Away On Business (Slava Sakhnenko)

Monstaaaaa Truuuuucks!!!

2008-01-24T10:27:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday, Marianne & and I went to a Monster Truck show at Skydome, which was totally awesome!! Here’s a short video clip from the event :)

Set to the Jens Lekman song “Friday Night At The Drive-In Bingo”

Hamilton Trading Company

2008-01-23T12:16:00.000-05:00

Keith Hamilton hosts Sunday nights at The Boat (in Kensington Market) where he brings local acts to perform acoustic sets alongside with his own Hamilton Trading Company.

Elizabeth and I went there last Sunday and this is my favourite song of theirs.

And they started off with this neat cover of a Peter Gabriel song.

26

2008-01-22T23:34:00.000-05:00

Some photos from the birthday party at my apartment:

The Trials of Ezra Levant

2008-01-15T00:50:00.000-05:00

This might run a little long, but bear with me since I think this is important.

The above video was shot by Ezra Levant during the opening statement of his interrogation by the Alberta Human Rights Commission.

Until his resignation, Levant was an editor of Western Standard - a famously conservative/libertarian news-magazine based in Calgary, Alberta. In February 2006 he re-published the infamous Danish Muhammad cartoons, which drew the ire of many a Muslim radical.

Now, instead of issuing their standard-order fatwas, one extremist Imam (Syed Soharwardy of the "Islamic Supreme Council of Canada" - whatever the fuck that is?!?) thought out to corrupt our Canadian legal system by filing a complaint with an out-of-control Alberta Human Rights Commission.

The pathetic thing about this commission is that anyone who feels slighted or offended by some politically incorrect expression, can file a complaint which the defendant will have to spend money and time to fight. No matter how baseless the accusation is. To add insult to injury, far from being controlled by actual judges or even competent attorneys, the commission is ran by bureaucrats and bottom-of-the-barrel divorce lawyers.

Rather then attempt to fight the charges that are actually pretty laughable, Ezra refused to acknowledge that the government had any right to put-on these mock trials, or (in case of a conviction) to force him to apologize for what he has done.

Instead, he videotaped the whole proceeding and published them on his blog with comments and explanations. You can watch them all here... it won’t take that long and it’s honestly the closest we’ll get to that scene from Atlas Shrugged where Hank Rearden delivers the speech at his trial (this time with a goal of promoting free-speech rather than unchecked capitalism, which is all that much more admirable).

Here's a quote from his last post, and a video of the closing argument:

As the 90-minute interrogation proceeded, it became obvious to me that it would be morally inconsistent to end by asking for an acquittal, or any other "mercy" from the government. The logical conclusion of denying the legitimacy of the commission was to demand its worst. The point of civil disobedience is not to get off scot-free, but to willingly accept the punishments of an unjust system, to shame that system into reform.

Here's how I phrased it.

P.S. It's quite obvious that Ezra is a dedicated conservative who, let's be honest here, often comes across as being a bit of an asshole who's filled with self-righteous indignation, and who no-doubt made plenty of enemies back in his publishing days. But it's just depressing to see the only mainstream media mentions about this thing come from other conservative publications. I would've figured this was something all journalists could unite under.

PlanetEye Party

2007-12-13T22:52:00.000-05:00

My brother just put up a whole bunch of awesome photos that he and I took at the PlanetEye Christmas party last night. Check out this Flickr set, and here's a small selection:

Duelity - Evolution vs. Creationism

2007-12-12T10:23:00.001-05:00

Duelity.net

This is officially my favourite thing right now!

Get this: Two videos, designed to be played simultaneously...
One, describing Creationism with the language and animation style of a scientific iconographic presentation (similar to the "Remind Me" video by Royksopp); the other, shows the story of Evolution through Christian imagery and a particularly affected religious speech.

Here's a quote from their website:

According to the records of the General Organization of Development labs (GOD) it took a mere six days to manufacture a fully-operational universe, complete with day, night, flora and fauna, and installing Adam as it's manager to oversee daily functions on Earth.

That's one story.

If thou salt believe the Book of Darwin, t'is five billion years after The Big Bang that we behold what the cosmos hath begat: the magma, the terra firma, the creeping beasts, and mankind, whose dolorous and chaotic evolution begat the gift of consciousness.

2007-12-08T00:09:00.000-05:00

Is Photography Dead?

“We live in a culture dominated by pixels, increasingly unmoored from corpor-eal reality. Movies are stuffed with CGI and, in such “performance animation” films as “Beowulf,” overwhelmed by them. Some big pop-music hits are so cyberized the singer might as well be telling you to press 1 if you know your party’s exten-sion. Even sculpture has adopted digital “rapid prototyping” technology that allows whatever a programmer can imagine to be translated into 3-D objects in plastic. Why should photography be any different? Why shouldn’t it give in to the digital temptation to make every landscape shot look like the most absolutely beautiful scenery in the whole history of the universe, or turn every urban view into a high-rise fantasy?”

I don’t know about all that, but I’ve just purchased three Istoica prints last night, to compliment a Rannie canvas print and a Davin Risk photo (“Disco Ball” and “New Grass” respectively). I should really set aside a budget for regularly purchasing pieces from local photographers.

You can check out the “the too-explicit injustice of kind population!” show featuring some prominent Toronto photo-bloggers right now at the Whippersnapper Gallery.

Home Page

2007-12-03T17:18:00.001-05:00

Ha! Here's the new PlanetEye home page that we started using this week on our private beta site.

Mango on BoingBoingTV

2007-11-26T10:57:00.001-05:00

Haha! Mango is now even more famous on the latest episode of BoingBoingTV!! And Elliott has been telling me that he's been seeing the "Hacking Photo" of Mango all over the place :)

Tumble

2007-10-23T23:51:00.001-04:00

Heh, I'm not posting here as often as I used to, unless I have some personal experience to share. In parallel though, I started adding content to my Tumblr blog at: http://avenues.tumblr.com/

Tumblr.com is an incredibly easy to use blogging platform that lets me highlight interesting stuff that I come across online with very minimal time investment :)

I mostly use it for sharing photos that I like, but also for videos and quotations that catch my eye. You can subscribe to it if you have tastes similar to mine, I usually update it a few times a day. Enjoy!!

Running Up That Hill

2007-10-13T17:57:00.000-04:00

By chance yesterday I discovered Chromatics, a Portland noise-rock band that recently re-branded themselves as elegant purveyors of synth-led Italian-discopop songs.

Admittedly these sparse, bleary-eyed, late-night anthems are not for everyone. But personally, listening to this music on a cold, cloudy autumn evening makes me wish for nothing more than to drop this whole web-development game, move somewhere on the Italian coast, find a pretty, sad girl with shadowed eyes and 60's bangs and start a band, writing melancholy songs for club kids driving home late at night.

Running Up That Hill (Kate Bush cover)

And if I only could
I'd make a deal with God
And I'd get him to swap our places

Be running up that road
Be running up that hill
Be running up that building

...

You
It's you and me
It's you and me, you won't be unhappy

P.S. "In the City" video

The Cake is a Lie

2007-10-11T15:03:00.001-04:00

Ok, allow me to get a bit nerdy here for as minute. I'm not a big gamer, but I'm a huge fan of any game that Valve releases, especially anything related to Half-Life. So this was a great week for me since they released The Orange Box - a collection of games consisting of Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Team Fortress 2, and Portal.

Portal, by far, was the biggest surprise in that it turned what was essentially a technology proof-of-concept for the Portal Gun (shoot a projectile into a point A and a point B and you can walk from A to B seamlessly) into one of the most heart-warmingly funny, albeit the humour was rather dark, gaming finales I ever saw.

The short (3-4 hour long) game finished off with possibly the greatest credit-roll sequence ever created, as GLaDOS (an AI villain of the game) sweetly recollects what happened in the past few hours in a rousing song which I included bellow. Spoilers be damned.

My favourite part of the whole thing is the story about how Valve took advantage of the gaming/web community in creating Portal.

The core "Portal" idea: Valve's Gabe Newell saw a student project Narbacular Drop from DigiPen Institute of Technology which features movable "portals". Gabe hired that whole team on the spot and brought them into Valve to work on the project.

The GLaDOS dialogue: The script for the hilariously sinister voice that guides you through the game with promises of a "warm, moist cake" was written by the staff of a legendary satirical game-humour site Old Man Murray who are now working for Valve. Perhaps it's not a coincidence that they are also running a web community site called Portal of Evil :)

The Finale Song: This clever tune was written by another famous nerd, song-writer Jonathan Coulton, who some of you may know from a song Code Monkey. He also accompanied one of my favourite authors - John Hodgman - on the book tour for The Areas of My Expertise.

And now that the end of "Half-Life 2: Episode 2" ties in nicely with the going-ons of the Portal story line, I can only hope that the Portal technology will come into play when the Episode 3 rolls around.

START WEARING PURPLE!!!!

2007-10-10T12:01:00.000-04:00

Whoooo, last night was the crazy Gogol Bordello show at the Kool House. Here's the mix of clips from the concert, although it was pretty hard filming and often times I had to put away the camera during the best parts (like the Start Wearing Purple choruses) because the crowd got too wild.

Go see them if you get a chance.

The Organ

2007-10-08T01:51:00.000-04:00

I was at a BBQ this past Friday and my friend Lee put on The Organ on his speakered-up iPod. I can't believe I haven't heard of them before! The (all-girl) band only managed to release one LP before breaking up a few years ago, and I've been listening to that record -- Grab That Gun -- for most of the weekend.

My favourite track is Memorize The City [lyrics] :

...

We pulled a boat down to the dock and stole two sturdy oars
I pushed you off into the dark: Acrisius favours
And from above the great abyss
You threw pennies in and wished
For the feeling of wanting nothing more

I walk through the streets and memorize the city
I count every light until i reach the shore
Sometimes i close my eyes and you’re not very pretty
Sometimes i can’t believe i’ve had those thoughts before

2007-10-08T00:11:00.000-04:00

McSweeney's Internet Tendency: "A Few Years after the Complete Collapse of the Global Economy, a Consumer Reporter Reviews the iPhone"

Much has been made of how the iPhone is really more than just a phone. And the point bears repeating, especially now that all communication networks have been destroyed in the Great Food Wars. But even in our post-apocalyptic agrarian wasteland, this technological marvel still boasts an impressive set of functions, a partial list of which includes:
Walnut cracker
Canned-goods smasher
Slingshot projectile for hunting small woodland game
Pestle for grinding wheat into flour (and flattening pemmican)
Nonporous preparation surface for mixing blow-dart poisons
Reflective signal mirror for coordinating attacks on rival scavenging tribes
[more...]

(via Gerry Canavan's blog)

Braindead Megaphone

2007-10-07T23:29:00.000-04:00

I just finished The Braindead Megaphone, a collection of essays by George Saunders. The writing was great, often movingly so, and the combination of intelligent though experiments and journalistic, first-hand experiences really helped make these stories ring true. [There was however an odd stretch of four 'humour' essays in the middle of the book that I found awkward to the point of embarassment, luckily things really picked up after that brief detour]

The book finished with a written manifesto for a club, or rather a social movement that Saunders and billions of others belong to (possibly EVEN YOU!!!) called People Reluctant To Kill For An Abstraction (PRKA). Slate published the full text on their website, but here's a quote from the tail end of the Manifesto:

Who are we? A word about our membership.

