Saturday Night I attended the birthday party of a good friend of mine. This post doesn’t have much to do with the party, not that the party was uneventful; to the contrary, it was actually chalk full of eventfulness. It’s just that those events will not find a place in this blog post. Except for what I just said.
Once, someone told me my blog was postmodern because, in my posts, I usually acknowledge that I’m making a blog post. Is pointing that out postmodern? Or is it postpostmodern when something that’s postmodern is acknowledging that it is postmodern. I said postmodern six times in this paragraph, and I just lost my entire readership, all four of them.
Anyway, I had better steer this ship back on course, it’ll end up running aground, leaving everyone on board stranded somewhere between Hall and Oates, and Steely Dan.
Okay, I’m starting to run out of time, no more fooling around. Just pretend you skipped from the first paragraph to the one after this one.
So I was making my way home from the party, and as I have been often recently I was listening to FAB 94.3. I forgot to mention it in my last post, but I had become more and more concerned that FAB wasn’t playing enough James Brown. And then as if someone from FAB had heard my concern that I had somehow neglected to include in my blog post, they were playing Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag. I reacted by thinking whoa, this is pretty sweet, but my reaction was short lived however. They cut off the end of the song! And it’s not like Brand New Bag loses steam at the end either. I wanted to mention how they always cut the ends off songs in the last post, but forgot. Well, at that moment on Saturday night I was reminded. So please FAB, stop cutting the ends off songs.
They did redeem themselves afterward though, by playing a wicked sweet song that is embeded below.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
FAB 94.3: This Is What I Think
For the last few weeks I have been listening to Winnipeg’s new radio station FAB 94.3. I’ve heard a few opinions, good and bad, about the station’s new format, and I have a few opinions of my own.
I’m going to try and be fair balanced about it, but there are a few things I don’t like about FAB. That being said, there are a lot of things I do like about FAB. I’m going to start with the good things about FAB, just because there are a lot of good things; at the very least, FAB has a lot of potential.
They’ve taped into music that isn’t really represented in Winnipeg. It’s basically a top 40 of the 60s and 70s. It’s going to be pretty hard to go wrong there. In Winnipeg the closest comparable stations are 92 CITI and K-ROCK. BOB FM and POWER 97 might over lap with FAB sometimes, but for the most part, I think those two aren’t really that close, as far as what they are playing is concerned. The Stuff that CITI and K-ROCK are playing is still going to be pretty different, mainly because FAB is playing Top 40 stuff so it’s going to play quite a bit more soul, and they even play a little bit of Yacht Rock, while K-ROCK and CITI are pretty much only going to play classic rock.
That slight difference is going to allow FAB to play a lot of really cool stuff you won’t here on any other station in the city. For example, I’ve heard FAB Play Al Green, and I don’t think there is anyway you’ll hear Al Green or Martha and The Vandellas on another Winnipeg station. That’s just one example. I don’t have a list compiled or anything, but they play a lot of other good stuff from Mo-town and Staxx.
As far as the bad things go, well, let’s see. I don’t think they take advantage of their format as much as they should. They play a lot of boring music. Sometimes they’ll play something kick-ass like, Hold On I’m Coming, or Born To Run, but then they follow it up with a snoozer. It’s a total buz kill.
Another thing they’ve fallen into is pretty much the same thing almost all other stations have fallen into, and that’s they don’t play enough variety. I swear I hear Soul Man by Sam and Dave at least once a day. Don’t get me wrong it’s a good song, but Sam and Dave have other ones switch it up, and that goes for pretty much every other artist they play as well.
The third thing that bugs me about FAB is the promos. I think they could be way better. I know I’m not in the demographic FAB is targeting, but I don’t think their Target demographic is as isolated as they think, or as old. I mean, they’re playing some of the coolest music ever recorded, at least they could be. The promos should be cool. I don’t want to hear about how this music created the generation gap, and I’m pretty sure no one else does either. The promos should be about how the music is timeless or it actually has a groove. Why not, “you’re listening to FAB 94.3. We got that groove now,” or “Don’t fight it feel it, FAB 94.3 the hits of the 60s and 70s. You want soul, we got it.” Those are just off the top of my head. I Just think they could try harder to be cooler.
