Guelph Politicast

End Credits - June 24, 2020 (The King of Staten Island)

This week on End Credits, we're going to slack off. There is a long weekend/national holiday coming up, so it seems like a good time to do nothing, or at least watch a movie about people sitting around doing nothing. This week, we'll review the new Judd Apatow comedy The King of Staten Island, and look back at the summer that was two decades ago.
This Wednesday, June 24, at 2 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Summer of 2000. Twenty years ago it was the turn of the millennium, and everything seemed possible. Coming after what still might be the greatest year in movies, the year 2000 had a lot of great expectations, but were the movies able to meet them? And looking back 20 years later, what did those movies leave us, and what do we think of them now?
REVIEW: The King of Staten Island (2000). Loosely based on events from his own life, Pete Davidson stars in Judd Apatow's new movie about a young slacker with a lot of issues just trying desperately not to grow up on everyone's least favourite New York City burrow. The movie was supposed to one of summer's big releases, but now it streams on VOD, which begs the question: Can Davidson overcome the pandemic conditions to reach Apatow-infused super-stardom?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.*
*Programming note: End Credits is moving to 3 pm on Wednesday until further notice.

GUELPH POLITICAST #227 - Guelph Stuff (BLM, COVID-19, and Tabbara)

There’s been a lot of news in Guelph lately, maybe too much news, so we’re all going to take a minute, or 60, on this week’s podcast to bring some analysis and a recap of all the happenings in this sorted little ‘burb called the Royal City. It's time for another entry in the great Guelph Stuff punditry franchise.
On this edition of Guelph Stuff, we will be joined by Eli Ridder of the Guelph Wire, who will help us review some fairly big issues from around town these last few weeks, and months. This will be the first Guelph Stuff since the Christmas holiday, which was six months and a million years ago in what seems like an almost alien period of time giving the tremendous physical, social and financial upheaval currently all over the news.
This edition of Guelph Stuff has a lot of ground to cover on three pretty significant headlines that have been making news in Guelph lately. First, we will look at the follow-up to the Black Lives Matter march earlier this month and issues around diversity and policing. Second, we will talk about the City's response to COVID-19, and the big plan to turn downtown Guelph into a patio destination. And finally, we will wrap up talking about the arrest of MP Marwan Tabbara and what it says about how the media covers Guelph.
So let's enjoy another Guelph Stuff on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can find Eli Ridder on Twitter here, and you can read his work over at GuelphWire.ca. And for more information about any of things we talked about today, you can find them here on Guelph Politico.
The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and Spotify.
Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

Open Sources Guelph - June 18, 2020

This week on Open Sources Guelph, nothing important happened so we're going on vacation. Just kidding. We will follow up with the two big stories of our time: Black Lives Matter, and the pandemic, and we will go deeper on a couple of issues including how and why we should defund the police, and whether or not the House of Commons should get back to business as usual.
This Thursday, June 18, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Movement Continues... Protests in solidarity with Black Lives Matter continued across North America and around the world over the last week, but there have been some new dimensions. Someone allegedly tied to the so-called "Boogaloo" movement was charged with shooting an officer in Oakland during a BLM protest, and a protestor was shot by armed people protecting a conquistador statue in New Mexico. Are we entering dangerous new phase of this growing social movement?
Defund the Police. Along with "Black Lives Matter," "Defund the Police" has become one of the most frequently used rallying cries of the recent Civil Rights demonstrations. But what does that mean? Cynics think it means eliminating the police entirely, but for most people it means looking at how the police are funded, and looking at if other ways that they're duties can be maintained using non-police services, but can it work? Can we, at least, have that conversation?
Still COVID. Hey, did you know that the pandemic is still a thing, right? Cases are on the rise across the United States, and certain sections in Ontario are still stuck in Stage 1 of the economic recovery, including Toronto, and there's currently a debate about whether or not masks should be mandatory, or just required. So why does COVID-19 feel more and more like yesterday's news?
Open House? The government faced a confidence motion on Wednesday in the special COVID-19 committee sitting of the House of Commons, but it was expected to survive thanks to the NDP and the Liberals willingness to extend the CERB benefits till the end of summer. But has the special committee turned into a divide and conquer scheme for the sitting Liberals? With many places around the country re-opening, is it maybe time for Parliament Hill to join them?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits - June 17, 2020 (Da 5 Bloods)

