YEAHBLARGHURGHHHYEAH!

This is awesome!

I try to point as many people towards Radio3 as possible, so go there and hear.

Doin’ it for the Cause

Oh Cope378...

The My Generation, A Festival of Power was a powerful event indeed, powerfully-strange. I’m Having a hard time reconciling the various groups I saw represented at the event.

One the one hand we had the union, “trying to raise awareness.” By raise awareness they actually meant work to bring back the BC Hydro monopoly to create a larger number of unionized jobs for the cope378 union to represent.

On the other hand, various groups more concerned with fighting coal based power than with rebuilding a monopoly.

And on the third and final hand, a group of musicians with absolutely no connection to the issues up for discussion at the day-long event.

When I first arrived at the daytime festivities (held at the VPL) I met Brad Hope at the Save Our Similkameen booth. I was glad to see a group opposed to coal-power because I’m a guy opposed to coal-power and I’m pretty freaked out about a plant starting up near my home town.

Brad and I had a great chat about how people in Princeton are really disturbed by the planned power-plant, and how his group is trying to link up with the Peace Energy Cooperative to look into alternative energy sources.

The other thing we chatted about was why nobody my age, or really any age other than nearing retirement, are getting involved in social and environmental justice issues. Brad wondered how to attract the younger crowd to these types of events, and while I may not have the perfect answer I’ve got a couple of suggestions now that I’ve had a few minutes to reflect.

a. Don’t stack a concert with notable artists who have no vested interest in your cause. Sure Buffy Sainte-Marie inspired millions back in the day, but there’s the problem. It was back in the day, and the issues were different. Buffy (and Jim Byrnes) telling me to keep on fighting for my cause reeked of insincerity.

Prep your performers or choose ones with a real interest in your issue if your goal is to inspire more than a hankering for a doobie and some bellbottoms.

b. Focus, focus, focus (read as if you were whatever Brady-daughter was jealous of Marcia). Don’t confuse visitors with different booths delivering different messages. I got a pro independent-power-producer viewpoint at one, a pro hydro-monopoly view at another, and a “hydrogen power is bitchin’” view at a third.

c. Localize your issue. Is expensive power your concern? Tell people in Vancouver what it may cost them in the future to heat/light their Vancouver homes. Is green-energy your concern? Show people from the GVRD some regional solutions.

In closing, Final Fantasy was amazing. Mindblowingly amazing, and not at all connected to the debate around greenhouse gas emissions or independently owned and operated coal-burning power plants in British Columbia.

MAG

BCIT's in-house streaming media people hooked me (us) up by hosting the first BCIT Magazine of 2007. The other place to check it out is on the bcit blogs - if only they were easy to navigate... Oh well, one can't have one's cake and have it too, or is that eat one's cake and not get fat... Whatevs.

BOOM! Internet explodes.

What Drives the News in Vancouver

Just how far have Olympic promoters penetrated the CTV Newsroom?

A student of ours (and my buddy) Joel Baycroft was at the unveiling of the countdown clock for the 2010 games, and he (along with everyone other than CTV)witnessed quite a different event.

To be fair, on board Chopper9 David Kincaid noticed the protesters and did mention their concerns - perhaps they just looked like a small group from up in the air...

To be extra fair - CTV links to 2010watch from their site - check the bottom of the yellow block of links on the left.

To be opinionated and rude, the evening news for Monday night was basically a blow job for games-organizers and a celebration along the lines of "We have the broadcast-rights, na na na na na!" I hate criticizing a broadcast in public because in general CTV really can put together a stellar show, but it was gross.

I wonder if the other broadcasters are increasingly going to focus on CTV painting the games with their happy-brush. It seems strange to me, and I think the central issue is that Bill Good is doing a considerable amount of Rah-Rahing outside of the newscast - and for many people he represents CTV-News in Vancouver. When I see B.G. on TV it means I'm watching news, not a hosted-celebration.

