dewline: A marker of my age and my sports interest (hockey)
...since I'm sure that I've broken some sort of intellectual property rule by using the old Hockey Night in Canada roundel like this. This logo is part of my childhood. I don't know who owns the trademark these days - probably Rogers Communications through Sportsnet, rather than CBC or whomever else - but this was a thing I expected to see every Saturday night from October to the following May.

So I'm using this for the foreseeable future as a marker to tell you if/when I decide I want to discuss hockey in its various forms. If I ever get a Cease and Desist letter about it, I'll probably take it down and work up something else.
dewline: Text - "On the DEWLine" (Default)
Don Cherry was fired two decades too late. All of the symptoms we needed to recognize were clearly visible back then.

That's what I think.
dewline: (canadian media)
To be blunt: I believe that CBC had its financial hands tied over the past decade with malice aforethought by the previous governing party, and the Rogers takeover of the Hockey Night in Canada brand was a consequence much desired by our most recent former Prime Minister. If not Rogers, then Bell. If not Bell, then Telus. But I believe that the fix was in to tear the brand out of CBC's hands.

http://thehockeywriters.com/the-swift-decline-of-hockey-night-in-canada/
dewline: self-portrait, taken while drawing (Sketching)
So...it looks as if we've another NHL lockout in progress and the next season is going to go the way a largish chunk of 2004-'05 did.

I've got two thoughts about that.

First, the CBC's response via Hockey Night in Canada? Divert all coverage to all the other hockey leagues in Canada. Or as close to "all" as logistically possible. AHL, LHNA, Canadian Women's Hockey League, the Canadian major-junior leagues...you get the idea. We've got enough going on from coast to coast to coast right now that Hockey Night can manage well without the NHL and NHLPA. And we, the hockey-fannish public can use the additional education on what else is out there.

Second, I've heard stories about the two guys currently responsible for the Stanley Cup and their opinion on awarding the Cup to a worthy team outside of the NHL structure: that Brian O'Neill in particular openly stated that to do so would be to "demean" the trophy.

Hogwash.

I know that the Stanley Cup predates the NHL. It was originally created as a "challenge" cup, for amateur teams to compete for. Whoever had it, they had to accept challenges for amateur hockey supremacy within Canada from whatever teams met the standards of the day on an annual basis. I've visited one of the institutions that won the Cup in the pre-NHL days: the Montréal Amateur Athletic Association. I saw the banners they used to hang in the front lobby in the days before they rebranded themselves and put said banners into long-term storage.

Anyway.

I agree with the Toronto Star editorial stance on this matter. Return to the pre-NHL tradition of the Stanley Cup, if only for one season. Award the Cup to a worthy non-NHL team for once. The League and Players' Association like can use the reminder of this particular history lesson.

Anyone else?
dewline: Text - "On the DEWLine" (Default)
Progress report: Kagemono project is now 40 % done. Pencils on page three begin tonight after supper.

Other items of interest...

Vicky Smallman comments on the perceived value of lawn signs to modern political campaigners, and on how the Ottawa election may yet go to at least one dog at Spacing Ottawa.

Looks like we've got a 15-planets-reported week at exoplanet.eu. Including those seven orbiting HD 10180! More info at spaceref.com here.

Hockey Night in Canada
has set its 2010-'11 schedule.


More as it occurs to any or all of us...

dewline: Text - "On the DEWLine" (Default)
Maybe I am. I'm not particularly sure that I care, though. I've been disappointed by the results of supporting lost causes so many times by now, though, that I've decided yet again "What's one more?"

In case you're wondering what I'm talking about, it's the Hockey Night in Canada theme music as composed by Dolores Claman in 1968. It's been around as long as I can remember. Hearing it accompany visuals of NHL team logos exploding out of a starfield in the start and end titles of the show is one of my oldest memories.

CBC announced yesterday that whatever negotiations there were to renew the license agreement finally fell through, a day after Claman's agents announced that CBC was planning to drop the music in any case on her website. I have no doubt that both sides were playing some kind of hardball game with each other. If, as suggested in some of the quotes, the plan to drop Claman's music was in the works for the better part of a year regardless of whatever else happened or happens with regard to her lawsuit against Mothercorp or with viewer reaction to the news of the talks collapsing...I wouldn't be happy with that idea.

I've noticed some people - and the Globe and Mail unsigned editorial commentary today as well - taking the position that it was just another commercial jingle. One of the members of the original recording orchestra was on Ontario Today affirming as much yesterday. This wouldn't be the first time something outlived and evolved beyond its roots.

I acknowledge that the proposed contest to pick a successor theme seems to be intended to not only produce good work from the musicians who partake, but to do good in the country's athletics and fitness concerns as well. Also, the CBC's choice of a partner in organizing the competition is very good. I know Nettwerk Records by a fair-sized number of albums of theirs in my music collection and their boss, Terry McBride, is a leader in the Canadian music industry's fight to prevent DMCA-style coopyright rules from taking hold up here.

For all that, I still - irrationally - see the present state of affairs as unacceptable to me.

I've signed the digital petition to restore the classic theme, despite knowing the likelihood of its success in persuading anyone in a position to remedy the situation. I've joined at least one of the relevant Facebook groups, with the same foreknowledge in play.

It's irrational, I'm in denial...and I don't care.

Thank you for enduring this unscheduled rant.

Back to comics soon, I hope...

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dewline: Text - "On the DEWLine" (Default)
On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams

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