I’d like to report a crime. It happened during the Anti-Police Brutality March in Montreal last Tuesday. I’m not talking about breaking windows or anything so violent. Instead I’m talking about a crime that is a dire insult to the people of this city. The crime is littering. In particular, horseshit. Horseshit left on the ground in the brand-spanking new Quartier des Spectacles…
Category: The Soapbox
Let’s all do some Charlie Sheen and talk about five news stories you may have overlooked
Okay, I give up. I’ll do it. I’ll drink the same Kool-Aid that the rest of the media seems to have swallowed and write about Charlie Sheen. I’ll pretend for a minute that the actor’s self-sparked saga is more important than anything else going on right now and drink. Actually, forget the over-used…
BREAKING NEWS: Stephen Harper admits he is a cyborg sent here to kill us all!
In what some are describing as the most brazen move of his political career, Prime Minister Stephen Harper admitted in a Parliament Hill news conference earlier this evening that he is, in fact, a cyborg from another planet sent to earth many years ago to get on the airwaves and slowly bore the populace to death.
“I felt that I had to come clean,” Harper told the stunned Ottawa press corps, “I mean, after all, transparency in government is…
Pump up the bandwidth, pirate the Internet
When an invading army or the leaders of a coup want to assert their control over a country, the first stop is usually the local TV station. Take control of the airwaves and the rest will follow.
Scamming on social media for no profit. Give me a Nigerian prince any day!
If you go on any type of social media, and in particular Facebook, on a semi-regular, regular or frighteningly frequent basis, this has probably happened to you:
You see that one of your friends, probably someone you haven’t heard from electronically for a while, has posted something on your wall. You go to check it out and take a step back. “Wait a minute, why is my anti-corporate activist friend posting a link to skin cream?” Then it dawns on you, their profile has been hacked by some spammer.
What’s your sign? Does it matter? Actually, it kinda does
When I was younger, I got a daily horoscope book for my birthday. I decided to do a little experiment with it. I put the book aside for a few months and lived my life like normal. Then, one rainy Sunday, I thought back on the most interesting, fun and exciting day I had experienced during that time and looked the date up in the book. It said I would have a quiet day at home. That coloured my view of astrology ever since.
Last week, stories broke about how a new astrological sign Ophiuchus had been re-added to the chart, moving millions of people’s signs up and causing mass panic among loyal devotees of the zodiac and people with now incorrect tattoos.
Can you get sued for a Tweet? Courtney Love and the future of the internet
We all knew it would come to this some day. We probably didn’t know it would involve Courtney Love, but that seems somewhat appropriate. You see, Love is being sued. Nothing new there, right? Well, what is new is that could have serious ramifications well beyond a celebrity spat. Courtney love is the first person being sued for a tweet she made on twitter. You see, back in 2009, fashion designer Dawn Simorangkir wanted Love to pay her a few thousand dollars for clothes and the singer wasn’t impressed to say the least. She went on a tirade via Twitter and other social media platforms calling Simorangkir a “drug pushing prostitute” among other things.
2010: The year of confusion – From Rob Ford to Burlesque, the year that made no sense
I must admit, I’m a bit confused. I’m not quite sure what I’m supposed to write about here. It’s a year-in-review piece, so at least the time frame is solid, but the subject matter, hmm, that’s another story. You see, I don’t really have a clear beat. I started off 2010 as a theatre writer, but now that’s done by others and occasionally me, at least when it comes to burlesque shows (heh heh, but seriously, check out my reviews of Blood Ballet and Glam Gam). I do write about news and politics, even in this space, but I’m not the only one, so this can’t be a year in the news piece. I could write about the year it was for FTB. (and in fact I will, but that’s coming up New Year’s Eve, not here.) So I guess I’m just going to have to talk about the year in random things that caught my attention.
London calling to Montreal: get some ideas behind your riots, please
Mass arrests, tons of damage, Prince Charles under attack, police under fire for doing way too much or not doing enough. Yes, London was the site of some pretty intense riots last week, which is funny considering they don’t even have a hockey team…must be football. No, wait, it’s actually over student tuition hikes, something that means something. Pardon my confusion, but I’m from Montreal and that just seems strange.