So, I'm watching the last episode of 24, and I realised that Yassir (sp?) from Little Mosque on the Prairies is played by the same guy as Morris O'Brien on 24. And he's hotttt too. Just sayin'
So, the Canadian contingent on 24 is pretty high! Go us! _________________ Scissors cuts paper. Paper covers rock. Rock crushes lizard. Lizard poisons Spock. Spock smashes scissors. Scissors decapitates lizard. Lizard eats paper. Paper disproves Spock. Spock vaporizes rock. And as it always has, rock crushes scissors.
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6048 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 3:27 am Post subject:
Quote:
So, I'm watching the last episode of 24, and I realised that Yassir (sp?) from Little Mosque on the Prairies is played by the same guy as Morris O'Brien on 24. And he's hotttt too. Just sayin'
I find Sitara Hewitt's thoughtful Muslim character on "Little House" far hotter than the skanky Vanna Whitish persona she plays on "You Bet Yer Mule." _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6048 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 3:22 pm Post subject:
I wanted to say something about the repulsive rightwing redneck radio host the other day, but forgot what I had wanted to say. [I just remembered: he took a shot at the CBC. That was funny.]
Then last night during the Leafs broadcast on CFMJ I heard a promo for the "John Oakely Show" that had anti-Muslim content that is far worse than anything the "Little Mosque" radio guy ever said. _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6048 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2007 8:07 pm Post subject:
Quote:
Regina has a Halal grocery store - embedded within a Babylon big-box mall complex - so there must be a decent-sized Muslim population there.
A new Halal grocery store opened in Saskatoon this week. Its produce is mostly Pakistani, while the Halal store in Regina has some Pakistani goods as well as a decent selection of Arabic foodstuffs. _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6048 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 4:50 pm Post subject:
The stories on "Little Mosque" are starting to wear pretty thin. Besides that, the "Muslim" component of the narratives seem to be artificially grafted onto a prairie community which in itself isn't very realistically depicted.
It isn't as good as Corner Gas, but I still want the show to do well.
Speaking of Corner Gas, I haven't watched it much until recently, but I've noticed that all the characters are named after towns in Saskatchewan.
There are the Leroys, Hank Yarbo (I used to live near there, and work underneath it), ""Rocket" Raymore, Karen Pelly, and a guy named Melfort. These are the only last names I have been able to identify.
Is there a list of characters' names somewhere? _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6048 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 11:03 pm Post subject:
That list isn't quite complete.
I see they've included veteran Saskatchewan Fringe theatre performer Robert Benz, but they don't have my old boss from the 25th Street Theatre, Sharon Bakker, who played the "garden gnome lady." _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6048 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 3:31 am Post subject:
There was a strange bit of dialogue in tonight's show. Mother Hamoudi, in trying to get her Lebanese son to marry his widowed cousin, said she makes couscous that is like angel droppings.
I don't know about angel droppings, but couscous comes from the Maghreb, and isn't used in Lebanese food, as far as I know. Its equivalent might be said to be burghul. _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
There was a strange bit of dialogue in tonight's show. Mother Hamoudi, in trying to get her Lebanese son to marry his widowed cousin, said she makes couscous that is like angel droppings.
I don't know about angel droppings, but couscous comes from the Maghreb, and isn't used in Lebanese food, as far as I know. Its equivalent might be said to be burghul.
To be quite fair you aren't normally constrained by geography with regaards to cusine.
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6048 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 7:39 pm Post subject:
I duuno, maybe, but it seems weird to me that a Lebanese would use a Maghrebian dish as a selling point with another Lebanese. Why not use fried chicken or pizza if geography doesn't matter? _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
Yes, it is a mix-up. There is a Lebanese Couscous - big pellets that look like small peas, but it isn't very common, and it certainly isn't light.
There is also something called "Israeli Couscous" - dunno if it was originally a Palestinian dish or something brought by Sephardic Jews, though the latter eat the same kind of couscous as their Muslim countrymen.
Couscous is traditionally a Berber dish, and one of the main culinary divides between the Maghreb and the Machrek.
But I thught the characters in that show were South Asian? Or are they from a variety of backgrounds?
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6048 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 9:14 pm Post subject:
I think some Lebanese will use couscous grains in tabbouleh, but then they would brag about tabbouleh, wouldn't they?
