MY political career/Pittsburgh is MY Super Bowl pick

It was a long time ago that I held political office...

I'm the tall guy in the back row...

Sitting behind me at last Wednesday's Rockets game was one of my former teachers, Ms. Mickey Patryluk. She said she would have never recognized me had I not said hello. She remained at OKM until she retired in 1999 and is currently the President of the BC Liberal Party.

I am predicting Pittsburgh and the "burger boys" will win Super Bowl 43 on Sunday:

Steelers' quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and British Columbia born punter, Mitch Berger.

Obama / Mmm, mmm good

Moments ago I launched the Buffalo Sabres' broadcast on MSG-TV with a script that went like this:
IT HAS ALREADY BEEN A DRAMATIC WEEK FOR OUR COUNTRY....
(INAUGURATION FOOTAGE)
AND THE SABRES ARE KEEPING WITH THE THEME!
(RICK JEANNERET'S CALL OF SHOOTOUT WIN MONDAY VS FLORIDA)
BUFFALO HAS RESPONDED TO LINDY’S CALL FOR CHANGE...
AND AS THE SABRES TOUR NORTH AMERICA OVER THE NEXT
TWO WEEKS THEY’LL TRY TO KEEP CLIMBING IN THE POLLS.
TONIGHT...TAMPA BAY.
SABRES....LIGHTNING...NEXT ON MSG!

Unfortunately Tampa is up 2-0 after the first period! I won't have another Sabres opener to voice until February 4 as the All-Star Game is in Montreal this weekend and then MSG-TV is not broadcasting the west coast swing of four games between January 27 and February 2. In the meantime, my other amazing hockey client, Shaw-TV, has 6 broadcasts in that span beginning tonight in Kelowna and finishing February 3rd in Calgary. Grant Wilkins is the producer of the Shaw broadcasts from Vancouver and is battling the flu tonight. Tonight's game on Shaw-TV was promoted like this:
WHL Hockey is live on Shaw… Catch the N-H-L stars of tomorrow today… The Western Hockey League… building the world’s finest talent…Watch, Wednesday, January 21st when the Vancouver Giants and Kelowna Rockets duke it out with B-C bragging rights on the line…
WHL Hockey… only on Shaw…

I really liked Grant's script that I voiced a week ago for Shaw's upcoming March 3rd broadcast. The middle part was mmm, mmm good:
Watch, Tuesday, March 3rd when the Moose Jaw Warriors look to avoid the menacing bite of the Medicine Hat Tigers.

Here is a recent Mitsubishi Motors TV commercial I voiced.
I hope you think it is varoommm, varoommm good...

This week I had the chance to stick up (pun intended) for the Western Hockey League on a very motivating voiceover/hockey post by Jeffrey Kafer. Inspiring words Jeff!

One of the best leaders in the NHL is Jarome Iginla. He has a lot in common with President Obama and you can read it about here in a column by Hall of Fame writer Eric Duhatschek.

Inauguration Excitement!

My voiceover for tomorrow night's game in Tampa Bay will include inauguration footage! I will publish the script tomorrow but I need to be a Sabre secret agent man until it runs on MSG-TV. Did you know when you take the initials of the leaders of our countries:
Barack
Obama
Stephen
Harper
BOSH is spelled out. Yay for Raptor Chris Bosh! I wrote about him quite a bit early last year. We are all hoping President Obama gets through all the "hoops" ahead of him over the next four years. Yes We Can is the name of this video from NBA-TV.

My last blog post was on the day I went to a Kelowna Rockets game. They lost 5-2 to Moose Jaw and Kelowna's best player was a kid who had just turned sixteen. Shane McColgan of Manhattan Beach, California will be a skill player fans here will enjoy watching for several more years. Tomorrow night I'll be at another Rockets game as the mighty Vancouver Giants come to town. Their professional counterparts, the Canucks, are really struggling. They have lost six in a row on home ice. Former Sabre, Steve Bernier, has 11 goals so far for the Canucks. He goes against another one of his former teams, the San Jose Sharks, tonight. Bernier's nickname is Big Bear and I will leave you with some hockey footage with skating bears...

