July 30, 2014- Castlegar Sculpture Walk Sculpture of the Day “Echino II"

It is very fitting that my final Castlegar Sculpture Walk feature is about the sculpture I have seen the

most. Everyday as I broadcast from the GOAT studios I had the prime viewing space to see Sculpture Walk viewer’s reactions to “Echino II”. Surprisingly, they all had the same one, to reach out and touch it!

"Echino II" is actually the sculpture that The GOAT and Juice FM sponsored for the Castlegar Sculpture Walk (that is one of the reasons I saved it for the end of my blog series).

“Echino II” stands out on Castlegar’s Sculpture Walk and was created by Calgary’s Greg Jones. I think Jones did a fabulous job creating this sea urchin with a very mechanical twist. For more on “Echino II” and Greg Jones click here.

To view my previous sculpture, the second to last blog in my series on Castlegar’s Sculpture Walk “Friends & Neighbours” click here.

Bend Sinister Visits The GOAT

In just about a hour you can check out Bend Sinister performing at the Flying Steamshovel in Rossland. Performing does not feel right in this context; I think the better fit here is rocking out. Phrasing Kate, phrasing. In less than an hour you can check out Bend Sinister rocking out at the Flying Steamshovel in Rossland.

Earlier today Bend Sinister joined me at The GOAT for a chat about the show tonight. Last night they were in Nelson and had a stellar time, tonight they are returning to the Flying Steamshovel in Rossland for an 8pm show. Advance tickets (you may have missed the boat on this) are $10 and admission at the door is $15. Grab your buddies and head there now for a burger (and maybe some curry), a beer and a fantastic show. Don't forget to wear your dancing shoes!

The very generous lads in Bend Sinister hooked me up with a copy of their latest album "Animals" and I will be honest with you I jammed to it the entire way home tonight.

If you can't catch them tonight there are many more chances for you to see them if you are in Western Canada. They will be visiting Kamloops, Calgary and many other places on their tour this summer. Seriously Calgary friends, you need to see these Vancouver rockers when they take the stage at Ship & Anchor's big celebration on July 24th. For the full look at their tour click here.

I wish we could have recorded our chat before the interview; there were so many interesting topics we touched on before the mics turned on.

-The last wild night they played the Flying Steamshovel (that may not have been safe for the airwaves).

-How intense they expect the party to be coming up in Calgary on the 24th for the Ship & Anchor's 2th Birthday Bash.

-James Deen the porn star starring in their video "Quest for Love" (you can check that out and feel the love below).

I am wishing Bend Sinister all the best for their show tonight, I am so bummed that I can't make it but I know our paths will cross again.

The Goat's Daily Dose of Weird: July 08- The Potato Salad Kickstarter Campaign

I had been avoiding talking about this very hot topic because I think it is ridiculous. I skipped it yesterday but today I had a wild BBQ craving and all I could think about was chowing down. I started thinking about the one food item I would pay crazy money to eat and it eventually led me to today’s Daily Dose of Weird.

Zack Danger Brown launched his Kickstarter Campaign for $10 for Potato Salad and as of 4:48pm on August 8, 2014 he has raised well over $45,000; all thanks to the generous contributions of over 4,300 people.

This is absolutely crazy. I will be honest with you; I have never had potato salad. I prefer to focus on the meatier dishes on the menu, but it sounds like Zack has the same love for potato salad that I have for ribs. Ribs are my favourite dish, but out of respect for precious rib meat I do not attempt to make them because I could never make the magic with them that they deserve. I think the only food Kickstarter I could ever contribute to would have to be for ribs. I love ribs.

For the latest update on Zack’s campaign to make some potato salad for the first time click here. I could spend lots of time and energy updating this page but I already feel I have put too much effort into this silly topic. 

The Goat's Daily Dose of Weird: July 04, 2014- The 2014 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest

Competitive eating is something I should have gotten into at a young age. Maybe if I had of trained a little as a competitive eater I would not be the world’s slowest eater. Yes, that is a title I could hold. I eat unbearably slow.  If we ever dine together and I order a salad expect to be at the table for a while, I could be in contention for the world’s slowest person who likes to consume salads.

