Here are my thoughts on this whole Dire Straits "Money For Nothing" fiasco, where the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council ruled that the 1985 song should now be censored, with the offending word "faggot" removed from the song.
And, as usual, my opinions are completely different from anyone else's, and don't reflect anything I've read anywhere so far.
While I can totally understand the arguments against censorship or editing of this song, I don't mind if it's edited to take the word "faggot" out. (And I'm not gay.) Actually, I'd rather hear that word or the "N" word bleeped out of songs than the various sexual representations of coarse language like "fuck" or "cock."
You see, there is an element out there that think that that song is actually celebrating the attitudes of the two retail appliance workers Mark Knopfler overheard and immortalized in song.
I personally refer to that element in society as the "macho redneck caveman bullies (MRCB)."
These are the guys who were bullies when they were 10 years old in 1972, and probably still are today. It's great that people are trying to do things about bullying in schools now, but what about the 10-year old 1972 bullies who are 40-something-year-old truck drivers and factory workers now? Do people think they're too far gone for help? That they can't deal with the potential verbal and physical violence from these MRCB if they tried to somehow corral their redneck behaviour and attitudes?
When I read in the papers of today's bullies and what kind of things they bully people about, NONE of it matches what the MRCB of the '70s cared about and bullied people over.
Basically, these guys want all males around their age to be exactly like them. You must be a sports fan, - preferably listing hockey fights as your favorite "sport" - you must drink beer very, very fast, you must work in the warehouse and DESPISE all so called "office people" when they are not standing there, you must wear a baseball cap and have a mustache, and you must judge music artists by how hard it is to play the guitars in their songs, which is why the favorite band of MRCB is Rush. (Wonder what the MRCB think of Maroon 5 or hip-hop music, or anything on Muchmusic's New.Music.Live.) The MRCB figure that if anyone can learn to play the instruments in a given song, then what good is the band that plays that song? Then you try to get the MRCBs to explain guitar playing, to explain what the difference between Rush and Kiss guitar playing is, and why and how Rush playing is more intricate, and instead of an intelligent answer, the MRCBs just become more and more upset, start yelling and screaming, and don't answer your question. I had to wait 20 years to read the answer in a guitar magazine, and it was actually so intellectual of an answer that I couldn't totally understand it myself, since I'm not a guitar player.
If you don't fit in with all of the above atributes, like for example, if it takes you an hour to drink a beer like I used to be (I can drink one in half an hour now), then you are branded a "faggot" by the MRCB and you are bullied. Period. I think of the song "If You Don't Start Drinking, I'm Gonna Leave" by George Thorogood. That's the only song that comes close to acknowledging the existance of MRCBs, and, wouldn't you know it, it's a song that supports them. Except around here, it should be called, "If You Don't Start Drinking, YOU'RE Gonna Leave." That's more what I'm accustomed to. If you and the MRCB are 10 years old in 1972, you are bullied on the schoolyard at recess, until a teacher shows up. Then the bully changes his attitude and the teacher wonders what the problem is. If you and the MRCB are 45 years old in 2007, you are bullied in the workplace, until an "office person" shows up. Then the bully changes his attitude and the "office person" wonders what the problem is. Oh, and the bully is the warehouse manager, too. And his boss, the CEO is a bully, too, but I don't want to digress here. Let's get back to the Dire Straits song.
The argument of the MRCB is that Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits know what "good music" is (which is basically anything played on CITI FM) and so, the appliance workers Knopfler overheard inspired him to write "Money For Nothing" to point out, through quoting those workers, how awful and terrible artists like Michael Jackson and Prince are, which includes calling them faggots. Doesn't matter that the MRCB are completely and totally off the mark. They'll just say to anyone reading this who will try to tell them that Knopfler wrote that song to expose how ignorant those workers are, "How do you know? Do you know Dire Straits personally?" The MRCB don't know them personally, either, of course, but you can't convince them that what they look upon as normal behaviour by people who they think are "their own kind" is anything but. Oh, and don't think I've neglected an artist's look, either: in order for an artist to gain the respect of the MRCB, they must look like the way Boston or Foreigner look on the covers of their first albums. They can't wear anything or have hairstyles that would cause the MRCB to NOT WANT TO BE SEEN WITH THEM IN PUBLIC, i.e., anything that would brand them as "faggots." (1970s FM radio fans beating up AM radio fans could be another image the mind conjures up here.)
And, because there are so many MRCBs still out there, that's why this issue involving this song from 1985 has hit a nerve with the Canadian public. (The issue would be more intense only if the song were from 1975 or 1978 rather than 1985.)
Do something about bullies in high school today, those hip-hop-or-weird-band-loving gang members? Sure, why not? Everyone supports that. But try to take one small step against the MRCBs that have never been attacked before - "hey, that's US!" and all hell breaks loose.
The MRCBs have it coming, and have had it coming for 40 years now. I don't like being called a faggot, even though I'm not gay.
So if the CBSC wants that word censored, they'll get no argument from me. If it isn't censored, well, hopefully what the press writes about the real reasons Knopfler wrote the song are correct, and so that's fine with me, too. Either way, hopefully this will finally open up discussion on finally doing something about bullying from the MRCBs.
Now if we can only get the uncensored version of "Patron Tequila" by The Paradiso Girls played on Hot 103, heh, heh.....
