Tony's Column Thirty-Two

Tony’s Column

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Sep 23, 2010

Crime Polls

Hi everyone, this week a poll came out about what Winnipeggers thought about things, like crime, safety, sports, civic politics, etc. The poll was conducted on behalf of the real estate board and CJOB Radio. The interesting thing about the pole is that people feel safe in there own communities but not too many people felt safe in our downtown area (my home area of town). Lots of people attributed it to the media’s perception of the downtown. Most evening on the news you will hear about a stabbing here or a fire there but what most people don’t realize that downtown is considered a large area (just like the north end, another high crime area). What most people also don’t realize because of the media’s perception is that crime is up in all areas of the city. Most people in the Suburbs take some unnecessary chances, i.e. leaving their doors open so that anyone can walk in or leaving their car doors unlocked with personal items, like Ipods, just sitting in plain view. Most people feel because they can walk and text in the burbs with little problem that they can do the same thing in other areas. I saw one of these text bunnies walking across the street against the red light with not a thought to where she was. I see cars speeding down my street at high speeds not realizing that just like in the burbs Kids can just dart out into the street. Of course these guys probably wouldn’t speed done their own streets. People are really not aware of their surroundings when they are down town. I don’t know how many times I get bumped into because someone is not paying attention to were they are going because they are texting or talking on their phones. Sorry folks this is one of those times were I have gone from one thought to another. Until next time when hopefully I am more cohesive in my writings. Tony

Sep 16, 2010

Odds and Sods

Hi Everyone, Here’s some odds and sods for you this week. A couple of weeks ago Guns and Roses played a concert in Ireland. The band was surprised that people were throwing stuff at them because they showed up to play over an hour late. This is not the 1st time Axel and the gang have done this and when they asked the crowd to stop and they continued to do this, they left the stage in a huff. I wasn’t surprised when this was on the news because this primadonna has pulled the coming on late routine so many times it’s sickening. The only way he’s going to learn not to do this is if people a) stop going to their shows or b) start demanding refunds. The Dallas Cowboys blew a game this week that they should have won. Everyone is blaming the replacement right tackle for the loss because of the holding call on the last play of the game that would have resulted in the winning touchdown. The game was lost long before that. When you are down by 3 points with 4 seconds left in the half and at your own 35 yardline, take the knee go into half time and regroup. Don’t call for the hail mary then have the QB throw a ten year out pass to the running back, who then gets the ball stripped from his hands and the defender takes it into the endzone. That’s just plain stupidity on all parties but it’s the coach that started the stupidity. Lastly Atlas comics are making a comeback in the 2010’s. This series of comics failed miserably in the 1970’s at 25 cents each and they now want to revive it at $3.99 US a book. I guess they are looking for a sucker, I mean nostalgia, from the people wanting the new series. Maybe It will even be good. Nah. Till next time. Tony

Sep 8, 2010

Are your ready for some football

Hi Everyone, Well it’s that time of year again, and I don’t mean back to school. The NFL is back baby and the Saints continued right where they left off by beating the Vikings. The game wasn’t the barn burner we had all expected but their was little subtleties that cropped up. One the saints 1st possession of the game and right after half time, the drove the length of the field and scored. The had twice gotten themselves into easy field goal range (even though the kicker missed both of them) and at the end of the game when they needed to play a little ball control they did it at will. The Vikings ran the ball well until near the end of the game. The weird thing for me is that I think the Vikings would have won the game, the way it was played on Thursday had they started Sage Rosenfeld. Brett Farve’s timing was awful and it showed that he needs training camp just as much as anyone to at least be on the same page as his receivers. It’s not like they get Cleveland and Detroit to start the season last year then the 2-0 49ers, the will actually have a few tough games to start this season. As for the Saints I hope they are not going to spend the 1st 5 games this season experimenting like last year to see what works and win close games. I don’t think my heart could take it. Then again if it gets them the same results as last season, experiment away. Till next Time, Tony.

Sep 1, 2010

CtoC is 15!!

Hi Everyone, Well it was 15 years ago when I started Cover to Cover. If someone told me a few years ago, I would be down to one and store and that store was Cover to cover I would have said they were crazy. I have had the stores combined for the last 2 years and it is still a work in progress. I thought I would have seen more people come from when I was on portage ave but I am grateful for all the ones that did continue to shop and who continue to make the drive over. I also would like to thank all the people who have been coming here for the last 15 years (too many to name but you can all pat yourselves on the back). I would like to thank all the new people who have started to come here too on a regular basis. I hope I am treating all of you well and let me know because I sometimes don’t know how I’m doing with out you letting me know how I’m doing. Still working on filling the shelves and bins and I will try to do my best to get in more of the items that you are looking to buy. Thank you all once again. Till Next Time. Tony

Aug 26, 2010

It’s Quiet, too quiet.

