Saturday, June 25, 2005

from the "summer is here" dept.

Short version of this week's news:

- Had the week off, which really means I was working for me. Interviewed the owner of a map publishing company for an article due next week.

- Met with people that are willing to help the holocaust documentary along.

- Had a visit from my Mom.

- Rented a convertable. Fun!

- Pitched publishers and newspapers a million ideas.

- Walked around Stanley Park a few times.

- Rode my bike.

Wheeee! What a life!

Cheers!

Sunday, June 19, 2005

from the "this and that and this" dept.

Saturday night missives:

- Satellite radio in Canada got the green light, unfortunately with heavy Canadian Content restrictions. The CBC/Sirius folk are all set to go... whereas the XM Canada people were a little more reserved.

We'll see what happens. But in the meantime, I have my US XM subscription and LOVE IT.

- Some positive moves with the various projects. More news on that soon.

- I've been assigned another story for the Georgia Straight: how maps are made. I'll be doing the interviews on Tuesday, and it should appear in the first week of July.

- I'm also tired and going to bed!

Cheers!

Thursday, June 16, 2005

from the "it works, but not so well" dept.

Well, posting to the blog via email works, but as you can tell from the
entry below, the text is a little wonky. So I will try a second test,
and this time, I will not add any carriage returns except for
paragraphs.

Like there.

Anyway, the big news today is this: the CRTC is *finally* announcing
the winners for satellite radio licenses. There are three applicants,
two of which are teamed with the existing US services (XM and Sirius).
The CBC is in bed with Sirius, and could be the most interesting
applicant. Certainly if that application gets the rubber stamp, that
means CBC Radio 3 -- which is based in Vancouver -- would go 24/7. And
that would certainly mean some work for yours truly.

The worry is that the CRTC will try to cram too much Canadian Content
into the licenses. Two of the three applications have 4 or so channels
that would be carried stateside. If the CRTC demands more, both XM and
Sirius would balk. The third application is 100% Canadian. Great.
Franco-country 24/7. So we'll see: will the CRTC admit that they
can't force CanCon down our throats (and the troats of Americans) or
will they get with the program?

My guess? They license all three and let the free market decide.

Some interesting thoughts on Microsoft guru Robert Scoble's blog:

http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2005/06/16.html#a10410

Cheers!

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

from the "this is hard work" dept.

First: This is a test of a new way of posting... by simply sending an
email. Let's see if it works.

The entry:

It's been an amazing week. I've had several days off, so I've been
enjoying time to do stuff -- including ride my bike. Today was the
first day in a long time that I hopped aboard my former best friend.

I threw the bike in the car and drove out to a point just south of
Vancouver International. The weather couldn't have been better, and
once I got going, it was a blast. It wasn't a long ride as my legs
have morphed from titanium to jelly. And despite all the positive
thinking, I am getting neither thinner nor fitter.

So... it's out with the bad, in with the good. And more balance.

Boy, don't I sound like Dr. Phil? Trouble is, I'm the same size.

More to come soon...

Cheers!

Thursday, June 09, 2005

from the "some more rent money" dept.

The Karaoke in Belize article is in the June 9 issue of the Georgia Straight.

Read it HERE.

Cheers!

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

from the "where'd that week go?" dept.

I can't believe a week has passed since my last post.

I have been working nearly non-stop (and long hours) since I returned home two weeks ago. I've started writing "road-trip across Albania" and will get to sorting and posting the photos next week when I have some time off.

Tomorrow, Thursday, the Karaoke Television (in Belize) story appears in the Georgia Straight. I will post a link.

Also next week I will begin working on more and more articles, and start pitching US papers. The experiment begins!

If you're near a radio tonight (Wednesday) or the internet, tune into CBC Radio's Global Village. There you'll hear stories from my pals Brent Toombs and Celeste MacKenzie.

Cheers!

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

from the "back to the grind" dept.

It is now June 1... can you believe it? All the travelling is over and it's now time to work all summer.

I left Copenhagen on Friday and flew to London. I originally had plans to hook up with friends, but that fell through. Instead, I checked into my hotel near Heathrow and then grabbed the tube to Central London.

It took about 90 minutes and in retrospect I should have taken one of the express trains -- but they're expensive. And the tube is... well... London!

It was 32C in London Friday afternoon. I ran around snapping pictures and drinking up the city. Around 10, I headed back to the hotel and crashed.

Saturday the alarm went off at 4:30am and I slowly dragged my ass back to Heathrow. By 9am I was flying to Vancouver.


I arrived home around 10:30am local time on Saturday morning. It was also a nice day here... so I spent the day with friends and tried to stay up late. I thought if I could make it until bedtime according to the Vancouver clock, I would not suffer jet lag.

It didn't work. Barking dogs, an uncomfortable bed, and a screwed up system left me feeling exhausted on Sunday. But, it was also a nice day, so I again spent the day visiting.

The Georgia Straight had asked me to write a travel article about Belize, so I started writing it late Sunday. It was due today.

Monday I was up at 5:30 and at work at CBC at 7am. It was a tough, long day... and the jet lag was in full swing. In the evening I stayed at the CBC and did some phone interviews for the Belize piece.

Tuesday was a repeat of Monday... work at CBC all day, and then stick around to work on my article. Home at 10. Up at 5:30. And back at work for 7am this morning. By noon the article was emailed... and once I was done at CBC, I was able to come home and chill... and update this old thing.

More to come soon... but I am going to chill for a spell.

Cheers!