Lucky Number 19!

My niece in Prince George, Nicole Johnson, turned 19 yesterday. Way to go Nic! On Wednesday my Dad turned 80. The birthday lunch featured the best chinese food I have ever had! Just don't try to get me using chopsticks:)

Here are some great players who wear number 19 and make their living with hockey sticks:
Joe Thornton of the San Jose Sharks. Number two in league scoring last season behind Sydney Crosby - and the number two overall pick by me in this year's annual London Drugs hockey pool, right after Sid the Kid. Joe plays his old team, the Boston Bruins, tonight.

Joe Sakic of the Colorado Avalanche. Number seven in the scoring race last season with an even 100. 1, 591 career points and counting entering action tonight.

Markus Naslund of the Vancouver Canucks. His best days are behind him but the Captain scored last night as the Canucks crushed Edmonton 5-2.

Tim Connolly of the Buffalo Sabres. Three points and first star in his last game. Sabres shut out Atlanta 6-0 two days ago.

One of the most famous number 19's is the retired Steve Yzerman. This is a tribute site for him. This link also shares some other famous 19's from the sports world.

With all this talk about 19's, I will have to blog again on Friday the 19th.
Aren't you glad yesterday was not a Friday the 13th? But for me, 13 and 14
are my lucky numbers.

Ho Ho Ho!!

HOme sweet HOme for the HOlidays! And I'm not talking about Santa...it is the Thanksgiving long weekend here in Canada. South of the border it is Columbus Day on Monday. Americans might not have a Columbus Day if Christopher Columbus had not been born in Italy. Out of pride for their native son, the Italian population of New York City organized the first celebration of the discovery of America on October 12, 1866. In 1905, Colorado became the first state to observe a Columbus Day. Over the next few decades other states followed. In 1937, then- President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed every October 12 as Columbus Day. Since 1971, it has been celebrated on the second Monday in October.

HOme sweet HOme for the Colorado Rockies. Thanks to HOme runs in each of the first two games against Philadelphia by possible season MVP Matt HOlliday and a super pitching performance by Canadian Jeff Francis in game one, the Rockies can roll into round two of the baseball playoffs with a win tomorrow at HOme against Ryan HOward (105 HOme runs the last 2 seasons!) and the Phillies.

HOckey sweet HOckey returns to Buffalo tonight! The new HDef video screens are in place at HSBC Arena as the New York Islanders pay a visit tonight. I will post my opening on MSG-TV soon I hope. Last Saturday I had the privilege of being the PA announcer for one of the area's junior hockey teams, the Westside Warriors. What a finish to the game against Powell River with the winning goal scored by Westside with just 5 seconds left! One of their radio announcers, Brett Mix, is a big Buffalo Sabres fan.
Have a great season boys!

HOops sweet HOops! My basketball league resumed last night.
Great exercise! Even better than the competitive tennis league I am a part of. HOpe YOU have a great season - whichever one life is throwing your way right now:) Keep your chin up!

Greg is THE Man!

As I mark my 1-year blogiversary I notice I have never blogged on a Saturday before. There must be something to the saying "Lazy Saturday."

My very first blog post mentioned one of my on hold employers: Greg Krantz. I've been very pleased with the volume of work Greg has thrown my way lately so I took the time this week to update my on hold messaging demo. It shows more of the conversational style that is important in this area.

I also put the pieces in place for an animation and character voices demo. That is an area that Greg Littlefield does a good job in. In fact, he was a Finalist in The Simpsons Sound Alike Contest through Voices.com. Greg started his blogging adventure this month and like me he will give you a mix of voiceover, sports and music. EARLY this morning, Gregg Zaun of the Toronto Blue Jays helped out Greg and his team, the Boston Red Sox, by homering in the 14th inning against the New York Yankees. 5-4 final for Canada's team! But this afternoon Toronto lost to the Yanks 12-11 in 10 innings. Gregg Zaun nailed one in the 10th inning but unfortunately it was foul! With a week left in the baseball season, the Red Sox are 2 1/2 games up on the Yankees for first place. Both will make the playoffs.

