Description: Valerie In Toronto

The Spirit of Radio

descriptionto@gmail.com (Valerie In Toronto) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 12:27:44 PDT

At the start of Description 70, I mentioned that I did the episode I did then inspired by something I had listened to the previous night. On The Rock 94.9 in Oshawa (the last place I had a full-time radio job, when it was owned by other people), David Marsden, one of the architects of CFNY (in fact, they were called "The Spirit of Radio"), did a tribute to one of the last men to inhabit and breathe life into what he built, DJ Martin Streek, who had killed himself days earlier (and a couple months after being let go by what had become "102.1 The Edge"). Left entirely to his own devices, Marsden spent his five-hour shift playing music Martin loved listening to and playing, as well as sharing his memories of the man along with reading the memories of others. Those others seemed to fall into two categories: people who knew Martin as a kid, and people who were with him at CFNY over the years. In the latter case, what emerged was a feeling of family which is seldom sustained in radio to this extent. 102.1 The Edge themselves will be having their own tribute tomorrow from 5-8pm eastern, and I understand it will include many messages from CFNY alumni. While that's great, it will have a lot to do to live up to Marsden's tribute a week ago last Thursday.

As I listened to the show, lying in bed, letting it wash over, I was able to record some of it, in the hopes I could share it with people who had missed the show at the time. To their credit, The Rock 94.9 and David Marsden have allowed all five hours to be made available as .mp3 downloads. Here they are available via Toronto Mike's Blog with the playlist all in one place.

I point this out for a couple reasons. CFNY and Los Angeles' KROQ were basically the first alternative stations in the world. In fact, they were alternative stations years before anyone came up with the term "alternative" to describe them. Once that term became a format, things began to go downhill. So there is historical relevance here. Also, podcasters and others sometimes aren't sure what I'm talking about when I say radio used to be different, and that while nothing was perfect by any stretch, it had elements to it that now exist in much of podcasting and other social media: an intimacy, an honesty, a sense of community even if you were by yourself. Even if you listen to a part of one of those .mp3s, I think you'll get a sense of what I'm talking about. If nothing else, you'll get some great music.

Description 70 - Walking the Walk in Midtown

descriptionto@gmail.com (Valerie In Toronto) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:24:36 PDT

In a productive overreaction, I blather about the nature of desire unedited while going from a busy intersection far away to a pair of twins in a stroller to the grave of a Prime Minister.

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Associated links
Martin Streek remembered by Liisa Ladouceur in Eye Weekly
Marsden's playlist from last night (Again, more on this later.)
Eglinton Way (via boldts.net)
Belt Line Railway @Wikipedia
Beltline Reach (This looks like the whole path where I walked.)
Podcasters Across Borders
Forest Hill @Wikipedia
Baldwin Steps (to Casa Loma) @Wikpedia
Forest Hill Village @BlogTO
Ajahn Brahm website
Davisville Subway Yards @Transit Toronto
Mount Pleasant Cemetery
Feed of the Ajahn Brahm Dhamma Talks podcast The joke was in "The Power of Mindfulness and Compassion" and the sample was from "The Secret (Lo-Fi)" Figures I would sample the one with the technical problem. :-)
Mackenzie King @CBC Digital Archives
The Diaries of William Lyon Mackenzie King

After the recording, I continued on through the cemetery until I realized I was getting tired, then had to work to find my way out the place. But I did and got back to Yonge just north of St. Clair, where I finally sat down again for a little bit, then kept going south and finally made it back home. I mapped out what I remembered of the walk on Running Map, and it said I'd walked 6.5 miles in total.

Thanks again for putting up with this. It's pretty important, but I know it's not exactly what you signed up for. As always, listening is optional. A more typical episode, which I was originally going to make Description 70, is really coming in the next week, so if you took out these Walking the Walk episodes, the time between that and the last typical episode (Description 68 - Gretzky) is still ahead of my usual pace.

And really, I'm fine. What happened isn't a bigger deal than I made it sound in Description 69 - I just had these extra realizations that made me have to kick my ass in a big way.

If I was so earnest and stuff all the time, would I still find this video 20 kinds of awesome? Not bloody likely. (Warning: not Canadian.)

Description 69 - Walking the Walk

descriptionto@gmail.com (Valerie In Toronto) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 07:32:36 PDT

So what was the deal with me mentioning rejection and acceptance in the blurb for the last episode? I explain and try desperately to avoid ChickLit as I make my way to Lake Ontario on Canada Day. With music by The Constantines and some douchebag with a bicycle bell.

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Associated links
Coach House Books
An Online Archive for bpNichol
BlogTO in bpNichol Lane
Toronto Fringe Festival (Ha! I made it in time! It's on until July 12! Go!)
The Robarts Library
The redesigned Art Gallery of Ontario
Grange Park on flickr
OCAD @Wikipedia
The Vagina Monologues @Wikipedia
Loose Moose Tap and Grill
Harbourfront Centre
Air Canada Centre
Constantines

Yes, already. But I wanted to get this out there while it was fresh and before it seemed too reactionary.

As often happens, it takes me a while to get going on this thing, but stay with me because I do get going.

For once, I guess I should explain a reference I made that is more American than Canadian. Lifetime is a tv network in the States sort of like the W Network in Canada, with programming aimed at women (Oxygen is a younger, louder variation on it). So you have makeover shows and movies with Julia Roberts, Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon in them, and basically shows that are supposed to be empowering when maybe sometimes they're more enabling. Then there are the Lifetime TV movies (which often appear on W as well), which are often shot in Canada because it's cheap. The typical Lifetime TV movie stars some actress who used to be in a successful tv series which was cancelled years ago, who plays some woman who goes through some sort of great difficulty ("based on real events" and often caused by some man or men or psycho woman or "the system") and comes away from it a stronger person. Of course, there is much drama and sturm and drang along the way.

THAT is what this episode is NOT. You know why? Because drama should be the exception, not the rule. There are no good guys and bad guys, everybody does the best they can, sometimes they screw up or have intentions that don't match, life sometimes sucks by its nature and life sometimes rocks by its nature, and it's all good. And EVERYONE deserves to be empowered, regardless of gender.

And you know I mean that because I used CAPS. :-)

Six String Nation Army

descriptionto@gmail.com (Valerie In Toronto) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:00:09 PDT

So yesterday was Canada Day, and I spent the end of it walking from home to Harbourfront (which is kind of far) and talking most of the time, and that will probably be Description 69 maybe next week...if I don't puss out on it because it was mainly talking about me and some stuff I've been experiencing lately, which was hinted at in the latest episode.

One of the many wacky things that happened in June was Podcasters Across Borders in Kingston. What I said about PAB last year in Description 54 still stands - there was just way more of whatever I had talked about - so there wasn't much point to talking about it this time on my show, although I did talk about it on other people's shows. Also, I was a bonafide presenter this time (last year I gave a five-minute "Jolt"), talking for 25 minutes about the work I do on the other podcast, Movies For the Blind, and how its thought processes may relate to other forms of podcasting and new media. Needless to say, I was freaked out about doing it (though fortunately other things distracted me leading up to it), but part of the idea of PAB is getting out of your comfort zone and sharing your knowledge and passion in a welcoming environment, so I straightened my spine and got it done. The reaction was pretty great - the questions afterward were really interesting and interested, and while I got to the point I felt like I was talking too much about myself and my work, it was only because people were asking, so that's cool. I thank those people who were so interested, those who didn't ask anything but took it in (like I would have), and especially those people who got my ass up there in the first place.

