Note: Transcripts may contain errors. If you wish to re-use all, or part of, a transcript, please contact CBC for permission. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print. Copyright © CBC 2018

The AIH Transcript for November 30, 2017

Hosts: Rosemary Barton and Angeline Tetteh-Wayoe

Prologue

ROSEMARY BARTON: Hello, I'm Rosemary Barton sitting in for Carol Off.

ANGELINE TETTEH-WAYOE: Good evening, I'm Angelina Tetteh-Wayoe sitting in for Jeff Douglas. This is As It Happens.

[Music: Theme]

ATW: Tonight…

RB: A Croatian win, a crushing loss. The U.K.’s World Cup heartbreak continues, but with its win today Croatia will go to the final for the first time in the history of the tournament.

ATW: Driving a hard bargain. Greyhound says it can't make its western Canadian roots work financially. But an Ontario operators says he's ready to roll on five new routes in the prairies.

RB: Un-arrested development. She spent eight years under unofficial house arrest, but now the widow of activist Liu Xiaobo has been allowed to leave China. And our guest says it's long overdue justice.

ATW: Ignition switch. Last night's story of a woman who accidentally stole a car and drove it for two weeks gave you license to respond with your own stories of steering yourself wrong.

RB: What kind of a Mickey Mouse operation is this? Disney Studios forces cinema owners to play its films for a minimum of two weeks, which is driving one drive-in owner on Prince Edward Island to distraction.

ATW: And…Themes like old times. Hear this? It's called vaporwave, a retro version of our usual opening music and it comes courtesy of an Ottawa drummer who makes music on technology even more antiquated than records — 3.5 inch floppy disks. As It Happens: The Wednesday Edition. Radio that's ob-solutely fabulous.

[Music: Theme]

Part 1: World Cup Croatia, Liu Xia Release, Floppy Disk Vaporwave

World Cup Croatia

Guest: Michael Šoštarek

ATW: Well, Croatia sure isn't hurting tonight. In a nail biter semi-final World Cup match Croatia broke England's hearts and secured a spot in the finals for the first time ever. In the beginning it didn't look like this would be the ending. England scored in the first five minutes and dominated early, but Croatia clawed back, pushed the match into overtime and clinched a victory 2-1. Right after the game ended we called up Michael Šoštarek and his friends. Mr. Sostarek is Croatian Canadian and an enormous soccer fan and watched the game from a packed park in Mississauga, Ontario.

RB: Hey Michael Sostarek, it’s Rosemary Barton, how are you?

MICHAEL SOSTAREK: Good. How are you?

RB: Good. Where are you right now?

MS: Right now I'm in Streetsville, Mississauga in the Croatian park. It's absolutely ludicrous here. They made history, that's all I've been hearing again and again the celebrations are crazy, there's flares, there’s jumping around, there's chanting — it's amazing, it's the time of a lifetime.

RB: I hear some horns in the background, what are people doing to celebrate?

MS: Oh right now they're going down Mississauga Road, they’re going to downtown Streetsville and usually there’s a bunch of Croatians in the local park and everything around there and we’re just going to meet them and we’re going to celebrate hard and once again, we made history. As you can hear it’s pretty, it’s amazing — I’m speechless.

RB: What did you think when they scored that second goal?

MS: When they scored the second goal it was a dream becoming a reality. We're in the finals, we've made it this far. And we have one more step, one more W to collect and we're champions.

RB: Who are you with right now, Michael? Who are all those people?

MS: Just a few of my buddies, a bunch of people from the Croatian community just coming together here at the park. Soccer has been rooted in almost day to day — in our genes, since the first one we had in 1988 it’s just been rooted in our culture. For us to come this far and have an opportunity to — even minimum we’re finalists, it's life changing. It's such a big deal just to show people from how small our country is just to really put ourselves out there right now. This is unbelievable.

RB: Who's talking now? Hi, how are you feeling?

FRIEND: I started crying, man. Oh my gosh, I can't believe it. Come out to Streetsville right now and party with us. This is insane.

RB: Croatia beat England in 2007. Is this another big moment for you guys?

FRIEND: Bigger, way bigger. This is us showing people we're not darkhorses anymore, we’re not the underdogs anymore, although we are a small nation, we’re football giants.