Me during the broadcast of "Much On Demand" outside in front of the Muchmusic building in Toronto, ON on September 25, 2003.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Saturday, October 9, 2010
The Evolution of Winnipeg's Bar Circuit From the Late '70s to Today
I had a phone conversation recently with a friend of mine who's in a cover band. The conversation went typically. We've covered this ground before. He just doesn't understand how the music business in Winnipeg has changed since the late '70s/early '80s in the area of bars and clubs and what they offer for live music nowadays, and how it got to this point. He still thinks the bands in this city of note that are waiting to be discovered by record companies are the cover bands that play at places like Mirrors, The Palomino Club, and Silverado's. He is clueless of the bands that play at the Pyramid, the Albert, or The Zoo. The bands that exhibit today's current "DIY" (Do-It-Yourself") approach. He just dismisses that scene as "alternative music that appeals to very few people." He can't figure out why the days don't exist anymore when a cover band that plays a few of their own originals can go into a bar for a week, and, like the band Click, "pack the place on a Tuesday night." Well, lack of money due to the economy, more things to spend money on nowadays, like computers and DVDs, and more need for a college education that requires homework and more sleep the night before instead of going to bars would be reasons for a starter. I don't know if this guy lives under a rock during the day when he's not performing or what, but I can't figure out how he can know nothing about his current music business surroundings. He's single. Does he simply not exist when he's not on stage? Does he just sit there and stare at blank walls all day? Doesn't he read the papers, Uptown, or watch TV? Doesn't he check out the bar listings? Doesn't he TALK to people?
Anyway, here's an e-mail I sent him after our conversation that covers a few more things. I thought that after writing all this, I would like to do something more about it. So I put it here on The Beau Zone. It's slightly edited. The subject matter of how the bar circuit has changed from, say, 1978 to now is actually quite fascinating, and it's something you never read about in Winnipeg media. You always read about Burton Cummings' and Randy Bachman's era in the '60s, but what about after that? What about the '70s, the '80s, and the '90s? It's a subject that never gets discussed. And I can't even fully discuss it. I've never worked for the booking agencies or the bars involved. Maybe I'll alert Winnipeg club writers about this blog, and they can be inspired to write about this subject. That would be great. So here's the e-mail I sent my friend. Hope you enjoy it.
"Another slant on what we were talking about on the phone:
"What started as the DIY approach for all-original bands has evolved into the next level, and I think initially the dividing lines between music genres is what allowed DIY to grow, but nowadays, with generation changes, it pretty much applies to all genres. Especially when party rock or straight ahead rock isn't being done anymore except by country bands or rare bands like Nickelback that are evolving from their former status as being post-grunge bands.
"Winnipeg's best-known hard rock bands are Dreadnaut and Xplicit. What someone like Dreadnaut does, is that, since it is an all-original band, and when they were in their infancy they were probably the first or second band on a night of unknown bands maybe once a month or something, is that they take their now-headlining gigs and make something special out of them. Independent bands all have their own CDs out that they sell at their merch table with t-shirts, as well as Music Trader and Into The Music, and online via CD Baby using Paypal. They put up MySpace pages with their music that fans can hear for free on their computers but not download. They poster their gig everywhere, and it becomes an event, because it's just one date. Today's fans of metal, punk, folk, or singer-songwriters, who seek out gigs they're interested in at venues (they're more called venues now, not even bars) would probably think of the old "bar circuit" of the late '70s as something very odd, and perhaps boring, too. They might wonder, 'What kind of excitement does an artist offer when they're playing every day, all week, three sets a night, at a bar, then all over again next week at a different bar, and with 70% covers, 30% originals?' These people, like the band members, probably have day jobs that are DIY, too, like running their own businesses, maybe using the internet, or if they are employees, then it's something seasonal, so that they can easily procure time to tour (because a lot of these artists tour to other cities, too). Personally, having lived as a fan with both systems, I find neither one better than the other. They're just different, that's all. I will say that the old '70s bar circuit is more geared towards the 'employee' mentality; If you're an employee at a factory or something, then you've got plenty of opportunities to see someone. Similarly, a band member feels like an employee himself, doing nightly music shifts and perhaps making a living at doing covers.
"That bar circuit scene was kind of over by the early '80s, although it sort of wasn't, because the notable strong exceptions were Night Moves & The Diamond Club, along with Norma Jeans. This era produced Jenerator, The Shivers, Playground X, Howling Now, etc., who all did originals. However, the independent music scene had started and was alive and well with Monuments Galore, etc., and grew from there. There had always been a distrust towards CITI FM, too, as CITI wanted to be the self-appointed gatekeepers of what was good rock/hard rock and what wasn't. Either you were frustrated at the bands and albums they didn't play, or you were sheep who dismissed those bands and albums as not being any good "because CITI doesn't play them."
"'70s rock had morphed into '80s hair-band rock. Then the bottom fell out entirely around '93 when grunge and alternative took hold and Night Moves/Diamond Club became country music clubs. (People say grunge and alternative started earlier, like around '91, but things took longer to catch on in Canada, and record companies here were still signing regular rock bands like Big House and Dead Beat Honeymooners, which certainly fueled my TV show Hard Rock Heroes.) CITI FM ultimately couldn't deal with this and went classic rock. So-called 'regular hard rock' was dead and all forms of music that were left went DIY. Then came computers, Windows, Microsoft Word, and the internet, which took DIY to a whole new level. Meanwhile, in the late '90s, pop came back, and in a very, very SEXY, and female, way. Rap and hip-hop had been brewing slowly since the '80s, really. The dance clubs became a zenith. That's where we are today, with envelope-pushing girl pop, rap and hip-hop dominating the charts, along with the occasional rock band thrown in here and there for contrast. All songs are full of swearing now, and have to have the offending words and phrases removed for radio and video. And don't forget all those artists that came from American Idol! In this environment, for whatever does remain for a 'bar circuit,' which probably only still exists due to MLCC regulations concerning cabarets, is now strictly a 'cover band bar circuit' (you tell ME when/if bar owners and/or the agencies told you 'no originals at all') in which the songs a cover band plays must be hits that complement the DJ in the places that have cover bands and that keep people dancing. Nostalgia for old hits has helped today's cover bands, too.
