On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams

This is terrifying to my brain to read:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/lowest-voter-turnout-ontario-history-elections-1.6476344

Yes, there's still ballot-counting to be done as of today. Even so, the drop in turnout is a horrible development. I'd been hoping over this past decade that people were still heeding advice (*) from the likes of Rick Mercer to show up in greater numbers with each election held and completed.

And we've got municipal elections in October in Ontario, right?

(*) - Yes, the video is from 2011, and the Rant is focused on people aged between 18 and 25, and the advice still holds for the wider public.

At least, it ought to be famous.

I doubt that "Mercer Street" is named for Rick Mercer...especially after reading Toronto Street Names by Leonard Wise and Allan Gould, specifically page 148. But maybe, given the proximity to the CBC Broadcast Centre where Rick's Report was made for 15 years, it ought to be renamed in his specific honour.

1. I just checked the Facebook Help Centre. I didn't access the stuff that Cambridge Analytica was using, but according to the Help Centre, one person on my friendlist did.

2. And that's it: fifteen years of the Rick Mercer Report, over and done. And for Rick himself, on to the next thing. Whatever it is.

Anyone betting on a sitcom with him and Jann Arden as the leads?

I was going to explore my reactions to Star Trek: Discovery(AKA "DSC") in greater depth, and you may expect that later in this entry. For the moment, a surprising bit of news from closer to home arrived this morning: Rick Mercer's announcement that the Mercer Report will be closing up shop at the end of what will be its fifteenth season CBC Television.

Allow me to share his announcement via his own recording...



I admit that I see this as another sign of something akin to a Canadian Apocalypse. Some of you who've been watching this weblog for a while will be making informed deductions and/or guesses as to what some of the other signs are.

I'm not happy. But it's Rick's choice to make. Not mine. Not CBC's.

Okay, on to DSC.

What we ended up getting on Sunday night, after delays thanks to CBS' contractual obligations to the NFL impacting on BellMedia's obligations to CBS, was the first two episodes of DSC. Aired back to back, with "The Vulcan Hello" followed immediately by "Battle at the Binary Stars". Together they form what you might call either a prologue or a full Act One of the first season's larger story.

Without giving away too much, it's a good setup for whatever else we're about to get this year.

I'm still getting over my bout of design history dissonance considering this is supposed to be happening about a year after the events of "The Cage" and ten years before "Where No Man Has Gone Before". The uniforms, the user interface designs, the starship architecture...all seem a bit out of place with those two episodes of the original series. We're being promised explanations and evolution over time, to be sure. How fast the production team delivers is up to them. Our reactions to that speed - or the lack of it - are up to us.

Just about everything else: the scripts, the performances of the live actors, the visual effects work...all meet my hopes.

That visual dissonance remains. For now, anyway.

One bit of advice to CBS and its production partners: please show the episode titles in the episode itself.

Due to tonight's "Samsung Galaxy Note 7" skit.

Just a little disturbing...

Go listen to this:

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/becausenews/newfoundland-s-rough-week-beyonce-or-hillary-and-buzzfeed-shakespeare-1.3559214/it-s-brutal-news-rick-mercer-on-newfoundland-library-cuts-1.3559904

I share Mr. Mercer's annoyance.

Enjoy.

So this aired a day or two before the Throne Speech.

You may disagree with him. I might, this time. It's given the ABC forces as much time for maneuver and detail as the Conservatives, after all...

Amen, Rick. Amen.