http://www.electricsky.net Electric Sky produces podcast programs that feature engaging, creative and critical ideas... and great music.Portrait is a short format program. Each edition offers a narrow field of view about a particular subject, person, event or theme, in 10 minutes or less.Landscape is a 30 minute program in which individual segments contribute to a more broad view of a subject. Each edition is in the form of a magazine, documentary, or investigative radio show. Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:36:46 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en In order to make time available for some personal projects, I have decided to put Electric Sky on hiatus. The site (including a recent wave of new shows) and RSS feed will remain online and fully functional. Stay tuned.  Electric Sky will be back! http://www.electricsky.net/stay-tuned-electric-sky-will-be-back/ It's amazing who you can meet in a park during your child's soccer game. I was introduced to Stephen Gritt on one such occasion last summer by someone who knew that Stephen would make a great guest for Electric Sky. They were right. Show ID and intro Interview with Stephen ... http://www.electricsky.net/stephen-gritt-on-art-restoration-and-conservation/ During the annual Great Glebe Garage Sale (a huge community garage sale in Ottawa), my family stumbed on Jennifer Barnaby, a Cordon Bleu Chef who was serving baked goods she'd made while her husband, Jim, brewed up espresso and handled the transactions. Every single cent collected from the sales ... http://www.electricsky.net/jennifer-barnaby-and-cakes-for-a-cause/ I've wanted to produce a documentary on honesty for almost three years. In preparation, I gathered some street audio on honesty and dishonesty, definitions of the ideas and self-analysis (unfortunately, I seem to have misplaced some of this audio). I also conducted an incredibly insightful interview with Brad ... http://www.electricsky.net/brad-blanton-and-radical-honesty/ While in Perth, ON last August, I learned about Bracelets of Hope, an initiative to raise the money necessary to build a medical clinic for a Village of Hope in Harare, Zimbabwe -- all by selling handmade bracelets. Even more impressive is that the initiative was dreamed up by ... http://www.electricsky.net/bracelets-of-hope/ Our family vacation in August 2007 was a two-week, unplugged, extravaganza down the Fundy side of New Brunswick. The camping was fantastic and we were able to witness the awesome vertical tides of the Bay of Fundy. The highlight of our trip was a whale watching expedition on the Jolly ... http://www.electricsky.net/whale-watching-on-the-jolly-breeze/ In the conclusion of this two part series, Sir Ken Robinson explains what 'back to basics' means, offers ways in which parents can help foster creativity in their children, and outlines his ideal school. Show ID and Intro Interview with Sir Ken Robinson (part 2 of 2) I recommend Sir Ken Robinson's book, ... http://www.electricsky.net/sir-ken-robinson-on-creativity-and-education-part-2-of-2/ I first learned about Sir Ken Robinson and his research on creativity and the decline of creativity in education when I saw a video of a presentation he delivered at the TED conference (Do Schools Kill Creativity?). His book Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative is an ... http://www.electricsky.net/sir-ken-robinson-on-creativity-and-education-part-1-of-2/ In March 2006, I took a day off of work to spent time with the residents of Harvest House, a recovery program based in Ottawa. It was an incredibly educational and emotional day. I am currently producing a thirty-minute documentary based on my experiences that day. The program will ... http://www.electricsky.net/promo-recovery-program-documentary/ You may have already noticed that I haven't been releasing shows regularly for the last few months. I needed to forgive myself the weekly production schedule during a particularly busy spring. I plan to produce a few shows over the summer on no particular release schedule and will ... http://www.electricsky.net/relaxed-release-schedule-for-summer-2007/ Ottawa Valley Honey is one of the popular attractions at the Ottawa Farmers' Market. Children and adults flock to this booth to study the section of beehive that is always a part of the display. I had the opportunity to interview Michael Kositsin, one of the beekeepers, about his amazing ... http://www.electricsky.net/michael-kositsin-and-his-amazing-honey-bees/ In the same way that many people figured Wayne Gretzky would always play hockey, I cannot imagine a time when William Hawkins, Bill, will no longer be driving his cab. And driving a cab is only one of the many lives he has led. Bill was part of the Ottawa ... http://www.electricsky.net/william-hawkins-and-connecting-with-people/ I released my very first Podcast on April 29, 2005. Tod Maffin made me do it. That is to say, I heard him talk about podcasting during a technology segment on CBC Radio. That, combined with Brent Bambury's announcement that he was leaving CBC Ottawa resulted in ... http://www.electricsky.net/tod-maffin-made-me-do-it/ In many respects, Alex Overwijk reminds me of my own high school math teachers - passionate, a good sense of humour and a unexpected skill that everyone knows them for. Alex is an unlikely celebrity for a viral YouTube video of him drawing a perfect freehand circle. Show ID and ... http://www.electricsky.net/alex-overwijk-and-the-perfect-freehand-circle/ Since 2002, Pam Hunter has been organizing annual Scrabble tournaments to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis. I dropped in on this year's event and learned