Preparing for life with Alzheimer's

I seem to be doing a lot of stories related to mental health lately. Alzheimer's is not exactly a mental health issue, but there are some similarities -- and it's good to see that people are more willing to discuss the disease openly, rather than trying to hide it.

Yesterday, I was in the studio at Maritime Noon to talk about how patients and their loved ones can prepare for life with Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia. You can listen to the conversation here.

Friends of Redtail

My half-hour documentary on the Friends of Redtail is online here.

This may seem like a story you've heard before: local group bands together to try and protect forest from clear-cutting.

But there is more to it than that. The Friends of Redtail don't want to create what they call "a tree museum" -- and they are looking to create a new model of local ownership and control of resources.

There are some great characters in this piece, including Billy MacDonald, who runs the nature camp from which the Friends take their name, and who is one of the only people in Canada to have successfully fought the National Energy Board; and Bernadette Romanowsky, a retired lawyer and mother of (I believe) 10.

Christmas in Bridgewater

Bridgewater's first Community Christmas Dinner is on tomorrow. When organizers Brian Braganza and Cate Trueman started talking about it a few months back, they were hoping to have 50 people come out and celebrate Christmas dinner together.

Tomorrow, they are expecting to serve 500 people.

It's not a soup kitchen type event. Everybody is welcome, and more than 17o people are volunteering to do everything from moving tables to serving dinner. As one of the women I interviewed about the event said, "It's like the community is giving itself a big hug."

I did a small piece on the dinner for our local CBC radio morning show, and you can listen to it here.

Flashpoint

Congrats to all involved with Flashpoint, one of the big winner's at this year's Gemini Awards.

I wrote about the show for Canadian Screenwriter magazine, just before the first episode aired.

You can read my story, which features interviews with the show's creators and key writers here (pdf).

Off the Grid in St. Margaret's Bay

I knew that my neiighbours Andrea and Shawn Redmond had built themselves a house way back from the road a few years ago. But when I heard it was also off the grid, and that they were raising chickens, goats and pigs, I wanted to get out there and talk to them.

Shawn does handyman and construction work, and Andrea is a painter (as in artist, not house painter) who also boards dogs. Shawn built most of the house, which is powered by solar panels and a 1-kilowatt wind turbine. In addition to the livestock they have now, they're hoping to add Scottish highland cattle, which are hardy and spend their winters outdoors.

Out of my visit came a five-minute radio documentary for CBC Radio's Information Morning in mainland Nova Scotia. You can listen to it here (in mp3 format).

Ted Hutten -- local farmer finds a niche

The 2009 Nova Scotia Food Summit just wrapped up: three days of meetings in the heart of the province's agricultural country.

In conjunction with the summit, mainland Nova Scotia's CBC Radio One morning program, Information Morning, ran a number of stories on local food and food security.

One of them was my 5-minute documentary on farmer Ted Hutten. He's been farming since age 18, and he and his wife (who, apparently, he has known since he was two!) bought the land they currently farm from his mother.

Hutten started off growing what he calls Dutch immigrant fare: green beans, potatoes, carrots. But he soon realized there was a niche to be filled in the exotic vegetable market. Now he grows all kinds of Asian greens and radishes, and he has a devoted following among customers with Middle Eastern and East Asian backgrounds.

I talked to Hutten and some of his customers at the Halifax Farmers' Market recently. (It meant getting there for 7 AM -- I should have been paid double). The documentary runs five minutes, and you can listen to it in mp3 format here.

Scott Pelton's Young Naturalists Club

Every summer, Scott Pelton runs a day camp out of his boathouse on St. Margaret's Bay. He calls the place the Boathouse Institute of Oceanography.

Scott is like a big kid -- still completely captivated by the Bay and its ecological diversity. And he shares that passion with the kids.

I visited the camp during its last session of the summer, and put together a five-minute radio documentary. It is in mp3 format, and you can listen to it here.

My interview with Bruce Kirby

Bruce Kirby is a sailing legend. A former Montreal Star editor, he's designed more than 60 sailboats, including the Laser -- probably the world's most popular racing boat.

Kirby was here in St. Margaret's Bay (where I live, near Halifax) for the 2009 Nautel World Laser Championships last week. I interviewed him for a report I did on the event for CBC Radio One's Information Morning.

We talked about why the Laser is so popular, the rock star treatment Kirby (now 80) gets whenever he attends sailing events, and his current sailing activities. He struck me as a modest guy, still genuinely surprised by the success of the Laser.

I only got to use a tiny bit of the interview in my radio piece. You can listen to the rest here (it's an mp3 that runs about 7 minutes).

Cash flow tips for freelancers

If you are a freelancer writer (or any other kind of freelancer for that matter) summer can wreak havoc with your cash flow. The people who draw up contracts are on holiday. Accounting has someone filling in, and they are slow. Work dries up. You go on holiday, meaning you are working fewer billable hours.

Meanwhile, your bills keep rolling in, same as always.

A few years back, Canadian Screenwriter ran a story I did on cash flow for screenwriters -- but really, it applies to pretty much any freelance writers or artists.

And if you're a freelancer and want to share your own tips, hit the comments link below.

Go With the Flow
By Philip Moscovitch

If you're anything like me, you wind up tuning out all that standard financial advice in the media. Why? Because, most of it doesn't work for people with fluctuating incomes and lots of job insecurity. People like screenwriters.

Amanda Mills, who bills herself as a “financial therapist,” says the most volatile incomes belong to screenwriters and sculptors. But don’t throw up your hands. Despite the unpredictability, you can plan and avoid cash flow woes.

Put it aside
Mills, who works primarily with artists and writers, says a realistic view of your income is key. We tend to take our best months or years as our benchmark. Instead, Mills says, take the low end of the curve and base your budget on that. “When the upswings come you can expand your budget a bit. If you’ve allowed yourself so much for entertainment, add to that. But also make sure you use some of the money to build a six-month cushion”—a nest egg that you can live on if you’re out of work.

