Rupert Murdoch: Sympathy for the Devil

Inside Television 564


Publication Date: 8-5-11

By: Hubert O’Hearn


Sympathy for the Devil: Rupert Murdoch Edition





I like people who make me think. The ones I know who make me think, I treasure. The ones I don’t know who make me think, I want to know. One of the very few regrets I have in what can be broadly termed my writing career is that the interview I had scheduled with Christopher Hitchens had to be canceled because Hitchens is battling esophageal cancer with all his might. Drinks and discussion will have to wait for until his recuperation. Now there’s motivation for both of us to battle onwards, and yes in his case I say that tongue in cheek.



The Hitch, as his great friend Martin Amis calls him, is one of the very few living idols I have left in journalism. There are lots of dead ones: Lincoln Steffens, I.F. Stone, Hunter Thompson, David Halberstam are numbered among them. Their value is not as a model to copy, but rather as metamorphic Scoutmasters who show you how to hold a (moral) compass. Through all the different styles those named had, they all came from a certain point of view, an ethic, and wrote to achieve a purpose. It’s why I understand Hitchens’ defence of the various Middle Eastern wars of the past decade; his attitude towards the eradication of the terrorist factions who hide behind Islam is precisely the same as his long-standing defence of the Kurdish and Palestinian peoples. I may not agree, but I at least can admire someone who takes a stand for a moral reason rather than a mere financial one.



Which leads to Rupert Murdoch. It was inevitable that I would at some point write about the man that the delicious British muckraking magazine Private Eye refers to as the Dirty Digger. I’ve just been waiting for the right angle. As it turns out, two angles formed a perfect vector.



The first was from Hitchens. In his on-line column for Slate he referred to his own timidity in writing a book review about Murdoch’s Sun newspaper. Murdoch also owned The Times and Hitchens badly wanted to write for The Times. What would the proprietor think if he was slammed in the review. So, The Hitch refrained from mentioning Murdoch until the last sentence where he wrote, ‘What does Rupert Murdoch want?’ There’s the first angle.



The second stemmed from, not an argument, but a string difference of opinion I had with one of those friends who makes me think. I’ve mentioned our dear friend the actress and writer Lydia Cornell before. Her reaction to the great hysteria over the U.S. debt crisis and the sheer foulness and negativity of current news coverage was that people should just stop watching the news. Having the finely tuned sense of humour of a Soviet-era border guard, I missed that Lydia was joking. So naturally I loudly disagreed, but the result was I did have my Eureka moment, although I refrained from rising naked from the bath and dashing through the streets. I have the answer to Hitchens’ question.



Rupert Murdoch has no political agenda. What? You protest? You shouldn’t. Why did Murdoch drop support of Labour in order to support the Thatcher Conservatives? He needed the government of the day to back him when he broke the back of the pressmen’s union in moving The Sun from Fleet Street to the non-unionized Wapping Road. Why did he do that? To make more money. Why did he continue to fawn and bribe various politicians? To get television licenses. Why did he do that? To make more money. Why did he allow his papers and ‘news’ networks to break laws and treat journalistic ethics like so much soiled tissue? To make more money.



But how did the latter make more money for him? Because he, Rupert Murdoch, understands our ugly side better than we choose to recognize it ourselves. Murdoch is like that strange light creature in the original Star Trek series that becomes stronger the more the Klingons argue with Captain Kirk. Murdoch feeds the anger, inspires the anger, probably worships the anger because...anger sells. He has replaced prize-fighting as the televised outlet for testosterone with people in blazers spouting invective on split-screen. This is why his appearance before the British House of Commons Select Committee was so...well, banal. There is no there there, as Gertrude Stein said of Oakland. There is just a tired old man who wants more coins in his purse. Were his methods not so foul, he could be pitied.



I am convinced of this conclusion. If people on the Left had the money and the naked love of consumer products as people on the Right; if advertisers wanted big Left audiences, Murdoch would turn Fox News into Pravda overnight.

Please allow me to introduce myself - I'm a man of wealth and taste

So why hate Rupert Murdoch? He only gave us what we asked for: a focus for our fear. Be seeing you.
 
