‘Piord.. Maple leaves and music sheets Great Canadian Song Quest celebrates unique Canadian artists and landmarks By Angela Espinoza ave you ever found yourself Herren whether or not you show support for your Canadian roots? I’m not talking about singing “O Canada” en Frangais or holding religious ceremonies in honour of hockey night. I’m talking about good old-fashioned patriotism. Thanks to the Internet, Canada has found a new way to support their country, and all it took was the click of a button. For the past few weeks, CBC Radio 2 has been hosting a contest called The Great Canadian Song Quest. Its mission was to find one local band from each province and territory to represent a specific location or landmark within that province or territory with a song. Voting took place online for a two-week period, with Canadians from all around hovering their mouses over their favourite spots and local musicians. On October 26, the winning places and artists were revealed by CBC Radio 2. They are as follows: ¢ Tofino, B.C. will be represented by Oh Susanna ¢ The hoodoos and badlands of Alberta will be represented by the not-so blue Jay Sparrow * Good Time Charlie’s Pub and The Plains Hotel in Saskatchewan by the Deep Dark Woods ¢ — Waskada, Manitoba by Chantal Kreviazuk ¢ Algonquin Park, Ontario by Hawksley Workman * The Black Sheep Inn, Quebec by Martha Wainwright, sister of Rufus Wainwright * Hopewell Rocks, N.B. by David Myles ¢ Singing Sand Beach, P.E.I. by Catherine MacLellan * — The Cabot Trail, Nova Scotia by Joel Plaskett ¢ Gros Morne National Park, N.L. by Hey Rosetta! ¢ Tuktoyaktuk Pingos, N.W.T. by Dana Sipos * Dawson City, Yukon. by Kim Barlow * — The Road to Nowhere, Nunavut by Lucie Idlout The next step for each of these performers is to create a brand new piece in honour of their assigned places. Almost every one of these artists falls under a different genre, from bluegrass to jazz to hip hop. Each area has spoken out about its preferred taste in music, which will make the final products more interesting. Big Consumer is watching you Is another tax really necessary in order to fund Canadian television? By Angela Espinoza y now, those who still watch B television have probably noticed ads produced by Shaw Cable rallying against the CRTC’s proposed TV tax. There’s also been the occasional ad in favour of this tax. So, aside from the commercial wars, where is all the taxpayers’ money going when it comes to Canadian content? In these ads, Shaw’s argument is that our money should be going towards making home-grown television programs, but instead is being used to purchase American shows. But we all know that no big business really gives two bits about the little guy, so what is Shaw really afraid of? Well, if taxes are raised in the name of television, then who’s going to want to pay double the money for cable when satellite costs half as much? Probably not enough to meet Shaw’s bottom line. Although, Shaw’s ads do raise a very important question: Is our money really being spent on Canadian television shows, or are we just guinea pigs for American programming? In researching this year’s Canadian Comedy Awards (CCA) and Primetime Emmys, I noticed that only 17 different programs were nominated for the CCA’s television awards. Compared to America’s recent Primetime Emmys... that’s pretty bad. I thought to myself, “Maybe it was just the categories,” and I found that the categories in terms of comedy programming were very similar. Any comedy categories the Primetime Emmys had that we didn’t were because we failed to produce enough, if any, 12 programs to meet standards. On the same note, Canadian channels such as Showcase and Global often feature ads promoting American television shows they happen to host. This begs the question: do we have enough Canadian programming? Although it may feel like we could count the number of Canadian shows on the air with no more than our fingers and toes, I’m happy to say this is not the case. We host a large number of television shows; and we must keep in mind that many American shows are also filmed in Canada—which would jointly make those programs Canadian as well. Alright, so if we have plenty of Canadian programs, then what’s the problem? Well, apparently funding for Canadian programming has become increasingly difficult in recent years. This may explain a slight decrease in programming from, say, 20 years earlier. Under federal law, a Canadian channel must have Canadian shows, when available, taking up 60 per cent of television programming. Given that the cost of production is highly restrictive, producing Canadian shows hits hard at the bottom line of television networks. While the last thing we need is more taxes in the form of cable fees, Canadian content is important to our culture and to future generations. Given that a portion of our cable fees and taxes are supposed to go to develop Canadian shows, the government needs to keep a closer eye on how television networks are really spending this money. Hopefully, this will put a stop to what I believe to be an unnecessary tax hike. Evil Dead: The Musical delivers the goods! A groovy performance by some extremely talented heroes and zombies By Angela Espinoza Musical once before strictly as an Evil Dead fan who had yet to actually see the show in person. Now that I have seen it... functioning normally has become a slight dilemma. I had heard the entire soundtrack long before I had any idea the show was coming to Vancouver, so I figured I knew what to expect from the campy music and cheesy lyrics. Since then, I no longer trust my own opinion. I saw the show Friday, October 23, figuring this would be the perfect way to end yet another gruelling week of assignments and obstructed sleeping patterns. I made sure to purchase “splatter zone” seats—that’s the orchestra row for you theatre folk. FYI, the “splatter zone” is exactly how it sounds; drenching those within the first five rows in fake blood. I was one of the lucky few in second row, as was the friend who kindly chose to come along with me. I arrived several hours early, dressed in the classic Ash Williams attire. Since I had my heart set on being Ash for Halloween, I decided this was the best way to get my costume blood soaked. As for my friend, he boldly chose to destroy not only his work clothes, but his least favourite band shirt (the pitiful Avenged Sevenfold). After blowing all my cash at the merch table on the best t-shirt I’ve come to own, we took our seats, not entirely sure what to expect after seeing the giant Necronomicon on stage. Eventually, the room turned black, contrasting with the front row patrons dressed in white. After | written about Evil Dead: The a brief introduction, we were greeted with “five college students on their way to an old abandoned cabin in the woods.” From there on, my mind was officially blown. The first half was set up in a way that featured the plot of the first film, with a few updated changes from its 1980s counterpart, and the second half was made up of the second film’s story. It was also the second half that featured a deadite orgy and the best blood soaking of my life. The best thing about the show is that the audience gets involved with the production as it plays out. Be warned though: as fantastic as the show is, it’s just not the same if you’re not a fan of the Evil Dead franchise and it’s leading man, Bruce Campbell. After the show ended, many of us in the splatter zone stayed behind. Several of us even got into a “blood fight.” It’s like tackle football, but with fake blood and a lot of guys in blue-collar dress shirts and brown slacks. Another fun activity was when my friend and I had to come up with fake excuses on our way home for why we were covered in blood. My friend’s most common response was, “You know that orphanage down the street? Well, one thing lead to another and... yeah.” The show is jam-packed with the most over-the-top hilarious puns and stereotypes you could ever imagine fitting into two hours. I have to say, J’m glad I saw Broadway and some Vancouver productions when I did, because now that I’ve seen Evil Dead: The Musical, my expectations are just too high for any piece of musical theatre to ever reach. Evil Dead: The Musical is quite literally the best thing I’ve ever seen.