Lazy Sunday # 108: We’re Golden!

You wouldn’t want to be anybody else but Canadian today. From the moment our hockey team kicked Russia’s ass on Wednesday night, so many people around the world have come to realize that Canadians are something more than they thought we were when these Winter Olympic Games started.

Butt kicking the Bear was so profound that people in Eastern Europe now want their countries to become our next provinces. I’d wager even Vladimir Putin decided to leave the North Pole where it is. He’s not opening any can of whoop-ass with us after what he saw in Vancouver.

Whether or not we end up “owning” a podium, I don’t think any of us has a problem with the Canadian face the world has seen at these Olympics.

Yeah, we’ve lost some of the competitions, but from Alexandre Bilodeau’s brother to the breathtaking performance of a heart-broken figure skater to our blissfully beautiful ski bums, we’ve exemplified the tolerance, compassion and simple joy of being alive that the Olympics are supposed to represent.

Some of us may natter about the games not being televised in the traditional CBC Kumbaya/We Are the World fashion or criticize CTV’s approach as little more than a 17 day long episode of “So You Think You Can Dance”, but that misses what has been at the heart of Vancouver 2010.

The rest of the world is beginning to see us for what we really are. Not exhibiting the low self esteem image some of our institutions endlessly project. Not possessing the lack of identity that academics like to debate. But us as we mostly are within the tribe and toward the outsiders we encounter.

Early in the Games, Globe and Mail columnist Stephen Brunt sat with CTV Olympic host Brian Williams in front of the broadcast studio’s fake fireplace and struggled to get a handle on this “new Canadian face”.

Even though, as one of the Media consortium members bringing us the Games, he’d shouldered aside some former Olympic athlete, Afghan veteran or kid in a wheelchair so he could personally help run the torch across the country, Brunt seemed befuddled; unsure if he was comfortable with the Canadians he was meeting in Vancouver.

I hate to break it to you Steve, but this is who we’ve been all along. And if you worked for a newspaper less interested in forming opinion and more in reporting and reflecting it, you might not be wrestling with the issue.

Stephen Brunt is a terrific sports writer. His “Searching for Bobby Orr” may be about the best book about hockey ever written. But his confusion symbolizes how out of touch so many of those who pretend to speak for us actually are with who that “us” really is.

I’ve long believed it isn’t the average Canadian who is the self-effacing, unsure who they really are folks. Those are the traits of those who would govern our affairs or sell us stuff.

About the only negative memories I’ll take away from the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics came from the messages repeatedly sent in the commercials created specifically for these Games. 

First up were all those promos for CTV’s new series which went out of their way to either hide what the shows were about or make you think actors you’d come to love were returning as the same characters that made them famous.

CTV, I’m really pleased you’re making some television drama and comedy. How about having the confidence to really get behind the shows themselves?

Perhaps more disheartening were the spots from the Royal Bank and Visa. After wrapping themselves in the flag and being official sponsors of the Games, both opted to deliver their “We’re proud Canadians” messages through American spokesmen.

There’s no doubt Ed Harris (RBC) and Morgan Freeman (Visa) are actors of consummate talent and distinctive vocal styles. But by choosing wealthy foreigners over equally talented performers who actually live and work here they blunted the impact of those spots and made them ring even hollower when surrounded by the sporting achievements of our friends and neighbors.

Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman will never apply for an Royal Bank mortgage or run up clothes for the kids on a Canadian Visa card.

But the thousands of Canadian actors who do were sent the clear message that they aren’t good enough for these two corporations. Perhaps these performers, their significant retirement funds and the professional expenditures they make should take that financial business somewhere else.

There is, however, one little promo that got it right. Supremely, upliftingly correct.

It features Michael J. Fox and will no doubt run a final time prior to or during the Gold Medal hockey game this afternoon. However that game turns out, win or lose, this short chunk of video perfectly captures who we are, what we cherish and why all of that makes us so special.

Bill Brioux has a great post of the spot’s “making of “ here. And like Bill, I’m hoping you’ll be impressed enough to link to the Michael J. Fox Foundation here to help find a cure for the debilitating disease that has afflicted one of our brightest stars.

Maybe defeating Parkinson’s will be one of the things we accomplish with our newly acknowledged self image. Maybe it’ll be making more self-assured television or not giving so much credit to bankers.

We can do anything. We’re golden.

I mean, we always have been. But now it’s official.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Shopping cart~

The shopping cart that I picked up at a yard sale recently for the mere sum of five buckeroos has gotten a make-over. Here is the before photo.I spray painted it with flat white paint and I made some white liners for the two wire baskets. Doesn't it look so much happier now? I'm going to tuck it in my hallway beside my front door. I'm going to fill each basket with odds and ends that seem to multiply in my house when I'm not looking. Super great storage for under $10 bucks! Caute!

