The Watchmen Rock the Pyramid

Winnipeg's own The Watchmen played Friday and Saturday night at the Pyramid.  I went to Saturday's show and my ears are still ringing.  They definitely had it cranked up to eleven. 

The show was sold out, and was attended by long-time fans of the band, like my friends and I.  Watchmen were a staple on the stereo at our high school parties.  Best known for their energetic live shows, we saw them play numerous times throughout high school and university.  They broke up in 2003 but have come together for various tours since.  And their fans are always hungry for a good show.  This was the first time I have seen them since at least 2003 so it was definitely a nostalgic experience.

Despite not playing together as frequently as in their heyday, the band was tight.  They played classic songs such as All Uncovered, Boneyard Tree, Any Day Now and Stereo.  Lead singer Danny Greaves was in top form.  His vocals throughout the show were dead-on.  As usual, at one point in the show the other band members left the stage and Danny sang a song without any instrumental accompaniment.  This time around he sang a heart felt version of Tom Waits's (Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night.  Outstanding. 

Soupy out

David Sedaris: Dirty Jokes, Animals and Old Ladies

David Sedaris has themes for each of his book tours.  On his latest tour the theme is jokes.  He asks everyone that comes up to get a book signed if they have a joke to tell him.  During the reading at McNally Robinson Booksellers on Monday November 22, he shared some of his favourites with the eager fans.  Most of the jokes were very dirty, but hilarious.  For example one involved Monica Lewinski, Lorena Bobbit and a flasher. 

As you can imagine an evening with Sedars at McNally Robinson is not a like typical book readings.  Neither is his book.  He is famous for his books of stories about himself. But his latest book, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk is his first book of complete fiction.  It is made up of fables about animals going through situations that many of us can relate to.  Sedaris promised the audience that this publication does not mean the end of his very popular books of personal essays.

Sedaris has published eight collections of his sometimes funny, sometimes heartfelt, always unique stories. He is a frequent contributor to the New Yorker, and you can also hear him reading his stories aloud on This American Life on Public Radio International.

Sedaris spent about half of his 80 minutes at McNally Robinson reading stories from this latest book.    He spent he other forty minutes reading journal entries; interesting tidbits about things that happened to him on his book tour.  This is how Sedaris tests his material for other stories.  He says that he often goes back to his hotel room after a reading and edits his work based on the reaction of the audience that night.  No doubt some of the anecdotes that he read aloud will make it into one of his future collections of stories.

His journal entry readings consisted of stories of embarrassment: at a hotel pool realizing too late that he had put his swim suit on inside out; the weirdest things he heard from people during book signings: a woman who had been served another woman’s breast milk in a plastic wineglass at a yard sale; and as I mentioned before, his favourite filthy jokes. 

One of the funniest journal entries involved him noticing “a cute little old lady” pushing a walker in a parking lot and getting into her car.  Then he noticed her bumper sticker which read: Marriage = 1 man + 1 woman.  Sedaris, who has lived with his partner, Hugh for over 10 years, had a sudden and drastic attitude shift: “As I watched the old hag struggle with the door handle I thought:  people that get to use handicap spots should not be able to hold political opinions.  You have the best parking spot, so just shut the F#%K up.”

At the end of his reading Sedaris generously promised to stay at McNally until the last book was signed.  Which was very nice considering the size of the crowd.  There were between 150 to 200 fans there.  I did not intend on waiting in line for over an hour just to tell him my favourite dirty joke.  A priest, a rabbi and an orangutan walk into a bar…

Soupy out

Talking with Michael Van Rooy

Award winning Winnipeg author, Michael Van Rooy was signing books at McNally Robinson on Saturday when I spoke with him.  An Ordinary Decent Criminal, the first book in his Monty Haaviko crime series, won the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book by a Manitoba Author in 2006.  Van Rooy was also awarded the John Hirsh Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer in 2009.

Van Rooy was very friendly and helpful. He is the Literary Arts Ambassador for the Winnipeg Cultural Capital of Canada 2010.  He offered to send me a copy of An Imagined City: A Literary History of Winnipeg, as part of the Arts For All project: It’s About The Stories…It’s Always About the Stories!  

