Guelph Politicast

End Credits - January 23, 2019 (Glass)

This week on End Credits, we get back to our regularly schedule program. Our new movie review is the hotly anticipated superhero movie that doesn't come from a previously established extended universe. Meanwhile, in the news, an extended universe makes a comeback, we have two docs about the same topic, some film rating news, and we discuss the ying-yang career of the director of this week's review subject, Glass.
This Wednesday, January 23, at 2 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Vince Masson will discuss:
Three Bargaining. In a surprise announcement, Sony revealed that they've been working on a new Ghostbusters film that will be a sequel to the 1984 original and directed by Jason Reitman, the man behind Juno, Up in the Air, and The Frontrunner, and son of original GB director Ivan. The 2016 all-female Ghostbusters was greeted with an astounding amount of negativity, but you can't just let a priceless IP lay fallow, right? So are we excited about this?
Fight Fyre With Fyre. In April 2017, hundreds of people flew to an "exclusive" "private" island in the Bahamas for a party filled with big musical acts, private chefs, and all the Instagram influencers you'd ever want to schmooze with. But it was a con. Two new documentaries, one on Netflix and the other on Hulu, chronicle how the disaster unfolded, but each comes with different concerns of bias. So where might the truth lie?
Re-Classified. The British Board of Film Classification has changed their guidelines recently to give films that depict sexual violence, like rape, a higher rating. This change was made after annual consultation, but one's reminded of Smoke Free Ontario's campaign to make all movies with smoking in them rated 18-plus. Are we trading artistic expression and context for a social good, or is this a good way to make sure filmmakers aren't exploiting violence on screen?
Dark Night Rises. It's hard to think of a filmmaker in recent Hollywood history that's had a rougher rollercoaster ride than M. Night Shyamalan. He broke out with hit-after-hit in 1999 with The Sixth Sense, but then things took a turn as Shyamalan delivered dud-after-dud with The Happening, The Last Airbender, and After Earth. He's on an upswing now, but how long can it last, and will Glass keep his new streak going, or put a pin in his comeback?
REVIEW: Glass (2019). Speaking of M. Night Shyamalan, his latest film is out, and it's perhaps his most anticipated film in over a decade. A sort of ad hoc sequel to both Unbreakable and Split, Glass teams up characters from both films in a DIY comic book universe. Bruce Willis' super-strong David tries to bring James McAvoy's multiple personality addled "Horde" to justice, but he doesn't anticipate the return of his old foe, Samuel L. Jackson's Mr. Glass. Does Shyamalan deliver, or has he inevitably swing back to disappointment?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 2 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #157 - The "New" Climate Change Fight

We basically have 12 years to save the world. This according to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, whose message hasn't changed after all these years: the Earth's climate is changing, and human activity is the cause. Is that why protest has been so hot this cold January?
In this last three weeks there's been three different protests demanding action on Climate Change. Legal action on the First Nations people in Wet’suwet’en, climate hostile governments across Canada and in the U.S., a pending Federal election, and that aforementioned IPCC report have together seemed to put Climate Action on the front-burner.
But what are we to make of this sudden urgency? Can it be sustained for the long haul? Is this the public breakthrough environmental activists have been waiting for?  And what does action on Climate Change look like when the progress made looks like half-actions, such as the federal carbon tax, and it's greeted with such revulsion and negativity? The Ontario Premier, Doug Ford, did say the other day that the carbon tax will lead Canada into a recession?
These are the sorts of questions we're going to put to our quartet of Climate Warriors this week, and they are:
Dustin Brown, a coordinator with the Guelph branch of the Extinction Rebellion
Spencer McGregor, a spokesperson of the campus group Fossil Free Guelph
Steve Dyck, the President of Guelph Solar and a former Green Party candidate
Robert Case, the Chair of the Wellington Water Watchers’ Board of Directors.
So this week on the podcast, we turn the microphone to these four local leaders of the environmental movement to get their feedback on how things are going in this first month of 2019.
So let's talk about the renewed efforts to save the world on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
Guelph Politico will be posting about the results of the Board of Governors meeting on Wednesday and whether the U of G will vote to divest from fossil fuels. And stay tuned for more action and protest on Climate Change...
The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here.
Remember that the Politicast Podbean channel is also the host for podcast versions of Open Sources Guelph. The previous Thursday’s episode of Open Sources will be posted on Mondays.

