How not to present a showcase
Somewhere in the Bible, I am exhorted to “suffer fools gladly“. I shall, but only because you’ve asked me nicely. Imagine the chef who is presented with a rich garden, full of succulent plants, all ready for harvest, of an amazing variety. When that same chef manages to prepare a meal of KD, I suffer, and perhaps not so gladly.
Which brings me to the CBC telecast (just ended) of a hour-long mashup to reminds us of how we missed the East Coast Music Awards. The chef; well, obviously down on the “red-eye from Toronto”, and the production values were clear. When the truck commercial lasted longer than the segment from the Chucky Danger Band, it did not bode well.
Happily, most of the artists (who served as filler between repetitive commercials for NB, trucks and the mint) have their own presence on Myspace and Youtube and other sites. I don’t know yet why a decent musician (Mr. Page of the BNLadies) was willing to walk around in circles mentioning his surprise that hip-hop had found its way down to those mysterious Maritimes. I finally caught some footage of my (very) distant cousin, Jenn Grant. The medley with Bruce Guthro, Lennie Gallant, Damhnait Doyle, Mary Jane Lamond and the others was also very tight.
Let’s face it, when faced with something popular from the East Coast, Central Thought Control at CBC will find a way to hide the light under a bushel basket of poor production, time shifted by several weeks and serving as a showcase for ads. When one ad identified the artist (from Norway) doing the soundtrack, I knew we weren’t far from Kansas.
The only virtue of tonight’s telecast is that it keeps lovers of music from the first two time zones on their guard. And, since the web presence of the CBC doesn’t reflect the production values, the content will be available online as a podcast as early as tomorrow. I’ll be able to hear those twenty seconds of Chucky Danger Band again!
