Selwyn Family Parodies Canadian Artist With Pandemic Song

“Life in a Pandemic (Don’t It Stink?)” is a parody of Alanis Morissette’s hit song, “Ironic”.

Marking the one-year anniversary of the pandemic where the whole country went into lockdown and quarantine, one Selwyn family paid tribute to the milestone parodying Alanis Morissette’s “Ironic”.

“Life in a Pandemic (Don’t it Stink?)” was created by the Kelly family featuring singer and acting student, Ashton Kelly. The video was a challenge, taking three days to film and a week and a half to produce it according to Ashton’s mother Deborah Kelly.

“Our goal was to spend some time together as a family having some creative fun during these dark times, and maybe lifting some spirits along the way,” said Deborah. “My daughter is a singer and an acting student so this is right up her alley.”

“Life in a Pandemic (Don’t it Stink?)” has already gained over 3,000 views in its first two days since being uploaded to Youtube. Screenshot.

The video copies Morisette’s, shot-for-shot with pop culture references and recognizable local spots. The Go Express Marts gas station across from the Lakefield Animal Welfare Society and the Peterborough Lift Lock canal are some localized shots taken for the parody.

“This isn’t meant to diminish the struggle many (are) facing over the state of our world,” said Ashton in a Facebook post. “This is only to spread some laughs and lightheartedness to enjoy with your family!”

The mother-daughter duo wrote the lyrics with Mark Russell, Deborah’s partner, filmed and (mostly) edited the video.

They chose “Ironic” since it was recognizable, iconic and Morrisette was Canadian.

“We really wanted to keep it lighthearted and fun to spread some cheer during these challenging times,” said Deborah.

This was the second parody video the family had created. The first copied Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” titled, “Something to Do-ah (The Isolation Song)” was released in early April last year.

The family posted a blooper reel for the filming of their first video, “Something to Do-ah (The Isolation Song)”. It was posted 10 days after the prior video was uploaded. Screenshot.

The song was shot as an original since Cohen’s version did not have an official music video and has almost 28,000 views on YouTube. The parody makes its own pop culture references such as the toilet paper shortage and the hit Netflix show, “Tiger King”.

The first video’s success inspired the family to create the second parody as they were proud and surprised at the song’s success according to Deborah.

“We had such a positive response and such a blast creating it that we decided to do another one this year,” she said.

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Retrontario Shares Episode Of '80s CHEX Show The Silver Basketball

Remember the The Silver Basketball, the locally produced CHEX show that aired in the Eighties starring Ron Oliver? The show was a smorgasbord of stuff for kids, ranging from fitness, to arts and crafts, to music.

Well the popular YouTube channel Retroontario just posted this episode of the show from 1982. Have a watch...

A full episode of the strange CHEX kid's show The Silver Basketball, hosted by none other than Ron Oliver

h/t James Jones

[Related: Remember Campus Quiz? Check out 18 reasons it rocked.]

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UPDATE: The Movie People In Lakefield Is Closing

[UPDATE: December 5th, 2016] We wrote last January (see original post below) about a movie store, The Movie People in Lakefield, Ontario, that was somehow thriving in the age of Netflix. Sadly, it is now closing—one of the last remaining movie rental stores in the Kawarthas. Owner Kevin J O'Callaghan tells PTBOCanada he is devastated but the decline in business over the past year has been dramatic and he doesn't see it ever turning. "With the number of people buying Android boxes and Netflix continuing to expand its library, we couldn't fight that," he says. What's also sad for Kevin beyond losing his store—his passion—in this community he loves is the number of old movie classics from various eras that consumers will no longer be able to view, from Rebel Without A Cause to A Clockwork Orange. Those movies are not as readily accessible anymore on new age tech movie platforms, and are an important part of pop culture history.

Watch the heartfelt announcement from Kevin below in this Facebook video he posted...

ORIGINAL POST (January 19th, 2016):

It may be the age of Netflix but don't tell that to a locally owned and operated movie rental store in the small community of Lakefield, Ont. near Peterborough.

Indeed, The Movie People has not only survived the glut of movie rental store closures—from big box to ma and pa—in the digital age but is thriving through great customer service, diverse selection, pop culture expertise and community love.

Owner Kevin J O’Callaghan tells PTBOCanada that they have been in business since 2010—having moved here from Toronto where Kevin left a corporate career.

"We chose Lakefield as there was an existing movie chain going out of business, and we bought the fixtures and rented the space and started over with our own brand of movie rental store," Kevin says.

