Canadians can surprise you by appearing to be American, when they really aren't.
During the Independent Spirit Awards on IFC (yes, I have blasted IFC's recent changes in running commercials during movies), the announcer introduced the two presenters: "And now here to present the award for Best Foreign Film are two fine Americans: Terrence Howard and Sandra Oh."
Oh, um, Sandra Oh is Canadian.
Definitely Canadian. Sure, Oh works in Hollywood. Some doctor show on TV, a few prominent movies. Sandra Oh is by all definitions Canadian.
Born in Canada, grew up in Canada, started her career in Canada. Oh was wonderful in Double Happiness and won a Genie for her lead role in Don McKellar's Last Night. (Genie Awards are the equivalent of the Oscars in Canada.)
Would be fun to have foreigners introduce the Best Foreign Film (won by The King's Speech), but referring to Canadians as Americans will not win any awards here at CanadianCrossing.com.
Oh, and Terrence Howard is American. Born and grew up in Chicago. Oh grew up in Nepean, Ontario, Canada, just outside of Ottawa.
"I think it was during playoffs 'cause my coach gave me shit about it."
-- Ryan Kesler, Vancouver Canucks forward responding to a question from Scott Oake on After Hours.
As we learned Sunday night during the Oscars, swearing on live TV does not go over well in the United States.
"When I watched Kate (Winslet) two years ago, it looked so f*cking easy."
The last two words never made it to air in the United States.
Melissa Leo, who was previously nominated for running people to Canada in Frozen River, said the f-word. In the United States, the word was bleeped out. In Canada (over the air on CTV) and elsewhere in the world, Melissa Leo's words came out uncensored.
"And you can say that at this hour of the night on TV, no problem," said Scott Oake in reaction to Kesler's comment.
After Hours airs on cable on the NHL Network in the United States. Since the NHL Network shows the program tape-delayed, the network didn't have an issue with airing the profanity. After Hours is on the CBC — over-the-air broadcast.
Admittedly, the segment in the show aired about 1:24 am in the Eastern time zone (10:24 pm in Vancouver, and 2:54 am in Newfoundland and Labrador). Swearing in Canada on TV is not nearly as big a deal as it is in the United States.
In the Internet era, people could easily find uncensored versions of censored speech in the United States. Click on the link to hear just one example.
Americans have swearing in their daily lives, in their movies. They do live with the opposite concept of loving violence but freaking out over nudity. Based on this approach, a few swear words, especially on live TV, shouldn't be a big friggin' deal.
In a Better World from Denmark is the 2011 winner for the Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Canada still only has one Oscar in that category.
Incendies was this year's nominee from Canada, only the 5th film ever in this category from the Great White North, and the 2nd not from Denys Arcand.
You'll be hearing more from director Denis Villeneuve, and hopefully his Oscar nomination for Incendies will get him the notoriety he deserves.
We should note that the Foreign Language film category ends up being a bit of an odd duck. After all, in that category, along with the Documentary and Short Film categories, "only those members who attend a special screenings may vote." If I were an member of the academy, I could have seen Dogtooth or Incendies 10 times and loved it, but if I don't see that special screening, my vote wouldn't count.
Go and see Incendies if you get the chance. And sneak a peek at the other films in the category.
The NHL Center Ice free preview has come and gone once again. There will be another free preview come the last week of the season in early April.
As regular readers know, one of the joys of NHL Center Ice is getting Canadian commercials (yes, I am geeky). There were two Tim Hortons ads, neither of them for donuts, for the Caramel Cafe Mocha/Caramel Chocolate Muffin as well as the house moving theme for the breakfast wraps.
Though McDonald's was born and bred in the USA, its reach is worldwide. There were several McD's ads from the Canadian TV outlets, two of which were especially intriguing.
The video above celebrates the buttermilk biscuit sandwiches for breakfast. The ad parodies a sports team's celebration, dumping flour on the manager in slow motion. But the most compelling visual in the story appears at the end. Two of the employees chest-bump — not that unusual, plays to the theme of the ad.
But if you look closer, the two people are a white woman and a black man. If this ad ran in the United States, the cable news channels, Oprah, The View, the CBS version of The View would be up in arms. To my knowledge, Canada has accepted this scenario with less than a shrug.
The other McDonald's ad of note was people visiting McD's with their past selves also enjoying the McDonald's experience. This spoke volumes to what we all know but can't articulate: we are hooked on McD's because we used to be hooked on McD's.
Continuing on the food beat, a suave guy stands in your kitchen with a lot of food in front of him. He complains about the pains of working in this cage known as a "kitchen." His solution is to employ finger cooking by ordering online from Boston Pizza. They serve much more than pizza, which is good because this leads us to the next point.