Open Sources Guelph - January 17, 2019

On Open Sources Guelph this week, we'll continue our ongoing coverage of the slow decline of western civilization. In the U.K., Brexit comes to a full boil, and in the U.S., the Russian investigation goes back on the front burner as the President, somehow, looks dirtier. Here in Canada there's not much more to be proud of. Justin Trudeau shuffled his cabinet, but is he really just shuffling deck chairs on a sinking ship, even while his Reconciliation dreams become a new nightmare? Oh, the pain!
This Thursday, January 17 at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Brexiting is Hard to Do. Unable to escape her fate any longer, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May finally brought the Brexit deal to a vote on Tuesday night after one last appeal to convince even members of her own party that this is the deal, and it's not getting any better. On the other hand, it can get a heck of a lot worse. As of this writing, all signs point to things getting worse, but how worse is worse? Are we looking at a "No-deal Brexit"? A new referendum? A new general election? May's resignation? Jeremy Corbyn's ascension? The possibilities are many, and there's no certainty about what happens next. So what happens next?
The Art of the Conceal. With the U.S. Government shutdown ongoing, two bombshell reports last weekend put the spotlight back on the Russian investigation, and suspected ties between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia's head super-villain Vladimir Putin. The New York Times reported that the FBI opened an investigation into Trump after he fired FBI director Jim Comey, predating the so-called "witch hunt" by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller III. The Washington Post then reported that Trump seized the notes of the American interpreter after meeting Putin in Helsinki in 2017. So what do we know now on this Trump and Russia thing?
Shuffle the Deck. With the sudden resignation from Scott Brison from cabinet, a simple vacancy became a full shuffle with new ministers in some very key portfolios. Jody Wilson-Raybould is out as minister of justice, and replaced by first-time cabinet minister David Lametti. Wilson is taking over Veterans Affairs from Seamus O'Regan, who's now, improbably, the Minister of Indigenous Services. There are a lot of questions about why there's this big shake-up just to replace the Treasury Board president. Meanwhile, Justin Trudeau has finally allowed for Jagmeet Singh to try and get a seat in the House, but is it too late for Singh to help his party?
Un-reconciliation. First Nations protests on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory last week showed that there's still a long way to go in terms of achieving Truth and Reconciliation. The protests, and the RCMP reaction to the protests, got nationwide attention, and created nationwide solidarity protests as nation-to-nation relations were strained to the breaking point, even as we're supposed to be doing better on both respecting Indigenous rights, and improving stewardship of the environment. Do the events at Wet’suwet’en set back relations with First Nations, and how to we get back to the road to Reconciliation?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits - January 16, 2019 (The Heretics/Roma)

It's a remix, this week on End Credits! Before coming back with all-new movies and all-new episodes next week, we'll take a dip into the archives to revisit an interview with a pair of local filmmakers, and we'll revisit what may be the most contentious review we've ever done on the show.
This Wednesday, January 16, at 2 pm, Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Heretics of Heretics. Horror is 'it' right now (pun intended). It's hard to think of a hotter genre in cinemas right now, and that extends from big Hollywood studios, to small indie players like Guelph's own Black Fawn Films. Last fall, End Credits got the chance to talk to Chad Archibald and Ry Barrett, the director and star of The Heretics, and discuss their indie cinema success, the grind of filmmaking, and Guelph's fame on the international stage.
Re-REVIEW: Roma (2018). With awards for Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes, and Best Picture at the Critics' Choice, Roma looks more and more likely to be a major player at this year's Academy Awards, which would be a big win for Netflix, and another feather in the cap of Alfonso Cuaron. This week, we'll hear again Adam and Peter's slightly fractious review of Roma from back in December. Is it an emotionally personal story, or a cynical look at the past through rose-coloured glasses?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 2 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #156 - Guelph Tool Library

