Yet another Dave Thorvald Olson project - this one serves up all the leftover bits which don't fit elsewhere - more craft than the art - nuggets perhaps noticed or observed, announcements of fresh paintings, podcast and/or publications, static montage, various snippets of prose, sites of note or ones you might enjoy, messages to future self, relics from past, snapshots i'd like you to see, fleeting reminiscences, future predictions, occasionally lurid predilections and mysterious items uncovered. In short ephemera e-phem-er-a - n
1) A range of collectible items that were originally designed to be short-lived
2) Something that is transitory and without lasting significance
While I was spieling, I couldn’t help to recall all the others times I’ve stood before groups – from Rotarians to Mormons to Deadheads to strangers on buses to students in Germany – to tell my stories. When I spoke about my ole dead Gramps from whom I heard I alot of tall tales, I realized that so many of the mundane and amusing talks I’ve busted out at one time or another were all coming together in that room.
Thanks to everyone who listened while the stories were in development and when they were really happening. To everyone who showed up, Thanks. To everyone who came up for a hug and a kind word to to show off their hero/project/metaphor cards – big thanks. I feed off of you to lay it all open. I gotta trust you or I can’t tell it real-style.
DIY Analog Power Point by Unkown - did you take this?
At the risk of waiting any longer to post *everything*, here is an evolving wrap-up of the related content from F@ck Stats Make Art at SXSW 09.
Consider dropping a vote for my pitches for SXSW10:
What’s next? I have a closet full of stories – literally. I plan to tell them. Perhaps a tour, more books, more artifacts – Wanna help spread this message of tolerance, translucency and creativity? Subscribe to Choogle On! podcast.
Photo Slidedeck
I didn’t use this deck in the prezo but it includes most of the photos in the envelopes of Heroes, Metaphors and Projects.
Is there a digital Thoreau? Will we discover a currently neglected philosophy blogger in a hundred years and suddenly realize that we ignored someone whose ideas would come to change the world?
It worked for me because he’s sort of a fellow traveller having done the zine thing. I’m still processing my thoughts but it tied in with some thinking I’ve been doing about what I might end up getting involved with next…
Make your own from the attached .pdf (attribution, non-commercial use only – note: while I took most of the photos, some photos’ origins are unknown or undocumented but presumed to be in public domain-ish).
Dave Olson talks about the sources of inspiration, the creative process and publishing your work in this lively mixed-media presentation. Watch this and you’ll understand why Dave has been dubbed a “local cultural artifact”. From Northern Voice 2009. Note: Contains adult language.
Uncle Weed is in fine form as he illuminates the creative process behind Letters from Russia. From #northernvoice09
He and others – including my buddy Dale – made sure to mic up the presenters and set up a good angle for the shots. As the guy on the other end of the lens, i truly appreciate their work to provide a cool artifact from the preso (although i must admit my shock at seeing my decreasing hair follicles!) – my Mom will likely enjoy it as well ;-).
My spiel was called “Are you Worthy?” or ‘history of publishing from Greeks to geeks’. I also previewed my upcoming Moose Camp and Northern Voice presentations a wee bit.
The mighty power of web publishing should not be taken lightly. Traditionally, for stories to reach an audience required navigating layers levels or publishers, printers, editors, distributors but with WordPress, anyone can spread stories to a worldwide audience, instantly, for almost free. Awesome! But do you deserve this power? Of course you do – as long as you make something remarkable.
To make your work rise to the top requires diligent honing of your craft – from writing to photography. Writer and documentarian Dave Olson (AKA uncleweed) will offer reasons to push yourself to create art, as well as share practical methods for finding inspiration and following through to publication.
By exploring other forms of grassroots publishing, and exploring real-life WP examples, you’ll leave with a keen sense of your place in the history of personal expression, and a renewed vigor for making your best stuff ever.
‘From Greeks to Geeks’ or ‘Are You Worthy?’ http://uncleweed.com/ Dave Olson (@uncleweed) gave a mind-blowing presentation at NerdCamp Whister (AKA WordCamp) about censorship, copyright, content creation, history, beauty, art, and the internet. These 5 videos are the 5 10 minute segments from his talk. If someone wants the pieces to string together please let me know and I’ll get them in your hands.