Since the world began, we have gone about our work quietly, resisting the urge to generalize, valuing the individual over the group, the actual over the conceptual, the inherent sweetness of the present moment over the theoretically peaceful future to be obtained via murder. Many of us have trouble sleeping and lie awake at night, worrying about something catastrophic befalling someone we love. We rise in the morning with no plans to convert anyone via beating, humiliation, or invasion. To tell the truth, we are tired. We work. We would just like some peace and quiet. When wrong, we think about it awhile, then apologize. We stand under awnings during urban thunderstorms, moved to thoughtfulness by the troubled, umbrella-tinged faces rushing by. In moments of crisis, we pat one another awkwardly on the back, mumbling shy truisms. Rushing to an appointment, remembering a friend who has passed away, our eyes well with tears and we think: Well, my God, he could be a pain, but still I'm lucky to have known him.

This is us. This is who we are. This is PRKA. To those who would oppose us, I would simply say: We are many. We are worldwide. We, in fact, outnumber you. Though you are louder, though you create a momentary ripple on the water of life, we will endure, and prevail.

Join us.

Resistance is futile.

And if you're illiterate, don't worry too much. There's a podcast of Saunders reading the whole section up at The Writer's Block website.

Rumours and Speculations

2007-09-29T17:50:00.000-04:00

Well lookie here! PlanetEye is nearing our private beta release and things are getting pretty interesting pretty fast.

PlanetEye Launch Imminent - StartupNorth writer Jevon wrote a nice post heralding the eventual arrival of the website that I spent a good portion of my post-university life (which, admittedly is not that long) working on. It's all very exciting and re-affirming, but Jevon had to go and start speculating about the details of our financing, which would've been cool if he didn't get nearly all of it wrong. Unfortunatelly, all of the juicy bits have already been redacted form that post, so good luck finding what it said :)
From the Trenches - When they get it wrong - It didn't take long for Rick Segal to respond to Jevon in his blog and politely correct him with regards to some pertinent details about PlanetEye. I'm mostly impressed with the length of the actual post which is longer then most of the essays I wrote in UofT...

So there you go, the fun is just beginning and information is slowly trickling out. Although I never got why we are constantly branded as a "stealth" start-up. While I never go into discussing funding details and usually gloss over business matters, if someone asks, I tend to go on and on about what PlanetEye does for travellers and why it's so exciting to work on this project. But pretty soon you'll get a chance to check it out yourself... just go to PlanetEye.com and sign up for the beta!

P.S. I went to a birthday party last night not too long after Jevon posted his post and had to endure things like:

"Oooh, I heard you guys are worth millions of dollars, I would've
expected you to dress better!"

Wankers.

Travelling

2007-09-23T23:22:00.000-04:00

As we're nearing a beta-release of PlanetEye I will share with you some travel-related material of interest:

"Wonderlust King"

To start, here's a brilliant song and video by a New-York based band of Ukrainian gypsy punks Gogol Bordello.

"Wonderlust King" goes on at length about how in order to understand the world one needs to go beyond just reading about it, listening to stories, watching movies and looking at photos (on PlanetEye or elsewhere) and actually travel, meet people and discover things through first-hand experience for once. [Wanderlust being an awkward sounding term for "the love of wandering the world"]

...
I traveled the world looking for understanding
Of the times that we live in
Hunting and gathering first hand information
Challenging definitions of sin

I traveled the world looking for lovers
Of the ultimate beauty
But never settled in

I'm Wonderlust King!
I stay on the run!
Let me out...
Let me be gone
In the world's beat up road sign
I saw new history of time...
New history of time!!!

So You Want To Be a Tourist?

ALSO! There is a meticulously researched and wonderfully written essay up on SomethingAwful with some very useful instructions for those wishing to travel to Europe and I would pay attention to them very carefully IF I WERE YOU!

Quotation:

"You, and your group, look stupid "trying to hold the Leaning Tower of Pisa." On top of that, there is no reason to visit Pisa other than seeing the leaning tower. Meaning you traveled on a bus for two hours just to get the most clichéd and obnoxious photograph ever imagined. Congratulations, jackass."

i

2007-09-05T16:54:00.000-04:00

Got a new iMac at work :)

Ukrainian Festival

2007-09-01T19:59:00.000-04:00

Me and Audrea just went to the Ukrainian Festival last night at the Harbourfront.
The food was beyond amazing and the dancing was supa-fun!

I LIEK IT HERE :(

2007-08-29T12:55:00.001-04:00

Wow, another photo of Mango was featured on I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?

Although I must admit, the commenters on that site creep the hell out of me...

CHEEZBURGER?

2007-08-21T12:08:00.000-04:00

Ha! It's nice waking up in the morning and seeing a photo of your kitten as the first post in the Google Reader.

I knew it was just a matter of time until Mango got herself into 'I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?'

Here's the Flickr link to the original.

Endarkenment II

2007-08-20T11:37:00.000-04:00

Ha! My last post on the Endarkenment made it into BuzzFeed purely on the strength of the awesome MC Hammer illustration: "1490s vs 1990s infographic shows cultural evolution at a glance".

A bit of a follow up then... I was watching Richard Dawkins' programme "The Enemies of Reason" on Google Video (via dcscience.net) and he had a good portion of the show dedicated to astrology.

Now... I understand completely that for most people Horoscopes are nothing but some quick fun - akin to reading tabloids - and they don't actually believe that rocks and gases light-years away have any say in their day-to-day lives. But it seems that some people are reeeeaaally into it: buying books, drawing charts, attending seminars, getting paid to write columns for newspapers, etc.

So just for the hell of it I surveyed a cross-section of Horoscope columns to see what the day holds to me, and whether there's any consensus what-so-ever among the experts.

Yahoo.com

Friends or family members come to you asking for help with an argument. You can play referee quite well, though you may need to make a ruling that irks one or even both of them. Stand by your call!

Toronto Star

There is a limit to how bad a certain situation can get. Just think how great you are going to feel once this is sorted out.

United Press International

You tend to have wild, impractical ideas today. You need reason and experience to sift what's worthwhile from the merely zany. Creativity is strong and must be matched with practicality.

Philadelphia Daily News

Remain positive: Life morphs to fit your optimism.

New York Daily News

Money is always a favorite topic of Capricorns, not necessarily spending it, but making it. If money is slipping through your fingers, apply strong management skills by managing the financial portfolio. It's time to get strict about the budget. Start recording every dollar and cent you spend; it will be enlightening as to where your money is going.

San Jose Mercury News

It doesn't cost a single penny to be kind. Do a good deed or bite back an unkind word before it leaves your mouth. You will be less lonely if you consciously strive to be diplomatic.

The Kansas City Star

You might want to assume a different approach and follow through with a boss. Dig into your resourceful mind when dealing with a work or daily issue. The solutions could be endless if you just let it happen. Tonight: Say “yes.”

The Courier News (Chicago)

The wheels are set in motion by the goodness of your heart. Those things you do so unselfishly for others will produce unsought benefits for yourself and your friends.

New York Post

Appearances can be deceptive and no matter how honest and trustworthy a certain person may seem to be you must be on your guard over the next 24 hours. Make sure they stick to the facts. Don't let them bamboozle you with big words and big ideas that, when it comes to the crunch, mean nothing at all. (Me: Aaah.. I get it now.)

And, of course, the always-right Free Will Horoscope. The only source that anyone should be using anyway:

Free Will Horoscope - The Village Voice

Welcome to the Season of Temporary Insanity, Capricorn. According to my analysis of the omens, your imminent immersion in lunacy, delirium, and freakiness won't hurt a bit—and may even stir up exotic varieties of pleasure and amusement. For best results, keep the following advice bubbling and frothing in the back of your mind.
"Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things." —Edgar Degas.
"Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment." —Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks.
"All of us are crazy good in one way or another."—Yiddish saying.
"You are either losing your mind—or gaining your soul." —Julia Cameron.

Travel Vices

2007-08-19T21:12:00.001-04:00

I just realized that Vice Magazine put up the videos from their Vice Guide to Travel online and spent a large portion of the evening watching all of them.

Here are the five most disturbing episodes that I saw, ranked from least to most messed up:

#5 - Chernobyl :: View Episode

Not particularly disturbing visually, but having grown up not too far from Chernobyl it hits close to home. It's eerie how empty the abandoned city seems, the schools, apartment buildings, the amusement park that was supposed to open a few months after the nuclear plant blew up. And the insistent clicking of the Geiger counter is creepy as hell.

#4 - Ghetto Doll Brothel :: View Episode

Vice correspondents travel to Japan and visit a brothel where one can purchase some time with a sex doll dressed up as a school girl (or something else... depending on your preference). True to form, the Vice co-founder actually went through the experience. And filmed it.

#3 - Bulgaria :: View Episode

In "Bulgaria" Vice travels to that country and interviews a construction entrepreneur / arms dealer who used to have business relationship with Osama Bin Laden, and who can get you a nuclear dirty-bomb if the money is right.

#2 - Filipino Feed Lot :: Part 1, Part 2

The first part, I guess, is not that bad. If you can stomach watching an able cook chop up some bull balls and prepare a dish called "Soup #5". The second part is messed up though. To create a dish called "Killing Me Softly" Chicken, the correspondent had to go buy a live chicken and watch as it was tenderized (with a machete) and burned with a blow-torch. Without the initial beheading.

#1 - Asses of the Caribbean :: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Apparently in some parts of Columbia it's perfectly normal for young boys to get their first sexual experience by fucking donkeys. Honestly, some footage just shouldn't be shot. Do Not watch Part 3!!!

Seriously.

Mango & Soya

2007-08-18T23:30:00.000-04:00

So... I was in the kitchen tonight, chopping some garlic. I notice Mango jumped on the dinner table, looking into the kitchen with mild bewilderment in her eyes. Seems that she noticed a fly buzzing around the stove and wanted a piece of it.

I though she looked kinda funny so I grabbed the camera and took a few photos.

Obviously realizing that she's not going to catch the fly -- who, by this time, I already named Soya (because the whole naming thought occurred to me as I was taking soy sauce out of the fridge) -- from her vantage point, Mango hopped over to the ledge of the kitchen window to get closer.

At this point, Soya was flying close to me so I slapped the poor thing and it fell straight to the ground. Mango - seizing on the opportunity! - jumps down, grabs the fallen Soya (with her mouth!) and makes a break for it. I figured Soya was as good as gone for when I heard Mango meowing emphatically across the apartment.

I go to check it out, and what do I see!?!? Mango is sitting confused on the floor, looking down as Soya, unable to fly, drunkenly stumbles all over the place.

I picked the little thing up, placed it on a napkin (FOR CONTRAST!) and proceeded to take loads of photos.

I even reunited Mango & Soya briefly, letting them take a look at each other; from a save distance.

It was all fun and games until, gunning for some better lighting, I brought Soya close to the dining-room chandelier. At that very point, seemingly rejuvenated by the life-giving powers of a 40W light-bulb, Soya took to flight and buzzed away from me like nothing has ever happened.

... but we'll always have our memories :)

P.S. Here's a link to a few photos on Flickr.

The Endarkenment

2007-08-16T10:35:00.001-04:00

The Age of Endarkenment

The Guardian has a new article about the growing threat to the scientific, economic, medical and academic establishments from mysticism, religion & magical thinking.

