The local CBC radio interviewed me about the Northern Exposure petition yesterday. I didn’t hear the interview (it aired very early this morning), but they’ve got a piece about the interview on their website.
I have to admit – I’m a little embarrassed by the coverage. Don’t get me wrong, I love the limelight, and I love the show. It’s just that of all the things going on in my life, this is not something that I’m putting too much thought or energy into. I mean, a petition for third-world debt relief maybe – but for a TV show?
I don’t even own a TV.
And for the record, during the interview I said “literary allusions” not “illusions” as is unfortunately quoted with my comment about how “smart” the show was.
UPDATE: The CBC has corrected the illusions/allusions mixup on their site. Thanks.
ANOTHER UPDATE: The CBC has posted the full interview (4:17) in Real Audio format.
Allow me to be the first to say: Wow.
You my friend are now a local hero.
It’s been updated. You can now listen to Steven do his thing. 1min 21secs.
This should be an MP3. RealPlayer is far too privacy invading for my liking.
The clip Rob linked to was an abbreviated version of the interview. They have now posted the full interview (4:17) in Real Audio format.
How local is this radio station? To me, this actually sounded like some sort of public-access station. Like the woman speaking didn’t have anything to do with radio, she just wanted to be a “reporter.” Sounded completely unprofessional and absolutely un-newsworthy.
But, on the other hand, Steven sounded far less Canadian than I would have imagined. And, if someone tells you they want to interview you for a radio station, why would you say no? So, therefore, I say good work Steven. The interviewer may be crappy, and we might be talking about a radio station run from someone’s basement, but you just took your petition to another (albeit only slightly higher) level.
How do you “sound Canadian”?
Garret:
CBC = Canada = CBC (most of the time anyway)
How do you “sound Canadian”?
My Canadian studies prof from last year tackled this one in depth. He spoke about how he was asked to be a “Canadian Culture Expert” or some BS (we could go on forever about what Canadian Culture is, if it even exists, or if not existing is its existence. Is that post-modernism? I don’t understand that either) for some kind of documentary. The director from New York had to keep telling him to act ‘more Canadian’. As far as I can recall from this anecdote, his content wasn’t included in the final cut of the show. He just wasn’t Canadian enough*.
You sound Canadian when you pronounce words like “out” the way, well, that Canadians do. It’s more like “oot.” Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to insult anyone. Sounding Canadian isn’t a bad thing, just as sounding American isn’t.
And Jevon: I guess your post, “CBC = Canada = CBC (most of the time anyway)” means that CBC is a national radio station? (Oh, and it’s Garrett)
No insult. I didn’t mean it to be a hairy barrel-chested, plaid-shirted maple-syrup-chugging-contest, mano-a-mano challenge to my national identity…I was more interested in your impressions. I figure that it is the Ontario voice you were expecting – “oot and aboot the hoose”. Most Maritimers have diverse accents more like New Englanders – localized – due to the older settlement. I am a Nova Scotian living on PEI and I have to ask folks to repeat themselves often. I used to be able to tell someone from Truro, Nova Scotia (pronounced “Chro”) from New Glasgow (“Ne Glars-go”), 40 minutes to the east. Steve, however, is mid-Atlantic as befits his international nature. I am hoping he applies for United Nations status personally.
You know, everybody teases Canadians for saying ‘oot’ and ‘aboot’ and so on. But, I have never heard a fellow Canadian speak “like a Canadian” before. I’m wondering if the spoofed dialect is from a corner of Ontario or maybe a French Canadian with an accent? Newfoundland has a distinctive accent. I’ve met Islanders who’ve heard me speak and say “You’re from Winnipeg, aren’t you?” (which I am). You’ll recognize an Islander when they say “Youse Guys!”. Where do Canada’s “noo doot aboot it!” people come from?
Rob: From “This Hours Has 22 Minutes”?
