Social Media from the Roots – Northern Voice 2011

~ Teresa ~ 4 Comments

I’m good at figuring things out and learning things on my own, but I like taking classes and learning in a group environment. It not only exposes you to the knowledge of instructors and other students, but I also find my own thoughts and ideas quickening when I’m sharing them with others. So, when I started this blog, I knew at some point I’d want to do some learning away from my computer screen.

This weekend, I did just that. Northern Voice is a social media conference based in Vancouver and is in its seventh year. The conference is organized by volunteers and has a grassroots ethos to it. You won’t find corporate swag bags, but you will find media professionals, artists, amateurs and enthusiasts gathering to learn from each other. The participants are drawn mostly from around BC, as well as the Pacific Northwest in the US.

I knew that I was going to like this conference as soon as Day One’s keynote speaker began her presentation. April Smith of AHA Media spoke about using social media to democratize media and to provide coverage of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside as a member of the community. Beginning a conference with such a dynamic, grassroots perspective is so different from what professional/corporate events provide. It’s a much needed perspective.

Day Two’s keynote speaker was Chris Wilson of Google. His presentation was well-tailored to the audience, too, bringing a technological perspective to the idea that the social media and blogging worlds cater to the long tail of interests – there’s room for a lot of diversity in these spheres.

Highlights from Day One:

The Courting Controversy session:
Don’t be controversial for its own sake, because you’ll be called on to back up your claims.

Photocamp:
– Leah Gregg’s photos
– Roland Tanglao’s exhortation to shoot daily
– Jeremy Lim’s advice to shoot less so you can notice more

Communities that Rock:
There was more information in this session than a newish blogger like me could even get down on paper, but what stuck with me most was that you need to work at making your blog visually appealing, giving your readers opportunities to interact beyond comments and keeping your blog posts fresh by varying form and content.

Highlights from Day Two:

Grassroots Campaigns
It was fascinating to hear the evolution of the presenters’ various social media and offline campaigns.
– Keeping your message simple, then translating the interest and support into offline actions is key
– Complexity can come later
– Simplicity doesn’t have to cancel out diversity

Looking Through the Lens
Alan Levine led us through a presentation of gorgeous photos and discussed the impact of aperture, shutter speed and ISO on photo quality. He also encouraged us to shoot daily, through communities like The Daily Shoot, which provide feedback as well as incentive.

DS106
The DS106 Radio crew took a university course and turned it into a Wild West of internet radio experimentation. Great storytelling.

Awesome-izing Your Podcast
v, an experienced broadcaster, gave us a wealth of information on best podcasting practices. What it boiled down to, though, was creating a sense of intimacy in your recordings.

I encourage you to click through to the Northern Voice conference schedule link at the top of the post – there were many more sessions and the schedule has lots of links to the fantastic presenters’ sites.

And lest you think it was all session and no play, I’ll leave you with a photo from the wine tasting room.

Hard copy, please

~ Teresa ~ 6 Comments

I’ve been thinking about the word fugitive, lately. Not the Dr. Richard Kimble variety, but fugitive in the fine arts sense. Sometimes these effects are unintentional. Works that don’t use lightfast pigments can change colour or fade completely, while poorly produced paper can suffer damage even from a reader’s breath. Of course, sometimes the artist’s purpose is to create something temporary, as in Richard Long‘s environmental sculptures. What’s been bringing the word to mind lately, though, is the thought that we’re moving into a fugitive age, spurred by the digitization of cultural production.

Call me a Luddite, but I don’t believe that having music, books, film and television available for download or streaming can take the place of record stores, bookstores and video stores. The Amazon glitch that caused them to delete all gay and lesbian titles is an example of why I’m cautious. A more important consideration for me is my reliance on the idiosyncracies of the people who staff brick and mortar stores. Their recommendations and conversation can lead to amazing discoveries. But regardless of my objections, the tide is turning.

On May 5th, the owners of Videomatica, possibly the best video store in Canada, announced that they will be closing by the end of the summer. They’ve probably found a home for their massive collection, but it’s still a loss to our community. Don’t take my word for it, though, when you can read this eloquent piece by Darren of my local video store, Black Dog.

Not even libraries are reliable repositories for cultural production any more, as Nicholson Baker raged over in his book Double Fold. The deaccessioning craze that’s taken hold of libraries seems to be in the same vein as the narrowing of focus found in big box bookstores and online video providers. When most people want only a small portion of the newest productions, what incentive is there to carry the old, the obscure and the rare?

