Smells Like Yukon Flog

Unlike the majority of my posts, this one is just like the title says. It’s too sunny to waste a lot of time typing maniacally–or whatever it is I do here–so I’ll get right to the goodies.

At long last, the season finale “Danger Liasons” aired this morning on CBC Yukon. As usual, you’ll find some outtakes and other stuff on the Behind the Sounds page for this segment. And, as a special treat for the Smells Like Yukon Members Club, we’ve already posted the segment to the audio archives, so you won’t have to wait all summer if you missed today’s broadcast. We were hoping to have the full-length interview with Dr. Brendan Hanley, Yukon’s Medical Officer of Health, available on the website, too, but technical difficulties have so far prevented its uploading. If it’s any consolation, there’s nothing funny about the interview. But then again, there’s nothing funny about unnecessary head injuries, working, or herpes, either.

In short order, we’ll have the image posted for the next caption contest. (Or maybe Michael Pealow could just write a caption, then we’ll find a photo to go with it?) We’ll also be posting a new online poll–your chance to choose your favourite segment of Smells Like Yukon’s second season.

Alright, so you’ve had an opportunity to hear James MCullough’s side of the “Into the Mild” story in its full-length interview glory.

If you heard the segment (which will be available Tuesday for online listening), then you also briefly heard from James’ partner, Glenda, who has persevered in her efforts to march–make that forced march–him into a future where the Great Outdoors is a less menacing presence.

We’re now pleased to present Mark’s full-length interview with Glenda, embellished with some music.

Blame it on the commodity boom.

Due to the rising cost of fodder, the Smells Like Yukon Online Poll has not been updated in conjunction with the latest segment “Into the Mild.” Going forward, we’ll be updating the poll on a monthly basis, along with the caption contest. Of course, we’ll understand if you turn elsewhere when you want to take the pulse of Yukon opinion. May we recommend the morgue? Do we even have a morgue?

To cushion the inevitable disappointment, Smells Like Yukon is pleased to present “Wild Thing,” a full-length interview with James McCullough, who was featured in this morning’s segment on CBC North. You’ll also find an assortment of outtakes and deleted sounds.

Well, we knew it would happen. As soon as this morning’s new Smells Like Yukon segment “Knock It Off” aired on CBC, officials from the Yukon Quest were on the phone to register their bitter protest that we would dare to harm even one hair on the Yukon Coat of Arms’ husky dog–and just days before this year’s race is about to start. We expect that Tourism Yukon and perhaps the Yukon’s Commissioner may have similar complaints, but we’ve taken the phone off the hook.

On the upside, Alaska governer Sara Palin did Skype us to discuss the intriguing possibility of replacing the malamute husky with an Alaskan husky–or possibly a section of pipe. Discussions are ongoing.

As usual, we have released a new online poll related to the segment. It suggests about 20 great activities that the Yukon’s malamute might focus on in its “retirement” days. But what will really grab you is the absence of one suggestion that was simply too risque and controversial to publish.

The Behind the Sounds features for “Knock It Off” have also been posted to the site. This includes a rambling essay about dogs, a segment script, and several outtakes, including a candid heart-to-heart between Mark and his father.
As if all this wasn’t enough, you can cast your votes for the winner of Caption Contest #12. The polls will remain open until Friday morning, at which point we hope to have a clear Democratic winner that all Republicans can then proceed to rally against in the most malicious ways imaginable.

Good day.

Yesterday, Mark came back to the office pretty buzzed from a rare caffeinated coffee at the Main Street Backerei. By the time he emerged from the stacks of the Smells Like Yukon audio library, he’d found five new outtakes / deleted sounds from the “Hip Check” segment. In case your memory needs refreshing, that was the segment where Mark and Jesse enlisted Brent Bambury and the staff of Go! to help evaluate the alleged hipness of the Yukon’s capital.

