I am writing this post a bit early because, alas, I have my first test of the term on Monday and I guess I should at least LOOK at my textbook. Plus, I have been dying to add this superhero to my roster since last week. This weeks Superhero Sunday is dedicated to Canada's own [you have no idea how good it feels to say that] George Stromboulopoulos. The former Much Music VJ, activist and current Host of CBC's The Hour. I have been a huge fan of the show for a long time now [ I also watch it on youtube sometimes when its not on t.v.] and I am always amazed at how knowledgeable and worldly he is. Not only that but unlike a lot of talk show hosts out there he always manages to find a way to be respectful yet without compromising himself or his views and taking part in conversation with who he is interviewing without ever monopolizing the conversation. So needless to say I have always had great respect for George, however my respect was greatly increased and persuaded me to indite him into Superhero Sunday when, once more, I was watching an
episode of The Hour and he was doing one of his regular segments on world news. Seen as it was an episode from this week naturally one of the stories that he mentioned was the fact that Roman Polanski had been arrested. Because I like him so much I was bracing myself to be forgiving for the excuses on Roman's behalf that I was positive I was about to here pouring from Mr. Stromboulopoulos's mouth. Instead I was in shock to here him say that what he was surprised and angry about was the fact that Polanski had been free for over 30 years. I was absolutely elated, not only that he made a case for why it was wrong for people to defend him, beautiful, Touche, Georgey, very cool. Now, I'm about to commit a cardinal sin against my women but I just have to be honest, part of the reason I so appreciated George's admission about the Polanski case was because he was a MAN in the entertainment industry. Now bear with me here, all I had been hearing from men so far about this issue was how ridiculous it was to arrest Polanski and how it was an insult to his work and a disrespect of a great man, even though he was guilty. And I have to say that I was very impressed that, oh boy, that a man could be so, well, for the woman, in a case that had most men taking the opposite view. I know that we are not supposed to give men extra credit for things that WE do anyway but, actually, the fact is that in this case there were a lot of women who were siding with Polanski, I just thought it was such a testament to how intelligent Stromboulopoulos really is that he was able to see it differently.
So now for the background and full body of work of our Superhero. He grew up in Malton, Ontario the son of a devout Evangelical Christian mother and grew in his teens straying from that without ever losing respect for his mothers beliefs[again, tres cool.]. He started at much music in his early twenties and was my favorite even then, he interviewed virtually every celebrity under the sun from Fred Durst to Britney Spears, you'll have to forgive the examples but remember they were popular back then. He became known in interviews to be unfailingly respectful and thoughtful and never lost his cool, even when interviewing a clearly unstable Mariah Carey [if you ever get the chance to see that interview you must its hilarious]. However, his work was just beginning than, after Much Music he then went on to do a long running radio talk show called the Strombo Show. In November 2007, the show moved to the Corus network and the format changed to one of mainly music. The Strombo Show now broadcasts from 102.1 The Edge's Toronto studio and on other radio stations in the Corus Entertainment network, including CFOX-FM in Vancouver, Power 97 in Winnipeg, FM96 inLondon and Y108 in Hamilton. On top of this, On January 17, 2005, the first episode of The Hour went to air. Currently in its sixth season, The Hour is a hybrid of news and celebrity and covers everything from politics, pop culture, the environment, human rights, entertainment, sports and more. He has interviewed some of my favorite, authors, politicians, actors and musicians, from Ricky Gervais to Christopher Hitchens to Rufus Wainwright. What I love the most about the way he carries himself on the show besides the fact that it incorporates everything in media from celebrity to politics to music, is the fact that George seems completely unpretentious. He interviews and is respectful to everyone from Jenny McCarthy to Larry King treating everyone the same. He is also unique not just having on those that will get him ratings but people that he has a genuine and personal respect for, think David Cronenberg, Cat power, and Ani Difranco. Besides the work in his television career, he has also done a great deal of charity work for the causes he believes in. Stroumboulopoulos has also been involved with numerous charitable initiatives, such as hosting the 'HipHop4Africa' Mandela Children's Fund Canada and CapAids February 2006 Toronto benefit. He has traveled to the Arctic for a special on literacy, youth culture and the loss of Inuit identity. He has been to Sudan with War Child Canada, and Zambia for a World AIDS Day special documentary. He also supports and is actively involved with Make Poverty History. Did I also happen to mention that he's Canadian? For these reasons George Stromboulopoulos is this weeks Sunday Superhero.
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