After he signed my fresh-off-the-shelf copy of An Ordinary Decent Criminal we chatted for a while. Some background info and some of the topics we discussed are below: 

His education: Van Rooy was born in B.C. but raised in Winnipeg.  He graduated from Sisler High School, studied history at the U of M, and more recently English at U of W.  Van Rooy received his criminal education during a stint in Stony Mountain Penitentiary and Rockwood Institution for armed robbery in his early twenties.  In a Winnipeg Free Press interview Van Rooy said, "I didn't do it.  I was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

CreComm: When I told him that I am a CreComm student he explained that his mother was a CreComm instructor for twenty years. As a teenager he helped her mark papers.

A recommendation for aspiring writers: Get business cards printed calling yourself a Writer, “They are really useful.”  Van Rooy said, whether you are published or not “you are a writer."

On making time for writing: "You need to develop a pattern, a rhythm.  Whatever works for you.” Van Rooy said David Bergen used to go to work an hour early every morning and would “write in his car in the parking lot of Tech Voc." He suggested getting up an hour early each day and trying to write a page. Just 330 words. "By the end of the year you will have a novel."

.

Recommended reading for writers: A book on screen writing by Robert McKee called Story, and Aristotle's Poetics.

Thanks Michael.

Soupy Out

New Yorker Story Review: The Tree Line, Kansas, 1934

TheTree Line, Kansas, 1934 could be the location heading in a report.  And in fact the story is narrated by Lee, a retired FBI agent who has probably written hundreds of reports for the Bureau over his long career.   Lee is sitting around at his house on a lake “tweezing apart past scenarios that had ended up with (him) alive and others dead.” He is specifically looking back on a 5 day stake out in Kansas.  It was during the time when the FBI was making a name for itself catching criminals like Pretty Boy Floyd and Dillinger.  Even in 1934, Lee is a “hard-bitten” veteran of the FBI.  He and his inexperienced, know-it-all partner, Barnes, are waiting in the tree line on a farm.  The farm is the known hideout for Carson, a dangerous bank robber.  Barnes thinks they are wasting their time hanging out at place that Carson knows they know about.  And he tells Lee at every opportunity.  Lee, a man of few words does not scold him or tell him to shut up, although in hindsight he wishes he had.  He may have saved his life. 

The main body of the essay is structured like a report.  Lee numbers off the reasons why he should have known that day was going to go horribly wrong.  How his gut was trying to warn him.  Some of the reasons include everything from the movement of the sun, the look of the road, his partners impatient outbursts, and the wind: “Any experienced lawman knew that the wind rising like that had to mean something.”  And sure enough his gut is right.

But this story is not about the arrival of Carson at the farm, in fact, disappointingly, the shoot out with Carson and his thugs is only mentioned in the last line of the story.   This story is about perception.  Lee reflects on the perception of time after a long stake out: “surveillance compressed time, tightening it in—days of inaction punctuated only by occasional shit breaks, piss breaks, smoke breaks and drink breaks, food breaks and stretch breaks interrupted only by small, inconsequential peripheral actions observed.”  This “compressed” perception of time during long periods of doing nothing, can affect you.  Your body and mind can fail you when they are suddenly called into action.

 This story is also about our perception of events that occurred long ago and how time can skew those events.  Did Lee really have a gut feeling that told him there was going to be trouble that day?  Or, looking back, has he just imagined this gut feeling where there was actually nothing but boredom?  Was this imagined gut feeling a product of his guilt for inaction in a time of crisis?  For an experienced law man like himself that sort of failure must be hard to live with.  So he takes the tiniest of details from his five days at the farm and compiles them into a “gut feeling” that he failed to act on.  Perhaps, in a law man’s mind, having a gut feeling that you were slow to act on is better than having no inkling of trouble at all.

The best part of this story was how well the author, David Means, got inside the head of a retired FBI agent.  The kinds of experiences and details that the author put into the story made me believe that Means had been a law enforcement officer.  At the very least he has done significant research into the history of law enforcement in the US.

I also appreciated how Means crafted his story about the details of a stake out that don’t make it into the genre novels or Hollywood movies about this time in American history.  A normal story about this event would include some details about the stake out, but just as a way to build anticipation for the climax: the violent shoot out.  Means does the opposite.  He builds the entire story around the monotonous details of a five day stake out, and excludes the action at the end.  It is a unique yet somewhat anticlimactic take on the 1930’s crime story.

Below is a shootout from a movie about Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd from the 70's, in case you, like me, were craving some pure old fashioned unadulterated action after reading David Means short story.

Soupy out. 