 

A Few Words About Deaths

Inside Television 563
Publication date: 7-29-11
By: Hubert O’Hearn


If death is your thing, you’ve had an awfully good week. If you find that statement to be off-putting, it really shouldn’t. Perhaps not ironic in the strictest sense, but I was starting to put together notes for my proposed talk (I loathe the word lecture - it just prepares the audience to come prepared for being bored out of their skulls) on modern writing. This was at the same time as the news was filled in short order with the tragedy in Utoya Norway, the death of Any Winehouse and the true shock any sentient Canadian must have felt upon seeing Jack Layton at his press conference.

I had been thinking, ‘Now what is the favourite topic of people generally?’ And only slightly morbidly I was considering it was death. Oh? You disagree with me? Your mind leapt to sex, now didn’t it (you rogue you)? Well your mind may have but your tongue doesn’t necessarily follow - so to speak.

Consider: You can walk up at any usual time of day to anyone you have a reasonable acquaintance with, and say, ‘Did you hear Bill died?’ Presuming you’re not just making this up and Bill himself doesn’t come strolling down the hallway with an armful of files and a cheery whistle on his lips, the person to whom you addressed this comment will change course on whatever it was they were about to do or say and will immediately start discussing Bill, his loss to the world, and whatever should we all do to help out.

If you walk up to the same acquaintance and say, ‘Did you hear Bill had sex?’, you will be treated as the office freak. And rightfully so.

The news - both television and written forms - either shine or collapse in the face of death. This past week showed us both. As it happened to fall on the week of the late Marshall McLuhan’s one hundredth birthday, you couldn’t help but observe it closely. Let us also not kid ourselves: news loves death. Death makes people feel weak and sad. We don’t like feeling weak and sad so what can snap us out of it? Let’s throw to commercial and here’s Fabio selling Old Spice. I’ll feel better if I buy some cosmetic thing - aaaahhhhh. Death is money and not just in the insurance and mortuary businesses. I’ve never formally looked it up and a Google search would ruin an otherwise instinctive call, but I’d be willing to wager that four out of seven days a week that average North American paper has a death or an immenent one somehwre on its front page. In TV news, the line is: ‘If it bleeds, it leads.’

We had both the worst and the best of it this week. Regarding Norway, the treatment of the eventual investigation and the horrific days it must be for the Norwegian people has been respectful and sensitive. However, possibly the most sheer Orwellian moment of my life came in the immediate speculation that the slaughter was instigated and carried out by Muslim terrorists. According to Christopher Hitchens’ Slate column, there was even an Al-Qeda offshoot ready to rejoice. Of course, it turned out that the publicity-seeking lunatic gaily smiling at the cameras in fact hated and feared Muslims. He believed the hype. That revelation should have given a lot more people pause than what I suspect it has.

Regarding Amy Winehouse, the creepy crawly side of the coverage was the pundit pomposity in saying through wobbling cheeks and wattles that this death was ‘predictable and expected.’ If so, then what precisely did you do to prevent it? And one wonders how much the endless tumbleweed of paparazzi trailing Winehouse - one wonders if her phone was hacked - contributed to her stress, drug abuse and death.

With Jack Layton, Canadian media deserve a collective hug. I did not watch Sun - there are limits to the lengths I will go to for my readers’ enjoyment. I haven’t heard anything awful about Sun’s coverage of Layton’s visually evidenced terminal illness either, so I think they can even be included with the Big Three English networks in providing truly empathic and calm coverage. In fact, I haven’t heard anyone say what I just wrote: based on visual evidence, this fine and good Canadian politician is dying. I don’t blame the TV news for not stating that. Not at all. I hesitated writing it. Equally, there was no leadership hype. The possibilities for the future were mentioned on both CBC and CTV, but no one speculated as to when the pistol at the starting line might be fired.

What do we learn from all this? It so happened that Dana Fuchs, the great singer who I wrote about last week, sent out an email regarding Norway. She had spent four days there last summer in the company of a young girl Oda who had been scheduled to be at the Island. Circumstances prevented her from going and likely dying. Oda wrote this to Dana Fuchs: ‘This tragedy has taught me one thing. We'll never stop fighting for socialism, peace, and anti-racism.’

