#Calgary Herald

[heartlandians]

Hundreds of fans expected to participate in Heartland's Fans Extras Day for big rodeo scene

If there is one drawback to using a group of devoted fans as extras on a TV series, it’s that they tend to be a little too well-behaved.

On Monday, July 15, the CBC fan-favourite family drama, Heartland, will hold its traditional fans extra day, where roughly a thousand fans from around the globe are expected to serve as extras during a big rodeo scene shot in Millarville.

The episode, which will air as part of Season 18 of the series, is being directed by Michelle Morgan, who has also played Lou Fleming since the series began back in 2007. She has directed a number of episodes for the series and this is the second time she has directed on fan day. The biggest challenge is not the fans’ lack of experience on set. They take instruction very well. In fact, a little too well, she says.

“They are so well-behaved because they are so excited to be there that they’ll all follow the instructions,” Morgan says “When you watch the coverage of the audience, it’s almost too uniform. Everybody is doing the exact same thing. Whereas if you are looking at a real crowd, sometimes people are listening, sometimes people are drinking a beer, sometimes they are chatting with their girlfriend. So that’s one thing I find challenging as a director.”

The episode with be the fifth in Season 18, which begins airing in the fall. As in year’s past, a call went out over social media in late June and on the Heartland blog for fans to participate.

Within 72 hours, thousands had responded. Last year, fans came from Brazil, Australia and throughout the U.S. Fans chosen this year were informed by July 9. The set is not open to the public.

The scene requiring extras will revolve around a rodeo in Hudson, the fictional Alberta town where Heartland takes place. The broad strokes of the storyline will involve most the main characters, with major arcs involving Amy Fleming (played by Amber Marshall), her grandfather Jack Bartlett (Shaun Johnston) and father Tim Fleming (Chris Potter.)

Fans will be on set for roughly four hours and the day will include interactions with the cast, Morgan says.

“We always make it fun for fans, the people who come from far and wide,” Morgan says. “Shaun makes it really fun, he’ll always do a pushup competition with someone or a race or something. Amber is really great, she’ll come out on a horse and explain what we’re filming and how things work behind the scenes. I’ll come and answer questions and chat with people. We always wish people a happy birthday and we take some questions as well. It’s super fun for the fans.”

The fans who sign up come from all walks of life and are of various ages, just like the show’s audience in general. Heartland is the longest-running hour-long series in the history of Canadian television but has a world-wide following. According to the Nielsen ratings of 2023, Heartland is one of the Top 10 most viewed shows across all streaming services .In 2023, Americans watched 22.8-billion minutes of Heartland. It is the only Canadian produced and set series in the Top 10 and falls just below Friends, Gilmore Girls and Big Bang Theory.

The fan days are held in appreciation of the show’s strong following, but also offer eye-opening insight of how television sets operate.

“The biggest misconception is that it’s glamorous and it’s easy and we’re sitting around on set sipping champagne sitting on cushions,” Morgan says. “The set is a really hard-working place. There’s a lot of bright lights. It’s hot, it’s stuffy. We work very long hours. It’s definitely not as glamorous and people may think.”

Season 18 of Heartland will air in the fall.

Source

[panicinthestudio]

Chinatown staple Diamond Bakery closes as owner retires, July 2, 2023

'Diamond Bakery has been a Calgary favourite and certainly a Chinatown go-to for BBQ pork buns, egg tarts and deep-fried pork dumplings,' said Ward 7 Coun. Terry Wong

A decades-long fixture in Calgary’s Chinatown is closing shop, as its owner celebrates moving into retirement. In a social media post, the Chinatown Business Improvement Area commended owner Henry Chan for his 30 years running the bakery. “Henry Chan is one of the kindest and most hard-working merchants you will find in Chinatown and we wish him all the best in his retirement,” they wrote. Ward 7 Coun. Terry Wong is a former executive director of the Chinatown BIA. He said Diamond Bakery will be missed, but that there will be an opportunity for a new business to make its home in Chinatown. “Diamond Bakery has been a Calgary favourite and certainly a Chinatown go-to for BBQ pork buns, egg tarts and deep-fried pork dumplings that we’re going to miss,” Wong said. “We wish the owner a great retirement and look forward to another great Chinatown cultural offering.” City council recently approved a plan that aims to grow the historic Chinatown while preserving the downtown area’s cultural heritage. That plan will involve new infrastructure development, including mixed-use residential-commercial buildings and public spaces, with developers needing to meet certain Asian esthetic requirements in their designs. Jason Herring for the Calgary Herald

