NCR

It started on a late summer's night in the Glebe... well, actually it started earlier than that, but on that warm summer's night at Irene's Pub is when I stumbled onto the train.

Granted, I showed up partly because my godfather, Clive Doucet, was holding a fund-raising concert for his campaign for Mayor, but I also attended because the headline act was Luke Doucet, whom I've seen a number of times before and he puts on a great show with his wife, Melissa McClelland. Halfway through the evening, Clive's daughter, Emma appears (2 weeks postpartum) and begs me to help out with the the campaign's website. One thing leads to another, and within a few days, I'm fully engaged in the campaign, helping out with the website, trying to build a Web 2.0 presence, stepping on toes, and more.

For the next two months, my life becomes the campaign, rapidly ramping beyond 40 hours a week and beyond. My role was nebulous; I definitely was involved with the website, but I felt like I never did anything to it; mostly I was doing photography and video work, but I also had a hand in communications and strategy - neither of which I have any real experience or knowledge in. But I was mixed in with the media, a lot. So much so, that by the end of the campaign, one of my friends was calling the evening news "Spot the Geiger hour"... I'm reasonably confident that between the 5-6 local networks in the National Capital Region, I was one TV at least once per day on average. Including the time I was chased out of a construction site and threatened with arrest.

Thing is, I worked my butt off for this campaign, even though I'm fairly apolitical. I've never felt comfortable pressuring others to subscribe to a particular agenda when there's no universally accepted plan. Probably why I turned my back on organized religion, and don't care about what people do in the privacy of their own homes. That said - I really got drawn into this one. Initially I didn't plan on voting for Clive, I was going to play it safe go with Watson, in the Anybody-but-Larry vein. Then I realized Jim's campaign was roughly "I'm not Larry" and he was pretty much just going to maintain status-quo, including, must disturbingly - building a tunnel under downtown. Oh - and he's on the take from developers too.

That's when I realized Clive was my going to get my vote. 2 weeks into the campaign.

---

It's over now.

And I miss it.

There was this energy among the team, a motivation of knowing we were a long shot, but still a viable contender. We had to fight for media attention, meanwhile the two front-runners either silently incorporated elements or openly acknowledge us - all the while the newspapers ignored platform announcements and TV stations couldn't be bothered to show up at some pretty cool events, like when we had an Academy Award on hand!

Back to the team. Holy crap. You guys were amazing. Sure, when I joined things were in serious flux, but by the end I was lamenting the impending disbandment. I felt like we could do anything, and we did it very a very limited budget. And while I was in the 'inner-circle' or core team, I had no idea there was over 200 people volunteering. Granted, many of them were canvassers and doing flyer drops, everyone worked hard, even if it couldn't be seen.

A political campaign is quite an experience. Exhausting, but exhilarating. I think I'd like to do more media work covering one in the future, though I question what that would do to my political leanings. (I'd always thought I was grit-supporter, left-of-center kind of person... then I was told I was "progressive" and took weeks to figure out what that meant.)

Over 5000 photos later, there's so many stories I could tell you... but you'll just have to ask me about them.

Goodbye to my teammates, hope we meet again.

Visit Vote.ca to determine where your proper polling station is.

Go to said location, and think about this:

$2-3 billion dollar hole in the ground in 10+ years vs. city-wide light rail in 4 years

Then watch this video I produced:

(and other videos I made for Clive)

Then vote for Clive Doucet.

Thanks. Our city needs this.

Clive Doucet For Mayor

Or at least come to my first public showing of my photography!

My godfather, Clive Doucet, is running for Mayor of Ottawa and the campaign is having a fundraiser. I've submitted two pieces (you'll have to go and see to find out which) and there's a fundraiser happening this Friday night where you can view & buy them - amongst others.

Unfortunately I won't be there as I'll be in Toronto (for the next week or so - Nuit Blanche coming up!), so if you do go, please take a snapshot so I can see how the displays/room look.

