There are lots of ways to get in touch with Spark. Here are a few:
Online
- Email: spark@cbc.ca
- Twitter: @SparkCBC
Telephone
- Hotline: 1-877-34-SPARK (1-877-347-7275 toll free in Canada)
- Hotline outside Canada: 1-416-205-7021
- Dan Misener (a human being): 1-416-205-3470
Postal mail
CBC Radio: Spark
P.O. Box 500, Stn. “A”
Toronto, Ontario
M5W 1E6
Courier
CBC Radio: Spark
205 Wellington St. W.
Room 3G220-M
Toronto, Ontario
M5V 3G7
February 14th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
Re: Metacritic and film reviews
I’m a big film geek, but I never used to pay much attention to movie reviews. After Titantic won a recordbreaking number of Oscars, I decided these people couldn’t be trusted. Then, a couple years ago, I watched the movie “Crash” (the Paul Haggis one about racism, not the Cronenburg one about sex and car accidents). Something about that movie rubbed me the wrong way, but was struggling to figure out what I disliked so much. I looked the film up on Wikipedia and found that it received incredibly positive views from almost everyone. One person who gave it a bad review was a guy named Scott Foundas. Wikipedia referenced a grumpy back-and-forth argument between Foundas and Roger Ebert, who loved the movie. In his review, Foundas voiced the exact same concerns I had about the film’s portrayal of racism. I read more of his reviews of movies I’d already seen, and I agreed with almost all of them. He’s American, so I have to read his reviews online, but they’re almost always dead-on as far as I’m concerned. A lot more useful than the averaged ratings. (Rottentomatoes give 82% for Titanic?! Are you kidding me?)
February 24th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
[...] Contact Spark [...]
February 25th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Good design is ageless….
Why aren't those who create hair-care packaging not placing a large, raised S [For Shampoo] and C [For Conditioner ] on their products , to enable those who wear specs to differentiate between the two? In the meantime, a chunk of chewing -gum or scrunched duct -tape works quite well ….
March 10th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Hi Nora,
I am just listening to the podcast of your latest show, the one about the end of solitude. Listening to it made me think that you are living in the wrong place. I live in Victoria, and out here on the coast things move more slowly. People have more time to be alone. I know a lot of people, including myself, who don't have cellphones, let alone blackberries, and who spend hours of their day walking along the shore thinking their thoughts, or curled up reading a book (yes, Victoria is full of writers too–so maybe that has something to do with it) . Is never being alone partly a result of where we live? I would be interested to know if people in rural areas feel they have more "alone time" than people in cities do.
April 4th, 2009 at 12:53 am
I have a bit of a problem with my on-line identity and facebook that might be relevant to the show…
I got fed up with facebook recently, specifically with people "finding" me and making friend requests. The problem was mainly I didn't want to be contacted by old boyfriends and people I didn't know from high school who I would rather be "out of touch" with. It was uncomfortable and so, rather than delete my account and lose access to things like my sister's on-line wedding album, etc, I changed my name to something very dissimilar from my own name. Problem solved, I thought. People who know me will recognize my photo and those who don't will stay away.
But then the art gallery I work for wanted to have a facebook presence, and this has to be managed through my profile… and now when I invite people to become "Fans" of the gallery's facebook page, people send me back messages saying "who the heck are you?" I'm actually frightened of explaining the situation to them in a facebook message because I have found facebook searches some of the messages for key phrases and I'm worried I'll get caught !!! (One of the terms of use for facebook is that you must use your real name.
I have been thinking about changing my name back… but I'm worried facebook will finally notice I have broken the rules and kick me off. This anxiety feels a little like worrying about being deported from a country you've gone to on a tourist visa, figuring out how to live there and working under the table…
I'm wondering if anyone else has ever done something like this on Facebook or other social networking sites. Who else has been bending the rules, getting caught and trying to figure out how to be social on a social network?
April 8th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
Nora Young . thanks to you and all your Crew . i am an Old school ,multi media artist. your show today makes that clear. you see i have just posted my first uTube video. it is an Improvised Animated spontaneous dance. performed live ,one take ! the Music is from a CBC broadcast last Sat evening . it was a Drum concert. this video was shot during the broadcast. NO REHERSAL . i believe you, and the great Folks at CBC will appreciate and enjoy this effort . thank you for your time . and a show worth listening to! >>>>>SPARK<<<<<< hgope this takes you to my video http://www.you tube/Improv Animation Spontaneous swirl peace love and Understanding ? swirl Whats so funny?
June 24th, 2009 at 10:19 am
Please cover the CyberWar in Iran
Iran filters Twitter, FaceBook, YouTube…
Iran practices Deep Packet Inspection on Internet trraffic
Iran chocks the internet access to a trickle
From the day before election (Thursday) SMS is down and mobile phones don't work
Websites such as CNN, BBC, and almost all protest's websites and news papers are blocked
Iranians fight back:
http://WeAreAllNeda.com/
NedaNet http://www.catb.org/esr/nedanet/
July 28th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
Nora, one of the most important psychological functions of communications with others is its apparent ability to self-validate. I say 'apparent' because actual self-validation may or may not occur, but whether it does or not, people think it does and they like that. Meanings or perceptions are very fragile or dubious until they are validated by communicating them to someone and getting a response. But it is not primarily the message or the content, but merely the communication of it that is important. No one may understand, let alone agree, yet we are real because we have been heard. This is also why mass messaging is so attractive: if there is a response, that is vastly more effective and the more people are contacted, the more likely a response. Finally, of course, it is a two-way process because the responder is no less getting their needs met by responding. Introspection falls into disuse; it has been replaced by a different method of accomplishing the same thing.
