New (Unofficial) Strombo Show Chat on Skype! (Ported from my blog)

Here we go...

You can imagine the intro music playing here if you like.. I did.
(I'm going to try and get a clip if possible).

[I was playing an old podcast of the show - from Dec 13th that's now up on the updated Strombo.com website while writing this.. so it's in my head. And I'm singing Christmas tunes now on the Spring Equinox.
Gee. Thanks George.]

You can find the new Strombo Show Chat on Skype at username: StromboShowChat (stromboshowchat) Strombo Show Chat, Strombo Show, even just Strombo (specify Canada, it's faster), but most of those searches should work now I think.

Join up & join in on your time zone. I'm currently planning to be around for the whole time frame across all time zones (4pm PST/8pm AST to midnight PST) since I'm out here in Vancouver/PST & until I sort out confirming some other moderators & the rules..

I'll plan to be here for Sunday, March 21, 2010 & the next few as we get set up again.

PLEASE NOTE:
This is an unofficial (@ least for the moment) chat session for
The Strombo Show (w/George Stroumboulopoulos).
~ It is available on Sunday nights on CBC Radio 2; 8pm-midnight "your" local time, or whatever time zone you want to stream it on CBC Radio 2's online feed. That's the radio show.
~ The chat will be available (as often as humanly possible) from 4pm PST/8pm AST to midnight PST (that's Canada time). So.. Available from AST to PST on Skype at our above username.
~ The radio show & the chat are not actually synced up, or linked, and there is NO live feed on the chat itself.
~ Right now the chat is only available in IM (Instant Messenger) format.
~ In the future we may also allow voice & video options.
~ Fan moderated/hosted.
~ George is not there in the chat.
~ The show is usually pre-recorded, so the bands, people doing interviews on the Strombo Show, etc are not around in the chat either.
~ It's primarily fans of the show hanging out, listening on-line or on the radio live, talking about music, the show, maybe The Hour or other projects George may have on the go, and having a shared experience through the magic and spirit of radio!

~ The RULES of the chat are listed below.


Let me repeat something very important in big letters in bold..
This is an UNOFFICIAL chat session for The Strombo Show.
That means NOT OFFICIAL. Just to phrase it differently in case anyone needs it.

I haven't received any blessing or official status from George, CBC, the powers that be (TPTB), his producers, anyone.. yet.. some of that is being looked into, but it takes time & it may or may not happen. I'll let you know on that. (See below also for the chat show history.. I will expand it w/help from others over time & comments, etc..)

Let me also state. I don't know George.
I've only met him once..

Oh yes.. along that same vein... let me again state..
I really don't know George.
Personally, or in really any other way.

I don't know his phone number..
~ But you can leave The Strombo Show a request voice mail (for songs!) on their Skype account.. stromboshow or at a real phone #416-205-6226.

That's a Toronto area code in case you're wondering if you can call that with, or without long distance charges. They've said (well George did, etc) on the past shows that they are working on a 1-800# for the future.. But they have Skype, so they may have turfed that idea now.

I'd suggest no spam or prank calls.. obviously. Please be respectful.
FYI. Last I heard (on ~March 19, 2010) their voice mail was full.
Damn. As I was finally going to make a request this week.

I also don't know where he lives.. I'll give you a hint though.. Somewhere in Toronto ;)

I don't know what his favorite food is, or where he hangs out, or if he's dating anyone, etc.. but I'll give you another hint.. he likes the Habs/the Montreal Canadiens (that's a hockey team in case you're from a place other than Canada ;) And if you want the list of his favorite bands.. I think they're on his website (or at least they were, or maybe his Facebook page). That's all I got.

So.. anything personal, I can't help you with!

Ok.. are we clear on that?!
Good. I'd hate to have to repeat myself too much on that topic.


