St. Iggy's 9 p.m. Group

What is happening to the 9 p.m. singing group at St. Ignatius Church here in Winnipeg?

They used to be sooooo goood, so soulful, like a direct connection to heaven.

Now, after 30 years, they sing with most of the group not even there.

There used to be a drummer, a guitarist, a bass guitarist. Now we're lucky if we get the bass guitar guy, whom I love when he used play those jazzy riffs back in 1991.

Are they just losing the interest, or like, what's wrong? I wish I could fix it. If there's no drummer, then try and find a replacement. It really does make a difference.

This past weekend Jeff Doerr (the keyboardist) and his wife (singer) were gone, probably on vacation somewhere. But it wasn't that much better during the winter months.

The oomph is missing. The drums are missing, like when they sing the Our Father prayer ... (one, two, three) "Our Father, Who Art in Heaven" (boom) "Hallowed be Thy Name" (boom).

There were just the jazzy bassist and one of the singers. I had to help provide backing vocals, from the pew, because there weren't any others singing it.

And the relatives were wondering WHY Jim doesn't like going to St. Iggy's anymore, which I've been doing on a regular basis since 1982. That's one of the reasons.

What happened to Classiness?

See this ABBA video from 1982, then compare this to the pop culture of today with its cell phones, trashy music videos, and reality tv:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8jqAEoogHw

I'm old enough to remember those good old days of the 1980s when Winnipeg had two department stores downtown -- Eaton's and The Bay.

This video signifies for me a certain classiness that is so missing in today's culture. To some it may seem like ABBA is acting "arrogant" or whatever, but you compare that to the crap that's put out today and it just doesn't.

You see, people like to emulate the celebrities, they kind of show the way to style and therefore create culture.

In this music video, Head Over Heels, members of the group go on a shopping trip downtown. They are dressed well and shop at the nice stores. There is no discount/bargain shops in sight.

When I was living through 1982 this is in a way my feelings in that year, it was kinda like an artsy kind of year, symphony music, and all that stuff, but nice pop music, like the Jazz from Joe Jackson's Breaking Us In Two. That song I somehow associated with morning delivery of the Winnipeg Sun -- I used to be a carrier for them at the time.

Social Planning Council Hindering Winnipeg Growth

There is a group in Winnipeg that's been around since 1919, the Social Planning Council. It's current leader is Wayne Helgason, an aboriginal.

I feel that this group is part of the problem of why Winnipeg has been growing its underclass sinc about 1987 and the skilled middle-class has been leaving since about 1990.

What has the SPC ever done to improve Winnipeg for everyone? I think they've just helped to expand the underclass here.

If Winnipeg is to grow into a large metropolis on the scale of other cities like Minneapolis Minnesota, Toronto Ontario, or Chicago Illinois, we seriously need to either:

1. Re-examine the leadership of this organization
2. Get rid of the SPC itself

They are holding us back, and have been helping to make Winnipeg a backwater, a hick-town.

I got my MTV today

I was sitting watching tv this evening flicking the channels, and WGN of them had the Smallville Superman-related show in the IPG list. So I watched a few minutes of that.

Then after the commercial it switched to WGN-DT2, which was showing THETUBE, a "real" music video channel, started in 2005 by one of the co-founders of MTV back in August of 1981.

WOW!

True to its slogan All Music, it plays absolutely no commercials, and no reality crap. Just music videos from the past 6 decades.

Unfortunately I don't have an HDTv set yet and so this was just an error that one of the ExpressVu technicians did or maybe WGN shows this program now in the summer.

In any way, I was really happy with this program. MuchMusic has lost their way. They don't need 4 different Much* channels. We just need one that plays music videos and concerts the way it used to be back in the 1980s.

OneMedia in Canada

In the Christian bible, in the New Testament section there are stories about one day everything on this planet being owned by Satan. Everything. In Canada, we're a step closer to that awful day.

Last November (2005) Allan Waters, who built the CHUMCity empire (CityTv, MuchMusic, Bravo!, CHUM Radio, etc...) died. His relative (son or younger brother) was named as the successor owner of the company.

Now today, not eight months later, we hear CHUMCity being bought up by Canada's largest private media company, Bell Globemedia (CTV, BellExpressVu, CKY, CFTO, Discovery Channel Canada, ROBTv, the Globe and Mail, etc...).

Winnipeg has CityTv (nee 13MTN, nee A-Channel Winnipeg), which in the "friendly" takeover annoncement has decided to cancel all further local newscasts until further notice.

I have to ask this question. How does this deal better serve the Canadian citizen when it comes to local programming (news)?

I hope the CRTC will look closely and scrutinize every detail of this, and force Bell Globemedia to sell off more of its holdings than just the ones they agree to (A-Channel, ACCESS Alberta).

I'd like them to sell of CityTv Winnipeg because we already have a Bell station here -- CKY (CTV). We don't need two stations owned by the same company. Even though they promise to keep the newsrooms separate, I don't have enough trust in things like this. Certainly one of the stations would be the poorer in terms of news resources.

For example, prior to this merger, CKY primarily focuses on provincial government news and local crime stories. For years their newscasts began with the words "Police". Ever since CHMI went on the air though, they've focused on local issues, and were more likely to cover City Hall.

And what of my favourite local news anchor, Glen Kirby, who was cut from the staff today due to the merger agreement? There is an opening for news anchor though at CBWT (CBC Winnipeg) because my least favourite news anchor, Krista Erickson, has married and left Winnipeg for Ottawa (good riddance Krista). So this would be a great opportunity for CBWT to hire Glen as anchor of the CBC Local News at Six here. I already sent an e-mail to John at the station. Hope something can be worked out.

Another question: It's been several hours since Bell Globemedia announced it wants to purchase CHUMCity for $1.7 Billion. Why hasn't there been a news report about it on CBC Newsworld? They're too busy covering the endless conflict in the Middle East, that's why. (sigh)