Since this podcast is (usually) about little elements of this city and this country that somehow add up to something, anyone who listens would probably be interested in a project that does pretty much the same thing, although much more elegantly and precisely: Six String Nation. The creator and guardian of this project, Jowi Taylor, gave the opening keynote address at PAB this year, and he kind of swept us all off our collective feet. Basically, it's about this guitar which was constructed with pieces of things that each have some significance to this country - mammoth ivory, a Massey Hall seat, the oldest rock in the world, Louis Riel's school, a Rocket Richard Stanley Cup ring, the sacred murdered Golden Spruce, it goes on and on. Every one of the 63 pieces has at least one remarkable and very Canadian story attached to it, making it not merely an object but a sort of national encyclopedia for a people who would otherwise leave it on a shelf. Among those people, unfortunately, are people at the CBC (for whom Jowi worked for years, winning some major awards) and the federal government, who have intermittently supported him and left him hanging because of their own petty troubles and typically Anglo-Canadian angst. While he worked hard to suppress his bitterness resulting from those battles while talking to us, it had to sneak out sometimes, making us all the more empathic to his cause, since podcasters have some small idea of what it's like to be passionate about something but keep feeling as if you're rolling that big boulder up a hill forever. Regardless, what mattered in his talk, and through all of PAB, were stories - how to find them, how to let them find you, how to share them.

Other people who were there with me have done a great job lending their support to Six String Nation, both financially and in terms of getting the word out (helping get the story told, of course). This is my meagre attempt, but hopefully it combines with those others to, again, construct a greater whole. Today, a Canadian who wasn't at PAB but has much in common with its principles, Cory Doctorow, wrote a post about Six String Nation in the popular and influential blog BoingBoing - oddly enough, inspired by a Canada Day interview with Jowi which appeared in the radio and podcast editions of the CBC show "As It Happens" (Jowi and the CBC remain in a push-pull relationship). Cory's post is here, along with some links to the interview, the official site and the site regarding the Six String Nation book. The YouTube channel, with some of the stories, is here.

Because you may have noticed that I haven't really done an episode about Canada Day. To me, when it comes right down to it, every day is Canada Day. So any time to learn these stories is the right time.

Description 68 - Gretzky

descriptionto@gmail.com (Valerie In Toronto) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 07:38:40 PDT

I go to Brantford to start a month in which I got some rejection, but way more acceptance from people I could never have imagined. Featuring music from me and The Pursuit of Happiness, a stuffed cow in compromising positions, Canada's Dad and a surprise ending.

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Associated links
The original song by The Ambers was in Description 55
Zipcar
Walter Gretzky Online
Gretzky.com (check the video section for Kevin's visit to the Gretzky home)
Brantford.com
The seeds were sown in Description 64
The thread on the View Askewniverse Message Board
The View Askew Street Hockey Podcast thread
Puck U Game 1 video on YouTube
You Tube playlist of more highlights!
Tournament wrapup from Brantford.com
"Silent Bob plays hockey" from joblo.com
Hockey54.com (home of The Schwartz, who did most of the commentary of the games)
Who is Mooby?
The Dutch Rudder Fan Club on Facebook
The Pursuit of Happiness (yes, my site)
Brantford Via Rail Station
Kel's Family Restaurant (the one I was in was much smaller, but still awesome)
Brantford Civic Centre: "Home of the Brantford Blast"
Brantford Charity Casino

My song has nothing to do with anything in the rest of the show, but rather other stuff that happened in June. It's sort of a sequel to what I did at the start of Description 54, which some people really liked, and it was in me to do. As for the other song, that live version of TPOH doing "Gretzky Rocks" was recorded at The Bombshelter at the University of Waterloo January 25, 1996, and you can download it via the Audio/Video page of tpoh.net.

Again, I can't thank enough all the Boardies who were so awesome over the weekend, especially the patient souls (and Mooby) who talked with me at that diner. Some of them are already getting prepped for more ball hockey craziness in Kevin's native Jersey in July. To learn more, check that link for the Gretzky tournament thread.

Due to time and technical crap, I had to cut out two major parts of the weekend. On Saturday night, we all went to the lovely Sanderson Centre (thanks to syracuselaxfan and Tears In Rain for getting me to cut the line and being otherwise amazing) for "Stocky Night in Canada", which ended up being a live version of SModcast. Scott Mosier, unused to this star-type stuff despite his magic on the ball hockey court, was reportedly nervous about performing live, but he did brilliantly, and it was like any ol' SModcast, only even better with guest stars from Puck U: Jennifer Schwalbach (Mrs. Smith), old friend Bryan Johnson, Church and Wellesley's own Malcolm Ingram, webmaster/logistics genius/co-MVP Ming Chen, porn and Zack&Miri star Katie Morgan, and ex-Degrassi crew member (and Katie's new fiancé!) Jim Jackman. You can hear all of it as SModcast 88. Then again, maybe not all. They cut the part where the captains of the other View Askew teams went up on stage and presented Kevin with a gorgeous replica of the Stanley Cup. Here's a photo of Kevin lifting it in triumph.

The other thing you missed was me actually meeting Walter Gretzky. Seemed like everyone else had, which was easy because he was out there meeting and greeting everyone. But I was my usual gutless me. Sunday, watching those kids, I remembered that I'd produced description for a tv movie about Walter's recovery from his stroke and knew that he'd done a lot of work for the local chapter of the CNIB. So I walked up to him, waiting for him to finish laughing and joking with someone.

When I introduced myself and told him what I'd done on the movie, he raised his eyebrows and beamed. "Really!?! You did that!? Wow! What a little world!"

He laughed in amazement, which I think he does with many things in his life. I thanked him for everything, he thanked me, we shook hands, and I walked away as giddy as I could be.

At that moment, I couldn't have imagined being happier.

Considering the end of this episode, it's clear my imagination is limited.

Description 67 - The PATH

descriptionto@gmail.com (Valerie In Toronto) — Thu, 21 May 2009 07:37:19 PDT

From Toronto's oldest hotel to its oldest store, I go underground and show that not even a free breakfast can make me a morning person. With music from Modernboys Moderngirls, places where the water gurgles up, free radio consulting and a Correction From the Future.

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Associated links
City of Toronto: PATH
The PATH @Wikipedia
Erin Davis writes about getting the 2009 Rosalie Award
Rosalie Trombley and CKLW in The Walrus Magazine
Janik Media
Valerie Geller's Creating Powerful Radio
The Fairmont Royal York Hotel
The Royal York has a podcast?
Lisa Brandt isn't at 680 News anymore? Told you I'm not a morning person. (Congrats on the new job, btw!)
Royal Bank Plaza @Wikipedia (Yes, it's coated in gold.)
Toronto Dominion Centre
First Canadian Place
Atrium on Bay and the Toronto Coach (Bus) Terminal
BCE Place (It's called Brookfield Place now? Sheesh.)
Cerealicious
Montréal's Underground City @Wikipedia
Modernboys Moderngirls: official site, @myspace and @publicbroadcasting.ca
NxEW (not a typo)
Sheraton Centre
Hudson's Bay Company @Wikipedia
Eaton Centre

That thing I sent the boys at Canadian Podcast Buffet was an audio comment in response to a discussion they had about, oddly enough, CKLW in CPB-141 - an episode I listened to while starting to put together this show. I talked about listening to that station when I was very little and the notion that its heyday was brought to an end in part by the advent of FM radio (yes, kids, it was that long ago) and in part by the less graceful advent of Canadian Content regulations by the CRTC (though I'd say it was more FM than CRTC). I got to tell them all that stuff, so you are spared from it. :-)

You were not spared from my trying to figure out what the furthest points of the PATH are. Technically, the southernmost point is the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, I guess because they count Skywalk (which you had a taste of in Description 44, connecting Union Station to MTCC and the CN Tower/Rogers Centre area) as part of the PATH. The previously mentioned bus depot...er, "coach terminal", is the northernmost point. And that's the limit of my geography geekiness.

