Here's What's Coming Up...

So... as the weekend is winding up, the Strombo Show and The Hour are gearing up for the week.
As I write, a couple of observations -- I need more than 4 hours of sleep a night but yet, am still willing to give that up for a good show or party. To that end - a suggestion if I may? Check out the self titled CD from Toronto band 'The Beauties'. Disc is fantastic and their live show? Off the chain amazing.

Speaking of other great music? There's sure to be all you can handle on this week's Strombo Show -- 8pm-Midnight on CBC Radio2. Apparently, a discussion on the greatest 'Front men' in music is on tap.


Meanwhile, on the screen...

Monday May 31st

George Romero

The KING of the Horror flicks, George Romero visits the show. Dawn of the Dead. Night of the Living Dead. His latest flick is The Crazies which I was shocked to learn, is not a documentary about my neighbours.

Peter Nowak

In his latest effort, 'Sex, Bombs and Burgers - How War, Porn and Fast Food Created Technology as we know it' , Author Nowak operates on the premise that these three key elements of society have driven the perceived need for much of our technical innovations. Seriously -- how long can it be till there's a pizza 'n porn app for iPhone?

Tuesday, June 1st

Amanda Seyfried

If you have a television, satellite, read magazines or generally don't live your life under a rock, Amanda is everywhere -- she's the new It Girl of chick flicks. From Big Love, to the truly painful Mamma Mia to a string of newer films - Dear John, Letters to Juliet and Atom Egoyan's latest -- Chloe, she's going to stick around for a while!

Patrick and Jonathan Roy
Talk about pressure. Your father is hockey great Patrick Roy. You're a kid following in his footsteps. You get in a violent fight that makes headlines, you're charged and later get your charges dismissed. What are you gonna do next? If you're Jonathan Roy, you become a pop singer. Seriously. That's not made up. He's apparently set to open for New Kids on the Block this summer. Above is a good shot of the Roy men with Jonathan's lawyer. Good times!

Wednesday, June 2nd

Courtyard Hounds

They're sisters, moms, multi instrumentalists...and two thirds of the Dixie Chicks. With lead singer of the Chicks, Natalie Maines taking a hiatus, the sisters have put together a side project that is of such great quality, no one s saying they're just marking time. I confess I do like their sound, though I still resent them a little bit for their Grammy sweep for the Dixie Chicks 'Comeback album' post the George Bush uproar. My cousin's Canadian band was up for a Grammy against them. One of those good news/bad news things -- "Hey, we're nominated for a Grammy but the Dixie Chicks are in our category.' Burn. ;-)

Willie O'Ree

New Brunswick born Willie O'Ree is a sports pioneer. As the first black player in the NHL, former Boston Bruin O'Ree is the 'Jackie Robinson' of ice hockey. One interesting fact about O'Ree is that he was almost blind in one eye and covered up this fact, lest he be passed over for his shot at the big time. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada and has worked as a youth ambassador.

Thursday, June 3rd

Jake GyllenhaalAs part of his press blitz for his latest - Prince of Persia, Jake Gyllenhaal hit The Hour for a chat. From a Showbiz family, Jake and his sister, Maggie are both Oscar nominees -- Jake's for Brokeback Mountain. I really liked his film Jarhead and if you remember WAY back? Jake played Billy Crystal's son in 'City Slickers'. Yep, the one with Norman the cow. Now, I want steak for dinner... but I digress.

Christoper Plummer

Plummer has done it all... films, television and now, he returns to the stage. At 80, Plummer shows no sign of slowing down. In 2009, he was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in the amazing film, The Last Station. His summer job? The role of Prospero in The Tempest at the Stratford Theatre. Can't wait -- tickets bought!

Friday, June 4th

MYSTERY DATE

No listings available at this time... as per usual, tune in and see what gems will be re-run.

The Hour has taped it's last show for the season and will return in the Fall. In the meantime, you'll have the opportunity to catch some shows you've missed over the past season.

Have a great Summer!

On the occasion of our 4th birthday...

On May 30, 2006 a new blog was born!

In honour of our fourth birthday,

we present "The Stroumboulopouli" by the numbers...

14...the number of "Contributors ~ The Regulars" who have written for blog since 2006

5...the current number of contributors

2...the number of Provinces we currently represent (1 BC, 4 ON)

239,695...the number of visits to notpaidbythehour.blogspot.com

576...how many posts we've written in four years

30...the percentage of readers from Canada

28...the percentage of readers from the United States

18...the number of countries from which we have received visits this week.