Tweets/Blogs: The folks really seemed to enjoy the schtick and highlighted favourite bits in Twitter reactions and blog posts. How about a sampler?:
Miss604: @uncleweed just used the word “douchebaggery” #wcw09 I think he’s everyone’s hero at WordCamp Whistler at this point Jan 25, 2009 01:00 AM GMT · Reply · View Tweet ·
nataliesisson: No 69 is my player number and it just came through for me as I won some excellent poetry from @Uncleweed at #wcw09 being attendee 69! Jan 25, 2009 01:13 AM GMT · Reply · View Tweet
And Dave Olson knitted together Aeschylus, Jack Kerouac, Guam, mimeographed punk fanzines, ice cream, heroin, and art in his presentation.
snickerdoodles: Word Camp Whistler…24 Jan 2009 by kerry macleod Here is a photo and poem from today’s final speaker Dave Olson. One of the few I actually followed and understood completely the whole time. He had real props like books.
Random stuff from WordCamp Whistler 200925 Jan 2009 by John Dave Olson ended the day with his talk and had the entire audience hanging on his every word. He invited people to sit up front and close since he wasn’t using the projector…and lots did. It was a great session to end the conference
Photos: Heaps of rad shots (see Uncleweed + WCW09 on flickr) in my new toque and riffing from the mighty tomes hidden in the suitcase.
My WordCamp Whistler cohort and ace Vancouver photographerKris Krug shot video of my entire “Are you Worthy?” spiel with his new Flipcam and posted it in a YouTube playlist in 5 segments for your viewing convenience – huge thanks!
‘From Greeks to Geeks’ or ‘Are You Worthy?’ http://uncleweed.com/ Dave Olson (@uncleweed) gave a mind-blowing presentation at NerdCamp Whister (AKA WordCamp) about censorship, copyright, content creation, history, beauty, art, and the internet.
These 5 videos are the 5 10 minute segments from his talk. If someone wants the pieces to string together please let me know and I’ll get them in your hands.
A few months back, I recorded an episode of Lab with Leo at the greedy productions studios towards Railtown way. Turns out mine was one was one the last as The Lab was axed. But fear not, Leo is rolling on with myriad other projects.
Anyhow, in this clip (recorded by my amigo Bread who gets name-checked in the segment) we talk about my longstanding penchant for self-publishing, personal expression and artistic remixing or ephemeral objects.
Really truly pleased to read all the kind words from folks who rolled by my Northern Voice presentation F*** Stats, Make Art – sorry for messing up your SEO mojo with the inappropriate title ;-). To all who showed up, thanks! Really a treat to see so many friends, heros, colleagues and new friends smiling back – makes doing my “Dave O Show” a blast.
I really dumped my guts into my spiel about making art with the mighty tools at our disposal. With a group of opinionated, smart and savvy folks, I wasn’t sure if my message would be redundant or met with indifference or confusion. The resultant cavalcade of positive remarks suggests I articulated much of what i set out to share.
Hmm … what do I come up with for next year? As per the convo percolating at Nancy White’s post, perhaps a creative arts track of some kind is in order. As for me, I’d very much to learn about the other part of the publishing business which i know very little about – agents, distribution, editors and all that. Remember tis important to know much fu!
Also a lovely treat to riff with my Crazy Canucks colleagues in the Sports Blogging and Podcasting panel. This rag-tag group grew into a team over the past 61 shows and the panel was as easy and intuitive as the podcasts. We know each others strengths and are “giving” to one another in the conversation. The questions in the session were great and show a real understanding of the weird tension we have with the “official”ness of the Canucks and the trade off of objectivity and creative control vs selling out.
Alanah and JJ live outside the Vangorrvy tech industry bubble and run the two most popular Canucks blogs out there. Alanah’s is famous for drunken live blogging which is no surprise why she ranks #1 for drunken canucks fan. JJ is the people’s ambassador to GM Place – walking the concourse with him is a task as he’s stopped more often than Mike Weaver would. And of course my good buddies the Bollwitts – the Vancouver blog and podsafe music podcast darlings.
Mighty Thanks to the kinds people who organized the event. I’ve becomes great friends with some of these diligent inclusive and inspiring peeps and truly enjoy learning more about their many skills and noble dedication to knowledge sharing. I encourage others to step up and help out driving the vision of the event going forward. Special thanks to KK, Boris and Roland who (unbeknownst to them) served as sounding boards for bits and pieces of my presentation in progress. Their reaction, diatribes and riffs helped my schtick for the better.