Today’s Daily Dose of Weird talks about a subject that is pretty much the opposite of that, Joey “Jaws” Chestnut and his big win today at the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. He threw back 61 hot dogs in 10 minutes.

“Jaws” thought it would be the perfect time to pop the question, here is a special moment that happened before the big contest. why not eh?

For more on Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest click here.

Just A Little Radio Rant...

I’m going to be honest with you. I am pretty honest in my blogs, revealing some of my most embarrassing stories and thoughts because it is generally my safe place. My blog provides me a little piece of mind with a little expressive flare that I can’t always let out on-air. Generally I like to be quick and simple on the radio and writing here gives me the space and freedom to give you weird details to support my strange way of thinking. This blog has been a couple weeks in the making and after a little social media post last night on Facebook I thought I would elaborate more here. I am not really a mushy person here on my blog or on social media so don’t expect this type of thing to happen again…

I have been struggling to blog lately because I have been doing two radio shows a day on top of voice tracking for 4 hours. That’s 12 hours of radio total. I’ve done it before, I’ll do it again once this phase of my career is over, it is a reality I am totally okay with but to be honest with you other parts of my life are suffering. I’m still making it to the gym (today was workout #79 in the last 16 weeks) and going through the motions but I am pretty tired all the time. It is a good thing that my boyfriend is in Quebec at Basic Military Training because I am pretty much engulfed with work.

I really actually don’t mind doing the two shows, I have found that it really helps put things in perspective with how things in radio used to be done. People tell me all the time about their long days and nights on-air and I can now say I totally know the feeling of prepping an 8 hour show! Slowly, but surely I am on my way to mastery (let’s hope)!

That is not why I started this blog; I started it as a big shout-out and THANK YOU to our amazing listeners in the Kootenays and around the world. The last couple of weeks have had some big changes and the listeners are why we work so hard and continuously trying to be the best radio station we can be.

Today I had three winners on my show and they totally made my day. There is a 99% chance they will never read this but I really wanted to put out in the universe that they made my day with their excitement and positivity! Chris, Remi and Dave all were so happy to have won passes to GFI and keys to Storage War today and it really helped pick me up and it reminded me why we do what we do in radio. It’s not to be big wigs, it is not to be pseudo small town (or big city) celebrities, it is to make our listeners days a little better any way we can.

Here is Dave’s big moment. He is now 1 of 100 contestants that will have keys for Storage War III coming up on July 5, 2014 at West Kootenay Self Storage. Three keys will unlock thousands of dollars in of prizes in three storage lockers and one of those three keys could be Dave’s! All of the excitement today truly has pumped me up and I can't wait to get back at it tomorrow!  

Again, thank you to everyone for their support and tolerance over the past couple weeks! I can’t wait to get back on-air tomorrow and do it all again!  

Shameless plug alert:

You can listen to me on the new GOAT 10am-6pm (PT) on www.kootenays.thegoat.ca! 

Introducing The GOAT to the Kootenays!

Well it has been a crazy weekend that is for sure! Friday we broke new ground for Vista Radio

Kootenays by flipping our second station in two weeks.

Our sister station 1035 the Bridge flipped a two weeks ago to 1035 Juice FM – Nelson’s Biggest Variety and now what used to be Mountain FM is now The GOAT. I totally get the questions and the laughs over the name change, but once you get that GOAT is an acronym for “Greatest Of All Time” it is easy to get behind. I hope you have been listening and like what you hear. If you missed the big launch you can here the moment we flipped from Mountain to the GOAT right here:

Unlike Nelson and Juice FM the GOAT still sounds the same. I have heard so many great comments and people were so excited to get new GOAT swag at my remote broadcast yesterday. I was on location for the afternoon yesterday at Andre’s in Uptown Centre and lots of people stopped in to pick up water bottles, frisbees and pens! 

Don't worry, John and Jenny are still waking up with you on the Morning Herd and I am currently on-air from 10am until 6pm weekdays. We still have all the local content you loved before but now we have a fresh new polished sound!

Make sure you like the new GOAT on Facebook and follow us on Twitter J