Good things are coming this way
Posted by admin in Uncategorized, noise, tunes on June 23rd, 2009
I’ve got about a kajillion posts cued to be written, just no time to write them.
*A few cool side projects I can’t wait to talk about
*A shocking exposé on the local fight club scene (ok, less on the shocking side, more on the funny, stupid-idea side)
*Some interesting employment-related news
*A bit of Etsy love
*Some music recos
Until then, I leave you with an oldie but a goodie.
God, that’s a good song.
On Twitter
The obligatory Twitter post
I’ve been using Twitter for nearly a year now. As someone who lives alone (and currently spends a load of time alone at home) it’s nice to get the occasional thought from the ether.
Twitter can be a place to vent your frustrations, get a laugh, groan, find advice or offer advice, all in 140 characters.
I’m not going to write a long post on how you should use Twitter. There are plenty of those. But I will talk about what I think you should and should not do.
Marketing on Twitter
Don’t.
Just kidding. Sort of.
It’s very difficult to engage a consumer on Twitter. Your tweets will need to provide relevant, practical information, such as new product releases, updates, etc. without sounding robotic. Very few companies actually get this right, but very few companies actually try.
If you insist on doing this, be prepared to get negative feedback. If you’re good, you’ll engage those negative tweeters and try to rectify whatever their problems are.
Blogs? If you’re only going to update when you have a new blog post, don’t bother. I probably already follow your RSS feed.
The RT
I personally avoid retweeting. It feels almost like a lack of one’s own creativity. Also, I find it annoying. If someone I follow retweets too much I normally end up unfollowing them [too much defined henceforth as 1 RT : 5 OT - original tweets].
EgoTwists
I’m talking about
@soandso has listed themselves in the Narcissists Directory under #bigego #douchebag #yawn
Constantly tweeting about accomplishments or things you think make you seem more impressive are really just a turn off. As far as I know the public directory hasn’t provided one ounce of usefulness – except, perhaps for social media marketers trying to find a good list of people to follow.
Over sharing
Nobody needs to hear that you’ve been constipated for a week. Except maybe your doctor. Although I doubt he/she follows you on Twitter.
The dreaded celebrity tweeter
I’m talking about you, Ashton Kutcher, and you, Britney Spears. See also EgoTwists.
There are good examples of celebrity tweeters: @alyankovic and @johncleese to name a few.
I followed Neil Gaiman and Stephen Fry but ended up dropping them because they were tweeting too often and mostly about stuff I just didn’t care about.
I still follow @tinafey, but I’m not entirely certain it’s really her, which leads into my “beware the fake celebrity” bit.
I was really disappointed to find out @cwalken was not actually Christopher Walken. The tweets were brilliant at most times and really just seemed deranged enough to be genuine. When Gawker outted him, the account was suspended and he set up shop as @notcwalken. I follow it still because the tweets crack me up.
Cue the sad trombone
My personal pet peeve is the MiserTweet. People who only tweet about bad things that happen to them.
Yes, everyone vents on Twitter. It’s good for the soul. But don’t only vent on Twitter.
On the other hand, it would be kind of funny if someone write a country song on Twitter. Each tweet being a verse. You could start with “I just missed the last bus home” and go from there. In fact, I know for a fact that there’s more than one Twitter account out there that reads like a country song. Yeehaw.
Last note
Most of my local friends don’t see the point of Twitter. My best explanation is that it’s sort of like Facebook status updates. They still don’t get it. And that’s ok with me.
Post-post regret
After my post yesterday I had a total feeling of regret. The whole theme is songs I freaking love, and while I like that song, I freaking love the original!
I feel like instead I should have shared songs whose cover versions I freaking love.
Such as:
Suicide Machines – End of the World [orig. REM]
I’m not the biggest REM fan. I think it’s mainly due to the first song I ever heard being Shiny Happy People. I’m not exactly a shiny, happy kind of person. I do like this song and I love the cover.