So if you’ll pardon me, … for the self-indulgence file, here’s an annotated NV08 roundup for personal archeology (in no particular order):
{Note: Last year’s podcast presentation induced the creation of yet another podcast feed which features all my odds and ends which don’t fit elsewhere from marketing lectures to sound seeing strolls. This is now a series i guess.}
After Matt’s talk, I sat in Dave Olson’s session called “F&*% Stats, Make Art. He’s clever and funny. Dave’s big into the podcast side as well. I also spoke to him briefly after he spoke – very gracious.
Dave Olsen rules. He is swearing too. He is swearing so much his talk is called “f— stats, make art”. He stresses that we should put our hearts into our work, otherwise what we are doing is just bullshit. And that we need to start really caring about what we are creating. On and control your transparency; because he doesn’t really want to know all that shit about you. All humor aside it was an inspiring talk, Olsen stressed that we should get back to ourselves “people say that if you want to be an artist you need to go to art school – bullshit – study yourself” states Olsen. Find your craft and take it seriously he states, and there is a big difference between typing and writing. (Dave Olsen)
today i want to tell you about the session that touched me the deepest. it was dave olson’s “f**k stats, make art”. miss 604 has a great synopsis of it, and you can find my notes at the end of this post.
one of the things that became very obvious for me after dave’s presentation was sadness/frustration/disappointment that i had abandoned my practice of doing at least one piece of “artful writing” a day, no matter how short, kitschy or silly. dave may just have just stirred me enough to go back to that.
so i ended up writing two poems and would like to dedicate them both to dave.
thanks to dave olson, no. 1
a concussion of the most
mindful sort
comes over me as i indulge in these
northern voices.
poems must be written,
suns must be risen,
earths must be quaked
in this pyramid of
gentle thoughts
– not just yours,
not just mine –
that shake up this world.
I did one last year on Stats: The Forbidden Love, and given that this year there was a talk on “Fuck Stats: Make Art” maybe it’s time for another one. After all, they are independent principles, not antagonistic. And Oscar Wilde cared passionately about his stats, you just know it.
{Note: This is a sweet piece of prose!}
But I must admit, even as an Egalitarian of long standing, that there is something wrong with a world in which grown men are not ashamed to admit they’re too scared to go into neighborhoods that don’t frighten a woman. They looked me in the eye, one after another (the men, not the eyes; mine are virtually on top of one another, except the ones I keep in the freezer) and told me that the Gallery Gachet wasn’t in Gastown, it was (horror of horrors!) in the Downtown EastSide (although the out-of-towners called it the Lower East Side, presumably thinking it was a wormhole to Manhattan or something). As if Gastown were an idyll of upper-middleclassdom, which it is not and never has been. The people who work in Gastown are convinced it’s a postcard and that the bums and junkies they see on the street each day are “spillover” from the Downtown EastSide, just on the other side of Maple Tree Square. That the junkies, streetwalkers, and bums have been there since 1860 never seems to occur to them and, day in and day out, they remain convinced that it is the down and outs who are the anomaly, not the chino-clad technologists and graphic designers.
After catching yuppie cooties at the Lame-lighter, i led a rag-tag gang (past the endlessly sprouting fancy furniture stores) on a late-night foray to the Gachet where we imbibed and roasted til the last Seabus sailed. Dig what they are brewing up there for sure.
PS My spiel about the fucking of the stats and so on … was more about inspiring folks to step it up and reap validation from producing quality work which evokes passionate responses rather than settling for the saccharine pleasure of statistics. There is some audio of my pontifying somewhere.
Have I mentioned before that our pal Dave Olson is awesome? He’s here to talk about how Art Makes the Future. History may have been forged by popes and generals but the only reason we KNOW about it is because someone took the time to write and paint about it.
{Note: My pal Miss604 took attentive notes which resemble my own scribblings – which i’ll post once i recall where i stashed the bits}
Stephen Rees I had three pages of scribbled notes in my moleskin to transcribe. It seems to me that you got the spirit if his – very impressive – presentation.
Apparently, Dave was on the same stream as our “Writing on Walls” session – tapping into our creativity. I’m glad the session was recorded and blogged. It was interesting to see that there were quite a few sessions that pinged on a central core of creativity.
