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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Directed by Jeremy Fisher

Heard this song on CBC Radio 2′s “Nightstream”, where I pick up a lot of new music. I am always amazed at how consistently spot-on this program is for playing the kind of music I enjoy.

Imaginary Cities is a two-member band from Winnipeg and were nominated for a 2011 Polaris Prize, check them out: www.imaginarycities.ca

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Movember – Special Announcement from Jan Keck | Red Gecko Productions on Vimeo.

Watch the second part of my video here: http://vimeo.com/34105552

Read more about why I am doing this:

http://red-gecko-productions.com/redgecko/2011/11/15/its-movember-the-month-of-the-moustache/

More videos:
http://www.red-gecko-productions.com

Music:
Nothing in the Dark (instrumental version) by Josh Woodward (http://www.joshwoodward.com)

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My helicopter flight yesterday, in between photo shoots. (Unsurprisingly, as soon as I arrived home, I crashed.) This is my fourth flight in a helicopter. It was shot with a phone camera, so I recommend muting it unless you enjoy the sound of rotor blades.

Flying is always my preferred manner in which to observe David’s passing due to cancer on December 18, 2005. On the weekend we met, he surprised me with my first helicopter flight.

I took my second helicopter flight on the Durham Regional Police’s Air1 helicopter in October 2007.

My third helicopter flight was David’s birthday on May 30, 2010.

Part 1:

Part 2:

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Lite Brite Cube

I saw this from afar in reception and I was suddenly transported back in time to when I was a kid… the last time I saw Lite Brite. This is a Lite Brite Cube, so 4x the amount of pegs to clean up off the floor.

You know you’re getting old when toys (not just clothes) go retro.

Lite Brite Cube

Before I start getting backlash from the Habs fans — hey wait, I got some already! — let me add the disclaimer that opinions expressed in photos that I take with my phone’s camera, or any camera, are not those of the picture-taker!

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Franz Josef Glacier, NZ (film scan)

I was tagged by Zhu!

A: Age you went on your first international trip: 2 years old, when my family moved to Canada.

B: Best (foreign) beer you’ve had and where: I used to drink really dark English ale, the darker the better. Newcastle Brown sort of dark. But then I discovered the local versions of the wheat/white beers like Hoegaarden from The Netherlands and Germany’s Hefeweisen. Belgium has witbier. I like the fruity, summer beers — more refreshing.

Beer Bistro, Toronto

C: Cuisine (favorite): It’s probably a tie between Thai and Indian, but I love sushi, too.

D: Destinations, favorite, least favorite and why: Favourite — I am pretty fond of Switzerland, visually and gastronomically. Say what you will, the whole country is one big postcard. You could say the same for New Zealand, too, although they have more variety of climate. Least favourite — ?

Gandria, on Lake Lugano, Switzerland

E: Event you experienced abroad that made you say “wow”: Everyone knows about Oktoberfest, but “Silvester” (New Year) in Germany is pretty crazy! Especially along the Reeperbahn in Hamburg, the city’s red light district. But if you’re at all spooked by large-scale fireworks, I highly recommend you do not go.

F: Favorite mode of transportation: I love to mix my modes of transportation — too long on anything makes me restless. I never get motion sickness, which helps, so bus, train, boat, motorcycle, taxi, camel, anything goes. I’ve gone horseback riding a bunch of times, but I’m a little scared of horses.

G: Greatest feeling while traveling: when people make an assumption about where I’m from by how I look, and I completely shock them when I open my mouth and speak. Canada is an immigrant country, and many people either forget that or simply aren’t aware. I believe I’m a good ambassador for Canada, however, and am always looking for opportunities to up-end stereotypes and racial biases.

H: Hottest place you’ve traveled to: for both dry heat and humid heat, Australia. I prefer dry heat, though, six months in the tropical north of Queensland sapped my energy.

I: Incredible service you’ve experienced and where: I don’t actually like service, I am a self-serve sort of person. I’ve had good service everywhere, maybe it’s because people who look like me are usually the ones serving.

South Simcoe Railway

J: Journey that took the longest: it probably was not the longest single trip, but fourth-class rail in Thailand from the Malaysian border to Bangkok was overnight and took FOREVER. There is no guaranteed seating, and the toilet is literally a hole in the train floor. There was lots of mekong whiskey-fuelled drunken singing, chickens, and taking turns sleeping and standing because there were more people than seats most of the time. I don’t think fourth-class rail even exists anymore on Thai trains?