Not sure what’s up with the video, I’m just not cool enough to know what Naruto is and I’m too lazy to look it up.
Anything by Manic Hispanic
Back in my punker years a roommate introduced me to these guys. It’s been a love affair ever since. They put a hispanic twist on [mainly] punk covers. Can’t find my fave [12 Xu] but this one will do:
Ben Folds – Bitches Aint Shit [orig. Dr. Dre]
Lots o’ swearing here, folks. Not exactly a very nice song for women, but any song that takes a rap song and turns it into a pop ballad does it for me. Plus the line “that’s some real conversation for your ass” kills me every time [I have a very bizarre imagination, ok?].
Easy Star All Stars – Money [orig. Pink Floyd]
This video is crazy, not official [at least I don't think so]. Easy Star All Stars first came to my attention with Radiodread and I managed to catch them at Lee’s Palace when they were touring in support of the disc. I was on a really boring date and the show really spiced things up. If you get a chance to catch their live show, it’s well worth it. They’re touring right now for their new disc of Beatles covers – Easy Star’s Loney Hearts Dub Band.
And with that, I feel much, much better.
I freakin love this song
Let’s see if we can make this a semi-regular type of post.
So first off, I love music. I would be pleased as boozy, boozy punch if I could go through my entire life with a soundtrack in the background. Since I got my first iPod, the idea of walking anywhere without music blasting in my ears frankly, scares me.
Yes, I had walkmans and cd-mans before that, but they weren’t the same, were they? You’d travel with one album unless you wanted to be weighed down by a stack of cassettes in your bag. The iPod (or any mp3 player, I suppose) obviously makes this completely unnecessary.
But I digress.
One of the benefits of not working has been catching up on music I haven’t heard in ages. Right now, the Shaun of the Dead soundtrack is playing. Great mix!
The most difficult thing here is choosing which song to profile. I’ve got a fairly large music library and I tend to only keep music I really like. I listen to all types of music but there’s a special part of my heart dedicated to covers (good covers, that is). It seems only fitting that I choose a cover for my first post.
I’m a little terrified of posting MP3s and suddenly having the long, hairy arm of the record company lawyers come down on me, so I shall have to settle for embedding video.
Action Camp – Gouge Away (Pixies cover)
I’m have a serious thing for Pixies. I get sick of music I hear too much, but that has never happened with Pixies. I even crush on some of the stuff Frank Black has done solo. Gouge Away is most likely my favourite song.
There are a lot of covers of Gouge Away out there and most of them are seriously bad. In truth, nothing beats the original, but this version is more than passable. There’s a hint of the electronic in there with some bad ass keyboards. Oh yes, I just referred to keyboards as bad ass.
One thing I did not know, Gouge Away is apparently all about Samson, the biblical guy. Samson was basically He-Man with bad taste in women and a wicked temper (ah, Dad would be so proud to see me write about the bible).
So here goes, if you don’t know the original, check it out.
It’s nice work if you can get it
Ok, I haven’t posted in ages, but that’s simply because there hasn’t been much to say.
I’ve been unemployed since the start of March and, after 2 weeks in the UK – a vacation that was planned a while before a lost my job – I expected to maybe spend another 2 weeks looking and be back in the working force.
Not so much.
I guess I just didn’t realize that things are as bad as they truly are. The government keeps telling us Canada is ok. We’re not supposed to be hit as bad as most other countries because they’ve highly regulated bank loans etc, etc. I’m not going to get into all of that, since frankly, numbers put me to sleep, but I am starting to question the official party line.
I’m unfortunate to work in one of the industries that’s taking a major hit – Marketing. A year ago I left a job I’d been at for over 11 years to leave traditional marketing behind and try my hand at interactive. I truly believe the future of marketing is deeply tied into web, and after 11 years with mainly one client. I was desperate for shaking things up and challenging myself.
