Having been unable to redesign my blog for nearly 2-years now, far be it for me to be the kettle calling Pepsi the pot, but maybe, just maybe they should have dragged their heals on their rebrand. Kind of how I have had these links bookmarked since October.
Tomorrow during the Super Bowl, the Cola Wars are back on, and we'll see how this logo does. On the other hand, Pepsi has a pretty interesting web site at Refresh Everything. And can you really go wrong with GOB, I mean Will Arnett (If only if he uses the term, "'puter"). But this spot is ridiculous. Still not watching or drinking it though.
Rewatched the trailer for Objectified as, clearly, i'm going through a bunch of old links today. I really enjoyed Gary Hustwit's last one, Helvetica, and I'm sure this will be great too. When will the digital age bring movies out to the world faster?
I do like the new Save-On Foods at 8th and Cambie, and even more excited about the prospects of the Whole Foods moving in across the street (the neon sign went up this past week or so), but I really like the look of these Austrian MPREIS stores. Stunning. These make Urban Fare look like cheap knock offs. (See more atCool Hunting via Brandflakes.)
I've been trying to figure out Twitter for some time. Figure out is too strong a word. I mean if the the boomers are able to get social media, then it shouldn't be that hard. It's pretty simple. I think you just hear so much blather about 'social media' and you tune it out. I like it since it is short, but lets be honest. it is full of complete garbage 90% of the time. And there are a lot, A LOT, of people impersonating "expertise" all over the place. I don't need to know every time you post to your blog. I don't need to know when you are blogging. Unless you are doing those things in such a way that I laugh off my chair.
Love. Love. Love. "Ground Defender". This shirt design, which has been a wicked desktop wallpaper for weeks, by Glennz. "As the invasion from space intensified, there were three ground force units deployed to hold them off. The first two were destroyed in battle leaving one last survivor to chalk up its hits"
Seriously. I could look at this kind of photography for weeks. Tilt Shift. Who knew? It's so much fun. This will be on the agenda for creating some if we make it to Genoa later this spring. Here's a bit with 50 Beautiful Examples of Tilt-Shift Photography. Enjoy.
I'd also like one of these Amy Bennett paintings up in my place very soon. At $24,000 a pop, I clearly have to work much harder. Maybe I'll stick with my tilt shift photography goals.
House this week was great. I liked: that finally Cameron was actually doing something, I liked that I noticed Wilson had a 1958 Touch of Evil poster in his office (I'd only noticed the Vertigo one before), that 13 is still on the show which is awesome because Olivia Wilde is amazing (No, For realz), although she should dump Foreman, obviously. Okay maybe there is too much baby in the current arc, but House is so grumpy towards it, I'll let it slide.
I'm not whether it is the 'Here Comes Your Man' Pixies track or Jason Segel, or maybe it's Rashida Jones who I miss on The Office that I like about this.
Kind of enjoying this bit of Christopher Walken in Annie Hall. Need this on DVD like now. Absolutely love how insane Walken is and how indifferent Allen is. Gold.
I was surprised during the last episode of The City to hear a cover of The Pixies' 'Where is My Mind' by Yoav. It almost created some sense of emotion in the characters - like they actually had feelings. Love that this all went down outside of Cafeteria which I once went to for a meeting with my friend Melissa.
I didn't know I wanted a 1975 Chrysler Cordoba until now. In fact, I wasn't whole until now. Why can't Detrit make commercials like this anymore? Or cars like this. Ricardo Mantalban passed away this week, and the world lost Khan, and Mr. Roarke. Sadness.
Tubthumping by Chumbawamba was #1 this week in 1998. I can't even believe this song is 10-years old. (Via Pink is the New Blog). And they are still going? And touring? Wow.
Blake Lively looked very Serena-ish tonight at the Golden Globes. Do you think there is even a difference between her and her character? I'd enjoy knowing the answer to that. That is all. (Just Jared)
I've read just about every article on this whole Olympic Village Completion story this weekend. City Caucus. Gary Mason. Frances Bula. Condohype. Villagegate, Olympicgate, Millenium Watergate, whatever you want to call it. Quite frankly it seems like par for the course, really. Here are a few thoughts:
1. I was thinking a few years ago, before the 2004 Summer Olympics how incompetent the Greeks were as they scrambled to finish their stuff. I guess we are just as disorganized and incompetent as the Greeks. Yay us.
