Dewey in the morning. On the radio.

A while ago I started being on the radio. Yeah, I know I’m behind, sorry about that.

Anyways, in these past two weeks I’ve joined Mike T. and Lindsey twice for Kick Start from 7-9 AM. I’ve really enjoyed being a part of this, and look forward to doing it more. I haven’t been very involved with KICK FM before, and it’s cool to get some experience on-air. Also it’s great that I fit in with the rest of the rotating crew’s rhyme scheme (say this quietly to yourself): Mike T., Lindsey, Krystalle, Marinelli, Emily, and me, Dewey. (You have to accent the second syllable to make it work.)

 The only problem is the hours. The thing about this particular morning show is that we do it live… in the morning. I’d love to do a morning show in the afternoon- it would be for people like me who like to wake up around dinnertime.

If you’re one of those people who get up early, and I mean really early, then check out the show on 92.9 KICK FM, Red River’s #1 radio station, on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Here’s KICK’s blog to see all the station’s latest news.

My train-related humour was right on track.

This week I became a tour guide.

It was Red River’s first CreComm Information Night on Monday, and I volunteered along with several of my classmates to help out by sharing our wealth of knowledge and experience with the next generation. In my opinion, it couldn’t have gone any better.

Here's me explaining some of the campus' lush history. They gave us uniforms from Missiouri Tech for some reason. 

I teamed up with former Class 1 superstar Rachelle Taylor, and we brought about 20 people, mostly perspective students plus some of their mothers, around the school to show them some highlights. I thought it was incredible how Rachelle and I were able to balance such stark professionalism with easygoing charm, and judging by the thoughtful nodding and comfortable smiles from the crowd, it was clear they agreed.

Anyways, the reason I thought it went so well is that it gave us an opportunity to get these kids in on the ground floor of the CreComm experience, including and especially the entrance process. Throughout the tour we gave all kinds of interesting tips and fascinating information about the program and joint-degree path, but it was afterwards that we stuck around to answer questions with open arms. I was very glad that several students and their mothers stayed to learn more; sure, they were shy at first, but the aforementioned easygoing charm of the aforementioned tour guides disarmed their skittishness and gave them the courage to approach anyone, no matter how attractive those guides were.

Rachelle and I with our group getting ready to leave the Princess Building.

Rachelle and I were able to give advice to the students regarding their portfolios and entrance tests (some of which were scheduled for the following day!), and tried to instill these young ones with the confidence to succeed. And yes, most of their proposed portfolios sounded much, much better than mine, so it was easy to encourage their effort.

CreComm staff told me that 150 people attended, so it was really great to see that interest and I legitimately enjoyed being a part of it. All the best to you kids!

Cage fighting comes to Winnipeg.

Yesterday I went to a cage fighting event.

Cage Fighting Manitoba, Winnipeg’s newest MMA organization put on their first event, CFM 1, on Friday January 7 at the Winnipeg Convention Centre. Although I’ve been a fan of MMA for a few years now, it was my first time at a live event, so it was really interesting to see how it all goes down.

I attended the event with fellow MMA fan Dave Hollier, and we watched in shock as all nine fights ended by the second round! The night was nonstop submissions (2 guillotines, 2 triangles, and an arm bar) with a few TKO’s thrown in. This may have meant there were some mismatched battles, but it definitely made for exciting action!

The night began with a very strange match though, with Jessie Seberg falling down and verbally quitting after only 17 seconds and receiving four leg kicks from Alberta’s Daryle Pinter. Afterwards, everyone reacted very slowly: the fighters’ corners stayed out of the ring as the crowd softly booed in disappointment. Thankfully things picked up from there however…

1 of 4 leg kicks that ended the fight. Photo by JB Photography, taken from TopMMAnews.com

The crowd of over 500 was pretty relaxed until Winnipeg-based fighters made appearances, receiving such huge support from friends and fans that they seemed as recognizable as GSP. Lucky for these fans, four out of five Winnipeg fighters came out with the win. This included an impressive second round knockout by wild striker Gary Espinar with a hook that sent Saskatoon’s Micheal Glover’s mouthpiece flying. Also a notable hometown victory was Cory Houston’s TKO over Ontario’s Mike O’Neil, achieved after Houston took full mount position and rained down punches until the referee stepped in.

Espinar about to throw his knockout punch. Photo by JB Photography, taken from TopMMAnews.com

Click to see all the results.

I pswear it’s a pseudo-event.

Today I talk pseudo-events.

Long-time blog fans will know of my love for Conan O’Brien, and it turns out not only is he still king of late night comedy, he’s also king of publicity. To promote his new show on TBS, Conan and his staff did a ton of stunts, videos, Tweets, and more, including one event that I’ll highlight here: buying a blimp.

Conan was quick to remind viewers that he is the only talk-show host ever to have his own blimp, and he took every opportunity to use it to his advantage. By combining real life blimp action with extremely close social media coverage, Conan created more attention for floating vinyl than ever before. Conan sent the blimp to hover over baseball stadiums during the playoffs, and flew all around the states and Los Angeles where the show was set to be filmed. While this happened, he filmed commercials in the blimp both for rotation on TBS and YouTube, videos which collected over 800,000 hits on YouTube. Viewers could also track the blimp with a special Conan badge on Foursquare, in real-time on Google Maps, while his nearly 2 million Twitter followers received frequent Tweets from Conan about the blimp’s movements, and pictures were constantly made available on Flickr.

Whew! With all the social media coverage that Conan employed, he also generated a ton of buzz from media such as The New York Times, USA Today, and television news all over the country, making his return to television a widely celebrated and noticed event. 

Andrew’s been published in Esquire.

That’s right, this month I was published in Esquire.

Welcome back! Blow the dust off your keyboard and run your mouse through the light cycle on your washing machine- you finally have a reason to be on the Internet again! Now I know I took an extended break for Christmas, but I’m back for more mandatory blogging fun!

I’d like to start the New Year off with a bang: picking up where I left off last year, bragging about my own tiny accomplishments. This week, my new thing is probably setting a CreComm record by getting published in a giant magazine after only one semester of school. It’s this one, Esquire’s January 2011 issue.

In October, Esquire provided all kinds of rules for men, including this fashion rule that particularly caught my eye: “Rule No. 754: The skinny jeans only if you’re skinny.” Now this is by far the most leeway I’ve ever gotten from Esquire about my favourite pants, so naturally I sprung into action. (And yes, you can still spring anywhere while wearing skinny jeans.) So without further ado, here’s my piece:

I was also overjoyed to be a part of the visual breakdown regarding the subjects people wrote letters about. They usually have one insignificant topic with an equally insignificant percentage, and it’s an honour to be that percentage.

The question now is: have I peaked too young? I’ve heard of students leaving school early because they find great jobs, and I’m just wondering if there’s anywhere else I can go after this. Job offers please!

Although they don’t publish letters to the editor online, I guess you could still check out their site here. After all, it’s a pretty great magazine.