Operation #TellVicEverything – A Revolution, The Canadian Way

You know, a few months ago I wrote a parody article explaining Rebecca Black’s song Friday. It was rather well acclaimed. The lyrics to the song could very well end up being tweets from Canadians expressing their disgust at the new online privacy bill brought fourth by the Conservative government: “Hey Vic it’s 7am and I’m waking up in the morning.” “Hey Vic, now I’m going downstairs to have my bowl, I love cereal.” …

The Super Bowl (with commercials) on Pay-Per-View in Canada – Can it happen?

Last year around this time I made a rant post about how much I hate the CRTC. But more specifically about, how I cannot stand the fact that I cannot see Super Bowl commercials live …

SOPA, PIPA, ACTA, C11 and all the other letters and numbers they can throw at us be damned! The Net’s Not Gonna Change

To paraphrase Micheal Corleone’s only noteable line in Godfather III: “Just when we thought we were out, they pull us back in!” I had to paraphrase it because I wouldn’t dare embed the YouTube clip these days and am even a little skittish about a direct quote from such a heavily copyrighted film. Yes, we all know that SOPA and PIPA got shelved in the US, thanks in large part to sites like Wikipedia going dark for a day and showing everyone just what a heavily censored and regulated internet might be like. But that doesn’t mean they’re done for good…

The Primary Media

In the past, a candidate’s success in the primaries depended on momentum carried over from previous victories. This time around that momentum seems to be fueled by the media, proving that in the age of the super PAC, media still matters more than money.

Is SOPA really the end of the internet as we know it?

Wednesday’s blackout of over ten thousand sites small and large has got everyone chatting about SOPA. But what is SOPA? And will it lead to the total destruction of the internet we know and love? SOPA is The Stop Online Piracy Act, a law going up the “series of tubes” also known as Congress. It was introduced by Senator Lamar S. Smith (R-TX) and co-sponsored by both Democrat and Republican members alike…

Forum M Year-In Review: 2011

2011 was quite a year for video games and technology as a whole. The year was filled with some great surprises: some fantastic games worthy of perfect scores, the arrival of new handhelds, the announcements …

Let’s be honest about the Muppets

Now I have yet to see the new Muppet Movie, but I know lipstick on a pig when I see it, (sorry Miss Piggy!) and the Muppets are pushing a left-wing agenda.
The Muppet Show (1976-1981) …

New Canadian Surveillance Bill Recipe for Government Abuse of Power

When Harper’s anti-terrorism czar Vic Toews tells Canadians that they should trust their government not to abuse the new set of Orwellian measures that he is proposing with his online surveillance bill, you know it’s time to sound the alarm! In much the same way the Government deliberately stokes hysteria over terrorist threats to legitimize the re-enactment of the invasive clauses of the Anti-Terrorism Act, by claiming falsely…

A Pirates Guide To Downloading: Free Stuff, No Torrents, Faster Speeds, No Problem

I love free stuff. I also love it when free stuff actually isn’t supposed to be free. If you haven’t caught on by now, let me spell it out for you: pirating. Not that it’s a good thing to pirate music or software or movies, but when you’re broke as hell, sometimes it’s just a good idea to do a few Google searches. And there are faster ways to get the files you want without using torrents and praying that the file you want has been seeded. This is a guide to get what you want faster than any other method I have discovered…

Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies Conference

This Thursday and Friday the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS) will be hosting a conference on the media’s role in halting Mass Atrocities and to mark the 10th Anniversary of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) initiative by the United Nations. For those familiar with the terrain of activism in mass media, it is common knowledge that spreading awareness is one of the keys to preventing crimes and injustices…

American’s Apparel’s Next BIG Thing Won’t Be Nancy Upton

American Apparel is finally going to be making clothes in more American sizes as they expand into the ever-growing plus size clothing market. And since their brand is associated and almost dependent on a particular type of visual image, they took the opportunity to find a fresh face for this new advertising campaign. Their casting call for curvy ladies “who need a little extra wiggle room where it counts” offered the winner the chance to be flown to LA for a bootylicious photoshoot…

The Arab Spring meets fall in New York, but you won’t find #OccupyWallStreet on TV

BREAKING NEWS: New York City is under occupation and has been for a few days. You’d think that would be breaking news, wouldn’t you? Even if it’s not the whole city, just the financial quarter. And even if it’s not an invading army, but people upset with the way their own country is running things (in this case, the economy). After all, domestic upheaval in Egypt and people occupying a public square in Bahrain was headline news all around the world just a few months ago, wasn’t it? Come to think of it, the lack of media coverage of the Occupy Wall Street protest is just like the Arab Spring. State controlled media completely blocked the protesters’ side of the story…

Showtime’s Shameless: A Guilty Pleasure Without The Shame

Showtime is known for producing original hit television series such as Dexter, Weeds, and Californication, but there is something special about taking an English version of a TV series and remaking it, and that’s what is done with Shameless. And let’s just say that this one is hit right out of the park. I’ve been wanting to talk about this show for a long time, and now, I finally will. The best way to describe Shameless is as if Showtime took the final five seasons of Malcolm in the Middle and made them R-rated…

I want my TV for free, just like it used to be

We all know those people. The kind that proudly don’t own a TV, don’t need one and don’t want one. I know people like that and I sympathize. I agree that TV can be an intrusive presence and a real conversation stopper, not to mention it’s a medium dominated by corporate advertising which I despise.

Still, I never counted myself among those ranks because there is something mind-numbingly pleasing about watching a good show, even a cop show. Yes, this anti-authoritarian, anti-corporate activist likes him some CSI.

We also all know people who feel that owning a TV is…

anger poem.

A poem of anger by Laurence Tenenbaum. I must learn to control my anger, Control my anguish, Control my angst. Ranting and raving and complaining. Can all be counterproductive, I really should learn to be complacent

Media rebels strike back at our broken system: Kai Nagata and the Young Turks

With the arrival of Sun News broadcasting in this country, our media seems to increasingly be aping that of our American neighbours to the south. The sensationalistic, overwrought, overhyped, hyper-partisan crap that most of us tend to get indirectly (this stuff can only be digested in small doses, evidently!) from watching the Daily Show satirize it every night, has ,unfortunately, penetrated this country’s media culture in any number of ways. The News Corp formula, if you will, is simple: replace facts and actual news with propaganda and right wing editorials, as much as possible. Sadly, this approach has spread to other news networks, due to the overwhelming ratings edge enjoyed by the Republican Party tools at Fox news (i.e. the O’Reilly factor)…