Brian Bowes, who offers financial planning and tax services for writers and artists, says you have to make sure to put enough money aside not only for lean times, but for the taxman too. “You have to master setting money aside—people in the first year especially, because they forget about income tax. Suddenly you get a bill for $10,000. Not only have you not saved anything, you owe all this money.”

It works best if you put money for taxes and a rainy day fund aside in a separate bank account, preferably one that will pay you a bit of interest. As for the amount to save, Bowes says it depends on many factors, including your income. But he offers 30 percent as a good general target. “If you’re the kind of person who has good times and then lean times I would think 30 percent is not a crazy number. The worst that happens is you’ve got extra money.”

Spend smart
Saving is one way to ensure decent cash flow. Another is to become smarter about spending. Barbara Florio Graham, who has been a freelance writer for 36 years, says you need to plan your spending, because “you don’t have time to shop when you’re working, and you don’t have time to work when you’re shopping.”

Her planning includes buying office supplies in bulk in August and September, and computers and other office equipment after Christmas, when they’re always cheaper.

She also tracks her spending by putting it all on two credit cards that offer rewards, and paying off the balance at the end of each month. Mills says that’s a great approach for people who “have a hard time getting receipts but are good at paying off the credit card bills. But it’s not good if you’re not the type who pays your balance off.”

Graham says that keeping an eye on spending doesn’t mean deprivation. Instead, skip the frivolous expenses and treat yourself once in awhile. “My philosophy is getting the biggest bang for my buck,” she says. “If I go out for dinner, I really enjoy myself.”

Bowes suggests flexibility as a way through the down times. Don’t buy a car if you don’t have to. You avoid monthly car payments—one less thing to worry about when money isn’t coming in.

Bridging the gap
No matter what you do, there may be times when you’re just short of funds. A line of credit can help—especially now, with interest rates so low.

“If you’re working on something and you don’t get your production fee for four months, certainly a line of credit can sustain you,” Bowes says. I would suggest that you consolidate at four or six percent instead of carrying credit card debt at 18 percent.”

But Ellen Roseman, personal finance columnist for the Toronto Star, points out that lines of credit have their downside too. If you find yourself just making the minimum payment, you’re only covering the interest and never paying down the principal. She says, “You have to watch that, or it’s a loan for life.”

Many banks offer lines of credit secured against your house. Technically, Roseman says, that’s a second mortgage. “Don’t leverage your house to the hilt,” she says. “It’s very easy to do because lines of credit are so cheap… but it means you’re really vulnerable if rates go up or market value goes down.”

One way to get through the tough times is to draw money out of your RRSP (because you maxed out your contributions during the good times, didn’t’ you?). Both Bowes and Roseman note that by maximizing RRSP contributions, you get a great tax break during the good times, and then when you withdraw the money during the bad times, you’re taxed on it in a far lower bracket.

But Mills is skeptical of the strategy. She says what often happens is that writers “are in clover the first half of the year, and then they’re cashing in their RRSPs in the second half of the year when work is slow.” Because you earned good money for part of the year, you’ll face tax hit on that RRSP withdrawal. “It makes me sick when that happens,” she says.

Back to the Westcliffe Diner

I first wrote about the Westcliffe Diner in the early days of this blog. (I spelled it "Westcliff" at the time, because that's what it says on the sign, but owners Beverly Griswold and Tyler Slaunwhite assure me that it is actually Westcliffe, with an "e".)

I recently wrote about the diner again, this time in the pages of the Canadian edition of Reader's Digest (unfortunately the story is not online, so I can't point you to a link). It was an interesting piece to write. Tyler is not a publicity hound. He started off refusing to speak to me, and I think he got a bit annoyed when I persisted in asking him if he would consider allowing me to interview him.

But eventually, after several research trips (all of which included a burger or fish and chips of course -- I over-researched a bit), I pulled out my notebook and started asking questions. And Tyler and Bev started answering. They showed the same generosity with me as they do when they are cooking and serving up meals.

As one person I interviewed said, so many businesses now seem friendly -- but it's a kind of fake friendly. That's definitely not what the Westcliffe is like.

Eating the Wild

Local food is all the rage -- and what could be more local and organic than something growing wild in your backyard or nearby?

I recently appeared on Information Morning in Cape Breton and mainland Nova Scotia to talk about edible wild plants with hosts Steve Sutherland and Bob Murphy.

Click here to listen to my conversation with Bob (mp3), featuring clips from a trio of local edible plant experts: Marian Munro, curator of botany at the Museum of Natural History in Halifax, chef Michael Howell of Tempest restaurant, and herbalist and plant walk leader Savayda Jarone.

There were some great clips I wanted to use in the piece, but wound up cutting for space. My favourite was Marian Munro talking about making porridge from the root of the invasive Japanese Knotweed and using Chickweeds in salads: "I say, if you can't get rid of it, eat it."

The piece runs about 5 minutes.

More from Paul's Hall

Back in May, CBC Radio's Maritime Magazine aired my radio documentary Tobias Beale -- Taking Music Education Beyond School Walls. (You can listen to it here, or tune in to CBC again for a rebroadcast on August 30.)

One of the people featured in the doc was Emma Paul, a young (then 13, now 14), singer doing Summertime in rehearsal.

Emma's still going strong. Here she is sitting in with the Mitchell-Staples Quartet at Paul's (no relation) Hall.

Tobias Beale and Paul's Hall on CBC's Maritime Magazine

My half-hour radio documentary on Tobias Beale is now online here.

Tobias is a music teacher who lives near Halifax. And he tells great, great stories.

In some ways, it's been a rough year for Tobias. He's spent 15 years devoted to teaching music, and he finds himself doing it in an environment where it really doesn't seem to be a priority.

After spending 8 years teaching band at his local junior high, Tobias found himself out of a job. Today, he's a half-time band resource teacher who travels from school to school. It's crazy and fun, but not the same. He's also bought an old church hall, and is using it to revitalize a locally focused music culture, and to provide a performance space for teens.