Now to what other people have said, this is something I don’t want to spend too much time on, but I do want to mention one point. I’ve heard a few people saying they liked the old hits of the 90s format. I don’t agree with that, because I think the 90s market is getting played on a lot of stations so it had a lot of competition. I’ve just heard a few people saying that. I wonder how many of those people still listen to FAB, maybe they should consider aiming at that demographic a bit more.
I’m going to try and be fair balanced about it, but there are a few things I don’t like about FAB. That being said, there are a lot of things I do like about FAB. I’m going to start with the good things about FAB, just because there are a lot of good things; at the very least, FAB has a lot of potential.
They’ve taped into music that isn’t really represented in Winnipeg. It’s basically a top 40 of the 60s and 70s. It’s going to be pretty hard to go wrong there. In Winnipeg the closest comparable stations are 92 CITI and K-ROCK. BOB FM and POWER 97 might over lap with FAB sometimes, but for the most part, I think those two aren’t really that close, as far as what they are playing is concerned. The Stuff that CITI and K-ROCK are playing is still going to be pretty different, mainly because FAB is playing Top 40 stuff so it’s going to play quite a bit more soul, and they even play a little bit of Yacht Rock, while K-ROCK and CITI are pretty much only going to play classic rock.
That slight difference is going to allow FAB to play a lot of really cool stuff you won’t here on any other station in the city. For example, I’ve heard FAB Play Al Green, and I don’t think there is anyway you’ll hear Al Green or Martha and The Vandellas on another Winnipeg station. That’s just one example. I don’t have a list compiled or anything, but they play a lot of other good stuff from Mo-town and Staxx.
As far as the bad things go, well, let’s see. I don’t think they take advantage of their format as much as they should. They play a lot of boring music. Sometimes they’ll play something kick-ass like, Hold On I’m Coming, or Born To Run, but then they follow it up with a snoozer. It’s a total buz kill.
Another thing they’ve fallen into is pretty much the same thing almost all other stations have fallen into, and that’s they don’t play enough variety. I swear I hear Soul Man by Sam and Dave at least once a day. Don’t get me wrong it’s a good song, but Sam and Dave have other ones switch it up, and that goes for pretty much every other artist they play as well.
The third thing that bugs me about FAB is the promos. I think they could be way better. I know I’m not in the demographic FAB is targeting, but I don’t think their Target demographic is as isolated as they think, or as old. I mean, they’re playing some of the coolest music ever recorded, at least they could be. The promos should be cool. I don’t want to hear about how this music created the generation gap, and I’m pretty sure no one else does either. The promos should be about how the music is timeless or it actually has a groove. Why not, “you’re listening to FAB 94.3. We got that groove now,” or “Don’t fight it feel it, FAB 94.3 the hits of the 60s and 70s. You want soul, we got it.” Those are just off the top of my head. I Just think they could try harder to be cooler.
Now to what other people have said, this is something I don’t want to spend too much time on, but I do want to mention one point. I’ve heard a few people saying they liked the old hits of the 90s format. I don’t agree with that, because I think the 90s market is getting played on a lot of stations so it had a lot of competition. I’ve just heard a few people saying that. I wonder how many of those people still listen to FAB, maybe they should consider aiming at that demographic a bit more.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Lucky
Well, it seems my hard times carried on after my last blog post. I started this week with a pretty serious streak of bad luck.
Sunday Afternoon: I arrived home, after spending the night at my second home, at roughly 5 p.m. As I pushed open the back gate and turned towards the door, I was perplexed to see that the back door was propped open with a shovel. In my confusion I made some sort of sarcastic exclamation, and then approached the door.
