Artistic liberty or cultural dissonance?
by Tiffy Leeson
Walk off The Earth performed ‘O Canada’ at The World Cup of Hockey Finals in Toronto last Thursday. The internet sensation indie group from Burlington, Ontario, integrated their signature island upbeat vibe to the Country’s Anthem – causing (apparently) some viewers to feel quite uncomfortable.
WOTE is known for having their own off-the-wall, interpretive style leaving some viewers with a less than enthusiastic impression their rendition.
Thankfully, Pete Blackburn from Fox News decided that it was important to comment from an American’s standpoint on the situation:
Hey Canada, what the hell is this? pic.twitter.com/x65C2RoAT3
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) September 30, 2016
WOTE also caused grief with their choice of using the new all inclusive gender neutral version of the phrase “in all of us command” from “in all thy sons command” – a change made this June 2016, in Bill C-210.
Don't be ignorant @ddm0909 the original lyric from 1908 was "us command". Get with the times homie! https://t.co/CaH91qxu4D
— Walk off the Earth (@WalkOffTheEarth) September 30, 2016
And then we had Bruce Arthur, sports columnist at the Toronto Star, who thought it would be appropriate to align his protest with Colin Kaepernick’s ‘taking a knee’ against racial profiling and inequality.
I'm not saying the version of O Canada before the World Cup final game was absurd, but I will say I considered taking a knee
— Bruce Arthur (@bruce_arthur) September 30, 2016
Well Bruce, not saying that you’re absurd, but we are considering it.
Aside from these keyboard warriors, what is your take on the rendition?
Good morning!
Nothing wrong, IMO, with the way WOTE did the Canada song. It’s their way. As for the word change, sigh…
What does get to me a bit, à la longue, is that mishmash of English and French. I’d like to occasionally hear a whole first verse in one of the languages.
A very Canadian “problem”, especially compared to what’s going on South of here.
And good morning!
Agreed. The rendition was fine.
Russ, do you know this word, “instantiation”? A first for me I think: “For one, it’s becoming apparent that Twitter can’t be saved in its current instantiation.”
In http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/10/what-the-twitter-sale-reveals-about-twitter
Good morning! Well done @tiffy!
I think the rendition was sweet. I’m not a huge fan of anthems & ours is no exception but as long as it’s in tune I’m fine & WOTE is clearly a group of good musicians.
I don’t think being precious over a song is a constructive use of energy. Too bad those folks don’t freak out over real atrocities, too numerous to list.
lucky: baboom. Too true.
@ BfO you requested details of the well debacle on fb, didn’t want to alarm Mr Lucky’s fam so I’ll give a brief run-down here:
The eldest’s bday (awesome timing a Friday no less) we awoke to no water. Pump burned out. Replacement came Monday. Wed morning the water tasted like an engine. Pump had burned out again. New pump Friday, going easy until sediment settles. $3k later I remember why renting has it’s advantages!
Crossing fingers & toes that life is boring for a while! : )
Ooh I got a baboom!
Yay!
Good morning! Great article Tiffy! I took a listen to the WOTE version of the anthem, and it sounded exactly as I would have expected their version of the anthem to. I’m with lucky, people need to focus on what is really important, and not whether they liked someone’s version of a national anthem performance.
luckymaloo, rotten luck. Why the second pump burnout, does anyone know?
Benoit – That word is new to me, too.
@ BfO they don’t know but seems too much sediment got sucked up in it. It’s deep, 292 ft & hadn’t been disturbed in a while. They placed the 2nd one 40 ft from the bottom in the hopes that would help. So far so good. Knock on wood!
Russ, re “instantiation”: a.k.a. “incarnation”.
Which reminds me of the word for being reborn in the Appalachians, “reintarnation”.
HA!
Benoit and Russ, I don’t know if this helps, but I came across instantiation in an article on research methods, where the author asked students to ensure the research methods they used were suitable for the goals of the study.
A thought just occurred to me: if it were possible — it’s not even conceivable — to strike all racial, social, ethnic etc. slights from our thoughts and language — I just posted the memory of a joke that disses hillbillies, or maybe entire States –; if we could, I think there wouldn’t be much humour left.
Yuk Yuks would close.
Thanks, janet. That makes it seem more useful than I might have thought.
I suspect it may not get overused, like (or is that unlike?) some business or sciencey buzzwords that leak out into general use; it’s pretty pointdexterish.
Yeah, I don’t think it’s overly popular. That article was the first time I had seen it.
WOTE is great to see live. And they are all great musicians. They change instruments constantly, and chuck them across the stage to the stage hands. It’s great to watch
Hey Happy Belated @krib! : )
Best site: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/instantiation
The last part of that link I posted refers to int uses in high-tech. Perhaps that’s where it burgeons from.
int = its
I was completely unaware of this WOTE controversy, hi all!
I hadn’t heard anything about it either. Their version sounded good to me.
Good morning everyone!
morning
hey guys guess what? Today I start a new chapter.
aka, i’m unemployed lol
Tiff, you quit your job? Good for you (I think?)!
@Tiff…. shit! Ummm….. are you ok?
First I’ve heard of this, since I don’t watch hockey, but I think that version of O Canada is very refreshing. Thanks for posting this Tiffy.