Food photography is designed to make a food look so good, you can't resist it. And you realize that the food looks better on TV than the food you will get in real life. But the Canadian pizza commercials I saw had gross looking pizzas, and by American standards, were way expensive.
Pizza ads: pizzas don't look that good, and are extremely expensive by U.S. standards: Panago had a 12" pizza for $12. Pizza Pizza offered any size pizza with 2 toppings, 3 cans of Coke for $12.99 and 2-for-1 Cineplex tickets. Of course, food in Canada is more expensive than in the States, and I'm not the best expert on pizza.
The opposite of those pizza ads would be the beauty of Newfoundland and Labrador. I saw a 30-second version of the video above, beautiful scenery carefully selected to avoid the 8 months (just kidding, maybe) of winter. The province plays up its time issue: "When you're always a half hour ahead, you never feel the need to catch up."
Newfoundland and Labrador are 30 minutes ahead of Atlantic time (think rest of the Maritime provinces).
Canadian ads also teach us things. This ad from the insurance company ICBC talks about getting into accidents on the other side of the border. Would make me find out if the opposite is true, next time I am driving in Canada.
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The other highlights:
-- Danacol w/plant sterols showed us a guy on a treadmill in a research lab, noting that his reaction is laid-back when he sees broccoli vs. running at full speed for hot dogs.
-- There was the Cialis people that you could show to your kids because there wasn't an obvious correlation. People keep asking an older man what's new.
-- Two things you won't see advertised on U.S. television: banks promoting savings and travel to Cuba. I felt like Canadian banks wanted my money and I don't even live there. This doesn't even count the BMO Lifetime Cash flow ads that help people save for retirement.
-- Molson Canadian took time out from selling beer to spotlight Canadian cities and their homegrown hockey players (e.g., Halifax).
-- We'll end on two confusing Canadian food and drink commercials. Kit Kat Chunky had an ad with auto crash dummies, but there was nothing in the description that would make you think the product was actually chunky. And Nabob coffee showed how they use the best of the best of the best beans, and then said they only use 60% for their coffee. But they want to get to 100%. Not sure how that works.
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One final note: After careful deliberation, I purchased NHL Center Ice for the rest of the season, playoffs included. Given the financials, the $79.95 price is a bit high for my budget. However, you can break that down into 2, 3, or 4 payments. Not having the annoying CI ads to begin a commercial break is almost worth the price.
Would be better to have seen March's HD schedule before ordering, but this is an experiment. We will see more Canadian ads in the next few weeks, and will try to keep track of some of them before the next free preview in April.
The audio above explains the difficulty of shifting jobs from Canada (or anywhere else) to the United States. The clip is courtesy of TSN and features Gord Miller and Pierre McGuire talking about the P-1 visa.
Hockey fans know that this is the season of trades; the NHL trade deadline is Monday.
While there are unusual reasons why traded players can't always report right away, Chris Kelly's story is worth noting.
Chris Kelly is a Canadian who played for the Ottawa Senators and was traded to the Boston Bruins — Canada to the United States. Getting traded from a U.S. team to a Canadian team — regardless of nationality — is pretty straight-forward; but Kelly was going in the other direction, and that was the problem.
Kelly needed a P-1 visa in order to play for the Bruins, well, to play games in the United States. Kelly stayed in Ottawa waiting for the paperwork and Boston played in Ottawa Friday night.
P-1 visas cover athletes and entertainers that have obtained "international recognition" — being in the NHL would qualify.
Kelly did get his P-1 visa and can play for Boston anywhere, even though ironically, the Bruins are on a trip in Western Canada. Kelly did miss one game against the New York Islanders. And Kelly isn't the only athlete who have had this issue.
In the audio clip, TSN play-by-play guy talks about how more difficult it is for Canadians to work in the United States. Though Miller never said so, you do have to wonder if he personally knows this story all too well.
The first thought was this had something to do with Miller working for Versus for a game, though the game for Versus was in Montréal.
Regardless, Miller sounded like he knew what was going on. And since the telecast was available on the NHL Center Ice free preview, Americans learned a valuable lesson even if that lesson doesn't apply to them.
Versus decided that sending a crew to Canada was the best way to go for the Heritage Classic. The original plan was to simulcast the CBC feed — something Versus has done — albeit with TSN — lately.
There were several themes in Versus' coverage: Canada is cold, can't believe people would sit through the cold.
In mentioning Montréal goalie Carey Price, you had to hear the name Jaroslav Halak, last year's playoff goalie for the Les Habs. That would make sense in November, but by February, the discussion was pretty lame. Treating the audience as if they hadn't followed the NHL game since the playoffs last spring was insulting, but typical of Versus' coverage of the NHL.