RB: Is there anyone else with you guys or is it just the two of you? Hey, Marco. When England scored that first goal were you guys worried at that point?

MARCO: Well, I was honestly heartbroken, a goal coming so early in the game, it was heartbreaking really. But the way Croatia was pressing and the way that they were playing, I knew that we would have lucky chance on breakthrough. Croatia took that chance and they scored, which literally brought the park and myself into tears. The Croatian community, especially for our soccer team, we have a saying. “Always faithful,” so no matter what, no matter two down, three down. One down for us. It was a little shock, the jitters I think, but after that we showed that we had this, and we completely controlled England. We deserved to win that game.

RB: All right, who is your favourite player?

MS: All of them. They’re all heroes. They’ve done so much for the Croatian community just by playing this match, it’s absolutely insane.

RB: And what are your chances against France?

MS: Well, I mean, it's coming home.

RB: But you did lose against the French in 1998. I don't want to bring that up. But is that in the back of your mind somewhere?

MS: That’s in the past, this is the present. They will definitely be a very tough opponent. They’ll be very strong. They have great talent all over the pitch. So it will be a challenge but I have faith that we'll give them a run for their money. And, once again, we are underdogs in that game. And, you know, we proved them wrong in that game and in this game we're underdogs, so-called. And, you know, hopefully we get the same result.

RB: I guess that's an advantage being the underdog, is it?

MS: Yeah. Honestly it’s always an advantage.

RB: What are you going to do to celebrate the rest of the night?

MS: We’re going to stay don in Streetsville, we’re strong down there. We’re all going to party safely. This is time for our community to really get closer and show how strong we are.

RB: OK. Well, congratulations and good luck. You're going to need it.

MS: Thank you. Thank you.

RB: OK. Take care.

ATW: That was Michael Šoštarek and his friends in Mississauga, Ontario right after the semi-final Croatia vs. England World Cup game ended.

Liu Xia Release

Guest: Yang Jianli

ATW: She's at the airport in Helsinki with her arms outstretched. She's wearing a gray cardigan and a big smile on her face. It's a picture that only hints at a whole story, a picture taken yesterday of Liu Xia as she made her way to Berlin, Germany after eight years of unofficial house arrest in China. She's a poet and the widow of Liu Xiaobo, the activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner who was jailed years ago for inciting subversion. He died a year ago almost to the day. There had been pressure from a lot of people, especially in Germany, to allow Liu Xia to leave China. And while officials previously said she was free to move around, activists and friends said that wasn't the case. Yang Jianli is a Chinese dissident living in the U.S. He's also the founder and president of Initiatives for China. We reached him in Washington, D.C.

RB: Yang Jianli, what was it like for you to see that picture of Liu Xia when she raised her arms in the airport?

YANG JIANLI: I was very happy. I enjoyed the moment together with many, many friends around the world. But at the same time I felt bad because she was happy simply because she was out of her home country. That says a lot about her home country. It is just a prison.

RB: What do you know about how she is doing in Germany?

YJ: We have friends on the ground being in touch with her, I bet she is doing very well. You know, it’s long overdue for her to leave China to come to the free world. You know, we worked very hard upon learning her husband was diagnosed with cancer to get the couple to come to the free world so that he could die as a free man and she could continue her life as a free woman. But we couldn't do it. We failed to do to get them out at that time. We have been working very hard on these various governments, primarily the German government, the U.S. government and in many international human rights groups for her freedom. She had been put under house arrest for nearly eight years for no reason other than she married the wrong man. By wrong man I mean Liu Xiaobo, Nobel peace laureate. She had suffered as a result tremendously.

RB: Under house arrest, unofficial house arrest and after the death of her husband she had a hard time. She was depressed, she was not doing well.

YJ: She suffered so much, both physically and psychologically, more psychologically than physically. And she was in deep depression given all the things that happened around her. She not only lost her husband during the eight years of house arrest, she also lost her parents and her brother, very close to her, got an eleven year sentence. You know that gave her a serious blow.

RB: What do you make of the timing of it? There is — the Chinese premier has been on a visit to Germany. What do you think of the timing of it? Why did it happen now?

