Month: July 2006

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Very Berry Fair in Fort Langley

Krause Bros. Farms stand at the Very Berry FairThis past Sunday, we had the chance to visit the Very Berry Country Fair in Fort Langley, B.C. This is the same place where I did some recording for the last episode of the podcast. I realize that the quality of that audio wasn’t the greatest, but the Griffin stereo lapel mic is proving to not provide the greatest quality. At least I haven’t discovered the best way to record with it yet, but my hope was to provide some sounds of the experience as well as doing a post about it, which you’re reading right now.

It was an incredible day for the fair, and there were plenty of people heading out to check out what was there. There was plenty for the kids to check out, but the best part for the adults, in my opinion, was inside the winery itself. Free wine tasting is always a quick way to make me happy.

Blueberries from the Krause Bros. Farms stand at the Very Berry FairThe one element of the fair that I have a major complaint about is those pastries in the picture above. Don’t they look good? Yeah, I thought so, too. If you wanted one, then you had to enter the eating contest to be the first one to stuff your face without using your hands. I just wanted to buy one and savor its taste, granted they were as good as they looked. Krause Bros. Farms aren’t stupid though. Their place was just a short drive away where you could purchase some, so we left there with some fresh blueberries, which filled that void somewhat.

Mini-golf at the Very Berry FairAbout that wine tasting though, go check out the Fort Wine Co. if you ever get the chance, especially if you are a fan of the drink. Walking into the winery, there was a strong smell of berries, and that’s what they make most of their wine out of. We sampled the cranberry, white cranberry, and blueberry wines, picking the last as our purchased bottle of choice.

In the podcast, you’ll hear our helper guy (with the super cool handle-bar mustache) talk about what the wines go well with, as is usual in most wineries where you get samples. However, the cranberry wine and his suggestion of making crantinis by simply adding vodka almost had me push for the cranberry wine. That’s a lot of alcohol, and that cranberry wine went down far too smooth. We opted for the blueberry instead.

There was plenty of other good stuff in this tiny, but entertaining, fair. Mini-golf, crafts for sale, other berry related goodies, and meats on a bun. It was well worth the trek.

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Now I really want to see Clerks II

I’ve been a Kevin Smith[wiki] fan for a long time, even though I initally thought that any movie with the title of Mallrats was not worth my time. Of course, I was just a little high school punk that discovered the great error in my ways and became wiser to the fact that it’s a good, funny movie. Many lines from that flick and the first Clerks movie have become apart of everyday vocabulary.

Today’s Page Six in the New York Post makes me even more anxious to see Clerks II.

July 19, 2006 — DON’T joke about women, donkeys and bestiality if you expect Joel Siegel to watch your movie. That’s what director Kevin Smith found out when the pun-loving “Good Morning America” film critic stormed out of a press screening of Smith’s “Clerks II,” which opens Friday – an act that’s sparked a vicious war of words between the two.

“Time to go!” roared Siegel to his fellow critics. “First movie I’ve walked out of in 30 [bleeping] years!” His tirade came 40 minutes into the long-awaited Weinstein Company sequel to Smith’s 1994 cult classic about two foul-mouthed Long Island convenience store clerks who razz customers and goof off.

In the scene that sent Siegel to the exit, the characters graphically discuss hiring a woman to perform sexual favors on a donkey. Siegel told Page Six: “It was so foul and mean and repulsive. I finally realized I could not say anything positive . . . I wasn’t ready for this kind of smut . . . I hope he doesn’t make any more movies.”

An apoplectic Smith fired back on his MySpace blog: “Getting a bad review from Siegel is like a badge of honor. This is the guy who stole his mustachioed-critic shtick from Gene Shalit years ago, and still refuses to give it back. This is a guy who seemingly prides himself on his own nyuk-nyuk wordplay. For ‘Pirates 2,’ he made us all titter with ‘Yo, Ho, Ho and a Bottle of Fun’ . . . He made us squeal with delight when he wrote, ‘Wheelie Good Time for “Cars.” ‘ I mean, Fozzy [bleeping] Bear laughs at this guy.”

And there’s more: “I don’t need Joel Siegel to [bleep] my [bleep] the way he apparently [bleeps] M. Night Shyamalan’s, gushing over his flick [‘The Lady in the Water’] before he’s even seen it, but [bleep] man, man – how about a little common [bleeping] courtesy? You never, never disrupt a movie, simply because you don’t like it. Cardinal rule of moviegoing: Shut your [bleeping] mouth while the movie’s playing.

