The first journal entry

Hmmmm... I have no idea what to say at the moment. When in doubt, plagiarize from Pepys.

"Blessed be God, at the end of the last year I was in very good health, without any sense of my old pain but upon taking of cold. I lived in Axe=yard, having my wife and servant Jane, and no more in family then us three."

Hmmmm.... that's not terribly applicable to my life, is it?

I find the existence of God rather suspect. I can't remember the state of my health last year, but I suspect it was the same "pushing my luck -- really need to lose weight before I leave my mid-thirties" that it is now, and I don't live in Axe=yard with a wife or servant. Instead I live in a bachelor apartment with way, way too much stuff.

I'm debating whether to see the Narnia movie at all. I liked the book as a child, and was fond of the old BBC series. But well, this whole appealing to fundamentalists thing bothers me. Having a movie with a Christian allegory doesn't bother me. It's that this movie is being sponsored by someone who has given money to all sorts of causes that I think are destructive to our society. I'd rather not have the price of my ticket go to buy a sandwich board that some insenstive jerk could wear when picketing the funeral of someone who died from AIDS-related complications. Or to have my money fund forcing religion into the science classroom. Or... well, you get the point.

So, it's the battle between my morals and the big Hollywood merchandising machine. I'm hoping my morals will win out, but well ... I have been working at an insurance company lately. So, I don't think I've been getting enough moral fibre in my diet.

Corporate incest

I remember when I believed the whole capitalist dogma - back in my callow youth. Market forces were meant to supply checks and balances. Competition was supposed to be this pure, nearly-mythic presence that kept the whole system running. Turns out that really capitalist competition is as sordid and in-bred as a gaggle of royal families.

Torstar - the folks behind the Toronto Star - are poised to own 20 percent of their rival The Globe and Mail. I prefer the Star's politics, but admire the Globe's intelligence. I'll be interested to see whether the Globe's heart grows a few extra sizes or if its brain shrinks.

Earlier this year, Cineplex Odeon and Famous Players started a corporate lip-lock. And aside from Book City, every major bookstore chain in this city is just using different names for the same outfit. In the States, corporates like ClearChannel seem to be buying everything. And let's not forget Time-Warner - the folks behind CNN, Time Magazine, Entertainment Weekly and dozens of other news outlets.

If this keeps up, every thing we read, watch, hear ... and possibly think will be controlled by one outfit. It's like the media are -- is? -- becoming the giant space amoeba from that old Star Trek episode.

No wonder "media" is rapidly becoming a singular noun.

P.S.: I should add that of course, the Globe and Mail is itself a merger of two Toronto papers with opposing political allegiances - the Globe .. and well, obviously, the Mail. Also, it's part of the same outfit that owns the CTV television network. Just as rival paper The National Post and Global TV are one big happy corporate family. When I worked for the CBC, it bothered me no end that the Globe and the Post repeatedly demanded that the CBC have its funding cut or its mandate changed. What bothered me wasn't just a threat to my then-employer, a valuable Canadian institution, and the producers of the only TV news I can watch without screaming at the television set. No, what bothered me was the deceptive attitude taken in these anti-CBC articles. The writers acted like they were neutral observers rather than the competition.