Alanah goes solo for Episode #43 of The Crazy Canucks Podcast. She interviews Matt and Andy who responsible for the Battle of Alberta blog as we get to know a little more about the ups and downs of being a Flames or Oilers fan.

You wouldn’t think that a Flames and Oilers fan could get along on one blog, but this interview shows that these guys love to talk hockey. Plus, you ever wonder what die hard fans of the Albertan teams think about the Canucks? Alanah digs deep to find out. [TCC- 43]

Visit the TCC website to check out the rest of the show notes, to subscribe, or listen to the audio.

Update: John, our magical producer has just published Episode #44 as well where Alanah continues her “interviews with bloggers of Northwest teams”.

In this episode, she grabbed a couple of her favorite Avs fan bloggers, Greg from “Hockey Rants” and Tapeleg of “Jerseys and Hockey Love”. Together, they take a look at the team as whole, looking back into the past and what they expect from the coming season. Oh, and you can’t forget some good ol’ trash talkin’. [TCC – 44]

As always, check the website for show notes, more links, to subscribe and to listen.

Last year during Raise a Reader Day I was able to meetup with Marc Chouinard and Trevor Linden. We flashed smiles, took some pictures, and signed some papers. Once again this year, Canucks organization members, players, firefighters, policemen and local politicians were out on street corners downtown handing out newspapers by donation.

The Raise-a-Reader campaign was created by The Vancouver Sun in 1997 to increase awareness of literacy and raise money to fund children’s literacy programs. Since our inception, Raise-a-Reader Vancouver has raised over almost $3.45 million in 10 years in support of children’s literacy initiatives throughout British Columbia. [Canada.com]

There weren’t as many Canucks players out and about but I was able to see Henrik Sedin, Kevin Bieksa, Byron Ritchie and Fin was running around like a mad man err… orca.

All photos below are taken with my trial Nokia n95.

He’s SO going to kick John’s a$$ for taking that photo!

John snapped this photo on Fin on Melville and Burrard when he boldly boarded a trolley bus.

>I’m still pretty flustered. Kevin “boom boom” Bieksa is absolutely dreamy in person, yes I can say dreamy on here, it’s my blog.. and my husband is the one that took the photo…

I am still a huge fan of Fin’s… although he’s a little crazy, he’s hilarious. No he’s not doing a Michael Jackson impersonation in this photo, he’s grabbing his “steam trigger” – see: blow hole.

I’ve had my pink iPod mini for several years now and I have a hunch that many would have given up on theirs a long time ago given all the problems I’ve had with it. After learning how to reboot it (when it thinks the battery is low) I have been putting up with a lot more bizarre activity simply because I can’t afford to upgrade it. At least, I can justify spending several hundred dollars on groceries more than I can to replace an mp3 player (but that’s just a bit of the “wife” in me talking, eh).

The latest strangeness my little mini has produced is “Disk Mode” followed by a check mark and “OK to disconnect”. Unlike the lightning bolt symbol, I couldn’t for the life of me seem to get it OUT of Disk Mode, so I decided to find out how it got like that in the first place. A little “reverse engineering” as John would say.

Apparently you can put your iPod into Disk Mode by rebooting (which is done by sliding the hold button back and forth then pressing Play/Pause + Menu) then following these steps:

When the Apple logo appears, release the Menu and Select buttons and immediately press and hold the Select and the Play/Pause buttons until the Disk Mode screen appears. [Apple Support]

To get out of Disk Mode, I simply have to reboot my iPod again and there we go – good as new! Well… for another 2 minutes until it thinks the fully-charged battery is dead, then I reboot it. And so the dance continues.

I’ve been lucky enough to participate in a podcast for Canucks fans and by Canucks fans for the last year or so. Through the magic of the internets all 5 of us co-hosts are able to link up now and then to talk about our team, the game, the league and rant about various topics. We’ve connected with hockey fans all over the world and I know that one of our most loyal listeners is over in China, but when I received and email from Mark I was pretty floored.