Among them, the UK, Poland, Kuwait, France, Australia, Italy, Greece and Finland.

To our loyal readers, we say THANK YOU!

Also, thank you to George & the staff of The Hour for your assistance and support.

They are talking about the new season now.

CBC 2010 fall Preview


CBC celebrated it's new fall lineup on the same evening The Hour taped it's last show for season six.

"We're going into the fall 2010 season with some of the strongest, highest-rated, most celebrated shows," Kirstine Stewart, general manager of CBC Television, said.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/tv/story/2010/05/27/cbc-fall-tv.html#ixzz0pB3uKQFS

I was at that taping to wish George a good summer and say goodbye to the old set.

The Hour is now getting ready for Season Seven

They are not only going to change the set (maybe even the studio), they are going to make changes to The Hour's format.
What those changes are they don't know yet. The Hour wants to add more online content, and be more available using new technologies. What stays on the show is the interview and the look at current issues... everything else is up for discussion. My hope is that they consult the viewers. It's our show too!

In this last taping they tried something new. They have been experimenting with live musical acts presented at the end of the show, tonight a comedian, Frank Spadone, stepped upon The Hour's stage to do a very funny stand up routine. Be sure to tune in, or watch online... let them know how you liked it.

There will be more new content on The Hour until it's preempted by The World Cup. In August there will be more of The Hour specials.

The week beginning May 23rd

Happy Victoria Day weekend! This is the weekend that begins the countdown to the summer...Canada Day is only 38 days away! Hopefully all our readers are enjoying their weekend!

Whether at home, the cottage or if you are brave enough to hit the campsite, you can tune into The Strombo Show on CBC Radio 2, starting at 8 pm EST. Click here to find your frequency. From the show's Facebook page: "This Sunday a special May Two-Four Strombo Show. George hands the show over to The Tragically Hip's Gord Downie for over an hour. Gord plays some music from his library and talks about his new band, The Country of Miracles."

As a result of the continuing NHL playoffs, the schedule for The Hour may be a tad wonky this week. When in doubt, check your local listings.

Monday, May 24th

Canada's iconic band Rush.



On June 10th, the documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage opens in selected locations throughout North America. It looks good!

Also, Brady Bunch actor Christopher Knight.

Tuesday, May 25th



Actor Jake Gyllenhaal of the latest action-adventure epic, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.

Canadian Chief of Defence Staff General Walter Natynczyk.

Wednesday, June 26th

Of the Tragically Hip, Gord Downie.

Dave Salmoni and George's furry friend Jonas the tiger.

Thursday, May 27th

Free the Children founder Craig Kielburger.

"Electronica/trip hop" artists Massive Attack.

Friday, May 28th

It's like deja vu from Monday...Rush and Christopher Knight. Also, Martie Maguire and Emily Robison, the singing sister country duo known as The Court Yard Hounds.
(If those names sounds familar, you may also know them as 2/3 of the Dixie Chicks.)

In other news...

Several weeks ago, we mentioned that George would be particpating in the localsknow.ca Canadian Tourism campaign. This has come to fruition through The Hour's "Best of Canada" interactive map. Share with the world where you think the BEST places in Canada can be found...it can be anything from a 'favourite find' to 'great grub' or 'take a hike' . Click here to get started and learn more about the contest associated with the campaign.

Trudy attends a Vancouver taping of The Hour!

A couple of days ago, we asked our loyal reader Trudy if she would like to share with other readers her experience attending this week's taping of The Hour in Vancouver. Here is her story:

"My sister and I have never been to a show taping before, so it was really fun! We got there early, 5pm-ish and I was glad later, as some ticket holders (many actually) were put into another studio when ours was full. The guests and George were in and out of there during the taping breaks though, but I would have been pretty upset if we were put there. The studio was packed and I have to say everyone put in Studio B, as far as I could tell, stayed. I'm wondering how many people were in there, because that's a real testament to George. We sat front row of the bleachers beside the door. Here are another audience member’s Flickr photos . My sister has the short hair and I'm next to her.