"I said on the phone that if a band could sneak in an original that fits in with what you just read there would be no market for it. I'm going to go back on that a bit. It's just something that has been untapped here in Winnipeg. Pop music out of Winnipeg? (And that's basically what it would be - Pop music.) Not much of a precedent there. The Shivers were pop-rock and they made a decent headway, but that band existed when we were still in the Diamond Club/Night Moves/Norma Jeans era, and they imploded when Randy Reibling, who arguably WAS The Shivers, left. (I'm talking about the original Shivers from the early '90s, not the cover-band version with Randy and a bunch of guys from later in the decade - by then, FOR SURE Randy himself was The Shivers.) I was reading about Enjoy Your Pumas, a name I've seen gigging around town, this weekend in Stylus, and they are apparently a pop-dance act. And I had forgotten to talk about Ash Koley! I LOVE Ash Koley. She's a Winnipeg pop artist who just moved to Toronto not so long ago. Her music is like '80s new wave meets Abba meets Disney. Very catchy, and Hot 103 has played it. One of her current songs is now a Manitoba Lotteries commercial! Check out her music and You Tube embedded videos at http://www.myspace.com/ashkoley.
"This doesn't fit anywhere in this, but I feel it's worth mentioning: The rise of DJ culture. DJs like to feel that their scratching and mixing and mashups are an art form now so this gives to the rise of DJs as artists. Look at the listings for the Pyramid, the Albert, and the Academy, and you'll see they are half DJ nights now. Even The Zoo is trying DJs on occasional nights. And certainly Ozzy's has had great success with the Ready Mix DJs on Thursday nights ever since The Collective/Die Maschine closed and became American Apparel/Hifi Club.
"Certainly, the changes have been jarring for any musician used to making a living weekly in the bars, who might have gotten into it originally in order to make original music, but who got lured in, as they got older, by the easy lifestyle playing covers brings when compared to the uncertain DIY ethic, particularly if you like to play a style of music that DIY doesn't jibe with, although in 2010, that may have changed, too. If you can find some way to pay the bills, would you consider doing a CD of original music with a band and looking for DIY gigs to promote it? Actually, at The Zoo, I don't know what it used to be, but now it's partially a pay-to-play deal: You pay The Zoo $500.00, and the night is yours. You charge whatever you want for cover and you keep 100% of it. The Zoo keeps 100% of beverage sales. Any money made or lost is yours. You are responsible for your own publicity (postering, advertising, etc.). Full pay-to-play, like in L.A., means if only 10 people show up, no one's buying drinks and the bar somehow charges you a hefty sum and you never get to play there again. I don't know how that compares with The Zoo's situation. That's where you get L.A. band members passing out flyers on the Strip themselves, pleading people walking down the street to go to their gig. More info on what The Zoo does at http://www.myspace.com/osbornevillageinnofficial.
"Marc Labossiere's situation is puzzling. I believe he plays all '90s rock covers by bands like 3 Doors Down nowadays, and somehow he's allowed to do that. I haven't seen him in a long time, but when I did, the dance floor didn't clear for him. I don't believe he does his originals from his CDs. He probably could. He probably did the best job anyone on the bar circuit could who WASN'T willing to get off of it and go tour in other cities for peanuts without radio or video play. In other words, he became a big WINNIPEG star with his CDs, but never wanted to go to the next level. Ya gotta get off that bar circuit, Marc, dude! It takes money to make money. Maybe bands like Kick Axe got lucky with offers and Marc didn't. I have no idea. But then, Kick Axe was still years earlier than the club environments Marc has played in. I just thought I should say something special about him.
"And that's all I have for you now. I'll probably save this writeup and change around a few words and use it for The Beau Zone."
And, as you have now read, that's exactly what I have done!
Your thoughts, people?
Anyway, here's an e-mail I sent him after our conversation that covers a few more things. I thought that after writing all this, I would like to do something more about it. So I put it here on The Beau Zone. It's slightly edited. The subject matter of how the bar circuit has changed from, say, 1978 to now is actually quite fascinating, and it's something you never read about in Winnipeg media. You always read about Burton Cummings' and Randy Bachman's era in the '60s, but what about after that? What about the '70s, the '80s, and the '90s? It's a subject that never gets discussed. And I can't even fully discuss it. I've never worked for the booking agencies or the bars involved. Maybe I'll alert Winnipeg club writers about this blog, and they can be inspired to write about this subject. That would be great. So here's the e-mail I sent my friend. Hope you enjoy it.
"Another slant on what we were talking about on the phone:
"What started as the DIY approach for all-original bands has evolved into the next level, and I think initially the dividing lines between music genres is what allowed DIY to grow, but nowadays, with generation changes, it pretty much applies to all genres. Especially when party rock or straight ahead rock isn't being done anymore except by country bands or rare bands like Nickelback that are evolving from their former status as being post-grunge bands.
"Winnipeg's best-known hard rock bands are Dreadnaut and Xplicit. What someone like Dreadnaut does, is that, since it is an all-original band, and when they were in their infancy they were probably the first or second band on a night of unknown bands maybe once a month or something, is that they take their now-headlining gigs and make something special out of them. Independent bands all have their own CDs out that they sell at their merch table with t-shirts, as well as Music Trader and Into The Music, and online via CD Baby using Paypal. They put up MySpace pages with their music that fans can hear for free on their computers but not download. They poster their gig everywhere, and it becomes an event, because it's just one date. Today's fans of metal, punk, folk, or singer-songwriters, who seek out gigs they're interested in at venues (they're more called venues now, not even bars) would probably think of the old "bar circuit" of the late '70s as something very odd, and perhaps boring, too. They might wonder, 'What kind of excitement does an artist offer when they're playing every day, all week, three sets a night, at a bar, then all over again next week at a different bar, and with 70% covers, 30% originals?' These people, like the band members, probably have day jobs that are DIY, too, like running their own businesses, maybe using the internet, or if they are employees, then it's something seasonal, so that they can easily procure time to tour (because a lot of these artists tour to other cities, too). Personally, having lived as a fan with both systems, I find neither one better than the other. They're just different, that's all. I will say that the old '70s bar circuit is more geared towards the 'employee' mentality; If you're an employee at a factory or something, then you've got plenty of opportunities to see someone. Similarly, a band member feels like an employee himself, doing nightly music shifts and perhaps making a living at doing covers.