that, like baseball, Scrabble is rich with strategy and language including speed games, board-vision, heavy tiles and "box scores". Show ID and Intro Interviews with participants ... http://www.electricsky.net/scrabble-tournament-for-multiple-sclerosis/ This week's episode of Electric Sky is heavy on the editing and production side. As a result, I will be publishing this week's episode in the evening of Monday, March 26. Thank you for your patience. http://www.electricsky.net/episode-delay/ Quite by chance, my family and I learned about the CD release party for The World Voices Choir, an event that took place just over a month ago. We made it a family event -- that includes our two daughters ages five and seven. It was an amazing ... http://www.electricsky.net/jeannie-hunter-and-the-world-voices-choir/ On a recent visit to the Canadian Museum of Nature, we were polled for our opinions on a proposed exhibit on water. A display of four concepts were on display for public comment. I had never considered how museum exhibits were conceived, planned and pulled together. Show ID and ... http://www.electricsky.net/june-creelman-on-creating-museum-exhibits/ Thomas Wartenberg has created an entire program for his philosophy class at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. The program teaches his students how to facilitate a philosophical discussion with grade 1 through 5 students using picture books. The results are amazing. Show ID and Intro Interview with Thomas ... http://www.electricsky.net/thomas-wartenberg-and-philosophy-for-children/ For no apparent reason, I have always assumed that any coast guard operation was a military outfit. It turns out I was wrong. To learn more, I sat down with the Commissioner of the Canadian Coast Guard, Mr. George Da Pont. Show ID and Intro Interview with Commissioner George Da ... http://www.electricsky.net/canadian-coast-guard-commissioner-george-da-pont/ A two-week break has turned into a one month break.  Electric Sky will be returning from holidays this weekend. Thanks for your patience! http://www.electricsky.net/electric-sky-is-returning-from-holidays/ This is an unusual episode of Electric Sky in which I cut loose with my other Rogic Conglomerites to bring you a festive song. Thank you very much for being a part of the Electric Sky audience. All the best to you and yours for a happy, healthy and safe holiday season ... http://www.electricsky.net/happy-holidays/ I had some pretty severe server problems yesterday - Friday, December 8 - which resulted in all sorts of problems, most of which were resolved around 5amET today. As a result, most of my sites were down, and my feeds went crazy for a while. My apologies for the inconvenience! Mark http://www.electricsky.net/server-and-feed-problems/ During a recent conversation about social media, my friend, Stephen Hardiman, started to talk about storytelling as a business tool. It was one of those times when I cut people off and tell them to save it for when the tape is rolling. Since Stephen has a radio ... http://www.electricsky.net/stephen-hardiman-on-storytelling-as-a-business-tool/ As a gift for his fiftieth birthday, Suzanne Roy-Seguin helped her husband, Yves Seguin, realize his dream of experiencing the launch of a Space Shuttle. I spoke with them about how they experienced this incredible event given that Yves is blind and Suzanne is legally blind - both from ... http://www.electricsky.net/experiencing-a-shuttle-launch/ I'm finally putting some energy back into creating a documentary on honesty and I need your help - this after a year-and-a-half of threatening to do so. I'm looking for email and audio comments that will be used anonymously on my program. I'm looking for you to provide any of ... http://www.electricsky.net/tell-me-about-honesty/ Sheree Fitch is the author of more than twenty children's picture and poetry books, a young adult book called Gravesavers, and several plays. During a conversation with Sheree for Just One More Book (another Podcast I produce with my wife, Andrea), Sheree introduced an idea she has called The Theology of ... http://www.electricsky.net/sheree-fitch-and-the-theology-of-nonsense/ Thanks to Jill Pyle for alerting me to this... Canada AM ran a piece this morning about the 'Red Fridays' organizers having created some scrapbooks to document rallies they organized and inspired, and media coverage they attracted. The scrapbooks have been sent to Canadian troops in Afganistan. During the segment, CTV ... http://www.electricsky.net/electric-sky-goes-to-afganistan/ I attended the Railfair 2006 at Algonquin College in Ottawa. The setups were incredibly elaborate and the exhibitors were more than happy to talk about their hobbies. Show ID and Intro Interview with Neil Hutton of Cumberland Third Rail Railfair 2006 video on YouTube How to subscribe to Electric Sky - it's free. http://www.electricsky.net/model-railroading/ Sometimes a chance meeting can take place when you grab the wrong airport shuttle. That's exactly what happened to me when I arrived in San Francisco this past June. I shared a shuttle with Thomas Grande and his wife. Mr. Grande practices Qui Tam law and he ... http://www.electricsky.net/thomas-grande-on-qui-tam/ Some time ago, I figured out how to use the category-casting feature of the PodPress plugin.  It was the perfect motivator for me to create a second, category-based feed for Electric Sky.  