YJ: We talked to the German embassy in U.S. last week. From the meeting we learned the decision was made during Chancellor Merkel's visit in Beijing. She raised her case to China's leaders, including Xi Jinping himself, and also Premier Li Qiang. In the joint press conference by two premiers Li Qiang made it very clear China is waiting to discuss specific human rights cases with the German government, by which he meant they were waiting to be discuss Liu Xia’s case . From that meeting the decision was already made for her to leave China. The only thing undetermined was the timing. China, of course, has been trying to find the best timing for them to sell, if I may, to sell this product at a high price and that this is the best timing for them given Li Qiang’ visit to Germany and given Trump would be in Europe for the NATO summit and also the upcoming China and Europe summit next week. China has been actively seeking to form a stronger, closer alliance with Europe, confronting the U.S. in regard of trade conflict. They try to please Europe and they found this is the best timing for them.

RB: Should we then assume or read into this that other political prisoners, whether they are imprisoned or kept in their home, that they might be released?

YJ: No, this is a single separate case. Just for the next day after Liu Xia left China another dissident was sentenced to 13 years in prison. So this shows that Liu Xia’s case is a separate case, it’s an isolated case simply because of the pressure from Europe because the timing, they want to use Liu Xia to please Europe and also to strengthen Chancellor Merkel's moral stance facing France. I think that is why they made this decision but we cannot make any generalization about any other cases or at all.

RB: Liu Xia can never go back to China then?

YJ: I don't think she is willing to go back unless there are going to be a free democratic China.

RB: Yang Jianli, thank you.

YJ: Thank you. Bye, bye.

RB: Bye, bye.

ATW: That was Chinese dissident Yang Jianli who's also the president of Initiative for China. He's in Washington, D.C.

[Music: Ambient Bass Tones]

Stolen Rental Car Response

ATW: It's one thing to lose your car in a parking lot, but last night we told you about a woman who took it to the next level — she lost hers and left in another. The Ontario woman accidentally stole a car for two weeks because she thought it was her rental. It was an honest mistake, really, just some confusion over a fob left in the car she inadvertently made off with. After hearing about that impressive heist, we heard from you.

RB: Boy did we ever. Louis Desgrosseilliers from Bridgewater, Nova Scotia wrote us about a near miss in 2002 he wrote: Our friends had driven us all to the video store in their parent's Pontiac Sunfire. Upon leaving the video store we entered the car and proceeded to buckle ourselves in. But noticing at the same time that there was no longer a stack of C.D.s on the floor in the back seats. We all looked at each other in shared disbelief just before our friend was about to put the key in the ignition. But one row ahead of us, in the nearly deserted parking lot late at night, we saw the car in which we'd arrived there completely identical on the outside to the one in which we found ourselves at that moment. We very quickly exited the car and entered the correct car before the true owner could see us and suspect that we were haphazard thieves.

ATW: Good catch. Thank you so much for that e-mail. We also heard from CBC’s Carolyn Dunn. She tweeted: This happened to my late mother, too. They got a few blocks before realizing it wasn't their car. And finally we got this call to our talkback line. Hi,

SOUNDCLIP

ROBERT ROSSI: Robert Rossi Puerto, Rico USA. There were tears in my eyes listening to this story about the woman and the stolen rental car. Because my sainted mother, who was a very intelligent woman, but when it came to cars, a car was a car, was a car. She bought herself a American Motors Rambler American two door, baby blue. I'm driving with her one day, she sees another car, she says ‘ There’s a car just like mine.’ I said ‘Mother, that's a four door Buick Electra.’ ‘Oh, but it's blue.’

ATW: Thank you Robert Rossi, it is blue. Do not argue with your mother. And to everyone who tweeted emailed or called, in case you missed yesterday's interview or if you want to know more about how on earth someone managed to steal a car for two weeks, check out our website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: 90s Pop]

Floppy Disk Vaporwave

Guest: Sterling Campbell

ATW: In 1984 Diana Ross released It's Your Move from her album Swept Away. It's Your Move didn't get much play. Fast forward to late 2011 though, and that track got a second life when an album called Floral Shop popped up on YouTube by an artist under the alias Macintosh Plus. That is one of the most popular examples of a musical micro-genre called Vaporwave. It started online, lo-fi remixes of everything from 80s smooth jazz, to hold music, to shampoo commercials eventually found an audience all united in their nostalgia for early Internet culture and obsolete technology. Enter Sterling Campbell. In March Mr. Campbell started Strudelsoft, a record label that releases Vaporwave music exclusively on three-and-a-half inch floppy disks. It's possible that for a minute now you've been asking what are you talking about. Yeah, I hope Sterling Campbell can help. We reached him in Cornwall, Ontario.

