GEORGE STROMBO KICKS

GEORGE STROUMBOULOPOULOS KICKS OFF CBC TELEVISION'S NEW LATE NIGHT WITH THE HOUR
PREMIERING MONDAY, OCT. 9

Late night has a new face. THE HOUR
one of CBC Newsworld's most talked about programs, launches on CBC Television Monday, Oct. 9 at 11 p.m., and, on CBC Newsworld at 8 p.m. ET. The show will air four nights a week, Monday through Thursday.

Hosted by George Stroumboulopoulos, THE HOUR will feature provocative guest interviews and opinion-driven daily take on international news, entertainment, sports, music and fashion-whatever Stroumboulopoulos finds interesting or noteworthy.

With a new set and the addition of a live studio audience, the third season of CBC Television's THE HOUR will offer viewers a mix of commentary on the day's big stories, with a more personalized approach. THE HOUR will feature topics and guests that Stroumboulopoulos feels a connection to, has opinions about and wants to share with his viewers.
"People are sick and tired of being bullshitted. They just want to know what's really going on. We'll get straight to the point. We'll give you the world in a way you haven't seen it before. You'll laugh, you'll cry-hell, you might even learn something," said Stroumboulopoulos.

Each episode of THE HOUR will feature Stroumboulopoulos delivering an unpredictable and highly personalized daily take on the day's issues and news, a featured guest, regular signature segments and Stroumboulopoulos' "one-on-one"-a nightly segment where he reflects on an item or an event.

This season's guests include Viggo Mortensen, Rachel Weisz, Matt Damon, Catherine O'Hara, Lisa Ray, Danny Glover, Tom Sizemore, Tony Kaye, Bobcat Goldthwaite, Olympia Dukakis and Alice Cooper.

"We are excited about George coming to the main network. It offers more Canadians a late night opportunity to see entertaining, high quality programming that only George can offer," said Kirstine Layfield, CBC Television's executive director of network programming.

On Sundays beginning Oct. 15 at 11 p.m., THE HOUR will air a special packaged show on CBC Television featuring best of highlights from the week before.

Viewers interested in being part of THE HOUR's live studio audience, beginning Monday, Oct. 9, Mondays to Thursdays at 4:30 p.m. in Toronto, can reserve free tickets by visiting www.cbc.ca/thehour

Jennifer Dettman is executive producer of THE HOUR. For more information on CBC Television's THE HOUR, visit www.cbc.ca/thehour




This is an actual news release

The Tickets are available online now

This picture was borrowed from The Hours' website and I'll give it back later...
Do you want to see The Hour live?
Click here to link to the online ticket booking information page.
I've been to the page and followed the instructions.
I am a bit disappointed that they tape from 4:30 to 5:30, in fact you have to be there up to an hour earlier to pick up your ticket... Most people don't finish work until 5pm.
Another point, and I understand why, is you can only get tickets once a month and only 4 per request.
You can organize a booking for a group of ten or more, just contact them.
See you there maybe...

Extraordinary Gentlemen

HUGO BOSS Announce First Year of Award Celebrating Men of Distinction in Canada, read the press release here. Strombo placed third in the Journalism and Education category, the full breakdown of the category;
1. Rudyard Griffiths
2. Peter Mansbridge
3. George Stroumboulopoulos
4. Douglas Coupland
5. Justin Trudeau

Still checking the best-before date

I have a confession to make.

Some of you may recall way back on June 11, that I posted the admission that I still had a couple of episodes of The Hour on tape, and I was soliciting advice as to when would be the optimum time to watch them – sit down with them immediately while the news was still the news, or save them for later in the summer and view them as a little slice of history instead?

At the time, this question actually morphed into quite a fascinating discussion in the comments about the nature of news casting and subsequently into the intriguing science behind tracking the viewing history of video clips on the Hour website.

But now the original question is once again haunting me because, you see, I still have the final episode of season two, unviewed, on tape. I will definitely watch it, but am trying to decide when and how to do so.

Should I watch it right away, to finally satisfy my curiosity about the final episode, or should I save it as a post-Thanksgiving dinner appetizer, if you will, to the start of the new season? Should I try to recall the state of the world in June 2006 before I watch it, or should I just dive in and enjoy it as a blast from the past? Is there a point to be made for ever delaying the viewing of a news program for this long (inadvertent though it may have been), or is the collective attention span and nostalgia cycle shortened to such an extent that this exercise would be pointless?

Or have I missed the boat entirely?