Re: Garrett – Thanks (I think there might have been a compliment for me in there somewhere). Although I thought the interviewer (Sheila Taylor) did a fine job. When she came to talk to me she knew her background about me, our site, and the show. The little ‘human-interest’ story that came out of it, I can understand – making the “news” was a stretch. Regardless, the CBC rules.
You mean CBC Radio rules Mr. I don’t even own a TV.
Zing! If only that was the only Onion story that described me…
Garrett, sorry, I missed your original question. This was the Prince Edward Island division of the CBC – so it was a provincial radio broadcast, not national.
Garrett, I think you might be confusing “unprofessional” with “uncommercial”. Commercial radio has a very different sound than a public broadcaster like CBC.
Steven–yes, there was a compliment in there for you. Also, my comments about the reporter were less about her do a good job with the research and more about the way she sounded. Seemed very unprofessional to me. Perhaps I’m used to listening to AM radio here (WCBS880, etc) and the level of quality with which the reporters speak.
And Rob–maybe being from Canada makes it more difficult for you to pick up on the language nuance that most Canadians have. Being born and raised in the USA, especially in places that have no noticeable accents or traits, it’s easier for me to hear it. Like I said, though, Steven didn’t sound all that Canadian to me. Perhaps PEI doesn’t have that sound to it.
If you want to check out the PEI sound find some Roger Yonker interview on the CBC PEI website. One of the interesting things about the CBC is that it is a Canadian federal government bureaucracy so the bureaucrats running human resources have swung the doors wide open to all 30 million Canadians rather than 135,000 Prince Edward Islanders. As a result, there are few PEI voices on the local “state” radio. The morning radio hosts are from Ontario and Newfoundland and the afternoon guy is from Nova Scotia – I am sure I get a few jokes a year most here don’t. Anyway, the one voice that truly stands apart is Roger Yonkers: big, kinda twangy, the letter “H” starts with the word “hay” as in “haych”, the application of the same letter is by its absence – “huge” is pronounced “uj”. Roger is happy as the day, calls the Premier “Mr. Premier” as if this was the United States – all other jurisdictions call officials by their names not their offices – and is a bit on the nutty side. He and the weatherman – Boomer Gallant – spar knowingly on the personality quirks of local harness racing personalities.
Get any Islander to say the words “farm, barn, or car” and listen to the Island accent unfold. I was thoroughly mocked when I first moved away because of those three words.
Lana, I followed your link and learned you’re a MA of Canadian Studies. We have a Canadian Studies Master reading AOV! I’m glad I didn’t break into a “July 1 shouldn’t be Canada Day” statement incase you had a difference stance, you could have totally proven my broken understanding of Canada’s history and politics in general. I liked the idea of Canada’s birthday being 1982 when we got our Constitution and some independance, but my understanding stops there.
Maybe this should be in another thread.
This is the biggest reaction I’ve ever gotten being a Canstu student. Typical converstion: “So what do you study”, “Oh, I’m in Canadian Studies”, “What’s that”, “errrgggh, Canada stuff”
I never thought I had an accent until I moved from PEI to North Carolina. Once I was down there I could hear how I said a lot of words differently. I could hear it in Islander’s voices when I called home too.
Garrett- Where did you spend the most time growing up? Washington state? I definately noticed a bit of a regional accent when I was in Seattle, and I know you’re not going to claim that people from NJ and NY don’t have accents.
Lana- I thought about taking a Canadian Studies program, and then I decided to work for the gov’t instead. Good on ya.
Congrats in the interview Steve.
Ben–Yes, I spent the first 17 years of my life in Washington state (about 15 minutes from Seattle, as a matter of fact). While it’s true there is a regional accent in that area, it’s one which, compared to most of the US, is very slight. And I will absolutely not claim NJ and NY don’t have accents. NJ has one of the worst. Thankfully, I’ve not picked it up.