“I don’t come down to your job and slap the taste out of your mouth for coming up with a line like, ‘ “Shark Tale” Is a Halibut Good Time’ – so don’t [bleep] with my stuff while it’s still screening . . . What are you, a 12-year-old boy cutting loose with your pals at a Friday night screening of ‘Scary Movie’ 4′ while your parents are in a theater down the hall watching ‘The Devil Wears Prada’? Leave the diva-like behavior and drama-queen antics to the movie stars, not the movie reviewer, ya’ rude-ass [bleep].” [nypost]

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RadioZoom Episode #102 – Soundseeing at the Very Berry Fair in Fort Langley, B.C.

The lastest edition of my podcast has been published. Episode #102 is ready for downloading.

The 5th annual Very Berry Fair drew Rebecca and I out to Fort Langley along with her mother, niece, and nephew over the weekend. The event happen on the grounds of The Fort Wine Co. where there was plenty to do for the kids and lots of arts and crafts for sale. I took along the minidisc with the stereo lapel mic and give you some sounds of the event as well as some commentary about what you are hearing.

54:02 minutes
radiozoom.net

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Übercaster beta testing to start soon

Ubercaster.comI read on MacNN the other day that beta testing for Übercaster is to begin on July 24, 2006.  I’m all signed up and anxious to try it out.

I recall hearing about the product when it was in its conceptual stages, and their blog shows that it’s been quite the process in developing the application.  I’m unsure how this compares to GarageBand 3, but from what I know about CastBlaster (a PC only application at this time), Übercaster is somewhat similar.

Übercaster is a complete production suite for podcasting. All you need is Übercaster, a Macintosh and something to tell…

Producing a show on your Mac can be as easy as everything else. Say goodbye to the laborious combination of programs. Übercaster lets you prepare, record, cut and release your shows the way you’d expect it. With its podcasting specific features and its über appealing design you’ll love working with Übercaster.  [ubercaster]

I have a few projects that I’m working on for this week, but this will be my experiment for the next.

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The music of Rescue Me

Some of my posts about Rescue Me[wiki] bring in a lot of traffic, and if you are a fan of the show, then we both know why. Season three has been nuts this far, and we’ve been loving it. I don’t want to give too much away as it has yet to actually start airing in Canada. If that makes you wonder as to how I’m watching the new episodes, then you really need to explore the wonders of the interweb some more.

Some one who passed through a while back asked me about one of the songs in a recent episode. Upon my ventures for info on my post about Jericho, I stopped by the Wiki for Rescue Me, and there they are.

Season 3

[wikipedia]

Seasons one and two are there as well. I know that episode 306 is out and is not listed in the entry. The song in that one was “Numb” by Portishead. I did some digging but cannot come up for the song in 303 where Sheila was “cleaning” her son’s room. If it pains you that much to know, check out the RescueMeForum and post something in hopes of finding an answer.

I also found this news which should make all fans rejoice.

Cable channel FX has ordered a fourth season of Emmy-nominated actor Denis Leary’s firefighter drama Rescue Me.

The series will begin production early next year in anticipation of launching in second-quarter 2007. The order was for 13 episodes. [tv.com]

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The mentality of mobs in crisis

Jericho (CBS)We watched Jericho[wiki] the other night, the new series on CBS. The premise of the show captured my attention, always being a sucker for something along the apocolyptic plot lines. I’ve been alive long enough and watched enough TV to understand that this show has the ability to suck.

Anytime a network makes a push to launch a new series in the middle of the summer means that they are hoping it will pull you away from enjoying the warmer temps outside. At the same time, it means that CBS doesn’t really have enough faith to add it to the fall line-up where all the big bucks are made. The pilot somewhat reflects that thought.

Things are quiet and peaceful in small-town Jericho, Kansas, but when a baffling explosion occurs in the distance, Jericho’s residents are plunged into social, psychological and physical chaos. No one knows what to think, and fear of the unknown takes over the town, especially because its isolation cuts it off from outside help. When nearly everything they know seems gone, will the residents of JERICHO band together to face their unfamiliar and mysterious new world? Skeet Ulrich (“Scream,” “As Good as It Gets”) stars. [cbs]

The first few minutes of the show had me thinking that this is like Lost in the middle of Kansas. Add in the nuclear explosions, I’m assuming, to add that terrorist flavor, and one can actually start to see the writers sitting in a meeting with CBS execs as they pitched this series.