You can view more transformations over at "Shabby Chic Cottage" and also over at "A Soft Place to Land" Kimba is hosting a "do it yourself" linky party. The Coloradolady is also hosting a Vintage Thingie Thursday. And last, but not least...Leigh over at "Tales From Bloggeritaville" is hosting a Thrifty Thursday linky party~ Becky is hosting a Linky party as well on her blog "Beyond the Picket Fence" Also... Jen from the blog "Sanctuary Arts at Home" is hosting a make-over party! You can also see more Show & Tells over at Cindy's blog "My Romantic Home"If you have linked to my blog and wish to view more... you can click right here to go have a lookie~lou.

Mummsie~

Happy...Clinque's "Happy"...

Birthday~

Sewin'

Have you ever wanted to make a slipcover for a chair but were afraid to give it a try? Well, I'm going to share with you how to do it the easy-peasy way! Firstly, either purchase a flat sheet from a thrift store or use one your willing to cut up. Your needing: a flat sheet, pins, a pen and scissors and large paper (optional). Thats it. The first thing your needing to do is start draping the sheet over the chair. Make sure the fabric is smoothed over the contour of the chair.... Next, your needing to start cutting and piecing the fabric over the chair. When pinning the sheet/fabric pin close together as this will later be the stitch line you'll be using on your pattern. Here is the chair covered with the sheet. You can see that it is pinned together over the entire chair~Once the chair is covered using this method, take your pen and and mark where the pins are. This will become the stitching line you will use later. Remove the pinned slipcover pattern you've just made. Mark each piece with corresponding letters, like A to A that when placed together they match up. Once the whole thing is removed and marked with line-up-leters cut the fabric pattern you've just made along the pen lines. This is now the pattern to be used either as is...or trace it on paper so you'll have a paper pattern.
Using the new pattern you've just made, trace it onto the final fabric your wanting to cover the chair with. The line you draw onto the final fabric will be your stitching line, so add your seam allowence when you cut it out! Then just sew the whole thing together. Keep fitting it to the chair as you go as you might need to make a few alterations to get a snug fit. I put in a zipper down the back of each slipcover I made for easy removal. I made 4 slipcovers in total~ Here is the finished chair with a match-box fabric motif. I made another one with a dark-dark denium for a dresser look.Here is Miss Chloe Rose trying out her chair which I slip covered with some Disney princess fabric. She is sad to see the Cheeto-orange stained chair arms covered up. She is sensitive like that~ I also made a matching denium slipcover for this little chair as well :-)Thats it, easy-peasy slipcovers!

Scratching Up Millions for Canadian TV

Who knew that the answer to the lack of funding for Canadian television has been right at our fingertips all along!

For its been discovered that all the while our governments have claimed they were providing all they could and beating each others brains out with local tax incentives, they were spending millions on supporting already successful foreign TV shows and movies.

And I’m not talking about tax credits or production incentives. I’m talking about cold, hard, ready cash that flows into Provincial coffers daily and is quickly turned around and shipped offshore.

This is a literal fountain of available cash that wouldn’t cause one single person to bellyache about funding “crappy Canadian TV” because it doesn’t come from tax dollars.

Yes, there really are tens of millions that could be diverted to assisting local production without impacting anyone --- except the Hollywood studios who are cashing million dollar cheques from supposedly cash strapped Canadian governments as we speak.

It used to be that when you went into a gas station or corner store in Ontario, for example, the counter was littered with lottery style scratch tickets with names like “Pot of Gold”, “Royal Flush” or “Lucky Dog”. You’ve all seen their like, no matter in what part of the country you live.

For anywhere from $1 to $5, you get to scratch off little squares to reveal a “Thanks for Playing” stamp and be reminded that lotteries are a tax on the stupid.

But lots of people still play them regularly and our various Provincial governments use that money to support amateur sports, local arts organizations and hospitals. So, you lose. You still had five minutes of imagining life on that beach in the Bahamas and helped make sure your kid has ice to play on.

But according to an article in today’s Toronto Sun, Ontario’s Gaming Commission is sending between 0.6 and 2 % of the price of those scratch tickets to American studios for the right to now call those tickets “Survivor”, “Family Feud” and “The Price is Right”.

During the Christmas season, they got on the blockbuster bandwagon and began selling clearly branded “Sherlock Holmes” tickets – even though Sherlock is now in the Public Domain.

That means the Ontario government is regularly cutting cheques for up to $2.5 Million to Hollywood multi-millionaires like Mark Burnett or Billion dollar multi-nationals like Fremantle and Warner Brothers.

According to an OLG spokesman, these “branded” games sell much quicker and therefore return money faster to the government. But in the words of talk radio host Mike Stafford, “They’re the only game in town! They could call a game ‘Kill a Kitten to Win’ and make money!”

So why can’t they call their games “Being Erica”, “Flashpoint” and “Crash & Burn”?

Why can’t money they are shipping offshore be used instead to both support and raise the audience recognition of shows the people who live in their jurisdiction make?

