joesays

Category: raves

  • the shopping assistant

    I never appreciated what an outstanding cook my mother was until I had my first semi-serious girlfriend. I was 16 and had grown up eating mum’s traditional English fare, which was what my Dad preferred.  Minced beef, mac and cheese, bubble and squeak, with an obligatory serving of liver every month or so.  And of…

  • austin space: a journey through sx

    A few months ago I had my first experience of the phenomenon that is SXSW.  Herewith some observations. A preface of sorts:  South by Southwest (SXSW or, in the local vernacular, simply ‘south by’)  crept onto my radar many years ago; its mix of popular culture, digital media and bleeding edge tech punched a lot…

  • serendipity in the virtual world

    A few weeks ago I attended a conference in Vancouver on virtual reality.  The show was mostly aimed at consumers but did include a ‘trade day’ at which industry folk would speak, share and connect.  One of the keynotes was a trainer from NASA who explained how that agency invented and/or improvised many VR type…

  • should i go or should i stay

    A couple of years ago I was attending reception during a client’s sales convention and a few of their customers dropped by to socialise.  One of them was a bit late, he explained, because he’d just come from escorting his pre-teen daughter to an Ariana Grande concert. Yeah, you probably already know where this is…

  • drag me away

    We all have songs that instantly connect us to a time and place.  The funny thing is, we can’t choose them; circumstances do. One of the most potent for me is Gino Vanelli’s Wild Horses.  Every time its thrumming, insistent intro comes on the radio (yes, I still listen to the radio) I’m taken back…

  • me speak geek

    I am not by nature a technical person. So I was very surprised when I was offered a job with what was then possibly Vancouver’s most high profile tech company, one which provided high end post production and visual effects services to producers of film and television commercials. What were they thinking? This: as the…

  • bloody good

    Diner in restaurant: “What can you tell us about the locally raised organic free range chicken?” Waitress: “Well, his name was Jeremy…”                               … from a radio comedy show – I can’t recall which one A British television host recently posted pictures of her 11 year old daughter blooded after her first successful duck hunt….

  • happy birthday, ol’ golden voice

    I came late to Leonard Cohen.  I’d heard of him, of course – what Canadian growing up in the 60’s and 70s hadn’t – but I never really heard him until about twenty years ago (at which point I was nearly 40 and he’d have been homing in on 60). At the time, I was…

  • remembering ray

    The third week of April 2013 was, by any measure, a bad one, filled with dark feelings and horrible events. The epicenter was Boston but the aftershocks were felt far and wide, from Vancouver to London and beyond. The Boston Marathon bombings transplanted a new, more foreign form of terrorism onto American soil. It’s a…

  • mix your media, not your message

    I’ve worked in marketing and communications since prehistoric times (ie: before the internet) and in that time I’ve worked in just about every medium there is – print, radio, TV, film, even the remarkable Interactive CD-ROM.  Having dabbled in them all, I recognize that every one has its own strengths and weaknesses.  As a result,…