Thursday, March 22, 2007

Souvenir Of Canada



Don't you just love when coincidentially things you're really into merge to create an incredible union? Like when Tim Curry signed on to be King Arthur in the Broadway production of Spamalot? As was my reaction when I heard that A.C. Newman (of New Pornographers fame) was doing all the music for the 2006 movie Souvenir Of Canada created by one of my favourite authors Douglas Coupland. Douglas Coupland's witty cynicism over A.C. Newmans incredible Canadian-bred indie-pop? Count me in!
And the pair sure delivered. The movie was about Douglas Coupland creating "Canada House", a sort of museum full of Canadian inside jokes that only we would understand (Windsor salt packages, Dad's cookies, plenty of Canadian geese and beer cans). The movie also bios parts of his career and talks about his relationship with his parents, the "most Canadian people he knows". It makes you feel really great to be Canadian, I gotta say, and have to giggle at all the Canadian souvenirs that apply directly to your life (for me, the most relevant are the Dad's cookies). He admits to being obsessed with mass media and advertising campaigns in the movie which is easily regarded as the 'souvenirs' in Canada house are about half Canadian artifacts or symbols, and half Canadian products, represented by their packaging or advertisements. Although I wouldn't say Canada is as much of a consumer's society as USA, which a foreigner might gather from watching the movie, the media symbols do effectively portray Canada and what we know ourselves, and others know us for.

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