Biggest Day Job Plug Ever

Hi. No, I don't have a new episode, but I'm editing...occasionally. I was on vacation, so here's a flickr set (yay! my first flickr set!) to give you some idea where I was and perhaps provide a preview of the next two shows - if of course I ever get them done.

Now, on to the business at hand.

You know that my day job is producing audio description for movies and tv shows so the vision-impaired know what the hell is going on. Description 27 is about that, and if you heard it, you'll recall I explained that it isn't easy to access our stuff on tv - I demonstrated turning on the SAP (Secondary Audio Program) by navigating a mess of buttons and menus and crap on my particular tv and vcr. You can imagine how fun that process is for someone who can't see.

When I've posted day job plugs on this blog, they've usually been for CBC stuff we've described, because we have a deal with them where first-run CBC shows of an hour or more that air prime-time can be simulcast on our sister station VoicePrint, which you can get in an online stream. Still, that's not many shows, and the vision-impaired should be able to hear all the described programming available (even stuff we didn't do - gasp!) as easily as possible.

So the company where I work has applied to the CRTC (big-shot regulators) to get a tv station with nothing but shows with open description, meaning without all of that SAP nonsense. The description is just there. Frickin' cool, huh? The vision-impaired can enjoy or hate tv just like the rest of us without all that dumb technical hassle.

Part of the process of applying to the CRTC for this station is that the public can submit their opinions on this idea, whether they think it's great or stupid and why. And it does make a lot of difference. That part of the fun is going on now until March 8.

So if you have a minute, head over to this page:
http://www.nbrscanada.com/accessiblechannel.htm
...which tells you how to submit your letter of support (or non-support, but you wouldn't do that, right? right?), and even provides some more info on the station if you want it. You can submit by snail mail, fax, email, filling out an online form and even by phone.

Thanks in advance for helping out, and really for just bothering to read this. Now, back to that day job of mine...and eventually editing that next podcast.

Description 31 - WinterCity

Sitting smack in front of a space heater, I talk about what's great and not-so-great about winter in Canada, then check out how Toronto does its damndest to celebrate it, with help from The Bicycles, some Royal Conservatory of Music bassoon players, and lots of people of stilts.

Click here to subscribe for regular heat delivery.
Click here to download directly like activating those hot shot things you put inside your gloves.
(Man, I could use those right about now.)

Associated links:
City of Toronto WinterCity 2007
Peyton Manning: "Cut That Meat!"
Tandoori Doritos @ Snackspot.org.uk
Toronto's "Snow Management" page (bastards!)
Dryden, Ontario
Nathan Phillips Square
Buckley's Mixture and the Bad Taste Tour
The Podcast of My Discontent (Tristan's fine video podcast)
The Ontario Travel Snowglobe
the freakin' awesome Dave Bidini
Royal Conservatory of Music
The Bicycles!

From what I understand, the pre-eminent winter festival in this country is Carnaval de Québec. It is HUGE. Okay, so Ottawa has Winterlude with the skating on the canal and the Beaver Tails and stuff. But do they have Bonhomme? No stay-puff marshmallow man voyageur snowman mascot? Then I rest my case.

Then again, can Bonhomme play bassoon?

Uh...yeah, I guess he probably can.

When I rambled with Russel

In my meanderings in Second Life, I've met a fellow named Russel who not only is from the Lindsay/Peterborough area (uh, somewhere to the northeast of here a couple hours) but also a podcaster. A couple days ago, Valerie Bethune was shopping for clothes as usual in SL when Russel IM'd me asking if he could interview me on Skype for his show, as it's weekly and he was hurting for content. (See what happens when you make these shows regular?) So I took him up on it and we shot the breeze for an hour or so. Now, it's part of his new episode (35), with me re-hashing the Dubber and Spoons story, giving a preview of my next episode, dissing Global Television, and basically blathering about stuff podcasters blather about when they get together. Russel was a great host (despite the fact he's calling me a "lady" in his episode description), and also has a good audiobook review in the show. Oh, and his opening theme music is wicked! So feel free to check it out.

