The Stroumboulopouli

The Stroumboulopouli

The place to get the latest news on what’s coming up on #Gtonight. Find out what Canada’s boyfriend is up to. Share stories, pictures, favourite tv and radio episodes.

CBC TV & Radio shows plus HNIC

His work with Artists for Peace and Justice

UN Ambassadorship for The World Food Programme

Thursday, February 28, 2008

I just wanted to share this picture.

Photo credit goes to Sylvie Lacombe
This is a picture of a man doing what he loves to do.
Playing music and dancing.
This pictures was taken at the Strombo Show .

Monday, February 25, 2008

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program...

The boys are back in town and The Hour returns to Canada with a wild and crazy week of guests.


Monday, February 25th




He's one of Canada's high profile defense lawyers with clients like Conrad Black, Karlheinz Schreiber and Robert Latimer. He's also the vice-president of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, a vocal support of Israel and he hosted a CBC show "The Scales of Justice" in the '80s. Eddie Greenspan is on the show.




Alex Roy sits down with George on The Hour tonight to talk cars, rallies and breaking world records. In 2006, he did what few thought was possible, he drove across the United States in 31 hours and 4 minutes. He's also well known for his crazy stunts at the Gumball 3000 rallies and he just released a new book last fall, The Driver: My Dangerous Pursuit of Speed and Truth in the Outlaw Racing World.




Tuesday, February 26th




In his first role, Billy Douglas on the daily soap opera One Life to Live he caused quite the commotion in daytime TV land, playing the first ever gay teen on a daily soap opera. He then went on to play a variety of roles in Due South, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Crash and the upcoming Chaos. Ryan Phillippe is on The Hour.






Wednesday, February 27

Tools in hand, he's the home owner's super hero. His show Holmes on Homes has exposed one bad renovation job after another since going on the air in 2003. Frustrated with the state of the industry after one of his rescues meant tearing down the whole house, he started The Holmes Foundation to encourage more young people to take up the building trades and to help home owners struggling to fix their homes. Fixing the world, one home at a time, Mike Holmes drops in to The Hour.





Taking the statement "You are what you eat" to the next level, author Michael Pollan is scheduled to tape in The Hour studios on Wednesday. His recent book, "In Defence of Food: The Eater's Manifesto", casts a spotlight on the plight of food. Real food, like what our grandparents ate. Pollan claims that most of what we eat these days is Frakenfood... the result of food scientists playing in the laboratory, and that this crafted food is hurting us more than helping us. George's been talking about this book over the past few weeks, and how it just might change the way he looks at food.






Thursday, February 28


Fresh off his second NBA All-Star start, Chris Bosh plays a big part of the Toronto Raptor's amazing recovery last season, that resulted in bringing Toronto their first championship banner ever. Off the court, Bosh founded the Chris Bosh Foundation, aimed at bringing physical activity into the lives of youth. Chris Bosh drops in to chat with George on the Thursday's show.






And in other news...
Tune into the Strombo Show next Sunday, March 3rd, because George's in studio guests will be Gogol Bordello. Tune in 5-8 EST, 2-5 PST on the Corus Radio Network.
And finally, if you're interesting in helping CAMH's (Centre for Addictionand Mental Health) work to remove the stigma associated with mental health, there are still tickets available for their second annual Queen Street Unmasked happening February 27th. Tickets are $150 dollars and the evening's entertainment includes K-OS and Serena Ryder. With art auctions and a grand unmasking, the evening will be hosted by George.
Happy Leap Year!

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

London Calling











London calling, yeah, I was there, too
An' you know what they said?
Well, some of it was true! London calling at the top of the dial
After all this, won't you give me a smile?




The HOUR is Live From London Feb 18th-22nd!



If you want to be in the audience you better ACT fast - it's almost sold out. Tapings will happen in Studio 7 of London Studios on Feb 18th & 19th!


A fab array of guests await and just for your Nan, George visits the set of Coronation Street. In fact... here's a cool link on the Corrie Blog that documents that little visit!


Lord Jeffrey Archer



A massively popular fiction writer and former British Conservative MP, Lord Archer’s career and life is marked by both accomplishment and scandal. There’s no telling where this conversation will go! His name not ringing a bell? Perhaps you know him from a memorable cameo in Bridget Jones’ Diary. ‘Welcome to the launch of Kafka’s Motorbike – The Greatest Book of Our Time. Obviously except for your books Mr. Rushdie which are also very good… and Lord Archer. Yours aren’t bad…either.’


Kylie Minogue




Pop Tart? Not Kylie. You can’t deny the staying power of this versatile Aussie. She’s best known for her booty shaking dance tracks like Can’t Get You Outta My Head but in May 2005 Kylie’s star power was proven when at age 36 – following her breast cancer diagnosis, the BBC reported that mammogram bookings in Australia increased 40%. Christened the ‘Kylie Effect’ her personal health crisis made a positive impact worldwide.