Since PATH is capitalized, you may think it's an acronym. Alas, it's not. The logo is supposed to help you remember the directions: the red P for south, the orange A for west, the blue T for north and the yellow H for east.

Well, that makes perfect sense, doesn't it?

For its part, the Montréal version is officially called RÉSO, which is just a play on the word "réseau," meaning "network". So not much different in that respect.

The idea of underground and/or linked malls/office complexes is fairly common in Canada, where many people in suits would like to be saved from having to go outside at least four months out of the year. In Calgary, for example, they're connected by covered walkways above ground: the skywalks of +15. I haven't been to Calgary yet, but I know about it because of a very cool movie I did description for once called waydowntown, about a group of office drones who live in the system, so they make a bet of one month's salary and compete to be the one who can go the longest without going outside. To the relief of Jane Jacobs, I would guess, they each slowly start to go a little squirrelly in bizarre ways. It's well worth a rental, and it will definitely get you to go outside afterward and get some fresh air - even if it's -30 or +30C.

Opening More Doors Again

descriptionto@gmail.com (Valerie In Toronto) — Tue, 19 May 2009 08:01:30 PDT

Yes, it's another of those posts I write when there's a new episode coming within the week. It won't quite have the stuff I wanted for the next one, because the H2 recorder had some sort of SD card formatting craziness that has so far destroyed about an hour's worth of audio. SIGH. So a pretty great soundseeing tour I did in February will be moved up to the next episode - which I guess is just as well, because, c'mon...it was February.

But as usual, that's not why I'm here.

This weekend is the weekend for the highlight of the Description content-gathering year: Doors Open Toronto, or as I call it, NXNE For Architecture. Last year, I shared the event with my visiting parents, so there wasn't as much recording going on, but this year, I'm going to be all over the place. My overstuffed schedule is mostly taken up by sites that are new to Doors Open, including more parts of Artscape Wychwood Barns, the Don Jail, the first new building in the Regent Park "Revitalization", Shamrock Bowl and the Toronto Reference Library. Not all of those will become future episodes, and I still haven't even scratched the surface of all the amazing places to check out, so if you're in town this weekend, please go to the Doors Open website and look through all the 175 possibilities to explore.

The Tyrtles Have Landed

descriptionto@gmail.com (Valerie In Toronto) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 06:54:45 PDT

You'll remember Sage Tyrtle from the opening of Description 60, the episode about Canadian citizenship. I'd said the driving force of the brilliant QN Podcast was in the process of applying, with her husband and son, for Permanent Resident/Landed Immigrant status in Canada, having come, like I did, from the U.S.

Well, they made it. They were accepted not long ago. Yaaayyy!

Thing is, when most people apply for this status, they're usually not living in Canada at the time. When I applied, still living "in exile" in Ohio, it was emphasized quite strongly that you needed to go through this outside the country. But the Tyrtles have been living in Toronto for the past few years, with Todd working for a large company which was able to send him here. Very fortunately, that company wanted him and his family to stay here, so they had their own immigration lawyer work on the case for them (I had my Radio York friend Dani Zaretsky for my case, so we all have our legal angels...except for the people who don't). After the usual hoop-jumping and allowance for the times and tides of bureaucracy, they were successful.

However, as landed immigrants, they still had to "land": arrive in Canada from their original country. For me, in 1994, this meant packing up the AMC Eagle (built in Canada, so no import trouble), going to a TPOH concert in Detroit (okay, that wasn't part of the deal, but the timing worked out for a goodbye get-together), then driving up the gut of Michigan to Sault Ste. Marie on my way to my new radio job in Dryden. I had my landed immigrant document, a detailed inventory of what I had in the car, a document that said the car was built in Canada, the job offer letter from CKDR, and I think some receipt from my Canadian bank at the time to prove I had money there (when approved in my interview at the Buffalo Consulate, I was asked to have enough money to live for a couple months before getting myself on my feet, basically). I thought when I crossed over from Michigan to Ontario, people were going to inspect the car against my list and make we wait for hours. But that never happened. They didn't even look at my bank stuff. They just looked over the landed immigrant document and job offer, glanced around the car, had me fill out a one-page form about what I was bringing in, stamped a couple things and sent me on my way. It was only dramatic in its complete lack of drama.

Of course, if you know anything about Sage and her work, it could not possibly have gone that way for the Tyrtles. :-)

Going through a process which has changed over more than a decade, they had to leave Canada and come back to officially land, which they did a few days ago. She tells the story of that trip in today's episode of the QN Podcast, and you would do well to listen to it.

Welcome to Canada, immigrants, and remember if the line was really so imaginary, we would never have thought to cross it in the first place.

Description 66 - Everywhere, part 2

descriptionto@gmail.com (Valerie In Toronto) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:26:52 PDT

The Citytv odyssey continues, as I go from the kindness of a great music video director to the kindness of a former provincial policeman. Features a mashup of two Canadian music pioneers, being on live television and a million-dollar truck.

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Associated links
Again, 299 Queen Street West @Wikipedia
Toronto Rocks with Brad Giffen (you don't have to stay around for the Monkees fans...)
Joel Goldberg Productions
Video for "Let Your Backbone Slide"
Breakfast Television
CityLine
eTalk on CTV
MuchMusic
Again, CityNews
"Remember Bravo?"
Again, CP24
CP24 now in the former venue of Live at the Rehearsal Hall
Ann Rohmer CP24 bio and @Wikipedia
Frog the Dawg @Mashupciti
"The Hockey Song" by Stompin' Tom Connors Actually, you have to watch this, or you're not allowed to listen to this show anymore. :-)
Cam Woolley CP24 bio
Cam talks to the National Post
A Tribute to Colin Vaughan
Adam Vaughan of Toronto City Council
Amber Mac!
Paedric O'Sullivan
Bob Cook's public LinkedIn profile
Citytv moving to Dundas Square

So here's a killer: in talking to these other CHUM/CITY people from Cleveland, I totally missed the biggest one - the guy I started these episodes with, Mark Dailey, aka "The Voice" of Citytv. He's actually from Youngstown, about an hour south of Kingsville. I've been nearby the guy at odd things, and Bob knows him well, but I've never talked to him. Too intimidated. Besides...I'm a citizen now! I don't need any more advice from people who've moved up here! Pffft! :-)

The guy on the CP24 set making me say my name was Bob Summers, amiable CHUM traffic reporter guy who of course is now doing the same with CP24 - almost exactly the same, since the legendary oldies station CHUM1050 has been made into an audio simulcast of CP24. Yes, this is about as depressing as Citytv running back-to-back episodes of "According to Jim" in prime time.

A couple months ago, I stumbled past CTV Newsnet (CTV's 24-hour news channel), and this strangely familiar guy was presenting the news. The hair was shorter and completely white, but the voice was the same: it was Brad Giffen. It turns out in the years after Toronto Rocks, he followed a similar path to JD Roberts, into American tv news, and that path has brought him back up here. I must say, when I cross paths with him on tv, I stick around for a while. There's something kind of comforting about listening to him. And the hair.

You can find all of Joel Goldberg's music videos in this section of his company's website, but for convenience sake, here's another one, via YouTube:

He won a Juno for directing Maestro Fresh Wes' "Drop the Needle":

That video I especially loved because they sampled this:

Description 65 - Everywhere, part 1

descriptionto@gmail.com (Valerie In Toronto) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 09:57:33 PDT

Go with the flow as I do a soundseeing tour of my television screen, then approach a big old building where cameras, ideas and egos ran free. Includes exclusive music from Memory Bank, an impending bathroom break at Second Cup and people pressed against the glass.