Barbara B

Not just the Sunday bulletin

Instead of just bringing you the Strombo bulletin from MySpace like I usually do, I'll have added an interview with a fan of the Strombo show.

Bec is a regular commenter on Georges MySpace while the Strombo show is on the air and online. The boys, George, Bob and Alex really like her. They promised her they would send her a mug last show in response to one of her comments. I asked her about that. I asked her if they even asked for her address. They never did. I think those bad boys were just teasing her.
In fact she lives in Sweden. She used to live in London Ontario. She tells me she moved to Sweden last August.
So we got to talkin'...

-Wow moving to Sweden is huge. Did you move for work or love or something else? Is the language an issue?
Well it's not as huge as it sounds. I grew up in Sweden, my parents live over here and I speak both languages fluently. The reason for the move was ...I guess you can say I moved away from love LOL. I went through a nasty separation last year and just had to get some distance (and I wanted my mommy ;) ). Originally I was only going to stay here from August until December, but I'm still here.

-What is it like to live in Sweden?
I miss Canada a lot, but in away life is easier over here. And I just met a guy here so who knows when I'll come back to Canada now LOL.

-What time of day or night does the strombo show come on?
I don't always listen to the show because it comes on between 3-5am Monday mornings. When I do listen I'm either suffering from insomnia or I actually set my alarm and then I lay in bed with my laptop.

-Are you looking forward to the podcast?
I am looking forward to the podcast, but the fun of the show is chatting with the guys 'live'. (What I would really like is to be able to watch the hour online!!)

-I guess listening online helps keep 'home' closer...
The show does make me feel 'at home'. Just listening to the traffic reports or radio commercials in between segments makes me miss home a lot. Talk radio over here SUCKS!! LOL well radio over here sux over all, there are no good radio stations, they all play the same eurodisco crap music, so when I do listen to the radio I listen to Canadian radio online, but the Strombo show is the only radioshow I would set my alarm at 3am to listen to ;).

-How would you feel about talking about your connection to the strombo show from across the sea? Let me know what you think about being the subject of a blog post.
I don't mind being the subject of a blog at all :)

I am happy she feels that way.

Barbara W.

Since George just posted a Sunday bulletin on his MySpace I dragged it over here just for you. Here it is.

Hey, How are you?
Just letting you know that The Strombo Show is back on the radio/online tonight.
LIVE from 9-11pm ET. Bob wants to talk about being naked in front of of strangers... and why he likes it...
Alex says he no longer hates people... I find this very hard to believe so he'll explain himself... cuz he might be talking about you...
A whole bunch of other crazy tangents and interviews... a throwback comedy bit with Bob Newhart and I'll walk you through my week bumping into really drunk people... really drunk people...
And with all the therapists on the radio.. we figured we'd weigh in...We are not experts , but we'll give you life advice...
call us at 1-866-866-7387 or email me at go@strombo.com.
... tell us what's wrong, and we'll try and figure it out together..and let me know where you're listening from...
we're building a community mofo's... as the great Oasis once said... "All around the world";-)
You can listen online at www.cfrb.com Or on the radio Toronto on CFRB 1010 AM, Montreal on CJAD 800 AM.
Bgood,Call....
George.

pictures to be added sometime when blogger.com feels like it

Austin Carroll, in his own words.

Hi to all my all of my Canadian fans!
Thanks so much for all of your support. I can't tell you how nice it is to be in contact with some of you. It really means alot to me. It was great working with George. He has definately got to be one of the nicest guys in the industry, and I know he must be thankful to have such a devoted fan base.

After the show was cancelled I moved out to L.A. officially to pursue my career. Kara DioGuardi who was one of the experts on The One has taken me under her wing. She is such an amazing and giving person. She is helping me focus on being a songwriter. I just got my first cut on a major album and will let everyone know when it is official.

Check out my myspace music site and let me know what you think.
Thanks again. You guys are truly amazing. Check back with you soon.
Austin

The return of the Strombo show bulletin from MySpace

I cut and paste and bring you Georges own words dragged from MySpace, for all the nonMySpacers out there.

The return of the spectacular

Ok, maybe not spectacular... but hopefully it'll be some sort of a spectacle.
THE STROMBO SHOW is back on the radio tonight. Live from 9-11PM ET. You can hear us online at www.cfrb.com.
We'll go on an on about the Pope pissing off the Muslims, the bizarre celebrity world that was my week at the film festival, 9/11 conspiracy stuff, and some funny bits from comic Russell Peters...