Further reading:

My go-to for Hong Kong bakery staples like pineapple buns, coconut and egg tarts, and cocktail buns. They had an even wider selection of when I was a kid: 缽仔糕, 白糖糕, fried curry beef bun, wedding pastries, and until the pandemic their selection of mooncakes. The original must-have was their large palmiers--the kind a kid should probably split in two but didn't because there was always the promise you'd have another next week.

"Staple" doesn't quite illustrate the institutional position, it was the oldest independent Chinese bakery in the city and provided a very specific sense of home for so many of us. 老板, his staff, and Diamond Bakery are an integral part of the story Calgary's Chinatown. We were all so lucky to have shared in their warmth.

[agentfascinateur]

Where is the Western media outrage?

100 journalists killed by Israelis.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

"Sources say newspaper publisher Postmedia Network Corp. is laying off 11 per cent of its editorial staff, less than a week after workers were told the company was grappling with "economic contraction.''

Postmedia, which owns publications including the National Post, Vancouver Sun and Calgary Herald and employs about 650 journalists, announced the layoffs at a town hall Tuesday afternoon.

In an audio recording of the meeting obtained by The Canadian Press, Gerry Nott, acting senior vice-president of editorial content, said the cuts would affect all of the company's publications with the exception of Brunswick News and Postmedia Editorial Services, which have already been downsized."

Full article

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[mossadegh]

• Canadian media on Iran (1950’s)

[zonetrente-trois]

“Makichuk and MacLeod’s screenplay revolved around three young and reckless snowmobilers (played by Riva Spier, Sheri McFadden and future Alberta Film Commissioner Murray Ord) who find themselves stranded at a seemingly abandoned lodge in the wilderness during a blizzard.”

[weatherman667]

Alberta Invokes Sovereignty Act

Runtime:  3:16

[subsidystadium]

Slowly the Canadians are realizing just how terrible the Calgary Arena deal will be for them

Two months ago, it was announced that the city of Calgary and the Calgary Flames, their NHL team, had come to an agreement to build a new arena for just the low, low price of $1.22 billion. This comes after last year’s failed arena deal where the Flames decided to pull out of the deal when the city told them that they would need to help pay for additional infrastructure costs. There are three…

[yesterdaysprint]

Calgary Herald, Alberta, March 3, 1936

[heartlandians]

Family dynamics: Happiness and trauma will be a part of Heartland's 17th season

There is a scene near the end of Heartland’s Season 17 opener where the Fleming sisters are cloud-watching near a pond in the fields of Alberta.

For the most part, CBC’s Sunday-night favourite has been seen as a family-friendly enterprise known for its horses, wholesome humour, romance, beautiful scenery and the odd flash of gentle drama. Nevertheless, characters will inevitably go through quite a bit of life-altering tumult over 17 years, no matter how idyllic the backdrop. For Amy Fleming (Amber Marshall) and older sister Lou (Michelle Morgan), that has included everything from mourning the death of their mother and enduring youthful romantic complications as the series began through divorce, motherhood, various professional setbacks and, most dramatically, the sudden death of Amy’s husband and fan favourite Ty (Graham Wardle) in later years.

So this moving scene between sisters in the show’s 250th episode offers a nice throwback to where it all began.

The sequence is hardly inconsequential in terms of plot. To avoid spoilers, however, we’ll just say the two are contemplating certain aspects of Amy’s future. But it’s also a nice refresher of the relationship between the Fleming sisters and the actors who play them, which was a large part of the appeal back when CBC first aired the Calgary-shot rural drama in 2007.

