We are back from the Continent and boy are our arms tired. Instead of landing in Calgary at 5 p.m., the flight was delayed, we missed our connections and ended up home at 9:45 p.m. I think we've been up 24 hours. I'm a little dizzy.
Also, Arone, we saw the message about the tux. E-mail works too, you know.
CBC Radio 2 was mentioned in the last post and it seems enough is happening in the public broadcasting world to warrant a bit more comment.
Radio 3 is dead. Radio 2 killed it.
And so, an explanation is in order. Radio 2, the nation's predominantly classical music station is undergoing/has undergone a programming change. The gist: more music, less talk, new programs to appeal to their demographic. It's not all classical music, but... it's still Radio 2.
But as part of the great programming change of of 2007, they killed Radio 3, Canada's source for new independent Canadian music (rock, pop, hip-hop, folk, etc). Its last broadcast was on Saturday, March 17. It was a radio program occupying Saturday nights on the Radio 2 airwaves. It was a great venue for brilliant new music from across the country that you may never have heard before because, being independent, those bands don't have the access to the airwaves that big-label bands have. You know, it was such a great radio program, I'd recommend it to everyone I know.
The problem is, I never listened to it.
In fact, I suspect I never even accidentally caught Radio 3 on the FM dial. I suspect it's because I'm part of a generation that treats radio as background--the stuff you listen to in your car with you don't have a CD, or what's playing while you shop. Actually staying home on a Saturday night to listen to a radio show is completely foreign. Like, that's just... weird.
But here's the contradiction: I listen to Radio 3 all the time on-line and via podcast. Since the podcast debuted as a #1 podcast in Canada a year and a half ago, I have been hooked on their diversity and quality of new music. I don't like everything I hear, but I'm so grateful that they've introduced me to, or developed my appreciation for, bands such as Tokyo Police Club, Shout Out Out Out Out, Cadence Weapon, Joel Plaskett, Controller.Controller, Cuff the Duke, Great Lake Swimmers, Mother Mother, Swan Lake, etc, etc.
From a geeky media communications perspective, it's interesting to see the CBC make this change. They've embraced the online medium and dropped broadcast where they weren't appreciated (enough). They've even gone further and developed a station for Radio 3 on Sirius satellite radio, which, I suspect, is working out for them.
So, if you're curious about what I'm listening to, check out CBC Radio 3 online. You can listen to streaming radio, full concerts, selections from your favourite bands, put together your own playlist of all your favourites or share playlists with registered users. I recommend downloading the podcast hosted by Grant Lawrence--it's great for a workout or long trips in the car.
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Did the above sound a lot like an ad for Radio 3? If it did, it's unintentional. But, should a Radio 3 producer or host stumble across this, I'd love some swag. I wear a medium.
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Brave New Waves, another Radio 2 show featuring new, and sometimes experimental, music was also canceled in the programming change. I did accidentally catch this show once or twice since I recall it was on late on week nights.
One evening, when I was living at my grandparent's place while they were in Arizona, I was listening to Radio 2 while doing homework. When I finished my work around 12:30am, I turned up the radio so I could listen to it while I toodled around the dark house having a snack and preparing for bed.
While I'm pouring a glass of water, I can hear the host introducing a piece of that experimental music I mentioned. I paid no attention.
Suddenly, all I hear is loud, staccato bangs echoing through the house like the sound of an angry fist on a wooden door.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
And then the yelling started:
NEIGHBOUR!
Not sure why, but I suddenly feared for my life. Sure, it was odd music, but when combined with the darkness of the house, the lateness of the hour and the loudness of the radio, I was quickly terrified. My heart pounding, it took me a moment to start moving. I was driven by a singular purpose: to remove that source of anxiety filling my home.
I moved cautiously through the house until I reached the radio, the song blaring in my ears.
NEIGHBOUR!
I turned it off. Relieved. I needed to go to sleep. I needed to stop listening to radio late at night.
I will mourn the passing of Brave New Waves less.
It wasn't intentional, but it seems that Natalie and I have removed most sources of advertising in our lives. We've been without television for over a year and mostly listen to the CBC (Radio One and Three, but Two on occasion).
It's becoming a problem. Just ask Tony.
