Listening to Ad Man Terry O'Reilly in Person

O'Reilly (left) with moderator Kathryn Gretsinger

This afternoon went to Granville Island again -- and had a nightmare of a time trying to find parking -- to get to another Vancouver Writers Festival event. I managed to find a spot in a nook by the water front, where a car was just pulling out to leave. What luck, though where I parked my car was at the opposite end of where I needed to go... can't have everything!

I got to Waterfront Theatre as the line was forming outside and was luckily sheltered from the rain. About 10 minutes later we were invited inside before the start of listening to Terry O'Reilly, who has written a new book called Against the Grain.

O'Reilly is well known among CBC listeners who have been tuning in every week for the past 20 years to his various iterations of his show that basically talks about marketing and advertising. It was first called O'Reilly on Advertising, then The Age of Persuasion, and now Under the Influence. 

His book is about mavericks

Each episode has a theme and in half an hour the professional ad man tells several stories around the topic, taking listeners behind the scenes of how campaigns are crafted.

It is quite ironic that a show about advertising is on the non-advertising station of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, but O'Reilly has a massive and loyal following for two decades, and archives that have been downloaded some 70 million times.

He told the sold-out audience how the show is produced, that while choosing the theme is easy, making them into reality is difficult. He has three researchers who are each assigned a show to work on, finding out more information on various campaigns. 

O'Reilly says they compile about 100 pages in notes, which he then writes into a script, records it and then he listens back, gives suggestions on corrections, then they listen again a few more times before it is sent to the CBC.

His whole family is involved in the business, his wife is his executive producer, and each of his three daughters work on the show too, though he didn't explain what they did, only that they have their own talents.

O'Reilly's fourth book talks about mavericks who forge their own paths to success. He talked about NHL hockey coach Roger Neilson, describing him as a devout Christian who never swore professionally, but was an avid reader of the rules of hockey and would "skate" around them. 

One example is that when he would take his goalie out, Neilson instructed him to leave their stick behind lying on the ice in front of the net so that opposing players would have a harder time flicking the puck into the net because there was no rule about that. But after Neilson did that, the rules changed.

O'Reilly also talked about his popular radio show

Another person he raves about is Taylor Swift, who he points out re-recorded all her albums -- usually a performer will only re-record a few hits. She produced a film about The Eras Tour and had it in the theatres while her tour was on simultaneously. 

Critics thought it would lead to weaker ticket sales for her concerts, but the result was the exact opposite. O'Reilly said he had to revise this chapter many times because Swift was doing something new every few weeks.

He also talked about former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's campaign in 2015, how the Liberals only had 36 seats, and managed to not only sweep the Liberals back to power, but with a massive majority at 184 seats -- with hardly any professional political experience. 

O'Reilly says he had done a lot of political advertising and it's usually negative attack ads on the opposition. O'Reilly wasn't involved in the campaign, but heard Trudeau insisted that his ads would be positive, which was completely unheard of at the time, and that helped propel him into power.

In 90 minutes it was great to get insight into how he produces his show every week, and learn more about his book, which I will definitely read at some point!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Luckily nets prevented foul balls from landing on us!

Today I finally went to my first baseball game at Nat Bailey Stadium, watching the Vancouver Canadians against the Tri-City Dust Devils.

The main issue was heat and we slathered on sunscreen before we left and armed ourselves with wide-brimmed hats.

Our next challenge was finding parking, and we managed to get a spot over a block away which wasn't too bad. For easy security checks, no large handbags allowed, unless they were see-through tote bags and indeed a few women did have see-through vinyl bags. 

A sushi roll, wasabi and soy sauce run a race...

We had a spare 15 minutes to get a baseball cap ($35), two bratwurst hotdogs, a Gatorade, double fried fries and a large bag of popcorn.

Our seats were a few rows behind the plate, but right in the sun. Our hats weren't enough to save us from the heat...

Two girls did a beautiful rendition of the Star Spangled Banner in harmony, followed by O Canada. And right at 1.05pm, the game started.

It wasn't until the fourth inning when the Canadians got two home runs, but then the Tri-City Devils caught up quickly in the fifth, making it 2-2.

We couldn't take the heat anymore and moved up to the covered area which helped us cool down immensely. However the sun began creeping up to our knees... the people in front of us moved to find other seating. Eventually we moved one or two rows up too.

In the sixth inning the Canadians got two more home runs to make it 4-2. The Devils had a time-out conferring what to do, and changed their pitchers four or five times halfway through the game.

Finally the Canadians were able to get in one more home run, and hold off the Devils from scoring any to make it 4-3 in the final score.

Ruck and Broderick were at last night's game

Halfway through the game there was a race between a sushi roll, a clump of green wasabi, a Kikkoman soy sauce bottle, and two Kikkoman boxes? ran around the bases. There was also a 50-50 lucky draw and apparently the guy sitting next to me won over $3,600!

