out of the blue...

Howdy y'all;

After a long hiatus, I think it's time to revive the soapbox derby blog. There's a lot to say if I want to cover everything that's happened since the last time I posted here, but for now, I'll just tell you what's coming up on the show.

Here's what's on deck for this week's soapbox derby (Thursday September 30, 7-10am) - it's gonna be a busy show:

7:30 - Today in Canadian History! (in all likelihood*)
8:00 - Michale Lang, Executive Director of the Whyte Museum in Banff, is coming by to talk about the Whyte, and the role of art/museums in enabling social discourse. Heavy.
8:30 - I'm in a one-man tag-team (obscure cjsw programming history reference) against Mayoral Campaign front-runner and brow-furrower, Ric McIver. Oil and Water, my friends! Or hopefully, rubber and glue...
9-10 - My friend and Alberta Views Editor Peter Worden is coming by for the hour to co-host our regular monthly segment and talk about the upcoming October issue of ABViews. We'll also be talking (by phone) with two of the issue's feature authors: Sheila Pratt (about the muzzling/emasculation of the Province's outgoing Auditor General), and Ian Urquhart (about whether or not AB is a "petro-state"). And wanna know something cool? This ABViews hour of the show will be syndicated, at least to CKXU (in Lethbridge) and maybe to CJSR (in the "City of Champignons"). Any more pinko radio dominance by CJSW and CSIS is gonna start tapping telephones...

Hopefully I'll find a minute to spin a tune or two somewhere in there....

In other Thursday morning news (maybe this is no longer really news, but anyway...), Ola has flown the coop, and has headed over to Beijing for an internship. Kat Lord is the new alternating host of Thursday mornings (welcome Kat!), so look for awesome new stuff from her. Ola and I talked about maybe having her phone in once in a while to touch base, so hopefully we can make that happen.

Talk to ya Thursday,
greg

* TICH will be on, provided Joe doesn't get hammered on Wed night and drop the ball. That would be a low blow, if it hadn't already happened to me. Twice. Okay, in fairness, Marc was the culprit one time. And I wouldn't really care except TICH is really cool and I'm bummed when I can't air it.

Funding Drive CD

Hey Everyone,

So stoked for tomorrow!! Here are some pics of our funding drive CD.

Whoot whooot!

Ola

pledge on the derby and you could WIN the raddest ride!

Joseph G - Bike Root Mechanic. A fine dude on a super-fine ride!

Howdy friends;

Yesterday I finished building the soapbox derby radio flyer - quite possibly the coolest bike ever - just in time to put in on the block as the grand prize on the soap/cold box/smoke derby's funding drive extravaganza this coming Thursday.

If you haven't heard, CJSW 90.9fm is in the midst of its annual funding drive. We ask the community to give us some financial support once a year, so's we don't have to ask corporate thunderwhores with nefarious agendas to do it. We are hoping to raise $200 g's over the course of the next week, and as of today (Sunday), we're well on our way with a $66,000 grand total.

There are a million reasons to pledge, but each and every CJSW programmer has also poured some heart and soul into their funding drive shows, and put some extra incentives on the table. So pledge early, pledge often - AWESOME!

The grand prize on the derby this year is a hand-built, hand-painted, unisex, one-size-fits-all, super-sweet cruiser bike. I built this thing from the ground up, from almost entirely recycled and painstakingly reconditioned (by me!) parts, at the Bike Root, One of Calgary's community bike shops, located on the university campus.

The whole thing took me about 35-40 hours to build, plus the cost of parts. Check a few posts back for the first phase of construction; here is the completion of the process:

Last Wednesday I came in for a few hours after work and build up some wheels. They're 26"ers, old-school chrome finish that I had to polish up with steel wool. I also put some fine german-made pedals on!

Then, while answering the phones (403.220.5000 is the funding drive pledge line) during a Friday-Saturday all-nighter, I finished polishing up the drive train - chain, rear gears, and rear derailleur. I went home for a few hours sleep, then back to the Bike Root to lay on the finishing touches and put it all together:

Built up the drive train, and cables and housing for gears and brakes,

then a classic black spring seat and old-school grips to complete the package! Slick!

And in case you were wondering, yes indeed! The argyle fender is still the classiest part of this ride - at least until you hop up on it!

It was a lot of work to build this sucka, I'm not gonna lie - but it truly is a labour of love! I'm super stoked that we've got this awesome incentive for y'all, and that some lucky derby supporter is going to cruise around on the fruits of my hard work, and that as a result we all get wicked, community driven, independent radio for yet another year. Everybody wins!

