Behind Closed Doors Trailer

I just learned about that trailer for Behind Closed Doors, a film I shot in the spring of this year, over three weekends.

Take a gander:

History Nerd Alert!

I just found an article on gutenberg.org about one of my favourite Candian historical topics: the Upper Canada Rebellion.

The book in question is The Story of the Upper Canada Rebellion, and was written in 1867.  Unfortunately, reading books on the internet gives me a headache.  This book is a pretty long one, so if I wanted to print it out, I’d have to use a lot of paper…and it would be a lot to carry around.

Ah well, at least I know its there, in case I figure out a way to make it more portable.

I’m such a history nerd.

Well that snuck up on me

Toronto Fringe starts next week, and I haven’t even seen a program lying around.  I have no idea what to see.

Has anyone seen any programs?  Heard any buzz?  Anything at all?

Update: according to the Fringe web page, programs are not at as many places as they have been in previous years.  I remember previously finding them at a Starbucks and a Pizza Pizza.  This year…seems they have limited distribution…

Nice try

Former Ontario Premier Mike Harris has apparently co-authored a report (through the Fraser Institute) called “Is Toronto in Decline? Worrying Trends from the Census”.

Mike Harris?!  The guy who hated Toronto so much during his time as premier that he did everything in his power to hobble the city with debt?  This guy gets to author a report that gets media time and treated like an authoritative statement on the topic?

Wow.

This is some “Big Brother” type sh*t right here

A little while ago, I wrote about the ACTA treaty being negotiated in secret by the Canadian government, this treaty, if signed would allow (or require) border guards  to search your digital media copyright infringement when you cross the border of a participating country.

Did you know the US is already doing that?

Returning from a brief vacation to Germany in February, Bill Hogan was selected for additional screening by customs officials at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C. Agents searched Hogan’s luggage and then popped an unexpected question: Was he carrying any digital media cards or drives in his pockets? "Then they told me that they were impounding my laptop,"

That’s pretty scary shit.  And apparently, they can be really arbitrary about it:

A ruling this year by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found that DHS does indeed have the authority to search electronic devices without suspicion in the same way that it would inspect a briefcase.

{snip}

The security value of the program is unclear, critics say, while the threats to business and privacy are substantial. If drives are being copied, customs officials are potentially duplicating corporate secrets, legal records, financial data, medical files, and personal E-mails and photographs as well as stored passwords for accounts from Netflix to Bank of America. DHS contends that travelers’ computers can also contain child pornography, intellectual property offenses, or terrorist secrets.

That is totally some big brother type shit right there. I wonder is Orwell’s Big Brother required reading in schools?  Remember:

War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength

Allowing corporations to dictate copyright…

…is a bad idea.  I think most people can agree on that.  I’m worried that despite Jim Prentice’s assertions to the contrary (though, I’m disinclined to believe him, after his blatant lies on CBCs Search Engine), things like this could become possible in Canada:

Recording Industry Decries AM-FM Broadcasting as ‘A Form of Piracy’

Yup.  The largest tool that music has ever had to promote itself - Radio - is piracy.  Seems the RIAA wants to charge a license fee to radio stations to play music, after all, "music without payment is piracy".  On the other side is the argument that the artists on the radio gain exposure that they wouldn’t otherwise have had by being played on the radio, and so a royalty fee should not have to be paid.

This is yet another example of the RIAA clinging to an outdated business model, losing a ton of money, and instead of reinventing itself, they are turning on all their supporters.  People who buy CDs are potential pirates.  Radio stations that promote their artists are pirates.

My concern is that Bill C-61 was built through consultation with the RIAA and MPAA, without Canadian input.  What happens when these behemoths attempt to put more pressure on the government to allow them the same kind of policy setting madness they’ve been allowed to perpetrate in the US.

Here’s another reason that these companies shouldn’t be allowed to have input into law: The MPAA Says They Shouldn’t Need Proof To Sue You:

…the MPAA attorney, who seems to feel very inconvenienced by the whole "due process" thing writes, "It is often very difficult, and in some cases, impossible, to provide such direct proof when confronting modern forms of copyright infringement, whether over P2P networks or otherwise; understandably, copyright infringers typically do not keep records of infringement."

Finally, I want to point out something from the CRIA’s website.  Who is CRIA?  They are the Canadian Recording Industry Association.  And they are the RIAA’s Canadian mouthpiece.  They don’t represent any Canadian artists.  Their job is to pretend that they represent Canadian artists while putting American pressure on the government and other media outlets.  Here’s a "news" article from the CRIA site (which was originally published in the Sun): Canadian Creator and Music Industry Groups Applaud Introduction of Copyright Bill.  Of course CRIA applauds the bill.  The article refers to a "A broad coalition of Canadian creator and music industry organizations today applauded the introduction of copyright reform legislation by the federal government."  The eight organizations? 

The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM Canada), Canadian Independent Record Production Association (CIRPA), Canadian Music Publishers Association (CMPA), Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA), Music Industries Association of Canada (MIAC), Music Managers Forum Canada (MMF) and the Retail Music Association of Canada (RMAC)

This makes me suspicious of the numbers quoted in the article:

The eight groups, which represent approximately 21,000 professional performers and 15,000 musicians in Canada, Canadian artist managers, music publishers, music retailers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers of musical instruments, and record labels of all sizes

The bulk of the quoted number “21,000 professional performers” comes from ACTRA (now that I look at ACTRA’s website, I sadly see that they are repeating the same lies as Jim Prentice.  Sad, because as an actor, I hate to be disapointed in one of the most powerful voices for actors in Canada, but I am), which naturally is not something that CRIA want’s you to know.  After all, if 21,000 of their “36,000 Canadian creators and enterprises” come from one organization, where’s the remaining 15,000 come from?  Maybe I’ll look into that later.

The bottom line is that the last thing that we need, are organizations like RIAA, CRIA, and the MPAA dictating policy to our government, which they will then use to treat Canadians like criminals.

Open Source Shakespeare?!

So, this is pretty much the most awesome thing in the world…if you are a shakespeare nerd like me.

Open Source Shakespeare has all the plays (you can sort by category, number of lines, see a character list or just search), has a concordance for looking up words, and plenty of awesomeness.

/nerd.

Go Go Charlie Angus!

Why is Charlie Angus the only MP going after Jim Prentice on the Copyright bill?! Where’s the Liberal Industry Critic? Where are the Liberals at all on this issue?

Watch this video of Angus taking Prentice to task and asking specific questions about digital locks making ordinary Canadians into criminals, and watch Prentice completely avoid the question to repeat his talking points.

Fake news?

Anyone know if this is real?

A 12-year-old Quebec girl who felt so strongly about her end-of-year school trip that she took her father to court after he forbade her from going is at the centre of a case that challenges the authority of parental discipline.

This news story sets off all my fake news alarms.  And yet its being repeated over and over.

I really hope this is one of those Onion-esque articles that gets picked up as news…

Actorly bitching

Its a lean summer.  I have no fringe show on the horizon.  No Summerworks. I do have a show in the works that will start rehearsing in August…but that seems so far away right now.

You guessed it. I’m jonesing for some theatre to do.

I’d also kinda like to get back to some Shakespeare, which I haven’t performed in…well, a year. 

I’ll keep patient, and hopefully either something will come up, or I’ll be able to pass the time until the project in August starts up.