"That bar circuit scene was kind of over by the early '80s, although it sort of wasn't, because the notable strong exceptions were Night Moves & The Diamond Club, along with Norma Jeans. This era produced Jenerator, The Shivers, Playground X, Howling Now, etc., who all did originals. However, the independent music scene had started and was alive and well with Monuments Galore, etc., and grew from there. There had always been a distrust towards CITI FM, too, as CITI wanted to be the self-appointed gatekeepers of what was good rock/hard rock and what wasn't. Either you were frustrated at the bands and albums they didn't play, or you were sheep who dismissed those bands and albums as not being any good "because CITI doesn't play them."
"'70s rock had morphed into '80s hair-band rock. Then the bottom fell out entirely around '93 when grunge and alternative took hold and Night Moves/Diamond Club became country music clubs. (People say grunge and alternative started earlier, like around '91, but things took longer to catch on in Canada, and record companies here were still signing regular rock bands like Big House and Dead Beat Honeymooners, which certainly fueled my TV show Hard Rock Heroes.) CITI FM ultimately couldn't deal with this and went classic rock. So-called 'regular hard rock' was dead and all forms of music that were left went DIY. Then came computers, Windows, Microsoft Word, and the internet, which took DIY to a whole new level. Meanwhile, in the late '90s, pop came back, and in a very, very SEXY, and female, way. Rap and hip-hop had been brewing slowly since the '80s, really. The dance clubs became a zenith. That's where we are today, with envelope-pushing girl pop, rap and hip-hop dominating the charts, along with the occasional rock band thrown in here and there for contrast. All songs are full of swearing now, and have to have the offending words and phrases removed for radio and video. And don't forget all those artists that came from American Idol! In this environment, for whatever does remain for a 'bar circuit,' which probably only still exists due to MLCC regulations concerning cabarets, is now strictly a 'cover band bar circuit' (you tell ME when/if bar owners and/or the agencies told you 'no originals at all') in which the songs a cover band plays must be hits that complement the DJ in the places that have cover bands and that keep people dancing. Nostalgia for old hits has helped today's cover bands, too.
"I said on the phone that if a band could sneak in an original that fits in with what you just read there would be no market for it. I'm going to go back on that a bit. It's just something that has been untapped here in Winnipeg. Pop music out of Winnipeg? (And that's basically what it would be - Pop music.) Not much of a precedent there. The Shivers were pop-rock and they made a decent headway, but that band existed when we were still in the Diamond Club/Night Moves/Norma Jeans era, and they imploded when Randy Reibling, who arguably WAS The Shivers, left. (I'm talking about the original Shivers from the early '90s, not the cover-band version with Randy and a bunch of guys from later in the decade - by then, FOR SURE Randy himself was The Shivers.) I was reading about Enjoy Your Pumas, a name I've seen gigging around town, this weekend in Stylus, and they are apparently a pop-dance act. And I had forgotten to talk about Ash Koley! I LOVE Ash Koley. She's a Winnipeg pop artist who just moved to Toronto not so long ago. Her music is like '80s new wave meets Abba meets Disney. Very catchy, and Hot 103 has played it. One of her current songs is now a Manitoba Lotteries commercial! Check out her music and You Tube embedded videos at http://www.myspace.com/ashkoley.
"This doesn't fit anywhere in this, but I feel it's worth mentioning: The rise of DJ culture. DJs like to feel that their scratching and mixing and mashups are an art form now so this gives to the rise of DJs as artists. Look at the listings for the Pyramid, the Albert, and the Academy, and you'll see they are half DJ nights now. Even The Zoo is trying DJs on occasional nights. And certainly Ozzy's has had great success with the Ready Mix DJs on Thursday nights ever since The Collective/Die Maschine closed and became American Apparel/Hifi Club.
"Certainly, the changes have been jarring for any musician used to making a living weekly in the bars, who might have gotten into it originally in order to make original music, but who got lured in, as they got older, by the easy lifestyle playing covers brings when compared to the uncertain DIY ethic, particularly if you like to play a style of music that DIY doesn't jibe with, although in 2010, that may have changed, too. If you can find some way to pay the bills, would you consider doing a CD of original music with a band and looking for DIY gigs to promote it? Actually, at The Zoo, I don't know what it used to be, but now it's partially a pay-to-play deal: You pay The Zoo $500.00, and the night is yours. You charge whatever you want for cover and you keep 100% of it. The Zoo keeps 100% of beverage sales. Any money made or lost is yours. You are responsible for your own publicity (postering, advertising, etc.). Full pay-to-play, like in L.A., means if only 10 people show up, no one's buying drinks and the bar somehow charges you a hefty sum and you never get to play there again. I don't know how that compares with The Zoo's situation. That's where you get L.A. band members passing out flyers on the Strip themselves, pleading people walking down the street to go to their gig. More info on what The Zoo does at http://www.myspace.com/osbornevillageinnofficial.
"Marc Labossiere's situation is puzzling. I believe he plays all '90s rock covers by bands like 3 Doors Down nowadays, and somehow he's allowed to do that. I haven't seen him in a long time, but when I did, the dance floor didn't clear for him. I don't believe he does his originals from his CDs. He probably could. He probably did the best job anyone on the bar circuit could who WASN'T willing to get off of it and go tour in other cities for peanuts without radio or video play. In other words, he became a big WINNIPEG star with his CDs, but never wanted to go to the next level. Ya gotta get off that bar circuit, Marc, dude! It takes money to make money. Maybe bands like Kick Axe got lucky with offers and Marc didn't. I have no idea. But then, Kick Axe was still years earlier than the club environments Marc has played in. I just thought I should say something special about him.
"And that's all I have for you now. I'll probably save this writeup and change around a few words and use it for The Beau Zone."
And, as you have now read, that's exactly what I have done!
Your thoughts, people?
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Getting "Shit"-Faced On MTV Canada And Muchmusic
I love it when you get that feeling of accomplishment, especially when it's unexpected. All I did was write an e-mail.