I almost forgot to mention - the prize includes a one-year membership at the Bike Root, so you can keep your new ride running smoothly!

"But how do I get the bike?", you ask?

Well, it's basically the same deal as last year: Every multiple of $25 pledged to the derby on Thursday gets your name in the hat once (so $25=1 raffle ticket, $50=2 tix, ... $300=12 tix, etc.). Your pledge has to be paid before your name is entered in the draw, and we'll draw for the bike live during the November 12th edition of the soapbox derby. My birthday is on the 13th, and I can think of no better birthday present than to give away an awesome bike! Plus, the 13th is the tentative date for the big move to CJSW's new space!

This approach seems to be the fairest to me - everyone gets a shot at the goods, your odds improve if you throw down more cash, and we eliminate the nastiness that comes with auctioning. I hope you guys can dig that.

Also, there are tonnes of other goodies up for grabs as pledge incentives on the derby. Ola is putting together an awesome mix CD complete with custom artwork! There are some yoga passes, art prints, Ola's home baking, commercial cd's & books, and lots of other stuff. We're even offering to take you out to dinner and a show if the price is right...

I'll try to post a complete list of incentives before the show - but failing that, please tune in Thursday, join us for the FUNding drive edition if the derby, and continue to support radio that really matters.

Thanks!
greg

yarn-bombing and gulu walk - set list oct 15, 2009

Hey!

Have you guys been listening to the Funding Drive? Lots and lots o' folks have been calling 403.220.5000 and pledging their support for free speech, tolerance and diversity, and the awesomest little radio station that could - we're up well over $50K on Sunday afternoon as I write this! More on FD later, including bike pictures!

See that sweater bike up there? It's an example of yarn bombing - graffiti done with knitting and crochet - and last week I had a chance to chat with some folks at the centre of the yarn-bombing movement. Leanne Prain and Mandy Moore wrote a book about yarn bombing, and they called in from Vangroover to tell us about it, about other yarnbombas (like these three), and yarnbombing resources.

Also, some folks came by to tell us about Gulu Walk, an event that happens every October to raise awareness and support for youth displaced by Uganda's civil unrest. Gul Walk was yesterday - I hope there was a terrific turnout, despite the less-than-terrific weather.

Tunes:
roustabout - old man luedecke
tell it to me - old crow medicine show
lowdown stank - breakestra*
lausd - jurassic 5
you already know - us3 feat. brook yung*
break - crown city rockers*
jerusalem - sinead o'connor
sister sinead - kris kristofferson*
somebody's gotta help you - bob brozman*
things 'bout comin' my way - alvin youngblood hart
we shall be free - leadbelly
obviously 5 believers - bob dylan
i see the light - olu dara
maama yatuzaala - bitone project
kamphopo - the very best*
ghosts we're buried on - the dudes*

Alright, that's that - stay tuned for some bike pics and more funding drive info, coming right up!

Support CJSW!

later,
g

bike racin', bike buildin', funding drive!

Howdy!

In case you haven't heard yet, it's almost funding drive time - and the soapbox derby is building a bike, that will be won by one lucky pledger during our funding drive show on October 29th. Details on the bike and how you win it will follow, but here are a couple of pics to show you how it has progressed so far:

I'm building this bike at Bike Root - the community bike shop located on UofC campus - from old abandoned bikes and bike parts. Pictured above is the birthplace of all the Bike Root's bikey goodness. Go by, join the Root, and build you own bike!

I started with an empty (almost) unisex frame - I wanted to get a picture at the very beginning, but forgot my camera until I got the bottom bracket and handlebars installed - here's what it looked like then (note the nifty "Nova" decals):
The next step was a custom soapbox derby paint job, courtesy of my pal Matt aka Uncle Lijiah, host of Wednesday late night's Blue Collar Bravado and all-around awesome fella. The highlight of the paint job is shown in the first pic above - flying cjsw logo with lightning bolts!

I spent last Saturday cleaning and breathing new life into old parts, and assembling bits of brakes and drive train - here's what it looks like now:
Looka that paint job - dig the shine on that chrome! My favourite part of the bike so far is definitely the wicked, diamond-detailed rear fender - here's a close-up:

Chrome-a-lishus! Stay tuned to the blog - I hope to have most of the bike built by the end of this weekend, and I'll post pics as the project moves along. Someone is gonna get one sweet ride!

And now, a couple of set lists to keep you in the music loop.