That doesn’t mean I didn’t like what I saw. I think that once you are able to understand all of the Hollywood crap that goes on in the really real world, you can voluntarily turn off that sensible part of your brain and allow yourself to be entertained. Don’t believe me? Go see Mission: Impossible 3. It’s a situation that demands such measures, and it makes me very glad that we had passes to see that one for free.

What makes me interested in Jericho, however, is the psychology of the characters. This is what I studied in college, so naturally I’m going to focus on aspect. They’ve already hinted at the people in town starting to fight over resources such as gasoline and food. The lack of information combined with slices of what they do know about what’s happened outside of their community is leading down a road of potential mass panic.

Has there ever been an instance of a majorly produced TV program or movie where these concepts haven’t been presented in this way? The isolation in which a group of people in a life threatening situation work together and survive in a mutual effort of succeeding? That’s too happy and unprofitable to be made for our viewing pleasure, but think about it.

If a situation like this in the real world were to happen, would there be a huge, mass panic of people drawing lines and not trusting each other, or would people work together in order to survive? Everything Hollywood teaches you makes you believe the first concept. Even if you are smart enough to see beyond that idea with your educated mind to say it won’t, then you have to be smart enough to understand the potential of people out there that take a lot of Hollywood as a method of education.

Which would you be? Some one who understands that working together is the only way to survive as a community, or would you stock pile, protect yourself, and defend those who attempt to take your resources? For the most part, Hollywood teaches us that in the event of natural disasters, apocolypses, or zombies, option number two is the popular choice.

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Folks in Cupertino make some pretty good stuff

Talking to Grandma during her visit in Iowa via iChatIt’s really no secret that I’m an Apple fan, even though I’m very capable of living in a Windows world. Afterall, my official title at the radio station I worked at was “IT Support Level 2”, but that didn’t change the fact that I was working on 5kW AM and 100kW FM transmitter sites. I’ve just been using Apples since I was four, maybe earlier. In fact, I was probably able to use a computer sooner than I was able to read, but I digress.

The brilliancy of iChat and the ability to communicate via video is pretty cool, and lots of users will tell you that. However, when my eighty-seven year old grandma has the ability to see and talk to me from my parent’s house in Iowa, that’s when you realize that this technology is pretty damn cool. Combine that with my aunt, uncle, and cousin that Rebecca has yet to meet, you begin to understand the gap that is bridged. The world seems smaller at that point.

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I’m one of those “Matchstick lucky ones”

I’ve been watching various Vancouver bloggers talk about getting contacted by Matchstick for a few months now.  For those not aware, they are a marketing company wishing to have bloggers to use the Nokia 6682 in the hopes that they’ll post about the phone.  Buzz marketing is what they call it, and posting about it on blogs is really just a cheap form of advertising.

I got my phone on Friday of last week and spent a portion of this afternoon with Rebecca getting it all setup.  It’s nifty, but that’s all about it for now.  Will be posting more about the phone plus the entire process soon.

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Bring the Salmon Kings under the Canucks

Aside from the news about next season’s schedule being released[vancouversun] for the Canucks, the other news of interest about the team is that we are in the business of finding a new ECHL affiliate after cutting ties with the Columbia Inferno in South Carolina.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (CP) – The Columbia Inferno of the ECHL announced Monday that the team is no longer affiliated with the Vancouver Canucks and Manitoba Moose.

The Inferno had been linked to the organization for the past five years. Goaltender Alex Auld and forward Alex Burrows are among the players who spent time in Columbia before playing for the Canucks. [cbc]

A story I caught the other day[vancouversun] painted the likely picture of the Victoria Salmon Kings becoming the new choice. The idea was being tossed around prior to the seperation with the Inferno, but the deal is far from being final for the team in B.C.’s capitol.

I’m all for it. It’d be wonderful for the folks on the island and a great marketing move for the team. On top of that, it brings the kids coming up to the NHL much closer to the parent organization that they are working so hard to get to. It’d be great for folks in Victoria to see the team grow and move on to GM Place. That might make them want to hop a boat and check out more games in Vancouver, not that there is any weakness in drawing fans to the games around here at all.

Bottom line, I just like the idea a lot. I would even go as far as saying that I’d be more interested in checking out a Salmon Kings game while vacationing in Victoria if I knew that they were linked with the Canucks.