It was a most instructive week. Be seeing you.

Dana Fuchs: Dreams Come True

Inside Television 561
Publication Date: 7-15-11
By: Hubert O’Hearn


I seem to have lost my cynicism along with my old car keys, but I can’t say as I miss either one. The cynicism part is much more important. Recently, my faith in the redemptive powers of art and artists has not only been restored, it has been buffed and polished into a golden glow. What follows explains why.

Now, I can’t pretend to you that this is strictly a television column. It’s not. But television with all other art forms is composed of, simply, dreamers. You can say visionaries but that term always seems so grandiloquent and stuffy. No, dreamers fits just fine. Artists have a dream, an idea, they want to express and seek the appropriate medium.

Last thing before we get to the main event. I’ve famously said as recently as last week that everything on television is a work - pre-planned, managed, and presented to provoke a response. That can be expanded to all arts. But there is an important codicil. Even within a work it is possible to be utterly sincere.

Dana Fuchs (photo credit - Amanda Zawacki)

Dana Fuchs is sincerity with a mighty voice. She played at last week’s Thunder Bay Blues Festival and I flatly wrote that she is the best singer I have ever heard. If you’ve been reading my stuff for any time at all, you know that I don’t exaggerate or hyperbolize. However, when you think someone is the best at something, why hide your opinion just because someone else might have a contrary take on the subject? Dana Fuchs is my favourite, you can have yours, and let’s just all enjoy life together.

Along with my lovely and talented step-daughter Amanda, I spent an utterly fascinating hour or so in Dana’s trailer after her set and after absolutely every last autograph seeker had received both a signature and a personal Moment to remember. What had intrigued me, even more than her voice - which matches her wind-tossed curls in beauty and natural force - was how she connected with the audience as individuals. I’d seen this on stages before - acting stages mostly - and it is the great unteachable quality. It’s almost like a coded speech, but an open sourced code, where the artist and audience let each other know they care.

I asked her where that came from. The answer was simple and sincere. ‘I want the audience to feel what I’m feeling - shout and cry and laugh and stomp. That’s why I get down on my knees. I’m tall anyway and in these big shoes so I don’t want to be above them.’

She dedicates a song to her brother as well. He passed away before her eyes of a brain tumor. I wondered why she chose to re-live that night after night. ‘I want to share with them. Everyone out there’s had something - brain tumors or cancer or heart attacks. I just want to let them know it’s okay to express that.’ Dana Fuchs deals in love and joy and making each moment beautiful.

When she was cast in Across the Universe, she was white-hot. ‘I had every agent in Hollywood after me - every agent. They all said the same thing: “Stay in LA, stay in LA.” But I’d been singing since I was 5 (she is 35 now) so I didn’t know what to do. It was a really, really hard choice to make.’

And here’s the nut of it. By deciding based on love rather than just success and opportunity, Dana has received both. In November, when her current tour ends, she flies to Asheville, North Carolina to star in a studio feature. I don’t know if the description of her part and the movie’s plot was part of the interview or part of the conversation, so I’m going to err on the side of caution. Hollywood steals ideas with the regularity of the Artful Dodger lifting wallets. But I can tell you this - Dana is doing the music for the film and given the lack of musicals produced these days...here’s a prediction and you’ll have a year and a half to lay down your bets. You’ll be seeing Dana Fuchs on television. February, 2013, Best Song at the Oscars.

Be true to who you are. Act with love. Fill each moment with joy. And dreams do come true. Be seeing you.

Thunder Bay Blues Festival Awards Column

Thunder Bay Blues Festival Daily Report

Publication Date: 7-11-11

By: Hubert O'Hearn

And so by the time you read this, the 10th Annual Thunder Bay Blues Festival will packed and gone. At the time I write this, it actually isn't quite over - more in the 'where's the toothbrushes and did anyone water the plants?' stage. So if Sunday night's curtain closers Blue Rodeo play the most monstrously magnificent set in the history of live music and it's not mentioned here, so sorry. Yet instinct tells me that The Who playing See Me, Feel Me as the sun rose at Woodstock is probably safe for another year.

