ezra winton

Bottled water and a new blog look

You’ve probably noticed by now that I’ve switched my blog over to WordPress, and the snazzy digs have inspired me to get back into posting. Right now I’m concerned about submitting my finished thesis to the Graduate Studies Office of Concordia, but soon after that, I’ll be setting aside time to post the odd rant here. For now, I’d like to point you in the direction of a great article I’ve just found on line. I’ve been doing some research for Liz Miller’s documentary film The Water Front, and well…read more

Aug.28

Thesis successfully defended – Woop!

Posted by ezra in Academix, Doc Side, Personal Travails

After a long, long hiatus I’m back to report that yesterday I successfully defended my MA thesis (picture on the left is me after defense with my profs)!! I have a few minor revisions to make, but basically I’m all set to start my PhD. I had charged my cell phone and waited for calls last night, but alas, defending a thesis seems to not measure up to getting married or having a baby. Speaking of which, congratulations to my niece, Sarah, who has just had a baby girl and…read more

Aug.17

Suffering Fools – Post CSU Election Rant Part I

Posted by ezra in Broadsides

The corrupted old song has stolen the soul of Concordia’s Student Union for a fifth year in a row. I’d like to rant about how stupid Concordia students are and how they get just what they deserve, but alas, one cannot blame the oppressed instead of the oppressor. This year’s Unity slate won by apparently 1,000 votes, but it may as well be 150,000 as the numbers are a creative exercise in repressing democracy. What these vultures have succeeded in doing for another year is rigging another election in their…read more

Mar.30

Debating what Should be Commonsense: Another Self-Serving CSU goes for Gold

Posted by ezra in Broadsides

It’s election time at Concordia University, where every year for the last four years, students have voted for a corrupt, inept, and self-serving bunch of miscreants. This year, some students that I actually respect as activists and organizers, like Edwin Janzen, are coming out of the woodwork to throw their support behind the latest incarnation in the Evolution/Experience franchise. What dismays and disturbs me is that well-meaning students like Janzen, who are influential on campus when they write endorsement letters to our school paper, the Link, have a complete inability…read more

Mar.21

Exhausted and Departing

Posted by ezra in Dispatches, Projects

A journalist for Uptown Magazine in Winnipeg interviewed me recently about our upcoming WAL-TOWN TOUR 2007 and asked me what we wanted to accomplish with this campaign and whether we are anti Wal-Mart. I answered: We are anti Wal-Mart. If Wal-Mart was a corporation that supported it’s employee’s rights to organize, if they were accountable to the citizens in the towns they move into instead of only to their shareholders, if they had progressive environmental policies that were sustainable, if they weren’t the largest retail force on the planet that…read more

Jan.19

Wal-Town Tour take THREE

Posted by ezra in Doc Side, Projects

It’s true, it’s true. In the midst of end of semester insanity, the crew at überculture has decided to be even more insane and launch a third tour across Canada to kick some Wal-butt. If you’re reading this you probably already know about the Wal-Town Tour 2007 and our project, but if you’ve just stumbled here then you should really read about our initiative at our Project Site. Basically four of us characters from the film are going to split up with two going west to BC and up to…read more

Dec.13

Blogs and Wal-Mart

Posted by ezra in Personal Travails, Projects

The photo on the left is one of many great photos that Luna took for us at our wedding party. We’ll be putting all 100+ of them on line sometime soon, so keep checking here. In other news, überculture members are going across the country on another Wal-Town Tour and are trying to raise cash, so if you’re reading this and are itching to donate to something worthwhile, visit the Wal-Town Site. We’ve raised $5 out of a goal of 5,000 so far…. But alas, things will be slowing down…read more

Dec.06

Neo-Canadianism, Embodied by Bold Leadership

Posted by ezra in Broadsides

It’s been a while and that’s because life has been as frinetic and busy as ever. Aside from getting my POV Magazine article in on time (it’s currently on the newsstands for those curious), organizing DOC brunches and websites, writing scholarship applications for SSHRC and for the Trudeau Foundatioin ($105,000 and $150,000 respectively – fingers crossed), and oh yes, getting married last Saturday, things are relatively normal! The Underground Wedding Party, as we dubbed it (it was held in the catacombs of the Bunker – the Loaded Pictures production space)…read more

Nov.23

Digimart and the Curse of the White Male

Posted by ezra in Doc Side

Last week I attended Digimart, the “Global Digital Distribution Summit,” here in Montreal. I went because, well, my research for both my current MA thesis and my (hopefully) future PhD thesis involves digital networks as the vehicle for delivering documentary film to movie theatres here in Canada. After shelling out 225 beans for my three day pass, (and after unsuccessfully begging for a “media pass”) I headed over to the marvellously fascistic (accoring to my colleague Brett, who I agree with on this one) Excentris theatre on St. Laurent to…read more

Oct.25

This is Just a Test

Posted by ezra in Broadsides

Recent revelations by a former Concordia Student Union Executive have cracked open the case of ineptitude and corruption that is the legacy of our last four years of right-wing dummies in office. The individual executive has resigned and told our school paper, The Link, that they won by scheming with the administration and that now the executvie is more interested in having drinks with CV-enhancing bigwigs than actually tending to student issues, of which there are several. Pictured to the left is the current CSU president, who presumably got to…read more

Oct.20