What am I doing here?:
What I am here for is to get The Strombo Show Chats off the ground again. I have some experience (well... lots) in IT (information technology), running chat sessions, Yahoo Groups, e-lists, Google Groups, newsgroups, discussion forums, Facebook groups, websites, etc, etc... I am willing to give up some personal time to initially get this up & running again & then hopefully with the help of other Strombo Show fans, old & new, the duties of moderation & hosting can be shared amongst us all, either as:
Option 1: A specific collective of people in the various timezones "enforcing things" or;
Option 2: A self-monitoring entity that keeps things on topic, enforces the rules of the chat, helps trolls find their way back to the bridge they crawled out from under, ensures new people are welcome, etc.. or;
Option 3: As a last resort.. I play primary moderator/host longer term. Not ideal, as I'm NOT on the CBC payroll. I'm volunteering my time to do this for a while, but I'd eventually like to know that I can have my spring/summer Sunday afternoons outside & occasionally unwired, or if I want to go away with out worrying that things will melt down here. So I hope you are willing to play along nicely & help out & not require too much moderation.
Thanks!

Why am I doing this?:
I am a long time fan of both The Hour and The Strombo Show (& his other work), and of course him as a person.. (or the person that shows up on TV that we all see).

I respect (most of the time ;) who he is, what he does & says, and I value what he brings to TV, radio, CBC, etc.

I happily hope to show that support with the continuation of the Strombo Show Chat in this new form, and with promotion of the show(s).

There are fans involved that write for The Stroumboulopouli Blog & people that have been listeners of the show for many years longer than I. There are fans of music that have tons of musical experience and insight to share, that run festivals, that know bands, that are part of bands, that work in the TV, radio and music industries, as well as people who do know George personally, and may be able to offer insight into The Hour, his other projects, etc.

So hopefully the chats can also bring that information to all of us & we can all do our part (for guerrilla radio ;) to continue to support George with The Strombo Show, and with any of his other projects.

HISTORY OF THE CHAT:

There used to be a few different manifestations of The Strombo Show Chat over the years (more history lessons to come later)...

This is an attempt to bring it forward into a more accessible, easier to use, no special software required, (aside from Skype/Skype account, but lots of people have that already), no problems with setup and interfaces, and the ability to have people come in from not just across all the timezones of Canada, but hopefully for fans of the show that might listen online elsewhere in the world (there were fans in the US & UK that I'm aware of).


And here is the promised update for Sunday, March 21, 2010:
(prior to 4pm PST/8pm AST with chat sessions "rules")..

Actually.. they are more like guidelines.. Yes.. Pirate rules DO apply ;) Arrrggghhhh!

The Strombo Show Chat Room Rules of Engagement/Guidelines:

1. Be respectful.
This means NO trolling, drama, slagging, slamming, bitch fights, etc, etc... by whatever name you call it. It won't be tolerated here.
I hope.. in an ideal world that everyone is here to listen to the show, support George, learn about music, possibly each other, maybe connect in a unique way with others over our radios, the music and the experiences we can bring to this..

At least.. I think I have "interpreted" George's "vision" of the Strombo Show somewhat accurately here. (If he doesn't agree or doesn't like it, he knows how/where to find me.)

2. I'm going to state again.. that the rules of Fight Club..
I mean The Strombo Show, means no fighting. You'll get banned.
It's simple. I'll consider the various ways to handle this via moderation/hosting. Typically I do 3 strikes you're out, but there are exceptions to this rule if someone is really stirring trouble up, trolling, or doesn't get it. Let's hope it isn't necessary.

3. Keep things.. ummm.. Topics.. on topic! We may share some personal information, etc... we may get on tangents about how hot George is.. it is inevitable.. I know! };> Or what an idiot he made of himself figure skating (that WAS funny).. or speculation of what he does at 3am when he says he isn't sleeping.. etc... I'm sure we can all agree that it's a 2 or 5 mins thing or less, and then we can bring it gently back on track and on topic after some banter.

I do think there needs to be a limit to this sort of chatter on the chat session. That was probably my biggest personal complaint (and many others I spoke with) about past chats is that things often wandered deeply into tangents completely unrelated to anything about the show, George, the music, etc... and to newcomers & even the old guard, this is intimidating (as the chat show regulars all know each other & keep talking about these things that new people have NO clue about), and some cases it's so off-topic or personal that it's boring and irrelevant and no one wants to participate in that type of environment.

4. Be welcoming. Be inclusive. Be tolerant. Be helpful. Be honest. Be supportive. Share your knowledge. Don't be condescending.
Be thoughtful. Be engaging. Be courteous. Add value.
Create experience. Fulfill dreams. Bring people closer. Reach out. Expand your mind. Be Insightful. Share. Be. Be real!

