CBC Television has this crazy late-night show called ZeD (11:30-12:30). It’s a kind of hip and urban artsy show hosted by Sharon Lewis. It’s got the look and feel of something European, except for its being so conspicuously self-aware in its hipness.
The show is 100% Canadian content (which is good), primarily composed of short films, semi-live performances from up-and-coming bands, and interviews with hip people (writers, etc.). It all centers around Sharon Lewis who is laid-back and late-nighty in a dark and chaotic set made up of loungy chairs and things you can trip over. They open the show with an “18+” warning because now and then you see a boobie in one of the short films, or some headbanger from Winnipeg says the “F” word.
I doubt I would sit there loyally and give this show my undivided attention, but it is interesting as a background to something else I’m doing (such as working on this blog). I particularly like the short films. I think it’s great that there’s a venue for these artists, although it’s annoying that the show is on late at a time in my life when I’m trying to condition myself to go to bed early. Mind you, 12:30 is still pretty early.
I was listening to Sounds Like Canada on CBC radio yesterday when Shelagh Rogers interviewed some guy who supposedly knows a lot about “‘zines” (super low budget self-published magazines) in Canada. She asked him what was the motivation behind ‘zine publishing. The guy said “we live in a very media-centric age, and people don’t feel validated unless they see themselves somehow represented in the media.”
“What a load of crap,” I thought, “I should blog about that.”
Today on Sounds Like Canada Shelagh Rogers is going to speak to someone who has the “Cape Breton Autonomy ” bug. For those who didn’t grow up there, you should know that in many ways, Cape Breton has a similar relationship to Nova Scotia as Quebec has to Canada. In both cases they are politically a smaller part of the larger whole, but they feel culturally distinct. Yup, you heard it here first folks (unless you were listening to the radio this morning). Cape Bretoners barely consider themselves to be Nova Scotians. They’re Cape Bretoners!
Speaking of Cape Breton, Richard Hatch, the winner of the Survivor TV show in the first season, was spotted in Sydney, Nova Scotia Cape Breton, at a property auction. Believe it or not, he snapped up seventeen lots of land in the communities of Sydney, Glace Bay, Sydney Mines, Donkin, and New Waterford. These are places that people who have never been there think of as far away, romantic, exotic, ruggedly beautiful (etc.) but those of us who come from there know they constitute the collective arsehole of Canada. Mind you, Hatch got all those lots for a mere $13,800, which is basically just a few hundred dollars each.
Cheap or not, an arsehole is an arsehole. Note to other Survivor winners: if you want to buy far away, romantic, exotic, ruggedly beautiful (etc.) Cape Breton property, get away from the industrial dregs. Go to Margaree, Ingonish, anywhere along the Bras d’Or Lakes, or along the south coast. Mind you, you’ll pay a lot more than a few hundred dollars, and you’ll have to fight off a flock of moneyed Germans and Dutch who are clamoring for the same lot.
Incidently, I read the story on CBC’s website, in the “Arts News” section. Go figure.