Well, it's been anticipated for some time, but Rainbow Cinema London is now starting its transition to digital projection while the Hyland Cinema is still fundraising for similar expensive and short lived equipment.
As I noted before, I am not fan of this kind of change that primarily benefits the film companies who are saving a bundle in film processing and physical distribution, but they have the cinemas over a barrel. So, I only hope they will not be upping ticket prices for what amounts to glorified digital projection TV.
For the Hyland, I just hope they can keep going at all since they don't have access to the chain discounts for such equipment. Maybe the ease of getting more obscure films quicker and cheaper might work in its favour, but it's a longer shot than they deserve.
Showing posts with label london. Show all posts
Showing posts with label london. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 02, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Budget Headaches and Hypocrisies To Come
It looks like we have a day before Don Drummond makes his report about the slash job he wants the Ontario government to do to deal with its deficit.
What makes this galling that a job that important has been delegated to one man who did this behind closed doors like a one man fiscal star chamber. For a task this significant, it should have been in a government committee where all the parties could have been able to weigh in on this matter. Now that the Liberals are in a minority position, that fact should have been a no-brainer, but instead McGuinty and company are imitating Harper's repellent methods instead.
Even worse, tax increases for the rich are apparently off the table in Drummond's report and the poor, disadvantaged and the voiceless will be bearing more of the burden. That is simply neither fair nor just by any rational stretch of the moral imagination, even if a freeze on corporate tax cuts is also in the apparent offing as well.
Part of the moves proposed that is especially galling to remove the provincially supported employment areas from public libraries in favour of stand alone centers. The logic of this is unfathomable as this would inhibit job seekers from using the logical municipal public resource that is intended for all the public and is placed appropriately to facilitate that. Now the provincial government are going to kill jobs from the libraries by removing this essential service and make it that much more difficult for the jobless to use it elsewhere.
Combine that with Harper's own slashing budget to come and London City Council's unconscionable obsession with a tax freeze they would loot the affordable housing fund and scapegoat the vital London-Middlesex Health Unit, this is going to be a bitter year for the livability of Canada on all levels.
Just seeing how much more Sandy White has betrayed her former ideals supporting this vandalism and then being so petty to try to get a blogger in trouble with his employer for speaking his mind is beyond the pale. The fact that I was a sucker to work on her campaign in her first successful election is galling enough is terrible to contemplate.
What makes this galling that a job that important has been delegated to one man who did this behind closed doors like a one man fiscal star chamber. For a task this significant, it should have been in a government committee where all the parties could have been able to weigh in on this matter. Now that the Liberals are in a minority position, that fact should have been a no-brainer, but instead McGuinty and company are imitating Harper's repellent methods instead.
Even worse, tax increases for the rich are apparently off the table in Drummond's report and the poor, disadvantaged and the voiceless will be bearing more of the burden. That is simply neither fair nor just by any rational stretch of the moral imagination, even if a freeze on corporate tax cuts is also in the apparent offing as well.
Part of the moves proposed that is especially galling to remove the provincially supported employment areas from public libraries in favour of stand alone centers. The logic of this is unfathomable as this would inhibit job seekers from using the logical municipal public resource that is intended for all the public and is placed appropriately to facilitate that. Now the provincial government are going to kill jobs from the libraries by removing this essential service and make it that much more difficult for the jobless to use it elsewhere.
Combine that with Harper's own slashing budget to come and London City Council's unconscionable obsession with a tax freeze they would loot the affordable housing fund and scapegoat the vital London-Middlesex Health Unit, this is going to be a bitter year for the livability of Canada on all levels.
Just seeing how much more Sandy White has betrayed her former ideals supporting this vandalism and then being so petty to try to get a blogger in trouble with his employer for speaking his mind is beyond the pale. The fact that I was a sucker to work on her campaign in her first successful election is galling enough is terrible to contemplate.
Monday, February 06, 2012
Corporate Injustice in London
Well, Caterpillar did it, as was likely its plan all along, and is shutting down the EMD plant in London.
The fact that they did this less than 24 hours after the state of Indiana passed its "Right to Work" legislation and crippled union action in the very state where that business is setting up a new plant in Munice is proof enough. Furthermore, the 50+% wage cut they were demanding to the London workers with their idea of negotiating being "Take it or leave it," followed by the lockout on Jan 1 is further proof that they had no interest in keeping the factory open. As Martin Regg Cohn of the Toronto Star noted, Caterpillar just got the factory to strip it of its tech and intellectual property for themselves and throw away the husk.