Ken Follett

He burst onto the literary scene in 1978 with the suspenseful novel Eye of the Needle and hasn’t looked back since. Not content to write exclusively in the suspense or thriller genre, Follett has branched out and published The Pillars of the Earth in 1989 to commercial success and critical acclaim. Of course, it doesn’t hurt when Oprah gives you a ringing endorsement!




Ben Elton
Black Adder, Mr. Bean and We Will Rock You are only a few projects that Ben Elton has worked on in his prolific career. This comedy legend makes a return visit to The Hour.




Andrew Morton



Former ‘Fleet Street’ reporter turned celebrity biographer - Andrew Morton’s books sell. As a confidant of Diana, Princess of Wales – Morton provided Diana a chance to get her story out in Diana – Her True Story. His current Bio of Tom Cruise has caused a major furor. In a classic ‘Oh No You Didn’t’ literary moment – Morton questions the parentage of Suri Cruise.




Sir David Frost


Hello, Good Evening and Welcome – Sir David Frost's signature greeting. A list of who this man hasn’t interviewed over his career would be shorter than the list of who he HAS in his decades long career. American Presidents, British Prime Ministers...the list is endless. Legend has it that members of Monty Python – most of whom wrote for his program The Frost Report later had such animosity toward him they flashed his home telephone number on the air!



Ricky Gervais
Hilarious, multitalented actor/writer/stand up comedian – Ricky Gervais will be a highlight of the week! Creator and star of the Original British version of ‘The Office’ and the creative and cameo laden series Extras, his work is fresh, fun and irreverent. With a mantle full of awards including Golden Globes, Emmys and BAFTAs it’s not just viewers, but his peers that are among his fans.




Toby Young
Toby's claim to fame is writing... How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, the Sound of No Hands Clapping and his latest - Starmageddon. His self depricating style and tales of his failures, ironically have lead to greatly successful books!



Charley Boorman

Actor/Adventurer and best pal of Ewen McGregor - Boorman may best be known for his particpation in 'Long Way Round' a motorcycle trip from London to NYC via Europe and Asia with McGregor. Documented for television, this epic adventure also spawned a highly successsful book and DVD. Hands up if you think there will be a number of motorcycle references in this convo?

Monday, February 11, 2008

Sing it with me, guys: *insert own melody here* "Got some re-re-re-runs....Oh Yehhhh.... We got some re-re-runs!"

For any you've missed or just plain want to see again......

Mon, Feb 11
Jamie Oliver
Jamie oliver
Britain's original bad boy chef helps to change England's school cafeteria's.
Danny Glover
Danny Glover: activist
The man who turned acting and activism into a lethal weapon
Bones
SKULL
Everything you wanted to know about bones, but were afraid to ask.

Tues, Feb 12
Les Stroud

The Ultimate Survivorman who's fought off black flies, bears and foot fungus, in swamps, deserts and the arctic; all for our viewing pleasure.

Wed, Feb 13
James Appathurai
Photobucket
The face of NATO discusses Afghanistan and Russia.
Warren Macdonald
warren macdonald
Tackling the world's tallest peaks without his legs.
Jason Blake
Jason Blake, black eye
The Leaf forward overcame cancer and continued his NHL career.
Thur, Feb 14
Stéphane Dion
Stephane Dion
The Liberal leader chats politics and policy.
John Leguizamo
john leguizamo
A fierce and feisty writer, producer, director and comedian.
Peter Guber and Peter Bart
Photobucket
The experts are on The Hour to answer all the Oscar questions.
Fri, Feb 15
Lee Thomas
Photobucket
His skin, due to a disorder called vitiligo, is losing its pigment in front of the American public.
Angelo Dundee
Photobucket
He trained Ali, Foreman and Sugar Ray.
Robbie the Tiger
Photobucket
You think swimming with dolphins is cool? Try having a tiger on the set.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

"It doesn't work"

Last week well-known Canadian sex educator Sue Johanson paid a visit to The Hour. During her interview, Sue made the following observation regarding the preferred message of sex education in the United States: “They don’t teach sex ed. They teach abstinence-only and you know that it doesn’t work”. Sue Johanson knows of what she speaks.

