America the not-so-beautiful

So much for the ideals of free speech in the land of the brave, when a civil servant condones graffiti debasing a public figure, as reported here.

A billboard in Baltimore of Rush Limbaugh was defaced this week and a spokesman for the city agency responsible for cleaning up graffiti said he liked it that way.

That graffiti "artist" is nothing more than a vandal with a political opinion. And that a public official, paid by taxpayers, would publicly condone an act of vandalism because he shares that opinion, is irresponsible to the extreme.

The issue to me is not Rush Limbaugh and his on-air views. The issue is that intimidation is so fashionable in western society that the term "civil servant" is becoming an oxymoron.

I have never listened to Rush Limbaugh (or any other American political talk show host ... I prefer ChickChat myself) but I do know that he has his detractors.

So what. So do Howard Stern and Al Franken. These guys are paid, and paid well, to attract as large a listening audience as possible for advertisers to "reach out" to between on-air rants. Obviously, that audience includes both the vandal and the public official in this story.

Because we live in such a "monkey-see monkey-do" society, however, this on-air audacity is creating an unfortunate and unpleasant trend whereby venom and vitriol are replacing respect and restraint not only in the public discourse but in society at large.

We can only hope that citizens who actually take talk show hosts and other entertainers seriously are not the canaries in the coal mine of a collapsing civil society, as Limbaugh suggests. Altho you do have to wonder about people who condone everything from vandalism to attempts at murder ... as long as "their side" is "winning."

But in the end, no one wins. As history has shown us, a society dominated by such sentiments is easy pickings for tyrants and totalitarians. And as the present is showing us, war really is hell.

The moral of this story is: It all starts at home, folks. If you want peace, then spread peace. Show the world, and especially your political adversaries, how to "overcome."

Here's a suggestion, tho. Try doing something more meaningful than committing or condoning an act of vandalism against a radio personality you dislike.

As this article illustrates, you're just giving more ammunition to the other side.

Ukrainian dancers on UkeTube

I was just tooling around UkeTube, the creative brainchild of the Strilka (Ukrainian singles) folks and came across this clip of Ukrainian dancers from Brazil.

The quality of the video is poor (very pixelated) but you can still make out what's going on ... and the music is great!

The music has a lot of deep bass which I've only ever heard in the really old music recordings (and perhaps from some European groups).

There are some interesting moves, on the part of both the guys and the gals, that I haven't seen done here in North America ... and believe me, I've seen a lot of Ukrainian dance groups!

The other thing that struck me is that they seem somehow, um, sexier ... in a subtle way. I can't explain it, I just got that feeling watching them. The guys seem so macho and the girls more feminine. Maybe in South America men and women just be themselves more, possibly because of the dominant Latino culture? I dunno, but I like it! ;-)

Closer to home, I came across this clip of the Kvitka Dancers of Surrey doing the Hopak at their Vesna 2007 concert. Looks like it was another fabulous show... (That'll teach me to miss their concert!)

There's a lot of great clips on UkeTube, go there often and enjoy!

Canned radio goes online ...

No surprise here.

Merely hogging the airwaves is naturally not enough for greedy media moguls. They have to elbow their way onto the internet now with their boring, "cost-effective" canned programming.

American Media Services-Internet LLC ... has launched 20 new online “multi-channel” formats designed for broadcasters to stream highly targeted and locally branded content to their online audience. ...

We can only hope that "targetting" and "branding" are the kiss of death on the internet and that the moguls and ad agencies just keep on digging their own graves.

Long live indie music! May it usher in a new era, and prevail better than radio did against media misers intent on killing the golden goose. (How's that for mangling metaphors!?!)

Please help Save Net Radio

Recently a law was passed in the U.S. to protect the big media oligarchs against competition from the "little guys" (and gals) on the internet.

The tactic is simple: bankrupt us all.

The SaveNetRadio coalition is asking the public to support a counter-measure:

The future of Internet radio is in immediate danger. Royalty rates for webcasters have been drastically increased by a recent ruling and are due to go into effect on July 15 (retroactive to Jan 1, 2006!). If the increased rates remain unchanged, the majority of webcasters will go bankrupt and silent on this date. Internet radio needs your help! H.R. 2060, The Internet Radio Equality Act was introduced by Representatives Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Donald Manzullo (R-IL ) to save the Internet radio industry. ...

So if you live in the United States, and would like to ensure that webcasters can continue to operate and offer you the variety and choices that big media can't (nor would), please contact your Congressman or Congresswoman and ask them to support the Internet Radio Equality Act.

