Canadian Entertainment, Music and Catch All II

[elly63]

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[megadude]

I only found out about the games being in Vancouver like two days before it started.

Originally Posted by SpongeG

the Invictus Games start Feb 8 in Vancouver. is it promoted in other parts of Canada? I think Katy Perry is performing at the opening and Chris Martin of Coldplay was just announced. London Drugs has an Invictus section with merchandise and there have been billboards etc promotion the games for a few months.

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[Taeolas]

Top Chef (the American show) is doing a full season in Canada, and it started airing on Bravo this week. The contestants went to Toronto right away. Overall, a good showing for Canada as the American (mostly; there is a Canadian chef from Montreal in the mix) did their usual stuff.

Unlike Top Chef Canada, this season they're planning to go across Canada, ending in Charlottetown and featuring various regions of Canada. For the first ep, they tried to do an overview highlight of the West, Prairies, Central, Atlantic and Northern regions. I'm looking forward to see what else they do in the rest of the season.

[megadude]

Originally Posted by megadude

Reacher season 3 just started and I just finished episode 1. The opening shootout and car chase was filmed in and around the GTHA as usual. But the car chase is a mix of Brantford and Ajax for some reason. The setting is supposed to be a college town in Maine. Edit: Apparently some of that scene might actually have also been shot in Millbrook, south of Peterborough, where A History of Violence was shot. I went there a couple of years ago and it had a slightly unique feel to it, but I could have been influenced by the knowledge that HOV was filmed there. Anyway, the logistics of this season are crazy so far.

It looks like the season will be set in New England as the lead detective has a thick accent. There was quite a bit of footage shot on George St. and area in St. John's. I can't figure out why they went so far out of the way to film there. Certainly made for an excellent backdrop, but I'm not sure why it was needed. Guess I'll have to watch more to see.

The antagonist's mansion is set on a rocky shored oceanfront. Except that's actually a mansion in Caledon, the part of the GTA where you find the most estates like that. The ocean stuff was all added by CGI.

I had some help by googling the filming locations for episode 1. Curious to see what else shows in the rest of the season.

Okay, so this scenery is NFLD is it not? And the cityscape is St. John's? Yet, each episode goes back to the villain's mansion multiple times. And like I said, that mansion is in Caledon, in the northern part of the GTA. But, most, if not all, in town scenes are in St. John's. That's some crazy storyboarding they have to do. They really had to have stuck to the script and filming schedule to maintain continuity.

[kwoldtimer]

That is Millbrook ON, not St John's.

[megadude]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

That is Millbrook ON, not St John's.

Yeah, I should have remembered that I read on reddit that the toy store (not a real store) was from Millbrook. It goes back to when I said a couple of years ago that Millbrook is small but it felt like so much was packed into that small space because those shots make it look like a bigger town. And it makes me wonder even more whey they shot in St. John's in the first place because both locations are supposed to represent the same college town in Maine.

Now, the scenery shot in NFLD, correct? They didn't need that kind of scenery. Any rural are would have sufficed. And like I mentioned earlier, the mansion in the show is located on a rugged coastline, with multiple scenes of them dumping bodies there or swimming away to a Zodiac boat, etc. And that is CGI'd in. Meanwhile, if they found a mansion on the coast around St. John's then they could have saved time and expense. But then again, I don't know if there is one there with particular style they were looking for that could pass for coastal New England.

I just remembered that in Denis Villeneuve's masterpiece of a mind 🞵🞵🞵🞵 movie, Enemy, Melanie Laurent was shown working in a ground floor office while Jake Gylllenhall was stalking her. I used to work in that building and the ground floor was just a lounge and concierge, yet for the film they filled it with cubicles. I mean, there's lots of ground floor offices they could have chosen but they chose to go through that whole effort. I wonder if they got a grant from the NFB or whatever and they use some funds to the line the pockets of the producer or producer's friend who either owns that office or a furniture rental company or moving company, etc.


https://hollywoodnorthbuzz.com/2025/02/r...ate-newfoundland-coast-maine-estate.html


https://hollywoodnorthbuzz.com/2025/02/r...ate-newfoundland-coast-maine-estate.html

[megadude]

Speaking of filming locations, I drove around Hamilton quite extensively yesterday. And like I said before, for some reason it feels like the housing stock is just so different from Toronto's despite the proximity. That's why it's pretty easy to to recognize Hamilton on the screen. It got me thinking of my favourite Canadian dark comedy, You Might as Well Live.









good image hosting

[Gresto]

Originally Posted by elly63

Not really a big Glass Tiger Fan but Diamond Sun is a nice song and probably my favourite.

