Wednesday Link-Off: The News Behind the News

jessica-chastain-amy-adams-goldenglobes15-01Just when I thought that all we’d be talking about the Golden Globes, the folks at Canadaland broke another major Canadian media story at the CBC. This is the sort of thing that I wanted to do with my life. Instead, I work a white-collar job and my life has no direction. Sorry, I’m watching Parks & Rec while I’m writing and that came up in this week’s episode.

Anyway, it’s time for the links. For something special, let’s start off with a two-for-one deal. Here are Jessica Chastain and Amy Adams.

You can’t really say CBC without putting scandal beside it these days. Once again, it’s Canadaland with the story. In this case, the CBC is the bad guy as they allowed star Amanda Lang to run interference with a story about RBC using foreign workers. (Canadaland)

To make matters worse, Canadaland says that Lang was romantically involved with an RBC board member while trying to spike that story. (Canadaland)

The CBC came out on the offensive with a denial that the Canadaland story is true. (Canada.com)

So CBC reporter Kathy Tomlinson allowed Canadaland to put her name to the accusations about Lang and the CBC’s conflict of interest in this matter. (Canadaland)

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Sunday Link-Off: What is Freedom of Expression?

cintia-dicker-dickerswimwear15-01I learned something this week. When you’re travelling, always prepare for the worst. I saw Air Canada take my luggage off the plane and wouldn’t take I’m catching a bus to another destination an hour after we land for a three-day suit-and-tie conference as a reason to put it back on. Took two days for my luggage to make one one-hour flight and a courier trip to my destination. Two days in jeans and a sweater. At least I could get by on souvenir store underclothes. Thanks Air Canada.

Anyway, that’s why I missed the WLO this week. I’m not missing the Sunday links. Let’s start with the return of blog favourite Cintia Dicker.

Don’t mess with Kevin Donovan. The Toronto Star reporter whose investigative takedowns include Rob Ford and Jian Ghomeshi now include Global TV anchor Leslie Roberts. (Toronto Star)

Following the attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris, freedom of expression has become a hot topic. However, even in Canada, expression is hardly free. (MacLean’s)

Telling the difference between real news and parody is hard. Just Greta Van Susteren and most of the news world who were fooled by an obviously fake North Korean news Twitter account. (Popehat)

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Entertainment Link-Off: Be Careful What You Wish For

maggie graceInto the Woods just hit the screens in Australia so that’s the film that I’m most excited about checking out this weekend. Meanwhile, everyone else can enjoy the third installment to the Taken series as Liam Neeson kicks all kinds of ass once again. Despite the constant decline in quality throughout the film franchise, there’s is always a good reason to see it and it’s all because of Maggie Grace. 

After the jump, Daredevil gets a release date, 50 Shades of Grey is a bit unusual, some Batman related news, Downton Abbey takes on Cards Against Humanity, parkour is probably not the best method for dealing with zombies and watch the first episode of David, the webseries from Youtube artist David Choi. Continue reading

Sunday Link-Off: Welcome to 2015

robin-holzken-beachbunny14-01It’s time for the first set of Sunday links of 2015. I’m a bit busy this week so I’m not going to guarantee what will be coming up this week apart from our review of the annual Doctor Who Christmas special. I’m working on a whole pile of video game reviews for et geekera so expect them here in the near future too. I’m hoping to get back into long form writing in 2015 so we’ll see what that brings us too.

Anyway, it’s time for the links. Since it’s a new year, let’s start with a new face on the blog. Here’s Dutch model Robin Holzken.

Happy 2015 everyone! Here’s a whole host of law changes that have come into effect in Canada already. (CBC News)

I think I’ve mentioned this a few times but there’s a federal election in Canada this fall. Right now, there’s no clear-cut frontrunner. (MacLean’s)

You thought your job was miserable at Christmas? Try working at Amazon. (Gawker)

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Entertainment Link-Off: Brand New Year

karen gillan spectrum 12015 is here! Fresh start to the new year but it looks like people are still in holiday mode, so it’s another somewhat slow week. Let’s kick off the ELO entry of 2015 with Karen Gillan. It’s too bad her latest show Selfie got canned by ABC. Woulda been nice to have her in the weekly fixtures of the TV viewing schedule. 