Canadian producers struggle to cobble together production funding, often knowing they can make the show but will never see an additional penny of profit once it’s on the air. They’re constantly working for fees and never finding the additional income they need to build their companies.

But if they were rewarded by having their produced series “recognized” on scratch tickets or slot machines or any of the other gaming options for which our governments buy rights from foreigners, the benefits could ripple through the industry and have an enormously positive impact.

Perhaps a producer could elevate the production budget to make his series more competitive with big-budget US shows. Perhaps he’d have more money to put into script development on his next project. Maybe he’d finally be able to shoot that low budget feature that’s been languishing in the top drawer.

Trust me, Mark Burnett and Warner Brothers don’t need the money. And as Mike Stafford asserts, the punters are just there to play. They don’t care whether the face on their ticket belongs to Robert Downey Jr. or one of “The Kids in the Hall”.

This is found money that could help an industry that needs it right now and might even encourage players to take a peek at a show that was off their radar before they needed a bag of milk and didn’t want to walk away with a pocket full of change.

Suddenly, we could start getting off the welfare treadmill and maybe soon start being able to survive without any government subsidies at all.

Easter Swappin'

Anyone out there looking for an Easter swap?There are two that I have just signed up for worth a lookie-lou. The first one is a bunny swap being hosted by Vivian on her blog "Vivs-Whimsy" the sign up ends February the 26th. Hurry-hurry...

The second swap is an Easter Basket Swap from the blog Miss Rhea's Sweet & Shabby Roses. The date to sign up ends on February the 26th. The baskets are to be made using yogurt containers that you repurpose into a super caute basket. Easy-peasy! Go, right this very second and check them both out!!

Lazy Sunday # 107: Hot Docs

I’ve always believed that the most logical way to make money from the internet is to give away content for free. While I’m sure that doesn’t make sense to an economist, we’ve repeatedly witnessed the proof.

From bands who’ve launched lucrative careers from a MySpace site to unknown authors with self-printed books to established comedy icons like Monty Python, they all have discovered that, like the least attractive cheerleader on the Pep Squad, if you give it away you can become very popular.

In the case of the Pythons, they resisted advice from their video distributor who wanted to take down content and perhaps even sue all the fans who had posted grainy versions of their old routines on Youtube.

Instead, opting to “give the fans what they want”, the group made their entire library available in crisp HD and optimal sound.

The cash sales of their DVDs rose by an astonishing 23,000 % !!!

What the purveyors and enablers of the Mainstream Media conglomerates, attempting to monetize the internet by requiring Artists to provide content cheaper or free or in a format that only serves their own wholly-owned narrow self-promotional niche, fail to recognize is that you don’t have to make money off every single download, page hit or video link to succeed.

This new media reaches such an exponentially large audience compared to what they have traditionally served, that there are eager consumers far beyond any marketing and distribution models they’ve previously depended upon.

One afternoon earlier this week, a local sports call-in show I’m addicted to fielded calls from Scotland, France and some nameless place in Alaska from fans of the 2nd worst hockey team in the NHL. Two of them made their calls while wearing treasured Toronto Maple Leaf jerseys and had never even set foot in the country, let alone the home arena.

None of the callers had local access to Leaf broadcasts, admitting that they watched Pirate streams or downloaded bittorrent files of the games. Yet they had purchased sweaters and memorabilia.

Maybe the team had lost 2 or 3 cents in revenue by not having these guys as TV viewers. But they made several hundred dollars because somebody liked what they saw and wanted it to be part of their lives.

Hulk Hogan tells a story of realizing early in his career that he was making more money selling “Hulkster” T-shirts out of his van than he was being paid by wrestling promoters to fight. He readily admits that he could have wrestled for free and still earned more than everybody else on the bill combined.

What we’ve got here is not a new phenomena. Little Richard and Bill Haley sold 45’s and autographed 8x10 glossies after their shows. Sometimes it was the only real money they saw from their music after the record companies, management and promoters had taken their piece.

And now, more and more people with a library of product, often product considered without much value, are discovering that by giving it away its value is increasing.

Last year, the National Film Board of Canada made 500 films from its 70 year library available on the net. Everything from Oscar winning shorts to rare historical documentaries to feature films could be accessed and downloaded free via its Screening Room.

That initiative was followed up by an iPhone app which brought this ever increasing menu (now well over 1500 films) to mobile devices. All still free. In fact, if you go to the NFB online store, they’ll even mail you 3D glasses free of charge, so you can watch the 3D material that recently debuted on the site.

Has that hurt profit margins at the NFB? No.

Almost 4 Million video views have taken place since the Screening Room was launched, a third of them from outside Canada. Sales of their DVDs and other offerings have also increased exponentially. Perhaps most importantly, they’ve also seen a growing worldwide interest in the filmmakers who are now reaching a wider audience.

Two years ago, I wrote about Media Guru Rishad Tobaccowala, including one of his most prescient quotes about social networking sites, "Obscurity is the new poverty."