For as long as I've been filing these daily reports, I've always closed with my completely arbitrary and subjective Festival Awards. They come with no trophy or plaque; only warm feelings and a hand held open in expectation of bribery which has never arrived. There is always next year however. Onwards:

The Hardcore Award - To those several hundred plastic-wrapped souls who stuck it out Saturday from 11:30AM-7PM through a rain sheet that had animals gathering two by two. This Blues Award goes to those who found themselves blue-lipped in the cold.

The Shiny New Toy Award - There was really only one previously little-known band that made the crowd spark and rise, and that was Trampled Under Foot, who played as the rain ended Saturday. Nick, Kris and Danielle Schnebelen gave a kick of boisterous energy to a Festival that was calling for it.

The Tasty Num-num Award - I try and hit as many of the food vendors' booths as I can, proudly clogging arteries in the name of research. My favourite thing this year was the Fox on the Run's pulled pork sandwich gracefully oozing with a mustard grape sauce.

The Hooterville-on-the-Lake Award - Let's call this a tie. First mentioned is whomever the anonymous City Administration putz was that pulled the internet router out of Marina Park right before the Festival...when there just maybe might be a few hundred people wanting an internet signal. Also, Thunder Bay Transit for not running any departing buses after midnight. I'm sure downtown bars and restaurants might appreciate having another 500 or so patrons who shudder at the notion of $40 taxi rides back to the south side.

The Novelty Act Award - The Blues Brotherhood, who gave a note by note recreation of The Blues Brothers act made famous by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. Crack studio musicians, led by original Blues Brother Tom 'Bones' Malone and high energy singing made them a great addition to the Saturday evening performances that were the guts of this year's Festival.

The Prodigal Son Award - Thunder Bay born Tyler Yarema brought his swing blues band back home for Toronto and played a sharp and enjoyable set that enlivened what had been a sleepy Sunday afternoon. I've long advocated that a local act at least be given a 6PM time slot and the crowd reaction to Yarema provided all the needed evidence for that position.

The Show-Stopper Award - Dana Fuchs. Nobody was close...okay, Buddy Guy was close. But Dana, who also kindly stayed late into the night after signing every autograph seeker's album to give an interview you'll be seeing soon, is the best singer I have ever seen. She made an incredible, personal connection with every member of the audience. The one act I would actually travel to see. To use an old wrestling line, If she's not back - we riot.

Dana Fuchs - Another wrestling line:
The Best there is, the Best there was, the Best there will ever be

Line of the Year - Again from Dana Fuchs. 'This is such an incredible city and country. Canada Rocks. There was so much love being shared out there, but I hope that everyone keeps sharing the love all the time, not just when we're at a concert together.'

Be seeing you.

Thunder Bay Blues Festival - Day Two

Thunder Bay Blues Festival Daily Column

Publication Date: 7-10-11

By: Hubert O’Hearn

It was a day as wet and as cold as a polar bear’s paw. There’s a fine old Irish saying that I’m fond of quoting: There’s no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing. On the Saturday of the 10^th Annual Thunder Bay Blues Festival, that saying was proven as a piece of Blarney. If ever there was a living definition of sodden, this was it.

The sheer wonder of it all is that several hundred people actually managed to gut it out from the day’s opening performance at 11:30 AM until the grey sponge overhead finally ceased wringing itself out around 7PM. Half-frozen hands clapped enthusiastically after each song, in equal due to the slightly drowning performers as well as perhaps generating a bit of warmth from the friction.

The performers indeed do deserve thanks and gratitude. Yes, they were under a show tent, but wind shows absolutely no respect to a tent’s open side. Between acts a cascade was swept off the front of the stage by the hard-working stage manager Rob Jensen.

The first truly memorable moment for me at this year’s Festival came when Big Walter Smith blessed us with a classic rendition of Stand By Me.  This by the way was on Walter’s 81^stbirthday, which proves if nothing else that you’re never too old to play or enjoy the Blues.