RB: So Sterling, for those who haven't heard of a Vaporwave, we did just play a little bit of Macintosh Plus’ remix of Diana Ross as an example, but how would you describe Vaporwave? What defines it?

STERLING CAMPBELL: I would describe it as, you know, like a re-contextualization I guess, maybe repurposing of 80s, 90s influenced music, maybe slowed down a little bit, paired with that pre-internet era nostalgia imagery and early Internet era imagery I'd say.

RB: So is it supposed to sound like the song originally or sound completely different?

SC: It's both ends of the spectrum. Sometimes it sounds almost exactly the same and sometimes you can't even tell that a sample is used. So it's kind of all over the place, it varies by the artists.

RB: When did you first hear it?

SC: It was about 2014, 2015. I was working at an AV company in Ottawa and my friend and I were just kind of surfing the net and we kind of stumbled across Vaporwave. It just kind of fascinated me that this was actually a genre, and it was born on the Internet, that doesn't happen too often.

RB: And how did you go from ‘Oh this is a cool sound, I'm into listening to it’ to ‘I'm going to make my own?’

SC: Well, the boss of the AV company told my friend Josh Starkie and I to go clean out the storage locker and we found about 500 pristine Maxell 90 cassette tapes.

RB: Cassette tapes?

SC: Yeah, so we kind of looked at each other and were like ‘We're starting a Vaporwave label.’ So my buddy Josh still runs a really Vaporwave label in Ottawa called Lost Angles.

RB: But you took it a step further with your label. Tell us how?

SC: Yeah, I wanted to do something just kind of completely ridiculous. So I take music and mash it down to 8-bit and I put it on floppy disks and sell it all over the world.

RB: Floppy disks like those little square hard discs that I used to have to use to save things?

SC: That's right. Three-and-a-half inch floppies, and I sell out every release and it's kind of astonishing.

RB: And how do you play those?

SC: A lot of people just buy the A drive to USB convertor that you can buy on the Internet for 20 bucks. But some people still have the A drives in their computers. A lot of people that are into this type of music, you know, they're in the nostalgia and collecting.

RB: And how much music can you get on one of those floppies?

SC: I could fit about 11 minutes and 30 seconds on a three-and-half-inch floppy. And it's kind of ironic because I went to audio engineering school and here I am like mashing music down to 8-bit.

RB: You referred to it, but it's not just about the music, which is nostalgic and different and interesting — it's about all these other parts of the 80s and the 90s. And when you look online for this stuff you see like collages of AOL and you see all sorts of weird visuals.

SC: And that’s the stuff that I miss because I'm going to be 37 on Saturday and, you know, growing up with this tech that's the kind of stuff that I kind of miss. You know, I miss the birth of the Internet. And there's a lot of younger people into the genre that didn't get to grow up with that, right. And they find it fascinating. It's insane how many people are into it, I'm just kind of flabbergasted.

RB: What about copyright issues? I mean, sampling is the same sort of thing you have to somehow reach an agreement. How do you get around that?

SC: Yeah, well that's the thing, that's a grey area, you know, and it's kind of like you know how much has it been repurposed. I haven't really like been hit with any = cease and desist or anything like that.

RB: Is there an artist from the 80s or 90s who I mean, we heard Diana Ross there — but is there another artist who sort of lends themselves to this sound, who just makes sense to turn into this?

SC: Well, there's a lot of artists that use a lot of late 80s Japanese funk. People try and find samples from all over the place and they try and find samples that people haven't used before. There's no real one artist that kind of stands out.

RB: Like I'm thinking about an old Billy Ocean album my dad had, like would that be a good jam?

SC: Definitely. Anything that you could slow down, throw some reverb on it and it sounds kind of cool and sounds different. And it's not just all about slowing it down throwing reverb, I mean, that's one thing that people do. But there's people that take samples just to the next level and turn it into something almost wholly their own. It's crazy.

RB: So if you're going to push this even further would you go to those floppy disks that were actually floppy, the bigger ones? Would you push it even, like, just even get a little bit crazier?

