December 16, 2002

JUST ANOTHER OF MY PET

JUST ANOTHER OF MY PET PEEVES

I don't really care how much Christina Aguilera reveals in her music videos. What does kind of bother me is her latest blatant nickname theft (she calls herself "X-tina" now) from a much more interesting and talented artist, Xtina X, of the Grim Faeries: a band that has been my favourite underrecognized indy musical treasure for some time. Sadly, it's typical of Aguilera Inc., who was always entirely a product of savvy youth marketing and soulless copycatism. Branding can frequently be the face of big capitalism at its worst: here in Canada, a little known story of the creation of the Chapters megabookstore chain was that all the little mom-and-pop bookshops called "Chapters" were driven out of business by an unleashed legion of lawyers. One wonders if the original Xtina has been served with a similar notice to change her name yet by the Aguilera brand conglomerate.

Posted by BruceR at 01:35 PM

THE OLD GUY STILL CAN

THE OLD GUY STILL CAN GET FIRED UP NOW AND THEN

Dean of Canadian conservative journalism Peter Worthington is hot and cold in his dotage (his bizarre obsessions with the Kleinburg art gallery and the Toronto Humane Society always turned me off) but he's written the best column on the Bill Sampson imprisonment issue I've seen yet. Keep them on the bounce, Peter.

Posted by BruceR at 01:02 PM