Two To Remember

Well I met Peter and Marie Sawatzky yesterday at the St. James Legion Branch #4. Marie, 85, is a war bride. She met Peter,89, in her home country of Holland, at the end of the Second World War. He was waiting to be shipped home after two years of fighting in Italy and Holland. They met and fell in love, "like in a movie" she says, in her adorable Dutch accent. They will celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary in January. And every year they carry flags in Remembrance Day parades and visit schools to tell the children about war; so that new generations of Canadians don't forget. I won't forget them.  And Remembrance Day will always be a little more special for me because of them.

Thank you Peter and Marie Sawatzky.

My City's Still Laughing

My City's Still Breathing, a symposium exploring the arts, artists and the city kicked off on Thursday and runs until Sunday afternoon.   This symposium is part of the celebration of Winnipeg as the Cultural Capital of Canada 2010.  The goal of the four day event is to "gather international experts to deliberate and debate the current and future relationships of art and design to city-making."  Yesterdays events included three keynote speakers: author Jon Hawkes, one of Australia's leading commentators on cultural policy; creative economy expert Simon Evans; and writer and hollywood director John Waters.
 
I did not see Hawkes lecture although I would have liked to.  Evans lecture on creative economy was depressing and encouraging at the same time.  And John Waters basically did an hour of stand-up.  I am not sure what Waters' hour or so on stage did to discuss "relationships of art and design to city-making” but his anecdotes about growing up gay in Baltimore, making movies like Pink Flamingoes and Hair Spray, and teaching at federal prisons, had the audience howling and cringing, sometimes in the same breath.

My City’s Still Breathing runs all weekend and has more interesting speakers including internationally acclaimed painter and sculptor Eric Fischl.  Check out times and locations at their website.  I expect speakers like Fischl will actually discuss some of the topics of the symposium.  And he may have fewer dirty jokes than Waters.  None the less, it’s good to see our city can still laugh.

Soupy out  

A Scary, Hairy Month

Well it's the end of October and you know what that means?  No, not Halloween.  It means that the start of Movember is only a weekend away.  Movember is Men's Health Month.  Where men all over the world grow moustaches, or mo's, to change their appearance and raise awareness and money to fight prostate cancer.  You can join the movement and/or donate at: http://ca.movember.com/?home  It's actually a really funny and cool website.  The cause is supported by many celebrities all over the world. 


The rules are simple: start the first of month clean shaven and grow and groom your mo all month long.  Your mo is your ribbon for men's health.  Wear it proudly.  Tell people why you are growing the mo, tell them about this worthy cause and ask for donations.  No amount is too small.  No moustache is too cheesy.

Soup Strainer out

Money Can't Buy You Social Skills

The Social Network portrays a pre-Facebook Mark Zuckerberg as a young, insecure, genius that is looking for a way to enter the inner circle of the socially elite at Harvard.  He is so consumed with trying to fit in and get noticed by girls, and the exclusive university clubs, that he does not realize that he is surrounded by good friends that would do anything for him, including his best friend and co-founder of Facebook Eduardo Saverin.  And although Saverin put up the money to start Facebook and managed it from their shared Harvard dorm-room, Zuckerberg, forced Saverin out of the business just before it expanded from a U.S. university social website to the international phenomenon it has become.   This movie made me feel sorry for Saverin who lost his best friend and a large share in a billion dollar business.  But at the end I felt worse for Zuckerberg, whose desperation to fit in and desire to be popular ironically resulted in him being friendless and alone.   One of the final scenes of the movie, when Facebook reaches a milestone of one million members, shows all the Facebook employees partying, meanwhile Zuckerberg is sitting alone in his office. 

I don’t think that The Social Network movie will really do any harm to Facebooks popularity, however, it may cause some facebookers to stop and wonder why they use Facebook.  And maybe a few will realize they should be out spending time with their real friends instead of looking at pictures of their facebook friends, or friends of facebook friends.  I doubt the few that decide to log off will make much of a dent in the Facebook fan base.

With respect to Tiffany Gallicano’s article on PR Blog about Zuckerberg’s response to the movie ,  I think his comments about the film are OK.  He downplays its significance and factuality.  I am sure the producers took some liberties with the reality of the story so it fit into the Hollywood formula. And his quote about the last six years being about computer coding and hard work is probably true. One of the results of his inability to relate to people and obsessive work habits, is his incapacity to notice the human casualties of his decisions.  So the last six years could be about working hard for him, but incidents like the ditching of Saverin, stick out more in the minds of average people. 