We heard the instructions on when and how to clap and then out of nowhere George was right in front of us! He was saying “hi” to everyone. My sister, who is hilarious, shouted something like "Oh my God - you're real" and George high-fived her. The crowd was well behaved, nobody yelling out to him or anything, but super happy to see him making the rounds. Then he spoke for a while (very funny man) and the show started. We couldn't hear, but the rest of the bleachers sure could because they laughed a lot. The energy was just great. I guess from where our seats were located, the acoustics weren't great - we could see all the guests arrive, and the back stage staff doing their thing. When Billy the Kid sang, George came and hung out at our corner! So I got the unobstructed view of the guy! Best seat in the house. We had no problem hearing George answering questions though, just during the interviews. So when I got home at 11pm, I watched it on TV!

George was so great with making sure everyone had questions answered after the taping. He has such a great way with stories - he told one about the motorcycle accident and made it funny somehow. He also talked about his recent part in a movie where he gets shot and blood is pouring out of him. I hope someone cheated and filmed that, I had tears in my eyes from laughing. We didn't stay to meet him though, as neither of us had a camera and the crowd was huge...and I was nervous to meet him! I do wonder how long he stayed until. He's very dedicated to his audience and genuine about it. We were really impressed and hope the show comes back next year. BC place might have a roof by then! He can do the show there :)

Best,Trudy"

Thanks for taking the time to share your story with the blog! We are glad that you had such a great time. :)

The Hour's week in Vancouver

The Strombo Show

Sunday nights 8-12
This week Band of Horses

takes over for an hour and they share some song selections.
Plus the usual audio appearances of Bob M jr and Rich Terfry
having a say about the musical offerings along with Strombo who is passionate about you hearing those songs you need to hear and he invites you to share you song passions as well.

Skype users can look for and join the Strombo Show chat group as the show airs. The chat group is hosted and monitored by Jazzdolphin of Vancouver. There is no video/audio features needed for the chat just a friendly need to communicate about the music and the topics.

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The Hour

Monday May 17th

Hockey Hero and Speaker Paul Henderson talks about being that Hockey player in that moment and other historic moments and how he became a Christian.

& Actress/Director Sarah Polley talking about the Sci-fi film
she is starring in ... Splice

Tuesday May 18th - VANCOUVER
Terry Fox's mother Betty Fox.
Who doesn't want to meet Betty Fox when in Vancouver?

& District 9 Director Neill Blomkamp
is working on a new Sci-fi film

Wednesday May 19th - VANCOUVER

Heritage Minister James Moore
My question would be...
Is he wearing this Habs shirt because he knew that would get him on The Hour?

Plus from the Vancouver Canucks The Sedin twins

and

Our Lady Peace's Raine Maida is a friend of the show
and also helped produce, mix and engineer The Lost Cause -Billy The Kid.

Thursday May 20th - VANCOUVER

Activist Rick Hansen
My question would be...
Did he really say no to the GG job?

President of the International AIDS Society Julio Montaner

Actress Nancy Robertson of Hiccups

& Musical Performance by Billy the Kid aka Billy Pettinger

Friday May 21
with a nod to Montreal

The Trotsky's Jay Baruchel with Director Jacob Tierney

& Musician

Rufus Wainwright

Live Canadian music on The Hour

The Hour is trying something new.

They have done music specials for Christmas time and there was the Tragically Hip music special but they want to have bands performing on the show on a more regular basis.

Every once in awhile, on no particular day, George will present a lesser known, but fantastic Canadian band playing live near the end of the show.

The last five minutes will be bands like Timber Timbre from Ontario,
The Novaks from Newfoundland,

Billy The Kid from BC and other touring bands from all corners of the land.
If you can think of great bands you would like to see get this kind of national exposure, write the show and let them know.

Email thehour@cbc.ca, or write to The Hour, the address below.

THE HOUR
c/o CBC Television
P.O. Box 500, Station "A"
Toronto, Ont.
M5W 1E6

If you're emailing George, please use 'Message to George' as a subject.

*As they air on The Hour you can then watch the bands play some more songs as a web exclusive on The Hour's own site.
Enjoy!

Rolling into May... This Week on The Hour

Let's get started...

Today is of course, Mother's Day, so maybe you've Brunched it up today with your mom? Hope the day was a great one for all.

Tonight, as usual, if you're in need of some good music and some good banter George, Bob, Rich and other guests will bring you 4 hours of all you can handle on CBC Radio2. Enjoy.


Back in TV Land...


Monday, May 10th


David Suzuki

Author, broadcaster, activist, environmental crusader, founder of the David Suzuki Foundation and according to the CBC series 'The Greatest Canadian' the 5th greatest. I still recall the great debate between Suzuki and a Professor at my Alma Mater getting into it over controversial theories on race. Can you say academic bitch slap? I sure can.

