Freddie P's Blog

September 28, 2011 @ 08:13

As part of launching Humble and Fred Radio we've got to put a studio together and that's what's been happening over the past couple of weeks.

It's in Etobicoke with good access to the city. A great space that needs some paint, carpet and sound proofing.

Jeff Lumby is a good friend who's been helping out with a few things including the sound of the room. He just completed his own studio for his company "Voice Pretzel" so he knows what he's doin.

Tomorrow we're heading up to Lumby's palatial estate near Erin to build sound panels that will hang from the Humble Fred Radio ceilings and adorn some of the walls.

It was my job to get the material that will cover the panels which I believe are made of fiber glass. We'll got to Jeff's cover the panels and then barbeque steaks and drink red wine.

Getting the material turned out to be a bit of an embarrassment for me, but it wasn't entirely my fault.

When he gave me his estimate, Jeff told me we'd need 50 yards of material. I didn't think much of it because I've noticed over the years that material is often referred to in yards and if the engineer says 50 yards he must mean 50 yards.

It wasn't until I took my sweet wife Delyse with me to Fabricland on Monday night that I realized something wasn't right.

At the store we looked at the end of the line cheap stuff with someone who worked there and when I told her how much I needed she looked at me like I was out of my mind.

"50 yards? What are you making she said?"
"Sound panels" I replied.
"How many"
"About eight"
"How big are they?
"Two feet by four feet."
"So what do you need 50 yards for? I don't think I have 50 yards of anything. Even at four dollars yard do you realize its going to cost you over 200 dollars.?"

That seemed a bit out of whack. I remembered Lumby saying we could do the entire job, panels and all for about one hundred, so I called him. He was eating dinner.

"Lumby" I said. "I'm here at the fabric store, should this material be costing over 200 bucks?"
"No way" he said. "You don't need expensive stuff; just get 50 feet of something in the bargain bin."
"Fifty feet?"
"Yea."
"You told me fifty yards."
"No, I said fifty feet."

Just as I thought I was having another old guy moment, which are increasing these days, I scrolled through the text messages on my phone and there it was. Lumby had texted me to get 50 yards.

He apologized.

Making that call was a good idea because I almost walked out of Fabricland with roughly 35 yards of material I didn't need and because it was in the bargain bin it couldn't be returned.

Forget sound panels, I would have had enough material to wallpaper the bloody studio, and probably still enough to make Delyse a nice dress or two, and maybe a pair of snappy shorts for myself.

I hate shopping.

Category: Stuff

September 28, 2011 @ 07:01

It's been quite the week for Wayne Simmonds of the Philadelphia Flyers. Last Thursday night he was the victim in the banana tossing incident, and then last night he's accused of calling Sean Avery a "faggot" during an on-ice skirmish.

Needless to say this has prompted quite the reaction, including a demand from the The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation for an apology.

Others can't believe that after the insult that Simmonds suffered last Thursday, he could turn around and say such a thing to somebody else.

On the surface, there's no dispute. Throwing a banana at a black man is wrong and so is calling somebody a "faggot." But beyond that is one worse than the other and can you really compare them?

Yes to the first question and no to the second - and I base it on two facts. Wayne Simmonds is black and Sean Avery isn't gay.

There's no question that Simmonds shouldn't have said what he said, but it was in the heat of battle and obviously wasn't something meant as a direct hit so to speak.

Guess what; a lot of guys call each other "faggots." It's stupid and childish and insensitive but it's a cheap way to insult a guy's manhood. I'm convinced that 99 percent of the time, the same guy who would call another player a "faggot" would never dream using the "N word", or in Simmond's case "honky or whitey."

That doesn't make it OK but during a hockey game and with trash talk coming hot and heavy, for some reason calling a straight guy a "faggot" doesn't seem to carry the same weight as throwing a banana at a black man.

Do you agree?

Simmonds could have saved himself a lot of grief by choosing his words more carefully and calling Avery something that most definitely could not be argued.

A weasel.

Category: Sports

September 24, 2011 @ 08:47

It would be great if the city of London could find out who threw the banana on the ice at the John Labatt Centre Thursday night.

You've probably heard the story by now, Wayne Simmonds of the Philadelphia Flyers, one of the few black players in the NHL had the banana thrown in his path during the shootout. He scored anyway. Good for him.

It was either a coincidence or a racist act but when you play the law of averages what are the chances of it being a coincidence? Zilch.

It was a despicable act by a despicable person. I'm sure you've met one somewhere along the way. I have. Several. They're the type who moves out of Brampton because there are too many brown faces in their kids school pictures.

They don't like their gracious East Indian neighbours on the right, but tolerate the big mouth white guy on the left who always seems to have his car up on blocks.

They absolutely hate curry, even though they've never tried it. You get the picture.

I hope they find out who threw the banana for a couple of reasons. First of all to embarrass the asshole (if that's possible) and secondly so the city of London can deal with it.

As it stands the city looks bad. This story has made news all over the world now and it's not really what you'd expect out of a Canadian city let alone an affluent community like London.

This is the type of stuff that happens in the States, or so we think. But more and more that's not the case. You'd think that the more diverse a community becomes the more tolerant people become because they get used to it.

