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What I would like to see from the NHL

Going back to my post about attending the state of the Canucks franchise with J.J., I thought I would hit a few points that stuck out to me. More so, it’s something that a lot of hockey minded folks, from broadcasters to fans, have been talking about. It was the opening panel that inspires me to mention a few of the following topics.

Getting set for the panel discussion

I can’t remember who said it, but the basic jest was that we, the fans, need to speak up about what we want from the things we enjoy and love. Truly, that can go for anything you follow, sports related or not, and the truth is that fans make things like the NHL exist.

Speaking of a lack of fans making things not exist, look at the Nashville Predators. Great team, horrible fan base, and a relocation of the franchise is constant soap opera. There are about four locations being tossed around: Las Vegas, NV, Kansas City, MO, Hamilton, ON, and Winnipeg, MB. Basically, the southwest desert, midwest U.S., hockey saturated Ontario, and a return of the NHL to the Canadian prairie.

I’ve stated my feelings about KC before, even though that was about the Penguins who are staying in Pittsburgh, and I still stand by what I said. However, I will add that if the Predators are going to relocate within the U.S., then it should be to KC, not Las Vegas. Another Canadian team is something I am all in support of, but not in Ontario. Return it to Winnipeg where people are hockey lovers, and it’s a well known fact that all the Canadian teams in the NHL are making a large bulk of profits for the entire league. It just makes better business sense to move the team where hockey is loved and will make a hell of a lot more money than the desert.

If you move a team to Las Vegas, you’ll have to spend a lot of marketing dollars on teaching fans that the team exists on top of teaching the game. At least if you move the team to Kansas City, the team will be closer to the 49th parallel where hockey is more prevalent. Another team in the desert, where there is never enough ice to even skate on, is a ridiculous move.

Speaking of ridiculous, kill the television contract with Versus. Nuke it. Rip it up. There are way too many people who have a hard enough time getting NHL coverage in the U.S. with the way it stands, so something needs to change. There are those who can’t even get the network, so why would you invest in something that has lackluster exposure?

A little side note, but an interesting one, the annual Iowa vs. Iowa State football game will be on Versus this year, opposed to one of the major broadcast networks or ESPN. That even has a few people asking questions about what a Versus actually is. Being the good Hawkeye fan that I am, that article made me laugh as well as sad.

Anyway, I have liked the NBC deal thus far, and it’s even better with Brett Hull leaving to take a job with the Dallas Stars. I don’t like them leaving a game early because a game runs long, especially for a horse race that has one hour pre-show for a two minute event. I can’t think of a better way to turn off a new fan who discovers hockey in the midst of the Stanley Cup playoffs, much like I did in my early teens.

Lastly (because I know you’re listening, NHL), take a long, hard look at what the New York Islanders are doing with allowing bloggers access to their franchise. Not only am I a huge fan of this, but this is a remarkable step in allowing those who love their team to report on their team. It’s true that this has its good and bad qualities to it, but there is a lot of difference between sports reporting (i.e. radio or newspaper) and sports blogging.

Canucks Open Practice
Recording a podcast episode of The Crazy Canucks from the press box in GM Place.
(Photo credit: Miss604 on Flickr)

In blogging, and podcasting for that matter, we brew a community. We have comments, interaction, and other people blog what someone else blogs about. It’s a world wide conversation, and we’re talking hockey on a scale that is much different than what sports reporters do in press or behind the desk or mic. We’re not bound by deadlines or schedules, but there is precedence on being honest about what you love, which is your hockey team. True that this can be biased, but people write what they are passionate about. That’s blogging, and they post views about the team they are the fans of, expanding and strengthening the team and league around the world.

The NHL should make more of an effort to expand this concept throughout the league. Want examples of how much blogging benefits a team like the Canucks? Check out J.J., Alanah, or Zanstorm. They are fans, but they offer news, viewpoints, and a unique voice that speak to people more than a sports reporter might. At least I know that I can count on all of those folks to translate league news into something I can readily understand.

Those are the big issues for me right now, and I know that there are more that will creep up later. I’ll try to post about them when I think of them. If you have something to say, then post it in the comments. Better yet, get your voice out there, too. Who knows if we can change anything in the end, but speaking up is a start.

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Wanted to watch more Live Earth

I must admit, Live Earth was pretty cool, at least from what I saw. The basic, overall message seems to be in dispute, but the performances that I did catch were pretty amusing. Metallica got me to stay put, Spinal Tap was cool, the snip of the Beastie Boys left me wanting more, and Wolfmother in Sydney made me wish we had saw them in Vancouver.

