28-05-2025
Flashback: A taste of American pie
A taste of American pie
Singer/songwriter Don McLean
2 days ago
Duration 1:33
A music hall in Prince Edward Island has pioneered a genre that uses "pop songs as a vehicle for historical storytelling," freelancer Hillary LeBlanc wrote for CBC Arts last week. Co-owner Mike Ross calls the format a "docu-concert."
Ross and company are about to debut a work that delves into Gordon Lightfoot's The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, and LeBlanc says their first docu-concert included "a line-by-line breakdown" of the 1971 Don McLean song American Pie.
When he was a guest on the CBC concert series Sounds Good in 1976, McLean ended the show with a performance of that song. In an interview during the program, McLean said most of his work had "some root in my own experience."
A part of our heritage
Queen Elizabeth drops puck at hockey game in 2002
2 days ago
Duration 0:29
There were two days of "pomp and ceremony" across Ottawa fora visit by King Charles and Queen Camilla this week, according to CBC News. Among his other duties, Charles launched a street hockey demonstration with a "ceremonial puck drop."
When visiting Canada in 2002, Queen Elizabeth appeared to be pleased to drop the puck at a National Hockey League match in Vancouver. Wayne Gretzky, who had recently retired from playing in the NHL, was there beside her.
"Every country's different and we grew up in this one with the Royal Family as part of our heritage," said Gretzky in reply to an American reporter's question at a press conference after the ceremony, according to a Globe and Mail account.
Into the twilight zone
Role-playing group brings fantasy to life in 1985
2 days ago
Duration 3:41
The Fantasy Field Trip Society in Halifax shows a CBC reporter a campaign in live-action role playing.
A British man wore a Super Mario costume while running a marathon in Copenhagen this month. According to Canadian Running magazine, he set a Guinness World Record "for the fastest marathon dressed as a video game character."
In 1985, a Halifax group calling itself the Fantasy Field Trip Society also put on costumes to evoke fictional figures. A CBC crew followed members through a live-action role-playing scenario drawn from a science fiction novel as a games master (who doubled as a wizard) sent them to "the twilight realm" to seek a magic sword.
"It's a lot of fun to get dressed up and see what your imagination will let you do," said a participant, whose role as a 'fire and ice sister' was to confuse the seekers. She said her day job was as a clerk for the federal government.
A bigger boat fleet
Clothing-optional beach at Hanlan's Point officially approved in Toronto
2 days ago
Duration 2:03
In a debate with a few dissenters, Toronto's city council agrees to make clothing optional on a city beach that must be reached by ferry. Aired May 12, 1999 with reporter Adam Vaughan.
Toronto city council has approved the purchase of two new electric ferries, said a report last week from CBC News. In 1999, CBC reporter Adam Vaughan said the city might need extra boats after a vote to make a Toronto Island beach clothing-optional.
Ice dream
The Minnesota Frost have beaten the Ottawa Charge to win the Professional Women's Hockey League championship, reports the Associated Press. Back in 1987, CBC reported on what it said was the first international women's international hockey tournament.
Out with outports
Resettlement in Newfoundland: is it good for the people?
56 years ago
Duration 23:29
When Take 30 goes to Newfoundland to ask former Placentia Bay outport residents if the move to Arnold's Cove was a good one, the responses vary widely.
Last week CBC News reported on the town of Tilt Cove, N.L., whose four residents will soon be relocating to a town on the same coastline. In 1969, the CBC show Take 30 examined outport resettlement in the province, calling it "migration on a vast scale."
The bird is the word
Starting later this year, new episodes of Sesame Street and "select past episodes" will run on Netflix in addition to PBS, the Associated Press has reported. There was a familiar feathered face out of context in 1985 when Big Bird was on CBC's Midday.