The good news is that I did it, I threw away seniority and a healthy paycheck to try something new, and learn. The bad news is that the new business I was with didn’t make it. Realistically, I didn’t expect to stay there forever, but I’d wanted a few more years of experience under my belt before I moved on. As that has not happened, I find myself going back to more traditional marketing, parts of which I still adore a whole lot.
That wouldn’t be so bad, if I wasn’t fighting with some extremely qualified people to get jobs. Yes, marketing has been hit hard. There are a lot of people looking for work, some of whom have spent months looking.
Back to the original reason for this post. I wanted my next post to be a celebratory high five announcing my new job, but instead I find myself moaning about the state of the job market.
Truth is, I’m scared. I’ve never been unemployed before. I’ve never left a job without having another job lined up. I’d never heard a recruiter admit that they may not be able to find something.
On the bright side, I’m not starving. I’m about to start dipping into my savings which really bites, but there are people in much more dire straights than I. I haven’t been going out much so I’m not spending much. My daily entertainment consists of staying caught up on my feeds, twitter and enjoying a new found interest in fitness, thanks to WiiFit (the boxing is my favourite so far).
I can only hope that the future – near future – holds a kick ass job.
And now, the best related video I could find: Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass doing The Work Song. It’s a bit of an odd one.
With that, I’m outta here. Wish me luck, or better yet, hire me.
Snow White and the Seven Punks
That is all.
A quickie
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on March 9th, 2009
I’ve been meaning to write a post while on holidays and post a ton of pictures, but my hijacked wifi signal here is pretty slow. I’ll try to get one up soon, if not stay tuned and I’ll update when I get home.
Etsy Addict [Weekly Etsy]
I have an all-consuming addiction to Etsy, the online marketplace for handmade and vintage items.
I am still relatively new to the site. I stumbled upon it a year ago and it was love at first site. Since that time I’ve bought items from around the world – handbags, jewelry and more. I feel like I’m becoming more and more alienated from mainstream shops. I’m tired of wearing the same clothes as everyone else. With Etsy I purchase items that are more original and as a bonus, I’m supporting independent artists rather than some corporate behemoth that may or may not use slave or child labour.
I think people often assume that handmade means more expensive. While big companies can make large savings in using sweat shops in the third world to manufacture their goods, you pay for shipping, warehousing, marketing, and then a retail markup. I find that most of the stuff I find on Etsy is very well priced and the quality tends to be higher than that of the mass-produced mall crap.
But that’s just my opinion.
So, I thought it would be fun to do a weekly review of some neat stuff I’ve seen on Etsy. This week: Oh Canada.
Toronto
anirtak.
These blue feather earrings popped out immediately when I was browsing.
They’d look stunning with a simple black outfit or spice up a cute summer number.
Montreal
irenesuchocki.
I found it very difficult to choose which image to show. Her photos are beautiful! There are at least a dozen that I’d display proudly on my walls.
Halifax
ViveroGlass.
Often it’s the photography of a particular item that catches my eye, more so than the item itself. I love the contrast of the deep red against the bright green. ViveroGlass has a great selection of original handmade glass pendants.
Vancouver
mehran.
Love this bag. Pink is my least favourite colour, but I find it completely unoffensive in this bag. Mehran has a bunch of nice bags on her site, including a beautiful pale yellow bag.
So, next time you’re needing something new, check Etsy first, you might save some money and make a new friend in the process.
Next Etsy post I’m going to try some of the northern sellers, I’m sure there are fabulous things just waiting to be found in Nunavut, the Yukon; and Northwest Territories.
V-C-I-T-O-R-Y
Best line on Hell’s Kitchen tonight?
The pickings were slim, but I’m going to go with:
“look at it, it’s like a fucking pair of knickers”
In fact, the best lines tonight came out of the contestants. My favourite was Ben’s “You couldn’t cook my dick” – at least I thought it was dick. Dumbass Fox censors!