For people hoping to earn money from the internet --- that concept can be expanded to “Accessibility equals relevance”.

People only pay to own what is relevant to their lives. So not everybody who test drives a Toyota or gets a free taste at the Liquor store will follow through with a purchase. But those who do in the internet realm number far more than corporate bean counters seem willing to acknowledge. It’s a crowd which should not be dissuaded by having to pay to discover if the content really matters to them in the first place.

This week, we added a new free library of relevant films. Hot Docs, an initiative of Heritage Canada, offers not only free streaming of scores of the country’s best documentaries but also provides access to additional material to enhance the viewing experience.

One of the best I’ve found so far is “Last Call at the Gladstone Hotel” which chronicles the five year transformation of a downtown Toronto flophouse into one of the city’s trendiest Artist hangouts, exploring all the social and moral issues all of that brings to the surface.

Hot Docs is yet another example of how the distribution barriers between Artists and their audiences are crumbling. It also clearly exhibits the fact that we don’t have to bind ourselves to flailing business models in order to earn a living wage from what we do.

The future is a bright place than it first might appear. Enjoy your Sunday.

Lightfoot Lives!!!

So there I am at the computer on Thursday afternoon, tweaking the final copy for a video shoot with a bunch of hockey celebrities later that night.

Beeping in the corner of my screen are Tweets from various and sundry in the Canadian TV community attending the CFTPA Prime Time Conference in Ottawa.

I’ve got the radio playing in the BG, mostly to catch a traffic update before I hit the road.

On top of that, I’m typing with one hand while ruffling the dog’s ear with the other.

Who says I’m not at my best when I multitask?

The Ottawa tweets are confusing, giving the impression that most of the panels and speakers have their own agendas when it comes to unravelling the multi-platform future of our industry.

Apparently, the road to El Dorado runs through social networks, or maybe mobile video, or 3D, etc. and may be powered by either Push or Pull Culture. That last phrase makes me wonder if the iconic Far Side cartoon is a metaphor for our future.

Once or twice, I’d also gotten the distinct impression that a Tweeter was questioning his or her own career path. How do I use the story skills I’ve honed in this new world? How can I produce something here that can make any money? Will the delivery system I work for even survive?

I know exactly how they feel. I’ve been in similar conference rooms being hit by colliding agendas, differing philosophies and speakers who don’t seem to have a clue about the future --- but, then again, just might.

It’s like attending some Media Snake Oil Medicine Show, wondering if one of those fancy bottles of mystery elixir really will provide a longed for cure.

But it’s also the Medicine show from some Ken Maynard or Tim McCoy Western with the Carney Barkers knowing the folks from the last town they scammed are getting close and they better sell their wares quick and blow town.

Do you ever get the feeling, with all of this looming Media Fund pressure to commit to multi-platforms before anybody is clear on how they actually work, that once again Creative isn’t driving the agenda?

In any other country and culture, somebody creates and somebody else figures out how to make money off the creation. Here it seems to be, “We think we might have a market, so you kids figure out something cheap that fits in that niche so we can sell it!”

But isn’t what audiences in our industry always gravitate to (and are most willing to pay for) usually connected directly to the story?

“Avatar” may have stunning special effects. “Lost” may be a complex puzzle. “Twilight” mostly functions as a teen masturbation fantasy. But none of them would have been able to showcase those marketing opportunities if they didn’t have a story at their center that the audience could engage on some level.

To be sure, a lot of what gets sold in the Pop culture marketplace is just another empty calorie chocolate bar. But story is the flavor at the center that distinguishes one from another and ultimately connects with the consumer.

Why do Creatives in Canada always seem to be the last ones allowed on the bus? And why does the bus always have to be driven by guys with money who may not be clear on where they’re going besides hoping the last stop is at the bank?

As I was pondering this, news came on the radio that Gordon Lightfoot had just died.

It was a profound moment. The guy has a special place in my life --- make that the lives of most Canadians. He’s one of our great songwriters and story tellers, our unofficial Poet Laureate, a friend with whom we’ve all shared a long road trip, a lost love and the pride we feel for our nation.

Knowing the mood among my friends in one of those windowless Ottawa conference rooms, I felt they needed reminding that an epic storyteller had once been among us. And I thought maybe Tweeting the sad news might bring them back to how much more important story is than how its sliced and diced and contorted for whatever platforms may or may not arise.

No sooner had I repeated the news than the guys on the radio were backtracking after discovering the death notice was a hoax.

Now, how did that happen?

Apparently, it began with a Tweet and because of the way internet news spreads quicker than the Mainstream media can react, the news department at the radio station got “confirmation” from Rocker Ronnie Hawkins, who’d fielded a couple of calls himself and figured it must be true.

Now, I know Ronnie a little and he’d be the last person to tell you he’s any kind of “reliable source” on anything. But desperate not to get scooped, his confirmation was enough for somebody who manages one of those media operations bent on maintaining their position amid all these new platforms and they went public with the news.

