June 2011
The Weeknd - What You Need
- by admin
Deviating a bit, today's RnB rather than Hip Hop.
Best emo, effed up songs evs.
Props to @Alexridley for the link.
So Gene Simmons will be in the 'Peg today
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He's being awarded with the key to the city.Though I have no idea why.
A statement from the mayor's office explained that "Gene has spent his life and career overcoming challenges and creating success in business and family by remaining true to his roots and values", which baffles me since this is the guy who has claimed to have slept with over 5,000 women.
Though that being said, other recipients of this "prestigious award" include Henry Winkler aka The Fonz, and Bob Geldof -the guy who co-wrote 'Do They Know It's Christmas?'.
It seems like a really cheap, sad ploy for attention from the mayor's office to go handing out Keys to the City to any B-list celebrity we can find
(and yes, at this point in his career I fully consider Gene Simmons to be a B-list celebrity -once you do reality TV, that's what you become, I'm sorry)
and what baffles me is that we have regular, A-list celebs that come through here shooting movies and whatnot all the time, and these are the people we choose to honour? I think it really speaks to how out-of-touch our mayor is with the times if he can't present an award to someone who was hip when he was in junior high.
Maybe we should start a trend towards awarding awards like this to people who actually do things for Winnipeg or represent the city in a positive way, like Jon Montgomery who was given the key to the city after winning the Gold Medal in Men's Skeleton in the 2010 Winter Olympics (intense!).
What about someone like Guy Maddin, Fred Penner, Wanda Koop, Burton Cummings (not that his ego needs it), or even freaking Anna Paquin from True Blood if you want a current celeb?!
There are actually a whole whack of famous and interesting people who were born and/or raised in Winnipeg (like Tommy Douglas! Represent!) who could be given this award, and honestly this whole event feels like an opportunity for the mayor to have an excuse to meet someone he thinks is cool, and isn't genuinely beneficial for the city itself at all.
So good job Sam Katz! I'm glad that being mayor has provided you with yet another opportunity to inflate your massive ego.
A weekend in pictures 06.14.11
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Rather than bore you with one of the longwinded "I did this, this weekend" posts that always seem to follow a weekend of non-blogging, here's my highlight reel of what went down:
The effort that it took to drag our hungover selves out to re:play at the WAG on Saturday w to be honest totally ridiculous. But it was mrghosty's show and obviously we wanted to check out some of the cool stuff featured at the event. Erica Glacier did a wicked post about it that you can check out, with way more photos. All I got was Ty doing some circuit bending on a Winnie The Pooh game because I was too busy watching people play the virtual pinball machine.
However, I'm never too hungover to hang out in the sun at the 'Ledge (in sunglasses). We were later joined by jabezlee and K and after a a bellini I was feeling much better.There's been some ridiculous ish happening in the group lately and it was great to chill with some solid peeps and hash out everything that's been going on. Our social circle is so close-knit and supportive, I'm always amazed by my friends!
I hardly even had time to get home and change before we were off on Vikki and Vance to The Fox and Hound (greasiest watering hole ever!) for karaoke with cenquist, kenquist and adriantrimble.
Look at those two belt out Tiny Dancer! Possibly the most hilarious thing I have ever seen.
And this was the face of Sunday.I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions.
Hip Hop Sunday #3 Organized Rhyme - Check the O.R.
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From wikipedia: Organized Rhyme was a short-lived Canadian hip hop group based in Ottawa, known primarily for the fame later achieved by one of its members, comedian Tom Green.
Enjoy your Sunday, dears! It's beautiful outside here, go outside and enjoy it!
Webcomics
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No, I don't have one. I'm not going to try and push my internet presence on you any more than I already do throughthis blog
my facebook
my twitter
my tumblr
my youtube channel
my flickr
and so on
(sorry about that)
and while I do possess some artistic talent, I've never had the drive to try and translate my glorious witticisms and knee-slapping one-liners into some sort of amazing online artistic brilliance. I like to think it's laziness, but I'm not sure.