{my comment:}
Indeed Nancy, i’d hoped to hang out in your arts and crafts funtime and enjoyed seeing lots of creative hi-jinks going on. Not sure if you remember but you made a great “podcasting lunch” sketch for my amigo Cosmo and i at Mindcamp 1.0 in Seattle. I also enjoyed your ’symbolic word poetry remix’ wall.I wish you could’ve stopped by to enjoy my schtick (and i’d have enjoyed your input for sure) but gratefully the recording and remarkable notes will tide you over til next year. With all these common themes emerging … How about a “analog expression” track? I was also displeased being up at the same time as Monique’s preso about books and writing and missing Alan’s tour de force ~ sigh.
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Facebook Wall round-up (used without permission with my pardons):
Keith Bao wrote at 5:19pm
“Know Much Fu”I f*@!k’n dig this!!!!!!
Refreshing and honest, down to the core.
It was an honour to be there listening.
I’m home sick today and have been listening to back episodes of Postcards from GB for the last hour or so…listened to the most recent one twice cause I liked it so much :-)Ditto on the session motivation. Totally inspiring.
I had expected something bordering on more technical, but still had a good [and informative] time listening to all the speakers; including my friend Stephanie’s talk on design, and Dave Olson (aka. uncleweed) and his Fuck Stats Make Art motivator.
There were two more sessions that were seminal. First, Dave Olson producer, writer and visionary gave a great talk about the need to make art, not stats. Truly great rant that put a number of things in perspective for me. We get so caught up in the techno, the art suffers. It shouldn’t. And if Dave has anything to do with it it won’t. When everyone seems bent on promoting wikis, blogs, 3rd Life and all the other accoutrements, Dave was extremely refreshing. I would suggest you follow his work. This guy is truly unique.
After looking at the schedule the first thing I saw was the Sports Blogging and Pod Casting. Which I am very excited about because that is the Industry I want to have a career in. I have heard about the speaker Rebecca Bollwitt from many people and with not a lot of women on the panel, I am quite excited!I think another session with Dave Olson will be interesting F*** Stats,Make Art which seems like my sort of thing and will be a good discussion.
{note: kudos on the fine taste to get the Daveo double-hitter ;-0}
Dave Olson also had an outstanding session about making art instead of worrying about “fucking stats”. Looking forward to hanging more with these guys in Austin real soon.
If you missed it, plan to go next year and book early. Maybe next time they will have decent coffee, enough food for lunch and somewhere to hang your coat up. But these are minor quibbles. Excellent presentations today from Matt Mullenweg, Marc Canter, Dave Olson and Alex Waterhouse Hayward.
I was really looking forward to meeting a lot of bloggers whom I’d only read or heard about, as well as picking up a few tricks of the trade for myself.Hope to catch up with her at the Green Living show for happyfrog’s frogblog – IT’S ALL GREEN, IT’S ALL GOOD
Dave Olson’s podcast features a rousing rendition of the Canadian national anthem, his antics in Amsterdam and an impromptu longboard hockey game at the University of British Columbia’s Chan Centre.
{note: the Canadian anthem referenced is a humorously lackluster rendition from the Canadian Little League championship in Whalley, Surrey BC – fortunately i keep better versions in the feed too ;-))
I’m spoiled because new product demos are a dime a dozen in SF. I’m less interested in the technology available than I am in the way it is used. For this reason, my favorite presenter was a fellow I’d never heard of, Dave Olson.Dave Olson is a bit of hoser. He produces the Canucks Outsider Podcast, published a grade school punk zine featuring D.O.A and publishes Uncle Weed- a marijuana lifestyle blog and podcast. Olson’s lecture, entitled, “Fuck Stats, Make Art” was a welcome change from the widget wankery preached at most conferences. Olson entertained with embarrassing childhood anecdotes while still managing to deliver a great message.
He argues that somewhere in the process of monetizing and analyzing the web, content producers have sacrificed their need to create art and have fun. In essence, they’ve become meta-douches. It seems Dave Olson is putting the passion back into publishing and as long as this hoser keeps giving ‘er, I’m behind him 100%.
Dave Olson commanded a pre-lunch time slot with his rousing, bullet-point-free presentation entitled “F*ck Stats, Make Art” at Northern Voice 2008. “Art makes the future” Dave states. What we know about history is based on art, because someone chose to record it. Technology changes our focus on what art is. Oil paints were a technology revolution that allowed post-impressionist painting. The Internet has lowered the bar immensly for the distribution of art, but the most popular content seems to be the least meaningful, most simpleminded things like “some guy dancing around the world“.