Hi Everyone, Well on the comic news front it has been quiet, way too quiet. I am beginning to think something big is going to happen and not in a good way. There are books being cancelled with out so much of a fanfare. There are books being brought out without much hype. Plus there are more variant covers being released than you can shake a stick at but still no real news. With the way the economy is and with people being a little on edge, right now no news is really not good news. It just gets you thinking about things that go wrong. Till next Time Tony.

Aug 19, 2010

Human Rights

Hi Everyone, early today on a local talk show they were talking about what are Human rights. This was brought up because a person was asked to leave a place because of the T-Shirt they were wearing. Without going heavily into all the details, the basic question asked was what are our Human rights. The first one is Freedom, then the right to clean water and Air. However you don’t have the right to own a house, that is a privilege. Anything that you work for or have to work for, or go to work for is a privilege. I would think that in any climate the right to adequate shelter would be a human right. Not saying everyone should have a mansion but everyone should have somewhere to go when the conditions are not ideal or even at night. If some calls this a privilege they seem to be misguided. Especially someone from the 5th estate. I could see if he was just trying to stir up the pot but I believe this person was serious about this. It is easy for a person who has never been in the situation of having to live in the streets to be all high and mighty but I like to think that we are all one disaster away from being in the poor house. We should all be entitled to Clean Air Water, Shelter and Food, all things need to SURVIVE. That’s what human rights are about. It’s easy to preach from your high perch when you have all this. Of course, I think every once in awhile we all need a dose of humility. Till Next Time. Tony

Aug 12, 2010

Rude Much

Hi Everyone, All week I have had many things going through my head, from intolerance of others to poor customer service. I think I am going to rant about manners. Last night I did a little shopping and I decide that I was going to try doing an experiment with manners. What did I find out: That there are very few people with manners out there. Here is an example: at Safeway a young lady who had already made here purchase, found 2 more items and was behind me. I was doing 2 purchase (1 personal/1 business) I had just finished the business one and before we rang the rest of the stuff in I decided to let her ring her 2 items in. She did this and left with not so much as a thank you, she kind of treated this like she deserved this. While driving a vehicle in the left lane started drifting into my lane, I move over a bit hoping he would realize that he was taking over 2 lanes. When he didn’t do this I slowed down to give him room to figure out what he was doing. No signal what so ever he comes into my lane. No acknowledgement that he had pretty much cut me off. Just a little ways down the road he starts to do this again in front of me driving in 2 lanes and almost cutting off another vehicle. However in the end he stayed in my lane. I was dumping my recycling and noticed an older gentleman was putting a lot of cardboard in the bins and I asked him if he needed any help before I left. He politely said no and thanked me for the offer. In the end this older gentlemen proved there still is some manners left in the world. Two bad the other 2 younger people don’t have it. Until Next time. Tony

Aug 5, 2010

This used to be our playhouse, 2010

Hi Everyone, Comicon ended on the weekend and guess how much comic news came out of San Diego this year. Nothing, nada, bupkiss. Most of the news had to do with movies. I thought that this was COMIC CON not MEDIA CON. Over the last few years the cool kids have pushed us out of our clubhouse and they are inviting there even cooler friends, leaving us to either peer through the window or a small corner of the clubhouse to sit. I am still under the impression they should change the name of it to the Southern California Media show or the San Diego Media Show and Expo. They might have to change the name if they decide to move to Anaheim to hold the show in the next couple of years. At least the Toronto comic con got it right and change the name of there show to the Toronto FanExpo. Then they can encompass all the things in the medium beyond comics, toys etc. In my opinion the San Diego comic con died around the turn of this Century and it has been replaced by this media monster. I knew things were over when someone told me that the line up to see the Hollywood stars were longer than the lines to see any comic creator or artist. That just makes me sad. Till next time. Tony

July 29, 2010

Good Night, Mr. Shyamalan

Hi Everyone, I went to the Sneak Preview of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and let me tell you: go see this movie, it is truly hilarious. I am not going to talk about the movie but about the trailer they had before the movie. The Movie is called Devil and the trailer was great to look at and it seemed like the buzz was all positive until one point. The said who was doing the movie and a collective groan and comments (Hell No comes to mind). It was by M. Night Shyamalan ( I probably spelt his last name wrong). I think after the Last Airbender he has really burnt his last bridge with the public. I know that I was excited about the last Airbender until I heard he was attached to it. I was thinking that I would give this movie a chance and this would be the last chance for M. Night. However after all the bad reviews it received I have decided to pass on it. It seems that his movie have all the best parts in the trailers so I can save my money from seeing the dregs of the film. It’s a shame too because the trailers for his last 5 movies have been phenomenal. Too bad the same can’t be said about the movies themselves. Go see Scott Pilgrim but stay away from the Devil. A good idea to keep in mind even in life. Till next Time. Tony