This week on End Credits, we're going to get more socially conscious. Our movie of the week is Da 5 Bloods, which, like any good Spike Lee movie, is going to educate and entertain with a robust conversation about race relations. Before we talk about the movie though, we have to talk about movie releases again. Get your calendars open, there have been some changes...
This Wednesday, June 17, at 2 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
More Musical Chairs. The continuing pandemic concerns in North America has started to wear on the already abbreviated movie season. Tenet has been pushed back a few weeks, which has started some additional moves along the calendar. We'll talk about those moves, and we'll talk about why drive-in theatres are mad about The King of Staten Island.
REVIEW: Da 5 Bloods (2020) - With Black Lives Matter in the news on a nightly basis, and the conversation on equality shifting rapidly, what a great time for a new Spike Lee film to enter the conversation. In Da 5 Bloods, a group of Vietnam vets return to their old battlefield to find the remains of their old C.O., and the CIA gold they buried in 1968, but can they survive each other, and the social commentary that Lee has constructed in his typical style?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 2 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #226 - SPORTS!

Like so many events and festivals since the middle of March, the annual Guelph Sports Hall of Fame ceremony was postponed because of the pandemic. One of the inductees this year is Rob Massey, who has made a career out of covering local sports in Guelph, and that definitely deserves to be honoured. So as Massey waits to get his lovely Kiwanis Club dinner, we will tide him over by celebrating his achievement on this edition of the podcast.
Rob Massey has spent 33 covering amateur sports in Guelph, and for most of that time, he was at the Guelph Mercury, where he was the sports editor from 1986 to 2016. After that, he started his own website dedicated to local sports called the Guelph Sports Journal, where he kept covering the beat he had dedicated so much of his life to following, from the ball diamonds and soccer fields in neighbourhood parks to the turf of Alumni Stadium at the University of Guelph.
You have to believe that a man that's covered local sports for this long is a true fan. Far from the stars and the spotlights, he’s looking at athletes as they develop, as they learn their skills and ability, and as the truly gifted athletes start to separate themselves from the pack. Or not. If you’ve been to a Guelph sports field for league play in the last 30 years, there’s been one man there the whole time, telling all the stories no matter what they are. This week, Massey tells his.
On this episode of the podcast, Rob Massey talks about his career in Guelph, how we got started, and why he's still doing it almost five years after the Mercury closed. He also talks about the similarities between covering politics and covering sports, what his regular workload looks like, and how he’s handling a sports-free pandemic. And finally, he will discuss covering generations of athletes in Guelph, whether or not he’s thinking about retirement, and what he’s going to think about when he eventually sees his picture on the wall of the Sleeman Centre.
So let's finally talk about sports on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can see Rob Massey's work covering local sports, when there is local sports, at the Guelph Sports Journal here. You can also see all past inductees of the Hall of Fame in the lower level hallway at the Sleeman Centre, or by going to the Sleeman Centre website here.
The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and Spotify.
Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

Open Sources Guelph - June 11, 2020

This week on Open Sources Guelph looks very much like last week on Open Sources Guelph. We're going to talk about the latest on the rejuvenated Civil Rights struggle against anti-Black racism and police brutality, and we'll have the latest about the pandemic, which is still a thing that's happening. In between, we'll talk about the road to the White House, which will surely be bumpy no matter how big a lead the newly-minted challenger has this far out from Election Day.
This Thursday, June 11, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
It's Not Going Away. It's been another week, but the demand for equal rights and the end of police brutality has not gone away in towns and cities across North America, and the world. More the 5,000 people came out to march in Guelph, Minneapolis is voting to dismantle their police force and replace it with... something new, and a statue of a slaver in Britain was yanked down and thrown in the river. Are we really in the midst of systemic change, or is this still reactionary?
Joe-Mentum? Last Friday, former Vice-President Joe Biden clinched the Democratic nomination for President of the United States, and in the midst of a heartless and pitiful response from the current occupant of the White House, to both the pandemic and the protests, Biden has a very healthy lead on Donald Trump in most of the national polls, but will COVID fears and voter suppression prevent Biden and his team from being able to capitalize on his lead?
"This Pandemic Does Strange Things to People." That observation is brought to you by Premier Doug Ford, who's under fire for the regional re-opening of the province under Stage 2 of their economic strategy. Meanwhile, the Federal government is under fire for taking out the switch to anyone that might have defrauded the emergency relief benefits, and Dr. Fauci made a return to media appearances to say that the pandemic's not over. We'll update all of that.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits - June 10, 2020 (The Decline)

