We were excited. We had been for weeks. We went at about one in the afternoon, to the box office, to get our tickets—well ahead of the 6:45 showing, and a good thing, too. The show was sold out by the time we came back at 6. The film was Shutter Island, the new thriller by film-maker Martin Scorsese and it promised to be very good.
Well, this week’s Sunday Round-Up was supposed to be coming to you from south of the border but snow, on that end, has kept us in Canada instead on this Family Day weekend. So, we get to watch Canadian coverage of the Vancouver Winter Olympics and mourn the fact that it’s CTV covering it this year instead of our national broadcaster, CBC. That alone is worth a few words, I think.
Television
Way back in 2005, CBC lost in a bidding war to a broadcasting conglomerate featuring CTV, Rogers and Bell. They were short cash, primarily because of the NHL lock-out that year, which also saw CBC end popular TV shows like JPod. It was a bad year for the CBC, with the loss of revenue from showing hockey matches it couldn’t afford an expensive Olympic bid. So instead, we’re stuck watching it on CTV which, as long as you watch during Olympic Primetime with CBC’s Brian Williams, you’re OK. If, however, you happen to turn on the Olympics during any other time of the day, you’re in for a real treat.
It’s clear that the majority of CTV’s Olympic hosts lack class, taste and are wholly uninteresting. Yesterday’s morning coverage jumped the shark from the moment it began. Case and point: the female anchor soundly muffled up some foreign competitor’s name and excused herself by saying, “Or however you say it.” Tee hee, cute. The male anchor, as if to dig himself deeper into a hole of shame found it necessary to mention the slam poet, from the Opening Ceremonies, and his neck beard every time he could manage it. Even bringing the conversation back to it when it had accidentally strayed. What a winner.
But I think the thing that bothers me the most so far about CTV’s tasteless coverage of the games is the bit we saw yesterday morning in which a man-on-the-street goes around during the Opening Ceremonies, trying to find spectators who are drunk and having a good time. “How many pints have you had so far?” he asks a group of rowdy, obviously drunk Brits. And this is the Olympics that I encouraged all of my students to watch, brilliant.
Film
Although most of this week’s TV viewing will be taken up by the Olympics, I suspect, we have got our hands on a couple more of this year’s Oscar picks for Best Picture and might have a chance to watch them soon. We’ve seen The Hurt Locker, and the next two lined up are Precious and District 9. I’ve heard relatively nothing about Precious, and mixed reviews for District 9. I’m interested in District 9 mostly for it’s South African connection—Maria and I have both been.
What I’m most excited about is Friday’s release of Shutter Island. Hopefully by this time next week we’ve seen it, and can give you a mini-review in the round-up.
Anyway, that’s it for now. Maria’s come to report that CTV’s Olympic Morning has featured a gripping round-up of last night’s parties and a quest to spot George Clooney. Riveting, I must go watch.
This is the first installment of what will be a weekly round-up of things and stuff that have been going on throughout the course of the week. A chance to reflect and remark. So here it is.
Film
Upcoming in film is Martin Scorsese’s new film, a thriller, called Shutter Island. It looks utterly terrifying and a thriller like this, in the hands of a capable director like Scorsese, it’s bound to be incredible. It comes out in Canada on February 19 and we’re just waiting. With Maria and I both not feeling great over the weekend, we also spent a lot of time laying around and watching movies. Look for a bunch of reviews over the next few days; I won’t give anything away just yet.
Music
On the encouragement of someone who’s musical tastes I sufficiently trust, I dug out The Decemberist’s most recent album The Hazards of Love to give it another go. When I originally heard it—and reviewed it—I wasn’t a fan. It felt disconnected and obnoxious. It’s a rock opera, after all. Giving it another shot though and it’s growing on me, a little bit. I think, perhaps, I was originally too quick to judge but we’ll see. One thing I can say for sure, is that The Talking Heads greatest hits record has been on rotation on my iTunes since Christmas, when I got it, and it ain’t go anywhere.
Television
On the television side of things, there isn’t really anything else to discuss, it’s LOST. So many questions to consider after last week’s episode, and you can believe I’ll have a huge review up here after this week’s installment. I guess the one real question is: what the heck is going on?! But I’m also wondering about Richard, last we saw he was being dragged into the jungle by Fake Locke. And where’s Ilana? What was her job exactly, because it certainly wasn’t to save Jacob, she didn’t even enter into the room under the statue with the rest of her group—where did she go? And, what’s going on?!
Last week I twittered through the episode, it was fun, and I’ll be there again this week if you care to follow.
OK, I think that’s all for this week’s round-up. I’m off to do some dishes and bake some brownies for a Superbowl party; now if I can only remember which teams are playing…
