more bad Montreal English

I was at work today, listening to the godawful 'Ric Peterson Show' on CJAD radio, an embarassment, even for talk radio. Newsreader Kathy Coulombe said ' predictament' the other day, and trust me, that's just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Anyhow, I get paid to listen to the station. Trust me, it's not a choice. Chris Dimakos was discussing legal matters, and said 'with regards to', which drives me mad. What's wrong with 'about', or, if you insist, with regard to, or regarding. But 'with regards to' is just clunky and inelegant... and then there is local CBC radio, with faux-anglophone Melissa Kent, who, despite her name, obviously speaks little to no English off the job. Like Catou MacKinnon in Quebec City, her pronunciation is good, but her delivery completely lacks any rhythm or flow. Every syllable is stressed identically, and the result is robotic. It's an interesting phenomenon here, you get people with maybe one anglophone parent, and a totally anglophone name, but who probably went to French school, which is totally Ok, but I'm often taken aback by how unusual it is to encounter a Montrealer who speaks both French AND English flawlessly, something one does find in Ottawa, for instance. I hope it is obvious that I am speaking here about people one would expect to be perfectly bilingual, i.e. either those with Anglophone parents and who attended French schools, or grew up in Montreal, or those with one Anglophone parent, the other either Anglo or Allophone, and who went to either French or English schools, but also grew up here. I'm not talking about Francophones who grew up here, although I would expect a certain amount of ease and proficiency in English from them, because of both the easy access to Anglophone pop culture and media, and simple curiosity, especially considering the Dutch and Swedes, who are far more geographically removed from any Anglophone regions, are almost universally fluent in English, and in the case of the Dutch, often have only the slightest hint of an accent: Famke Janssen and Karen Mulder, anyone?

The brilliance of 'Seinfeld'

I am a huge fan of 'Seinfeld'. In fact, it sometimes seems like the only TV show that matters. (has mattered). I love how it focuses on certain details (the meaning of 'can't see the forest for the trees, for example), and its smart but somewhat absurd cultural references (Susan's father's love letters from John Cheever, or J. Peterman, or any number of other examples I can't think of at the moment). Even the English Patient episode, while it maybe took the joke a bit too far, still made a funny point about what Manny Farber called white-elephant art.

On the other end of the pleasure spectrum, I loathe 'TMZ', the tv show, for its sheer dumbness and faux-irreverence, when it's pretty obvious that all the losers on the program are absolutely in thrall to the flibbertigibbets that are their bread and butter, and that they, a la Perez Hilton, really just want to be as close to the flame as they can get. Following assholes like Chad Michael Murray around all night sounds like my idea of hell. Actually the show would be entertaining if they ditched the contrived 'behind the scenes' staff scrums where everyone has to say "Ok, I got Michael Hasselhoff, and he's coming out of Hyde, with a gorgeous blonde on his arm, and she's like half his age, and he's seemin' like he's maybe knocked back a few, even though, like, he's supposed to have been through rehab, etc, etc, etc", as well as the lame voice-overs and stabs at humour. It's celebrity journalism for dummies, featuring hacks. For high-end gossip, Gawker or the NY Observer are far superior.

Pride

Well, Divers-Cite, Montreal's version of Gay Pride, just ended. Sort of dipped my foot into the fray, without getting fully immersed. Doug from Toronto was in town, spent some time with him. Worked today, so wasn't able to partake. Did go to the Oasis bathhouse Thursday and Saturday nights, but had no luck. I usually don't there. I'm a bit too bearish, I guess, but things were hopping, especially Saturday night. Unfortunately, I witnessed some major barebacking. Stood right next to a sling where some young guy was getting fucked by a 40-ish guy I often see buggering willing bottoms (and I suspect bareback, most of the time). And tomorrow, my brother, his wife, their 2 young kids, my father, and his galpal are in town, and thus begins some major familial stress.