SC: Yeah, I've looked into that actually, but I think the next thing I'm going to do is — I was thinking about starting up a 1-800 number and that would just be my album. You know, people call in or who knows maybe like put some music on an SD card and like sow it inside of a Beanie Baby or something.

RB: You're a creative guy, that's for sure, Sterling. Before I go, some listeners at the top of the show may have heard a Vaporwave version of the As It Happens theme song. So let's listen to a little sample of that.

SOUNDCLIP

Music: Vaporwave remix of As It Happens theme]

RB: So that's like how I hear As It Happens as I'm waking up from a nap. How did that come together?

SC: So my friends Hexadecimal, he's from Ottawa, he's the guy that started Lost Angles tape label with me with me back in the day. And our friend 3D Blast from Detroit, they got on it and they had a little remix for us within about 45 minutes.

RB: Well listen, As It Happens is always cool. And now we're Vaporwave cool. We appreciate you doing that for us and thanks for teaching us about a totally new genre, for me, anyway.

SC: Well, thank you so much, I love the show and I love the CBC.

RB: Thanks, we appreciate that. Let's listen to a little bit more of what you put together for us. Thanks

Part 2: New Bus Company, Disney Drive-In

New Bus Company

Guest: Kasper Wabinski

ATW: Greyhound may think that a bus company can't make money in Western Canada but Kasper Wabinski is going to try Mr. Wabinski is the CEO of Kasper Transportation in Thunder Bay, Ontario. He's responded to Greyhound's cancellation of all but one of his western routes by announcing that Kasper buses will be ready to roll on five new routes through Manitoba and Saskatchewan by October. We reached Kasper Wabinski in Thunder Bay.

RB: So Mr. Wabinski, Greyhound says it shut down because it didn't have enough people taking the bus. What makes you think that you will?

KASPER WABINSKI: The traffic is there, the buses are busy. I don't think it's a matter of traffic necessarily, but it's how the routes structured and other financial obligations that I believe are affecting them, not necessarily traffic, but real estate, overhead, wages and other expenses. But I don't believe traffic is the main reason.

RB: So when they say, as an executive told CBC yesterday, that the bus lines can't work without some sort of government subsidy. What would you say back to that?

KW: Well, we're making it work. Maritime Bus is making it work. There's a whole bunch other companies making things work. So, you know, we've tried to meet with a Greyhound couple times last year and I find it very arrogant that one company believes that there's no other solution but them. And the fact that you refuse to acknowledge that other people are making it work is the reason why they they're failing because they're not adapting, they’re not listening, they're not recognizing how other people are doing things. To say that I cannot make it work is ignorant. I am making it work without subsidies.

RB: So how are you doing it? What is keeping your bus line going?

KW: Well, first of all, I don't have big real estate overhead, my vehicles are a different type, a little bit smaller, in my opinion cheaper to maintain. And I don't have the overhead of payroll like Greyhound does.

RB: Because you just have fewer employees?

KW: Fewer your employees and we’re not unionized.

RB: So you propose some sort of partnership with Greyhound. What did they say when you talked to them about that?

KW: Well, they got offended that I think that I could do a better job than they could. And I said ‘Well, we are, we are doing it, we're doing it a different way and you guys are invited to work with us and learn from us. I'm sure I can learn things from you guys.’ But at the end of the day you know we are in a market where we're averaging, on some routes, four or five, six passengers a day. And we're happy with that.

RB: And that's enough?

KW: Yeah and that's enough, on some routes that’s enough. We’re using smaller vehicles for that, for example, Thunder Bat Fort Francis, on a good day I get ten, on a bad day I get nobody. And we're still making it work for while there.

RB: Are you having to charge more per ticket, you must?

KW: The prices are a accordingly adjusted. I believe that a viable route should break even around four to five passengers a day. So you have to charge the right amount to break even with four or five passengers.

RB: So you are charging more than Greyhound's then you would say, in order to break even?

KW: Sure, I don't remember what Greyhound charged on that route because they haven't been doing it since 2012. On some other routes were comparible, for example Winnipeg to Dryden we’re $75.00 That's pretty much what's Greyhound’s charging right now.

RB: So you're going to step in in parts of Manitoba and Saskatchewan?

KW: Yes. Correct.

RB: And how are you going to do that? Are you going to do offer exactly what they offered or are you going to purchase new vehicles? How is it going to work?