Canadians might want to get informed on this as well. Historically, the U.S. media industry has always considered Canada part of its domestic market. Which means that whatever happens south of the 49 will soon be repeated north of it. (You will notice that this issue isn't in the "news" anywhere...)

More info and the link here.

Documentary film on Eugene Hutz

There's a new documentary film on Eugene Hutz, lead man of the gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello.

The theme is Hutz looking to find his Ukrainian roots ... perhaps inspired by his supporting role in the 2005 film Everything Is Illuminated. The few instances of foul language in the trailer were offset somewhat by Hutz' observation that "This is one of the most hurt peoples in the world" and his experience finding that reconnection of the soul that a trip to Ukraine can bring on.

You can find the link to the movie trailer at Olechko's excellent blog on contemporary art and culture in Ukraine here.

Vancouver Ukrainian radio archives updated

The audio archives of last Sunday's broadcasts of Nash Holos and Chetverta Khvylia have been uploaded.

Find out how to prepare beef in a delicious Ukrainian way, more about Solaway Travel's summer tour to Eastern Europe, and some Ukrainian Easter customs that actually pre-date Christianity. The usual proverb of the week, community events, and plenty of great Ukrainian music!

Enjoy!

Canada's national broadcaster finds the "fun" in mass murdering regime

It is rare for me to be at a loss for words. But, for a while there, our self-styled "national broadcaster" accomplished the near impossible with this post.

Now if someone on the right of the political spectrum were to market "fun stuff" like, say, brown shirts, swastika banners and Mein Kampf bookmarks to give their detractors a poke in the eye, I doubt many would consider satirizing Nazis the least bit funny, or fun.

But communists? Well, that's different. In fact, the nice folks at the CBC apparently consider it quite hip (and maybe even daringly "audacious") to recall the glory days of communist gulags, forced famine, Stalinist purges, and other "fun" happenings under communism with cutsie peacenik paraphernalia.

Likewise the CBC fan club ... which seems to consist of a considerable number of apologists for mass murderers. What is there to say about human beings with hearts so cold that they can equate the unspeakable suffering of communism's victims with the triteness of their political disaffection (better a communist than a conservative, says one) ... and dismiss those who are appalled at such callous disrespect as lacking a sense of humour? Perhaps they never saw films like this, read books like these or visited websites like this. Or, maybe they did and just didn't care.

Oh and btw, this "fun stuff" at the CBC comes on the heels of a big brouhaha over the "castro hat" ... where you'll find more exhortations to lighten up and have a good laff at the antics of communism's mass murderers. Easy enough for some, I suppose, here in complacent Canada.

I don't consider myself a particularly funny person, but I think I have a reasonably good sense of humour. And sorry, but I really don't consider communism any funnier than nazism. (As far as I'm concerned, both ideologies are fascist.)

But then, maybe I am just not sophisticated enough to appreciate and share the CBC's sense of humour.

Innovative alternative fuel being used in Ukraine, ignored by global warming activists

This has nothing to do with Ukrainian radio, but the U.S. company Cargill and Ukraine deserve a tip of the hat.

Recently, Cargill announced that it has invested about $20 million in the installation of boilers fired by sunflower husks at its oil extraction plants in eastern Ukraine. Company officials said this would enable the plants to use their own production waste and meet their own demands for heat energy while using environmentally clear fuel. Three boilers have already been installed at the oil extraction plants Donetsk and Kakhovka.

Interestingly (but not surprisingly) no Hollywood celebrities or grandstanding ex-politicians are touting something so mundane yet innovative and effective in fighting global warming.

Good luck finding even a tiny mention (let alone a decent article) about it in mainstream newspapers or the wire services. Of course, it could be that people who are actually doing something about global warming prefer not to waste their time trying to get the attention of people more interested in celluloid fantasies than real-life solutions, and just get on with the work ... even tho they'll get little thanks for it.

I learned about this real-life solution thanks to the folks at Art Ukraine who compile an excellent news roundup called The Action Ukraine Report (best viewed on Firefox). It's a great source of interesting and useful information on Ukraine and Eastern Europe.

Thanks, ChickChat!

Back in March of last year, I got wind of a brand new upcoming radio program in Washington, DC, and posted about it here.

Yes, I realize it's on the other side of the continent and the border, and that it's not a Ukrainian program. But still, in its own right it is counter-cultural, sort of like Nash Holos but in a more mainstream, American way. And since this is a blog about radio, I figured it merited a mention.

