Feather In My Cap

Just like two posts back, I will start this blog with a little movie talk. "Ocean's Thirteen" is out on DVD today - the 13th. Like "Ocean's Eleven" and "Ocean's Twelve", the three amigos of Brad Pitt (pictured in my previous blog post), George Clooney and Matt Damon return and team up with an enemy. "Shrek the Third" is not the enemy but the King - and that one is out on DVD today as well.

I don't know if I could be a King...crowns are uncomfortable and I prefer wearing sports caps.


My son Justin snapped this one of me yesterday at one of his favorite stores: West 49. Here is the link for the New Era Cap TV commercial I voiced. It also starts off my updated Commercial Demo reel, which also includes a commercial I did with the Governor of Missouri...Bring on Schwarzenegger in California next!
We could talk about movies as well... "I'll be back" tomorrow...

CBS and seeing BS!

From movie talk last time to TV talk this time. CBS had a couple of great programs boost its ratings today:

• the battle of undefeated NFL teams saw New England come back to beat Indianapolis


• the launch of season 12 of "The Amazing Race"

Were you as surprised as me seeing Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as contestants on "The Amazing Race?" Don't be fooled by their contestant "names" of Rachel and TK:) We all know Rachel was Brad's ex-wife's character's name on "Friends." The Hollywood makeup can only hide so much here!

Seeing BS is just short for seeing Buffalo Sabres.

Here are 3 recent Sabres openings on MSG-TV featuring yours truly:

October 24 - Seeing red against the Carolina Hurricanes

October 26 - A TEST against Florida

October 27 - Tampa Bay Lightning strike

RED my mind?

"Spider-Man 3" is out on DVD today. He is a lot more athletic than Santa Claus going down a chimney!

How about those Boston Red Sox sweeping the Colorado Rockies in the World Series? Three years ago they swept the Redbirds of St. Louis as well. World Series History is here. One of the classics was 1975 when the Red Sox beat out Pete Rose and the Reds 4 games to 3.

There is nothing better for Red Sox fans than to see the Yankees in a bit of disarray. Manager Joe Torre was not wanted back and now A-Rod (how about A-Red?) will be going green$$ elsewhere. Red Sox Nation can smell blood! "The Hunt for Red October" sequel is officially underway!!

Colorado Conspiracy?

Just two NHL games today: Vancouver beat Columbus 4-1 and Minnesota edged Colorado 3-2. I am glad Columbus lost to my second favorite NHL team because my favorite team, the Buffalo Sabres, were shutout by Columbus on Friday 3-0.

My prediction of Buffalo beating Montreal yesterday 3-1 was way off! Montreal won 4-2. I was reminded of that fact after the game when my voiceover friend, Robert Jadah, emailed me with the headline:
The Habs and the Hab-Nots.



The link for this blog is: http://www.habsinsideout.com

Robert's favorite sport is baseball and tonight Colorado finally got an opponent for the World Series. Boston clobbered Cleveland tonight

11-2 and will host game one at Fenway Park Wednesday. The Red Sox won the last three games by a combined total of 30-5 against the Indians but Colorado is even hotter (unless you are talking about the weather) - winning 21 of their last 22 games.

The Sunday night NFL game saw Colorado conquer Pennsylvania as Denver got by Pittsburgh 31-28 on a last second 49-yard field goal by Jason Elam. The coach of the Broncos is Mike Shanahan while Mike Tomlin is the Steelers' coach. There seems to be a lot of coaches named Mike in the NFL: Others include Holmgren in Seattle, Nolan in San Francisco and McCarthy in Green Bay.

3 strikes and you're out - of town!

Buffalo lost tonight to Columbus 3-0. We have now won 3 and lost 3 games this year. The opening to last Saturday's game against Washington is featured above with 3 Sabres making cameos: Ryan Miller, Tim Connolly and Brian Campbell. Tim was plugged in my last blog entry as one of the good guys sporting number 19. I also mentioned Joe Sakic and Steve Yzerman and you can see both of them scoring their 500th career goals by clicking on the video links at this page.

It was 50 years ago today that Maurice "The Rocket" Richard became the first NHL'er to score 500 career goals. He did it on home ice for the Montreal Canadiens against the Chicago Black Hawks. Final score for the Habs then: 3-1. Tomorrow night the Sabres roll into Montreal and for old time's sake I will predict a 3-1 final - for Buffalo. Here is the MSG-TV opener I am about to record:
AFTER A FEROCIOUS DISPLAY OF OFFENSE FOR THE MAJORITY OF THEIR HOMESTAND...
THE SABRES LEAVE HOME ICE LIKE A LAMB....SILENCED BY COLUMBUS.

AND NOW...THE START OF AN EXTENDED ROAD TRIP.
FIRST STOP...QUEBEC.
THE START OF THE SEASON SERIES WITH THE CANADIENS IS NEXT...ON MSG!

Merci et Bonsoir...

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!