Showing posts with label The Hour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Hour. Show all posts

Friday, September 11, 2009

The Big City

My Dad was in town yesterday, just a brief visit before some meetings he had in the city. So I took the chance to get out with him, do a few things in the big city. Always lots to do here.

First stop was the Royal Ontario Museum downtown. Cool building with the Michael Lee Chin Crystal as the front. Our stop was with a purpose, we were here to see the famous Dead Sea Scrolls which are on exhibit until January (in case you're planning on popping by). It was neat to see in person what is perhaps the greatest archaeological discovery of the past decade. Most interesting was how they were found, the lengths that have been gone through to preserve them, the sect that hid them in the caves, etc... Being an archaeologist would be cool if you could discover something as cool as this, say, every month. Otherwise it seems kinda dusty and kinda less fun.

Then we went off to the CBC building downtown to sit in on a pre-taping of The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos.

He's doing a bunch of pre-tapings because the TIFF is in town and so are all the actors (I haven't seen George Clooney or Drew Barrymore yet but supposedly they're here in town).

So we got to see interviews with 3 guests: the experimentally funny A.J. Jacobs (seriously, check him out - ridiculous stuff such as a month of doing whatever his wife told him, a month of saying whatever his wife told him to do, a month of saying whatever came to his mind, a year of living biblically (literally), outsourcing his life to India, etc..); actress Isabella Rossellini (who I can't say I knew); and author Douglas Coupland (whose book we got given free!).
(commercial break with Coupland)

It was a neat experience to see how it all works ("We're going to shoot that ending again") and, heck, it was free to do! Always lots to do in the big city.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Props

A man has got to give props where they're due so here's my shout outs for the night. Major respect, Son.

Props to George Stroumboulopoulos of The Hour. I love how he keeps it real. Even more, I love how he brings real people of faith on the show and treats them with open, honest respect; allowing them to voice their faith in a reasonable way. Check out his interviews with guys like Craig Gross. He also cares deeply about issues like poverty and AIDS and brings some really thought provoking guests onto the show. I love his conversational style - man, he is just kickin' it real style.

Serious props to North Coast Brewing Co. and their Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout. If you're a lover of serious beers, you must try this. Dark as a starless night, deep as a forgotten well and complex like the best women. Beer sites and connoisseurs around the web rate it among the best in the world and let me tell you - it is well deserved. I know I rant about American beers...lacking but that ignores smaller micros on the West coast who put out beauts like this. Seriously delicious.