As I have written before, one of the joys of the Festival is discovering new acts. Trampled Under Foot was quite literally the last act booked for this year’s Festival. The two brothers and sister electrified the audience, closing with the first encore call-back – Led Zeppelin’s Rock and Roll.

Dana Fuchs...what God looks and sounds like when God
feels like singing

But you’ll want to know my opinion of Dana Fuchs, who was my pre-Festival pick as the potential best act of the entire three days. I do not deal in hyperbole. I do not exaggerate. I state honestly what I feel. She is the best female – strike that – she is the best Blues singer I have ever heard. Over. Said. Done. Partially it must be due to her equal talent as an actor – she connects with a mass audience on a truly individual basis, specifically when she dedicated Keep on Rolling to her recently deceased brother. Simply astonishing, this connection, one worthy of the best stage actresses I have seen. And what an incredible instrument she has been blessed with. It was an honour to share this soggy time and space with her.

3:00PM


Amanda and I have made a retreat to the Prince Arthur to recharge equipment, update this blog and generally restore sensation to extremities. On the one hand, the rain is supposed to pass by 4PM. However, it's not 4PM yet and we're damn cold. Yes indeed, it IS possible to see your breath on a July day in Thunder Bay.

Not taken today...

But why complain? Well, it's fun for one thing. But the bands are playing bravely through the streams and are doing their best for a small, sodden audience. And there have been lovely moments. Big Walter Smith, who has been coming up to the Blues Festival from year one, celebrated his 81st birthday on-stage with cake and a gift chair presented by the Blues Fest organizers. He then sang one of the songs that always brings a tear to my eyes: Ben E. King's Stand By Me. And yes, those were tears and not raindrops.







12:35 PM

Someone throw a briquet on Richard Branson - it is raining like a sumbitch out here. Then again, God invented tents for a reason. Then again, according to the radar map, this should blow over in an hour or so. Mind you, one can always just pretend that one is swimming....whilw clothed...and walking around.

More later.

Thunder Bay Blues Fest 2011 Live Blog!

9:00 PM

Thunder Bay Blues Festival
Day One Column
Publication date: 7-9-11
By: Hubert O'Hearn

Without a word of a lie, as I walked into the friendly and comfortable lounge of the Prince Arthur Waterfront Suites Hotel to write this column (explanation shortly) there was the smiling face of Richard Branson on the widescreen TV. That absolutely ruined my intended opening joke.

The weather was perfectly perfect for the opening day of the 10th Annual Thunder Bay Blues Festival. That's not unusual. The weather is almost always perfect for the Blues Festival. So my thought was to put a twist on an old line and say that the organizers surely did not commit virgin sacrifice to guarantee the weather, but nobody's seen Richard Branson in a few days and there was a suspicious looking hibachi in the backstage area. Ba boom bing. Thank you very much. We're here all weekend.

The reason why the Marina Park venue has been abandoned for a hotel lounge, is that while the Festival venue offers virtually all the amenities one could ask for - outstanding food (mmm...Thai Kitchen), cold beverages and a standing army of water closets - its wireless signal is a blistering one megabyte per second. I could engrave these words on stone quicker than I could email them. Therefore, myself and a charming reporter for The Walleye have made the lounge into the press gallery. Cheers.

But that truly was my only complaint. It is surprising how many people come up to tall long-haired men (me) carrying laptops and assume that one is writing coverage. They then enquire, 'It's going to be positive, right?' Well good Lord of course it's positive! The reason I come back each year is for the - well - let someone else tell the story.

While I was waiting in the efficiently moving line to enter the site along with my aspiring photographer step-daughter Amanda Zawacki, we started chatting with a lovely couple from Winnipeg, the Stangers. This is their seventh year of coming to the Blues Festival. After asking them if they minded being quoted in the paper, Susan Stanger happily explained what they liked about the Festival. 'The music's great of course, but it's so well run and this such a friendly city.' Nicely said.

As to the day's musical events, Bob Halvorsen of the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium did his usual masterful job of booking. You never want to over-excite the audience on the first day of a three-day event; intrigue and entertain yes, but you don't want the energy drained on day one. Therefore the acts from the opening curtain jerker John Booth and the Southside Band, through to our long-time favourites Tracy K and Jamie Stenhoff and carrying through Les Dudek played what can be called comfortable Blues. Blues like your favourite pair of blue jeans; the ones you step in, hold you just right and make you want to stretch like a well-fed cat.