Description 30 - Tim Horton's

Finding a Canadian institution where I least expected it, I follow its history and the life of its namesake as I drive back to Toronto after the holidays. Features music by Memory Bank, a mic that will never be the same, and a kid dressed like a jelly bean.

Click here to subscribe and have your treats delivered.
Click here to download directly to make sure you're getting the chocolate danish instead of the chocolate glazed.

Associated links:
Tim Horton's the place (a vastly-improved site, btw)
Tim Horton the man (a very good biography @ about.com)
Quaker Steak and Lube
Grimsby, Ontario
Memory Bank @ myspace
Timbit Minor Hockey does good in Erie
Sydney Crosby Timbits commercial on YouTube

Okay, so why'd it take a whole frigging month? Uh... To be honest, I think it's because I've been in Second Life too much. My best friends there now are in Europe, so when I get home from work, there's a short time before they sleep, so we hang out...and then when they're gone, I hang out some more. Sheesh. Sorry. So if you're there and see Valerie Bethune...
...you can say hi and ask what the hell I'm doing there instead of doing a show. And then I'll probably mute you. :-)

This episode marks the début of the GarageBand I got for Christmas. I've started out by just using it for the mixing (which is the main reason I wanted it) and will eventually learn more about editing and the EQ settings. So far, it's much easier in a few ways than Audacity, but based on what little I know, there's way less control over the formats for export. I'll keep futzing.

The location where I started the episode was about half a mile up the street from where three years ago, a man went through a horrible experience you might recall. He was the pizza delivery man who got attached to a bomb by someone who then forced him to attempt to rob a bank on Upper Peach Street in Erie. Later caught in a standoff, with no one having any idea how to defuse the bomb, with cops and media watching, the bomb went off and the guy was killed. It's odd to drive by some place where you know someone has been blown up. But if you're doing that, it's nice to drive into Tim's, get some coffee and donuts and head back up to Canada.

Description 29 - le défilé du Père Noël

In Montreal, Santa Claus has roadies and a secretary, but I learn the guy works hard to entertain at his big downtown parade. Enjoy not-exactly-festive music from Loco Locass, along with face-painting, more mouth-noises than ever and someone twirling long socks like nunchucks.

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Associated links:
défilé du Père Noël
The official site of Père Noël
where he hangs out in Quebec
Loco Locass
Complexe Desjardins
Radio Énergie
Viva Marina! (Orsini, that is...)
Wikipedia on Annie Brocoli (that woman in the parade everyone knew but me)

Seriously, sorry about the mouth noises. I should've had some water sitting around.

The little hymn at the start of the episode was something I recorded at the Centaur Theatre while seeing a play called "Assorted Candies," the English version (translated by Linda Gaboriau) of the Michel Tremblay play "Bonbons Assorties". It's a funny and often melancholy collection of remembrances M. Tremblay has about being a kid at Christmas when his family was poor. You can find a book version here.

I mentioned a show Marina Orsini was in called "The Last Chapter / Le Dernier Chapitre". It was a miniseries about biker gangs in Ontario and Quebec, and Marina played the steely wife of the ambitious Ontario leader (Michael Ironside). I guess it should go without saying that our old pal Roy Dupuis was in it too. Actually, it was two miniseries - four, if you count the sequel - because they filmed in both languages simultaneously. Okay, obviously, it wasn't completely simultaneous, but they would film a scene in one language, then do the same scene in the other language, and on they went down the line. Freaking wicked. Granted, a couple of the Anglos who couldn't quite get their pronunciations down like me :-) had stunt-French-talkers who were dubbed in for them. But still, I think it was a great achievement, and I wish more tv shows and movies were done that way. Yes, I know it's a pain in the ass to make any domestic piece of entertainment in English Canada, much less twice in two languages, but a gal can dream.

Guess that's all the stuff I'll put on the podcast from Montreal for now. I have my perspective, but there are plenty of podcasts and blogs based in Quebec where people actually know what the hell they're talking about. I think #1 for me is Vu d'ici (Seen From Here), but there's also BandeÀpart (part of Radio-Canada), the legendary in over your head, Quebec en Baladodiffusion, and if only in retrospect if they don't get their crap together :-) The Bob and AJ Show. And of course there are others, but that's as far as my brain's going right now.