My point was more that my language and accent aren’t that noticeable, except to people from Staten Island, NY. There I was constantly asked, “Where in the hell are you from?” I guess my clean speech was annoying to them.
Either way, from my experience most Canadians do have a similar accent on certain words. I probably do too (have a US-Seattle accent), I just don’t notice it. Just as I was saying to Rob, (that he probably doesn’t notice it in fellow PEI-ers), I must not notice it in myself.
Don’t take this badly but all this talk about accents reminds me of a conversation I had with an American (from New York) in Paris.Oh yeah, and I am Australian. The conversation: – after asking quite a few stupid questions which entailed me teaching this person about seasonal differences between the hemispheres due to the tilt of the earth (so I had established that he wasn’t too bright) the conversation went something like – Him: “So,it must be really weird having an accent and all”.
To which I just gave him a blank stare and then a laugh. Now most(I mean all) of you aren’t this stupid. But it was the fact that he believed he didn’t have an accent (keeping in mind this is Paris) and that everyone else did, that really amazed me. From that moment I had a typecast tattooed on my brain that named most North Americans as an incredibly, for lack of a better word, nationally obsessed bunch of people. I could not believe that in a foreign country he still classed other travellers and even the locals as having accents. He blew my mind with his stupidity. Anyway what I mean to say is, shame on me for having this typecast on all people and thankyou for showing me that most of you notice even the tiny differences.
Oh and yes to dob myself in for stupid accent statements.The way I learnt to tell the difference due to my limited interaction with Candians, was by shamefully watching Degrassi Junior High. The accent is quite different, where was it filmed?
(nb.I know this has porbably voided all the intelligence i tried to project in the previous note)
Degrassi was filmed in Toronto – which is pronounced there exactly like the capital of Albania. My Scots cousins used to think we all spoke and acted like Nick Adonidas and the lads on Beachcombers as that was the only Canadian show on BBC. Later, when I worked in the Netherlands, they apparently filtered most of their North American understanding through repeats of Battlestar Gallactica!
Could the “Sound like a Canadian” sound be from Parry Sound, perchance? Re: farm, barn, car… way I hear them when not in P.E.I. sounds like fwohrm, bworn, and kwor. You don’t get that in P.E.I.
On PEI we like our pirates, so: “ar” becomes “arggh”.
ummmmmmm ,uhhuhuhuh,this is stupid…i mean no offense but it is… the whole conversation,it is just solocal and after having read all that crap messages…i mean i realy dont know what to say…Garret has got to be one dumb fuck full of himself and his nationalist showenist proud(that thing what ever it is )that they think they are like the real people and the other are like the ones put onto world for making a decorative variety ,kind of like figurants,ther are dumb fucks like this fromany nation though,noneed to make the americans the sin goat either,it is just that Americans are very tendencial to this kind of attitude..Ben is the other idiot trying justify his accent ,who gives a flying fuck for crying out loud,evry people have their own accent and culture and music and food and none is superior to the other, so what,the british people call the americans like(oh them ,our colony and stuff,and they laugh about the thick cowboy accents they have ,i mean english language is originaly coming from england right?so then they could claim thet their accent is the real one but then they have many accents in england too,forget that even two brothers both raised upin a same family have different prononciations sometimes,its the concept of uniqueness,and then talking for a community or a society what is more normal then that if they have different prononcuations,it is as stupid as sayin us americans we eat burgers the brits eat fish and chips ,so???does that mean the true food is burgers…what ever ,i even find it thick to make comments about such a dull issue…Just one more thing :
that australian lady ,she seems smart ,she should be a lovely lady as well,not jsut cause she talks smart but she looks like she has a earthly coomon sense to get the whole picture…lovely Lucinda Arrel,no cruising but i had to put out some nice words out there,after all that superficial mentalities,to see what you have writen made me kinda relived to think ther e is still some hope for the world.
may the compasionate inteligence (the force)be with you…
no nick mon tabarnac…