Call me a dreamer.

There could be one saving grace in this for London. They might find out that the culprit was a Wings fan from Michigan. It would lessen the blow for the community, but it would still be a sad statement on mankind.

Having said that, it would be nice if someone who was sitting near this loser would come forward. I'm sure there were a few Londoners in that group.

I'd love this creep to be caught and then I'd love to ask him a few questions. Like why?
Is in black people in general who you think are apes, or is it just hockey players?
Is it OK for black people to play baseball and football? Would you throw a banana at them?
Was this pre-meditated or do you usually bring fruit to hockey games?

Of course I would ask this serious of questions while attempting to control the urge to slap the bastard upside the head.

And there would be one last question.

Did you not have any regard for the feelings for Wayne Simmonds, how it might affect him, embarrass him or hurt him?

But that's probably the best part of this whole story. Wayne Simmonds handled it with class and intelligence. He handled it like a man.

A lot more than we can say about the unidentified scum bag who was lurking in the upper deck.

Category: Sports | Stuff

September 21, 2011 @ 13:39

The Belak story.

Category: Sports

September 20, 2011 @ 08:43

The Wade Belak story has taken a wild twist and I find it quite amusing how the sports media, or media in general is avoiding it.

When it was first believed Belak had committed suicide the sports talk shows generated enough content to last five NHL careers, but now that it may have been something equally as weird as tragic, all the research has stopped.

For a couple of days following Belak's death NHL tough guy suicide was examined from every goddamn angle possible. It became nauseating as expert after expert was called upon to find a connection between wanting to kill somebody on the ice during your career and then wanting to kill yourself after your career.

It got to the point where I had to shut the radio off. I couldn't take it any more. Like most other Leaf fans I felt real shitty about Wade Belak's death, but I found the media mayhem that surrounded it even shittier.

Granted, it's a by-product of today's all news and all sports channels. They need content so often they create it - and the Belak stretch was a fine example.

Probably the best interview I heard on the subject was given by former tough guy Chris Nilan on Ted Bird's exceptionally "real" morning show in Montreal.

Nilan thought the over-analysis was a joke and he asked why so much attention was being given to a hockey player when there were so many other people in other professions who had suffered the same fate.

In a word, Nilan considered the connection between fighting on the ice and then killing yourself to be - bullshit. With a capital "B"

But remember, at the time he, like everyone else, thought it was suicide.

Now back to my original point. Why has the media gone so quiet now that it's been suggested Belak's death may have been the result of auto erotic asphyxiation?

What more do you want? Belak's death apparently wasn't suicide, but it was the result of strangulation. Accidental strangulation. Even his family admits it - and their word should trump all.

There really isn't a whole lot of area between AEA and suicide, so when you get right down to it there's a much better chance that his death was connected to auto erotic asphyxiation than it was to being a tough guy in the NHL.

So again, my question, when the sports media thought it was some psychological phenomenon why did they go ape shit dumping hour upon hour of mind numbing analysis on us, yet when it turns out it may have been a sexual phenomenon they go quiet?

Hey, I'll be the first to admit that I may have missed something, but since this latest story broke on Friday I've been twisting the dial trying to find somebody to address it.

No such luck.

Believe me, Humble and Fred Radio would be all over it.

Category: Stuff

September 19, 2011 @ 07:25

Warmington nails it.

The Mayor should ignore the naysayers and stick with the plan.

Category: Politics

September 16, 2011 @ 21:11

Hey everybody, do Humble and Fred a big favour and go to our new facebook page and "like" us.

And then spread the word and get all your friends to "like" us too.

We're gearing up for the launch of Humble and Fred Radio in mid-October and the social media / networking thing is just part of the journey.

Coming this week - the new Humble and Fred Radio website, featuring lots of fun content and the chance to win some neat stuff.

Come on, don't be shy. Help us pile up the "likes" - it's very important to the future of HumbleandFredRadio.com

Lovin' yuz all.. each and every one of yuz.

Category: Radio

September 16, 2011 @ 15:20

There's quite the fun fest going on over at Toronto Mike. Some guy named Dan Speerin put together a video called Rob Ford's Top Five WTF Moments.

It's the usual stuff supported by the usual suspects. It's totally out of context but more important than that, it's not funny. I could see some point to it if it was actually humorous but the Speerin suffers a bit in the delivery department.

The crew at Toronto Mike think it's a clever because they so desperately "want" it to be clever.

But honestly, if these are the Top Five WTF's, then Mayor Ford is doing OK.

Have a look at the video, and then go on over the Toronto Mike and witness the excitement of the kids as they actually think they have Rob Ford in a gotcha moment.

I especially enjoy the Kyle Rae bit - if anybody thinks Rae didn't hide behind the AIDS conference as a way to see the world, they're horribly naive. This shit happens all the time.

After digesting all this, please read my latest posting below this one - it sort of plays into this and explains why Rob Ford has so much work to do.

And one more point, don't talk to me about plunging polls. Even the great world changer Barack Obama, whom I'm sure the world of Toronto Mike adores, is suffering in the polls. It comes with the territory.

Category: Stuff