I have noticed the last few months, on MTV Canada, they can say the word "shit" now, just like on Muchmusic. Well, I should hope so, now that both channels are now owned by the same company, CTV. Actually, I thought the reverse would happen, that after CTV's takeover of CHUM (where they had to divest themselves of CITY-TV, now owned by Rogers), CTV would can Muchmusic personalities from saying "shit." But no, CTV is continuing to let that word go and has now extended the practice to their MTV channel that CTV had started prior to the CHUM takeover.
Could that be as a result of my self-explanatory e-mail to MTV Canada's feedback address this past January?
That e-mail, through the magic of copy and paste, goes like this:
"Regarding your 'Top Ten Holy Shit Moments' show you aired at Christmas: Isn't it ironic that, while on another show similiar to this one you also aired around Christmas, you appear to be taking a potshot at Muchmusic and the kind of young audience they cater to nowadays, on the Top Ten Holy Shit Moments show on MTV, every time you actually say the word 'shit,' it's bleeped out, while Muchmusic has been letting that word air for years and years now. I recall a Much On Demand where Leah Miller appeared to be deliberately saying it all through the hour, so I was wondering if she had just found out that day that Much lets it air unbleeped. But that practice must go back, gosh, about 10 years by now.
"And, to add further irony, Much and MTV are both owned by CTV now. Do the CTV honchos know that 'shit' airs on Much, the target audience channel of ages 10-25, but is bleeped on MTV, the target audience channel of college age and higher?
"Maybe the Much people don't want to bring that up to their new CTV bosses, because that could be the way they find that out, and then they'll can that practice. Personally, I hope it goes the other way and you get to say 'shit' unbleeped. I would love it if you could find a way to air all your shows that air, say, late at night, completely language uncensored. Only bleep stuff during the day. I realize why that can't happen, though."
I hit "send" and.....voila! There's Daryn Jones & Nicole saying "shit" on MTV Live. Not bad.
This, of course, represents another baby-step in the repositioning of all cuss words to just being slang words. Another one is the movies CTV airs overnight on weekends that are completely uncensored, too, if they can get an uncensored cut. The envelope is getting pushed, baby.
And, as a dude with the rock and roll attitude that used to host a hard rock TV show, the fact that I could be held a little bit partially responsible for this evolution is, well, yeah, something to be proud of. Something to be FUCKING proud of, dude! YEAH!
(And, hey, that also means Much and MTV Canada can say the entire title of William Shatner's new sitcom "Shit My Dad Says" on air! The subject of this blog post coupled with this sitcom's title could add another baby-step to all this, too, as the days march on.)
I have noticed the last few months, on MTV Canada, they can say the word "shit" now, just like on Muchmusic. Well, I should hope so, now that both channels are now owned by the same company, CTV. Actually, I thought the reverse would happen, that after CTV's takeover of CHUM (where they had to divest themselves of CITY-TV, now owned by Rogers), CTV would can Muchmusic personalities from saying "shit." But no, CTV is continuing to let that word go and has now extended the practice to their MTV channel that CTV had started prior to the CHUM takeover.
Could that be as a result of my self-explanatory e-mail to MTV Canada's feedback address this past January?
That e-mail, through the magic of copy and paste, goes like this:
"Regarding your 'Top Ten Holy Shit Moments' show you aired at Christmas: Isn't it ironic that, while on another show similiar to this one you also aired around Christmas, you appear to be taking a potshot at Muchmusic and the kind of young audience they cater to nowadays, on the Top Ten Holy Shit Moments show on MTV, every time you actually say the word 'shit,' it's bleeped out, while Muchmusic has been letting that word air for years and years now. I recall a Much On Demand where Leah Miller appeared to be deliberately saying it all through the hour, so I was wondering if she had just found out that day that Much lets it air unbleeped. But that practice must go back, gosh, about 10 years by now.
"And, to add further irony, Much and MTV are both owned by CTV now. Do the CTV honchos know that 'shit' airs on Much, the target audience channel of ages 10-25, but is bleeped on MTV, the target audience channel of college age and higher?
"Maybe the Much people don't want to bring that up to their new CTV bosses, because that could be the way they find that out, and then they'll can that practice. Personally, I hope it goes the other way and you get to say 'shit' unbleeped. I would love it if you could find a way to air all your shows that air, say, late at night, completely language uncensored. Only bleep stuff during the day. I realize why that can't happen, though."
I hit "send" and.....voila! There's Daryn Jones & Nicole saying "shit" on MTV Live. Not bad.
This, of course, represents another baby-step in the repositioning of all cuss words to just being slang words. Another one is the movies CTV airs overnight on weekends that are completely uncensored, too, if they can get an uncensored cut. The envelope is getting pushed, baby.
And, as a dude with the rock and roll attitude that used to host a hard rock TV show, the fact that I could be held a little bit partially responsible for this evolution is, well, yeah, something to be proud of. Something to be FUCKING proud of, dude! YEAH!
(And, hey, that also means Much and MTV Canada can say the entire title of William Shatner's new sitcom "Shit My Dad Says" on air! The subject of this blog post coupled with this sitcom's title could add another baby-step to all this, too, as the days march on.)
Monday, May 17, 2010
My thoughts on "The Runaways"
Okay, I guess it's time. My first regular Blogspot post! I'm so excited.....