While there is no question more people are getting their movies on demand from the comfort of their living room, Kevin tells PTBOCanada his store has not been impacted.

"We have not seen a decline in rentals over the past four years," he says. "We have a very large selection of TV shows, new releases and thousands of older titles—indie films, documentary, classics and so much more. Netflix doesn’t affect us as much as you hear on the street. The Bricks and Mortar store is still a very important part of our community. People like to communicate with other neighbours and friends about their choices and pics for movie night!"

"We have new titles every week that would not be on Netflix and that are much more expensive on pay per view avenues," Kevin tells PTBOCanada. "Ninety nine percent of our titles are available for 7 days rental—the only one day rentals are just the new movies of the week and last week's titles."

Owner Kevin O’Callaghan

Interestingly, TV shows are a very large part of The Movie People's rentals. "Not everyone has access to the particular stations and binge watching is very big," Kevin explains. In other words, traditional media is now being consumed in non-traditional ways. You can watch TV shows by going to the movie rental store.

Customer service is huge at this store, the demographics are wider than you might think, and cottagers coming up to the Kawarthas from the GTA love it.

"We engage every customer in the store and we are known for our warm customer approach and knowledge of the industry," Kevin tells PTBOCanada. "Our demographics are every age group, not just one.  When the customers from Toronto and other larger cities come, they are the happiest of all our customer groups as they are still in love with the movie store."

At the end of the day, it's all about community support. "We all have to support small local businesses in our area," Kevin says.

—By Neil Morton

To learn more about The Movie People, go to their website, Twitter page or Facebook page.

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A Peterborough Man Has An Awesome Podcast Entirely Dedicated To Actor Eric Roberts

Life has a strange way of going sometimes, and so perhaps it's not all that weird that a Peterborough man has somehow found himself fully immersed in the work (and mind) of actor Eric Roberts (Julia's brother). Yes, Doug Tilley—a film writer/avid tweeter—has an entire podcast dedicated to Roberts called Eric Roberts Is The Fucking Man.

Read our interview below with Tilley about all things Eric Roberts, and you'll soon be hooked on Eric (and Tilley's podcast) too...

Doug Tilley

PTBOCanada: When and why did you start the podcast?

Tilley: I was actually kicking around the idea for a couple of years. I'd been co-hosting a podcast about low-budget/microbudget cinema for a few years, and making guest appearances on plenty of others, but it was starting to get a bit incestuous. Endless podcasts about genre films, of varying quality, with the same people guesting again and again.

Podcasts as a whole were starting to get more conceptual. I listen to a lot of improv-based podcasts that are much more about setting the stage for interesting and amusing content than they are about investigating a topic in a serious manner, and then there's the Worst Idea Of All Time podcast, which spent a year watching the terrible comedy Grown Ups 2 on a weekly basis while documenting the emotional breakdown of the hosts. There's just such a freedom there, where you can take a fairly—or entirely—ridiculous idea and then take it beyond its extreme.

So, then early in 2015 I decided to just go with it. One way or another, I was going to devote a bi-weekly podcast to the life and work of Eric Roberts. I floated the idea around social media and there seemed to be some definite interest, but just because someone thinks an idea is interesting, it's no guarantee it would be interesting in practice. So, then began the process of defining what the podcast would "look" like.

The title, Eric Roberts Is The Fucking Man, came from Mickey Rourke's acceptance speech during the 2009 Independent Spirit Awards. He had won Best Actor for his performance in The Wrestler, but the thing he wanted to talk about when he got to the podium wasn't Darren Aronofsky, or his performance. He wanted to talk about Eric Roberts, who he co-starred with way back in 1984 in The Pope of Greenwich Village.

I was looking for a title, and I just happened upon the speech and when Rourke opened with "Eric Roberts is the Fucking Man", I knew I had to go with it. Even with the knowledge that the title alone might limit our audience.

Then, once I found a proper co-host in the form of writer Todd Rigney, all the pieces were in place.

PTBOCanada: But why Eric Roberts? Please explain.

Tilley: I suppose most people think I had some specific interest in Eric Roberts going into this, but it's not really the case. I was aware of him and his career, but I didn't have a particularly strong feeling—positive or negative—about his work. I hadn't seen most of his most beloved performances. It was really a combination of two things that drew me into the idea.

One, he was just starting to be so ubiquitous. Seriously. He's been almost comically productive over the past decade, including work in movies—both big budget (like The Dark Knight) and microbudget—TV, music videos, reality TV.. you name it, he's been on it. His IMDB profile lists over 400 credits, and it's growing weekly. So, the fact that there was so much to cover was obviously a big part of the idea.