Have you ever bought a tool, used it once or twice, and now it's just clutter in your garage or basement? Or maybe you've thought about buying a tool, butwanted to try it out first to make sure it really is the tool you want or need? Congratulations, you might be the kind of person that would benefit from a membership at Guelph's newest, hottest library!
This week on the podcast, we hear from John Dennis, Susan Carey, and Steph Clarke of the Guelph tool Library. Dennis and Carey helped found the library in 2016, and Clarke is the Program Co-ordinator working with the library's volunteers. In just a few short years, the Guelph Tool Library has become a preeminent local voice in sustainability, and having just received a Trillium Grant from the Province of Ontario, they're ready to expand further.
Now, the idea of a tool library goes back almost four decades, but the concept caught fire again about a decade ago. Guelph's library model is based, in part, on the Toronto Tool Library, which started in 2012 and in six years has loaned over 70,000 tools to over 5,200 members. Guelph's not there yet, but it's getting bigger, and it's staking out new ground with programs that collect sewing machines for northern communities, and by launching a cell phone recycling program.
Of course, you already know that Guelph is library crazy, but this week we find out why they're crazy about this particular library.
You're going to hear from Dennis, Carey, and Clarke about the origins of the Tool Library, and its mission, what the future of the library might look like, and what the opportunities for expansion are. We also talk about changing attitudes about ownership, waste, and the sharing economy, and how the library plays into that. And we also talk about the lessons learned so far, like how do manage it when two people want to borrow the same tool.
So let's check out (pun intended) the Guelph Tool Library with those that know it best on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can find out more about the Guelph Tool Library, what tools they have available, what programs they’re running, and how you can become a member or get involved here.
The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here.
Remember that the Politicast Podbean channel is also the host for podcast versions of Open Sources Guelph. The previous Thursday’s episode of Open Sources will be posted on Mondays.

Open Sources Guelph - January 10, 2019

Welcome back to this crazy year already in progress, and an all-new year of Open Sources Guelph! Unfortunately, the news didn't take a break, so there's a lot of stuff to catch up on, like the government shutdown south of the border. In Canada, we'll talk about whether carbon tax and electoral reform have a future here, and in our last segment this week, Scotty talks to a kindred spirit.
This Thursday, January 10 at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Another Dick and the Wall. As of this writing, if things keep going the way they are, the U.S. government will have been shutdown for a month, making it the longest such shutdown in U.S. history. Why? Because Donald Trump wants a wall, even though reporting last weekend revealed that "the wall" was a mnemonic device invented by campaign advisors to get him to stay on point on immigration. So a president most people didn't vote for, has forced a government showdown most people hate, for a wall most people don't want and was never meant to be real in the first place?!?! We'll sort this out (if we can).
Carbon Freeze. The Federal carbon tax went into effect on New Year's Day in five provinces that had no carbon mitigation efforts of their own ready to go, and that includes Ontario. The debate rages on, are carbon taxes bad for the country? Is this carbon tax going to have an actual effect? A speech by Conservative leader Andrew Scheer on New Year's Day made it clear that this year's election just might be a referendum on the carbon tax, and, in the meantime, Canada's Yellow Vest protests are bolstering opposition. We'll talk about the arguments, and what effect they might have on the debate.
No Reform. Just before the holiday break, British Columbia released the final numbers from their referendum on Electoral Reform, and, as it turned out, people overwhelming supported the status quo. In fact, in B.C.'s third referendum on the matter in the last 13 years, support for reform has gone down with each subsequent vote. So what do ER advocates do now? They were hoping that B.C. would be the place to create a beachhead to expand ER across the country, but now...? Are Canadian voters just not up for a shift to proportional representation, or do advocates need to rethink the way they're selling it?
Mr. Smith Goes to Breezy Corners. Harry Leslie Smith didn't become Twitter famous till his 90s, but in his last days he became an outspoken advocate against austerity and in favour of progressive social and economic policy. Harry gave up his fight when he passed away in November, but his son John is carrying on his message, which brought him to Guelph last week for a reading of his dad's book, Harry's Last Stand. The night before, Scotty Hertz sat down with John Smth to talk about his father's legacy, his last days, and where the rebellion goes from here.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits - January 9, 2019 (Aquaman, Spider-Verse, Bumblebee, Mary Poppins, Favourite, Vice)

