Dumb Mobs, or Keep Your Epinions to Yourself

It was only a matter of time. As more and more of us got online and started to join communities, we began to share our opinions. We became a marketer’s dream, allowing them to gather our most detailed demographic data every time we made a purchase or joined a Yahoo! group. Companies like Amazon began to let us write “reviews” of our purchases and recommend things to others. With a user base of several million individuals, these databases have begun to act as our critical voice whenever we consider an online (or offline) purchase. But how good is the information we receive this way? Will this sort of “mob ranking” replace the advice of trusted sources, and if not, how will these trusted sources establish themselves online? Will it become more difficult to find good information in the flood of online ratings? What kind of forces are at work here? These are the questions I propose to explore.

I was prompted to ask some of these questions during a panel on book publishing during this year’s South by Southwest Interactive conference. The moderator had been talking about how the marketing and promotion of books had moved online, mostly due to the web’s reach and the reduced costs involved. I began to think of the way that the critic’s role had also moved online, though not in the way I’d hoped. Sure, people still brought up the New York Times online and some of them even read book reviews there, but more and more sites were adding their own ratings engine and just letting everybody have at it. Something about this made me uncomfortable and I wanted to find out why.

I have participated in this kind of critical activity myself. At the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com), users can rate a film out of 10 and write their own reviews which are then added to the site. A bit of a film geek, I’ve endeavoured to rate every film I see, whether it’s a masterpiece, a flop, or just an entertaining bit of fluff. Upon reflection, I think that might be the only way these sites will work. Just as a professional critic must write reviews that fall across a wide spectrum of opinion, each voter on IMDb or Amazon or Epinions must establish the boundaries of their taste. In the case of product reviews, where taste is not an issue, the critic still must establish their standards. Without informing anyone of what we don’t like, sharing what we do like will be meaningless.

However, my experience with these sites shows a different situation. Some users vote only for things they do like. These people would have an average rating that is quite high. Others only point out things they hate, and so their average ratings are quite low. As individual voices, we might be wise to ignore them, but as part of an anonymous mob, they are invisible. We don’t even know how many of them there are. The larger question is how do we know we can trust the ratings presented by a site that doesn’t limit its membership in any way? Sure, it’s democratic, but when it comes to informed opinions, the mob surely doesn’t rule.

Since the machinery behind these databases is hidden to us, I wanted to ask a few experts how they work. Is one better than another? What kind of research is being carried on into making them more useful? Will it really ever be true for me that I will weigh the opinion of the New York Times’ book critic against the mob of user ratings at Amazon and find them equal?

Let’s take Epinions as an example. When I ask it to list dramatic movies in order of rating, I get a very long list of 5-star choices. But I’m almost certain that the people who gave Schindler’s List the top rating were not the same group that elevated Anne of Green Gables to the same lofty place. I can’t be sure, but I’m trusting my gut on this one. I would hazard a guess that most people who take the time to rate their purchases online are a self-selecting group whose opinions tend toward one end of the spectrum or the other.

The interesting thing is how much more influential these algorithms have become, and how opaque they remain. Google’s search algorithm is the big one, but recent stories about the “black box” that is Yelp are also relevant. I wonder if a discussion of these issues might still be interesting, or has the issue already been settled?

from Consolation Champs

Dumb Mobs, 2003

Yesterday’s post was a necessary look back, but I want to focus now on what’s next. As I mentioned before, I’ve taken myself away on “career retreats” on two previous occasions. In 2003 and again in 2009, I spent a couple of days in Kingston, Ontario, chosen, frankly, for its blandness and lack of distractions (sorry Kingston!). On both occasions, I returned energized and with job descriptions in hand for jobs that did not (yet) exist. On both occasions, I went on to work at those jobs after reaching out to the relevant communitites (wine and film, respectively). And I still have great relationships and potential or ongoing work with both of these communities. So clearly my strategy has been effective. The issue was that in one case (wine), the industry was too small and my prospects limited, and in the other (independent film distribution), the economy made it impossible for me to work full-time for decent wages.

Given that I would like to continue to work with the people I met in those two jobs, I’ve been exploring the idea of launching my own content consultancy. I’ve certainly worked in many different business sectors and have seen the same issues in all of them. A lack of clear communication and a need for guidance when it comes to online tools, for starters. The shape of this new business will need some experimentation and some advice from trusted friends, but it’s a potentially exciting new direction.

And just to reinforce that my basic skill set has been in place all along, here are what I listed as my “transferable skills” back in 2003. Each was based on a job I had performed at some point in my working life:

I’m a person who can:

I took the photo for this post myself. It’s a road sign we saw in rural Iceland on our trip there in 2008. I invite usability experts to weigh in on just how helpful this sign could be to anyone traveling by car.

from Consolation Champs

Where Do I Go Now?

As I write this post, I’m sitting in a San Francisco café in the midst of my third “career retreat” in the past eight years. For someone who thinks about the world of work so much, I don’t seem to be very good at figuring it out for myself.

I left my position at St. Michael’s Hospital just over a month ago, six months into a ten-month contract. Without getting into too much detail, I was unable to work effectively within such a large organization, with all of its existing power structures and areas of dysfunction. Plenty of people do, but I’ve just realized (again) that I’m not cut out for working in bigger companies.

I’ve been working for money for more than 30 years now. I took my first job in the summer of 1980, selling magazine subscriptions door-to-door. Since that time, the longest I’ve ever held a job has been four years, and that’s been on two occasions. From 1994-1998, I was a welfare caseworker for the City of Toronto. And from 2003-2007, I was the web guy for Lifford Wine Agency. I enjoyed both jobs, but left for similar reasons. I was worried about stagnating. I’ve come to realize that when it comes to work, I have a fear of commitment.

It hasn’t helped that for the past decade, I’ve been working in web-related positions. The online landscape shifts so often as to make just about anyone insecure. I’ve always been happiest as a generalist, but each job I’ve taken in the past few years has pushed me to specialize more and more. I’ve learned a lot about what I don’t like to do in the process. What’s been harder to nail down is what I do like to do.

And so I’m here, spending a week away from my regular routine, reading, thinking and writing about what I want to do with that part of my life devoted to earning money. I’ve tried to be unsentimental about work. My generation may have been the first raised to expect more from our careers, not just money but fulfillment. I’ve always thought that was a tall order. And yet.

We spend half of our waking hours working. We often see our workmates more than the members of our own families. We should be looking for an environment in which we can use all of our abilities and develop good working relationships. We should be able to balance our work and home responsibilities with as little stress as possible. Let’s face it. I’m still an idealist.

Everywhere I have worked, I have diagnosed areas of dysfunction and lamented relationships that just didn’t work out. I’ve often thought that I would make a good manager, but without the power to actually make organizational changes, I know I’d grow bitter and frustrated.

I’ve often joked that entrepreneurs are people who just can’t work with anyone else, and now I feel like I understand that mentality.

Over the past eight years, on my career retreats, I’ve compiled lists of my skills. I’ve read about flow. I’ve tried to combine my passions with my abilities. I’ve created non-existent positions and then sold companies the idea of hiring me to fill them. So why am I still back in this position, unemployed and looking for my next gig?

I’m 46 years old. I like to think that I know myself pretty well. I like to think that the income matters less than the opportunity. That I’m ready to take on new challenges, again. But I worry that others will see me as a job-hopper, as someone who’s never stayed in one place long enough to achieve mastery or to assume responsibilities. As someone who is afraid of commitment.

I often compare the world of work to the world of relationships. And I worry that I’m that guy waiting for “the one” to sweep me off my feet. And I’m perpetually disappointed. And worse, it’s not possible to take a break from working the way one might decide to take a break from dating. We need to work all the time, and when we’re working it’s hard to find energy to find better work. So many people muddle on in jobs they hate. Except me. I get out.

And as each position I leave is found wanting, I worry that I’m running out of options. Who wants to hire someone so unsure of what he wants out of his work?

So this week is about me remembering my experiences, recalibrating my expectations, rethinking my ambitions and researching my options. God help me.

Thanks to Daniele Sartori for making his photo available under a Creative Commons licence.

from Consolation Champs

How Did I Get Here?

You can stream the whole thing by hitting the play button, but it works best as a download, so go ahead and click that link (or the image). By the way, the lovely image is of my dear late friend Brad Graham, whom I met at my very first SXSW in 2001. That’s him trying on a jacket at Austin secondhand shop Uncommon Objects that very year. The amused-looking Dinah Sanders is in the background. We lost Brad in January of 2010 but it just wouldn’t be SXSW without him.

Duration: 55:11
Download .m4a file (81.4 MB)

1. Lisztomania – Phoenix (2009, from the album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix): How 2009, the hipsters are sneering. But who am I kidding, the hipsters don’t come here. Sure, I may be late to the party with French veterans Phoenix, but how much more I’m enjoying them after waiting out the hype. This whole album just feels like a refreshing breeze and a taste of summer. Sort of like Austin in March, non?
2. Pure – Lightning Seeds (1989, from the album Cloud Cuckoo Land): Believe it or not, I rediscovered this song in Carlos Assayas’ masterful 5.5 hour film Carlos (review). I really loved the way he used music, from the jagged postpunk of Wire and Another Sunny Day to the, well, pure pop of this song. “Just lying smiling in the dark” – ah yes, I remember.
3. The Last Time – Gnarls Barkley (2006, from the album St. Elsewhere): Here’s a great overlooked track sung by the great Cee-Lo Green from his collaboration with DJ Danger Mouse. I really like the combination of his silky voice and the jittery keyboard riff.
4. Pages – Starlight Mints (2003, from the album Built on Squares): I think Starlight Mints should be more well-known. They have a really unique sound and some lyrical tricks, like on this off-kilter love song.
5. I Want the World to Stop – Belle and Sebastian (2010, from the album Write About Love): From perhaps the finest pop songwriters of the past 15 years. I saw the band this year and was knocked out by their showmanship and musicianship, but most of all by the sheer number of incredible songs they’ve written. Plus, Stuart Murdoch is one of the coolest gents ever.
6. Love Without Lies – Comet Gain (2008, from the album Broken Record Prayers): I discovered this band literally the day before putting this compilation together. I was watching a UK indie film called 1234 (review) about, yes, being in an indie band, and found veterans Comet Gain, together since 1993, for the first time.
7. Whirring – The Joy Formidable (2010, from the EP A Balloon Called Moaning): Welsh three-piece fronted by a kick-ass blonde guitarist named Ritzi. What is not to love? Plus, they are playing SXSW, although I won’t be around for music this year. Make sure to catch them live.
8. Off Your Face – My Bloody Valentine (1989, from the EP Glider): Upside Down is a documentary about Creation Records that is playing SXSW this year. My Bloody Valentine are one of my favourite bands from that label and era. I used to think that Bilinda Butcher was singing “James” in this song, and since my crush on her remains undimmed for the past twenty plus years, I refuse to change my opinion.
9. Hummer – Foals (2008, from the album Antidotes): Late to the party with these guys, too, but really love the dancefloor-friendly precision of the guitars. I found out about them through my support on IndieGogo for Anyone Can Play Guitar, a documentary about bands from Oxford. Go and help Jon finish his film!
10. Royal Gregory – Holy Fuck (2007, from the album LP): I saw this Toronto band at SXSW in 2010 and loved their live knob-twiddling performance. Catch them live this year if you can.
11. Steady Shock – Girl Talk (2010, from the album All Day): I’m not a huge Girl Talk fan but some of the samples in this particular track were inspired. Not a day goes by recently when the line “all the girls standing in a line for the bathroom” doesn’t run through my head about a hundred times.
12. Zebra – Beach House (2010, from the album Teen Dream): Beach House really don’t sound like any other band I’ve ever heard and I’ve enjoyed listening to their moody music this year.
13. Down in the Park – Gary Numan and Tubeway Army (1979, from the album Replicas): When I was 14, I wore out the grooves on this record. This predates Blade Runner but shares the same vision of a grimy and slightly seedy future.
14. Dream Job – The Dears (2008, from the album Missiles): Montreal natives The Dears just released a new album that was critically savaged by hipster favourite Pitchfork. This is from their previous record, which wasn’t reviewed all that strongly either. It just goes to show you that some bands march to their own, er, drummer. I’m glad to say that The Dears’ music is the sort that grows on you, and I hope you’ll come to love this underappreciated band as much as I do. Also, I have a Dears story.

I have no way of determining how many people download the compilation this year, so if you’ve read this far, would you mind just dropping a comment to say Hi after clicking the download link? Of course, it would be great if you came back to tell me what you thought of the music, too.

from Consolation Champs

SXSW 2011: Compilation Champs

The Roman God Janus, namesake of the month of January
(image courtesy of Wiki Commons)

It might be a cliché to take the beginning of a new year as a chance to take stock or to make resolutions, but I’ve always admired people who do it honestly. This past year, this blog marked a decade of existence, but it’s been growing quieter and quieter, and I’d like that to change. When I began my other blog, Toronto Screen Shots in 2007, I fully intended to keep blogging here for more personal stuff, but the rise of Twitter and Facebook seems to have taken over the realm of the personal, at least for the quotidian stuff. And although I’ve been meaning to use this space for lengthier more contemplative writing, I’ve frankly become a bit spooked, mostly due to my work experiences with “social media.” It’s hard to be honest about your life when you can’t talk about the thing you spend most of it doing, which is going to work. As someone who thinks about the world of work constantly, and who seems to change jobs just as constantly, I’ve tried to put a few of my thoughts about that here, but have had to be less than candid at times. I hope that might change a little bit. And as for the personal, I’m hoping to use this blog as a bit more of a place to examine myself and my life. For those few of you who might still read this blog on a semi-regular basis, thank you and I hope you’ll stay with me on this hopefully-not-too-narcissistic journey.

Family

As I look back on 2010 and forward to 2011, the phrase that comes to mind is “contentment in the midst of uncertainty.” I will turn 46 in February and am now closer to 50 than I am to 40. It really is true that time seems to speed up the older you get. It’s very strange to see all the grey in my hair and the lines forming on my face when inside I still feel like the geeky teenager I used to be. And yet even as lots of things change around me, I am pretty happy most of the time. The obvious reason for that is Brooke. We’ve been together for 13 years now, married for 8 and although marriage isn’t easy, and we don’t take anything for granted, we have a pretty stable and low-maintenance relationship. She’s remarkably tolerant of my faults and still laughs at my jokes. She’s easy to be around, and even as I age, she seems as young and beautiful as ever. I don’t want to make it sound like we have a perfect marriage. Both of us have made significant sacrifices to be together, and my life is not at all what I imagined it would be when I was younger.

I miss having children, and letting go of the idea of being a father was very hard for me. It’s only been in the last year or two that we have pretty much released the tension that used to exist between us on this subject. But Brooke was honest with me from the start. Her ambivalence about parenthood never wavered and time finally made the hard decision that we never quite could verbalize. I think I would have been much more comfortable if either of us had siblings. As it stands, we live in an eerily child-free world. A dog is certainly in our future, though.

Each of us has only one surviving parent. Brooke’s dad died in 2007, and my mother way back in 1987. This past year has been exasperating at times as each of us struggled with our emotionally needy parents and realizing we’d become parents to our own parents. My dad is just 68 but as a heavy smoker has started to lose his health. He’s developed a troubling wheeze that probably means emphysema but he’s too stubborn (or afraid) to go to his doctor. Brooke’s mum is in good health but is 75. So, sometime in the next 5-10 years, it’s likely that we’ll lose one or both of them.

Career

My career has always been a source of uncertainty, and for that I must take full responsibility. I’ve just never found that perfect fit, and although I’ve enjoyed the wide range of environments and industries I’ve worked in, it might be nice to finally settle down. My current job is a contract that will run until September 2011, and I have no idea whether I’ll be moving on again or if it will be renewed. Since 2007, I’ve had five different jobs. While that might be fine in one’s 20s, I get a bit nervous now going for interviews.

2010 was certainly a learning experience on the career front. Working on the front lines of film distribution was wonderful, but I realized how hard it is financially for a small independent company to survive in the face of competition from larger corporations. And going to work for one of those larger companies turned out to be very unappealing. My choices were to remain in a job where I worked 3 days a week with no benefits or to look for something more lucrative but potentially less interesting. I’ve now added health care and the film industry to the list of sectors in which I’ve worked (internet services, financial services, computer retail, web design, wine!) in the past decade. And I’m discovering that my core skills are essentially about communicating online. I hope that will continue to lead me in interesting directions in the year and years ahead.