My favorite movie review site is Pajiba. As a fan of the band The Runaways, I thought I'd copy and paste here my thoughts on the recent Runaways movie that I wrote in the comments section of their review page on the film (Note: It starts out with me responding to an ill-informed fan named Protoguy who claimed both the Lita Ford and Jackie Fox characters weren't in the film):
"As a huge Runaways fan, Protoguy: Lita Ford IS in the film. Bassist Jackie Fox is not, probably because she was the one causing legal trouble and she's now a lawyer herself, so the producers probably thought she would be the only real threat here, so they created a fictional bassist with no lines to replace her. Brian: Once the group was solidified with the lineup that appeared on their albums, there were really only two bass players: Jackie Fox on the first two albums and Vickie Blue on the second two albums. Cherie Currie left the band after the second album, at the same time Jackie Fox did. Which brings me to my thoughts on this film: Most of the film is really good, but the last bit sucks. As you noted, Cherie's biography is the source material. But her bio is not the same as The Runaways' bio. This movie makes it seem as if The Runaways ended when she left the band. NO! Thank God at the end there is print for us to read that told us the truth: That after Cherie left, Joan Jett continued with the band for two more years, whereby she sang all the songs. Why didn't Joan continue the rest of the story of the band with the producers? In fact, their first album without Cherie (third overall), Waitin' For The Night, I bought at a record store in either '77 or '78 whose land today is occupied by the mall that houses the very theatre where I saw this movie! It also must be a head-scratcher to movie-goers not familiar with the band: If this is a Runaways bio, why do they seem to be concentrating mostly on the lead singer's life? With only a bit about the guitarist's life and almost nothing about the other members? Now, I'm a Runaways fan, so I didn't mind all the stuff with Cherie and her family, and I wasn't thrilled at first with how the film only concentrates on Cherie and Joan, but there may not have been room for five different points of view, and I'm happy with the screen time the Sandy West and Lita Ford characters do have. In fact, Lita and Joan do get into an argument near the end. It does suck there is no Jackie Fox. But where was their No. 2 most well-known song (after 'Cherry Bomb'), 'Queens Of Noise?' I was looking forward to seeing the girls perform that song. It is listed in the credits, so.....was there a snippet of the song so small I missed it? Someone help me on that one. If the song really wasn't in the movie, shame on the producers for that. It would have been cool if the Kim Fowley character made mention of the two songwriting credits he got on Kiss' Destroyer during The Runaways' Cherie Currie years, too."
For the references I made above that I didn't name because only Winnipeggers would understand them: Of course, The Runaways played at the Globe Cinema, which is in Portage Place, and which stands on the very same piece of land the record store The Wherehouse used to be in the '70s, and where I bought the Waitin' For The Night album. So I guess it's apropos that the film played at the Globe! I return to the scene of the crime 32 years later!
My favorite movie review site is Pajiba. As a fan of the band The Runaways, I thought I'd copy and paste here my thoughts on the recent Runaways movie that I wrote in the comments section of their review page on the film (Note: It starts out with me responding to an ill-informed fan named Protoguy who claimed both the Lita Ford and Jackie Fox characters weren't in the film):
"As a huge Runaways fan, Protoguy: Lita Ford IS in the film. Bassist Jackie Fox is not, probably because she was the one causing legal trouble and she's now a lawyer herself, so the producers probably thought she would be the only real threat here, so they created a fictional bassist with no lines to replace her. Brian: Once the group was solidified with the lineup that appeared on their albums, there were really only two bass players: Jackie Fox on the first two albums and Vickie Blue on the second two albums. Cherie Currie left the band after the second album, at the same time Jackie Fox did. Which brings me to my thoughts on this film: Most of the film is really good, but the last bit sucks. As you noted, Cherie's biography is the source material. But her bio is not the same as The Runaways' bio. This movie makes it seem as if The Runaways ended when she left the band. NO! Thank God at the end there is print for us to read that told us the truth: That after Cherie left, Joan Jett continued with the band for two more years, whereby she sang all the songs. Why didn't Joan continue the rest of the story of the band with the producers? In fact, their first album without Cherie (third overall), Waitin' For The Night, I bought at a record store in either '77 or '78 whose land today is occupied by the mall that houses the very theatre where I saw this movie! It also must be a head-scratcher to movie-goers not familiar with the band: If this is a Runaways bio, why do they seem to be concentrating mostly on the lead singer's life? With only a bit about the guitarist's life and almost nothing about the other members? Now, I'm a Runaways fan, so I didn't mind all the stuff with Cherie and her family, and I wasn't thrilled at first with how the film only concentrates on Cherie and Joan, but there may not have been room for five different points of view, and I'm happy with the screen time the Sandy West and Lita Ford characters do have. In fact, Lita and Joan do get into an argument near the end. It does suck there is no Jackie Fox. But where was their No. 2 most well-known song (after 'Cherry Bomb'), 'Queens Of Noise?' I was looking forward to seeing the girls perform that song. It is listed in the credits, so.....was there a snippet of the song so small I missed it? Someone help me on that one. If the song really wasn't in the movie, shame on the producers for that. It would have been cool if the Kim Fowley character made mention of the two songwriting credits he got on Kiss' Destroyer during The Runaways' Cherie Currie years, too."
For the references I made above that I didn't name because only Winnipeggers would understand them: Of course, The Runaways played at the Globe Cinema, which is in Portage Place, and which stands on the very same piece of land the record store The Wherehouse used to be in the '70s, and where I bought the Waitin' For The Night album. So I guess it's apropos that the film played at the Globe! I return to the scene of the crime 32 years later!
Sunday, February 21, 2010
The Beau Zone Now On Blogspot!
As Triple H of Degeneration X would bellow, "ARE YOU READY?"
Good, because this is the official relaunch and rechristening of THE BEAU ZONE in its' new home on Blogspot.