End Credits is back from the holiday break, and for one week only, it's going to be a live affair! To kick off the new year, we're going to tackle a six-pack of the several movies that came out in the theatre over the last few weeks, from fish-men to spider-men, from transforming robots to transformative performances, and from nannies to queens. We've got something for everyone!
This Wednesday, January 9, at 2 pm, Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
REVIEW: Aquaman (2018). After debuts in Batman V. Superman and Justice League, the King of the Seven Seas finally gets his own movie, and no one's laughing anymore at Aquaman! Jason Mamoa plays the rightful King of Atlantis, who must fight across the world's water ways in order to battle for, and claim, his birthright. From soldiers riding sharks, guys that shoot laser beams from their ludicrously big helmets, giant sea monsters, fish zombies, and the improbable renaissance of Dolph Lundgren, Aquaman breaks the superhero mould.
REVIEW: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018). If you thought you didn't need another Spider-Man movie, think again! Focusing on the newest Spider-Man, young mixed-race high schooler Miles Morales, this animated adventure teams him with a variety of Spider-Men, and Women, in order to stop the Kingpin from destroying the multiverse. Supervised by LEGO Movie masterminds Phil Lord and Chris Miller, Spider-Verse is a rollicking adventure through Spider-Lore, and is one of the freshest new superhero takes of the decade.
REVIEW: Bumblebee (2018). Just when you thought that you had seen everything a Transformers movie can do, Travis Knight does something different: make a Transformers movie with a heart that's also good. Abandoning "Bayhem" for more tradition storytelling devices like character and story arcs, we see Hailee Steinfeld in 1987 and bonding with her new best friend, a robot that turns into a VW bug. It's the Transformers movie you've probably wanted to see along, probably too late to save the franchise.
REVIEW: Mary Poppins Returns (2018). Mary Poppins is back, and this time, it's personal. As part of Disney's effort to make everything old new again, Emily Blunt steps into the role of the musically inclined, flying nanny who's practically perfect in every way. Hamilton's Lin-Manuel Miranda lends a hand as Mary Poppins returns to Earth to help the family of the now grown Michael Banks remember a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. Or something. Singing, dancing, animated penguins... Mass hysteria follows.
REVIEW: The Favourite (2018). The Lobster and Killing of a Sacred Deer director Yorgos Lanthimos tackles his most accessible film yet, a royal court drama set in England in the 18th century about two conniving cousins and the distressed queen they try and manipulate in order to gain favour. Featuring probably the three greatest female performances of the year in one movie - Olivia Coleman, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz - The Favourite is as vicious as it is entertaining.
REVIEW: Vice (2018). Speaking of Transformers, Christian Bale punished his body again for Vice, in which he plays former Vice-President Dick Cheney, a man so many people regard as pure evil, it had to be psychologically punishing too. The Big Short's Adam McKay takes on one of America's most influential and controversial political figures with his signature wit, and a trio of great performances including Bale, Amy Adams as Mrs Cheney, and serious dramatic actor Steve Carrell as Donald Rumsfeld.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 2 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #155 - Abhi Kantamneni

