I’m back from Seattle and Emerald City Comicon (ECCC). It was my first big mainstream comics convention and it was pretty fun. I saw Wil Wheaton do readings, indie gamers do their thing, met a bunch of webcomic people I’ve followed for years, bought some books, watched an amazing reading of the Star Wars radio play by a pile of voice actors, saw Marian Call sing and a pretty great night of improv. Good times.
Today, moments after I hung up from Skyping with my mom, I found a job I really want. I mention Skyping with my mom because in that conversation I’d been talking about how when I graduate I’ll be looking for work all over the place, and how one of the upsides of being unattached is being able to be mobile, and all that jazz, but also how I’d only try working in the U.S. if it was a great job. We talked about places I’d be more or less interested in. At no point in this conversation did Alaska come up.
Of course, Alaska is where this job I found is.
But I think I’d be a pretty excellent New Media Producer for the Juneau NPR affiliate. Here’s a snippet of the job description:
… an individual with experience and skills in journalism and online content management, including writing and editing for the web, graphic design and site management.
I could completely do that. And do that really well. And it would actually integrate my journalism side with my digital librarianish side (you know, content management kinds of things).
Anyway, I’m putting together an application for them. It’s probably a bit of a long shot (I am a foreigner and all), and it’d mean I’d have to finish my MLIS with a couple of web-delivered courses (which wouldn’t be a big deal), but it could be neat.
Sorry this didn’t happen an hour before you called, Mom. I might have been more excitable.
I’ve secured a lease on an apartment for Madame Holly and myself. And because of that I think I’m going to be able to start enjoying Sydney again. I’m not the kind of person who can relax and have fun with a big unresolved issue looming. On Monday though, I’ll move in and that’ll be a lot of worrying off of me.
In preparation for moving in, and because I’m going to be spending more time hanging out at Prosentient (but not working), I switched hostels today. The place I’d been at was out in Potts Point, near the King’s Cross subway stop, which was a longer trip into Ultimo than I would have liked.
I stayed at the Blue Parrot on John’s recommendation and I have to follow up with him about why he thought it was so great. Not that it was bad. It just didn’t generate any great allegiance in me. Most likely that’s because I didn’t really participate in the hostel-bonding experiences of drinking at whatever local bar dressed up as a national stereotype or dressed as a lady for free drinks or whatever.
The Blue Parrot staff were more friendly there than at the Sydney Central YHA where I am now, which is a much more professionalized hotel-like hostel (that charges for WiFi – boofuckingurns). But they also had terrible radio stations blaring in the kitchen all day long.
Enough about hostels.
Saturday was Free Comic Book Day and I went to a couple of places to see what was happening. Kings Comics had a 20% off sale (50% off back issues) plus the aforementioned free comic books. I picked up the paperback edition of Jimmy Corrigan the Smartest Kid on Earth and managed to refrain from buying anything else. This was kind of a big deal for me. I learned I’m actually two trades behind on DMZ and it took so much not to complete that collection. But something like that would have to come back to Canada with me to be fully useful. Jimmy Corrigan I can read here and possibly get Holly to read because it’s awesome, and if we don’t have room to bring it back to Vancouver it would make an excellent gift.
I also went to a Kinokuniya Bookstore. I know I’ve read that name before but didn’t know what kind of bookstore to expect. It was quite large and had a bunch of artists there for Free Comic Book Day, including a couple of indie zine-type self publishers. I bought a really cool black ink on black paper thing about Leviathan and Moby Dick and other fish. Once I get a few more zines and things the plan is to send them over to Caitlin at the Schulz.
Tonight I went for a walk around Darling Harbour, which reminded me of the Kowloon boardwalk where you look at Hong Kong Island (I think I’ve got those geographical references correct, but since I’m not paying for WiFi they are being written without fact-checking and I might forget to check this before posting it). The climate and general appearance of Sydney reminds me more of Los Angeles if LA was a walkable size. Despite the city’s expense, I think I like it.
Last night was the CITR fundrive finale show. The theme was 90s covers so piles of bands were up there playing a couple of songs. It’s funny the stuff that survives 15 years down the line. By the time I left bands had only played two songs I really liked, El Scorcho (which was sung terribly) and Where It’s At. I recognized a lot of the rest of the songs but songs I didn’t like when I was 15 haven’t suddenly gotten better, just because I remember them.