And these are the people who are supposed to lead the transformation of story into the digital age?

Mighten we consider that their sheer desperation to survive and remain relevant may cause them to leap before they look?

About an hour later, as I drove to my gig, Lightfoot called in to the same radio station I’d been listening to, telling the story of hearing of his own demise, confirming he was going strong and still trying to get hold of his daughter, who would be devastated if she heard the hoax before learning the truth.

On one level, it kind of warmed me to think that Lightfoot and I rely on the same media outlet for our news. On another, the thought that nobody had considered his family before their own ratings was kind of chilling.

But that's the culture the platform pushers being enabled by the Canadian Media Fund come from, isn't it?

Now, let me tell you a couple of stories about Gordon Lightfoot that come from personal experience.

I first saw him perform when I was 17. He was playing at the University of Saskatchewan on a tour that had seen him play Winnipeg the night before. During one of his interludes, he remarked on a statue of a bull or a buffalo that stood outside the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Agriculture. He’d been amazed by the detail the artist gone to in depicting the beast, right down to its astonishingly large “Gent-inals”.

The word stuck in your head the moment he said it. Had he misspoke? Or had the poet in him found a much more descriptive word?

A few years later, I made a movie with Jack Nicholson and one night he and I ended up dropping in to visit Lightfoot at his home in downtown Toronto. It was a great night, with two of my cultural icons sitting on a couch swapping jokes and anecdotes about people they knew and Gordon playing a couple of songs he was putting on his next album.

Sitting beside him through the evening was a woman he was seeing named Cathy, who would become infamous a half dozen years later as Cathy Evelyn Smith, the woman who injected John Belushi with his final, fatal speedball.

Now, let me ask you something about those two little anecdotes or “stories”. How would they be enhanced by 3D or enriched as a Youtube video? Would they be worth more to you in a different format? Would you have paid to hear or see either if it was downloadable to your phone?

Now translate that concept to the much more valuable Lightfoot library.

Would “Early Morning Rain” be more powerful in 3D? Does “Sundown” have a bigger market as a ringtone guys could hear when their mistress calls? Will “If You Could Read My Mind” be more poignant and affecting if you could play the game version?

Because from what I’ve read and heard, those are the directions in which the gurus speaking at CFTPA’s Prime Time Conference want to herd us.

They’re no different than all the people in LA ten years ago insisting Porn was going mainstream and would be our most profitable future or that “Indy films” would soon kill the major studios.

Commerce never leads the culture. It follows. And if it supports the correct projects it makes money. But when it tries to make the zeitgeist match its pre-determined spending choices, it invariably loses.

Anybody remember how “The Great Gatsby” was going to revolutionize fashion or that people would be lining up to collect “Howard the Duck” memorabilia?

I don’t know if writers like Jill Gollick are on the right track about what will work in the new media future. But I know she’s smart and talented and creative and I’m more likely to believe anything she says than everything that comes from a guy in a suit with CTV stamped on his business card.

Guys in similar suits warned Gordon Lightfoot he’d never get any American airplay ever again if he recorded “Black Day In July”. Industry insiders cautioned that nobody would listen to “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” more than once because it was too bleak. Recording a seven minute single called “The Canadian Railroad Trilogy” was considered by most record company executives to be a complete waste of half the side of an album.

But Lightfoot, in the tradition of all storytellers, went with his passion and the rest is musical history.

Any good writer, decent agent and responsible studio or network executive always tells young writers the same truth. “Don’t write what you think will sell. Don’t write what you think we want or will fit the market. Write what matters to you. Write what comes from your heart.”

They all know the heart and our shared humanity is where we connect with our audience. It has nothing to do with whether or not you share the same 3G network.

Yes, the gadgets are wonderful on a whole bunch of levels. But they will only succeed if the content providers are allowed to find material that connects with their users, not what is mandated in advance in order to receive funding. 

As a Coda to all of the above, I offer a final personal experience from last night.

I was working with Ex and current NHL stars. They all carried state of the art  Smart Phones, Netbooks and Blackberries. By coincidence, our shoot overlapped the Canada/Switzerland Olympic Hockey game.

As we worked, a couple punched news feeds to get the score. And even though Canada suddenly wasn’t dominating the play as expected and the game was tied going into the final minutes --- nobody bothered searching for video clips or stats or detailed updates. They were all DVRing the game and wanted to catch it in a fully watchable experience when they got home.

They wanted the whole story, not fragments or enhancements or even immediacy. They wanted the experience, the emotions and the excitement of the outcome.

Like our ancient ancestors gathered around a campfire, they wanted to become enthralled, still finding something that touched their hearts no matter how many times they’d heard the tale.

Gordon Lightfoot, I’m so happy you’re still with us and I look forward to all the stories you still have to tell.

At the same time, I can still get lost in and be touched by the stories I’ve heard you tell a thousand times before. Because I know you lead with your heart. I hope those of us who follow in your footsteps never forget that’s what’s most important.