I called that feed ES2 and used it as a way to share outtakes and behind the scenes ... http://www.electricsky.net/es2-is-moving/ There's a certain irony with the timing of this episode. Nevertheless, I am amazed by Ashley's passion for, and commitment to, her rabbits. Show ID and intro Interview with Ashley LaFave of the Spencerville Hillside Rabbitry How to subscribe to Electric Sky - it's free. http://www.electricsky.net/ashley-lafave/ It's a simple idea: wear red on Fridays to show support for the troops and families of the Canadian military. It's not about politics or ideology. It's about people. It's called Red Fridays and it was organized by Karen Boire and Lisa Miller. Show ID and Intro Interview with ... http://www.electricsky.net/red-fridays/ I am gradually rolling out transcripts of all of my Electric Sky Podcasts. I am launching this new feature today with the release of the transcript for my interview with Stewart Copeland. I will add transcripts to the existing show notes for each episode. Once the transcript is added, ... http://www.electricsky.net/transcripts-available/ His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is touring the world as part of the celebration of the Art of Living Foundation's twenty-fifth anniversary. I spoke with him during his stop in Ottawa. Show ID and Intro Interview with His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar How to SUBSCRIBE to Electric Sky - it's ... http://www.electricsky.net/his-holiness-sri-sri-ravi-shankar/ Thank you to everyone for your kind words, good wishes, and offers of help. My family and I have been touched by the generosity and concern. I have begun replacing what was stolen and hope to be back in production in a week or so. I have ... http://www.electricsky.net/the-rebuilding-begins/ Unfortunately, we were the target of a robbery and, as a result, I will be unable to produce Electric Sky until I replace my stolen equipment. Everyone is okay. I hope to be rolling again as soon as possible. http://www.electricsky.net/we-interrupt-this-program/ Imagine a children's fantasy book that entertains, inspires and illustrates the magic of facing ourselves. Imagine that book enjoys enough success to merit a sequel. That book is Kendra Kandlestar and the Box of Whispers. Show ID and Intro Interview with Lee Edward Fodi Hear a review of Kendra Kandlestar and ... http://www.electricsky.net/lee-edward-fodi/ Pete Moss, narrator of the Uninformed Biography segment on AndyCast, has featured the uninformed story of my life on the latest AndyCast, Episode #32.  How did he find out about the martial arts??? http://www.electricsky.net/immortalized/ Miles Copeland has made a career of doing what others felt was crazy. In the process, he changed the music and entertainment business with acts such as The Police and The Bellydance Superstars. Show ID and Intro Interview with Miles Copeland Electric Sky has interviewed Miles' brothers, Ian (click here for Ian) ... http://www.electricsky.net/miles-copeland/ I have added a listener feedback line.  You can leave a voice mail message of five minutes or less at 206-350-6487.  Alternatively, you can use the contact form to send text feedback. I am always happy to receive comments and suggestions.  I try to respond to every comment I receive. http://www.electricsky.net/listener-feedback/ I had some problems with the iTunes page for Electric Sky in July.  After almost two weeks, iTunes identified a problem on their end and corrected it.  That fix has apparently broken all of the iTunes subscriptions to Electric Sky that predate the fix. If you were subscribed to Electric Sky ... http://www.electricsky.net/check-your-itunes-subscription/ As an exercise to learn a new software package he'd bought, Stewart Copeland went through fifty hours of home movies he shot of his band, The Police. Doing so reminded him that despite a reputation of fighting between band members, The Police was a tight nit group that worked hard ... http://www.electricsky.net/stewart-copeland/ ELECTRIC SKY produces Podcast programs that feature engaging, creative and critical ideas and great music. PORTRAIT is a weekly, short format Podcast that offers a narrow field of view about a particular subject, person, event or theme, in 10 minutes or less.  The theme song for Portrait is Big Foot by ... http://www.electricsky.net/what-is-electric-sky/ This is the first edition of ES2 (RSS, iTunes), a Podcast I will use to share Electric Sky outtakes and some of my own personal views. In this first episode, I include an outtake from my interview with Jim Terry, owner of the Pacific Prowler. The interview was initially released ... http://www.electricsky.net/es2-001-the-monkey/ While on vacation in Denver a few weeks ago, someone suggested to my wife and me that we check out a great, independent book store that specializes in children's books and resources for teachers. We ended up spending a good part of the afternoon at the store, and left with ... http://www.electricsky.net/the-bookies/ My iTunes problems are nearly resolved.  Actually, the root of the problem was a misconfiguration on this site which confused iTunes.  Unfortunately, iTunes takes a long time to get unconfused.  Anyway, things should be back to normal in the next day or so. Thanks for your patience! http://www.electricsky.net/itunes-problems-resolved-almost/ I need help! This Podcast (Electric Sky) and another that I produce (Just One More Book) are no longer being updated in iTunes. According to Feedburner, the errors reported in my RSS file won't affect iTunes because it ignores the tags in question. I haven't received any fresh insight from ... http://www.electricsky.net/help-with-itunes/ Electric Sky will be returning shortly after a little over a month of relaxation. http://www.electricsky.net/electric-sky-is-coming-back/ Electric Sky is on hiaitus for the month of July.  Have a great month! http://www.electricsky.net/electric-sky-on-holidays/