Christmas Miracle

I’ll take this opportunity to introduce you to a side-project I have, a podcast, called Shane and Tom’s Squeezebox.

Shane is a guy I met because of Frank, and Phog. Shane came in to do an art show (he’s a graphic designer/artist) and when we began talking, we were finishing each other’s sentences, and making the same rude, odd, and crazy connections and references.

We decided to record our show, post in on the web, and welcome people with the same twisted sense of humour into our circle. Well, since there’s two of us, it’s less of a circle, and more of a line.

We try to get together every Sunday to record our 30 to 45-minute show. We laugh like crazy, moving through our segments, and then we post the show online and wait for comments and e-mails.

It’s so simple to do, and the connection to people around the world is flattering as one can imagine.

This passed Sunday, we did a holiday show. It was fantastic. We were happy, sharp, and on-point.

Shane then drove me to work, where a local band was having a rare all-ages show, and then another show in the evening. I was flustered, rushed, and trying to figure out how my night was going to go, as I had lost a car to failed steering the day before.

On Monday, I wanted to post the MP3 of the show online, so Shane could edit it together and post it for everyone to download.

I could NOT FIND MY recorder. This thing has offered such freedom for freelance radio with CBC Radio One’s Spark, CJAM’s NIMBY, and recording the odd show at Phog for a live-feeling audio rendition of the bands I love.

Not having this thing paralyzes me in a way I cannot express. It stops me from being able to do work for CBC, and it stops me from being able to freely do interviews for NIMBY (Not In  My Backyard) on CJAM.

I looked everywhere. And I mean everywhere. Specifically my backpack, where I always keep my recorder. It’s a ZOOM H4. It kicks ass. And I always have it in case an impromptu interview pops up.

I had a black cloud over my head for the past three days.

Shane was bummed that we lost our most recent show.

Jhoan was bummed that I was bummed, and she wanted to learn how to use it for a new project she’s starting soon.

So I had just about given up hope. I looked in every car, under every seat. I turned the bar upside down. I even called Frank to see if he stuffed it under a box somewhere.

And tonight. Christmas Eve. At Phog. I decide to empty my backpack for the third time. Take out the magazines, leaving Phog stickers and some finger-nail clippers. The only thing with any noticeable mass would be the bag (with a strap) holding my recorder…and the extra batteries it holds.

Lo and BEHOLD! It’s sitting in there, right next to the magazines!

WTF!?

I have no explanation for this.

No one has admitted to pulling a prank on me yet.

I don’t care.

I have the freedom to record again. I can record the 127th episode of Shane and Tom’s Squeezebox.

So go listen to the lost holiday episode! Download it from iTunes or go to our website: shanetom.com

I am so happy and feeling so lucky and blessed tonight.

Barry Furlonger, David Dubois: This week’s NIMBY

Well, we recorded another show, and again it felt as though Adam and I are finding our timing. It seems to be getting smoother and smoother with each show. Again, we produce/host NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) on CJAM.

We both remarked at how much we enjoy producing and airing the show, to the extent that we want to carry on this project as far as possible.

This week, Adam interviewed David Dubois of the band The Locusts Have No King. Dave has also been a massively proficient singer/songwriter for quite some time, and this interview was centred around the release of a new full length CD due out in January. The bits I heard on the show today were fantastic!

Me…I interviewed Barry Furlonger, executive director of The Downtown Mission. My interview with Barry was MUCH longer than the edited version on the show, which left a lot of usable, viable content on the digital cutting-room floor. So, I will first post the archived version of today’s Not In My Backyard, and then I will post the full, unedited interview I did with Barry for those of you who want to know/hear more about the Downtown Mission.

Thanks to all those who listened to the show live today!

Here’s the link to the extended interview with Barry Furlonger of The Downtown Mission!

Here’s the link to today’s NIMBY!

Broken City Lab on NIMBY

In what will likely be one of many posts about Broken City Lab, I will simply leave you with the content I have collected.

What is Broken City Lab? Well…

A collection of artists/activists who see a broken city in front of them, and use their creativity to interact with the people, groups, bureaucracy, items, places, and mediums necessary to make things less broken. It’s art-through-action. When speaking to Justin Langlois, the guy who decided to get this group together, I was astounded, amazed, proud, and appreciative of the concept and eventual action this group represents. Langlois said something like, “I began to realize that my art could be this…this action…this sharing of concepts to make things better instead of making paintings…” I’m paraphrasing. But if you watch the videos below and listen to his interview on this week’s installment of Not In My Backyard (Tuesdays at noon on CJAM 91.5FM in Windsor/Detroit), you will hear him communicate this clearer.

Here’s the CJAM interview on Not In My Backyard (NIMBY)!

And as usual, there is a TON of extra content on the videos where Justin is able to talk about some of the other projects Broken City Lab is looking at starting.