Friends

Moving from the thing that takes up most of my time to the thing that actually means the most to me, 2010 was both good and bad in terms of friendships. The year began with my dear friend Brad Graham suddenly passing away at the age of 41. My tenth annual pilgrimage to SXSW was particularly poignant since that was where I had met Brad in 2001, and it felt like a bit of the personal web died with him. Keeping this blog going is an attempt to fight that creeping feeling that nobody can be themselves anymore online. Nobody was more himself online than Brad, and I plan to honour him by trying to be more of myself here as well.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom. SXSW was still a highlight, where I got to reconnect with old friends and connect with new ones. And locally, I made new friendships and deepened older ones within my circles of friends, both small (I’m lookin’ at you, SuperNerds®) and larger (film bloggers represent!). I’ve always been relationship-focused and if I happen to be more vocal about my friendships this year, I hope you won’t mind. In my own low-key way, I try to bring people together and nothing pleases me more than being a kind of matchmaker and then seeing sparks (creative, romantic, whatever) fly between people I’ve introduced.

Conclusion

Well in typical rambling personal blog fashion, I didn’t really know what I’d end up writing and now here I am trying to sum up. Here are some things I want to do in 2011, in no particular order.

• Be more demonstrative toward my friends, both old and new. They should know how much I love them.
• Write more, and more honestly, here. Self-examination without narcissism, if that’s possible.
• Continue to try to figure out what I want to do when I grow up.
• Admit mistakes, but more importantly, learn from them.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for more from life. And then to pursue it without fear.

And before I end up sounding like a motivational speaker, I’ll stop. If you’ve made it this far, thanks. And I wish you a very good 2011!

from Consolation Champs

Looking Back and Looking Forward: 2010 Edition

I’ve been needlessly secretive about the new job I started this week, and I’m not sure just why. Perhaps it’s because I’m still pinching myself. The past few weeks have seemed pretty dreamlike, with a wonderful ten-day vacation in Spain also contributing to my giddiness. Here’s what has happened.

Despite the best intentions of all parties, it was clear that my 3-days-a-week gig at indie film distributor KinoSmith was not going to turn into a full-time salaried position with benefits and vacation. So a few months ago, I began yet another round of job searching, applying for just about everything with the words web, content, writer, or editor in the job description. I was encouraged that there seemed to be more of these positions showing up in my daily career alert emails, but I wasn’t getting as many interviews as I would have liked.

Then, in early October, many weeks after I’d applied, and during a particularly quiet spell, I received an email from Anthony Lucic at St. Michael’s Hospital inviting me to an interview for the position of Website Managing Editor. It had been so long that the original posting had disappeared from the web and I actually had no idea what the job description was anymore. Nevertheless, I was excited for several reasons. First, this was a position in the nonprofit sector, at one of Canada’s leading hospitals, and I could easily get excited about working in the healthcare field. Second, the position seemed interesting and challenging: writing and editing, but also a strong strategic component, where I’d be involved in planning the direction of both the public-facing site and the hospital’s intranet. Anthony was actually the incumbent in the position and had been on a secondment to another part of the hospital for several months, so he knew exactly what they were looking for. He interviewed me by phone at first, then invited me in for a more formal panel interview the next week. Finally, the week after, I was invited back for a second (third?) interview where I met the person I’d be reporting to, the hospital’s Director of Public Relations.

All this was happening with our long-planned trip to Spain just days away. In fact, the very afternoon we were leaving, I received a phone call from Anthony just half an hour before our taxi arrived, offering me the position. It made our vacation that much more enjoyable knowing I’d be coming back to start an exciting new job. Technically, it’s a contract position, and if Anthony’s secondment isn’t renewed, he’ll likely be returning to the position next fall, but I’m not worrying about that just yet. I’m looking forward to some new challenges related to managing a large corporate website. I’m hoping that the burgeoning field of content strategy will hold many new insights for me, and I’m bemused to be wrestling with both an unwieldy corporate CMS and the tortured prose of professionals and academics again.

P.S. The title of the post and the image both reference the iconic “Urban Angel” statue that has come to represent St. Michael’s Hospital. You can read more about it here. “Thank You For Sending Me An Angel” is a very fine song by Talking Heads from their second album (and my favourite), More Songs About Buildings and Food (1978).

from Consolation Champs

Thank You For Sending Me An Angel

Duration: 42:36
Download MP3 (20MB)

You can click on the above image to get an idea of the whole area of my walk.

I started at my doctor’s office on Ellesmere just east of Pharmacy. It’s marked by a red polygon.

After walking through Parkway Mall, I headed for my old building at 270 Cassandra, marked by the red polygon.

I continued walking on Cassandra, past 250 to Cassandra Park.

I turned left onto Avonwick Gate, to visit Annunciation Catholic School, where I attended grades 1-8 from 1971-1978. The school is marked by the red polygon.

Across from Avonwick Gate is the entrance to what we called “the ravine,” which is really Brookbanks Park. I emerged by Crestwood Preparatory Academy and Brookbanks Public Library, which is marked with a red polygon.

If you find this site because of Google, and you knew me, please get in touch! You can add a comment or if the comment form is closed, you can find me on any of the various social networks out there.

from Consolation Champs

Cassandra Podcast

Back then, there were probably a few hundred blogs in existence, and I could link to all the ones I followed on one page. It was before the days of punditry, so there were no business blogs or political blogs. They grew out of people’s personal “home pages” and so were a form of self-expression. After reading about the first blogger meet-up at South by Southwest 2000, I became determined to meet some of my heroes and heroines, and the next spring, I did. I’ve returned each March to Austin and SXSW because some of the friendships I’ve made online and cemented there are very valuable to me. And I’ve stubbornly kept this blog going as a mostly personal blog, although I don’t post nearly as regularly as I used to. That’s partially due to laziness, but also because we have so many other online tools for keeping people updated about our lives (Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, etc.).

But I’m proud of Consolation Champs for other reasons, too. By working with several different blogging platforms (first Blogger, then Movable Type, now WordPress), I’ve increased my knowledge of how the web works. In the early days, I did much more of the coding and design of my pages, but even now, blogging helps to keep me sharp on the latest web technologies. And all that writing (1,335 posts over ten years!) has sharpened my skills immeasurably. In fact, without rambling on here for so long, I would never have started my other blog, Toronto Screen Shots. Blogging has led to friendships and to work, and has expanded my view of the world over the past decade. I hope it will always be a part of my life.

Now, just for fun, here are some of the things I was talking about way back in the year 2000:

• Is 35 too old to be in the web design business?
• An early meme and one of my favourite spontaneous jokes ever.
• Complaining that Withnail and I wasn’t yet available on DVD
• Perennial whining about the Toronto International Film Festival
• Evidence of real love

And that’s just from July and August of 2000! Feel free to read all 1,335 posts and I’d be delighted if you left a comment, too!

from Consolation Champs

A Decade of Blogging

Last night, I went to a party. Each year around this time, Lee Dale and Jay Goldman organize a get-together just before South by Southwest, ostensibly for Torontonians heading down. Cheekily-titled Canadian Livers in Training (CanLIT), it’s a boozy, loud, and utterly wonderful time. And that’s coming from someone who’s a bit of a party wallflower. I didn’t have any deep conversations last night. I might have spoken to ten people in a room of about 150. But what it reinforced for me is that life is about connection with other people. I would argue that work should be, too.

This might sound strange coming from someone who has worked and lived online for the past decade or longer, but I think that as wonderful as computers and mobile devices and the web can be, they have contributed to much more isolation in the workplace. I’ve spent the past few years miserable in high-paying and some might consider cushy jobs writing and building “communities” on the web. Miserable because in the workplace, my day and the days of everyone I worked with consisted of long stretches alone staring at a screen and not actually talking to each other.

This might work for some among us. It’s not surprising that tech jobs are often filled by people with some form of social dysfunction, but I think I’m arguing that our workplaces reinforce and in some cases may even help create that dysfunction. I’ve certainly learned that personally, I need a job where I can spend a significant amount of my day interacting in real space with human beings, preferably smart people. It seems a gross injustice that most of the people who are comfortable around others, those with so-called “people skills” are often channeled into sales and marketing positions, forcing them to use their gifts in the service of selling more crap, while so many other people in the organization look at these folks with a mixture of envy and resentment.

I’m not saying that we should spend our work day holding hands and singing folk songs. Nor am I arguing for more useless meetings. But to me, all of the talk about “corporate culture” is meaningless if we all work alone.

To bring it back to South by Southwest, each year for the past ten years, I’ve been spending a pretty large amount of money and often taking vacation time to make the trek to Austin. Though there are literally hundreds of panels and presentations, I learn more in the hallways between sessions, or over lunch or dinner or drinks with all the smart people I meet there. Humans are social creatures, even the introverts. Somehow, our workplaces have crushed that out of us in a misguided quest for efficiency. I would argue that we’re much more efficient when we’re interacting with each other. Now, how can we make that happen? See that comment box below? Come talk to me…

Thanks to Flickr user cliff1066™ for making his images available under a Creative Commons license. The sculpture is called Last Conversation Piece, and it’s by Spanish sculptor Juan Munoz (1953-2001). It’s in the Hirshorn Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC.

from Consolation Champs

Come Talk to Me

So, this year, behold the mighty .m4a compilation! It has album artwork and everything. All that’s missing are the liner notes, which I’m going to provide for you right here. You don’t need to be attending SXSW to download and enjoy this 10th annual SXSW edition of Compilation Champs. But if you are, make sure you say hello if you see me. In any case, please let me know what you think about the songs. I love putting this together each year and writing a little bit about music, which I don’t do often enough.

You can stream the whole thing by hitting the play button, but it works best as a download, so go ahead and click that link (or the image).

Duration: 48:00
Download .m4a file (67.8 MB)

1. Intro – The XX (2009, from the album XX): I named this my Album of the Year for 2009 and this song does indeed make for a perfect “intro” to the rest. The XX sound to me a bit like what would have happened if Young Marble Giants had listened to more James Brown growing up. Minimalistic dance music that’s both cool and hot at the same time.
2. Shadow – Delta 5 (c. 1979-1981, from the album Delta 5: Singles and Sessions 1979-1981): I only recently discovered the amazing Delta 5 after watching a documentary about the history of Rough Trade Records in the UK. This unique band had two bass players and were at the forefront of the feminist and anti-racist movements. Plus they’re from Leeds, home of one of my all-time favourite bands, The Wedding Present.
3. Blessed Brambles – Múm (2007, from the album Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy): My fascination with Icelandic music continues, and with Múm’s in particular. There’s a mechanical sound to their music that reminds me of sewing machines: industrial and yet homey at the same time.
4. My Love Life – Morrissey (1991, from the EP Morrissey at KROQ): An old favourite from the tail end of my college days. A plaintive plea for sympathy, and who couldn’t use “a little something” for our love lives?
5. Overground – Siouxsie and the Banshees (1978, from the album The Scream): Stark and cool, this song is from the band’s very first record. Despite being criticized at the time for their lack of musicianship, I find the stripped down sound energizing and kind of epic, actually.
6. I’m Confused – Handsome Furs (2009, from the album Face Control): In a lucky accident, I stumbled into a show by this husband-and-wife duo at last year’s SXSW. I couldn’t believe how energetic they could be with just a guitar and a keyboard. It pleased me that they’re Canadian, from Montreal, but it’s strange that I haven’t really listened all that much to Dan Boeckner’s other band, Wolf Parade.
7. Time for Heroes – The Libertines (2002, from the album Up the Bracket): Another discovery from the Rough Trade Records documentary. I’d only ever heard of Pete Doherty as the drug-addled boyfriend of Kate Moss. His most recent band, Babyshambles, never crossed my radar at all, but listening to The Libertines makes his subsequent troubles all the more sad.
8. Hell Yeah (Pimp the System) – Dead Prez (2004, from the album RBG: Revolutionary But Gangsta): Dead Prez impressed the hell out of me in the film Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, and so I went looking for more from them. This song is powerful enough to both frighten me and make me see things from the other side. Muggings and fraud are survival tactics, but there’s also a thrill, that of “pimping the system” that tries to keep you down.
9. The Major Lift – Years (2009, from the album Years): Years is a side project from the impossibly-named Ohad Benchetrit, multi-instrumentalist for Do Make Say Think. It was the horn section in this particular song that grabbed me, especially the tuba, which is a bird seldom-heard in most of my music.
10. A Prophecy – Close Lobsters (1987, from the album Foxheads Stalk This Land): Scottish band Close Lobsters were part of the C-86 “movement” spawned by a compilation put out by the NME. Though they weren’t prolific, this entire album is a treasure chest of jangly goodness. I have no idea why the song speeds up at the end, but I sort of like that it does.
11. Footsteps – Bricolage (2009, from the album Bricolage): This Glasgow band seem to be mining the same territory as Postcard Records acts like Orange Juice and Josef K, which is just fine by me. If I had actually heard this album last year, it might have been my album of the year. Also, what is it about Scottish bands that compels them to make electric guitars sound like something else? First it was Big Country making guitars sound like bagpipes, and now on this song, Bricolage give the guitars a steel drum feeling. Or am I crazy?
12. Broken Rifle – Evening Hymns (2009, from the album Spirit Guides): Closer to home this time. Evening Hymns is essentially Jonas Bonetta, from tiny Orono, Ontario. Over the years I’ve introduced a few people to some great Canadian music, and I hope this year it might be this lovely song that reaches you.
13. Peach, Plum, Pear – Joanna Newsom (2004, from the album The Milk-Eyed Mender): I had heard OF Joanna Newsom for quite a while but had never heard her music until the closing credits of a short film called City Paradise, which featured “Peach, Plum, Pear.” It worked so well there that I’m stealing the idea here for my own “closing credits.”

I have no way of determining how many people download the compilation this year, so if you’ve read this far, would you mind just dropping a comment to say Hi after clicking the download link? Of course, it would be great if you came back to tell me what you thought of the music, too.

from Consolation Champs

SXSW 2010: Compilation Champs

By the time we’d made it to the restaurant, we were drenched but laughing like idiots. I’d made some genuine friends.

Today I found out that Brad Graham (at the far left in the photo) has passed away. He was 41. Brad was one of the funniest, smartest and warmest people I have ever met. It seems unbelievable that he is not in the world anymore, and that I won’t hear his laugh again.

I used to joke with him that he reminded me so much of comedian Paul Lynde, the old center square on the game show Hollywood Squares. I hope that when I die, he will be sitting in the center of the Bloggywood Squares and that he’ll be saving a seat for me.

Godspeed, my friend…

from Consolation Champs

Rain Can Make Brothers Out of Strangers

After a few brief weeks of unemployment, I began working again at the beginning of October. It’s just a few days a week for now, but it’s likely to grow into a full-time position before long. I’m working for a small but mighty distributor called Kinosmith. I’d been aware of them for a while, but didn’t realize that the company was only founded in early 2007. Or that up until now, it’s been essentially a one-man operation. Robin Smith has worked in the Canadian film industry for more than 20 years, for companies such as Capri Releasing, Seville Pictures, Lions Gate, Alliance Atlantis, and the Toronto International Film Festival, and he seems to know everyone. But he made it clear upon meeting me this summer that he needed some help. Although my main areas of responsibility will eventually be the web site and social media initiatives, for the past few weeks, I’ve been doing a lot of administrative work. It’s been a great way to begin to understand the business, and I look forward to absorbing some of Robin’s expertise as we continue to work together. I consider myself extremely lucky to have been in the right place at the right time.

I had been emailing back and forth for the past few months with another industry veteran, Oliver Groom, proprietor of Project X Distribution, a specialized DVD label that puts out the work of British filmmaker Peter Watkins as well as a few others. We finally decided to meet in person for a drink and since Oliver and Robin had recently partnered up for their DVD releases, Robin came along too. All three of us got along well from that first meeting and after another get-together and a few emails, Robin asked me to come and help him out. He recently moved his home office to Oliver’s house and so even though I work for Robin, I see Oliver a lot as well.

If I haven’t been writing here as often as usual, it’s not because I’ve been watching fewer films. On the contrary, I’m also helping out by watching screeners submitted to Kinosmith as well as catching up on the films we’re releasing now. Robin has built up a very impressive catalogue of films in just over two years, and lots of filmmakers want to work with him, so things are very busy. It does bring up a bit of an ethical dilemma for me. I don’t intend to refrain from reviewing films that happen to be distributed by Kinosmith, but I want to be completely transparent about my relationship to the distributor. Do you think it will be enough to put a standard disclosure notice at the beginning of any blog entry that deals with a Kinosmith title? I promise not to give any film preferential treatment, but I don’t want to ignore them, either, especially if I’m ever somehow involved in the decision to acquire the film for Kinosmith.

In any case, I’m very excited to be indulging my passion for film and learning more about the business side of things. It’s a great opportunity and I’m very thankful to Robin and Oliver for taking me under their wing.

from Consolation Champs

Working for Kinosmith

It began in August of 2007, when I posted about a career change. After four happy years doing web stuff at a small wine importing agency, I left for what I thought would be greener pastures at a huge professional services company. I craved a bigger fishbowl, I guess, and a bit more coin. As well, I thought that having a job title with “writer” in it meant that I’d be able to write more. But it turned out to be more re-writing than writing, and the office environment left me feeling isolated and bored.

