I am an award winner, kinda....

Me and the award that I inspired...and a Big Gulp

So I was in my 7-11 today after an early morning shoot at the Alberta Legislature and I saw that the fine employees of said 7-11 had won an award. Val and Princess, pictured below, showed me the award and I was really impressed. Only four of these were given out in North America. I could not help but believe that I was the reason that they had won the award. After all, I have spent tons of money and time at this fine establishment. The fine employees at this 7-11 (109st and 102 ave) all know me by name and have been there for me through thick and thin.

When I needed a snickers, they were there. When I needed a wrasslin magazine to feed my mind, they had Pro Wrestling Illustrated. When I needed a caffiene fix, they hooked me up. Slurpee, got it. Mostly when I needed a place to hide, I could not be found. Here is to 7-11, my home away from home.


Val the Great


Princess does not like cameras, and does like alias'

We used to hold shooter meetings in the parking lot when we worked at the A-Channel. Which I might add does not exist any more. Screw off Drew Craig. I spent many a lunch break reading in their parking lot. The funniest story I remember from the strike was when Paul M, the anchor who scabbed our strike, was in the store and saw one of the attractive posters we put up posted in the back of the store. He was not happy I hear.

I am proud to be a patron of said Sleven, and will proclaim it from here to there. Thank you for bestowing this award to me and them.


My Award

As you can see it says "Consistently serving the CHANGING NEEDS of our customers". As you can expect as a customer I have very many needs and they were all taken care of at 7-11. Thank you Val and Princess.

Okay, NEXT: I have a two part TundraTalk Podcast for you this week...


The Podcast that does not suck

CLICK HERE to listen to the Podcast, that does not suck, and enjoy my interview with Heath McCoy. Heath wrote the book Pain & Passion the history of Stampede Wrestling. A great book and a good interview. BUY HIS BOOK so he can write more.


BUY THIS BOOK

Speaking of wrasslin'...

Kelly Rempel IS THE MAN!!!

Cory Blashil, of the Edmonton Blashil's, pushed this into my grubby little hands last week. Kelly Rempel, of the Regina Rempel's, is the guy who I told you about that was a road agent for the Hitman. I met him at an Oilers game last month. We talked about wrasslin' and he was very cool. Well, he is even cooler now. He had the Hitman sign a pic for me. I will frame this, everything looks better framed, and hang it on my wall with pride. You rule Kelly. I need to get you on the podcast, or maybe you could help me get the Hitman on the show? We all know that TundraTalk is the podcast that does not suck. Bret the Hitman Hart on TundraTalk, that definitely would not suck. That would be way beyond cool. Thanks again for the pic.

Until next week, Have a good weekend and GET BACK TO WORK!!!!!!

I needs your help to write an open...

Tommy reluctantly took a pic with me at the WBC

I did not do a blog last week because I was tired and busy. You got a podcast though, I hope you liked it. Garner Andrews is a funny dude. Oh, the pic above is of me and Tommy Lasorda at the World Baseball Classic. He was wandering aimlessly in the concourse and I spotted him. He did not really want to take the pic as you can see by the look on his face. He really wasn't that friendly. Oh well, I go the pic, so screw him. His 'handler' asked me why I was in the media and taking pictures, I told him to mind his own business. He still took the pic though. Oh well, it was a long week in PHX and not a lot of sleep so I guess we all were testy. PLUS on the day we left, it had not rained in 143 days, so it was a torrential downpour as we were hauling our gear from terminal to terminal looking for the US Customs office. Why do I know that it had been 143 days, my dad told me, he keeps track of stuff like that. He is old. That is what they do.


The Podcast that does not SUCK

I have a new podcast for you today. It features three guests. All of them NHL players, and all of them former Green Bay Gamblers. That's right, the only three NHL players currently in the league that played in Titletown. You know that when an NHL player takes time out of his busy schedule to talk to me on the podcast that does not suck, that TundraTalk is a sought after program. Stand back Oprah, there is a new fat person in town.

That is Tom in the foreground

Tom Preissing plays defense for the San Jose Sharks.