 I think Zuckerberg’s announcement about his foundation that coincided with the release of the movie is just another example of his social ineptness and underestimation of an average person’s intellect.  As Gallinaco says, Zuckerberg calling his announcement a coincidence on Oprah ‘insults the audience’s intelligence.’   If billions of dollars can’t buy you friends and social skills, it should at least be able to buy you a decent PR team.  

Soupy out.

Blogger Beware

For our Buyer Beware Ad project we investigated payday loans at Money Mart. We were concerned with the rates that fringe banking companies like Money Mart charge its customers. We also wanted to compare the rates of payday loans to mainstream banking services like credit cards and lines of credit. We were interested in the government regulations regarding payday loans. And also wanted to know the reason people used payday loans rather than other alternatives out there. Our ultimate goal was to inform the public about the legitimacy of payday loans.

Our primary research included visiting Money Marts, RBC and interviewing a person that has used payday loans in the past. Our secondary research was mainly online.


Our research revealed that Money Mart payday loans are much more expensive than other mainstream banking loan or credit card services. They are a useful service for people that are caught with unexpected bills like car repairs and need cash right now. But they should not be relied upon as a regular source of cash because it can lead to a cycle of debt and poverty that is difficult to get out of. For example, in Manitoba Money Mart charges $19.50 per $100 borrowed and it is due to be paid back the following payday. A payday loan is like a credit card that is already a month overdue and the interest is compounded every 14 days instead of every 30 days.

Finding a 2005 report on Fringe Banking in Winnipeg’s North End was the research highlight for me. It contained valuable general fringe banking information and had research and survey data specific to Winnipeg.

Another important research discovery was the fact that Manitoba’s payday loan regulations are being updated on October 18, 2010.…just five days after our project is due. This was significant because it shows how topical our project is and its importance in today’s economy.

Low income and under educated users of fringe banking services are often not aware of alternatives offered by mainstream banks. And if they are aware they often choose fringe banking services because they feel more respected at those establishments than at mainstream banks.

Education is the key to preventing existing and potential fringe banking clients from getting caught in a cycle of debt that these services can often lead to; education for consumers about general financial management practices and the alternatives to the over-priced fringe banking services; and education of mainstream banks of the expectations and needs of low income clients so that potential clients feel more welcome at their banks. This education of consumers and bankers will increase bank clientele and help improve the financial management skills of low income individuals so that they do not have to rely on fringe banking services.

Soupy Out

Mayoral Forum at RRC

Well, Mayor Sam Katz and challenger Judy Wasylycia-Leis were at Red River College on Tuesday to answer questions about their respective mayoral platforms. I am by no means a Katz supporter. In fact I want to believe that Wasylycia-Leis can be a new voice for Winnipeg's impoverished and marginalized. But sadly I left the two hour forum with a little less faith in Judy's ability to lead the city and a little more respect for the job Katz has done over the last six years. I am not saying that I am ready to jump on Sam's band wagon. I still think that there is a lot of stuff in this city that he does not address and a change is needed. But after the forum my head told me to vote for Katz, and my heart was still looking for a good alternative.

Soupy out

Blitzen Trapper at West End Cultural Centre

I went to the Blitzen Trapper concert on Monday night.  Seems like a long time ago now....about six CreComm assignments have gone by since.   But it was a really amazing show.  It was the first time I have ever seen them live.  They had a great rapport with the audience, even taking requests, including one for a Townes Van Zandt song they weren't sure they remembered how to play. 

In addition to their generous attitude toward the fans, this folk rock band from Portand Oregon, really impressed me by reproducing some of the cool, original sounds they make in the studio, on the stage at the West End Cultural Centre.  I was expecting a pared down version of some of their hits, because I thought a lot of their sound might be achieved in the editing room.  But their on stage sound was even more diverse than their albums.  Two out of the three guitarists would intermittently stick their guitar pick in their mouth and  rattle off a sweet little diddy on the keyboad which was setup on a bench in front of them.  And they used lots of differnet kinds of percussion instruments, including bells and bead-filled fruit. The third guitarist also mixed it up with different instruments, even bringing out a melodica during one of the encore songs. 

By the way, that guy in the photo is not in Blitzen Trapper.  He is just this dude I met at Red River College today.  I just randomly asked him, "hey do you know where I could get a picture of a melodica for my blog?" And he said "Do I!" and he reached into his back pack pulled that baby out.  Nice guy.

