Battle of the (Military) Bands

Never has there been a better musical metaphor for the disaster of the Bush Presidency than this audio clip from the visit of the Pope Benedict XVI to the White House on April 16th. Thanks to my hero, Tom Allen of the CBC (who will be tragically let go this fall, much to my agony, but enough about that for the time being), his sharp ears picked up this amazing fiasco of Hail to the Chief:

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Here’s the quote from Tom Allen’s Junk Drawer:

Here’s the musical event Charles Ives waited for his entire life. On April 16, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI visited the White House. Two musical groups were there to welcome him – the Herald Trumpets from the US Army Band, and the President’s Own Marine Band. The President, not surprisingly, was there, too. Protocol says that any time the President of the United States turns up in an official role, the band has to play “Hail to the Chief.” As you hear from the clip, protocol apparently doesn’t say they have to play it in just one key. The story is that one group came to rehearsal and the other didn’t, so they ended up, at the big moment, playing the same piece in different keys. I’ve received, predictably, contradictory reports of which group, the Army or the Marines, fired in the wrong direction, but the result was a direct hit for music fans who like their military bands on the experimental side. It’s fantastic!

I found out this morning that it was because one of the groups was a ‘civilian’ group. This was the musical equivalent of ‘friendly fire’ between American troops and Military contractors.

Woo hoo! Airborne Swine Sighted!

This morning I awoke to some incredible (and I mean this in the true sense of the word; I can scarcely believe it) news:

Rogers Issues Statement on the Apple iPhone

TORONTO, April 29 /CNW/ – Ted Rogers, President and Chief Executive Officer of Rogers Communications Inc. today issued the following statement:
We’re thrilled to announce that we have a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada later this year. We can’t tell you any more about it right now, but stay tuned.

About Rogers Communications Inc.
Rogers Communications is a diversified Canadian communications and media
company. We are engaged in wireless voice and data communications services
through Wireless, Canada’s largest wireless provider and the operator of the
country’s only Global System for Mobile Communications (“GSM”) based network.
Through Cable and Telecom we are one of Canada’s largest providers of cable
television, cable telephony and high-speed Internet access, and are also a
full-service, facilities-based telecommunications alternative to the
traditional telephone companies. Through Media, we are engaged in radio and
television broadcasting, televised shopping, magazines and trade publications,
and sports entertainment. We are publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange
(TSX: RCI.A and RCI.B), and on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: RCI). For
further information about the Rogers group of companies, please visit
www.rogers.com.

Yes folks, Hell has officially frozen over.

But wait… let’s see: “later this year” could mean anything between April 30th to December 31st. So the longest I’ll have to wait will be 8 months. I guess that’s good news. I have to admit, this did look like an April Fool’s posting that is 28 days too late.

At the very least, we’ll see an end to the hand-wringing and cries of Why does Apple hate Canada? on so many of the web sites here.

The other thing you can be sure of in Life, besides Death…

That does it. From now on, I stop trying to do this myself and get an accountant.

When we lived in Boston, we had a complicated tax situation. I was frequently working as a consultant, and worked with an accountant who knew us like family, but eventually left the business (Genevieve, wherever you are and whatever you are doing, I hope you’re happy) to make sure that I could make the right deductions, amortize the depreciation of equipment purchases, and figure out when it was best to pay estimated tax vs. go nearly broke in late April.

I though that after we moved to Canada it would get simpler, and up until this past year, it was. I had mostly income from one employer, and we didn’t do much in the way of retirement investing (hey, when you don’t have much income from a previous year, you can’t sock much away in an RRSP – what used to be a 401K for us). There was no notion of a joint return here and the forms even looked a little simpler, I think.