KW: I already have and excess of vehicles right now and I already have have licenses. So it's a matter of just structuring it and making sure that the local communities give us the required feedback so that we can structure the routes to fit their needs. A lot of the TransCanada routes were structured for TransCanada, not necessarily for Winnipeg to Regina. You know their focus was Winnipeg-Thunder Bay. So the timing may change to be more focused for daytime time so that will eliminate unnecessary travel during night.

RB: You talked about overhead. And I wonder, you know, Greyhound has terminals all over all over the country, certainly all over western Canada. Where do you ask passengers to go just by the side of the road?

KW: Well, in Dryden we work with Tim Hortons. In Fort Francis we work with A&W and Kenora with McDonalds and Long Lac we work with Robin's Doughnut and in Geraldton and we work with a local convenience store. Well, you know, it is just a matter of working with local businesses that can benefit from that traffic on and off the bus. And there's a lot of people willing to do that.

RB: We talked to a Manitoba Grand Chief yesterday, Sheila North, and she said that she is looking perhaps for an opportunity here for First Nations communities, many of which, as you know, are remote, to maybe come up with a solution of their own, their own transportation needs. What do you think of that idea?

KW: Well, I think you're better off calling me and making a partnership agreement with us or an existing operator because starting from scratch is very time consuming and this is a time sensitive matter. There is not a lot of time left here. You cannot purchase a bus overnight like this. You know, this is not stuff you can just pick off the lot. You've got to train drivers, set up your programs, you've got to have your licensing in place, I have the license in place that is like a six to nine month process on the slow side. I messaged the Manitoba Chiefs on Twitter there, given them my phone number, so I'd be more than happy if you wanted to call me and work with an existing person that can get this going in the time available.

RB: You know, I think a lot people are upset that this is happening, that Greyhound made this decision. But do see it as an opportunity?

KW: Well of course, I mean, it's an opportunity of a lifetime to step up to the plate and do what they can’t do. Some companies are just too big to change and to turn around in direction and smaller companies come in that are more nimble and flexible. I don't have a big board of directors to answer to so if I need to make a decision I make a decision and I can roll with it and at the end of the day it’s my name on the line. So I have to you know deliver on what I said I'm going to do so, yeah, it's definitely an opportunity and I'm going to try to fill the void as best as I can.

RB: Kasper Wabinski, thanks for making time.

KW: Thank you very much.

ATW: Kasper Wabinski is the CEO of Kasper Transportation. We reached him in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

[Music: Ambient Tones]

Thai Rescue Diver

ATW: For 18 days the world was transfixed by the story of twelve boys and their soccer coach trapped in a cave system in Thailand. Now, they've been recovered and are recovering. And some of the people who helped rescue them are finally able to take a breath and talk about the process of accomplishing what once seemed impossible. Eric Brown from Langley, British Columbia was one of the divers who helped the team get out. Today, he spoke with Stephen Quinn, host of CBC Vancouver's Early Edition, about the success of that complicated operation.

SOUNDCLIP

ERIC BROWN: I was one of the divers, so the first couple of days was staging tanks and getting line set up for the actual mission. And then the last three days there’s are six main rescue divers — or two doctors and four main rescue divers who are guiding the kids out. Then they had another six of us staged at points throughout the dive who were assisting in changing tanks and supporting along the way and, you know, helping guide them from place to place. It's not cave diving so you dive for 30 minutes and then you pop out and then you can breathe unserviced for maybe another 15 minutes, then you go under water for another half-an-hour and you pull yourself along. It’s a lot of strategic planning where tanks need to be left and where people need assistance stuff. So it was definitely a major operation. We had the U.S. military here, we had the Australian military here, obviously the Thai navy was in charge and then we brought in six of the best rescue divers from the U.K. who spearheaded this whole amazing operation.

STEPHEN QUINN: And the world really did breathe a sigh of relief when everyone got out safely. What was the reaction like on the ground there?

EB: I don't know how to say it. I mean, obviously ecstatic, but, I mean, you know, what got pulled off, it's unbelievable. And you'll never see something like this again — it's amazing. There's no guidebook for this because it's never been done before. So unfortunately, there is no zero risk opportunities. Every way that we could find was massively difficult and inherently very dangerous.

SQ: Was there any point at all Eric, where you thought ‘Oh my gosh, what have I gotten myself into here?