As we do every week. Bob and I offer advice. We're unqualified, caring and free.... Myspace me your concerns... and we'll be there for you.... what could be better than advice from strangers.. and nobody has messed up their lives more than Bob and I so we can def. relate ;-)

If you happen to be in Toronto or Montreal and you feel like being Old School, then you can listen to the show on the regular radio. (CFRB 1010 AM in Toronto and CJAD 800 AM in Montreal - go habs go)
BTW.... As for your notes regarding bringin' the Strombo Show into the present... Here's where we're at..We are working on the podcast situation... I have been told that within a couple of weeks I will be able to post them on www.strombo.com
(ha - how long has it been now :-)
AT any rate... call us tonight... toll free at 1-866-866-7387 or email us at go@strombo.com , or of course do the myspace thing and we'll talk tonight..
In the immortal words of Slayer...On and On South of Heaven, George.

The day after link to 668's synopsis of the show

In other news.

Do you remember George Stroumboulopoulos' summer job? You know, the hosting job he did for ABC's The One. He did a great job and I watched each show. There was one other very talented person that stood out on that show that I have been keeping an eye out for because I know he will be a big star one day.
Austin Carroll now has a second myspage page with his latest music demos. Visit his myspace page and let him know what you think. Better off alone is the name of one of the songs and I think after the cancellation of The One he is doing a great job on his own but I am sure he could use the support of fans and friends along the way.
That's all I'm sayin'

Barbara W.

10more days...

These signs are springing up everywhere in the Greater Toronto area. Are they springing up in your part of the country?
No not the beer ad... The reminder that The Hour starts October 9th.

Here is an article featured on one blog from another blog, author suspected but unknown.
Riding the bull, writing for Canadian audiences. The article is more about writing for fiction rather that news or infotainment but there is relevance.

I was reading the article and thinking about how The Hour is able to bypass some of the pitfalls of writing for Canadian television by being a current news show and by keeping in touch with the audience in a personal way. They seem to know how to ride the bull 'cause they are one with the bull. I think the audience of The Hour gets careful consideration. George Stroumboulopoulos deserves a lot of the credit for that because he does not underestimate our intelligence, nor do the producers or the writers. My hat is off to them, but at the same time, and with a wink, I am reminding them that the bull still has a say on who rides .

One problem with the theory of the audience being the bull is we don't all think alike, we don't all like the same things or see things the same way. The audience of The Hour ranges in age and interests quite a bit, we aren't all from the same mold. The seven stroumboulopouli who write this blog are a good example of that. We range in age from 14 to somewhere around 3 x 14. We have three main things in common, we live in Canada, we blog, and we watch The Hour, but our lives and lifestyles are comparably different. One sure thing about us, and the Canadian audience is, we ain't sheep.

I hope that the audience will grow with the growing and evolving show. I put my efforts into supporting The Hour because I believe it is a great Canadian show capable of being even greater.


Barbara W.

If you could blow up the world with the flick of a switch, would you do it?

That, of course, is the question asked in the first line of the Flaming Lips song, The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song, and it's a concept that Wayne Coyne talked passionately about during his interview with The Hour last season.

The day following the fifth anniversary of September 11 attacks is the perfect time, in my mind, to revisit this interview. Many questions were raised yesterday, across the blogosphere and at dinner tables, in the newspapers and in front of the water cooler, about the nature of world relations, about the expectations we have of our governments, about the role that we personally play in shaping the world.

Wayne Coyne's pleas for people to exercise patience as a means of protest, for people to take a radical stand simply by being measured and reasonable in their actions, and for people to question their government's motives, is far from what you normally hear coming from the lips (flaming or not) of a rock frontman.

Most of us live the most comfortable lives that have ever been lived in the history of the planet. So says Wayne Coyne in this interview, and he is quite right. And as the events of five years past proved, we cannot take that luxury lightly.

And we must always ask questions.

If you could blow up the world with the flick of a switch

Would you do it?

If you could make everybody poor just so you could be rich

Would you do it?

If you could watch everybody work while you just lay on your back

Would you do it?

If you could take all the love without giving any back

Would you do it?

And so we cannot know ourselves or what we'd really do...

-

With all your power

With all your power

With all your power

What would you do?

-

If you could make your own money and then give it to everybody

Would you do it?

If you knew all the answers and could give it to the masses

Would you do it?

No No No No No No Are you crazy?

It's a very dangerous thing to do exactly what you want...