This week on End Credits, we're kind of in a celebratory mood despite the pandemic. This week, we're delivering our 150th episode, and we're unofficially kicking off season four of the show. For this timely occasion, we have a timely movie, and it's French-Canadian too. On this show, we're going to review The Decline, and we're also going to talk about what we've learned from the first 150 episodes of the show.
This Wednesday, June 10, at 2 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
150 Episodes. It's been three years and a week since our little radio show began life on CFRU, so for the first part of our show this week, we're going to recap those first 149 episodes and look at the trends we've followed in the news these last 36 months, from #MeToo, the streaming wars, and the great Hollywood era of extended universes!
REVIEW: The Decline (2020). A more timely piece of cinema there's never been, this Canadian film produced directly for Netflix (a first!) finds a group of survivalists heading out to the Quebec countryside to learn how to plan, hunker down, and attack once society collapses. But can they survive each other? Chock full of ideas about community, dependency, group think, and individualism, The Decline definitely captures the zeitgeist, but is it any good?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 2 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #225 - Black Lives Matter!

Saturday's Guelph Solidarity Protest to Support Black Lives Matter drew 5,000 people to downtown Guelph to demonstrate against systemic racism and police brutality. For Guelph's predominately white citizenry, it was a time to listen, and to show support, and in that spirit, this week's episode of the podcast will feature very little commentary from the host, and will be almost entirely dedicated to those voices that were raised last weekend.
So let's skip the preamble, and get right into this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
In terms of the next stages in how you can support the causes of People of Colour in Guelph, you can join the Black Lives Matter - Guelph Facebook page. You can also support these Black-owned businesses in the Royal City, and you can volunteer or offer financial support to Guelph Black Heritage Society. And finally, know you're history. Visit this University of Guelph project, called “The Black Past in Guelph: Remembered and Reclaimed.” There’s some great, disturbing stuff in there including our disturbing fascination with Minstrel shows well into the 1960s.
The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and Spotify.
Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

Open Sources Guelph - June 4, 2020

So that happened this week. Those are dozens of American soldiers standing on guard in front of the Lincoln Memorial in the midst of night eight of nation-wide protests following the death of a black man in Minnesota. This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're going to talk about everything happening in the United States, or at least try, and we're going to talk about how it reflects on our own systemic racism here in Canada. Plus, isn't there still a pandemic going on?
This Thursday, June 4, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
George. For nearly two weeks now, American cities have been nightly scenes of chaos as people have taken to the streets to protest anti-Black racism, and the systemic racism in American police departments. It started with the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, but its become so much bigger now, and the U.S. President, who has long espoused racist beliefs, and used racialized language, has done nothing to promote calm. We'll try and make sense of the last week.
Canada is Racist Too. A lot of people have made hay about the 20 seconds Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took before not calling Trump a fascist, but nobody seemed to listen to what he said after the pause. There is racism here in Canada, and the fact that we just passed one-year since the delivery of the final report into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls without any substantive action is proof of that regardless of what Rex Murphy thinks.
There's Still a Pandemic? The Ontario government is still reacting to last week's report about the conditions in long term care homes, and the Province took over another home this week bring that number up to seven. Meanwhile, the state of emergency has been extended until the end of June, but it seems like we've all but forgotten there's a pandemic still out there because of this week's top story. So where do we sit now in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits - June 3, 2020 (The Lovebirds)

This week on End Credits, we find the love. The news has been filled with all kinds of hate and scary things lately, but for this episode, we're going to log on to Netflix and review the new outrageous rom-com, The Lovebirds. Before that, we're going to get back to the classic End Credits of old, and tell you about what's been happening in movie news lately.
This Wednesday, June 3, at 2 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
What's in the News? Normally on End Credits, we spend the first half of the show talking about the latest in pop culture news, but with the format getting remixed because of COVID-19, we haven't been able to stay on top of things like we should. Well, this week, we're going to review some of the latest news, from casting choices, to new releases, to the fate of the exhibition business itself!
REVIEW: The Lovebirds (2020). The last time that Kumail Nanjiani and Michael Showalter teamed up it was for the personal, and Oscar-nominated The Big Sick. The Lovebirds is not that. It's more silly, more adventurous, and it was written by the team that brought you Young People F**king, but can it possibly stand on its own in the shadow of The Big Stick, and can it stand out having been shuffled to Netflix after its theatrical release was cancelled?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 2 pm.