Glenn Kubish

As we bused back north up Highway 2, the military vehicles streamed south. I was with some ATB Financial colleagues who were finishing up the first leg of a province-wide tour to mark the 75th anniversary of the financial institution born in a disaster of too little water. Now, a disaster of too much.  Heading to Calgary The camouflaged vehicles presented both a welcome and an eerie prospect. Yes, the uniformed men and women were bringing their engineering skill and sandbagging brawn, but the movement of those same vehicles whispered that this was, maybe, a state of nature (and not of the tourism variety) they were heading toward.  Back moving through Edmonton on that Friday afternoon, a scheduled drink at Latitude 53 just ahead of me, the scenes through the bus window were jarring. Not because they were hard to see. They weren't. They were the easy images of friends talking on the steps of the Hotel Macdonald. And of a businessman running to get a waiting cab. A...

The next time I do a degree in communications, it's off to the Rangeland Derby at the Calgary Stampede for my research on the sound of the chuckwagon races. Listen to the SoundCloud clip below for the horn, the crowd, the jingle, the hooves, the cheers, the Go, Wayne! Of course, the other big sound at the chuckwagon races is the agallop voice of Les McIntyre. He calls the races from his perch, his eye in the sky, high above the racetrack. One of the memorable aspects of being at the Rangeland Derby is the relatively unimposing role played by video. Sure, there are video screens at both ends of the track and on an infield tower, but they are not signature screens. What defines the viewer's experience at the grandstand is McIntyre's voice. Quiet on the set. There's the horn. And the charge is underway! As they cast their fate in the figure eight.  The barrels are up, the outriders are in hot pursuit. They're outta town! A version of this is how McIntyre...

To quote Plato's Socrates only slightly out of context, I know only that I know nothing about chuckwagon racing. But I have spent the last few days at the Calgary Stampede and have gotten to hang out in the chuckwagon barns as part of ATB's sponsorship of rookie rider Codey McCurrach of Eckville. That means taking photos, posting updates via social media, drinking the occasional beer, hosing off the thoroughbreds, having the occasional beer, and hauling hay to the stalls of Primo, Bernie, Ernie, Googles, Mob and the rest of the horse team. As for washing the horses, it's just like flooding a backyard rink. Except there's a giant horse wondering what you are doing, and an even bigger horse called Mike Obrigewitch who is wondering the same. But it's also the easiest post-race job there is. Mike is quite the guy with quite the stories, quite the face, quite the moustache, quite the heart. Mike was Codey's sponsor in the early years, and helped make a call ...