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Associated links
Citytv @Wikipedia
CP24
"Vintage" Video of The New Music @Muchmusic
thenewmusic.net
"Lament for The NewMusic" @CBC
Citytv @Museum of Broadcast Communications
Moses Znaimer official site (Flash-heavy)
Opening of TVTV: The Television Revolution
Moses Znaimer and TVTV @Media-Studies.ca
City Pulse Tonight intros: from 1985, from 1988, from 1990, from 1996 and from 2003
CHUM Limited timeline @Canadian Communications Foundation
"Whatever happened to Muchmusic?" @EYE Weekly
Scrolling Eye talks to Christopher Ward about City Limits and the birth of Much
When things started to turn (Globe & Mail via Friends of Canadian Broadcasting)
Zoomer Magazine
Citytv Official Site
CityNews (what was City Pulse)
Memory Bank @myspace
299 Queen Street West @Wikipedia
Speakers Corner @Ryerson Review of Journalism
A 2006 episode of Speakers Corner
Intro to Electric Circus
CP24/CHUM Christmas Wish

I have to say that in researching this show, I discovered there's a pathetic amount of Citytv/CHUM stuff out there on the ol' internet. For all the content that has been created, it was incredibly hard to find what little I did find. Maybe back then we thought of everything as being so of the moment, we didn't consider saving it for the future, like the whole vibe of the thing would always be there.

Yeah, that's what we used to say about the Oilers. :-)

So if you have some old tapes knocking around of stuff you recorded off City or Much or who-knows-what back in tha day, no matter how lame it may seem, think about converting it and putting it up somewhere. I know I will. It doesn't seem very likely that the parents in this divorce are going to do it for us.

Yes, JD Roberts of The New Music and City Pulse and any other number of things (because City people multi-tasked) is now John Roberts: previously Dan Rather's anchorman heir at CBS News and now the American Morning guy at CNN. And yes, Jeanne Beker remains the face, heart, legs and spleen of Fashion Television; which started the revolution of runway shows, supermodels and superstar designers on television - and is now a multimedia force unto itself (though it is worth noting she was the editorial director of @fashion, the first major fashion website EVER, in 1995). They are only two of the many, many Citytv people in front of the camera who took their work ethic and lessons learned into the rest of broadcasting and beyond.

But I haven't talked enough about the many more people not in front of the camera with the same elements of creativity and intelligence which made Citytv and its spinoffs what they were. More on a couple of those people is coming in the next episode in a few days. Just one example, though, is the late John Martin, who came up with the idea for The New Music and drove it for most of its (and the rest of his) life. For a great in-depth look at this work, check out this 1997 article about him from the Ryerson Review of Journalism.

He also applied his sensibilities to Muchmusic, about which he was quoted as saying, "My gig was to sort of mould the anarchy. It was a bunch of absolutely crazy people reinventing their lives every day. It was fun."

It sounds a little like what social media (including podcasting) has been going through. Mark well the achievements and issues of the past as they come back around.

Description 64 - The Jersey Canuck @ The Bloor

descriptionto@gmail.com (Valerie In Toronto) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:22:31 PDT

I go to a place where I worked illegally to listen to a famous American guy caught up in a romance with Canada that echoes my own. Includes music by The Ambers, candy bars in Tupperware, Alanis yelling and the return of the King of Kensington.

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Associated links
Degrassi: in Canada and in the U.S.
"Degrassi Classic"
Quick Stop Entertainment
Quick Stop covers Kevin Smith at Degrassi (including press conference video)
SModcast
The View Askewniverse
The Bloor Cinema
Torontoist (of course) on The Bloor
Kevin Smith Fest
Q&A from the night before
Mill St. Brewery
Yongesterdam
The Ambers on CDBaby!
Zack and Miri Make a Porno
Dogma @IMDB
Dogma in full on YouTube
The Sweater @NFB.ca
An Evening With Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder (2006)
The parking garage scene in Dogma
The same scene re-enacted
SModcast 76: The Great One
The View Askewniverse Message Board
The Message Board makes plans for The Walter Gretzky Street Hockey Tournament

I have a couple more dots to connect. Alanis also played God in Dogma. When that film caused a big ol' ruckus among panicky, crusading people who thought it was anti-Catholic (it's not), movie distributors got all spooked about releasing it. Who had the cojones to take it on? A fledgling outfit at the time called Lion's Gate Pictures - which, faithful to its name, was born in Vancouver. When I worked at AudioVision, we described quite a few films of theirs, but unfortunately not that one. I had to content myself with narrating and producing description for American Psycho (filmed in Toronto, btw), another film that courted controversy and my favourite one we did while I was there.

Speaking of Vancouver, Kevin is doing another snazzy Q&A ("An Evening With...") at the Centre For Performing Arts March 27. It's not confirmed as of me writing this that he'll turn up the next night at a Clerks Festival showing I&II at the Rio Theatre, but it still sounds like a good time.

If you're new because you've found this through some sort of Kevin Smith/View Askew-related search/link, hiya. Here are some useful things to know:

1) This podcast isn't about me going to movies, although I've now done two episodes in a row where that happens. Those are the only two movies I've seen in six months, and that's a lot for me.
2) Yes, I realized too late my spring jacket makes rustling noises when I walk.
3) I can't believe I said "I'll drink the Kool-Aid" twice. That was just wrong.
4) Yes, there may be samples in this episode that aren't the most legal in the world. I'm gutless, but I don't make money off this thing.
5) The editing isn't meant to be tight - it's a style I took from the Modern Roadie Cast. For more professional-sounding editing, check out my other podcast.
6) To the question "When does she stop talking?", the answer is "Eventually. Pack a lunch."

TO In 6 Words

descriptionto@gmail.com (Valerie In Toronto) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 18:02:24 PST

(New episode next week. I hope.)

Today is the 175th birthday of the city in the title of this podcast. In part to celebrate, Jaime Woo of Torontoist (yes, they're still around!) and Suresh Doss of Spotlight Toronto put together a short film with various Torontonians - well-known, partially-known, unknown - to do the same things: introduce themselves (usually involving how long they've lived here), name their favourite part of the city, and describe Toronto in exactly six words. Jaime writes about the process here. For those who haven't been here, it's a really nice snapshot of the place and the people who help make it what it is...whatever that is.

So how would I have done what these people did?

Well, I'm Valerie and I first came from Ohio to live in Toronto in 1986 for university and lived here for about four years, then was able to come back for a year in 1996, and have been back again for 10 years with no sign of stopping.

My favourite place in Toronto is The Annex, where I've lived for about five years. I love all the things I can experience here just by walking around.

And how would I describe Toronto in 6 words? Jeez, I haven't even pulled it off in 63 podcast episodes! But I formulated what I would've said before watching this video that I've embedded below, and one of the people came sort of close to it.

Home home home home home home.

Description 63 - The Annex to Rexdale

descriptionto@gmail.com (Valerie In Toronto) — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 17:53:51 PST

If a goofball vegetable cutter can go from a Delhi market stall to China to fulfill his warrior destiny, then I can go from my downtown neighbourhood to the outer reaches of the GTA to help celebrate a friend's birthday and muse about the multicultural mosaic in practice.

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Click here to download directly

Associated links
Katherine Matthews: 42point1, purl diving and cinefolle
Rob Lee's blog Unconventional Wisdom
Rexdale in the Urban Dictionary
Albion Cinemas
Chandni Chowk to China: @Wikipedia, official website, official trailer (large) @Apple.com
Aishwarya Rai Official Website (find your own mousepad...)
Yorkdale Shopping Centre
OMNITV Ontario

Thank you to Rob for instigating the festivities for Katherine's birthday. Everyone who wanted to join in no doubt hopes all your plans work out next time.

The bus was one of those accessible low-floor deals with a step that lowers and raises for folks to get on easier, and that's what the beeping was about. No one was actually using it at the time, though - maybe the driver was trying to shake snow from it? Anyway...