Last August, I moved on to take a “social media” position at Tucows. The field was burgeoning and I felt excited to be stretching myself even further into a marketing role. But when my boss resigned earlier this year, things began to change, for me and for the company. She had created a brand new position for me, and when she left, I wasn’t quite sure where I stood. Worse, I began to realize that not only did I not have a passion for what the company did, I was beginning to lose my passion for the whole “social media” field. I felt a bit dirty, actually. The web culture I’d loved felt like it had been taken over by smooth-talking salespeople, selling their own expertise to a corporate world eager not to be left behind. Even worse, I’d become one of them. My work began to suffer.

I’d never intended to become a marketer, actually. It was different at the wine agency because I actually enjoyed most of the products we sold. But for the past two years, I’ve had a hard time even understanding what my employers did. To me, that meant that even if I was successfully doing my job, that I’d become soulless. Passion is essential to real job success, both for me and for my employers. It was obvious that I was a square peg in a round hole.

Earlier this summer, my new manager called me into a meeting where someone from HR was present. My performance wasn’t up to standard, I was told. I had to agree. Unfortunately, motivation was never discussed. That sort of honesty isn’t really encouraged in most workplaces. Instead, I was advised to pull up my socks or face dismissal. Unfortunately, passion can’t be manufactured out of thin air, and so on Wednesday morning this week, I was called into another meeting. Eerily, I’d been expecting it. On Tuesday night, I began bringing home photos from my desk. It must have seemed strange to my manager and HR how sanguine I was about the whole thing. But in fact, I’d been planning my exit for months.

I’d contemplated trying to “negotiate” my resignation but was afraid that showing my hand would only convince them to fire me. And I didn’t really want to leave with nothing else to go to. So I’ve been having meetings with people over the past few weeks, talking about possible jobs. Some of the work may be contract, but there are a few full-time possibilities on the horizon. Best of all, I’m not afraid.

I also feel confident that my old colleagues at Tucows will carry on just fine without me. I had my doubts that what I was doing warranted a full-time position at all, and they will have no problem picking up the slack. I wish them and the company nothing but success.

Several months ago now, I took some time for myself and went on “career retreat” to Kingston, about three hours east of Toronto. The last time I did that, in 2003, I discovered that my skills and my passions could be combined, even if it meant having to create a job out of thin air and then sell the need for that job to an employer. It led to my most satisfying period of employment yet, and even though I’m not heading back into the world of wine, my retreat reinforced my belief in my core skills and interests.

What all that means is that, somehow, I’m going to be working in the film business. I’m not exactly sure what that will look like, but it’s pretty obvious that film has been one of my dearest passions over the past 20 years, and if anything helps me achieve “flow,” it’s writing about a film I’ve just seen. I’ve got lots to learn, but I’ve gotten to know a lot of smart and generous people over the past few years, and I’m trusting that some of them will come through. A little help and a lot of hustle should get me back on my feet soon.

Onward and upward!

from Consolation Champs

August is Time for New Beginnings

At race time, the temperature was already into the 20s (Celsius) so I knew I’d have to stop at all the water stations since I’d decided not to carry my own water bottle. I started off very conservatively and ran the first kilometre in about 5:15. I actually slowed down for kilometres 2 and 3, and then picked it up toward the end. I’m pretty happy with my time, considering my total lack of training. But it did make me a bit more nervous that the heat next week will be even more debilitating. I’m going to make sure I bring some Gatorade along and I’ll still stop at all the water stations.

P.S. There is one team of guys that always dresses up each year. They’ve come as a team of Richard Simmons one year, and dressed as Dorothys (from the Wizard of Oz) another year. This year they all wore red bathing suits and blonde wigs and came as Gaywatch. Somehow, watching a team of male Pamela Anderson wannabes wasn’t as much fun as watching the real Baywatch girls would have been, but what do I know?

Gun Time: 28:06.0
Chip Time: 27:28.9
Overall Place: 388/812
Gender Place: 280/424

2008 Chip Time: (didn’t run)
2007 Chip Time: 24:28.5
2006 Gun Time: 25:08
2005 Gun Time: 26:06
2004 Gun Time: 24:10
2003 Gun Time: 28:45 (this is still the only race where Brooke has ever beat me, although she was on my heels this year!)

Full results from 2009

from Consolation Champs

Pride and Remembrance 5K 2009

I have a very fancy GPS watch (Garmin 405) and around the time I began to feel tired, it kept notifying me of my split times several metres BEFORE the course markers. As the race went on, this happened earlier and earlier, until by the end, my watch was reporting that the course was almost 400 metres longer than 10K. As a result, according to my highly calibrated (well, accurate to within 5m, according to it) watch, my 10K time was actually 53:32. When I stopped it at the official finish line, it read 55:12. Odd.

Anyway, even though I didn’t quite reach my goal of breaking 55:00 officially, I felt pretty good for the first half of the race. If only this had been a 5K!

I did struggle in the last half, and felt really dehydrated. Stopping to walk and drink water almost every kilometre near the end wasn’t pretty, but I’ve learned a lesson for our upcoming 10K race in Atlanta on July 4. The Peachtree Road Race will have more than 50,000 participants and the weather will likely be MUCH hotter, so I’m going to make sure I drink plenty of water, Gatorade, whatever it takes.

Gun Time: 56:58.8
Chip Time: 55:23.5
Overall Place: 4901/10762
Gender Place: 3159/4857
Age Group (M40-44) Place: 390/597

2008 Chip Time: 54:32.1
2007 Chip Time: 51:22.7
2006 Chip Time: (didn’t run)
2005 Chip Time: (didn’t run)
2004 Chip Time: 52:30.9

Full results from 2009

from Consolation Champs

Sporting Life 10K 2009

I am beginning to write a novel. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. Just to begin something with no end in sight. To follow some path until it comes to an end, and then look back on where I’ve been. It won’t be a screenplay, or a play, although I’ve wanted to try my hand at those, too. The forms would be too constricting, I think, for me right now. I just want to get out there and run.

Of course, I’ve had to transfer this file from computer to computer in the almost-decade since I started writing it. It began as a sort of scratch pad for my thoughts during a period of unemployment (when I actually thought of trying to write a novel) and I’ve added to it on and off ever since. Well, truthfully, the last time I wrote in it was 2005, but I opened it up again today and added a whole bunch of new stuff.

When I first started this blog in 2000, I expected that I’d be able to use it as a sort of semi-public diary. I wanted to explore my thoughts about important issues like faith, politics, work, relationships. But it hasn’t really worked out that way. Sadly, along with many others, I’ve begun to contract my onine self just a bit over the past few years. I’ve talked a little bit about it here, this fragmentation of the blogging self into the personal and the professional, for instance. And now there are microblogging services like Twitter and self-contained social networks like Facebook. Between all of them, some have said, they’ve killed the personal blog.

I wish I could use this space to air out my thoughts a bit more, but I realize that it’s probably not going to happen again. In the meantime, I have a text file on my computer called “I am beginning to write a novel.” It’s becoming a novel, alright (currently at almost 60,000 words!). Except it’s where I tell the truth.

from Consolation Champs

My Diary

So, I was pretty disappointed overall with my run. Brooke also had a sub-par year, finishing about a minute after me. Imagine my surprise when I realized that I actually improved on last year’s time. Not that 2008 was such a great race for me, either, but I suppose I can take some small comfort from the slight improvement.

Next month, we’ll be running the Sporting Life 10K again, and I hope to do much better. My goal is to run sub-54:00. That’s not very fast, but it will be a (hopefully) reasonable challenge for me.

Gun Time: 48:20.3
Chip Time: 47:29.3
Overall Place: 1060/2016
Gender Place: 703/1043
Age Group (M40-44) Place: 100/140

2008 Chip Time: 47:43.6
2007 Chip Time: 45:23.7
2006 Chip Time: 44:16.8
2005 Chip Time: 42:38.3
2004 Chip Time: 43:26.5

Full results from 2009

from Consolation Champs

Harry’s Spring Run-Off 8K 2009

Based on the title, I’m going to interpret this to mean that these albums have had an influence on my overall musical education. These are the albums that I bought with my hard-earned allowance and wore out on the turntable, in the tape deck or in the CD player. I had to keep it pre-2000 just to keep the numbers down, and these are mostly off the top of my head, so I could very well be omitting something huge and obvious. It’s clear that I could easily make a list of 100, but the rules said 50. So here are 50 plus a few more…

I’ve linked to a few full-featured, ahem, biographical reviews in the Great Albums category. Ideally, I’ll write one of those for each album on this list, even if that seems daunting and scary. For you as well as me.

And please not that I wrote this originally between midnight and 2:00am so my “notes” are a little slapdash. I reserve the right to add, delete, and edit at will

The Beatles – The Beatles (The White Album) (1968)

* Incredible in its range and showcasing the full range of the Beatles’ creative genius.

Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin (1969)

* The first album I ever bought, in 1975. I remember thinking the band was really good, but that the singer couldn’t sing.

David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972)

* The first concept album I knew, and the beginning of an amazing decade for Bowie.

Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon (1973)

* THE soundtrack to my stoner years.

Alice Cooper – Alice Cooper’s Greatest Hits (1974)

* What a run Alice Cooper had to have a greatest hits album out already in 1974. A really versatile and underrated songwriter.

Queen – A Night at the Opera (1975)

* “Bohemian Rhapsody” was huge, but my friends and I played this right through at most of our high school house parties.

Max Webster – High Class in Borrowed Shoes (1977)

* I loved the combination of “hoser rock” and art rock that Max Webster always embodied. Plus, they’re in drag on the cover!

Sex Pistols – Never Mind the Bollocks (1977)

* Much has been made about the “manufactured” nature of the Pistols, but for me, the songs were and still are very good. And no one had ever sneered the way Johnny Rotten did.

The Clash – The Clash (1977)

* I loved the fact that a punk band could have two different singers.

Ramones – Rocket to Russia (1977)

* Every song is a winner even as every song sounds like the same song.

Kraftwerk – Trans Europe Express (1977)

* Perhaps no other album invokes a time and place so perfectly.

The Cars – The Cars (1978)

* I’ve written about this one elsewhere. “Just What I Needed” – more memories of unrequited love. Not saying that memories of unrequited love were just what I needed.

Talking Heads – More Songs About Buildings and Food (1978)

* Angular and yet soulful. Arty and yet kind of primitive.

Devo – Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (1978)

* Twitchy and danceable, if nerds danced.

The Clash – London Calling (1979)

* Amazed then and now at this band’s range.

The B-52s – The B-52s (1979)

* Loved loved loved this whole album, except “Rock Lobster,” strangely enough.

Gary Numan and Tubeway Army – Replicas (1979)

* Wore the grooves off this one, during my “I’m really a robot trapped in a gawky teenage body” phase. Lost interest when “Cars” came along and he seemed to forget about the guitar.

Gang of Four – Entertainment! (1979)

* Only fully discovered this album recently, but loved the way they took punk in a new direction.

Buzzcocks – Singles Going Steady (1979)

* Didn’t own this at the time, but I remember the songs and the attitude.

Bob Dylan – Slow Train Coming (1979)

* Just like Dylan, I was going through a spiritual transformation around this time, and this remains a powerful document of that time in my life.

The Boomtown Rats – The Fine Art of Surfacing (1979)

* I’ve written about this one elsewhere, but this album’s finest tracks have been overshadowed by “I Don’t Like Mondays,” my least favourite track.

The Specials – The Specials (1980)

* Of all the ska revival bands, I found The Specials the most versatile and politically engaged.

Teenage Head – Frantic City (1980)

* These semi-local heroes seemed to embody working-class teenage rebellion for me and my friends. Sort of punkabilly.

The Pretenders – The Pretenders (1980)

* I’ve written about this one elsewhere, but for my 15-year-old self, Chrissie Hynde was what sex looked and sounded like.

Magazine – The Correct Use of Soap (1980)

* I didn’t discover Magazine until maybe 20 years after this came out, but singer Howard Devoto (the original Buzzcocks frontman) and bassist Barry Adamson define postpunk for me. Cool and yet warm, with angular guitars underscored by funky basslines and overlaid with whipsmart lyrics.

Simple Minds – New Gold Dream (1982)

* “Someone Somewhere in Summertime” still brings back memories of unrequited love, though for whom I can’t remember(!).

U2 – War (1983)

* Spirituality engaged with the real world in the nuclear-frightened 80s. I was finishing high school.

The The – Soul Mining (1983)

* I’d never heard music like this before and still can’t classify it. Confessional and haunting lyrics, catchy tunes.

Lloyd Cole and the Commotions – Rattlesnakes (1984)

* I’ve written about this one elsewhere, but to sum up: world weary and impossibly cool, I wanted to be Lloyd Cole

Billy Bragg – Brewing Up With Billy Bragg (1984)

* Picked out of a delete bin in the mid-80s, unbelievably. Soft-hearted socialism like Billy’s defined me as a young man, and likely still does.

REM – Reckoning (1984)

* Michael Stipe’s mumbled lyrics over Byrds-like jangly guitars was pretty revolutionary in the synth-drenched 80s. It felt authentic.

Kate Bush – Hounds of Love (1985)

* Spooky, smart and sexy.

The Waterboys – This Is The Sea (1985)

* I loved the Waterboys’ (and later World Party’s) “Big Music” which was bombastic and yet felt incredibly personal at the same time. I loved the oblique spirituality and the sense of the divine lurking just around the corner.

The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead (1986)

* Not since Lennon and McCartney had there been such an amazing songwriting partnership as that between Stephen Patrick Morrissey and Johnny Marr. Morrissey’s ambiguous sexuality helped those of us who weren’t quite frat boys.

Violent Femmes – The Blind Leading the Naked (1986)

* Gordon Gano was another geek talisman, singing about Reagan and faith and not getting the girl.

The Wedding Present – George Best (1986)

* David Gedge’s strangled voice and the band’s unbelievably fizzy guitars made miserable relationships seem like fun.

Jane’s Addiction – Nothing’s Shocking (1988)

* I first heard this very very loud at a party and it still speaks to that part of me that likes music very loud. Also has the best song ever about our capacity for evil (“Ted, Just Admit It…”)

Pixies – Surfer Rosa/Come On Pilgrim (1988)

* Completely innovative song structures and tightly-controlled aggression helped me through a very tough year.

The Waterboys – Fisherman’s Blues (1988)

* Mike Scott’s rediscovery of Irish traditional music was warm and open-hearted and got me through a very rough year.

Sugarcubes – Life’s Too Good (1988)

* My first exposure to Björk’s heavenly voice, and Einar Orn’s not so heavenly voice.

Pixies – Doolittle (1989)

* Just a towering album which seemed unlike anything before it. And like lots after it.

My Bloody Valentine – Loveless (1991)

* Sonic ear massage. Sometimes painful and then forms into something incredibly beautiful. Kevin Shields is sculpting with sound.

Matthew Sweet – Girlfriend (1991)

* Matthew Sweet emerged almost fully formed with this amazing album of rock, power pop, and even country songs. An amazingly gifted songwriter.

Pavement – Slanted and Enchanted (1992)

* Pavement’s brand of slacker rock seemed slapdash and spontaneous, but they were really just trying to hide their smarts.

Rheostatics – Whale Music (1992)

* I’ve written about this one elsewhere, but a bit like Max Webster in the 1970s, the Rheos played a winning mix of hoser rock and art rock. Martin Tielli’s voice and guitar took this into sublime orchestral territory for much of its length.

Catherine Wheel – Ferment (1992)

* Catherine Wheel were like the slightly tougher rock cousins of the shoegaze scene.

PJ Harvey – Dry (1992)

* Polly Jean Harvey kicked ass and made you want her and fear her all at once. When she later started wearing dresses and stopped playing guitar, I was sorely disappointed.

Pulp – His ‘n Hers (1994)

* Cynical Jarvis Cocker sang with a world-weary nostalgia about the seamy side and had me singing along with catchy hooks.

Sloan – Twice Removed (1994)

* Perfect pop songs from Halifax.

Spoon – Telephono (1996)

* Pixies comparisons abounded but Britt Daniel’s Texas roots gave Spoon more soul than simple imitators.

Radiohead – OK Computer (1997)

* Radiohead began to take over the world with this ambitious and sprawling masterpiece.

Modest Mouse – The Lonesome Crowded West (1997)

* Filled with startling lyrical imagery, this album matched the words to jagged music that stopped and started and changed directions. Startlingly original and exciting.

Spoon – A Series of Sneaks (1998)

* Spoon showed real development on their second album, pushing into more angular and yet funky territory.

Built to Spill – Keep It Like A Secret (1999)

* Original and every track is a winner. Not an ounce of filler here.

I had to stop this before the year 2000 to keep it near to 50, but maybe I’ll do another version of my top albums from the past decade.

from Consolation Champs

50 Albums That Rocked My World

On Wednesday, my wife Brooke and I will be flying to Iceland for the fifth edition of the Reykjavik International Film Festival. We’re staying for the entire duration of the festival, which runs from September 25th through October 5th, and in addition to seeing films, we’ll be doing some sightseeing. We’ve rented a car for the entire time, and are hoping to see as much as we can, including the Golden Circle (the geyser at Geysir, the waterfall at Gullfoss and the site of the world’s oldest parliament at Þhingvellir National Park), the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, and possibly an overnight stay on Vestmannaeyjar, the Westman Islands. Other planned activities include whale-watching and horseback riding, depending on the weather.