“The truth is, for Amber and I, luckily our relationship has flourished over the years and we get along better than ever,” says Morgan, who will be joining her castmates for a Calgary International Film Festival screening and Q&A on Sept. 28 at the Jubilee Auditorium. “With some shows, people get really sick of each other and don’t get along anymore but we have a great relationship and when we do scenes like that, it’s not super often. So we appreciate it. It’s like ‘This is nice, this is great.’ We get to do this scene as sisters. We get to be in the beautiful place by the pond. We love doing stuff like that because it’s not typical, we’re not often doing scenes like that. We were talking about it, behind the scenes, how great it was to do it.”

One of the reasons the Heartland universe has survived for 17 years is because it continues to expand. The Fleming sisters arrived at the ranch owned by the kind and wise Grandpa Jack Bartlett (Shaun Johnston) in 2007, not long after their mother had died. Amy was only 16 at the time. They were introduced to ranching life, met the townsfolk of the fictional Hudson, Alberta, and were reunited with their estranged father Tim (Chris Potter). In the very first episode, Amy met Ty, a troubled stable boy who quickly became a big part of life on the Bartlett ranch.

But the teens eventually turned to adults. There were marriages. Every couple of seasons, a new troubled teenager or pre-teen would appear to complicate life on the ranch. Eventually, a second generation of children was born. In Season 17, which debuts Oct. 1 on CBC, one of the arcs seems to be the coming-of-age of Lou’s daughter Katie, who has been played by Calgarian Baye McPherson since Season 15. While her age isn’t clearly specified, she is clearly a teen, right down to the eye-rolling exchanges she has with her uncool parents.

“Isn’t that crazy?” says Morgan, who directed two episodes of Season 17. “My daughter in the show is a bit younger but almost the same age as Amy in the first season.”

While the cast remained remarkably consistent over the years, characters came and went. The character of Georgie, played by Alisha Newton, will not be a part of Season 17.  But in another reminder of the show’s longevity, the first episode will involve Mallory (Jessica Amlee), a fan favourite who began life as a meddlesome pre-teen in Season 1 and returned in Season 16 as a mother-to-be at a crossroads in her life.

Still, judging from the first episode, there will be plenty of room given to the original protagonists of the series this year. Morgan says Lou will deal with some professional calamities while revisiting some childhood trauma that unearths some family drama. As Season 17 begins, she is campaigning for another term as mayor of Hudson. Her opponent is her friend and former co-worker Rick Adderly (played by Aidan Moreno), who was introduced at the beginning of Season 14 as the chief administrative officer of Hudson. Lou feels blindsided and a little betrayed by Rick’s political ambitions and spends part of the first episode debating whether she needs to start running a negative campaign against him, something that her father suggests is necessary but her daughter is against.

As the first LGBTQ+ character in the series, Rick represents another step in the expansion of the Heartland universe. In 2019, the short-lived spinoff web series Hudson introduced a gay character, but Rick is the first for the main TV series in 17 years.

“When we did Hudson, it felt a little bit risky,” says Morgan. “It felt like we were taking a big swing or something. I was glad we were taking it, it was long overdue, but with Aidan coming on board it was more like ‘OK, come on guys, this is not a big deal. This is the right actor for the part, this is his character, he’s excellent.’ It just felt a little more natural and easy and it wasn’t a big deal. I think it probably still was a big deal for some viewers but too bad for them.”

As Grandpa Jack espouses with trademark homespun wisdom in the voice-over narration for the trailer for Season 17: “Families, they come in all shapes and sizes.” Amy is now a single mother who went through a significant period of mourning after the death of her husband. But if Season 17 will see Lou going through some tough times, Marshall says Amy’s focus this year will be on moving past tragedy after Ty’s death.

“Just having the family unit together, unified and looking to the future I think is so important,” Marshall says. “The Heartland family has seen so many ups and downs over the last few years and Amy especially with losing her husband several years ago. It was a very delicate line that we had to travel as far as paying respect to that character and also allowing her to move on and find happiness again. So I do believe this season, Amy has found happiness and she is starting to branch out and do things she hasn’t done before and maybe date a little bit and so I think, for the fans, it’s time. We’ve given it its grieving room and Amy can go explore life again a little bit.”

