I won't say to whom this message is aimed and I'll only say this once: "sellout" is the most fanboyish term in the world, and, if the fact that I don't give a crap at all about how FUNimation treats
Dragonball Z or how 4Kids treats
Pok�mon or
Yu-Gi-Oh or how DiC treats
Saint Seiya/
Knights of the Zodiac for North American children's television and that I never gave a crap about what Nelvana did with
Cardcaptors just so long as we had the subtitled version of
Cardcaptor Sakura from Pioneer (which was available because there was enough of a market to support a subtitled release) makes me a "sellout", well, better a contented sellout than an angry fanboy.
Except, of course, I can't be a sellout, nor can the fine folks at
Anime News Network, when I (and they) never owned the rights to any of these programmes in the first place, but, well, like the nature of the free market in general and especially the economics and politics of the children's television business in North America (from both the perspective of the American licensee and the Japanese licensor), certain aspects of logic just elude you completely.
Ah, I love
"Team Sexy Madame's" "95 Theses Against Fandumb", especially these four:
"3. Cuts and edits in anime that's being aired on US television are at worst a necessary evil and nothing to cry about. They by no means sully the quality, concept, or memory of the original.
6. Pokemon, Card Captor Sakura, Sailor Moon, et al are toy ads in Japan and they're toy ads in the states. If you spend time arguing about how much better the Japanese edition of Pocket Monsters is than Pokemon, we encourage you to jump off a bridge. If you are buying Pokemon fansubs so that you can see the "pure" version, you deserve to get ripped off.
7. Children's anime aired on television in the west is neither the time nor the place for discussion of nonstandard (for the country in which the show is aired) religious or sexual views; don't bother complaining about what had to be left out because it simply wouldn't fly.
13. If you get deeply, personally offended over how your favorite show was treated for domestic release, please direct your energies to the many charitable organizations combatting real problems."
ARREST THE SAVAGE MOTHERFUCKERS!
The savages (the thugs and goons that acted violently yesterday, NOT Mohawks in general) burned down the chief's house! And
Quebec Public Security Minister Jacques Chagnon negotiates with them, and then decide it's the good Peacekeeprs that were moved into the reserve whom are the problem, not the bad Peacekeepers that were there before and who are the real cause of this whole mess? And the solution is to move out the good Peacekeepers and replace them with some from Kahnawake and Akwesasne, whom, if the bad Peacekeepers approve of them coming in, must have some "issues" of their own?
Fuck that, I say bring in the RCMP, including a few snipers, and let's have some mass arrests. And, besides arson, vandalism, hostage taking, obstructing a provincial highway and cruelty to animals charges, charge the ringleaders with attempted murder.
WHAT A BUNCH OF SAVAGES!
No, certainly not Mohawks in general, just the handful of thugs and goons whom
burned down the house of Kanesetake Mohawk reserve Grand Chief James Gabriel, killing his dog, as well as destroying his car and tractor, under the guise of protest. Some reports indicate that the arsonists might have belived that Gabriel and his family was still in his home... if that's true, they should face attempted murder charges. Gabriel had brought in police officers from 18 different native communities and a new assistant chief, Larry Ross, to help better enforce regulations against the sale of contraband cigarettes (and, allegedly, marijuana), but the old police force rebelled, baraccading the new police force in the station as the protestors went on their rampage, blocking off Highway 344.
And what floors me is some of the political correctness shown by reporters on the scene last night, saying that, besides burning the house down, there was no real violence. Uhh... burning the house down and locking police officers in the station is plenty violent enough to be able to say that it's violent, as far as I'm concerned.
Honestly, I don't care about the grievances the old police force has against the new police force; if they're as corrupt and in bed with gangsters as what I've read seems to indicate, and if they terrorize the community by burning down houses when they disagree with their leaders, then their ideas of justice are wrong, and there should be nothing to negotiate. Just send in more cops and/or the military and throw the old cops in jail because they have nothing of value to contribute to their community besides lawlessness and disorder.
I was glad to hear on CJAD that most of the ordinary Mohawks that they spoke to seem to be decrying the actions of the few without any "buts".
Oh crap, I'm having template problems again... funny, because I haven't touched the template in several weeks. Well, I'll fix it this evening, but I have got to get to a class.
CONCORDIA DIARY
Meh... so I'm still trying to register, but not having much luck. I'm through with Poli. Sci... I want to take English classes and, eventually, TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) courses so I can teach English somewhere in Asia... or Mexico. I did get into one geology course, though, about volcanoes! Ooh... I like that sort of thing.
Anyhow, one thing I've noticed about registering... I can't seem to find many classes available on Fridays! I like the long weekend too, but I seem to be in the minority whom prefers going to class on Fridays and having Mondays off, since, if you take off Monday, it removes much of the "edge" from the rest of the week, and you can be more relaxed. I like Friday classes because it means I can see one of the new movies that particular week just after, since I'm downtown anyway.
MINOR CANADIAN CELEBRITY NEWS
Well, not really "news", just little things I noticed.
-ITEM! You know, one of the most common variety of Google hits I get to this blog are people looking for information regarding and/or pictures of (clothed or otherwise) YTV's P.J.s (Program Jockeys), especially for Stephanie Beard/Sugar/Suga-Baby. (And, I must reiterate: NO, I DON'T HAVE ANY PICS OF STEPHANIE BEARD! NOR DO I KNOW WHERE YOU'D FIND ANY OF THE SORT NOT CONDONED BY YTV!)
