Athabasca Extrication Challenge

Lookie thar, I've made another YouTube video!

This past weekend, Athabasca was host to the annual extrication challenge, where firefighters from across the province show off their extrication skills.

(That's rescuing people from crashed cars.)

Here's some footage of Team Athabasca in action.

Reynolds-Alberta Museum Harvest Festival

So, when I recently went home for the long weekend, my Dad spoke of his long-held desire to go down to the Reynolds-Alberta Museum and check out their Harvest Festival.

Held every Labour Day weekend, the Harvest Festival is when they fire up the vintage farm equipment and show you what it was fully capable of.

So, yeah.  Here's some footage of vintage farm equipment.

The Athabasca Fly-In BBQ

Makin' movies again!

Today, the Athabasca Regional Airport had their first ever "Fly-In/Drive-In BBQ."  Basically, pilots from all across the province were invited to fly into Athabasca, hang out, show off their planes, and just see what the town has to offer.  As I've been describing it to listeners, it's like a show and shine, but with airplanes instead of cars.



They've hoping to make this an annual event, to help promote the Athabasca Airport and get the word out to all these hobbyist pilots who are looking for a fun day trip.

Anyway, took my camera out there, took a few pictures, and made a bit of a movie.  Enjoy!

High Water on the Athabasca River

I don't make YouTube videos as much as I used to, but today, I was inspired to grab the camera and start filming.

With all the rain in the area, the Athabasca River is at its highest levels in the history of ever, according to some of the locals.  Sections of the picnic areas are washed out, the Riverfront Campground is underwater, and for the first time I can remember, the river is touching the Riverfront Stage.

Here's the video of the super-high river.

New YouTube Video! The Shriner's Parade!

I've kind of stopped doing YouTube videos for a while. Many event organizers started worrying about what kind of litigation they might face should I accidentally film someone who didn't want to be filmed, or post an interview of someone who didn't want to be interviewed. It got to the point where, when I showed up at an event with camera in hand, I'd be pulled aside and given a 20-minute lecture about what I could and couldn't film. They just weren't worth the hassle anymore.

But in the past few weeks, I've been getting a few e-mails. I've been running into folks on the street -- people who've just moved to Athabasca -- who go, "Dude! You're videos are AWESOME! They make this town look so great! That's why I moved here!"

So, the residents of Athabasca are afraid they're going to get sued over these. People outside Athabasca think I make the town look so awesome and so cool they just have to get here.

So, while I try to figure out where to go from here, I've thrown together another one. Athabasca just had a Shriner's Parade. Nothing fancy, no libelous interviews, just me filming the parade. Enjoy!

River Rats 2009!

Alrightie, gang, here we go, it's my most ambitious YouTube video to date! It's a two-parter!

And it chronicles Athabasca's always-awesome Magnificent River Rats Festival.

So please, enjoy The Magnificent River Rats Festival 2009 (Part 1)!



And the exciting conclusion, the Magnificent River Rats Festival 2009 (Part 2)!

New YouTube Vid: Athabasca University Convocation

I made my latest YouTube video! We just had one of my favourite events in Athabasca, Athabasca University Convocation!

See, Athabasca is home to the main campus of Athabasca University, and every June, thousands of graduates from all over the world descend on this town to have their moment on the stage and accept their degree or diploma.

It's always been one of my favourite Athabasca events mainly because the events staff up the university always puts on one heck of a show.

And I tried to capture that show as much as I could!



A couple of interesting stats I couldn't work into my narration: AU Convocation is a 3-day event. The only day I could make it was day 3, and that's where all this footage comes from. This year, the University was expecting 2200 people to show up. That includes graduates, their family and friends to cheer them on, and various dignitaries. That pretty much doubled the population of the town for those three days.

The Legion Street Sale

Here's my newest YouTube video, in which I check out the Legion Street Sale.

It's got my first special effects shot. I'm so proud.

Another New YouTube Vid: A Taste of Athabasca

Alrighty then, we've got a new YouTube video!

A Taste of Athabasca is the biggest annual fundraiser for the Athabasca Heritage Society...the community group dedicated to historical preservation. A variation on the traditional potluck supper, this one has people preparing a variety of foods from around the world. You get a wide variety of foods from around the globe, without having to leave Athabasca.

And, as I've said many times in the past, if there's food involved, I'm there.

So here it is! A Taste of Athabasca.

My New YouTube Vid: The Athabasca Community Centre

While I didn't get a new episode of my podcast up this weekend, I was able to throw together a new YouTube video.