There were good points: Calgary looked gorgeous in the twilight — picture perfect postcard. Dave Strader, Andy Buckley, and Brian Engblom called a good game.
The Versus' announcers treated the game like a game, but did miss some of the pageantry of having an outdoor game in Canada. They kept making the point that having an outdoor game this late in the season was harder since both the Canadiens and the hometown Calgary Flames really needed the 2 points.
The Winter Classic coverage was about the fun of this game more than the game. The U.S.-led Heritage Classic coverage was the reverse.
Hockey Day in America overshadowed the Versus coverage, understandably. Still made the coverage less than ideal.
The NHL Network did show the Saturday and Sunday pre-game specials from the CBC, and kudos to the channel for doing so. The NHL Network's own 30-minute special on Saturday was rather lame. Jeremy Roenick spent way too much time focusing on the fact that when hockey is played outdoors, it's cold. Duh. And since some of the same players had been interviewed an hour before on the CBC special, the feel was like a rerun, though Elliotte Friedman was much more effective than Roenick.
Versus and the NHL Network didn't really add anything on their own to the Heritage Classic, a sharp contrast from the coverage of the Winter Classic.
We've been encouraged that Versus is showing Canadian-based hockey in a better spotlight, especially if NBCU/Comcast/Versus gets the new NHL U.S. TV deal. But the Canadian broadcasters have proven to do Canada better than the United States. Better to showcase the best, and take the credit.
Today is the NHL Heritage Classic — the first since 2003 when the Montréal Canadiens traveled to a football stadium in Edmonton to take on the Oilers. In 2011, the Montréal Canadiens travel to a football stadium in Calgary to take on the Flames.
Okay, so they're still working on the originality element.
But this is still better than having only the Winter Classic as a NHL outdoor game that essentially cuts out the actual reason for the unusual take on hockey: Canadians playing outdoors.
As for the game, CBC will carry the game in Canada, starting at 5 pm Eastern with a pre-game and the game coverage starts at 6p. NHL Network will sim sub the pre-game and Versus steps in with its own coverage at 6p Eastern.
The game will also be available in 3D in Canada and the United States. The same cable companies in the United States that had the earlier 3D game should have this telecast. CBC will carry it in 3D in Canada.
As we mentioned yesterday, there is a shot of a rebroadcast featuring the CBC feed. The NHL Network is scheduled to rebroadcast the game at 6p Monday and 4:30p next Saturday. What isn't clear is whether the game will feature the Versus feed or the CBC feed.
The NHL Network did air the CBC feed of the Winter Classic the next day.
The forecast is for sunny conditions in Calgary, but since the game starts around 4p local time, and Calgary is further north than any of the U.S. lower 48, there won't be much sunshine left and the ice will be in the shade. The game time temperature should be around 18 F (-8 C), pretty ideal conditions and colder than Pittsburgh on New Year's Day.
As much as I look forward (hopefully) to the CBC feed, seeing Versus in Calgary will be an eye-opener to see how much homage they pay to Canada outside Montréal. When ESPN carried the International Bowl, they had various ex-pats back in Canada, such as John Saunders and Jesse Palmer. Brian Engblom (inside the glass) is a former Canadien. Don't know much about Andy Brickley, but Dave Strader is one of the best U.S. hockey announcers.
Even with Gord Miller and Pierre McGuire did the game Tuesday for Versus, it still felt like a Canadian-based broadcast, given the announcers' familiarity. There is a strong fear that the Versus' crew won't stack up. We will be glad to be wrong, and we will let you know our impression.
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The NHL Network didn't show Dallas at Vancouver, but due to the Center Ice preview, we got the late game as it aired, without a stupid bar at the bottom, and without knowing what the final score was while the game is in progress.
Admittedly, the game wasn't in HD, but there was peace of mind.
For those who enjoy the late game, paying for Center Ice seems ridiculous, but getting that late game as it was intended to be aired — well, could be worth the price.
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Speaking of Center Ice, today is also the last day of the NHL Center Ice free preview. Yet there are no games available on Center Ice. The Hockey Day in America takes up the afternoon games, and since Versus is carrying the Heritage Classic, the CBC feed isn't available via Center Ice.
Next year, the new NHL TV deal should carry more playoff games. And Versus looks renewed: very good chance TSN announcers will do the next Versus telecast as Pittsburgh travels to Toronto on March 2.
Also, there are very few Canadian-based games left on the schedule for U.S. TV. Versus has two games left, and the NHL Network — outside the Hockey Night in Canada games — has zero games.
So this might be the good time to do Center Ice. I'll wait to the last minute to decide whether to do Center Ice.
For the Winter Classic, the NHL Network had tons of programming leading up to the game on New Year's Day, and beyond.