I’m going to continue to support the independent stores as much as I can, for as long as they last. I don’t want to think about a world in which I can’t spend time in my favourite shops, browsing through stacks of books, thumbing through cds and records, or scanning the back of dvd cases.

And that’s Ms. Luddite, to you.

A little something to heal the spirit

~ Teresa ~ 15 Comments

It’s the day after our federal election and I’m in need of a lighthearted post – it was an extremely dramatic election night.

So, here’s a small round up of some of the things that are happening in this neck of the woods:

On Thursday, the Museum of Vancouver opens its Bhangra.me exhibition, about the history of Bhangra in Vancouver. Their programming has become absolutely stellar, both in the museum itself and in the ways it takes its exhibitions beyond that space.

This coming weekend, the Ederlezi Balkan Brass Festival puts on a bunch of high-energy shows. Or, if crafts are more your thing, you can go to Got Craft? and do some last-minute Mothers’ Day shopping.

The next weekend, the 2011 Northern Voice Personal Blogging and Social Media Conference is happening. I’m looking forward to the photo workshops, especially as the conference is on the same weekend as this.

I’m happy the Vancouver Farmers’ Market summer season is beginning again soon – I’ve been missing the convenience of going to the Trout Lake site.

Throughout much of May, you can check out emerging artists at Emily Carr University’s Degree Exhibition.

That’s only a smidgeon of what’s going on, of course. Here are a few links to sites that can tell you about even more:

BeeVancity

Vancouver is Awesome

Georgia Straight

I’d love to know what’s happening where you are. Or, if you’re from here, anything I’ve missed that you’d like to share.

FFWD – Bistrot Paul Bert Pepper Steak

~ Teresa ~ 41 Comments

When I was young, one of my favourite things to order at a restaurant was a steak sandwich, which meant my steak came out on top of a piece of garlic bread. I couldn’t understand why anyone would order it differently, because the garlic bread was perfectly positioned to soak up all the juices. It was hard for me to decide which part of my meal I liked best – the medium-rare steak or the juice-soaked garlic bread. (I appreciated the baked potato, but it was definitely out of the running.) At home, my mother would pile steaks onto a platter, with a plate stacked with brown bread beside it. After everyone chose their steak, we’d all grab a piece of bread and try to soak up as much of the juices as possible. You may detect a pattern here.

I’m a fan of medium-rare, juicy steak and I don’t want it accompanied by anything that will detract from these qualities. A steak needs to be well-seasoned, of course, but beyond that I just want it grilled/fried/broiled to perfection. Which means that I’ve generally left sauces to other cuts of meat.

Along comes this week’s French Fridays recipe – a pepper steak, with a cognac cream sauce. Have I mentioned that this cooking group often challenges our food habits and preferences? As it turns out, this is rarely a bad thing. The steak (filet mignon, if you please) is prepared simply enough, dressed with crushed peppercorns and fried at high heat. Once the steak is done, the pan is deglazed with cognac and heavy cream is added to create the sauce.

When the sauce is done, the dish must be served immediately, which isn’t a problem because the aroma makes you want to get on with things quite quickly. The sauce adds richness to the steak, without masking its flavour or overwhelming the juices.

Our side dishes were Garlicky Crumb-Coated Broccoli and another Dorie recipe, broth-braised potatoes. They were wonderful complements to the steak; most importantly, the potatoes soaked up the juices of the steak and the cognac cream beautifully. We’ll be having this again soon, as I have some lovely elk steaks in the freezer.

You can find many other blogged descriptions of this week’s FFWD recipe here: Bistrot Paul Bert Pepper Steak

Grey Skies and a French Fridays Catch-Up

~ Teresa ~ 19 Comments

Vancouver has a reputation for rain, but I prefer to describe the weather here as changeable, especially in spring and fall. It’s why Vancouverites are ridiculed (by Torontonians) for dressing in too outdoorsy a fashion – we must dress in layers to cope with the numerous weather conditions we might encounter in a single day.

It’s true that we’ve gone through a long stretch of damp, cold weather lately. The grey skies are beautiful, though. When the afternoon light streams through the clouds, the sky turns a luminous grey, tinged with blue. My Prairie-raised mother doesn’t understand it, but growing up here teaches you to really look at cloudy skies. Look beyond the Vitamin D deficiencies and you might find yourself catching your breath at the loveliness of the sky and the way it brings out the colours in everything else.

