If I can’t smoke and swear, I’m fucked.

First: some reading material. Denis McGrath is a screenwriter who keeps tabs on the health of domestic television production. And it’s a heck of a blog.

Long story short: Canada’s New Government is quietly amending the Income Tax Act to deny tax credits to any television programme deemed “offensive.” Without those tax credits, a lot of these shows would struggle to exist, which, of course, is precisely the point.

How do you determine what’s offensive? And who will make that decision? Well, now. That’s a question, isn’t it?

The bill is already on third reading in the Senate so this is close to fruition. You might want to contact your Member of Parliament if you think that you’re grown up enough to handle shows with a little controversy.

Certainly our current government doesn’t think that we are. But then, this is a government that has declared a war on knowledge so I’m sure television shows with dirty words, or boobies, or ideas they disagree with are next in the list of dangers to the public good.
Knock Knock!

Who’s there?

Some cheeseburger eating fuckhead in Ottawa who thinks just because I don’t got my Grade 10 that I’m too fucking stunned to decided what I can watch on TV but it’s my TV and I can decide more better than anyone else what to watch on it. Fuck Valerie Harper. I didn’t vote for her.

Them, Robots

An expert in Artificial Intelligence is warning of the consequences of the increased use of autonomous machines in warfare. Robots making decisions on life or death, he argues, would have disastrous effects on humanity.

I think the professor is being unduly alarmist. The robots will soon be under the direct control of a centralised computer network to ensure they act strictly within the parameters set out by their human masters. I think the network’s called Skynet, or something.

(via)

She’ll always be Treena Lahey to me

Last night, in an effort to see at least one of this year’s Oscar nominated movies, my Baby Momma and I took in Juno, the independent, sort of Canadian, film about a pregnant teenager who decides to give her baby up for adoption. I say it’s Canadian because the cast is mostly Canadian, as is the director, and it’s shot in B.C. And because Ellen Page barely covers up her Haligonian accent when her character says, “Jeez, Banana, shut yer friggin’ gob.”

I enjoyed it but it did take me about 10 minutes to get over some of Diablo Cody’s precious dialogue but still, an indie movie with an indie soundtrack that states that the search for indie hipster cred is total horseshit has got to be a special movie in my book.

It also helps that it was a well cast movie. I’d have no complaints about seeing J.K. Simmons and Allison Janey playing parents in everything from now on. And, of course, Ellen Page managed to score a Best Actress nomination for the playing the titular character.

I remember her from the second season of Trailer Park Boys, playing Treena, the daughter of Trailer Park Supervisor Jim Lahey. Watching the show, I remember thinking, “This girl seems to be acting at some higher level than the rest of the cast.”

Ever since then, every time I’ve seen her in something, I’ve always thought, “Hey, it’s Treena Lahey in Hard Candy.” Or “Hey, Treena Lahey’s in the X-Men and the ice guy is her boyfriend.”

I hope she wins the Oscar tonight because she’s pretty damn talented. But, to me, she’ll always be the little girl who helped Ricky find the confidence to get his Grade Ten.

Heard a heartbeat today

I guess that it’s not an elaborate hoax after all that and the small, red, angry screaming thing is heading this way.

JCS

Back in high school, I frequently went over to a friend’s house to watch some videos. One time, one of the videos was offered up for a laugh. It was the feature film version of the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice musical, Jesus Christ Superstar, a rock opera based on Jesus’ final three days, as told through the point of view of his betrayer/enabler Judas Iscariot.

Oh, how we laughed at the dirty hippies and their overblown, overindulgent late 60′s dino rock. But by the end of it, something weird happened. We began to like it. Damn if the songs weren’t so … singable.

Ever since then, it’s been one of my favourite musicals, a small list, to be sure. It’s odd that I have this kind of affection for this show, given my lack of religious belief. I do, however, see religion as a key part of the larger human narrative that unites all people so that’s probably why I don’t resist seeing scripture filtered through pop culture. I’ve been thinking a lot about my own relationship to religion but its quite dull so I won’t bother you with it.

Ever since the film, the role of Jesus has been identified primarily with Ted Neeley. He appeared in the film and, 37 years later, is still playing Jesus.

The other night, I finally cashed in my Christmas present, and went down to Place des Arts to see the thing performed live. For a man in his mid-sixties, the dude can still wail, even if he’s gotten pretty grey and thin on top. The role of Judas was well handled by Corey Glover, formerly of Living Color.

Ted Neeley won’t be able to do Jesus forever, of course. When he sings the big notes, he sounds great but when he goes low, you can hear the age. Eventually, he’ll have to retire. So who could replace him at that time?

My vote goes to Jack Black: