Itunes single of the week 09-05-25

Polly Scattergood's I Hate the Way is has attracted a lot of hate. The description of the track on Itunes does Polly no favours in comparing her to the like of Amy Winehouse and Kate Bush. This track while having fairly clever cryptic lyrics is lacking in energy and passion. I think the two star average rating is about double what I would give it.

Friend Feed

As is often the case I have gotten myself caught up in the excitement of a new product or service and jumped into it headfirst, only to find out I am not nearly ready for it. The concept of friend feed and twitter appeal to me. Simpler (at least in theory ways of sharing information with friends or like minded individuals. But figuring out how to navigate through these unfamiliar landscapes seems to be a bit more than I am up for these days.

itunes single of the week 09-05-24

Grizzly Bear's song cheerleader seems to have really divided up the reviewers on Itunes. The sparse minimal lo-fi sound has a lot of fans and a lot of detractors. A haunting children's choir sound in the background adds the mysterious atmosphere. I found the more I listened to it the more I liked it. Looks like most aren't giving it that much of a chance though...

much a twitter about nothing?

I am getting increasingly interested in participating in twitter, friend feed and perhaps other forms of social networking. This Week in technology podcasts feature many lively conversation on these emerging media. The relative merits, conflicts and potential interaction between these different but potentially harmonious platforms is a simultaneously exciting and frustrating. It is fascinating that Lance Armstrong would decide to bypass official media and just send his statements out into Twitter. I would rather hear directly from Lance than through the mass media's filters. I find the whole concept of press conferences absurd. We don't need to assemble a rag tag collection of know it alls in one particular room to get statements anymore. In another twitter news http://mashable.com reports that rumours of an official twitter show are untrue. It actually is hard for me to imagine, but hey if more high profile people like the most successful cyclist of all time make it their main communication locus it might become a necessity.

the new media

Having just bought a new IPOD touch that has both a lot more space and wifi access I am able to download a lot more podcasts. Its been exciting and overwhelming to explore the amazing diversity of information out there. I have long been a fan of the CBC (the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) and have downloaded a of material from there. I have also discovered another Canadian institution - Amber Macarthur, who hosts many great podcasts, as well as old fashioned media events as well. Amber and Leo Laporte are involved with several events with a several projects titled This Week in Tech with the whimsical TWIT acronym (which I love). There is a wonderful warm free flowing vibe to the broadcasts that I have heard. The TWIT podcasts feel like a socratic dialogue rather than a one way authoritarian feed. Something else that struck me is the way that advertising is worked in. In early days of mass communication sponsor announcements were ingrained with regular programming. Leo who has a talk radio background makes all the content including advertising seem like a fun conversation.

Star Trek movie review

I fall somewhere between the hardcore trekies (or trekers as many perfer to be called) and the haters who have no time at all for the pollyanna-ish vision of the future. One of my earliest memories is of being dragged downtown to see Star Trek the motion picture (doing research it would have happened in 1979). I have followed some of the various incarnations of the show with various levels of intensity over the years. So here we are 30 years later and the franchise has come full circle. When I first heard the premise of this feature movie I was indifferent. The more recent incarnations of Star Trek appeal much more to me. However word from friends, the blogsphere and mainstream media reviews seemed to indicate that this was actually one of the better offerings out in this summer so far. So I tagged along with a couple of friends and saw this latest offering. Overall I found it to be an enjoyable movie. For a hollywood science fiction movie it's fairly well written, executed and performed. Those with a more sophisticated palate may find it hard to overlook the holes in the flimsy storyline and the fact that the extremely improbable way the same small group of characters keep colliding into each other. Overall though it is an entertaining and optimistic collection of eye candy that doesn't take itself too seriously.

Christian Bok reading at the tulip festival

Sound poet Christian Bok, came to the Mirror tent of the Tulip festival in Ottawa. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_bok . Christian seems to like taking on mascochistic projects. Eunoia is Christian's most successful project to date and was the main focus of the reading. Euonia - apparently the shortest word in the English language to contain all the main vowels. In his book titled Eunoia, Christian composed several poems that were composed only with words containing a single vowel. Christian also performed other of his own works as well the work of other avant garde writers. I first became aware of Christian Bok from an interview on the CBC program Q. Q host Jian Ghomeshi, interviewed Christian after Eunoia became the best selling book of poetry in Britain. javascript:void(0)A remarkable achievement for such an arcane work.

Itunes single of the week 09-05-11

K'Naan's Bang Bang, has garnered an incredible amount of praise on Itunes customer reviews. A quick scan through yielded very few less than positive reviews - interestingly one of which still awarded five stars. I agree with many of the reviewers that this is a very fresh sounding track, the melodies, pace, rhythm, and phrasing change up. The lyrics are incredibly clever, fun and well composed and equally well delivered. I give it four and a half stars...

Itunes single of the week 09-05-04

Cage the elephant - Ain't No rest for the Wicked is a great track. A gritty folk feel with a lot of attitude. One reviewer on Itunes described it as having a Beck meets Kid Rock feel which is pretty apt. The reviews are mostly positive reflected in the 4 star average ranking. Personally I would give it 5. The clever lyrics and roots slide guitar make this the most memorable track I can recall on Itunes single of the week. I am keeping my eye on this band.

the start of festival season in Ottawa

Well the Ottawa International Festival spring edition is wrapped up. Like so many of Ottawa's festivals it continues to be an overwhelming success. This year the Ottawa Writer's festival was held in St Brigid's a deconsecrated church. Seeing as several of the events were to big for the biggest room at the previous location. Neil Wilson quipped this was a match made in heaven. The Tulip Festival is already going on, and soon enough The Chamberfest, Bluesfest, Jazzfest, Reggaefest and Folkfest will arrive before the summer is over. Even after the summer is over, Ottawa will have the Ottawa International Animation festival in September. If you can check out as many of these as you can.