Happy Canada Day!!!

Early in 2008, artist, author and filmmaker Douglas Coupland paid a visit to The Hour. At that time he was promoting his book The Gum Thief and the television adaptation of another of one his works, jPod, airing on CBC. On the eve of our great Nation's 141st Birthday, I would like to draw your attention to another Coupland endeavor...it's a story close to home...it's the unique story of us...Canadians.

Souvenir of Canada is compilation of not one, but two books and a rather quirky documentary that chronicles Coupland's journey "to find out what makes Canadians, Canadians". The back-story on the project is rather interesting. In 2002 Coupland published the art/essay book Souvenir of Canada. In 2004 an exhibition of his work relating to this project, entitled Canada House opened at the Design Exchange in Toronto. The exhibit was billed as "art and design objects contemplating the notion of Canada" and coincided with the release of the second book, Souvenir of Canada 2. In the fall of that year, the exhibition hit the road and headed to The Canadian High Commission, Canada House in Trafalgar Square, London. The documentary (released in 2006 and now on dvd) is the story of how Coupland created his exhibit using those everyday objects that are familiar to us as Canadians, yet set us apart from those who are not. The documentary is simply brilliant and you will most certainly catch yourself yelling at your television as you see those objects that define us and our country. If you check out the books and/or dvd, you'll know what Douglas Coupland's idea of Canadiana is...tell us yours!

Have you ever used sofa cushions & duct tape to make homemade goalie pads?

To all our readers, near and far, Happy Canada Day!

The Hour This First Week Of July

The Strombo Show is a Best of because George is on the Road heading to California....He should be there by now.
He posted a few pictures on facebook like this one of him and Adam, from the road.


On The Hour This week you will be able to catch

Monday June 30th
Cyndi Lauper and Barbara Walters

Tuesday July 1st
The Author Michael Pollan and
a man who is always handy
Mike Holmes


Wednesday July 2nd
Paul Potts


Plus
Ronnie Hawkins and Iman

When the same guest is on The Hour and on Q...

...does it get boring?

Let me put it this way... say you want to make dessert and you have chocolate. So you make brownies using that chocolate and you get Sex In A Pan Now someone else wants to make another kind of brownie sensation and they will be using chocolate as well so they create Death By Chocolate Trifle . Let's say that Jamie Oliver is the chocolate, and George and Jian are preparing the dessert.

Let's start with The Hour and Jamie Oliver. Here is the first taste, aka the opener.


And the whole dish can be found here.

Now lets do Qtv and Jamie Oliver with Jian Ghomeshi.

I find that the two interviews, and the one skit, all showed me something different about Jamie Oliver.

He certainly has a great sense of humour, is humble, cares about young people and can cook healthy meals. If you knew him already you may have known that... but it was still fascinating to watch and listen to him on the Q interview; chuckling and talking about the serious issues of food or being humble about how he helps underprivileged kids learn to be chefs.

Many of the same points are highlighted in both interviews but it feels, looks and tastes different.
On The Hour, in the opener, Jamie shows he can play with his food and is a great sport. In the interview, George gets him to open up about his family, his history and covers some of the same things Jian hits on but shows some new textures to Jamie Oliver. Both interviews are smooth, and filling and you may want another taste... You can compare other Q and The Hour interviews by exploring the links and tuning in. Enjoy!

Some of you may be wondering why a radio show like Q is on youtube and QTV and podcasting and everywhere... maybe that is where radio is going now CBC Radio 3 is doing the same. The future of radio is here. Speaking of the future there is a bit more news about Q with a shift in time. Beginning in September, CBC Radio’s arts show Q will follow The Current, and air from 10 to 11:30 a.m. with a two-hour expanded broadcast on Friday mornings. Q will continue to air at 10 p.m. (10:30 p.m. NT) each weeknight., and Jian Ghomeshi will continue to host. You can read the rest of the details here from one of my favourite websites, insidetheCBC.

Now lets get back to dessert. Who do you think is Sex In A Pan, and who is Death By Chocolate Trifle? And does it matter when they are both very tasty?
I was hungry and listening to Q when I wrote this... the options expressed in this post are my own, not everyone may share my love of chocolate.