But anyway, where was I?  Oh yeah, so Blittzen Trapper is a very talented group of artists, that put on a rockin' show. They are not afraid of trying new, interesting things.  The $20 I spent to enjoy their show at the WECC was well worth it. 

They also come across as a  group of genuinely nice guys that puts the audience first.  By playing requests, coming back out for two encores and complimenting our locally brewed beer, they worked some PR magic. 

Check out the video of their 2008 song 'Furr' below.  It's a cool collage style video and catchy little tune.  After a show like the one they put on the least I can do is try to convert a few more fans for them.

Enjoy,

Soupy out.

Pre-Bomber Game Blog

Well, we have the big Blue Bomber Game journalism assignment tonight.  We get a free ticket to the game, which is nice, but I am sure most of us won't be able to enjoy it.  We will spend our time worrying about the story that we have to get before the end of the game.  It is basically a streeter in the stadium.  But instead of running around the empty exchange district at 9:15am searching desperately for anyone to talk to, we will be sifting through the massive crowds searching for "the one” - the person that will make a story.  And then we will spend the rest of the weekend trying to decipher the hundreds of notes that we scratched on our notepad. For example:

While in line-up for the men’s washroom did Richard Jones say: ‘Alouettes games are tough,’ or ‘I always try to get the same trough’?   What the heck, I’ll go with the ‘lucky trough’ angle.  Possible Headline: Super-piss-ious Fans.  Pure journalistic gold! Steve V, eat your heart out.

Good luck to the Bombers and the CreCommers.  It is hard to say who is in for a tougher night.

Soupy out.

Out of My Bloggin' Mind

Well I have officially joined the masses in the world of mobile technology and social networking.  A few weeks ago I was happy with my cell phone, a hotmail account, Google and the odd YoutTube video.  I lead a simple,happy life.   But now, just three weeks into CreComm and I am O.D.’ing on the internet and its communication tools.  I have a new BlackBerry, a blog and a Twitter account.  How did I come so far so fast?

They are all mandatory parts of the CreComm curriculum.  Social networking media and smart phone technology are powerful tools that must be mastered to succeed in today’s communications industry.  Or so I am told.  But honestly conquering apps and staying current in the internet social scene takes a lot out of a guy.  My BlackBerry is vibrating off my hip with all these emails, tweets and blog alerts. My fingers are cramping from typing on the tiny keypad.  Who do I have to blog to get a special dialing wand?

And as if I did not have my hands full trying to master the BlackBerry, blog and Twitter I also decided that my first week of school would be a good time to get a Facebook account.  I am told it is how “the kids” communicate these days.  I have been stubbornly avoiding it for years.  It’s the same stubbornness that would not let me watch Avatar.  It was just TOO popular.  So I stood my ground and said, “No thank you Mr. Cameron.”  I find that making such petty, counter pop-culture stands is a lot less work than standing up against real issues, like social injustice.  And it is almost as satisfying. 

By the way I am sorry to my Facebook friends that I have not replied to yet.  Your comments about how I have finally jumped into the year 2006 are appreciated.  And I apologize for not uploading any photos to my album yet.  But honestly who has time to update their status when they are busy tweeting and blogging like a rock star? 

Well that is all from me for now.  I think I am going to go update my status, tweet that I have a new blog, and if  there is time I may finally breakdown and rent Avatar.  

Soupy Out

Hello Bloggers

Welcome to my blog: Soupy for the Soul. Soupy was a nick name that my grade eight basketball coach gave me. But actually it never really stuck. Most people just call me Campbell. But hey, I am back at school for the first time in four years as a mature student (in age only) and I figure I got a chance to start with a clean slate. So why not throw “Soupy” out there on campus and into the blogosphere and see if it sticks. I originally wanted to try something a little cooler like “T-Bone,” but I thought it might backfire on me.
Anywhoo, as a general theme for this blog I will be commenting on my experiences as a Red River College student and I plan on taking advantage of the rich cultural offerings around the Princess Street campus. I hope taking breaks from school to enjoy what downtown Winnipeg has to offer will give me time to relax during what is sure to be a busy school year. And maybe my comments will encourage others to venture out and check out movies, bands, or exhibits in their own backyard. I encourage people tune in if they want to get my take on things, and post their own comments including info about upcoming events that are under my radar.


Soupy out.