Thrifted Treasures~

I picked up some more treasures to add to my overflowing home... These three silver pieces were found at 3 different stores. The dish was $1.50 the two matching bud vases were $3 and the lone candle holder was $1.

The two matching glass jars were $4 bucks for the pair and the white glass vase was only .50cents. (I have the exact same one in my cabinet... oh I love things that match!)

This white wooden wall shelf was $3. I have no wall space left... *gasp* but I was thinking this would be so cute filled with jar fairies, so in my cart it went. Maybe I'll knock off that bottom decorative piece and add a wooden base to it and stand it up on my desk.... or maybe, I'll stick it out in the garage!

These two wreaths were $1.50 for both. The black one I am going to use for Halloween, and the twiggy-spring looking one is going to be-- well you guessed it... a spring wreath!

I also received this wonderful pie safe from my mother recently. I am going to paint it white. Surprised? I asked permission first, just incase she was wanting it back.... I'm sure it horrified her, but she was generous enough to say yes. (I'm sure all the while cursing under her breath!) I have no space for this piece, but that didn't stop me from taking it...lol... seriously, I love me some furniture! So where is this piece going? Um, that'd be in my bedroom. Ok, that even made me laugh~ Off to paint!

O.W.O.H. event~

I really enjoyed myself this year being part of the O.W.O.H. event. There were over 1,000 people participating this year. On my blog-post for the event I had 702 comments on my giveaway alone...wow! The winners of my two giveaways are as follows: Rhonda from the blog "Blue Creek Home" won this vintage box full of vintage junk stuff.Lisa who's blog is "Life Unity" won this vintage tintype.I went to every blog who joined up with this yearly event. It took me about 4 long days to visit everyone! I bookmarked a lot to my computer and became a "follower" on some as well. I must have entered about 900 giveaways. For some reason typepad wouldn't allow comments from me. Anywho, I was extremely lucky to have won several wonderful items! Here is what I've won~ I won this piece of mixed media art..... from Lisa, her blog is "I've Been Thinkin' 'Bout 'Inkin" Cute name huh? Cute stuff too!Here is a view of the base.I also won this from Kathy whos blog is called "Kathy's Funny Farm"

It is a digital scrapbook. How cool huh?I won this stunning necklace from Sally, her blog is called "Wire Worked" Isn't it dreamy?

I was also lucky enough to win this beauty of a necklace called a Spirit Gourd Necklace from Vivian, isn't it amazing? I see myself wearing this one a lot too.Vivian's blog is called "Vivian Helena Creates" Vivian just happens to live up in the foot hills close by to where I live here in Fresno, California. Small-small world huh? I'm anxious to join up for next years event, to bad its a year away! lol

One Small Difference Between Canadians and Americans

IN AMERICA…

“When you’re the son or daughter of a public figure, you have to develop thick skin. My siblings and I all have that, but insults directed at our youngest brother hurt too much for us to remain silent.

People with special needs face challenges that many of us will never confront, and yet they are some of the kindest and most loving people you’ll ever meet. Their lives are difficult enough as it is, so why would anyone want to make their lives more difficult by mocking them?

As a culture, shouldn’t we be more compassionate to innocent people – especially those who are less fortunate? Shouldn’t we be willing to say that some things just are not funny? Are there any limits to what some people will do or say in regards to my little brother or others in the special needs community?

If the writers of a particularly pathetic cartoon show thought they were being clever in mocking my brother and my family yesterday, they failed. All they proved is that they’re heartless jerks. - Bristol Palin”

MEANWHILE IN CANADA…

“As the 22-year-old from Montreal tore down the hill at Cypress Mountain toward the first gold Canada has ever won as a host country, waiting for him at the bottom, standing by the rail with his fist in the air, was the shining, bespectacled face of his disabled older brother, Frédéric.

It was the mention of Frédéric that saw Mr. Bilodeau's eyes, already dangerously close to brimming as he stood wrapped in a big Canadian flag, spill over.

Mr. Bilodeau has talked before of how despite his physical limitations and the difficulties of disability, he never heard his brother complain about anything.

Then he spoke of how he had been "surrounded" throughout his life and though he didn't say by what, it was clear he meant by love.”

-- Christie Blatchford (Globe & Mail)

 

Just Sayin’.

Happy Birthday...

