Eric Rumble -- journalist

Environmental art stories for Alternatives

I STARTED A new gig in early 2012. It sort of came out of nowhere. I’m now editing the kind of magazine that I’ve always wanted the opportunity to work on: Alternatives. It is a small publication with plans to get much bigger, and I hope I can help accomplish that. (Yes, a new website is coming.) During my first couple of weeks on the clock, I contributed these two small pieces of writing to the “arts + media” issue, which hit newsstands this week. (Also, Gregory Euclide rules!)

Download "A Brush of Dissent" & "Bon Artiste" by Eric Rumble

Tracking the Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic for Canadian Geographic

Andrew Nikiforuk is perhaps the most spine-tingling author that I read with any regularity. Not because he writes thrillers, but rather because he explores the staggering frontiers upon which Canada's future is being shaped. For the October issue of Canadian Geographic, I reviewed his excellent new book, Empire of the Beetle, which argues that beetles aren't the pest destroying our forests, we are. Yikes.

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Investigating the state of Lake Winnipeg's eutrophication for Canadian Geographic

FEW PEOPLE KNOW that Lake Winnipeg is poorly, and perhaps even on the verge of slowly suffocating itself. Fewer still know the smartest and most effective way to fix it, but thankfully a small army of scientists have been assembling a proper knowledge base for turning the ongoing discussion into a decision-making process. For the June issue of Canadian Geographic, I briefly reported on the soon-to-be-released trove of peer-reviewed research about Lake Winnipeg.

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Download: "A Not-So-Great Lake" from Canadian Geographic

Digging Jane Jacobs' activist roots in Manhattan for up! magazine

WHEN IT WAS published a couple of years ago, I couldn't wait to get my mitts on Anthony Flint's "Wrestling With Moses." The American author's lean chronicle of the epic mid-20th Century battles over public space that unearthed urban design pillar Jane Jacobs and buried NYC master builder Robert Moses is one the most vivid and enthralling pieces of historical non-fiction I've ever read (not that I've read a boatload). Once hooked, I was lucky enough to get to write (in mere fractional detail) about the walkable legacy of their face-off over the fate of Washington Square Park and SoHo. I highly recommend treating my piece as the primer it was intended to be (for WestJet's in-flight magazine) and actually go hang out in lower Manhattan with Flint's book under your arm.

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Download: "The Manhattan That Almost Was" from up! magazine

LPWTF: Canadian record cover art, uncovered

AS IF THIS fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants freelancer gig didn't pay meagerly enough, I've recently launched a pro bono writing project. It's basically my excuse to harass musicians with an offbeat line of questioning as they put out new records, but also a niche with some room to spread out a bit. Stay tuned for monthly (and perhaps even bi-monthly) cover art back story posts in 2011.

EYE SPY -- the art 'zine from Flemish Eye

IN THE SUMMER of 2009, I approached Flemish Eye records' impresario Ian Russell about creating an art zine in collaboration with his label's musicians, the aim being to celebrate their non-musical talents and exhibit their hilarious personalities. It was a total Hail Mary, but Ian liked the concept, and luckily so did the immensely talented folks he works with. I spent the following year crafting, editing, writing and wrangling together a polymorphous pile of ideas to help produce this one-of-a-kind, handsome 36-pager named EYE SPY, featuring original Chad VanGaalen illustrations (like the one above), rare artist interviews and a glut of other weird and wonderful visual contributions. We are currently distributing 6,000-plus copies to music buyers across Canada. 

Souvenir hunting for up! magazine

DURING THE WINTER of 2009/2010, I embarked on a big, reckless, soul-bruising adventure down the US West Coast and into the sweltering depths of Mexico (well, southern Oaxaca state, at least). I couldn't really afford the trip, so I scrambled to find work along the way, and managed to shop my way into a few dinero by hunting down edible Day of the Dead souvenirs in Tucson, Arizona, and by plucking gems from the markets and more artful retailers in Zihuatanejo, Mexico. 

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Touring the Trans Canada Trail in southeastern Ontario for Canadian Geographic Travel

YOU MAY OR may not be aware that our lovely little (albeit massive) country is building the planet's largest recreational trail network, aiming to git'er done by the time Canada turns 150 in 2017. I spent a couple of days this summer with a community of kind folks who have built out one particular 50-km section of the TCT in short order, and profiled their efforts for Canadian Geographic Travel. 

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Probing dead gophers, creation science and dinosaur bones in southeastern Alberta for Canada's History

UNDOUBTEDLY, ALBERTA HAS three of country's most unique and fascinating attractions, all within a couple of hours' drive east of Calgary. Two are rubberneck-worthy novelties: a small-but-famous (and PETA-vilified) gopher taxidermy shrine and a muted, museum-style retort to evolution. The other is a breathtaking landscape where you can play paleontologist for a day. I took a road trip in late 2009 to check them out, and came back with this travel piece for Canada's History. 