Bonus feature: I've posted the raw audio of the first interview I did with Tobias, when I started working on this documentary several months ago. We were chatting upstairs at Paul's Hall, while three local teen bands prepared for a show downstairs.

The file runs about 25 minutes. Click to listen, or right-click to download and listen later.

The interview covers all kinds of fascinating stuff I couldn't work into the final show. I especially like Tobias's answer when I ask him why kids need performance spaces when they all have MySpace and Facebook pages to promote their music. That comes about three quarters of the way through.

Enjoy, and please share your comments by clicking the "comments" link below.

The day the greyhounds came to Musquodoboit Harbour

My 5-minute radio documentary on greyhound enthusiasts in the Maritimes is now online here.

Every few months, Greyhound Pets of Atlantic Canada arranges for a truckload of ex-racing dogs to come to the Maritimes where they will find new homes. Greyhound lovers call the day Hound Day, and they converge at GPAC founder Jeanette Reynolds' house in Musquodoboit Harbour, near Halifax, to meet the new dogs, and get them settled. And some of them will go home with new pets they have just met.

The documentary features a United Church minister with 9 greyhounds, an explanation of how to hold a greyhound's collar so the dog doesn't take off on you, and an interview with Jeanette, who has 5 greyhounds and 2 jack russells.

It doesn't feature any barking, since greyhounds are such quiet and easy-going dogs.

Twitter 101

Here is my March 2009 Gone Surfin' column, which first appeared in the South Shore Clipper. If you have wondered what this Twitter thing is all about and whether it's for you or not, read on.

If you want more on Twitter, read my story in the Globe and Mail on fiction writers using the site in innovative ways.

And for past columns, visit the Gone Surfin' archive (which has some gaps, because I have not done a great job keeping it up to date).

All a-twitter

Spring is here, and the birds are twittering in the branches. Meanwhile, the media is chirping loudly – about the latest hot web site, Twitter.

Curious to find out what the fuss was all about, I signed up. (If you want to follow me go to http://twitter.com/PhilMoscovitch.)

Twitter is a site that asks users a simple question -- “What are you doing?” -- and gives them a maximum of 140 characters in which to answer.

Now, I have to tell you that I resisted Twitter for a long time. I just could not see the usefulness of a site that allowed you to write what you're doing in 140 characters or less.

And the first Twitter postings I looked at were no help. They said things like “Going to have a bath.” Really? Did I care? No.

But soon after signing up, I realized that – like with many interesting technologies – users have created their own culture and extended its uses beyond the site's original intentions. Very few people seem to actually tweet (that's another word for a Twitter post) about what they are doing at the moment. News organizations tweet breaking stories. Writer Arjun Basu uses Twitter for fiction: over 500 140-character short stories so far. Politicians like Elizabeth May post information that's both personal and political. Tech companies release the latest on their products through Twitter. People of all stripes post interesting links.

Like Facebook, Twitter creates interlocking networks. You may start off following close friends. Then someone forwards one of your postings to their followers (this is called re-tweeting). Friends of your friends start following you. Soon, you're drawing the attention of people you know nothing about.

Unlike Facebook, you don't have to be friends with someone to see what they post, and vice-versa. Unless you deliberately make your settings private, or use direct messages, all your posts and replies are public. They can even be seen by people who are not Twittering.

If you do wind up following a number of people, don't try to keep up with everything they have posted. One piece of advice I read was to treat Twitter as a stream. You can dip into it and see what's there at any given time, but don't try to keep up with all the tweets the people you follow are posting. It's a surefire way to drive yourself crazy and to waste lots of time.

You will probably also find it annoying to visit the Twitter website every time you want to check in. But you don't have to. There are plenty of third-party tools that allow you to tweet, search and read posts without going directly to the site. I use a widget for the Opera browser that stays open on the edge of my screen. There are also programs like Twhirl (for Windows), Twitterific (for Macs) and Twadget (a vaguely obscene sounding Vista sidebar gadget). Plus you can always post and receive updates on your cellphone.

If you plan to post links in Twitter, you will need a URL-shortening service. Many links are so long that posting them would take up a large chunk of your 140 characters. Fortunately, there are dozens of websites that allow you to paste in a Web address and then convert it to one that is substantially shorter. Then you can copy and paste the new URL into Twitter. Readers who click on it will be taken to the original site whose address you shortened.

I typically use TinyURL, SnipURL and is.gd (pronounced “is good).

Is Twitter fun? Sure. Useful? It can be. Will it change the world? Not likely. But it does offer an interesting window into what others are doing and thinking. It may seem unfamiliar at first, but its very simplicity, makes it easy to catch on.

One final word: Twitter does have its own conventions that may seem confusing. So, very quickly, RT means re-tweet (forwarding something someone else has posted). @ is the symbol that appears at the start of a posting to indicate it is a public reply. And # is the equivalent of a blog tag – a mark that sets off a keyword to make searching easier.

Now you're all set to add some tweets of your own to the spring chorus.

Short Twitter fiction

My story on writers creating short fiction on Twitter is online at The Globe and Mail. 

It features interviews with Arjun Basu, and Clare Bell (author of the Ratha series), and also links to Jason Camlot (aka jcsped) and Darryl Parker (aka Twirled View).

Basu, writes super-short stories. He calls them twisters, and they run exactly 140 characters. He's got more than 500 so far, and has attracted the interest of an agent who, he says, is confident he can get him a book deal.

Bell's a former engineer who used to race an electric Porsche -- now there's something you won't find on most writer CVs. She's posting a novelette in tweets, as of March 14, and also archiving the pieces for readers who are jumping into the story in the middle.

NovaLUG members speak

A month or so ago, I did a script and clip segment on LEGO enthusiasts for the local CBC Radio morning show, Information Morning. 