Secondly, he's an actor people don't tend to have strong feelings about. They might be generally aware of him. Maybe as the brother of Julia Roberts, or the father of Emma Roberts, but there isn't much thought beyond that. I found it really interesting that here was a guy who, at his height, was at the peak of Hollywood. Oscar nominations, Golden Globe nominations, the whole bit. Now he's making movies like The Human Centipede III. How does that happen? Was it a rapid fall from grace, or something more gradual? I just wanted to investigate that a bit more.

Finally, it's just a ridiculous idea. The irreverance of it tickled me, and the idea of pouring time and resources into it just made the joke funnier. As my wife will readily attest to, I tend to find a lot of humor in my own jokes. Whether anyone else will find it similarly interesting or amusing is entirely up to them.

PTBOCanada: Tell us where you're at with the podcasts. Is it gaining in popularity?

Tilley: We just recorded our 14th episode, and the show is released every second Monday. Bi-weekly. While it would be easy enough to join a small podcast network, and get some cross-podcast advertising, I decided to host it myself since I want to have complete control over when it comes out and where it was available. I had some experience developing podcast hosting in Wordpress from some of my other podcasting work, so I put together a site to host the show and a proper RSS feed that could be submitted to iTunes and other podcast aggregates and we were off to the races.

It has been growing, actually. Really, the growth has all been about the guests we've been getting. I made a conscious effort to not, at least at first, reach out to my regular podcasting buddies. While it would have been very easy, I knew I wanted part of the concept for the show to involve personalities that I loved, and whom I had some sort of social media relationship with, but who I hadn't been able to have an extended conversation with. It's what has developed into the biggest joy of the podcast. Using Eric Roberts as an excuse to chat with some of my favorite writers, actors, commentators and personalities.

PTBOCanada: So each podcast focuses on one film/project he's done?

Tilley: With the knowledge that Eric's work is so diverse, we had to come up with a concept which would be able to incorporate that variety. So, generally we cover two "projects" per episode. That usually means movies, but it could also mean a movie and an episode of an hour-long TV show. Or, two hour-long TV shows. Or, a few sitcom episodes and a movie. There are a lot of combinations. The main thing is that it usually encompasses about three hours of content. Since we have a guest who is expected to watch this material too, we have to sketch that out well-ahead of time.

And it's certainly not just movie junkies! Our most recent episode featured the illustrator Brandon Bird, who is quite world renowned for his pop-culture paintings—often involving characters from the Law & Order TV franchise. I knew Brandon had actually painted a portrait of Eric Roberts a few years back for the purpose of putting on lunchboxes, which he sold through his website, and that he had met Eric Roberts and gifted him one of the lunchboxes. So, when it was decided to devote an episode to Eric Roberts' two Law and Order appearances, he seemed like the perfect guest. And he was.

For the most part, I've been reaching out to film critics and pop-culture writers. People who I know have a strong "voice", and would tolerate being grilled about Eric Roberts for 90 minutes.

Sometimes I lay in bed and think.. Why did I create a podcast devoted solely to Eric Roberts? But then I just press on because.. why not?

— Boner Vivant (@Doug_Tilley) November 18, 2015

PTBOCanada: Any sense of whether Eric has listened to any of your shows? Any correspondence? Have you emailed him? Tweeted him? Dreamed about him?

Tilley: It's the eternal question, right? "Does Eric listen?" "When is Eric going to be on the podcast?". The fact is, I would be *horrified* if Eric Roberts listened to the podcast. Needless to say, while we always take a pro-Eric Roberts stance, it's not always particularly complementary. However, the fact is that he's at least aware it exists. He's tweeted out links via Twitter a few times now, and since we've been involved with promoting some of his recent projects, that necessarily gets back to him. So, my understanding is that he's aware that someone has made a podcast about him called Eric Roberts is the Fucking Man.

Whether he's ever listened or not? I don't know. I'm a lot more interested at the moment in getting people who have Eric Roberts stories to tell. We interviewed a director a few months back who had Eric Roberts act in their short film, and getting that sort of perspective is something I find really interesting. What's he like to work with? What are his quirks? That sort of thing.

But, yes, I did recently have a very vivid Eric Roberts-related dream. In it, he gave me his blessing. I'll take that as confirmation to keep going until the cease and desist letter arrives.

PTBOCanada: Is the ultimate goal to interview Eric Roberts himself on the show? Is that the finale/Hollywood ending sotospeak??

