November 2008 Archives
Hmm, another round of gold. Funding drives do no wonders to my memory.
This is the second (and final) episode as part of the 3rd annual CITR Fund Drive, representing the point where the station hit the 90% mark of its goal towards $15 000 (which was eventually achieved on the morning of the penultimate day of the drive; as of writing, the total is over sixteen thousand). Naturally, the rhythm of the show was substantially better than the one last week. Upgrades appeared in the forms of: new music; the occasional and better prepared notes; and stronger comfort in pitching the plea for cash.
And, for the first time ever, I even had a caller pledge, though he didn't want the radio free gak prize pack. I have to figure out a more enticing offer the next time the drive comes along; I even added a copy of Caribou's latest (and 2008 Polaris Prize-winning album) Andorra at the behest of the station manager, who I spooked into appearing on air as she updated the totals board (sorry Bren) but no takers.
The money theme in the show was somewhat subtle yet fluid, starting off with the New York City garbage strike audio clip I had forgotten to use last week. I had Blondie's take on the Nerves' classic Hanging on the Telephone cued at one point, but after some idle chatter about one DJ spinning too much Cher (!?), I opted for the less travelled artists.
The profile on Jerry Goldsmith went all right, though tracks were pruned as time ran tight. Goldsmith remains a difficult artist to fully profile since he had composed thousands of tracks for hundreds of productions over his lifetime. Nevertheless, I did cover some ground with his sixties lounge style and his early eighties sci-fi fare. I forgot to mention an earlier profile I had on Goldsmith's score to Planet of the Apes, but in hindsight, I tend to overplay that card.
After my shift, I took my shift on the phones, though things were quiet throughout the evening. My work on the finale poster was printed out finally, which I hope to upload for you soon. The pilgrim drawing remains a little suspect and badly laid on the poster but the typography's all right, considering I had to work with an unfinalized roster. I hung out with the crew that was there 'til 1am and somehow, managed to get a lift home.
I also had to step in after The Jazz Show since the show afterwards, Vengeance is Mine had a night off due to the host being ill, so I had to prepare the overnight broadcast. Instead of relying on the usual BBC Worldwide feed, I tried choosing a mix of other fantastic podcasts, but after a browser crash, I opted simply for a spate of the most recent Funky 16 Corners podcasts, which remain a source of frustration to subscribe to via iTunes. I did a quick blurb after fading out The Jazz Show theme and hoped that no other crashes transpired overnight.
You don't need to punch no monkey for the playlist.
The quick recap: I have no memory whatsoever whether I mentioned this on prior episodes, but I was a guest on Shake A Tail Feather during the station fund drive (which is still going strong for a few days more). He proposed that we cover an introductory show about soul and R&B music, exploring the early roots of both genres and giving examples of what soul music is.
We figured out early on that our ambitions could barely be wedged into our two hour show, especially as we talked plentifully about music along with the ever-so important donation information. We had each brought in a wide selection of music; I brought most of the Southern and New Orleans music whilst Jason focused on earlier works.
The show flew by quickly; we had waited in the lounge, listening to a bit of the collegiate sports broadcast with the other volunteers before tuning into Linda Bull's selection of modern Italian soundtrack and orchestral music (Linda hosts Give'em the Boot on Tuesday mornings, along with a bluegrass show on Co-op Radio, CFRO 102.7 FM Vancouver).
By midnight, we got the call from the next host that he would be 15 minutes late, so I took over the controls quietly as Jason packed and scrambled to catch the last express bus. I wound up taking a very delayed local one myself.
Not sure what else to write up here, since I still have to prepare my actual show, so here's the playlist.