The Beau Zone, for those who aren't aware, is where you'll find all my controversial opinions on everything that aren't usually reflected in regular media, Winnipeg or otherwise, along with some cool pop culture jokes. Although, I admit, lately, there's been more of those pop culture jokes than anything else. That's because there hasn't been time for me to assimilate the longer opinion pieces in with the funny stuff. You see, when The Beau Zone was formerly a page of my website on my old TV show, Hard Rock Heroes (http://www.hardrockheroes.com), I had a page to fill and change every two months. Well, two months became six, and as I write this, I haven't done a new Beau Zone in a year. No time. The material is certainly there; most of what's on The Beau Zone is just copy and paste from stuff I write for other purposes. So what I have decided to do, for a variety of reasons, is to take The Beau Zone off of the Hard Rock Heroes site and move it to this Blogspot page, where I have the luxury of doing one post at a time. I don't have to fill up a whole page at a time anymore. Additionally, the archives are all here; I don't have to keep them elsewhere anymore, like on that MySpace page that will now function as just my personal MySpace page. (Meaning it took me a few months to redo the archives, i.e., to copy and paste them onto this Blogspot site.) So lick it up, people, and if you want to act out this symbolic christening by chucking a bottle of beer at the wall and smashing it all over the place, you're completely welcome to it. Hey, what's a party without smashed beer bottles all over the floor? And look at all the items on the left you can click on that take you to the entries in the archives; isn't that cool? That's one of the things about Blogspot I feel more comfortable with now. So I'll leave you with that for now; I want this writeup to be front and center for a while so I'm still going to hold off on any new entries for at least a month. I'll probably still do the pro wrestling entries in a conglomeration of several items, like the way I used to end off each Beau Zone on the Hard Rock Heroes site with the pro wrestling comments. They'll just appear whenever now, that's all. So call or e-mail all of your friends, friends with benefits, co-workers, co-workers with benefits, lovers, enemies, teachers, family, parole officers, and anyone else, and tell them THE BEAU ZONE IS NOW ON BLOGSPOT and that IT'S READY TO ROCK!
Good, because this is the official relaunch and rechristening of THE BEAU ZONE in its' new home on Blogspot.
The Beau Zone, for those who aren't aware, is where you'll find all my controversial opinions on everything that aren't usually reflected in regular media, Winnipeg or otherwise, along with some cool pop culture jokes. Although, I admit, lately, there's been more of those pop culture jokes than anything else. That's because there hasn't been time for me to assimilate the longer opinion pieces in with the funny stuff. You see, when The Beau Zone was formerly a page of my website on my old TV show, Hard Rock Heroes (http://www.hardrockheroes.com), I had a page to fill and change every two months. Well, two months became six, and as I write this, I haven't done a new Beau Zone in a year. No time. The material is certainly there; most of what's on The Beau Zone is just copy and paste from stuff I write for other purposes. So what I have decided to do, for a variety of reasons, is to take The Beau Zone off of the Hard Rock Heroes site and move it to this Blogspot page, where I have the luxury of doing one post at a time. I don't have to fill up a whole page at a time anymore. Additionally, the archives are all here; I don't have to keep them elsewhere anymore, like on that MySpace page that will now function as just my personal MySpace page. (Meaning it took me a few months to redo the archives, i.e., to copy and paste them onto this Blogspot site.) So lick it up, people, and if you want to act out this symbolic christening by chucking a bottle of beer at the wall and smashing it all over the place, you're completely welcome to it. Hey, what's a party without smashed beer bottles all over the floor? And look at all the items on the left you can click on that take you to the entries in the archives; isn't that cool? That's one of the things about Blogspot I feel more comfortable with now. So I'll leave you with that for now; I want this writeup to be front and center for a while so I'm still going to hold off on any new entries for at least a month. I'll probably still do the pro wrestling entries in a conglomeration of several items, like the way I used to end off each Beau Zone on the Hard Rock Heroes site with the pro wrestling comments. They'll just appear whenever now, that's all. So call or e-mail all of your friends, friends with benefits, co-workers, co-workers with benefits, lovers, enemies, teachers, family, parole officers, and anyone else, and tell them THE BEAU ZONE IS NOW ON BLOGSPOT and that IT'S READY TO ROCK!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Pro Wrestling Comments
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON THE TWELFTH EDITION OF "THE BEAU ZONE" ON THE HARD ROCK HEROES WEBSITE FROM NOVEMBER 2008 TO FEBRUARY 2010.
It looks like Vickie Guerrero on Smackdown has made something of the catch phrase, "EXCUSE ME!" Don Callis as Cyrus in the original ECW tried, but he didn't make his entrance often enough before the TNN show was pulled.
Speaking of Don Callis, the act of The Brian Kendrick and Ezeikel on Smackdown seems to be someone's ripoff of Don Callis as The Natural when he had Bad News Allen as his bodyguard in Tony Condello's IWA Hardcore, which was the last thing Allen did before retiring, and the last thing Callis did as The Natural before heading off to WWE as The Jackyl. Allen dressed up in that same white outfit Ezeikel wears.
And speaking of Vickie, when she punished referee Charles Robinson for his conduct, I guess she was remembering when J.J. Dillon replaced Ric Flair with him as acting president of WCW on Nitro from Fargo, North Dakota in April 1999 (I was there) after Roddy Piper had Flair committed to the insane asylum the previous week in Gainesville, Florida. (Remember Robinson and Flair talking on split-screen?)
And speaking of Flair, on Raw, when he and Chris Jericho were going to go outside to fight, I was wondering if Jericho might get locked out again like he did on Nitro when he had his security team, including Ralphus, and he locked himself out of the building and couldn't get back in. In the ring, Wrath was watching all this on the screen and figured if Jericho couldn't go to him, he'd go to Jericho. So he left the ring, went backstage, went outside, and they had their match outside. (FUN FACT: The bar First Avenue in Minneapolis is where Prince filmed Purple Rain. Years later, they built the Target Center kitty-corner from First Avenue. When Nitro was at Target Center, there was another match where Jericho and his opponent (forgot who) wrestled outside into the street and I could see First Avenue behind them. Cool!)
I heard a comment from an audience member on MTV Live on MTV Canada when they were talking about colleges and universities: "Well, you know the saying, if you can hold a fork, you can go to York." I chuckled as I remembered Trish Stratus went to York.
WWE has released Stevie Richards, but here's something I had written about him before he was released that no one ever says: The reason WWE fans don't react to Stevie Richards is because they don't get why Steven Richards of the Right To Censor looks like that. Now, I don't remember myself, but what was the angle to end the Right To Censor? I have a feeling there wasn't one. So WWE just dropped it and the leader, Steven Richards, grows his hair again and inexplicably slowly morphs into what original-ECW fans know as Stevie Richards. Without any promos. And so the fans are confused. Ever since the Right To Censor ended, WWE fans just don't know what to make of this man. Can he even be salvaged in WWE? It's amazing he's even still there.
