Conflict of Interest

Phoned Joe Mahoney and Stuart Einer at the CBC today to set up meetings. Voicemail on both counts. Why? Because I’m in class during the ideal times to call. For the past two days, I haven’t been able to get that last 1/2 hour of tape reviewed for the Sean Ward piece, because I’ve been working on my MIDI assignment and Ian McGettigan record analysis for Audio Theory class.

I haven’t been in touch with my producer at Metro Morning since he initially gave me the thumbs up, because I really don’t have anything to show him at this point, aside from a lot of tape and several pages of notes on canary yellow paper (not unlike this). I need to hurry up and finish my notes and write a script. Then I’ll have a reason to call again, other than to say, “Recording went well. Got some great stuff.” But to do all of this, I need time. Which schoolwork isn’t affording me right now. I’m worried this thing is dragging on, and I don’t want Mr. Producer to forget about me. To that end on the polka front, I emailed Nick Purdon to let him know I haven’t fallen off the edge of the earth.

Don’t get me wrong. I like my classes. For the most part, they’re interesting and enjoyable, and I usually feel like I’m learning something. It’s cool that I get to program MIDI, and listen to records and research podcasting and call it all “homework.” I like school. But it just seems like lately it’s been getting in the way of the real world.

Useful link of the day: Pitches that Work

Less useful (but maybe more entertaining) link of the day: Mario LeCraig is selling out

Lists! Lists! Lists!

Progress:

• Only an hour of tape left to make notes on for the Sean Ward piece
  • Got some halfway decent Silver Snail tape
    • Heard back from Brian from the polka band. He thinks the idea is “a blast,” and I’m tentatively scheduled to sit in on a polka jam in early November

      • Lost a Polka Dot Door contact; will have to find another

        • Gary Gould’s CBC friend Joe Mahoney returned my email. Will call him tomorrow to arrange for a coffee meeting.</p>
          • I will be job shadowing CBL’s Geoff Ellwand sometime soon

            • I will be having coffee with Joe Cummings this coming Tuesday </ul> To do:

              • Contact someone from 680 re: job shadowing
                • Start/finish this McGettigan paper

                  • Get my Hey Jude MIDI assignment done </ul> Exciting product accouncements:

                    • XM Radio’s MyFi: “wearable” satellite radio with HDD for recording
                      • Apple’s iPod Photo: still no decent recording capabilities. Plus, Canadian ITMS by early November. </ul>

Error 404

Was looking through some old bookmarks and came across a link to the CBC Freelancer’s FAQ, which I remembered as a nice little resource. But for some reason, they took it offline. Probably because most of the contact names and phone numbers listed are out-of-date.

Nevertheless, there’s some good info, and through the miracle of the Wayback machine, you can still view it here.

More Sawatsky on interviewing

American Journalism Review:

Leave the values out, he says, and problems solve themselves. Instead of asking Sarah Ferguson, for example, ‘Is it hard being a duchess?’ ask: ‘What’s it like being a duchess?’ Instead of asking Ronald Reagan, ‘Were you scared when you were shot?’ ask: ‘What’s it like to be shot?’

The Way We Ask

An interesting article from Poynter.org. John Sawatsky, whose “off the shelf” questions came up in conversation over the weekend, is discussed.

Apparently Sawatsky has been working for years on a book about interviewing. If it ever comes out, I’d love to read it. I know he did training seminars with the CBC. Maybe he’ll do lectures at their new Canadian Institute for Training in Public Broadcasting