A minor aspect of the endarkenment has been a resurgence in magical and superstitious ideas about medicine. The existence of homeopaths on the high street won't usually do too much harm. Their sugar pills contain nothing and they won't poison your body. The greater danger is that they poison your mind.
It is true that consulting a homeopath could endanger your health if it delays proper diagnosis, or if they recommend sugar pills to prevent malaria, but the real objection is cultural. Homeopaths are a manifestation of a society in which wishful thinking matters more than truth; a society where what I say three times is true and never mind the facts.
If this attitude were restricted to half-educated herbalists and crackpot crystal gazers, perhaps one could shrug it off. But the endarkenment extends to the highest reaches of the media, government and universities. And it corrupts science itself.

More on this trend in BuzzFeed.

P.S. Ah, what the hell... I'm only posting this because I wanted an excuse to Photoshop that MC Hammer banner at the top. Can't Touch This, biatches!

After the War

2007-08-15T08:50:00.000-04:00

"In Our Bedrooms After The War" - [Stars]

This is from the new Stars album (by the same name):

Listen, the bird sing... Listen, the bells ring...
All the living are dead, and the dead are all living.
And the war is over, and we are beginning.

Here it comes, here comes the first step...
Here it comes, here comes the first step.
It starts up in our bedroom after the war.
It starts up in our bedroom after the war.
After the war.

Alison Jackson

2007-08-13T22:25:00.000-04:00

Double Take

Alison Jackson is a great video artist who uses lookalikes to make political and social statements about the high and mighty.

The clip above captures the private interactions between Bush and Blair. See the Video Clip gallery for more interesting interpretations, particularly the ones featuring the British monarchy. My favourites are:

Princes play darts
US state visit
Blair shoots Royals
Queen's leg waxing

2007-08-09T19:13:00.001-04:00

Who is Slava Sakhnenko?

commandN 100

2007-08-03T00:49:00.000-04:00

Phew... just got back from the commandN 100th episode party at No Regrets. Lot's of safe, high-quality fun there. Hung out with Will, Amber and others. They shared a cake and anounced a revenue-sharing partnership with YouTube. Check out some of the photos on my Flickr set.

So.. apparently Amber MacArthur is a big deal in this town.
And apparently I'm 9 years old.

Pictures and movies

2007-08-01T23:19:00.000-04:00

Here's Rannie "Photojunkie" Turingan with a lovely disco-ball canvas print that I purchased from his 24 exhibition. It's beautiful :)

On an unrelated note, I just got back from an advance screening of Superbad which was sooo ridiculously hilarious that it's ridiculous! The filthiest dialogue that I ever heard in a movie. Off the hook.

P.S. I think I'll refrain from quoting the film until more people get to see it. Othervise people would just think I'm a pervert.

The Real Slim Shady

2007-07-26T14:40:00.000-04:00

Yo! Check yourself before you wreck yourself... Turn the headphones up, mofo!

So I'm at home during lunch, munching on my sammich and starring wistfully out of the window, when I spot these two supa-fresh Slim Shadys breaking it down and practicing for some hardcore rap battle.

"Here we are up in Dundas Square
If we were elsewhere...
you'd still suck ass there!"

Boooya!

Apparently there's some freestyle battle brewing in Dundas Square and I need to find out the 411 so I can go and check it out, if only to see these dudes tear the roof off the sucka!

Seacrest out.

Monocle

2007-07-25T16:35:00.000-04:00

The Best Places to Call Home

In it's recent issue, my favourite magazine -- Monocle -- published a list of articles ranking the top livable cities in the world, taking into consideration issues such as economy, transporation, crime, green-space, general disposition of the locals, proximity to fun outdoorsy things to do, etc...

Canada's Montreal and Vancouver made the cut; Toronto didn't, but suprisingly neither did any mainland USA city. Here's the low-down:

Munich
Copenhagen
Zurich
Tokyo
Vienna
Helsinki
Sydney
Stockholm
Honolulu
Madrid
Melbourne
Montreal
Barcelona
Kyoto
Vancouver
Auckland
Singapore
Hamburg
Paris
Geneva

On a related note, Monocle Online publishes informative briefs on many cities, recommending places to visit if you want to buy some Books, grab a Working lunch with colleagues or some Afternoon tea/drink, or buy Something you can't get anywhere else... you get the idea.

Keeping things well within the spirit of Vignettizing, they also include the "Essentials" - a short list of notes capturing the essense of the city. Here's some quotes from the New York Essentials:

06 Take the subway if you need to get anywhere between 16.00 and 17.00 (when the taxi drivers change shifts).
07 The Upper East Side is the place to view women who have overdone the plastic surgery. You’ll think you’ve landed on another planet.
08 Remember you’ll never need to cross a bridge or tunnel when going out in the evening.
09 Make reservations.
10 Do as the locals. Steal someone’s cab and then flip them the finger when they scream at you.

The Order of the Phoenix

2007-07-23T11:41:00.000-04:00

Saw the latest Harry Potter in the theaters this past weekend and definitely agree with what mah main man Bobby wrote. Great film. Cinematography was particularly sleek.

Anyway, in the very related note, Daniel Radcliffe had a hilarious guest role on the British show Extras:

Out There

2007-07-20T19:27:00.000-04:00

This is great! An online magazine started by one of my favourite photographers (Toronto's Davin Risk of lowresolution.com) did an interview with another favourite of mine (a previously mentioned Christian Patterson) about Christian's recent project "Out There". Here are some exerpts:

I have long been fascinated with and inspired by phantom events—events that have little or no physical presence in a place or an image but have a very strong relationship with the place that is photographed. The resulting images focus on the quiet, spatial context and emotional energy of a place. I feel that these images exhibit a certain otherness—a sense of what was, or what could have been.

...

There are at least two different types of observations and photographs that I am making. There are certain situations, subjects and viewpoints that I feel are active inspections—they have an almost forensic feeling. And then there are landscapes and other scenes that I feel are quiet, contemplative observations—they have a more poetic feeling.

Furniture

2007-07-18T21:57:00.000-04:00

So Fez Batik (a bar/club that shut down half-a-year ago or so) decided to finally get rid of all its remaining furniture and put it out on the corner of Peter and Richmond. And thus I came into posession -- thanks Mark & Elliott for helping me out!! -- of a bar table and two stools. Now to repaint and re-upholster...

Infighter

2007-07-18T11:55:00.000-04:00

Met Ami Spears at a party last weekend and just looked up her local band Infighter. They write some wonderful songs, definitely ought to check them out live one of these days. Couldn't find any mp3 to download (plus: I think I'll go and buy this CD next time I see them) so here are some streams of their songs:

MySpace: "Regret", "Lost Types", "Silencer"
CBC Radio 3: "Regret", "The Actor", "Into the Bedroom"

And here's an endearingly cheesy video for "The Actor":

The Adorables

2007-07-12T10:32:00.000-04:00

Henri Faberge and the Adorables

Last night I went to see the comedy/music show thing called Backasswards. The comedy portion of it was... umm, let's say hit and miss. The best joke revolved around a university student getting his Major in Psychology of a Sexual Predator and mulling over whether he should continue with that Major or just do two minors :)

The music was much better, got to hear the new stuff from Gabe Kastner -- and his one-man band Bag -- although I was mildly disappointed he didn't play his old stuff which was always awesome. I first met Gabe when he played a set at the birthday party I threw 4-5 years ago at my UofT dorm.

The highlight was discovering this new "band" (it's more of a collective with ever-changing members) called Henri Faberge and the Adorables. They play exhilarating pop songs, often making up new songs on the spot when inspired by the bathroom stall graffiti, or breaking out into The Sign in a middle of another song.

Here's a song of their's, "O! Ella" which has the fun and energy reminiscent of The Pipettes and a certain France Gall tune.

Listen to a few more songs on this CBC website.

The Last Novel

2007-07-10T15:25:00.000-04:00

Vignettizing

This occurred over the span of maybe 15 minutes:

I saw the cover of The Last Novel while looking through The Book Design Review blog
Jumped to the New York Times review of the book
Skimmed the first few pages using the Amazon Online Reader
Went to the Indigo website to check if the book is available in the store near-by
Walked to Chapters next door to our office and bought it

So lately I've been fascinated with the concept of literary vignettes -- brief, impressionistic descriptions of people and places that forgo details, instead opting to capture the emotion of the author.

"These Words are Worth a Thousand Pictures" touched on vignettizing travel destinations. The Last Novel is a book filled with brief paragraphs capturing some aspect of the artistic process and people whose lives are dedicated to such endeavours. As always, some quotes:

     From high up on the Sistine ceiling scaffolding, Michelangelo was known to now and then drop things -- brooms, even fairly long boards.
     Most frequently, it appeared, when the pope happened to be lurking below for a glimpse at his latest effort.

     This man will never accomplish anything.
     Said Pope Leo X -- of Leonardo da Vinci.

     Stories happen only to people who know how to tell them.
     Said Thucydides.

     Ted Williams, bedded after a stroke, seen reaching out to lightly bat away a child's balloon -- and missing.
     Ted Williams.

     British troops reached Belsen, the first Nazi concentration camp to be reported on, in April of 1945. Forty thousand starving and/or dying prisoners. Ten thousands unburied corpses, corded like wood.
     It is my duty to describe something beyond the imagination of mankind, began the dispatch to the London Times.

     Everything is supposed to be very quite after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds.
     Says a line in Slaughterhouse-Five.

     Karl Marx died sitting at his desk.

     Old. Tired. Sick. Alone. Broke.
     All of which obviously means that this is the last book Novelist is going to write.

Skydiving

2007-07-08T22:28:00.000-04:00

No reason to worry about me. I'm alive and well despite having jumped from a tiny rust-bucket of a plane at 3000 feet -- next time I'm going for 12,000 -- with naught but a fancy backpack.

The sunset jumps are exceptionally beautiful, if not any less terrifying. The sun reflecting off hundreds of reservoirs and rivulets feeding into lake Erie is a sight to die for (not literally, though) and a good way to ocupy the time spent gliding slowly towards the ground.

Good times all around. And even though the rain ruined our plans to go to the beach on Sunday, we had the foresight to jump a fence and go swimming in a public pool in the middle of the night before.

These words are worth a thousand pictures

2007-06-28T17:33:00.000-04:00

The Art of Looking at Places

Excerpts from Alan Fletcher's Art of Looking Sideways. From a section where he jots down notes on places he visited.

Impressions noted by others.
Miami is a shopping centre with live-in customers. Tokyo is the world's biggest video installation. London Docklands isn't a real place -- it's a building developers' theme park. Mark Twain on Bermuda: it has many sights but they are easily avoided. And painter Francis Bacon, receiving an invitation to visit Switzerland: 'What for,' he ungraciously responded, 'to see all those effing views?', and declined. And El Dorado in Venezuela, I've read, is a dump.

Berlin.
Stayed at the Hotel Alexander [c.1990], just off Ku'damm, an Art Deco wet dream. I cut myself shaving laughing, thinking how to describe it -- I can't. Went to a major Picasso exhibition in the Mies National Gallery. Some of it crude, much of it careless, most of it brash. Then every so often -- whammo -- an immaculate drawing, painting or sculpture. Concluded his genius was lack of inhibition. A drive around East Berlin. A cityscape designed by dogmatic bureaucrats: mean, cheap, nasty, depressing and dull. Judging by the faces of the citizens, who can doubt that urban environments affect the human spirit?