All that to say that I haven’t quite decided how I’m going to cover the film festival yet. Ideally, I’ll be able to blog as usual, posting reviews shortly after seeing the films, but because it’s a vacation, I might just be having too much fun to post right away.

Though the entire schedule hasn’t yet been posted, the main program (Open Seas) features the following 18 films:

• 33 sceny z zycia (33 Scenes From Life) – Malgorzata Szumowska
• Pandoranin kutusu (Pandora’s Box) – Yesim Ustuoglu
• Adoration – Atom Egoyan
• Avant que j’oublie (Before I Forget) – Jacques Nolot
• Piao lang qing chun (Drifting Flowers) – Zero Chou
• Il y a longtemps que je t’aime (I’ve Loved You So Long) – Philipe Claudel
• Good Cats – Ying Liang
• Revanche – Götz Spielmann*
• Frygtelig lykkelig (Terribly Happy) – Henrik Ruben Genz*
• Barcelona (A Map) – Ventura Pons
• Venkovský ucitel (The Country Teacher) – Bogdan Slama*
• Zui yao yuan de ju li (The Most Distant Course) – Jing-Jie Lin*
• A Feast of Villains – Pan Jian-Lin
• My Winnipeg – Guy Maddin*
• O’Horten – Bent Hamer*
• A Nyomozó (The Investigator) – Attila Galambos
• Dos Miradas (Two Looks) – Sergio Candel
• Til døden os skiller (With Your Permission) – Paprika Steen*

Some of these played at TIFF this year and some others were released earlier, but I haven’t seen any of them. So far, I’m planning on seeing the ones marked with asterisks based on either recommendations from friends or just my own interest. If you have any recommendations I haven’t marked, please comment and let me know why I should see them.

from Consolation Champs

Off to Reykjavik

A few months back, I was introduced to Leona Hobbs, the marketing honcho (honcha?) at Tucows who was looking for someone for her team. It turned out that it wasn’t the right position (my euphemistic way of saying I wasn’t qualified) and I didn’t think I’d hear from Leona or Tucows again. And then about six weeks ago, she contacted me about a brand new position with her team and after several weeks of interviews and paperwork, I’m happy to announce that on Monday August 25th, I’ll join Tucows as a Community Specialist. The job description ticks off all my favourite boxes and basically allows me to be an internet rockstar for money. Of course, there’s more to it than that, but I’m looking forward to stretching out in the social media space again.

I know this opportunity wouldn’t have come along without all the meeting and greeting and learning I’ve been doing in the past year, starting with the Talk is Cheap unconference, continuing throughout the year at the excellent Third Tuesday PR events, CaseCamp and Mesh, in addition to my eighth South by Southwest Interactive conference. To everyone I’ve met and chatted with over the past few months (and especially to my colleagues at PwC), thank you for giving me the benefit of your knowledge, your experience, your connections and your encouragement. I hope that I’ll be able to repay it in some way.

from Consolation Champs

On the Move Again

You’d better believe that the Gitch Band will soon be included in the canon of “those who tried to rock”!!! But I’ll post the story here first. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll be able to lift some of our music off that ancient cassette somehow.

(via Canuckflack)

from Consolation Champs

We Salute You

Saturday June 28, 2008

Episode 1: McCarren Park, Brooklyn

Duration: 7:58

Episode 2: McCarren Park, Brooklyn (after my tour of the Brooklyn Brewery)

Duration: 2:52

Episode 3: Hotel Kitano, Manhattan

Duration: 1:57

Sunday June 29, 2008

Episode 4: Hotel Kitano, Manhattan (morning, before almost drowning at the Pride Parade)

Duration: 2:55

I meant to record a few more episodes, especially since my experience on Sunday was so crazy. I walked out to Fifth Avenue to catch the Pride Parade and ended up following it all the way down to Christopher Street, about 40 blocks. Just as I got there, the heavens opened and without an umbrella, I was drenched. The rain didn’t let up for more than an hour so it kind of put a damper on some of the specators, though to their credit, the parade marchers kept up appearances. Well, except when the storm first broke and the parade stopped. I’ll never forget the sight of four drag queens huddled under a tiny umbrella trying to keep their wigs dry. Later, as I made my way back uptown, I tried to huddle under various awnings with hundreds of others. It was interesting sharing a bit of shelter with a group of soggy drag queens! By the time I got back to my hotel, my shoes, pants and shirt were waterlogged and I even had to spread all my paper money out to dry. Luckily the Euro 2008 final between Germany and Spain was on TV so I wrapped myself up in a robe and watched that.

Later, instead of going out to see a comedian (Eddie Izzard’s show was sold out, and Brooke doesn’t know Patton Oswalt at all), we just decided to see Pixar’s new film, Wall-E. First we ate at Empanada Mama, somewhere we discovered on our last visit in January. Delicious, reasonable and a short walk from the cinema which was on 42nd St.

On Monday, I met up with filmmaker Aaron Katz for breakfast (I’d met him the previous weekend in Toronto when he was here for Generation DIY) at Junior’s in Brooklyn and then went to the IFC Center to see Daisuke Tengan’s film The Most Beautiful Night in the World, screening as part of the New York Asian Film Festival. After that, a quick stop at Italian Wine Merchants to pick up few bottles from my favourite Slovenian wine producer (Movia) and then back to the hotel to meet Brooke and catch our shuttle bus to the airport.

Another great trip, and I’m still only just discovering what this amazing city has to offer.

Oh yeah, pictures are up on Flickr. Fair warning: lots of origami models.

from Consolation Champs

New York Audioblogs

By the time the race started at 8:00am, the temperature was 25°C and the humidity was stifling. Brooke was running the 15K race, which started at the same time, but by the time she finished the temperature was over 30°C. Needless to say, her time wasn’t as good as the last time she ran this race, in 2004. On the other hand, even running without a watch, I managed to pace myself well even though I had no idea what my finishing time would be. I thought it would be between 27:00 and 28:00, so was very pleasantly surprised.

The race itself was really well supported, with lots of families and several groups of schoolchildren running in teams. I even got to see long-serving Mississauga mayor Hazel McCallion, still going strong into her 80s. Though she wasn’t running, she did have her running shoes on!

That’s all the racing for me for a while. It figures that my Garmin Forerunner 405 shipped last Thursday and will arrive this Tuesday. Though it would have been nice to have it today, at least it will motivate me to go outside as we enter the hottest part of the year. At least, I hope it does.

Gun Time: 26:16.3
Chip Time: 25:43.2
Overall Place: 161/665
Gender Place: 122/286
Age Group (M40-44) Place: 15/41

Full results from 2008 (5K race)

from Consolation Champs

Bread and Honey 5K 2008

Since I’m still without a watch, I ran with Brooke for the first 3.5km or so. I wanted us to stick to a 5:30/km pace, and we actually were slightly ahead of that pace when I took off. While I was satisfied with my time, I’m still pretty far from my best performances. Brooke, however, set a personal best at the distance (44:45) so we went home happy.

Gun Time: 43:38
Chip Time: 43:25
Overall Place: 122/272
Gender Place: 92/137
Age Group (M40-49) Place: 33/50

Full results from 2008

from Consolation Champs

Alfie Shrubb 8K 2008

CBC Radio’s Nora Young hosts a radio program called Spark! and her session was being taped for later broadcast as a show. She spoke with Microsoft researcher Bill Buxton on the subject “Does Location Matter?” which I thought would be about the benefits of telecommuting. It turned out to be mostly about the advances in video conferencing software and how to use it to work and socialize virtually with our colleagues and friends. It was fascinating stuff, but I was hoping the conversation would be broader.

We interact in a variety of ways with others online, but it’s mostly in the course of doing several other things at the same time. I can post a Twitter message, comment on a blog, and carry on an IM conversation all at the same time, possibly interacting with three different people, while at the same time writing in Microsoft Word or working with an image in Photoshop. I call these “micro-interactions” because they usually involve very little time, and are usually quite focussed on a particular subject or question. I’m reacting to a specific thing the other person has posted, for instance. These interactions have a defined purpose and they require little etiquette because online, interruptions can be dealt with later.

I’m finding more and more, though, that when I meet some of these same people offline, I’m finding the interactions more difficult. The idea of giving or getting “full attention” seems a bit overwhelming. I often fear that in offline situations, we won’t have enough conversation to keep things running smoothly. I also dread the awkwardness of introductions and departures, and knowing how long to just “hang around.” These are all non-issues with people I’ve met and known offline, because there is established etiquette. But I find that the more we interact online, the more awkward we get when we can’t interact the same way in the physical world. Among even good friends whom I’ve met online, our face-to-face interactions can sometimes feel awkward. “Just hanging out” can be difficult without some issue or topic to focus our energies toward.

Paul Collins tells a funny but illuminating story in his book Not Even Wrong: Adventures in Autism. He describes a speaking engagement at Microsoft in which the heads of more than half the audience are down over their laptops, a scene familiar to many conference speakers nowadays. When he asks what’s going on, his host tells him the audience members are watching the streaming video broadcast of the very talk they’re attending. It’s joked that many web geeks are probably mildly autistic, and that their legendary social awkwardness may actually be symptomatic of Asperger’s Syndrome, but it’s not really a joke.

The incidence of autism in general is rising rapidly; some statistics say it now affects one in 100 births. It’s interesting to me that the number is rising just as more and more of our social interactions are moving online. If I’m finding my own feelings and confidence around social interactions changing, I wonder how it will be for the generation of children who are growing up with the sort of “micro-interactions” I’ve described earlier?

Now all of this could just be unique to me. Maybe I’m just having a bad day socially. But I’m glad that it forced me to think about some of these issues. I’m very curious to see what others think about this. Feel free to comment below, or should you see me wandering around at Mesh tomorrow, by all means stop me. At least we’ll have a defined topic to discuss.

from Consolation Champs

Is Asperger’s Contagious?

Thanks to David Crow for linking to this thought-provoking article. I can identify deeply with the first three reasons, especially the feeling that I got a “late start” to my career. In fact, sometimes I don’t feel like I’ve started at all. My father, a Boomer, was laid off from a comfortable corporate job at the age of 49, which is just six years away for me. Also very true that I fear the “narrowing” of options that many career paths dictate. I prefer to be a creative generalist, though that can make the search for meaningful work (not to mention job interviews) pretty difficult.

from Consolation Champs

Amen from this Gen X Lad

Wii Wii Time!
Originally uploaded by jmcnally

I bought two Wiis on Friday. One is for me and one for a friend. There were only five in the whole store!

My Wii number is 7657 1175 3719 5076.

from Consolation Champs

Wii Wii Time!

That being said, it was pretty cold when we headed out at 7:00am for an 8:00am start. The temperature was around 6° Celsius, though it did get up to about 10° later. Since I’m still without a functioning watch, I had decided to stick with Brooke for as long as possible, but she started to slow down around the 7K mark, so I took off. I wasn’t feeling particularly speedy, but my regular pace is faster than hers. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I struggled a bit for the last few kilometres. I’m definitely not in as good shape as I’ve been in past years. I need to get out and run more between races. But I was still quite happy with my time. I’d hoped to run sub-55:00 and I accomplished that. The discrepancy between gun and chip times is because we were quite far back from the starting line. Unfortunately, gun time is still how races rank you for placing.

Brooke has already signed us up for two more races in June, with a strong possibility that we’ll do a third. The Alfie Shrubb 8K is a small race held in Bowmanville, Ontario on June 1st. And the following weekend, I’m doing the Bread and Honey 5K in Streetsville, while Brooke runs the 15K. The third is the Pride and Remembrance Run, a personal favourite that we’ve run every year since 2003. There is a possibility that we might be in New York City that weekend, so we’ll have to wait and see. Hopefully I can secure my Garmin Forerunner 405 before my next race! And run faster! (P.S. Brooke ran 55:10.4)

Gun Time: 56:17.7
Chip Time: 54:32.1
Overall Place: 3072/8590
Gender Place: 2106/3895
Age Group (M40-44) Place: 318/543

2007 Chip Time: 51:22.7 (wow, forgotten how well I did last year!)
2006 Chip Time: (didn’t run)
2005 Chip Time: (didn’t run)
2004 Chip Time: 52:30.9

Full results from 2008

from Consolation Champs

Sporting Life 10K 2008

I’d always loved the Garmin Forerunner series of GPS-enabled watches, but they were enormous and ugly, and often didn’t work in the city, where tall buildings interfered with their ability to pick up a signal. I kept telling myself that when they got smaller and more capable, I’d pick one up. I believe that day is now at hand. Behold the Forerunner 405:

This thing will do everything: track distance, time, map routes, even heart-rate (on one model). Best of all, it can upload its data to the web, where you can analyze it or compare yourself with others on Garmin’s new Connect community.

This is exactly the sort of tech geekery that gets me excited and motivated to exercise more. There are only two notes of caution here. One is that there won’t be any Mac support for the 405 until November 2008. The other is that Apple has long been rumoured to be working on a much fuller implementation of the Nike + iPod kit. While it’s doubtful that Apple could build something as sophisticated as the Forerunner (though it would play music!), I might still try to wait a while. Although I’m sure I could use Windows under Parallels for a few months to sync my data with my iMac, there could be some potential hiccups.

Don’t be surprised if I go out and buy one this weekend, though!

from Consolation Champs

Technolust: Garmin Forerunner 405

Gun Time: 48:30.3
Chip Time: 47:43.6
Overall Place: 1064/1950
Gender Place: 737/1045
Age Group (M40-44) Place: 117/166

2007 Chip Time: 45:23.7
2006 Chip Time: 44:16.8
2005 Chip Time: 42:38.3
2004 Chip Time: 43:26.5

Full results from 2008

from Consolation Champs

Harry’s Spring Run-Off 8K 2008

I did know how, once. Just like every other kid, I signed up for the driver education classes at my high school and did perfectly well. Except for one thing. It was probably at my very last lesson when my driving instructor advised me not to book my test appointment until I practiced my parallel parking. A lot. At this point in the story, my memory gets a bit foggy (this is, after all, now more than 25 years ago). I did NOT practice my parallel parking. In fact, I got a bit annoyed with his advice. And when it came down to it, I guess I just didn’t care enough. All of my friends were getting licences, and some of them were even buying cars. I was happy, like Iggy, to be the Passenger. Until now.

It’s not that Klosterman has made me crave the experience of actually driving thousands of miles. The physical and mental effort of keeping the car safely between the lines and away from the cars in front and behind strikes me as exhausting. But there’s just something about the particular kind of solitude with musical accompaniment a “road trip” offers that a bus journey with an iPod just can’t match.

Even if I were to practice my parallel parking, after all this time, and successfully obtain my driving licence, I doubt very much whether I’d be able to take off on my own with a trunk full of music. I suspect that there would be some marital payback which would involve me doing every single bit of driving for the next ten years, and beyond. And as a much older new driver, I could never build up the self-confidence that would let me roll down the window and rest one arm on the doorframe. Instead of the freedom that I have in mind, more likely I’d be squinting at highway exit signs, nervously changing lanes and trying not to fall asleep behind the wheel.

If you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll get back to my vicarious road trip now. At least when I start to get sleepy, I can just put the book down and go to bed.

from Consolation Champs

Vicarious Road Trip

I didn’t plan well this year. And work got crazy. And I foolishly solicited SXSW filmmakers to send me screeners. So the leadup to this year’s conference was a flurry of late nights and trying to compile a super-calendar of Interactive, Film and Music events. Now that I’m here, it’s clear that I just can’t do it all.

In fact, my normal “shy extravert” personality has taken a hit and I am finding myself cocooning in my hotel room, which is unusual for me. I think part of it might be that I’m a bit nervous about trying to meet new people (ie. Film people). On the one hand, I’m a lazy man and don’t mind hanging around with my old Interactive tribe. But I feel like I might be missing an opportunity to learn something new and talk about another of my favourite things with like-minded people. But I’m also afraid of being embraced by the Film people and then missing out on all the stuff I’ve come to love about the Interactive conference. This conflict over different social choices as well as scheduling options has left me even more paralyzed than usual. And I don’t like feeling like this.

I’m hoping that staying a few days extra to see free Music day shows and hang around with my Austin pals will sort me out. I’ll post an update in a few days.

from Consolation Champs

SXSW 2008: Social Networking Indeed

In fact, I may have taken my last job for that reason. I felt good about selling wine because of the experiences I was offering. Family gatherings, social events, parties; all are places where people feel connected to each other and where the pleasure of enjoying our product would enhance (in most cases) people’s good feelings. Of course, I don’t think my employers thought about this directly, but it was a positive that 95% of the people who worked for us were wine lovers (in one or two cases, perhaps a little too enthusiastic in their appreciation) and one of the perks of the job was meeting people at events and enjoying our products at our own company parties.