In the United States, George W. Bush has consistently been an advocate of abstinence-only education. While the Governor of Texas (1995-2000), the Bush administration spent over ten million dollars on “abstinence-only-until-marriage education”. With this in mind I found the following statistics rather interesting:
  • In Texas, 220 teen females aged 15 to 19 become pregnant every single day (1)
  • Texas has the second worst teen birth rate among 15- to 19-year-old females, ranking 49th out of 50 states. Only Mississippi has a higher teen birth rate. (2)
  • Texas ranks last in the decline in teen birth rates among 15-to 17-year-olds. Between 1991 and 1998, the teen birth rate in this age group dropped by more than 21 percent in the United States as a whole; Texas' rate declined by only 10 percent (3)

  • Texas has an extremely high number of reported STD cases — accounting for about 10 percent of all reported cases of chlamydia and gonorrhea in the country (4)

"The folks that are saying condom distribution is the best way to reduce teenage pregnancies obviously haven't looked at the statistics."

—Presidential candidate George W. Bush, November 1999



Since Mr. Bush assumed the Presidency, abstinence-only programs have received in excess of one billion dollars in funding. A Maclean’s magazine article notes that while the US teen pregnancy rate had, at one point, declined and then “flattened out”, in recent years it is been on the rise. The Toronto Star recently reported that the US has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world. In theory, abstinence appears to be perfect. But as is quite frequently the case, what sounds good in theory, often fails miserably when put into practice. One cannot help but wonder that if sex education in the US were to be more broad-based, whether both the rate of teen pregnancy and number of cases of STD’s would be reduced.

Fortunately, Canada has taken a more proactive position with regard to sex education by establishing the Canadian Guidelines for Sexual Health Education. The guidelines recommend that “Sexual health education should include important topics such as developmental changes (i.e. puberty), rewarding interpersonal relationships, communication, setting of personal limits, media, stereotypes, prevention of STI/HIV, effective contraception, sexual assault/coercion, gender-role expectations, and sexual orientation”. Does this not make more sense than abstinence-only education? I certainly think so.

The simple fact is that young people will have sex. And yes, Canadian teens will continue to get pregnant. No education program can eradicate teen pregnancy or the spread of sexually transmitted disease. But as responsible adults, is it not our job to provide our youth with the knowledge they need to make intelligent choices? We do this with drug education all the time. Oddly enough we don’t think that when we teach kids about the dangers of crack, that their first instinct will be to experiment with it. Conversely, some believe that if we teach a young person how to use a condom, suddenly they will want to have sex. Personally, I give our youth more credit than that.
References:

(1)The Alan Guttmacher Institute. Teenage Pregnancy: Overall Trends and State-by-State Information. New York, New York: 1999
(2), (3) Ventura SJ, Curtin SC, Mathews TJ. Variations in teenage birth rates, 1991-1998: national and state trends. National Vital Statistics Reports 2000; 48(6):1-16.
(4) Division of STD Prevention. 1999 Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, 2000.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

So what do we do? What can we do? And why aren't we doing it?

Last night, my intentions for this post were to write a flippy and funny post about Sue Johanson's appearance on The Hour (or as I said to a friend "George is having Sex with Sue on The Hour tonight!"), but all that changed while watching George's interview with Sgt. Debbie Bodkin.

Sgt. Debbie Bodkin is a member of the Waterloo Regional Police Service, but in 2004 she travelled to Darfur to interview the survivors of the conflict (or more accurately the genocide) and get an idea of what's going on for the United Nations. That was three years ago. And nothing's changed. Why?

I think the thing that got me about this interview is that there are so many people who want to do something, who want to affect change, who want to give the people of Darfur a better life free of conflict, but as much as they try, they can't. What also hit me is how much our hands are tied if we want to make a change. The fact that Sgt. Bodkin, a member of a respected police force and a part of a volunteer United Nations team, would receive a form letter from her government representative dated three days before she wrote her letter blows my mind. Three f***ing days. And it wasn't even addressed to her (it said "Dear Constituent") What blows my mind even more is the fact that this conflict has been going on for years and years and it's not a deep, dark hidden secret... everyone knows what's going on, but yet nothing's being done on the International stage to stop it. Why?

And it's not like there are individuals who don't care about the people of Darfur... there are many Canadians, high-profile or not, that want to make a difference. People who want our government, our elected representatives, to use their resources and put a stop to this ongoing tragedy. But it's not happening. Why? Aren't Canadians known on the International stage as Peacekeepers intent on helping other nations in need and giving others the same basic rights and freedoms we enjoy here in Canada? Isn't that one of the reasons we're in Afghanistan? Isn't that what Romeo Dallaire tried to do in Rwanda, even when most of the International community turned their back on him and his mission? Shouldn't we live up to Lester B. Pearson's example and make a difference, not through war or aggression, but through Peacekeeping and humanitarian effort? Pearson won the Nobel Peace prize in 1957 along with the admiration and respect of the International community for his suggestion to create a United Nations Emergency Force (which eventually became the Peacekeepers) to diffuse the Suez Canal Crisis? Why aren't we living up to that example and using everything in our power to make a difference to the people that need it?

