Hofmann's Potion

Albert Hofmann, the creator of LSD, has died at age 102.

If LSD makes you think only of getting high and partying, you should take a look at Connie Littlefield's wonderful documentary Hofmann's Potion, which you can stream here (and Connie doesn't mind, because she links to it herself). Update: the stream is no more.

Hofmann and the early LSD pioneers (Cary Grant was an enthusiast) saw the drug as a powerful tool for helping people with schizophrenia and for opening up new avenues to an understanding of the functioning of the mind.

I am told by those who have tasted it that he also made delicious brandy, from his own fruit trees.

Technorati Tags: Albert Hofmann, LSD

Thursday Think Tank

Every Thursday, CBC Radio's Sounds Like Canada features the Thursday Think Tank.

The Think Tank brings together people with basically nothing in common, to comment on issues they may or may not know something about.

The most entertainment value comes from artist Carolina Echeverria, who can be counted on to kick things off with a completely wacko argument.

Today's topic was youth crime. She started by telling us the first-round hockey riots in Montreal showed that the true pulse of Canada is rage, and that once hockey fans left the Bell Centre their true emotions showed. She went on to bring up the pepper spraying of protesters at the 1997 APEC summit, the war in Afghanistan, old people dying alone in nursing homes, and... well, I lost track.

I did note, though that she thinks community service is good and jail time bad, although on a previous panel on crime she'd said that we should simply accept that some kids are born bad and that parents should crack down on their teens hard enough that the teens will hate them.

I'm sympathetic to people looking at the big picture and trying to connect disparate threads into a coherent argument. But coherent this ain't.

Nobody said you needed consistency or being able to put together a decent argument in order to be an artist. But those things might be a little bit helpful if you're trying to be some kind of pundit.

Expecting the most on the environment from the Conservatives

Andrew Potter reprints this gem from an MP's Earth Day media release:

MP Cheryl Gallant Celebrates Earth Day

LAURENTIAN VALLEY, April 22 2008 – MP Cheryl Gallant, MP Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke celebrated Earth Day by taking a drink of water from the tap instead of a plastic bottle.

You don't have to be on the show to get your message across

I'm noticing a trend I don't like on CBC Radio's The Current. The show contacts a government agency or manufacturer to talk about a controversial subject. They refuse, but send a prepared statement, and host Anna Maria Tremonti (or whoever is sitting in for her) reads it, without comment.

Why?

If you want to talk to a company about why there is lead in their lipstick, they should come on and face the questions. If they don't want to do that, they shouldn't get to present their unedited point of view. Otherwise, journalism is simply delivering spin.

I know, that's what journalism does a lot of the time -- but The Current is a pretty serious show (unless you get Hana Gartner talking about poo). And they should be telling their potential interview subjects that the only way to get their message across to listeners is to come on the show.

Maybe that's part of the problem

"Tonight, yes."

That's Daniel Alfredsson, after the Senators' loss to the Penguins last night. on being asked if he was satisfied with the team's effort.

Here's hoping Boston will be just as satisfied with their effort tonight.

Workshop on Interviewing, May 10

On May 10, I'm offering a 1.5 hour workshop on interviewing, through the Writers Federation of Nova Scotia.

Here's the description:

Get What You Need: The Interview
An hour and a half with Philip Moscovitch
1:15 to 2:45

Nothing can bring on a case of the jitters like having to interview someone. You may only have one chance to get the information you need. This session will consider the following interviewing questions and techniques: Approaches to advance research and pre-interviews. Setting yourself and your subject at ease. Interviewing in person, on the phone or electronically. Getting the quotes you want. Deciding when a question is worth asking. The power of the simple and direct question. Creative listening and the power of silence. This workshop is designed for storytellers of all kinds who conduct interviews – journalists, documentary filmmakers or writers researching subjects for longer works.

Philip Moscovitch is a freelance writer and broadcaster who has interviewed hundreds of people, including musicians, filmmakers, private eyes, activists, prisoners, and an NHL hockey legend. He loves to immerse himself in new worlds through the people he talks to.

This is one of several workshops being offered by WFNS in Halifax on May 10. The full list is here. Cost for a single workshop is $25 (WFNS members)/$35 (non-members); you can get two workshops and a light lunch for only $45 (WFNS members)/$55 (non-members).

Register by emailing talk@writers.ns.ca or by calling (902) 423-8116. Full registration information is here.