2. Is it wrong that I'm more annoyed with the fact that this farce is doubly insulting given the increasing costs of the green design and the ridiculous idea of waterfront social/affordable housing? Only in Vancouver.
3. Praise Jeebus that I'm a renter and not an owner. Suck it owners. The irony that all the smug condo owners who made money will end up paying for this is kind of completely awesome.
4. Is anyone willing to say that Gregor Robertson's 2nd big test (after the snow) is kind of a fail too. If he was the mayor version of Obama, the world is doomed when Obama punts it as bad as this.
5. And we all thought Sam Sullivan was a bumbler. Gregor can't even move the blame around successful. If our goal was to compete with our friends in Chicago and Milorad "Rod" R. Blagojevich, then Robertson best be learning to quote English poets. When PR is running the war room, I think that is bad sign.
6. Predictions: Pretty sure that the Olympics will be Robertsons key to one term mayorship.
Pretty sure we had a day nearly as cool as this back in May. Well, maybe not quite like Sofia's dream like campaign for Dior, but pretty close. (Fashiontography)
I'm sure the NBC lawyers are already requesting this come down from the Youtubes, but until then, enjoy every last second of this amazing digital short with Neil Patrick Harris. Bravo.
I'm pretty sure Aunt May would have some words of wisdom for Obama. Either way, he hits the fanboy market big time appearing in the Amazing Spider Man #583.
Thank the maker. A new Broken Lizard movie, "The Slammin' Salmon", this time in the restaurant business, and featuring an Olivia Munn role. Good times.
Kind of like the mass of Mad Men Tumblrs etc, I kind of have an affinity for historical twitters. Even in twitter form, Hitler was a complete jerkoff. Nazi's, I hate those guys.
I'd forgotten how awesome the ballads of the early 90's were. This video helped bring it all back and was also, kind of, on the Forgetting Sarah Marshall Soundtrack albeit performed by the band, "Aloha Sex Juice."
In response to the Canadian Junior Hockey victory Stephen Taylor writes:
"We’re a nation bound by our love of hockey."
It's a little much, non? I mean yeah, at its high point 4.7 million people were watching - a total of 9.3 million watched some of it - about 30% of the population. I'm not that good at math but that means an astonishing 70% of Canada couldn't give a damn about the gold medal game, or hocket at all okay.
Check out some of the best thoughts from around the internets today:
"Anyone see the new Mac stuff?More 3D maps in my videos! Finally." - Jimmy Fallon.
"Dear Hamas, (and most of the rest of the Arab world), What are you thinking? You cannot still be calling for the destruction of Israel. Seriously, it is not gonna happen. Let's just forget the infidelish, anti-Semitism of it all and concentrate on your Blagojevichian arrogance. Do you really think you can accomplish what the Germans could not? Germans? The people who built special camps dedicated to eradicating Jews from the face of the Earth. The master race who, for four straight years, killed every Jew that wasn't hidden by Oskar Schindler? You really think you can outdo the Germans?" - 23/6.
"Wow, this guy is a jerk. Here, in this exclusive CNN report on some old public-teevee food show in Chicago, we see that Barack Obama was being a fancy show-off even way back when he was a lowly state senator a few months ago. This restaurant-review episode never aired because Smooth Barry just shamed these poor slobs, who no longer had the will to talk, or even live." - Wonkette.
I wonder what Suzuki and Gore think of this. "Triton Logging is a company that specializes in lumber processing, and they've got a giant underwater saw robot that can clearcut submerged trees - by remote control, from a desktop computer." Sounds awesome! Lets do it. And way to go BC for coming up with this bad boy. I want one. [Io9]
Sometimes I wonder why the CBC tries to put original shows on the air. Being Erica is one of those things. Snap thoughts:
1. I give tonight's new victim, Being Erica about 6 weeks before they pull it.
2. It's like a bad Quantum Leap. That was sci-fi. This is the Most pathetic reason for time travel, ever
3. No, it's more like the Ex List but with time travel. Not good.
4. The star is cute enough, Erin Karpluk, she was on Godiva's.
5. The commercials for tomorrow's new show "Wild Roses" - described as “a Shakespearean tale of two families clashing over land, love and loyalty set against the backdrop of boomtown Calgary, Alberta, and surrounding ranchlands.” (Oh dear god).