K: Keepsake from your travels: I steal airline blankets, ssshhhhh… (I use them for picnics and outdoor shoots!) Pictures are my only keepsake, and even then I have big gaping holes of time with no photos at all because I didn’t own a camera. I try and find local music to bring home, too, CDs with covers I can’t read. Music is universal.

L: Let-down sight, why and where: I remember seeing the Sydney Opera House for the first time. It was smaller than I’d expected (see how postcards can be so distorted?), and the sails didn’t look white to me. It’s the most photographed thing in the harbour, but I lost interest right away.

M: Moment where you fell in love with travel: I can’t remember a time when I chose to stay at home when I had the means (and even times when I didn’t), so I would say always.

Swiss Guard at the Vatican

N: Nicest hotel you’ve stayed in: hard to say, but the best hotel BED I’ve ever experienced was a weekend at the Grand Hyatt New York, at Grand Central Station. It was like sleeping on a cloud. I wanted to take that bed home with me!

O: Obsession—what are you obsessed with taking pictures of while traveling?: Food, street scenes (when I’m feeling brave), children and the elderly.

P: Passport stamps, how many and from where?: I’m nearly at the end of my fourth passport (since 18), and I don’t know if I can count them all. Some countries I’ve been to five times (Germany), four times (Netherlands), lots of transit-type trips, and one trip in 2003 involved 8 different airports around Europe.

Q: Quirkiest attraction you’ve visited and where: I was travelling with this English bloke north through Australia, and he managed to convince me to detour with him to find The Pub With No Beer. It was literally in the middle of nowhere (like many things in Australia are), and it took ages to get there. I probably shouldn’t tell you this but The Pub With No Beer is a lie: they have beer.

S: Splurge; something you have no problem forking over money for while traveling: the most amount of money I’ve spent at any one time on goods was in 2007 when I had two leather jackets custom made in Fez, Morocco.

T: Touristy thing you’ve done: dress up in traditional clothing and pose for a cheesy photo, in Volendam:

(Volendam) a German, a Canadian, a Dutchie, and an Englishwoman walk into a bar...

U: Unforgettable travel memory: some near-death experiences involving the ocean (before I taught myself how to tread water), river surfing on the Kawarau River in Queenstown, NZ, on a ferry boat racing to Mersing (Malaysia) because there was a man on board bleeding to death who needed to get to the hospital, the shared taxi racing to Malaka for Chinese New Year (we all thought we would perish), and other adrenaline-fuelled events like bungy jumping over the rainforest in Australia. I have a pretty good memory for moments where I felt like I was in danger!

V: Visas, how many and for where?: with a Canadian passport there aren’t many places that require visas, but my old passports have visas from Thailand, Australia, and other places. The most colourful one is from Thailand.

W: Wine, best glass of wine while traveling and where?: I don’t drink wine anymore, but I still love sangria, especially homemade with Santa Rita merlot (from Chile).

X: eXcellent view and from where?: the views from my former office on the Sunshine Coast are pretty spectacular. Actually, much of British Columbia is pretty amazing.

Lower Joffre Lake, BC (film scan)

Y: Years spent traveling?: After moving to Canada, I travelled with my parents to the Philippines once but mostly regular trips to the USA. I’ve been travelling solo since I was 18. I’ve only travelled with a companion internationally on three occasions in 21+ years (Stuart, Cetin, and Tyrone).

Z: Zealous sports fans and where?: If you’re at all familiar with the sectarianism in Glasgow (Celtics vs. Rangers football clubs), it’s only a little less intense in Edinburgh, where I sat in the Protestant section wearing the “wrong” colour, i.e., something that had a bit of green on it. (Protestant colours are mostly blue and also orange.) They asked me to take off my shirt but I turned it inside-out instead.

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Oh to have the level of excitement that children have! Especially a two-year old.

(Shot with the video camera on my phone.)

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Movember – Special Announcement from Jan Keck | Red Gecko Productions on Vimeo.

Please support me here: http://mobro.co/redgeckoto

More videos: http://www.red-gecko-productions.com

Music: Nothing in the Dark (instrumental version)
by Josh Woodward (http://www.joshwoodward.com)

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Parade on Church Street, with finger. (Mobile phone makers should really put that camera a little bit further away from the edge.)

I’m sure this has something to do with Remembrance Day, but I still haven’t found anything online about it. The only reason *I* know about it is because this is what I landed in the middle of while trying to park for brunch downtown. This was directly after detouring all around the neighbourhoods east of Chinatown after getting rerouted off Dundas Street West, which was cordoned off by police near Toronto Western Hospital at Bathurst Street. All I could see were ambulances and police cars.

