Winnipeg's Media Personalities: Shiny Happy People.....Well, Except For Jen Zoratti

Why, Jen, Why?

I try to be a happy person and to do positive, fun, and positive-snarky tweets on Twitter. The only negative tweets I do are to some organization or policy that I feel has wronged my way of life in some form.

But a certain media person has made it extremely difficult to keep a smile on my face lately.

Since Twitter began, the biggest thing I have learned about posting on Twitter is it amplifies people's personalities to such a degree that the differences between people become more stark and palpable.

I enjoy following media people and sending them snappy/funny/snarky comments about the things they've written or said on TV or radio. Sometimes I give them a perspective they have forgotten about. Sometimes I add a joke to what they've said.

What do my comments get me? They get me likes and even follows from the happy, positive, upbeat personalities at places like CTV Morning Live and Energy 106. It's such a joy to watch and listen to those people.

And at the other end of the spectrum.......there is Winnipeg Free Press reporter Jen Zoratti.

The same types of comments I send everybody else have apparently caused Jen to block me on Twitter. I discovered this one day by accident. So I emailed her to ask why she was blocking me. Was it a specific tweet I wrote, and, if so, how did she see it? She wasn't following me, so my tweets wouldn't have been in her timeline. Did someone she was following like or retweet one of my tweets, or was she searching for a hashtag? You would think someone would show the proper common courtesy to answer the question of "why" when that person comes a'calling. But instead, Jen's reply to me asking her why she was blocking me on Twitter was, "Yes, I am blocking you on Twitter. No, it is not a mistake. Please stop contacting me."

What a stark contrast between this apparently sour, unpleasant person as compared to the wonderful, happy media personalities I mention above. But I follow media personalities who interest me, and Jen's Free Press stories interest me. I could speculate here on things I think she might take exception to on my Twitter feed as opposed to Winnipeg's other media personalities, but that would be useless because I would be assuming things about her that may not be true.

And that's it, re: her response. No indication of why. I DID contact her again to remind her she didn't tell me why, and she did not respond. I then contacted Winnipeg Free Press editor Paul Samyn, and he told me he would talk to Jen, but that he wouldn't force her to unblock anybody. I told him I wasn't necessarily looking to be unblocked, but to find out why Jen was blocking me. After a few weeks, I emailed him back to say, "How's this coming along?" No response. I emailed him again. No response. I sent the thread to Free Press co-owner Bob Cox. No response. I sent it again a few weeks later. No response.

Then I said to all three of them that I would do a Facebook post whenever I got around to it, with a meme of Jen that said something she would not like. Why would I do something like that? To make the crime fit the punishment. In other words, I would now be giving Jen a reason to block me on Twitter. We could have now said that she is blocking me on Twitter because I did that meme of her.

Alas, Facebook removed the post because it violated their terms of service. That post is essentially what you are reading now, with a few changes. But keep reading.

Then I received a letter from the Winnipeg Free Press' legal counsel informing me they had reported my post to Facebook. So that's how Facebook found it. Even if they didn't remove it, the lawyers demanded that I do it.

The issue isn't what you are reading now. It's what I had said in the meme.

After I replied to the lawyer who sent me the letter and she responded, I believe I have taken out any parts of what you are reading now that would constitute harassment or defamation. Oh, but I am leaving in the facts, and I am posting this here on The Beau Zone, as my original idea had been to repost the original Facebook post here before I discovered the lawyer's letter to me via email. So what's left, after deleting any illegal harassment or defamation sections from my post, are simply freedom of speech issues, which are not illegal.

I want everyone to know what kind of person Jen Zoratti apparently is!

And these are the facts. So YOU decide what kind of person she is based on these facts.