6. Give the music in the show a pass - lots of good tracks.
24 Hours today skipped the whole timely article for snow storm 2009 and focused on tips from life coaches:
1. I don't think there is anything more ridiculous than a life coach.
2. Having them give advice on 'dark days of weather' is absurd news. Is it any wonder newspapers are going out of business?
3. And how can you take a life coach seriously named Hunter Phoenix? Come on.
Nice to see that we got even more snow yesterday and that Vancouver is as snow-challenged as ever this morning.
Epic Fail 1: Reading this article from the Sun titled, "City readies plan for the big melt", about the city getting ready 'cause the snow is over. Nice to see how the article transitions from snow and related stuff to homelessness. Oh, and doesn't mention the new snow from yesterday. I guess they believed the failed weather reports saying it was going to rain last night. Fail.
Epic Fail 2: I'm fairly certain that while I was watching CKNW on Shaw this morning at the gym, I heard a clip of Gregor Robertson saying that this was a once a 50-Year occurrence and that there isn't much we can do about the snow - they don't want to bury the cars on the side streets you know. Didn't we have one like this in like '93 or '98? Sounds like every 10 years. Scratch that, according to a 1970's City Hall report it is every 12-years. I figure if Robertson can't deal with the snow, it is likely that he won't fix homelessness (not that I thought he would anyway) and is clearly no Obama. Or maybe he is and we're giving Obama undeserved hope credits.
Kate Winslet. Seems like she has been around forever, as if there was a time, when she wasn't in the spotlight. And thank god for that. As one writer put it, "She has finally become that rare thing: the female celebrity we all genuinely get. It’s partly that, at 33, she is now in her prime; it’s partly about our expectations (we’ve changed, too); and it’s a lot to do with timing. Women-we-all-get don’t come along that often, because they have to tick all the right boxes and chime with the zeitgeist."
Ever since my trip to France a few years ago, I've been drinking Sancerre. A few weeks back during a daytime wine party, which funnily enough featured a savory creme brulee (Andrew, I'm still thinking that is a no fly zone sir), I decided to bring a bottle of this Chateau de Sancerre 2006 ($28.76).
The entire group enjoyed it, and while it's not the best Sancerre I've ever had (then again, maybe it is. I could have had a terrible sancerre in Paris but drinking it there makes it taste much better. Go figure) but at the right temperature and with enough breathing room it is a wicked combination of smooth, almost buttery vanilla flavour mixed with that clean citrus flavour. It must be the body, which gives it a little but of a kick that separates it from a Sauvignon Blanc that you may find from say New Zealand or any where in the New World for that matter.
Knowing that Sancerre was once a region that made almost exclusively Pinot Noir until the 20th century is interesting, but knowing that this particular Sancerre is made by the same group that makes Grand Marnier is really interesting. It's not cheap, but it is French. So lets mark this as a potential recession busting special occasion bottle - but i feel like keeping a few bottles in stock in the wine fridge, for emergencies.
“What else can we call a man who produced 14,352 square feet of drawings for the Eiffel Tower—drawings which called for 15,000 structural members and 2,500,000 rivet holes—and who put this immense jigsaw puzzle together without, as far as we know, a single error?” Mario Salvadori
"There is something especially nauseating about the latest Middle East war — scenes of worldwide Islamic protests with photos of Jews as apes, protesters (in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida of all places!) screaming about nuking Israel and putting Jews in ovens, parades of children dressed up with suicide vests and fake rockets, near constant anti-Semitic vicious sloganeering, Gaza mosques stuffed with rockets to be used against civilians — all to be collated with creepy Hamas rhetoric about the annihilation of Israel. This is the world in which we now live." Victor Davis Hanson.