And while trying to figure out that Loco Locass song, I decided to bounce it off a friend of mine in Second Life who happens to be French (like, French French). Of course, he couldn't get a lot of local references, but got that while Quebec has been accused of fascism and censure in the past, plenty of those accusers would do well to check out the skeletons in their own closets. But my friend found another possible very cool reference. The title, "La censure pour l'échafaud," reminds him of a Nouvelle Vague film from the '50's called Ascenseur pour l'échafaud, which can be translated to "elevator to the gallows" or "elevator to the scaffold". Louis Malle's first feature film, it's about a guy who plots with his lover (Jeanne Moreau, of course) to kill her husband (his boss), and while the murder does happen, something gets messed up and stuff really starts to unravel. And it happens to have an amazing soundtrack by the late Miles Davis. Doesn't get much cooler than that.

Description 28 - Mode d'emploi

Finally, I get into why Canada has two official languages, yet many of us (including me) suck at least one if them. Featuring great music with sub-par sound quality by Mes Aïeux, tasty new cookies, and a church that became a mall.

Cliquez ici et abonnez!
Cliquez ici et téléchargez!

Associated links:

That convention-fresh Liberal Party
CBC Archives: "The Road to Bilingualism"
Wikipedia takes on bilingualism in Canada
Parlez-Moi with Sol (from the Rick's TV site)
Histori.ca on the October Crisis
The Rocket/Maurice Richard now on sale on DVD
I first discussed that movie and some of this stuff in Description 16.
MusiquePlus
Mes Aïeux Official Site (in four languages!)
"Dégénération" video on YouTube, a great homemade video with old home movies, and another cool homemade one with family memorabilia.
(Update: March 30, 2007: now you can see the original video with English subtitles!)
Farewell to the Montreal Forum
The Bell Centre
Guide de la Petite Vengeance (no matter the language, it's an excellent movie site!)
Schwartz's Montreal Hebrew Delicatessen

This is an episode I've wanted to do ever since started thinking up what I could do on a podcast. The French/English thing has been a source of fascination for me. Hasn't helped me pronounce any better, mind you.

Something I probably won't have a chance to mention on these Montreal episodes is another way I would try to learn French: watching La Fureur on Radio-Canada (that's the French CBC-TV). There are versions of this show all over the world, where celebrities/media personalities compete in teams based on gender in games based on music. The defining game is where they play a popular song and everyone sings along, then they stop the music for a short time but the team must keep singing the song so that when it comes back on, they haven't missed a beat. Actually, every answer in every game is some sort of pop song, which everyone then sings for a few bars. So everyone can do that on the show and watching the show, they have the lyrics running at the bottom of the screen like for karaoke. For me, that means I can hear what the words on the screen are supposed to sound like. Makes sense...but then pop songs have a lot of slang and stuff, and lyrics can have a ton of contractions to the point I'm asking "what the hell words did they just smush together? How the hell would I know that from hearing someone?" Still, it's fun to sing along like I know what I'm singing. After all, isn't that what everyone around the world does with English pop songs?

In researching the links, I was amused to learn that the guy who wrote the movie The Rocket (en Français, Maurice Richard) also wrote the movie I saw in this episode, Guide de la Petite Vengeance. So thanks, Ken Scott, who is way more French than his name suggests. Btw, the plot to that movie goes like this: This guy is an accountant at a fancy jewelry store, and his boss, Vendome, is kind of a dick. Not a total asshole, but one of those guys who says subtly nasty things and is super-passive-aggressive and who doesn't really yell at you, but is never really satisfied with anything you do. One of those bosses, who, if you're a generally good person, veeerrry sloooowly sucks out your soul.

C'mon! Who can't relate to that?