In 2007, that all changed, and I should have realized this fact a while back, but procrastination of tax prep is something I’ve done all my life. When you’re a self-employed person and keeping your money in your account as long as possible is your goal, filing taxes early never makes much sense, unless you prefer the pleasure of not scrambling on April 14th (the tax deadline day for the US) . So, after 7 or so hours of agony, I’ve decided that it is just too damned hard to do my own return any more. I used some software, TaxTron – which was pretty hard to use, but which did the calculations, but the questions were still cryptic (CNIC? QPP/CPP pensionable earnings? Cotisations de l’employé au RPC? Huh?). I’m probably going to file an amended return for this past year’s mess after May 1, and for sure next year it will be under the careful guidance of a CGA (That’s what a CPA became after the move). I’ve learned my lesson. Now, if I could only get my Sunday refunded back to me, since I worked yesterday, albeit for the last time for a while. So much for a Spring weekend.

Taking a Break

It’s been a while, since I wrote here, and that’s partly because I was often too tired in the evening after work to write anything. I’m recovering from a nasty illness that was fairly painful and at the worst point a little tiring, but now I’m nearly back to normal.

This past Saturday, Pam and I took a little picnic to the beach. We packed the car with food, folding chairs and a picnic blanket/tarp. While it was a little chilly, Locarno beach, the mountains and the city all made for a beautiful view:

Later, we went to a housewarming for my friend Tanya, who has gotten a great place on the opposite shore of False Creek from us (we joked that we could probably wave at each other across the water). While it took a little while for us to locate her new place, it did give us the chance to see a little more of the city as dusk began to fall.

It was a break from the stress of work, but that stress is probably going to let up fairly soon. It looks very likely that my contract at IBM will be ending next month, and I’ll be free to relax a little before I am working full-time once again. May is a great month to have some time to enjoy Vancouver, when it is the ‘city of the senses’ rather than the intellect, as I often have written here. A few more days like this past Saturday will definitely be something to look forward to.

An Answer to One of my Protests

OK, I realize that I’m becoming a bit of a broken record, and I promise that these postings about the CBC are reaching an end. After all, each of us have to ‘get a life’.

Nevertheless, I couldn’t resist posting this, because it shows just how the blather the CBC spouts about multiculturalism and other BS is being used so that these people can get their way, a commercial-style radio network with next to no challenging or intellectual content.

Here’s the background: In addition to my letter to the CBC, I left a submission at the ‘Contact Us’ form on the CBC Web site, and here’s what I got in today’s email :

Dear David Drucker,
Thank you for your email about upcoming changes to the weekday schedule of CBC Radio 2. We’re enthusiastic about the changes being planned. It’s good news for all Canadian performers and all Canadian listeners. However, we know some people have misconceptions of why we are making these changes and how the new schedule will look.

The question facing CBC is whether we use Radio 2 to reflect excellence in all Canadian music and musicians or just a part of the industry; and whether we serve a broad spectrum of Canadian listeners or just of a portion of the audience.

Allow us to provide you with a little background to the proposals.

First, we recognize the quality and public value of “serious” music. Classical music will remain the most broadly represented form on Radio 2 while we expand the spectrum to include other forms of music for adult Canadian listeners.

Next, it may interest you to know that Canadian performers of all stripes release about 30,000 pieces of music every year. Less than 1 per cent of those receive regular airplay on commercial radio stations. The rich diversity of Canadian music and musicians is clearly not being heard on Canadian airwaves. Music genres for which Canada is famous throughout the world currently have little exposure on CBC Radio’s music network.

Since CBC’s mandate charges us to “reflect Canada and its regions to national and regional audiences, (and) actively contribute to the flow and exchange of cultural expression” as well as “reflect the multicultural and multiracial nature of Canada” the public broadcaster’s adult music network must be a home for these artists and this music.

Finally, we also believe there will still be some listeners who desire nothing but classical, or jazz, or adult singer-songwriters. So, this fall, CBC Radio will be launching three 24-hour-a-day web radio services to serve each niche exclusively. Obviously we would rather have a full FM network for each genre, but since that is not possible, the online solution is another option for Canadians.

Radio 2 is now and will be remain a music network for adult Canadians. Our values of thoughtfulness in presentation and excellence in performance remain intact. Our commitment to offer an alternative on the dial continues. The kind of listening experience will not change; the music highlights will just come from a broader spectrum.

We’re passionate about Canadian music. Radio 2 will be the only place to truly reflect the incredible breadth and depth of talent that exists in this country.

Again, thank you for writing. We look forward to your feedback when the new shows are introduced in the fall.