Eli "Paperboy" Reed and the True Loves: (Doin' The) Boom Boom (MOJO Presents: The New Dictionary of Blues and Soul)
Ruth Brown and Her Rhythmakers: I Want to Do More (Blowing the Fuse: 1956)
Roy Montrell: (Everytime I Hear) That Mellow Saxophone (Blowing the Fuse: 1956)
Huey "Piano" Smith: Free, Single and Disengaged (New Orleans Funk, Vol. 1)
The Mar-Keys: Last Night (Stax 50th Anniversary)
Booker T and the MGs: Green Onions (Stax 50th Anniversary)
William Bell: You Don't Miss Your Water (Stax 50th Anniversary)
The Chantels: Maybe (Blowing the Fuse: 1958)
Sam Cooke: I'll Come Running Back to You (Blowing the Fuse: 1958)
Jerry Butler and the Impressions: For Your Precious Love (Blowing the Fuse: 1958)
Ray Charles: What'd I Say (Blowing the Fuse: 1959)
Isley Brothers: Shout (Blowing the Fuse: 1959)
Chuck Jackson: I Wake Up Crying (The Look of Love: The Burt Bacharach Collection)
Mary Wells: You Beat Me To the Punch (Sweet Soul Music: 1962)
Allen Toussaint: Gotta Travel On (What Is Success)
Otis Redding: A Change Is Gonna Come (The Definitive Soul Collection)
Al Green: Back Up Train (Back Up Train)
The Radiants: Voice Your Choice (MOJO Presents: Chess Classics)
The Fifth Dimension: Stoned Soul Picnic (The Very Best of ...)
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings: Tell Me (100 Days, 100 Nights)
The Fifth Dimension: Love's Lines, Angles, and Rhymes (The Very Best of ...)
James Brown: Funky President (People It's Bad) (Make It Funky - The Big Payback: 1971-1975)
You can download Soul 101 as an MP3, though I threw on this on my podcast for those of you who don't always read the blog [120.3 Mb, 131:23]
It's the third annual CITR Fundrive (donate now) and my inaugural take on the whole endeavour on soliciting funds live on air. Since the bulk of my dialogue was pre-written, I elected not to write up anything else, relying primarily on old notes. Since I had no idea how much I'd be talking, I had way more music queued than time to play; regular listeners can calculate that with about 10 minutes less music, I spoke for 10 minutes more than usual, which left me rather parched...especially since I'm actually recovering from a recent sinus infection that had me homebound and somewhat rested today.
This show became a best-of due to many reasons; mostly due to the fund drive formatting, but parts related to my lack of laptop and a delay in its replacement. I did have a loaner from work but it has its own unreliable history along with lack of space for me to restore anything from my backup drive. Thankfully, the iPod had a good chunk of this week's show preloaded and I could recycle the bits I had for the previously aired songs whilst giving updates. However, Cancon leapt up along with a few playlist requirements thanks to the new Dears and the CFCF EP.
The radio free gak prize pack at airtime was as follows: any pledge over $101.90 included a copy of the Fountain soundtrack (as composed by Clint Mansell, not as whoever I said during showtime, and performed by the Kronos Quartet and Mogwai — I have not yet seen or heard the film or soundtrack but I'm tempted to open one of the copies lying around), a button I made and some Finnish salmiakki candy. As well, anyone who would've pledged $20 on top of any additional gift would have it hand-delivered (within reason) instead of having the donor pick it up from UBC campus.
However, there was only one caller during my show and he took a tax receipt, so I'll leave the existing gifts for next week and try to throw some more into the gak prize pack. This may rely on me coming into the station to make a mixed CD, along with hitting up a friend for some silk-screened shirts. Podcast listeners are wholly encouraged to donate despite the lack of immediacy offered by the prizes, though the logistics of getting those gifts out would need to be sorted, since the existing fund drive budget does not include postage costs. Still, I'm on the board with $170, which is a good step towards $15 000. At the end of my show, the total amount collected was over $6000 – fantastic for 5 days.
Naturally, the technical faults appeared, sensing the time was ripe to directly solicit the listenership as things broke down. The primary CD player refused to open and the secondary started to skip during certain songs, meaning that I had to creatively cue things so that the third player was the primary, using the second one for short songs on trusty discs. As well, the turntables were a fiasco and a half, as the left turntable was only mono in the left speaker and the right turntable's levels were bleeding already when nothing was playing. That meant that the Max B. track was in double mono for the last half of the song as I tried to figure out how on earth the mixer was miswired (again) and scrapping my other vinyl selections. I was forced to rely on my iPod heavily, which is ironic since I was moving away from relying too heavily on using that as my primary device as I got comfortable with my show. Someone pledge more money now to get that stuff fixed!
Of course, the entire show wasn't a "clip show"; the last 20 minutes included my first profile on Ennio Morricone, which had been long gestating but the sheer size of my collection is already monstrous, and I barely have the surface scratched. The five tracks I played covered a wide range of his wilder and generally known compositions, including some of his spaghetti Western works plus some more psychedelic pieces. I should devote a whole show for him in the future and Morricone was one of the few acts that survived completely on my iPod after my stolen laptop.
