Mac & Joe

So there I am, in Moosejaw, with the world’s larget moose (photo courtesy of CBC Regina’s Network Producer Sean Prpick).

I love Moosejaw. It reminds me of towns in the Maritimes. I mentioned this to one woman and she told me that the Prairies and the Maritimes are interchangeable.

“A little windy today,” I mentioned to this same woman.

She said, “It’s always windy.” She told me her Dad had moved to Vancouver, then came back after five years and complained about the wind. She had to go outside and see if it was actually windy. She hadn’t noticed, she was so used to it.

What about the remote? you ask, and rightfully so. That is what we are up here for, after all.

The Moosejaw edition of Q went well, I’m happy to report. Two egregious errors were made, though, one by myself and one by Jian. I was playing back some IDs and themes from a laptop, and I didn’t have a mouse (we needed the mouse on a different computer). During the show I was getting ready to play an ID, and placed the cursor over the start button. The damn ID started to play, interrupting Jian.

He said, (and we’re broadcasting this live nationally, remember), “Ah, don’t I have more time?” And I had to stop the ID in the middle. We were in front of a live audience, it was kind of embarrassing. But hey, that’s live for you.

The other mistake worked well for us because it was pretty funny… forgetting for a split second where we were, Jian accidentally called Moosejaw Toronto. The audience thought it was hilarious and in his usual witty fashion Jian ran with it. It became a running joke throughout the show, to the benefit of all.

My mistakes are ugly, brutal affairs… Jian’s are hilarious. It’s the nature of the beast. But it doesn’t get me down, as everyone is so supportive. The only one to mention my mistake afterward was me… everyone else complimented me on a job well done whether I deserved it or not. Plus you just can’t get upset over little stuff like that. Life is too short and it’s only radio.

I’m actually in Regina now. Tomorrow we broadcast out of CBC Regina, then fly home tomorrow afternoon. It will be nice to hang with my family again. I was going a little stir crazy in my hotel room today… had several Canadia scripts to story edit, which kept me cooped up for much of the day.

Although the scripts are shaping up quite well, I think… lots of time travel. And I love time travel.

Even better than cross-country travel.