Regardless, here are some examples of webcomics that I currently follow and you should too if you have any sense of humor at all:
xkcd Generally I like my webcomics to be nonlinear, I spend enough of my time trying to remember all the day-to-day things that happen in my life and if I forget to read it for a week (or several) it feels less like fun and more like hanging out with your mom (I kid, I'm sure she's a very nice lady).
Penny Arcade Is definitely the webcomic I've been reading the longest -early 2000's wut wut- mostly because it's about video games and n3rd culture, but also because if you get what they're talking about it's blindingly funny. I'm also super proud of these two dudes, Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, for transforming what started out as a hobby into a convention, a children's charity and two video games. Seriously talented individuals!
ALSO:
I couldn't pick a particular comic, but have you checked out Sean Ward's Super Party? (as well as his other work). Dude is seriously talented and deserves your praise -just saying.
Moving on:
Hark a Vagrant has to be my hands-down favourite webcomic ever. Kate Beaton is an absolute genius, and her comics range from history (mostly Canadian, but not always) to literature, to politics, to whatever. If you aren't reading her stuff, then wtf?
Okay I'll be up front with you guys, Rusted Out Rowboat is a "horribly un-funny webcomic" that Ty used to make and the sole purpose of this entire post in which I shared some of my favourite things with you was to passive-aggressively harass him into making more.
Sorry for abusing your readership guys like that, please forgive me.
And if you're okay with the fact that I had an ulterior purpose for this post, feel free to suggest any websomics you read. Please, that way I'll know you're not mad at me for wasting your time ;)
Why you need to develop a sense of humour about racism
- by admin
Let me explain:Last weekend at The Pyramid a girlfriend and I were having a bathroom stall-to-stall conversation and I mentioned The Boondocks, one of my favourite TV shows. In case you haven't seen it, it's a social satire of African American culture based on a comic series written by Aaron McGruder.
At first glance it's the most racist thing I've ever seen; basically every character drops the N-bomb multiple times an episode and essentially every African American (can I say 'Black' since I'm in Canada?) stereotype is ridiculed constantly. But the only way you'd think that The Boondocks was a racist television show is if you were living with your head in the deepest recesses of your asshole. It's a brilliant piece of satire and has been mentioned as one of the best TV shows of 2010 in the New York Times.
Here's one such example:
It's one of the cleanest clips I could find, honestly.
But why am I telling you this?
Because after I mentioned it we heard "wouldn't it be funny if you walked out of your stalls and there was a Black person standing there?" and wouldn't you know it, there was a Black girl standing there who called me a racist (among other things) and stormed out.
I could be mistaken, but how does praising a show that explores racism and societal issues by presenting them from a comedic standpoint make me a racist? It seems like the most effective way to challenge, explore and understand issues like racism is through humour and satire (along with open-mindedness). In fact, that's what satire is supposed to do.
So what have we learned today?
1. Racism is a problem, but flipping out isn't going to help. Understand that satire exists to ridicule individuals, and society itself, into improvement. Flipping out about it actually goes against what satire like The Boondocks is trying to accomplish. So develop a freaking sense of humour.
2. Don't talk about satire in the bathroom. Not everyone gets it and might call you mean names as you're washing your hands.
3. Or maybe save yourself the hassle and just don't talk while in the bathroom.
It's only Tuesday
- by admin
and I'm already looking forward to the weekend.
Sleeping in, relaxing, hopefully there's sunshine and a patio and a long bike ride on Vikki and Vance (our bikes) in our future.
(can you guess where our bicycle names come from?)
Got sent home today because I "looked like a ghost"; spent all afternoon catching up on sleep and having weird dreams.
I always have weird dreams when I sleep on the couch, do you?
Ty's making Thai curry for dinner but was kind enough to make me a delicious sandwich instead, since I'm not feeling all that great and while a curry blast might help... it might not. Hoping to have them tomorrow?
I'm spoiled and lucky and I know it.
It's raining again, now. Hoping for sun for the rest of the week!