Adding to the madcappery of the show was a good friend photographing me during the last 45 minutes. Due to his time, he'll send all the photos for me to sort through, so there's bound to be a few keepers, along with evidence of my moustache for November.
I touched upon Burli briefly as part of my pitch appeal, and there's a world of information on its history and its founder Stefan Ellis along with the interconnectedness with CITR, but it shows how community radio can extend further into the community. I have a couple other stories similar to that I can share next time.
Meanwhile, here's what was heard.
As announcements go, this will be short and sweet. November is a notoriously busy time of year for charities and fundraising; the United Way campaign is underway and I'm still growing a moustache for Movember, for which I have to post a photo of my current status, which is vaguely walrus-like in growth.
However, the main crux of this is post is the third annual CITR on-air funding drive, which started this past Thursday and goes until November 27. We're targetting $15 000 CDN and after one day, we're almost at the $2000 mark. This is my first fund drive and I'm in the midst of preparing not just some special shows, but also some prize packs for the first few donors.
How to donate:
Donate by Phone: call +1 604 822 8648 (UBC-UNIT) between 7am - 2am Pacific from November 13-27. Visa, MasterCard, personal cheques, money orders, cash and direct deposit are accepted.
Donate Online: visit the UBC Development Office and please enter CITR Capital Campaign in the field marked "I would Prefer to Donate To". When donating online, please state the name of your favourite show in the comment column. radio free gak is easy to spell.
Donate by Mail:
UBC Development Office
Suite 500 5950 University Blvd.
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3
Donations can also be made in-person between 8am and 8pm at CiTR Radio offices. As well, donations can be made in monthly installments through direct deposit, which will ease the pressure on your bank account.
For more information about the campaign, you can contact the Station Manager citrmgr@ams.ubc.ca or +1 604 822 1242.
Sorry to have missed you last week. As I indicated during the show, I didn't plan on missing it because I also didn't plan on having my place being broken into whilst I was at work either. When I got home an hour before airtime, I realized I wasn't going anywhere and I waited for the police whilst figuring out what to do with a front door that couldn't be secured. I had no physical harm to myself or any loved ones, just a bruised spirit.
This show was pretty much in the bag then, so pardon any staleness or sense of numb anxiety on my part. I was already a few weeks behind on a tribute to Dolemite in light of Rudy Ray Moore's death, but with the extra time available, I was surprised to find some music of his that was actually safe to play on radio.
Henry, the host of the show before mine, had a few overlapping acts with my proposed setlist, so after conferring with him about what he played as I hung out in Studio 1 during the last half hour of his show, I made a few substitutions for Department of Eagles and Deerhunter. The former act has pretty much lost the lo-fi pastichery of their past recordings which I dug, though their songwriting has solidified. Meanwhile, the latter continues to slowly convince me of sheer genius despite the indie trappings.
As you may have heard, some of the songs had little skips and pauses due to either the older quality of the CD's or the players themselves were starting to give out. I was lucky that more of the selections from the Lost Highway soundtrack didn't completely freeze altogether since the machine thrashed with its error correcting in the studio. Distractions continued as the wall clock stopping midway during the show, requiring me to climb up, see what the story was with the battery, reset the time then somehow place the clock back in a way so that it wouldn't fall. As well, one of the other DJ's previously on the air rewired with the turntables again, messing up the channels and breaking the locks on the shelving below, which caused the station engineer to expand his vocabulary. Then there was an eager student wishing to become a station volunteer, which required a quick two minute rundown before a song ended to tell him about what roles were available and how to sign up for a tour.
Since Henry ran a little late with his show and the various times the studio claimed to have, I realized around the time I played the snappy Raphael Saadiq piece that I had to scale my show back a bit. Thus, no concert listings this week and a shortened selection of Angelo Badalamenti songs at the end. The entire show went by in a blur but I suspect it was an aberration based on everything else that was going on.
And a reminder: starting Thursday at 5pm Pacific, it's the third annual CITR Fund Drive, so the next two shows will be leaner, meaner and asking for money. Times are tight for everyone, including the station that seems ready to fall apart at any given moment, so if you can donate, your generosity will be greatly appreciated and not overlooked.
This is your playlist.
