City, Sports & Play
Questions For The City.
There are a number of things that I need to tackle immediately. Most of them took place two weeks ago. What can I say? I've been busy.
What a transcendent performance by the Toronto - and North American - media over the past 10 days. First the story broke about the gambling ring, which was - predictably - followed by everybody and their brother filing this as the second coming of the Black Sox Scandal, in spite of overwhelming evidence that no bets were placed on hockey.
Next Angle! Wayne Gretzky's wife (apparently her name was legally changed to Wayne Gretzky's wife after Police Academy 5 bombed) placed bets through Rick Tocchet, she MUST have been doing it for the Wayner. (This assertion was based on the wholly sexist notion that Women are incapable of being sports gambling aficionados.) That interpretation was quickly proven categorically false.
Next Angle! Wayne Gretzky is caught on wiretaps, discussing the gambling ring with Tocchet. He knew. The Great One knew. HE KNEW! Oops, the recorded conversation took place after the story broke and he was just trying to protect his wife.
Next Angle! How could the greatest player in the history of the game allow his wife to gamble large sums of money right under his nose? What an imbecile. Let's continue to pontificate in a nonchalant manner about the familial values of a person we have no personal knowledge of until the next angle drops.
If the Men's hockey team doesn't win the gold medal and somebody surmises that the collective conscious of the players was just too affected by this gargantuan "scandal", I'm moving to Hamilton and drinking myself to death.
I mean... When did we snap? When did the most acceptable form of news become two late night shows on Comedy Central? Why is James Frey vilified for lying about certain details in "A Million Little Pieces" - only the most profound and educational piece of literature on the nature of chronic addiction I have ever read - to better illustrate the root of his lesson, while Kanye West is profusely praised for saying the President of The United States "doesn't care about black people" on live television? Which of these two instances is more self-serving? Tell me honestly.
Why does the influence of 24-hour news coverage force us to the next thing, instead of properly examining the issue at hand? Why is it ok for Bloggers in this city to stereotype and bash people who shop in Yorkville? Why would it not be ok if I wrote a satirical piece about Queen West?
When Chris Bosh has an off night, why do writers allude to success going to his head too quickly instead of writing something to the effect of:
The Raptors franchise player had an off game this evening, but that's ok, after all; he's 21 fucking years old! When I was 21 my day was considered a success if and when I put on pants.
Oh, and did anyone catch the cover of Toro Magazine? I have no proof that the following exchange took place; that notwithstanding, I am supremely confident that it did:
Toro Magazine Executive 1: "Fantastic news everybody, we have booked Paul Walker for our March Cover."
Toro Magazine Executive 2: "Super-duper! He's in that new Disney movie, isn't he?"
Toro Magazine Executive 1: (Quietly.) "We have to call him the new Steve McQueen. His manager demanded it."
(45-second silence.)
Toro Magazine Executive 2: "This makes me want to remove my belt and hang myself in a public washroom."
Why do people pretend that the Conservative Party of Canada wasn't actually elected? Why does the average Canadian consider Belinda Stronach's choice of partner a more accurate barometer of her political aptitude then her exceptional record as a CEO in the private sector?
Would that make it safe to assume that she would be better suited to be the next leader of the Liberal party if she was overweight and unattractive? Just so we're clear; you cannot believe one without the other.
I'm certainly not a futurist, but does anybody else foresee the over-saturation of information, and the resulting distortion of perception exploding all over the news industry very, very soon?
(The question mark key just broke off my laptop.)
I'd like to know the answers to these questions. I'm going to try and find them.
SA
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I'd like to add: "Why is that the overwhelming majority of TV exec's refuse to put anyone of any sort of intelligence on the air? Is it because they know their demographic? Which came first, stupid people on TV, or stupid people <b>watching</b> TV?"
