Categories for Musings

High school buddy speaks out

— 01.25.2020 12:08 AM


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#TBT: ten years ago! Tommy Stinson! The Mats! Me!

— 01.24.2020 05:34 PM

…it was ten years ago tonight, Facebook tells me.

That is me, beside the Replacements’ (and Guns and Roses’) Tommy Stinson. THE Tommy Stinson.

He came with his girlfriend to an SFH gig at the Bovine Sex Club on Queen West, and he decided he would start selling our merch for us. So he did!

What a night.  I love punk rock.


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Hole-y: CNN is now covering the stupid doughnut thing

— 01.23.2020 09:27 AM

And I’m amazed CNN spelled “doughnut” correctly. Usually they spell it like these guys do.

PS: this proves that (a) we’re lucky that this counts as a scandal, when you consider what is going on right now in the U.S. Senate and (b) the world is crazy.

Washington (CNN) — A photo of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a Winnipeg-based doughnut shop has proved to be a lightning rod among pastry-enthusiastic onlookers online.

The confectionery controversy began when Trudeau tweeted a photo of himself carrying boxes out of the Oh Doughnuts shop in Winnipeg. “Picked up some of Winnipeg’s best to keep us going through another full day of Cabinet meetings,” the Prime Minister wrote. “Thanks for the fuel, @OhDoughnuts. #shoplocal”

The doughnut shop responded to Trudeau’s post with its own tweet thanking him for his visit. “We can confirm he carried these out the door. Pretty sure Health Canada would agree everything is okay in moderation,” the shop said. 

Some rushed to praise the Prime Minister, celebrating his support for a local business. Others criticized him for what they viewed as an overly “expensive” doughnut purchase.

Trudeau appeared to be carrying five large boxes of doughnuts with two smaller boxes on top. According to Oh Doughnuts’ website, an assortment of 12 “regular doughnuts” costs $35 Canadian ($26.61 in US dollars), with assortments of 12 “specialty doughnuts” running as high as $47 Canadian ($35.73 USD).

Those prices rattled some social media users, who chided the Prime Minister for not favoring a cheaper alternative.


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Age of Unreason is here!

— 01.23.2020 07:15 AM

It’s the third and final book in the X Gang series – and my tenth book in all.  Just got it from Dundurn, my publisher.

You can get Age of Unreason here.  In the meantime, here’s some of the reviews about the series.  Hope you can pick it up!

  • Quill and Quire: “Kinsella skillfully blends convincing depictions of both the punk scene and the racist underground with the hoary trope of a band of kids setting out to solve a mystery. The novel is a suspenseful page-turner that also gives considerable food for thought, anchored in realistically drawn characters and an eye for significant detail.” 

  • Publisher’s Weekly: “Adult author Kinsella (Fight the Right) sets this riveting murder mystery in Portland, Maine, in the late 1970s…Tension starts high and stays there in this unflinching page-turner, which offers a fascinating glimpse into the early punk scene and a moving testament to the power of friendship.”

  • Globe and Mail: “Portrayals of rebellious and non-conforming teens can feel reductive or contrived but Kinsella nails it without any stereotyping or embellishment. Though this authenticity will have big teen appeal, the novel is also part police procedural, part detailed history on the emergence of punk and part gritty murder mystery, all elements that skew more adult. Classification aside, it’s absorbing, jarring and raw.”

  • Toronto Star: “Warren Kinsella is known mostly as a political operative and pundit, but he also has estimable punk-rock credentials (as punk historian and as bass player in SFH, which bills itself as Canada’s best-loved geriatric punk band). This YA novel is loosely based on real-life events, and concerns the murder of two teenagers in 1979 in Portland, Ore., then the epicentre of the punk scene. It will be of interest to anyone interested in punk culture — not just the music, but the fanzines, art and writing of the period.”

  • Booklist: “Kinsella’s book explodes off the page from the start…a dark and engrossing tale of punk-rock heroes fighting for justice.” 


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Barton out at National, Hanomansing continues to be underused

— 01.22.2020 03:46 PM

Sounds like the CBC.

NOTE FROM ROB RUSSO

Hello all,

We are delighted to announce that a formidable editorial weapon is being added to CBC’s political reporting arsenal: Rosemary Barton moves into a new multiplatform role as the Ottawa Bureau’s chief political correspondent, the first female journalist in this role for CBC News. The title might sound familiar but this is a 2020 version of the role and in many ways will be an evolution that makes sense from her current role. Rosemary will lead special coverage, host political specials, conduct headline interviews and provide analysis, contextual reporting and documentaries for The National and our destination radio programs. The growing audience for Party Lines will welcome Rosemary back when the show is relaunched next week and her digital profile will expand to include regular analytical texts. She will do all this while continuing to shepherd the weekly televised and digital offering of At Issue on The National. Rosemary will be joined in the bureau by Phil Ling whose producing and reporting skills has served the bureau and the entire report in immeasurable ways. Phil will also be pivotal to the developing of a new top-flight political presence for Rosemary for CBC News. These additions represent a considerable muscling-up of our political reporting. The aim is to provide value-added news that complements the robust reporting coming from Ottawa ahead of a Conservative leadership race and a minority mandate that will see the Liberal government perched on a knife’s edge. Rosemary has already shown she is a wise mentor and editorial leader. I will be counting on her leadership to help make this bureau the best place to work in journalism. She will take on these new duties immediately while reporting jointly to leadership in Toronto and Ottawa. Let’s congratulate Rosemary and Phil.

