Joe’s Hot Doc

 

I like the fact that people underestimate me. You know, they pat me on the head, then I rip their throat out. 
- Sam Sullivan in Citizen Sam

Vancouver’s Joe Moulins’ documentary on Vancouver’s mayor Sam Sullivan has been selected for this year’s Hot Docs festival in Toronto. 

It’s showing Wednesday April 25th at 9:30 at the Al Green Theatre, and Saturday April 28th at the Bloor Theatre at 2 pm.  Tickets at 416-588-8DOC or visit the Hot Docs web site.

I first met Joe in the late 80s’ when he was still doing freelance radio pieces and I was producing an arts show for CBC Vancouver called Art Beat. 

Joe was one of those guys you could count on to bring pack a nicely formed item, always bringing in more than promised. Guys like him are a producers dream-come-true.

Joe’s created an amazing doc - it’s a wonderful story and captured in a way that will surprise you. 

Here a trailer at YouTube. Watch it and you’ll know why you have to see this doc.

If you’re in Toronto, make sure you see it at the festival. 

Put Dollar Signs Next to the Reply Button

In the early 90’s I was a professional yachting instructor and I worked for a charter company on Granville Island.

At the main sales desk, all the phones had big red Letraset dollar signs on the hand set, a reminder that every call was a potential sale.

It’s pretty simple. You can’t answer a potential customer’s questions if you don’t answer the phone.

Today, potential customers are more likely to send and email. It’s simple, it’s fast, and you can send the same inquiry to a number of different companies.

Incredibly, it seems that many companies are actually worse at getting back to those customers today than they were a few years ago.

An American consulting firm, Hornstein Associates does an annual survey of e-mail responsiveness. It shows a steady decline in customer response rates since 2002…

Hornstein’s research (and common sense) says that almost everyone sends an e-mail to a company at some point and that all of us expect a response within 24 hours. In 2007 only 33% of companies responded within 24 hours, down almost half from a high of 63% in 2002.

Remarkably, only 51% of the companies responded in any time period — down from 86% in 2002.

full story at MarketWatch.com

Vancouver Gets the Zipcar

Just by chance, while checking out the T-Rex, I saw a hybrid Toyota “Zipcar” parked on Burrard Street near 2nd Avenue.

I’d never heard of them, but after a quick check online, it turns out, Zipcar has moved into town…

Beginning today [April 5th], Zipcar will place 100 vehicles in many locations throughout the Downtown, Kitsilano, Fairview, Commercial Drive and Mount Pleasant neighborhoods of Vancouver. Zipcars industry-leading selection of 11 makes and models of vehicles in Vancouver will range from standard sedans to small SUV’s and luxury vehicles.

I really like the sound of this service - you can do everything online and by using a wireless key system, you simply walk up to the car, flash your Zipcar card, and you’re on your way. From their web site:

Reserve one of our hundreds of cars – for a couple hours or the entire day. Do it online or use a phone. We’re easy. Walk to the car, then just hold your Zipcard to the windshield. The doors will unlock, and it’s all yours. Drive away… and return to the same reserved parking spot at the end of your reservation. It’s that simple. And remember, gas and insurance are included too.

We live on the North Shore, so it isn’t too likely we’ll be able to take advantage of Zipcar since all their cars are downtown, the West End, or Kits. And we can actually rent for cheaper than the Zipcar daily rates, but that’s only because we don’t have to pay the rental insurance rates (thanks to ICBC’s Roadstar service). But I think this will be a great option for a lot of people.

So Zipcar - welcome to Lotus Land.

A Perpetual Long Weekend

Every weekend is a long weekend for Ozzie.

T-Rex in the Wild in Vancouver

It does 0-60 mph in 3.92 seconds, pushing 1. 3 g’s. It’s street legal and categorized as a trike, sports a 1352 cc 4 cylinder engine and weighs just over 1000 lbs.

Built in Plessisville, Quebec - it’s T-Rex. Bring on the dino age.

See the set of T-Rex photos at Flickr.

The Lions Vs. The Catholics

In the Pink

One of my mom’s aunts bought a new Cadillac ever year. It was her way of proving she was a city girl - strong, independent and in charge.

In the summer, she’d drive out to Manitoba from Montreal to visit her sister, my grandmother.

A shiny new Caddy showing up on dusty Red River Valley farm was a sight. My grandmother didn’t drive and she’d look disdainfully out the kitchen window at all that chrome and fins parked under the yard light. She’d never say it, but I knew what she was thinking, “useless for taking the lunch out to the men working in the fields”.

For us kids, it was a glimpse into another world. We’d circle the car like it was alive. From the kitchen we could hear my aunt’s exotic big city French, her sentences punctuated with bursts of laughter. We’d press our faces to the car window, marveling at the sights unseen, the world as viewed from those plush leather seats.

Later my aunt would come out and we’d pile in for a crazy drive down the line roads, windows wide open and the radio turned way up. My aunt would toss her head back and smile her city girl smile, as if to say “you don’t get one of these from shelling peas and canning peaches”.

Though they lived very different lives, when they were together, these two women would positively shine. My aunt was proud of her sister, proud of how she’d left the comforts of a wealthy home in Montreal to be a farm wife. Proud that she’d given birth to 14 children, all of them delivered upstairs in that very farmhouse.

And my grandmother gushed with admiration for her sister, a self-made woman, rich in fact, who was not afraid to spend her money on cars and travel and life. “Look” she’d say, “this is how we live in Montreal, this is what I came from”.

Those summer visits taught me volumes about family, choices, and values. Not in words, but in actions.

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