Mike Devlin sent this website over to me. Hours of wasted time at the office, here we go!
Work It, Make It, Do It
Posted in music, neat-O gang | Tagged Daft Punk, iDaft, Mike Devlin | Leave a Comment »
Allergies are kicking my ass this season. Maybe they do every year and I forget? I’ve been chewing Reactins and Claritins and any pill that ends in ‘-ins’ for weeks now. I wheeze like over weight asthmatic and blow gooey snot from my nose most hours of the day.
Modern science needs to put cancer on the back burner and come up with a cure for seasonal allergies pronto. This shit is getting out of hand.
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I worked late last night putting the finishing touches on the Canoe Music Project. I have been working on playlists for the Canoe Club and have some mixes I am really happy with. I hope that the powers that be like them too, and then this summer, when you’re sipping pints you’ll be enjoying some fine music. Just got to transfer the music to another computer. The on to the next project which will be some music music for the Roof Top at the Strathcona Hotel.
The challenge has been keeping it chill without being coma inducing. For the main daypart I have gone to a coffee shop vibe with a mix of jazz, standards, singer/songwriter and some indie rock. Afternoons are fun with classic hits, some modern rock, lots of Reggae and lots of classic 80s alternative. Nights are generally modern rock, electronic and classic hits with a liberal dose of reggae.
Sounds like the managers are huge Police fans, so lots of The Police too!
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I really enjoyed this post of Seth Godin’s from a few days back… it has been nesting in my mind: Imminent.
Basically, he says that is you want to win (at anything) you need to “be” a winner. Easier blogged than done, Seth… but the post has resonated with me. When I am on the radio, people ask me how I’m doing all.the.time. I never thought too much about it, but I generally always answer, “good,” or some synonym of that. I’ve done that for so long, that many people that call me on the Zone think I am always good. I guess thats a victory.
Reminds me of that scene in American Beauty where the wife goes, “To be successful, one must portray an image of success.” I don’t think they meant it in the film to be a positive message of hope. But the chick has a good point.
That’s all I got.
Go with yourself.
Posted in neat-O gang | Tagged Allergies, American Beauty, Canoe Club, Claritin, Reactin, Seth Godin | 7 Comments »
Posted in music | Tagged Aegis Fang, Amalgamated Team Zone, Beats and Babes | Leave a Comment »
“Formally the task was to supply things that men want. The new necessity is to make men want the things that machinery must turn out, if civilization is not to perish. The problem before us is not how to produce the goods, but how to produce the customers.” – Samuel Strauss
“Sell them their dreams. Sell them what the longed for, and hoped for and almost despaired of having. (…) Sell them this hope and you won’t have to worry about selling them goods.” – Helen Landon Cass
“Remember! When the gay community is granted personal freedom, ours get taken away. How? shhhh.” – Stephen Colbert
The Colbert quote has little do with the capitalist theme above, I just thought it was funny. Here’s another, “Hey California, you make good oranges, keep it up!” that one is all me.
Last night I wandered home from the Cambie with more than a couple beers and a few shots of a variety of liquors rattling around my brain. I was thinking about the above quotes but for the life of me could not recall them. So the weird sheep post came out of my head (and a bunch of other junklit that I deleted thankfully before posting!).
Drunk blogging is both hard and dumb. I seriously sat at my computer in the dark at 2 AM pecking away at the buttons. It took forever to barely hack out a couple wah wah wah paragraghs, and when it was all done I said, ” I can’t post this shit.” and deleted it all.
Except that bizarre line and the sheep. But what I wanted to talk about was the Strauss quote. Samuel Strauss was an interesting cat. He was the editor for a newspaper in New York called the New York Globe in and around 1917ish. Fun fact, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! originated as a feature in the globe and is now a giant entertainment company owned by… Jim Pattison, same dude that signs my pay cheque and owns the Zone.
Strauss moves out of Manhatten and settles in some suburban village outside of NYC and publishes a weekly called The Villager. Strauss is interesting because he was a critic of “Consumptionism.” He says that consumptionism is “the science of compelling men to use more and more things.” Oddly, Strauss was an influence on Edward Bernays. Bernays was one of the founding fathers of modern public relations… which you know, you can thank him for or deride him for.
There isn’t a lot on the internet about Samuel Strauss, but from what I’ve gathered, I like his style. He lived in a time of new capitalism or the second industrial revolution, the 1920s (I guess he lived at the end of it). When companies where manufacturing things at an alarming rate and needing an insatiable appetite to consume from the people. As the blog began, its not the things that is the problem, its the people to buy them.