Last night was brought to you by: Alexander Keith's
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Some local #Winnipeg tweeps @cenquist, @kenquist, Ty and I headed down to Smoke's Poutinerie to see what all the fuss was about.
We may not be Montreal, but Winnipeg loves it's poutine! The line-up was unreal even at 7pm when we got there, I tweeted a picture of it here -we must have waited at least half an hour!
SO worth it, though! I nomfaced that ish so hard I didn't even think to take a picture. I had the Nacho Grande, make sure you try it!
Afterwards we headed to one of our regular watering holes for #HalfPintsThursdays with @adriantrimble, @rhondalmartens and a surprise visit from @alexridley!
Once we'd engaged in some seriously NSFW-themed conversation (really, Kevin?!) and knocked back a couple of pints we were getting ready to head out when these girls in plaid skirts came up to us and asked if we would like to "come upstairs and play some games and have free drinks with them"
Cynical folk that we are, for whatever reason these sweet girls had to spend a few minutes convincing us this would be a good idea! In hindsight I really have no idea what we were worried about, the fine lasses were reps from Alexander Keith's!
So we went upstairs and lo and behind there were drinking games, Connect Four, and various kinds of Alexander Keith's for us to drink -for free!
We played this game where you roll the die and turn down the numbered blocks depending on what your score is, and the person with the highest score won a prize: some sweet Alexander Keith's pint glasses and an index card full of recipes using the beer!
I didn't win one because I rarely win at any sort of game, but it was still fun to try! @kenquist won two sets -one for the drinking game, and another for knowing the story behind Alexander Keith's India Pale Al -I even learned something new!
I was definitely pleased with the situation!
It also turns out I haven't gotten any better at Connect Four since I was a kid -I apparently beat @cenquist and didn't even realize! (probably due to beer)I just want to say a THANK YOU! to Alexander Keith's for providing us with such a great time, the reps were fantastic, chatty and interesting people who seemed to love their jobs (who wouldn't?) and it was a neat and super positive way to connect to the brand like that. It totally made my evening and I'm going to be sure to tell people about what a great experience it was.
Now if you'll excuse me, it's the first sunny day in Winnipeg and I'm going to go outside and enjoy it! Have a great weekend!
The Greatest Movie Ever Sold
- by admin
Marketing is a funny thing: we notice it, but we don't.
When we go to the movies I'm the annoying friend who notices all the brands everywhere. I remember seeing the first Spiderman movie when Toby McGuire shot a web and pulled a can of Dr. Pepper towards him, and noticing that it was a Dr. Pepper and wondering how much they'd paid to have that few seconds of can prominently featured in a huge blockbuster release. I don't know why, it's just something I've always picked up on.
It's weird to think about all the thought and effort that goes -literally- into controlling how we think and what we buy, and it was interesting to see which brands were interested in financing and being involved in the film, and which weren't.
Tonight Ty and I hit up the Globe Theatre and checked out Morgan Spurlock's documentary about product placement and marketing called "POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold", and I can't say enough good things about it. It was an honest (or, about as honest as you can get) look into what goes into finding financing for a film and how filmmakers and studios work with (or for) companies to push a particular brand or product through product placement and co-sponsorships.
For example, the official title of the film is "POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold" and even though I've never tried a POM drink I'm suddenly interested in their brand because of the way they approached the project, and the fact that they were confident enough in their brand to invest in a 'risky' project like the film. Obviously this totally buys into what the movie is trying to do, but somehow I feel less like a sucker if I'm being directly marketed to?
Morgan explains it all a bit better in his TED Talk "The Greatest TED Talk Ever Sold", which is a great precursor for the film, and an experiment in marketing in and of itself:
I think the thing I love most about Morgan Spurlock's documentaries is Morgan Spurlock himself; I love his narration and how he never seems to take himself seriously at all, and this is definitely the funniest piece of work he's done so far. I actually had to hit Ty to stop him from guffawing loudly in the theatre -you can't take that guy anywhere!
But don't take my word for it, check out the trailer and go see the film, and learn a thing or two about the world you live in, for chrissake!