Anyway, it's called ChickChat, and it's talk radio for women. What a novel concept! The hosts, Lara and Heidi, have been featured on Fox News, and get some pretty impressive guests on their show. Probably because, just like us Ukie producers, they believe in having fun doing radio ... unlike some of the jaded jocks cluttering the airwaves.

I just noticed that last January they kindly acknowledged my post on their blog. Being May already, it's a tad late, but I'll say "thanks" anyway! It's always exciting to get a link, and especially from such an illustrious source!

Now I don't imagine they play or talk about Ukrainian music on their program much ... or at all, for that matter. But, because they've been so kind here in the blogosphere I've added them to our blogroll. Who knows, maybe someday they'll play a song by Ruslana or the Telnyuk Sisters and maybe chat with Yulia next time she's in Washington.

But in the meantime, check out their website and experience talk radio by chicks! Click on the "Listen to ChickChat" page to hear a demo or an archived program, or subscribe to their podcast.

And make sure to go to their "fun stuff" page and check out the video clips at the bottom. Being female, I found the last one in particular hysterical!

Hypocrisy highlight of World Intellectual Property Day

Thursday April 26, 2007 was World Intellectual Property Day. Canada's intellectual property law guru, Michael Geist, was less than impressed with how Canada observed it.

Here's how he describes it:

[There was] no focus on creativity or on policies that meet the needs of creators and users... [Instead we got] a private function for MPs and Senators on Parliament Hill ... [with an RCMP display of] counterfeit batteries and unsafe extension cords ... an op-ed from the U.S. Consul General in Toronto ... and a major press release from CRIA touting declines in physical CD sales ... with claims that counterfeiting and P2P are the major reasons behind the declines.

Needless to say, there is:

• no mention of the tens of millions of dollars collected through the private copying levy that arguably covers those P2P downloads
• no mention of the most recent Canadian Heritage Music Industry Profile which focused on the growth of sales of Canadian artists since 2001
• no mention of the Canadian Heritage sponsored study that distinguishes between the health of the music industry and CD sales while placing much of the blame on the industry itself
• no mention that Canadian digital music sales growth was double the rate in the U.S. last year
• no mention that Canada has more online music stores than the U.S. when measured on a per capita basis
• no mention that the CRIA member strategy of relying on DRM is being quickly abandoned
• no mention of the changes at the retail level that even the Wall Street Journal points to as a critical reason for sales declines.

That is because World Intellectual Property Day has become little more than a lobbyist day with creators, users, and the facts once again getting lost in the process.

... it is worth asking whether the new CRIA data is somewhat skewed by the departure of the six major indie labels last April [that] have enjoyed significant commercial success ...

Worth asking, indeed.

Vancouver Ukrainian radio archives updated

Vancouver's April 29 Ukrainian radio programs are now archived at the Nash Holos website.

Sylvia gives cooking tips on duck. Fr. Bruce has travel tips on Poland, and a true story on how Ukrainian faith trumped Soviet sophistry. (The latter also at his BC Byzantine podcast.)

As well, the usual proverb of the week, and plenty of Great Ukrainian music, on both Nash Holos (with me, Pawlina) and Chetverta Khvylia (4th wave) with host Pavlo Manugevych.

Enjoy!

More media consolidation in Canada

Judging by this article, the CBC is not happy with the CRTC and how it handles private sector media consolidation. Can't say I'm impressed either.

CTVglobemedia executives faced tough questions from broadcast regulators Monday as hearings began into its proposed $1.4 billion purchase of CHUM Ltd.

Sure. Tough only when it comes to optics ...

"I'm trying to give you what you want but why couldn't you have made your request for an exemption less monumental?" commissioner Stuart Langford asked.

You have to wonder, what good are regulations when erosive exemptions are so easily granted? (That's a rhetorical question btw.) So much for a "free market" system. Thanks to crony capitalism Canada is fast becoming an oligarchy quite recognizable to Ukrainians and other East Europeans.

The CTVglobemedia/CHUM hearings are the first of three media takeovers the broadcast regulator is considering. The others include:

• CanWest Global's $2.3 billion deal — in partnership with U.S.-based Goldman Sachs — to take over Alliance Atlantis Communications.
• Astral Media's takeover of the privately owned radio stations of Standard Broadcasting.
  

You can be sure that none of these new corporate entities will have any interest in programming to ethnic communities like ours.

As this article illustrates, it's no better south of the border where the big players also keep minority broadcasters shut out.

But it's not not just ethnic communities and racial minorities that suffer, it's anyone in the general listening public who wants (or needs) to know more about them. What I find very puzzling is that industry and governments so stubbornly overlook and underserve these demographics, many of which are quite sizable and/or affluent.