August 7th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
[...] harbingar: Nora, one of the most important psychological functions of communications with others is its apparent… [...]
September 6th, 2009 at 8:07 am
Hi,
I loved the piece today, Sat Sept 5, about people, especially tech geeks, hanging on to and upgrading their old technology instead of dumping it for the newest and latest (which segwayed into buying things designed as per their usage lifetime… ie a desk for 100 yrs)… I think one of the people interviewed was from Six Apart. But I can't find this on the Spark site. I think you mentioned a website for and about getting years of use out of old technolgy. Could we have that website please? Thanks so much! GREAT show!
September 6th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Hi Leanne. The website is http://lastyearsmodel.org/ and you can find Anil and Gina talking more about the site here: http://www.cbc.ca/spark/2009/05/full-interview-an...
September 17th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
Actually iran Filter Packets… or restrict some social networks.. that can be corrupt thier colture and moral values.. they dnt allow ponographic materials in arab country
October 4th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
I have just had an epiphany! My routine for Sundays has for about 15years years been to go for a run with "Fast Company Running Club" . The post run comprises a Timmies chat with kindred runners, followed by a dash home to be lulled into blissful semi consciousness in a hot tub listening to Stewart MacLean till 1:00. Jonathon Goldstein was my alarm clock to get myself out of the tub, reassure my wife that I had NOT drowned, fed and ready for the afternoon.
Today (Sun 4 Oct 09) post CIBC Run-for-the-Cure, my CBC sojourn was radically changed by pausing to listen more intently to Spark! what on earth was this program going to be about? An hour later and somewhat chilled (I refused to run more hot water into the tub for fear of the noise making me miss something!) I resumed my normal Sunday. Wife was away so no worries there!
Where have I been to miss all the previous editions? When did your program move to this time-slot? Anyway I think it is incredibly well structured and thought provoking. My problem now is how to capture the program at a time when I can give it the attention it richly deserves. I am old fashioned and hate computers but love what they provide in terms of accessibility. I dearly prefer to listen to the programs directly on radio.
Sincerely, Brian King,
Dartmouth Nova Scotia
November 2nd, 2009 at 1:55 am
Have you seen this site http://www.storyofstuff.com/ ?
There is a cool video.
November 29th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
Wow! Lot of interest in the show on your page! I can understand why, after listening to your pathetic and decidedly un-imformative piece on books& the internet today; in fact I turned off the radio before that crap ended! A re-run of all Peter Gzosky's work on CBC would much better for a Sunday afternoon than this drivel! I am thankful, every day, that I am able to listen to a REAL radio station with depth on the internet: the BBC!!!
November 29th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
I wanted to give CJ McAuley's obnoxious comment a thumbs-down, but unfortunately, I am required to create and IntenseDebate account, which asks for password information over a webpage that is not secure (not https).
January 25th, 2010 at 6:57 pm
omg Rose you are a genius! I just bought conditioner 2x when i thought it was shampoo, and my hubby and daughter brought me 2 more conditioners. Maybe they could put the tape on in the store?
January 25th, 2010 at 7:03 pm
Hello Nora and everyone,
Nora your podcast is one of my staples, you make me laff, and learn stuff.
I am happy to be on the net because the world's biggest library has told me that Lyme Disease does not exsist in the Chronic Form here in Canada, (CMA) and it does across the St. Lawrence (i live in kingston ont) with the AMA
So how to use technology and humour to get the word out that Lyme is out there,
and Canadians are getting it, and are refused treatment….so more won't get infected and sick?
Anyone help?
http://www.icresources.ca is where my story is at….check it out help Sparklers!
January 27th, 2010 at 3:16 am
hi,
I live in Edmonton, married and with a kid. In our house we do not have television, nor wireless phone (I like my cordphone), nor cellphone, nor Iphone. we listen to lots of music, radio CBC and when there is time we watch a movie once a month.
no reason to be alone when no having gadgets. Forgot to mention that we do not own a car and have no desire to buy one. We have been married 10 years and we had a car once, it was for about 6 months only. To much work and maintenance so we got rid of it.
January 29th, 2010 at 12:23 am
Found your blog on Ask and was so glad i did. That was a great read. I have a tiny question.Is it OK if i send you an email???…
February 8th, 2010 at 2:02 am
Set up a "person" for your art gallery that any of the employees can access that need to be able to update the gallery's facebook presence. Make that fake person (ie: Gallery Staff) the admin for the Gallery Group or fanpage. always log into the Gallery Staff account to manage the Gallery's facebook presence. Be sure that you won't accidentally use your personal profile by removing privelages from your self. Now you just have to remember to login to the gallery FB account when you get to work, instead of your own.
February 21st, 2010 at 9:01 pm
I listen to your programme pretty much every Sunday and I hear the warning to be careful what one leaves on-line. Well, I had a surprise of my life when several days ago I googled my name and it came up on several web sites. I like to comment on articles I read in papers and hear on CBC. All I could think about was that my comments were neither rude, offensive or angry. I never gave any thought how long these comments would remain for everyone to read. Speaking and writing in another language I thought I'll look up comments I made there and they were also there for everyone to read. Scary!
March 7th, 2010 at 8:31 pm
The bottom line is you have to be a bit of a moron to get your e-mail account broken into unless the CIA is after you or something. EVERYBODY should know not to give out their password for ANY reason. This is NOT savvy scamming this is YOU being a donut!
…and who are these iiiiiidiots who are surprised that their comments are easy to find?! Do you know ZERO about computers and the internet?! I always knew and can find comments I made 15 years ago in seconds. They should just teach this in High school, but unless someone cracking your passwords like it's a U-boat cipher they scams are just as easy to spot and you're being a silly for falling for any of it.