When Jesse and Mark were interviewing Brent Bambury et al last June, they had an opportunity to ask a question that CBC listeners across the country have been dying to have answered: What would happen if Go! was merged with a certain other CBC program? But that’s not all. They also got some choice commentary on a number of other pressing issues of the day, including the hipness (or lack thereof) of the following: the White Stripes, the City of Toronto, and those two dudes who flog weenies in front of the Shoppers Drug Mart on Whitehorse’s Main Street during the summer. You might be surprised by what you hear.

As an nod to Bakerei co-owner and Whitehorse architect Tony Zedda, who was taken out of context in the “Hip Check” segment, we’ve also included his entire interview among the new clips posted to the site.

If you missed this segment, and would like to hear it before delving into the outtakes, all you have to do is send an e-mail to the Smells Like Yukon Members Club. Before you’ve even had a chance to exchange your crappy Christmas presents at Wal-Mart, we’ll set you up with access not just to “Hip Check,” but to another dozen or so Smells Like Yukon segments.

Thanks to yesterday’s prolonged and intermittent Internet outage, Mark suddenly found himself in a position to be even less productive than he normally is. He spent part of the day going through the audio archives from segments past and selected a couple of new outtakes and deleted sounds from the “Designer Guise” segment that kicked off the current season of Smells Like Yukon. In case you’re not keeping track, the newly added outtakes are “Flat Screen & Bug Dope” and “Long Sweet Clip.”

This weekend, we’ll be adding some new outtakes from our second segment of the season “Hip Check.” You can look forward to some never-before-heard comments from Go! host Brent Bambury and his production team.

Finally, the current online poll has been updated with yet another new option. We’re now up to 13. Please remember not to vote.

It was previously suggested that there were no audio outtakes from “The Barstools of Yutopia” because the segment was flawlessly produced. This was not the case, of course. And maybe you figured that much out yourselves–you know, after listening to the piece. From our end, the little white lie was designed to gloss over the fact that we were too lazy (see “Men of Action / Lazy River”) to select and upload some relevant clips.

Fortunately for you, Mark’s appointment for his annual pre-Christmas Brazilian wax at Amberley’s Day Spa (usually followed by a therapeutic beard rolfing from Norm Holler) was cancelled at the request of the vendor. This left him with a couple of free hours, during which he scoured the mini disc to find more outtakes than any reasonable person could be expected to listen to in the midst of the Christmas shopping frenzy.

If you haven’t caught “The Barstools of Yutopia” on CBC radio and you’d like to hear it before not listening to the outtakes, just send an e-mail to the Smells Like Yukon Members Club and we’ll set you up in a jiff.

After rooting around in the Smells Like Yukon audio archives, we’re pleased to present three outtakes from the most recent segment “Men of Action.”

Included among these, um, rare gems is an epic four-minute-plus sequence that duplicates and expands upon the audio that you can’t really hear in the featured video on the segment’s Behind the Sounds page. As the clip reveals, Mark and Jesse forgot that the recorder was running for most of the time–yet, amazingly, the clip contains no profanity, unless you’re willing to include the disgusting manner in which Mark decimates an innocent bag of honey-Dijon potato chips.

Those among you who harbour an unhealthy obsession with Jesse and/or Mark may notice that their voices don’t sound quite right. Not sure why. Must be some sort of recording issue that only Jesse could resolve, but he’s rather disinclined to tackle jobs like that at the present time–seeing as how he’s vacationing in Australia. If you’re not sure who’s who when you’re listening to the dialogue, here’s a basic rule of thumb: Jesse has the deep, sultry bedroom voice that drives all the ladies (and select men) wild in a way that we can only assume the CRTC will eventually be forced to regulate. Mark is the one who talks with his mouth full.

Before long, we’ll be adding some new outtakes from previous segments, including some choice bits from Brent Bambury and the CBC Go production staff (“Hip Check”), as well as a Yutopian bartender who didn’t waste his big chance to smack Mark down (“The Barstools of Yutopia.”)