Yes, the characters are "representative" of Muslims. Fatima, the Jamaican, is from Africa somewhere; Babar is Pakistani, and Yasir is Lebanonese.
There's a burghul dish we call "smade" that I can't find in any cookbook. I once asked a Lebanese Muslim woman (who makes killer tabbouleh, by the way) if she knew it, but she said no, and thought it might particular to Lebanese Christians. _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6048 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 12:50 am Post subject:
I was going to say this in another thread today, but deleted my post before hitting the "submit" button. I'm afraid I'm left with no choice but to finally put this out there:
The one smiley more annoying than the finger-wagger is the one used to laugh at one's own lame attempt at humour. _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6048 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 3:08 pm Post subject:
All that can be said in favour of the disco smiley is that it's silent. _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
Fox network to make Americanized version of 'Little Mosque'
The producers of the gentle CBC sitcom "Little Mosque on the Prairie" have announced a deal with Twentieth Century Fox Studios which aims to get an Americanized version of the show on the Fox network, known for pushing the envelope with programs like "The Family Guy" and "Mad TV."
"It's taken a long time to get here, some due to the writers' strike and some due to just making sure that we had the right collaborator," Mary Darling, head of Westwind Pictures, said after announcing the "Little Mosque" deal Monday at the Banff World Television Festival.
"The reason we pursued a deal with this studio is because we really feel we've found people who are in synch with us on the vision of the show. They're very earnest in terms of getting the tone of the show right, and yet they want to make it as funny as possible in order for it to play to a wide audience."
[...]
The CBC show, about a community of devout Muslims living in a small prairie town, won't be changed drastically for an American audience, Darling added.
"It'll be 'Little Mosque in Minnesota,' if I have my way," the Minnesota-born Darling said with a laugh.
_________________ "The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin
The only thing clever about the show is the title. But given the producers anti-union and pro-censorship statements, she sure will fit in nicely with the Fox Television crowd.
Dead Things on Sticks is a blog by Canadian television writer Denis McGrath who has this to say about Mary Darling, producer of Little Mosque on the Prairie.
...So, why do I think Mary Darling might owe you an apology?
Well, in that same CP article where the Tories tried to put out the innocuous spin, Darling, beneficiary of your tax dollars and a half hour a week on the public broadcaster, had this to say:
"There are a lot of things on TV today that, I think, have gone too far," said Mary Darling, executive producer of "Little Mosque on the Prairie," which airs in over 80 markets globally, including French-speaking Africa, the Middle East and several European countries.
"If something comes along that helps us to at least discern what is acceptable . . . then I think, as a producer, I'd be willing to look at that and explore it."
Now, I would love to think that maybe Darling was misquoted here. And I'll be more than happy to correct myself if that turns out to be the case. But she does have a history of this kind of thing.
It was Darling who, in the first days of the WGA strike, led the charge of giving interviews saying how great the strike was going to be for Canadian producers. One of the most egregious to the Canadian creative community was this one, which a lot of creatives refer to as "the sparkle dust incident," where she managed to, in one fell swoop, insult the talent that she works with every day, and suggest that it would be great if Canadian born WGA writers, you know, broke their own strike rules and came home to work.
Mary Darling, head of Westwind Pictures, the production company behind the CBC hit "Little Mosque on the Prairie," says such a reverse brain drain to the north can only be good for the Canadian industry.
"We've heard some whispers from some talent down in Los Angeles, people trying to cover their butts who shall remain nameless," she said.
"This strike could end up spilling a little bit of sparkle dust on the Canadian community. There's so much Canadian talent down there ... there may be some really interesting, wonderful opportunities for Canadian producers as they draw on the experiences of people who have done volumes and volumes and volumes of writing in L.A. who are coming back home and want to stay home."
Translation: Oooh, we get to work with American writers?
Now, of course, that didn't happen. There was no mass exodus up north.
Darling was also quoted in just about every article about how many Canadian shows were going to be sold to the USA. In the end, three sold. (and I'll admit, I got quoted in some articles too, saying I didn't think any would sell. I was wrong, too.) But, of the three shows that sold, only one had been made already: Sophie -- and that show sold to a cable channel, not an over the air network. The other two shows were in an early stage of production, and therefore more attractive (since the U.S. nets will actually be able to help shape the content.)
