Funny People: George Carlin, Steve Martin and Carl Reiner

I rediscovered iTunes U today which is an incredible repository of online University education content for FREE! Videos, lectures, interviews, really cool stuff on a broad range of topics from string theory to ancient literature to anatomy and physiology, but also more rudimentary topics and a lot of K-12 topics too (for you teachers out there!).

I was looking for material about comedy and writing, and found a few related things but I found a great series (only 3 entries so far) called "Funny People" from the 92nd Street Y that has three awesome (and recent!) interviews from three awesome comedians, Steve Martin, Carl Reiner and the late great George Carlin. iTunes U functions within iTunes and it podcast format, so you need iTunes to hear them, but they are totally free and very enlightening to students of comedy.

Find the series here.

Week 1: The rain smells good

So I've been in Toronto for 7 days now. It rained today, and the air smells like it's been cleaned out a bit. I don't know from what, really, I don't recall what it smelled like before, but I've heard claims of the city's odour ranging from "smoky" to "like a towel that didn't totally dry so it ends up smelling like wet dog."

It's been hot here, like borderline too hot. It's muggy and humid. and yes I did know it was going to be like that before I came here, but it didn't make it much easier to adjust. I haven't worn jeans since I got here (apart from when I arrived) which is weird since that's pretty much appropriate every day in Vancouver.

So I got all my stuff, (the boxes virtually disintegrated after I got them from Greyhound, but my stuff inside was mostly okay) a place to sleep for a while and a 416 phone number. Now to find work. What kind? Well I'm looking for everything from my "fall-back Joe-job" IT support gigs to sound and music work, because for the time being I just want to do something, anything to help me settle and get back into the black financially. I got some great deals moving out here but it's still a hit to the wallet, as I'm sure so many of you know.

So in short, I'm here, I'm good, and I'm ready to get to know the city a little better.

Big thanks to Rob, James, Brandon, Jorie, Denise and Brett and any smaller players that helped me translocate. All help is hugely appreciated.