Hockey IS Canada's sport. Televised tonight was a Vancouver Canucks exhibition game against the San Jose Sharks. Vancouver lost 3-1. And I'm sorry for Greg Littlefield as his Boston Bruins lost by a 4-3 final to Toronto Maple Leafs. Again, only pre-season. The best junior hockey league around is the Western Hockey League. It has returned to Edmonton for the '07/08 season - the WHL's 42nd season...Littlefield and I are in our
43rd seasons:)
Edmonton beat the Kootenay Ice 4-3 on September 20 as the regular season was launched. Here is the movie trailer opening I did for the TV broadcast. This is my favorite WHL team.

I am really looking forward to doing the Buffalo Sabres' openings on
MSG-TV again this season. The first real games take place October 5th and 6th against the New York Islanders.

Duet with Dylan?

Deirdre from the voiceover bulletin board put up a cool link this afternoon to a site that allows you to send a message with Bob Dylan - sort of. So I got into the hockey mood here. I don't think Bob would mind as he was actually born in Minnesota, a state that is well known for it's support of high school, college and NHL hockey.

$$$Penguin Power + Horsepower

It has been a long time since I blogged. A couple of long projects have kept me busy lately. I recorded 15 stories totalling about 180 minutes for ProWEBRadio.com - including a 39-minute story on 2007 Senior Market Advisor of The Year: Craig Randall. I also did my first project for
a company that creates e-Learning programs for the financial services industry. I created over 110 audio files and the final length of my tutorial timed out at about 45-minutes. Both of my invoices ended up going to Pennsylvania. That's a long way from here - but not by email:)

Pennsylvania's Pittsburgh Penguins figure to be one of the NHL's best hockey teams in 2007/08. They will be playing outdoors in Buffalo on New Year's Day.

Club Penguin is one of the most popular kids' websites around. Their offices are here in Kelowna, BC and just over a month ago, the Walt Disney Company made the founders of Club Penguin multi-millionaires! INCREDIBLE! Many of my earliest corporate videos were done a long time ago with Dave Krysko of Club Penguin and his company New Horizon Productions. We used to record out of his home and he also had office space at one time with a local dentist.

This morning I did a couple of lines for an animated horse named Reason for a company in Ireland, who's client is in the US. The project is aimed at 6th grade students with learning difficulties to help them understand mathematical concepts in a fun environment. Lesson One today and four more to follow. It seems a long time ago that I was first approached about this project: July 18 - the last time I blogged here. But I will be back sooner this time as my 1-year blogiversary takes place September 22. You are all invited!

Bob Souer had his second blogiversary this past May. He will be spending a long, long time in the studio on a project he talks about here. I look forward to reading about your progress Bob!

Rock 'n' Roll Celebrity sighting!

Last time out I mentioned my daughter, Ashley (below, top right), was in Reno for a huge volleyball tournament. One of those days, Coach Leslie spotted Gene Simmons at the volleyball festival. She had a keen eye because he wasn't wearing sunglasses or the extreme makeup associated with his famous group, KISS. Gene was there supporting his daughter, Sophie, an avid volleyball player. OUR girls got Gene's attention BUT he wasn't interested in posing for a photo - until they yelled out they were from Canada! Well, that sealed the deal as Gene's life partner of close to 25 years, Shannon Tweed, was born in Canada.
The volleyball angle was even featured on this week's episode of the popular reality show, Gene Simmons Family Jewels:
Gene is hurt to learn that Sophie never informed him of a Father/Daughter Volleyball game, not realizing that she just didn't want to bother him and his busy schedule.

Gene Simmons was born in Haifa, Israel (last week I completed the English version voiceover for the AWACS 2.0 system for this Israeli Production company) in 1949 and is the only child of his mother, a German Nazi Concentration Camp survivor. He is a shrewd businessman. KISS continues to be the juggernaut of licensing/merchandising, with over 2,500 licenses. Unfortunately, much of that involves behavior that is:

rude, crude, lewd and screwed

Sorry Mr. Simmons. I cannot allow you to spend any more time with my daughter!

FREEdom!

Happy July 4th!

On this date in 1776, the USA claimed its independence from Britain and Democracy was born. Every day thousands leave their homeland to come to the "land of the free and the home of the brave" so they can begin their American Dream.

My 16-year-old daughter, Ashley, flew into Reno last Saturday morning with her volleyball team to begin a week-long adventure across the border that will leave her with memories for a lifetime. You can view many photos here.