September 17th - talkin' Bow 80 blues.

Bob from Bow Cycle came by to get my mind right in advance of the Bow 80 bike race, and to tell us all about Bike racing and trail advocacy in Alberta. If you want to help build trails or stand up for cyclists' right to recreate, check out the cmba or mmbts. Roll on! Tunes:

slow down - bullfrog
anagrama - os mutantes feat. tom ze*
sounds & pressure - hopeton lewis*
garbage to the showglass - sierra leone's refugee allstars
lift off - twilight circus sound system
boom or bust - mahogany public
rain dance - the very best feat. mia*
sabotage - penelope(s)*
word up - wet cookies*
trance fat - looptroop rockers feat rakaa*
war - dilated peoples
new people - blue scholars*
d-e-f - dragonfli empire
give it to the people - noah23*
mountain man - meisha & the spanks*
pakowki - lazy mk's*
ohio - dojo workhorse*
oh my god (it still means a lot to me) - the wooden sky*
santiago - valleys*
life's like canadian football - cfl sessions*

How did the race go, you ask? Well, not as smoothly as I would have hoped. I called it a day at about halfway around the 80km loop, when I was up on jumpingpound ridge on the brink of a 7km technical descent, there was about 4-5cm's of snow on the ground, it was blizzarding horizontally, I was getting rather chilled, and my bike didn't really work any more on account of being covered in mud and slush. If you don't believe me, check out the post-race analysis here, or here.

I'll take another crack at it next year...

October 1 - Bow Bottoms!

I tried to line up a couple of guests, but nothing really panned out. I did air an interview at the end of the show that Ola did though, with her friend Reuben Bullock. Here are the platters that spun:

bell bottoms remix - jon spencer blues explosion vs. u.n.k.l.e.
bell bottoms - jon spencer blues explosion
tears of love - tommy mccook
sheppard & his flock - up bustle & out feat. andy sheppard
strugglers dub - black seeds*
nahwia's dream - baka beyond*
i'm gonna assemble a city - these united states*
uke puke - black mold*
caracas - georgia anne muldrow*
insight remix - fort knox 5 vs. the nextmen*
deep marsh - 5ivestyle
straw man - lou reed
people - hank pine & lily fawn
rewind - olympic symphonium
aiwa - emmanuel jal & abdel gadir salim
i am sound - secret broadcast*
grownups never lie - wax mannequin*
transmission part 1 - the lower 48*
phillipians 3:20-21 - the mountain goats*
then ola's interview with reuben.

K, I gotta roll out, and get ready for tomorrow's show. It's gonna be a good one, featuring interviews with some yarn bombers, and folks organizing this year's gulu walk.

Be nice, and don't forget to give'er some,

Flashing Hallways from Cody Townsend on Vimeo.

g

end-of-summer blog revival

Whoops, I think I missed again.

Time flies in the summer time, and I've neglected the blog. It's mostly because I sit in front of a computer all day, and besides I've been spending a lot of time out here:

photo comes from here

See, about a year back I somehow convinced myself that it would be a good idea to sign up for the bow 80 nationals endurance mountain bike race - it feels kinda like how Thor Heyerdahl explains the "by degrees" process that leads to you all of a sudden finding yourself out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean amid 100-foot swells on a balsa wood raft - it has gone from a funny idea to a frightening reality in a pretty short span o' time. Anyway, I've been trying to prepare myself by riding my bike whenever I can. I guess when you get right down to it, plenty worse fates could befall a fella.

Anyway, I'm going to rattle through all the shows I've hosted since my last megapost, in hopes that some of the info is still relevant and that some of you still care. Ther most recent two are easy, as it was pretty much just me and music (no guests, but a little bit of ranting).

september 3rd - byrne-o-rama!

This show featured a focus on David Byrne and his Luaka Bop record label. Why? I dunno, just because I guess.

nice 'n' greasy - lou donaldson
xiang pi xiao (rubber ducky song) - zhima jie
correction train - carey johnson
westbay - ring craft posse
basho & the tiger - burning babylon
mini mountain queen - bran flakes
hold it down - greyboy
mea culpa - david byrne & brian eno (from the ground-breaking my life in the bush of ghosts lp)
(nothing but) flowers - talking heads
hein - tom ze
salale - vum vum
aguas de marco - cibo matto
podo me chamar - eddie
au banquet des chasseurs - java
10 miles to go down a 9 mile road - jim white vs. morcheeba
cache cache - zap mama
people power in the disco hour - clinton
the great intoxication - david byrne
life is long - david byrne & brian eno
one big cake - jenny*
they were kings - heavy trash
don't go anywhere - snailhouse*
porcupine quills - the skeletones four*
wildfires - ohbijou*
tegucigalpa - fruit bats*
how allen saved the radio station - the bownesians*


august 20 - just a show...

