It took Jowi Taylor 11 years to collect the pieces and create “Voyageur”, the Six-String Nation guitar.   It was made from 64 individual artifacts modern and ancient.  Each tell a story from the history of Canada.  A piece from former Prime Minister Trudeau’s canoe paddle, wood from the sacred albino spruce, (also known as the golden spruce),  of the Haida First Nation people, the top of Wayne Gretzky’s hockey stick, part of the cabin of a former S. Carolina slave John Ware, a piece of the handle from a championship oyster-shucking knife, and many more objects adorn and make up this guitar.  Jowi calls it a living museum because he invites people to touch it, photograph it, and of course play it.

Photo By Ninja

This episode of Hot Fossils is an homage to this living piece of history, this unique method of telling 64 wonderful stories.  Jowi Taylor gave the keynote address at this year’s Podcasters Across Borders. I attended the weekend of June 21^st.  After the keynote, Jay Moonah was invited up to play the guitar.  My show today opens with Jay and Bob Goyetche playing “With A Little Help From My Friends” by Lennon and McCartney, followed by the question period.   I have edited out portions of the question period in order to focus on the story of the guitar itself.

After the question period, I talk to Jowi and he describes additional pieces that make up the guitar case.  For those of you interested in obscure and not so obscure Canadian lore, you’ll find out about the fun fur that lines the case, pieces of the costume that Karen Kain wore during the ballet Sleeping Beauty and material from the sportcaster Don Cherry’s pants.   You can read all about the six-string nation guitar project at the site sixstringnation.com.

Photo by Ninja

• Listen to it  HotFRM 171 – A Living Museum in 64 Stories (29.2Mb)

Off to the Fromagerie for all types and ages of cheeses.  It’s our quarterly trip to the St. Lawrence Market.   Charlie is late, but when she does catch up to us, she brings along the specs for several laptops.  We invite her over to our place only to discover she’s going to bring her laundry with.   We discuss the number of expletives in the film In Bruges and Charlie informs us that Belgium is the Newfoundland of Europe.  Who knew?  Onions, Hot Cross Buns and how much weight Ninja and Special K are putting on.  Toothpicks and tear saving kitchen gadgets like onion goggles. Wind up bunnies and high bouncing balls that do not bounce. Ninja startles small children again and Charlie buys more potatoes.  Finally, Ninja is duly impressed by the Mulholland Drive California mandarin oranges.

• HotFRM 170 – Charlie is Never Boring (25Mbs)

Mashed Potatoes (No Gravy)

Billy Bob Thorton acted like a petulant, spoiled child on April 8 during a CBC interview with Jian Ghomeshi to promote his new band and musical venture the Boxmasters. Or is that the Mixmasters?   Boxmatches?  Boxcutters? I don’t know.  In any case,   for whatever reason,  Thorton seemed to be overestimating his importance and talent in the matter.  I think that he fancied that he was punishing someone by checking out of the interview.  It has been a long time since I have had the misfortune to witness such arrogant self-importance.  If you haven’t seen or listened to this insulting train wreck of unfathomable immaturity, you can catch it on at this youtube link: Jian Ghomeshi interview with Billy Bob Thorton.   Special K and I deconstruct his behaviour and then move on to discuss two movies about political figures.   It’s been 30 years since the White Night Riots after the city politican and gay activist Harvey Milk was murdered by Dan White.  We talk about the movie and how we feel about what happened during that time in gay history.  We move on to explore our reaction to a movie very difficult to make since it focused completely and solely on a conversation and a very difficult one at that.  We discuss the portrayal of David Frost and Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon.

And finally I give you my first and original mashup of Billy Bob Thorton’s most annoying utterances from his April 8th excuse of an interview on CBC radio.

Harvey Milk - Gay Pride 1978 - Photo by Terry Schmitt

Listen to the show

• HotFRM 169 Mashed Potatoes Without the Gravy (24.7 mb)

On May 4th Ninja interviewed Sara Beth Brooks the Executive Director and founder of San Diego Equality Campaign , an organization fighting to legalize same sex marriage and civil rights for LGBT people.  Sara talks about California’s Proposition 8, Camp Courage, and Join the Impact.   You can follow her on Twitter at:   http://twitter.com/sarabethbrooks.

Other Links: San Diego Equality Campaign on Twitter, Day of Decision, Gathering Storm,  PROP8 – The Musical,

• HotFRM 168 – Day of Decision Hope (36.3mb)

Traditional media has discovered Twitter.   So what?   As Jay Moonah tells us in his recent podcast, and here I am paraphrasing him according to my own interpretation, Twitter takes committment.   I don’t care if you are Oprah or Ashton or Ellen.  Are you willing to engage or just exploit the tool for what you think is short term gain?   And then once you’ve stepped on the track and discovered that it’s a long distance run, do you have the time or energy to make it worth the while for yourself and the twitter communities you are now part of?  I didn’t think so.  Because, if you agree with Jay, you have to be an electronic media junkie.  You have to spend the time learning how to speak in 140 character chunks and still have meaningful discourse.  You have to be willing to explore the new community and determine what value it has for you and others.   You have to know what you want to accomplish, like Yoko Ono seems to.   There is a lot of give and take in Twitter conversations.   And a certain  lightness of being. Depending on how many tweeters you follow, and how often you look at your tweets, you could have an overwhelming number of separate conversations and tweets to take in.  This can be a daunting proposition to some.