At first I though maybe it was all in my head, but pretty much everyone I've chatted with has agreed.

BCIT Magazine January 11 2007

IGNORE THIS UNTIL I FIGURE OUT HOW NOT TO JUMP THE GUN.

As we've previously covered, I'm the assistant instructor for the Broadcast-Journalism program at BCIT this term.

In honour of that please enjoy:



The students this year are talented and bright - pretty much just like every year. It is a constant pleasure and privilege to work with this group and the students currently in first year.

MVB

Deconstructing Dinner - We love food, and we love living. I've been thinking about how much food I consume, and what that means for the world around me. I eat a lot. I put a lot away. I don't shy away from seconds, thirds, or fourths. If I grew my own food I wouldn't have time to write about eating (possibly a good thing) or spend as much time eating as I'd be busy tending to the crops all the time. So where are the crops that are being tended to so that their bounty can reach my ever-hungry gullet?

That's where Deconstructing Dinner comes in. Last week the podcast was an interesting snippet from the Bridging Borders Toward Food Security conference in Vancouver. Some very current and topical (although not analgesic) topics are discussed.

This week's episode is part one of a two-parter on agribusiness, and promises a Cargill expose.

The reason I post this is that I'm starting to realize the massive amount of fuel burnt solely for the purpose of getting food to my table, and the massive commercial and financial forces behind this strange need to ship things from where they are grown to other places where they are grown.

Alright, I'm not really "starting" to realize, I've known about this for quite a few years. It's just that now that I shop for my own food it's visible that it even costs more for food from afar, so why not pay less and burn less and..... well you get where I'm going - which tomorrow is to this sweet looking produce-market I ran by with Helen today.


Oh, and fuck the Grammy awards. I don't have much to say on that that hasn't been said before, but they suck and I hate them.

Love Mike.

More Bad Design

I don't mean worse, I simply mean that I have another really poorly thought out thing.

This knife has been the bane of my breakfast buttering for nearly two years. I particularly loath this thing because it seems to rise to the top of the stack of butter knives every morning, and it's a total piece of crap!

You know how you kind of dip a butter knife in the tub of margarine or butter - or maybe you've got a fancy-pants pad of butter that you cut little mini-pads off of to spread - well anyway, the pointed tip on this total waste of china-stainless does a piss-poor job of dipping or slab-cutting. It also totally fails to have a wide enough blade to do even a half-decent job of spreading.

In an effort to end this post on a positive note, enjoy these!

Bad design, and Bad Advice...

Sometimes making the logo bigger is a bad decision. I'm willing to bet the order for a few odd million of these went out before anybody actually took the time to hang one on a rear view.

Silence of the Lambs Shit

Jesus Mary and Joseph!
My heart goes out to everyone who has to sit through the Picton trial, and to the poor souls whose deaths are at the centre of this disgusting event.

A year or so from now we're going to be seeing a whole lot of stories on TV about journalists and jurors suffering from PTS.

There isn't a :( sad enough...


BTW, anybody want to buy a wet BMW motorcycle? No mileage, only slightly rusty due to salt-water bath. Will ship from UK.

Mood: Sushi
Currently Listening to: Brian Stewart, Senior correspondent on Afghanistan.

Evergreen Guacamole?

I was given a little jar of guacamole, Yucatan Guacamole to be precise. It's actually really good for a store bought guacamole, and it seems to never go brown. While I wouldn't ever go out and buy guacamole (I pride myself on my best-around-brentwood guac) I will recommend this stuff to those who do. Now only if avocados grew in the GVRD...

I'm sitting here about to dig in to Adobe Audition and the thought hit me, "How should I put off what I know I should be doing with what I'd rather be doing?"

That's basically the only reason I've been updating this thing at all recently.

This site is also suffering from lack-of-content because I've taken up running, and that along with my other hobbies have nearly replaced internetting as a time-waster. However, As I put off work, put off cooking dinner, and wait for the new Battlestar Galactica, I get in the occasional surf.