(Those above "snippets" are from Twitter posts I've done on #Twittorial's.)

There are and will be fans old & new here. Everyone comes from a different level of experience in relation to the show, music, George, etc, and we must respectful and understand that. I hope we can be supportive of this process.

Those are the only rules I'm going to setup for now. I'll sort out others from my past experiences over the next week, and/or if we require them for this chat.

TOPICS:

The goal (for me anyway) is to post some discussion topics.. a few weeks in advance, or so.. Obviously today, y'all get a few hours notice. It can't be helped. I was busy this week & didn't do this until yesterday. (Spring lit a fire of inspiration under my ass and I finally got back on sorting this out).

We'll see how having a list or something in advance goes, so we have something to refer to regarding bands or music, etc to talk about. Ideas are welcome here, and we can try doing band or song reviews, our own versions of the G12 (George's top 12 songs of the week), or easier.. The Furious Five (I liked that better anyway), the songs from the vault of Forgotten Songs (or whatever this is called, I can't recall right now.. it's the wee hours of the morning.. help?!) and even borrow ones from Bob like the Hidden Gems (since I'm sure he played one I posted on my blog here), or anything new we can come up.

Possible Discussion Topics for The Strombo Show Chat
Sunday, March 21, 2010:

Music/Strombo Show Related:
~ Depending on the timezone you are joining in from.. what songs are you listening to tonight, what moves you, what do you love/hate, flashbacks, future, requests.. etc..
~ Thoughts on the past 3-4 shows, songs, bands, etc
~ Thoughts on the G12-List (George's topic 12 songs of the week list).. do you like the concept, do you like the songs he's played, which ones, why/why not, etc
~ Thoughts on the Furious Five.. did you like/dislike that format, prefer it to or over the G12-List?
~ Thoughts on the album side played
~ Thoughts on Bob & Rich's segments on the show
~ Thoughts on Scott on the show
~ Thoughts on the Facebook group discussion threads. NOTE: Many of the past playlists for the shows are also posted up here.
~ Others...

George/The Hour Related:
~ Musical guests from The Hour this past week (see also The Stroumboulopouli blog for details, or The Hour's website.
~ Other segments from The Hour, guests, skits, Mile a Minute, It Takes a Nation to Raise Your Kids, etc
~ Others...

George/Other Projects Related:
~ Love, Hate & Propaganda
~ Score - The Hockey Musical - WHAT I said when I read this on Twitter I think it was.. I recall George having a convo on the show w/Bob talking about musicals and how he hated them. Ok, maybe hate is a strong word.. but did not like. I can't wait to see how this turns out!
~ Via Barb (a long time fan): mentioned The Tracy Fragments to me the other day - Not sure what it is, but I've kinda heard of it. George is in it. I wonder if my video store has it?
~ Also via Barb: Hard Core Logo 2 is filming on The Hour (I have no idea what this is?!)
~ Others...

WOW.
I think that's lots.. we can re-use a lot of those of the coming months as they are "generic". If there are any specific ideas you may have, please post them on the comments section & I'll integrate them in.

Hopefully something can be setup, or arranged regarding future coordination with George and/or his producers Darby (& Mike, etc) and the newly UPDATED (so excited) and super sleek, svelte and sexy Strombo.com.

And I'm hoping we can get some show related topics set up in advance, sort of like The Stroumboulopouli Blog sometimes gets the guest lists for The Hour to promote it.

I'd like to ideally have a few weeks or ~1 month of topics up & ready so others can take the lead in the chat, or do research on bands, topics, etc.


Yours in musical awesome-ness,
All across this glorious nation!
(Thanks again George. I have that in my head ALL the time now ;)

~(now former) StromboShowChat Collective

(Composed of a number of long-time fans of The Strombo Show - list to come).


REFERENCES/WEBSITES:

Strombo.com YAH! Updated!
Strombo Show Facebook Group
You may need to login/have a Facebook account & login to view this group & information.
NOTE: The playlists for the shows are also posted up here.

CBC Radio 2
The Hour

The Stroumboulopouli Blog


More to come!

Photo credits

(& details to come.. as long as I'm allowed to keep them up here.. ;)