It featured three members of NovaLUG, the Nova Scotia LEGO users' group, discussing their LEGO obsession and showing off some of their creations. The clip features Owen Grace, a computer specialist whose passions are sailing and LEGO, and who is heavily into LEGO robotics, and Chris and Katherine Campagna, who talk about how LEGO has taken over their home. My thanks to them for being so generous with their time, and for showing me around the incredible display they built at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. 

Click here to listen.

Jane and Mark's Kiva adventure

Back in December, I interviewed Jane Sladen and Mark Goodwin. They are a retired Halifax couple who are totally into Kiva. That's the micro-credit website that allows you to lend money (a minimum of $25) to entrepreneurs in the developing world.

Jane and Mark each head a lending team. Jane's is Crazy Canucks and Mark's is Animal Lovers. Both are in the top 20 worldwide. They were an interesting pair. Mark is retired from the Customs and Border Services drug team, and is a self-confessed Internet addict (he spends about eight hours a day online). Jane is more of a pure Kiva addict. She heard about the site on Oprah, and it changed her life.

Click here to listen to my conversation about Jane and Mark, with Don Connolly of CBC Radio's Information morning.

My school breakfast radio documentary

Breakfast is served three mornings a week at East St. Margaret's, the local elementary school in Indian Harbour, Nova Scotia.

And on those three mornings, you can count on 85-year-old Kay Richardson to be there.

I stopped by recently to speak to Kay and some of the students. Click here to listen to the documentary. (It runs four minutes.)

Downfall parodies

I have a story in today's online edition of The Globe and Mail about the spread of Downfall parodies.

The Internet is awash in film clips showing Adolf Hitler ranting and raving about being banned from World of Warcraft, hating The Phantom Menace, and being upset about the bank foreclosing on his home.

The online videos are parodies based on a scene from the 2004 film Downfall, starring Bruno Ganz as Hitler. The original scene captures Hitler's realization that he is doomed and the war is lost. The parodies take that scene, but add subtitles to completely change what he's saying.

Like this: 

The story offers some context on the history of Hitler parodies, and on whether or not it crosses the line to cast Stephen Harper as the Fuhrer, as this video does:

Short answer: yes and no.

Karen Walton profile

Karen Walton is the screenwriter behind the cult teen werewolf hit Ginger Snaps. She also has a whole lot of other writing credits.

Today, she divides her time between Montreal and Toronto, with the occasional jaunt to LA. She's wrapped up adapting Michael Turner's great novel The Pornographer's Poem, and is working on a new film with Jean-Marc Vallée of C.R.A.Z.Y. fame. 

I interviewed Karen for the Fall 2008 issue of Canadian Screenwriter. I generally find screenwriters fun to interview. Especially Canadian ones. They know how to tell a good story, and even the successful ones live a relatively marginalized existence -- so they tend to be down to earth and honest.

Within moments of my first approaching Karen, she was sending emails that sounded like they were meant for an old friend.

It was also refreshing to speak to someone who was unabashed in expressing her complete lack of interest in directing:

"I totally admired the directors, and totally understood the nature of the performance required from the actors. But what I really wanted to do was to able to continue working with lots of different kinds of directors on lots of different kinds of projects. If you become an auteur, if you become the director, that changes. Because you only ever get to be on your own set. You only get to have a converastion with who you invite to the party. And I fell in love with the idea that I didn't know yet what was possible. And what I really wanted to do was hang out and work with directors, not be one.”

You can read my story here.  Then drop by ink canada, the Facebook group she started to bring Canadian screenwriters together. 

The Secret Men Won't Admit -- more radio

If you live in Atlantic Canada, you can hear me with Tom Young on The Afternoon News, Friday, October 17 at 2:30. The show is on the Rogers stations in the region: News 91.9 (Moncton), News 88.9 (St. John) and News 95.7 (Halifax). 

Listen in if you can!

The Secret Men Won't Admit -- radio interviews on men and depression

Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be doing a bunch of radio interviews to talk about men and depression -- the subject of an article I wrote for the October 2008 issue of the Canadian Reader's Digest.

Today, October 16, I'm on The Gary Doyle Show, on CKGL 570 News in Kitchener, from 1:30-1:45 Eastern Time.

Obviously this is a subject that people respond to, because it is talked about so little. I'm hoping to do my bit to change that.

Our week of stewardship on Micou's Island

For a week in August, my family served as stewards on Micou's Island. It's a 22-acre jewel in St. Margaret's Bay -- one of the few islands in the bay that's not in private hands.

Being stewards meant living in the 1850s house on the island (cold running water, composting toilet, wood-fired cook stove), greeting visitors, and making sure people respected the island environment.

I also brought along a broadcast-quality recorder and made a radio documentary about our experiences -- which turned out to be a lot more eventful than we ever would have expected.

The documentary aired in Nova Scotia on the CBC Radio One program Mainstreet. You can listen to it here in mp3 format.

Volunteer Firefighters in Reader's Digest

Turns out one of those stories is online after all.

“Firefighting gets in your blood,” says 37-year-old Lantz deputy chief Tim MacNeil, who has been with the department since age 19. He works two day jobs, including one fighting forest fires. “Everybody’s boyhood dream is to drive that big red truck,” he says. “I’m trained to do it, and I love to do it. If your house is on fire, I want to be there to put the fire out.”

Read the rest of the story here.

2 stories in the October 2008 Reader's Digest

I've got 2 stories in this month's Canadian edition of Reader's Digest. 

That's firefighter Tim Doane, on the cover, whom I interviewed for a story on volunteer firefighters. Also mentioned on the cover is "The Secret Men Won't Admit" -- my piece on men and depression.

Tim Doane and the rest of the volunteer firefighters were great to interview. They are just so into what they do. Doane spent 20 years as a firefighter and firefighting instructor in the military, and did two tours of duty in Afghanistan. After retiring from the military, he became a volunteer firefighter and an instructor at the Nova Scotia Firefighters School. 

After I'd spent some time with the volunteers, they decided I ought to suit up too, so I followed a couple of them into a building where a fire was burning at about 600 Fahrenheit. It took me about 20 minutes to get the gear on. I was in a highly controlled situation, but it made me appreciate how easy it could be to be overcome by panic in a hot, smoky, burning building.