The first time I received more than 200 tweets between tweet sessions, I panicked.  How was I ever going to keep up?  If I didn’t find a solution fast,  I knew that I would become a twitter casuality in no time.  There is no way I can devote the same time to twitter discourse as I do to other things in my life.   I panicked publicly with a tweet to that effect.  To which kaymatthews responded with:

11:38 PM Mar 15th from web in reply to ninja_hotfrm

kaymatthews @ninja_hotfrm

Twitter is ephemeral. Just be in the moment (oo….twitterzen….)

Most excellent advice.  If I want to get the most from Twitter then I had better not treat it so seriously and really that is what Twitter became for me.  A fun way to engage in repartee, gay and otherwise.  I get to react to whatever I want at whatever point I enter the discussion.   Or I can ignore every tweet and push information that I think my twitter community might be interested in.  Or hell.  Just push out something that interests only me.

I’ll tell you something else I have noticed.   I have observed from my year and a half of being involved in Twitter that it is impossible to sustain a flame war.   Although it may seem easier to say sarcastic and mean things in 140 characters it is even harder to keep it up.  Perhaps that is because it takes a lot of energy to stay angry.  Angry people usually need a lot of space to build and maintain their justification for being angry.  And furthermore if you persist, I have the power to unfollow and block you.

Because I know I am dropping into something already and always in progress it is vitally important that if my comments lack social import, then at least let me be saying something to improve or brighten both of our days.  Of course this is only one tweeter’s story.  Some tweeters have a daily routine.  They greet us all every morning with a hale and hardy “top of the morning to you”, followed by the ingredients of their muesli.  Then many hours later they let us know they are turning in with a “night twittersphere”.  As a ninja, I prefer to drop in unannounced and leave just as quietly and unobstrusively having left my mark.   Everyone has their own particular style. I often have to remember that some people and organizations are actually using it to communicate their cause or product to what they hope is a wide audience that can in turn influence others.

Given all these factors, what can Twitter teach me?   I think it has taught me that, unlike e-mail, there is an implicit agreement that reading tone, especially a negative one, into a tweet, is a recipe for conversational disaster.  An open mind is a must for tweeting.  If we don’t understand each other that’s ok.  Move on.  It’s a tweet, not a relationship.  And that open mind also means I will expose myself, if I am lucky, to someone else’s experience that is different from mine.  And perhaps a way of looking at something I did not consider before.   I don’t have to be committed to meaningful discourse.  I can just have fun.  You know, for the long haul.

Special K and Ninja finally make it to an HD Simulcast of the New York Metropolitan Opera performance of  La Sonnambula or The Sleep Walker.   It’s a different opera experience than either of them had ever had and one they plan on repeating.   Have a look at Mike Fan’s review on his blog.

Listen to the show

• 167HotFRM – The Changing Face of Opera (15.2Mbs)

Posted in Politics ]]> http://ninjaradio.wordpress.com/2009/04/19/take-up-the-idaho-challenge/feed/ 0 Ninja IDAHO - International Day Against Homophobia http://ninjaradio.wordpress.com/2009/04/12/hot-fossils-and-rebel-matters-166-earth-hour-toronto-2009/ http://ninjaradio.wordpress.com/2009/04/12/hot-fossils-and-rebel-matters-166-earth-hour-toronto-2009/#comments Mon, 13 Apr 2009 03:25:57 +0000 Ninja http://ninjaradio.wordpress.com/?p=248 ]]>

People: It’s time to take down your Christmas lights.  C’mon it’s spring.   Ninja, Special K and Summer take a walk to the park to celebrate Earth Hour 2009.   Among the subjects discussed are dollar store lava lamps and flashlights, pickpockets and purse snatchers, girls rawk and trees that are pruned too much.  Famous celebrities mentioned: Lindsay, Britney.  Pests mentioned: porcupines, skunks, raccoons, sloth, carpenter ants. Movies mentioned: Over the Hedge, Doubt, Aliens vs. Monsters, Coraline.

Listen to the show :

• HotFRM 166 – Earth Hour Toronto 2009 - (29Mbs)

Blue Mountain Snow Trail (c) The Wryit Group

On the Snowshoe trails with Special K and Ninja.   There’s porcupines in them there hills.  They sit searching for serenity  in a steaming hot outdoor pool in subzero temperatures.   Special K promises to take pictures of Ninja if the podcast is turned off.  Ninja follows the winter stream instead.

Baraka - Snow Monkey (Film Still)

• HotFRM 165 Snow Monkeys and Snow Shoes (10.4 MB)

The Writing Is On The Wall

Not me.

Newsflash: This particular revolution has been going on since 1970. Have we only just noticed that the computer changed the way we communicate and associate?  Writers have been blogging all our lives. It’s just a different presentation. Take all the technology away from me and I’ll get my message out. I promise. I’ll scratch it on the wall.

No.  The revolution has been going on forever.  How old do you think Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park is?