Hotel Restaurant.
I was in the darkly lit opulent Hotel Ritz restaurant in Barcelona late one evening. The service was extremely slow. To pass the time I mentally drew the place: Hard edges cutting into soft shapes, shadows fuzzing and fading. Lights blurring and twinkling, folds creased, billowed or crumpled. Sharp corners and wobbly curves. Colours accentuating, blending and jumping. When we try to explain visual matters through words our ears come so far forward they blinker our eyes. I sympathize with the man who said that he couldn't actually describe a hippopotamus but he'd sure recognize one if he saw one.

Toronto.
Black squirrels.

P.S.

Scooters, sunburn and libraries

2007-06-28T14:08:00.000-04:00

I've been on Flickr for more than 2 years now and by all accounts I have a pretty modest gallery; well visited, but by no means popular, with very few comments and fewer favorites.

So perhaps it's a testament to Flickr's rising relevance that media folk are using it more and more to by-pass the professional photographers and stock photography sites to score free photos for their pieces. Here are three request that I've received over the last several months:

1)

Hi,

my name's Giuseppe and I am an Italian journalist. I'd like to write an article about scooters in Cuba and I found your pictures very interesting. For this reason, I am writing to ask you the permission to use those picture in my article (naturally, I would cite your work and send you an electronic copy of the piece).

However, I'd need some high resolusion photographs, that can be sent to me by email. Moreover, I'd like to hear about your impression on the island, tips and the sad story about the crash...

Hi!

I´m the projectmanager of a new Library-website at Stockholm Public Library and I really like your photos, and wish to use at least one of them on the website www.biblioteket.se (Biblioteket = The Library) but I now want to check that you still think it´s ok that we use your pictures at our website according to the Creative Commons "Attribution" licens.

The photo will be used on some informationpages regarding the library and its services.
We will not be able to pay you anything.

If you (or the man on the photo, is it you?) don´t think this is ok, we will of course not use your photos. But we appriciate if you´ll let us know as soon as possible.

Hello-

Our company, BannerCaswell Productions (BCP), really likes this photo and would like to use it in an upcoming episode for our new television show, "What Happens Next". It is a health and wellness show that explains how the body works and how it reacts to different stimulants.

We would like to use this photo for an episode about Sunburn.

We will credit you at the end of the show, per the request of flickr.com's Creative Commons copyright. This means we will include your username as owner of the photo, the photo's name and the photo's URL here on flickr.

The show will premiere in August, on a new Health and Wellness channel called Veria, though we do not have finalized dates for airtime. We are saving the contact information of all our photographers so we can inform them of specifics when they are available. We are also discussing putting the show up online solely for those overseas who would like to see their work .

All the spelling mistakes are left in on purpose. And by-the-way, everyone is free to use any of my photos (unless they feature other people prominently) in any way they want. That's what CC is there for :)

The Fratellis

2007-06-20T10:03:00.000-04:00

Here's a fun little music video that I like :)

// These guys sure like having pin-up girls in their videos

McLovin

2007-06-06T18:39:00.000-04:00

Ok, I'm gonna steal this post en masse from The Hater, just cause it so damn hilarious.

You know how sometimes the movie looks all nice and sweet in a trailer, but turns out to be filled with swearing and all sorts of other fun? That's cause the trailers are almost always rated PG and the censors would not allow any naughtiness broadcast during the prime TV hours. Case in point:

As a huge Michael Cera (from Arrested Development and the web-only Clark And Michael) fan, and he has a new movie coming out soon. Here's what the trailer looks for the kiddies...

And here's the Rated R version of the same trailer that makes me want to go see this movie soooo much more...

Here's another example for the movie Knocked Up which is out now and I have to go watch:

The official trailer that makes it look like a normal romantic comedy

The 'international' trailer that makes it look like it's actually really funny

P.S. Here's an Rated-R trailer for a comedy The Ten

The National

2007-06-06T01:24:00.000-04:00

The National

Phew, just got back from watching The National in concert at The Opera House. Great band, great set, good crowd. We stayed a bit after the show, getting posters signed and talking to the guys (who told us interesting things about Sufjan Stevens, that we made a solemn promise not to blog about). Great night all around.

The video is for the song "Mistaken For Strangers" from their new album, which I like a lot.

...

Make up something to believe in your heart of hearts
so you have something to wear on your sleeve of sleeves
so you swear you just saw a feathery woman
carry a blindfolded man through the trees

showered and blue-blazered, fill yourself with quarters...

You get mistaken for strangers by your own friends
when you pass them at night under the silvery, silvery Citibank
lights
arm in arm in arm and eyes and eyes glazing under

oh you wouldn't want an angel watching over
surprise, surprise they wouldn't wannna watch
another uninnocent, elegant fall into the unmagnificent lives of
adults

Streetviewer

2007-06-04T10:11:00.001-04:00

Google Street View

A lot of you no doubt already tried Google Map's new, beautifully implemented Street View interface that allows one to walk through immersive street-level photography in select cities. Actual usefulness of the feature and/or privacy concerns aside, people are already starting to have fun with it, discovering all sorts of neat photos whose subjects would most likely not want to be shared with millions of Google users. I'm just doing my part here.

Check out the highlights:

Featured Streetviews on BuzzFeed
Link list on Streetviewr.com

No Umbrella

2007-06-03T20:15:00.001-04:00

It's raining outside right now, and some chick is dancing all crazy like behind our building. So I shot a little video. Lovely!

MESH1

2007-06-03T12:57:00.000-04:00

MESH: Barbarians at the Gate

Had a blast last week at the Toronto-based web conference MESH, meeting new people, listening in on the panels, getting the drinky-drink on in the after-parties. Good times all around. Officially sanctioned inspirations aside, MESH is all about the spaces in between the keynotes, panels & workshops, where I got a chance to meet and talk to a lot of interesting folk over the coffee, lunch or beer.

I hung out with Rannie who looked a little burned out near the end since he took it upon himself to take photos of e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g.

Got to know a video blogger Mark McKay who made a splash with his "The Wacky World of Web 2.0" video that got screened on the first day of MESH. A great guy, whose controversial videos got him kicked out of the BlogTO syndication. Make sure to catch his videos on YouTube.

Oh, and I finally met Loren Feldman who has been my favourite video blogger for a while (i.e. since Ze retired). The guy is a riot. His panel (with Rachel Sklar and Cynthia Brumfield) was the highlight of the conference.

Me and Loren were chatting outside the conference one of those days, when a guy came up to ask him for a cigarette. He overheard us talking about Loren's past life as an actor and was all like "You're an actor? I've been trying to get into acting myself a bit, just trying to get some money to pay an agency, maybe do some modelling." Loren just looks the guy up and down and says "Dude, you know and I know that you're no model. Fuck the agency, it's a scam. They should be paying you money, not the other way around." The look on the guy's face was priceless.

Dreams & Choices

2007-05-25T10:06:00.000-04:00

These two panels from XKCD are all you need to live a happy and fulfilling life:

P.S. Here's my previous post about other comics in the vain of xkcd.com

Wight & Wainwright

2007-05-25T01:04:00.000-04:00

Sara Wight

I've just discovered (via Jorg Colberg's Conscientious blog) the photography of Sara Wight and urge everyone to check it out. While the "Kiss Me" and "Touch Me" projects see her indulging her more "artistic" tendencies -- in the Art School sense of taking a concept that's interesting in theory and then taking it too far, with rather bland results that get boring fast -- "Beyond the Horizon" collection of 27 photos is where her true artistry shows.

The exquisite vistas featured here could have been the usual landscape pap (the kind that might make it's way to computer desktops and wall calendars) but for the sparse sprinkling of people and human influence in the middle of this forbidding nature. The desolation and vastness surrounding these human figures makes the work unbelievably powerful for me. I would gladly blow up any of these photos to wall-size and hang it in my apartment.

Rufus Wainwright

Additionally, I just saw the video for the new Rufus Wainwright single "Going to a town" which is great. So I included it here for your enjoyment :)

I’m going to a town that has already been burnt down
I’m going to a place that has already been disgraced
I’m gonna see some folks who have already been let down
I’m so tired of America

I’m gonna make it up for all of The Sunday Times
I’m gonna make it up for all of the nursery rhymes
They never really seem to want to tell the truth
I’m so tired of you, America

...

Tell me, do you really think you go to hell for having loved?
Tell me, enough of thinking everything that you’ve done is good
I really need to know, after soaking the body of Jesus Christ in blood
I’m so tired of America

...

Hitchens

2007-05-20T23:29:00.000-04:00

God Is Not Great

Ok, enough cats. Taking advantage of the spell of free time provided by this long weekend, I browsed the local Chapters where I spotted the new Christopher Hitchens book and then spent most of today reading it.

Although the title (and the tag line) is entirely self-explanatory, God Is Not Great is an ode to atheism and a stinging - and an exceptionally well written - condemnation of organized religion as a force of tyranny, ignorance and hypocrisy in the world. Without getting hung up on any particular religion, Hitchens is an equal-opportunity critic as illustrated in this brief quote:

Augustine was a self-centred fantasist and an earth-centered ignoramus: he was guiltily convinced that god cared about his trivial theft from some unimportant pear trees, and quite persuaded -- by analogous solipsism -- that the sun revolved around the earth. He also fabricated the mad and cruel idea that the souls of unbaptized children were sent to "limbo". Who can guess the load of misery that this diseased "theory" has placed on millions of Catholic parents down the years, until its shamefaced and only partial revision by the church in our own time? Luther was terrified of demons and believed that the mentally afflicted were the devil's work. Muhammad is claimed by his own followers to have thought, as did Jesus, that the desert was pullulating with dijinns, or evil spirits.

One must state it plainly. Religion comes from the period of human prehistory where nobody -- not even the mighty Democritus who concluded that all matter was made from atoms -- had the smallest idea what was going on. It comes from the bawling and fearful infancy of our species, and is a babyish attempt to meet our inescapable demand for knowledge (as well as for comfort, reassurance, and other infantile needs). Today the least educated of my children knows much more about the natural order than any of the founders of religion, and one would like to think -- though the connection is not a fully demostratable one -- that this is why they seem so uninterested in sending fellow humans to hell.

To get a nice introduction to what Hitchens is all about, here's a lovely eulogy he performed for Jerry Falwell, who recently kicked the bucket:

P.S. Here are some exerpts from the book: http://www.slate.com/id/2165033/entry/2165035/

Mango

2007-05-13T14:55:00.000-04:00

Ah, fuck it! I can't resist.

Here are some more photos of our new wittle Mango with some of her sibblings that stayed behind in Peterborough.

Ménage

2007-05-10T16:49:00.000-04:00

Ménage

As you see from my non-existent blog posts, I've been pretty busy with settling down in my new place and spending all my free time with my new kitty Ménage! [Yes, I'm blogging about cats now, which everyone better find interesting!] It's kind of exciting, though, because I never had a proper pet before (a few fishies and parrots notwithstanding), so when Kaitlin imported her cat from home I was all over that.

He's been a bit sad the last few days, meowing about this and that while staring forlornly out of the window. The good news, though, is that this weekend, Kaitlin and I are going to Peterborough with plans to bring back another kitten that can be his friend! Yay, two cats for me! So I'm pretty excited about meeting Apricot, or Mango, or whatever fruity name Kaitlin was planning on giving the poor little thing.