If you'd like to hear more about volunteer firefighters, give a listen to my radio documentary on the challenges facing first responders in one Nova Scotia community. It's called "Where there's smoke, will there be firefighters?" and you can learn more about it and listen to it here.

The depression story has been a long time in the works, and I hope you get a chance to read it (neither piece is online, so you'll have to pick up the magazine). I am deeply appreciative of the willingness of the people I interviewed to share stories about some of the hardest times in their lives. Depression and other mental illnesses seem to be finally coming out of the closet, and that can only be a good thing.

Griefwalker

Great story in today's Globe and Mail on Griefwalker. 

The Globe's Michael Posner writes:

There are certainly bigger, more commercial films on the roster for Montreal's World Film Festival, which opened last night, but at least thematically there's unlikely to be any as important as Griefwalker. 

Tim Wilson's compelling 73-minute documentary (on view tonight and on two occasions afterward and later scheduled to be screened at both the Atlantic and Vancouver Film Festivals) is important not for its budget or its stars, but for its subject matter. The film confronts the ultimate elephant in everyone's room: death.

I'm the marketing manager for the film, which is produced by the National Film Board.

Death might not sound like the most appealing subject for a feature documentary, but Wilson's cinematography is spectacular. This is one film worth seeing on the big screen.

It premieres at the Montreal World Film Festival this afternoon, with additional screenings tonight and tomorrow. 

All screenings at Cinéma Quartier Latin 14
350 rue Emery, Montreal. 
August 22, 2008 - 14:40
August 23, 2008 - 19:20
August 24, 2008 - 12:20

For ticket information, please call 514-848-3883.

If you want to screen a couple of clips, head over to www.nfb.ca/griefwalker.

See you in Lunenburg

I am reading at the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival on Sunday, August 10 at 1:30. 

It's a 45-minute reading on the kids' stage, featuring some of my favourite Daisy Dreamer comics.

It's a lovely festival, and  this will be my first time behind the microphone instead of in the audience.  Should be a good time. Drop by if you are in the area, and stay for some of the great music later in the day.

Internet access at school

Maybe an odd topic for the middle of the summer, but I'm behind in putting this one online.

Back at the end of June, I did a short segment on the local CBC afternoon show with host Carmen Klassen.

The subject was the way the Halifax Regional School Board filters access to the Internet. They use software from a company called Netsweeper to control access to web content that may be offensive or that contravenes board policy.

The problem? The same filters apply to everyone, from 6-year-olds to staff.

The most shocking thing I found in doing this piece is just how reticent -- or maybe even frightened -- school staff are to say anything critical. I came across several teachers who were frustrated with the system, but who wouldn't agree to speak in public about it. The one who did told me she would probably get in trouble. 

Meanwhile, the principals at two local high schools outright refused me access to their premises, even to interview students or to test out the system in their computer lab.

I have to give credit to Gerard Costard, the man who manages the system for the board. He'd been excoriated in two previous pieces on the subject by writer Bruce Wark, but he was still friendly and happy to give me an interview. He even set up a laptop in his office with the filters active so I could try out the system.

You can listen to the segment here.

Flashpoint

The debut episode of Canadian-produced SWAT team dram Flashpoint was the top-rated show on American TV last Friday night.

You can read part of my feature article on the show's writers here.

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.

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.

Randy Neily

About a month ago, I interviewed Randy Neily. I was working on a documentary for the CBC Radio One show Maritime Magazine. The piece was called "Where There's Smoke, Will There Be Firefighters?" and you can listen to it here.

Randy was the deputy fire chief in Blandford, whose volunteer fire department the documentary profiled. A few weeks later, Randy passed away (there's a Facebook group celebrating his life here).

On the night I was at the Blandford fire station recording a lot of my material I wanted to speak to Randy, but something about him intimidated me. He was physically large, and didn't do a lot of the social niceties with me. We were introduced, and he went back to his business without showing much interest. I approached fire chief Philip Publicover and said I'd like to interview Randy but was feeling a bit intimidated. Did he think Randy would be amenable?

Philip laughed, said Randy might seem intimidating but wasn't. On the other hand, he didn't know how much he'd be willing to talk. Later, I approached Randy, and after some initial hesitation he agreed to be interviewed.

We sat in the fire station office, Randy under a poster for the movie Backdraft, and talked for half an hour. A couple of times we'd seem to be done and I'd turn off the recorder, but then the conversation would carry on and I'd start recording again.

In the end, I didn't wind up using any of those interviews (although if you listen really, really closely you can hear Randy laughing in the background at one point). There just wasn't room. But I learned a lot, and it was helpful.

Randy was a volunteer firefighter, paramedic and former firefighter instructor. He visited every single fire station in Nova Scotia (there are over 300 of them) and had taken photos at each place. I suggested it might make a good book -- and he said he had thought about that. I hope that archive of photos winds up somewhere where they'll be appreciated.

Here's a short clip of Randy expressing his worry about the future of the fire service, and his photos.

Where there's smoke... will there be firefighters?

"Where There's Smoke, Will There Be Firefighters?" my radio documentary on the challenges facing volunteer fire departments, is now online  It was produced by Christina Harnett, aired on CBC radio regionally, and runs 25 minutes.

The piece focuses on the fire station in Blandford, Nova Scotia, but a lot of the issues they face hold true for other departments across the country.

Listen to it here.

My volunteer fire service story on CBC Radio One's Maritime Magazine, Feb 24

A few months ago, I heard Blandford, Nova Scotia fire chief Philip Publicover on the CBC radio news. He was talking about the problems he faced in recruiting and keeping new members for his community's volunteer fire service.

I wanted to know more, so I pitched the CBC a story on the challenges facing rural fire departments.

The result is my half-hour documentary, "Where There's Smoke... Will There Be Firefighters?"-- which airs on CBC Radio One's Maritime Magazine, Sunday, February 24 at 8:30 AM. The producer is Christina Harnett.