One senior? I'm a believer!!

I don't expect a lot of hard news from the Sunday paper. Especially when it's the Halifax Chronicle-Herald.

But when I took a look at this past Sunday's front page, I thought maybe I was reading an edition of The Masthead News instead. That's one of our weekly community papers, given to headlines like Girl Guides to Learn Self-Defence, and serial punctuation abuse: ("... a big, new store.")

The main story is a CP piece about a Montreal woman who has had season tickets to the Canadiens for 55 years. There's a big photo of her above the fold. It's a gentle, boring human interest piece. What really got me was the sub-head:

Montreal senior a season ticket holder for 55 years; believes 2008 team can win the Stanley Cup

Hey, one senior can't be wrong!

How Canadian

Looking through the search logs for this blog, I note that a visitor arrived here after doing the following Google search:

Does Islam allow hockey pools

That paints such a great Canadian multicultural picture. I love it.

Interestingly, this blog ranks number one for that search -- though I can't say it's one of the ones I optimized for.

Broadcasters can't make money online, part 2

Progress on CTV's website for the upcoming series Flashpoint, I see. Last week, if you clicked on the link to see an excerpt, you got a clip of Feist shooting a video.

Now you get an ad for Nip/Tuck, followed by a clip on 50 years of CTV news.

I can understand having the wrong clip up in the first place. Harder to understand replacing it with another wrong clip.

Handy blogging tool

I am writing this post using ScribeFire, which I discovered today. It's a great little Firefox extension that allows you to publish to your blog at any time, without having to go through your blogging program.

ScribeFire opens up in a window filling half your screen. You can cut and paste formatted text from the page you are visiting into the blog post. Like this:

Using the "Post Timestamp" feature

Filed under: Feature, How-To — Christopher Finke @ 12:00 pm

A
new feature in ScribeFire 1.4.7 for users of Firefox 3 is the ability
to set an arbitrary publishing date on your posts. (Note: Blogger does
not support this feature.)

To use this feature, simply write your post as you normally would:

All in all, one of the best Firefox add-ons I've come across so far.

I'm a fan of subletting 6057 South Street!

Someone with an unclear grasp of the concept of Facebook Pages.

Quirky or cause for concern?

Reader's Digest Canada has just launched Best Health, a smart-looking health mag aimed at women.

I have a small story in the current issue (adapted from a US RD piece). The print edition calls it Just a Quirk, while online edition titles it How Weird Is That?


The story looks at compulsive counting, hair-twirling, clutter, and other common -- but sometimes worrisome -- habits. Give it a read if you want to learn how hair-twirling can help you concentrate, or what the evolutionary benefits of worrying are.

Broadcasters' online woes

The Globe and Mail reports that Canadian broadcasters aren't making much money online:

Smaller audiences and fewer commercial minutes during Web episodes and clips make it difficult to earn ad revenues comparable to television, said Brahm Eiley, president of Convergence Consulting.

Let's add another factor to the list: broadcaster ineptitude.

I'm working on a story for an upcoming issue of Canadian Screenwriter magazine. As part of the research, I go to check out the websites for some current and upcoming Canadian TV shows.

Over at Global's website for The Guard, the video player on the front page shows the series logo. Very faintly, near the top of the screen, you will see these words: "There are no videos currently available. Please try again later."

Of course, you won't see those words unless you look really, really hard for them. So, you click that big ol' "Play" button in the middle of the screen. What happens then? An ad for TD Canada Trust plays.

The first time around, I assumed this was part of the price of watching the video clip. But there is no video clip. Just an ad.

Well, maybe it's a problem with the homepage. so I click the "Video" tab. It tells me no videos are available in this category. Up near the top of the screen, I note that the site is displaying only video for episode 7, and there is a little drop-down menu. I select each of the previous available episodes, but there is no video available in any of those categories either.

What videos can I see? Some behind the scenes stuff. To watch it, I've got to sit through that TD Canada Trust ad again.

Nice work Global.

But they're not alone. How about CTV's site? There's a soon-to-be-much-hyped show called Flashpoint in production. I want to know more. So I visit the Flashpoint site, and click the awkwardly worded "Watch a video preview of the new series 'Flashpoint.'" This takes me to a clip from eTalk, about Leslie Feist shooting her new video.

And these people can't make money online. Shocking.