And here were are in 2009, and things are the same as it ever was. Maybe I don’t need all the new radio sets, washing machines and telephoney do-dads that Roaring 20s Jeremy might have lusted after, but today… the product is media. A never ending supply of it, and what I need is eyes and ears. Time and attention is the new money. Media companies today need to pry time from you the way Henry Ford tried to pry dollars out of your wallet a century ago.
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And in other news… many Zoners that have a few experience points living on planet Earth, will remember Layne Mitchel. God bless’m, he’s in Deadmonton cheering on any hockey team in the post season except the Oil. He also makes an exceptional podcast, but THIS EPISODE in particular is magical. Features his interview and a live performance from The Gaslight Anthem.
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weird, I got a mad lust for some Refresh Tazo Tea? Just came over me in a wave, I could smell it and the ghost of its flavour is lingering on my tongue. (that was a cool sentence, but I lifted most of it from a Spoon song). I think we rock Tazo brand at the Zone, or we used to… that must mean its time to stop jibber jabbering on this here blog about things I still don’t know too much about and get to work… so I can jibber jabber about things I don’t know too much about… alright.
Go with yourself.
Posted in history 101, neat-O gang | Tagged Cambie, Edward Bernays, Frightened Rabbit, Helen Landon Cass, Jim Pattison, Layne Mitchel, Manhatten, New York, Podcast, Public Relations, Ripley's Believe it or Not!, Roaring 20s, Samuel Strauss, Spoon, Tazo Tea, The Gaslight Anthem, The Villager | 5 Comments »
We won’t run out of things to sell, we’ll run out of people to sell things to.
Posted in politics | 1 Comment »
USS or the Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker were in Victoria last night for another Zone Show. Before the rock was brought to a sold out Lucky Bar, the boys came on the Zone Afternoon Show for a live performance. have a listen.
Song: “2 and 15/16th”
Song: “Hollow Point Sniper Hyperbole”
Song: “Laces Out”
Song: “Anti-Venom”
Interview and complete Performance: USS on The Radio
It was nice, Ash (the lead singer guy) was into my scooter, so I let him rip around after the set. He mentioned that today he would pull the ultimate tourist move and rent one from that place downtown. We shared a moment indeed.
I feel like a piece of ass because I flaked on the show last night. I went home after my show to watch some hockey. I ordered a pizza, cracked a beer. One turned into almost a six-pack, Nucks win… and I just wanted to cuddle a pillow on my couch. That and I was in no condition to drive, so no USS at Lucky Bar for me… bad radio DJ, bad. Next time.
Go with yourself.
Posted in music | Tagged 2 and 15/16th, Anti-Venom, Hollowpoint Sniper Hyperbole, Jeremy Baker, Laces Out, Lucky Bar, The Zone @ 91.3, The Zone Afternoon Show, Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker, USS, Victoria | 2 Comments »
Posted in the blog | Tagged blog, Metro Cascade, music | 2 Comments »
and I wanted to include the Silversun Pickups but they did not want to be included as they “disabled embedding by request.” c’est dommage Silversun Pickups.
Posted in playlist | Tagged Bat for Lashes, Cage the Elephant, Machester Orchestra, Silversun Pickups | 3 Comments »
I had a great night at The Clubhouse last night. Lots of Zoners came by to make request, jibber jabber about rock and roll, have birthdays, not say hi to me, and one even told how much , “she LOVES me.” Apparently I make her laugh every morning when she wakes up. SWA?
Anyways, thank you for coming out on a Tuesday.
Let’s go.
Please Download: Capital Rock City #53
and remember kids, when you subscribe to Capital Rock City from the iTunes store in the podcast section (for free) or RSS this audio dynomo, Jian Ghomeshi gets to have Billy Bob berate him for another minute (lucky guy).
DJ Notes:
01) Aegis Fang – “Foot Down”
02) Aegis Fang – “Small Town”
03) Orange Aeroplane – “Begin Again”
04) Orange Aeroplane – “The Getaway”
05) Fineas Gage – “Track 1”
06) Greg Wolfe – “Maybe Not For Sure Sometimes”
Aegis Fang are a couple might groovy fella’s who are part of the Zone’s Amalgamated Team Zone 24 Hour Relay for The Kids… Team. (psst, click the link and please donate a couple nickles… pretty please). The boys in Aegis Fang are performing Thursday, April 16th at The Cambie in Esquimalt. I’ll see you there!