trout fishing in australia - apricot rail*
imidiwan afrik tem dam - tinariwen*
drum & bass line (live) - aswad
fruitful days - big mountain
funky kingston - toots & the maytals
study war - moby*
they so cute - the spam avenger
tashweesh - kronos quartet feat. ramallah underground*
daktari walk - the daktaris
auditorium - mos def feat. the ruler*
mercy - plague language*
the revolt of the cockroach people - ocote soul sounds & adrian quesada*
back in the seventies - datarock*
against the seventies - mike watt
bridges - utah phillips & ani difranco
farmer - bill frisell*
the longest day - megafaun*
hockey teeth - bahamas*
youth's magic horn - porter block*
weave myself a dress - bruce peninsula*
hot dang darlin' - the haggard beat*
cut across shorty - eddie cochrane
the whole damn thing - those darlins*
pas sans saveur - les breastfeeders

august 6 - calgary dollars and world vinyl day!

On this show, Kirti and Lisa from Calgary Dollars came by to tell us about the awesomeness of local currency, and about the august theme for their monthly potluck and market - vinyl! We learned a little about world vinyl day, and about the events they had planned for the potluck on the 12th, including art from records, a record swap, and other cool stuff. Thanks to Kirti and Lisa for coming by and telling us about it. Here are the tunes you heard:

saryglaryar maidens - huun huur tu & carmen rizzo*
designer skyline - owl city*
sound almighty - sould defenders
take it slow (places & spaces) - grand analog*
killa soundboy - fort knox five vs. sub swara*
the balance - sub swara
good beats / boogie - dudley perkins*
ba ba ba boom - money mark
moon sequence - the herbalizer*
como el viento - depedro*
hobo girl - fruit bats*
when the wheels don't move - son volt*
let's go ridin' in the car - pete seeger & sesame street
career opportunities - the clash
rick danko died - jack pine*
big brother - stevie wonder
the horizon is a beltway - the low anthem*
yr/blessed yr/version - lucid 44*
geography - portland cello project*
desperation, alberta - eamon mcgrath*

july 23 - carolyn mark! folk fest!

On this edition of the derby I was lucky enough to have emcee extraordinaire Carolyn Mark and her pal Tolan McNeil come by the station and help us ring in folk fest. We had a lot of fun, shot the breeze, and played a few tunes. Thanks to all you awesome people that make the folk festival happen every year, and thanks to all you tarp-nazis for mostly keeping it cool (except you jackasses who called the heat in on reverend ron when all he wanted to do was move with the spirit on sunday morning...)

Tuneage:

i was standing at the bedside of a neighbour - sweet honey in the rock
touch a hand, make a friend - staples singers
wild life - papa groove
untold stories - sinead o'connor
summer dub - king selewa & his calypsonians*
hidden treasure - dj vadim feat. sabira jade & kwasi asante*
doni doni - woodchoppers association feat. jah youssuf*
north america - hank pine & lily fawn*
flyin' saucers - dry branch fire squad
plateau ramble - the acorn
jesus at tim's - nancy white
old virginia block - devon sproule
rocket piano man - carolyn mark & amy honey
will he be waiting for me - sarah harmer
the cabin song - t nile*
brother blues - forest tate fraser*
cliffs - brock geiger*
til the morning - mark berube & the patriotic few

Okay, that's it. We're back up to speed. I'll try to be more regular in my posting habits, but you all know how that's gone in the past...

Speaking of speed - me and my friends at the Bike Root are going to build you a bike for funding drive! More details to follow - stay tuned!

Happy Summer! here's a threefer!

Howdy, friend!

Have you been having too much fun this summer to sit in front of a computer and post to your blog? ME TOO! But you know, even the laziest, haziest, dog-dayin'-est summer lovers among us do occasionally need to turn our attention back to our responsibilities. To that end, here is a brief recap of the summer so far on the soapbox derby.

June 11 - Skate and Create!