Jen is under no obligation to tell me why she blocked me on Twitter, of course, but, now, regarding that, let's get back to my email exchange with these people from seven paragraphs ago. So then Paul Samyn finally breaks his silence and says, "My previous note to you on this matter made clear that Jen is under no obligation to respond to your demands." No, Paul, you NEVER said that to me. I do apologize for not thinking of the phrase "common courtesy" that I used earlier in this Beau Zone post when describing to you my problem, though. No, she is not under any obligation, but c'mon - if you asked me what 2 plus 2 equals, I am not obligated to answer that question, either, but it's a simple question and answer, so most people would just answer the question if asked it. People don't randomly block other people on Twitter for no reason. She HAD to have a reason to block me. And Jen and Paul don't seem to understand that the way to make me GO AWAY is to simply answer the question! WHY did Jen block me on Twitter? Just tell me, and I will delete this post and go away.

To everyone reading this: do a search of both @JenZoratti and @beauhajavitch on Twitter. Do you see anything there that would cause Jen to block me? She is even answering my tweets in some cases in the past. Once, I used a funny phrase jokingly warning her that someone "would go all North Korea on her" and she responded saying she didn't know what that meant, and I responded back saying I had been planning on doing a tweet about something to her, and before my internet session I heard someone say "go all North Korea on you" on TV and thought it was funny and would work in that tweet. I say that here because that exchange did not cause her to block me. The last time her name came up automatically, re: autofill (signifying someone is not blocking you) when tweeting was when I did a tweet about her story about Earl's letting people park their cars there overnight and what the snowplow operators would think of that. After that, I didn't have a reason to tweet her for a while, and sometimes I look at my Twitter list and say, "I haven't seen that person in my timeline in a while," and check them out. That was the case with Jen, and that's how I found out she was blocking me.

And that's that. When Jen tells me WHY she is blocking me on Twitter, this post will be deleted. But it sure looks like this post will stay here forever.

P.S. Since there might be people on Twitter who don't go on The Beau Zone, and aren't reading this, those people - and you - might notice I continue to tweet "to" Jen (regarding stories she's written), which Twitter still allows, it's just that I have to completely type her handle - no autofill - because the general public doesn't know she is blocking me. Only you, reading this, know. (And I do plan to do a Facebook post that is only a link to this post, and hopefully that is okay with the faceless Facebook's bots, if that's what any future trouble I could have with Facebook is all about.) It's usually at the same time I am tweeting others, increasing the chances of those others replying or retweeting, meaning everyone out there is seeing those tweets EXCEPT Jen. I figure if she's going to block me, she should pay the price. Everyone will see my tweets "to her" EXCEPT her. Serves her right. And everyone reading this will see those tweets if you do a Twitter search on both our handles, or any relevant hashtags, as well. (My original email to Jen asking her why was written Sept. 4, 2017.)

I sure hate wasting time on negative issues like this. I want everyone including me to be positive, think positive, and go through the day with smiles on our faces and love in our hearts. But some things or people won't let us do that. That's a fact we just have to learn to live with, I guess.

Greatest Hits Albums

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON THE ELEVENTH EDITION OF "THE BEAU ZONE" ON THE HARD ROCK HEROES WEBSITE FROM MARCH TO NOVEMBER 2008.

Something a little different this time around on The Beau Zone. A few weeks ago, Winnipeg Free Press writer David Sanderson asked me to contribute something to an article he was writing for the paper's Saturday Detour section on the 50th anniversary of the greatest hits album. I initially thought that meant I would be quoted in his article, but instead he just put some of my comments, along with other Winnipeg celebrities' comments, in a certain section of the page alongside the article. So he took a few of my many comments I e-mailed him and squished them together the best he could. I kind of feel some of what he printed was taken out of context, although if he had printed what my context was, I admit the resulting piece would have been too long. Nevertheless, since I'm overdue for a new Beau Zone, I thought I'd reprint my original e-mail to him here in the next few paragraphs for your pleasure. Enjoy.

Thanks for thinking of me, David. I have to generally go into my vinyl albums, because I don't have time to really think about the CD compilations that come out now, although I buy some of them. It was in the '70s that my friends and I played albums over and over and really got to know them. For this reason, greatest hits albums were a bit off our radar, because we had the songs already and they didn't have the flow we already had become accustomed to from the individual albums. Live albums made the songs flow better.

