felis_ultharus

Writing

So I'm working on the preliminary edit as a first step toward the massive edit I'll be doing in BC.

(By the way, for anyone who didn't know, I'll be in BC at this time next week, and remain there until Sunday evening of the following week.)

I'm about one-fifth through it. I changed the last name of a member of the supporting cast who'd kept his name through the last four versions. Nothing tremendous -- I just found a name that was more allusive.

Now, though, I'm thinking of the spelling of my main character's name.

I got "Llew" out of a 19th-century retelling of the Mabinogian story. I found out since that "Llew" is considered a misspelling these days, though it was sometimes seen in the 19th century. The circumstances of how he got his name make it perfectly valid that it would be spelt that way, but I've since the proper spelling -- Lleu -- and I kind of like it. Now I'm torn.

CBC

Anyway, I was at work today, and the good news is that Go! has gone. Sadly only for the summer -- Brent Bambury is probably using the summer to spend some quality time with his hyperbaric chamber -- but in the meantime, they've got Simply Sean.

I can see

em_fish has been raving about him. He's strange, but very funny. I'd say his comedy style is a kind of Emo Phillips/Steven Wright/Homestar Runner mix, and he plays independent/local Canadian bands to get them a wider audience.

Here's hoping that Sean Cullen's ratings are so high that CBC arranges an "accident" for Bambury.

I'm in the office again, and I've been listening to CBC most of the day while I work.

I couldn't handle Brent Bambury today, but momentarily caught him, when I switched back after running out of Sigur Rós CDs. I caught the final few minutes of his "superhero show" which pitted him against Stuart MacLean, playing a villain named the Vinylator.

Stuart MacLean must be really hard up for cash.

After that, on Quirks and Quarks, they were interviewing a woman who was exploring the relationship between the coloration of male barn swallows, and their testosterone levels -- the darker they are, the more testosterone, but they weren't sure which was cause and which effect. So they captured, tagged, and coloured male barn swallows, and released them back into the wild.

The high-tech technology they used to change their colour? Non-toxic black markers.

I want that on my résumé: "2008: coloured live barn swallows with black magic marker for science."

Naturally, when I went into Tim Horton's right after hearing this interview, the radio was playing "Ça fait rire les oiseaux."

Current Location: work
Current Music: Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

I'll check my ephemerides when I get home, but I can't begin to imagine what alignment of the stars led to a less-atrocious edition of Go! this morning on CBC.

I admit, when Brent Bambury in the teaser said, "The state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation, but Go! does," I figured it was finally time the Canadian people took out a restraining order on Brent Bambury.

Yet the writing was okay, today, and he came across as something other than a frat boy. There was even something there I feel deserved to be called a joke: "The third anniversary is leather, but you have to wait for the fourth for handcuffs.”

There was also a Country-Western song about Jack Layton and Olivia Chow, so the fact that I didn't wince once during the program probably doesn't mean the show is getting better, but rather that I'm becoming inured to it.

On the other hand, Definitely Not the Opera still sounds like it's being written each week by a gaggle of fifteen-year-olds after their seventh joint.

ETA: Make that the ninth joint. Right now they're asking random strangers "Would you rather have the body of Chuck Norris and the head of Michael Moore, or vice versa?"

CBC Radio Saturday-Morning Programming

You know, I've never been a heavy-metal fan in the slightest, but even I can tell that Brent Bambury talking about this stuff sounds like an old man trying to discuss drugs, using the "heppest" slang possible.

Oh well -- it's better than sex with pigeons, which was his opening topic.

Go is the worst program, bar none, on the CBC. And that includes Pearls of Wisdom (is that even still on anymore?) which might feature Jazz-Kletzmer-fusion yodellers from Senegal, or the vocalizations of giant singing yaks recorded on deteriorating wax cylinders.

David Wisdom had every recording the human race had ever made in digital form, hit shuffle every week, and called it a show. But even he never reached the 9th circle of atrocious -- beyond even Caïna, Antenora, Ptolomæa, and Judecca -- where are imprisoned, in Bamburia, traitors to taste.

No, I don't know why I listen to Go. It goes beyond my usual masochism. It's radio that should come with a safe word.

Eco-Police

Walking to work this morning, I spotted what looked like a police car in colours I didn't recognize. Moving up to it I saw it belonged to Environment Canada, and confirmed (in a line of text on its side) that it existed to enforce environmental-protection laws.

Did I mention it came complete with a siren?

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm happy the government is taking such things seriously. But most eco-crimes are long-term, white-collar, and corporate. What do you need a sirened car for? Do polluters really run around with barrels of toxic waste like they do in Captain Planet?

Besides, where does the car go when the emergency is all around?

ETA: Coming home from work, the eco-emergency vehicle is still there. Must be a stake-out. Maybe someone's planning to steal the St-Lawrence River.

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September 2011

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