So our put-upon hero, Bernard, happens to meet a guy whom he replaced at the shop several years ago. Robert totally understands his pain, and ropes Bernard into a plan for a little vengeance: stealing just a couple small trinkets from the jewelry store. Of course, that's not all there is to the movie - there are all sorts of twists, some I saw coming and some I didn't, and those kinds of movies are rare. And it says some nice things about love and letting your life kind of slip away from you when you're busy working. So if you have a chance, check it out.

Oh, btw, when I was talking about that Maurice Richard movie when I saw it, I was speculating about how well it would do in the box office in English Canada. It did well, but not well enough to really be a big deal. (Though then again, we're not good at making anything a big deal.) But a few months later, a movie that really fits this subject came out: Bon Cop, Bad Cop is a prototypical buddy cop action movie, only the crime in question happens on the Ontario/Quebec border so one cop is Anglo while the other is Francophone. Violence and hilarity ensue. Not being a big violent action movie-type person, I didn't happen to see it, but it has become the highest-grossing domestic film in Canada ever, beating out even Porky's (yes, that movie was done in Canada). Still, most of the money was made, quelle suprise, in Quebec.

Description 27 - Doodlescription!

Okay, so what's this "movies for the blind" thing? I finally explain and demonstrate with help from one of the hottest bands to come out of Canada - just ask your four-year-old nephew. Don't let the kid listen in, though, unless you want him to learn some nasty language.

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Associated links:
AudioVision
VoicePrint Canada (our sister company, where you can hear some of our stuff)
The Canadian Government tries to explain what I do.
The BBC explains how to get it in the UK.
What the heck is SAP?
The Official Doodlebops Site
Together Forever, the best Doodlebops fansite

For video examples of described video we've done for the NFB, scroll down to the end of the listing for Description 24.

Could've put this up earlier, but I was on my holiday in Montreal, where I racked up enough audio for probably three shows. I did do most of the editing for this episode (what? there was editing?) on the VIA train when I should've been listening to my Fodor's French For Travelers on my nano. Yeah, that would've made a ton of difference. :-)

Props to The Doodlebops: Lisa J. Lennox plays pink-haired keyboard player Deedee with a voice like a bell, Chad McNamara plays Rooney the blue-dreadlocked guitar gearhead with that touch of musical theatre flair, and Jonathan Wexler plays the impetuous breakdancing drummer Moe, whose hair colour has always been a source of frustration for me (is it red? orange? red-orange? How can there be so much Doodlebop trivia, yet no one's settled on this?!). The legendary Jackie Richardson plays manager Jazzmin. You didn't get to hear John Catucci as Bus Driver Bob, which is a drag, because my favourite part is when he comes out at the end of the Get On the Bus song with "Hey! Yeah! We're gonna take a bus ride!" Frickin' hilarious. Really. Okay, so maybe you have to be there.

Anyway, on the rough DVD version I get of the show initially, when the band first performs the featured song for the episode, they sing it live on set to a very minimal backing track while doing their dancing, and it's very impressive. Now those three kids have been touring their colourful little asses off for months with their wigs and makeup and oversized fingers, so God bless them.

I've learned that when I get back to work Monday, I have to start describing this year's edition of Stars On Ice. Yes, for the first time, we describe figure skating for the vision-impaired.

So you wonder how the hell I'm gonna do that?

I'm wondering too. Stay tuned...

Epilogue to the Epilogue

So I emailed our Board of Elections friend Katie with that bit from the Ohio Voter Information site linked in the previous post, and here's the reply I received:

Ok Valerie,

Please vote for the Federal Offices.
Thank you for your concern.
Also, I am sorry for the confusion!

Have a great day!

So when I got my big manila envelope for non-service people that she'd promised, I took my big ballot and only filled in the little SAT circles for the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House, and off it goes via courier to Jefferson. Will it also meet the fate of the Boo-Boo Box? Only time will tell...or maybe not.

But if you have been properly warned by my little tale of intrigue, and you're a U.S. person who'll be in the U.S. voting on Election Day and you happen to have a video camera, the fabulous Arthur Masters tipped me to something you may want to consider doing, a little something called Video the Vote.