Happy Hockey New Year!

Kelowna's first baby of the New Year was Linden Anthony Tancek. He was born at our hospital New Year's Day at 6.42 am to Mom Laurie and Dad Jeff. Yes, Linden was named after recently retired Canuck, Trevor.

Detroit defeated Chicago 6-4 in the New Year's Day NHL Winter Classic. The ratings on NBC were excellent! Maybe another Detroit team, the Lions, could improve their game by playing on ice instead of a football field?

Here is the tribute for a winless team.

The true meaning of 'team' was captured in this feature on NBC-TV between the first two periods of the Winter Classic game. Dale Tallon is the Chicago Blackhawks general manager. In the 1970 NHL Amateur Draft he was the first ever player drafted by the Vancouver Canucks. Tallon was number two overall while the Buffalo Sabres nabbed Gilbert Perreault at number one. Perreault went on to a Hall of Fame career with the Sabres and is still involved as a Corporate/Community Relations Liason. He is more than 500 points ahead of anyone else in Sabres history.

The Sabres had an early game today and beat the top team in the league, the Boston Bruins, 4-2. It was the first home loss for the Bruins since October 23. Matt Ellis was the unlikely hero of the game for the Sabres and he is featured this week on "The Sabres Show." If you want to hear me do the intro, you have to wait 1:10 seconds:)

Also with an early game today and their first ever Bowl appearance were the University at Buffalo Bulls. UConn came back to win the International Bowl game 38-20. The Bulls were recently at a Sabres game and here is that football footage from "The Sabres Show."

Washington (and) DC comes calling

The Washington Capitals came into Buffalo last night and won 4-2. On Boxing Day, the Caps edged us as well, 3-2, thanks to another highlight reel goal from Ovechkin. I guess that was to be expected since we referred to the "amazing Alex" in the opener on MSG-TV. That script and an article on yours truly was featured on THE Washington Capitals blog known as "On Frozen Blog." Thanks to my voiceover colleague and friend, Gary Kriebel (aka Gustafsson at OFB), for the plug! I have thrown the spotlight on Gary here a couple of times before.

I mentioned in my last post about Trevor Linden's number 16 being raised to the rafters at Vancouver's GM Place. Well, Washington retired number 11 recently and Gary was there to provide some awesome visual evidence. Mike Gartner is the player in question and he is actually my best player on my current WhatIfSports.com fantasy hockey team.

DC (David Ciccarelli) came calling yesterday in the form of an email letting me know about "The Report on the Voice Over Industry 2009." DC is the CEO and President at Voices.com. I know it will be very informative and educational to read...I'll get to it in 2009 David:)
Happy New Year everyone!

A little TLC

TLC is an abbreviation for many things. The most popular would be Tender Loving Care and The Learning Channel. How about That Lazy Cat?

This is ours, Bunzo, looking out the front window yesterday at the basketball hoop surrounded by snow. Yes, it is certainly hockey weather! Last night at GM Place in Vancouver they retired the number 16 jersey of Trevor Linden.

TLC

• Trevor Linden, Canuck
• Tremendous Leader, Captain
• Totally Loves Children

You will see what I mean for the last one 82 seconds into the Trevor Linden tribute video that played on the GM Place scoreclock prior to the jersey ceremony yesterday. Thanks a LOT for Caring Trevor!

Voiceover artist on strike..I mean, strikes a pose

This weekend, "The Day The Earth Stood Still" is the big movie release in theatres. Last weekend it was "Three Days That Ralph Stood Still" at Willow Park Church's annual "Living Nativity."
I was the milkman mannequin.
No voiceovers allowed!



Today I came across this crime north of us: Thieves break in, drink milk.