Then I realized that my renter, Mohammed, was standing in the door way and the house was full of smoke. He explained to me that there was something wrong with the pellet stove and it was filling the house with smoke. He said he had gone down and unplugged it and he had the door open to get the smoke out.
Right away I thought I knew what the problem was, so went down stairs to “take care of it.” Well, it wasn’t exactly what I had expected. From across the room I could see smoke pouring out from around the door to the pellet stove hopper. I thought, “well, that’s not right. That part shouldn’t be on fire,” and went over to take a closer look.
When I opened the lid the amount of smoke coming out must have tripled three or four times. I could see that the pellets in the hopper had been burning. For anyone not familiar with pellet stoves, that is super bad. So bad in fact that I am going to reemphasize it again, and say, that is super super bad.
Fortunately because Mohammed has unplugged the pellet stove, that was some really quick thinking on his part. With the stove unplugged, the fan that feeds air into the stove had turned off, so the fire was not longer getting the air it needed to burn freely, and had probably died down quite a bit.
At this point I realized that I couldn’t just leave the burning pellets in the hopper, or the smoke would never stop. So I went and got a metal bucket from the garage. Then I set out to find something I could use to scoop the pellets out of the hopper. I ended up only being able to find an old empty margarine container. I dumped the nails and drill bits out of it and set off to start digging out the pellets.
Then it hit me. There was a lot of smoke in the basement, and it was getting hard to breathe. So I went looking for a dust mask I had from when I used to work in a mill. That search was short lived though, and once I couldn’t find it I decided to just wet a rag and hold it over my face.
It took me a about four or five minutes to empty the pellets from the hopper. Most of them were charred black, and quite a few had turned into red embers. The entire time I was emptying it I was worried the fire would catch again, not that it was being reintroduced to air, but that didn’t turn out to be a problem. I took the bucket outside and put it in the snow. It sat there all week and melted its way to the ground, and the pellets have now all burned away. Crazy huh? It just smoldered all week in like minus thirty weather.
Anyway, we ended up opening all the windows and doors and got some fans going to get the smoke out. It worked, but the house still smells like smoke. All my things still smell like smoke, and I still smell like smoke.
That’s the main part of that story, but my bad luck doesn’t end there.
Tuesday Afternoon: My brother comes over to take a look at the house and see if everything is okay, while I’m at school. He notices a red spot in the snow in the middle of the drive way, and calls to let me know my transmission is probably leaking tranny fluid.
At first I’m not so sure it’s my car. A contactor had visited the house Monday, and I say it would have been his truck that was leaking. After all, I replaced my transmission no more than five years ago; they have to last longer than that right? So I park in a different place and check the next morning. Sure enough my Transmission is leaking. Well, it a good thing I hadn’t got my student loans yet or I might be able to afford to get that fixed.
So when I finally get the chance, early Thursday morning I got the Great Canadian Oil Change. It turns out that my tranny is leaking in two different places. 1. The tranny filter. 2. The speed sensor. They guys working on my car couldn’t do anything about the sensor but they replaced the filter and that slowed the leak considerably. It should buy me sometime till I can get it looked at again.
They ended up doing some other work as well; I won’t bore you with the details. It ended up costing me $180.00 which I paid for with the help of my trusty over draft.
So there you have it, my unlucky streak.
But, I should be receiving my student loans Tuesday. It looks as if my luck is going to change.
Sunday Afternoon: I arrived home, after spending the night at my second home, at roughly 5 p.m. As I pushed open the back gate and turned towards the door, I was perplexed to see that the back door was propped open with a shovel. In my confusion I made some sort of sarcastic exclamation, and then approached the door.
Then I realized that my renter, Mohammed, was standing in the door way and the house was full of smoke. He explained to me that there was something wrong with the pellet stove and it was filling the house with smoke. He said he had gone down and unplugged it and he had the door open to get the smoke out.