Life

2007-04-27T16:08:00.000-04:00

City Life

So here's a wee-bit of an exciting news. Starting next week, Kaitlin and I are moving in into our very own one-bedroom apartment in the heart of the city, just off Queens St. West and minutes away from my work (I can actually see the building out of my window here). Joining us, would be Kaitlin's cat Menage and maybe another kitten once it grows up a bit. Lots of awesome changes!

We decided to go through with this move-in around April 20th, so here's a simple guide to finding a flat in Toronto in 3 days:

Myhood.ca
Can't emphasize enough how awesome this site is. If you live in Toronto, you might have seen their cheaply made, photocopy adverts posted all over the downtown -- that's how I found out about it.

What makes this a great apartment searching tool is that they aggregate all the major listings and they have an intuitive Map interface for browsing all the available places in the area that you're interested in (unlike 247apartments, whose mapping features is just horrible). Just zoom to the area that you want to live in, select the filters for price and whatnot and it shows you what's available.
Google 'My Maps'
Google's new custom maps feature is a simple and nicely executed way to catalog places. As I found potential apartments, I just added them to my "Apartments" map. I also put pins for the locations of mine & Kaitlin's work so we can easily see how long the commute would be. Google provides a variety of pin designs one can choose, so I just colour-coded the map with different pins for: Apartments Found, Apartments Scheduled for Viewing, Apartments Visited & Apartments Not Available / Rejected.
We only had to visit three places (in one afternoon) before we settled on this one building that's five minutes from my work and right in the center of the best neighborhood (for both of us) in Toronto. After that it was just taking care of the banking, applications and lease-signing (tomorrow!).

And Voila! So long Richmond Hill.

:)

Running The World

2007-04-25T12:29:00.000-04:00

"Jarvis"

Holy shit, the new Jarvis Cocker (of Pulp) solo album is awesome! Takes me way back to the time I first discovered Pulp, back in university. My favourite song is "Running the World" available here for your enjoyment:

"Running the World" by Jarvis Cocker
[Download / Listen]

Well did you hear, there's a natural order?
Those most deserving will end up with the most?
That the cream cannot help but always rise up to the top,
Well I say "Shit floats”

If you thought things had changed
Friend, you'd better think again,
Bluntly put, in the fewest of words:

Cunts are still running the world.

Now the working classes are obsolete
They are surplus to society's needs
So let 'em all kill each other
And get it made overseas.

That's the word, don't you know
From the guys that's running the show
Lets be perfectly clear boys and girls:

Cunts are still running the world.

Oh feed your children on crayfish and lobster tails
Find a school near the top of the league
In theory I respect your right to exist,
I will kill you if you move in next to me

Ah, it stinks, it sucks,
It's anthropologically unjust
Oh but the takings are up by a third:

Cunts are still running the world.

The free market is perfectly natural
Do you think that I'm some kind of dummy?
It's the ideal way to order the world:
“Fuck the morals, does it make any money?”

And if you don't like it? Then leave.
Or use your right to protest on the street,
Yeah! Use your right, but don't imagine that it's heard:

Not whilst cunts are still running the world.

P.S.

Blood

2007-04-19T10:24:00.000-04:00

Blood Trails

A few days ago, while walking to work I saw an entire block of Peter Street surrounded by police tape, while cop cars and CSI vans crowded the scene.

Days later there is still a trail of blood that snakes down the street, drawing puzzled frowns from the more observant of passerbys.

792

2007-04-14T21:02:00.000-04:00

"de juguete" by fliegender

Flight AC792

I had quite a fun time trying to get from California to Toronto. I was planning on writing about it, but funny enough, someone felt compelled to start a website singularly dedicated to that flight that I was supposed to be on. Here are the details from that site:

How Air Canada Let Down Its Customers And Its Employees
Are you one of the unfortunate passengers who had to suffer through the total debacle of flight 792 from LA to Toronto on Saturday, April 7th 2007?
Feel insulted by the $100 reimbursement offered by the airline? Did you know this $100 is only good for full fair tickets?

Did you sit in the aircraft for over 3 hrs only to be then told the flight had been cancelled because the flight crew could not continue?

Were you happy to suffer through the seat allocation process and re-ticketing that made you 45 min late boarding the same aircraft you were just seated in 6 hours earlier?

Find it odd they did nothing for the past 6 hrs to get the aircraft airworthy. Wonder why you had to sit in it again while your connections and hopes of getting to your destinations on time disappeared?

Did you feel bad for the Air Canada employees who excelled at their job that day? The people who worked hard dealing with the rebooking. The poor aircrew that had to take over an already unhappy passenger list. Did you see and hear their embarrassment as they told you that you had sit in an airplane that was still not ready to fly?

Were you offered any compensation for this second set of errors?

If you agree and were a passenger on this flight, please e-mail us your name, seat number and any details you would like to add.

We will be launching a full written complaint with Air Canada and the Canadian Transportation Agency on behalf of all passengers.
www.cta-otc.gc.ca/cta-otc2000/faqs/filing_e.html
Lets take this opportunity to let Air Canada know it's customers and good employees deserve better.

Nothing short of a complete refund would be acceptable as compensation for this days poor excuse at running an airline.

Sincerely,

Gary Stephen

P.S. The whole thing reminded me of this old Ze Frank episode.

Pollinate

2007-04-11T18:13:00.000-04:00

POLLINATE

If you're creatively inclined, you can do worse then to sit down for 40 minutes or so and watch this video / lecture about design, originality and creativity. Lots of interesting interviews, videos and ideas. Worth just for the video clip of two chairs having sex.

[via thedeplorableword]

The Empire

2007-04-10T23:52:00.000-04:00

The Empire That Was Russia

An interesting history lesson on Christian Patterson's blog tells a story of a Russian scientist/photographer Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky who was one of the first proponents of colour photography and was even commissioned by the Tsar (until the time he was executed by the communists) to participate in the colour-photographic survey of the Russian empire.

Sergei's technique involved photographing the same scene three times in rapid succession using different coloured filters to generate three slides. These slides were then projected through red, green and blue filters onto the screen to form a colour image; an effect so novel at the time that the device was referred to as the "magic lantern".

Of course, now-a-days all these slides have been scanned in and the curious can explore turn-of-the-century Russia through the Library of Congress Exhibition or access a more complete collection at this University of Wisconsin archive.

Post No Bills

Speaking of photography, I meant to give a shout-out to my brother's new blog where he posts his new images and general commentary about photography and such things.

I particularly enjoyed the double post of Church and Observatory photos which cleverly take architectural objects whose appearance we're all familiar with (e.g. the spires and crosses of a church; the half-opened dome of the observatory against the night sky), but in this case they are photographed to appear mundane and pedestrian. I could almost envision an entire project; taking photos of all the world's most beautiful landmarks, but capturing only the parts of them that are totally utilitarian and unremarkable.

Pier 39

2007-04-07T01:33:00.000-04:00

Wooo, I just got back from San Fransisco where I finally visited the famed Pier 39 that has gained an almost mythic status among our PlanetEye cartel. So after years of Rick's rousing talks about the sea lions and demoing photos and videos of the lazy animals on PlanetEye, it was a wonder to finally see them in person. For the uninitiated, Pier 39 is a marina in San Francisco that has been taken over by a bunch of sea lions and their population greatly grew due to a "plentiful herring supply, the available dock space [which they stole from poor boat owners] and protective environment".

And by the way PlanetEyers... it's SEA LIONS not SEALS. Don't you know that "Sea lions have external ear flaps, seals do not!"

ALSO: Sea lions will bite if provoked.

Santa Monica

2007-04-03T16:49:00.000-04:00

Whew, spent the whole day yesterday walking around Santa Monica and discovering the wonders of the LA public transportation system. With girls working hard at MusicIP I hopped on a bus, railway, another bus, and made my way to Santa Monica Pier where I fished, rode roller-coasters, ate seafood, went swimming in the ocean and... Ok, none of that actually happened, but I did walk all over the place and explored the pier and surrounding area which was lovely... I had ice-cream and everything. I particular loved the street musicians and how every other street is a Boulevard. Quaint!

Afterwards I went out of my way to just get away from the touristy spots and visit the Santa Monica that the locals see. That's just a habit that I got into recently; whenever I travel I always take some time to ditch the attractions and just make my way around the city at random, trying to get a feel of the place, sometimes it could get risky when I really don't know the area, but Santa Monica seemed harmless enough (unlike my romp through Cuban slums that earned me a visit to a hospital and a sizable scar on my elbow... but also better photos), plus it was a good day for a walk.

Unfortunately it took me waaaay to long to realize that other then a few sparsely planted palm trees and an obscene amount of auto-repair shops, there's really not much to the place. I also should have planned my escape from Santa Monica a wee bit better, because catching the LA bus at 5pm got me a taste of that Los Angeles traffic that everyone seems to talk about. Not fun.

Other then that, I stopped by the saddest looking Chinatown in the known world to grab some really bland spicy-beef soup and headed back to Pasadena where I acquired a 6-pack of Heinekens for myself as quickly as I humanly could.

Sunday

2007-04-02T01:58:00.000-04:00

Heh, not much to report today :)

We were supposed to head to Hollywood today, but alas, the girls didn't take too well to all the wine consumed last night and... voila! no one was really up for anything come morning. So we ended up spending most of the later afternoon lounging around the pool, reading tabloids. We did manage to fit in a little bit of shopping and a nice dinner, but that's about it. And now: Sleepy Time!

Pasadena

2007-04-01T04:53:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I finally met up with Jenny, Rachel and Adam and spent a lovely day in Old-Town Pasadena, walking the main strip, catching a matinee screening of "Blades of Glory" (hilarious!), checking out the shops, the pet store stocking dozens of tiny, LA-ready puppies retailing for about $2K, and generally catching up and enjoying the beautiful weather. In the evening we hit up the Vertical Wine Bistro and got mashed on their carefully selected wine-tasting flights menu. Beautiful day all around :)

P.S. So I was chilling at Jenny's place in the evening, helping her assemble the last of the furniture for her apartment, getting the drink on, and watching The Office, when the phone rings. She runs across her flat to pick it up and on the other line the guy goes:

"Umm... I loved you in... umm... are you Jenny McCarthy, the actress!?!?"

Lovely! Apparently she gets 3-4 calls like this per day, although usually there's nothing but slight breathing sounds coming through the reciever. That's what you get for refusing to spend a few pennies to get an unlisted number in LA.

LAX

2007-03-31T05:58:00.000-04:00

Last night I arrived in LAX with a bag of clothes, a camera, laptop (just in case), and my new copy of Walden.

P.S. A little related story:

I'm sitting at the Molson Bar in Pearson Airport, reading a book and... umm... trying to get rid of my excess Canadian dollars so I don't have to lug them around with me. An older lady next to me says "Excuse me... are you reading Walden? I live right near-by there!" Awesome! So we went on discussing Thoreau's life and the life of the Walden pond since. The sucessfully blocked efforts to build low-income housing around there, tourists hicking the trails and taking a dip in its waters when it gets too hot, and how the "sun setting over the Walden pond is just one of the most sublime visions in the world." I ended up promising her that I'll visit it when I get a chance. And I'm pretty sure I will.

