Douglas Coupland - Douglas Coupland Douglas Coupland (b. December 30, 1961 on an air-force base, Baden-Sollingen, Germany) is a Canadian author and cultural commentator, raised in Vancouver, British Columbia. Trained as a sculptor, he worked in Europe and Japan before returning to his hometown, where he began to write on youth and popular culture for local magazines. This led him to the subject of his breakthrough novel Generation X: Tales From An Accelerated Culture (1991), which was critically praised for capturing the zeitgeist of his peer group, for whom its title provided a convenient label. His next novel, Shampoo Planet, had a more conventional structure than its predecessor but many similarities, including a detailed eye for the mores and minutiae of the lives of its young protagonists, including video.
Generation X - the term was coined as the title of a 1964 pulp novel, and was picked up as the name of a punk rock band featuring the young Billy Idol. It was later popularised by Douglas Coupland in his book Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, who took it from a sociological text by Paul Fussell. It was after the publication of Coupland's book that the term began being used as a name for the generation by the media, who introduced Generation X as a group of flannel-wearing, alienated, undereducated slackers with body piercing who drank Starbucks coffee and had to work at McJobs. Table of contents showTocToggle("show","hide") 1 Beginnings 2 Gen-X celebrities 3 Cultural endowments 4 Outlook 5 See also Beginnings The generation was traditionally begun at 1965, taking off.
Girlfriend in a Coma - Girlfriend in a Coma Girlfriend in a Coma, a novel by Douglas Coupland, was released in 1998. It tells the story of a group of friends growing up in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in the late 1970s. Except one of the friends doesn't grow up with the others: on the night of a teenage house-wrecking party, Karen falls into a coma. And, more alarmingly, she seemed to expect it, having given her boyfriend, Richard, a letter detailing the vivid dreams of the future she had experienced and how she wanted to sleep for a thousand years to avoid that dystopia. Warning: Spoilers follow The first part of the book covers the next 17 years in the lives of the friends. Richard has to cope with losing Karen but gaining a daughter.
Global Business Network - Now Foundation; author, The Whole Earth Catalog, The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at MIT, How Buildings Learn, The Clock of the Long Now: Time and Responsibility Douglas Coupland Novelist, Generation X, Microserfs, All Families Are Psychotic. K. Eric Drexler (advisory) Director, The Foresight Institute; author, Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology and Unbounding the Future Freeman Dyson Physicist, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University; author, Infinite in All Directions and Disturbing the Universe; recipient, 2000 Templeton Prize for progress in religion Brian Eno Cutting edge artist and musician; producer of U2, David Bowie, and many others; author, A Year Francis Fukuyama Professor of Public Policy , Johns Hopkins University; consultant, the Rand Corporation; former deputy director, U.S. Department of State; author, The End of History, Trust, and Our.
December 30 - Ingstad, Norwegian explorer, discoverer of the only confirmed Viking settlement in America (†2001) 1906 - Carol Reed, film director (†1976) 1906 - Johann Adolf Graf von Kielmannsegg, general 1910 - Paul Bowles, composer, author (†1999) 1911 - Jeanette Nolan, actress (†1998) 1914 - Bert Parks, television host (†1992) 1917 - Seymour Melman, industrial engineer 1920 - Jack Lord, actor (†1998) 1928 - Bo Diddley, singer, musician 1931 - Skeeter Davis, singer 1934 - Russ Tamblyn, actor, dancer, singer 1934 - Del Shannon, singer (†1990) 1935 - Sandy Koufax, Baseball Hall of Famer 1937 - Paul Stookey, folk music singer 1937 - John Hartford, musician (†2001) 1938 - Joseph Bologna, actor 1942 - Fred Ward, actor 1942 - Michael Nesmith, singer, musician (The Monkees).
1961 - Ireland's first national telvision station, Teilifís Éireann, (later RTÉ) begins broadcasting. Change of US presidency from Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961) to John F. Kennedy (1961-1963) John F. Kennedy begins the Apollo program of U.S. manned spaceflight The first quasar is discovered by Allen Rex Sandage at Mt Palomar, California South Africa withdraws from the British Commonwealth and declares itself an independent republic on May 31 Year in topic 1961 in film West Side Story The Guns of Navarone The Hustler Two Rode Together, starring Jimmy Stewart and Richard Widmark 1961 in literature The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster 1961 in music 1961 in sports 1961 in television January 5 - Mister Ed debuts. The Dick Van Dyke Show premieres John F. Kennedy holds the first live televised Presidential press conference Births.
1961 in literature - Stone Call for the Dead - John le Carré The Carpetbaggers - Harold Robbins Catch-22 - Joseph Heller Daughter of Silence - Morris West Franny and Zooey - J.D. Salinger A House for Mr. Biswas - V. S. Naipaul Mila 18 - Leon Uris The Moviegoer - Walker Percy A Passion in Rome - Morley Callaghan The Pawnbroker - Edward Lewis Wallant The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark A Severed Head - Iris Murdoch The Stone Angel - Margaret Laurence Thunderball - Ian Fleming 'Twixt Twelve and Twenty - Pat Boone Venusberg - Anthony Powell The Wall - John Hersey The Winter of Our Discontent - John Steinbeck Zima Junction - Yevegeny Yevtushenko Births December 30 - Douglas Coupland, author Greg Egan,.