To find out more, go to brokencitylab.org where there is a regularly updated blog with awesome info.

As a further added bonus, check out the blog post that Justin made after taking part in the Big Walk.

Another Saturday Knight on NIMBY

Adam and I finally got back into the swing of recording Not In My Backyard for CJAM.

Again, we are live to air every Tuesday at noon on 91.5FM in Windsor/Detroit, or you can stream it to your computer, OR go to the archives and check it out.

I interviewed Chad Howson of Another Saturday Knight. His band released a new CD (their first) and I felt it was worth asking what it was like to do such a thing…being a non-musician. I strayed away from the “What does your music sound like?” kind of questioning, because you an go to his website and listen for yourself (I’ll post the link). I wanted to delve into the excitement, worry, and thoughts of someone releasing something new.

For your benefit, I recorded video of the interview, in two parts. The batteries in the recorder died, so I had to kill the video until I located some new batteries.

Here’s the radio interview link, and the videos are below.

I love how, as soon as the audio recorder is off, we get relaxed. We start speaking less formally. I think I like that feeling more than the feeling of the interview. I will begin trying to speak loosely DURING interviews instead of only on EXTRA FOOTAGE which is not on the interview.

By the way, there’s about 4 minutes of relaxed (extra content) that would not fit on the CJAM interview. Well worth seeing.

Also, you should listen to the CJAM version because Adam’s interview with Dianne Clinton (participant at the upcoming Made in Windsor Craft show). It’s a great connection to someone who conveys the importance of spending money with local artisans.

Click this link to hear the NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) version on CJAM.

Turn up your computer volume to hear the audio from the video. It’s a little quiet.

www.myspace.com/anothersaturdayknight

Windsor Star covers Big Walk, on the FRONT PAGE!

Photo taken by Nick Brancaccio, The Windsor Star

Well, it’s pretty nuts, but the Windsor Star covered this story (because Don McArthur does his job well, reading blogs, and looking for stories where great journalists look for stories, and he found out about Big Walk and liked it), and it made it onto the front page, under the fold.

I did not expect this.

However, if you are at all interested in reading the positive, very well-written article, go here:

http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/story.html?id=a977e94e-6b0f-48e3-87d2-359a0d96dc03

Even crazier, is that the lawyer in the picture that I’m talking to…he’s a guy who I have been a fan of but not even known it. I mean, I knew I was a fan of his, but I did not know who he was.

He runs these amazing architecture walks in Detroit. Yes, a lawyer from Windsor runs architecture walks in Detroit. His name is Dave Ziriada, and he runs Preservation Wayne walks in downtown Detroit! I have wanted to go on these tours in the past, and have been unable due to scheduling…but here this guy is, knocking on the front window of the bar when I show up for the different photos used in the web and print  editions of today’s paper.

Someone in his office had heard myself and Stephen Hargreaves on CBC Radio’s The Early Shift, with Tony Doucette earlier in that same day.  So, he told Ziriada that the guy running Big Walk owns Phog Lounge. Guess what? He works in the building across the street!

I know! It’s kooky! I was shocked, and practically acted like a fan-boy over these walks he conducts in Detroit.

So “Big Thanks” goes out to Tony Doucette, who is always great to mix it up with, and to Don McArthur who has always been helpful and encouraging when it comes to my pursuing a life of journalism.

Scott Knowles: Interview

24 Hrs. New Orleans map from Good Magazine.

A 24-hour walk.

Along with Scott Knowles, two guys named Kurt Braunohler and Calvin Johnson have created a series of psychogeography projects called 24 Hrs., of which I am a huge fan.

I read THIS article in Good Magazine (a wonderful mag you should check out).

In short, these guys take a group of 30-40 people and they walk around the city (New York, Philadelphia, New Orleans, etc.) for 24 hours, mimicking a 24-hour road trip, visiting unique businesses, cultural hot-spots, eating, drinking, performing tasks (cleaning a cemetery for an hour) until they are tired, disoriented, and experiencing their city in a mindset and time that they are unaccustomed to.

Since then, I have been having meetings about hosting a walk like this in Windsor. I want to make it a little different though. I want it specifically to be an orientation or re-introduction to our fine city of Windsor. I want it to run from 8am until midnight instead of being 24 hours.

The idea struck me so fascinating that I decided to find one of the organizers and interview them for Not In My Backyard, the new radio show on CJAM.

Scott Knowles, a professor of Urban History at Drexel University in Philadelphia, was an incredible person to talk to, and I felt a kinship to a man who has an explorer within him that has successfully reached the surface in the form of many psychogeographical projects like 24Hrs.

Before and after the recording, we spoke a little longer about the area of Windsor/Detroit and how I hoped his group would come and offer a walk in the Detroit area. Scott encouraged my participation in having a walk of my own, which was a fairly uplifting suggestion.

