bits and pieces from 11 spiels / panels at Vancouver’s personal expression conf – topics: podcasting, art, creativity, hockey, and history. find vids, pods, slides, tweets…
The “origin document“ of Forgotten Vancouver Stories talk
Projects of all kinds, a talk/presentation in this case, usually start with some kind of plan… (seems obvious so i’ll explain further).
In this instance, this is the *origin document* of what turned into a talk for Pecha Kucha night Vancouver “All-Star edition” at Vogue Theatre in the 20 slides for 20 seconds each format. e
Later, the “slides” became part of a longer form version at “Poets, Punks and Revolutions: Forgotten Vancouver Stories,” Northern Voice in a three-dimensional mixed media environment (campfire on stage, easels, record players, a comfortable chair and so on.
The idea started at a sort-of-secret-hideout with single malt, in conversation with a (now-former) mayor of Vancouver, his chief of staff, and the CEO of a significant company. Realizing the mayor didn’t really know a lot of renegade Vancouver stories, especially around counter-culture, I riffed off a few and later thought might be useful, amusing/educational/entertaining, or whatever for a wider audience.
Forgotten Vancouver Stories: 1 – Everything is ephemera (maps, tickets, pins, pennants) #daveostory
Artifact dossier: Collage art boards from “Forgotten Vancouver Stories (aka Poets, Punks and Revolutions)” spiel presented in various formats at Pecha Kucha Night Vancouver, All-star edition, and Northern Voice 2013 closing keynote. Video and roundup of both prezos exists elsewhere in this archive.
Each collage “slide” was handmade (obviously) with ephemera from my personal collection (exceptions credited on final “slide”) then, arranged on hemp cloth “storyboards”, photographed by Rachel Ashe, then disassembled. An analog to digital remix of sorts. Presented here in rather large size for your printing/screensaver/ amusement and posterity.
Forgotten Vancouver Stories: 2 – Young time stories
What follows is transcription of a talk called “Fck Stats, Make Art” at Northern Voice, 2008 in Vancouver, BC. Original audio (record by Jay Stewart who is identified as Speaker 1 below) exists, as does a “round-up” of photos, tweets, artifacts, and so on. See “Consider Perusing” below.
Speaker 1:We’re at Northern Voice 2008 in Vancouver BC at the University of British Columbia Forestry Science Center and I’m about to record Dave O’s presentation. What is the name of the presentation?
Speaker 2:Fuck Stats Make Art.
Speaker 1:Fuck Stats Make Art. It’s going to be a little bit controversial because he’s going to give a call to up the ante on quality of stuff people are posting. He’s like, “It doesn’t matter if people are looking, it matters if it’s good content, that’s more important.”
Speaker 2:Certainly good content comes first and then you really [inaudible 00:01:06].
Speaker 1:I don’t need to know when people’s cats are going to the bathroom. I see a lot of that on Twitter and other sites and stuff, you know?
Announcer:So, it’s my pleasure to introduce one of my best friends here Dave Olson. He also works with me at Raincity Studios and I’m really excited that you guys get to hear him talk today. I think this talk would be quite a bit different from everything else that you hear at Northern Voice.
I dragged, Dave, kicking and screaming in the world of Google Analytics and I just didn’t get it, just like every moment I spent either looking at my viewers or attracting new ones is one less moment I’m writing or doing something else that I love. So, I always respected that about him.
He’s a poet, a filmmaker, an author, photographer and many other awesome things. Anyway, I’ll leave it up to him to go with the rest. So, welcome to Fuck Stats Make Art.
Storymaker Dave uncleweed Olson shares an eclectic variety of stories from Vancouver’s counter-culture history on a stage adorned with a record player, campfire & cub scout blanket, art easel, flowers and an Expo 86 mug – plus pulls artifacts from an old-timey suitcase to illustrate forgotten past of a city which is/was much cooler than most realize.
Presented at Northern Voice, June 2013 in Vancouver, Canada, his 11th presentation to this noted personal expression conference (and his last talk before a medical “retirement”).