I don't wear rose coloured glasses, I know that Canada is not perfect. We have our own litany of problems and issues that need to be resolved to take care of our own people. But you know what? Generally, we have it pretty good. Or at least have the opportunity to have a pretty damn good life. So if we're sitting pretty, enjoying the benefits, rights and priviledges that come with living in Canada, why aren't we doing more to help others in the world who don't have those basic human needs and a chance to a better life? What can we do? What should we do? Beyond donating money to relief organizations, is there anything else we can do?

Well, maybe there's one thing. I don't know if it would work, but something is better than nothing. Sgt. Debbie Bodkin wrote to her member of Parliament and got a form letter back. What if we all wrote a letter to our
local MP asking for action from the Canadian government to help the situation in Darfur? Not that I think that people haven't written letters to the government to ask for action in Darfur, I know people who have written many letters. But maybe, just maybe, if we all do it, maybe the government will see that the Canadian people, as a collective whole, want them to act. That we want them to stand up on the International Stage and say enough is enough. Something needs to be done. And something needs to be done now.

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Coming up this week (February 3-10)...

It's Super Bowl Sunday, but make sure you turn off the game because tonight it's going to be a wild and crazy Sunday night on the Strombo Show.

They rocked an already fragile music word last year with their "pay what you want" online release of their seventh album In Rainbows. Last week, Radiohead released In Rainbows on CD at the top of the charts. Guitarist Ed O'Brien will be in studio with George on Sunday night.


Also, George plays your requests, the band Puddle of mud will play in studio and takes your calls.

Tune in to the Corus Radio Network Sunday 5-8 EST (2-5 PST) on 99.3 The Fox in Vancouver, Power 97 in Winnepeg, FM96 in London, Y108 in Hamilton and 102.1 The Edge. If you're not in any of those cities, check it out online.


Coming up this week on The Hour...







On Monday, One of only four people to become an honorary Green Beret sits down for a chat with George. Wayne Newton earned the nickname "Mr. Las Vegas" by playing over 30 000 shows on the Las Vegas strip over 40 years.












And on Tuesday, multiple Juno award winning singer/songwriter/producer Hawksley Workman joins George on The Hour to talk about his career and his new album Between the Beautifuls.











With her direct talk about safe and satisfying sex, Sue Johanson has brought sex education out of the shadows in over 20 countries. She drops into The Hour studios on Wednesday to talk about her life as a media personality, registered nurse and grandmother.









He's come a long way from failing his high school drama class with credits that include the recent remake of The Amityville Horror, Smokin' Aces and The Nines. Tune into The Hour on Thursday for George's chat with Vancouver-born actor, Ryan Reynolds.







Other people slated to visit The Hour this week include:

Monday:

Dallas Green
. As one of the vocalists and guitarists in Alexisonfire he's known for his melodic voice. As a solo artist, he's getting ready to release a new album called Bring Me Your Love on February 12th.

Tuesday:

Sherry Cooper
. She's the Chief Economist at BMO Capital Markets and she's in high demand these days as a speaker for her ability to explain the crazy world of finance and economics in a way that makes sense to the average joe.

Wednesday:

Yung Chang
. This Montreal filmmaker recently made his debut at the Sundance Film Festival with his documentary Up the Yangtze, which takes a close look at the human cost associated with progress, in particular the area along the Yangtze River which is now flooded due to the Three Sisters Gorge.

Debbie Bodkin
: Formerly a Sergeant with the Waterloo Regional Police, Bodkin lived in Darfur for three months, interviewing victims and investigating the situation for the United Nations.

Thursday:

Hugh Cornwell
: The former guitarist and vocalist of the UK punk band The Stranglers, he's currently touring North America with the UK band From the Jam. They are playing Lee's Palace in Toronto on February 6th.

Steven Marks: He oversees litigation, licensing and technical issues for the Recording Industry Association of America. He was part of the negotiations that brought significant changes to the American Copyright Act.

Maj. Gen. Patrick Cammaert: In 2005 he was named the Division Commander of the UN Forces in the Eastern part in the Democratic Republic of Congo and is a contributing author to the book Peacekeeping Intelligence.


And in other news, if you were listening to last week's Strombo Show (and who wasn't?), you may have heard George mention an interview he did on
The Drew Marshall Show last weekend. Touting itself as "Canada's Most Listened to Spiritual Talkback Program", you can now download the mp3 of George's interview on the show. * please note this link was fixed to point to the correct destination.

Also, if you loved Robbie the Tiger's appearance on The Hour last week, make sure you check out the behind the scenes look on After the Hour. It's there for a limited time only so make sure you check it out soon!