Grant Robertson · new media superhero

2007-04-05, by justdarick.

I’m moving back to Atlanta, soon. Halifax has been nice, and it’s definitely a town I’ll never forget but, home is home and Atlanta is it.

So Matt, Steven, Rusty, Drake.. watch out. I’ll be darkening your doors in just a few weeks time.

argyle-hdr-full, by Grant_Robertson.

Halifax in spring is one of the most awesome places in the world. Too bad spring doesn’t really start until the last week of April.

This week starts the Halifax Comedy Fest. Soon this town will be overflowing with the best of Canadian stand-up comics. Looking forward to seeing the ones I already know, and to the late night drinking binges that will inevitably ensue with the ones I’ve not yet met.

Tomorrow I’ll be tech-wrangling for the second Pinicface best of show at Ginger’s, and I think I’ve landed a guest spot at Yuk’s for next weekend. Oh, and don’t forget Tuesday’s Alternative comedy night at The Frigate. With warm weather and the end of exams, plus a touring pro or two showing up for some stage time, it should be a great week in the basement of Pogue Fado.

bridge-hdr-full, by Grant_Robertson.

Got a request from the Bridges and Tunnels group at flickr to add this picture. How cool. I’m officially flickr addicted.

Spent Saturday and most of Sunday in Moncton. Crazy keg party at Mark’s place, Blueberry keg from the Pump House. I learned Blueberry beer is a lot better than it sounds. Skipped church to sleep off more of my sinus nightmare.

Spent 20 minutes today digging out the sidewalk and car at Mum’s place. I never guessed I’d see 2 foot snow drifts on Easter Sunday, I guessed wrong.

Project MythTV continues. Added two 320GB SATA2 drives tonight, in the process of building the most massive array I’ve ever dealt with. It’s only kind of frightening that it’s my own. Hi, my name is Grant and, I’m a media on demand addict.

Download Squad broke into the top 100 blogs on Technorati’s popular list this week. Huge thanks to everyone who’s helped make that a reality. Two and a half years ago I sat in my condo in Atlanta reading the New York Times Magazine with Ann Marie Cox on the cover and told X via phone I really wished I could be a ranking pro-blogger; Bravado and hard work pays off, who knew?

Yuks, by Grant_Robertson.

I’m doing a guest spot tonight at Yuk’s. Show starts at 8:30 and, Thursday is student night so it’s cheap! $6 bucks with student ID, $12 without. Also appearing are Tim Rabnett with Francois & Andrew Albert

pict0059, by Grant_Robertson.

I can’t wait for warm weather. Tomorrow’s low? -8C. Sigh.

Desire of kings, by Grant_Robertson.

Twisted graffiti from the washroom at Ginger’s. Most places you’d get penis and flatulence jokes, in Halifax you get subversive philosophy. I love this town.

Having a comedy club in Halifax is great. Nothing beats live comedy; it’s ephemeral, fun, and social. The surprising thing about living near the club turns out to be that the club owner isn’t just paying comedians to travel to Halifax and entertain us, but also providing us with an endless parade of wacky compatriots with which to pursue an endless stream of debauchery and late nights.

In the last 4 weeks I’ve hung out with, bar hopped, given rides to and learned an incredible amount from each of the following; Wafik Nasralla, Tim Nutt, Jo-Anna Downey, Trent McClellan, Peter Anthony, Eddie Dela Seippe, Mark Walker and more.

Wednesday night Mike Smith (better known as Bubbles from The Trailer Park Boys) showed up for the very long and very funny pro-am open mic night. Normally, the after show festivities would have seen us all making Karaoke asses of ourselves at Bearly’s but, Smith totally changed up the gameplan. Next thing I know, I’m walking up the hill to Mike Smith’s bar “Bubbles’ Mansion” for what turned out to be a semi private party.

What a super nice guy. We walked in to The Mansion and he immediately introduced himself. I hate to admit that I was seriously star struck and kinda tongue tied when I met him. Long story short, he kept the bar open and the staff working just to throw a party for everyone. Eventually he showed up at the table Paul Ash, Gudger Brown, Ian Black, X and I had congregated around with a plate of Nachos he whipped up himself. Bubbles made me Nachos, it was totally bizarre.

Watch out John Paul Tremblay and Rob Wells… I will bar hop with you soon.

If you die in Canada, you die in real life.

[via Swirlee]

The highlight was definitely getting to see Stanton T. Friedman give his talk on the physics of interstellar space travel. It wasn’t so much science as it was a little bit of trivia, a lot of pictures of experimental nuclear fission aircraft propulsion systems and 20 minutes of him bashing other people who don’t cotton to his theories. Mix 1 cup of negativity towards your own Wikipedia entry discrediting your claims to have actually worked hands on with a who’s who of advanced propulsion systems, stir: You’ve got an hour of entertainment.

Michael passed me the station’s really cool Marantz digital recorder and I spent 10 minutes talking to Paul Kimball who is about to deliver a documentary film to Canada’s Space channel titled, “The Other Side of Truth: Best Evidence“. Clips of my interview with Paul should be on an upcoming episode of Popped Culture. Paul is an interesting guy who, at the very least, can tell a story. He practically interviewed himself, which made my job extremely easy.

Must do more radio-journalism. Telling a story using other people’s words is really neat-o.

X and I had an awesome time. Great Zydeco/Acadian band, and a really rockin’ DJ set afterwards. Ran into Dave of Let’s Get Baked With Matt and Dave, a spot-on vegan baking podcast that’s broadcast on CKDU. Super nice guy. We chatted for a bit about participatory culture, and the meteoric rise of Video podcasts.

Thanks to Chris for the tickets, and thanks to Dave for chatting with the half drunk guy that recognized you and started asking about your podcast.