We had a busy weekend, so there wasn’t much time to watch a lot of the performances. The awareness ads that ran during the commercial breaks were amusing, but it left me with a sense of people being apart of something to get their “big names” plastered into a world event. That’s not to say that the messages weren’t worthwhile, but Will Farrel or that one dude from those American Pie movies isn’t a name at the top of the list when I think about conserving energy and/or saving the environment.

With hope, Live Earth did what it was intended to do. In this MTV culture, the true test will see how well it sticks, no matter how successful it might have been.

Live Earth events drew more than 10 million online viewers Saturday, the most ever to simultaneously watch a concert broadcast over the Internet, according to Microsoft.

The concerts were beamed live from venues in or near New York, London, Hamburg, and several other major cities around the world over Microsoft’s MSN network. As of 3 p.m. Saturday, MSN had delivered more than 10 million video streams, the company said. [informationweek]

Even I will admit that I watched, and wanted to watch more, because of the musical acts. That’s not to say that I’m already contemplating the issues they were talking about on a near daily basis, but it’s totally the rock and roll that kept me coming back for more. Cameron Diaz talking about being one of the first actors in Hollywood to buy a hybrid car? I could kinda care less.

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Taking in some FIFA U-20 World Cup action

Early in the second half

I was able to score a couple tickets to the FIFA U-20 World Cup tournament going on in Canada right now. Rebecca and I had really good seats, practically in the center of the pitch for the last half of the match between Scotland and Costa Rica. We would have seen more of the game, including the first game between Spain and Jordan, but we hit the 1PM showing of Transformers before hand. More about that another time.

Leaving the game When we got there, the score was 0-0, and the crowd was great. There was a great cheering section for the Scots, bag pipes and all. They had some great songs that they were singing as well, complete with kilts and accents. I loved it!

Not to be out done, Costa Rica fans had their fair share of support. What was brilliant was what the Scotland fans would yell in the midst of their cheers.

“COS-ta RI-ca!” clap, clap, clap-clap-clap. Instead of clapping, Scotland fans would yell, “SUCKS!” I was highly entertained.

Corner kick by Scotland Even though we only caught forty-five minutes of World Cup futbol, it was incredible. A Scottish player scored a goal on a bicycle kick, a fight broke out between the two teams in the middle of the half, and a streaker busted out onto the pitch with ten minutes left in the game. There was even some amazing snatch and dash of a game ball by one spectator where he casually caught the ball and hauled out of Swangard Stadium like his rear was on fire. The kind thing to do is to return the ball, if not mandatory, but I’m not sure if he was able to hold on to the souvenir.

The streaker, on the other hand, underestimated the width of the pitch and, probably, his blood alcohol level. Two-thirds of the way across, he gave up his all out sprint to walk his way over the to the other side. There was some mutual exchange of greetings between him and the security on the other side, but after pulling his pants up, his arm was pulled behind his back while he was forced out of the stadium.

Costa Rica player says thanks to the crowd I was slightly confused as to why I couldn’t get the bottles soda, that we got with our hot dog combos, with the caps left on them. That’s really useful when carrying a lot of food and drink, and I was told by the vendor that it’s against FIFA rules to leave the caps on. Talking about this over the weekend with friends, this made more sense. You can’t throw plastic bottles nearly as far when you don’t have a cap on it. Makes sense, but it caught me a little of guard.

The game was 1-1 going into two minutes of extra time. With just seconds left, Costa Rica was able to score an amazing goal that caught the Scotland goalie out of position. 2-1, final.

On the SkyTrain back home, a couple of Scotland fans, kilts once again, were still in great spirits and feeling pretty good. They asked a girl if she watched the game today. She asked what game they meant. Well, the football game, or soccer game, of course.

“Oh, I usually just pay attention to hockey.”

“What? Hoo-key?!!?”

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Simpsons craze in the lower mainland

I know that I am completely behind on the hype, but in case you missed it, here is something completely worth noting. Rebecca and John Biehler have both been to and posted pictures of the smartest pieces of marketing that I have seen in a long time, if not the most brilliant.

Flickr photo by miss604
Photo credit: Miss604 on Flickr

Around the world, 7-11 has turned a selection of their stores into “Kwik-E-Marts” in anticipation of the upcoming Simpsons movie on July 27th.

Over the weekend, 7-Eleven Inc. turned a dozen stores into Kwik-E-Marts, the fictional convenience stores of “The Simpsons” fame, in the latest example of marketers making life imitate art.

Those stores and most of the 6,000-plus other 7-Elevens in North America will sell items that until now existed only on television: Buzz Cola, KrustyO’s cereal and Squishees, the slushy drink knockoff of Slurpees. [yahoo]

Dan Lilly has a great series of pictures on Flickr, and I had a chance to talk to him the other day about it. He had a good point. There are numerous cities, around the world, that have one of these. New York, Chicago, Dallas, etc. All these large cities, and the one in Canada ends up in Coquitlam.