Bruce Greenwood

Bruce Greenwood is one of those actors that works steadily... a favourite of Atom Egoyan, he's does drama so well and has a list of impressive credits as long as your arm. Of course, he's most recently known for his work in the last Star Trek film but I have to confess I loved his sleazy portrayal of Nick, the disappearing husband of Ashley Judd's character in Double Jeopardy - one of those guilty pleasure movies.

Tuesday May 11th

TBA -- Mystery Day! As of this writing, we know who's taping, but NOT who's airing. Relax and go with it.

Wednesday, May 12th


Christopher Plummer

At 80, Plummer has mastered it all! Television, Screen and Stage. Loved by generations for his portrayal of the dashing Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music - Plummer has spent decades being critical of the film apparently calling it 'The Sound of Mucous'. Whatever. Every Christmas, families all around the world watch for 4 hours, including commercials. I am thrilled that he will be taking to the stage of the Stratford Festival this summer in The Tempest.

Des McAnuff

With the backlash to the Conservative Government's indifference to art in our country, a very significant tide has turned for the Stratford Festival. Being the creative mind as Artistic Director of the Festival, Des McAnuff has to bring the art, spectacle and quality that is Stratford's signature... but do it on budget. Very recently, the Festival received an enormous endorsement in the form of $3 Million dollars from the Marquee Tourism Events Program. Has government realized the economic benefits to tourism and the arts? We can hope.


Thursday, May 13th

Jacob Tierney

Film maker Jacob Tierney is a Montreal bred up and comer. His latest film is 'The Trotsky' that made a real splash at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall. It tells the story of a Montreal teenager who believes that he is the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky and sets about to organize unions, find his older woman/muse to hilarious results.


Jay Baruchel

Not so coincidentally, star on the rise Jay Baruchel is the star of Tierney's film 'The Trotsky'. He's a Montrealer too, so hopefully with the Habs still in this thing, conversation won't drift entirely to the ice. Loved him in Tropic Thunder!

Friday, May 14th

Repeat-A-Palooza - So nice, watch 'em twice...

Bruce Greenwood

Cypress Hill

Yes, Cypress Hill are legends of Hip Hop, but I couldn't resist showing their triumphant turn at Homerpalooza on the Simpsons. Good times. Anyone remember that? Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins... No Doubt.



Danny Bhoy

He's Scottish, Indian and funny... his stand up has graced many international stages, including Just for Laughs!

Blame the playoffs!

On this week's edition of The Strombo Show...

Special guests MGMT. Not only is there an interview component, but MGMT members Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden also DJ part of the show. If you are a fan of the band, you will not want to miss it. The Strombo Show starts at 8pm EST, but with the magic of the internet, you can check it out in the various time zones across Canada by visiting CBC Radio 2.

Coming up on The Hour...

If you are a hockey fan and your team is still 'in', then the month of May is starting off on a great note! Once again The Hour is running repeats as the NHL playoffs continue.

Monday, May 3rd


Director Lee Daniels.

Musician Dave Stewart.

Actress Mindy Cohn.

Tuesday, May 4th

Toronto born actress and comedienne Catherine O'Hara.

Author Nick Hornby.

Actress Drew Barrymore.

Wednesday, May 5th

The "Best of" Faith edition.

Thursday, May 6th



Actor and activist Michael J. Fox.

Friday, May 6th





Canadian music superstar and recent Juno Award winner, Michael Bublé.

Actress Patricia Clarkson.



Actor Clive Owen.

In other news...

As we know, this season of The Hour is slowly winding down. If you want to catch a taping (in Toronto or during a special visit to Vancouver), it is not too late. Visit the The Hour's website to reserve your free tickets!

If you are in the Toronto area toward the end of May AND have lots of spare money, you may be interested in checking out a fundraiser in which George will be participating. The White Knight Gala is an annual event put on by the Ron White Foundation, to raise both awareness and funds for a partnering charity. During the Gala, George will be assisting in a live auction. I love the name of this event as it conveys various meanings, depending upon how you read it. While Ron White is the founder, the name also implies the traditional concept of the helping white knight...you know the dude on a horse who helps someone in distress. And then there is the dress code for the event: "All White Summer Cocktail Attire and your most fabulous, colourful or outrageous shoes to model on the White Carpet". George in all white? REALLY?

If you can't pony up the cost required to physically attend the event, you can always make an online donation.