Wednesday, March 21, 2012

STACKHOUSE SOAPBOX (Yorkton This Week March 21)

The Trews, apparently, put on a pretty good show in Regina last week.  They were supposed to do the same in Yorkton; but the performance was cancelled when nobody stepped up to buy tickets.  In the last little while, The Trews have joined a select group that also includes Big Sugar and Scott Stapp as rock performers who have had to call off a show before taking the stage because of poor sales.  Simply put, Yorkton is not a rock music market.  I have to say this, despite good attendance and a real lively crowd at Default and Hinder in recent years.  If The Trews were Merle Haggard, the Gallagher Centre would sell out within minutes.  Nevertheless, it’s time for folks to stop whining there is nothing to do in Yorkton because good people put up good money to try and bring entertainment to our fine city.  When acts like The Trews are forced to cancel, the promoter is still out cash.  I’d like to say a public thank-you for trying.   
In Toronto, there is talk of allowing policewomen to carry out duties clad in a burqa or niqab.  The thought behind it is maybe it’s a ‘reasonable accomodation’ to help recruit more Muslim policewomen.  I am appalled.  I hear stories all the time of school divisions across North America considering banning a simple Lord’s Prayer to kick off the morning.  Yet, we can make religious considerations such as this to recruit more police officers.  Here’s a thought:  maybe be a little less politically correct and you wouldn’t have to worry about a shortage of officers regardless of race or religious belief. 
I’m not sure how long this has been on television, but my wife started watching this hour long waste of time called My Strange Addiction.  I have not watched more than about 35 seconds of this, simply a few clips that she fast forwarded through on the PVR.  One particular segment that was beyond bizarre was this man who has sex with…wait for it…his car!  You can’t make this up.  There was footage of him French kissing the front of it.  He slides right underneath the front of the vehicle and makes out with ‘Chase’.  He says he’s attracted the car’s curves on the hood, etc.  There’s an illness for just about everything now and his happens to be called Objectophilia.  From what I could see, there were ‘features’ on a woman who picks at her ear 12 hours a day as well as this other lady who drinks nail polish.  I’m not kidding.  Is this what we watch now?  Whatever happened to Family Ties, Growing Pains, Dallas, Melrose Place, and Friends?  Heck, I didn’t even like those last three shows I just listed off, but they would be better than the majority of this nonsense on tv nowadays.  Nowadays.  Listen to me.  I sound like my grandparents. 
Bell Media rocked the broadcasting industry last week, announcing it was buying Astral for $3.38 billion.  This is bad news for listeners, viewers, and employees.  Airchecker, a trusted source of media information in Canada, says Bell will own 45% of all radio stations.  I wonder how much longer it will before Bell and Rogers own everything related to television and radio in this country.
There is still the publicly funded CBC, and they are currently involved in a bit of a dispute with the National Hockey League over renewing their Hockey Night In Canada contract.  To me, it’s very wrong for the NHL to dictate how the CBC covers the games.  The media is supposed to be unbiased, but the opposite has taken place with both TSN and Sportsnet as they suck up to the NHL on a regular basis.  For me, Hockey Night In Canada has become the only time I will even turn the tv on for the NHL.  I don’t really care if Don Cherry’s views are on target or not.  For me, he’s entertainment.  In a league where there are too many 1-0 games; Cherry provides the thrill.  But, the CBC isn’t likely to get a new NHL deal if they don’t part ways with Cherry and/or Ron MacLean.  It’s wrong.  It’s too bad.  And, there isn’t anything anyone is going to do about it.
As I write this, Graham James is about to be sentenced for crimes committed against Theoren Fleury and Todd Holt.  As you read this, his punishment will be made public.  Here’s to hoping he gets what he deserves and we can all say the justice system finally worked, for a change.  For some reason, I have some doubts.  After all, the guy was pardoned!
Peyton Manning is set to become a Denver Bronco.  I can’t say I’m a pro or anti Tim Tebow person; but I do hope the Broncos trade him and he gets an opportunity to start somewhere because the one thing he has provided in his young career is excitement.  I think I have my doubts about his ability to make it long term in the NFL, but I’d, at least, like to see a team give him a fair shake to succeed or fail.
Nice person mentions this week to Becky Scheller, Garth Harris, Sheldon Kaminski, and Dean Partridge. 

No comments:

Post a Comment