Right away I thought I knew what the problem was, so went down stairs to “take care of it.” Well, it wasn’t exactly what I had expected. From across the room I could see smoke pouring out from around the door to the pellet stove hopper. I thought, “well, that’s not right. That part shouldn’t be on fire,” and went over to take a closer look.
When I opened the lid the amount of smoke coming out must have tripled three or four times. I could see that the pellets in the hopper had been burning. For anyone not familiar with pellet stoves, that is super bad. So bad in fact that I am going to reemphasize it again, and say, that is super super bad.
Fortunately because Mohammed has unplugged the pellet stove, that was some really quick thinking on his part. With the stove unplugged, the fan that feeds air into the stove had turned off, so the fire was not longer getting the air it needed to burn freely, and had probably died down quite a bit.
At this point I realized that I couldn’t just leave the burning pellets in the hopper, or the smoke would never stop. So I went and got a metal bucket from the garage. Then I set out to find something I could use to scoop the pellets out of the hopper. I ended up only being able to find an old empty margarine container. I dumped the nails and drill bits out of it and set off to start digging out the pellets.
Then it hit me. There was a lot of smoke in the basement, and it was getting hard to breathe. So I went looking for a dust mask I had from when I used to work in a mill. That search was short lived though, and once I couldn’t find it I decided to just wet a rag and hold it over my face.
It took me a about four or five minutes to empty the pellets from the hopper. Most of them were charred black, and quite a few had turned into red embers. The entire time I was emptying it I was worried the fire would catch again, not that it was being reintroduced to air, but that didn’t turn out to be a problem. I took the bucket outside and put it in the snow. It sat there all week and melted its way to the ground, and the pellets have now all burned away. Crazy huh? It just smoldered all week in like minus thirty weather.
Anyway, we ended up opening all the windows and doors and got some fans going to get the smoke out. It worked, but the house still smells like smoke. All my things still smell like smoke, and I still smell like smoke.
That’s the main part of that story, but my bad luck doesn’t end there.
Tuesday Afternoon: My brother comes over to take a look at the house and see if everything is okay, while I’m at school. He notices a red spot in the snow in the middle of the drive way, and calls to let me know my transmission is probably leaking tranny fluid.
At first I’m not so sure it’s my car. A contactor had visited the house Monday, and I say it would have been his truck that was leaking. After all, I replaced my transmission no more than five years ago; they have to last longer than that right? So I park in a different place and check the next morning. Sure enough my Transmission is leaking. Well, it a good thing I hadn’t got my student loans yet or I might be able to afford to get that fixed.
So when I finally get the chance, early Thursday morning I got the Great Canadian Oil Change. It turns out that my tranny is leaking in two different places. 1. The tranny filter. 2. The speed sensor. They guys working on my car couldn’t do anything about the sensor but they replaced the filter and that slowed the leak considerably. It should buy me sometime till I can get it looked at again.
They ended up doing some other work as well; I won’t bore you with the details. It ended up costing me $180.00 which I paid for with the help of my trusty over draft.
So there you have it, my unlucky streak.
But, I should be receiving my student loans Tuesday. It looks as if my luck is going to change.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Hard Times Like Ray Charles
Wow, it’s Friday again already, and it looks like I’ll get this posted just in the nick of time. Being on CreComm time is a very crazy feeling for all of you non-CreCommers out there. It’s peculiar because you always know what day it is, and the days go by pretty fast. The thing is though, that it’s a different kind of fast day than you might be used to. The days rocket by, but they seem like they’re way longer than normal days. It’s been just over a week since my last blog post, yet it feels like it’s been weeks since I made the post.
Right now everyone in CreComm has what I like to call "The Magazine project, IPP proposal, PR proposal, and when is the next streeter gonna be blues.” I mean it’s crazy out here. Not that I’m trying to be negative. It’s all very rewarding. But the Stress! The stress comes in pretty high doses. It’s the kind where you just wanna go home and breathe for a few minutes and forget about school work for an hour before you have to put your nose back against the grind stone. The problem is as soon as you stop thinking about school work you start thinking about all the other regular responsibilities of life. Just the simple things like where am I gonna get the money to pay my phone bill or car insurance? You know no big deal.