The barriers, of course, were competence and self-esteem. The world of wine can still seem stuffy and class-conscious and there are enough wine snobs around to make even the most eager student feel stupid. I think this is why so many wine web communities sprouted around the same time. WineLog and Cork’d are great ways to share your drinking experiences with others, and Gary Vaynerchuk’s Wine Library TV video blog makes learning about wine fun.

Now, how do I begin to apply some of these concepts to the new world of accounting I find myself in?

from Consolation Champs

The Pursuit of Happiness

The doctor told us she’s got pneumonia, but she’s doing better already. A good night’s sleep was the first thing she needed. But instead of her staying with us for just one night and then driving home to Collingwood, it looks like we’re hosting a sick houseguest for the next few days.

There’ll be another Super Bowl next year, I hear, but it still would have been great to see such a competitive game. How was the halftime show? Did I miss any wardrobe malfunctions?

from Consolation Champs

Super Bah!

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

from Consolation Champs

Protected: Transparency, Not Spin

After hearing about New York my entire life, I was happy and relieved to say that within an hour of arriving, I felt like I “got” the city. I felt at home and comfortable, which was unusual. American cities usually feel different to me, and it normally takes me about a day to settle in. I was also surprised that New York actually felt small to me. Not literally, because we only really got to see a small patch of midtown on our trip, but I guess I mean it felt manageable. We found that we could walk almost anywhere we wanted to go in just a few minutes, and if we needed to jump on the subway, we normally only had a ride of a few stops. I’m also a bit proud that I grasped the subway almost right away. Our subway in Toronto is much more basic, but I’m a transit user, so it was fun to figure out a more ambitious system.

Most delightful of all was the feeling that I actually knew people in this vast and hitherto-unexplored metropolis. When Brooke mentioned she’d like to tour the New York Times, I emailed Khoi Vinh, the design director of their web site, to see if any were offered. He graciously offered to show us around, himself, on Friday afternoon. On Saturday, we arranged to meet newly-engaged Dan Budiac and Kathryn Yu for brunch. And then while browsing in the 14th Street Apple Store, we serendipitously bumped into Anil Dash and his wife Alaina Browne. On this weekend, the big, intimidating city felt more like a village to us.

It helped a lot that we stayed at the wonderful Chelsea Lodge, a quiet, comfy and affordable haven on a quiet residential street. We ate two delicious breakfasts at the nearby Empire Diner on Tenth Avenue, where we overheard a number of great conversations, including the subject of a Men’s Vogue cover story reading the story to his group of friends. Our other breakfast was at the wonderful Pastis, in the revitalized Meatpacking District. It’s said to be a celebrity hangout, and we did spot Sam Shepard and Jessica Lange and their daughter having breakfast just before we left. While we’re on the theme of food, we also enjoyed great and unfussy food at Empanada Mama and the “Burger Joint” hidden in the luxe Parker-Meridien Hotel.

Other highlights of our whirlwind trip include:

• Visiting all three of NYC’s Apple Stores
• New York City Ballet‘s production of Balanchine’s Prodigal Son
• the huge Japanese bookstore Kinokuniya
• MoMa
• Nintendo World
• Strand Books
• Touring the United Nations Headquarters
• New York Public Library’s exhibit of Kerouac’s On the Road

By Sunday we were pretty wiped, and the only vaguely stressful things that we encountered were:

• looking for a Starbucks near Times Square that had somewhere to sit down, just after all the theatre matinees let out.
• trying to bring a special bottle of wine back through security in my carry-on bag and being forced to leave it there—no liquids allowed, even in sealed bottles.

For anyone interested, I’ll post a link to our photos when I get them posted to Flickr.

New York, I will be back soon!

from Consolation Champs

I Love New York, Seriously

Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life, by Steve Martin

Brooke picked this book up for me a few weeks ago, knowing I’d been a huge fan of Steve Martin during his standup years. You could even say that as a teenager, I idolized Martin. To this day, I’m in awe of people (including myself!) who can make others laugh. But I’ve always been slightly bemused by some of Martin’s latter-day forays into melancholy (Shopgirl, for example) and wondered what had happened to the sense of the absurd that fuelled his edgy comedy routines of the 1970s. I think I was 13 when I saw him perform at Toronto’s cavernous Maple Leaf Gardens, and it still boggles my mind today that a comedian could fill a 20,000 seat arena. It almost seems unreal now. But Saturday Night Live, his appearances on The Tonight Show, and for me, his comedy albums made Martin a bonafide superstar. But as Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life reveals, he was not quite an overnight success.

In fact, in this book he writes with a sometimes dewy-eyed sentimentality about all the hard work it took for him to look “wild and crazy.” A driven perfectionist with a Protestant work ethic, Martin grew up studying magic tricks and practiced for hours upon hours until his act looked effortless. Martin’s seemingly absurd routines were fuelled not by the ubiquitous drugs of that period, but by a ruthless intelligence and curiosity. He was a student of philosophy, and of comedy.

I smiled with recognition as he recalled some of his more inspired bits, but Martin himself seems still somewhat detached from this period of his life. He admits that after he left standup for the movies in the early 1980s, he rarely thought about that time. Only now with this book does he realize that it was the most fruitful, exciting, and just plain funny period of his long and (now) distinguished career. He’s honest enough to admit that he was never really after fame, and became very uncomfortable with it pretty quickly. But he loved performing. Although he seems at peace with his life, he still seems to look at his standup self as if he were looking at a completely different man. I find that a bit sad.

Steve Martin is less funny these days, and I think he knows that. But he’s had tremendous success as a writer of essays, fiction, plays and screenplays, and as an actor. For me, though, Steve Martin will always be the man who let me know it was OK to make a smart joke that nobody else got. Along with Monty Python and, later, the Coen Brothers, Steve Martin’s “bits” were the currency that was shared among me and my friends. It’s hard to believe that it’s already been thirty years. Now, before I start becoming the dewy-eyed sentimentalist, I’ll wrap up. If you’re of my generation, and actually saw Steve live on Saturday Night Live, you’ll want to read this slim but rewarding volume. Although the real Steve is considerably more complicated than the “funny” Steve, this was still a great read. In fact, I read the whole thing today.

from Consolation Champs

Born Standing Up

Lloyd Cole and the Commotions – Rattlesnakes (1984)

I’d met Goldie through my friend Colin around 1983, I think. With his thinning hair and permanent scowl, he looked like a perennially pissed off old man. We shared a love for punk, even though he was somehow affiliated with the strange evangelical subculture I’d recently become part of. I remember him bringing us Dead Boys records when Colin and I were in residence at Bible College. We’d play those and Colin’s Zapp funk records as loud as we could, enjoying the vicarious thrill of swearing and talking sexy. I remember Goldie and I commandeering the lounge television one night when Rock ‘n’ Roll High School was on. So we shared a taste in music and a slightly skeptical attitude toward the world around us.

Around 1984, our tastes were broadening. Goldie was the first one to tip me off to The Style Council, a new direction from The Jam‘s Paul Weller. So it was no surprise when he showed up one afternoon with a home-recorded tape that he wanted me to hear. Side A was Eden by Everything But The Girl, well before their dance music days. Though I enjoyed Tracey Thorn’s soulful vocals, I was much more interested in Side B, which Goldie hadn’t even mentioned.

Lloyd Cole’s anguished voice and whipsmart lyrics drew me in. Here was a guy who seemed impossibly sophisticated and world-weary at the same time. Every song was tinged with regret but filled with literary barbs and wry humour. One of my favourite lines is from Four Flights Up: “Must you tell me all your secrets when it’s hard enough to love you knowing nothing?” The songs had a sophistication that screamed Europe but the album title sounded American. And Lloyd seemed worldly enough to know New York, London and Paris equally well. This guy was flat out cool, like an upper class and definitely more hetero Morrissey.

In the same vicarious way that I listened to Zapp and the Dead Boys, I absorbed the heartbreak and romantic adventures of Lloyd Cole. I didn’t have anywhere near that sort of experience (and still don’t), but when on the final track Lloyd sang “Are You Ready to be Heartbroken?” I wanted to jump up and scream out “Yes!”

Track Listing

1. Perfect Skin
2. Speedboat
3. Rattlesnakes
4. Down on Mission Street
5. Forest Fire
6. Charlotte Street
7. 2cv
8. Four Flights Up
9. Patience
10. Are You Ready to be Heartbroken?

Lloyd Cole’s weblog
“Perfect Skin” video on YouTube
“Forest Fire” video on YouTube

Great Albums is an occasional feature on Consolation Champs where I relate some personal stories about life-changing music in lieu of any proper music criticism. You’ll probably learn more about me than about music, so consider that fair warning. For more, click the Great Albums category tag.

from Consolation Champs

Great Albums: Rattlesnakes

• March: We lost Brooke’s dad to cancer, which has been tough on both of us. Jim had survived lots of things and it was sad to see him go at the relatively young age of 73. His booming Scottish brogue (both spoken and sung) is sorely missed. Although I lost my mum a full twenty years ago, the death of a parent at this stage of life always reminds us of our own aging and mortality.
• March: For the first (and hopefully not last) time, I chaired a panel at South by Southwest. After six years of attending, I decided to contribute a little, suggesting and then moderating a panel called “Ghost in the Machine: Spirituality on the Web.” Although I’m not repeating in 2008, I hope to be able to do something like it again soon. It was immensely rewarding for me and I got to meet some of my online heroes for the first (and hopefully not last!) time.
• March: I started a new weblog, gathering all my film reviewing into its own space. Efforts to make it a group blog have met with limited success, but I’m really enjoying all the new people I’ve met through Toronto Screen Shots.
• August: We moved to a bigger apartment, on a higher floor. We have more room and a great view of Lake Ontario. Unfortunately, now that it’s winter, our 27th floor pad feels more like an eyrie, with the cold Metric winds howling all night long.
• August: I changed jobs, from being the jack-of-all-trades web guy at a small but market-leading wine importing agency to being a web producer-writer at a huge “Big Four” accounting/professional services firm. The jury is still out on whether this is a good long-term fit for me, but I like having a bit more change in my pockets.
• October: Celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary and our tenth year as a couple. I hope we’re beginning to get the hang of this.
• October-November: Brooke and I took our annual holiday, this time to Havana. It was perhaps the strangest holiday we’ve ever taken together and I’m still not sure I’m ready or able to write about it. From almost-missed flights to a broken camera to illness, it almost felt like we shouldn’t have gone. Now that we’re back, I almost can’t remember being there. Our pictures are terrible, but at least they’re evidence.
• November: Celebrated the marriage of our friends Philip and Ian, finally tying the knot after fifteen years together. Congratulations, guys!

Plans for 2008, though subject to change and the will of the Universe, include:

• January: Visiting New York City for the first time since I was a small boy. We’re planning to see the United Nations, the NYC Ballet, maybe some theatre, the Nintendo World store and some good food.
• March: Attending my 8th South by Southwest, staying a few extra days (like last year) to enjoy more films and music.
• September: Holidaying in Iceland and covering the Reykjavik International Film Festival.
• Yearlong: connecting and reconnecting with new and old friends, being the best husband I can be, overcoming my shyness to love people more, rewiring my spiritual self to remove some scar tissue, continuing to figure out how to use more of myself at work.

Here’s to 2008, cyberfriends!

from Consolation Champs

2007: The Year That Was

This became apparent as I listened to several very good speakers, like Joe Thornley and Michael O’Connor Clarke, both of Thornley Fallis (whose employees actually communicate with me regularly in their capacity as PR agents for ThinkFilm, whose films I review for Toronto Screen Shots. Small world sometimes.) Thornley Fallis is a small Canadian public relations firm who have made great use of social media and established a reputation as leaders in helping their clients apply that knowledge. I found myself envious of working in an environment like that, and thought, perhaps foolishly, that maybe I should be working in public relations instead. But I can clearly see that my apparent zigs and zags, career-wise, are attempts to find that ideal environment where I can apply my skills and passions to the fullest while still making a decent amount of money. While I’m not going to be hasty, maybe I should examine whether my skills and experience as a web-savvy writer might be better applied in a field that is embracing social media.

While I can foresee that PwC might call upon my experience in a limited way, it’s a large firm. So large that even after several months, I still feel like I’m learning what they do. It also feels very decentralized and finding the right person to talk to takes a fair amount of work. I haven’t been there long enough to have a truly informed opinion, but my initial impression is that they’re using cumbersome and limiting technology to publish their web site. As well, they’ve separated my job function from the actual coding of web pages, so that I’m working only in Microsoft Word, writing content that someone else will mark up. So it may be too soon to tell if PwC will be a long-term home for me, or if I just have a perennially roving eye. I’m trying to get some insight into myself, anyway, and tonight was useful.

from Consolation Champs

Social Media, Unrequited

I’m going to check out the local YMCA in the next few weeks and will probably join. It has a running track and is closer to my new job than the University of Toronto Athletic Centre where I usually run in winter. I’m realizing that I need this physical activity for more than just physical health. I think that running will help me to reverse this feeling of unraveling. I hope so, because it’s really beginning to creep me out.

from Consolation Champs

Out of Body Autoreply

On top of all that, I was in the midst of several job interviews. I had second interviews with two places right around the time we were moving. In fact, I had my final two and a half hour long interview on the morning we were moving. The movers were scheduled to arrive at our place at 1:30, and I got home at 1:20. It was a crazy day. The good thing is that later that day, after we’d finally moved all of our stuff into the new place, there was a message on our phone. I got the job.

So, I’m happy to report that on Monday August 27th, I’ll start my new position as Web Producer/Writer with PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the biggest accounting and business consulting firms in the world. It will be a big culture change from the small office setting I’m used to (and, ulp, I’ll have to use a Windows PC again), but it will also be really nice to spend my working day doing what I love, and as part of a team of other people.

I will really miss the people I worked with for the past four years at Lifford Wine Agency, and I’ll especially miss all the great wine events I was able to attend, but I’ve promised to keep volunteering at their big annual portfolio tasting, an event that I wouldn’t miss for the world.

from Consolation Champs

On The Move

Kilometre 1: 5:06.9
Kilometre 2: 5:11.6
Kilometre 3: 5:11.7
Kilometre 4: 5:08.0
Kilometre 5: 5:03.4

Chip Time: 25:35.8
Gun Time: 26:06.8
Overall Place: 111/425
Gender Place: 75/174
Age Group (M40-44) Place: 7/16

P.S. Brooke took three minutes off her previous time at this distance, so I’m very proud of her!

Official Results from the 2007 Nissan Toronto 5k

from Consolation Champs

Nissan Toronto 5K 2007

1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged write their own blog post about their eight things and include these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged and that they should read your blog.

Ok, here we go:

1. I have a thing for visiting obscure countries. In the past two years, my wife and I have vacationed in Uruguay and Slovenia. Iceland and the Baltic republics are high on the list for future trips.
2. I’ve formally studied French, Italian, Spanish and Russian, but can speak none of them even passably well.
3. I still don’t have a driver’s licence, at the age of 42.
4. I have a Bachelor’s degree in theology that so far hasn’t come in that handy.
5. As a teenager I had a pet hamster named Fergus.
6. The first rock concert I attended was Queen in 1978. Freddy Mercury in a leotard. Yikes.
7. I once played drums in a bad “Christian” rock band. Our gimmick involved wearing underwear over our pants. That was my idea.
8. When I was visiting Finland in 1989, I took a 36 hour round-trip train journey so I could say I’ve been north of the Artic Circle.

One more thing that Pamela might not have known about me was that I actually have two other blogs. She knows me from Toronto Screen Shots (my film blog). But this one was first (established AD 2000!) and there’s also Runner-Up (mostly sports-related stories about “non-winners”).Next victims:

• David Thomas
• Kevin Smokler
• Neil Lee
• Gord Fynes
• Josh Benton
• Jay Kerr
• Jason Chu
• Jane Hoskyn

from Consolation Champs

8 Things Meme

Official Time (Gun): 24:50.4
Official Time (Chip): 24:28.5
Overall Place: 189/658
Gender Place: 161/368
Age Group (M26-49) Place: 134/298

My 2006 Time: 25:08
My 2005 Time: 26:06
My 2004 Time: 24:10
My 2003 Time: 28:45

So far, 2007 seems to be shaping up to be a good year, which is odd because I’m generally running less. Just one longer run a week on Sundays with Brooke. It seems to be working so far.

