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As a storyteller I’ve talked to many people about how they see the world and what they see as being important. Clanging name-drop coming up: I interviewed David Byrne years ago who said that when he was making music with people from other countries it was cultural confusion and mistakes that added new dimensions.
The Soup: Condensed Soup Dec 17 (from 1.20)
And so it has been that cultural confusion around the concept of a ‘glory hole’ has added a further dimension to ‘Gold Rush Alaska’. In gold mining, a glory hole is a subterranean cache of gold nuggets. The Gold Rush miners spent an entire season desperately trying to uncover an elusive glory hole in Porcupine Creek.
The Soup: Glory Hole Glory Feb 11
Obviously, as worldly-wise producers, we were aware that the phrase glory hole had other connotations, however we didn’t realise using the term would lead to such creative outcomes.
Twitter erupted with every utterance of the phrase, and there were many, often associated with phrases like “I’ll take it wet or dry”. Our show was a gift to The Soup on E!, who clearly couldn’t believe their luck and returned to “Alaska: Gay Edition” no less than three times.
The Soup: Glory Hole “Gold” Feb 25
It also inspired mashups that moved from innuendo into the literal. SFW, but viewer beware.
Gold Rush Alaska starts tonight, 3rd Dec, 10pm EST on Discovery
Tonight’s the night when Gold Rush Alaska premiers on Discovery Channel. It’s already causing a stir. The Washington Post said it is ‘ Almost Homerian‘ whilst the Wall Street Journal calls it ‘Jaw Dropping TV‘ but possibly not in the nicest of contexts.
Media life called it ‘Genuinely Suspenseful‘ while Newsday said it was ‘ A Gem‘. So now we wait for the US viewing public to decide and that IS genuinely suspenseful.
So this is what has been obsessing me for the last year and why most of my friends and family haven’t seen me for ages. I’ve been producing 10 x 1 hour documentaries for Discovery Channel in the US. The series is called Gold Rush Alaska. You can see the promo here . The show follows the fortune of a gang of unemployed men from Oregon who head north to Alaska in search of gold. It’s been a rock-n-roll shoot and edit but there’s a good buzz about the series. The subject has genuine and profound jeopardy and with gold prices going through the roof , unemployment rising and the recent swing to the right in the US it’s very current. I hope it does well not least as recognition for all those who went above and beyond to get it on the screen against all the odds. It premieres on Friday the 3rd of December at 10pm EST on Discovery in the US. It’s a Raw TV production of course.
A rare day when I got a chance to pic up a camera. Here filming Todd Hoffman, the leader of the miners crew.