I bet Jenny would be proud

2007-03-23T11:58:00.000-04:00

Stephen Colbert is honouring Oshawa for honouring him.

(thanks Rohan)

Mad money

2007-03-21T17:02:00.000-04:00

Jim Cramer on TheStreet TV

In what appears to be an inspired moment of either complete hubris or a deliberate attempt to get the truth out to the people (in which case, this must be the cockiest whistle-blowing exercise ever), Jim Cramer appeared in front of a camera and explained step-by-step a myriad of ways that hedge-fund companies manipulate stock prices, game the futures market by spending a few million dollars here and there to produce uncertainty, and lie to analysts and reporters to control what kind of information the public receives.

Here's my favourite quote from the interview:

What's important when you're in the hedge-fund mode is to not do anything remotely truthful, because the truth is so against your view that it's important to create new truth to develop a fiction.

Also, when discussing cell-phone companies, Cramer seemed genuinly surprised that Nokia and Motorolla didn't get together yet to enter into some kind of price-fixing scheme:

They seem to be directly worried about the authorities. It's almost as if they have a lawyer that matters, and what eventually happens is that shareholders demand that you get phony lawyers and they sit in the room.

Obviously one shouldn't put too much trust into claims of just one controversy-baiting entertainer, but still it's an interesting view inside the world of Wall Street.

The Secret...

2007-03-19T17:26:00.000-04:00

The Secret Challenge

I tend to tune out most of the self-help fads that come and go, but even with my heathen cynicism it has been hard to ignore The Secret DVDs that coyly glare at me from Chapters checkout counters, convenience store shelfs and daytime talk shows. Now, apparently it's a number one selling DVD (and book!) on Amazon to boot.

From what I can gather, this "secret" (I'll try to refrain from using quotation marks prolifically here, even thought they are warranted) has "traveled through centuries to reach me" and even has it's own pseudo-period-movie trailer (with horsies, secret cabals, somber voice-overs and everything!) The secret itself is indeed old, and has thusly been told in just about every self-help book in the last few centuries, but I can definitely understand where they get off by re-marketing the whole shebang to The Da Vinci Code generation. Clever.

The whole thing is more commonly referred to as the New Age "Law of Attraction" doctrine with all it's talk of magnets (get it? physics & psychology == the same!), vibrations (wtf?), mind over matter, and writing out & visualizing your wishes to make them come true. And I have no qualms that it certainly works on a certain level -- that visualizing and revisiting your dreams would definitely work out better for you then forgetting about them and moving on the next thing on your mind -- but it pains me to see all this pseudo-science and philosophy-lite marketed and re-marketed under different names to the same people year after year.

At least we'll always have The Hater (from The Onion's A.V. Club) write sarcastic lists about this stuff. Here's a quote:

But that doesn't mean The Secret didn't teach me anything. Here's what I learned from my hour and a half of indoctrination:

1. Reading a book with a loupe may look ridiculous, but it is the best way to indicate that you're investigating the origins of "The Secret."
...
11. If you get sick, it's kind of your fault for putting your negative thoughts out in the universe. The good news is that you can heal yourself with your thoughts too! Also, you can think an elephant into existence—although there will be a time delay.

But the most important thing I learned from watching The Secret isn't really about The Secret at all. It's about Oprah. I learned that Oprah will publicly scold a writer like James Frey who presents fiction as fact, but she evidently has no problem whole-heartedly endorsing writers (and Australian TV producers) who say that people can visualize a new sports car into existence.

So: fiction as fact = bad, but fantasy as fact = inspirational.

We Need Heart-Touching, Soul-Penetrating Stories!

Additionally, someone in the comments of the article above linked to a great story from The Believer (a beautiful literary magazine that I'm quite a fan of) that dissects the modern cult of self-help over the course of a seminar for the followers of Mark Victor Hansen (inventor of the Chicken Soup for the _______ books). "We Need Heart-Touching, Soul-Penetrating Stories!" is pretty long, but it reads easily if you have some time to kill.

This is, in fact, the reason why self-help writers today are millionaires. While self-help books have always been popular, it is only recently that publishers have capitalized on the idea of a series, which has a huge profit margin because the audience is preselected and the writers (distinct from authors) are often unpaid.
Yet people like Marilyn insist it’s all for the greater good. She’s an attractive older woman with a first-rate dye job, seems quite bright and funny, and has been to four of these conferences. Marilyn insists that these programs “underpromise and overdeliver. They make you think outrageous. You feel empowered, like you can make a difference. Education is empowerment.” And all of the money changing hands for this education and empowerment? “I believe that the best way to help the poor is not to be one of them.”

2007-03-17T22:09:00.000-04:00

Good-bye

Ze Frank.

Quak-quak.

Photo by Ben McLeod on Flickr

Super bowl

2007-03-17T19:55:00.000-04:00

How to Break Into the Super Bowl.

Watch how four middle-aged guys smuggled two van-loads of tiny electonic devices into Super Bowl (while under the tightest of security lockdowns) and distributed them to hundreds of fans in the stands to spell out a secret message during the Prince half-time show. Read this long post about what was involved in planning and executing the prank. This is from the conclusion:

No system is 100% secure. In a system as massively chaotic as the Super Bowl, there are too many variables to ever fully control. All they can do is look for rogue elements, then try to subdue or remove them. But when the rogue employees look exactly like the real employees, what can you do?

We live in a zero-risk society, convinced that more security, more police, more searches, and more technology will make us more safe. This is false. As we've proven, even four comics and a cameraman can outwit the most tightly-controlled event in history. Everyone did their job. No one did anything wrong. But no system is completely safe.

Life involves risk.

(via Kottke.org)

Genius

2007-03-13T23:04:00.000-04:00

The Genius in All of Us

One of my favourite new blogs is written by a pop-science author David Schenk, as he gathers materials and tries out arguments for his upcoming (~2009) book about "how science is unveiling a rich new understanding of talent, 'giftedness', and brilliance." I remember getting a glimpse into the research behind expetise and 'genius' while taking Cognitive Psychology during my fourth year in UofT and I've been fascinated with the topic ever since.

The blog itself is a wonderful literary experiment, since David not only composes well thought-out and welcomingly brief posts around a myriad of interesting ideas, but majority of action takes place in the comments section where he battles and debates over the controversial points of his thesis.

My favourite posts are the ones that delve into histories and myths about the great geniuses of the past. Like this bit about ~~Mozart~~ Beethoven:

"Ludwig's early training was ruthless and exhaustive, driven by his tyrannical father Johann who was disappointed in his own achievements. Starting at age 4 or 5, Johann made his eldest son his special project, forcing him to practice constantly. "Neighbors of the Beethovens," Morris writes, "recall seeing a small boy 'standing on front of the clavier and weeping.' He was so short he had to climb a footstool to reach the keys. If he hesitated, his father beat him. When he was allowed off, it was only to have a violin thrust into his hands, or musical theory drummed into his head. There were few days when he was not flogged, or locked up in the cellar. Johann also deprived him of sleep, waking him at midnight for more hours of practice."

Thailand

2007-03-01T22:35:00.000-05:00

Jblog is back.

And she put up some photos:

Caught up...

2007-02-28T11:04:00.000-05:00

Photo by Alexbip

Lazy, flawed and hopeless...

I've been kinda lazy with this whole blogging business. Mostly because I've been pretty busy with getting things done at PlanetEye. In other news though, it seems Jenny is back in California and I'm looking forward to her and Rachel coming to Toronto for Canadian Music Week. It'll be a riot.

Somewhat related, I was planning to go visit them on the west coast later in March and guess what I see when visiting Brazzaville's MySpace page!?!? David Brown and company are playing a show at the Temple Bar in Los Angeles on March 31st! I'll definitely try to arrange my trip around that and hook up with those guys when we are both there.

Here's a Brazzaville song that I really like. Just for you guys :)

Lazy, Flawed and Hopeless [Listen / Download]

...

All our cars are rusted through
TV's in the garbage
Lazy, flawed and hopeless
Lazy, flawed and hopeless

When my days have come and gone
Lay down with my blanket
Lazy, flawed and hopeless
Lazy, flawed and hopeless

Load me on an airplane
Point me toward the tropics
Lazy, flawed and hopeless
Lazy, flawed and hopeless

Fame and fortune...
Caught up in the game

I love the smell
of asphalt in the rain

Dark Matter

2007-02-07T15:07:00.000-05:00

Found: Most of the Universe

I only have a passing interest in astronomy, but this is really exciting stuff! Nearly 80 years after it was first predicted, astronomers not only found ways to prove the existence of Dark Matter, but they actually managed to create a map that spans billions of light years and illustrates the distribution of matter through space and time. How, you ask?

In fact, recent observations suggest that dark matter is some exotic form of matter that only interacts with normal matter through gravity.
So how do you find what you can't see and see what you can't find?

Astronomers got clever. The COSMOS team made their map of dark matter by exploiting a peculiar characteristic of gravity: its ability to warp space. Einstein postulated that gravity bends space like a bowling ball placed in the middle of a bed distorts the mattress. Light moving through empty space travels in a straight line, but if it passes by a mass, the gravity will bend the light's path. How much the path bends depends on how much mass there is and how it's distributed.
That is how scientists can detect dark matter.

Real clever, astronomers... Real clever.

Long Live Flickr

2007-02-02T18:40:00.000-05:00

Long Live Flickr

Over the course of the day I've been skimming across this looooooooong thread on the Flickr.com discussion boards about the upcoming account "Switch". [A little history: Flickr is a photo-sharing site that a while back was purchased by Yahoo, and now they are requiring all Flickr users to have a Yahoo account so that they don't have to maintain two account systems at the same time.]

Sooo... apparently some people REALLY don't like Yahoo and will foam out of their mouth into the Flickr forums. This is fine, of course, but it gets so tiresome observing these self-righteous wanks who are, apparently, more than willing to use a Yahoo service until they are forced to acknowledge it (really, the lowest kind of hypocrisy) and then they are all Fire and Brimstone until this all dies down and they quietly go on signing up for their Yahoo account and continuing to use Flickr (like they did when they first got all outraged about Yahoo purchasing Flickr) because it's obviously the best photo-sharing site on the Internet.

And anyway, I just wanted to say that Stewart Butterfield has long been my favourite Internet entrepreneur and this incident made me respect him even more. His restraint and responses to all these personal and professional attacks are almost Zen-like.

// And seriously, I hope people knock it off with this whole "Old Skool" bullshit, it sounds retarded.

The Art of Travel

2007-01-31T23:37:00.000-05:00

The Art of Travel
by Alain de Botton

Over the last few days I've been really enjoying Alain de Button's (a contemporary philosopher whose show, Status Anxiety, can be seen on PBS every now and again) "The Art of Travel" while riding city buses, staring out at the cold Toronto winter. Rather than dealing with the WHERE of travel, it focuses squarely on WHY, examining the stories of writers, poets, artists, explorers and the author himself to critically (and rather lyrically) explore what drives people to travel and how these journeys can change their lives.