1996 in Canada - to Los Angeles August 8 - Jean-Louis Roux appointed Lieutenant Governor of Quebec August 29 - former B.C. Premier W. A. C. Bennett is found guilty of insider trading October 4 - Defence Minister David Collonette resigns October 10 - Keith Milligan becomes premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing Catherine Callbeck October 19 - Piers McDonald becomes government leader of Yukon, replacing John Ostashek November 5 - Jean-Louis Roux forced to resign as Lieutenant Governor of Quebec when pictures of him at Nazi rallies in the 1930s are published November 27 - Pat Binns becomes premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing Keith Milligan December 16 - Chrétien formally apologizes for lying about the GST Karen Kain becomes the first Canadian to win the Cartier Lifetime Achievement Award General Jean Boyle resigns.
2000 in Canada - Newfoundland, replacing Brian Tobin November 27 - In the 2000 Canadian election Jean Chrétien's Liberal increases its majority in the House of Commons November 30 - Marc Garneau returns to space for a third time December - the federal government opens a marijuana growing operation in an abandoned mine in Manitoba Canada passes Bill C-23 which extends full benefits and obligations to persons in homosexual relationships, excluding the right to marry. Grey Cup: B.C. Lions win 28-26 over the Montreal Alouettes Vanier Cup: Ottawa Gee Gees win 42-39 over the Regina Rams Arts and literature New Books The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood Virtual War: Kosovo and Beyond - Michael Ignatieff Star-Spangled Canadians - Jeffrey Simpson The Farfarers, Before the Norse - Farley Mowat No Logo - Naomi Klein City of.
2002 in Canada - Booker Prize for his novel Life of Pi October 29 - Canada issues a travel adivosry for all those of Middle Eastern decent travelling to the United States October 31 - Pat Buchanan calls Canada Soviet Canuckistan November 5 - Austin Clarke wins the Giller Prize for his novel The Polished Hoe November 24 - The Montreal Alouettes defeat the Edmonton Eskimos 25-16 to win the Grey Cup November 26 -- Françoise Ducros, the Prime Minister's communication director resigns over her comment that U.S. President George W. Bush is a "moron" November 28 - Romanow commission on health care recommends a $15-billion infusion into the health care system November 30 - Dennis Fentie becomes premier of Yukon Territory, replacing Pat Duncan December 16 - Canada signs the Kyoto Accord, limiting greenhouse.
Alternative Culture - well as the popularization of such anti corporate authors as Michael Moore and Naomi Klein and founding of the Anti-Globalization Movement. Another integral part of alternative culture is that of good causes. At the Lollapalooza festival people can sign up to support causes such as Freedom Of Speech. Many bands have played gigs for causes, most notably Rock Against Racism and Rock For Choice, where money raised was donated to causes supporting the fight against racism and the fight for women's right to choose abortion respectively. A slightly different take on these gigs was when Rage Against The Machine played a gig to raise defence funds for Mumia Abu Jamal, a prisoner on Death Row who is believed innocent by many alternatives. A more recent case is that of the fight.
Canadian identity - but one example: French Quebecers bear Canadian passports, and when they enter really foreign lands in distant places they are very often given a hearty welcome, as Canadians, given the relatively good reputation of Canada in international circles. This kind of repeated welcome is done of course without taking note of personal political choices and it leads persons with open minds to some philosophical musings on the nature of self image. At the core one must remember that, like Canadians in other provinces, the French Quebecers hold the health care system to be nearly sacred (even if there are some quibbles as to how much of it is a provincial versus federal responsibility) and its existence to be non-negotiable. Like other Canadians too they are very much attached to the Société.
Serf - slave working in a capitalist business enterprise. Note one memorable coinage: the noun Microserf, which refers to employees of Microsoft Corporation, with the connotation that they become tied to that corporation, instead of the land, and work long and hard for the benefit of their masters. (See for example the novel Microserfs by Douglas Coupland.) When owners sell companies, modern serfs (or at least the jobs they perform) may get sold along with the companies for which they work..
Palo Alto, California - of 58,598. Palo Alto is home to the headquarters of Hewlett-Packard. Palo Alto's sister city in Sweden is Linköping. A good description of high-tech life in Palo Alto around 1995 is found in the novel by Douglas Coupland, Microserfs. One visible trend at the time was people moving to live in San Francisco, but driving down Route 280 to work in the valley. Geography Palo Alto is located at 37°25'45" North, 122°8'17" West (37.429289, -122.138162)1. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 66.4 km² (25.6 mi²). 61.3 km² (23.7 mi²) of it is land and 5.1 km² (2.0 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 7.65% water. Demographics As of the census of 2000, there are 58,598 people, 25,216 households, and 14,600.