"Israeli air strikes kill cute kittens and Hamas terrorist leaders. But mostly Hamas terrorist leaders." Robert Stacy McCain.
"With all sincerity, Joaquin Phoenix might just be the best celebrity in the world right now. I don’t really know what place he’s at in his life, but I sort of want to go there and buy a condo." Alex Blagg.
" I can't think of a single movie, from It's A Wonderful Life to Mary Poppins, that wouldn't be improved by a whole bunch of machine guns and dead Nazis." Tamara K, View From the Porch.
Oh what fun. It's still snow-y-ville out there, and while we are still off the record amounts, its been a white couple of weeks. Sure it's stopped after yesterday's mini-dump, but this is more snow than we've seen in a long while. It's gorgeous as it is falling, and nice for that day, afterwards, when it melts, gets dirty, or in the case of some trash neighbours of mine they let their dog piss in it (really, couldn't take the dog down stairs and away from the common walkways? That's just plain rude.
In other news Frances Bula sheds some light on how the city deals with the snow during an exchange with Vision Councillor Raymond Louie. "he city ended up spending $937,000 from its 2008 budget for snow clearing in the last few weeks of December. (Raymond didn’t say it, but I will: Good thing council didn’t vote to put more money from the contingency fund into the homelessness plan, as David Cadman had suggested!"
I found the idea that Vancouver has only 47 snow ploughs very interesting, almost as much as how much it would cost to plough side streets. Fascinating. And don't worry we're adding 5 more for the Olympics - VANOC thinks of everything!
And while we are on the topic of all things weather and snow - my absolute least favorite blogging right after cat blogging and blogging about social media - its a good time to link to a few interesting articles about global warming.
"Easily one of the most important stories of 2008 has been all the evidence suggesting that this may be looked back on as the year when there was a turning point in the great worldwide panic over man-made global warming. Just when politicians in Europe and America have been adopting the most costly and damaging measures politicians have ever proposed, to combat this supposed menace, the tide has turned in three significant respects."
The 2nd, more unlikely, is this Harold Ambler piece, also in an unlikely place, The Huffington Post. Ambler is accepting an apology from Al Gore on climate change that is required reading out here in the left coast of Canada. Part of the fun is reading the comments after the article as people don't like to read such things as the debunking of Al 'The Pope of Green' Gore.
"Mr. Gore has stated, regarding climate change, that "the science is in." Well, he is absolutely right about that, except for one tiny thing. It is the biggest whopper ever sold to the public in the history of humankind."
UPDATE: And really, did it need to snow yet again this afternoon/evening? Honestly.
Jo was watching another marathon of 'Supernatural', and the show does play some pretty awesome music from what I can hear. Just heard this Huey Lewis & The News gem, 'Back in Time'. Makes me want to watch a Back to the Future marathon, like now.
"More than 280 people were detained and more than 1,000 cars torched during New Year celebrations across France, mostly in its troubled suburbs, the interior ministry said Thursday. Four police officials were slightly injured, according to the interior ministry, which said its security forces 'were of the unanimous view' that New Year's Eve was 'rather calm and without major incident.' The interior ministry had earlier said 445 vehicles were set on fire overnight, but later revised that figure to 1,147." - AFP.
"Rupert Murdoch. He dies in a freak yacht accident. Sumner Redstone, Padma Lakshmi, Barry Diller, David Geffen, Rachel Sklar, Hoobastank, and Shaquille O'Neill are also on board, but all survive. Foul play is suspected, and an investigation reminiscent of the board game Clue ensues. A rumor spreads that Murdoch's cryogenically frozen brain is in an Anaheim basement next to Walt Disney's frontal lobe and the Arc of the Covenant. Michael Wolff sells his next book, The Brain Eaters, for $10 million. 17 people buy it; 4 read it." Fimoculous's 36 predictions for 2009.
"In France there are, I think, less than one per cent of people who are too skinny. There are nearly 30 per cent of young people who are too fat. So let's take care of the zillions of the too fat before we talk about the percentage that's left." Karl Lagerfeld.
"God damn you, Marley & Me. God damn you straight to hell." Food Court Lunch.