Ray Rusk
Communications Officer
CBC Audience Relations

I’m getting the standard party line I’ve seen in other media: Classical doesn’t represent true Canada; We’re not cutting out Classical music (or now an even better subtle insult: ‘Serious’ music; gee, why don’t they call it ‘Long-hair music’ or ‘Egghead music’); we’re just making sure that everyone is represented, so Classical Music has to go to make room for the other Canadian artists. That bit about ‘30,000 pieces of music’ is, I suspect, plucked from thin air.

Never mind that the mythical ‘audience’ they are talking about (instead of ‘portion of that audience’) doesn’t exist. The people who listen to Radio 2 by definition listen to Classical Music because if the CBC didn’t broadcast that, they wouldn’t listen to Radio 2. The alternative to Radio 2 is, let me see…Oh right: nothing.

Never mind that Canadian composers and Canadian Classical Music are going to continue to be phased out of the airwaves. The biggest bald-faced lie in the email is this one: Classical music will remain the most broadly represented form on Radio 2 …

Sorry, popular light classics from the hours of 10AM through 3PM, when no one but home-bound seniors will hear them is not ‘most broadly represented’.

To understand just how much the opposite of ‘most broadly represented’ is, here are some facts not mentioned in the letter:

The CBC Young Composers Competition has not been held since March 9, 2003. It, as well as the CBC Young Performers Competition have been suspended for the past four years. The Canada Council provided the funding for the $10,000.00 grand prize.

The CBC set the classical music budget for CBC Records to 0 in February 2008, precisely on the eve of their first Grammy win by Canadian violinist James Ehnes and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra under Bramwell Tovey on the CBC Records label. That’s right; the first Grammy win, and these guys get rid of the recording label. Many Classical Music performers launched their careers on a CBC Records label recording.

The commissioning budget previously devoted to commissioning new works from composers is now spread out to cover jazz, pop musicians, and some unspecified amount of contemporary classical music.

CBC cancelled Two New Hours, a multiple-award winning program that was aired for two hours a week in the incredibly prime time slot of Sundays 10pm to midnight. This program was dedicated to the music of living Canadian composers. It was cancelled in March 2007 in its 29th year.

CBC cancelled Music For A While, which aired classical music daily from 6pm to 8pm.

CBC cancelled In Performance the flagship Classical concerts program.

The CBC disbanded the CBC Radio Orchestra: North America’s 70-year old last remaining radio orchestra and platform for countless premieres of new Canadian compositions citing lack of resources. The next day, they ran a full-page ad in the Globe and Mail costing an estimated $30,000 to convince us of the same party line that I was read in the letter. It’s worth noting that there was not a single classical music (composer or performer) listed in the ad. Instead, the representation was primarily from commercial recording labels and others involved in popular music.

That bit about a ‘web’ station is utterly ridiculous as well.  Will I be able to listen to the web station in the car or on the Skytrain? Will I have to rig up a computer in the bedroom so I can wake up to it in the morning? Will kids in school who have never been exposed to Classical Music discover their Internet-based station?  Maybe in 5-10 years we’ll have pervasive Internet connectivity so that streaming audio is available at all times, including while traveling at decent quality, and is next to free for all, but not today. Like magazines that stop printing paper editions and only publish on the web, putting most of the CBC’s Classical Music solely on the Internet is pretty much getting rid of it from mainstream listeners.

It’s sickening to be read a party line that is disingenuous at best. That bit about multiculturalism is a smoke-screen.  Do you think they are going to be playing a lot of Pakistani and Chinese music? ( And isn’t ironic that so many Chinese are huge fans of Classical music and are building concert halls like mad in China while the CBC takes it away from listeners in Richmond?).

If the CBC says that people like me ‘just don’t get it’, that ‘The kind of listening experience will not change; the music highlights will just come from a broader spectrum’ and should simply listen to web radio, what they really mean is that they are simply interested in making more money — just like they do on TV by airing ‘Hockey Night in Canada’ — by pretending to be ‘multicultural’, and then running a commercial Easy Listening station. The pattern they’ve followed from the last 3 years plainly shows it.