The Blog According to Buzz

I have to admit that I sometimes look at the arts and wonder why they continue to go to government, cap in hand, asking for funding. I mean if the arts were reasonable and viable, then we would all appreciate them to the level they would be economically sustainable.

Then I take Zacharie to something like Artstarts, and realize that arts programs enrich the lives of children.

Then I read my actor sister’s Facebook page and take pause for second thought.

For all you who think the arts are full of a bunch of driveless people, who use being an artist as an excuse to chill their way through life, You’re wrong. Dead wrong.

Cutting funding to the arts is like taking away your ipod, your movies, your… artwork on your walls, your books, your magazines, your radio, your expression.

Support the arts because we support your life. Enough with the cuts. Imagine your life without art… I imagine death to all things beautiful.

Should the arts be self-sustaining? Yes, it would be awesome if they could look after themselves based on popular support alone. Perhaps the reason that isn’t happening is because we don’t have a proper appreciation for the arts.

My sister spelled that out pretty clearly.

The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?

Grapes at St Clement in Napa – by Buzz Bishop

I still think Thanksgiving comes to early in Canada. Just last week it was nearly 30 degrees, this weekend we’re fattening up with squash and stuffing and pumpkin pie for the winter.

It’s odd, and honestly, it does bug me.

The American Thanksgiving is too late, somewhere around Halloween would be perfect. But that’s not what this is about. It is about celebrating our long standing traditions with family, friends, fowl and … WINE!

I had Jen lay out some wine pairing picks for Thanksgiving, and sharing them today gives you enough time to get them before the weekend.

Beringer White Zinfandel – $8.99
“This is just a classic pairing,” says Jen. “It just goes.”

Rosemount Traminer Riesling – $13.50

Pink – $12.99
Thanksgiving is our first fall festival, why not get the party season off to a popping start with a little bubble? It’s fun, the colour is great, the packaging is flirty and it won’t break your budget to bring a bottle as a hostess gift.

Wolf Blass Red Label Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon – $14.99
If the whole family and in-laws are coming over, you’ll need to pick up this classic bottle. 1l of Blass for the price of a 750ml. Not bad, that’s an extra 2 glasses for Gramma to have before she passes out in the stuffing bowl.

Greg Norman Chardonnay – $22.99 (on sale for $2 off on limited time offer)
If your turkey comes out of the oven drier than Utah on Sunday, then switching things up with a honey filled chardonnay like this will do the trick. Who needs a butterball? This wine is just melting with it.

Wolf Blass Shiraz Viognier – $29.99
Jen says “If you get upset with the family at the table, forget the turkey, just grab the bottle and cuddle up by yourself next to the fireplace.” This one is something different to try since nobody usually pairs red wine with turkey, but the big fruit in this bottle will grab hold of the turkey like it was cranberry sauce. “I love that wine,” Jen moans.

The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?

[Disclosure: Jen works for Fosters Wine Estates Canada, all the recommended wines are part of her portfolio]

Image from Gyl86 on Flickr

I may not have a “real” job, but I have never been busier.

From launching DadCAMP to applying for jobs and re-networking with people in various industries to playing with Zacharie, I’ve never had more on my plate than I do now – and I don’t have a job.

The most important thing to do when you don’t have a job is to still act like you have one. Get used to sitting on the couch and watching Drew Carey on The Price Is Right and it will become a harder habit to break than Twitter.

I still get up every morning, read my news feeds and take Zacharie to daycare. Then I usually have meetings with contacts before settling in for a few hours of writing. Yup, writing. I may not have a real job, but my head is swimming in ideas and I need to crank them out.

I write cyberbuzz, a 60 second radio feature about the internet and wired culture.

I write stories for DadCAMP, a daddy blog for creative and modern parents.

I write for the Future Shop Tech Blog about gadgets and social media and the future of things.

Recently I’ve been asked to contribute to The Vancouver Sun community of interest blogs and Techvibes.

And I just churn out ideas and things in my head about how radio can be better and do things differently and move ahead in to a world where the audience thinks it just doesn’t matter.

Add all of those things together and the money I’m compensated is barely enough to cover a car payment and winter heating bills. But I’m not doing these things for the money they bring, but rather for the skills they encourage, the energy they provide and the habits they continue.

I may not have a job, but I’ve never been busier. I’ve never been more prolific. I’ve never had deeper thoughts. I’ve never had so much fun.

Sure, it’s stressful as hell to wonder what’s going to happen to my mortgage when the money runs out and baby #2 arrives in the new year, but in the meantime I’m cranking out ideas and content and theories and insight. I’m hoping this will be enough to make people stop, read, and then think: I need to hire Buzz Bishop.