There was also the chicken dance which my nephew jumped up and danced to with a big grin on his face.

When the game ended we were exhausted and dehydrated. We went to Granville Island, and I quickly finished a cold fruit ice tea drink, and half an ice tea lemonade!

Fun experience but wow very exhausting in the heat! Next time an evening game!

Turns out last night actors Matthew Broderick and Alan Ruck, who starred in the 1986 comedy Ferris Bueller's Day Off were at the Canadians game and sang Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

Picture of the Day: Beautiful Bridge Pillar

A beautiful pillar of the Granville Street Bridge!

The other day I was at Granville Island for a book talk (which I will write about later), and on my way to the bus stop I had to stop and take this picture of the creeper vine leaves that have turned into autumn colours on one of the pillars of the Granville Street Bridge!

I did not know that these leaves could change to yellow, orange and red. 

What a gorgeous sight!

Learning About Abandoned Spaces Part 3

The railway tracks along Arbutus Street that lay idle for years

Our last stop on the photo walk was a neglected railway track near the entrance to Granville Island. It was part of a track that ran from False Creek, where there were factories, to the Pacific Central Station to transport the goods elsewhere in British Columbia or outside the province.

Pedestrians and cyclists use the Arbutus Greenway

There is also another railway that used to run parallel to Arbutus Street that was nicknamed "the Sockeye express" or "Sockeye special", where trains ferried salmon from Steveston in Richmond, all the way into Vancouver, up the second Granville Street Bridge (demolished in 1954), and into downtown, at the intersection of David and Richards. The same train line was used to carry fresh milk and spring water too.

I remember as a kid my brother and I would leave pennies on the railway track and after the train ran by we would collect the stretched pennies, still hot to the touch. That train stopped running in 2001 and was unused for a long time. 

There were calls to turn it into a pedestrian and bike path and in 2016 the City of Vancouver bought it from the Canadian Pacific Railway for C$55 million. The tracks were taken out and the path was blacktopped. Today people can walk or ride leisurely along the path, now called the Arbutus Greenway, from West 5th Avenue and Fir all the way south to East Boulevard and Southwest Marine.

Which takes us back to the unused track at False Creek. It was used during the 2010 Olympics to transport passengers from Olympic Station to Granville Island on a replica street car for exactly 60 days. After the international sporting event was over, so was the railway track at a cost of C$8.5 million.

Can the rail track at Granville Island be revived?

A local heritage group is hoping to gather enough interest in it to revive the use of the track by putting a street car on it; there would be more foot traffic to Granville Island and Olympic Village, not only by residents but also tourists too.

Picture of the Day: Burrard Street Bridge

Lovely view of the Burrard Street Bridge from Granville Island

This evening some friends and I had dinner at a restaurant in Granville Island and afterwards we took a quick stroll around the area. 

When we reached the edge of Burrard Inlet looking towards the Burrard Street Bridge I couldn't help but take a picture. It reminded me of when I used to take night shots along Victoria Harbour when I used to walk along a 10K route.

Today the weather held up -- the rain stopped in the morning and in the afternoon there were some blue sky patches before turning overcast again in the evening.

Nevertheless we enjoyed not only spending time together and catching up, but also enjoying the view.

On the Raptor Patrol

View from our restaurant watching life go by on the water

Today a friend arrived from Hong Kong to spend a few hours in Vancouver before flying to Toronto. Where to take him for a good impression of the city?

We went to Granville Island, which is below the Granville Street Bridge before crossing downtown. Granville Island used to be a sandbar before it was reclaimed land and then was a manufacturing industrial area, making heavy machinery for mining and forestry.

Then in 1979 the area was converted into a farmers' market where they could sell fresh produce directly to consumers, from vegetables and fruits to cheese, meats, honey and bread. Now there are also chocolates, bagels and cakes.

Poquito with his handler

As usual there was already a line at Lee's Donuts, and we spotted many people carrying the distinctive yellow box filled with freshly made donuts.

Before our lunch we hung out by the water when a guy with a raptor called Poquito came by. It was a medium-sized bird, its legs shackled and one leg even had a bell attached. 

He explained they were patrolling the area around lunchtime to deter seagulls from stealing people's food.

Yes -- it does happen! There have been local reports of these hungry birds swooping down to steal a slice of pizza when someone's not looking.

So as of last February, raptors and their handlers patrol the area. Poquito's owner explained just the raptor's presence alone was enough to deter the seagulls from coming too close, though sometimes he might be let loose from the roof of the public market and fly around to stretch his wings a bit.

I'd read about these birds of prey hanging out at Granville Island and now I got to see one in person!