are a ton of pervs out there, and for every mom who is genuinely interested, there will be 87 perverts.  These numbers are rough, but I even I get perverted emails, so I only imagine what happens what happens when you flash your hoo-haa, for free, to the entire world!

What do you think, will you watch?

Next week, Canadian music fans will be celebrating the release of Feist‘s long-awaited third album.   But ugh, who likes waiting for things, when you can listen to the highly anticipated album NOW and for FREE?!

Check out the fancy widget below, where you can hear all twelve songs off of Metals and if you’re a super fan, you can memorize all the lyrics and scare the shit out of an HMV employee when you go and buy the disc next week.

Sure you can buy it digitally, but who are you going to scare then?

Welcome back Feist!

Holy crow, what is going on with Canadian television?  It seems nowadays, no series is safe!

Citytv have confirmed that the upcoming fifth season of Murdoch Mysteries, will indeed be its last.

The series, which is like CSI but in the 1800s, made national headlines earlier this year, when it featured a cameo by Stephen Harper.

Looking on the bright side, fans of the show will be happy to know the Murdoch Mysteries is currently still producing its now final season, so they can look forward to having a proper send-off and not be left to deal with a huge cliff hanger or unanswered questions. The final season will also feature some great guest stars like soprano Measha Brueggergosman and Aaron Ashmore.

The cancellation is another blow to Canadian productions, which are still dealing with the recent loss of Dan For Mayor, Hiccups and So You Think You Can Dance.

What do you think is going on?  I’m trying to be optimistic and tell myself that a whole new batch of awesome Canadian shows is right around the corner, right?  RIGHT?!?!

This is the first and only time I will write about this, but I just read that the horrible story of Russell Williams is going to be turned into a movie and I have to just to say something about it.

It was just announced by Penguin Group and Richard Lowry Productions Inc. that they have bought the movie rights to the yet to be released book Camouflaged Killer: The Shocking Double Life of Canadian Air Force Colonel Russell Williams, by David A. Gibb.

While I know my job (I hired myself) is to report on Canadian media, I hope to not write about this gross project ever again.  In this day in age, do we really need a movie showing us how Williams murdered and/or sexually assaulted multiple women?  I mean, we saw his confession, we followed his trial, we know what happened.

Thinking about this movie, I can’t even imagine what it would be like to experience it in a theatre.  I certainly wouldn’t be eating any popcorn, that’s for sure.

The book comes out on October 4th and the movie will go into production next year.

Fresh off his decision to leave Alexis on Fire, Dallas Green is now taking his former, now only side-project on a cross country tour.

In support of his latest disc, Little Hell, City and Colour will kick off a true cross-country tour in Vancouver on January 19, 2012 and wrap things up in St. John’s, NL on February 25, 2012, visiting 18 Canadian cities in total.

The pre-sale is on now and runs until Thursday, September 29th, while pre-sale quantities last.  Fans will be able to purchase tickets, during the pre-sale, directly from cityandcolour.ca/tour

Joining City and Colour on the Canadian run is new-to-me band The Low Anthem, an indie-folk quartert hailing from Providence, Rhode Island.

Do you ever recycle gifts?  No, I don’t mean give a gift that you’ve already gotten to someone else, I mean you give a gift to someone, they love it so much, so decide to just keep giving that gift to other people over and over again.  I mean, if you know it’s a hit, why change, right?

Well this year that gift has been Adventures in Solitude. The book, written by CBC Radio 3′s Grant Lawrence tells the story of his summers spent at his cabin in Desolation Sound, located on the wild west coast of Canada, where the characters are just as wild as the weather. Adventures in Solitude is Grant Lawrence’s first book.

The book is so well written (and such a good gift), that it was just nominated for the prestigious Hilary Weston Writers Trust Prize for Nonfiction, the largest nonfiction prize in Canada, it also happens to come with a top prize of $60,000!

While the nomination should definitely be celebrated by Lawrence and his family, I’m also extra happy because it confirms one thing that I’ve always known:  I give awesome gifts!

I will say, I once fumbled when I gave it to a friend who was going to be in the hospital for a long time, and before I realized that giving him a book about solitude probably wasn’t initially going to be that encouraging, it was too late.  But my friend read it anyway, and he still loved it.  Crises of conscience averted.

The winner of the  Hilary Weston Writers Trust Prize for Nonfiction will be announced during an event and after-party on October 25, 2011 at Koerner Hall in Toronto. Meanwhile, my friends will be celebrating my thoughtfulness for years to come.

It’s out today.

You know what to do.

Start your engines!

The big week is here, for the next seven days I’m going to be doing everything I can to help my favourite charity, Kids Up Front win $5,000!

But I need your help!

It’s called the Spot The Core Mini campaign.  It’s a program sponsored by The Core, Calgary’s only downtown shopping experience.

All week long, I’ll be driving around a suped up MINI Countryman. Every time you see the car, take a picture of it and you can either:

• Tweet the photo, using the hashtag #coremini
• And/or upload it to the The Core’s Facebook page.

There are four media outlets competing for the top  prize, including myself, CTV, Calgary Herald and Amp Radio.  In case you’re wondering, yes, that means I’m taking on three multi-million dollar companies! Out of the four of us, whoever gets the most social media mentions, wins the $5,000!  So seriously, all you have to do is tweet and facebook a couple of times for me.  It’s that easy!

But let’s be honest, we’re all a little selfish, so what’s in it for you? Well, every time you enter a photo, you can entered to win a $5,000 shopping spree to The Core AND heated, underground parking for an entire year. The prize is worth more than $11,000!

So yeah, it’s worth entering.

A little bit about Kids Up Front, they are an amazing organization that really does provide once and a lifetime opportunities: One little ticket, one big lift! Kids Up Front provides access to arts, culture, sport, and recreation for children and youth who otherwise would not have the opportunity. They believe that a ticket experience can be the key that opens the door to a world of opportunity and can inspire dreams.

So yeah, they are totally awesome.

And for those of you not in Calgary, don’t worry.  I’ll have a way that you can help me win too.  Stay tuned, but it’s going to be HUGE!

I’ll have the car until October 2nd and you can enter twice a day.  Once on Twitter, once on Facebook.  And here’s a little hint, if you see the car, take a bunch of pictures, you can use them to enter all week.

And lastly, THANK YOU.  I have a really good feeling about this, and if we win, it will be because of everyone that helped.

So yeah, thank you!

Oh you know it’s going to be a good week, when you wake up to a new Mike Tompkins video. Easily one of Canada’s most talented YouTubers, the Ontario star has turned a hobby into a full blown career.

His newest video, is a cover of Demi Levato’s All Night Long and some are saying it’s his best yet. If you’ve never seen his videos, you MUST watch this one. And remember one thing, the entire video is made using sounds from his mouth (snicker)!  It’s seriously so impressive, especially because I can barely snap my fingers.

Enjoy and marvel.