Damages season 5 trailer!
The final season of my favourite show — can’t wait!
Posts from the ‘Television’ Category
May 24
The Distillery District, Toronto photo essay
The weather today is awful; it’s cold and cloudy. That didn’t stop me from my early morning walk. Today I am showcasing an often photographed barrio in Toronto: The Distillery District.
According to Wikipedia, the Distillery District is an historic area in Toronto that contains numerous cafés, shops and restaurants housed inside renovated heritage buildings of the former Gooderham and Worts Distillery. In total there are 40 heritage buildings and 10 streets, and the district is home to the largest collection of Victorian-era industrial architecture in North America.
For many years the Distillery District was left abandoned but in 2001 an ambitious redevelopment of the area commenced, and it is now one of the wealthiest and sought after real-estate locations in the city.
The Distillery District continues to undergo rapid change as it prepares for the PanAm games in 2014. Here you will find my photo essay taken at around 7:30 this morning. Enjoy. Or don’t, I don’t care!
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“Lesbian issue sorted”
Summer Heights High is the best television show ever made. Next to The Golden Girls. Obvs. Ja’mie King rules.
Debbie the Pet Lady’s last appearance on The Howard Stern Show
Words cannot express what I think about Debbie the Pet Lady. Listen, I love Howard, I love Robin, and this just makes me laugh, cry and cringe simultaneously.
Apr 5
Downton Abbey rocks my world
Yesterday I spent the whole evening watching the first season of Downton Abbey. The show deserves all the praise it’s received. It’s like Robert Altman’s Gosford Park, but better, if that’s even possible.
My favourite character is played by Dame Maggie Smith, who plays Violet, The Countess of Grantham. She produces my favourite line in the show: “What is a weekend?”
Watch it!
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The Rosie Show has been cancelled
I was disappointed to wake up this morning to find that the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) cancelled The Rosie Show. OWN launched in January 2011 but has struggled to find a sizeable following. They were hoping that Rosie O’Donnell would help turn their luck around.
The Rosie Show made it’s much hyped debut in October 2011 and immediately attracted over 500,000 viewers, a sizeable number for a cable network. However within a week numbers fell below 200,000 until levelling off and averaging 230,000 a show.
Similar programs on OWN have met the same fate, including shows featuring Oprah Winfrey. For example, Oprah’s Next Chapter opened to 1 million viewers, but fell dramatically after its third episode. It’s curious then as to why OWN axed The Rosie Show.
O’Donnell had recently changed the show’s format. For the first three months The Rosie Show was filmed on the lavish stage that was once home to The Oprah Winfrey Show, but O’Donnell quickly grew tired of having to perform in front of a live audience, in part because she felt that it didn’t allow for a more natural interview with her guests. After Christmas break she introduced a new set and intimate one-on-one celebrity interviews sans audience. She cut the shows budget in half and fired 30 Harpo staff members. Viewership was growing. And then late last night news came that the show was cancelled.
I understand that Rosie is a polarizing figure but I’ve always admired her. In a society that says overweight lesbians shouldn’t have a voice, she does, and unapologetically so. Her syndicated talk show The Rosie O’Donnell Show was a huge success, and in 2007, she helped make the The View relevant again. In 2011, after her appearance on the last season of The Oprah Winfrey Show, offers for her to return to daytime television intensified.
She was about to sign a contract with NBC, but disagreed with their treatment of Conan O’Brien, and began to inquire about joining OWN’s fledgling schedule. Oprah learned of this, and flew out to Rosie’s compound in Nyack, New York. After a four hour meeting, Rosie abandoned her deal with NBC and signed on with OWN for a reported $10 million annual salary. Initially the show was going to take the 4 p.m. time-slot made vacant by Winfrey, but the decision was made to air it at 7 p.m. The rest is history.
It’s perplexing that the show was cancelled as it was beginning to find its stride. I believe it might have had something to do with the format change, and that the executives were not informed about it. But who knows. The truth is that OWN is struggling, and even Oprah can’t save it. It’ll be interesting to see what will happen.
Below is an amazing interview that Rosie gave Piers Morgan a month ago. If you skip near the 25:30 mark she talks about her dark childhood and visiting a centre for abused children in protective custody. It’s a great example of how genuine she is, and what a generous heart she has. It’s well reported that she has given more than half of her $100 million fortune to charity.
This is why I love her.
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Dark Shadows trailer
Tim Burton and Johnny Depp reunite again for this film based on the 1966-71 ABC gothic soap opera of the same name. Michelle Pfeiffer also stars as the family matriarch, the first time she and Burton have worked together since Batman Returns in 1992.
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The Golden Girls used condoms!
My favourite scene from one of the best television shows ever made.
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Feb 29
Sarah Palin and Steve Schmidt
Chief McCain/Palin strategist, Steve Schmidt, speaks to Anderson Cooper about the woman who could have been the Vice President of the world’s only Superpower. I’m looking forward to Game Change. I should read the book first.
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Feb 8
Ellen Degeneres and One Million Moms
Those people who are opposed to civil rights, are on the losing end of the argument. History will reflect their bigotry. Trust me.
Argentina and Canada are two countries that support and legalized marriage equality and they should be commended, no doubt. I am proud to be a Canadian for many reasons, primarily because gay people are equal members of our society, protected under our Charter of Rights and Freedom and the Bill of Rights.
The U.S. still has some ways to go. In many states it is still illegal for gay people to adopt. Illegal. Can you imagine that? I can’t fathom going through my life with restrictions that my fellow heterosexual citizens don’t have.
Ellen Degeneres is one of the more vocal gay celebrities and recently she teamed with J.C. Penny to be their new spokesperson. Not everyone was happy with this news. An organization called One Million Moms started a campaign to get Ellen fired. They argue that because she is gay, she doesn’t represent “traditional values” and that J.C. Penny is not “remaining neutral in the culture-war” between heterosexuals and homosexuals.
Here’s my thing about people of any religious (but in this case Christian) organization, who oppose gay rights. There is no greater lifestyle than a Christian lifestyle. If you want to talk about choice, let’s talk about your choice to be hateful. If you believe that gay people are an abomination, perverts, and corrupting the morals of society you’re not living in reality. Because you choose to be religious and follow an antiquated doctrine, does not mean that everyone else in your country should or even wants to.
I understand that to justify your choices you want people to accept your worldview, but as a gay person, I don’t live a lifestyle, and I certainly don’t choose to be discriminated against by narrow-minded simpletons like yourselves.
If you’re straight think about how difficult it is for gay people. You can walk in public holding your partners’ hand without the threat of violence. Gay people, even in countries like Canada, face the potential of physical violence if they display public affection. How would you like it if that was your reality?
Anyway, Ellen discusses the entire debacle in the video above. Enjoy.
Chau.