To the east of us one province over is Alberta. Further east is Saskatchewan. Medicine Hat is on the Alberta side of the border.
To the south is Montana. Little Plume Church in Medicine Hat is running this ad featuring yours truly promoting a Christmas event tomorrow.

The Medicine Hat Tigers junior hockey team is here in Kelowna on January 30 next month. I am hoping to attend that game. The Tigers
are a plus 10 in the win column right now and the Kelowna Rockets are an impressive plus 7. Tyler Myers of Kelowna was the Sabres' first pick in the NHL draft this year - 12th overall. Tyler Ennis of Medicine Hat was the Sabres' second first round pick at #26.

One of Medicine Hat's hometown heroes is Trevor Linden. He played his junior hockey there and had a great NHL career! In four short days the Vancouver Canucks will be retiring Linden's #16. Thanks for the memories Trevor - and being a great role model for the kids!

Burke-y IS a Turkey!

Hass, Bass and Sapp (not a law firm) did NOT win on "Dancing with the Stars" this week. I have an alibi: I did not get to audition:)

Congratulations to Brooke Burke, who won it all! She is not the turkey but Brian Burke, the former Duck, is. He abandoned the Anaheim NHL ship earlier this month and waddles into Toronto today as the new general manager. Burke has a six-year deal to turn things around in Toronto.

Damien Cox is a columnist for The Toronto Star and his ESPN column last week made light of the best NHL quotes through the first part of the season.

The media will love Brian Burke in TO. He always has something to say!
Here is a quote from Brian Burke at the Top 77 ice hockey quotes at Hockey Tribute.com:
”Hockey is a man's game. The team with the most real men wins.”
That made #46 on the list.

Former goalie Sean Burke placed at #20 with: ”It's too easy when you're not winning to look for excuses and point at others for reasons. ”You can say "Oh well, it's this guy's fault or they don't do this well" or you can say "I've got to play better and contribute more". You've got to find another gear and come up with big games.”

Right behind at #21 is Buffalo Sabres color commentator Harry Neale:
”Last season we couldn't win at home and we were losing on the road. My failure was that I couldn't think of any place else to play.” This went back to when Harry was coaching the Canucks during the 1981–82 season.

Harry also made the list at #24: ”Our system of forechecking is to shoot the puck and leave it there.” And he cracked the top 10 hitting #10 with: ”I know my players don't like my practises, but that's OK because I don't like their games.”

Two big wins in a row for the Sabres! 4-3 over Pittsburgh last night and 3-2 against Boston on Wednesday. Tonight we hit the road against Montreal with my "turkey opening" on MSG-TV...

Chicken ACTION on the reality shows

Here is the overview of tonight's "The Amazing Race." Believe it or not, one team member had to enter a marked chicken shack in Kazakhstan (try saying that ten times quickly voiceover colleagues!)
and search among 30, 000 chickens for one of only seven golden eggs. Meanwhile, last Tuesday on "Dancing With the Stars", Olympian Maurice Greene was eliminated. He ended nearly every dance with his catch phrase “Winner, winner, chicken dinner.” Does anyone know what that means? Other questions I am wondering about:

• Why did the chicken cross the road?
• Why did the chicken cross the dance floor?
• Did the Sabres "hit the dance floor?"

Chickening out...

The Bills are in New England tomorrow to take on Bill BeliCHICKen and the Patriots in a battle for first place. The Bills haven't won against the Patriots in Foxborough since 2000. On December 7, the Bills are playing a home game in Toronto against the Miami Dolphins. Here are the details on a chicken promotion around the game.

This is a pretty funny chicken flavored commercial from Rice Honeywell and the crew at Spinnaker Sound. He didn't intentionally send me something that included mafia and electricity elements after I had mentioned that on my Halloween post about recent Buffalo Bills scripts.

Congratulations to Kelowna's Acro Media on their tenth anniversary!
To mark the occasion they did something special involving chickens.

Finally, the most famous chicken in the sports world is here.
And, he even has a blog...