One of my favourite paragraphs deals with analyzing a travel pamphlet and trying to understand how a simple photograph can initiate a process as elaborate as Travel:

Those responsible for the brochure had darkly intuited how easily their readers might be turned into prey by photographs whose power insulted the intelligence and contravened any notions of free will: over-exposed photographs of palm trees, clear skies and white beaches. Readers who would have been capable of skepticism and prudence in other areas of their lives reverted in contact with these elements to a primordial innocence and optimism. The longing provoked by the brochure was an example, at once touching and bathetic, of how projects (and even whole lives) might be influenced by the simplest and most unexamined images of happiness; of how a lengthy and ruinously expensive journey might be set into motion by nothing more than the sign of a photograph of a palm tree gently inclining in a tropical breeze.

It always seemed to me that the most emotionally uplifting parts of travel are a) Dreaming up places to visit and things to do there; and b) Remembering and sharing the highlights of past trips.

The majority of actual traveling time is spent in bleary disbelief that I am actually doing what I'm doing, in a place that I so wished to visit. A strange feeling of trying to understand my place in this foreign environment, punctuated by a few sublime moments when the time, the place and my state of mind are just so and it suddenly feels like this is exactly what I expected when I decided to leave home and travel god knows where.

But the clarity of these experiences only gets defined upon arrival back, as I look at the photos that I took, begin embellishing my stories just enough to form coherent tales that wouldn't bore people to death, and wonder how easy it is for the mind to, at first, blur and then totally erase any worries, discomforts, and bad moods (or moments of boredom and homesickness) that I had during the actual journey.

Brazzaville videos

2007-01-28T22:43:00.000-05:00

Finally, David Brown and his Brazzaville crew put up some music videos online. Here's a nice lo-fi, laid-back video for one of my favourite Brazzaville songs:

"Bosphorus"

Did I mention that I'm planning to travel to Istanbul later this year? Because I do.

And here's the video for the famous Victor Tsoy cover:

"Star Called Sun"

The human brain can only generate 30 watts

2007-01-27T21:52:00.000-05:00

Soo... that was quite a week...

The things at work are really kicking into high gear, I'm finally beginning to understand all those start-up stories that people who went through one are so fond of telling. You know: late nights and early mornings, ups and downs, great ideas and frustrations, crazy parties to blow off the steam, etcetera.

On top of that, Jenny is leaving us and moving to California to work at MusicIP with Rachel and Adam. We're all very excited for her and I'm definitely planing a visit to Pasadena in the Spring, but at the same time I'm sure it's gonna be a little sad in our office. For a few days. Until we get over it.

Bobby (who's my oldest friend here in Canada) has finally caught up with me and turned 25 this week. He's having a wee bit of an existential crisis at the moment, and not all of it has to do with cutting his golden locks. So I'm really looking forward to finally getting together tomorrow and catching up on everything. In the meanwhile, I feel compelled to link to this touchingly pertinent post by Donald Crowdis (a founder of the Ontario Science Centre and one of the oldest [93] bloggers out there). Sometimes retrospection of others can put things in perspective.

Dedicated to Jenny

2007-01-23T14:08:00.001-05:00

Bier Markt

2007-01-22T11:58:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday ME!!

Thanks for everyone who came out to Bier Markt last Friday for a little celebratory drinkies :)
It was a real fun time! Good thing I brought me Polaroid camera, those things are always the life of the party.

Here's the Flickr set with photos

ZEBRA

2007-01-21T21:51:00.000-05:00

ZEBRA Telecom Calendar

This is a bit ridiculous, but I came across this calendar for a Russian ISP (Zebra Telecom) where they took famous works of art and one way or another worked zebras into the paintings. Reminds me of some of the Banksy's stuff, except more "cute and funny" rather than "dark and satirical".

I came across it on the English Russia blog - a site that's kind of strange in and of itself. This blog took upon itself to find and document bits and pieces of old Soviet history, glimpses into the private lives of post-Soviet citizens, or just scrap-book together relics of not-too-distant past and present. Always good for a nostalgia-trip every now and then.

//And I'm UKRAINIAN!!!

Cayman Islands

2007-01-17T15:35:00.000-05:00

Perfect Day, by januszl

Cayman Islands

Soo... it's pretty cold here, and this laid back tune really does it for me right now:

"Cayman Islands" by Kings of Convenience [Listen/Download]

Through the alleyways to cool off in the shadows
Then into the street, following the water
There's a bearded man paddling in his canoe
Looks as if he has come all the way from the Cayman Islands

These canals, it seems, they all go in circles
Places look the same, and we're the only difference
The wind is in your hair, it's covering my view
I'm holding on to you, on a bike we've hired until tomorrow

If only they could see, if only they had been here
They would understand, how someone could have chosen
To go the length I've gone, to spend just one day riding
Holding on to you, I never thought it would be this clear

The Water or the Wave

2007-01-17T00:42:00.000-05:00

" 'Utram bibis? Aquam an undam?' Which are you drinking? The water or the wave? "

- The Magus

I turned 25, ummm... yesterday and I just started reading The Magus (by John Fowles), in which a twenty-five-year-old protagonists finds himself in a middle of a [philosophically] life-changing adventure on a mysterious Greek island. It's really connecting with me. And it's pretty long, so I can enjoy it at least for a little while.

"He drank the wave?"

"We all drink both. But he meant the question should always be asked. It is not a precept. But a mirror."

I thought; could not decide which I was drinking.

P.S. This Friday we're going to The Bier Markt for some low-key celebratin'. Be there or be square.

Artificial Sweetness

2007-01-16T15:04:00.000-05:00

Le Grand Content

This is somewhat related to the previous post (and only in the sense that I got them both from the excellent Information Aesthetics blog).

"Le Grand Content examines the omnipresent Powerpoint-culture in search for its philosophical potential. Intersections and diagrams are assembled to form a grand 'association-chain-massacre'. which challenges itself to answer all questions of the universe and some more. Of course, it totally fails this assignment, but in its failure it still manages to produce some magical nuance and shades between the great topics death, cable tv, emotions and hamsters."

An animation inspired by index.blogspot.com, PowerPoint and life.

Links:
Clemens Kogler's website
YouTube Version

Annual Report

2007-01-14T23:31:00.000-05:00

The Feltron 2006 Annual Report

So... this is kinda awesome. Each year Nicholas Felton records and charts minute details of his life and then generates an Annual Report illustrating the statistics of his living habits. His 2006 report is the most detailed yet, and can be perused here (somewhat eye-hurting colour scheme notwithstanding). The 2005 report is also available.

P.S. In other news... Jack's back!

Free Will

2007-01-07T03:38:00.000-05:00

Free Will: Now You Have It, Now You Don’t

As a result, physicists, neuroscientists and computer scientists have joined the heirs of Plato and Aristotle in arguing about what free will is, whether we have it, and if not, why we ever thought we did in the first place.
“Is it an illusion? That’s the question,” said Michael Silberstein, a science philosopher at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. Another question, he added, is whether talking about this in public will fan the culture wars.
“If people freak at evolution, etc.,” he wrote in an e-mail message, “how much more will they freak if scientists and philosophers tell them they are nothing more than sophisticated meat machines, and is that conclusion now clearly warranted or is it premature?”

One could do worse then taking some time off this weekend to read this article.

Update: Or you can view the latest video by Ze Frank, where he is thinking (sort of) about the same article, so you don't have to...

Five Things

2006-12-31T17:12:00.000-05:00

Ah, fuck it. After being tagged by Rachel and Jenny I might as well go through with this whole "5 Things You Don't Know About Me" internet-thing. So here we go:

I've lived in the largest city of every country that I resided in. So that's chronologically: Kiev, Ukraine; New York, USA; & Toronto, Canada. [A side note: A also temporarily lived in Moscow, Russia after the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant blew up 110 kilometers north of Kiev)
Even thought I can't play anything, but the most basic chords on the guitar, and I sing largely out of tune, I got into a habit of writing and recording songs every once in a while. So right now I must have close to 100 acoustic demos on my computer that no-one except my closest friends has ever heard... OR EVER WILL!!!!!
I actually got into the whole Web racket by running a fan-website for a video game, about 7-8 years ago. The game was called Wheel of Time (based on a series of fantasy novels that I didn't even read at that time) and since mine was the first web-site dedicated to it, I got to know the game designers and developers at Legend Entertainment and did silly things like interviews and writing previews.
My first job ever was not in the service industry or manual labour or anything like that. Instead, when I was 17, I got a paid internship at York University to develop a map application ("MapReflections") that allows students and scientists to test water quality, and geotag that data onto a map or rivers and watersheds that everyone can see over the internet. So you see, kiddies, I've been lugging around a GPS (back then they were the size of a backpack) and geotagging photos with data while you were still playing around out with <blink> tags. Respek.
Even though I usually try to avoid religion, I often consider myself a Daoist (from a purely philosophical point of view), and my library would reveal as much. In fact, familiarizing oneself with some of the Daoist writing would explain quite a few of my personality quirks and life outlooks that sometimes confuse people.

And just to be antisocial I won't tag anyone in return.

Happy New Year everyone!

This Lamb Sells Condos

2006-12-28T18:37:00.000-05:00

Heh, I was listening to some songs by a local [one-man] band Final Fantasy and came across this little gem. He has a song un-subtly titled "This Lamb Sells Condos" [Listen] which should set off alarms for any one who's living in Toronto right now.

The song is clearly about the local real-estate developer Brad J. Lamb, who became a prominent face of Toronto condo boom by covering sides of bus stops and buildings with an amazingly atrocious billboard where he Photoshopped his own head onto a body of a lamb (get it!!!?!?) and sighing it off with a slogan "This Lamb Sells Condos".

The song itself is OK, but read through the lyrics... they're brutal:

No hope for the village, no hope for the village
There’s a merchant in our midst and with a barrel fist
He’s coloured every surface, he’s slapped up a portrait
And yes, it is his own! He’s gonna take your home!
Have you seen our visitor? Look! Over the treetops!
Newly conjured erections are making him a killing
And Richmond St. is illing, so the graduates are willing
To buy in to the pillage, now there is no hope for the village

Prisoners, be silent, be silent and be sharp

When he was a young man, he conjured up a firemare
And burnt off both his eyebrows and half a head of hair
And then as an apprentice, he took a Drowish mistress
Who bestowed upon his youthfulness a sense of champagne chic
Oh seduction, his seduction to the world of construction
Now his mind will start to wander when he’s not at his computer
Now his massive genitals refuse to cooperate
And no amount of therapy can hope to save his marriage

Prisoners, be silent, be silent and be sharp
Can you hear them talking? Listen through the wall:

Nothing to do, nothing to do
Living rent-free is boring me
Got no use for my PE Degree
Got no use for my pedigree

I feed you every morning and ask so little
But you belittle all the work that I do
When you take that walk without permission
I’m not defensive, I’m just saying this cause I love you
You know I hate it when your friends are in the pool
Old money stinks, send those faggots back to Forest Hill
Contentment? What contentment? I am bald and impotent
Is that what it’s about? Oh honey, honey, shut your mouth

Hedi Slimane
And Agnes B
I’m not content
I’m not content
Donna Karan
And Kara Saun
I’m not content
I’m not content

I copied the lyrics from UrbanPhoto.net. More discussion in the Torontoist.

Fun

2006-12-28T15:15:00.000-05:00

Ok... so here's what I'm wondering:

Which one of these songs is more all-out FUN!?!?

