My website has been pretty food-centric lately, hasn’t it? It goes hand-in-hand with travel and culture, so it should come as no surprise that I’d like to plug a food and travel adventure series that just wrapped up its first season last night. It’s on Travel & Escape in Canada, and it’s in the process of being distributed to other countries, which means the shows on the web can only stream to a Canadian audience for now.

What’s it about? Three young chefs from Winnipeg make a journey through Southeast Asia and bring along a videocamera and microphone, learning how to cook regional dishes from the locals while teaching themselves the ins-and-outs of shooting and editing footage. (It’s not a reality show, it only became a show once the chefs completed their journey and pitched their ideas and edited footage to producers.) They toured from Indonesia to China, and the final show in the videoclip above wraps up their Chinese experience and thoughts about the whole trip.

This show is not for the squeamish: they’re eating everything the locals are eating, including duck necks, beating cobra hearts, and watching fish getting filleted while still alive. But it’s authentic and the guys learn to communicate in a variety of ways to get past the language barriers and cultural differences.

In the final minute of the video (9:00) when they’re interviewed at Pho Hung here in Toronto, they mentioned a couple of things I consider very important while travelling: keep an open mind and maintain the attitude that they are there to learn. Those two qualities beat any advice you’ll find in a guidebook, and I’m sure will serve them well in Season 2.

Check them out online, on Facebook, and Twitter:

http://www.withoutborderschefs.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chefs-Run-Wild/181185462032
http://twitter.com/chefsrunwild/

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as seen on a neighbourhood walk

I’m just back from my England break and going through the photos, video, and chocolate duty-free goodies for the catsitter. My excuse is that I’m fortifying myself for the transition back to reality: meetings, shoots, what-have-you, before my next trip (which is next week).

On a couple of evening walks, my friend and I passed by this seniors home and I remarked on how politically correct Britain can be… memory impaired! (I may very well end up in a neighbourhood like this.)

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Team Brides' Project at the Finish Line

We did it! And we did it through rain and wind and layers upon layers of clothing — including veils and crinolines! As always, we drew lots of curious attention with our outfits, but there were plenty of others who dressed up, too.

Front:

Team Full Support

Back:

Team Full Support

Masked Crusaders

It was great to see so many people out on a Sunday morning (after Nuit Blanche, where people were up all night long) showing their community spirit and support.

I shot some video, but it’s pretty shaky!

More pics at the album, or view as a full-screen slideshow, or watch the set scroll by below.

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Danish wedding

I shot a Danish wedding tonight — my first. How Danish was it? I won’t really know unless I shoot a wedding in Denmark (pssst! any Danish people out there who want to fly me out for a wedding?), but I would say this cake looks very Danish, by the decorative bits. I would’ve guessed Scandinavian, at least — it reminds me of things I’ve seen in Norway (and Iceland, except Iceland is not actually part of Scandinavia).

Most of the wedding guests flew in from somewhere — Australia, all over Canada, as well as Denmark — but the whole room was filled with Danish and Canadian flags to represent the couple. Part of the evening was filled with flag-waving and singing a song with Danish lyrics.

There is also a Danish wedding tradition of taking the shoes off the groom and cutting the toes off his socks or cutting a piece off his tie, but we finished shooting before any of that happened!

Denmark joins with Canada

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I had the pleasure of shooting my first lesbian wedding today, with the Rev. Dr. Brent Hawkes presiding. (Canadians may find his name familiar — he officiated Jack Layton’s state funeral.)

A decade ago, on January 14, 2001, Rev. Hawkes officiated the first double wedding ceremony that led to the legalization of gay marriage in Canada, one of the first countries in the world to do so. He wore a bullet-proof vest and there was heavy security because of death threats.

Today there was no bullet-proof vest or death threats, just friends and family (including their adorable dog in a tuxedo) and lots of love.

And that’s the way it should be.

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A Mongolian Couch from George Clipp on Vimeo.

In a city of tower blocks and tents comes a unique story of energy and enterprise; Begzsuren lives with his wife and four children in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and possesses an inspiring passion to improve both his family’s and his community’s lot. Installing a rain water shower, changing his family’s diet, planting trees, Tai Chi – Begzsuren is a busy, dedicated and extremely forward-thinking Mongolian.

www.couchsurfing.org
www.georgeclipp.com

Awards:

Jury Prize for Best Short Film at the EcoFocus Film Festival 2010 (U.S.A)
Audience Award for Best Short Film at the EcoFocus Film Festival 2010 (U.S.A)
Best Student Film at the Wild and Scenic Film Festival 2011 (U.S.A)

My (oft-postponed) plan to write about my couchsurfing experiences in Portugal are still to come!

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I’ve had a productive day of editing work, and now I’m a little brain-dead. So I leave you with a video that I tweeted a while back but wanted to show, because of its storytelling. Even if you aren’t a fan of Robyn’s music (I only know her from the ’90s, her sound is different now), it’s worth a 3-minute look.

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view of Oslo from Holmenkollen

I’ve been thinking about Norway since I first heard the news of the bombing yesterday in Oslo, then the shootings at the youth camp in Utoya. I’ve been reading accounts from the youth about their experiences, stories of rescue and terror. I’ve been watching the death toll climb, in horror. It’s difficult to imagine such heinous acts of violence taking place in a country as peaceful as Norway. It’s home to the Nobel Peace prize. The news stories coming out of Norway are usually about their sweep of medals at the Winter Olympics or the Nobel Peace prize, not about bombs or children getting gunned down.