I can’t hate this weather, which becomes awkward for me socially, as friends and neighbours expect commiseration when they complain about grey skies. I can always escape to the kitchen, though. It’s definitely not too hot to use the oven.

I’ve been baking salted butter break-up cookies quite often lately. They were the March 18th French Fridays recipe, but I somehow never managed to post about them until now. Maybe it’s because, just writing this, I’m thinking about making them again. The first time I tried the recipe, I ended up with three batches in quick succession – one to sneak into a hockey game to share with my family and two to bring to a community event. After that, I kept finding excuses to make them again.

Salted Butter Break-Ups are traditionally made with sel gris, which is a coarse, grey sea salt. I used a coarse kosher salt in some batches and fleur de sel mixed with herbs de provence in others. The taste of salt pushes against the slight sweetness of what is essentially a simple, egg-washed shortbread. The herbs de provence gave the cookie another layer of flavour, too. This cookie could carry off a number of flavours – rosemary, cardamom or even curry. But however nice these variations can be, the plain cookie is enough to satisfy – salty, sweet, chewy and soft all at once.

The break-ups are baked in one large, rolled out piece, given an egg wash and then decorated with a criss-cross pattern, using a fork. Once it’s been baked and has cooled to room temperature, it’s served intact, with guests breaking off pieces to serve themselves. I’ve yet to serve it this way, though. I’ve broken them up myself and packed them into cookie tins or paper sacks – much easier to transport.

I’m going to have quite a lot of opportunity to keep baking these, as the weather isn’t set to warm up for some time. As you might have guessed, I don’t really mind.

You can find the recipe here, on Dorie’s blog.

You can find many other blogged descriptions of the salted butter break-ups here: Salted Butter Break-Ups

FFWD – Mustard Bâtons

~ Teresa ~ 19 Comments

Some treats, in looks and taste, seem decadent out of proportion to the difficulty of their execution. Provided that you have puff pastry on hand, these bâtons fall into this category.

I chose to make the tapenade version of the bâtons, using the Olivada recipe from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home. This recipe uses ingredients I generally have on hand, so it’s become a favourite. As I had leftover gluten-free rough puff pastry in the freezer (from this wonderful French Fridays foray), there was no need for a shopping trip at all. I haven’t tried Dorie’s tapenade yet, but it looks wonderful – I just don’t usually have anchovies on hand. Instead of poppy seeds, I used sliced almonds, which toasted nicely while the bâtons (slices, really, the way I cut them) baked.

We enjoyed these, but they won’t become a staple in our house, unless I find a source for frozen gluten-free puff pastry. I like the rough puff pastry recipe I used quite a lot, but it’s a time-consuming task that I’ll probably only undertake two or three times a year. So, we’ll enjoy these with the pleasure reserved for the very occasional treat.

You can find many other blogged descriptions of this week’s FFWD recipe here: Mustard Bâtons

To the Polls?

~ Teresa ~ 6 Comments

There are swear words included in this post, so if it’s not your thing, be warned.

On May 2nd, Canada is holding a federal election. Voter turnout, according to Elections Canada, has been declining for decades, particularly amongst young voters. Youth may not feel connected to our electoral process, but they are not the only ones. Our Prime Minister went so far as to say that Canadians don’t want to go to the polls, even framing an election as a dangerous risk to our economy. Though I’ve always believed that voting is only one part of what it means to be an engaged person (and that it might even be the least important way to work toward change or to protect the values and institutions you believe in), it’s depressing to think that elections have come to mean so little. Even worse, politicians know that they have very few people to answer to electorally.

Into this morass of apathy, a group of young artists, opposed to our current government, is reaching out to disengaged young people with a series of YouTube videos:

They also started a web page.

Following their lead, or perhaps Rick Mercer’s, students are organizing vote mobs on University campuses across the country.

It makes sense that youth are using these Wired Age tools to reach out to each other on these issues, but it remains to be seen if it affects voting behaviour. At the very least, both campaigns seem to have generated a lot more conversation and controversy, for Canadians of all ages, than the two federal leaders’ debates have done.

FFWD – Éclairs

~ Teresa ~ 32 Comments

Éclairs are something I associate with bakeries, not with home cooking. But as I first discovered with Dorie’s Gougères, back when we first started French Fridays, choux pastry is much more accessible than the results would suggest. The pastry cream filling and the glaze for the top were equally simple.