The scene is pretty much the same: we're up at Tony's watching pre-recorded Battlestar Galactica or Heroes. Even if we're watching the same day as airing, we'll start watching half an hour later so it can record on the fly and we can skip through all the commercials.
"Whoa... Whoa! What are you doing?!"
"Fast forwarding to the reason we're watching TV in my living room," says Tony (actually, he's just stopped answering now).
"No, no. Go back. Was that a new Doritoes commercial?" Or new movie trailer, or a new Dove commercial, or a new station identification, whatever.
Not only are we starting to pine for commercials, but I'm feeling hyper-aware of them. It use to be just because I was a geek about that kind of thing, but now it's because I just can't get enough marketing.
Market to me! I want your ads! I am the target market you've been dreaming of!
Oh, and here's another unfortunate side effect: we seem to have lost our marketing resistance. Remember that Doritoes commercial? Yeah, well now we're part of the Doritoes Tandoori Sizzler fan club! And it wasn't because we happened to see the chips while we were on a normal shopping trip. While driving home on Monday night at 10 o'clock, we found ourselves going out of our way to get to a Safeway and grab an armful of Tandoori Sizzler and Spicy Curry Lays (also new with advertising).
Oh, and did you know it's Roll up the Rim (RutR as the kids call it) season at Tim Horton's? I never use to care about that and suddenly I'm stricken with the daily urge for a medium mocha with whip and a honey cruller. But their marketing is so good... I mean, it's "rrroll up the rim"--such a brilliant campaign. Give me a call and we can talk about the democratic brilliance that is Canadian coffee marketing.
I am so weak...
Now how about that cruller...
Happy 23rd Birthday, my big little brother. If I do my math correctly, you will always be two years and three hundred and sixty-three days younger than me. That's assuming I can count... which is also assuming a lot.
No, the past blog hiatus was not due to divorce (see Valentine's Revenge). Natalie and I have been neglectful due to a general lack of free time, sickness and focus on other parts of our lives. Care to know what's been up? Meh.
Two weekends ago, I woke up to a killer sore throat ("it hurts when I breathe") and a weird pain and numbness in my face. A quick call to HealthLink for a bit of reassurance ended with the friendly, yet insistent, RN telling me to get myself to the nearest hospital emergency room immediately.
"Would you like me to call you an ambulance?"
"No, I'm sure I'll be fine on my own."
"Is your vision ok?"
"Sure it is. I'm calling about my throat."
I learned later that the numbness in my face made the nurse worried that I may have been having a stroke. I'm glad I didn't learn that later or I might have been more concerned and gone straight to the hospital instead of driving Natalie to her class on my way to the hospital.
Summary: no stroke, just a combo sinus and throat infection.
Medical solution: wait it out, drink ginger tea, die a slow and painful death
Nine days later: I have the remnants of a cold, I feel a bazillion times better
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Natalie and I are in the middle of a new condo search in downtown Calgary.
Wow, that sentence use to excite me. Now it just makes me shiver.
The other day, this gem of an article from Mario Toneguzzi appeared in the Calgary Herald:
For the first time ever, the average sale price of a Calgary condominium has cracked the $300,000 barrier — an astonishing more than 40 per cent growth from one year ago. Figures released Friday by the Calgary Real Estate Board also show that the single-family market in the city continues to be very strong with the average sale price now more than $435,000.
How was my weekend? Meh. The mehness of it is indescribable. Just one big, fat meh. If you are an old-media kind of reader, "meh" won't mean a whole lot to you. The word has appeared in the national press three times in the past year. If you gain new vocabulary from conversation, it is probably unfamiliar. If you can't be torn from the web, however, you will almost certainly know it, and its meaning.
Meh means rubbish. It means boring. It means not worth the effort, who cares, so-so, whatever. It is the all-purpose dismissive shrug of the blogger and messageboarder. And it is ubiquitous. On the I Love Music messageboard, for example, 4,010 separate discussion threads feature the use of "meh".
No one is quite sure where it comes from. Graeme Diamond, principal editor of the new word group at the Oxford English Dictionary, says it's not yet suitable for the OED, but he does have a "meh" file, and the first recorded print usage occurred in the Edmonton Sun newspaper in Canada in 2003: "Ryan Opray got voted off Survivor. Meh."
