Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

CBC Museum
After her school this morning, I decided to take Vanessa downtown to go "exploring". First stop, the CBC Museum.

It's located in the main CBC Building down at 250 Front Street West. We have been there briefly before, but I wanted to head back sans Annie so I could take things in a bit more without having to constantly chase after a wild two-year old. ;-)

The CBC Museum is small, but for anyone who grew up with the CBC, it is worth a quick visit. It's also free, which helps.

The main exhibit focuses on CBC shows aimed at children, primarily The Friendly Giant and Mr. Dressup. Since I grew up at a time when my kid TV choices were either shows on early-morning CBC, WKBW in Buffalo (anybody remember "Rocketship 7"?) or CTV – that and watching endless re-runs of Warner Brothers cartoons every Saturday afternoon on Global, these were significant shows from my childhood.

The first thing you see, before you even enter the museum is the main set of The Friendly Giant, completely with Jerome the Giraffe, Rusty the Rooster, the giant costume once worn by Bob Homme and the toy pieces of furniture where viewers like myself were invited to "sit down and rock in the rocking chair". It'll also sound terribly hokey to anybody who didn't grow up with this stuff, but I can attest to the power this simple, gently-paced show has had on my two daughters the few times they've caught it in re-runs. Just behind this set was the giant's castle, including the moon and the cow that jumps over it, which opened and concluded every show over the strains of "Early One Morning" played on flute and harp. I'll confess to being somewhat disappointed when I went behind the castle set and saw the little electric motors that slowly moved the drawbridge up and down. Somewhere in the back of my mind the kid in me must have been expecting to find something magical behind it. And of course there was of a sort, but seeing the mechanics behind it was somehow something of a let down. There was also a section where they showed some of the other puppets and the mock-instruments they played. Much of this stuff was donated to the CBC Museum by Bob Homme sometime prior to his death. I couldn't help wondering where the jazz cat puppets were though. I piece of trivia I can't confirm: I gather that the Friendly Giant was envisaged the giant as wearing a mast. Bob Homme hated the idea, and since this was live television back in the '50s, within seconds of going on-air for his first show, he ripped off the mask and from that point on, was never asked to don it again.

There's also a section devoted to Mr. Dressup, another show I watched a lot of as a kid, though for me it never held the same fascination as The Friendly Giant. Interesting piece of trivia I didn't previously know is that the very first shows featuring "Mr. Rogers" were actually shot here in Canada, and that Ernie Combs was a part of that show. In fact, there's a toy trolley car on display, much like the one that always appeared in the American version of the show, on display seemingly as proof that the idea for that show originated here in Canada. Vanessa had a good time viewing excerpts from this show in an interactive display they had set up, showing segments from various times in the show's long run (over 4000 shows!). In a corner was the famous "tickle trunk" filled with goodies, as well as the easel at which Mr. Dressup drew his pictures and stories. No Casey and Finnegan puppets, who presumably are still owned by their original puppeteer, though they did have the puppets from the show that appeared after the original puppeteer's retirement. They had no resonance for me, but were interesting to see nonetheless. Was surprised at the size of the puppets, especially those used on a Canadian Sesame Street segment – they are much larger than I would have thought, the tall bear puppet on display being about as tall as Vanessa. Another nice touch was the small platform on rollers – much like what a car mechanic uses to peer under a car – used by the puppeteers to move smoothly while they move around on their backs across the puppet stage.

The other main section was devoted to how sound effects were created, so there is a collection of various machines and devices, and you can create your own "wind" effect, sound of a closing door, and hear what crumpled paper sounds like when it is closely miked. Vanessa found it fun, liking the hand's-on part of it.

There's also a small section devoted to sports. There was a touch-screen display that was displaying a boot-up error message at the time, so I couldn't tell you what it ought to have displayed.

Just beside the children's stuff is a section devoted to CBC news programs over the years, including segments you can call up on such events as the assassination of JFK, Hurricane Hazel, the Westray Mine Disaster, Nixon resigning, the famous interview with PM Trudea where he talks about the "bleeding hearts" who oppose the impostion of the War Measures Act back in 1970 and so on. Was funny to hear the intro music to The National again as it was back in the 70s/80s, with "Knowlton Nash".

At one point I had to take Vanessa to the washroom, and right beside it was the treehouse set where Casey and Finnegan lived on the Mr. Dressup show, inhabited by cardboard cutouts of the two characters. Again, I was surprised at the size of it – I guess it all looked smaller on the old TVs I would have watched this on originally. ;-) They are surrounded by vintage recording equipment, ranging from an old acetate cutter to semi-recent DAT recorders. I was able to show Vanessa an open-reel tape machine similar to the one I used to use at CFRC where I first met her mother, but for the most part it is just a bunch of equipment scattered around a hall. Just beside all of this is another CBC Museum, or maybe just their storeroom, which is crammed full of old equipment, TVs and radios. On a small black-and-white TV in one corner of the display window runs a video of the Queen's Coronation from 1952. Unfortunately, while they mention a tour and a number to call, there was nothing else I could find about when this "Behind the Scene" tour was available.

All in all, a fun excursion. We dropped into the NFB HQ briefly when I saw a notice about an animation workshop that runs on Saturday mornings for kids Vanessa's age, and then on to the Electronics Surplus store on Queen Street where we picked up about $10 worth of fun stuff (magnets, cool paper, etc) that Vanessa can do crafts with.

Job Market Seems to Be Picking Up
This is something that Bill W. said to me the other evening at trivia, and in the past couple of days the truth of it has become apparent to me. This is a good thing. ;-)

I got a call yesterday, almost out of the blue, to come and interview for a position at computer graphics card manufacturer ATI. I say "almost out of the blue" because I had previously sent them a resume some time ago – proving, I suppose, that some firms really do keep resumes for a while. Then, today, a call from another person, and over the course of a 10-minute chat with him it turns out that he is interested in perhaps having me on as a consultant in the UI design of an application he is building – my hire, based in part on whether or not he is able to get development funding. Am meeting with him at café in the Rosedale area tomorrow. It's contract of course, but I do seem to be getting a number of those these days...