Yorkdale ended up as a footnote in this episode, but as snazzy as the place is now, it has no small historical significance as one of the first major malls in Canada and the largest in the world when it opened in 1964. Shawn Micallef (that's two podcast posts in a row mentioning him) wrote an interesting piece about it on SpacingToronto a couple years ago. While not near any of the places I've lived, I would often go there because of its relative proximity to York University (for people who drive cars, which included me) and because it was a place to park and get on the TTC heading downtown. While it was never, to use a word I was suddenly using everywhere in this episode, skeezy, it was also nothing like the dizzying labyrinth it is now.

Up there at the top of this post, I use the term "multicultural mosaic", which I didn't use in the episode. But this business of various ethnic/cultural groups living among and not-among each other has to do with that. For people from outside Canada, "mosaic" is used to distinguish itself from the American term "melting pot", which suggests more assimilation required of immigrants. As thumbnailed in this Wikipedia article, the mosaic idea grew in Canada throughout the 1960's, and multiculturalism became part of official federal public policy in 1971. The CBC Digital Archives has an interesting section about that. You can pretty much figure, though, that when the government starts making rules and laws and initiatives about such things, it can get pretty tricky. But it has become as much a part of the Canadian identity as anything else - and so here it is in an episode about me seeing a bad Bollywood movie.

Speaking of Bollywood, in my previous job describing movies, I did get to work on a singularly Canadian version: Bollywood/Hollywood, Deepa Mehta's romantic comedy centred on a well-to-do Indo-Canadian family in Toronto. Dance numbers and everything. Well worth renting, maybe with some take-out curry chicken poutine from Smoke's Poutinerie.

Now that would be f-ing nuts. ;-)

Obama's Canadian Playlist

descriptionto@gmail.com (Valerie In Toronto) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 08:32:08 PST

Sorry I don't have a new episode up by now. There's been work stuff that has had me uncomfortably busy, and a couple major technical snafus in the past week have not helped. If I don't get something up in January, an early February episode is very likely. I hope.

While I'm checking in, I'll say a little something about this initiative CBC Radio 2 has been doing which is now in its final day: voting for a playlist of 49 songs ("from North of the 49th Parallel") for incoming U.S. President Barack Obama to listen to (likely around the time he visits Canada soon) so he can get a better idea of Canada through its music. It's unlikely the guy will have time to listen to all this, but it's a nice exercise and probably beats giving him a polar bear statue or something.

Nominations came in from all over the place, and CBC settled on a shortlist of 100 tracks. Again, this the last day of voting from those lists - I say "lists," because there's one for pop/rock, one for classical, one for Francophone and one for jazz - and one can vote for just one track per list per day. So being late, I had to decide on one for each. In the end, I voted for "The Canadian Dream" by Sam Roberts in the big pop/rock list, although my other choices would have been "Bobcaygeon" by the Tragically Hip, "Crabuckkit" by k-os, "Democracy" by Leonard Cohen, "Four Strong Winds" by Ian & Sylvia, "Ordinary Day" by Great Big Sea (which I know I've played here way back), "Rise Up" by Parachute Club, "Try" by Blue Rodeo and "Soobax" by K'naan. In classical, I went for "I'm Going Up a Yonder" sung by the very awesome Measha Brueggergosman; my Francophone pick was the previously-featured "Dégénération" by Mes Aïeux (though I would have also gone for "Montréal -40C" by Malajube); for jazz, I had to go with "Hymn to Freedom" by The Oscar Peterson Trio.

If you have a chance, head over to that shortlist and vote if it's not too late, or just check out the list of pretty amazing music (with samples and iTunes links), all Canadian, and all just really scratching the surface.

In these heady days prior to the inauguration (not to mention the impending re-opening of Parliament here, and we should mention it a lot), if I could nominate a recent song for Obama that is not Canadian, it would be the title track off the album Join With Us by the British band The Feeling, an album I was looking for in Description 55 (I still don't have the damn thing, btw). I've said in passing how much I love these guys, and I first heard the song when I saw them play in Wolverhampton UK a couple years ago. It took that long for it to grow on me, possibly in part because of the way the world is now.

While I love the crunchy bits in the last minute, what matters are the lyrics, which include "The world is in your hands / The world is in your hands / The world belongs to those of us who still believe we can / And it matters what you do / Though they all look down on you / Cuz it's better that you've come from nothing / Than nothing comes from you"

Join With Us - The Feeling

The Other Side of A Christmas Story

descriptionto@gmail.com (Valerie In Toronto) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:03:56 PST

So I'm going home as usual for Christmas next week (U.S. border guards permitting) and it's unlikely I'll be recording any festive podcasty stuff this time. You may remember last year I went with my friends Ron and Julie to "A Christmas Story House," the house in Cleveland which was featured as Ralphie's house in the movie. That trip served as the soundseeing tour for Description 49, which was about the connections A Christmas Story has to my birthplace and where I live now. While I did talk about the Canadian significance of director Bob Clark and mention how the most of the movie was shot in Toronto, most of the episode out of circumstance focused on the American side.

Now the beautiful people of Torontoist, whom I will miss dearly when they stop publishing on New Year's, are filling in the Canadian side. The latest (last?) edition of their awesome "Reel Toronto" series, pinpointing exact locations in made-in-Toronto movies, features none other than the adventures of Ralphie and his pals. So enjoy the historical and geographic trivia here to prime yourself for non-stop showings of the film on tv. And keep digging through Torontoist for excellent news, reviews, commentary and nostalgia about Toronto - for that old acquaintance should never be forgot.

(Update: Literally due to popular demand, Torontoist is staying alive! Woohoo! So I'll keep linking there as much as I can. You keep going there, so they can...er...keep going.)

Description 62 - Citizenship

descriptionto@gmail.com (Valerie In Toronto) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 08:03:55 PST

To celebrate my 10th anniversary of being officially Canadian, I look through my old application, friends and family share memories of misplaced hats (goofy and otherwise), and the government implodes.

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Click here to download directly

(in 96 kbps for your drive space pleasure)

Associated links
Feed for the QN Podcast
Citizenship and Immigration Canada: Applying For Citizenship
CBC Becoming Canadian: From Immigrant to Citizen
A Look at Canada
Shawn Micallef covers a citizenship ceremony at the AGO for Spacing Toronto
Town & Country Buffet is closed?
My initial post about the coalition thing
Rick Mercer on the coalition thing (pre-prorogue)
CBC.ca archive on the coalition thing
Canadians For a Progressive Coalition
Rabble TV on the coalition rally
The Tory site for winning hearts and minds

My humble thanks to Sage and Amit (my good friend going back to the mid-'90's and the TPOH mailing list) for their wonderful, thoughtful contributions. And of course, there are my parents...

I neglected to mention the singer early in the rally montage was Richard Underhill, sax virtuoso of the Shuffle Demons (Spadina Bus!) and member of the Kensington Horns featured in my PS Kensington video.

Here's a wacky thing: if I'd stayed in Oshawa, my local MP now would be Jim Flaherty, the guy who presented the budget update that started this whole mess! *shudder*

Shortly after he spoke at the rally, Stéphane Dion stepped down early as Liberal leader (which he was going to do in May anyway) so the party could continue marshalling its forces for when Parliament convenes again January 26. To replace him, the Liberal caucus has chosen our star (at least in words) of Description 14, Michael Ignatieff. He has come a long way as a politician since that speech of his I read in that episode, going through much of that buzzsaw faced by fresh "philosopher kings" and still standing with some of his ideals intact. Those ideals factor into his statements about studiously reading whatever it is the Tories come up with for a revised budget update when Parliament meets up again before lowering the non-confidence boom. He's not saying coalition-no-matter-what, but also maintains the preparation to present a coalition if necessary. While that takes a little of the air out of the passion about a coalition, it is also definitely, prototypically Canadian (ah, "reason over passion" - Trudeau strikes again), holding out for compassion and compromise to the bitter end. We will see how bitter Stephen Harper chooses to make it.