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Profiling surf icons in Hawaii for up! magazine

FUELLED BY GOB-smacking poke and arguably the planet's most sensational climate, I spent about a week on three Hawaiian islands trying to catch up with a dozen influential wave hounds for this profile series, featured on up! magazine's February 2010 cover. It was also the most recent of many working trips with my good buddy Jared Sych, a photography savant who took some amazing snaps between all the scrambling from beach to beach.

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Learning to live off the land near Calgary, Alberta, for Swerve magazine

THE FIRST THING I wanted to do after escaping an office gig after four solid years of being deprived of sunshine was to get my meathooks dirty in the great outdoors. I earned a week of sweat equity on a hardscrabble farm and ended up profiling the exceptional folks who run it for Swerve magazine, an award-winning and consistently interesting small publication that comes out in every Friday's Calgary Herald.  

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Download SwerveOct909-Hit The Dirt

Exploring the fringes of postmodern thought in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, for up! magazine

IN THE FALL of 2008, I returned to the city where I'd attended university (a decade earlier) and had my mind tickled inside-out by how things had evolved. What I discovered on the ground while in Kitchener-Waterloo would eventually turn into perhaps my best piece of writing to date. 

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Drinking, eating & hunting for up! magazine

I WORKED AT up! magazine's headquarters in Calgary for more than four years, during which time I had final sign off (always on deadline) for about 50 issues of the magazine. Near the end of my run, I was travelling and writing like mad as well. I think the photo above illustrates the furthest away—physically and mentally—that I got from the office while I was still on the clock. 

These three stories were all written in the first half of 2009, cobbled together from a handful of trips that took place within about a year of that time period: 

From August 2009 — "Brewed Awakening" about the Great Canadian Beer Festival in Victoria, B.C.

From September 2009 — "Salvation (and Salivation) on Lake Superior" about the Loaves & Fishes tour in Thunder Bay, Ontario

From October 2009 — "Tread Lightly and Carry a Telescopic Rifle" about boar hunting with Jack Ku on the Big Island of Hawaii

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Training with an NHL bruiser in the Rocky Mountains for Calgary's Avenue magazine

THIS TALE OF woe chronicles my ass being kicked during a two-day taste of the alpine training regiment of Calgary Flames defenseman Andrew Ference, perhaps the fittest man I've ever met. This was one of the best pieces I wrote during my first crack at working as a freelancer. And it remains the toughest research gauntlet I've ever had to cross.

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Tailing Noisemakers -- Travel stories featuring famous musicians for up! magazine

ONE OF THE perks of being a journalist is getting the chance to stalk your musical heroes without appearing too creepy.

I've been lucky enough to access a wide collection of famous folks who rock my world. These three stories are probably my favourites involving icons of rawk that I published in WestJet's in-flight travel magazine during my days working there as a managing and senior editor: 

From a Halloween themed issue in October 2006 — Alice Cooper's Favourite Place: Toronto

The cover story from up!'s August 2006 issue — The Weakerthans' Winnipeg 

From June 2009 — A Concrete Dreamer's Guide to Calgary with Chad VanGaalen

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Download Up_Musical Tourism

Bawling for Dollars -- Stories for Adbusters magazine

FOR ABOUT TWO years, I was listed on the masthead of Adbusters magazine as a contributing editor. I did a dog's breakfast of stories for them, some of which are collected here. Most of the ideas were hatched by the sometimes brilliant and always inflammatory founding editor Kalle Lasn, and I brought them to life following instructions such as, "Make me a mind bomb."

 

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Portfolio Numero Uno

THIS IS LIKELY one of the first collections of professional writing that I ever assembled. 

The first piece is a profile of Toronto's farmers' markets for CityBites magazine, a puckish local food rag that stays afloat on the sweat of perhaps my biggest mentor and a fantastic drinking companion, Dick Snyder. 

Second, a first person riff on learning to catch waves with Surf Sister in Tofino, B.C., for a defunct lad-ish lifestyle mag (from the wrong side of the tracks) called 360 magazine. 

Next up, a data-happy front-of-book piece about the Canadian government's Sea King helicopter debacle for another defunct (though eons more respectable) magazine called Saturday Night. 

Batting cleanup, a story I wrote about an Australian euthanasia crusader creating "death bags" modelled after a Canadian prototype for the National Post. 

And finally, the first real travel story I ever wrote for up! magazine, about exploring the sights, sounds and suds of the George Street Festival in St. John's, Newfoundland.

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