The Athabasca Community Centre was a proud part of the Athabasca landscape for a very, very long time. But it got too old and too small. So they built the Athabasca Regional Multiplex to replace it. And the Community Centre came tumbling down.

OK, I only made this because I fell victim to the guy thing of watching heavy equipment at work. Yay, heavy equipment!

Behold the demolition.

The Athabasca Auto and RV Show

My latest YouTube epic is ready to be unleashed on the masses!

Last weekend was the first-ever Athabasca Auto and RV Show. Thanks to my job, I was up there, broadcasting live on location, mingling with the crowd, and just being a super radio star.

And, as I do, the camera was along and I filmed as much as I could.

So, here it is...The Athabasca Auto and RV Show.

My latest YouTube vid!

So, here's my newest YouTube epic.

The Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta recently had a fundraiser in Athabasca, with a portion of the proceeds going towards the Athabasca Good Samaratin Mission. (That's our local food bank).

The fundraiser was a hockey game. Some of your favourite PC MLA's and cabinet ministers vs. municipal politicians and local celebrities.

Filmed it. YouTubed it.

Here's The PC Hockey Game.

The Winter Festival of Speed!

It's been a while since I've had a new YouTube epic to share! Here's my newest one.

Here's the deal. Out in Lac La Biche, they recently had the Winter Festival of Speed. All kinds of motorsports out on the frozen lake. Our sister station in Lac La Biche, Big Dog 103.5 issued a media challenge. All the surrounding radio stations were invited out to race on the ice for charity.

And of course, we here at 850 the Fox picked up the gauntlet that they threw down.

They only wanted one volunteer from the station, and my colleague/news guy Chris Byrne raised his hand first.

Which left me free to make a movie about it!

So, here we go, with the Winter Festival of Speed Media Challenge

My Newest YouTube Epic: A Zamboni Clearing the Ice

One of my favourite cartoons from my carefree college years was Freakazoid!. One episode in particular that stands out was called Relax-o-Vision. The joke was this: kids were getting too hyper from watching violent action scenes, so Freakazoid! became the first cartoon presented in Relax-o-Vision. Everytime a violent act broke out, we'd cut to a relaxing of scene, of, say, fish in an aquarium, while soothing music played.

That episode kind of served as the inspiration for my latest YouTube opus, A Zamboni Clearing the Ice. What can I say? It's a relaxing scene, set to soothing music.





And yes, the pop-ups at the end are true. I actually do have a 4 minute director's cut of this. It's actually more like a rough cut, as I threw in a longer song and put in every frame of footage I filmed, until I started editing it down to reflect my true intent.

If there's rampant interest in the director's cut, I'll post it. Eh, I'll probably post it anyway, cuz I like the music I use in the director's cut.

My New Movie...Coming Soon

I enjoy walking. It's one of the few physical activities I make an effort to get out and do. Well, all physical activities require effort.... You know what I'm getting at.

Given my job, when I'm out on the streets of Athabasca, I'm occasionally stopped and mocked for listening to my MP3 player while I'm walking. "Don't you listen to the radio enough when you're at work?" they ask me.

And then I started goofing around with my YouTube videos and things started coming together.

So, for a while now, I've had this idea for a YouTube video called Walking. It would just feature footage filmed by me, walking down some of my favourite walking trails in and around Athabasca, with a soundtrack consisting of the music I'm usually listening to when I walk down that path.

While I was home for Christmas vacation, sitting around the house, I was hit with an inspiration.

As the snow started falling, I grabbed my camera, and filmed a short bit of me walking down the back alley. Then, I threw it together into this proof of concept/test footage/trailer thing.

So, here is...Walking: Test Footage.

My Christmas Scrapbook

Ladies and gentlemen, Christmas can mean only one thing...Christmas movies!

So here's my latest YouTube endeavour. My Christmas Scrapbook follows me as I go around to a couple of Athabasca Christmastime events, and chronicle my adventures.





Not gonna lie...I'm a little disappointed with this one. Because I tried to smoosh the two events into one film, the whole project just never really gelled. As Lucas tells us, films aren't released, they escape. And this one got away on me.

Damn it! I never finished that thought in the intro...one of the many reasons why I'm not pleased. Oh, well. That's why Lucas invented special editions.

The NAAW Discovery Zone

It's been a while since there's been something in Athabasca cool enough for me to film, but it finally happened a few days ago.

For those who don't have an AADAC in their community, this has been National Addictions Awareness Week. To celebrate, our local chapter of AADAC did this thing called the Discovery Zone, where all the facilities of the Athabasca Regional Multiplex were open for folks to try out.

So, here I am, goofing around at the NAAW Discovery Zone!