6th Photo Meme: Yoko at the El Mo

descriptionto@gmail.com (Valerie In Toronto) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 04:44:53 PST

Yoko at the El Mo
Originally uploaded by Valerie27

I'm back so soon because I've been tagged by Rob Lee of Unconventional Wisdom (and husband of the previously mentioned Katherine) for the 6th Photo Meme. Since he's such a nice, level-headed fellow and I don't want a dolphin to be killed, I'll see if I can pull this off (since it's my first proper meme).

So here's how this goes: when you're tagged and if you are on Flickr, you go to the sixth page of your photostream, pick the sixth photo and post it to your blog. Then you tag six more people to do the same thing. Yes, it's a chain letter, but somehow when it doesn't feel like a chain letter (like something I received recently and blew off), I'm okay with following along - though having to contact people to further it tweaks my anxiety.

I haven't been posting a ton of photos to Flickr lately, so this goes back to October 2007. As part of my unofficial series of photos taken in reflections, this is in the women's restroom of the legendary rock club the El Mocambo in Toronto. Since the men's restroom is called the "John", the ladies' is called the "Yoko". (Ha! Rock comedy!) IMO, it's one of the nicest, most spacious rock club restrooms in the city, though I think it does still have two stalls.

Now to tag those six people - man, I hope this works out. Sorry in advance...
Justin Beach (my Podcast Landlord and lord of publicbroadcasting.ca)
Bob Campbell (longtime listener and blogger of Note to Myself)
Adam Gratrix (of Transpondency, Foreskin Radio and whatever else he comes up with which upsets whatever balance I possess)
Ninja (of Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters, Ninja Radio and many a supportive Facebook comment)
Dan Misener (of Jim Dupree: Enthusiast, Grownups Read Things They Wrote As Kids, CBC's Spark, etc.)
Rob Winder (recent photo blogger, promoter of the great band Jackdaw4 and friend going back to the TPOH mailing list)

When everyone started caring

descriptionto@gmail.com (Valerie In Toronto) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:15:02 PST

Before I get to the meat here: the next episode is probably coming next week, and I've set a deadline for calling the Description 62 comment line. Please call 206-376-1528 before the end of December 8 with your comments about what Canada or Canadian citizenship means to you, and it'll likely get in the episode. I'd really love to hear from you.

And for the last few days, Canadians have been thinking A LOT about what Canada and citizenship means to them. Some extremely complex and I think damn interesting stuff has been happening in Canadian politics that, believe it or not, has started to make the machinations of the last U.S. Presidential campaign (hell, even Bush-Gore 2000!) look a little pale in comparison. By the time that deadline for your phone call passes (and you will have called by then, RIGHT?), it's possible, though not definite, that we'll have a new Prime Minister under a coalition government. Like that presidential campaign, it has been every bit as depressing as it's been wildly fun. And it's all been packed into a week. Man, I love this country!

I'm not going to even try to explain all this stuff to you as I try to explain other Canadian stuff - and believe me, part of what makes this so awesome is how Canadian it is, and what makes the debate about it so sad is how many people don't get that. Fortunately, another blogger has explained it for novices (and we all sort of are) in as complete a fashion as I could ever imagine. Her name is Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, and she has a blog called Yarn Harlot, which is most often about knitting and her life. (She was referred to me by my friend Katherine Matthews, who runs in similar circles as Stephanie, and I thank her.) If you have several minutes, please go to this post of hers and stick with it, because this stuff is very very key to what Canada is about. If you've ever thought there isn't much difference between the U.S. and Canada, and I haven't done much to convince you otherwise, Stephanie will.

I can only add this: through this trial, the ruling Conservative party has become only more American in their attitude and language, and what tears it for me is that their American-ness now defines assumptions they have made about the Canadian democratic system. Seriously. I can hear it, I can smell it. And to me, it is absolutely intolerable. So we will see what happens.

NaPodSubMo

descriptionto@gmail.com (Valerie In Toronto) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:13:43 PST

First off, in case it hasn't come up, I wrote an update in the post for Description 57 regarding the death of Kenny MacLean of Platinum Blonde, just so you know.

Now for something more fun. November was National Podcast Post Month (NaPodPoMo), where podcasters post a new episode every single freaking day of the month. I can see how that would be a great experience for someone...who isn't me. There's also the point that "National" may not include Canada, so I was probably exempt anyway. Still, I saw an opportunity to maybe stretch my listener muscles (ouch) and look for new podcasts I'd never heard before. And so I invented National Podcast Subscription Month (NaPodSubMo, or NaPoSubMo when I'm feeling lazy or forgot how to do the proper truncation), in which every freaking day, I would subscribe to a podcast I had never heard/seen before. If you follow me on Twitter (not a requirement, I assure you), you may have seen my daily mini-reviews of each one. It took some doing, and maybe I didn't find all the podcasts you may think are best, but whatever - it was still a very good experience.

Some of those podcast subscriptions have been chucked in the bin already, not because they're necessarily bad, but because for some reason, I just didn't connect enough to them to sustain a commitment. There are others I like enough to hang onto a bit longer. And then there are those I fell in love with, look forward to spotting in the podcatcher and will commit to for a good long time...which in podcasting, is maybe at least another month or two. And it's those podcasts I want to share with you now. They're in no particular order.

MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show (video)
For those who know, you're saying "duh!".
For those who don't know, this is a current-affairs show on the U.S. cable news channel MSNBC (which I don't get here), which like many such shows is hosted by someone known for being more pundit-y than journalist-y. Unlike those other shows, it does not make me want to hunt the talking heads down and punch them. While I don't always agree with Rachel Maddow, she's smart, funny, talks like a normal person, isn't spoiling for a fight and isn't annoying. I usually watch this while I'm having lunch at home, but the audio version is perfectly fine too.

Ken P.D. Snydecast
I tried this for the same reason most people do: because the super-awesome SModcast (with Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier) hasn't put up a new episode in a while. The guy who picks and edits the music for that podcast, Quick Stop Entertainment editor-in-chief Ken Plume, does his own two-hander with Adult Swim voice star Dana Snyder (you may remember him from such shows as Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Squidbillies). Like SModcast, it's two guys jabbering about whatever for about an hour, but has less of that crazy "what if?" stuff and is usually more confrontational. Funny on its own terms.

Speaking of podcasts where guys sit around and talk...

Talking Canadian
...Which I tried while waiting for new episodes of The Bob and AJ Show. Three friends in the Ottawa area - the producer of the Sens Underground hockey podcast, a guy from Sudbury and a guy from Newfoundland - "get together twice a month, have some beers and just shoot the 'stuff'." (Note: on the podcast, they would not say "stuff" in that context.) It's basically like sitting around at a non-chain bar in a medium-sized Canadian town waiting for the game to start on the tv. Funny, natural, good-natured, not pushy. After all, they are Canadian. :-)

East Meets West
Another two-hander, CNET's Tom Merritt and noted geek Roger Chang talk mainly about current affairs, sometimes associated with tech and science stuff. This is one of those deals where I don't know why I like it besides being comfortable with these guys and their rapport. Notable, though, is how much of their discussion is fueled by discussions in the blog comments.

Zen Is Stupid
The subtitle is "Everything Wrong With Western Buddhism", but it actually feels more like a couplecast just shot through a Buddhist prism. Usually meeting up virtually from far distances, Gwen Bell and Patrick Reynolds talk about what's been going on in their lives and eventually (if at all), incidentally relate it to general Zen Buddhist concepts. Just a nice, smart chat.