Tilley: Not at all! In fact, as I mentioned, I feel like it would be absolutely humiliating to have the man himself on the show. I mean, how should someone react to discovering there's a bi-weekly podcast about them? Flattered? Maybe. Weirded out? Almost certainly. It's not something we've pursued up to this point.

Frankly, I'd be much more interested in having, say, his wife or one of his kids guest on the show. After all, this is a podcast about Eric Roberts. Having him on sort of defeats the purpose.

PTBOCanada: He was even in a Rihanna music video. What do you make of that?

Tilley: Oh yeah! In fact, Eric Roberts has a long, storied music video history. Mariah Carey's video for "It's Like That", "Mr. Brightside" by The Killers, "Smack That" by Akon. The guy loves to work, and music videos are just another medium to conquer.

This year alone he's appeared in two fairly notable music videos. First, both he and Mads Mikkelsen appeared in Rihanna's "Bitch Better Have My Money" video, and then recently he appeared in Chris Cornell's music video for his song "Nearly Forgot My Broken Heart". Small appearances in both, but it's all part of the legacy.

As soon as the right guest comes down the pipeline, we'll certainly be devoting a full episode to just examining Eric Roberts' music video career. Because, of course we will.

PTBOCanada: Eric is rather eccentric in his choices. Getting inside his mind like you do, why would he have appeared on Celebrity Wife Swap?

Tilley: I wouldn't pretend to speak for him, but I will say that the more we chat with people who have interviewed him or worked with him, the more insight we get into how and why he chooses his roles. It's important to note that his wife is his manager, and it appears that at some point in the past decade there was a conscious decision made to move away from larger, long-term projects, and instead focus on smaller appearances that would allow him to better control his schedule.

There's a fun anecdote in his Random Roles interview with Will Harris explaining why he chose to do the ridiculous Roger Corman-produced film Sharktopus. Basically, it boiled down to a free vacation for him and his family. So, why not? He loves to work, and gets to travel around the world and basically have full control of how often and how hard he works. Sounds like a pretty good life to me.

In terms of his reality show appearances, I imagine it all seems like a lot of good fun. Whether it be swapping wives with Robin Leach, or letting ghost investigators into his house, he seems like a guy who is open to all sorts of new experiences, and isn't hampered with a particular ego about what sort of projects are "beneath" him.

I had a dream last night that I hung out with Eric Roberts at my grandmother's house. So my mental state is really, really good.

— Boner Vivant (@Doug_Tilley) November 17, 2015

PTBOCanada: What was his best role you think? Worst?

Tilley: I can obviously only speak to what I've seen, which is but a small amount of his massive filmography. I'll say that one of the original concepts for the podcast was that we would pair a film from his Hollywood period—say, from 1978-1990—with one of his more recent films. However, we quickly discovered that we were burning through the Hollywood films pretty darn fast.

But that does mean that I've now seen most of his more celebrated work, and it's actually turned me into a fan of his. I know that sounds silly coming from someone who is already devoting too much of his time to Eric Roberts' career, but it was only in watching a lot of these earlier films for the first time that I started to really develop a healthy respect for his skill as an actor.

With that said, his performance in Star 80 is pretty amazing. Just the sleaziest, scariest role, and he tackles it with such nervous, drug-fueled energy. It helps that it's a great film, but he's really its core, and he's just astoundingly good in it. Honestly, he's excellent in all of those early roles. Watch The Pope of Greenwich Village, Runaway Train and King of the Gypsies and you'll see why there was a time when he was one of the most exciting actors of his generation.

In terms of worst.. Man, you can take your pick. One of the difficulties of the podcast is that sometimes we don't know how much Eric Roberts we're going to get when we choose a subject. A film like Wrong Cops features him for, legtimately, about 60 seconds. But in terms of the worst Eric Roberts film I've seen, that has to go to the Brian Michael Stoller directed movie Miss Castaway (also known as Miss Castaway and the Island Girls) which features Michael Jackson in a supporting role! It's just horrible. Just one of the worst comedies you're likely to ever have to suffer through.

Fun fact for this particular interview. Brian Michael Stoller was born right here in Peterborough, Ontario!

PTBOCanada: If you could meet Eric Roberts, what would you ask him, discuss?

Tilley: Honestly, I'd want to ask him about anything except his entertainment career. There are plenty of pop-culture interviewers who are better at doing that. The sort of nuts and bolts of the life of someone who has experienced massive fame, but has now—by all accounts—settled down. What does he do with his leisure time? What's his relationship with his kids like? I know he's big into animal rights. I'd like to explore that. Who are his friends? What does he do for fun?