Ah, urban living.

If I didn’t live in a metropolitan area of 6 million people, I would be tempted to think this was some sort of anti-brunch conspiracy. The incidents amounted to a 20 minute delay for coffee and Eggs Benedict, but I didn’t commit any traffic violations and I got a free parking spot so ‘net net’ it all worked out in the end.

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I got a free six-month subscription to Rdio.com when I bought my mobile phone a couple of months ago, and it’s been put to very good use on my long walks home. I’m thinking about actually buying a subscription when the free trial ends because I don’t feel a need to own music, I only want to listen to it. But how to get music on demand without having to dig around for it? I make playlists on YouTube, but that takes time and it would suck the battery life (not to mention the data usage) out of my phone far too quickly.

There’s a $5/month web version of the Rdio service that lets you listen from your computer and a $10/month computer+mobile version that lets you sync your playlists to your phone, and that’s what I use the most — the mobile sync. I’ve been using Rdio to listen to full albums since I got the phone on August 15, and what’s surprised me is how quick it is: I press play and there’s no waiting for the sync, it plays everything immediately. I choose to sync mostly with wi-fi if I need to, but even at the times I’m off wi-fi and on the network it’s synched very quickly.

Last week I was poking around other people’s playlists and got all nostalgic listening to someone else’s ’90s playlist and decided to make my own. Here it is, and you can subscribe to it if you’re already using Rdio (you can demo the service without a credit card, according to the website). Some of these songs I haven’t heard SINCE the ’90s (The Pharcyde! Faith No More! Snow?), but I have a story for every song in this list, including the one Queensryche track!

I came up with 38 so far, but I can add more — there’s a big catalogue to choose from. Have you got any suggestions for me?

1. Tennessee / Arrested Development – 3 Years, 5 Months And 2 Days In The Life Of…
2. Love Spreads / The Stone Roses – Second Coming
3. Gangsta’s Paradise /Coolio – Gangsta’s Paradise
4. Low / Cracker – Kerosene Hat
5. Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover / Sophie B. Hawkins – The Best Of Sophie B. Hawkins
6. Only Love Can Break Your Heart / Saint Etienne – Foxbase Alpha
7. Groove Is In The Heart /Deee-Lite – The Very Best Of Deee-Lite
8. Laid / James – Laid
9. Your Woman / White Town – Women In Technology
10. Pony (Extended Mix) / Ginuwine – Greatest Hits
11. Informer / Snow – 12 Inches Of Snow
12. Say It Ain’t So / Weezer – Weezer
13. Sabotage / Beastie Boys – Ill Communication (Remastered Edition)
14. Get Ur Freak On / Missy Elliott – Miss E….So Addictive
15. Life In Mono / Möno – Great Expectations
16. One / Aimee Mann – Magnolia Soundtrack
17. Virtual Insanity / Jamiroquai – Travelling Without Moving
18. Hey / Pixies – Doolittle
19. Freedom! ’90 / George Michael – Listen Without Prejudice
20. Bitter Sweet Symphony / The Verve – Urban Hymns
21. Ice Ice Baby / Vanilla Ice – To The Extreme
22. Silent Lucidity / Queensryche – Power Ballads Gold
23. I Touch Myself / Divinyls – Divinyls
24. Hook / Blues Traveler – Four
25. Epic / Faith No More – The Real Thing
26. Insane In The Brain / Cypress Hill – Greatest Hits From The Bong
27. Passin’ Me By / The Pharcyde – Bizarre Ride II
28. No Diggity / Blackstreet – Another Level
29. Always On The Run / Lenny Kravitz – Greatest Hits
30. Are You Gonna Go My Way / Lenny Kravitz – Greatest Hits
31. Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon / Urge Overkill – Pulp Fiction
32. Song 2 / Blur – The Best Of
33. Dude (Looks Like A Lady) / Aerosmith – Big Ones
34. Cryin’ / Aerosmith – Big Ones
35. Breathe / The Prodigy – Fat Of The Land
36. Paranoid Android / Radiohead – The Best Of
37. Just / Radiohead – The Best Of
38. Connected / Stereo MC’s – Best Of Old Skool Hip Hop

The video is one of my favourite songs from the ’90s — “Hook” by Blues Traveler. There’s something about the harmonica and the guitars in this song that make me want to bounce around with a bunch of friends.

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