The show focuses on Blandford, and how the challenges it faces are emblematic of challenges faced by fire services throughout the region -- and the country. I had no idea that the vast majority of the fire services in the country are volunteer, or that sometimes stations are so broke they can barely put fuel in the trucks.

I hope you can tune in. If you're outside the Maritimes, it will probably be too early for you. The piece will eventually go online, and I'll post a link.

Being in the story

When you're a freelance writer, you don't tend to see your own name in print (unless it's a byline). So I was a bit taken aback to come across this story on Reader's Digest education hero Joe Bishara, in The Yarmouth County Vanguard.

Because I wrote the RD profile of Bishara, I'm there in the lead and at various other spots in the story.

The writer from Readers Digest looked with disbelief at the 60-strong student honour guard in their bright red jackets with Canadian flags fluttering over-head last September. He turned to teacher Joe Bishara.

“This is for one veteran?” asked Philip Moscovitch.

“I told him “Yup - one or a hundred- it doesn’t matter around here,” said Bishara, who spearheaded the Maple Grove Memorial Club close to two decades ago.

The writer of the story never checked with me on what I thought, relying instead on what Bishara says I said. That, and a few factual errors in the piece drove home (once again) the lesson of how important it is to check your sources and make sure your facts are straight.

Although there are mistakes, I have to confess to feeling slightly tickled at seeing myself in the story -- even if I think it's a bit weird.

Joe Bishara: Reader's Digest education hero 2007

My profile of Joe Bishara, selected by Reader's Digest Canada as their education hero for 2007, is online here.

In order to write the article, I spent a day with Joe, and it's hard to imagine a nicer guy. What he says in the story about the kid throwing a poppy in the mud in 1984 resonated with me. I could imagine myself having done that at the kid's age, in that era.

Joe personalizes the struggles kids face and gives them some perspective. And it's truly amazing to see a teacher who seems completely committed and enthusiastic, even after almost 30 years.

Gone Surfin' online games edition

My latest Gone Surfin' web column is here. This time, I look at some online games that combine education and fun (it's true!). Much of the column is devoted to ElectroCity.

Really, every game – even the simplest one – has underlying assumptions that teach something. Two of North America's most popular games – The Game of Life and Monopoly – not-so-subtly enforce the consumer culture notion that whoever has the most money and stuff wins. (The new version of Life comes with no cash – instead you get a Visa card that allows you to keep playing even when you're broke. Now there's a great lesson.)

ElectroCity (www.electrocity.co.nz) is an addictive little sim-type game that helps drive home lessons about power management and environmental impact. It was originally designed for school children in New Zealand, but anyone can play and show off their finished cities in a gallery on the site.

You control the destiny of a small town, deciding what kinds of power sources and amenities to build. Coal plants are cheap, but the population is not pleased when a cloud of smog hangs over the town. And when your own coal supplies run out, you're dependent on fluctuating market prices. Go nuclear, on the other hand, and you'll have abundant power but really annoy your citizens.

Previous Gone Surfin' columns are archived in the links to your right.

Reader's Digest courtesy testing

The November 2007 issue of the Canadian edition of Reader's Digest has a cover story on courtesy in cities across the Canada.

I was one of the researchers who worked on the story, spending a couple of days with one of the magazines editors walking through doors, dropping papers on the ground and buying small items in shops. The point was to see if people would hold the doors, help pick up the papers, and thank us for our purchases. The cities I worked in were St. John's and Halifax.

The first few times I had to look like a goof by scattering a sheaf of papers, I felt pretty self-conscious. But eventually I got used to it -- and even began to have fun.

The magazine has put some behind-the-scenes stuff on their website, as well as this video from Halifax. (I'm the one in the black jacket dropping papers in front of the city's main library.)

One of the interesting things about working on this project was seeing how everyone came up with an excuse for why they hadn't been courteous, often beginning with "I usually am." I actually quite liked the young guy with the backpack who failed to help me. Even though he made excuses, he'd started off by saying, "Oh, I'm an ass!" Then he told us he was from Montreal.

Gone Surfin' two-fer

I never got around to posting last month's Gone Surfin' web column, so here it is, together with the current one.

How to Do It is about productivity and life hacking web sites, and Protect Your Computer for Free is, well, kind of obvious. I still can't believe anyone is using those horrible Symantec anti-virus products. Both files are pdfs.

Excerpt from How to Do It:

It's true that the Internet can be a huge time-suck. But it's also home to many sites that can help you meet your goals, work more efficiently and solve problems. I'm not talking about nifty tech tools, but good, old-fashioned tips and advice – many of them related to clearing through the electronic clutter that's supposed to help make life easier but can actually clog it up instead.

“Life hacks” is a newish term that's cropped up to describe tips that make your life simpler. The sites in this month's column include life hacks for everything from how to most effectively pack for a trip, to how to train yourself to wake up earlier.

Excerpt from Protect Your Computer For Free:

I have been blessed with 15 or so years of hassle-free computing. I don't spend hours and hours securing my Windows PC, and I don't spend a lot of money. If you are not especially computer literate, security may seem like too much trouble. But it's really not all that hard, and it's worth it – an unprotected PC connected directly to the Internet can be infected within minutes.

(If you are a Mac or Linux user, you may go ahead and feel smug at this point.)

The only thing I'm worried about is that this column will now jinx me.

Word count

A writer I know once told me the best lesson he'd ever learned about making a career as a freelancer: you don't have to be an exceptionally good writer. All you have to do is deliver clean copy, to the word count, on time.

It's a good lesson. I was reminded of it again yesterday. I filed a story for a national magazine earlier in the week. The assignment said "1,000 words, max." When they specify max, I figure you have to take it pretty seriously. Then again, there's always the 10% wiggle-room rule.

I filed 1,070 words.