Little Mosque, Darling's show, did not sell to the U.S.A. It still hasn't.
Okay, so she managed to piss off Canadian talent and give a bunch of hyperbolic interviews. She wouldn't be the first person to do that. But this latest quote is chilling, because if you go back to this morning's coverage, here's the kind of "limits" that people are talking about:
Mr. McVety said films promoting homosexuality, graphic sex or violence should not receive tax dollars, and backbench Conservative MPs and cabinet ministers support his campaign.
"There are a number of Conservative backbench members that do a lot of this work behind the scenes," he said.
Conservative MP Dave Batters recently urged the new president of Telefilm Canada, Michel Roy, to block federal funding for objectionable films, listing Young People Fucking as a recent example.
"In my mind, sir, and in the minds of many of my colleagues and many, many Canadians," said Mr. Batters during a Jan. 31 meeting of the Canadian Heritage committee, "the purpose of Telefilm is to help facilitate the making of films for mainstream Canadian society - films that Canadians can sit down and watch with their families in living rooms across this great country."
Ahh, so there we go. And there it is.
The most shocking thing about Young People Fucking, of course, is the title. The movie is actually quite sweet, and winds up coming down firmly on the side of monogamy, and the need for people to form lasting relationships. But in order to come to that conclusion, you have to watch it. And absorb it. If you get bent out of shape by words, and titles, and the surface of things -- you never get that far.
The people want to set the limits which Darling feels she could consider are the people who never get that far.
Question: how long before those backbenchers start asking why we're spending tax credits to "make fun of Christians" and "promote Muslim propaganda?" Don't tell me it can't happen and that those people aren't out there. Not when I have to turn on comments moderation every damn time I write about Little Mosque. Darling should have known better. She should have known where this kind of thing leads.
It's not like there aren't producers who don't understand the implications. Marvin Kaye is a young writer-producer, and a guy I play Poker with. His half hour comedy, Less Than Kind, starring Maury Chaykin, with Mark McKinney writing and showrunning behind the scenes, just finished shooting in Winnipeg. It will air on Citytv stations later this year. The show is a family comedy, based on his experiences growing up in Winnipeg. But when I say "family comedy" I don't mean the kind of "family comedy" Conservative back benchers mean. I mean the kind of raucous, brutally funny, and occasionally uncomfortable experience a lot of us had when we were growing up.
The show's shot. It's in the can. And to get it made, Kaye watched as the production company squeezed every dollar till it screamed -- including the tax credits. So how does he feel about the possibility that those credits could be retroactively pulled?
"Terrified."
And what about Mary Darling's idea that she's willing to "look at" their ideas of "what's acceptable?"...
...If I was Sandra Cunningham, the head of the CFTPA, I would be placing a call to Mary Darling today to ask her, "why would you go on record and say what you said?" If I was another Canadian producer who meticulously structured my cobbled together budget like jenga sticks, I'd want to know if she knew the implications of what she was saying. And If I was an Executive at the CBC, who just received a vote of confidence from Parliament where, predictably, the Conservatives dissented, I would be calling the Executive Producer of my highest rated comedy, to ask her how she thought she was helping....
_________________ “If my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a tractor.”
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6048 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 6:20 pm Post subject:
lagatta wrote:
Yes, it is a mix-up. There is a Lebanese Couscous - big pellets that look like small peas, but it isn't very common, and it certainly isn't light.
There is also something called "Israeli Couscous" - dunno if it was originally a Palestinian dish or something brought by Sephardic Jews, though the latter eat the same kind of couscous as their Muslim countrymen.
Couscous is traditionally a Berber dish, and one of the main culinary divides between the Maghreb and the Machrek.
That misnamed "Israeli couscous" that is used in Lebanon and Palestine is called mograbieh, which hints strongly that its origin is North African.
There's a health food store in Saskatoon that calls it "Israeli couscous," (so I don't buy it there) but I know of a couple of Lebanese stores in Edmonton that sell it as "moghrabieh." _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
Yes, it is a mix-up. There is a Lebanese Couscous - big pellets that look like small peas, but it isn't very common, and it certainly isn't light.
There is also something called "Israeli Couscous" - dunno if it was originally a Palestinian dish or something brought by Sephardic Jews, though the latter eat the same kind of couscous as their Muslim countrymen.