But for any series, there will inevitably come a time when the story ends. Neither Morgan nor Marshall thinks Season 17 will be the last, but they both say they think about how Canada’s longest-running hour-long drama will take its final bow.

“I always wonder: When this series comes to an end, how are we going to tie it with a bow?” Marshall says. “It’s something that I would hope we knew going into the last season so we could arc all of the characters and the stories so they would have that final tie-together. But, again, it’s something we don’t know. We’re renewed year by year. With a series, you have a little bit of flexibility. Each season could be a cliffhanger, but you don’t want to do that if you’re not coming back. So it’s a really fine line of storytelling.”

Heartland Season 17 debuts Oct. 1 on CBC. The Calgary International Film Festival will hold a screening of Episode 1 and a live Q&A with cast members Amber Mashall, Michelle Morgan, Shaun Johnston and Chris Potter at the Jubilee Auditorium at 7 p.m. Visit ciffcalgary.ca.

Source

[panicinthestudio]

"Bricks and Mortality: Shining a light on the Lost Buildings of Calgary", Calgary Herald, March 23, 2018

Hotel York, Calgary's newest hotel Seventh Ave. at Centre St., ca. 1930, via Internet Archive

[annieqattheperipheral]

hockey according to Johnny Hockey. the crazy stats, awards and achievements. never underestimate.

...

He was 5-foot-6, 137 pounds when the Calgary Flames selected him in the fourth round (No. 104) in the 2011 NHL Draft. Among the 211 players taken that year, he was tied for the shortest. He was the lightest by 13 pounds.

...

His coach -- Jim Montgomery, then of Dubuque of the United States Hockey League, now of the Boston Bruins -- told the Calgary Herald after the draft that it was “a brave pick.”

Gaudreau told the newspaper that his team had allowed fans to watch tryouts the previous year.

“My mom was sitting in the stands behind these two older guys who thought they knew a whole bunch about hockey,” Gaudreau said then. “They were like, ‘Ah, look at that little kid! He’s never going to make it!’ And my mom was getting so mad.”

Even last season, his 11th in the NHL, Gaudreau, all grown up, was all of 5-9, 163. Among the 1,022 players who appeared in the League, only 15 were shorter. Only five were lighter.

...

Gaudreau was the USHL rookie of the year and helped Dubuque win the Clark Cup in 2010-11. The next season, he led NCAA freshmen with 44 points (21 goals, 23 assists) in 44 games, was most valuable player of the Beanpot tournament and helped Boston College win a national title.

...

Gaudreau led the 2013 IIHF World Junior Championship in goals (seven in seven games) and helped the United States win gold, while leading the NCAA in points per game (1.45), helping Boston College win the Beanpot again and being named Hockey East player of the year as a sophomore.

He came back to Boston College for his junior year instead of going pro.

One of the main reasons: to play with Matthew.

Gaudreau won the Hobey Baker Award as the NCAA’s top player after leading the nation in goals (36), assists (44) and points (80) in 40 games, and he signed with Calgary the same day, April 11, 2014. Two days later, he made his NHL debut and scored on his first shot.

...

Gaudreau never played a game in the minors. In 2014-15, he tied for the rookie lead with 64 points (24 goals, 40 assists) in 80 games and was a finalist for the Calder Trophy, which goes to the NHL rookie of the year. Two years later, he won the Lady Byng Trophy, which goes to the player voted to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship, gentlemanly conduct and playing ability. He had 61 points (18 goals, 43 assists) in 72 games with only four penalty minutes.

Two years after that, he finished fourth in the voting for the Hart Trophy, which goes to the NHL most valuable player.

And three years after that, he set NHL career highs in goals (40), assists (75) and points (115) in 82 games, tying for second in the NHL in scoring and earning another fourth place in the Hart voting. He scored from a bad angle in overtime of Game 7 of the Western Conference First Round against the Dallas Stars, sending the Flames to the second round for the first time in seven years

...

Gaudreau ranks fifth in Flames history in assists (399) and points (609).

...