Show Poster

_{Bonus points to anyone who reports back what my bio ends up saying}

I whine a lot about Ottawa being the armpit of Canada, bypassed by bigger bands travelling the 401 between Montréal and Toronto... usually stopping in Kingston - but rarely coming up here. And in recent years, we've had quite the drought of concerts; my favourite venue, Barrymore's, has pretty much converted to a dance-hall, Capital Music Hall still sucks - and rarely has good/big gigs, Zaphods and LiveLounge are fun and intimate, but either sell out too quick or you're really sardined in there. Not to knock the local/small/Cancon acts that do come to town, but Ottawa's had it pretty bad for a couple of years.

... Thus it's big & exciting when the Bluesfest roster rolls around, especially now that it's only vaguely constrained to the actual blues, you end up getting to see just about any type of act: rap, country, electronic, dance, metal, prog.rock... it runs the gamut, for 2 weeks!

This year, when the major acts were announced, I was just about ready to plunk down 250 of my hard-earned dollars... but I wanted to check one thing first: The photography policy.

Okay, this looks sane: personal photography is permitted, no rules banning SLRs, no tripods allowed (okay, why would you anyway?), no rules banning monopods. Restrictions are announced by the MCs before the shows.

Pretty reasonable. Let's do it!

Fast-forward to last week...

I got some great shots of Dream Theater, Metric, Lights, and even Rush!

But that's where the trouble started.

See, despite having legit tickets for every night, a friend of mine whom I've been giving photography tutorials to has a few All Access passes. So not only am I getting great shots from all sorts of bizarre locations on the grounds, I'm also pretty impervious to security and their whims - not that it'd been a problem anyway.

Until Rush.

See, I figured I'd take advantage of my special access and setup a time-lapse capture, using a wide-angle lens from about a 12' perch. Have a look:

Rush TimeLapse from Myke on Vimeo.

You'll notice the video ends somewhat abruptly. It turns out some maniac "band security" person started to haul down my camera by it's corded remote cable! Then he proceeded to get into an argument with my friend about what constitutes "professional photography" and what not. Word on the street has it that "band security" went through the crowd and attempted to seize other people's cameras & memory cards.

Okay - that sucks; aside from bad manners and some serious disrespect for people's gear - it's understandable, but that's if someone had announced that no photography was allowed. Thing is, there was no MC announcement before the Rush show.

Next event at Bluesfest - new photography policy! No cameras with detachable lenses!

Wait. What?

Bluesfest updated the website (and managed to actually break the page), and Tweeted saying "see website for more details" about the new policy... which has no real details, just that vague new rule. Add to this policy is the bit where the Bluefest site rotates through user-submitted content via their Flickr group, where they encourage people to post their Bluesfest photos...

Here's the thing, people are still allowed cameras - if they have media passes. I'd decided not to get those since I'm not a) media, b) shooting pro, c) trying to get in for free, d) interested in front-of-house photos, e) interested in getting kicked out after 3 songs. Also, last year they let any yahoo get a media pass; there were people up there with junk P&S cameras snapping away... It was a bit of a joke. This year it was clear they were only allowing select people, very few of them, and requests were due quite a ways in advance of the event (IIRC about 30+ days).

"Okay Myke, so don't go shooting. Just enjoy the music."

Well after a decade of shooting concerts, I've gotten pretty good at enjoying doing both thanks. And that's not really the point. I basically feel like we've been baited & switched. If it wasn't for the All-Access passes I've been getting, I'd be reconsidering attending.

As it is, I'm seriously wondering if I'm going to go next year... probably won't buy the full pack of tickets.

And I'm not the only one upset about it. Look at this thread that got everyone fired up about it in the local Flickr chapter, and this guy thinks it's pretty Klassy too.

I'd wandered over the the media desk, but they had no info or details and couldn't even tell me if I could get media access, especially since I'm not representing any media orgs. ('course I could always argue that Apt613 publishes my stuff

But I'm not happy about it at all. Even more so since security's enforcement is almost nil at best. There's still plenty of people wandering around with SLRs and no media passes - I know, I'm checking & asking. (Random tangent: I approached one guy who was accredited for Le Droit, and he actually knew my name... I wonder why.)

... still planning on shooting this weekend though, but I'll have to depend on my Double-Dot All-Access pass for armor.