"I would have picked Noam Chomsky for state, Naomi Klein for defense, Bernardine Dohrn for Attorney General, Bill Fletcher for commerce, James Thindwa for labor, Barbara Ransby for human services, Paul Krugman for treasury, and Amy Goodman for press secretary. So what do I know?" - Bill Ayres.
It's been over a year and I still haven't gotten through the DVD of Twin Peaks. We keep getting newer and less taxing DVD's to watch and it keeps going to the bottom of the list. And now on the 2nd season it starts to unravel anyway in terms of making any sense whatsoever. But I do still remember watching that show and the hype around the show's three female leads, Sherilyn Fenn (Audrey Horn), Lara Flynn Boyle (Donna Hayward), and of course Madchen Amick (Shelly Johnson). Amick wasn't as high profile as the other two, and seemed to languish in nowheresville for some time. But In the past few years she has started to be perfectly cast as the cougarish vixen at the ripe age of 38 she has recently been cast excellently on Californication and Gossip Girl, but she has been playing this act up since 1999 in Dawson's Creek and few years after on Gilmore Girls. She seems fun. She's like the new undrunk Heather Locklear. [Check her out on Chelsea Lately]
Here's some things I find interesting about her:
5. She's actually been married to the same guy since 1992. That's monumental in Hollywood, non?
4. And Mother of two? Seriously? Come on.
3. She's a friend to Buffy's Sarah Michelle Geller.
2. That that infamous Rolling Stone Cover from 1990 was the first time non-musicians had been on the cover. And now the magazine is creepily regular sized. Coincidence?
1. I'd forgotten that she was an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in season 2.
I kind of wanted to spend a lot longer in the Cactus ClubBathroom on Broadway & Ash. Not only is it room-y (I want one), with fully automatic soap and waters, but as you can see in the photo you have the couch, coffee table, and fireplace. I know, who wants to sit and lounge out in a bathroom, but if this wasn't in Cactus Club and was in my apartment, I'd be a happy camper - lots reading and enjoyment. No wonder it won best bathroom in the 2008 Georgia Straight awards.
And what you can't really see is a pop-art painting that looks like the Baroness from G.I. Joe - okay, technically she was in COBRA, but whatevs, which is pretty amazing.
Sort of can't believe I had this conversation a few minutes ago with my friend Graham. Really, Graham, Will Smith has never made a bad movie in his life? Are you crazy? This snow is doing some strange stuff to you sir. I'm kind of with Jeffrey Wells on Smith:
"The rest of Smith's directors have all been journeymen -- nice guy professsionals (Barry Sonnenfeld, Peter Berg) but mainly fellows who can shoot a film in focus, get it in on time, etc, but none of them visionaries or even marginally outside the box. 25 years hence which films will Smith be remembered for? Ali and what else? The man only has a few years to knuckle down and work with the AA-quality directors, or history will not remember him with any great respect or kindliness."
My friend Michelle has been a strong advocate for the simple pleasures of Prosecco - the charming Italian version of the bubbly - for some time. Apparently it has something to do with her Italian/Australian heritage and her ridiculous love of all things champagne, real or otherwise. Let's just say that Michelle has been pushing Prosecco on us even before that tart Paris Hilton started endorsing versions of it in a can.
For Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, and again this morning, the simple bottle of Valdo Prosecco ($21.49 at the Government Stores) did some yeoman work in some orange juice and just as well on its own as the juice ran out. It's tasty. it's fresh, and in my mind goes down a lot easier than the authentic French stuff. And in these tough economic times Prosecco is a good bargain too, so you can buy two bottles instead of one.
And in fact, the Italians are trying to make Prosecco the same one of kind experience that is champagne to France. [NY TImes]
"The key is to link prosecco to its traditional home.
“We don’t want to end up with something like pinot grigio,” says Primo Franco, owner of the Nino Franco winery in Valdobbiadene, referring to another white wine grape from the Veneto region that today is grown around the world.
Because prosecco is also the name of a northern Italian village where the grape is believed to have originated, the consortium can make an argument, too, that prosecco is a place name that can be protected just like Chianti, Champagne and others."