Dave uncleweed Olson shares Forgotten Vancouver Stories
Topics:
Frederick Varley – Group of 7 painter who lived in Vancouver for 10 years
Grateful Dead – (tried to) play free shows at Second Beach and Kits Beach in 1966
Bob Masse psychedelic poster artist
Gastown Riots, March on Blaine, Rock Against Racism
bev. davies – rock n roll photographer, community chronicler, punk rock mom
Blues in Vancouver – Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee at the Bunkhouse
Vancouver punk rock glory days DIY spirit and fanzines (+ final days of The Clash and importance of ephemera)
Clayoquot Sound logging blockades
Jake Milford and the Canucks recruiting Swedish players in the 1970s
United Empire Loyalists + Burner Boys bringing jam band culture
Venues of note: Afterthought, Retinal Circus, York Theatre, the Cave, the Bunkhouse
Cubscout campfire blankets
Howard Hughes, Errol Flynn
++ bits of Kris Krug, Bob Kronbauer, Rebecca Bollwitt, Dan Mangan, Jason Vanderhill and campfire helpers: Mark Blevis, Kemp Edmonds, John Biehler, James Lester, Ariane Colenbrander, Nicholas Demers
I’m speaking at noted, long-time personal expression/blogging conference: Northern Voice, this time held at Museum of Vancouver. I’m bringing an old-timey suitcase and possible costume changes.
Details and tickets are at northernvoice.ca but basics are: June 14-15 (my gig is last on Saturday, 15th 3:30-4:30) at Museum of Vancouver (same building as the Planetarium with the crazy metal crab out front).
Blurb: Vancouver, The Untold Stories
The core of personal expression is in the stories we create. Indeed, we humans are defined by the stories we tell and the people we tell them to. No matter what form your stories take – digital or analog – they come alive when shared with an audience.
By exploring an oft-forgotten and eclectic variety of Vancouver stories, Northern Voice veteran (this is his 10th talk) Dave Olson @uncleweed, will send you on personal quests to discover new heroes, sort out conundrums, and collaborate with other storymakers to and remix artifacts from our local life. Along the way, you’ll explore forms your mixed media stories might take, and ways to share with audiences you’ve yet to meet.
Start your journey by finding inspiration and interestingness in the history of our own Vancouver, perhaps: forgotten breweries and legendary blues venues, wealthy recluse at the Bayshore, intrepid punk rock photographer, bohemian group of seven painters, storytellers past and future, true heavyweight champ in an unmarked grave, a dead Hollywood star and his grisly autopsy, stoner comedians’ first meeting, Jimi/Janis/Jerry, summer of love shakedown #nofun, Sammy Sr. at the Cave, Jello at the York, everyone at the Buddha, and a host of our distant forebears and peers.
Your speaker Dave grew up in Guildford > Whalley > Newton and now lives in Lynn Valley and works in Mt. Pleasant – while he’s spent time in 29+ other countries – he takes distinct interest in getting lost in neighbourhoods seeking craft ales, chill gardens and curious tales. You may have caught him sharing at Pecha Kucha, SXSW, TedX or local community clubs.
History:
For the record, my previous talks were:
Blogging your Passion (with Rachel Ashe, Andre Charland and …)
Three Ps of Podcasting (intro’ed by Roland Tanglao)
Crazy Canucks panel (with John and Rebecca Bollwitt, JJ Guerrero, Alanah McGinley)
Fuck Stats, Make Art (dedicated to Derek K Miller)
Story of a Story (Letters from Russia)
Rock n Roll Photo (with Kris Krug and Bev Davies)
Citizen Journalism and Vancouver 2010 Olympics (with Robert Scales, Andy Miah, Kris Krug, Debbie Lander)
Japan photo project (with John Biehler’s photo camp)
Finding your Voice with Storymaking (delivered via video due to hospitalization)
On a field trip to his home studio in Lynn Valley, storymaker Dave Olson discusses his creative process and thoughts about how to spark new ideas and craft interesting artifacts.
After welcoming you like Mr. Rogers, he plays records, pours tea, shows static montages from Palau, and pulls out all sorts of projects from grade school country reports to Cannabis Culture articles. Finally he shows books by heroes who provided solace and wisdom and then sends you back to the bus stop.
Filmed, Directed, Edited etc. by Andrew Lavigne
Music by The Numbskulz and Black Tories
Presented at Northern Voice personal expression conference in Vancouver, Canada, May 9, 2010.
I lay out my best stuff at Northern Voice – a Vancouver personal expression conference full of familiar faces and free thinkers which allows me to experiment with both my form and message.
Storymaking prezo at Northern Voice 2010 By @nbloom
I kept my string of 5 years alive {Rock N Roll Photo panel, Letters from Russia prezo, F@ck Stats Make Art prezo, Canucks podcast panel, “Bob Dylan” Podcasting prezo, Blogging your Passion panel} with this year’s contribution delivered via video while i was recuperating from a surgical procedure.