Flickr photo by Dan Lilly
Photo credit: zonaboy on Flickr

Buh? I have a hard enough time teaching some of my American friends that I live in Vancouver, not to mention that I live nowhere near Toronto or the frozen north. Perhaps this was a matter of the location meeting the requirements needed to make it look like an Apu-run Kwik-E-Mart, but the trek to get there is something many, hardcore fans are doing.

I’ve heard reports of people sticking to the floor around the “squishee” machine being worse than any movie theatre that they have ever been in, and there are 7-11’s in the downtown area selling plenty of merchandise to buy Matt Groening[wiki] another yacht yet.

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Crossing the border as a permanent resident

Day of UK Car Bombs at Bellingham International Airport When Rebecca made her adventure to live blog the Matthew Good show in Las Vegas, I had to drive down to pick her up from Bellingham International Airport in Washington state. Don’t let that name impress you too much. It’s a very nice, worthwhile airport, but it’s proximity to the Canadian border is the only reason it is granted the covenanted “international” label.

The big thing is that this was going to be my first time crossing the border since becoming a landed immigrant in Canada. I’ve got the permanent residence card[cic] that is my ticket for less hassle getting over the border, and the less hassle comes in terms of being kicked out or kept out of the country.

Things like this are no big deal, but I was driving across the border by myself. On top of that, I was in my mother-in-law’s car, so it was a vehicle in which I don’t even own. If they needed proof of ownership at any point, we were prepared for me to be held up a little bit. Plus, we also went over things to say, not say, and any documents I might need to prove my “intentions during your stay in the United States of America.”

Canada Day long weekend, I knew the waits would be a little long, but there was some safety in the thought that this was in between the major travel times. So for a Saturday, the radio said that waits were anywhere from three hours to ninety minutes. When I got there, the signs in the line up lanes said 40 minutes, and that’s pretty much how long it took.

My First Border Crossing Additionally, I had a little bit of concern with the recent bombings in the U.K. I had already heard that the threat levels at U.S. airports were raised, so there was a thought in my head that it could affect Rebecca’s flight as well as border crossings. Nothing on the radio or signs on display as I crept ahead in the queue, and things panned out in the end.

Getting up to the front of the line, I handed my U.S. passport over with my Canadian PR Card tucked inside, sticking out slightly at the top. I had a print out of Rebecca’s travel itinerary on my lap, ready to go in case he needed proof that I wasn’t a terrorist or drug runner.

He asked three questions. Where do you live? Where are you going? Are you bringing any goods from Canada into the U.S.? In the span of less than a minute, I shot right through.

What gets me is that each car ahead of me took two to five minutes on average when reaching the guy in the booth. I could see passports being passed over, then some conversation, some extra papers were handed over, more conversation, and the people were allowed to pass after getting a handful of documents handed back to them.

Perhaps I was lucky, or maybe the PR Card thing gets you some express treatment in certain situations. Time will tell, but it’s a comforting thing to be able to travel again. It’s even cooler when you get your own PR Card because your picture on the front is also a hologram on the back. Awesome.

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Happy Fourth!

It would be rude of me to not bestow good wishes to those who are celebrating this American holiday. Living out of the country, it is curious to see how the rest of the world keeps going on while the party happens in the states. In fact, it’s more like waiting in line for a really cool concert. Everything outside is kinda lame and at a snails pace while the fun stuff is going on inside.

That’s not to say that things in Vancouver is or has been lame. Canada Day[wiki] has its excellent merits. Spending the day on the beach and following it up with dinner on a patio that overlooks English Bay with a pitcher of mojitos? Muy buen.

Field of Dreams (July, 2005) Being an American and not being in America can be hard on days like this. I have a wealth of memories of times past. In fact, we watched Field of Dreams last night for my unknown numberth of times, and it was nearly three years ago that my family spent the day there, playing catch, taking turns at bat, and wandering the corn fields. Makes you miss those times a lot.

When I think about being American, it’s those times that make me appreciate my roots. I could care very little about being called a nationalist for flying my flag, and you can stick it for calling me an ex-patriot. I know exactly what I am and where I have come from, and politics and foreign policy means little to me on a day like this. It’s also why I am not afraid to hide from the fact of where I grew up. The Midwest is my home. Born and raised, and there is nothing you can do to change that.

