By Any Other Name...
Happy December, everyone.
Just a reminder that in honour of the Winter Solstice, I’ll be leading the solstice sunrise vigil on Monday morning, Dec. 21, on the hill in SW Calgary. Only five more solstices before the “End of the World” vigil at Winter Solstice 2012… collect them all!
I was taken to task this month for rejecting the renaming of the “Roundup Centre” to the “BMO Centre” in my calendar. With apologies to employees of the Bank of Montreal, I wasn’t singling out your employer specifically. It just exemplifies a couple of the things that bother me about our current society.
First is the seeming need for corporations to completely erase any previous associations someone may have with a building. Skydome in Toronto was a perfectly good name; even “Air Canada Skydome” is acceptable to me. But “Air Canada Centre” is just an office building. Even the Olympic association with Calgary’s Saddledome disappeared when the now-defunct Canadian Airlines took it over. Now sponsored by Pengrowth, it keeps the Saddledome name but with a different prenom. The Roundup Centre is a recent building, but its name was appropriate to the Stampede Ground location. Again, even “BMO Roundup Centre” would be somewhat acceptable to me, but “BMO Centre” should be that building across from the Devonian Gardens downtown.
Second is the internetization (or perhaps stock tickerization) of businesses and institutions, i.e. replacing names with acronyms. The Royal Bank becomes RBC, Bank of Montreal becomes BMO, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce becomes CIBC. The Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, long known as SAIT, has to append a redundant “Polytechnic” after its acronym so it can be found in a Google search. Even YYC, once confined to the designation of the airport, is beginning to be used as a shorthand for the city itself.
I can appreciate that for many entertainment and sporting events/venues, lack of public donations and government funding is forcing them to rely on corporate sponsorship, but the way branding is being handled seems to deprive the branded of any character or humanity. It’s the old adage, “money talks”. But money also smells, and in the business of corporate sponsorship and branding, it’s really starting to stink.
December's Birthdays: Jessica, Searia, Andrea P., Ziggy, Azrael, Heather Dawn, Dianne W., and probably some of my Facebook friends. Sorry if I’ve missed yours.
December Events:
Note these events are listed for information purposes only. Dates and locations may be subject to change; see the source for details. If I’ve missed anyone and you’d like to add to this listing, please contact me.
Dec. 1: World AIDS Day.
Dec. 2, 12:30 a.m.: Full (Cold) Moon.
Dec. 3: The Eclectic Circle, led by SpiritnSoul. Info: http://www.meetup.com/The-Eclectic-Circle-TEC
Dec. 3-9: Parliament of World Religions, Melbourne, Australia. No, Jack Van Impe, they’re not electing the Antichrist… http://www.parliamentofreligions.org/
Dec. 5, 6:00 p.m.: Yule Community Potluck. Info: zara 1204 (at) gmail (dot) com
Dec. 5, 7:30 p.m.: COGCOA Coffee Cauldron. Info: info (at) cogcoa (dot) ab (dot) ca
Dec. 12, 7:30 p.m. sharp: COGCOA Yule Ritual.
Dec. 13: Geminid meteor shower.
Dec. 15, 7:30 p.m.: Calgary Witches’ Meetup, hosted by moi, in north Calgary. Info: http://www.meetup.com/Calgary-Witches
Dec. 16, 5:02 a.m.: New Moon. Ruis (Elder) lunar month begins.
Dec. 21, 8:00 a.m.: Solstice Sunrise Vigil. Contact me for location, or RSVP.
Dec. 21, 10:47 a.m. Winter Solstice.
Dec. 25: Holiday Day, a.k.a. "The Day That Must Not Be Named".
Dec. 31, 12:13 p.m.: Full (Long Night’s) Moon. (Blue Moon).
Have a happy Yule, and a prosperous 2010!
Hergest
Just a reminder that in honour of the Winter Solstice, I’ll be leading the solstice sunrise vigil on Monday morning, Dec. 21, on the hill in SW Calgary. Only five more solstices before the “End of the World” vigil at Winter Solstice 2012… collect them all!
I was taken to task this month for rejecting the renaming of the “Roundup Centre” to the “BMO Centre” in my calendar. With apologies to employees of the Bank of Montreal, I wasn’t singling out your employer specifically. It just exemplifies a couple of the things that bother me about our current society.
First is the seeming need for corporations to completely erase any previous associations someone may have with a building. Skydome in Toronto was a perfectly good name; even “Air Canada Skydome” is acceptable to me. But “Air Canada Centre” is just an office building. Even the Olympic association with Calgary’s Saddledome disappeared when the now-defunct Canadian Airlines took it over. Now sponsored by Pengrowth, it keeps the Saddledome name but with a different prenom. The Roundup Centre is a recent building, but its name was appropriate to the Stampede Ground location. Again, even “BMO Roundup Centre” would be somewhat acceptable to me, but “BMO Centre” should be that building across from the Devonian Gardens downtown.
Second is the internetization (or perhaps stock tickerization) of businesses and institutions, i.e. replacing names with acronyms. The Royal Bank becomes RBC, Bank of Montreal becomes BMO, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce becomes CIBC. The Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, long known as SAIT, has to append a redundant “Polytechnic” after its acronym so it can be found in a Google search. Even YYC, once confined to the designation of the airport, is beginning to be used as a shorthand for the city itself.
I can appreciate that for many entertainment and sporting events/venues, lack of public donations and government funding is forcing them to rely on corporate sponsorship, but the way branding is being handled seems to deprive the branded of any character or humanity. It’s the old adage, “money talks”. But money also smells, and in the business of corporate sponsorship and branding, it’s really starting to stink.
December's Birthdays: Jessica, Searia, Andrea P., Ziggy, Azrael, Heather Dawn, Dianne W., and probably some of my Facebook friends. Sorry if I’ve missed yours.
December Events:
Note these events are listed for information purposes only. Dates and locations may be subject to change; see the source for details. If I’ve missed anyone and you’d like to add to this listing, please contact me.
Dec. 1: World AIDS Day.
Dec. 2, 12:30 a.m.: Full (Cold) Moon.
Dec. 3: The Eclectic Circle, led by SpiritnSoul. Info: http://www.meetup.com/The-Eclectic-Circle-TEC
Dec. 3-9: Parliament of World Religions, Melbourne, Australia. No, Jack Van Impe, they’re not electing the Antichrist… http://www.parliamentofreligions.org/
Dec. 5, 6:00 p.m.: Yule Community Potluck. Info: zara 1204 (at) gmail (dot) com
Dec. 5, 7:30 p.m.: COGCOA Coffee Cauldron. Info: info (at) cogcoa (dot) ab (dot) ca
Dec. 12, 7:30 p.m. sharp: COGCOA Yule Ritual.
Dec. 13: Geminid meteor shower.
Dec. 15, 7:30 p.m.: Calgary Witches’ Meetup, hosted by moi, in north Calgary. Info: http://www.meetup.com/Calgary-Witches
Dec. 16, 5:02 a.m.: New Moon. Ruis (Elder) lunar month begins.
Dec. 21, 8:00 a.m.: Solstice Sunrise Vigil. Contact me for location, or RSVP.
Dec. 21, 10:47 a.m. Winter Solstice.
Dec. 25: Holiday Day, a.k.a. "The Day That Must Not Be Named".
Dec. 31, 12:13 p.m.: Full (Long Night’s) Moon. (Blue Moon).
Have a happy Yule, and a prosperous 2010!
Hergest
posted by Stephen Hergest at 8:23 pm
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