While sad not to be there, my sprits were buoyed by the kind words via Twitter etc. from folks who made it by to see the video in panel along with my pal Monica Hamburg delivering thoughts about Finding your Voice Online.
I was physically weary after a surgery and run down while shooting but this condition perhaps helped in capturing significant honesty from me. As such, I hope my words offer you solace and inspiration. Special dedication to my Mom who wrote the bit in the baby book.
Video
The video was made by a frequent collaborator during production of With Glowing Hearts, Andrew Lavinge. Music was from my standbys: The Numbskulz with “Doggie” & The Black Tories with the intro to “Pretty Like Gasoline”.
Finding a creative voice which personally fulfils and inspires others begins with growing comfortable with your own stories and their related artifacts. In a field trip to his home studio in Upper Lynn Valley, storymaker Dave Olson (AKA UncleWeed) extols important keys to creativity over a cuppa tea before sharing creative project example from childhood to present. Along with explaining how each endeavour shaped his voice for a contemporary stream of mixed media personal expression, he shares key influences via shelves full of heroes who provided solace and wisdom.
Monica Hamburg will help you decide how to shape your online voice, what good blog writing means, and how to write in a way that will convince readers to care about your blog (“C’mon! My cat is sooo cute, right?”).
Also, in today’s 2010 Northern Voice conference on blogging and social media,Monica Hamburg and Dave Olson did a fantastic job of encourging practice, honing skill, taking risks, and being true to self so I’ll do just that and maybe I’ll get somewhere.
One of my favorite presentations was Finding your Inner Voice by Monica Hamburg and Dave Olson. It was funny, engaging, and told an incredible story, one that each person could relate to. Dave wasn’t able to make the session so he sent in a video. When they were setting up the video I honestly thought “Oh man, I should bail out of this now and just get in line early for lunch.” I really wasn’t expecting much from a video presentation. Fortunately I decided to stay. Here is Dave Olson’s video.
So if you watched this video, which I hope you have, you probably thought it was pretty frackin’ hysterical and creative. I, like Dave, loved writing stories as a kid and I loved art work. My mom set up a special room for us in our home where my sister and I could sit at our art table and work on any project we wanted. She had an art box for us full of glitter (a parent’s worst nightmare), scissors, glue, construction paper, paints, markers, stencils, and pencils. As long as we cleaned the art table after crafting we were able to create anything we wanted. Our laundry room was converted into our art gallery. Random drawings and paintings were taped onto the laundry room cupboards and strung along the ceiling. Dave Olson’s video reminded me that of my art room and art box, I honestly had forgotten about it, or perhaps just haven’t thought about it in such a long time.
Dave Olson and Monica Hamburg gave a great Multi-Media session on “Finding Your Online Voice“. Great insight into finding inspiration. All Bloggers have run into the “What do I write about” and “How should I writer about it” questions. I (and other Crazy Cat people) found it funny, how on Day One, every session made a reference to Crazy Cat people.
One of the themes of the conference (no, I don’t actually think the organizers ever actually said the conference had a theme) was about finding your voice. Kimli and Steff certainly reiterated what I hear was said during Monica Hamburg’s and Dave Olsen’s session called, ba-dum-bum, Finding Your Voice. I missed that session because I made the regrettable decision to attend the Copyright and Online Expression talk instead (more later on how bad a decision that was). The chatter on Twitter, however, indicated the voice session was very much loved and adored.
Next up, was one of my favorite sessions by Monica Hamburg and Dave Olsen on Finding Your Voice. Monica’s witty presentation left me with the confidence to know that although I may suck at blogging right now, writing more, reading more, and writing more will make me better (I hope!). Oh and having good grammar and hygiene helps too! And don’t forget to spellcheck!
Dave Olsen, aka @UncleWeed came to us via satellite (ok, it was pre-recorded) from his mansion on the hills (North Vancouver). Somehow Uncle Weed seemed to be channelling Mr. Rogers and the resemblance was uncanny. His wisdom was perhaps no less instructive than the late Mr. Rogers. Blogging is about storytelling. Regardless of the medium, voice can only be found when we find the stories within and learn to tell them. And in the wise words of Uncle Weed, it’s 80% meditation, 10% execution, and 10% inebriation.
In Storymaking with Dave Olson, we followed Dave on a journey through his own personal artifacts and heard how he uses them as inspiration for current projects. You can follow him at Uncleweed.net This talk made me want to run home and start mucking about with paint and random boxes of collectables.