Also, I think this is where DJs have a distinct advantage. I was hoping for interesting covers and reinterpretations and stuff because I’m used to mashup type juxtapositions. The very first guy did a novel interpretation of that Chumbawumba song all slow and mournful with lots of distortion on the guitar. It’s too bad he was so terrible. But that’s why he was first, I guess.
The evening wasn’t a total loss. I read a great Samuel R. Delany story, Star Pit. It’s about freedom and being trapped and being able to leave and the psychopathy of those who get to see everything. I was happy to find a pillar with a light at the Biltmore so I didn’t have to stand around awkwardly listening to music I wasn’t that into.
Today was a payday so I engaged in my traditional circuit of going out to check the used bookshops and Imagine and the comic shop, though today because of my Amazon adventure I didn’t need to buy any books. Instead I stopped off at the U of W and gave CKUW some money for their Fundrive. Which felt nice and altruistic. I do like to give money to the people I procure cultural ephemera from when I can.
But to get there I walked down Ellice and spotted a great horde (3) of people clad in red getting on bicycles outside the Black Sheep Diner. It slowed me down; I thought they might be some sort of Festival du Voyageur group out for a delicious breakfast. I’d slowed down my walking though, and as the door to the Black Sheep opened I recognized a face inside. The decision to stop for breakfast then instead of getting lunch an hour or two later was made in two slowed steps and in I walked to find a table full of people I knew. Most had already eaten but the conversation was still going, so that was nice. I had a good omelette with goat cheese too. (The red clad cyclists had been in giving a singing telegram Valentine to the Diner as I understand it.)
So yeah, it felt community-ish (as I Tweeted when I got home) to walk into a place and find people I knew, and then to go and give money to community radio. One might think I was coming to terms with being a Winnipegger.
Then this afternoon I cut my hair. I’m not sure if you know this, but my mom is getting married next week and I figured I’ll look nicer if I look the way I do in my mind’s eye than the uncombed and bearded mess I’ve been over the winter. I’ll still be uncombed, but with a shave of the head and face it becomes difficult to tell.
RAW Documentary – Guerrilla Words
This is my radio documentary. Listen. I liked it.
I am done done done. Going to TO for a baseball game this weekend, then to Montreal next weekend then back to Peg City. Good times.
Oh, and THIS is not a radio blooper reel.
This was the last story idea I had to come up with for my degree! No more crushing searches for newsy inspiration, until I someday work for a living.
Raw Story – City Workers Vote to Strike: “London’s outside workers could soon be off the job.
CUPE Local 107, the union representing city garbage collectors, road sanders and sewage workers has voted 79 per cent in favour of a walkout to back contract demands.”
This story went up yesterday, but I forgot to blog it. If you go to the NEWS page you can see what others in my class did this week. I made the pages look pretty. I especially like the “Christ 18A” picture.
. . . when I’m not pissing away whole days reading that is. RAW Radio is the site where all of our radio work this term goes. My contributions so far have been on the webbifying of things, but next week I’ll be doing a news story. I’m also plugging along at my documentary.
My internship at CBC’s Content Factory is more than half over. I was on morning shows across the country this morning asking people about Conrad Black. One of the questions was “Are Conrad Black’s personal assets worth more or less than the GDP of Djibouti?” Sadly, no one countered with “The city or the country?” in which case my hat would have been devoured. I’m mixing lots of comedy promos, doing a local arts piece on the museum that’s hiding on the fifth floor of the Bay downtown, and working on a piece for DNTO entitled “Can Pope JP2 take on Batman?”
In other news, I got my marks from the fall term the other day and embarked on a riotous rollick of fun. I got a 30 in Media & Politics. Per cent. He didn’t deign to mark my paper which was worth 60% of the grade. Now I have to deal with an insane old coot who is benevolently allowing me (and a few classmates) redemption through rewriting the thing instead of getting kicked out of the program. But he won’t give more than a three word reason for why it wasn’t “up to standard” until after the deadline for grade appeals has passed.
(Just for the record, the paper deserves better than a 0%.)