Miss Chloe Rose! Well here it is your very first birthday. I pray you'll see at least 99 more!I've made a few things to help with the festivites. I hope you like them.... a sweet felt banner with your name on it~I made this cut out of you for the table. I've got you sitting on a silver tray with pink rose petals around you, and there are some big semi precious rings around you. I know how you like your bling~...Here is the before photo I used... Your playing with my silver charm bracelet which is loaded with hearts, you love to shake it and hear the sound it makes~I took this photo of you while you were playing at my house one day and...I turned you into a fairy. You look so serious, which is how you always look-- so its very fitting!I also made these crocheted cupcake party favors with a little two sided cut-out photo of you wearing a pink netting tutu. Ahhhhhhhhh such a cutie-pie sitting on a fluffy cupcake... may you always sit on soft stuff :-) I also added a tiny-tiny berry wreath around your head, adorable~Here is the photo I used for the cupcakes.... Always laughing/smiling when your not looking at the camera! On to more important things... like eating cake! At first you were very cautious... You added some frosting to your lips before you took a bite! You don't want to appear washed out in the photos... such a smart girl!Here you are when you had-had your fill of cake, or should I say frosting! Your favorite gift this year? Money-- real and pretend. What can I say, your a very sensible girl! Here you are listening to the money whisper sweet nothings into your ear~
Happy-happy birthday Miss Chloe Rose~

Lazy Sunday # 106: Fromage!

It’s Sunday, so I’d like to talk to you about cheeses…

Sorry…

Couldn’t help myself...

Actually, I spent much of Saturday watching CTV’s coverage of the Winter Olympics. And at a certain point, cheese balls began dancing in my head.

I wasn’t hungry. I just kept noticing all the tired clichés that seem to go hand-in-hand with Olympic broadcasts.

No dig at CTV intended. Although they did spend months promising the most innovative and creative Olympic broadcasting anyone has ever experienced. But, so far, it’s pretty much what we’ve all seen and heard before.

And I think a lot of that just comes with the territory.

It’s hard to cover an event like this without reverting to the “Wide World of Sports” format and pandering to national pride. There’s a lot of Mom and Apple Pie that comes built in. And, as any prairie kid will tell you, ice cream is nice but nothing tops a slice of apple pie like a healthy slab of cheddar.

Apparently, the derogatory term “Cheesy” originated in India, where it was picked up by British soldiers in the early 19th century. It pretty much meant then what it does today, something overly noticed and past its prime like the pong of an over-ripe cheese.

And let’s admit the truth. Cheese is easy.

It’s easy to make. You mostly find milk that’s going bad and let it.

A couple of years ago, I was shooting in a part of France that makes my favorite cheese. I was really looking forward to trying some fresh off the farm. But the day was hot and humid and all you could smell was the odor of that cheese wafting from every direction. It was so thick it clogged your throat and made your eyes water and I haven’t been able to go near it since.

Sort of like that experience with Tequila that I still can’t fully remember.

Anyway, cheese is easy. It makes a quick sandwich and is even quicker to slap on a cracker. And, of course, it perks up almost any meal.

I’m already starting to picture the Cheese Marketing Board ads Google is going to slap up around here if I say much more.

So, you caught me. It’s Sunday morning and I got nothing. Except the early bloat from being force fed all that CTV Olympic cheese.

And a cute cheese related video.

Y’see. Cheese is easy. But it can also be quite tasty if you work with it a little.

Maybe CTV should try harder.

Like the guys who made this.

Enjoy your Sunday.

BONE THE PODIUM

Okay, so the Vancouver Winter Olympics hasn’t had such a smooth start. First, a terrible tragedy on the Luge run brought home the realization that the national and corporate shillfest had an all too fragile human component.

A few hours later, the opening ceremonies glitched. But then, as LA comic Thomas Lennon observed, “Who among us hasn't been three-quarters erect at an awkward moment?”

And what had been a mostly respectable spectacle, as measured on the Olympic cheese scale, was followed by the bizarre recreation of one of those scenes from “When We Were Kings” as our own version of Muhammad Ali rode through the Third World streets of Downtown Vancouver in an open truck waving to the crowds of some frenzied underclass chasing after him as he went to light another afterthought of a cauldron.

It wasn’t The Great One’s greatest moment and some of those Torch Run sponsors have got to be wondering who was running this show.

It’ll be information they won’t get from the Consortium broadcasting the games, a drunk-on-the-Kool-Aid group so caught off guard by the violent death of Georgian Slider Nodar Kumaritashvili that they just decided to mostly smile bigger and not mention it.

And while Consortium radio voice Bob McCown called the lack of professionalism “disgusting”, among other things other parts of his consortium can’t or won’t print, most of the talking heads stuck to the BellGlobemedia self-congratulatory script.

By late last night,TSN host Darren Drager was tweeting from the Opening Ceremony after party that Bryan Adams dedicating “Straight From the Heart” to the deceased athlete from the show stage had been a “nice touch”.

So I guess we’re all good and ready to get back to the party.

Don’t get me wrong, by the time the next two weeks are over, the athletes of the 21st Winter Olympics will have reminded us all of what these games are really about. Even the ones who don’t come anywhere near winning a medal will have exhibited the uplifting power of the human spirit.

Sadly, their character and commitment to excellence just isn’t reflected by most of those bringing us the Games.

And for the folks in front of the new HDTV, anxiously rubbing their 2010 Olympic Mittens in anticipation ($10.99 now $1.99 after the Games), I’m sure Canada’s athletes will do us proud and claim more than a fair share of the neck hardware.