So, along the foodie lines of my rambling, everyone who - like me - lives to eat rather than eats to live should check out Mahanandi. I'm becoming ever more conscious of what goes into my recipes and into my body, and this site has been a real inspiration.

Go buy some local food, and make a tasty and healthy meal.

Peace.

Oh, and I ran 5 miles in 44:42 today. Boo plant-hating light fixture, hooray me!

Musics

Malajube rock!

That's all.

Snow and Wind

I just came back to Vancouver from a two week visit in the land of wind and snow, and what welcomes me back to the Pacific-Southwest?

Wind, and Snow. - Alright, so that one is a gallery of the collapsing dome, but you can see the southern-slush supposed to be snow.
Super.


Mood: Breakfast
Currently listening to: Breakfast

New Job

I'm Back!

• Back in Vancouver
• Back at BCIT - although I'm now an employee.
• Back into running - 5k this morning

Good times.

I'm working on a lesson covering microphones and sound-gathering techniques, and just about ready to start with some AVID workshops. Lots to do, not a whole lot of time to do it in. Pretty good gig though, I'm filling in for a great instructor/broadcaster who is off on maternity leave.

So check out the BCIT blogs. At the moment there isn't much fresh content, but the term has just started back up.

Later.

Home away from Home

Back in Vancouver

Up north Graphicsmnan is rocking a some sweet new styles.

Down South I'm waiting for some ITA stuff for Carpentry, and learning how to rock this fancy midi keyboard I rented from Long&McQuade.

MB

Parties!

This past Saturday some amazing people put on an amazing party at Prospect Point in Stanley Park.

I've got some photos of the event up on Flickr.

Another great party - The Work Less Party held a cool book-launch last night for Conrad's new self-published book Workers of the World Relax.

Conrad and the good people at Work Less always put on a good show, and last night was no exception.

I also ran into some of the fine people from 2010 watch, fresh from filming the arrests up at Eagleridge Bluffs. They've got some intense footage, and some strong arguments against staging the olympics.

The North-Island

I had an amazing weekend up in the Broughton Archipelago. We flew around in a Cessna amphibian, stayed at Pierre's Bay, and visited Sointula.

I now have a great sunburn on my face, and I'm even more sure that North=better.

Work

I just got employed!

ATV productions has decided I'm worth employing as an editor. It's a cool gig. I'm working on a new show of theirs that I won't tell you about until it airs.

Other than that, check out the video-podcast I'm co-hosting for gryphontv - podtalk.

technorati tags: ATV, podtalk, gryphontv, employment

A Moment Of Silence

I just read some really sad news.

Please take a moment out of your day to pay respects to one of the originals.

technorati tags: homestarrunner, rip, sad, flash, cartoon

Country

So, A lot of you know that besides being an undercover punkrocker, I love country music. It's not like thegenres are mutually exclusive, just that what most people see as country music is really just pop in a cowboy hat.

Last week was a phenomenal week for me as far as country music goes.

First up, I caught the Roy Forbes CD release concert. His new album, Some Tunes for that Mother of Mine is amazing (as are pretty much all of his albums). He was amazing, I've seen Roy about four times, and each time the experience is better than the last. There are a few tracks from the event (at the Beautiful and quite possibly haunted Vancouver East Cultural Centre) posted on his site.

As a guitarist I found this concert especially inspiring because roy forbes was accompanied by the indecently talented - his words - Robbie Steininger. In my opinion, Robbie is one of the most talented and tasteful guitarists playing today.

We also caught Shiloh Lindsey at Malone's in Downtown Van. She writes great contemporary country without the bubblegum pop aspect that makes me sick.

technorati tags: Music, Vancouver, Roy, Roy, Forbes

I'm Flock'd

Check this out, I'm testing out the Flock beta, and it's awesome. It's taken about five minutes for me to be hooked. Right now I'm checking out the blogging interface. I've got to dub my documentary so I'll write a little more later.

technorati tags: flock, browsers, internet