Yes, here's another embedded video. I promise, no more for the rest of the year.

Description 26 - The Boo-Boo Box

Go inside the actual 2006 ballot of the key state in the U.S. elections...and why do I have that ballot? Fortunately, we have some Canadian rock from Danko Jones to help get our frustrations out.

Click here to subscribe and get on the list.
Click here to download directly and cut through any red tape.

Associated links:
Ashtabula County Board of Elections
Absentee voting info from the Ohio Secretary of State
votefromabroad.org
Overseas Vote Foundation
Margie Bort and Joe Pete (Jr.) at a county auditor meeting (sorry, you can't get the full effect of Joe's mustache in the photo....)
That photo came from The Star-Beacon.
Danko Jones: .com, .net and myspace!
Thanks to the Podsafe Music Network
And zefrank explains voting! (QuickTime)


the show with zefrank

Whew. Seriously, this is one of the very few shows I've done in the apartment totally off the top of my head. I didn't know what was going to happen or how much I'd be blathering when I got the iRiver rolling. It should be clear I'm not the most informed person about the local politics from where I grew up, and have no pretense to be some sort of pundit (what? like not being informed stops real pundits?). These days, I am paying more attention to the municipal elections here in Toronto, which will happen shortly after this U.S. whoop-de-doo. As usually happens (already my concerns about Michael Ignatieff's trajectory are coming to fruition), David Miller had good ideas when he got voted into the mayor's gig and not all of them have worked out. He's certainly screwed up at times. But having the ideas (himself or from others) and pulling off some of them is enough for me to vote him back in. And then there's the matter of finding someone to fill the councillor's seat Olivia Chow left when we sent her to Ottawa. Adam Vaughan seems a worthy successor. If he is not a Philosopher King, he definitely is a Philosopher Prince, with all the risks implied that I'm usually willing to take.

Okay, enough of that. Making an effort to do silly crap next time. Oh, man - I'd been intending to make a promo. We'll see if I ever do that.

Description 25 - Nuit Blanche

The city stays open all night for the sake of contemporary art, and lots of people actually show up! Including me! Enjoy music made with water, reading pieces of paper tied to tree branches, and learning how to walk the right way through fog. And remember: positive energy!

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Click here to download directly for a more immediate expression.

Associated links:
Official Nuit Blanche Toronto site
Torontoist Does Nuit Blanche, Has Stories, Is Sleepy.
Spacing on Philosopher's Walk
An explanation of Taddle Creek
University of Toronto Faculty of Music
Bloor-Yorkville @ toronto.com
That carrot episode of "Good Eats"

The featured exhibits were: Carl Beam: The Whale of Our Being, Fog in Toronto #71624, Son(ic)ambulism, Hold That Thought, I Am Curious - Yorkville, Leif Ostlund and Raphael Montpetit @ Hollander York Gallery and One Garden One Night One Wish.

It's a long episode, but man, I cut a lot of stuff out. Sorry there are things I made reference to that ended up on the virtual cutting-room floor. After my first bit, I walked down bpnichol lane, where there was supposed to be something going on on the way to Sussex, but I must have been too late for it. In a nook of Yorkville, huge, inflated capsules were floating for Pharma©opia by Toronto art legends of the '80's General Idea. At the Royal Ontario Museum, there was some great work imported from the Nuit Blanche in Havana, Cuba - particularly the work of Carlos Garaicoa. Also, outside of the ROM in the contruction site for the Crystal, an interesting projection was being shown. And I didn't end up dragging my ass across the street to the newly renovated Gardiner Museum.

Again, that was just part of Zone A! There were two other zones with swimming and 10-year-olds DJ'ing and dramatic pup tents and cops dancing and whatever the hell. Once folks finally wiped the sleep from their eyes, it was determined about 450,000 people experienced this thing. That's pretty damn cool. But y'know, Montreal is having one of these deals next spring - they're supposed to be the artsy ones. That event just may have enough power to fortify all the overpasses in Laval. But for now, the art community of Toronto and the plain old shmucks like me can be kinda proud of what went down Saturday night.