Some other Bluesfest fails:
- motorcycle policy change
- Barney Danson Theater tickets... never know when those events are going to cost extra, till you get to the door.
- Poor/little on-the-day location maps
- lousy website (iframes? 1999 called, they want their Netscape Communicator Gold back)
- website outages (after FavQuest told me they wouldn't use Server North because they'd had issues with providers before. Okay! Enjoy your Amazon EC2!)

On my way home from K's last week, I witnessed an accident southbound on Riverside Drive at Industrial Avenue. I'd lined up in the left straight lane, which turns into the "Alta Vista Only" left turn lane onto Industrial Ave.. Apparently the car in front of me didn't realize this subtle change happens. So after queuing, s/he realized the traffic in the right lanes was still flowing, so the driver unceremoniously veered into the left-straight-through lane and cut off a Taurus, who, in the process of trying not to have a collision, slammed on his brakes and veered right... hitting a Civic in the right-straight-through lane. The driver/vehicle that caused this was long gone.

I decided to stick around because in my opinion the Taurus driver had no option and made the best of a bad situation, and thus was not at fault. (And could've hit my Element instead if he'd gone left instead!) I gave the drivers involved some advice and snapped some pictures. Left them my business card, told them I'd give a statement to the Police if needed, and then I left.

Apparently the boyfriend of the Civic owner is considering filing an insurance claim... So the mother of the lad driving the Civic called me this morning asking for the photos, which I've sent along. (They're easy enough to find in my gallery if you're so inclined...)

Considering the Civic is a 1989, rusted out monstrosity, that I doubt would pass an E-Test... I really hope this isn't going to turn into a protracted affair for those involved. It would seem rather futile to me.

I was 10 or 11 in line for 9 iPhones. While we waited, 3 or 4 more handsets showed up, but not enough 16GB units to make one back to me, so I decided since the people behind me wanted an iPhone a whole lot more than I wanted an 8GB iPhone, I left.
Packing for Toronto now, wonder if I'll have better luck there tomorrow?
I can live either way.

Doors Open Ottawa is this weekend, time for some officially sanctioned exploration! Here's what I'm mulling over visiting...

High Priority:

• Britannia Water Purification Plant
• SunTech Greenhouses (SATURDAY ONLY!)
• Watson's Mill

Medium Priority:

• Canadian Space Services Ltd. (former NATO)
• Canada Science and Technology Museum Collection Storage Facility
• Rogers Television - Cable 23
• CKCU Radio / Carleton University
• Ottawa Curling Club
• OC Transpo Walkley Yard Maintenance Facility

Low Priority:

• Ottawa Citizen (RESTRICTED PHOTOGRAPHY!)
• The Diefenbunker (NO INTERIOR PHOTOGRAPHY!)
• Canada Post Ottawa Mail Processing Plant (NO PHOTOGRAPHY! SUNDAY ONLY!)

Today's Rally for Network Neutrality was well attended and well covered by the media (even CJOH - which Bell owns!) and there was free WiFi!

Some moments from the rally

There's a private member's bill to be introduced by the NDP, while there's a lot of skepticism surrounding it, it's worth drawing attention to and writing your local representatives at all levels of the government! Remember - Bell Canada is a government funded private corporation that is inhibiting competition from Independent Canadian ISPs - ISPs like Server North!
As a ratepayer, you should be annoyed. As a consumer, you should be irritated. As a friend of mine, you should be furious.

If you like choice and performance when it comes to your Internet access, or you just like to support the little-guy... please sneak out early for lunch on Tuesday and join myself and many others on Parliament Hill to rally for net-neutrality.

Don't know what Net Neutrality is? Think double-dipping by telcos wanting to charge extra for access to Google or Facebook... or making them load slower or after showing you ads. Notice how your VPN connection to the office got slower recently? That's thanks to Bell's new DPI from Ellacoya/Arbor. Your BitTorrenting on Rogers just not moving at full speed, even though it's a legitimate download? Enjoy their "bandwidth resource management".

And that's just the beginning. The CRTC doesn't appear to get it, so come help us make sure the message is heard.

Tuesday May 27th, 11:30 - 13:30 on Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

.. say, oh... 45cm in the past 24 hours, and maybe 80 over the past week.

You sure you don't want to come outside?

We're having a lot of fun

Look! It's just a bit of snow... maybe 8' or 9' at the peak

It's fun!