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Latest writing
Remembering two giants
Instead of going through the standard Michael Jackson albums, I spent the evening listening to every Jackson 5 album I have (ie. most of them). Most people are probably familiar with the group’s hit singles but there are countless gems lurking away in the albums that the Motown label pumped out during the early years: Don’t Let Your Baby Catch You (great harmonizing on the outro), One More Chance and Who’s Loving You are just a few examples that showcase Jackson’s talent and intensity in perhaps a more raw way than his later work.
But let me hijack our collective mourning of Jackson by drawing attention to another person who died a bit too young: James Jamerson, the bassist who played on some — if not most — of the early Jackson 5 hits.
Jamerson was one of the first musicians to do something interesting with pop music basslines, inspiring pretty much every bassist since. Sadly, he faded into obscurity and died at the age of 47 — a death probably related to alcoholism.
Here’s my favourite example of the young Michael Jackson singing on top of Jamerson’s playing. If you mentally isolate the bassline when you listen, it’s almost like hearing a second song. Blissful.
RIP, the two of you.
Remembering two giants
Instead of going through the standard Michael Jackson albums, I spent the evening listening to every Jackson 5 album I have (ie. most of them). Most people are probably familiar with the group’s hit singles but there are countless gems lurking away in the albums that the Motown label pumped out during the early years: […]
Briefs from Net Change Week
Net what?
Net Change is a week-long event designed to explore how social technology can bolster social change… Net Change Week will tap into the potential that exists when new methods of communicating, organizing and mobilizing are brought to bear on chronic social issues.
A group I volunteer with, TechSoup Canada, helped organized parts of the […]
Derek Trucks rocks Luminato
I was all settled in to spend my Sunday evening at the Varsity office when I received an urgent message from my friend Jesse: The Derek Trucks Band was playing a free show for Luminato. He made it clear that I would be making a grave mistake by not attending:
This is one of the best […]
More posts
Remembering two giants
Instead of going through the standard Michael Jackson albums, I spent the evening listening to every Jackson 5 album I have (ie. most of them). Most people are probably familiar with the group’s hit singles but there are countless gems lurking away in the albums that the Motown label pumped out during the early years: […]
Briefs from Net Change Week
Net what?
Net Change is a week-long event designed to explore how social technology can bolster social change… Net Change Week will tap into the potential that exists when new methods of communicating, organizing and mobilizing are brought to bear on chronic social issues.
A group I volunteer with, TechSoup Canada, helped organized parts of the […]
Derek Trucks rocks Luminato
I was all settled in to spend my Sunday evening at the Varsity office when I received an urgent message from my friend Jesse: The Derek Trucks Band was playing a free show for Luminato. He made it clear that I would be making a grave mistake by not attending:
This is one of the best […]
How to harvest the Primus customer database in 3 easy steps
These economically challenging times — will this phrase ever get old? — call for desperate marketing efforts. Primus, a small Canadian telecom, emailed all its customers with a customized video that congratulates them for stimulating the economy by referring new customers.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t afford some basic security and the names and email addresses of perhaps […]
Kensington Pedestrian Sundays kick off
Unfortunately, I missed it.
I spent my afternoon at the equally worthy Jesse and The Rippers show but decided to see if I could catch the end of Kensington Market’s monthly summer celebration.
After a pit stop for the last song of a punk rock show — “pit stop” - get it? — we encountered one of […]
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Outline of Newsweek’s ‘Secrets of the 2008 Campaign’ report
If I had to give a single example of why traditional journalism won’t (shouldn’t?) disappear, I’d point to the series of articles that Newsweek just released about the 2008 presidential campaign. Entitled “Secrets of the 2008 Campaign,” the 7 chapter (!) report is based on extensive reporting which they had to promise not to release […]
When the economy goes down, packaged food sales go up
During economic bad times, interesting things happen. Package food sales go up, for instance. According to Advertising Age, it’s been a “banner year”:
Campbell Soup’s sales rose 13% in the most recent quarter, a phenomenon CEO Douglas Conant said was aided partly by strapped consumers embracing condensed soup as an inexpensive meal alternative. Kellogg Co.’s second-quarter […]
Technorati’s plea for restraint
While wandering around Technorati in a hopeless quest to figure out why exactly it’s still still relevant, I came across this gem:
Tip: Please do us a favor and upload a photo that does not show your very special but also very private parts. When you do that, we have to take time away from making […]
X-Plane gets an inside peek into Apple HQ
X-Plane is a simulator that’s nearly as good as Microsoft’s Flight Simulator but developed with a fraction of the programmers: in fact it’s basically a one-man-show run by a guy named Austin Meyer.
So what happened when he called up Apple and asked if it would be possible to port his simulator to the iPhone? They […]
Latest reads
- Soul on Ice (Eldridge Cleaver)
A series of essays, reflections, and vignettes on race, written smack in the middle of the 60s.
If you investigate Cleaver’s own personal story, you’ll discover it meanders as much as this book. He dabbled with Mormonism, moved on to conservative Republican causes, had his own fashion line, succumbed to a crack addiction, and recovered just […] - The Thin Man (Dashiell Hammett)
Not nearly as good as a Raymond Chandler tale; in particular, the dialogue is much weaker. Still a fun read though.
Wikipedia describes something that I also noticed myself:
Somehow, after drinking a lot of alcohol, Nick never seems to get a headache or even seem seriously drunk, aside from a little wobble every now and then.
Or […] - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Haruki Murakami)
Took almost 300 pages for the plot to even start unfolding but it eventually came together. I enjoyed it but not as much Hardboiled.
Latest movies
- The 39 Steps (1935)
The best part was seeing how Hitchcock danced around the riskée plot scenario in which the male and female leads are handcuffed together and have to spend a night together.
- Young People Fucking
There’s a good chance this movie wouldn’t have made it to theatres if it had a different name. It’s also embroiled in the whole Bill C-10 controversy since it got $200k in tax credits.
I thought the title was compensating for a mediocre film but that turned out not to be the case. - The Dark Knight (2008)
The Good: the darkness, the grit
The Bad: explosions, explosions, explosions
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Remembering two giants (1)
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