Flying Higher

So the CBC previewed its new fall TV lineup today. When I arrived at work this morning, the lobby of the Broadcasting Centre was adorned with large posters not unlike this:

One of the posters features the “Flying Higher” slogan with an image of George Stroumboulopoulos floating in mid-air. Another features the cast of Dragon’s Den, with an airplane flying above them in the sky. “Flying Higher” is a nice enough catchphrase, especially with all the talk of “building on our successes.”

But the next line just kills me: “Fall 2007.”

Now, I understand that they mean the Fall TV season. But when you’re talking about “flying higher,” implying better programming and higher numbers, and connecting that idea visually the concept of altitude, “fall” can also be read as a verb, as in, “to drop, come or go down.”

Interesting choice of words.

And seriously, if you’re going to include a URL in the promotional material for your new TV season (www.cbc.ca/newtvseason/) for Pete’s sake, put something useful on the website. As I write this, there’s nothing more there than the image you see above, and a link to a video that doesn’t work. Come on.

Jim Dupree: Official Festival Selection Enthusiast

So a year ago, Tristan and I made thirty episodes of a video podcast called Jim Dupree: Enthusiast. It was reasonably well-received, so we stopped doing it.

Now it turns out that videoblogger extraordinaire Steve Garfield is a curator at The American Film Institute’s Pixelodeon festival in Los Angeles this year. And he’s included Jim Dupree: HDTV enthusiast as part of his collection, I Watched, I Laughed, I Vlogged. So not only will our ridiculous video be shown on a big screen, but I also get to use this official-looking badge:

So if you happen to be in LA on Sunday, June 10, consider checking out the big show.

Trivial Pursuit ketchup

On Saturday afternoon, Jenna and I went to the Hero Certified Burger at King and Yonge for lunch. I grabbed a handful of those little ketchup packets, and noticed that Heinz now prints Trivial Pursuit questions on their single-serving ketchups:

This is a great idea.

But it falls short online. As far as I can tell, the website listed on the package (www.heinzitup.com) makes no mention of the campaign, nor does www.heinztrivialpursuit.com.

The Canaries are now on iTunes

So I’m in a band, and we’re called The Canaries. A few months back, we made a recording, and had a bunch of CDs pressed. Several hundred, if I recall correctly. Though we’ve not yet “officially” released the CD, we’ve sold them at the past couple of shows.

And now, according to Frank, you can buy our recording on iTunes. Which is kind of cool.

Or, if you’re interested and would like to buy a proper, physical CD, I’ll sell you one for the low low price of five Canadian dollars. That’s a whole $4.90 less than the digital version. Just email me.

Our guitarist Mike and his wife Catherine had a pair of babies in March, which meant some time off for the band. But getting ready to get back at it, and we’re playing a couple of shows in June. I’m looking forward to it.

TVO is seriously showing up the CBC

Today, when I checked out the Democracy Channel Guide, I noticed that The Agenda with Steve Paikin is available as a video podcast. If you don’t know (or don’t live in Ontario) The Agenda is TVO’s daily current affairs program, and it’s excellent. As a podcast, they offer the entire program as a large downloadable .mp4 file.

You hear that CBC?

TVO offers the entire program as a download.

Not just a selection of clips, like The Hour podcast. Or a ridiculous Windows Media stream, like The National. Or a bizarre collection of flash videos on the official CBC YouTube channel. Or a partnership with a video site that no one uses. Or like on the radio side of things, a daily “Best Of” podcast of a single interview from The Current, or As It Happens.

Did I mention that TVO offers the whole show? Each and every day? All of it?

TVO runs itself on $60 million in government dough. The CBC gets about a billion.

Seriously, this is starting to get embarrassing. Give me one good reason, as someone who contributes to CBC’s billion dollars a year, why I can’t subscribe to and download the programming I pay for. It’s very quickly becoming unacceptable.

In terms of online video, the CBC is no longer falling behind. It has fallen behind.