[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="324"] From ‘The Red Tree’ by Shaun Tan[/caption] Have you ever played Hearts? It’s a card game. For our purposes, the important part is this: every card in the heart suit is worth points, and (just like golf) players want to avoid those points. I played a lot of Hearts as a […]
The CBC is not its board
By Montreal Simon Ever since the CBC was hit by the Ghomeshi scandal, and now the Amanda Lang Affair, the CBC haters in this country have been having a ball. Trying to use the scandals as just another excuse to kill the corporation. For those Cons hate it so much with a zealotry that borders […]
That’s your cue, Q
By Frank Moher Veteran CBC producer Jamie Purdon has been named to take over the scandal-defaced radio program “Q.” Purdon goes back 30 years at the Corporation, so good; good time to bring in the (grand)father figure. Meanwhile, musician and all-round smart guy Wab Kinew will host the show for two weeks in December, which […]
The Video: Jian Ghomeshi Inspired Makeup Tutorial
“. . . People love this shade, but if you use it too much it’ll go to your head and make you think you can get away with anything, even a crime . . . The blush I’m using today has been misidentified as a colour called ‘BDSM’ in a lot of other makeup tutorials, […]
Jian Ghomeshi: Why I was fired by the CBC
Jian Ghomeshi, no-longer host of CBC’s “Q”, today issued the following statement on why he was fired: Dear everyone, I am writing today because I want you to be the first to know some news. This has been the hardest time of my life. I am reeling from the loss of my father. I am […]
What I’ve learned as an online publisher
By Frank Moher backofthebook.ca turned three a few weeks ago. We launched on October 16, 2006, and I would have marked the occasion back then, but I’ve been busy piecing our archives back together after our recent redesign. I’m almost done; I’ve got the photos loading in on old stories again, and pretty soon all […]
Y’all come out west, Billy Bob
By Frank Moher You have to give Jian Ghomeshi credit for the way he handled Billy Boob Thornton’s meltdown on his radio program “Q” on Wednesday morning. Respeck, too, to his long-suffering bandmates, who have obviously become practised in the fine art of prima-donna handling. At least they understood they were there to try […]
Top 10 web searches of 2008
By Frank Moher We’re a bit sniffy about top 10 lists at backofthebook.ca, for the reasons outlined here, but we’re very big on checking our web stats. Or at least I am, in my capacity as publisher/editor/chief lackey. Now you may suppose web stats — that is, the numbers showing how many visitors a site […]
From Toronto? Here, have a CBC show.
By Frank Moher Jian Ghomeshi admitted at the top of a recent broadcast of the new CBC Radio arts show “Q” that some listeners were finding it a bit “Torontocentric.” Gosh, what a surprise. The CBC appoints yet another young man from Toronto as host of a program produced from Toronto, and it turns out […]
Dumb and dumber
By guest blogger Brian Brennan Update to story below: CBC Radio announced on January 18 that it is cancelling the pop-culture show “Freestyle” effective mid-March and replacing it with an as yet unnamed daily arts magazine program hosted by Jian Ghomeshi. A CBC executive told the Globe and Mail “this does not mean an increased […]