Official Results from the 2007 Pride and Remembrance 5K

from Consolation Champs

Pride and Remembrance 5K 2007

• Caroline Ryan
• Michelle Vautour (now Rowe)
• Gilles Lafond, and his sister Lise
• Ken McCourt, and his brother Craig
• Mike McArthur
• Bill Haddock, his brother Chris and sister June
• Andy McNeil, his brother Steve and sister Belinda
• Lisa Hornet
• Joanna Connor
• Jimmy Baird, and his brother Johnny
• Aubrey Singer
• James Mason, and his sister Claire
• Mark Gillespie, and his sister Katrina
• Steve Parent, and his brother Terry
• Dave Batterton
• Joanne Mackie

from Consolation Champs

270 Cassandra Boulevard

Watch Time: 23:34.0

Kilometre 1: 4:18.3
Kilometre 2: 4:56.3
Kilometre 3: 4:18.1
Kilometre 4: 5:08.8
Kilometre 5: 4:52.5

Official Time: 23:34
Overall Place: 88/388
Gender Place: 73/194
Age Group (M40-49) Place: 14/37

My 2006 Time: 24:45
My 2005 Time: 25:12
My 2004 Time: 24:16
My 2003 Time: 29:03

As you can see, I went out really fast, and knew that I wouldn’t be able to maintain that pace. The temperature climbed above 20° Celsius pretty quickly, even though the race started at 9:30am. The fourth kilometre was slower because of a slight hill over a bridge, although I’m sure the markers weren’t quite evenly spaced, either.

In any case, I’m happy with my time, and looking forward to our next race in two weeks, the Pride and Remembrance Run, which takes place during Gay Pride Week.

Official Results from the 2007 Toronto Challenge

from Consolation Champs

Toronto Challenge 2007

• Podcast of the panel I moderated (Ghost In The Machine: Spirituality Online) at this year’s SXSW is now available.
• I was featured along with my friends Philip and Ian on an episode of Livebait.tv about Hot Docs.
• Related to the Livebait.tv story, my new film blog Toronto Screen Shots has been going like gangbusters, and I’ve got a huge stack of great DVDs to review.

So, although there hasn’t been a lot of text here lately, you can see and hear me in a few different places.

from Consolation Champs

Still Here! And There! And There!

I’m just a little bummed that I didn’t get to meet the dog.

from Consolation Champs

Deadly Headley Rolls into Town

I feel incredibly fortunate to have been a witness last night to my beloved Rheostatics‘ last concert. After more than twenty years together, they’ve decided to call it quits as a band, although all of the members will continue to make music.

The event was held at the fittingly historic Massey Hall, a large and yet intimate space that has been the venue for some of my most memorable evenings of music. Last night was no different. Unfortunately, my favourite Rheo Martin Tielli had voice problems that prevented him from unleashing his trademark falsetto as well as some technical issues with his guitar, but it didn’t get in the way of my enjoyment. One of the band’s trademarks has been their shambolic and sometimes uneven live shows, and last night seemed to be a summary of their career. They played over three hours, and seemed reluctant to call it a night, coming back for a second encore where they sat huddled on the edge of the stage around Dave Bidini’s acoustic guitar and singing without mikes.

The set covered the range of their long career, but was understandably weighted toward their two greatest albums, Melville (1991) and Whale Music (1992). After hearing these songs for maybe the hundredth time (and maybe 20 times live), I’m still convinced that two finer albums have not emerged from this country.

Their music was impossible to categorize, with three and sometimes four songwriters in the band, but somehow these guys from Etobicoke, Ontario seemed to resonate with Canadians all across the country, especially in smaller places where “cooler” bands didn’t play live. The crowd at their shows always seemed incredibly diverse, with young and old fans side by side, and there was something incredibly sincere about them, whether they were performing stinging political songs, spacey art-rock, or irony-free covers of Canadian standards by Gordon Lightfoot or Stompin’ Tom Connors. No band that I’m aware of has had such an ambitious reach, from making a children’s record, scoring a film, and accepting a commission from the National Gallery of Canada to create a piece of music celebrating Canadian painters The Group of Seven. The Rheostatics did all of this and more, and despite a lack of commercial success, cultivated a small but devoted following right across the country.

I found myself choking up a few times during the show, especially between songs when, amid shouted song requests, people could be heard yelling “Thank you” and “We’re going to miss you.” I’ve never been part of anything like that before, and it made me feel happy, sad, and old all at the same time. I was at the show with my wife Brooke, and in the row in front of us were my friend Brent and his girlfriend Kim. Brent introduced me to the band way back in 1992 while we were sharing an apartment, and it’s sobering to think of how long we’ve been friends, and fans. But even though it was a bittersweet feeling, there was nowhere else on God’s green earth that I wanted to be last night.

• CBC has an interesting photo essay
• My friend John Martz has great photos from last night’s show as well as their farewell to the Horseshoe Tavern the previous night.
• Metric tonnes more photos here
• Rheostatics Live (live show audio and video)

from Consolation Champs

The Rheostatics’ Last Waltz

I didn’t attend a lot of panels, or take a lot of photos or notes, so I thought I’d just give you a list of highlights and lowlights:

Highlights

• My panel was great. It was a pleasure and a privilege to meet some very sharp people who also happen to be warm and genuine about their faith. I’m really hopeful that I can be involved in something like it again next year.
• Sticking around a few days was a great idea. Although I didn’t buy a Music badge, there were heaps of free day shows. I got to see The Buzzocks(!), The Polyphonic Spree, Apples in Stereo, Peter Bjorn and John, Robyn Hitchcock with Peter Buck and Okkervil River. There was even free food and beer.
• During one of the parties during Interactive, I was chatting with my friends Kevin and Baratunde when we were joined by a personable young guy talking about films. He introduced himself as Joe and said he was acting in a film that was at the Film festival. During our 40 minute conversation, it dawned on me that we were hanging out with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, star of The Lookout. He turned out to be a great guy, smart and interesting but completely unpretentious.
• As a panelist, I got a complimentary Gold badge which allowed me to attend both Interactive and Film events. I took the opportunity to see a few films (Reign Over Me, Exiled, and Eagle Versus Shark) and this was a great break from the intensity of hanging around with smart geeks or rocking out at concerts.
• The panels and keynotes I did attend were almost all interesting and valuable.
• I focussed more on my writing about film and made a number of useful contacts. My decision to launch Toronto Screen Shots was based on attending a great panel called “Blogging About Film.”

Lowlights

• The weather in Austin this year was kind of crappy. It rained for several days, which made getting around fairly miserable.
• Hotels were expensive and filled up really early. Despite sharing with my friends Neil and Kevin, which involved spending five of my eight nights on either an air mattress or a rollaway bed, it still cost me more than US$1,000. I’m going to book my room by July or August next time.
• Almost everyone I know had some travel snafus on the way home. I wasn’t immune. I flew back Saturday from Austin to Detroit without incident, but my flight from Detroit to Toronto was cancelled for “unscheduled maintenance.” Despite the fact that it’s a one hour flight, there were no flights available until Monday or Tuesday, and the airline would only pay for one night’s accomodation. I banded together with a few other Torontonians and we took a taxi across the border to Windsor and jumped on the train. I got home about seven hours late, and it cost me more money, but there was no way I was staying two days in Detroit, especially at my own expense. Boo airlines!
• As always, the week went by far too quickly and I didn’t get to spend nearly enough time with people. There were a few people whom I’d wanted to meet for the first time, and didn’t get the chance. Ah well, I’ll be back next year!

from Consolation Champs

SXSW 2007 Wrapup

(with thanks to Jay)

from Consolation Champs

Level 42

In a bizarre case of art imitating life imitating art, or something, there is now actually a BAND called Consolation Champ! I wonder if they left off the “s” since they couldn’t get this domain name? Most of you know that the name of this site was one of a number of hypothetical band names I tossed around for most of the 80s and 90s, and so I’m actually sort of proud that there is now a bunch of guys out there (in Minneapolis, actually) who are making music under the (slightly-different) name. Rock on, guys and good luck! Go and check out their CD.

I realize that some of you poor typists might have already found this out, actually.

UPDATE: I just checked their MySpace page and it appears that they might be playing SXSW this year. WEIRD! If they are, I think I might just NEED to see them. So strange.

from Consolation Champs

Consolation Champ!

1. This year, for the first time ever, I’m speaking on a panel. Not seeing anything on the schedule about the subject, I proposed a panel on faith, and it was accepted. It’s entitled Ghost in the Machine: Spirituality Online and it’s scheduled for Saturday March 10 from 5:00-6:00. I’ve assembled a panel of rock stars who will say most of the intelligent things, but I’m still nervous and excited.
2. As a panelist, I received a free Gold pass this year, which means for the first time I can attend both Interactive and Film events. I’m still unclear how ticketing to film screenings works, but I’m hoping to actually see a few films this time. A few of the scheduled films recently screened at Sundance, so it might be a good chance to see some stuff that won’t make it to Toronto until at least the fall, if at all.
3. The Interactive section of the conference ends on Tuesday, but I’m not leaving Austin until Saturday morning, so I’m hoping to catch a few bands during the Music portion, and just generally hang out in one of my favourite American cities with some of my favourite Americans.

If you’re going to be there, make sure you say hello! And it’s also acceptable to buy me a Shiner. After all, I’m a crusty conference veteran now!

P.S. Make sure to check out SXSWBaby for the latest news and updates.

from Consolation Champs

7th Annual Pre-SXSW Post

I rarely (if ever) talk about work on this blog. And that’s by design. But I want to talk about what I do rather than just where I work. For years, I’ve hidden behind the adage that I’m a “generalist” as far as working the web goes. In fact, I’m pretty much a generalist at everything. I’m curious about everything and very easily distracted. I have a million hobbies and interests, and my spare time is very easily filled up.

But this year, I want to focus a bit more on my work as a web designer. I’m not a designer, or a programmer. I often just call myself a “web guy” and that’s true. But the truth is that most web guys know much more about the web than I do. I recently read Jeff Croft’s entry on being a professional web designer and it really struck home. I’m one of those guys who learned HTML in the 90s. I’ve kept up, barely, with most new developments as far as markup (ie. not programming) and the general “zeitgeist” of the web. I know the right buzzwords, and am genuinely interested in where the web is headed. But my technical skills and knowledge have lagged.

My current job started in 2003 when I had to build a site from the ground up for a wine-importing agency. It’s gone through a few cosmetic changes since then, but nothing serious, and it is crying out for a proper database back end and a CMS. These are at present beyond the scope of my abililities. I’ve bought the right books, and bookmarked the right sites. But my current responsibilities have gradually expanded to the point where I can’t immerse myself enough to learn how to do these things.

Each year I come back from SXSW inspired and motivated to make the necessary changes, and each year, I fail to make them. I’m frustrated. Part of the problem is the fact that I do much more than just maintain the web site now. And part of it is just inertia. No one complains about the site, but I know what’s wrong with it. As the only web guy in a small company, I’m also very isolated from the web design community. Though I know several people and get together pretty regularly for drinks with them, I’ve assumed they’re too busy to help with my questions. I’ve wanted to get more involved in the local web design community, but have lost the confidence that I’ll be able to contribute anything of worth to the discussion. Same goes for SXSW, where I hang out with bloggers and journalists and other “content” types instead of trying to learn from people whose work I admire online.

It may be true that in the long run, I’ll always be more comfortable as a content guy. My real passion is for writing and for using the web in innovative ways. But that doesn’t mean I’m incapable of learning a few new tricks. In 2007, I’m going to try very hard to make space for that to happen.

from Consolation Champs

My New Year’s Resolution

It’s so strange to be an acquaintance to fame. Many years ago, in the early 90s, I frequented a BBS (that’s “bulletin board system” for you young folk) for “writers” (because clearly at that time I considered myself a “writer”) called The Powder Keg. Through that experience, I met a very interesting young woman named Natalia who was just bursting with energy and talent. We met only once in person, at a reading somewhere, but over the years, she sent me zines she was working on and tapes of her singing and playing guitar.

Flash forward to 2004. I’m browsing in Soundscapes and came across the latest record from The Dears, a band I’d heard of but never heard. Flipping through the liner notes, I see a familiar name. Natalia Yanchak is the keyboardist and backing vocalist for the band. She’s also the wife of singer Murray Lightburn and now the mother of their child, Neptune.

The Montreal-based band played a three-night stand recently here in Toronto at Lee’s Palace. And regretfully, I couldn’t make it to any of their shows. But I’m incredibly proud of Natalia. And though it’s doubtful, I hope that just a teeny-weeny bit of her success is due to the encouragement of a kindly older gentleman who toils away here with neither fame nor fortune to ease his encroaching irrelevance.

I think I’ll dig out my old cassette tapes tonight and listen to Natalia singing “Smells Like Teen Spirit” into her tape recorder.

Here’s a recent interview with Natalia with the British music mag Taxi.

from Consolation Champs

Dear Natalia

My buddy Brad has posted a series of church bulletins that I helped to “enhance” back in the late 1980s during a particularly soporific church service. I guess my sense of humour hasn’t changed much.

from Consolation Champs

Sea Monkeys

It’s very strange. Only one or two of my oldest friends ever met her. My lovely wife and her family never knew her, although they would have loved her. And I know that my mother would have loved Brooke, and if it’s possible for her to see me now, I know she’s happy for us.

But it is a strange empty hole in the calendar. I’m not so sad anymore, and it’s not like I want people to feel sorry for me. It’s just that when this day rolls around every year, I don’t know what to do. I have a wonderful mother-in-law, but that’s not the same.

For Mother’s Day this year, then, let me tell you a story about my mum.

During my teens, my mum and I were very close. I’m an only child, and after the age of 13 or so, my dad wasn’t around much, so we sort of depended on each other. One of our rituals was to go to the movies together on a regular basis. And so, in 1981, my 16-year old self went off to see Raiders of the Lost Ark with his mum. You have to realize that I wasn’t in the least bit embarrassed by this. We were buddies, and she was cool. Well, if you remember the movie at all, there’s a scene where Indiana Jones is fighting a huge guy in the shadow of a moving airplane, and just when the guy’s about to finish him off, the spinning propeller of the airplane makes contact with the back of the big brute’s head.

It was at that moment that my mum jumped in fear and her flailing arms caught me right in the crotch.

I miss you, Mum!

I wrote more about my mum here

from Consolation Champs

Mother’s Day

A Good Value Haircut

It grows back, doesn’t it? Doesn’t it?

from Consolation Champs

Zealous Barber

But before I post my depressing screed, I will say that I managed to have a pretty good time nonetheless. It’s just too bad that I only get to see some of these amazing people just once a year. For evidence of my merrymaking, check out my photos on Flickr. I’ve posted my photos from 2001 and 2002 on there as well. Ah, nostalgia!

Read on if you dare…

SXSW 2006: Blog Bubble Bursts

I’m not quite sure how to preface my remarks about SXSW this year. I certainly didn’t start out writing something so negative. As always, I had a great time, but there was a vague sense of disappointment in the air this year among my friends. Although blogging has been growing for a few years now, this was the year I felt it fully entered the mainstream. Just as Toyota Prius owners no longer honk at each other, or iPod owners no longer nod at strangers with the same white earbuds, bloggers no longer seem connected just by virtue of being bloggers, and this saddens me.

SXSW 2000 has been described as the bloggers’ “coming out party” and since I started attending in 2001, it’s always felt like a blogger’s conference more than anything else. I loved that at Break Bread with Brad, everyone wore badges with their URL on them. Not what they did, or how much money they made, or even where they lived. I loved the egalitarian spirit of that. Even though a mythical “A-List” soon appeared, along with a backlash, that seemed more like a junior-high expression of cliquishness and jealousy than a serious social disruption. But of course, money changes everything, and SXSW is no different.

It’s strange. Some of the internet nerds I met five years ago are now running technology companies, some are millionaires. And I’m pretty much the same person I was then. It seems like it’s become necessary again to ask someone what they do, or where they work, as if that were more important than who they were.

We’ve stratified to the point where the web designers and the bloggers and the user experience designers and the technologists and the journalists and the venture capitalists don’t even know who each other are. The designers come to discuss design with other designers, the technologists come to present panels and then party with the other technologists. A few years ago, people primarily identified themselves as bloggers, and their jobs came next. I’m not sure if anyone else felt strange that one of the keynotes this year featured two famous bloggers, who were trying to make it their occupation.

All the talk this year was about the new Internet bubble. There was lots of free beer and a closing night party that featured music so loud that no one could talk to each other. There were lots of panels that featured titles like “Does Your Blog Have A Business?” and “How to Blog for Money by Learning from Comics” and “Sink or Swim: The Five Most Important Startup Decisions”. In fact, I haven’t heard the term “monetizing” for many years, but it poppped up again and again this year.

Before the conference, I decided to upload my photos from my first year to Flickr. After I came home, I compared them to my 2006 photos and there is a definite difference. I’m now in the process of uploading photos from other years and I find it amazing that just a few years ago, in the lobby bar of the Omni Hotel, you could find a group of about 30 people who were behind some of the most interesting web sites around. Now many of them are too busy working at their internet companies to attend, or if they do come, are busy with other “business” people or preparing for their panels on monetizing the blogosphere with Ajax or some other Web 2.0 twaddle.

I’m not opposed to advances in technology in themselves. It’s just that I think we’ve lost quite a bit of the spirit that made the original emergence of weblogs so exhilarating. In many ways it was unavoidable, and I’m sure that I sound like a typical crank, longing for the old days. But it hurts me on a personal level when some of the people in my photos from 2001 or 2002 don’t even acknowledge me anymore.