Exhibit 1: "Sing Songs Along" - Tilly and the Wall

Exhibit 2: "We're From Barcelona" - I'm From Barcelona

Ansel Adams

2006-12-27T22:57:00.000-05:00

Ansel Adams at the AGO

This evening I dropped by the Art Gallery of Ontario to check out the special exhibition of photography featuring works by Ansel Adams and Alfred Eisenstaedt. A few brief thoughts:

Didn't care much for the Eisenstaedt photos that they chose to exhibit. I know the man took some pretty iconic images, but the AGO selection, while interesting historically, just didn't do it for me artistically.
When viewing these nearly 100 year old photos I always wonder whether this digital age will improve or decrease the longevity of currently produced media. God knows how many beautiful photos were lost due to hard-drive crashes, lost files, closed photo-sharing accounts and the like. At least when you had the negative, you had the negative.
In a somewhat related note, one couldn't help but notice people somewhat fetishising the old-timey quality of a lot of those earlier photos - the yellow tint, the un-purposefully bad focus, the grain and shitty contrast. I wonder if decades from now, we'll be looking at images taken with our first generation digital cameras - or this generation cell-phones - and admiring the vintage/retro quality of their "badly-compressed-JPEG" look.

Christmas

2006-12-25T14:54:00.000-05:00

My brother is awesome! He saw me briefly mention (in this blog, nearly a year ago) a photography book by one of my favourite photographers - Andrew Moore - and guess what I find under the Christmas tree!?!? THAT BOOK!

Hope everyone is having a good, wholesome time this Christmas. Me and Eugene were actually in charge of cooking our Christmas dinner last night and things didn't turn out too bad for once (hopefully people liked their chicken crispy.) Happy Holidays to all!

More Christmas sentiments: Jenn, Bobby, Loren Feldman

Looking Back

2006-12-17T19:16:00.000-05:00

It's weird, sometimes I'll be watching an old movie or looking at old photographs and I have to remind myself that the world was pretty much exactly the same then as it is now, not filled with blurriness, desaturation, poor contrast and scratches. When I look at phonographs from, say, the Great Depression it's hard to imagine the world that is not black and white, out of focus, with dust and scratches obstructing vision. It's as if the medium through which we record history, changes the way we imagine what that history looked like. I wish someone took the exact film-making equipment that was used in the 40's and show a story that takes place in modern times with the cast of currently popular actors. It would be interesting to see the current world through the lens of 60 years ago.

In the mean while, here are a few music videos that try to invoke that world of decades-past, the task that usually falls to nostalgically-inclined indy bands and aging musicians.

Band of Horses - "Funeral"

That scene where the vision of the guy's dead dog floats over his scotch drink is a single saddest thing on YouTube.

Bob Dylan - "When The Deal Goes Down"

What's with Scarlett Johansson being everywhere these days? First I see her starring in this Bob Dylan video, then I'm watching the telly and she's strutting in the Imitation of Christ fashion show like a second coming of Marilyn Monroe. Which reminds me... I think I'll go watch Lost in Translation again after I publish this.

Belle and Sebastian - "Is It Wicked Not To Care"

le sigh...

Paris

2006-12-12T11:24:00.000-05:00

Strangely enough, this is the most lucid post I've read in a long while.

Manifesto Withdrawl

2006-12-07T14:20:00.000-05:00

Thank you Gapingvoid's Hugh Macleod for single-handedly ruining The Manifesto as a medium for me. Way to beat the dead horse into the ground.

I did like the one quote from Seth Godin which makes makes the rest of that pompous self-righteousness redundant:

In two words: don’t settle.

Hip Hop

2006-12-06T17:59:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I feel like I'm on some kind of cyclical schedule when it comes to the music that I listen to. Sometimes is all Indy-Rock all the time, sometimes is Brit-Pop, sometimes it's a lot of Russian stuff, but it's rarely all over the place at any one given time. Right now, I noticed a whole bunch of really good rap albums are coming out (with the unfortunate exception of Kingdom Come) so I have a lot of hip-hop on my Treo. Here are just a few tracks that I've been enjoying lately; and while this is not the kind of stuff that would appeal to you if you're not into hip-hop (I see a "Rap for Indy Kids" post in my future), these three are still excellent bangers to nod your head to...

Clipse

Listen/Download: "Nightmares"

The critics are really all over the new Clipse album, an easy shoo-in for the Best Rap Album of 2006. While I don't exactly share their enthusiasm about the entire record, a few of these Neptunes-produced tracks are really tip-top.

I understand,
Cuz people need things,
And they will take it from you and take you from your seedlings.
So even when the mumblers talk,
I still walk the most humblest walk.
And one day, they may even catch up with me man,
But till then, I'm Leonardo,
Catch me if you can.

See also: "Mr. Me Too (feat. Pharell)" [on YouTube]

Snoop

Listen/Download: "Imagine (feat. Dr Dre)"

Well... who knew that Snoop Dogg had another good album in him. On Imagine, Snoop and Dre get all nostalgic on us taking it back to the beginning of the hip-hop movement and trying to imagine how things would be different if none of it took off as it did. Brings a tear to my eye...

Imagine life on the yard
I'm tryin' to get that dollar on some shitty ass job
Imagine Biggie with his son
Imagine Pac getting called 'pop' by one
Imagine a mother struggling
Dealing with a system that don’t give a fuck about who shot her son
Imagine life where you can't win
When you get out of the ghetto and go right to the pen
When you get out to the pen you go right to the jenz
So if you get back to the streets you go right back in

See also: That's That Shit (feat. R Kelly) [on YouTube]

Ghostface

Listen/Download: "You Know I'm No Good (feat. Amy Winehouse)"

After the critical praise and commercial failure of his last album, Ghost decided to pull a "Stan" on us by getting together with an up and coming British songstress and rapping over the hook of her song. Love the track! Now if only he stopped putting so many god-damn skits in all his albums :(

We need to straighten it out
Get to the bottom of it all
Let's crawl before we start to walk
Begin with two reasons why we need to talk
And stop popping up at my cribs all over New York
That's stalking.

...

I cheated myself
like I knew I would
I told ya, I was troubled
you know that I'm no good

Also hear: I'm No Good by Amy Winehouse

New York Photos

2006-12-03T20:55:00.000-05:00

New York Photos

I figure, since I kinda gave up on the New York travelogue posts, I'd at least upload some of the photos from that week. You can find all my favourites at this Flickr page and here are some highlights:

Sound Affects

2006-12-03T17:57:00.000-05:00

What's New In Photography, by Christian Patterson

I've recently discovered "Speak, See, Remember", a blog by an art photographer Christian Patterson, whose work (see Out There, On Wisconsin) I rather enjoy. Today he had a great post up about the current status of photography in the landscape of New York's art galleries. What was really interesting was when Christian went on describing his own experiences exhibiting in a gallery:

"I debuted “Sound Affects” in June 2005 at Power House in Memphis. The gallery is a cavernous space — a former steam and electricity generating station for the Illinois Central Railroad. I knew that I could not fill this space with my photographs, so I utilized two of my biggest influences — two things that fill space — light and sound."

(Source)

A good look inside of the New York art world. I recommend you subscribe to SSR if you're a photography fan.

Update: Christian sent in a bit of a correction...

"That was a Memphis gallery. But I did eventually show the same work in New York in Fall 2006, and I will be showing it again in San Francisco in January 2007"

Science is Awesome!

2006-12-02T16:27:00.000-05:00

Top 10 Bad Things That Are Good For You!

I love stuff like this! Live Science website published a list that should surprise and delight the hedonists everywhere. Here's the summary of the Top 10:

Top 10 Bad Things That Are Good For You

10. Beer
9. Anger
8. Coffee
7. LSD
6. Sunlight
5. Maggots
4. Marijuana
3. Red Wine
2. Chocolate
1. Sex

Worst ever.

2006-11-29T17:51:00.000-05:00

Sportsracers Submit the Worst Things EVER

This is priceless. Inspired by this episode of The Show by Zefrank (learning how to play "worst ever"), enterprising sportsracers submitted their own images illustrating the worst things ever. Among my favourites are: Worst Unicycle, Worst Decision Making Company, Worst ATM, Worst Porn Actor, and seasonally, Worst Christmas Decoration. Ever.

Update: I change my mind, my fave is Worst Hospital. Ever.

Fontcuberta, Orogenesis and Googlegrams

2006-11-28T13:08:00.000-05:00

Fontcuberta, Orogenesis and Googlegrams

On several occasions over the last few months I came across work of Joan Fontcuberta, usually at photography exhibitions. Which is weird since Joan doesn't really do photography. His most interesting projects involve computer manipulation of imagery, thus injecting the pictures with the context that is not immediately obvious at the first glance.

Orogenesis: The term itself refers to the process of tectonic 'mountain building'. Fontcuberta's project by the same name creates 3D landscapes by taking a source image (anything from a painting by Rembrandt or Dali to a close-up photograph of a body part) and using it as an inspiration to generate a 3D landscape via height-mapping (i.e. a landscape is generated where the lighter areas on the source correspond to the higher elevations on the 3D model). Thus converting the elements of painting and photography into elements of geology.

Take a look at the sample pages from his book Landscapes Without Memory for more examples.

Googlegrams: Here Joan takes a totally different approach to extracting metadata from an image. Here's a quote describing the exhibition on the CONTACT Toronto website:

"In Googlegrams, mosaics of culturally charged images are created from smaller, conceptually related snapshots culled via Google image searches. Penny-sized portraits of the richest men and women in the world are pieced together into a mosaic depicting a homeless man; the iconic image of a detainee tortured at Abu Ghraib is cobbled together out of images of public officials involved in the scandal"

View more examples of Googlegrams.

2006-11-23T17:55:00.000-05:00

Sex, Lies and DemoCamp

Finally managed to get Jenny to go to DemoCamp (a monthly tech gathering happening in Toronto) earlier this week, and this is what she posts:

This post has been a long time coming, and I feel that being at DemoCamp on Monday night really emphasized how important the gender imbalance problem really is. I've resisted talking about this in the past because the majority of responses that I get are negative and assume that I'm overemphasizing the disparity, being a "feminazi" or just plain whining.

The fact is that there is a problem when 90% of the attendants of an incredible event like this are male, and it shouldn't be ignored.

I concur.

And what's more, I think comments like the one Bryce left on Jenn's post -- "As far as the whole 'boys club' issue I don't know if that is something that needs to be addressed by 'the Boys'" -- are sadly missing the point. Especially in lieu of guys like Jay Goldman who originally came across Jenn's blog, saw that she was based in Toronto, and invited her to a DemoCamp event. The fact is, I'm certain that most guys attending these events work (or go to school) with women and a little outreach would go a long way, unless we follow Bryce's advice and just say that it's up to the 'girls' to invite other women. Anyway...

One way to make more girls (and guys) show up is to increase the quality of the actual demos and there are no shortage of suggestions that people are willing blog about (read a few examples, if you want to). Personally, there was only one demo (Design Bibliography by Sunir Shah) that didn't make me roll my eyes for the entire duration. And while it was satisfying to watch some presenters fumble (and I'm not even saying who), the other presentations just left me uncomfortable, which is not the feeling that a technology demonstration aught to provoke.

I've talked to some people and event organizers and there are plenty of ideas about how to fix DemoCamp and I'm positive that Jay and company know what needs to be done, so I won't bother posting redundant suggestions and advice. Except for one: Most people don't show up to DemoCamp to look at the demos.