Regarding the May 9 and May 16, 2008 Smackdowns, where they had the winner of the battle royal become the new World Heavyweight Champion: Why couldn't Teddy Long (in Vickie Guerrero's absence) or Michael Cole/Mick Foley bring up the following points: 1) If Edge was medically cleared to wrestle during the battle royal, couldn't they have brought up the fact that he was supposed to wrestle and defeat someone in a qualifying match first? If there is no time for such a match because the battle royal is taking place, that's not fair, it's in favor of Edge, and it's something the announcers could easily have brought up as heat on Edge. Instead, no one brought that point up. 2) And if Edge is going to run out into that battle royal, how is it that he wins just by spearing Batista off the ring apron? I thought that the way you eliminate anyone in a battle royal is by throwing them over the top rope. Edge did not throw Batista over the top rope. He just pushed him from the ring apron onto the floor. Batista should have gotten back in the ring. He was not eliminated. Now, WWE could have still done all this and have the announcers deliberately not bring it up until after the match, which in this case would be on next week's show, but the problem with doing all this is that, although it puts heat on Edge, it portrays the WWE's referees that worked that battle royal as a bunch of incompetents.
It looks like Vickie Guerrero on Smackdown has made something of the catch phrase, "EXCUSE ME!" Don Callis as Cyrus in the original ECW tried, but he didn't make his entrance often enough before the TNN show was pulled.
Speaking of Don Callis, the act of The Brian Kendrick and Ezeikel on Smackdown seems to be someone's ripoff of Don Callis as The Natural when he had Bad News Allen as his bodyguard in Tony Condello's IWA Hardcore, which was the last thing Allen did before retiring, and the last thing Callis did as The Natural before heading off to WWE as The Jackyl. Allen dressed up in that same white outfit Ezeikel wears.
And speaking of Vickie, when she punished referee Charles Robinson for his conduct, I guess she was remembering when J.J. Dillon replaced Ric Flair with him as acting president of WCW on Nitro from Fargo, North Dakota in April 1999 (I was there) after Roddy Piper had Flair committed to the insane asylum the previous week in Gainesville, Florida. (Remember Robinson and Flair talking on split-screen?)
And speaking of Flair, on Raw, when he and Chris Jericho were going to go outside to fight, I was wondering if Jericho might get locked out again like he did on Nitro when he had his security team, including Ralphus, and he locked himself out of the building and couldn't get back in. In the ring, Wrath was watching all this on the screen and figured if Jericho couldn't go to him, he'd go to Jericho. So he left the ring, went backstage, went outside, and they had their match outside. (FUN FACT: The bar First Avenue in Minneapolis is where Prince filmed Purple Rain. Years later, they built the Target Center kitty-corner from First Avenue. When Nitro was at Target Center, there was another match where Jericho and his opponent (forgot who) wrestled outside into the street and I could see First Avenue behind them. Cool!)
I heard a comment from an audience member on MTV Live on MTV Canada when they were talking about colleges and universities: "Well, you know the saying, if you can hold a fork, you can go to York." I chuckled as I remembered Trish Stratus went to York.
WWE has released Stevie Richards, but here's something I had written about him before he was released that no one ever says: The reason WWE fans don't react to Stevie Richards is because they don't get why Steven Richards of the Right To Censor looks like that. Now, I don't remember myself, but what was the angle to end the Right To Censor? I have a feeling there wasn't one. So WWE just dropped it and the leader, Steven Richards, grows his hair again and inexplicably slowly morphs into what original-ECW fans know as Stevie Richards. Without any promos. And so the fans are confused. Ever since the Right To Censor ended, WWE fans just don't know what to make of this man. Can he even be salvaged in WWE? It's amazing he's even still there.
Regarding the May 9 and May 16, 2008 Smackdowns, where they had the winner of the battle royal become the new World Heavyweight Champion: Why couldn't Teddy Long (in Vickie Guerrero's absence) or Michael Cole/Mick Foley bring up the following points: 1) If Edge was medically cleared to wrestle during the battle royal, couldn't they have brought up the fact that he was supposed to wrestle and defeat someone in a qualifying match first? If there is no time for such a match because the battle royal is taking place, that's not fair, it's in favor of Edge, and it's something the announcers could easily have brought up as heat on Edge. Instead, no one brought that point up. 2) And if Edge is going to run out into that battle royal, how is it that he wins just by spearing Batista off the ring apron? I thought that the way you eliminate anyone in a battle royal is by throwing them over the top rope. Edge did not throw Batista over the top rope. He just pushed him from the ring apron onto the floor. Batista should have gotten back in the ring. He was not eliminated. Now, WWE could have still done all this and have the announcers deliberately not bring it up until after the match, which in this case would be on next week's show, but the problem with doing all this is that, although it puts heat on Edge, it portrays the WWE's referees that worked that battle royal as a bunch of incompetents.
Paris Hilton/Lindsay Lohan Stuff
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON THE TWELFTH EDITION OF "THE BEAU ZONE" ON THE HARD ROCK HEROES WEBSITE FROM NOVEMBER 2008 TO FEBRUARY 2010.
Okay, so Lindsay Lohan was in rehab, right? And she was there the first time when Paris Hilton was released from prison, right? So Paris goes on Larry King Live on CNN and Larry asks her about Lindsay and Britney and she gives reserved answers, then he asks her something about rehab and she says, "I have no friends in rehab." OOOOOHH!!! So Lindsay's not her friend? I guess "frenemy" IS the correct word! I'm surprised the media didn't jump all over this!
Okay, so Lindsay Lohan was in rehab, right? And she was there the first time when Paris Hilton was released from prison, right? So Paris goes on Larry King Live on CNN and Larry asks her about Lindsay and Britney and she gives reserved answers, then he asks her something about rehab and she says, "I have no friends in rehab." OOOOOHH!!! So Lindsay's not her friend? I guess "frenemy" IS the correct word! I'm surprised the media didn't jump all over this!
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