I mean, obviously those are stalker-esque questions, but I'd sort of feel like I wasn't being true to the podcast if I didn't skirt expectations a bit.

PTBOCanada: He's all hip on social media—Twitter and Facebook—yet his website looks like it was built in 1999. Please explain.

Tilley: With a yahoo.com email address! Hey, I know it. You think I should offer my services to redesign his site?

I figure he just realized, as most celebs did, that a personal website isn't really a proper first line of defense anymore. Or, heck, maybe his wife tends to it in-house? I'd like to think so.

And we all know that social media is so immediate, and alive, and active. It's such a different animal. Eric Roberts tweeting about how great his son's album is, or how much he's enjoying X-Factor, or David Duchovny, or whatever is just so.. adorable. It provides some weird, and occasionally hilarious, insight into the man. Of course, that's with the caveat that we don't really know who controls his social media.

PTBOCanada: What is the evolution here? Will the podcast ever turn into a Eric Roberts Is The Fucking Man documentary turn into a biography? How far can you take this?

Tilley: Well, I certainly don't have any plans to stop. To be honest, I feel like it's only a matter of time until some director gives Eric Roberts a meaty part that he can pour his talents into, and he could very well have a Tarantino-esque renaissance. Just last week Guillermo Del Toro was praising him up and down on his twitter feed. Our only goal is to preach from the mountaintop that Eric Roberts is the fucking man.. and hope that people listen. Where that leads is entirely out of my hands. I just host a podcast.

PTBOCanada: Do you have an encyclopedic knowledge of him by now? Healthy obsession?

Tilley: Neither! I mean, I guess a sort of obsession, since knowing what he's working on is part of the design of the podcast, but what I'm quickly realizing while doing this show is that there are many people who are vastly more devoted to Eric Roberts and his career than I am. While I'm more than happy to devote a shockingly large part of my life to something my wife colorfully describes as "a waste of time", I'm certainly no expert on the man. Nor do I necessarily want to be.

This show is simply an excuse to get together with funny, interesting people. Any Eric Roberts knowledge learned is just a fortunate byproduct of that.

PTBOCanada: If this Eric Roberts podcast ever ends, who would you fixate on next?

Tilley: Hell, there's a wealth of underloved, underexplored character actors out there. I've already had a number of people approach me suggesting they want to start their own podcast devoted to a single actor or director. I say, go for it. Podcasting is such a beautiful, democratic way of communicating. Sure, you may only ever find a small, devoted audience. But they are your audience. Keep plugging at it, and who knows what might happen?

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You can listen to Eric Roberts is the Fucking Man podcasts on Tilley's website or on iTunes. Follow the podcast on Twitter here.

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Neil Young Museum Exhibit Opens In Lindsay

photo of exhibit via Youngtown Rock & Roll Museum Facebook page

After close to eight years of operation, the volunteer run Youngtown Rock and Roll Museum closed its doors in Omemee on September 27th, 2014 due to time commitments and costs of operation. (Omemee was one of the places Neil Young spent his formative years, and is the inspiration for many of his songs.)

The good news is a smaller commemorative exhibit from the museum has now opened in nearby Lindsay at The Olde Gaol Museum.

Called The New Youngtown Museum Exhibit, it showcases a number of select artifacts and memorabilia that have been enjoyed by thousands of visitors to their former Omemee location.

**For more information and hours of operation, visit the Olde Gaol Museum website or check out the Youngtown Museum Exhibit Facebook page.

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Graffiti Artist In Peterborough Really Likes The Movie Zoolander

Someone in Peterborough really likes Zoolander. Electric City Live's Gabe Pollock snapped this pic walking on the rail bridge. Oh, and beauty backdrop.

So great movie? Let's discuss.

#PTBO graffiti speaking harsh truths #bluesteel #graffitiforants pic.twitter.com/ZcRW3aixkJ

— Electric City Live (@ElectricCityOn) November 24, 2014

Best Scenes from Zoolander.

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Peterborough Vintage Store Planet Of Stuff Is Pure Pop Culture Retro Awesome

Vintage books, toys, comics, games, collectibles—you name it, and Peterborough gem Planet of Stuff (286 Hunter Street West) has it. After a soft launch this summer, they are having their Grand Opening Friday (October 31st). Feast your retro eyes on a bunch of pics from the store of the kind of amazing stuff available...

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