The editor called two days later. My story is one of a series, all the same length. The editor thanked me for sticking to the word count -- which is basically being thanked for doing your job properly. The next shortest piece came in at 1,200 words. The longest was about 1,800.

Clean copy, to the word count, on time.

Prairie Giant

The Tommy Douglas mini-series Prairie Giant, which the CBC pulled from circulation (and which I wrote about here) is going to be broadcast by Vision TV, CBC News reports.

What I found interesting in the story is this sentence:

Starring stage actor Michael Therriault as the title character, Prairie Giant won awards and received praise from a number of critics. However, historians panned it for its depiction of former Saskatchewan premier Jimmy Gardiner, a Liberal. (Emphasis added.)

Historians? As I understand it, there was only one historian who panned it -- and he or she was hired by the CBC and published his or her criticisms in an anonymous report.

Music in Second Life

My latest Gone Surfin' web column touches on the burgeoning Second Life music scene, and looks at the Mill Pond Folk Festival -- which provided a triple-threat concert experience. From the story:

Trevor Grigg, one of the performers, was very aware of playing in both worlds at once. From the stage he could look at the audience gathered in Gray's house. Meanwhile, he could also see a flat-screen monitor that showed the Second Life audience as it appeared from the point of view of his avatar.

“You were looking out into the room from the stage, and you could see the avatars of the people who were attending in Second Life,” Grigg says. “As a performer, one of the things that was superb about that setting was that it was so intimate and so relaxed. Physically, I was in my friend's basement, and the sound was wonderful. But it had that other side of it where you knew you were going out somewhere beyond this room....

“It was a virtual festival within Second Life, and it was an Internet broadcast, and it was a real live folk festival in a guy's house. It seemed to me to be the best of all worlds.”

The full story is here.

You'll find previous Gone Surfin' columns to your right. Just click on the links for the ones you want to read.

Funny ol' web

If you asked me to pick which would be by far -- by far! -- the most-read post on this blog, I don't think I would ever have guessed this one.

Browser Buzz

My latest Gone Surfin' column is a quick roundup of web browsers for Windows.

In this column, I'll look at a couple of alternatives to Explorer: Firefox, Opera, and the brand-new Safari for Windows. All are easy to install and use, and all are free, download quickly, and set up easily. They also share the same basic features as Internet Explorer 7: tabbed browsing (the ability to open several web pages at a time in the same window), popup blockers, and a toolbar that allows you to search Google or other sites without having to navigate to them.

Click here to read the rest of the column. (Previous Gone Surfin' columns are archived on the menu at right.)

The Greatest Canadian update

CBC has sold Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story, meaning it will get international distribution. (H/T to Tod Maffin's Inside the CBC blog for pointing to the story.)

Earlier, CBC had distanced itself from the mini-series because of what it said were factual errors. Writer Bruce Smith, meanwhile, said it was the most meticulously researched work he'd ever done.

I interviewed Bruce last year for a story in Canadian Screenwriter. Here's an excerpt, with a link to the full story below.

“I have no beef with the Gardiner family. I’m sorry they’re upset, but this stuff should be debated, and if they want to defend Jimmy Gardiner they should be able to defend him in public. The point is this stuff should be defended in public,” Smith says. “If some academic wants to criticize it he should have the simple decency to do so under his own name. That’s all. It’s very simple. My name is on it. The name of everyone who worked on the film is on it. We’re not trying to hide anything–we’re trying to put it on television and let people argue about the history of Canada.”

Full story here.

Writing for Canadian youth shows

An excerpt from my Canadian Screenwriter magazine feature on what it takes to succeed in writing for youth shows -- and why Canadians are so darn good at it -- is now online here. It's a pretty long excerpt. Most of the story, in fact.

Interviews for the piece include Sara Snow, Jordan Wheeler and Will Dixon from renegadepress.com; Jeff Biederman from Life with Derek; and Brent Piaskoski from Naturally Sadie and the upcoming The Latest Buzz.

My favourite quote:

Piaskoski says he has run into his share of overly restrictive notes–the silliest being one asking for the name of the town of Drumheller to be cut because, as he puts it, “it has the word hell in it and Americans could be offended.”

To read the whole thing, you'll have to pick up a copy of Canadian Screenwriter. Or come back in fall when the current issue is no longer on the stands and I'll post the full piece.

Gone Surfin': Facebook edition

(This post has been updated)

Here's my latest Gone Surfin' web column, this time about Facebook. A couple of non-Facebook users have told me that reading it finally gave them an idea of what FB is and how it works.

Due to overwhelming popular demand (OK, me responding to the first request I got), here is the full text of the Facebook column. No more downloading a pdf to read it.

Oh, and "local" if you're wondering, refers in this case to the South Shore of Nova Scotia.

Getting Some Face(book) Time

My Montreal friend Tony Pompeo (not his real name) was making his way home from work the other evening – and if you checked his Facebook profile, you could follow along with him:

10:57 PM: Tony is at Bonaventure Metro.

11:25 PM: Tony is almost home.

11:28 PM: Tony is walking down the street.

Facebook is a fast-growing social networking site that allows users to post photos and information about themselves, join networks related to geography, schools, or workplaces, and participate in online groups dedicated to just about anything you can imagine.

Tony had just discovered Facebook's mobile features and was – as he would admit – overdoing it as he used his cellphone to keep updating his page.

Facebook, which had 19 million active users as of April, used to be available only to students. But it recently opened up to the general population (leading to the formation of groups such as “Help!!! Old People Are Invading Facebook!”). The site is especially popular in Canada, with Canadians making up about 10% of users.

Here's how Facebook works. To access the site at all, you need to register (it's free). Once you've registered, you can search for people you know, and then ask them to be your “friends.” When you are friends with someone on Facebook, you can see their profile, along with the information about themselves they've chosen to post. You can also receive updates on their “status” (what they are saying they are doing), see photos and links they've posted, and invite them to upcoming events.

Facebook is a great way to connect with friends. You can stay up-to-date on what old college roommates are up to, without having to email and ask. And in a rural area, it's a handy way to keep a far-flung group of current friends in the loop about local happenings.