Dean Bieber and Zev Klymochko from Calgary Area Skateboard Enthusiasts (CASE) came by to talk about one of my favourite pastimes - skateboarding - and the day we dedicate to celebrating it every year - go skateboarding day. GSD happens every summer solstice, and it's a great excuse (if you need one) to spend a whole day on a skateboard. Here's a little video of the fuzz-heavy goings-on in our fair city this GSD:



Dean is the dude talking to the unreasonable cop at the end of the video. He also runs a skateboard company called Visionary.

Anyway, here ar the tunes that you heard on June 11:
sorcerer's stone of the magi - acid mothers temple and the melting paraiso ufo*
lift my burdens - naomi shelton & the gospel queens*
turn me around - mavis staples (coming to folks fest!)
abc's - ziggy marley*
boom draw - julian marley*
evil burma dub - dubblestandart*
brookarest - nickodemus feat. costel & robert of taraf de haidouks*
balcasio - balkan beat box
it's all just a meter of where you draw the line - carolyn mark (coming to folk fest) & geoff berner
cracks in walls - forest tate fraser*
psychotic girl - the black keys
rock for light - bad brains
american nomad - sheglank'd shoulders
skater dater - u.s. bombs
find enjoyment - ray barbee
last call - blktop project
little chin - tommy guerrero
i play my kazoo - grand analog*
big blunt break - greyboy
more dance music - kid koala (coming to folk fest!)
companion de route - hermas zopoula*
contagion - a trois dans la w.c.
super animal brothers III - ear pwr*

There was a crazy skateboard contest that went on in San Francisco at the end of May - here's the sweet&lowdown.



For those of you who have never stepped on a skateboard, I can't impress upon you how impressive this shit is.

June 25 - All o' That Jazz...

This week's show featured a couple of set pieces that Philip Barker produced to get people stoked on the Calgary Jazz Festival. I hope they did the trick!

mose allison feature - philip barker / mose allison
king of the dogs - iggy pop*
goin' down slow - tom waits
james cotton feature - philip barker / james cotton
sail away - sonny terry & brownie mcghee
texas eagle - steve earle & the del mccoury band*
sala mosala - staff benda bilili*
koroko - oumo samgare*
reggae summertime - aggrolites*
nuff fire - abstract rude*
inner eye - nobody feat. abstract rude
wake up and smell the millenium - nobody
no idea how - bike for three
music as torture feature - joe burima and guests (full documentary available here)

July 9 - A Sound(Bike) Experiment.

This week I had the pleasure of hosting a couple of women who are involved in the Ride ON! summer series happening all this month in our fair city, and brought to us by the good people at M:ST. Keltie Duncan works for M:ST, and she came in to tell us about all of the cool stuff that's happening as part of this Ride ON! thing - the whole series focuses on bikes as works of and vehicles for art. I also met Jessica Thompson, artist-in-residence at the TRUCK Gallery and one of the artists with an installation in Ride ON! In her soundbike project, she built this awesome bike-mounted machine that emits laughter, increasingly uproariously as you go faster and faster on the bike. You can take it for a spin if you want, by borrowing it from the awesome fun-loving bikesheviks at the good life bike shop.

Jessica is hosting a workshop at the good life on July 30th, at which you can build your own "bike-rophone" - a bike-mounted PA system of sorts that allows you to make hella mad noise and raise a ruckus. The plan is to build a bunch of these things then take them to the streets the following evening on the July Critical Mass. I'm going for defs - maybe I'll see you there!

let your yeah be yeah(!) - buckwheat zydeco*
basin street blues - kid koala (did i mention he's coming to folk fest? woot.)
take a break - woodchoppers association (them too! folk fest is going to be fun!)
coming again - godfrey matthews*
fire go come - corey harris (folk fest...)
rebel music (3:00 road block) - spearhead (yup, folk fest) & stephen marley
bon voyage - serengeti & polyphonic*
ghost ride the buffalo - ear pwr*
2 sips & magic - nickodemus feat. the new york gypsy allstars*
raining revolution - arrested development (how many folks can fit in one festival?)
i could be dangerous - reverie sound revue*
i feel fine - the delta 72
hard to be human - the mekons (yup!)
some loud thunder clap your hands say boom - the got to get got*
knock knock - woodpigeon (mark says they're anti-folk, but lo, they are coming to folk fest, and even playing the hippiedippie love-in called South Country Fair next weekend!)
pony's o.g. - akron/family (folk fest!)
return of the freak - ocote soul sounds & adrian quesada*

Okay, that's it for me. I'm headed down to the above mentioned hippiefest in fort mccleod this coming weekend - i'll talk to y'all just prior to folk fest!

PEACE - and ride on!
g