July 22, 2010

Youtube Zombie

Hi Everyone, I was sitting here thinking, there are some people who have way too much time on their hands. A customer was telling me that there is a guy on Youtube who does a blog on comics. This guys most recent thing is that Wonder Woman should not be considered and Icon compared to Spiderman, the X-men and the Fantastic Four because she doesn’t have the sales those books have. As a self confessed former Marvel Zombie I have to say “WHAATTTTT”. If your basis for Iconic is how many books your selling then I guess Spawn is more of an Icon than the Fantastic Four. People like this have blinders on and no amount of talking will ever convince them that they are wrong. A person like this reminds me of all the Brett Farve Fans that believe he is the greatest QB of all. He has played a lot of games but compared to other QB’s that knew when to retire, he just keeps hanging around being a drama queen. He is not the greatest QB of all time. He might hold a few of the passing records now and the iron man record but he was lucky to win his one Superbowl (which I have mentioned in another blog just recently so I won’t go into it again). Farve fans seem to forget this. Marvel Zombies can be the same way, as far as most of them are concerned comics didn’t start until 1961. Wonder Woman is a much and maybe even more of an Icon than the Fantastic Four. She is one of the first strong female characters in comics, she has had a TV series before any of the Marvel characters (live action not animated). The characters mentioned in this article are all Iconic and it sales has nothing to do with it. If that was the case Spiderman would have lost his Icon status 2 years ago and Superman’s would have been gone in the 1980s. Till Next time. Tony.

July 15, 2010

You Say you want a Revolution

Hi Everyone, I need to talk about what happened at the G-20 summit in Toronto a couple of weeks ago. I watched a show earlier this week that had a panel of people that were involved in the protests (including film footage) and people who were opposed. Most of the audience were people who were on the side of the protesters. What struck me as funny was whenever someone, I will call them from the right, on the panel would say something the audience would show them very little respect or cut them off, if they didn’t like how their answers were going. I did have to agree with one of the protesters who was their as part of a peaceful protest, the police should have moved in the day the black masks were out in full force instead of the bully tactics that were used the other 2 days. Their was a lot of protesters the next 2 days after the riots that end up arrested either because they disobeyed police orders or were in the wrong place at the wrong time. I can also understand why they have the black mask conspiracy theory because of the police tactics the next 2 days and their lack of action on the day of the real destruction. One woman from the right had the best comment on the panel and was subsequently booed for it. She said if no one showed up and the press had pictures of all these police and armed personnel standing around doing nothing it would have really demonstrated what a waste or 1.2 billion dollars. Instead with everything that happened, it now shows the government was justified in spending the money. What I have found with people on the Right and the left is that the only opinion that is right is their own. Matter of fact there was one instance were the Reporter from the Globe and Mail said that he would get boo for his stance and the comment he would make. He was right and the only response the person who he was arguing with could come up with is the party line regurgitated over and over again. For people who I thought were supposed to be opened minded, free thinkers, they were sure acting like lemmings. We all know what happen to lemmings by a cliff. Till Next Time. Tony

July 8, 2010

People, are we missing the point?

Hi Everyone, I’m kind of mad right now. I just read an article about a woman in Florida, whose teenage son stole a Manga from the library and to quote her “ He lost his mind when he found this, and is now at home with intensive therapy”. She is the head of the watchdog group Protect our Children and she has brought her concerns to the city council that the library should not stock “this kind of adult anime” (which I’m sure she meant manga from what the reporter had said). One of the councilors went to the library and found that the Kids and Adult manga are in separate sections. Teen Manga was “innocuous” according to the councilor. Is it just me or is the elephant in the room not worth talking about. The kid STOLE the manga from the library. He didn’t check it out, it wasn’t in the wrong section but he STOLE IT!!! Now the mother is up in arms, not to the fact that he stole the Manga, but that the library was carrying it, in a section that was clearly marked, and that her son couldn’t handle what he was reading. I think that there is more of an issue here about parenting than the fact that the library has mature manga. Maybe if she spent more time parenting, talking with her kid and maybe setting his moral compass instead of everyone else, maybe he might not have resorted to STEALING. Have people forgotten how to parent. I had a woman in this morning who after awhile I wondering who was in charge her or the 2 1/2 year old. She want to leave so instead of say picking up the child and going, she jingled her keys, kept asking and finally pulled out a juice box and lead the kid out the door like you would lead a donkey. I can see problems for teachers coming with this one because by the time she gets to Kindergarten, if the teachers don’t cater to her, they will hear about it, probably from the parents. I guess the lesson here is it’s alright to steal and be a prima donna as long as you can put the blame on someone else. Til Next Time. Tony

July 3, 2010

Big Blue win their home opener!!

Hi everyone, well the Winnipeg Blue Bombers did what they were supposed to do and one their home opener 49-29 over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. The feel this year is a lot different from last year. The Coach is not saying the wrong things, not doing much to aggravate the fans and is actually being nice to the media. The coach from last year was very entertaining but we hadn’t won our first game under him until sometime in August. This was a good win not only for the team and the coach but for the collective conscious of the city. Let’s not go and start planning any Grey Cup parade routes yet, but it is great to start off the season with a win. Let’s also take it like the coaches philosophy: We will take it one game at a time and one win at a time. Until next time. Tony

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