What really galls me is those people who automatically blame the CAW union for this blow to the city despite the self evident observations. Some people just will hate the idea of workers fighting for their rights and a fair share in the fortunes no matter what the real facts are. Yes, labor demands have to be reasonable, but that doesn't mean much when the management has no interest in being the same. After all, if Caterpillar's profits are up 83% this year and GM's own locomotive business just negotiated a far more equitable labor deal in the US, then it's obvious that CAT was spoiling to screw their workers and London.
Now, I fear for the fate of this city and its future. I realize the idea of my city suffering Flint, Michigan's impoverished fate is a bit much, but it is not a welcome thought regardless.
David Olive at the Toronto Star suggests we can fight back by getting the Federal Government to nationalize the plant or imposing tariffs on CAT products. Of course, there is no chance of any of this beyond excuses from Harper and his cronies, but we can least write to them and try to put them on the defensive to whatever degree we can.
For myself, I hope people will remember that during this lockout, of all the local MPs, it was Irene Mathyssen of the New Democratic Party alone who spoke up and stood with the workers against this injustice while the Tory ones gave excuses and remember that in the next election. Sure, simply voting is not enough to affect change in this world, but participating in the regular political process in our society has to be part of it.
As for myself, I just hope this city can weather this storm and for this whole affair to wake people up for how ordinary people, the 99% are being so mistreated.
The fact that they did this less than 24 hours after the state of Indiana passed its "Right to Work" legislation and crippled union action in the very state where that business is setting up a new plant in Munice is proof enough. Furthermore, the 50+% wage cut they were demanding to the London workers with their idea of negotiating being "Take it or leave it," followed by the lockout on Jan 1 is further proof that they had no interest in keeping the factory open. As Martin Regg Cohn of the Toronto Star noted, Caterpillar just got the factory to strip it of its tech and intellectual property for themselves and throw away the husk.
What really galls me is those people who automatically blame the CAW union for this blow to the city despite the self evident observations. Some people just will hate the idea of workers fighting for their rights and a fair share in the fortunes no matter what the real facts are. Yes, labor demands have to be reasonable, but that doesn't mean much when the management has no interest in being the same. After all, if Caterpillar's profits are up 83% this year and GM's own locomotive business just negotiated a far more equitable labor deal in the US, then it's obvious that CAT was spoiling to screw their workers and London.
Now, I fear for the fate of this city and its future. I realize the idea of my city suffering Flint, Michigan's impoverished fate is a bit much, but it is not a welcome thought regardless.
David Olive at the Toronto Star suggests we can fight back by getting the Federal Government to nationalize the plant or imposing tariffs on CAT products. Of course, there is no chance of any of this beyond excuses from Harper and his cronies, but we can least write to them and try to put them on the defensive to whatever degree we can.
For myself, I hope people will remember that during this lockout, of all the local MPs, it was Irene Mathyssen of the New Democratic Party alone who spoke up and stood with the workers against this injustice while the Tory ones gave excuses and remember that in the next election. Sure, simply voting is not enough to affect change in this world, but participating in the regular political process in our society has to be part of it.
As for myself, I just hope this city can weather this storm and for this whole affair to wake people up for how ordinary people, the 99% are being so mistreated.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Sunfest thoughts
It was great to hear that Sunfest 2011 has proven a rousing success with over 200,000 visitors and I have no doubts it has become London's supreme cultural event. I just hope the city groundskeepers can find a way to keep the grass alive with all those events with Home County and Rib Fest coming up.
My only regret that yet again, there is no dealer in alternative books as there used to be with Marginal Distribution before they went out of business and that smaller stand that used to be there for the last two years. That was always something special about that festival that I could get something to read that would typically be difficult to get in downtown London and then get my chair in the shadow of the Victoria Park bandshell for some serious reading. On other hand, I really put my Sony Ebook Reader really through its paces some great Watchmen fanfics.
The other thing is the food booths are getting really expensive like a typical food combo deal is $8. I realize this probably partially because of the high rents Sunfest and other festivals have to charge since they cannot charge admission, but it still stings. To that end, I can partially sympathize with the idea that Home County Folk Festival is going to really and essentially push $5 "We Gave" stickers to visitors to help with financing; his complaint that all the free festivals are devaluing live music performances has real merit to it and the arts in this city are having a tough time as it is. The fact that there is a great arts center like the The Arts Project is downtown and even the patrons of the Palace Theatre predominately won't go there.
It was also great to see Mark Konrad with his human rights petition booth, although I wish he could work more with the separate Amnesty International local chapter booth. Oh well, just telling him of the CBC Radio One summer show, Know Your Rights, was a thrill in itself if only to give him the resource he needs to know about his rights as a new Canadian citizen.
