This is news?

I thought PM PM declared the election with his bold address to the nation last June. Today's special from Ottawa has only brought the vote closer by, oh, seven-eight weeks. Whatever.

The problem of the false dilemma

Ask an entertainment company executive or an American politician about the problem of file-sharing and intellectual property rights and you'll get a classic false dilemma response That is, that file-sharing inherently enables copyright violation and therefore must be stopped, lest the entertainment business suffer ad inifinitem.

The great Matthew Yglesias points to a study concluding that file-sharing does result in fewer album sales, that file-sharing allows less popular artists to earn a greater market share and that the "gain to society" resulting from file-sharing is worth three times the loss of sales to record companies.

Why is this relevant (the last point in particular)? Contrary to what your favourite D.C. lobbyist might suggest, copyright laws, as spelled out in the U.S. Constitution, exist to ensure competition. In other words, to protect the consumer from monopolies and a lack of meaningful choice. Copyright was envisioned to promote innovation by allowing providers to secure the rights to their product for a limited time, not to give music business executives a handy excuse for developing an untenable business model.

The semi-colon; use it

Writing in the Times, Ben Macintyre delivers a ringing endorsement of the semi-colon. Read it; use it.

Finding ways to win

A tip of the hat to Bob Gainey, Claude Julien and the Montreal Canadiens, who find ways to win that excite their fans and keep fingernails trim. Unlike the ignoble Ottawa Senators, who would rather score four goals in the first five minutes, the Habs have been squeaking out one-goal victories and come-from-behind rallies, acccepting defeat only in OT, once a handy point has been secured.

Firewagon hockey it's not, and though it might be nice to win by two, the Habs are back. Courage!

Amos Lee

Man, is this overdue. Amos Lee put in a solid performance at La Tulipe last month, performing just about all of his eponymous album plus a bunch of new tunes before a fucking annoying crowd. The guy in front of me couldn't decide if he should sing along or talk to his ass-ugly girlfriend, so he did both. Despite awful sound (way too much bass; that sort of thing shouldn't happen at a small venue like La Tulipe) and the superficial crowd, Lee and his band played from the heart. New tunes, in particular one about doing coke on a night train (felicitations, M. Boisclair!), whet the appetite for a follow-up record (with a little more bass and drums and a little less sleepy Norah Jones - who has appeared on stage with Willie Nelson, Paul Simon AND Bob Dylan this year - kudos).

The higlight of the night was a gorgeous cover of "A Change is Gonna Come," the Sam Cooke standard Lee performed when I saw him in Chicago, which managed to shut up the chatty Cathy all around us. Lee took some time to come out of his shell on stage, but the band was tight from the first note. Opener Mutlu was a blast (one cannot omit mention of his Justin Timberlakeesque ode to board games) who probably gets straight A's at college.

Luminous

Liev Schreiber's adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer's "Everything Is Illuminated" is a charming, tender account of intergenerational and international rapprochement. Foer's novel weaves together several stories. That of our hero, Jonathan Safran Foer, and his "very rigid search" for the woman who saved his grandfather from the nazis (aided by his translator, Ukraine's finest playa, Alex; his grandfather, also named Alex, who is both blind and the only one capable of driving; and grandpa's "seeing-eye bitch," Sammy Davis Jr. Jr.) is played out on film. Schreiber has kept out the parallel story of Trachimbrod, the shtetl home to Jonathan's grandfather (his namesake, Safran), which is perfectly understandable, since it wouldn't work at all, and too bad, because it's the most imaginative part of the story.

The film offers some unlikely pairings: Jonathan, an obsessive collector in constant fear of forgetting to remember, and the sister of Augustine (the woman who saved Safran), who heartfully announces that the search for Trachimbrod is over ("You are here. I am it.") before displaying her extensive collection of Trachimbrod mementos (wedding rings, photos, dust, etc.).

The film works best, though, because of the excellent duo of Alex and Alex, who occupy all the empty space emitted by the little boy lost Elijah Wood. Jonathan's search is really (young) Alex's search - to the heart of his own family history. Foer lovingly and sharply gets to the heart of a grand intergenerational divide. The twist at the end of the story isn't a big surprise, and Schrieber treats it well.

"Everything is Illuminated" is funny and visually stunning. It deals with a ticky subject lightly enough to merit a hearty endorsement.

You're a shmuck

If you don't read Paul Wells. His Maclean's blog, Inkless Wells is a daily first stop. His column in this week's issue would be worth the price of admission alone were it not available free online.

Ballot blues

Pollsters are expecting very weak turnout at tomorrow's election, owing to the lacklustre campaign (equally the fault of a couple of ho-hum mayoral candidates and a lazy press). Unfortunately, I'll be among those not voting, not because I choose not to, but because I'm not registered. Basically, I changed my address after the registration deadline (which was in September), and am in electoral limbo: I can demonsrate my citizenship well enough, I'm listed in the Quebec election file, but I won't be able to speak my voice at a polling station tomorrow. It should be noted that the federal government will allow citizens to register up to the last minute; only the Province of Quebec won't tolerate "late" registration (the woman who explained it to me attributed the regulaiton to fraud prevention).

In any case, I'm still not entirely sure who should be the next mayor. Being disenfranchised hasn't exactly inspired any desire to compare election platforms and past records. The general shittiness of the campaign - and the media's inability to lift it out of the doldrums, partially by ignoring Projet Montreal's Richard Bergeron - makes you want to support the unconventional choice, i.e., the guy who hasn't been mayor. Then again, having looked at the PM platform, I'd be reluctant to cast my ballot for Bergeron.

That leaves Bourque and Tremblay. Tremblay seems to be a superwonk (not at all a bad thing) who can't seem to get a grip on the horrid crappiness that is municipal government in Quebec. While he's not impressive, he does have a grasp of the city's main challenges, if not an efficient way of overcoming them. Bourque helped validate the Parti Québecois agglomeration of the city with his endless "One Island, One City" blather. If only the results were disastrous; I'll leave it to the municipal policy experts to figure out if properly governing the greater Montreal region will ever be possible. Bourque also seems to be arrogant as hell, but you shouldn't really hold that kind of thing against a politician - the ones who seem humble may just be better at hiding their contempt for others.

So call it a very, very modest endorsement of Gerald Tremblay. Here's hoping yours truly is on the voter rolls come the next election. Lord knows the city won't be giving me a break on my property taxes.