EB: Every second. It's so surreal. We got out of the water last night. I mean, after the divers and the kids — I didn’t get out of the water until five hours after that. So we got out of the water and we had to go through medical checks and, you know, sort of all sinking in right now, the whole team is getting together and I’m actually standing outside a little bit of a barbecue get together everyone and I’m shaking my head now, it’s surreal.

ATW: That was Canadian diver Eric Brown talking with Stephen Quinn today on CBC Vancouver’s The Early Edition.

[Music: Acoustic Guitar Plucks]

North Korea Potatoes

ATW: Last week U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Pyongyang, after which he said quote “We had detailed substantive conversations about the next steps towards a fully verified and complete de-nuclearization,” unquote. Two things would seem to contradict that assessment. First, North Korea itself, which angrily denounced the U.S. as quote “gangster like mindset” regarding its nuclear programm. Second, a key negotiator was not there. North Korea's supreme leader/dictator Kim Jong un. Where was he? For days no one knew, but clearly he was engaged in something extremely important. Important enough to make him miss the follow up to his historic meeting with President Donald Trump. Well, yesterday North Korean state media released some photos taken during Mr. Pompeo’s visit. The implication was that they showed some of what Kim had been attending to while the U.S. secretary of state had been having these ‘detailed substantive conversations.’ In one photo the North Korean leader is resplendent in a spotless white suit crouching in a field, a field of potatoes at a potato farm. The article revealed just how critical Kim Jong un's input was regarding the potatoes. Apparently, while Mike Pompeo was telling irrelevant North Korean officials to stop it with all the nuclear stuff, Kim was telling farmers that they should plant potato plants that produce a lot of potatoes. And to quote “introduce various species, good taste and ensure the quality of processed potato foods in production and thus raise the quality of potato production,” unquote. Great advice, which I'm sure the potato farmers hadn't considered. And obviously time sensitive. Either that or U.S.-North Korean relations are already in tatters because he was in taters.

[Music: 90s Rock]

Disney Drive-In

Guest: Bob Boyle

ATW: A local business owner in Prince Edward Island thinks Mickey Mouse is being worse than Goofy. Bob Boyle owns the single screen Brackley Drive-In Theatre. According to Mr. Boyle, Disney Studios makes him screen its films for a minimum of two to three weeks or not at all. And two weeks is too long for a small town drive-in — it's affecting ticket sales for him and others like him. We reached Bob Boyle in Brackley Beach P.E.I.

RB: Mr. Boyle, tell us how Disney's rule is affecting your drive-in?

BOB BOYLE: Well, it is affecting our drive-in in a way that allowing us to play a film when we need to play it and when people want to see it. The windows of when movies play are very short nowadays with Netflix and online video viewing. So the window is very short now for the attention time spans, as well as we're only over in a very short period time in the summer months — every week counts.

RB: But these are big movies that you wanted to play at the drive-in, and I would imagine lots people want to see them. So why not just keep them up for three weeks?

BB: The thing is with the drive-in, we have many of our customers they come week after week, we are their Saturday night. We are there Friday night date night or we are the family plan for the weekend. It would be similar if your favourite TV show was Grey's Anatomy and you watched every Thursday night. Well you wouldn’t want to watch every Thursday night the same show.

RB: What happens to your audience numbers when you do show a film — or have even done that — if you were to show a film for three weeks straight, what do you think would happen?

BB: We have tested it once before with actually a Marvel product, it was Iron Man 3 and in the third week it was a ghost town. The sales in attendance plummeted. Even now, fast forward to this week, we opened up Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and now this week we had to hold it over for a second week and the attendance has has dwindled. It's just because the drive-in theatre is large in size. We have a large capacity to hold many, many people, and in a small town verybody can view it pretty much in one week.

RB: So why do you think this is happening? What has the company, what has Disney told you about why they're doing this?

BB: Don't really have a reason why they do it other than they do do it, and they're the big guy in the room. They can dictate what they want to dictate. We're just a small little a small little theater on Prince Edward Island, whether we were here or not they really would notice. But our fans and our customers do, and they depend on us to put on quality product on screen all summer long. And because they have so many great films in so many franchises underneath their umbrella now with, you know, with Disney Animation, Pixar animation, Marvel products and as well Star Wars, and now in the future they're looking to take over Fox studios, which would be even more product that we would have a difficult time accessing for our screen.