Orange Aeroplane is very new to me. I can’t even find their website online right now… but Miranda of The Paper Cranes like them and she turned me onto the band, so they are good by me. Very interesting airy, melodic “indie” rock sound.
Fineas Gage are a few (or all) of the ladies from an old Vic band called Big Muff. They kinda sound like Veruca Salt.. kinda sorta… don’t they?
Greg Wolfe is another new performer. From what I can gather, it seems like Greg is still getting his songs crafted and working on building his career. He was brave enough to share a song with us on Capital Rock City and I think it sounds pretty good. Folky.
That’s all I got. Thank you for downloading… if you like the show please share the link or my blog with a friend.
Go with yourself.
Posted in Capital Rock City | Tagged Aegis Fang, Billy Bob Thorton, Fineas Gage, Greg Wolfe, Jian Ghomeshi, Orange Airplane, Paper Cranes, Strathcona Hotel, Veruca Salt | 2 Comments »
Corj, Mads and I are back from a great weekend visiting Grandma and Grandpa (and Grandpa Rob and Roberta too! AND uncles and Aunts! and COUSINS! so many cousins and even a one Mr. David Eleanor Sawchuk! and a Tim, twice on the ferry!) and feeding our one-year-old way too much chocolate. Good times.
On the boat ride home, Mads just wanted to walk and walk and walk. So that means that I must walk and walk and walk. I am kinda hunched over while I do the walking like the hunchback fella from lore. On the outside deck, Madelyn took a spill and didn’t catch herself grinding her little face along the cheese grater deck of the ship. That was a blood nose and a lesson learned. I am sure she’ll be quicker next time!
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My quest to become a doctor continues to grind forward. The “doctor” part is just a bold hyperbolic manifestation of the greater goal of continuing my education and then earning more money. As my Mom says, there are lots of different kinds of doctors and medical is just one (and maybe one that I am not too suited too, though, I think I’d make one hell of a GP).
This week I should have the money to apply to a couple schools here in Victoria to weigh some options.
School is built for kids that have unlimited credit, time and an insatiable ability to “do what they’re told.” I have little of the above.
To have a family, a career and a limited budget means that I can’t do exactly what many of the schools require. Should have got at it when I was 19 I guess. I come from the school of thought, that’s its never too late to start your life. I’ll just have to make a way.
The problem I face up front is funding. I can’t get a student loan if I take the Royal Roads courses online and continue to work. Royal Roads says that its for working people, but then they require you to do a 3 week full time on campus thing and I can’t afford to take a month to “play school” for three weeks then get married. I *could* afford it if I got a student loan, but because its part-time according to the government, no loan.
I could quit the Zone and go to school full time at Royal Roads and get my degree in one year. That is attractive except the student loan wouldn’t be enough to keep Coral and Mads fed and roofed and I like my job and don’t see the value in leaving the workforce to go to school to… get.. a… job? weird.
That leaves UVic, and taking three years (at least) to hammer out a degree, but taking my classes in the AM and then rocking the Zone in the afternoon. Might wear me done, but as I said, where there is a will, there is a way.
Then I think I could get the student loans to pay for class, work to pay the bills and keep working and one day end up with a degree.
yeesh, so stressful to think about.
Couple all this with the fact that in all honestly, some of the skills I want, none of the school teach and I wonder.
I do want to improve my graphic design and internet skills and I don’t think the courses I’ll take for my degree will cover that. I will hopefully get lots of research skills which I want, but I need more balance. No business will want a researcher that can’t present the facts, and no business will hire a kid that makes pretty graphs with no facts to graph. In a previous blog post I talked about creating a Bachelor of Jeremy Studies which hits everything I want to learn (and some medieval history to boot) and still get me accredited but thus far, no honourable school offers it. For shame.
The short term, I’ll apply this week to school(s) and see what my options are.
I’ll continue to work on my podcasting and make some killer documentaries. My podcast on farming will begin production in May so that is exciting.
I’ll need to self teach myself graphic design and I have a project to give myself to achieve it. I’ll be using these resources to get there and maybe spend a little money in books and/or programs which I’ll earn programming music for restaurants or voicing TV commercials.
The project: A Press Kit Promoting Me
Resources: Seth is the man
Now, all I need is a time machine to create some more hours in the day and a winning lottery ticket and I’m good to go.
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New Capital Rock City tonight, I better go change the baby’s bum, she stinks.
Go with yourself.
Posted in neat-O gang | Tagged school | 5 Comments »
The Morning After 