Couscous is traditionally a Berber dish, and one of the main culinary divides between the Maghreb and the Machrek.
That misnamed "Israeli couscous" that is used in Lebanon and Palestine is called mograbieh, which hints strongly that its origin is North African.
There's a health food store in Saskatoon that calls it "Israeli couscous," (so I don't buy it there) but I know of a couple of Lebanese stores in Edmonton that sell it as "moghrabieh."
I got it once at the bulk barn out at the west end of town the one time I got dragged in there. I don't think I even looked at the label to see what they called it. I expect one of the shops around town must have it.
You know, I really like couscous, but lately I have just been substituting quinoa for it, and I don't think I'll go back.
Yes, it is a mix-up. There is a Lebanese Couscous - big pellets that look like small peas, but it isn't very common, and it certainly isn't light.
There is also something called "Israeli Couscous" - dunno if it was originally a Palestinian dish or something brought by Sephardic Jews, though the latter eat the same kind of couscous as their Muslim countrymen.
Couscous is traditionally a Berber dish, and one of the main culinary divides between the Maghreb and the Machrek.
That misnamed "Israeli couscous" that is used in Lebanon and Palestine is called mograbieh, which hints strongly that its origin is North African.
There's a health food store in Saskatoon that calls it "Israeli couscous," (so I don't buy it there) but I know of a couple of Lebanese stores in Edmonton that sell it as "moghrabieh."
I got it once at the bulk barn out at the west end of town the one time I got dragged in there. I don't think I even looked at the label to see what they called it. I expect one of the shops around town must have it.
You know, I really like couscous, but lately I have just been substituting quinoa for it, and I don't think I'll go back.
Yes, it is a mix-up. There is a Lebanese Couscous - big pellets that look like small peas, but it isn't very common, and it certainly isn't light.
There is also something called "Israeli Couscous" - dunno if it was originally a Palestinian dish or something brought by Sephardic Jews, though the latter eat the same kind of couscous as their Muslim countrymen.
Couscous is traditionally a Berber dish, and one of the main culinary divides between the Maghreb and the Machrek.
That misnamed "Israeli couscous" that is used in Lebanon and Palestine is called mograbieh, which hints strongly that its origin is North African.
There's a health food store in Saskatoon that calls it "Israeli couscous," (so I don't buy it there) but I know of a couple of Lebanese stores in Edmonton that sell it as "moghrabieh."
I got it once at the bulk barn out at the west end of town the one time I got dragged in there. I don't think I even looked at the label to see what they called it. I expect one of the shops around town must have it.
You know, I really like couscous, but lately I have just been substituting quinoa for it, and I don't think I'll go back.
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6048 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 4:07 am Post subject:
Quote:
CBC’s ground-breaking show Little Mosque on the Prairie draws to a close Monday night, remaining true to the “ordinary folks” portrayal of Muslims it has practised from the outset.
Yeah, OK, aleikum salaam, but I haven't watched this show in years, so won't really miss it.
It was OK. but it seemed to be trying too hard. Moreover, there are Muslim communities in Regina and Saskatoon, but none that I know of in smaller centres, which makes this show seem too implausible.
Oh, and last week I ran into another guy from Roleau who hates "Corner Gas." _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
Yeah, OK, aleikum salaam, but I haven't watched this show in years, so won't really miss it.
It was OK. but it seemed to be trying too hard.
Apart from a few episodes from the first season, I haven't watched it either and agree that it seemed to be trying too hard.
What I will miss though is the sheer amount of anger and paranoia it inspired among the wingnuts and haters. I mean, a pretty timid (and sometimes boring IMO) Canadian TV show inspired countless angry posts from Freepers, attracted the attention of Pamela Geller, Melanie Phillips and was even mentioned in Anders Breivik's manifesto. Any time a story was printed about it in the Star or Sun Media, countless barely literate, sputtering ranters would clog up the message boards weaving conspiracy theories about how this show was either part of a cultural Marxist plot to destroy the West or a Muslim plot to swamp the West and force everyone into following Sharia law. This is seriously the level of hate it inspired, unfuckingbelievable.
Had the world wide web, blogs and forums been around in the 60s, I imagine this the sort of hate that "Guess who's coming to dinner" would have gotten from the right. _________________ I can't support bike lanes. Roads are built for buses, cars, and trucks. My heart bleeds when someone gets killed, but it's their own fault at the end of the day. - Assclown Rob Ford
I always thought its title was more creative than the series itself. I watched some of it during the first season, but yes, it seemed kind of forced.
I do like the comic sensibilities of the Republic of Doyle. Hope that one has legs. I also have been enjoying Arctic Air. _________________ “If my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a tractor.”
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6048 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2012 12:26 am Post subject:
Quote:
I always thought its title was more creative than the series itself.
Really? I thought that title was completely derivative.
Say, what happened to that carpenter/contractor character - Sheila McCarthy's husband? I didn't see him in the finale (of which I watched only the last ten minutes). _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
Joined: 14 Jun 2006 Posts: 1146 Location: Saint John
Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2012 1:14 pm Post subject:
They divorced. It was explained in the first episode of the season. Carlo Rota had not been in many episodes over the previous season. The plotline had him visiting his mother in Lebanon.
I always thought its title was more creative than the series itself.
Really? I thought that title was completely derivative.
Well, "derivative", to me, implies that you're copying someone else's work, but trying to pass it off as your own(eg. Battlestar Galactica was derivative of Star Wars). Whereas I always assumed that the title "Little Mosque On The Prairie" was meant to be understood as a humourous allusion to "Little House On The Prairie".
Well no, because I almost always hear "derivative" used to mean unoriginality trying to pass itself off as original(which would exclude parody or tribute).
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6048 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 1:46 pm Post subject:
Quote:
Granted. But I always assumed that the title was an allusion to the title of the 70s TV show, and was meant to be understood as such.
Yes, but it's still a lame title, because it's such an unimaginative choice. _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
Yes, but it's still a lame title, because it's such an unimaginative choice.
Yeah, apart from not thinking it qualifies as derivative, I agree that it was a lame title.
Though I suppose it has the advantage of being an attention-grabber. I've only watched about two minutes of the show, but I've never had to be reminded about what it was called, since the name is hard to forget.
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6048 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 3:26 pm Post subject:
Maclean's magazines editors used to do this a lot in the 70s ( I haven't read it much since then, so don't know if they still do this) and the writers on As It Happens wallow in this practice as well.
I just heard a bobblevoice on As it Happens say, "strike while the iron is wet" while referring to the attempt to encourage plankton growth off the Queen Charlottes.
OK, name your price, anybody. I'll pay whatever you want to kill the writers of As It Happens. I can't take it any more. _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
Last edited by al-Qa'bong on Sat Oct 20, 2012 1:10 am; edited 1 time in total
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6048 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 10:04 pm Post subject:
I don't know about 'homage," since the newer show had nothing to do with the Little Joe show. I think the word we're looking for might be "lazy." _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
'I'll bet when the audience thinks of settlers on the prairies they think of Little House on the Prairie, and white Christian people. Well, it's a different world now, and there are Muslims and people of colour. Little Mosque on the Prairie will surprise the viewer and invert their expectations.'"
There is real comedy here, (whether the observer finds it all that funny or not).
Related: Little Mosque on TVTropes, which makes it seem wildly entertaining, though TVTropes could do the same with the phone book.
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6048 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 4:25 pm Post subject:
One source of real comedy is that writer, who says it's a different world now.
Actually, the world is quite the same. My grandpa told me that there used to be a small Arab community where our family homesteaded back in the late 1800s. _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
One source of real comedy is that writer, who says it's a different world now.
Actually, the world is quite the same. My grandpa told me that there used to be a small Arab community where our family homesteaded back in the late 1800s.
The third mosque in North America was built in Edmonton in 1938. The building is still in existence, but not in its original location.
Interestingly, the first two mosques were built in Ross North Dakota and Cedar Rapids Iowa. So yeah, if the gist of the show title was meant to be "OMG!! A mosque on the prairie! Isn't that just so far out!!", they were about eight decades late.
The show is not exactly purporting to be documentary. If the premise is contrary to the conception most people have of small-town prairie life then it's subverting common expectation, whether the reality of the premise first emerged 80 years ago or yesterday.
Edited to add: this was also in Edmonton, which is not exactly quite the same rural small town I understand the show is going for; Edmonton's population was over 79k in 1931, and almost 94k in 1941.
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6048 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 6:13 pm Post subject:
Quote:
The show is not exactly purporting to be documentary.
Oh sure, next someone's going to say that aliens all over the galaxy don't speak English, even though Captain Kirk's space projectile has boldly gone where no human guy's had gone before. _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
Last edited by al-Qa'bong on Fri Apr 06, 2012 6:17 pm; edited 1 time in total
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6048 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 6:15 pm Post subject:
I may have mentioned this before, but Lac la Biche, which is way up in the boonies north of Edmonton, had a mosque in the 70s. _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
The show is not exactly purporting to be documentary. If the premise is contrary to the conception most people have of small-town prairie life then it's subverting common expectation, whether the reality of the premise first emerged 80 years ago or yesterday.
Well, it's hard to tell if the original writer was talking about peoples' preceptions, or about the reality.
Quote:
'I'll bet when the audience thinks of settlers on the prairies they think of Little House on the Prairie, and white Christian people. Well, it's a different world now, and there are Muslims and people of colour. Little Mosque on the Prairie will surprise the viewer and invert their expectations.'"
"It's a different world now" would seem to suggest that things really have changed from the past, when presumably there would have been no mosques in a prairie town of that size.
Point taken about Edmonton being something more than a village in 1938. Though the population of Ross North Dakota was 97 in 2010. (I'm guessing, however, that Ross is considered part of a larger metro area.)
The show is not exactly purporting to be documentary.
Oh sure, next someone's going to say that aliens all over the galaxy don't speak English, even though Captain Kirk's space projectile has boldly gone where no human guy's had gone before.
al-Qa'bong wrote:
I may have mentioned this before, but Lac la Biche, which is way up in the boonies north of Edmonton, had a mosque in the 70s.
Which pushes the time up and size back, but still doesn't address the point that regardless of when/where there's been a mosque in rural prairie setting, subverting expectation depends on common expectation, not objective reality.
voice of the damned wrote:
Quote:
The show is not exactly purporting to be documentary. If the premise is contrary to the conception most people have of small-town prairie life then it's subverting common expectation, whether the reality of the premise first emerged 80 years ago or yesterday.
Well, it's hard to tell if the original writer was talking about peoples' preceptions, or about the reality.
Quote:
'I'll bet when the audience thinks of settlers on the prairies they think of Little House on the Prairie, and white Christian people. Well, it's a different world now, and there are Muslims and people of colour. Little Mosque on the Prairie will surprise the viewer and invert their expectations.'"
"It's a different world now" would seem to suggest that things really have changed from the past, when presumably there would have been no mosques in a prairie town of that size.
I'd tend to assume there's at least a heavy dose of perception colouring the situation whenever you're talking dealing with an audience of fiction. It'd be hard to "surprise" the viewer with differences from reality where the viewer doesn't know the points of reality from which the fiction diverges. Expectations can only be subverted on the basis of perception.
Further, in this specific case the statement of it being "a different world now" directly follows a suggestion about what the audience probably "thinks of" with regard to the setting. That seems to rather squarely place things in terms of perception rather than strict historical reality.
voice of the damned wrote:
Point taken about Edmonton being something more than a village in 1938. Though the population of Ross North Dakota was 97 in 2010. (I'm guessing, however, that Ross is considered part of a larger metro area.)
Quite possibly, and the 'historical populations' chart on the linked wiki page shows the population decreasing from 167 in 1960 (the first date provided) to a low of 48 in 2000, so it's population in 1929 when that mosque was built could well have been larger then than it is now (though certainly still in the rural small town range).
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6048 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 9:20 pm Post subject:
Quote:
Which pushes the time up and size back, but still doesn't address the point that regardless of when/where there's been a mosque in rural prairie setting, subverting expectation depends on common expectation, not objective reality.
I walk around in those expectations. If I had a camel for every time I've been asked, "al-Qa'bong, what nationality is that?" and then had to go through explaining that we immigrated here at the same time as all those Europeans, only to be asked "Why did your family come here?" as if our reasons must have been different from the others, why, I'd have a lot of camels.
By the way, I'd bet those camels that the makers of that TV show are no more aware of the history of Arabs and Muslims on the prairies than their whitebread audience. _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
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