************************************************************** * * * CYBERSPACE * * A biweekly column on net culture appearing * * in the Toronto Sunday Sun * * * * Copyright 2000 Karl Mamer * * Free for online distribution * * All Rights Reserved * * Direct comments and questions to: * * * * * ************************************************************** Oh Canada I joined the dot.com fuelled brain drain to the United States. I moved to a Seattle suburb in January. I wasn't chasing the almighty American dollar. I was just trying to get away from the extremes found in Toronto weather and relationships. I figured it would be milder here and maybe American women would like me. I'm reasonably happy. When I look out my office window and see snow-capped mountains cresting above tall stands of pine trees, I think "wow". But then I remember how much I want to see some obscure subtitled film at the Carlton. I know I could see it in downtown Seattle but I'd have to battle my way on the city's BMW-choked two lane version of the Gardiner. Suddenly I'm happy to trade mountains and any number of trees for a cold subway station. At times I feel like I had to give up the very things that make me Canadian. I don't pass a single donut shop on my drive to work. I can't vote. My destiny is entirely in the hands of the American electorate. That sure scares me. My cable system doesn't carry CBC. That sure bothers me. My work visa only lasts a maximum of six years. I don't want to walk back into Canada half a decade from now and be like some coma patient who wakes up to discover talking apes have formed the government, merged all the banks, built the Eglinton subway line, and got Hamilton an NHL franchise. Fortunately, the trusty Internet has been a life line for Canadian news, views, and entertainment I'm missing via conventional means. Speaker's Corner www.cp24.com/speakershomepage/speakerscorner.asp City TV spoils you. It's irritating to watch a movie and have all the perfectly good swearing cut out. The breakfast TV shows here are little more than a repetition of the same four news stories. How I miss Jennifer Peck painting the faces of children one day and being strapped into a Tudor jet the next day. Most of all I miss Speaker's Corner. Luckily City TV's web site now offers a live peak through the camera's lens using video streaming software. Access to uninformed opinion and creative uses of minimalist broadcast technology is on demand at the click of a browser's bookmark. Well done, City TV. CBC Real Audio Broadcast cbc.ca/audio.html CBC radio has long been an innovator in providing broadcasts via the Internet. I remember downloading WAV file versions of Quirks and Quarks from the CBC gopher site back in 1994. Real Audio now lets me catch Quirks and Quarks, the World at Six, and Jurgen Gothe's Disc Drives without having to spend four hours to download fifty minutes of audio. CFNY cfny.passport.ca Canadians tend to only recognizing their musicians when they hit it big in the USA. CFNY, however, has long strived to support and recognize Canadian music with little or no hope of ever capturing an American audience. Excellent bands like 54-40 or I Mother Earth will likely always remain best kept secrets. If you can get past CFNY's bloated and busy site, there's a Real Audio broadcast as well as a neat section devoted to Canadian Indie bands. Sam the Record Man www.samscd.com For the ex-pat Canadian music fan, Sam's click-and-mortar site organizes Canadian music into its own section. That's good. The site still needs some work. Too many CDs don't have sample sound tracks. You'd think Sam's could offer sample tracks for an artist as popular as Sarah McLachlan. The site maintains your credit card information in your registration profile. I've read too many stories lately about hacked ecommerce sites to feel comfy about this. A purchase at the beginning of March was immediately placed on back order. Okay, they were foreign films, Antonia's Line and Cinema Paradiso, but they were Oscar winners. And March is Oscar season. Maybe stock up? Toronto Symphony Euro Tour Diary www.tso.on.ca/eurotour_topnav.htm Besides subways and donut shops, I really miss my beloved Toronto Symphony. The Seattle Symphony is okay but over the years I've made a considerable emotional investment in the TSO. I was happy to be able to follow its highly touch-and-go European tour at the TSO's Euro Tour Diary page. There are some great photographs of the venues, musicians, and cultural landmarks encountered on the tour. The diary was authored by the TSO's Michael Buckland, the marketing director. He did a decent job but it would have been nice to read some personal anecdotes written by the musicians themselves. ********************** * Update May 2, 2000 * ********************** RE SAM THE RECORD MAN: Still didn't get the videos from samscd.com after 2 months so I cancelled via email and phone. Let's see if that works. I reordered through chapter.ca. Let's see how that works. RE TORONTO SYMPHONY EURO TOUR DIARY: The TSO musicians have published a selection of tour photos at: www.tsomusicians.com/whatsnew/euro2000/index.html. *********************** * Update May 10, 2000 * *********************** RE SAM THE RECORD MAN: I managed to successfully cancel my order with Sam's and reordered via Chapters.ca on May 2. My order has a status of "Awaiting Shipment". Okay. I'm aware of that. *********************** * Update Apr 11, 2001 * *********************** Far Too Canadian http://www.columbia.edu/~vl78/index2.html I found this page recently searching for information about an early '90s Toronto Ska band. It's a web page for a radio show called Far Too Canadian. Every Wednesday the hosts, Canadian ex-pat university students, spin Canadian tunes on a New York campus station. They play everything from Age of Electric to the Watchmen. You can hear their broadcast in Real Audio at www.wbar.org. Well done, eh!