satire
Observations on Ontario's election: Changebook
The Ontario PC platform and MC Hammer pants: Some things really shouldn't make a comeback.
(Or "Plus ça change[book], plus c'est la même chose")
Ahhh, social media.
It turns nouns into verbs, though the rules are still being worked out (you can text a friend, but so far no one can figure out how to friend a text).
It allows children to Skype their play dates without leaving their computer desk. (The PhysEd teachers can worry about the suggested 60 minutes of daily activity.)
It breathes new life into old words (like "pad", "pod" or "book") simply by adding the letter "i-" at the beginning.
And it has transformed political campaigning in the U.S. and in Canada.
Bad Teacher is satirical portrayal of education system
I miss school, now that it's out, mostly because I spent a lot of time this year thinking and writing about it for a Star series on public education. Luckily, there's the summer movie, Bad Teacher. People like me, who are on the left or, as Alexander Cockburn wickedly says, "pwogwessives," are supposed to hate it because it portrays teachers negatively at a time when they're under right-wing attack for being the chief cause of U.S. education failure. But I adored the film.
Rob Ford and the Mysterious Case of the Flying Anarchist
Jul 6 2011 - 7:00pm
Jul 19 2011 - 1:45pm
Location
St-Vladimir's Theatre
620 Spadina Avenue
Toronto, ON M5S 2H4Canada
Phone:
416-966-1062
43° 39' 43.686" N, 79° 24' 7.4088" W
See map: Google Maps
The next time the G20 comes to town, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is ready, PM Stephen Harper is ready, Police Chief Bill Blair is ready. So when a bomb goes off downtown, scores of protesters are rounded up right away. Everything is going smoothly until an anarchist organizer falls to his death from a window during interrogation. Police reports say it's an accident. And that it's a suicide. A lone maniac tries to discover the truth. What was the Mayor doing at the police station that night? Based on Dario Fo's classic 1970 clown show, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Matt Jones's adaptation is a pre-emptive attack on Toronto's new political landscape.
Contact name:
Matt Jones
Contact email:
Flash mob
First coined in 2003, the term 'flash mob' is used to describe a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place. Before quickly dispersing, the flash mob participants are known to perform a particular action for a brief period of time. In recent history, such mobs have been organized via telecommunications channels, social media, or viral emails.
Interestingly, the first flash mobs were orchestrated for apolitical purposes.
Celebrating comic subversives
Satiristas
(It Books,
2010;
$32.99)
In photographer Dan Dion's portrait of comedian, satirist, playwright and Daily Show essayist Lewis Black, the subject -- in his sweater and glasses, seated comfortably at what looks like a hotel bar -- appears at first glance to be a picture of the artist in late middle-age.
Canwest's Global war on satire
On 6-7, evil-doing satirists spoofed one of Canwest Global's shining towers of truth -- the Vancouver Sun newspaper.
Canwest, Canada's largest media company, has launched a Global War on Satire to ensure that fun-damentalist fanatics don't threaten its sacred freedom to monopolize media or mock its profound pro-Israel and neo-conservative bias.
Brave Canwest is teetering on the verge of bankruptcy but it will never abandon the War on Satire. The pernicious parodists will have to pull this SLAPP suit from Canwest's cold dead head.
Find out more about Canwest's anti-satire SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) at http://seriouslyfreespeech.ca