Because you cannot know yourself or what you'd really do...

-

With all your power

With all your power

With all your power

What would you do?

The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song - the Flaming Lips

Upload music at Bolt.

Barbara B

HipHop4Africa

"That's cool to get people to bang their heads and move their heads and bop their heads, but that's not going to get anyone to move and climb a mountain."

Deejay Ra interviews George Stroumboulopoulos on TV Western.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjHPRk7lYAQ


Here's the links that George talked about :

• Mandela Children
• Cap aids

More music to wait for The Hour by

Music has always played a pretty important role in The Hour. If you check the website for the back clips of the musicians who have been guests this year alone, you might be as surprised as I was by the sheer volume. George has interviewed, or taken to the newsstand, musicians as diverse as Matthew Good, Sam Roberts, David Gilmour, Ben Harper, Bruce Cockburn, the Arctic Monkeys, Imogen Heap, James Blunt, Nickelback, Coldplay, Franz Ferdinand, and Wayne Coyne. If you are so inclined, you can watch the majority of these clips on the website to tide you over until the show starts again next month. (I know, I gagged at the thought of watching Nickelback or James Blunt again as well, but you can pick and choose your clips.)

Even more compelling than the interviews with musicians were the stories in the news about musicians. Stories such as Henry Rollins being detained by Australian national security for his choice of reading material on an airplane - Jihad: the Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia. Stories such as the fight that Notorious B.I.G’s mother is waging to solve her son’s murder. Stories such as the opposition being launched by musicians such as Steven Page and others to oppose the recording industry’s assault against downloading.

My favourite music-related stories from the past two seasons were:
1. Jesus Will Sing Joy Division in BBC Easter Special
– the BBC aired an hour-long musical procession through the red-light district of Manchester to celebrate Easter in conjunction with a celebration of Manchurian music. Among other selections, Mary Magdalen sang the Buzzcocks’ Ever Fallen in Love, Jesus sang Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart, and joined Judas on a duet of New Order’s Blue Monday, before launching into the Smith’s Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now, while being flogged.
2. British University to Offer Course in the Smiths
- seriously, who wouldn’t want to major in the Smiths in university, or at least take it as a minor. Beats the hell out of Calculus.
3. And then there was the story of the Gang of Four - the post-punk band, not the Chinese political party - and the enormous influence they had upon the direction of modern music. It’s hard to believe now that their song At Home He’s a Tourist was once banned from British radio for containing a reference to carrying condoms. They paved the way.

I’m looking forward to more of these sorts of stories on the Hour this season. In amongst all the world headlines, which never really reach any resolution, it’s refreshing to take an entirely different slant toward world happenings.

And from the musical news stories from the past two seasons of The Hour, here are a few songs to tide you over.

Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division

Girlfriend in a Coma - the Smiths

-Barbara B.






Upload music at Bolt.


Upload music at Bolt.

Spreading the word from MySpace

Hey.
Hope you are well.
Ok, So here's the deal for The Strombo Show tonight.
(In case you're wondering what the hell "The Strombo Show" is It's a weekly radio show hosted by myself and a guy named Bob) :-)
SO... tonight between 9-11pm ET. We're gonna talk about God (Sort of) Religious conversion really and we'll play you my conversation with the head of The Church of Satan..
seriously... it's englightening...in a way :-)
Also Bob had a bad dinner party and we want you to tell us about your awful/awkward experiences at dinner party things. Don't worry, you can change the names to protect the guilty...
Also Jeremy Taggart Our Lady Peace is coming by...
We'll play some cool music..
Talk about the film festival and blah blah blah..
We have fun doing the show, but it would be better if you called in and wrote...
Here's how...
BTW... as we do every week... we offer advice.. so call in with your questions... cause Bob and I are totally UNQUALIFIED to help... but what the hell.. maybe we can all have a breakthrough together :-)
Call in at 1-866-866-7387
Myspace - myspace.com/georgestroumboulopoulos
Email - go@strombo.com
oh... here's how you can hear us...Online - www.cfrb.com / www.cjad.com Radio in Toronto on CFRB 1010 am
and in Montreal on CJAD 800 AM.
Thanks for reading this... and if you get chance.. spread the word... hey maybe we should start a street team...
;-)...
kidding , sort of...
Bgood,
Speak with you tonight..
George.

George you take ... to a whole new level ! (my hero)
Barbara W bringing the non-MySpacers the latest bulletin

link to the rundown of the show on 668's blog