Need more info about what I can do? Dial in the media kit.

The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?

World Diabetes Day is November 14. The countdown is on, less than 40 days until monuments around the world are bathed in blue to raise awareness for those living with diabetes.

To help with awareness, The Diabetes Hands Foundation is inviting entries for the “Making Sense of Diabetes” video contest. The charity is seeking short videos from people speaking about the impact diabetes has had on their lives through any of the five senses: sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell.

A compilation showcasing footage from received entries will be unveiled in time for World Diabetes Day.

I’m signed up for Team Diabetes Rio 2010. I’ll be running the marathon alongside @christine44 and @bluefur and thousands of others.

I’d love it if you would join Team Diabetes, or offer your support to those running. I’m freelancing for charity to raise my funds. Since I’m currently unemployed, I have even more time to work for others. Need some consulting, hosting, voicing or temp work done in your office? HIRE ME and you’ll get a tax receipt donation for the work I do.

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Lynn Valley is quickly turning into Kitsilano North. Bugaboos and BMWs populate the playgrounds of this once rough and tumble North Vancouver neighborhood.

Case in point, a rugged old 7-11 was torn down at the corner of Mountain Highway and Lynn Valley Road to make way for a new public library and a plaza of restaurants and services that has fast become the place to hang for fashionable parents on the Shore.

Last summer we test drove Babyeats and gave it a tepid review. Many dogpiled in the comments section and the restaurant buckled under the pressure to relaunch as Munch. Same concept, no service charges.

In the same comments of that babyeats review, everyone raved about the restaurant across the square, Rocky Mountain Flatbread Company. On Sundays and Mondays they turn the kitchen over to the kids, letting them roll, sauce, cheese and top up their own pizzas before watching them in the oven.

It was especially busy on the night we went, taking nearly 40 minutes of waiting before Zacharie could get a seat at the table to load up his pie. It wasn’t a tough wait however, as a corner of the Rocky Mountain Flatbread Company is reserved for a great collection of Natural Pod kitchen furniture and accessories.

Zacharie spent the entire wait cooking carrots, checking the ovens and setting the tables. When it finally was his turn to hit the dough, he had a blast.

$7 for a kid’s pizza that they get decorate was a good deal, and they also had a nice three course dinner special celebrating local ingredients for $19 including a bruschetta, pasta and carrot cake. Loved all three.

All in all, it set us back $39 for the night, including tip.

Rocky Mountain Flatbread Company has another location, appropriately, in Kits. They do birthday parties and the wheels are already turning that this joint would be a fun place to play for a DadCAMP meetup.

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It’s the home opener for the Vancouver Canucks tomorrow and if you’re planning on driving to the rink, get ready to do a few laps of the area and have a long walk once you find a place to dump your truck. Parking will be a premium this season, makingthe cheapest place to park near GM Place an even more important secret for Vancouver Canucks fans this season.

The Vancouver Canucks sent an email to season ticket holders earlier this summer warning that parking could be scarce, not only in February, but starting now.

Due to the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, parking availability around General Motors Place will be impacted significantly this season. Many of the lots that have been offered in the past will not be available as they have been secured by the Vancouver Organizing Committee from October 2009 to March 2010.

The Olympics will happen in Vancouver for 2 weeks in February, yet starting this past week the city started to be put under lock down. Will our secret cheap parking lot on the edge of Chinatown still have spots for Canucks fans willing to walk across the Downtown East Side in the dark of night? Probably, I’m guessing the VANOC crew will lock up the cushier spots on the downtown side of the rink.

So bookmark the info and remember the garage because not only will you need a cheap place to park come this hockey season, you just might need a place to park.

The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?

Photo by Buzz Bishop on Flickr

Because that’s what you want.

People say they want variety, in the end – they want familiar.

Charles Blow reports in the NY Times that:

“A study last year conducted by members of PRS for Music, a nonprofit royalty collection agency, found that of the 13 million songs for sale online last year, 10 million never got a single buyer and 80 percent of all revenue came from about 52,000 songs. That’s less than one percent of the songs.”

This is virtually a pure test. You can download (almost) any song you want when you go to iTunes. Sure some will search for the obscure garage band, but more than 99% of us stick with the popular and familiar. Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Nickelback.

It’s one of those situations where people have an ideal in their head on how they perceive themselves and their world and how they think they behave, yet strip away all the imagery and you have one result – you’re mainstream.

Don’t blame the radio station for playing the same song over and over again. They want you to listen to them, and you’re the one that chooses familiar over new almost every single time.

The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?

Lance Armstrong leaving Troyes in 2005 Tour de France – by Buzz Bishop

On October 2, 1996, Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with cancer. A date now referred to as 10//2.

