Category: British Columbia

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SkyTour seems kinda lame

SkyTour markings at Waterfront SkyTrain stationI know that sounds harsh to say, but this marking on the platform at Waterfront Station caught my eye last night while heading to meet some friends for the Canucks game last night. I had heard of it before, but it inspired me to check into it a bit more today.

You can check out more about SkyTour youself, but the basic story is that you pay for this audio tour that takes you around Vancouver via SkyTrain, telling you various things about the city. There are also walking tours included, but I’m really unsure if other forms of mass transit are required as well.

The one thing that gets me is that you really want to make sure that if you are planning on taking this tour, then make sure you have a nice, sunny day to do it. The audio sample on their website has you looking out the windows of the SkyTrain to see The Lions[wiki] among the north shore mountains. On a rainy day, which we have a few of those here occasionally, you’re hard pressed to see those twin peaks.

At the same time, you better hope for a non-crowded day on the train as well. Trying to listen to an audio tour while trying to peak through the group of kids talking at the top of their lungs, in whatever international language it is that they speak, just screams like a good ol’ time. Ahh, money well spent.

We offer to take friends and family around the city all the time, and I think that the only way to experience any place is with locals. Even though Rebecca has lived here all her life, there’s many places I’ve made her go that she’d otherwise never had explored unless my curiosity didn’t drag us there. It goes both ways.

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What do you want to be when you grow up?

In about a month, give or take one to five because the Canadian government is just that awesome with paperwork, I’ll have my green light to be fully employable. We haven’t had the bash to celebrate because this whole process has been a long story of hurry up and wait. It’s a multi-stage process where you’re happy to hear good news when you just start to abandon all hope. Then there is a wave of elation, followed by the reality of more paperwork that you have to send in to start the waiting process once again.

The biggest dilemma is the question that I’ve been fielding quite often lately, and Northern Voice was the worst places of all to have this come to be a moment of clarity. What do I want to do once I’m able to, legally, work?

That’s a lot harder for me to answer with a simple, concise, non-lengthy explanation. I have seven years experience in radio, a combination of on-air talent, production, producing, I.T. and engineering(not uncommon for people in radio these days to wear many hats). There’s the fact that I’m interested in all things new media, especially the world of podcasting and blogging.

I’ve been doing designing of websites since I was 16, wavering in and out of doing a lot of it. For a time, I worked for my parents where we had a side project doing this for local businesses in the town I grew up in, a different time and era for sure. Blogging has really brightened my understanding of PHP, SQL, and CSS a whole lot, and I’m in the middle of a couple of projects, unrelated to my current ones, that are using these skills in full force.

So when someone asks me this question of what do I want to do, it’s tough. Would I like to get into the radio market of Vancouver? Absolutely, and I’ve actually interviewed with a lot of the major players since first coming here in 2005, CKNW and Team1040 being a few prominent ones to mention. All those ventures came up short when they get to that part about having the necessary status that makes you legit for getting a paycheck.

I’m gearing up to start the hunt when the time comes, but there is no simple answer to the question. I’ve had the past year and a half to think about it, and during that time, I’ve watched a lot of opportunity pass me by, if not slip through my fingers. That’s bound to change, and Rebecca can’t wait until she can have me out of the apartment more often. Quite frankly, I can’t either.

Trust me, everything I have done in life has been an earnest effort of tackling it with persistence. More than a few people in Vancouver have mentioned that about me, and I hope that was a compliment.

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Worst SeaBus ride ever

Seabus adventures I’m not sure if it’s normal, but riding the SeaBus[wiki] to catch the Canucks on PPV last night was an adventure to say the least. I haven’t made the jaunt too many times, but the late afternoon trip from yesterday was a tad rough.

I’m not one to get motion or sea sick, but the three times that we rocked from front to back was pretty nuts. Then the left to right a couple of times was enough to have the little old woman sitting next to me lean into me pretty hard. The kids loved it as the wakes of passing ships thumped into the boat.

Being an inlet, I was told that the waters never got too rough. I’m pretty confident to say that it can, and did.

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Darth Vader Violinist

Darth Vader Violinist
Rebecca is in Victoria, B.C. for the weekend, but I got this sent to me from her cellphone while I was out for a run this morning. Too freaking funny.

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Podcasting equates to tourism

At the meetup this past Sunday, a thought hit me about podcasting. In its simplicity, podcasts are highly useful in terms of tourism, especially for a majority of us in Vancouver. That doesn’t limit it to those who are anywhere else in the world, but what that small group of us are doing is what makes me think this. A lot of my thoughts here stem from the meetup, so you might find reading that post helpful to get the completely back story.