July 1st is Canada Day
It used to be known as Dominion Day, the First of July, Confederation Day and July the First. Canada wasn't born on July 1st, but the holiday celebrates the events that took place on this day. On July 1, 1867, the British North America Act created the Canadian federal government. This Act stated that Canada would become an independent dominion (territory) of England, which is why Canada Day was originally called Dominion Day until 1982.

July 1st FREE Agent FREnzy in the NHL

• The Sabres lose Daniel Briere (r) to the Philadelphia Flyers. Briere signed an eight-year deal with the Flyers worth $52 million dollars. That is a serious talent fee!
  
• The Sabres lose Chris Drury (l) to the New York Rangers. Sabres management stated that they were willing to match any offer to Drury, but were not given the opportunity. "Drury the DOOFUS" takes the DOLLARS totaling $35.25 million over 5 years.

On July 3rd, Dainius Zubrus got rich with a six year, $20.4-million contract in New Jersey. He only played 19 games with Buffalo last year after coming over from Washington.

The Sabres WILL survive! Keep the faith!

We've got some good guys steering the ship!======================================================

By the way, here is what Briere, Drury and Zubrus will look like after their new contracts finish:

Ought to Whine about Ottawa?

The answer is NO. They beat us fair and square in five games winning the series on our hectic moving day of May 19. Four games in the series were decided by a single goal.

But Ottawa could not handle the Anaheim Ducks in the Stanley Cup Final, falling in five. Things wrapped up two nights ago and Anaheim has some Buffalo tie-ins worth mentioning:

• Todd Marchant was born in Buffalo and got to hoist the Cup for the first time at age 33.
• Brad May was a 7-year Sabre and got to lift the Cup for the first time at age 35.
• Andrew Miller, brother of Sabres' super goalie Ryan, gets his name on Lord Stanley's hardware because he played two games in the finals. The 23-year-old was at Michigan State for the entirety of the regular season. Talk about being in the right place at the right time:)

I feel I have aged a lot in the last 3 weeks:) We moved after 15 years to a
more teenager-friendly home in Kelowna. There were problems with the movers and they did not get paid for almost two weeks. There are also contract items that were not looked after by the previous homeowner and I had to meet with our real estate agent and her boss two days ago to see how to resolve the issue.

How Old Do You Think I Am? Visit The Age Project and do a guess. I found this fun site tonight thanks to my friend, Dave Carrol. Be nice in your guess...I like to think I am aging well like a fine wine...now that sounds like a fine whine!

Ought to Win versus Ottawa!

We are coming up to game time in Buffalo as the Sabres are in the semifinals against Ottawa.
I am predicting it will take 6 games to move onto the finals and I
posted this at Peter's blog in Buffalo.

Have you seen and heard the Sabres' theme song for the playoff run?
Feature producer Matt Gould spent a couple weeks putting that together. Well worth the wait:)

15 years ago a Vancouver band named 54•40 put out a great album named "Dear Dear" and it included a catchy song named "Nice To Luv You." The chorus goes like this:
Nice to luv you baby
With all my heart and soul
Nice to luv you baby
No matter where I go

I would like to see them remix it for Sabre fans:
Nice to luv you SABRES
With all my heart and soul
Nice to luv you SABRES
No matter where I go

I am going to drop 54•40 an email about this. They are big hockey fans and are taking part in the Memorial Cup Celebrations in Vancouver May 18. That is where the top 4 teams in Canadian Junior hockey battle it out for number one!

“Go to” guys! No eGos here

Here are some clutch “Go To” guys I’d want on my Team:

Roberto LuonGo: He ain't NO GOat! He's great and the only reason the Vancouver Canucks survived the NHL playoffs until last night. Thanks for coming to Buffalo in January. Click here to see my MSG-TV intro for that game. Go golfing now Mr. LuonGo!

Travis Moen: Got an assist on the first goal last night against Vancouver and scored the overtime winner in the game before that! Played junior hockey here in Kelowna. How could ChicaGo let this guy get away to the Ducks?

Bob Souer: The best voiceover blog around celebrated it's two-year blogiversary this week. You can see some of the many folks like myself who thanked Bob on this special occasion.

Ross Huguet – GO 2 Productions is the result of a merger between
One Stop Voice Shop and Gener8 Creations. I worked with Ross in radio
and he and his right-hand man, Jim Ptycia, helped me get off on the right foot a couple of years ago when I ventured into voiceover. Online video is in the mainstream now so best of luck to Go 2 Productions as they help all kinds of companies with their branding.