After the jump, Neill Blomkamp shares some very impressive concept art for his never-been-made Alien film, Oscar flicks getting their annual bashing before award season, Sam Raimi admits Spider-Man 3 was awful, and enjoy some music to your ears in the music recommendation(s) of the week. Continue reading

Wednesday Link-Off: 2014 in Review

anna-kendrick-unicef14-01Hello and welcome to the annual year-in-review linkdump on The Lowdown. Oddly enough, there weren’t many good recap posts that I found this year. 

And, as always, the year-in-review linkdump also coincides with naming our woman of the year. Using the scientific analysis criteria of the blog’s traffic, posts, comments and so on, our 2014 woman of the year is Anna Kendrick.

A lot of people had bad 2014s but few were worse than Barack Obama’s. (Washington Post)

There were new scandals every day of the year as people got outraged over something and took to social media to share their outrage. (Slate)

It wasn’t just in Washington that people had bad years. Some folks in Toronto had bad years too. (Torontoist)

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Sunday Link-Off: You Survived Christmas

kate-bock-maxim14-02We’ve gotten through Christmas, more or less, and have survived, again, more or less. Christmas survival is made a lot easier thanks to alcohol. It sure helps with putting up with relatives. Anyway, this is our second-to-last set of links of the year. We’ll be saving the year-in-review links for the December 31st links so it’s steady as she goes for today’s post.

So it’s time for the post-Christmas slash pre-New Year’s links. Here’s Canadian model Kate Bock.

A Syrian boy was stuck between a rock and hard place in dealing with ISIS so he volunteered to become a suicide bomber and surrendered himself to security forces to protect his family. (New York Times)

The Beer Store has managed to dodge any public pressure stemming from the revelations about how their monopoly is hurting the consumer. That’s probably because of the power of their lobbying efforts. (Toronto Star)

There is a conflict brewing in the city of New York between the NYPD, the mayor and the people of the city. (Talking Points Memo)

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Entertainment Link-Off: Holiday Season

evangeline lilly esquireIt’s been a slow week in the world of entertainment as Christmas break is in full gear! Anyway, you should be busy at the cinemas as there are plenty of flicks to check out! Evangeline Lilly once again appears in the final installment of The Hobbit films. So let’s kick it all off with her.

After the jump, the list of overpaid actors, Star Trek is getting fast and furious, Playstation got some issues and Dr. Evil schools everyone on how to run a proper evil organization. Continue reading

Wednesday Link-Off: Merry Christmas (Eve)

nina-agdal-leonisa14-27Sometimes being a game reviewer is a thankless job. Right now I’m playing an indie game that I was actually looking forward to and finding out all sorts of issues like controls and AI lunacy that make the game’s boss fights border on the impossible. 

Anyway, twas the morn before Christmas and all through the blog,
Steve was setting up a rhyme that was a proper log.

That was a shit joke because that my attempts at poetry often end very, very badly. So let’s just skip my bad attempts at utilizing the English language. It’s time for the links. Here’s Nina Agdal.

Bad news! New Canadian digital piracy laws come into effect on January 2nd. Get your downloading done now. Then get that anonymous torrent downloading thing. Tribler? Something like that. (Vice)

After eight days of deliberations, the jury in the Luka Magnotta trial found him guilty of the first-degree murder of Jun Lin. (CBC News)

Sam Biddle, who discovered the original infamous tweet, details his first face-to-face meeting with Justine Sacco, the woman who rose to Twitter infamy when tweeting an AIDS “joke” before getting on a flight. (Gawker)

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Sunday Link-Off: Christmas Shopping Scramble

alyssa-barbara-14-01I know that malls and such are open for the next three days but this is the last real chance that most people will get to go shopping for Christmas presents. I lucked out because I only had four or so shops to run to yesterday so my day wasn’t too bad. Funnily enough, there were more people at the liquor store yesterday than at the mall. I can understand. I need booze to deal with my relatives too.

So a couple of hours late, it’s time for the Sunday links. To kick things off, here’s Canadian model Alyssa Barbara. You know, I’m thinking of bringing back the old Hottest Canadian bracket in 2015. I think she’d fit right into the top 32.

We’re nearly two years from the start of another Presidential campaign and already we’re having fact checking issues at big publications. The NYT, for example, already attempted a derail of the Clinton campaign with a poorly fact-checked story. (Media Matters)

Jeb Bush is thinking about making a run for the White House. After Bush 43, would America even consider a Bush 45? (Vice)

Great news! Science says that moderate alcohol consumption helps boost your immune system. (Mother Jones)

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