Take the Vancouver Weekly Underground Podcast, and if that’s a mouthful for you to say, it is to me as well. Let’s examine what they do though. They check out shows at some of the best, underground venues in town. Now, these are acts that don’t get a lot of press, and Dave, for the podcast, equated it to promoting more information about the bands that are listed to be at a certain club, on a certain day and time. So basically, you get a name, and that’s it.

With their podcast, and nearly every other music related podcast out there, they want to give you more about the artist in the hopes that you like them. If you like them, you’ll buy into their music, meaning a ticket to see their show when they play in town. In turn, that artist will be able to pay rent or, more importantly, eat.

Here is where the heart of my idea kicks in. What about that person who listens to or watches your podcast from a thousand miles away? Suddenly, one day, they want to get the hell out of town and go on vacation. Then it hits them. There is this podcast from Vancouver that has been going into all these great venues to see great bands. Said person is going to know where to check out some killer shows while filling Vancouver with their tourist dollars. Screw skiing, they want to rock!

It’s a slight stretch, but that’s just one angle to view it. I know and have met people who ventured up to Vancouver because of Dave Olsen and his Choogle On with Uncleweed. RadioZoom has garnered fans from various parts of the world who are trying or want to visit or move to Vancouver. The Crazy Canucks reaches to hockey fans around the world, so you never know if it’ll be enough to drive them to take a holiday here to catch a game at GM Place. As Dave O would say, we should be getting paid to do Tourism Vancouver‘s job.

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Vancouver Podcast Meetup: Feb. 25, 2007 (follow-up)

When I first heard about a podcast meetup in Vancouver on the Canadian Podcast Buffet, I was pretty interested in checking it out. Then I found out that it was on our anniversary, so the assumption, on my part, was that we were going to miss it. Then Rebecca expressed interest in going, so we decided to venture on down, especially after Mark Blevis offered a free round to the two of us. That’s like dangling a carrot in front of the horse.

You can check out Mark’s pictures here, and Derek’s pictures here.

That’s right. Derek Miller has been recovering well enough from his surgery that he was able to make an appearance. Sadly, he was on pain killers and unable to enjoy in the gallon pitcher of joy, but it was great to have him there.

Mark Blevis' photo on Flickr
Photo credit: electricsky (Mark Blevis) on Flickr

It was a really great night. And let me start out by saying that TC Lions is a pretty good location for a meetup like that. And holy crap do they ever have some massive, and I mean massive, pitchers of beer. One gallon jugs, to be precise. That’s 8 pints to one pitcher. We had to send the second one back when Blevis realized exactly what he just ordered for the whole crew. (Side note: I asked if they show Canucks games there on the TV’s, so this might be another location for us to catch a game.)

We did end up having the house lights turn on to shoe us out of there, but I think it’s safe to say that everyone there was having a good time. I pray that my jaw wasn’t that loose to talk people’s ears off, especially when it comes to podcasting.

Now, to recall all of those that I met at this meet up is a daunting task. I know for sure that we met the guys from Foreskin Radio. A true treat, let me tell you, but the content is not for the weak.

Derek Miller's photo on Flickr
Photo credit: penmachine (Derek Miller) on Flickr

And then Jeff from Swimming Up Stream was there with his recording gear, and I think he caught some good liners that you might even hear my voice on his podcast, as long as it turned out alright. Jeff’s got some good, local music from Vancouver, so I give him a hearty thumbs up.

I pretty much monopolized my time with Dave from the Vancouver Weekly Underground Podcast. He’s more of the silent partner to the podcast, but they are doing some good things with their stuff. In fact, we met at the podcast meetup nearly a year ago that Tod Maffin setup. I always find it fascinating to discover more about the local music scene, and this implies the nitty-gritty realms of it. They seem to be on top of it pretty well.

I’ll make a quick mention of some folks who I met but didn’t get much of a chance to talk to at length, of which I apologize. Tiki Bar TV and Far From Subtle Television are some of those folks, but after seeing your stuff, I wish I had. Sean Carruthers from Lab Rats was there as well, and we talked briefly. It wasn’t till we were leaving that I realized who he was and what he’s involved with. Very cool.

Even though we had about 75% turn out from those who signed up(where were Tod Maffin and Kris Krug?), it turned out really well. I don’t think I babbled on too much, and Derek spilled pico de gallo all over my right shoe(cleaned up easily, no worries). All in all, a great time. We have to do this again soon, but let’s not wait for some guy from Ontario to spark another gathering, no offense to Mark Blevis at all. A pleasure meeting him, and he’s a really great guy. However, I think the podcasters of Vancouver should do this more often. (Did I just volunteer myself for something?)

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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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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.