NOTE FROM CHAD PAULIN

All – Today we are announcing changes to The National which will further position and support the broadcast as Canada’s nightly destination newscast. Television news viewership is driven by consistency, both in format and in presentation. Our audience told us they want to know what they can expect night to night: who will bring them the news and how it will be delivered. We listened. This season we have slowly introduced measures that lead to a more consistent program – including tweaks to our format and sharpened hosting roles. The National will now be broadcast from the Toronto studio with co-hosts Adrienne Arsenault and Andrew Chang, Monday through Thursday. We quietly made this change weeks ago. Effective immediately, it is permanent. Adrienne will continue to bring viewers to the heart of major stories, with frequent hosting from the field – as we’ve seen this season with road shows in Hong Kong, Halifax, Washington, Montreal, London and – this week – St. John’s. When Adrienne isn’t hosting on location, she brings the world home with in-depth reports, hosting alongside Andrew in studio. Andrew Chang skillfully guides viewers through the news of the day, with a special focus on stories that play out in the daily lives of Canadians – from health news to tech trends – and a renewed focus on newsmaking interviews with notable Canadians. Ian Hanomansing will solo-host the Friday and Sunday editions of The National from Vancouver and contribute special reports across the week, with a spotlight on Alberta and British Columbia. Ian and the Vancouver team will also continue to ensure we can update the program with breaking news in later editions – as we saw recently with the downing of Flight 752. And, as announced by Rob Russo today, Rosemary Barton is taking on a cross-platform role as CBC News’ Chief Political Correspondent. In this new position, Rosemary will bring her unmatched political insight to all of CBC News – including digital, podcasts, radio, and television political specials. She will continue to bring analysis to The National, including contextual reporting, long-form stories and key political interviews. Rosemary will also continue to host At Issue. The success of The National will be measured by our journalism and its ability to connect with Canadians. In these early weeks of 2020, viewers have turned to us to make sense of significant news events. These changes – effective immediately – will support that crucial work.

Chad Paulin Executive Producer, The National

 


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Of doughnuts and beards and the like

— 01.22.2020 08:34 AM

The Conservative Party – back when it knew how to win, and when it was preoccupied with winning more than whining – was pretty good at symbols.

Symbol-wise, ten years ago, the Conservatives’ communications strategy always came back a single theme: that Michael Ignatieff out-of-touch and from Mars – while their guy, Stephen Harper, was intimately familiar with the day-to-day reality of an average Canadian’s life, and was in fact just like the guy next door.  “Everything they do, every speech, every photo-op, every avail, everything they do every single day – it’s all aimed at making people feel Harper understands their life, and Iggy has never lived their life,” I said to some Iggy folks.

For example, I said, look at the Conservative regime’s laser-like focus on (the cherished Canadian sport) hockey – and (the cherished Canadian coffee and doughnut franchise) Tim Horton’s.  Harper seems to be obsessively preoccupied with both, even though he had been photographed furtively drinking Starbucks on the campaign trail, and no can recall ever seeing a photo of him in a pair of skates, ever.

“They’re political Everyman symbols,” I said, “and he’s brilliantly swiped both of them.  He’s an economist, for Chrissakes – he’s just as much of an intellectual as Ignatieff, but he’s terrified of people finding that out.  He wants our guy to be the brainy geek; he wants our guy to be the snob.  So he goes after Joe and Jane Frontporch with hockey and Tim’s, and it works.  Tim Horton’s hockey Dads, voters get.  Harvard human rights professors, who don’t do sports and who hangs out with other pinheads, they don’t get.”

None of this was new, or exceptionally insightful.  As early as 2007, smart folks were noticing how Harper was fixated on political symbols like hockey.  The progressive folks at Straight Goods, for instance, wrote back in 2007 that “hockey is an important part of the frame of Stephen Harper’s Conservatives.  Since [2004], Harper has strived to court for the vote of the urban working middle class – people earning under $50,000 in trades, service industries, small business or sales.  Establishing himself as a hockey-loving tough guy is intended to play to this demographic.”

To that end, Harper was frequently photographed cradling a cup of Tim Horton’s at hockey rinks, or chumming with National Hockey League all-stars.  He even let it be known that he was writing a book about hockey, even though I can’t remember if it ever came out.

None of this happens by accident.  Symbols aren’t part of politics – symbols are politics. Pierre Trudeau’s rose and pirouette; Jean Chretien’s Shawinigan handshake; Justin Trudeau’s baby-balancing and whatnot.

So, accordingly, I understand why many Conservatives dislike Justin Trudeau so much.  First, Trudeau is way better at symbols than them.  Way.  And, second, Trudeau swiped symbols from them.  It drives them crazy.

In their effort to get back at him, Cons overreact.  They see a beard, they start posting memes that his father was Fidel Castro.  They see him carrying doughnuts for his cabinet, and they actually go on websites to calculate (falsely) how much the doughnuts cost and (without proof) claim he expensed them.  They see him periodically without a wedding ring, and spin tales about the state of his marriage.  And so on.

I’m not saying political symbols don’t matter – they do, a lot.  It’s just that you shouldn’t be swinging at every damn symbol that comes along, like some latter-day Don Quixote.  You shouldn’t treat every photo op as a war crime.

Pick your targets.  Keep your powder dry.  Don’t overreact.

Symbols matter, a lot.  But not everything is a symbol.

Now go eat a doughnut.

 


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Charest: no thanks

— 01.21.2020 02:32 PM

He would’ve been a great leader for them. But the Tories never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.



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