Matt Greene in practice

Matt Greene plays defense for the Edmonton Oilers



Ty Conklin yuking it up in practice

Ty Conklin plays also for the Oilers

So just CLICK HERE and go and enjoy the show. In fact you can click and listen, then create a new tab for browsing, then come back and read the rest of the blog whilst you listen. Did I mention that TundraTalk is the podcast that does not suck?

In an upcoming episode of TundraTalk I will have the author of the book Pain and Passion, Heath McCoy. Heath wrote a book describing the tumultous history of Stampede Wrestling. I read the book and loved it. I never got to witness to any Stampede matches but by reading the book, I feel like now I have. If you don't know what Stampede Wrestling is it is a promotion that was based in Calgary, by the ledgend Stu Hart, that has spawned such great wrestlers as Chris Beniot, Bret Hart, Chris Jericho, Owen Hart, Jim 'the Anvil', Lance Storm, and Brian Pillman. Just to name a few. It should be a good show so make sure you tune in.


Pain and Passion by Heath McCoy

Okay, Marty Frey, of the Hollywood Frey's, sent me a note last week that kinda hit home. He basically said he loved the podcast but my open was 'pretenthious'. I told him that I thought he was wrong because I can't even spell that word, let alone be it. So he has kindly offered up his voice talent in Hollywood at NBC so I can have a 'non pretintious' open. He said just write something and he would see what he could do.

Here is where you come in. If I am pretensous, how can I write an open that is not predtntous? If you can find it in your heart and in your busy daily schedule, could you send me some sentences or catch phrases for the open. I NEED THIS!!! I will of course make sure that "The Podcast that Does Not Suck" stays in there but I need more. Imagine you the TundraTalk listener or reader, coming up with the next great catch phrase. Here is your chance to ride my coatails to stardom. Really. Everytime you sit down to listen to TundraTalk, the podcast that does not suck, you will hear your words come out of a highly paid, announcer from hollywood. What do you think? I had a few ideas like, 'TundraTalk, the other white meat.' or 'TundraTalk, changing the world one bad joke at a time.' Here is an old school one from the Arrogance days, "Your host, Wall Street Journal and Jugs magazine Man of the year..."

I think this could be great. Tony Mutzenberger, I know you gots ideas, and guns. Robby DuPuis is full of it, he should have something. Shane Keller, come on man, you are the man with a studio, you have worked in the ad game, I know you gots something. Scott Dahl works at an ad agency in Minne, I know you have to have something that you threw on the floor that you can throw at me. Let's get this done.

Okay, you have your assignment, get it done...

I will leave you with a few funny videos to watch today.

The first one is Rick Mercer showing us all what the Taxman does to us every March.


View this clip on Vimeo

And the second one is Bubbles of the Trailer Park Boys, singing an old song called 'Liquor and Whores' at the East Coast Music awards this year. This is very funny. I dare you to try to not sing the song the rest of the day. I dare ya.


View this clip on Vimeo

Have a great day and GET BACK TO WORK!!!!

World Baseball Classic

Me on the Field at Chase

Hey all. Just got a few short things this week because I am on the road and working in PHX at the World Baseball Classic. Yeah, not bad. It has been a long week with very little sleep so I am not really in the mood. But you know me, I am always there for you, my loyal following. Here are a few pics and such for you to Digest.



Oh wait, before I go to far, the new Podcast is up. This weeks guest is Don, wait Mexico just hit a home run right at me about 50 feet in front of our seats. Anyway, Don Macneil is the guest this week and we talk about a majority of things like Bigfoot, Macs, Unions, and the obligitory Supermodel question. CLICK HERE to listen to the podcast.


Derek Jeter waiting for his turn

We have been in PHX since Sunday. We covered the USA batting practice on Monday right away in the morning. By the way, rush hour in this town sucks. It was kinda cool being on the field around all these baseball superstars.


Johnny Damon the latest Red Sock to defect to the evil empire

We were here to cover Canada so we spent some time with that team also. They beat the ass of the USA team then laid an egg against Mexico.


Here are our seats from at Chase Park

We had to chase Barry Bonds on one day. Sorry, no good story here. He did not come to practice on the day after the SI article was published. Barry is a freak.

The weather was nice and Jordi on the one day we had part of the day off went golfing.

NEXT: You have got to watch this video. I found it on B-roll. It is a real life video parody of the Simpsons open. CLICK HERE to watch it.

