The BlackBerry Movie -- and the audience booed

About 400 RIM colleagues gathered on May 25th and refreshed our friendships and reminded ourselves of the countless remarkable achievements we shared at Research In Motion. Word spread quickly about the gathering and within five days all the tickets were sold for the three opening day screenings of the BlackBerry movie at the Princess Cinema in Waterloo. The local CTV coverage shows the street was filled with conversation an hour before the movie began and colleagues were still talking past midnight. 

In many ways it is a very entertaining movie. But the best commentary about the movie is made by past-CFO Dennis Kavelman in the National Post.  I echo his concerns that most people are unable to separate the many comedic fictional characterizations from the genuine behaviour of the company leaders. The poster of the movie shows a light bulb over the head of the Mike Lazaridis character which is entirely appropriate. But the devil horns above the head of the Jim Balsillie character I find insulting -- given how Jim is characterized in the movie, I think they could have gone with #!* 

If you have seen any movie that begins with "based on real events" then you hopefully already understand that movie markers, especially ones who are attempting to mix comedy and drama, will twist facts and invent situations to suit their entertainment goal. As one simple example, Jim and Mike knew each other long before Jim joined the company in 1992, but the movie timeline has that introduction happening in 1996. If you watch this movie, please don't think you are learning the sequence of events or gaining any understanding of the behaviour or the history of any character. And remember that the company still employees a lot of people (one movie attendee has been with the company 29 years) and the company had revenue of U$718M last year (more than the FY2004 revenue, but a long way down from the high of $19.9 billion in 2011).

The RIM-only audience laughed several times and cheered for the Waterloo location shots. But they booed loudly when the movie makes a harsh slap in the face of Canadian engineers. That brief scene has no place in this movie, especially from Canadian film makers, and Mike would NEVER think nor say such a thing. With that scene, the movie instantly flips away from funny for the RIM audience. To further make my point about Mike, he was masterful in front of customers. I was with Mike in Europe in August 1993 when Mike said to me, "there is no reason we cannot be as big as Motorola". At that point there were at most twenty employees at the company and Motorola did $17B in revenue. Mike and Jim worked in lock-step for years. Mike had a vision for where RIM was going and the two of them seemed like they could finish each other's sentences. 

After the movie, I spoke with the Director while he signed posters on the street. I asked if he can make any adjustments before the CBC television showing which he said is planned for November. He quickly and enthusiastically confirmed that he could (without saying that he would). The movie ends with the Jim character drinking a beer in a little fishing boat. A more appropriate ending image would have been from 2009 when Stephen Hawking made his first visit to the Perimeter Institute founded in 2000 by Mike.  Rather than the three existing short sentences about Doug, Jim and Mike, the Director could attempt to tally the hundreds of millions of dollars these three business and community leaders (and many other RIM employees such as Michael Barnstijn and Louise MacCallum) have contributed to not-for-profit causes across Waterloo Region and far more broadly across Canada. Matt Johnson, please do the right thing and bring some balance to the force of this movie. Sorry, did you see Star Wars? (funniest line in the movie). 

Brentwood Ontario Reunion 1937

 Brentwood Ontario is not a big place, an intersection west of Angus Ontario. But back in 1937 over two hundred people gathered for some kind of reunion in High Park in Toronto which at the time would have been a nontrivial distance away probably requiring a train ride from Barrie and Barrie itself would not have been a short distance. My mother is one of the children seated on the ground in front of her parents and brother.

Do Not Look Back

I had the pleasure of visiting Haida Gwaii last week. For anyone who enjoys walking under the shade of a tall tree there will be few more remarkable destinations. The photo below shows how a Haida mortuary pole that would have stood for more than a century is now wrapped by a more recent spruce.

At Kuna

The Haida were pushed to the brink of cultural oblivion by government policies that criminalized their unique language and culture. Fortunately, those last 500 Haida must have been exceptionally resilient individuals.

Along the trail to the Golden Spruce -- I am nature and a lesson of the Haida Culture. Look after each other and be generous. Never take more than you need. Enjoy, share and respect the lands and waters that sustain you. Everything I have has a purpose. Look after me, and I in turn will look after you. Do not look back, there is much more to see, feel and love.

Nothing lasts forever

Whether you like canoes or you like wood working or neither, I hope you will enjoy this video. In an interview he explains more about his reasons for building and then destroying the boat. In short, it was a symbolic gesture to leave behind a time in his life. I haven't personally seen a Buddhist sand mandala, but it is a work of art that is ceremonially dismantled after it is completed to recognize impermanence.

All is well

I found a small stack of photocopies in my mother's things. It seemed as if she had prepared them with some future eventuality in mind, but she never discussed it with me. Assuming that her intent was for those words to be shared with those who knew her throughout her life, I will also share it with you. It is attributed to Harry Scott Holland (1847-1918) Canon of St. Paul's Cathedral

Death is nothing at all.  I have only slipped away into the next room. I am I, and you are you. Whatever we were to each other, that we still are. Call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference in your tone, wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together. Pray, smile, think of me, pray of me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was, let it be spoken without effect, without the trace of a shadow on it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was; there is unbroken continuity. Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner. All is well. 

We kill them

I recommend everyone read the Globe & Mail article written by Jim Balsillie which begins with his account of a U.S. business leader describing a tactic for dealing with successful Canadian businesses: "... We wait until they get big enough, then we go after them. And we kill them.”  In case it wasn't obvious that business is a full contact sport, the article points out several gaps in how Canadian institutions -- legislative and education especially -- are failing to fortify our national economic interests. Since Jim is a well noted hockey fan, he could have used a hockey metaphor – you must skate with your head up or someone is going to flatten you!

Bighead River

Last weekend we paddled the Bighead River into Meaford. We put-in at the 11th Line bridge and spent two pleasant hours paddling a few class 1 sections to the 7th Line bridge before lunch. But the next 45 minutes to the take-out at Beautiful Joe Park (Edwin Street) was fantastic – essentially continuous fun, shore to shore, genuine class-2, river. In hindsight, we would have just paddled the last section twice because the car shuttle is so quick. A solo paddler could use a bicycle or probably even a local taxi.

There aren't any complex ledges; there are plenty of mid-river boulders for catching eddies, especially in a kayak; and as you will see in the video, lots of fun maneuvering for a tandem canoe. Higher water might push the take-out about 100m down to the other end of the park and if the water level dropped another foot it might have a couple fun sections but it would also be rather shallow. The first five seconds of this video clip show me doing a little ender.  The water office graph shows a 16 discharge and 11.45m water level.

Back on the Mag

In June we paddled the Magnetawan River from my house to Britt. I didn't do much in the way of video or photos this year -- just one clip of Kevan & Tom running a typical drop we encountered. The water level was at least two feet higher this year -- compare some of the shots in Jean's video to the video I made last year. There are more photos on the canoe club site.

First time on the barrens

In 2005 I paddled with Alex Hall of Canoe Arctic Adventures on my first trip on the Barrens. The video below was my first effort editing video and Youtube have an excellent new feature that stabilized some of my unsteady video which has fixed a couple scenes, such as the wolf and muskox clips. It may be easier to watch on the Youtube site.

Land Value Taxation

This video briefly explains an alternative concept for taxation. Setting the relative values of land would of course be a complex detail of such an idea, but no more complex than the underpinnings of our existing tax labyrinth. It would be a very big software model to test before delivering the news! Nonetheless, the central notion is very interesting and more details are available at the Earthsharing site.