One particularly noisome aspect of modern journalism is its fixation with grief porn: those maudlin public displays of grief over tragic events by people otherwise uninvolved in the lives of those actually afflicted. Grief porn is wholly a product of media pandering. it's a way for people to feel good about themselves -- and just incidentally show the world how good they are -- by displaying, often in bizarre or saccharin fashion, how badly they feel about the misfortunes of strangers - especially spectacular or notorious misfortunes besetting newsworthy or celebrity strangers. Well, here's a rare exception: a gutsy interview...

30 June, 2010

Writing in the Columbia Journalism Review, Maureen Tkacik explains: Phone sex is not so unlike being a reporter. A central challenge of success at both is keeping random strangers—horny guys, hostile hedge-fund managers—on the phone, talking to you, confessing to you, growing fond of you, resolving to talk to you again. And at all times, phone-sex operators, like reporters, are expected to remain detached, wise to “The Game,” objective—but in a way, that’s crap. It’s not easy to become beloved by strangers if not a single part of you truly yearns for that love. This echos Janet Malcolm's famous dictum that, "Every...

29 June, 2010

Pinto Pony Productions, a small Toronto video production house specializing in non-invasive filming techniques, took to the streets of Toronto this weekend and shot the best roundup of demonstrator-vs.-police violence I could find on YouTube. The protesters did not impress the filmmakers. The Harper Government made a serious miscalculation with its absurd expenditure on security for the G8/G20. Halifax did a G8 nine years ago for $27 million, and Pittsburg did a G20 last year for $95 million [see correction below]. Harper spent ten times that amount: $12 million an hour over the three days; three times what security for any international leaders'...

27 June, 2010

Contrarian friend and New Waterford video artist Ashley McKenzie, now serving temporary exile in Halifax, has put some of her wonderful still photos on line. McKenzie previously recorded the demolition of Sydney's Vogue Theatre in this clever video....

27 June, 2010

The scale is deceptive. This is not the ordinary crab we're used to, but a giant Japanese spider crab (Macrocheira kaempferi), whose leg span (3.8 meters or 12.5 feet) and weight (up to 19 kg. or 41 lb.) make it the largest arthropod in the world. This time-lapse video was shot over a 6-hour period. Hat tip: Enoshima Aquarium, Fujisawa, Japan, via Daily Dish....

27 June, 2010

Jane Kansas takes time out from her walk to mount the simplest, most easily understood defence I've heard of a women's right to choose face coverings like the niqab and the burka. Money quote: At the beaches of Nice, Cannes and Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat most women were young and slim and topless. In all the cafes, women wore only tiny bikini bras and sarongs, or simply sat and scarfed down their Croque Madames and Ricards in their bikinis. It was what was done. I sure didn’t. I come from a place where women do not sit in restaurants in their bikinis. I would be...

26 June, 2010

The Whitest Kids U'Know present Matt Clint for Senator: Money Quote: For the last 15 years, I've lived my life in such a bland, uncontroversial, and repressed manner that it's almost unnatural. Why? Because I've been preparing to be your representative since I was a child....

26 June, 2010

Oh, not that Rolling Stone article. One you weren't expecting. Money quote: Seeger switched to a 12-string guitar and began a hymn-like finger-picked version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." He told the story behind the classic Wizard of Oz track, recounting how lyricist Yip Harburg and composer Harold Arlen held a successful two-man protest to get the studio to include the song in the film. Seeger looked up at the ceiling and apologized to the deceased Harburg for having to change the lyric "Why can't I" to "Why can't you and I?" and explained his logic: "If I'd been there...

24 June, 2010

A Toronto police officer enters a defunct film studio lot that has been fortified for use as a detention center for protesters arrested during next week's G8 and G20 summit meetings. The temporary jail stretches along a lengthy portion of Eastern Ave. in Toronto's Leslieville neighborhood. Satellite imagery shows the dormant film studio between Eastern Ave. and Lake Shore Blvd., before its conversion into a summit detention center. Security officials will not confirm that the newly fortified and heavily policed compound will serve as a temporary jail, but the taking of these photos Saturday attracted polite but persistent questioning...

19 June, 2010

Workers install security fencing near the CBC building on Front Street in Toronto in preparation for next week's G8 and G20 summits. This is not the perimeter fence, but one of a series of internal fences that will form - take your pick - an obstacle course, security sub-zones, or guides to assist in herding any demonstrators who may penetrate the outer perimeter. The National Post has a graphic depicting the scale of the $1.2 billion security lockdown to be enforced by 7,100 police and para-police. Facilities to be closed during the weekend include the Rogers Centre, the Princess of Wales Theatre,...

19 June, 2010
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