I particularly enjoyed Les Dudek. This will be quite a description, so breathe deeply. On his first visit to Thunder Bay, the legendary guitar player seemed like a trimmed-down Santa Claus on summer vacation playing a jazz-blues fusion with a country twang. And if that is hard to imagine, well, you should have been there Charlie.

Tonight is the act I am most looking forward to - Dana Fuchs, star of Across the Universe, who I suspect will be the show-stopper of this year's Festival. Be seeing you.








7:15 PM - Well THAT has certainly been frustrating. I am writing this from the comfortable lounge of the Prince Arthur Waterfront Suite Hotel because...Thunder Bay in its infinite lack of wisdom chose to REMOVE the wireless routers from Marina Park right before the biggest event of the year. Nice. helpful.

The event itself is going wonderfully - the local bands, given the traditional Curtain Jerker spots did solid, capable sets. Plaudits to John Booth and the Southside Band and the returning favourite Tracy K & Jamie Steinhoff.

As I write this, Les Dudek is entertaining on-stage. So back I go. Next update will be tomorrow's column in about two hours.

Cheers from me and Amanda!








PREAMBLE: 
The blog will be up and running at about 5PM EDT today, assuming the wireless signal is better than last year's 1 MPS. Yes, I said 1 MPS. Your hosts will be Hubert O'Hearn (words) and Amanda Zawacki (pictures)

Blues Festival 2011 Preview

Thunder Bay Blues Festival preview column
Publication Date: 7-8-11
By: Hubert O’Hearn

TITLE: Blues Festival Offers Quality, Professionalism and Discovery


Once again, for three days starting today, Thunder Bay gets to live up to its long-ago ambition to be considered the Chicago of the North. A century ago, the city fathers of the former Fort William and Port Arthur felt that because of their cities’ central location, rail hub and natural harbour unquestionably this part of Northwestern Ontario would be challenging the City of Big Shoulders as a midwest giant metropolis. Millions and millions of people would produce billions and billions of dollars.

Well, things haven’t quite worked out that way. Nonetheless, for these three days Thunder Bay can rightfully challenge any basement bar or concert hall in Chicago, New York, Austin or Natches as the summer palace of the Blues. Except for a short interruption I have covered the Thunder Bay Blues Festival since hour one, year one back in 2002. My judgement of it has never varied: singularly, this is Thunder Bay’s World Class Event. Not a single musician over the years has ever - ever! - had anything but compliments for the event, its organizers and the support of the audience.

If one wants to take a ballpark number of 15,000 attendees for the weekend as a sellout audience - always a tough estimate for an outdoor venue - the Blues Festival has been a virtual sellout since Year One. That said, being an outdoor venue, there is always room for one more. So what keeps people coming back, and coming back from cities across North America?

What keeps me coming back is a combination of three things: Quality, Professionalism and Discovery. Quality is in the form of the acts and this year’s Saturday closer - Buddy Guy - is still the best guitar player I have ever heard anywhere. You will always hear grumblings about booking - i.e. why is Grand Funk Railroad, Homer Simpson’s favourite band from high school - headlining on Friday? The answer is evolution. Without the Blues roots, there is no rock, and the old rockers still have a few bullets left to fire.

No, really...ignore the T-Shirt - Homer's a Funker...honest

As to Professionalism, that is marked by the imperial skills of the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium tech crew who have literally battles the elements to give every act a crystal clear sound and look under the big striped show tent. Professionalism is also seen in the food and merch vendors who offer a wide variety of treats and souvenirs at non-gouging prices.

Really though, I love discovering new acts I have never heard before. the act this year i most look forward to hearing is Dana Fuchs, who goes on before Buddy Guy this Saturday night. Having watched her YouTube clips, Dana comes across as the product of what would have been a prodigious coupling of Robert Plant and Etta James. equally, I know there will be some other act that will make me go ‘Wow’. Come on out and enjoy your own Wow moment.