Chris Piecuch is putting together one of the biggest, if not the biggest, collections of CBC swag in the country.

He says it all started rather innocently. “When I first worked here [CBC Toronto] in 1998,” he said “I purchased and blue, red and white CBC Sports lanyard at the CBC Shop.”

“From there, the ‘obsession’ grew and through many gracious colleagues, personal volunteer efforts and just plain asking people ‘where did you get that?’ or ‘is there any extra/leftover?’ my collection grew.”

Piecuch says he’s always looking to add things to his collection. Right now, he’s on the hunt for any pins or other gear from the Olympics.

To date his collection includes pins, t-shirts, lanyards, hats, scarves and bunch of CBC posters among other things. There’s a couple more pictures after the break.

If you’ve got any CBC swag lying around your office, I’m sure Chris would be delighted to take it off your hands.

The first is for the James Ehnes disc Barber, Korngold, Walton: Violin Concertos pour violon, with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

The album is nominated in the category Best Instrumental Soloist with Orchestra.

The second nomination is for a very cool track CBC Records licensed to the new age/electronic band Delerium for their album Nuages Du Monde (Nettwerk.) [Delerium is an offshoot of the industrial music act Front Line Assembly and was founded by Bill Leeb of Skinny Puppy.]

The Delerium track, Angelicus, features a remix of Joyous Light from Isabel Bayrakdarian’s first release. It’s nominated in the category Best Remixed Recording, Non Classical.

(You may not know the category, but it sounds pretty cool – other nominees include Hamilton’s Junior Boys and mashups/remixes of tracks by Public Enemy and Pink Floyd.)

Speaking of Isabel Bayrakdarian, CBC Records has just released her new album, Tango Notturno.

It’s a collection of tango classics from around the world.

Also in time for the holidays is Andrew Craig’s The Gospel Christmas Project, 13 all-new studio recordings of Christmas classics. According to Craig,

“I wanted to create fresh new arrangements of the timeless Christmas classics with which I grew up. I wanted to raise the bar for Christmas music made in Canada. I wanted to create something that is 100% Canadian – singers, musicians, arrangements. And, considering that Gospel music was born in America, I wanted to create something that would make the Americans (and everybody else) say ‘Wow! This came out of Canada!?!?!’”

Both discs are available online via CBC Records. The 50th annual Grammy Awards take place on Feb. 10, 2008 in Los Angeles.

The Hockey Night in Canada mirror, I get. The official CBC golf balls, I do not.

But considering these pins (which are being auctioned off on eBay) cover both the current and previous incarnation of the CBC pizza gem, they must have survived for a reason.  At first I thought they were from the CBC B.C. arts show Hot Air, but probably not.

Can anyone shed some light on these? Were they handed out at community fairs or something?

It couldn’t have been a random choice. Several meetings must have occurred.

If I’m not going to clear at least $10 profit on an auction, why would I want to spend my time creating and monitoring the auction, replying to questions, then packing up and shipping the thing?

Case in point: Someone is auctioning off this coaster which was distributed with the launch of CBC Newsworld.

Starting bid must begin at $5.

So far, uh, no bidders.

When CBC Television sold off many of its props from the Toronto broadcast centre last June, bargain hunters and CBC employees (er, not that the two are mutually exclusive!) picked up plenty. And now, some of them are getting sold on eBay.

These two bizarre foot-high statues were, the seller claims, used on a Kids in the Hall episode. The auction ends Friday in case you’re interested.

The CBC Shop has cut prices significantly on its spoken word bundles.

For instance, the Massey Lectures (four lectures over 20 CDs) has dropped from $200 to $55. I’m not sure what the people at the CBC Shop are smoking, but if you’ve been interested in the lectures, better take advantage of this before they come to.
Another huge price cut is for the Dead Dog Cafe. This bundle contains all four volumes plus Dead Dog in the City. Used to be $150, is now $99. 

There are a lot more spoken word bundles which have had significant price cuts, so check them out while they still have stock.

Remember, employees get 30% off but only for another week. As of October 1, our discount drops to 20%.

A bulletin to staff late last week said CBC employees have “shared in our excitement and growth through the distribution of CBC/Radio-Canada merchandise.”

Uh, you’re welcome.

Clearly, it had to mean something.

The best I could Google was that there was a show by that name that was on the Fall schedule on CBC Radio One (then “CBC Radio”) in Vancouver in 1980.

Can anyone shed some light on this peculiarity?

inFidel
Hatstro
Cute Little Commie Cap
Radio 3 Independence Revolution Hat
Trucker Gord Hat
Radio 3 Pinko Commie Hat
Radio 3 Properly Censored Hat
Radio 3 Politically Correct Hat
HiFidelity Cap
LoFidelity Cap
The Sneaky Commie Hat
R3 Army Cadet Cap
R3 Revolution Hat
The This-Is-Not-A-Symbol-of-Communist-Oppression,-Really! Hat
The Revolution Will Not Be Simulcast Hat
The Capitalist Censorship Cap of Oppression +1
Canadian Beaver Cap
R3 Beaver Headgear
Duh Batista
The Dictator Hat
Che-hat… Chat?
The Fidora
The R3volutionary Cap
The Radio Threesta hat
The Castrated Cap
The Bucky Hat
The Raison d’3tre
The R3Cap

Montreal resident Bryan Clark wrote the CBC to ask why it was advertising a CBC Radio 3-branded ballcap as a “Castro hat”. “How can the CBC in good conscience, as our taxpayer-funded “neutral” broadcaster, offer up such a symbol of communist oppression?” he wrote. “[The Cap] is a “loaded” symbol of a ruthless, murdering dictator.”

A representative from the Shop responded: “[The cap's name] is a widely used and accepted term for the style of hat and many stores and retailers all over North America sell Castro hats. To call it another style of hat would not describe it properly…. It is in no way meant to glorify communism and murder simply a style of hat. (sic)”

Clark wasn’t pleased with the response, so he sent his letter to the Canada Free Press blog.

The CBC Shop now advertises the cap as a “ranger cap.”

UPDATE: CBC Radio 3 is now holding a contest to come up with an even better name. Sneaky commies, indeed! 

Once we stop selling retro-logoed merchandise, I suppose — and, truth be told, that multi-colour CBC logo from the 70s is today one of the most popular icons the CBC shop sells.

What do you think?

And this is a plebiscite, people, not a binding referendum.

Hat tip to Iain and Gillian