What most of those mitten wearers won’t know, however, is that like the Canadian artists they seldom see on CTV and Rogers, our Olympic athletes aren’t just struggling to beat the rest of the world, they’re being handcuffed in their efforts by the CRTC.

That’s right, while one branch of our Government has launched the much vaunted “Own The Podium” campaign to make sure our skiers, skaters and biathletes get the financial support they need; another branch, the CRTC, has been working just as hard to undermine those goals.

And I mean “working hard” in the usual endless dithering and being indecisive CRTC tradition.

Let’s call it “Bone the Podium”.

As we all know, like artists trying to make a movie or TV series in Canada, it’s hard for somebody with an Olympic dream to find the money to make that dream come true. Training is expensive. Few can hold down a regular job and still find time for the gruelling hours of practice needed to reach a world class level.

Once an athlete obtains a certain notoriety, sponsors can be found to be sure. But even then, those sponsors need to see a return on their investment.

In a recent interview, Jan Hudec, acknowledged as a lock to win Downhill skiing gold for Canada until a fall knocked him out of the Games said, “Sponsorship contracts are based on performance. When you're injured, your points are frozen and your ranking gets worse. The biggest struggle is not going into the red.''

Obviously programs like “Own The Podium” help athletes like Hudek with the basics. Much like Arts grants and subsidies can help us. But there could have been so much more available to our Olympians, maybe even enough that a cash strapped government didn’t have to use taxpayer cash for “Bread and Circuses” in the first place.

You see, in 2007, around the time “Own the Podium” was kicking into high gear, a group of private investors working with the Canadian Olympic Committee proposed two 24 hour sports networks (one English and one French) to the CRTC which would donate $30 Million a year to support amateur athletes.

Three years later and after spending an additional $1 Million to move their proposal along, they have yet to learn if they will even get a hearing from the CRTC.

The CRTC says they can’t deal with this request because they’re in the middle of a broad review of Canadian television. In fact, they can’t even guess when they might be ready to hear the application.

Meanwhile, they somehow found time to grant licenses to two new American sports channels now broadcasting here as well as demanding cable companies and their customers pay for the local news our broadcasters would rather replace with gossip magazine shows.

It’s yet another example of a dysfunctional regulator who, after more than a year of admitting it screwed up and destroyed the Canadian dramatic TV industry with its disastrous 1999 rulings, still hasn’t turned around and fixed those rules. 

The same guys the Federal Government had to overrule to finally get some competition into our antiquated mobile phone system and who haven’t made a decision on “carriage fees” despite three separate sets of multi-week hearings over three years, continue to use their bureaucratic muscle to prevent our athletes from getting the kind of money they deserve.

Canadian artists, television viewers, mobile phone users and internet addicts long ago became aware that the CRTC isn’t their friend. And now our athletes are discovering the same truth.

While those CRTC Chair Konrad von Finckenstein refers to as “the right people”, those he chooses to meet with in-camera and whose advice he refuses to share with the public he’s mandated to serve, will make out like gangbusters at the 2010 Olympics, our athletes aren’t sure how they’ll make it to 2012, 2016 and beyond.

To quote Jane Roos of the Canadian Athletes Now Fund, "So many people are making a shitload of money at the Games, but the athletes will leave them in debt."

Kind of how we Canadian Arts types feel, isn’t it?

As you watch the next two weeks of Olympic Glory, try to see past the ham-fisted self-aggrandizing coverage of CTV, TSN and Rogers (hopefully it’ll soon start getting to them too) and enjoy the personal triumphs of our athletes whatever they may be. Know their struggles are shared by every Artist in this country and we all have the same regulatory enemy keeping us from delivering the level of sport and entertainment you deserve.

Imagine how much better off we’d all be if the bloated CRTC bureaucracy were finally dismissed en mass. Yeah, it might be a little “Wild West” for a time, but at least we wouldn’t have somebody holding us down before we even get a chance to fail and it might be a whole easier to get up, brush off the snow and get back in the game when we do.

Canadians have always been better than those who run our lives and orchestrate the Circuses. Hopefully, we’ll soon get one more of the hurdles out of our way.

Fluffing~

Ok, I'm bored. I'm still fluffing-moving-tweeking things around my house. I'm wanting to do something "artsy".... but I just can't wrap my brain around a project at this time...so I'm just going to fluff up my house a bit. Which is a good thing because once the weather gets nicer, I'm going to spend hours and hours outdoors! So I started off small... just redoing the top of a hutch I have in my den. Here is the before photo. Here is the after~ Nothing drastic, I kept everything the same, I just painted the baskets and replaced the greenery I had across the top of the hutch. I added some numbered tags that I made to the 4 baskets. I'm wanting to do something to the oval basket as well... I'm still thinking on that. I had a bit of white embroidered fabric hanging over the edge, but it looked weird. I just made this "love" banner this morning and tacked it up. Caute!