Recently, for some reason, I've been getting a lot of hits looking for information on Phil Guerrero a.k.a. "P.J. Fresh Phil", host of The Zone during the "Snit" years, when Sailor Moon was first becoming popular and the era wherein Steve Brandon of Pincourt, Quebec (re: me) sent in all those hand-drawn Sailor Moon postcards, and Phil was also the host of The Anti-Gravity Room, the YTV and American Sci-Fi channel co-production that was a weekly magazine featuring information and reviews of comic books, sci-fi, cult TV and movies, and, occasionally, anime (well, it was uncommon for a TV show to feature anime and manga back in 1995). And the weird thing is, when I get hits about Phil Guerrero, it's almost never just one at a time, there's usually several within an hour or two. And, I know what you're thinking, and it's what I'd think too, that it's just one person using slightly different search terms, possibly Phil himself checking to see what people are still saying about him. That's what you'd think... but you'd be wrong. Inevitably, when I get a cluster of searches for "Phil Guerrero", the searches are never all from the same server. So, it's either multiple people, or one guy whom uses several Internet service providers and switches ISPs before each time he does a search, but Ockham's Razor suggests that one isn't too likely.
Well, while I did get Phil to mention my name on air an inordinate number of times during the 1995-96 television season, I don't have any special knowledge as to what the guy's up to now, and I have to use Google like everyone else. I did find out thanks to "Gally" that Phil is working in television again as host of Feng Shui Life. Ooh... Feng Shui. I'll be nice and I won't give an opinion about such things other than, assuming they exist, I personally wouldn't trust impersonal anonymous "forces", even ones that seem to be beneficial, but, still, the cool thing about that is... hey... maybe they'll expand it from just a show to a full programming block, and they'll put on the shoujou anime (girl's cartoon) series Please Ask Dr. Rin!/Dr. Rin ni Kittemitte, a cartoon about a girl who's secretly a Feng Shui expert, and then I'll send in a whole bunch of Dr. Rin postcards and Phil will say my name on air! What a perfect plan... ;-) (Note to anime fans with no sense of discernment as to what's true and what isn't: the previous supposition was merely a joke regarding how I sent hand-drawn Sailor Moon postcards to The Zone and how everything would all come "full circle" if they showed Dr. Rin. As far as I know, Please Ask Dr. Rin has not been licensed, and it most certainly will never be shown on a serious Feng Shui programme.)
I also recall reading a recent blog entry somewhere about the writer having run into Phil in an anime store somewhere in Toronto's Chinatown and Phil was very friendly to him (and Phil mentioned something about The Zone being much better when he was there, but this is all just "hearsay" I have no means of confirming) but Phil couldn't talk for long since he was with his kids. But I can't find this blog on Google anymore.
I like the scary photo of Phil and Paul McGuire, another former YTV PJ, on this ancient Goosebumps news page from long ago 1996.
-ITEM! Another minor Canadian celebrity I've been keeping track of lately is Adam Reid a.k.a. Adam from You Can't Do That on Television, whom, as I've pointed out before, plays the clerk on the Future Shop commercials (though I haven't seen one of those Future Shop commercials with him as the clerk since the Christmas shopping season; maybe that campaign's over). Anyhow, I've only seen this once so far and I'm afraid I forget what it's for, but I spotted Adam in another commercial; he's at a table in either a diner or a breakfast nook in a kitchen and facing some other person, yabbering about something or other. I think Adam is only shot from the side so that you don't recognize him as the Future Shop clerk. (That trick may fool Joe and Jane Average, but not us YCDTOTV fans, heh heh.)
Not that I'm making fun of Adam at all for appearing in commercials. I like seeing a familiar (and very distinctive) face pop up in weird places, and acting in commercials is completely honourable work, except to an Adbusters magazine-subscribing Communist, perhaps. I'd do commercials if I could, except I don't think I'm telegenic enough. :-( Also, appearing in commercials is just a side-job; his day job is as a director, and other miscellaneous crew, on various projects (mostly children's television) and he's also a freelance writer. Well, as am I, but I assume he gets paid.
-ITEM! The National Post's TV critic Scott Feschuk got a new job as new Canadian prime minister Paul Martin's speechwriter, so I liked this item in the Post's (David Letterman rip-off list) "10 Signs Feschuk Is Getting Too Powerful":
"2. 8,000% tax on production of any more of those annoying Canadian Tire ads with the skinny earnest bearded guy and his smug wife."
So, anyhow, this inspired me to look up more information about the bearded Canadian Tire guy from the "I'll start for you" commercials (but not his wife, if they're supposed to be married; I don't care about her), and I found this one blog entry which claims that he too has a day job, and it's something in the retail service sector (not at Canadian Tire) where he has to personally deal with customers. I'm not going to link to the thing I found since it identifies the place of business, which I don't think is too fair, but, apparently (and, again, this is total hearsay which I can't confirm), he doesn't like it if you recognize him and will give you a little lecture.
I'm tempted to say, "If you don't want people recognizing you from TV commercials, don't do them!", but, then again, it's entirely possible that the guy had just served 50 other people whom also mentioned that they recognize him from the Canadian Tire ads but only lectured that one guy, and, yes, I can understand how that would get annoying, and I'm sure I'd snap too after a while.
Still, I'd love to have that couple over for dinner parties, if I had dinner parties, since I'd love to see if they could segue into talking about a product from Canadian Tire no matter what the circumstances.
(Not that I have anything against Canadian Tire, which is a fine store that is pretty unique to Canada, with automotive supplies actually being only a small part of what they sell; it's also a hardware store and a plumbing store and a lighting fixtures store and a gardening store and a outdoor supplies store and a camping gear store, and there are also some electronics and small appliances and toys and such. It's a store Hank Hill would really like.)