RB: So tell me this do you have the same issue with other studios?

BB: No, all of the studios Warner Brothers and Universal Studios, Paramount Studios, Sony Studios, they're very supportive.

RB: I have a bit of a cheeky question. What if you just played it once and didn't say anything about it?

BB: You mean play it for the one week and then not say anything about it for the other the other two weeks that we were required to play it?

RB: Yeah, that's right. How would they even know?

BB: Well, actually in this day and age in the Internet world our projector is actually hooked up to Hollywood so they can see what we're playing and when we're playing it. And also that would be in bad faith, we wouldn't want to be a bad faith partner. It's like if we make an agreement that we would play it for three weeks then we would have honour that. But we know what works in our market, and I've been at this for 26 years in the drive-in business. And I think I know what works. I don't know what every movie is going to do, whether it's going to be a huge success or not, but I pretty well have the pulse of what our customers want and what our customers want to enjoy when they want to enjoy it.

RB: What about just not showing Disney movies at all?

BB: That's just — well in the past that was possible and we have skipped Disney product because of because of those demands of either length of play or what we had to play with it. The amount of product that they now own, it's becoming very difficult to do that. If you look at any given week of what the movie schedule is of films coming out, well when Disney has five of the top five movies or three of the top five movies it becomes very difficult to skip them.

RB: So what are you going to do?

BB: Well we've asked our customers to voice their opinions to Disney and their thoughts on this policy and how they would like Disney to treat drive-ins, because it's not just our drive-in, it's many drive-ins across Canada. There's only 35, I believe, there's only 35 drive-Ins left in Canada. I know there was 38 last year, I believe this year the number is 35. Disney has totally within their wheelhouse to be able to turn this story around and make it a complete positive with an ongoing commitment to support drive-ins in Canada — and in North America for that matter. It's completely in their ability to do this. They can change the policy on a whim and strengthen drive-ins going forward.

RB: One last question Bob, what's planned this weekend?

BB: This weekend we're very excited, we have Hotel Transylvania 3 hitting the big screen on release. It should be a monster hit, pardon the pun. I mean, we’re going to have families coming to the drive-in from all around the Maritimes because they've been wanting a family film and we've just haven't been able to provide it for them. So excited to be able what Sony studios up on the big screen where it belongs and not on small little cell phone screens.

RB: Enjoy the night at the movies this weekend. Bye, bye.

BB: Thank you. Bye.

ATW: Bob Boyle owns the Brackley Drive-In Theatre. He's in Brackley Beach, Prince Edward Island. CBC requested comment from Walt Disney Studios but didn't get a response.

[Music: Waltz]

Elon Musk Sub

ATW: To be clear, Elon Musk, a man who has a lot going, on dropped everything to work with engineering teams to produce a miniature submarine. Within five days they'd built one and delivered it to the rescue site outside the cave in Thailand where the boys soccer team was still trapped. And then, even after it wasn't used, Mr. Musk donated it to the Royal Thai Navy. It was a fast, generous response, and so was Mr. Musks tweet after the last members of the team were saved. Quote “Great news that they made out safely. Congratulations to an outstanding rescue team,” unquote. The thing is though, since then he's kind of been insisting on people congratulating him. Yesterday speaking to reporters, one of the Thai officials coordinating the rescue operation said politely “Although his technology is good and sophisticated, it's not practical for this mission.” To which Elon Musk replied on Twitter, “He is not the subject matter expert.” And then posted an e-mail chain no one asked for, proving that the head of the dive rescue team apparently the subject matter expert had asked him to continue making the mini submarine. Then having established that someone had requested the sub, which no one had denied, he tweeted quote “Based on extensive cave video review and discussion with several divers who know journey, SpaceX engineering is absolutely certain that mini-sub can do entire journey and can demonstrate at any time,” unquote. Well OK, that's terrific. And it's understandable that he'd be a little prickly after doing all that work under extreme pressure. It's just that where the rescue mission is concerned, he's overlooking the scope of their achievements and focusing on the periscope of his own.

Provide Transcript Feedback

CBC would like to acknowledge the support of the Broadcasting Accessibility Fund.

July 11, 2018 episode transcript

Social Sharing

More from this episode