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* CYBERSPACE *
* A biweekly column on net culture appearing *
* in the Toronto Sunday Sun *
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* Copyright 2000 Karl Mamer *
* Free for online distribution *
* All Rights Reserved *
* Direct comments and questions to: *
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* *
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Oh Canada
I joined the dot.com fuelled brain drain to the United States.
I moved to a Seattle suburb in January. I wasn't chasing the
almighty American dollar. I was just trying to get away from
the extremes found in Toronto weather and relationships. I
figured it would be milder here and maybe American women would
like me.
I'm reasonably happy. When I look out my office window and see
snow-capped mountains cresting above tall stands of pine trees,
I think "wow". But then I remember how much I want to see some
obscure subtitled film at the Carlton. I know I could see it in
downtown Seattle but I'd have to battle my way on the city's
BMW-choked two lane version of the Gardiner. Suddenly I'm happy
to trade mountains and any number of trees for a cold subway
station.
At times I feel like I had to give up the very things that make
me Canadian. I don't pass a single donut shop on my drive to
work. I can't vote. My destiny is entirely in the hands of the
American electorate. That sure scares me.
My cable system doesn't carry CBC. That sure bothers me. My
work visa only lasts a maximum of six years. I don't want to
walk back into Canada half a decade from now and be like some
coma patient who wakes up to discover talking apes have formed
the government, merged all the banks, built the Eglinton subway
line, and got Hamilton an NHL franchise.
Fortunately, the trusty Internet has been a life line for
Canadian news, views, and entertainment I'm missing via
conventional means.
Speaker's Corner
www.cp24.com/speakershomepage/speakerscorner.asp
City TV spoils you. It's irritating to watch a movie and have
all the perfectly good swearing cut out. The breakfast TV shows
here are little more than a repetition of the same four news
stories. How I miss Jennifer Peck painting the faces of
children one day and being strapped into a Tudor jet the next
day. Most of all I miss Speaker's Corner. Luckily City TV's web
site now offers a live peak through the camera's lens using
video streaming software. Access to uninformed opinion and
creative uses of minimalist broadcast technology is on demand
at the click of a browser's bookmark. Well done, City TV.
CBC Real Audio Broadcast
cbc.ca/audio.html
CBC radio has long been an innovator in providing broadcasts
via the Internet. I remember downloading WAV file versions of
Quirks and Quarks from the CBC gopher site back in 1994. Real
Audio now lets me catch Quirks and Quarks, the World at Six,
and Jurgen Gothe's Disc Drives without having to spend four
hours to download fifty minutes of audio.
CFNY
cfny.passport.ca
Canadians tend to only recognizing their musicians when they
hit it big in the USA. CFNY, however, has long strived to
support and recognize Canadian music with little or no hope of
ever capturing an American audience. Excellent bands like 54-40
or I Mother Earth will likely always remain best kept secrets.
If you can get past CFNY's bloated and busy site, there's a
Real Audio broadcast as well as a neat section devoted to
Canadian Indie bands.
Sam the Record Man
www.samscd.com
For the ex-pat Canadian music fan, Sam's click-and-mortar site
organizes Canadian music into its own section. That's good. The
site still needs some work. Too many CDs don't have sample
sound tracks. You'd think Sam's could offer sample tracks for
an artist as popular as Sarah McLachlan. The site maintains
your credit card information in your registration profile. I've
read too many stories lately about hacked ecommerce sites to
feel comfy about this. A purchase at the beginning of March was
immediately placed on back order. Okay, they were foreign
films, Antonia's Line and Cinema Paradiso, but they were Oscar
winners. And March is Oscar season. Maybe stock up?
Toronto Symphony Euro Tour Diary
www.tso.on.ca/eurotour_topnav.htm
Besides subways and donut shops, I really miss my beloved
Toronto Symphony. The Seattle Symphony is okay but over the
years I've made a considerable emotional investment in the TSO.
I was happy to be able to follow its highly touch-and-go
European tour at the TSO's Euro Tour Diary page. There are some
great photographs of the venues, musicians, and cultural
landmarks encountered on the tour. The diary was authored by
the TSO's Michael Buckland, the marketing director. He did a
decent job but it would have been nice to read some personal
anecdotes written by the musicians themselves.
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* Update May 2, 2000 *
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RE SAM THE RECORD MAN: Still didn't get the videos from samscd.com
after 2 months so I cancelled via email and phone. Let's see if that
works. I reordered through chapter.ca. Let's see how that works.
RE TORONTO SYMPHONY EURO TOUR DIARY: The TSO musicians have
published a selection of tour photos at:
www.tsomusicians.com/whatsnew/euro2000/index.html.
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* Update May 10, 2000 *
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RE SAM THE RECORD MAN: I managed to successfully cancel my order
with Sam's and reordered via Chapters.ca on May 2. My order
has a status of "Awaiting Shipment". Okay. I'm aware of that.
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* Update Apr 11, 2001 *
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Far Too Canadian
http://www.columbia.edu/~vl78/index2.html
I found this page recently searching for information about an
early '90s Toronto Ska band. It's a web page for a radio show
called Far Too Canadian. Every Wednesday the hosts, Canadian
ex-pat university students, spin Canadian tunes on a New York
campus station. They play everything from Age of Electric to
the Watchmen. You can hear their broadcast in Real Audio
at www.wbar.org. Well done, eh!
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