We discussed liability, which was a concern for the walk, and he offered his experience as an example. He tells his groups what’s a stake with their physical health, but he does not require a waiver to be signed. Why? Well, he feels similar to me on this, as the legality that people jump to when they are simply going on a friendly, organized walk is part of what ruins events just like this. It’s a sad commentary on society as a whole when the first thing you have to consider on a walk that will find you immersed on a ground level to your dwelling is liability waivers.

We talked about his other projects, including disorienting groups of blindfolded people by dropping them off in the middle of an urban centre, in the middle of a park or parking lot, and asking them to find their way back, as a group, to a particular spot. It is mostly a unnerving time when they first remove the blindfolds and try to figure out where they are. Secondly, it is a challenge to envision the city and the easiest route to the final spot. It’s a wonderfully fun idea I also plan on borrowing after the Big Walk.

Another event involved people keeping track, on paper, of every single minute that passed (in a given time frame of an hour or two) while walking through the city. It was an experiment and observation of the passage of time. The amount of things that occur in a given minute that we don’t bother consciously recognizing because of our haze of hurry we immerse ourselves within.

The last event he told me about was equally incredible. Artists, urban planners, etc. go to a venue (restaurant, coffee shop, McDonald’s, whatever) with tons of drafting paper and pens and markers. Then they decide, individually or in groups, what SHOULD be in the place of the building they are sitting in. They tape up the designs and ideas on the front of the building and debate the worthiness of their designs/arguments. It’s a beautiful concept because it’s an imagining. It allows those capable of envisioning better, to dream. It encourages wild-eyed hope and appreciation for a city, a surrounding that we want.

Talking with him was as uplifting an experience that an interview can be because of the clarity of his intentions and penchant for the less ordinary.

My interview with Mr. Knowles will run on October 7th at noon.

As it stands, with some unexpected and expected obstacles, the Big Walk will happen on Saturday, November 8th. I am only taking 25 people on this walk, and it will be first-come, first-serve. Interested? E-mail me at phoglounge@gmail.com

New Radio Show on CJAM: Not In My Backyard

I’m always running my mouth. In one of my bouts of loose-lippedness I disclosed to someone that I had th desire to do another talk radio show on CJAM.

Reading articles about the world, technology, etc., can be a little insular. It’s a LOT insular actually, because I don’t really get to discuss the  topics I read. I know there are people out there who would love to get into the topics, but most of the time, they’re too heavy to discuss at work…a downer.

So I thought I’d do a show and invite calls, feedback.

As I ran my mouth one night about this desire to do a show, in front of one L. Adam Fox, he replied, ” I was ust going to fill out a program request form for a show like that…wanna do the show together?”

Well geez.

Adam is FAR more experienced with radio, and is kind of “in charge” of stuff with regards to CJAM 91.5 FM here in Windsor/Detroit. To do a show with him would be a great learning experience for me, and it would be done correctly. He told me his idea for his show. It was clearer, smarter, and better than my original vision. We would cover local stories regarding culture, arts, music, whatever…and report it professionally, while also being ourselves. Cutting loose a little bit here and there.

The first show arrived in a flash. The first thirty-minute episode of Not In My Backyard (Adam’s idea for a name that I liked immediately) was a bit clunky, but aimed toward a place I am happy heading toward. Adam interviewed the people responsible for the (now) successful Fahrenheit Fire Festival. My story was a post-event look at the FAM Festival with the creator, Murad Erzinclioglu. FAM Fest found scores of bands, artists and film-makers and organized them on display at several venues in downtown Windsor.

The second episode of the show was much cleaner, and smooth, and I am far more confident in having you hear THAT one. In that show, I interviewed Tony Gray, a local artist who has become a syndicated cartoonist with not one comic, but TWO! Yeah, he sits next to Garfield and strips of the like. Adam spoke with local music marvel Johnny West. Awesome interview. Especially because no one really knows ANYTHING about this guy who has been impressing people with his music for years almost anonymously

If you live in Windsor or Detroit and you want to hear our show when it airs, it is on every Tuesday at noon. If you would rather live stream it or listen to archived versions of the show, you can do so at cjam.ca by finding the archives, clicking on the Tuesday you want to hear, and selecting the 12:00pm start time.

In parting, I want to give you a heads-up that this awesome community radio station is having its annual pledge drive in a couple of weeks, and I invite you to contribute to see that the station makes it’s goal of $25,000. The programming is top-notch whether we’re talking about spoken word or music programming. It is a station that represents a lot of what’s great about radio, commercial-free radio. That’s a beautiful group of words, commercial-free radio. If it’s something you believe in, like I do, you can contribute with Pay Pal on the CJAM site, or you can call in and pledge during the drive.