I’ve been so busy lately I’ve hardly listened to any music. I can never find the time. Anyway, right now I’m gonna post a little slow blues for ya.
Right now everyone in CreComm has what I like to call "The Magazine project, IPP proposal, PR proposal, and when is the next streeter gonna be blues.” I mean it’s crazy out here. Not that I’m trying to be negative. It’s all very rewarding. But the Stress! The stress comes in pretty high doses. It’s the kind where you just wanna go home and breathe for a few minutes and forget about school work for an hour before you have to put your nose back against the grind stone. The problem is as soon as you stop thinking about school work you start thinking about all the other regular responsibilities of life. Just the simple things like where am I gonna get the money to pay my phone bill or car insurance? You know no big deal.
I’ve been so busy lately I’ve hardly listened to any music. I can never find the time. Anyway, right now I’m gonna post a little slow blues for ya.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
A Pseudo-Event Christmas
Pseudo-events are becoming pretty common. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, pseudo-events are organized to help create interest for certain things, usually, for an organization or a product. Probably one of the most well known forms of pseudo-event is the flash mob. A flash mob generally consists of a large group of organized people performing some sort of choreographed act: a line dance, freezing in place, or other similar things.
Everyone is probably familiar with the FabBoy Slim music video, the one of the dance troupe performing in front of a movie theater. That’s the basic idea.
Some student groups and student organizations at The University Of Winnipeg have held flash mobs at the U of W campus and other places around the city.
Even though the holidays are now over I figured I would look at a holiday themed flash mob that took place in Columbia, Maryland. The even was held at the Mall in Columbia on December 22, 2010. I group of several hundred people sang and danced to Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around the Christmas tree. The goal of the flash mob was to spread holiday cheer.
A group called Hocomojo organized the flash mob. Hocomojo, which stands for Howard County Mobile Journalism, is a group local to Howard County that promotes community engagement, involvement and esteem in Howard County, for Howard County.
The event was pretty successful, generating many links when searched on google.ca. There are some online news stories about the event in online publications. And the video has been posted on many different websites, including several blogs and You Tube. One You Tube video has over 50, 000 views and another nearly 69,000. Because the video has been posted so many times it’s difficult to get an accurate number of the actual total number of views. By judging how often the video comes up and how many stories there are about it I think they may have raised Christmas cheer in a few more places than just Howard County.
Here is the video.
Everyone is probably familiar with the FabBoy Slim music video, the one of the dance troupe performing in front of a movie theater. That’s the basic idea.
Some student groups and student organizations at The University Of Winnipeg have held flash mobs at the U of W campus and other places around the city.
Even though the holidays are now over I figured I would look at a holiday themed flash mob that took place in Columbia, Maryland. The even was held at the Mall in Columbia on December 22, 2010. I group of several hundred people sang and danced to Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around the Christmas tree. The goal of the flash mob was to spread holiday cheer.
A group called Hocomojo organized the flash mob. Hocomojo, which stands for Howard County Mobile Journalism, is a group local to Howard County that promotes community engagement, involvement and esteem in Howard County, for Howard County.
The event was pretty successful, generating many links when searched on google.ca. There are some online news stories about the event in online publications. And the video has been posted on many different websites, including several blogs and You Tube. One You Tube video has over 50, 000 views and another nearly 69,000. Because the video has been posted so many times it’s difficult to get an accurate number of the actual total number of views. By judging how often the video comes up and how many stories there are about it I think they may have raised Christmas cheer in a few more places than just Howard County.
Here is the video.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Back To School
Alright, Christmas break is over; today was the first day of school, and what an interesting first day of school it was. Enter the Magazine Project. Anyway now that's school has resumed. Here's something kick ass to get you warmed up. I must have watched this video like fifteen times already.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)