I was joking before the conference that I found many of the web designers in attendance intimidating. They weren’t much of a presence in 2001, and I definitely began attending the conference as what I described as a “scruffy blogger” rather than as an internet professional. The people I still hang around with most would probably fit that description as well, although many are brilliant writers, journalists, web designers or technologists. Back then, though, self-applying the label “blogger” to oneself was enough to gather a similar crowd of early adopters around. I used to proudly claim that I’d found my “tribe,” but this year, for the first time, I felt in danger of losing it.

No doubt, I’ll be back in 2007, but a few of us have begun discussing some of these disturbing changes and what we can do about them. If anything, there will be even more people there next year, and by most measures, this would be considered success: for SXSW, for the internet businesses, even for blogging. And many of the effects I’m describing are the natural outcomes of that success, and are probably unavoidable. But I’m not ready to give up something I love this much, and I’m curious to see if anyone else felt the same way as I did about this year’s conference. David Pescovitz of BoingBoing quoted Timothy Leary at the Bloggies this year, concerning feeling like an outsider: “Find the others.” Others, are you out there?

from Consolation Champs

SXSW 2006: Blog Bubble Bursts

The Boomtown Rats – The Fine Art of Surfacing (1979)

There was once a time when “Sir” Bob Geldof was known for something other than organizing huge benefit concerts to feed the hungry. In fact, there was once a time when he was the hungry one. Hungry to find meaning in the world, and to find his place in it. In 1979, Geldof and his band The Boomtown Rats released one of my favourite albums, but the fact that it contained what amounted to a novelty hit (“I Don’t Like Mondays”) consigned The Boomtown Rats to “one-hit wonder” status and left the rest of this masterpiece of angry pop criminally undiscovered. In fact, the album was extremely difficult to find on CD in North America until a 2005 release that added some bonus tracks.

We might as well deal with “I Don’t Like Mondays” right away. Geldof was a former journalist, and you could see why he’d take inspiration from a newspaper account of a 13-year-old California teenager who shot 11 people with no remorse. When asked why she’d done it, she replied nonchalantly, “I don’t like Mondays.” Geldof’s outrage is somewhat obscured by his clever lyrics and sneering vocals, but it’s there. On “Diamond Smiles” he tells the sad story of a rich socialite who hangs herself at a grand party. “When the Night Comes” is about how the office drones try to escape their soulless jobs by fumbling for connection. Whether it’s the emptiness of riches, the incomprehensibility of random violence, or the alienation of our modern world, Geldof was a brilliant storyteller. Almost every song has a character at its centre, someone who is acting out their part in this confusing place. On “Someone’s Looking at You,” Geldof even eerily predicts our surveillance-mad post-9/11 culture of suspicion. This is a brilliant collection of pop songs with lyrics that are actually worth listening to.

Some people were surprised when the sneering Geldof became the ambassador for charity in the mid-80s, but not me. You can’t be born in Ireland and raised in a flawed but still vital Catholicism without emerging as an idealist. A frustrated and angry idealist, usually, but credit to Bob for not just giving up on this messy old world. When I first discovered this album, probably sometime in the 80s, I saw Bob as a great example of someone whose brain hadn’t completely crushed their soul. Even without the knighthood, I’d call him sir.

Track Listing

1. Someone’s Looking at You
2. Diamond Smiles
3. Wind Chill Factor (Minus Zero)
4. Having My Picture Taken
5. Sleep (Fingers’ Lullaby)
6. I Don’t Like Mondays
7. Nothing Happened Today
8. Keep It Up
9. Nice ‘n’ Neat
10. When The Night Comes

“Someone’s Looking at You” performance on Australian TV on YouTube
“I Don’t Like Mondays” video on YouTube

Great Albums is an occasional feature on Consolation Champs where I relate some personal stories about life-changing music in lieu of any proper music criticism. You’ll probably learn more about me than about music, so consider that fair warning. For more, click the Great Albums category tag.

from Consolation Champs

Great Albums: The Fine Art of Surfacing

Four jobs I’ve had:

1. Door-to-door magazine subscription salesman (1980)
2. Substitute teacher (1 day in 1993)
3. Welfare caseworker (1994-1998)
4. Macintosh computer salesman (1998-2000 and 2001-2003)

Four movies I can watch over and over:

1. The Big Lebowski
2. Withnail and I
3. Tokyo Olympiad
4. Cinema Paradiso

Four places I’ve lived:

1. Dublin, Ireland (1965-1967)
2. Toronto, Ontario (1967-present, with exceptions below)
3. Grand Rapids, Michigan (1992-1993)
4. Waterloo, Ontario (19 days in 1997)

Four TV shows I love:

1. Survivor
2. The Amazing Race
3. English Premier League Soccer
4. NBA Basketball

Four places I’ve vacationed:

1. Uruguay
2. Croatia
3. St. John’s, Newfoundland
4. Poland

Four of my favourite dishes:

1. Chicken Vindaloo
2. Steak Frites
3. Sage and Garlic Stuffed Pork Roast
4. Apple and Caraway Stuffed Chicken Breast

Four sites I visit daily:

1. New York Times
2. Wikipedia
3. BoingBoing
4. Soccernet

Four places I would rather be right now:

1. Austin, Texas (soon!)
2. San Francisco, California
3. Turin, Italy
4. Havana, Cuba

Four schleps I’m tagging:

1. Neil
2. Gord
3. Paul
4. Jay

from Consolation Champs

Four Things

The only black spot on the weekend? Chelsea beating Liverpool.

How was your weekend?

from Consolation Champs

Good Weekend

I started running again, today, for the first time since, gasp, the end of August. I’m keeping track of my slow climb to fitness (again) on my oh-so-interesting running blog. And I’ve been fooling around a bit more with Last.fm, and I can say without hesitation that it’s pretty interesting. At least for completely anal-retentive music geeks like me. View my profile here. While I’m plugging links, my other site, Runner-Up, needs some love. Please visit (that is, if you’re even visiting here!) and if you find something interesting, please please please comment!

That is all.

from Consolation Champs

Gah! Content Shortage!

Rheostatics – Whale Music (1992)

Last night, my best friend Brent and I revisited a pillar of our more than 15 year-long friendship. Let me begin at the beginning. I met Brent in 1989. At the time, I was a suave and sophisticated 24-year old who’d travelled in Europe and was beginning my second degree. Brent was a gawky and sometimes abrasive 19-year old know-it-all. Of course, we hit it off right away. When one of my roommates moved out, Brent decided to move in, and for the next three years, we struggled to make ends meet on our student loans and part-time jobs. Sometime in 1992, we caved in to the inevitable and both of us made the humiliating decision to move back in with our parents for a while. Luckily, by 1994 we were back on our feet financially, and we found another place closer to downtown. I moved out gradually as Brooke and I got more serious, but we still live only about fifteen minutes walk from each other.

I tease Brent about not being a “music person” but I am forever grateful to him for introducing me to my favourite Canadian band, the Rheostatics. I don’t even know how he’d heard of them, but one day he brought home a luridly-illustrated cassette called “Whale Music” sometime before we gave up our apartment, and we must have worn it out. Shortly after that, we began going to see the Rheos in concert, and last night marked probably the 15th time we’ve seen them, although I’ve long ago stopped counting. Each year, the band plays a series of shows at the legendary Horseshoe Tavern, and last night was “Whale Music Night”. They played the entire album in sequence, and with a generous encore, the show stretched to almost two and a half hours, but I was never less than transfixed by this transcendent music. As an added bonus, author Paul Quarrington was invited onstage at the beginning of the show to read from his hilarious and sad novel Whale Music which was the inspiration for the title of this record. (In a strange twist, the Rheostatics were invited to provide the score for a film made of the book, so there are actually two albums of theirs with the title “Whale Music”.)

It’s difficult to describe the music of the Rheostatics. For this album, there were four different songwriters, and four vocalists, but more than any other of their records, it feels like one piece. I’m a huge fan of guitarist Martin Tielli, and his compositions feel the most orchestral and moody to me, and I think that’s what ties the whole thing together. All the band members are insanely gifted musicians, but in addition, Tielli is a talented painter who’s created all the band’s album covers, and singer/guitarist Dave Bidini is a well-known writer who’s written books about hockey, baseball and rock music. I’ve had the privilege to meet the painfully-shy bassist/singer Tim Vesely on a few occasions, and I’ve always been impressed by the fact that no one in this band shows even a shred of rock-star ego.

Whale Music begins with a song called “Self Serve Gas Station” and it sounds vaguely like a country song. I’m surprised that I stuck with it, since my problem with most Canadian music (especially bands like The Tragically Hip) is that I think they sound too “twangy”. But I was immediately drawn in by the strange lyrics (“He wanted to bust the glass because I wouldn’t give him gas, I said ‘You shouldn’t even be driving’”). My favourite tracks are the ones by Martin Tielli, and “California Dreamline” might be my favourite song ever (“questionable things like dolphins helping people to swim”) and reinforces my feeling that Martin’s songs are always somehow related to water.

I could keep going but I think the best thing would be for you to let this album wash over you personally. There’s a line in the stunning end-of-album closer “Dope Fiends and Boozehounds” that references Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon”, another seminal album for druggy kids of my generation. This album is sort of like that. Listen to it in a darkened room from start to finish and tell me that you don’t agree that this is the Greatest Canadian Rock Album Ever.

One of the great things about living in the 21st-century is that it’s now possible for more people to hear this wonderful music. You can download the whole beautiful thing for $8.88 right here. Run, people!

Track Listing

1. Self Serve Gas Station/
2. California Dreamline
3. Rain, Rain, Rain
4. Queer
5. King of the Past
6. RDA (Rock Death America)
7. The Headless One
8. Legal Age Life at Variety Store
9. What’s Going on Around Here?
10. Shaved Head
11. Palomar
12. Guns
13. Sickening Song
14. Soul Glue
15. Beerbash
16. Who?
17. Dope Fiends and Boozehounds

“King of the Past” video on YouTube
“Shaved Head” video from YouTube

Great Albums is an occasional feature on Consolation Champs where I relate some personal stories about life-changing music in lieu of any proper music criticism. You’ll probably learn more about me than about music, so consider that fair warning. For more, click the Great Albums category tag.

from Consolation Champs

Great Albums: Whale Music

The Cars – The Cars (1978)

Another great album from my misspent youth. I hope you’ll forgive my detours into autobiography, but most music that resonates with us also connects with what was going on in our lives at the time. This album will forever be associated with a period in my life when I was first discovering beer and girls. Though it came out in the spring of 1978, my memories are probably from the year after that. This was definitely an album that we were playing a year later. It had classic written all over it, even then.

Every weekend of my 14th year, I was at a house party. Usually hosted by my buddy Ken, they were low-key affairs, mostly involving sitting around listening to music, drinking beer, and if some girls showed up, flirting and hopefully, making out. I’m sure this pattern has been the same for decades, if not centuries, and we were happy not to disturb the universe. For me, the song “Just What I Needed” will always be associated with two girls: one I couldn’t have, and one I didn’t want.

Caroline lived in the same apartment building as me, and like me, her parents were Irish. Hers were from Cork, mine from Dublin, though they weren’t really friends. She was pretty, taller than me, and smarter and more sophisticated than any of the other girls I knew. She was also going out with my friend Bill, who was tall, good-looking and athletic. This caused me immense pain, and on at least one occasion, after a few jars, I was found passed out in a darkened bedroom moaning Caroline’s name over and over. Sigh.

Strangely enough, I reconnected with Caroline a few years ago. In high school, we lost touch as I dropped the partying and she seemed to sink deeper into it. Happily, she emerged and has become a sought-after fashion photographer who works in both Toronto and London. She recently had a little boy. I’m not sure if she reads my blog, but if so, hello! (You did know about my crush, didn’t you?)

Beth was a kind girl, but plain and bespectacled when I met her. One night, as I sprawled semi-blotto on the couch at Ken’s place, she sat down next to me and within minutes we were locked in passionate embrace. An hour or so later, I remember walking her down to the lobby where her dad was picking her up, and I sobered up rapid to realize that she now thought we were in a “relationship.” The next weekend, she was due to arrive at the party and I was terrified. Panicking, I locked myself in the bathroom and wrote her a “Dear Beth” letter on the roll of toilet paper. Tearing off the sheets, I left them on the countertop and emerged to face her. “Uh, there’s something for you in the bathroom,” I mumbled. If I broke her heart, at least she could wipe her tears with the evidence.

Justice was swift for my stupidity. Beth got contacts and a new hairstyle within a year or so, and became a model and actress. Later, she went on to have a proper relationship with a bona-fide Canadian rock star (Mark Holmes from Platinum Blonde). I can’t recall her ever speaking to me again.

What about The Cars, you’re now asking? Well, this was simply a great album. “Just What I Needed” still sounds fresh today, but there were no skippable tracks on this record. “My Best Friend’s Girl” was another jab when Caroline and Bill were around, but a good song nonetheless. “Moving In Stereo” was used in a great scene from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. And “Let The Good Times Roll” always felt like a great kickoff to our festivities.

The Cars were certainly more commercial than bands like The Ramones and Talking Heads, which is probably why I knew about them in 1979. I didn’t discover the more “authentic” bands until later. But The Cars were certainly influenced by the same stuff and they had a vaguely European flavour to my young ears. They definitely were indulging in more expensive and exotic drugs than we were (they even name-drop “psilocybin”) and their sense of style promised better hair for everyone in the 1980s. Pity that didn’t work out, though.

Track Listing

1. Let The Good Times Roll
2. My Best Friend’s Girl
3. Just What I Needed
4. I’m In Touch with Your World
5. Don’t Cha Stop
6. You’re All I’ve Got Tonight
7. Bye Bye Love
8. Moving In Stereo
9. All Mixed Up

“Just What I Needed” live on the Midnight Special in 1978 at YouTube

Great Albums is an occasional feature on Consolation Champs where I relate some personal stories about life-changing music in lieu of any proper music criticism. You’ll probably learn more about me than about music, so consider that fair warning. For more, click the Great Albums category tag.

from Consolation Champs

Great Albums: The Cars

The Pretenders – The Pretenders (1980)

I’m beginning a new and hopefully recurring feature on Consolation Champs. It’s called Great Albums. Does anyone remember what an album was? Do they still call a music “release” an album anymore? Well, back in 1980, when a band released an album, you bought an album, a piece of vinyl inside a paper sleeve slipped into a cardboard sleeve. I think I might have paid about $8 for this record when it came out in 1980. I was 15 years old. A bit of background may be in order.

My family came to Canada from Ireland when I was two. I grew up in a series of apartments even though my dad held a white-collar job. Part of the reason for that was that my mum didn’t work. She had dropped out of school when she was 13 to go to work to support her grandmother, and when she got married, she figured she didn’t want to work anymore. So, our one-income family lived among a lot of two-income blue-collar families. It gave me a unique perspective on things sometimes. Some of my friends didn’t finish high school. Most didn’t go beyond it.

Growing up in the 70s in that environment almost guaranteed that I’d be a rocker. In Canada, we’d say I was a bit of a hoser. From 1975 until about 1979, I wore my jeans tucked into unlaced construction boots and a jean jacket and carried my stuff to school in an Adidas gym bag. Hoser couture at the time. So my first musical forays were into stuff like Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, and Rush. But I was a bit different, too. Among my hoser friends, I was the first (and maybe only) one to get into punk and then new wave. I didn’t want to grow my hair long and wear a lumber jacket. By 1980, I’d gotten into the Sex Pistols and the Clash, Gary Numan and Devo. And then The Pretenders came along. Or more immediately, Chrissie Hynde came along.

Like most 15 year-old boys, I was an awkward and volatile blend of hormones and energy, and Chrissie Hynde grabbed my attention right away. Just look at her on the album cover photo. A red leather jacket! She appealed to my rocker roots. And she sang like both a tough chick and a vulnerable older woman. Plus, the band rocked, but in a very English new-wavey way. Picking this up was a no-brainer, even if I wasn’t that keen on the radio’s choice of a single, the almost unintelligible “Brass In Pocket”.

The truth is, this is a great album from start to finish. Since it was their debut, it contained all the pent-up energy of a band waiting to explode, and almost every song sounded fresh. In my now 40 year-old opinion, they still do. Chrissie’s voice grabs your attention right away in “Precious”; it was the first time (alas, but not the last) I’d hear a woman say “Fuck off” (and “shitting bricks”!). This woman was tough! On “Up The Neck,” she just oozes sex, and she coyly plays with the lyrics, drawing out such double entendres as “the veins bulged on his…brow”. She continues to talk dirty on “Tattooed Love Boys” and her heavy breathing on “The Wait” still gives me chills.