How do we better absorb data sets? Is it seeing all the numbers in black and white on pages of spreadsheets, or is by seeing it in a simple graphic that's both colourful and interactive? Can data be beautiful? Can our municipal budget? The guest on this week's podcast has already made the case that it can!
This week we talk to Abhi Kantamneni. You may know him as a graduate student and researcher at the University of Guelph, but you may more likely know him as an activist and local political thinker.
Last year, he started to deliver big data in new and interesting ways for Guelph when he came up with an election map that gave you all the news and information about candidates in one place, and then he tackled an infograph that showed how the tax-supported budget was spent in 2018. If $429.5 million is a tough number to wrap your head around, how about seeing it an interactive pinwheel? Isn’t that fun?
Before coming to Guelph, Abhi Kantamneni received two Masters of Science degrees from Michigan Tech, where he also co-founded MiDataLabs, which helps nonprofits analyze data, synthesize knowledge, and visualize information. And though he can't technically vote in Guelph, Abhi has delegated to city council, and advised Guelph MP Lloyd Longfield on energy matters.
But for this podcast, it's the data that we're interested in. Abhi talks about his interest in municipal data, and the differences in how people can learn visually with a graph instead of a spreadsheet. He'll also explain how much time and effort he puts into creating these infographs, and how his infographs come together in a technical programming way. Then we'll talk about the imperfect way the City shares information, and what other data sets he might like to tackle next.
So let's talk about the art of delivering data on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can find Abhi's budget infograph at his website here, and you can engage with him on social media by going to his Twitter feed. The 2019 Budget process starts Thursday night at 6 pm in the council chambers at City Hall.
The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here.
Remember that the Politicast Podbean channel is also the host for podcast versions of Open Sources Guelph. The previous Thursday’s episode of Open Sources will be posted on Mondays.

Open Sources Guelph - January 3, 2019

It's the start of Year 5 on this week's Open Sources Guelph. You're welcome. To mark the occasion, as we usually do at the new year, we're going to look back at the old one. Yes, it's time again for our annual awards show, a celebration and a commemoration of the best of the best, and the best of the worst.
This Thursday, January 3 at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Worst Politician. Oh man, there are so many to choose from... Yes, it was a long, hard year with so many people in power making all the absolute worse decisions possible, and that goes for politicians on both sides of the border. With so many potentials to choose from, just who exactly was the worst enough to be called the worst?
Good News Story of the Year. Was there good news this year? Of course there was, it was just rather difficult to find. Since we're dedicated semi-professionals we scoured the newspapers, websites, and podcasts of the world to find a reason to get happy, and lo and behold there was an eye in the maelstrom after all!
Dumpster Fire of the Year. Like the Worst Politician, this is the category that keeps on giving, and we aren't even counting the actual fires! With each new day there was some new scandal, or some new concern. The systems meant to protect us didn't working, and the work that needs to be done to set up new systems just isn't coming together. So what's the fieriest dumpster fire of them all?
Best Politician. For every politician who's terrible, they have an equal and an opposite. Yes, there are some people out there still trying to do right by their constituents, and we have looked everywhere to find them. No matter your political stripes, you have to respect the ones that able to get past the politics, and deliver on their promises, and we're going to talk about two of them!
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 6 pm on Thursday.

End Credits - January 2, 2019 (Worst of 2018/2019 Picks)

It's the beginning of the new year, but that doesn't mean that End Credits is done with the old one. At least, not yet. We'll take one last look behind us this week as we consider the movies that make us glad to be leaving 2018 in the rearview. In the second half of the show though, we'll look ahead to the various movies that make us happy that 2019 has finally arrived.
This Wednesday, January 2, at 2 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Candice Lepage, Vince Mason, and Tim Phillips will discuss:
The Worst of 2018. So last week we did the best, and this week we'll look at the worst. Yes, there were some stinkers in 2018. There was that movie about the shockingly unimaginative virtual world, that remake about the guy who shoots people, and that Tarantino-esque thriller about the hotel. Look for some interesting switcheroos from last week's "Best of..." episode too because quality, as you know, is in the eye of the beholder.
Looking Ahead to 2019. After we tackle the Worst of 2018, we're going to look ahead to movies that hopefully won't make the same list this time next year. Between updates on classic Stephen King stories, Quentin Tarantino's highly anticipated ninth film, Jordan Peele's quite secretive next project, a new superhero, and a new take on a super-villain, there's a whole lot of exciting new movies coming soon to a theatre near you.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 2 pm.