Now that doesn’t happen every day. Yesterday I was part of a panel on sampling and copyright called “Cramping My Sampling” at the Pop and Policy Conference. The panel was set up for each person to give a 5-7 minute spiel and then the panelists talked with one another, after which the floor was opened …
Category Archives: Politics
If I blogged more regularly, I would have told them so
Those of you outside Canada may not know two important things about the Canadian economy: the Canadian dollar is at an all-time high, and Canada is in the middle of an economic boom. When the dollar hit its peak earlier this week, there was a rash of articles on the subject. My favorite, though, was …
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Michael Moore — “Sicko” (mild spoilers, if you can spoil a documentary)
In recent years, Moore has become a sort of vexed figure. Under constant attack from the right, the left doesn’t quite know what to do with him. He’s a propagandist after all, so there are some sins of omission and some naked attempts to persuade. I feel as though in recent years leftists have maybe …
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A New Spin on Media Effects
I’m not a big fan of media effects theory (other than the 3rd person effect), but my friend Carol Stabile has an interesting article in the works on what would happen if we started applying media effects theory to elite white men in government — instead of to marginalized groups, who are usually its subject. …
Flag a Day
I recently received an email from an artist named Greta Pratt, who has undertaken an interesting project and blog called “Flag a Day,” meant to comment on the commercialization of American patriotism. It wasn’t up this evening when I tried it, but hopefully by the time you read this, it will be back up. She …
A Few Words on Taxes in Quebec
(note: I’ve got a Saskatchewan report coming, but Carrie’s got the camera in Vancouver, so it’ll be delayed) For those of you who don’t follow Canadian politics, the new Quebec minority government almost fell last week. The liberal party, who has a plurality, introduced a budget with a massive income tax cut for the middle …
And for something positive
It’s impossible to follow up a post on the death of a loved one and sound anything but banal, but here goes: Friday, I got a call at the office from my old friend Matt Ruben, an urban studies scholar in drag as a literature scholar (or is it the other way around?) Anyway, I …