The little guy leaves a huge hole.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

This interview with Poilievre in the Calgary Herald is alarming:

https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/bell-pierre-poilievre-isnt-scary-reality-terrifying

[mossadegh]

• Mossadegh media: newspaper & magazine articles, editorials

[zonetrente-trois]

“As a kid growing up in Calgary, Akilla would occasionally follow the crime-fighting adventures of the Bobbsey Twins through their books. They were published by the Stratemeyer Syndicate, the same company that gave us the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and Tom Swift.“

[crossdreamers]

Not long ago people attacked gay and lesbian people for being sexual predators. These days the same arguments are used against trans people.

Right wing extremists and left wing “trans-exclusionary radical feminists” (TERFs)  are arguing that trans women are a threat to cis women and children. The tactic is to sexualize transgender people, reducing their gender identity to some kind of perversion.

This is not in any way a new tactic, historically. It has been used against feminists, people of color and gay men and lesbian women.

So, you might ask why lesbian are using the same tactics against trans people, as straight, cis, people used against their kind. They have clearly learned nothing from history.

Over at twitter The Implausible Girl has collected a wide variety of newspaper clippings documenting the arguments used against gay men and lesbian women.  I will present some of them here.

The Cult Argument

One typical argument used about trans people is that they are part of a cult that uses propaganda to harm cis people. The same argument was used against gay people.

The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, MD) 1997-07-20

The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, MD) 1997-07-20

The Signal (Santa Clarita, California). 1999-01-15

The Criminal Myth

In the same way trans women are presented as criminals these days, gay men and lesbian women were considered lawless in the 20th century.

Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY)   1964-03-15

The Daily Chronicle, 1977-04-12 

The Deception Myth

The fact that gay men and lesbian women were forced into the closet by transphobes, was used against them by the same transphobes. They were considered deceptive and dishonest. The same applies to trans people today.

Leader-Telegram (Eau Claire, Wisconsin) 1993-12-03

Hartford Courant, 1997-06-14

The Oppressor is the Victim Myth

When gay men and lesbian people fought for respect and acceptance, their straight oppressors immediately presented themselves as victims. These days lesbian TERFs spread the lie that the trans cause is weakening the lesbian cause. 

The argument that “gender ideology” threatens religious liberty is the exact same argument as the one used against gay and lesbian people in the 20th century.

The Indianapolis News 1974-04-20

The Tennessean 1989-09-20

The Trender/Fad Myth

These days we are told that trans kinds are victims of a fad. They are “trans trenders”. The exact same argument was used against gay and lesbian people.

The Coos Bay Times, 1956-10-04

Calgary Herald, 1970-06-13

The Sexual Predator Myth

Female rebels used to be called "sluts” and “nymphomaniacs” by the servants of the Patriarchy. Black people had to use separate bathrooms in South Africa and the American South, to “protect” white women and children for irrational, hypersexual, black men and women. Finally, lesbian and gay people were considered part of an evil conspiracy aimed at turning “decent kids and women” into sexual deviants.

The Courier-Journal (Lousiville, KY) 1975-10-25

Carrizozo Lincoln County News, page 4 1985-08-01

The Binary is Common Sense Myth

People who know little about science or the diversity of religious beliefs seem to think that the sexual binary (we are all born straight) and the gender binary (biological sex equals gender identity) are self evident. Moreover, they think this dogma is supported by science and religion.

Lesbian TERFs, who are themselves victims of this nonsense, are now using this argument against trans people.

The Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL) 1986-04-24

The Signal (Santa Clara, CA) 1996-08-13

Baxter Bulletin (Mountain Home, AK) 1999-03-09

The Free Speech Argument

In democracies oppressors have always hidden their bigotry behind the free speech argument. Apparently they think that free speech legitimizes hate speech and violence. For some reason the argument for free speech is not applied to their victims, gay or trans people.

Enterprise-Journal (McComb, MI) 1998-10-11

Keeping Lesbians/Trans Women out of the Feminist Movement

TERFs want to keep trans women out of the feminist movement. It wasn’t that long ago, straight feminists wanted to exclude lesbian women from the feminist movement.

The Bee (Danville, VA) 1977-11-21 

To conclude: The current transpohbia is driven by the exact same kind of prejudice as homophobia, with the transphobes using the same stereotypes, the same narratives and the same kind of fear mongering. 

More clippings here.