For the Heritage Classic, well, little coverage is scheduled. What could make up for that (somewhat), the NHL Network would offer a replay of the CBC coverage of the Heritage Classic. After all, the NHL Network showed the CBC feed of the Winter Classic on January 2.
Versus is sending its own crew to McMahon Stadium on Sunday with Dave Strader, Andy Brickley, along with Brian Engblom inside the glass. There was hope that Versus would just simulcast the CBC feed: no such luck.
For those who say Versus does a really good job at covering hockey, the TV listings has no pre-game show and a showing of the movie "The Fan" only 2.5 hours into the coverage.
The NHL Network, while sending mixed tv guide signals, is scheduled to carry the CBC Saturday and Sunday pre-game shows along with a 30-minute show on Saturday. (As of this morning, I can't program this into my DVR since the internal TV guide has either the wrong schedule or the channel isn't carrying what it is promising.)
For those who live close to the border, CBC will have the game.
The Winter Classic also benefited as being the shining star of the NHL schedule that day. Somehow, the NHL is working hard to diminish the Heritage Classic by scheduling "Hockey Day in America" (a second-rate ripoff of Hockey Day in Canada) on the same day as the Heritage Classic. Adding insult, injury, and other "in-" words, the end of the Pittsburgh-Chicago game will overlap the beginning of the Heritage Classic.
Does Gary Bettman really hate Canada this much?
Since the Canadian-based teams have been unofficially banned from the Winter Classic, the Heritage Classic was seen as a way to incorporate Canada into the NHL outdoor tradition. This is a cruel irony, since the outdoor history of hockey is mostly Canadian.
Perhaps coming second in the calendar year means we're not as excited about this particular outdoor game after the New Year's Day event. Maybe the lack of a Bob Costas brings less enthusiasm.
But the Heritage Classic is a big deal for a number of reasons. First outdoor game in Canada since the actual first regular season NHL outdoor game. First time a regular-season game has featured two Canadian teams in the United States (OTA or basic cable) since, well, has that ever happened?
The NHL stole the idea of the Heritage Classic and turned it into the Winter Classic, banning Canadian teams from the event. Then they finally toss a bone to Canada and schedule a Heritage Classic of its own. Then they undercut that with Hockey Day in America with a nationally televised game running opposite the start of the Heritage Classic.
Canadian teams make up 20% of the league and their success helps pay for teams in lackluster Southern U.S. markets (Phoenix, Atlanta, Nashville, etc.). And Canadians get no respect from the tiny gentleman known as Bettman. As long as Bettman is in charge, this won't change.
"You guys are evil," he jokes. "Canada's the best country in the world." He adds, "We go to the doctor and we don't need to worry about paying him, but here, your whole life, you're broke because of medical bills. My bodyguard's baby was premature, and now he has to pay for it. In Canada, if your baby's premature, he stays in the hospital as long as he needs to, and then you go home."
— Justin Bieber to Rolling Stone magazine in a cover interview that comes out today.
Justin Bieber isn't old enough to vote but he is clear on how he sees health care in his home country (Canada) and the place where he earns a lot of money (United States).
Unfortunately for universal health care advocates, lots of Bieber fans aren't old enough to vote either. But their parents and grandparents could make a difference.
I have previously theorized that conservatives like Jack Bauer and would do anything Jack Bauer says. Now you say that Jack Bauer is a fictional character, but Kiefer Sutherland is the grandson of the gentleman (Tommy Douglas) that brought universal health care to Canada.
So having celebrity power — and the Americans love celebrities — work for good instead of whatever Kardashians do with $65 million, this would make a positive difference.
Canadians have more peace of mind when it comes to health care, something that Bieber understands.
“Its largest airport is named for a World War II hero; its second largest, for a World War II battle.”
Watson may have kicked the tails of its two human competitors on Jeopardy!. The Final Jeopardy question on Day 1: the computer gave an answer that didn't compute.
The answer is actually Chicago (O'Hare and Midway, respectively). Toronto's largest airport is named after former Prime Minister (and Nobel Peace Prize winner) Lester Pearson, and the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport is named after a Canadian World War I flying ace.
We tease that Americans' knowledge of Canada isn't high, and Watson is an American computer.
Humans who play Jeopardy! would have been smart enough not to put "Toronto" as an answer in a category that says "U.S. cities" — assuming that they knew Toronto was not in the United States. Often, players will put no answer in Final Jeopardy rather than put a not-so-bright answer. Computers don't have kind of emotional attachment to embarrassment.
So the best solution for Watson is to study harder, even with his dominance in Jeopardy.
Of course, Jeopardy! fans (and Trebekkies) know that host Alex Trebek is from Sudbury, a bilingual Ontario city above Lake Huron.
