adventures in lo-fidelity

And some days we’re available to purchase.

After a long wait, our recordings from 2006 have officially been released as of April 1 2009. The debut EP from The Darned – Some Days it’s all Eternal, Some Days we’re Dead – is now being digitally distributed through the iTunes Music Store around the world, Amazon.com MP3 download, ShockHound, Amie Street, along with a few other stores like Rhapsody, Napster & eMusic who are slowly phasing in the album.

What to do with all of those old jets in airplane graveyards you say? Make hotel rooms out of them. That’d what one hotel in Costa Verde is doing. The most expensive room in the place is where most people would rather never have to spend the night. That is, if it weren’t meticulously renovated with wood panelling and a king size bed.

Last year I paid my long-time friend Pierre a visit to his new home out east. While I was there, he gracefully showed me around to see all kinds of great attractions. One of them was a recessed Bay of Fundy which I snapped into enough images tto stitch together a QuickTimeVR. Mouse around and explore.

Here’s a fun meme making the rounds. The rules are pretty simple. The results can sometimes be rather serendipitous, take my first attempt above for example.

Here’s how it works:

• Your band’s name is the first random article from Wikipedia
• Your album’s title is the last few words of the last random quotation from QuotationsPage.
• Your album’s cover is the third image on Flickr’s Explore the Last Seven Days.
• Photoshop and mix to taste.

Have fun.

Click and drag around the 360° QuickTimeVR above.

It’s a fairly well known tradition that when you’re traveling the Trans Canada Highway between Sudbury and North Bay, you must must stop in Sturgeon Falls for a Poutine. Sturgeon Falls (or Virgin Stalls, as it is more commonly known by high-school aged kids) is the French Canadian capital of Ontario – 73.4% of its population fluent in both English and French. Where else would you find the best Poutine outside of Québec?

One of the unique quirks if the Poutine capital of Ontario is that the two best places to stop at – Larry’s & RV’s – are directly across the street from one another. Both offer delicious traditional Poutines, best accompanied by a Pogo and washed down with a Pepsi.

If you’re looking for the best Poutine in Toronto, I’d urge you to give Smoke’s Poutinerie a try. Beyond making a solid traditional Poutine, they offer up a plethora of flavour combinations to delight any potatovore.

The Canadian Marketing Association asked me to contribute a presentation to their half-day Mobile Marketing Conference. Here is an updated version of PH0N3D, which I initially presented at the Digital Marketing Conference back in October of ‘08.

Several years ago I stopped subscribing to cable TV. At first I was a little worried that I’d be really bored. I was concerned that my apartment would be depressingly quiet as I sat on the couch eating dinner in front of a poltergeist-like white noise of over-the-air TV, but I quickly adapted and evolved and now it’s safe to say that I will most likely never subscribe to cable ever again. Not only has my TV time gotten better, I’ve grown to be a more discerning viewer of content.

Just to be clear, I’m not talking about watching YouTube videos on your laptop. I’m talking about HD content on a giant TV. The classic lean back experience.

In future writings I will discuss and review various technologies, software and content providers. In the meantime, here are a few links to check out.

• Here’s an ABC story about more and more people canceling cable to save money (via @carolinewho)
• Jeff MacArthur’s blog dedicated to being Decabled
• A personal favorite place to watch cool stuff.

Once upon a time I would use half a tomato and wrap the remaining portion in cellophane or tinfoil and put it in the fridge with the intention of using it up soon. More often than not, I would rediscover said fruit-half in a game of ‘find that smell’ weeks later. Well, my life has since changed.

One fateful day I stumbled upon this Fruit Saver container at Kitchen Stuff Plus. My initial reaction was “right, another useless piece of molded plastic” but upon further reflection it dawned on me that this product is so deceptively smart and simple that I now hold it up as a brilliant example of design.

Let me break it down for you:

• It solves a very simple and common problem. Storing leftover foodstuff.
• Its an environmentally friendlier alternative to using cellophane or tinfoil
• It’s shape resembles what’s inside and ready to use, which is convenient and helps reduce food spoilage.

Put all this together and you have a useful, usable and reusable product. Which in my mind score high on the idea and design meter. These excellent little containers come in Tomato, Onion, Lemon, Lime and Garlic. You should be able to find them at most kitchen-related stores.

As a child I loved loved loved Saturday morning cartoons – I didn’t care about going outside or playing with friends. All I wanted to do was sit in front of the TV on the living room floor surrounded by LEGO bricks zoned out on Looney Toons or School House Rocks.

A few years ago my best friend Jomps defined the characteristics of Saturday Morning Cartoons as guilt-free time you set aside for yourself to do whatever want with.

We made up rules around this idea.
• Cartoons start the moment you wake up on Saturday.
• Cartoons end at noon or 1PM.
• The earlier you wake up, the more Cartoons you can enjoy.
• Cartoons are best spent doing something distracting and indulgent.
• Cartoons must be a ritual that happens regularly.

For me cartoons means waking up early on Saturday morning, making coffee, putting The Beatles on random and being a super-geek-nerd on my computer.

Today I spent my Saturday Morning Cartoons goofing around with WordPress and getting this blog up and running again. So there. Saturday Morning Cartoons can also be productive.

It’s almost 1PM. Time to turn off the Cartoons and get on with the rest of my day.