That being said, I took a quick look at my record collection, and, although I can't decide upon one all-time favorite, here are some random thoughts:

1) I love Kiss' "Double Platinum," their first greatest hits collection from 1978 that they entrusted Jimmy Iovine to remix, where he made new versions of some of the songs, although they weren't that happy with some of the resulting tracks. Some of what he did that I love included Hard Luck Woman where the drums don't come in until the second verse, or Calling Dr. Love, with the added mystery in the intro and the effect of emphasis on the sleazy guitar line during the chorus when Gene's vocal is removed right after the guitar solo.

2) "All The Best from Prism" had a lot of airplay at friends' parties when it came out, just 'cause they were one of those bands that "passed us by," so to speak, but had enough hits that a greatest hits collection that captured them all sufficed perfectly.

3) Streetheart: There's never been a decent Streetheart greatest hits compilation. Formerly, this seemed to be due to the band appearing on two different record companies in its' career and the problems that entails, probably financially, to include songs from both record companies on one compilation. The Rolling Stones can do it, but they obviously have way more money than anyone connected with Streetheart. The "60 Minutes With Streetheart" CD (now out of print, I believe) on Capitol had to include live versions of their WEA songs. I guess those songs were unavailable for a Capitol release. "Action: The Best Of Streetheart" only comprises their WEA stuff after Streetheart left WEA and is basically a too-early compilation. Recently, whoever is doing the "Essential" CDs put out "The Essential Streetheart" with songs from both record companies, but it has only around ten tracks just thrown together without rhyme or reason. I hate CDs like that. The first song doesn't sound like it should be the first song on the CD, etc. I didn't have time to remember who put that out, if it was Capitol or who. There's an interesting very early cover photo of the band, probably when they were called Witness, I believe even pre-Paul Dean/Matt Frenette, that probably has other members who have left, but there's no liner notes or anything telling us about that photo or anything else. Just completely slipshod. Streetheart needs a worthy greatest hits album that has between 15 and 20 songs on it.

4) Beatles: I have a soft spot for 1976's "Rock And Roll Music," a double album with all their uptempo songs mixed to sound louder and brasher. I guess this is more of a "compilation" and less of a "greatest hits" album. For a real greatest hits album, I don't know what's better: "20 Greatest Hits" (is that still in print?), their new CD "No. 1s," or the vinyl-but-CD-or-boxed-set-styled-in-hindsight albums 1962-66 and 1967-70. Depends what mood you're in at the time, I guess.

5) "Aerosmith's Greatest Hits:" I always like it when greatest hits albums pick up wayward tracks that were singles only or given to movie soundtracks. In this case, it was "Come Together" from the Sgt. Pepper soundtrack. This album also makes me think of the Aerosmith biography where Joe Perry talks about how, during the time he wasn't in the band and was doing The Joe Perry Project, some kid gave him this album to autograph and it was the first time he had ever heard of it or seen it. No one had told him of its' release.

6) Recent CDs? Well, before I was into hard rock, I was into '70s pop and bubblegum, so I absolutely adore "Absolutely The Best Of The Archies" and The Partridge Family "Greatest Hits." And yes, I'm going to see David Cassidy. Ace Frehley, too, for that matter. Along the same vein, very valuable is TimeLife's "AM Top Twenty: Sounds Of The Seventies," an excellent collection that contains such early '70s AM gems as The Night Chicago Died, Billy Don't Be A Hero, and Rock Me Gently. The only CD I've ever bought from an infomercial. My most-played non-Kiss CD. I also like "The Best Of Foghat," because they did blues-boogie, but my friends and I liked their straight hard rock stuff, so their albums were spotty to us. Their live album, "Foghat Live," was one of our top albums. So "The Best Of Foghat" effectively collects all their best hard rock tracks. The CD "Anthology" by Angel (remember them, with their white outfits?) needs more songs from the "Sinful" album.

7) Have to include this: In the "Television's Greatest Hits" records/CDs, my favorites are volumes 2 and 5 with the most memorable sitcom and cartoon TV theme songs. The first one is good, too.