“October 2, 1996. The day it all changed. The day I stated never to take anything for granted. The day I learned to take charge of my life.” Lance Armstrong said. [wiki]

In It’s Not About The Bike, Lance admits his high pain threshold caused him to be lazy when it came to getting a nagging lump in his groin finally checked out by doctors. He noticed swelling in his right testicle but did not seek medical attention until he started coughing up blood.

Last week a broadcast colleague, Jennifer Thomson, wrote of a similar experience in The Province.

I had spent Christmas and new year’s sick with, I thought, the same bug that everyone else had. I went to the clinic and was told “your glands are just swollen, here are some antibiotics.” A few weeks later, I still wasn’t feeling any better, so I went back and was given more drugs. This happened four times.

I had noticed a lump on the side of my neck, though I assumed it was just the swollen glands. My throat infection cleared up, but the lump was still there. My mom, a retired nurse, told me to get it checked out. But I was tired so I didn’t go.

One of my girlfriends told me to get it checked out, but my son had hockey practice and I was tired. So I didn’t.

I kept making excuses until finally I caved and went to my family doctor. He immediately sent me to an oncologist, Dr. Sasha Smiljanic, who sent me for a series of tests. He then told me: “Jennifer, I’m sorry, it looks like you have lymphoma.” I was a basket case.

Jennifer’s diagnosis eventually got worse before it became better. She’s had surgergy and is on a path to make a healthy recovery.

Jennifer and Lance’s recoveries are the exception, not the rule.

Feeling something funny? Get it checked. Got a lump? Get it checked.

Today is 10/2. Wear yellow. Livestrong.

The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?

Stanley Cup at Hockey Hall of Fame by Buzz Bishop

It’s time to drop the puck on another NHL season and while TSN panelists are picking our hometown Canucks to make it to the Stanley Cup Finals this season, I can’t help but look at the opening night festivities and shake my head.

The NHL has started to do some great things. The Winter Classic is a bona fide success in the face of New Year’s Day Bowl Game mania. Some, myself included, hope that one day the All Star Game will be scrapped, or rolled in to the Classic. It’s that good.

But when you look at the way the NHL opens it’s season, you just have to wonder who comes up with this stuff. Oh right – Bettman.

The season is starting on a Thursday and again games are being played in Europe.

The NHL opening night should be 1 of 2 scenarios, and both scenarios should play out on a Saturday on Hockey Night In Canada.

Scenario 1: A repeat of the Stanley Cup Final.

We ended the season with Pittsburgh vs Detroit. Let’s start the new one the same way and see if the Champions are up for the cause.

Scenario 2: The Original Six

This is the option I favour. The original six teams in competition to honour the great history of the league. Boston vs New York. Montreal vs. Toronto. Detroit vs Chicago. Those should be the only games in play, on a Saturday night, to start each and every NHL campaign.

At least this year they waited until the pre-season was over before having the Euro games go.

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Swan’s Oyster Depot San Francisco – Buzz Bishop

Vancouver is missing that legendary old school joint that everyone goes to and has gone to since they were kids. There’s the Tomahawk in North Vancouver, The Elbow Room on Davie St or White Spot, but nothing has the charm of Schwartz’s Deli in Montreal, Bodeguita del Medio in Havana or Swan’s Oyster Depot in San Francisco.

Schwartz’s is famous for smoked meat. Bodeguita del Mediois the birthplace of the mojito. Swan’s Oyster Depot has been serving the freshest seafood by family behind the counter since 1912.

You’ve got to love Jen for taking me to this place. She hates seafood and is allergic to shellfish. She had a loaf of Boudin Sourdough bread and a plate of lettuce for lunch while I dug in to clam chowder a plate of oysters and an Anchor Steam Ale (as recommended on Yelp).

Four Lauten brothers, from Denmark, opened Swan’s at 1517 Polk St as the headquarters for their fishmonger business. Using a horse-drawn carriage, the brothers delivered fresh seafood throughout San Francisco (the delivery business continues today, minus the horse).

They operated the business until 1946, when it was purchased by Sal Sancimino and his three cousins, Frank, Al and Pat LaRocca. In the 1970’s, Sal’s children took over the business. Along with their loyal family of staff, they continue to run the business to this day.

The staff couldn’t be friendlier, the food couldn’t be fresher.

Lunch here is an expensive check mark on your foodie bucket list, but it beats the stink out of the tourist traps down at Fisherman’s Wharf. Frommer’s describes Swan’s as “little more than a narrow fish market that decided to slap down some bar stools.” Just as with Schwartz’s and Bodeguita Del Medio, a pit stop at Swan’s Oyster Depot is not only mandatory for tourists, but locals fill the lunchtime line as well.

The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?