Superpowers and Pre-Christmas plans

Finally got my Sean Ward piece in the can this week. I showed up at the CBC this Tuesday, and with the help of Nick Davis, whittled my 6:10 mix down to something like 4:40. Nick is the third CBC producer I’ve worked with, and I always find it helpful to work with someone who’s not as attached to my material as I am. To paraphrase Trevor Ross, Nick has a keen ear and sharp pair of scissors. Sean is having a release party for his new book this Sunday. And though it’s a shame the piece won’t air before then, at least there’s a nice timely trigger for it to be played. Tonight I listened to the Transom front page story Family Sentence by Jeanne Cornillot, which feature a character who, like Sean, fancies himself a superhero. This made me think of one of my favourite This American Life episodes, Superpowers, which features the great first act Invisible Man vs. Hawkman. Tomorrow is my last day of classes, but I’m stuck here in Toronto until the 15th, when I write my Case Studies in Communications exam. I’ve been compiling a list of radio-related things to do in the meantime. It includes:

1. Finally finishing up my polka story. I’ve been pursuing a woman named Jennifer Grant at the Textile Museum of Canada. I think there are four messages on her voicemail from me.
2. Starting on a “just for fun” Christmas-themed piece about the Bay and its holiday slogan: “The Official Store of Christmas.” How do you get to be the official store of Christmas? I contacted the Bay PR yesterday. The woman there said she’ll do some research and get back to me. Something tells me I’ll have to hound her. I’d love to get a statement from somebody at the Bay explaining how exactly you get accredited as the official store of Christmas. Also, I’d like to get some streeters – people checking out the famous downtown Bay (formerly Simpson’s) store windows.
3. Job shadows. I’ve got one set up for Classical 96.3 for this coming Tuesday with Kevin Trudell, and I’ve been talking with Anne Lavrih at 680 about shadowing Kevin Misener.
4. Putting together a killer newscast for my demo reel. Dwight Smith has agreed to listen to whatever I come up with and critique it.

Should keep me busy.