Is it Just Me?
Two people shooting the breeze about life again, but this time they're Australian media veterans Wendy Harmer and Angela Catterns. Their 16-week season ended recently, but it's well worth revisiting while they hope for a renewal from ABC Radio (home to many great podcasts).

Dinner Party Download
From California public radio station KPCC, fun info to use at your next dinner party. Each show includes a joke, a drink recipe inspired by history and the same two questions asked of a very cool guest (Irvine Welsh! Robert Wagner!). You'll wish the next dinner party you attend would be as classy and entertaining as this.

The Digested Read Podcast
That podcast monolith known as the Guardian newspaper presents John Crace satirically summarizing hot books in the style of the author. Sneaky funny, and funnier the more you know about the author or book.

Zunior.com Podcast
A monthly podcast featuring a great variety of excellent new music (most of it Canadian) available from the pioneering digital music store Zunior.com. Utterly painless promotion.

The Zygiella Podcast (RSS)
Maybe the next generation of something like Zunior, Zygiella is a Toronto-based online music community with a music player, gig calendar, and links to band sites and merch, all with a brilliant design. The podcast is simple: it "discusses shows in Toronto over the coming week that cost $10 or less and play songs from the bands and performers featured on that week's list." It's as enjoyable and unpretentious as you can get for something this cool.

And that's it! Not a bad harvest for a month. Hope you find something in there you may like, or just be content that they're out there.

Description 61 - Nuit Blanche in the Crystal

descriptionto@gmail.com (Valerie In Toronto) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 21:08:44 PST

For the third edition of the annual all-night art festival, I finally go into that iceberg that crashed into that nice old building to check out dozens of ID cards, British soldiers curling and people wildly applauding me in a stairwell.

Click here to subscribe
Click here to download directly (just seems simpler than having one of those embedded player thingies, right?)

Associated links
Nuit Blanche Toronto
Royal Ontario Museum
Sobeys!
Sobey Art Award

The Shortlist:
Raphaëlle de Groot (the masks)
Tim Lee via Lisson Gallery (the Goldberg Variations)
Terence Koh (the sphere)
Mario Doucette (the curling soldiers)
Daniel Barrow (the projections I read from)

Luba @myspace and the whole song
The Tap @myspace

And hey! Remember to help me celebrate my 10-year anniversary of my Canadian citizenship by calling the Description 62 comment line: 206-376-1528 Long-distance charges apply, and you have until Description 62 is posted in December.

Btw, as I write this, the Michael-Lee Chin Crystal at the ROM is no longer the new architectural bauble in town. All attention is now on the renovated Art Gallery of Ontario, redone by former homeboy Frank Gehry. After a week of press-exclusive ooo'ing and ahh'ing, it's now having a free grand opening weekend. As amazing as it looks, I'm going to avoid the rush and wait a little while - after all, buildings like this should be around forever, no? :-) When I do get down there, the iRiver will be coming along, of course.

I'll be honest - Nuit Blanche was kind of underwhelming for me this year. There were a couple really great things, including this stuff at the ROM, but otherwise, meh. It's very possible one problem (which other critics expressed) was that many exhibit sites were just too far apart. Whatever energy you were given at one site would be depleted by the time you got to something else. That could've just been in my zone (there are three) - one of these years, I really should get out of it and head down to West Queen West. Anyway, I still think it was worthwhile, and since the organizers tweak things each year, I suspect they'll tighten up the map for next time.

One project that made the distance problem bearable won the People's Choice Award for this year. The folks from Project Blinkenlights in Germany had an installation called "Stereocope," where they took over the lights of City Hall for an amazing lightshow that included everything from Pong to Rickrolling. But I didn't make it down there, so how do I know? I got to see a live simulation on an iPhone (Touch) app! Showing it off to Gilby at The Tap, he simply had to have it - so I told him to get it from the App Store on his iPhone, which he did, and after much gushing and playing, he showed me how to swoop around Nathan Philips Square with two fingers on the screen. w00t! Another thing that makes Project Blinkenlights so cool is the open source nature of the design and participation, so if you're geekier than me (and you are), go dig through their website and find what fun can be had.

Extra: Participate in Description 62!

descriptionto@gmail.com (Valerie In Toronto) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 18:36:03 PST

A little announcement about the only kind of party I can afford, why I'm having it and how you can help with it by phoning Seattle. Btw, though I didn't mention it, you can get in on this even if you were born in Canada and have never left. Because I'm inclusive like that. :-)

Click here to download directly
...Okay, here's the subscription link too.

An Update on Description 60

descriptionto@gmail.com (Valerie In Toronto) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 19:54:04 PST

Out of the two things I voted for in the second half of Description 60, one of them lost. That would be Bill O'Neill for Representative to Congress in the 14th district (Canadians: that's the equivalent of an MP). You might have heard the other office I voted for went the way I was hoping.

Pretty much everyone knows that overall, Obama won Ohio, since it was a "battleground state" and all (now get the hell outta there, foreign journalists!). In Ashtabula County, Barack Obama got 55.35% of the vote, while John McCain won 42.17%. Folks in my county had to vote for at least 23 different offices (11 were uncontested) and 5 state issues (5 and 6 got all the damn commercials); with 45 different levies/tax-raises and zoning things spread out for different districts and townships.

I spent election night at a little party at Kristin's place, where the landed immigrant from Michigan and I were watching CNN and Indecision '08 while answering questions from our Canadian friends (which no doubt hipsters in the packed Bloor Cinema were asking at their big party): yes, they vote for all that different stuff, so it takes time to count; no, usually they don't get a head start counting the early ballots; this is how one of those old machines works; most of us don't understand the electoral college much either; everything differs from state to state. With the chatting and the snacks and the switching back-and-forth with the hockey game, once the big news came down, it was for me a little hard to process. It barely started to sink in when McCain conceded (in a speech that presaged a return to McCain 2000, hopefully). And then of course came Obama's speech: it was another one of those great Obama speeches...but HE'D WON. We were all different levels of misty. But it just felt so wierd.

Of course, Obama is all anyone has been talking about ever since, how it is a new day in America, some Torontonians saying "welcome back America". Okay, fine - it is a historic thing in a couple big ways.

However...

In the baptist church basement (where I went to Brownie meetings) where my parents voted, 214 people voted for McCain and 208 voted for Obama (8 people voted for Nader - that guy's always gotta screw things up!). 46% of the whole country voted for McCain and Palin. In many states, a lot of dumb stuff won. But then, some smart stuff won as well. I suppose everyone feels that way, depending on what side they were on. The U.S. is as much of a crazy quilt of selfish and selfless, guarded and self-flagellating, sane and nuts and ethnocentric as it's ever been. It's not like the U.S. was a mess, went through a week-long extreme makeover and last night they moved that bus to reveal a shiny new hearts-and-flowers country with one big Great Room. It ain't gonna happen. There's a hell of a lot to be done, and it might not get done. Obama's going to run into that buzzsaw that everyone else with good intentions has run into in any government; people will fight, people will screw up, people will get lazy and greedy, merde will happen. People might even die.

However...

At Kristin's party, I checked my email on her laptop and found a note from my ex in San Diego. We've had plenty of conversations about voting, and he's explained how he used to be energetic politically when he was younger, but started getting beaten down by circumstance and the system and had concluded f-ck it, what's the point. But with this election, through the primaries and onward, he started getting lifted. He found himself battling his cynicism. Finally, last night, he emailed me when Obama took California big-time: "We did it!! It actually happened!! Holy crap...Voting today was the best feeling ever..." Again, he's not a flighty kinda guy - it takes a lot to bring him up like that.

I think there are millions of people like him with similar stories; people who've had the commercials and yelling and noise shoved down their throats and up their asses. I also think there are tens of thousands of them in Canada, who didn't bother voting last month because it wasn't enough to vote against something - they felt they had nothing to vote for. That's just the way Stephen Harper wanted it, which is why he's still Prime Minister. But in the U.S., there was something to vote for, and it was enough to get them to feel voting mattered, and in turn that they mattered. That is absolutely what made the difference, and if anything good gets done, that will be why.