(This was inspired by me spending time with my wife watching the Much VJ show and America Idol last night. I found my hand involuntarily pulling an imaginary trigger, and I realized I was daydreaming of myself in a high tower with a rifle. The wife didn't enjoy the experience, and I have been banished to play BF2 during subsequent American Idol airings)
Did Kanye West's "opinion" have to do with helping people or accelerating his own agenda?
James Frey could have written that he left rehab and moved to Venus. That wouldn't have changed the fundamental message of his book. His message - not his indiscretions - has the ability to be GOOD for people. Why was this lost in the media hoopla?
Kanye may have said what he said - and it certainly took balls to do so; but do you actually think he would be capable of debating the relative merits of his comment?
The fact remains it is acceptable; some might say, fashionable, to criticize elected political leaders. It is even more fashionable to tear people down - currently, this is the most visible function of electronic media.
That is why Kanye West wasn't held accountable for his "opinion".
SA
Um, my two cents about Kanye. Everyone knows he said "George Bush doesn't care about black people." But not as many people actually watched him say it, or saw the clip off the Internet. Check it out. He wasn't very articulate about his point, aside from that one sentence. I mean, it had to be said, but frankly, when I heard about the hoopla and went and watched the clip, I was disappointed with what Kanye actually had to say about it. For a rapper, his ramblings on the matter were rather lame and pointless.
I dig Kanye's last album though.
Where have you been, exactly?
http://www.dropshots.com/day.php?userid=60615&;cdate=20060109&ctime=211027
When you pull out the milk crate to the street corner and stand on it, shouting about how the whole world's gone insane except for you, how do you think that reflects on your message?
http://www.blogto.com/city/2006/02/queen_street_man/
On another topic, if Frey hadn't published the book as non-fiction, there'd be no issue. There is indeed a problem when society isn't as interested when it's a novel rather than an autobiography, but he crossed the line by then putting it forth as fact rather than fiction. Two wrongs don't make a right.
At least Kayne, inarticulate as he is, seemed genuine.
Queen West and Yorkville have both been turned into Prada Hell; now if only that Queen Street Man video were funny...
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During the bombing of Yugoslavia (or was it already called just Serbia by then?) in the late 90's, US Army psychological warfare people were working at CNN as "interns" and preparing "news stories" for broadcast. Both CNN and the US Army admitted this after it came to light. On the upside, the British were very frank about their own propaganda campaign.
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Here's another ? for you. Why is it that so many people will rant ad nauseam about either the evils of Government or the evils of Corporations, but so few seem to be able to make the connection between the two? Why do so few people have any facility with deductive reasoning?
Deductive reasoning is majestically logical. A startling amount of the time, deductive reasoning is completely correct. Which means...
There is nothing sexy or spectacular about deductive reasoning, and thus, nothing singularly unique about it.
The supply of information (blogs, websites, 24-hour news station) outweighs the demand by so much that the angle and interpretation you give a news item has become just as important - perhaps more important - than the accuracy with which the incident is described.
Finally, when I wrote the post I should have swapped "scathing" in for "satirical". SA
It was an irresponsible statement that was lacking in proof but full of emotion. And it touched on what a lot of people were feeling. How shocking that people aren't always moved by sheer reason.
Regarding this statement:
The fact remains it is acceptable; some might say, fashionable, to criticize elected political leaders.
To that I say THANK GOD this is so.
All I know, is that my boyfriend has been trying to get any kind of media job for the past few months, and not only will no place accept anyone without at least 2 years experience (not counting internships!) they literally will not even let him through the doors to drop off a resume. They all have policies in place that explicitly state: no calls, no drop-offs, no faxes, no e-mails, no questions, no interaction with any humans, don't even try to get a job here, because we're just going to hire our wealthy, entitled nephew.
I have a vague feeling that it's exactly that sort of isolationist attitude (combined with nepotism, corporate incest and a big, bad 'ol case of group-think) that might just be why the media is so collectively stupid right now.
But it's just a hunch.