Vigeland Sculpture Park, Oslo

Reading the news updates is both mesmerizing and appalling. I try to read a variety of news outlets to get the full story and avoid the article comments (most of them are baseless rants), but yesterday on the walk home I stopped at a pizza shop to watch the BBC news on TV because I don’t have one at home. At that time some of the major media fingers were pointing towards Islamic terrorist groups, but since then more information has come to light refuting those claims. Homegrown terrorism is no less disturbing, however, it may in fact be even more disturbing.

Like Canada, Norway is a northern country with a small population and a wealth of nature. It is not a country of conflict or political tension. In my continuing fascination with people of the north (my 2007 birthday trip was to Iceland), it also happens to be the country I chose for my birthday trip in 2008 and thus I have an affection for it. I turned 36 in Oslo. I couchsurfed in Oslo twice, and hired a car with my German friend, Berit, to travel west. If I’d had more time and I was alone, I would’ve driven all the way up to the Arctic Circle. Next time.

westward-bound

Myrdal

I’m going through my photos again (I’ve only uploaded a small batch from that trip) so I can think of Norway the way I remember it, not the way it looks in the news right now. The country will recover from this senseless tragedy, but for now there are many, many grieving families in Norway and my heart goes out to them.

Berit & Justi in western Norway

Vigeland Sculpture Park

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BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Toronto

contented cows in Caledon, Ontario

My shoot in Caledon this morning went well! But man, that alarm clock felt early and now I’ve got even more work to finish before I leave for Portugal. I wasn’t quite ready to drive straight home, though, I had to stop for some rural Ontario cow photos and a photo pitstop at BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Toronto because it was just off the highway. I love that a visitor can pass a cow pasture and an amazing Hindu temple within minutes of each other. (Not just in Ontario, either, this is a common sight in the Vancouver area.)

I first shot the BAPS temple three years ago for Doors Open with my Chinon CE-4 film camera.

Official website: http://toronto.baps.org/

My whole set of BAPS photos can be viewed in the slideshow below:

All of today’s photos uploaded to Flickr can be found here.

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Far be it from me to resort to weather-talk on this blog, but…

HAVE YOU BEEN OUTSIDE LATELY? Has Mother Nature had a nervous breakdown, or what?

This top photo was taken Monday evening, but the rest were shot around sunset today, mostly around High Park. I’m on blossom-watch, you see, because I have some couples who’d like to do their engagement photos in the park but the unstable climate has been extending the hibernation of plant life. After picking up my car from the garage (more on this in a moment), I went to High Park to guesstimate how long it will be before we see some blooming action. Maybe last year spoiled us and we’ve forgotten about the previous year (2009), when the blossoms didn’t make their appearance until May. At any rate, my guess is that the magnolia trees will need a few more days and the cherry trees will need a little longer, maybe a week.

The car is back in action, after another day at the garage, this time with a mysterious internal leak of antifreeze. The saga began last Thursday enroute to Detroit, sitting in traffic and watching with alarm as the temperature gauge climbed steeply. I pulled over and looked under the hood for a sign of the problem. That’s when I noticed the antifreeze reservoir was empty. I exited at Port Credit (Mississauga) and bought the last few bottles of antifreeze from a gas station. Hugo watched for a leak under the car but there wasn’t one, even after I poured in TWO 1-litre bottles. I kept the last bottle at the back just in case.

On Sunday when it was time for me to leave Detroit, I checked the reservoir again and I’d lost a whole litre in just a few days. Not good. I poured in the last bottle and made it home alright, but when I checked it again a few days ago, the litre was gone… and still no sign of a leak. I brought the car in yesterday and the garage called this morning with the verdict: thermostat housing was broken, causing the leak. I picked up the car after work, and while I was at the service desk it occurred to me to finally speak up and ask if the mechanics were Portuguese.

“I’m going to Portugal.”

And those, ladies and gents, were the magic words: the manager’s face lit up like a beacon and next thing I knew, he was teaching me Portuguese phrases and urging his son to fetch maps from their travel agency next door and drawing out itineraries for me on paper. The place was filling up with people bringing in their cars for repair, and every time I tried to extricate myself from what looked more like a tourist info centre rather than an automotive repair shop, the manager kept telling me not to leave yet. So I stood there feeling the heat from the people behind me while the manager listed all the historical sites I should visit and the aesthetic features of each. Every time an employee walked by the desk (almost everyone working at this 24-hour garage is Portuguese) he was beaming, pointing to me and telling them that I was going to Portugal. It was charming and embarrassing at the same time.

Finally, I grabbed my car keys and promised I would return — without the car! — for more Portuguese language lessons. I turned the key in the ignition and the battery light came on immediately. Thinking this was just a temporary thing I kept the car running and it didn’t go away. Turned off the car, tried again and the light came back on after about 30 seconds. I tried this several times before getting the manager’s attention, and he motioned for me to bring my car back in and got me to jump the queue — SORRY AGAIN, PEOPLE! A mechanic just starting his shift thought it might be the alternator, did some testing and eventually found a fuse had blown. He replaced it while I was standing there and turned to the manager who, still very stoked about me visiting his homeland, waived any charges. Even as I was backing out of the garage, I could hear him telling the mechanic that I was going to Portugal! It was charming and embarrassing and good fortune, all at once

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