I added cinnamon to my pastry cream and ground ginger to the lemony glaze. The flavours really work well together. I’m looking forward to seeing what combinations and variations the rest of the French Fridays crew came up with.

I didn’t make these gluten-free, so only baked a few and froze the rest to pass on to my parents. I am going to try gluten-free choux pastry, though. I recently came across this recipe from Gluten Free Canteen and it looks wonderful. It’s great that there are so many talented gluten-free bakers blogging these days. For now, though, I’m going to go enjoy another of Dorie’s delicious éclairs.

You can find many other blogged descriptions of this week’s FFWD recipe here: Vanilla Éclairs

Cuppa

~ Teresa ~ 7 Comments

I am a tea drinker. Though I’m not indiscriminate, I’m wide-ranging in the sorts of tea I’ll consume. A few months ago, I had a conversation with a tea aficionado, who spoke of provenance and visits to tea plantations. I replied that I like tea of all sorts, except for orange pekoe. I don’t think I passed muster. My tea cupboards (yes, there’s more than one) are full of a variety of teas, mostly mid-grade, with a small quantity of quite good tea. I tend to buy organic and fair trade teas now, though there are still some exceptions.

I’ve had very good tea and very bad tea (orange pekoe, I’m looking at you), but I can’t say that I am only willing to drink the best. Some of my favourite tea-drinking memories are of sitting at my grandparents’ table, playing double solitaire with my Grandma and working my way through a pot of strong, black tea. It may have come from the supermarket, but she made it properly and it tasted just right.

Here are a few of the places I love to go for a good cuppa:

The Empress Hotel (we celebrated my mother’s 70th birthday there)

Shaktea

The Secret Garden

T

Murchies

I haven’t been to the Hotel Vancouver for their afternoon tea yet, but I hear it’s fabulous.

Where are your favourite tea rooms? If you’re not a tea drinker, tell me about your favourite haunts.

At a Walk

~ Teresa ~ 18 Comments

In a plane, geography becomes a physical reality; you can see the contours of a topographical map come alive. Travelling by train or taking a car on a freeway, you can track the differences between regions as you move through them. Cycling gives you control of your explorations of a city, allowing you to move from neighbourhood to neighbourhood without reference to the routes set for buses and cars. It’s walking (or scooting or however you locomote), though, that is the method scaled best to our bodies. As Rebecca Solnit says in Wanderlust: A History of Walking, “[w]alking itself is the intentional act closest to the unwilled rhythms of the body, to breathing and the beating of the heart.” What I especially love about walking, though, is how much I notice. Even lost in thought, there’s plenty of time for awareness of your immediate surroundings to sink in and allow you to make discoveries that you’d surely miss if you were moving any faster.

I love walking long distances, by city standards. When my partner and I first started dating, he lived near Commercial Drive and I lived in Kitsilano. I’d often walk the seven or so kilometres to his place, or back to mine. So, when I heard that Automattic was inviting WordPress users to blog about a five kilometre walk/run on the same day, I decided that it was high time to visit Burnaby Heights again. I lived there when I was a student, before I moved to Commercial Drive the first time. It’s actually a lot like the Drive.

I started my walk at Victoria Park, at the corner of Kitchener and Victoria to be precise. I made my way over to Charles Street and followed it to the pedestrian overpass near Rupert Park. Then, I made my way north and east until I reached the corner of Willingdon and East Hastings. It’s probably a bit more than five kilometres, actually.

I spent a little time exploring Burnaby Heights, which has been largely redeveloped, both commercially and residentially. Some things remain the same, though. I was happy to discover that one of our favourite student hang outs, Cafe Classico, was still there, serving good lattes and tiramisu – both of which I was in need of before making my way back home, this time sticking close to Hastings on the northern side streets.

My bare bones description doesn’t do justice to the afternoon’s walk, though. Nor do the photos I took. I walked on streets I knew and ones I didn’t, discovering gardens, parks and architecture I’d never seen before. My walking companion was my dog, Roxy, and we had encounters with dogs, birds and people along the way. A walk isn’t simply exercise and it’s not just a method of getting from one place to another. What you see, do and think while walking are as much a part of a walk as any health benefits or practical concerns can be.

Here are a few photos from yesterday: