Month: February 2007

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Ramping up to Northern Voice

Been a little crazy in the past 24 hours. We had our apartment inspected today, checking to make sure we’re not completely wrecking the place and everything isn’t falling apart in our home. I can say without fail, we passed without problem, thank you very much. Still, kinda forgot it was this afternoon. After cleaning up for their arrival this afternoon, I’ve been in a mad dash to figure out all the details for Northern Voice 2007.

Rebecca and I will hit the free food and free beer tonight at the Big Northern Voice Dinner kickoff event type thing. Should be a good time, but when you have all these things on your schedule for a couple weeks, you don’t think about times and locations. Well, not until this afternoon at least, not to mention the last hour or so.

My homemade map to Northern Voice at UBCI’m on my own tomorrow for MooseCamp, so tracking down my route by bus is one thing. Then there is that part where you have to walk from the bus, to the actual location of the event. Being that I’ve only been out to UBC two, maybe three times, I’ve got everything narrowed down. At least I think so. If you don’t believe me, check out the map I made for myself.

Rebecca will head out on Saturday for Northern Voice, but then we’ll have to adjust for the weekend schedule of public transit. And talking to Dave last night during The Crazy Canucks recording, I got the green light to heckle him.

Just looking forward to seeing some familiar people, meet some new ones, and feed my brain, not to mention sharing some thoughts about new media fun stuff. And as a quick side note, we have RSVP‘d for the podcast meetup on Sunday. Yes, let the geekend begin.

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Being brave on Wikipedia

I can’t be the only one who hesitates to make their first edits on Wikipedia, can I? Because after pouring over the ins, outs, dos, and don’t-even-think-about-its, there is a lot to consider.

I have to say, it’s not that much different than doing IRC back in those glory days of 1996. You join the community, interact, edit, create stuff, and if you do something wrong, you could have all of your contributions deleted, banned, or even get yourself kicked off the system. Sure, the whole thing about Wikipedia is to encourage you to join in on the fun, but you have to get into taking the first steps. Intimidating, but there’s truth in not knowing until you try, right?

I actually made three, completely new entries, all for the radio stations that I used to meddle with; KRUI, WSUI, and KSUI. I was pretty amazed that there wasn’t something there sooner. Hopefully more people will come along to contribute, but I’ll try to add more as I have the time. There’s also that whole memory thing. I have to try to do this when something creeps up on me and get the facts down before I forget… again.

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The Crazy Canucks #22 – Instigating a fight for the playoffs

Recorded and posted last night.

Rebecca takes a healthy scratch on this episode while the rest of us, even Dave, gather together to take a look at the last four games against Minnesota, Chicago, Colorado, and Anaheim. Things have been looking really good lately, and we all feel incredibly excited at the fact that the playoffs seem more and more in sight.

Record as of this episode: 35-21-4
Northwest Division: 1st
Western Conference: 3rd

With 22 games left in the season and the trade deadline looming, there’s a lot to talk about, but none of us are really too sure as to what we can expect. Something is bound to happen, and we all have our own theories as to who might go or stay. A listener from London checks in with a question about a possible Canucks game next season in the U.K.

A lot of things are going well, but as fans, we know that we have to be careful to not get too far ahead of ourselves. However, listen to our episodes from early this season and the mood was incredibly different. Oh how things can change…

50:45 minutes
The Crazy Canucks

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William Elliott Whitmore show review in Ohio

I’ve posted about William Elliot Whitmore before, and he made an appearance on the last Six Song on RadioZoom[rz#126]. When I pulled down my feeds this morning, Benjamin Cossel made a raving review on BlogCritics.org about a recent show of Whitmore’s in Ohio. I think he hit the nail on the head.

Bob Dylan, New York City 1961. Tom Waits, San Diego, early 1970s. What must it have been like to see these legendary performers when they were still unknowns? When the gathered crowd was small and you were so close to the artist that you could make a request in a conversational tone?

It struck me, as I watched and listened to William Elliot Whitmore, Feb 19 at The Basement in Columbus, Ohio on the kick-off date of a national tour, that this was what it must’ve been like; to see a performer at such an early point in their career who, in your heart of hearts, you know is destined for greatness with only 20 or so others are there to share the experience with you.

In many an article about him, Whitmore is compared to such legends as Waits and Johnny Cash. I’m sure it’s more to do with the deep gravelly voice and genre fusions than actual stylistic similarities – one thing that does run parallel with the Iowa born and raised Whitmore and those who transcend mere greatness is the honesty in their lyrics. [blogcritics]

Keep reading the rest of his review for sure, but oddly enough, it was one of his songs that was the last things I listened to as I drove out of Iowa to make my way to Vancouver. I think it might have been his song “Midnight”, but it’s hard to recall now. He was doing a live performance on the same radio station that I used to work at, WSUI.

It was the very same program that I had the chance of shaking the guy’s hand and running his sound for as well, nearly a year or so before my departure. That live remote could have been one of the first live programs that I ran by myself, calling the shots on the technical end and managing the part-time student help. I could be completely wrong because my time there is almost like a blur now, but it’s crazy how music can trigger your synapses like that.

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Kings of Convenience – failure

There are certain songs that take you back to certain moments. This has to be one of them for me. It constantly reminds me that no matter what treks your life has forced you through, it’s going to be alright. You just have to keep your chin up and keep your feet moving. That and I really, really like this song.

Feel free to check out more Kings of Convenience. They have my seal of approval.

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RadioZoom#127 – Amazing Hunt; Northern Voice; Vancouver Trivia; Olympics

Recorded and posted tonight.

There’s really a lot that we talked about in this episode, so much that we only threw three songs into this one. Rebecca gives a review of her Amazing Hunt experience, we cover a variety of things coming up, look ahead to NorthernVoice 2007, there’s a podcast meetup in Vancouver, and we round it out with Vancouver Trivia. There were a variety of technical issues in this as well, but I didn’t edit it out.

63:40 minutes
radiozoom.net

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Vancouver Podcast Meetup: Feb. 25, 2007

As a regular listener to the Canadian Podcast Buffet, I was excited to hear that Mark Blevis was coming out to Vancouver on a business trip and wanted to conduct a meetup with fellow podcasters. This will be happening at TC Lions Pub on February 25, 2007 at 8:00 PM, in downtown Vancouver. Mark asks that you RSVP for the event at Upcoming.org.

As I mentioned in my post about NorthernVoice, that is the same day as my first year anniversary, so I doubt I will be able to make it. We’ll probably be pretty sauced by then.

Update: Change of plans. We’re in.

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Banning cellphones and iPods while crossing the street

When I first heard this story about banning cellphones and iPods while crossing the street in New York, I thought that it made a little sense. It should be easy to walk and talk, and I think I hover on the intermediate level for this delicate skill. Take a stroll around downtown Vancouver and check out all the rookies tough. It’s mind boggling. Frogger anyone?

Then this happened today.

A 49-year-old Vancouver man is lucky to be alive after being struck by a bus in nearby Burnaby Monday night, while jaywalking and talking on his cellphone.

RCMP Cpl. Jane Baptista said the man was lucky to have suffered just minor injuries.

He was talking on his cellphone, and, after noticing a turning bus, decided to keep on walking, jaywalking, and putting the bus driver in an impossible situation, Baptista said.

It’s a familiar story for patrol officers, she said.

“They wear dark clothing, [they are] on their cellphones, [or have] iPods in their ears, and it’s completely dangerous for everyone involved.”

Baptista said police will be refocusing on Burnaby jaywalkers soon, and anyone caught can expect a fine. [cbc]

I know that while driving the long stretches of highway across Iowa, I can get so lost into listening to music or simply thinking that I’ll not have any recollection to the last ten miles that I just drove. When it’s two lane and the middle of the winter, you chalk it up to being in the zone, thankful that you didn’t hit any of those semis that regularly travel the same route, all of that while not talking on a cellphone. Pssh, makes these people look like amateurs.

When I’m on the phone, I can say that I take extra precautions to be aware as to what is going on around me while walking and talking. The same can be said for driving, but I go even further to avoid that situation. Does this make me better than the rest of you out there? Oh hell no. I don’t trust myself as much as I don’t trust other people out there to do what I do.

Still, I’m not for regulations being passed to prohibit me from enjoying some tunes while walking to work or something. I also cringe at the idea of runners being targeted because I have my headphones on as often as the weather permits. Just be smarter, people. Please don’t let your stupidity spoil it for the rest of us.

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Locked and loaded for NorthernVoice 2007

After some careful planning and budgeting, Rebecca and I have both signed ourselves up for NorthernVoice 2007. It should be a whirlwind of a weekend since the following Sunday is our one year anniversary. If that seems to be a geeky way to spend the first part of the weekend after being married for a year, then you’re probably right, and we like it that way.


Northern Voice is a two-day, non-profit personal blogging conference that’s being held at the UBC main campus on February 23-24, 2007.

This is the 3rd annual incarnation of this event, see the 2006 and 2005 websites for previous information.

Blogging, podcasting, social media, new media, web 2.0, and so on. Yes, there will be lots of ideas about all those things being tossed around, not to mention plenty of laptops on laps action.

We had a snafu in our planning, not realizing that Friday held quite the goings-on with the whole Moose Camp deal. In our heads, we thought that was taking place in the evening on Friday, so we opted to have Rebecca take the following Monday off in anticipation of our celebratory weekend. Looks like I’ll be checking things out for that Friday on my own, but she’ll make her way down for any activities later on that night. We’ll both be sneaking around on Saturday.

Looking forward to meeting more new people in the sphere of all things new media, plus catch a few neat sessions(view the schedule). Even Dave is leading a session on podcasting, so I’ve got to go heckle him check that out.

I’ll probably check in here during the event, and the recording gear always travels with me. It’s just a matter of not getting too into soaking up information to remember to grab some audio cuts. Have to see how things go. For me this is really good timing because the wonderful (I’m throwing that in there in case anyone at CIC is watching) Canadian government recently approved my PR application. I’ll be able to work in a matter of weeks now. 🙂

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Podcasting reaching its limits

When I first caught word of this post at Digital Podcast, it made me stop to think. Has podcasting reached its limit? I have to agree with Scott Bourne at Podcasting Tricks. No way, Jose.

I’ve been a proponent of the medium since I first heard of it. The potential hit me at that same moment, but I think it’s fair to say that the concept hasn’t been taken to the height of where it can deemed successful or impactual.

Then, I read this over at BoingBoing. It appears that Odeo is up for sale. Instead of just pulling the plug, they thought they would see if someone would want to buy the site. My use and knowledge of their service is limited, but it’s essentially an online podcatcher. If you don’t have an iPod or the ability to download gigs of podcasts onto your computer, you can use their service to keep track of all of your favorites and listen to them from the web, no eating up of your hard drive space required.

This makes me think a little bit more about this idea of podcasting reaching its limits. Remember the dot-com bubble[wiki] of the 90’s? I see podcasting to be a lot like that. There is the surge that is still going on, but a true grasp of the potential hasn’t been seen yet. The whole thing might have to completely tank before it gets better.

For those of us who bask in glowing warm glow of new media and Web 2.0, we get it. For some of us, this is old news. However, I always think back to my friends and family who don’t drink this stuff like water as I do. Are they listening? Are they watching? Are they downloading? How accessible is this stuff, regardless if they know what podcasting is or isn’t?

In the early 20th century, TV went through many trials before it was settled on how everything would work on the technical side. From there, the growth of broadcast signals trickled out across the world, and even the broadcast day went from a few hours to the around the clock monotony that we have today. There was no switch and suddenly we had the Honeymooners[wiki]. It took time to grow, and podcasting faces the same task.