That is all I got so GET BACK TO WORK!!!!

Robby is on TV, Some people suck, Reg & Preacher rule...

Blair and Me posing for a picture with the boys

I had the opportunity to go and see the Randy and Mr. Lahey comedy routine this last weekend and it was very funny. Randy, the guy without a shirt, is on the show Trailer Park Boys and is the assistant trailer park supervisor and never wears a shirt. Mr. Lahey is the Trailer park supervisor and an ex cop that is always drunk. These are the bad guys in the show and are very funny.

This was a big week for TundraTalk. I have three podcasts in the can, I got lots of stories to tell you, and Robby DuPuis, of the Chicago DuPuis, came back from his Euorpean vacation. So lets get it started...



FIRST: Reg Rudolph sent me a cool little item that will go well on my wall. Everything looks better framed. I will get it framed, and hang it next to my Chris Benoit, Road Warriors, and Goldberg autograph. Thanks Reg. You get the first TundraTalk shout out this week.




NEXT: Mike "Preacherman" Banaszynski, of the Pulaski Preachermen, took time out of his life LAST YEAR to send me a Wisconsin Badger jersey. Well you might say "Gee that is nice Chris. But why do we care this year?" Well there is a story behind that. A good one I might add.

Mike, being the not too smart guy that he is (he is a Red Wings fan), sent the sweater to my old address. Well, Mike, I have not lived there for about 4 years. So last week he asks me if I ever got the sweater. I said no and made a mental note to swing by the old place and see if they got it. Mental notes are sometimes made then like all post it notes fall off what ever they are stuck to after about two or three hours. My mental notes are no exception. This time though I remembered and swung by the place yesterday. Too my suprise the kids that live there answered the door. I asked them if their parents were around and they said no. So I explained to them who I was and why I was there. The kid asked me what was in the package and I said a hockey sweater. He said matter of factly "Oh, yeah, my dad got that." WHA?

I said do you know where it is? The kid said "No. My dad took it somewhere." WHA? I gave the kid my card and said give this to your dad and have him call me. He said come back tonight. I said I would. You better believe I will be back tonight.

SOOOOOOOOO, I go back that evening at about 6:30pm. The place is lit up. Almost every light is on in the joint. No prob, I think, they are there for sure. I go to the door and ring the doorbell. No answer. I knock on the door really hard. No answer. I know they are there. The dog is barking. Oh well, I will wait them out. I go back to the car and read my SI. About a half an hour later I see the kids come around the corner in the living room. They see me immediately and go and close the blinds and turn off the lights. WHA? I run to the door and knock. I can see people moving around in the back ground. The dog is going nuts. Eventually I see an adult walk from the kitchen to the bedroom and come to the door with, guess what? A sweater on a hanger in his hand.

He answers the door, and I tell him who I am and he just hands me the sweater. He gives me a dirty look then says "I had that thing on the fridge for six months. I just needed to find out what it was." WHA?

I took my sweater and left. I just wonder what else he has of mine in there. Where do people get off opening someone elses mail? They had our number and address. Was his fingers broken that he could not call us? Dick. Some people just suck.

So thanks Preacher for the sweater. It is awesome.



NEXT: Robby is back from Europe where he saw lots of old buildings and went to the Olympics. Above is a shot of Robby and his lovely wife in front of St. Marks Cathedral. Old buildings are cool. Floyd Fairweather would be proud. Wow there is a name from the past. Robby also went to the USA versus Slovakia game. Here is a pic from his seats at the game.



He was also all over the broadcast here in Canada. TSN must have known that he was there so the took lots of shots of him. Here is a screen capture of the DuPuis. That is Robby in the USA jersey holdin the USA flag above his head right next to him is Mrs. DuPuis in the UND Sioux sweater.



Here is the video here... Watch the left top side of the viewer...

View this clip on Vimeo if you want to see it bigger...

Well I will leave you with this pic...



I am not sure if Robby was drinking in this shot, but hell why not?



CLICK HERE to listen to TundraTalk the Podcast.

I hope you have a nice weekend. Next weeks PODCAST has Don MacNeil as my guest. Donny is the west regional vice president of the Communications Energy and Paperworkers union. It is a good one so make sure you join me on TundraTalk.

Until next time. GET BACK TO WORK!!!!!