It’s a station I believe in, and am genuinely proud of, and I think it is a treasure that needs to be nurtured.

More about that in a later post.

CBC Radio 3…wow.

Do you know what it’s like to be a radio-hopeful like me when you get an e-mail, unsolicited, from a CBC radio producer?

It’s pretty much the best thing that can happen, professionally. Period.

That’s what happened to me the other day when Chris Kelly sent me a message asking me if I’d like to be a guest (interviewed) on Grant Lawrence’s internet Radio 3 show. I nearly imploded.

Grant Lawrence has been the host of Canada’s most downloaded music podcast. So, you may understand that his internet radio show gets a nice collection of live listeners. I can’t blame people for tuning into web radio with the options slimming more and more on commercial radio. Not everyone is as lucky as Windsor/Detroit to have a community station like CJAM to bring good music to your life.

Chris told me that the show was focusing on beer. And, I kind of deal with the stuff, a lot. So I was totally geeked for this interview, ran a hundred errands the day of the interview, and when I got home there was a message from Chris, wondering if I was ready for the interview!

“Did I screw this whole thing up or what?”

I was panicking. I called back, left a message, and waited.

Minutes later the call came, and I was slotted into the show to discuss beer with Grant during a music break.

You see, I’ve been a huge fan of Radio 3 because of what they do for Canadian music. I’ve sent several messages (audio and e-mail) to Grant and Craig Norris (the host of CBC Radio 3’s R3-30 podcast). These guys, along with their team of producers, are the exact people I wish to be working with, in that medium I love…radio.

The interview was fun, fast-paced, and concise. These are the kinds of things I could do every day until I cease to be. So when this interview was done, I was short of breath, gasping (I guess) on the inside, for more opportunities like this.

I have decided to give you the recording I made (a crude one) of the audio I collected with my Zoom H4, laying it next to my computer speaker. It’s a little noisy in the background, but if you focus, it’s fun.

CLICK HERE FOR RADIO 3 WEB RADIO WITH GRANT LAWRENCE

A Question From The Gallery

I got a request today asking me to list the podcasts I listen to…and what shows I listen to, if I listen to talk radio.

I thought it might be a nice exercise, as I am freakishly delighted by making lists.

I think I got this from my mom, who always writes notes, listing all varieties of things. And I mean it when I say I like lists as I have several on the go almost all the time. So here’s another:

I listen to more podcasts than most people would ever consider to attempt. I do this because I love the content I can get in a form that is not dependent on time. I am not the guy who can be here or there at a particular time for a show, a movie, or a radio show. Plus, many of the shows I get in podcast form, do not exist on the radio in my hometown of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. They only air in cities that bother to carry them on their airwaves. Therefore, if I do not listen to the paltry “first 10 minutes” of Dennis Miller’s one-year-old radio show as a podcast, I won’t hear any of it, ever.

The list of podcasts and talk radio in the form of podcasts: (there are some I bounce back and forth to…

Scientific American’s 60-Second Science

Sound Opinions (WBEZ Chicago & NPR)

Atomic Suburbia

Canadian Podcast Buffet

CBC Radio 3 Podcast with Grant Lawrence

CBC Radio 3 R3-30

CBC Radio: Search Engine

CBC Radio: Spark

CBC Radio: The Best of As It Happens

DicksnJanes Podcast (Scarborough Dude)

Digital Detroit Radio

Hey!, We’re Back (Jonathan Katz)

The Hollywood Podcast (Tim Coyne)

Island Podcasting (Ted Reiken)

KCRW’s Le Show (Harry Shearer)

KCRW’s The Urban Man

NPR: Fresh Air w/ Terry Gross

NPR: Pop Culture Podcast

Public Radio International: The Sound of Young America

Public Radio International: The Tavis Smiley Show

Public Radio International, WGBH, & BBC’s The World – Technology (Clark Boyd)

Real Time with Bill Maher

Science Talk: The Podcast of Scientific American

Sixty Second Tech

The Talking Stick Podcast

The Dennis Miller Show

The Sniffer (Nora Young & Cathi Bond)

NPR: This American Life

So, yeah, I get a lot of podcasts and public radio…but I often ask myself the question, “What else might I be missing?” I mean, if I missed these shows before I had my iPod, what else am I missing?

By the way, I have been overly proud of my recent radio achievements, finally making it onto the actual airwaves, and better yet, with CBC! And better still, a wicked national program called Spark, which, yes, I subscribe to the podcast, because I like to keep up with what the show is covering, so that when I pitch my freelance ideas, they are not doubles. The most recent show which ran Wednesday, April 9th, and will run again Saturday March 12th can be heard HERE. I have a small piece somewhere near the middle where I interviewed a bunch of smart kids in my brother’s “advanced” grade 8 class at John Campbell School here in Windsor.