What I take away from this experience is that although terrible things may happen, everything may fall apart, humanity's worse natures may win again, it is always possible to go from discouragement to hope to action - and there is ALWAYS something to vote for.

Bonne chance, Québec.

Description 60 - Vote Early, Vote Often

descriptionto@gmail.com (Valerie In Toronto) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 06:46:03 PDT

Two countries, two elections, two advance polls, two sets of dorky commercials and two chances for me to screw something up (which I do). Features music by Laura Barrett, golf pencils and defiant envelope-licking.

Click here to subscribe
Click here to download directly

Associated links
The previous election episodes: Description 11 and Description 26
Elections Canada
Conservative Party of Canada (boo!)
Liberal Party of Canada
New Democratic Party of Canada
Bloc Québécois
Green Party of Canada

Laura Barrett
"Deception Island Optimists Club" (mp3)
from "Earth Sciences"
(Paper Bag Records)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Stream from Rhapsody
Buy at Amazon MP3
More On This Album

(that up there is the snazzy thing IODA has me do.)
Other Laura Barrett links: @myspace, @CBC Radio 3 and @Zunior
Federal Voting Assistance Program
The Democratic Party
Republican National Committee (boo!)
Ashtabula County Board of Elections
Presque Isle Downs

The Congressional candidate I voted for is named Bill O'Neill, not Dick O'Neill. Maybe I had too much dickishness on the brain after watching all this U.S. election stuff for a few days. >;-)

There was a lot of editing in both of those election scenes. Voting in Canada took about 15 minutes, while voting in the States took about a half hour. Listening back to the one in Jefferson, I think I sounded like a bit of a jerk, not just laying out my whole situation right off and later sticking in that thing about getting the wrong ballot in the mail previously. But then when I did get around to explaining, the woman at the counter was shaking her head through the whole thing. So I guess we both loosened up.

Now for crossing the border. Since I sold my car in the spring (more on that in another episode), and I'd be home longer than would be thrifty for a rental, I took the bus to Buffalo, then caught another one to Erie, where I'd be picked up. At the U.S. border at the Peace Bridge, the passengers get off the bus, go through the immigration part, then pick up any luggage they have and go through the customs part. Even getting to the point of getting off the bus took about an hour in line, which I later learned was a result of not only neglecting to bring in more staff for a long weekend (in Canada), but deciding it was a good time to bring on trainees.

Once I got to an immigration person, I gave her my one-way bus ticket (since Dad was having surgery, I wasn't sure when I'd be able to travel back up) and my Canadian passport which says I was born in Cleveland, U.S.A.

"Do you have an American passport?" she asked.

When I said no, she gave me one of those lectures-trying-not-to-sound-like-a-lecture saying that a Canadian passport listing my birthplace in the U.S. is not good enough proof of my U.S. citizenship, and that and a one-way bus ticket does not prove I have the means to go back to Canada. She was letting me off this time (you can feel a finger wagging, can't you?), but suggested next time I also bring my birth certificate, so I could have what she termed as "the best of both worlds" and be questioned as an American.

Thing is, a U.S. birth certificate doesn't prove my citizenship any more than the designation in my passport does - it only proves I was born there, not that I've retained my citizenship since then. Of course I didn't tell her that, or question whether she thought my Canadian passport could be bogus. I just smiled, nodded, thank-you'd and shuffled off to my suitcase, which went through customs very easily. This gave me the chance to sit in the bus for another hour as my multicultural brethren went through. The last of them was part of a small group of women (one of whom was in front of me in line) who were dual citizens like me...only they happened to be Canadian and Iranian, which meant they had to fill out a separate form. I guess it was some "Axis of Evil" form, which so far, we Canadians don't have to fill out yet.

And with that in mind, we Canadians humbly remind we Americans to please vote November 4th - or anytime before that...

Description 59 - Montréal Avant Podcamp

descriptionto@gmail.com (Valerie In Toronto) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 09:56:08 PDT

Before attending the first big social media "anti-conference" in Quebec, I buy fabulously unhealthy food, sit on a very high balcony and celebrate how Everyone In Montreal Is Cooler Than Me. Features music by David Usher and a last-second cameo by Julien Smith which emphasize this last point.

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Associated links
The other Montreal episodes: Description 28 and Description 29
Podcamp Montreal
Gare Centrale @Wikipedia
Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana
History and various versions of O Canada
Les Halles de la Gare
Première Moisson
A recipe for Feuilleté au jambon (but keep those mushrooms out!)
David Usher: official site, myspace, Maplemusic, CloudiD (his tech/social media blog) and the Podsafe Music Network
Six Pixels of Separation by Twist Image (Mitch Joel)
McGill Station and Place-des-Arts Station
Place des Arts
Le site officiel de Youppi! (I keep forgetting he's mascot for Les Canadiens now.)
Trylon Apartments
Provigo
Katherine Matthews and Rob Lee
A recipe for Tarte au Sucre
And where I ended up.

Those murals at Gare Centrale weren't even remotely trompe l’oeil, which I reminded myself later is an artistic technique of making two-dimensional things look like they're three-dimensional. I then wondered if I meant clin d'oeil, but that seems unlikely (though any Google research is overwhelmed by the fact Clin d'oeil is a huge women's magazine in Quebec). I was trying to come up with a style of French design typified by dark blue details against a stone/bone-coloured background - and even then the colours in the murals were reversed! Argh. Here's an example of those murals. I should've just said Art Deco and shut up until I had a chance to watch more HGTV.

I didn't go out and say that David Usher is a resident of Montreal, so I'll say it now. He's bounced around various places throughout his life, but had lived in Montreal a few years ago, and is now back - again, when he's not touring. More consistently from Montreal is Julien Smith, pretty much the first podcaster in Canada (Bob and AJ are the cause of me putting that "pretty much" in there) and not surprisingly one of the brilliant organizers of Podcamp Montreal. You can get an idea about this guy from watching his Podcamp presentation, which is still available (as of post-time) via the Ustream Podcamp Montreal channel. While you're there, check out the presentations I attended by fellow organizer Sylvain Grand’Maison and previously-mentioned "standard bearer" Scarborough Dude. They really aren't too inside-baseball, but just very engaging talks by very intelligent people.

And here's the view of Montreal from my 18th-floor balcony:

Again with the Nuit Blanche?

descriptionto@gmail.com (Valerie In Toronto) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 11:57:25 PDT

Yes, it's time (a little late) for the third edition of Nuit Blanche in Toronto, which was the subject of Description 25 and Description 45. It's an exception to my unofficial rule to not do shows about annual events every year, maybe because each year is different, and also because I've experienced it at different times in its 12-hourish overnight time span. Since I went through it early in the first year and late in the second year, this time (tomorrow) I'm trying to go for something in the middle. Of course, much of it depends on how well I do at staying awake. If a show comes out of it, it'll probably turn up some time next month (after at least one other episode).

Regardless of any of this, if you're in town, go yourself! It's fun - seriously! It's three zones of a bunch of pieces of contemporary art, presented in ways that are accessible to everyone (even, as Stephen Harper would say, "ordinary Canadians"), no matter what your feelings are about Contemporary Art. (I can vouch for that - I'm more of an Impressionist fan myself.) Check out those podcast episodes and see what you think. Then if you dig it, dive into a pile of guides for info: there's the official site, Torontoist's guide, NOW Magazine's guide, eye weekly's guide and a brilliant Google Map mashup from BlogTO. And if you see someone walking around pretending to talk on a cellphone and wearing a little white mic clipped to her purse strap, say hi.