@Wes – yes, something like that. Thanks! It’s a great feeling (right now) not having to be anywhere or be and no one’s waiting on anything from me
@justin – it’s all good! I’m actually really excited to move onto something else.
@Benoit, as per that definition you linked to, the noun is “instance.” “Instantiation” sounds like a psuedo-nounification of the verb.
thanks guy (about the post) – I can’t get over that Bruce guy. What an absurd thing to say.
What does “taking a knee” mean?
Oh, never mind. Figured it out.
OK… happy to hear it @Tiffy….. I am sure you are or will be working on your next step. We support you on whatever your next gig is.
wes, the longer word would signify the action of creating an instance, and its result. Besides, language is a spoken thing, and is, as it were, a living thing. BORING but true.
@Benoit, thanks. You’re right.
Tiffy, good luck with the new chapter, I can’t wait to hear about what you’ll be doing next!
Also, Bruce’s response frustrates me so much, because once again, people are deliberately missing the point about the taking a knee protest, to belittle those who need to do something to protest the state of affairs down here.
I’m fine with that performance. I don’t think it merits such a fuss. Bigger fish to fry out there!
and happy Monday:)
Friday walking home from work at 4:30pm I found myself two car lengths from a 350lb or so black bear … I’m awake now!
Saturday night was pretty packed for me; The Elwyns, Born Ruffians and Tokyo Police Club. A lot of dancing was had! Makes me happy … a speaker falling on me TWICE did not make me happy however.
Sunday sleepy and bruised from the falling equipment but got up to send the family off in the VW Van for a hot springs camp out. Much gardening and then off to work for the evening. I moved indoor plants around for an hour after my shift which the bruised knees did not appreciate. As planned the teenager came back home from the hot springs with her Auntie and Dad will continue camping for a week without us.
Monday the teenager got herself up and out the door on her own this morning!!!!! This is a milestone folks.
So, all in all a good weekend; wildlife, music, van life and a teen milestone. I love how I edit out the work stuff in the review:)
Contrats on the teen independance on Monday morn! Yeaaaaaaars of patience! And training…
Sounds like an awesome weekend @morgana! Glad you and the bear remained friends, not foes.
Sounds fantastic morgana! Well done!
I had a busy weekend as well. No bears to be seen for me though.
Friday night started out with me getting back to belly dancing. We shall see how it goes. After class I headed to a country bar to watch my guy’s bandmate play in his other band. Certainly not our usual hangout but it was fun in a watching the zoo animals kind of way. Saturday we had a lovely walk and then I was drumming for belly dancers in an ALS fundraiser put on by a pole dancing school. Interesting show. Then we went and hung out at an outdoor space and watched band there, ending up at a friend’s new place. They were all musicians so there was a lot of jamming going on. Loved it! Sunday was more drumming with a conga class and then a dumbek circle. The weather was beautiful this weekend and glad I got to enjoy some of it. Snow is coming Wednesday.
@ B fro O Thanks. I am sure we will have good days and bad days still but I am taking the victory and basking in it!
@justingrady the black bear plus a younger brown bear have been in our neighbourhood for three weeks now. This was just the first time I was on foot and was suddenly so darn close! I hope no one calls a conservation officer and it makes it to hibernation safely … six bears have been shot in town so far this fall 🙁
@darbar it sounds like we both had busy but rejuvenating weekends!
I love going to different human zoo’s and just watching. I can’t deal with caged animals but humans for sure;)
makes you wonder why they call them “conservation” officers
@morgana… wow! We don’t get bears here in Portland. I’ll be in Bend this next week. We get tons of wildlife all over there, not really bears though. Deer are all over and coyotes are around quite a bit too.
My weekend was great! I kept on celebrating my birthday. Friday was chill, Saturday I had a good bike ride during the day and then I had a few people over, and had more beers than usual, total fun. My best friend came up from Eugene, Oregon too. Cool people, fire pit, good food and beer. Dig it.
krib, “Extermination Officer” wasn’t popular.
Sleepy sleepy Monday at work today.
@krib humans need conserving, clearly.
@justingrady stellar birthday weekend! way to keep the celebrations rolling.
it has been difficult to get out for my usual hikes due to the bear activity. i have heard that there is not much food up high on the mountains and the grizzlies are bogarting what there is so the brown and black bears have come down to fatten up before hibernating.
working again?
OK, weird! I got this message a minute ago;
Temporary Error
Your request has reached a system that is acting as a gateway or proxy to fulfill the request made by you.
This system is currently experiencing a temporary error reaching the web site you are requesting.
Your website (if you host with us) is safe and sound. Our engineers are already aware of this issue and should
have it fixed in a couple of minutes. Thanks for your patience in the meantime!
Is that the latest “you’re posting too fast” message?
@garfielduk said maybe a DDOS = distribution denial of service … or something like that.
I have an endless amount of yard work right now so back out I go.
All right, I’m out of here too, talk to you all tomorrow!
Bye!
It is coffee time for me.
or the gateway was down.
The internet’s weird
so on my walk home from the grocery store i saw a speaker with two docks on the top, cable and remote included with a “free” sign on it. i am in the process of setting it up in the garden shed ….
@morgana… excellent!
and it even works! music for gardening; most excellent:)