I'm not a Glass Tiger completist, but they sure made some very good, albeit overplayed, music. For me, their #2 is probably "Thin Red Line", despite its militaristic quality.

I used to confuse Eddie Schwartz with Eddie Money. I used to think "I Think I'm in Love" was Schwartz. I wouldn't have remembered "Special Girl" was him but I know the song.

I like Money's music, but his voice is raspier and hard to confuse with Schwartz's. You might be thinking of America's cover of "Special Girl", which was released almost simultaneously, and was the more well-known - if inferior, imo - version.
Schwartz is more famous as a songwriter, with hits such as "Hit Me With Your Best Shot", but I bemoan that he didn't record more music himself. He had a thoroughly respectable voice. Another gorgeous song he recorded was "A Young Man's Eyes", a touching homage to fatherhood and boyhood that any adoring father and son would find relatable and tearjerking.

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Originally Posted by Architype

Strange Advance is from Vancouver.
The song is from 1982.

Among the best of Canadian musicians, and "Worlds Away" is their masterpiece. These guys finally released a new album a couple of years ago, and it's as good as their three virtually flawless '80s albums. If you're a fan, please support them.
This is "In Your Mind". Wonderful chorus.

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[Architype]

Originally Posted by Gresto

Among the best of Canadian musicians, and "Worlds Away" is their masterpiece.

I agree.



Hank Snow - Canadian Pacific (1971)
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my photo 2025

[SignalHillHiker]

If you haven't seen Adolescence yet, check it out. British, on Netflix. Acting is incredible the whole way through. The kid's mother was my fave. Without giving anything away, her face when they're discussing plans have changed and they go for a drive was perfection.

[SignalHillHiker]

If you haven't checked it in a while, Ancestry DNA has another update. It now describes my connection to Munster and the Channel Islands as strong, and it has more details for Journeys. Still a generic Waterford, Ireland, to St. John's, Newfoundland guy lol

[elly63]

Buried in my basement somewhere is a box of VHS tapes and among them are four documentaries that not only can't I find but I can't even find any mention of them. Unfortunately I don't have the titles at hand. There weren't clips either they were full hour long professional docs not the youtube BS that we often see.

One was an early history of the evolution of TV in Canada talking about the first experimental stations and the early days of the CBC. Mavor Moore was interviewed in it. They also mentioned that one of the major US film studios wanted to take over control of the system before it was started and Davidson Dunton had prevented that from happening

There was also a documentary with former TVO exec Rudy Buttignol about the Alouette satellite. It may have been called Space Pioneers but I found something called that on Youtube and that wasn't it. It had footage with Gerry Bull and the Harp Project and lots of interviews with the folks who worked on the Alouette project

I have been looking for a doc on the Eatons, possibly called The Eatons Saga It had a lot of old silent footage in it which I was able to find some of the sources on Youtube but not the documentary

There was also a doc about the Dionne quintuplets with Pierre Burton but that may be protected by the NFB.

It is really sad how much we are being controlled by the Internet algorithms. I have a few Gmail accounts from long ago and if you search for something on one you can't find it but it's available in another. But I find it really strange that not only can I not get the vids but I can't even find any info and they aired on TV where I recorded them.

I'm saying all of this because I want to download them as I have downloaded just about everything else that I originally had on VHS. I've Googled and Youtubed to no avail so far but still holding out hope as I've been able to get a lot of stuff that I didn't think I would.

[Tvisforme]

Originally Posted by elly63

Buried in my basement somewhere is a box of VHS tapes and among them are four documentaries that not only can't I find but I can't even find any mention of them. Unfortunately I don't have the titles at hand...

Thanks for the post. If you ever come up with titles, I'd be very interested to hear about them. I've done some searching on the first one you mentioned and found some books on the subject, but no documentaries yet. If I come up with anything I'll let you know.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by Tvisforme

Thanks for the post. If you ever come up with titles, I'd be very interested to hear about them. I've done some searching on the first one you mentioned and found some books on the subject, but no documentaries yet. If I come up with anything I'll let you know.

Thanks, one of these days I'll get to the basement and dig out the boxes and a VCR and get the actual names of the docs. These really do exist, I'm not imagining them I'm just shocked that if something appeared on a national TV channel you would think there would be a trace of information on it.

As I was looking, the Eatons doc used quite a bit of footage from the video below.