Mark lives in Australia and has a website, Hockey Night in Melbourne, dedicated to a gathering of hockey fans all over the area who get together to watch NHL hockey games.

The hockey night in Melbourne thing came about because I was really frustrated how hard it was to watch a Canucks game in Australia (it’s hard to watch any NHL game except Stanley Cup finals, but the few crumbs we do get are never Canadian team vs Canadian team, and are always the American broadcasts edited down to fit into a 90 minute broadcast). I figured if I felt that way maybe others would to, so now I try and get as many people along as I can 1-2 times a month to watch games. We always try for at least one game with a Canadian team, and given my personal bias, Canucks as often as I can get away with.

Mark is Canadian-born but has lived in Australia for 2/3 of his life and upon a trip to Vancouver in 2002, he was immediately hooked on the Canucks.

An HNIM event last year where the group filled a pub at 10am on a Sunday to watch a live feed of one of the Ottawa/Anaheim playoff games.

The next HNIM takes place Sunday October 14th, 2007 @ 1:00pm at the GLITCH BAR + CINEMA located at 318 St Georges Rd, Fitzroy North – and that is of course in Melbourne, Australia.

For more details visit the HNIM website and remember these are delayed (by a week, from Oct. 6th) so no spoilers! If you’re in the area and are jonesing for some hockey action, check it out and be sure to contact me or send me a pic cause us Canucks fans just LOVE this kinda stuff – thanks for the support guys (yes, even the dude in the Leafs jersey)!

Update: I have been informed of HNIS – Hockey Night in Sydney, so it would only be fair to mention its game viewing times as well (man, this is great!) The following is a note I received from Doug:

Come along to the Terrace Hotel (83 Mount Street) in North Sydney [Google Map] and watch the latest NHL games on a large TV with loads of other fans. We usually have CBC/TSN feeds with the occasional US feed.

The Terrace has been really good to us and prepared a specials menu with a couple of favourites for watching hockey. Chicken wings and Labatt Blue being good for a reminder of North America.

First gathering for the 2007/08 season will be on Oct 10, with gatherings approx. every 2 weeks.

Schedule for Oct 10:
4:30pm – 5:00pm – Last 2 periods from the Oct 3 or Oct 4 Leafs/Sens game
(likely more the Oct 3 one as it’s the season opener for the two)
5:00pm – Rangers – Sens game from Oct 6
6:30pm – Canadiens – Leafs game from Oct 6
8:00pm – Canucks – Flames game from Oct 6

We’ll be using the same time schedule for the hockey nights, which should see game 3 finish around 9:30pm giving enough time for people to head home.

It was quite the exciting night for hockey fans in Vancouver. The Memorial Cup Champions lifted the cup, raised 3 banners and Pat Quinn made an appearance at the Pacific Coliseum.

However it appeared that nothing was working right for the Giants organization off the ice tonight. The blimp ejected all of its prize packs onto the rink instead of the crowd and the t-shirt canon misfired into the netting above. But it’s not all doom and gloom…

I can get over the fact that I didn’t win two gallons of paint (tinted to the colour of my choice) because on the ice, the Giants kicked some Kelowna Rocket butt. The shots were 48-9 for the Giants who took it all, wining 5-0. Tyson Sexsmith with the shutout, and Blum and Repik with notable performances.

Interesting side note (and no it doens’t involved a beer sippy cup). I’ve heard of mid-period slapshot contests from centre ice but this takes the cake. Basically it’s a huge slingshot stretched across the ice and participants strap on a helmet, sit down on a super saucer and get propelled from blue line to blue line to knock over 5 oversized novelty bowling pins… with their bodies.

Click To Play

I want to do that for my birthday. Man, I love hockey in Vancouver.

In regards to my post about Canucks ticket prices, Giants tickets start at just $16.50. I love my Canucks, but I also love hockey and a cheap night out with all the same action and heart… and a human slingshot.