Anyways, July is a vibrant month for this city and for all the compromises necessary for these kinds of arts events, I should enjoy while I know they are still here. With the Harper majority in Ottawa and the probable Tim Hudak government in Queens Park this fall and Fontana's idiotic tax freeze for this city, all these events have an uncertain future to varying degrees.
My only regret that yet again, there is no dealer in alternative books as there used to be with Marginal Distribution before they went out of business and that smaller stand that used to be there for the last two years. That was always something special about that festival that I could get something to read that would typically be difficult to get in downtown London and then get my chair in the shadow of the Victoria Park bandshell for some serious reading. On other hand, I really put my Sony Ebook Reader really through its paces some great Watchmen fanfics.
The other thing is the food booths are getting really expensive like a typical food combo deal is $8. I realize this probably partially because of the high rents Sunfest and other festivals have to charge since they cannot charge admission, but it still stings. To that end, I can partially sympathize with the idea that Home County Folk Festival is going to really and essentially push $5 "We Gave" stickers to visitors to help with financing; his complaint that all the free festivals are devaluing live music performances has real merit to it and the arts in this city are having a tough time as it is. The fact that there is a great arts center like the The Arts Project is downtown and even the patrons of the Palace Theatre predominately won't go there.
It was also great to see Mark Konrad with his human rights petition booth, although I wish he could work more with the separate Amnesty International local chapter booth. Oh well, just telling him of the CBC Radio One summer show, Know Your Rights, was a thrill in itself if only to give him the resource he needs to know about his rights as a new Canadian citizen.
Anyways, July is a vibrant month for this city and for all the compromises necessary for these kinds of arts events, I should enjoy while I know they are still here. With the Harper majority in Ottawa and the probable Tim Hudak government in Queens Park this fall and Fontana's idiotic tax freeze for this city, all these events have an uncertain future to varying degrees.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Just as I suspected, Joe Fontana has put this city in a situation where he would likely have to contemplate selling off the marquee public jewels of the city like Museum London, the Covent Garden Market, the London Convention Centre etc., or admit that his tax freeze policy is impractical.
The city simply mustn't do some glorified garage sale for quick cash. While an argument can be made for privatizing the public golf courses (an issue which I fully admit my sports indifference), this move would impoverish the city in a more profound way that would hurt long after the money is exhausted. For instance, Museum London is supposed to be this public resource to celebrate London's arts and history and privatizing the institution would kill that public mandate.
Fontana is certainly not getting the thousands of jobs he said he would get to compensate for the revenue lost, Bell Canada's arbitrary move of relocating over 100 to Toronto this month makes that obvious. Even the big train locomotive manufacturer plant is getting under pressure against the company's American plants with the Canadian Dollar being $1.02 to the USD.
Being a former MP for the Federal Liberal Party of Canada, ie. the Party of Slightly Idealized Political Expediency, I would hope that Fontana will simply be able to face reality and recognize his tax freeze is not going to work in the long run. In lieu of that forlorn hope, I just hope that more City Councillors will realize that same truth and protect what is best for this city.
The city simply mustn't do some glorified garage sale for quick cash. While an argument can be made for privatizing the public golf courses (an issue which I fully admit my sports indifference), this move would impoverish the city in a more profound way that would hurt long after the money is exhausted. For instance, Museum London is supposed to be this public resource to celebrate London's arts and history and privatizing the institution would kill that public mandate.
Fontana is certainly not getting the thousands of jobs he said he would get to compensate for the revenue lost, Bell Canada's arbitrary move of relocating over 100 to Toronto this month makes that obvious. Even the big train locomotive manufacturer plant is getting under pressure against the company's American plants with the Canadian Dollar being $1.02 to the USD.
Being a former MP for the Federal Liberal Party of Canada, ie. the Party of Slightly Idealized Political Expediency, I would hope that Fontana will simply be able to face reality and recognize his tax freeze is not going to work in the long run. In lieu of that forlorn hope, I just hope that more City Councillors will realize that same truth and protect what is best for this city.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
I forgot to mention that I am a local theatrical and film critic in my city, writing for Theatre in London (www.theatreinlondon.ca) and The Beat (www.beatmagazine.ca) for each medium respectively, as well as for gratis and for pay in the same way.
Since writing means tooting your own horn for your very career future, I'll be posting my links to my reviews, beginning with my latest:
How I Learned to Drive by Paul Vogel and performed by The Verve Theatre company
It's a challenging play about abusive families and the difficult emotional complexities that thrive in them.
Since writing means tooting your own horn for your very career future, I'll be posting my links to my reviews, beginning with my latest:
How I Learned to Drive by Paul Vogel and performed by The Verve Theatre company
It's a challenging play about abusive families and the difficult emotional complexities that thrive in them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)