Riding the little league all-stars float, playing in the high school marching band, the tractor after tractor in the parade, the piles of treats left behind by the horses, stuffing yourself with meats from the grill, picking the corn out from between your teeth, and the flinching concussions from those fireworks that are shot into the sky with all the pretty ones only to have a little blip of a flash, followed by a rattling boom.

Happy Fourth of July!

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Matthew Good, “Hospital Music” streaming and album release

June 29, 2007: Rebecca is rocking a live blog from a private performance by Matt in Las Vegas. Check it out here.

Matthew Good, last night in his old home (Aug. 2006) Getting the note from his website, Matthew Good is now streaming his entire new album, “Hospital Music”, on his website and on iTunes. You can purchase your own copy on July 31st, but singles and the full record will be available via the iTunes Music Store slightly sooner in the states than the hard copy release.

Additionally, Rebecca has just started her journey to Las Vegas to catch a private performance by Matt. I just saw her off on the first leg, and she will be live blogging the whole event in a bit of a whirlwind tour. A very nice follow up to her first live blogging adventure, all because of the same guy.

It would be poor of me to not mention this new album, and I should really have posted more about this than I have. In fact, I’ve talked about it more on RadioZoom, but that’s a different sphere altogether than my blogging efforts.

A lot of Vancouver is synonymous with Matt for me. He was the first rock show I saw here, and I got to meet him for the first time in August of 2006 at the little show he gave for a select group of fans on the last night he lived on the cusp of the west end. We’ve hung out since then, he’s chastised our preference of wine, and we come to a lot of the same conclusions on political issues. The only thing on that last point is that he is generally much smarter than me. I know the overall concept that fuels my opinion, but the guy is so, incredibly informed that I can only nod my head in agreement.

Matthew Good, November 2005 at the Commodore BallroomI reviewed “Beautiful Midnight” during my days at KRUI, picking that album out of the pile for the only reason that I had a fascination with the Canadian music scene that was a completely different world than the mainstream of America. That was my introduction, and Rebecca taught me a lot more. I’m still getting more and more familiar with his library every single time it comes up in my library.

On this new album, however, I was actually there when parts of it were being made. I’ve even been able to sit through a private listening of it while Benji fell asleep on Rebecca’s lap. Every single time, there is something that amazes me, and I haven’t had that feeling about an album for a long time. Call it what you will, but listening to the stream of it right now, I know what it is that I’m talking about. That’s all that really matters.

I want to do some sort of music review of this album. The sad fact is, one, I’m not very good at those sorts of things. Second, I hate music reviews. I like what I like based on a matter of personal preference, and you should, too. I will say, however, brilliant. That’s the only word I can think of while I listen to this.

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Vancouver Canucks State of the Franchise 2007

J.J. had an extra ticket to the Vancouver Canucks State of the Franchise tonight, so I was more than happy to go along for the event.

Off stage right

Basically, this is intended for season ticket holders, plus a few other classifications of people who coordinate boxes and what not. GM Dave Nonis and VP Chris Zimmerman take the stage for about an hour to discuss concerns of ticket holders, give updates on where the organization is heading, and then take questions from the crowd.

Chris Zimmerman talks shop

I have to say that the most intriguing point of the event was that Zimmerman and Nonis hung around after their stage time to talk to anyone that wandered down to the floor. From what I could overhear, people were asking some good questions about the organization. The responses were diplomatic, but not so much that you couldn’t appreciate the sincerity of the answers. By the time we headed out of the building, the crowd had dwindled to about ten around each guy, and they didn’t show any signs of movement towards the door.

It was a really neat experience, but there wasn’t anything earth shattering that was announced. Well, at least nothing that I didn’t already clue into based on The Crazy Canucks, J.J.’s and Alanah’s blogs, and general hockey conversations that Rebecca and I have. If anything, I have a new found respect for Dave Nonis and his business ethics, but you just need to look around the rest of the NHL to understand this.

Getting set for the panel discussion

The coolest part of the evening started out with John Shorthouse coming out on stage to kick off a panel discussion with a group of Team 1040 broadcasters about various topics around the NHL as well as the Canucks. Don Taylor, Dave Tomlinson, and Barry Macdonald joined Shorty on stage to hack through the usual topics of the schedule, rules, and what should and shouldn’t change. It was highly entertaining, and I’m sure J.J. will have more on his site about the discussions.

Crowd around the big guys

One note about the whole jersey topic. Zimmerman answered the question from the audience about this and hammered on a detail that adds some more light. I’ve heard it before, but him stating, quite matter of fact, that “Fin will have a continued presence in the organization” leads me to ponder this comment that showed up in my last post about this topic. That’s all I’m going to say.

If anything, it was really awesome to be in GM Place and be talking about the Canucks. That’s pure happiness, and you can view more of the photos here on Flickr.