Vote for me, Seymour, vote for me!
A beautiful exotic plant versus a French-language community radio station? Don’t get me wrong, I love radio, and I love French. But have you heard the ranting lunatics on community radio stations? The lovely Guzmania morreniana will never yell at you. It is a member of the bromeliacae family, which means it is a distant cousin of the greatest fruit ever, the pineapple (seriously, how many other fruits can be used as such an effective weapon?)
The morreniana is one of 120 species of the Guzmania genus, which is native to Bolivia and Ecuador, and named for a Spanish pharmacist and naturalist called Anastasio Guzman. Guzmania plants are relatively simple to grow as houseplants, as long as you have a warm, humid room for them to live in. Although they do tend to die after flowering, they are also easily regrown from their offshoots.
To be perfectly honest, I have always found plants a little bit unsettling. Sure, I love nature and everything, but early exposure to Little Shop of Horrors and this weird NFB short about ivy taking over a guy’s apartment have both left me a bit mistrustful of things that are alive but faceless.
But the Guzmania genus is a different story – despite a few spiky leaves here or there, Guzmania plants aren’t scary, they’re just very pretty. No one could accuse them of having a great face for radio.
– Alison
VS.
Vive la communité radio!
Not that I want this site to devolve into an open window to our relationship, but lately Alison has taken to complaining about the obscurity of her Wikipedia results for the Tournament of Everything. Today, she got a cactus. I should be so lucky. This is now the second time I’ve gotten a radio station that is seemingly non-existent.
But this is how we get through it: According to Wikipedia, CITU-FM “is a Canadian radio station which broadcasts a French-language community radio format on the frequency 104.1 FM in Petit-de-Grat, Nova Scotia.” Searching for them I get pretty much nothing. I actually have more luck searching under what was apparently their former call sign CIZO-FM. That leads me to the La Co-opérative Radio Richmond limitée Facebook page where I immediately become a fan even though I still don’t really have any idea what this is all about and curse my ignorance of learning the French language. But the Wall posts put a smile on my face.
I’m a sucker for anything that’s forging a stronger community (unless all these people happen to be promoting fascism) but otherwise, I’m all for it. And community radio in general is so much better than institutionalized radio. And cacti as well, for that matter. We need real stories from real people, and where else are we going to hear them? The CBC? Ha! Although I must confess, how relieving was it to hear the new host of Metro Morning is someone competent like Matt Galloway? … And that’s how we get through a seemingly obscure Wikipedia entry, honey… love you… Vote for CITU-FM!
Tournament of Everything 
Leave a comment