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[elly63]

Originally Posted by Tvisforme

Thanks for the post. If you ever come up with titles, I'd be very interested to hear about them. I've done some searching on the first one you mentioned and found some books on the subject, but no documentaries yet. If I come up with anything I'll let you know.

Back to the TV doc, the early history of TV (up until the 50s) is an interest of mine so when I hear things other than the same old stuff I always hear, I remember it.

The TV doc talked about (and here my memory IS hazy) about possibly an Icelandic guy named Sigur? in Saskatchewan who was doing experimental work, even using toilet parts (similar to Baird)

One of the National Railways wanted in on the early TV action, IIRC and the US movie studio apparently had a TV demonstration using a large projection screen.

On the opening night of CBC, Mavor Moore I believe told a story about a politician who was late and wanted to come in and join the audience just before? the show started. Moore (the show runner) told him to go kick rocks. I think the politician said "Do you know who we are, we're your bosses" and I think Moore explained to them how hard the cast worked and they weren't gong to have them be interrupted (I might have that part wrong.)

I think they said Alphonse Ouimet (later head of the CBC) was working at an early licensed experimental station in Montreal

Wikipedia J Alphonse Ouimet received a degree in electrical engineering from McGill University in 1932. In 1932, he helped design, build, and demonstrate the first Canadian television set. In 1934, he joined the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission, which became the CBC, and was responsible for setting up and running CBC's national radio service. He was involved in launching television broadcasting on the CBC.

Considering my hobby, a disappointment I had was when I left TV. I was stuck in news and burned out and committed to going back to school. I got a voice message from a guy who I knew of but not personally. He wanted me to work in his video production house. I didn't even have the courtesy to call him back because I really wanted nothing to do with producing TV anymore. Years later, I came to find out he was with CBC since the late 50s and was a big wig exec (with a title) in the 70s. Boy, would I have loved to have just sat around and chewed the fat with him, like I did with all the old timers (from the 50s) at the TV station, before I got exiled to the news bureau, oh well.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by Tvisforme

Thanks for the post. If you ever come up with titles, I'd be very interested to hear about them. I've done some searching on the first one you mentioned and found some books on the subject, but no documentaries yet. If I come up with anything I'll let you know.

Not Canadian TV but early TV in general, have you listened to any of the stuff from the Archive of American Television.

The have some good stuff like Pem Farnsworth, Loren Jones, Leonard Goldenson and Ray Dolby to name a few. Interesting about Ray Dolby, I knew he worked on the Ampex Videotape Recorder project but I didn't know how involved he was. He had started in his teens and was only 23 when the first recorder was completed. I had thought he probably only worked on the audio section but he worked on pretty much everything. I think he said in the interview he holds the most patents pertaining to the device.

Speaking of videotape recorders, probably one of the early remaining recordings of colour videotape in Canada is the 1966 Grey Cup (November 26). We went to colour September 1, 1966 to gear up for the Centennial, the next year

[Architype]

Originally Posted by elly63

Buried in my basement...

There was also a doc about the Dionne quintuplets with Pierre Burton but that may be protected by the NFB.

...

I think I have seen it.

I wonder if he is still known by many people? Once an iconic Canadian author, his house now lies abandoned in the woods. He wanted it to become a retreat for writers.

Famous Authors Incredible ABANDONED 1950's Mid Century Estate Home Forgotten in the Woods!
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[elly63]

I've see that video and ran into it again today. Amazing how it never stayed in the family

[Architype]

Originally Posted by elly63

I've see that video and ran into it again today. Amazing how it never stayed in the family

Yes, it's a shame. I guess it is worth more money to someone in an an unrecoverable state of decay than restored and preserved.

Anyway, I searched out of curiosity, here is the location:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/6nnREwKUzxW4dEak8

[elly63]

Originally Posted by Architype

Yes, it's a shame. I guess it is worth more money to someone in an an unrecoverable state of decay than restored and preserved.

Your post and the video reminded me of something I've always wanted to know. I think it was said in the video that he had 50 best selling books, I've always wanted to know what kind of money is there in the Canadian (performing) arts.

What kind of money does a guy like Yannick Bisson make or the Heartland people when their show is everywhere. What kind of money did Brent 🞵🞵🞵🞵 make when Corner Gas was a hit.

It kind of made me feel good to watch Steve Smith on a Life and Times episode (I think) where it showed he had a big mansion by a golf course in Hamilton, and a nice house and boat in Florida. If anyone had paid his dues and gutted out a living selling Smith and Smith et al to stations across the country you have to hand it to him.

I've always wondered why there has never been any (that I've seen) news stories, TV shows or books about this.