But it wasn’t just Chrissie Hynde that made this album so great for me. Guitarist James Honeyman-Scott was an innovator and his guitar work has remained very influential over the years. I love the way the end of “Space Invader” runs into the galloping opening of “The Wait”. I love that they actually have a song called “Space Invader” (the console game was HUGE around this time). The Ray Davies’ cover “Stop Your Sobbing” may have been influential in Hynde’s later romance with Ray himself. They even had a child together. And “Mystery Achievement” may be the best last track on any album. Truth be told, “Brass in Pocket” may be one of the weaker tracks on the album. But it’s the poppiest and least threatening, so you still hear it on the radio now and then.

Tragically, within three years, both Honeyman-Scott and bassist Pete Farndon were dead of drug overdoses, and although Hynde soldiered on, the punch and guts of the band had gone. But twenty-five years on, this is still a thrilling listen. Go on, geezers, dig it out of your crates of vinyl. And you kids, track it down on your favourite file-sharing service. You’ll feel 15 again. Or just 15, I guess.

Track Listing

1. Precious
2. The Phone Call
3. Up the Neck
4. Tattooed Love Boys
5. Space Invader
6. The Wait
7. Stop Your Sobbing
8. Kid
9. Private Life
10. Brass In Pocket
11. Lovers of Today
12. Mystery Achievement

“Stop Your Sobbing” on Top of the Pops on YouTube
“Tattooed Love Boys” live from 1981 on YouTube

Great Albums is an occasional feature on Consolation Champs where I relate some personal stories about life-changing music in lieu of any proper music criticism. You’ll probably learn more about me than about music, so consider that fair warning. For more, click the Great Albums category tag.

from Consolation Champs

Great Albums: The Pretenders

But I wonder why I didn’t leap immediately behind the controls of my blog and start writing about how I was shocked, saddened, etc. etc. I think I felt vaguely like I’d be hitchhiking on other people’s misery, just like in 2001. Of course I’m miserable about the tragedy. I have family there (who are all ok, thank God). But I guess I’m just a little jaded by how the media (and here I include the so-called “blogosphere”) jump all over each new horror and make us look and look and look. It’s kind of gruesome, actually.

I’ll more than likely not be commenting further on this. Like most Londoners, I’ll be trying to live my life without caving in to fear or morbid fascination with violence. Sorry if that sounds self-righteous.

from Consolation Champs

Cynical? Unfeeling? Jaded?

from Consolation Champs

Pride and Remembrance 5K 2005 Pledges

Two years ago, Vince died. He had cut my hair for about fifteen years in his little two-chair shop next to the bus terminal. His replacement, Valentino, had become a good friend. We talked a lot about wine and his native Romania and most importantly, he actually figured out how to cut my hair. About six weeks ago, I went in to find him missing. Karim, a young Algerian barber, was there. He was replacing another Albanian barber who had opened up his own shop in the west end of Toronto. Karim told me that Valentino had been sick, experiencing vertigo and coughing a lot, and that after consulting lots of doctors here, he and his wife had gone to Costa Rica to consult with “natural” doctors. It didn’t look good and Valentino was considering selling the shop. I guess calling your business the “Terminal Barber Shop” may have been a jinx. Seriously, though, I was upset because Valentino is only in his mid-40s.

Karim tried gamely to cut my hair and I visited him twice but it just wasn’t working. He was a really great guy who had all kinds of stories but I’m not sure I’ll be back.

Today, I tried again. There are two places near me that looked promising. Of course, one was inexplicably closed. The other has been there for a long time, but the name should have warned me. Paul’s Hairstyling for Men and Women. Hmmm…

And even though I had my hair cut by Paul himself, it still isn’t right. I just want a barber who gets in there and cuts the hair. Instead, I felt like I was being pecked by birds. Lots off the sides and back, but they’re all terrified to tackle the top and front.

I’m considering shaving my own head.

from Consolation Champs

Barber Blues

Now picking up speed on the way to the grave…

from Consolation Champs

Oh Good Lordy, Look Who’s Forty!

Each week, for eight weeks, we swirled, sniffed, and sipped wines, taking copious (or not so copious) tasting notes. We learned about each of the major wine regions of the world, and learned a methodical process of tasting and describing what we’d tasted. At the end of the eight weeks, we wrote an exam.

Though the course is offered through the local Independent Wine Education Guild, here in Toronto, the tests had to be sent back to Jolly Old England to see if we tipsy colonists had passed muster. Today, I was proud to receive in the mail my very first wine certification, the “WSET Level 2 Intermediate Certificate in Wines, Spirits and Other Alcoholic Beverages.” The best part? Since I scored 96%, they printed “Pass with Distinction” on my certificate.

The next level, the Advanced certificate, is being offered in January, but I know it will be much tougher. It’s 14 weeks long, and the exam contains a tasting component. Though my head is now chock-full of wine knowledge, I still consider myself the owner of a wobbly set of tastebuds. I have much more tasting (and spitting, if I know what’s good for me!) ahead, so I think I’ll wait until next fall to take the next level.

from Consolation Champs

With Distinction

Nelson is no more. In the fall of 1990, two neurotic bachelors bought a cat to chase the bugs out of their apartment. Nelson became much like the two of us: slovenly, loyal, cranky, desperate to be loved. Yesterday, Brent told me that Nelson hadn’t been eating much in the last few days and that he was taking him to the vet. Nelson has never been to the vet, not once, so I knew this was serious. It turned out that there was some fluid and possibly tumours bloating his body, and so the decision was pretty easy. I only regret that I wasn’t there with him. His passing is more than just the loss of a friend. It feels like the passing of a whole era in my life. At my wedding two years ago, Brent even based his riotously funny speech on the concept of Nelson as our love child. The child is gone, but the love remains.

By the way, did I tell you that I’m not a “cat person”?

from Consolation Champs

Goodbye Nelson!

Happy Anniversary, Missus!

from Consolation Champs

Lucky Guy, Continued…

Jay’s film, along with 23 others, will be screened on August 1st at the Seattle Art Museum. Bravo!

from Consolation Champs

Hold Your Head Up

We’re also taking the opportunity to dine at one of Ottawa’s newest and most-acclaimed restaurants, Beckta. The nicest thing is that it’s being paid for by my employers, as a sort of thank-you for all the work I did on our big tasting event a few weeks ago. We’re also meeting up tonight with one of my colleagues (our Ottawa sales rep) and his girlfriend for a more casual meal.

Hopefully, we’ll also find a bit of time to explore the National Gallery of Canada, check out Parliament Hill and maybe do a couple of other touristy things. We’ll be back Sunday and I’ll try to post a picture or two.

from Consolation Champs

A Capital Idea

• seeing a dozen documentaries at the Hot Docs festival.
• running my best 10K time by exactly two minutes (52:30.9! Yeah!) in the Sporting Life 10K.
• rocking out live to the hyperactive geek sounds of the Apples In Stereo.
• wrapping up several months of preparation with what amounted to a 16 hour workday as we hosted 19 winemakers from seven countries (and four continents!) at a huge tasting of our entire portfolio of wines. More than 600 people attended.

So, what have you been up to lately?

from Consolation Champs

What a Week!

Among a certain crowd of my friends, a new “tradition” has taken hold. It’s the annual Christmas letter. Tucked into the Christmas card is a photocopied letter, usually on cheerful stationery covered with snowflakes or snowmen or holly or Christmas lights. Since it’s from the whole family, the letter is usually narrated in the third person, which makes it sound weird. I mean, who’s narrating this thing? And since this is sent to everyone from family to close friends to acquaintances, there isn’t much detail. There are usually three themes: property, employment, and offspring. So here’s one from Brooke and me:

from Consolation Champs

Christmas Letters

from Consolation Champs

One Year

Then there’s stuff from my trip to Ireland in 1995 with Brent. We took the camera into some pubs and just put it on the floor so we could tape the traditional music. So even though there are just long stretches of black screen, the music is phenomenal.

The funniest thing on the tape, though, is our New Year’s 1992 celebration. There’s a bit of Brent, surreptitiously filmed singing along to “McDonald’s Girl” by the Barenaked Ladies. Priceless. Now I just have to get the stuff off tape and onto a more permanent medium.

from Consolation Champs

Old Home Movies

Last night, we stayed in to watch Saturday Night at the Movies on TVO, our public television station. They were screening Mildred Pierce (1945), starring Joan Crawford. It’s a great combination of film noir and shameless melodrama, and it’s the inspiration for the name of a very nice restaurant here in Toronto.

On Friday night, Brent and I went to see American Splendor (2003), about comic book writer Harvey Pekar. All I’ve been able to say to Brooke about it is: “What kind of woman is your bride, Harvey. Is she a nerd?” (you’ll need to see the movie now, won’t you?!). Excellent work all around, and nice to see one of my favourite character actors, Paul Giamatti, get a larger canvas.

I promise to try to be more interesting from now on. I’ve been neglecting you. The film festival is coming up fast, so I’ll be writing my traditional mini-reviews of the 15 films I’ll be seeing this year. Tuesday night we’ll be going over the schedule and guidebook choosing our films, and next Monday (Labour Day), we find out whether we got all of our first choices. This is always a frantic time of year for us, but it’s always worth it.

from Consolation Champs

Weekend

Brooke walked in about an hour later, telling me that she’d walked two hours home from work, and had to walk up the fourteen flights of stairs to our apartment. We went out shortly afterward to try to buy batteries for our radio, which was a bit of an adventure. There was a brave soul directing traffic at Mount Pleasant and Eglinton, the nearest major intersection, and lots of people were out walking around. Most of the stores had closed, and the ones still open were selling out of water and batteries. Ice cream was half price at most convenience stores, though we didn’t buy any.

After getting back home (and walking the fourteen flights of stairs), we just listened to the radio until it got dark around 9:00pm. We lit a couple of candles, but were in bed by 10:00pm. Our power came back on around 2:00am, but we didn’t really sleep that well, since we’d turned off our air conditioner. This morning, we were advised that the Premier of Ontario had declared a state of emergency, and that all non-essential employees were advised to stay home from work. The subway wouldn’t be running today, and may not run again until Monday.

So, it’s actually been pretty boring. This is the first time in 24 hours that I’ve been able to connect to the internet. Since we’re still being advised to conserve power (due to possible rolling blackouts), I’m going to shut down again now and just wait for the sun to go down. Maybe we can watch some TV tonight.

How are you all doing?

from Consolation Champs

My Blackout Story

In other news, last Monday (yes, the day after I got home), I got together with about 15 old friends, some of whom I hadn’t seen in many years. I spent many formative years in the 1980s as part of a very close-knit church youth group, and some of us have recently come together again. The reason is that this July marked the 20th anniversary of the death of one of our friends in a traffic accident. Robyn was just 17, and practically glowed with energy and faith and potential. I still wonder what she would have been doing now had she lived. But as I wrote in an email to the group:

So yeah, that’s what I’ve been thinking about. And just so this post isn’t all sombre, here’s a picture of unrealized potential. When I saw this, I really wasn’t sure that it was me (I’m the skinny one on the left, by the way):

from Consolation Champs

Still Here

Surprisingly, after checking out the floor plans and prices, I was interested. We live in a pricier section of the most expensive city in Canada, so $200,000 for a one-bedroom condo, slightly larger than our current place, actually seemed reasonable. We currently pay almost $1100 in rent each month. I figured that if we could get away with paying no more than $1600-$1800/month, it might make sense for us.

What I didn’t count on was the deposit/down payment. The condo isn’t built yet, and expected occupancy isn’t until the spring of 2005, at the earliest. But they still want a $30,000 deposit, spread over eight months. I don’t know about you, but I just don’t have that sort of cash laying around. Even if we were able to borrow it, paying it back over two years (before we’d have to start paying our mortgage) would be more expensive than the mortgage, since we’d still have to pay our rent at the same time. What’s worse, I found out that upon moving in to the finished condo, we have to pay another $20,000. Where is this money supposed to come from? We’d be first-time home buyers, and we don’t own any assets at all. Our credit history is exemplary, but somehow, the idea of trying to put $50,000 on our lines of credit seems insane.

People talk about how rent is just like throwing your money away. But after looking at interest rates, amortization periods, and condominium “maintenence fees,” I’m pretty convinced that we’d be throwing away at least as much money each month as we do now. All this hasn’t helped to console my wife, though…

from Consolation Champs

Mortgage Blues

I’ll be designing and maintaining the web site for the Lifford Wine Agency, who represent some of the most prestigious wineries in the world. Once the site is live, I’ll be shifting my attention to creating from scratch a new marketing initiative to sell wine directly to consumers. This will involve writing monthly email newsletters and coming up with other creative ways to educate consumers about the many many wines that never make it into our local government monopoly wine stores.

It’s going to be a huge challenge and I’m really excited to finally be working at something that will stretch me every day. Thanks to everyone who gave me advice and encouragement over the past few months. You kept my chin up and my eyes open and if it weren’t for you, tomorrow might just be another day.

from Consolation Champs

Back To Work

Earlier in the week, in a bit of pre-Pride celebration, some GTABloggers gathered at Wilde Oscar’s for drinks. Despite the heat (and the attendant rotting garbage smell from the nearby bins), we had a nice time. Joining us as part of her ALA convention jaunt was the fabulous Jessamyn.

And then Friday, I finally got to meet Neil Lee (who had unsuccessfully tried to find us on Wednesday). Neil is visiting from Winnipeg, and in another amusing “small-world” twist, has a good friend in common with me. The three of us met for a drink in the afternoon that almost stretched into the evening (and would have had I not had some domestic responsibilities). I’m glad to report that Neil is another “online” acquaintance that I’m now proud to count as an “offline” friend.

from Consolation Champs

Proud

from Consolation Champs

One Last Beg

Sunday morning was the Nissan Challenge 5K. We’d been training for the past 10 weeks and were very excited to be running our first race. However, I think being out of our regular schedule made us a little sluggish. Plus, we’d both been bothered by some nagging injuries. In my case, I wanted to rest my sore knee and so hadn’t run since last Monday. As a result, neither of us felt we were in top form. Nevertheless, we both accomplished our goals. We both wanted to finish in less than 30 minutes, and Brooke wanted to finish without any walk breaks. I finished in 29:03 and Brooke in 29:28. Look for us in this list of results (hint: I was 259th, and Brooke was 272nd). Both of us feel that we’ll be able to better that, maybe even by our next race.

Speaking of which, why don’t you go ahead and click the cute little graphic over there on the right, you know, the one for the Pride and Remembrance 5K, which we’ll be running on June 28?

In other news, I may have some very good news on the job front, possibly within the next day or two…(!!!)

from Consolation Champs

A Good Time And A Good Time

from Consolation Champs

I’m Back!

from Consolation Champs

Career Retreat

The “Bachelor Documentary Film Festival” will continue this weekend with:

• Fast, Cheap, And Out Of Control (1997)
• Salesman (1969)
• Dark Days (2000)

I’m sure I’ll squeeze in some NBA playoff games, too. More as it happens…

from Consolation Champs

Wild Bachelor Weekend!

Of course, being a gadget geek has helped keep me motivated. I’ve recently ordered a cool heart-rate monitor, the ECG5 from Sports Instruments. And I’m using a neat little OS X app called iRun to log my runs. I’ve always been a bit of a stats junkie. And it’s nice to see how much progress I’ve been making. In a little over a month, I’ve gone from a wheezing, shuffling old man to a, well, to a slightly more fit wheezing, shuffling old man.

from Consolation Champs

Run James Run

from Consolation Champs

So Long, Vince

from Consolation Champs

Dog Days (and Nights)

Dinner: Apple and Caraway Stuffed Chicken Breasts: I adapt the recipe slightly by leaving out currants and parsley, and substituting white wine for apple cider. Delicious! Accompanied by my first ever New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, the 2001 Sacred Hill, from the Marlborough region, very lively and a great match with the food.

Post-dinner: Simone (2002), a clunker.

from Consolation Champs

What We Did Tonight

Oh, and by the way, if you’re one of my single guy friends living in Toronto reading this? Get your arse out to a jogging class. The ratio of women to men is about 10:1.

from Consolation Champs

Survived

P.S. Did I mention that Brooke has been running 5K several times a week for the past few weeks? The only thing she’ll be “learning” is how to slow down for me.

from Consolation Champs

Jogging Class

Sorry for the “cheese sandwich” entry.

from Consolation Champs

Shorthand for Weather

But that’s not why I used the title for this entry. You see, today I was laid off from my job. It seems to be a trend. This is the second time in three years that I’ve come home from SxSW and lost my job. This wasn’t entirely unexpected, or even unwelcome, but it’s still a little bit traumatic.

As some of you may know, I came back from Austin energized to move on with my life and do something for a living that I actually cared about. Sometimes life has a way of making the hard decisions for you. So, today the earth stood still, for a moment. But just for a moment. It’s up to me now to shape the future, as much as that’s possible.

from Consolation Champs

The Day The Earth Stood Still

This game was an obsession of mine when I owned an Atari 800XL many many years ago. There have even been some efforts to recreate the game for modern PCs, detailed on this comprehensive fan site.

What was your favourite “classic” computer game?

from Consolation Champs

M.U.L.E. R.U.L.E.D.