Wired Magazine - allied enterprises corresponded closely to that of the dot-com boom. In late 1999 and 2000, Rossetto and the other participants in Wired Ventures twice tried to take the company public with an IPO, but had to withdraw owing to a lack of interest within the investment community. Rossetto was eventually forced out in 2000. Since the crash of the dot-com boom, Wired lost a lot of its impact and has ceased to be as influential. Over the years, Wired's writers have included, among many others, Pamela Borsook, Po Bronson, Chip Bayers, Denise Caruso, Douglas Coupland, Simson Garfinkel, George Gilder, Bill Joy, Mitch Kapor, Lawrence Lessig, Pamela McCorduck, Randall Rothenberg, Phil Patton Schrage, Neal Stephenson, Bruce Sterling, and Gary Wolf. References Gary Wolf (2003). Wired - A Romance. Random House, New York..
McJob - no choice but to take a "McJob", because an employer will prefer to hire a younger person who has just finished college for an entry level job. According to Jim Cantalupo, CEO of McDonald's, the perception of fast-food work being boring and mindless is inaccurate, and over 1,000 of the men and women who now own McDonald's franchises started life in the working world behind the counter serving customers. The term was coined in 1991 in Douglas Coupland's book Generation X. The word McJob was added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in late 2003. McJOBS (plural, uppercase) was first registered as a trademark by McDonald's on May 16 1984, as a name and image for "training handicapped persons as restaurant employees". The trademarked lapsed in February 1992, and was declared 'Dead' by.
Microserfs - Microserfs Microserfs is a novel by Douglas Coupland, published in 1995. Factually, it is a fascinating insight into two tiny, but globally significant subcultures of the 1990s. The first glimpse is into the lives of employees of Microsoft: the people that create the technology that sits on the majority of office desks in the world. We see the role of both technology and the personality of Bill Gates in their lives. The second is a view of the same characters after they have moved to California to work as a tiny start-up company. We get an intimate view of this phenomenon - the struggle for capital, to get to the market first. Thematically, the book explores ideas of identity, man's desire for independence, and above all, the desire to.
List of Canadians - author/poet Bliss Carman, (1861-1929), poet, wrote Low Tide on Grand Pre Roch Carrier, (born 1937), author Anne Carson, (born 1950), writer Wayson Choy, (born 1939), writer, novelist Leonard Cohen, (born 1934), poet/singer Douglas Coupland, (born 1961), author Robertson Davies, (1913-1995), author William Henry Drummond, (1854-1907), poet, The habitant Timothy Findley, (1930-2002), author Louis Fréchette, (1839-1908), poet, essayist, journalist, dramatist Mavis Gallant, (born 1922), author William Gibson, (born 1948), author, The Neuromancer Barbara Gowdy, The Romantic; The White Bone and short stories Arthur Hailey, (born 1920), author Louis Hémon, (1880-1913), novelist and journalist, Maria Chapdelaine Jack Hodgins, writer, novelist Nancy Huston, (born 1953), author J. Robert Janes, (born 1932), writer Guy Gavriel Kay, fantasy genre fiction Margaret Laurence, (1926-1987), author Stephen Leacock, (1869-1944), author/humorist Dennis Lee, writer of children's poetry Hugh MacLennan,.
List of Canadian writers - Chan Pierre Francois Xavier de Charlevoix (1682-1761), first historian of New France. Wayson Choy (1939- ) Leslie Choyce (1951- ) Greg Clark (1892-1977), humourist Austin Clarke (1934- ) George Elliott Clarke (1960- ) poet, U of T professor Lynn Coady (1970- ) Leonard Cohen, (1934- ), poet and singer Matt Cohen (1942- ) Samuel Nathan Cohen (1923-1971) drama critic Helena Coleman John Robert Columbo (1936- ), poet and compiler of reference books Karen Connelly (1969- ) Ralph Conner (AKA Charles William Gordon), The Man from Glengarry, Glengarry School Days. George Ramsay Cook (1931- ), historian Hugh Cook (1942- ) Michael Cook Dennis Cooley (1944- ) Doug Cooper John Paul Copeland Thomas Costain (1885-1965), historical fiction Douglas Coupland, (born 1961), Generation X, Girlfriend in a Coma Isabella Valancy Crawford Donald Creighton (1902-1979),.
List of novelists from the United States - Postman Always Rings Twice and Mildred Pierce Erskin Caldwell, author of God's Little Acre Truman Capote, (1924-1984) Orson Scott Card, (born 1951) Willa Cather, (1873 in-1947), modernist, author of The Professor's House, My Antonia Mary Hartwell Catherwood Michael Chabon, (born 1964), author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Wonder Boys Robert W. Chambers, (1865-1933) Raymond Chandler, (1888-1959) Lydia Maria Child Kate Chopin, (1850-1904) Winston Churchill, (1874-1965), the former British Prime Minister's American cousin Tom Clancy, (born 1947), The Hunt for Red October Sylvanus Cobb, Jr, author of The Gunmaker of Moscow John Esten Cooke, author of The Youth of Jefferson James Fenimore Cooper, author of Leatherstocking Tales Charles Cotton Douglas Coupland, (born 1961) Stephen Crane, (1871-1900), The Red Badge of Courage Francis Marion Crawford George William Curtis, (1824-1892) D.