Don't know who to invite as a Facebook friend? Joining a network (such as Halifax, Bridgewater High School, or Scotiabank), connects you with a group of people who have some kind of shared interest. In addition, there are user-created groups devoted to pretty much any topic imaginable. Local ones include “I'm From Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia and I'm Not Ashamed to Admit it”, “In Memory of Jillian Paige Snair” (for a local teen killed in a car crash in January), and “East St. Margarets Elementary School.”

Are there any negatives? Of course. For one, Facebook can be addictive. Do you really want to track down everyone from elementary school and add them to your friends? Then there's the privacy question. Facebook will ask you for all kinds of information when you register. But there is no obligation to provide it all. You could enter a fake name (there are eight Facebook users going by the name of heavy metal guitarist Zakk Wylde), but that defeats the purpose if you are hoping friends will find you.

Instead, keep it simple. My profile, for instance, is fairly minimal, and the date of birth I entered inaccurate. And when I want to communicate with friends directly, I use my own email address, not my Facebook mail. There is also no reason to accept Facebook's default privacy settings. Instead, click the “Privacy” link and change your settings to a level you are comfortable with.

© Philip Moscovitch, 2007. All rights reserved.

Allow me to diagnose you

Pick up the new Reader's Digest and you'll find my feature "Are You Normal or Nuts?" -- adapted from a story by William Speed Weed that ran in the US version of the magazine last year. It's a pretty fun piece on people's quirks, and when it makes sense to worry about them. Can't point you to an online version because there is none to be had. Sorry.

Gone Surfin' column

My latest Gone Surfin tech column is now available online. It's about using Google for more than just searching. The link is here, and in the permanent links on the right side of this page.

Bow-wow-wow

I was in St. John's for work this week, and stopped in at the Candy Bouquet. (Actually, stopping in at the Candy Bouquet was part of the job -- it's a long story.)

I can now report that if you are ever in St. John's and want candy, there is probably no person nicer than Jackie Rice of the Candy Bouquet to help you find what you want -- or what you didn't even know you wanted. And she manages to say "Have a sweet day" in a way that's genuinely sweet, and doesn't make you cringe.

The Bodybuilder and I

Through the NFB, I've been involved in the launch of the feature documentary The Bodybuilder and I.

It's the story of 26-year-old Bryan Friedman, and his dad Bill -- a 59-year-old competitive bodybuilder taking his last shot at winning back the title he once held.

It's one hell of a film, and it premieres at the Hot Docs festival in Toronto this weekend, with two screenings. The world premiere is Friday, April 20, 9:30 PM at the Royal Cinema, with a follow-up on Sunday afternoon at 1:30, at the Bloor.

Here's the film's page in the Hot Docs catalogue. Once you're there, click on the right side of the page to buy tickets. (The Friday night screening is rush tickets only at this point.)

High Steaks / Gone Surfin' and more

There's a new section over there in the sidebar on your right. It's called My Stuff. That's where you'll find my vegetarian- converts- to- meat-eater radio documentary High Steaks (thanks to all of you who have asked me to post it).

Right underneath is the first installment of my new Gone Surfin' web/tech column, originally published in local paper The Chester Clipper. Enjoy.

Freelancer's dream

Emailed an idea to an editor this morning.

Note received in response:

No problem Phil... whatever you want.

Sometimes the writing life is good.

High Steaks Online

"High Steaks" -- my 12-minute radio documentary on what happens tome and my family when I start to contemplate having a steak after 20 years as a more-or-less vegetarian -- is now online here. Click the link to stream it, or right-click to save to your computer and listen later.

The photo is from Highview Farms -- the place where the first steak in the story came from.

Ex-vegetarians

One of the things I've learned from talking about my Outfront story on CBC Radio is just how many of the people I know are ex-vegetarians. They range from the relative who was a vegetarian in university "the way some people are bisexual when they're students," and the friend who was vegetarian for a year, "except for pizza slices when I was drunk," to people who were solidly committed to not eating meat for many years.

The other thing that amazes me is finding out how easy it was for some people to make the transition from one kind of diet to another. Meanwhile, I've fretted and dithered for ages. And if CBC hadn't accepted my proposal, I would probably be fretting and dithering still.

One thing I've never understood is the militant vegetarians and militant meat-eaters who you will, very boringly and predictably, find on any web forum in which the topic comes up.

Like this one, although it has more than the usual share of thoughtful posts.

I have to say, I find the militant meat eaters scarier. Take this guy, who signs himself "Carnivore."

Vegetarians, PETAssholes and Such-Like Filth Cannot be Reasoned With

Because their food preferences are a RELIGION with them, every bit as much as the fundies. And they want to FORCE their religion on the rest of us.

Some of us won't go quietly. They would be safer trying to take a steak away from a tiger than from me.

Tigers don't carry guns.

High Steaks Documentary

My 12-minute radio documentary "High Steaks" is on CBC Radio One's Outfront tonight, at 8:43 PM. (If you've got satellite, it's on Sirius 137, but I can't tell you what time.)

Here's what the website says about tonight's show:

Monday February 19, 2007

High Steaks
by: Philip Moscovitch

Philip Moscovitch gave up eating meat 20 years ago. Now, he's feeling the siren call of bacon, sausages and beef. His vegetarian partner and children aren't thrilled. Find out what happens when he heads out to buy his first steak in two decades.

Producers: Laura Chapin & Stewart Young

I didn't get much of an opportunity to work with Stewart Young, because he got shifted to another job, but Laura Chapin was fantastic. Relationships with producers can be tricky, but Laura seemed to make it easy.

Recording for the show was done with a Marantz digital recorder, and I did the sound mix using Audacity, which you can download for free from here.

There is some music in the piece: part of Vegetarian Mumbo Jumbo by NOFX, a couple of clips from Chicken Cordon Blues by Steve Goodman, and an excerpt from Steven's Blues, by my buddies The Reluctants.