Dave goes through a brief history of things he has created over the years: from a photocopied punk rock fanzine, through paintings, poetry, photography, writings, and now podcasting. He contrasts craft vs. art: you can take pride and enjoyment in your craft, your day job, but the meaningful personal expression comes through in art. Embracing translucency, instead of transparency, is his policy. No one cares to hear minor details of your life, and there should be things you don’t want to share, but you do want to put your whole self in the work. “Declare your story” and talk about what you create; “put the log back in blog”.
A slide with Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin pops up, and Dave goes into redefining success. Validation can be found from things other than stats, such as reader/listener mail and feedback. Success is for each person to define for themselves. Hold yourself to high standards and maintain your reputation. Hunter S. Thompson is referenced, in that he could write anything because he was very good at it. Rewards will come, possibly when you’re dead, but good art will have longevity. The presentation concluded with a standing ovation.
Whether they knew it or not, intended it or not, the following people challenged me to think a little harder about creativity and craft. People close to me wonder why I don’t identify as being creative. The following Northern Voice speakers have me wondering too.
Dave Olson challenged me to step it up a notch, and to consider another media form if I’m struggling at the one I think I’m good at (writing). Podcasting, maybe? I don’t like the sound of my own voice, so that strikes video out as well. Photography is the medium I sunk the most into already, so I will try to bring the SLR to more places, make the same mistakes everybody makes when they start out, and document the process better. I’d like to learn how to draw. And sing. Outside of the conference, he remarked that he likes to find a third place, away from work and away from home to be creative. This has me thinking of the ideal place to work somewhere (and on something) not domestic and not commercial, but somewhere in between.
(I know that my desire to learn how to sing directly conflicts with the angst about hearing my voice, so don’t bother pointing that out.)
My favorite presentation of the weekend wasn’t about blogging at all, but rather a homage to making art; a visually stunning and clever rant by my good friend Dave Olson entitled “F*ck Stats, Make Art.” A standing ovation followed his talk, and I think I was first on my feet.
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Who’d I miss? Post a link to join the muster roll. Thanks again to all for the kind words – i look forward to seeing what you brew up! Keep an eye and i’ll post my notes or slides or something, sometime, maybe …
Here are some of your favorite DaveO NV08 photos from other Flickr members.
In prep for a chat on “Write Now! The Art & Action of Letter Writing w/ DJ Snail Mail” on Free Radio Santa Cruz’s about my Letters from Russia project, i jotted down some a bit of backstory which i’m posting here lest i misplace and to share with others with interest. So, … here ya go …
I started writing LfR while at an Evergreen College week long course “Poets and Philosophers Discuss Love and War” at Lake Crescent, WA. I had prepared with much reading about the historical context so i could make the story accurate. I then charted out the philosophical topics to address during Herni’s political transformation and personal journey.
I wrote each letter separately, handwritten on different papers and different writing instruments and only taking a piece or two to keep the letters brief and intense. Each letter was written while out on a walk/hike (so i could be in character a bit i suppose) and i didn’t edit from the original letters at all.
I also sketched/painted that summer to fill out the story and help me visualize his world and support the letters by replacing some visual narrative – and finally bound the original letters and paintings in a wood/hemp book. (a few are at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uncleweed/tags/lettersfromrussia/)
I lived overseas (Japan, Micronesia) quite a bit pre-Internet so am an enthusiast of printed letters and papercraft (I collect paper ephemera from trips).
I’d very much like to find someone with some deeper historical knowledge to give a read to see if there are glaring historical
inaccuracies – though i am sure on the dates and locations – before distributing it more.
I guess i sorta excluded myself from my friend Miss 604’s contest since i would feel like i was cheating but really she had great prizes – a trip to see the Vancouver Giants, Vancouver’s WHL Junior hockey team and a fun night out (and much thriftier than the Canucks).
The other prizes included passes to Mount Seymour which is one of the three lift serviced mountains here on the North Shore. Located on BC Prov Park land, Seymour has many free and cheap-ish activities around too (tobaggoning, hiking, tubing) and a freestyle terrain park for getting all tricky on your snowboard.
Of course, Miss 604 is true to her altruistic roots with a donation campaign to BC Food Bank along with other causes.
Once i get caught up on another project or two, i gotta figure out what she’s doing with this Skate for a Cure deal whilst planning activities via her Christmas in Vancouver.
What i am saying is, this chick gets it done (and i know yet another cool project she is working on!) and i totally dig her citizen activism about Stanley Park (Stanley Park Tree Planting and the Humbug Hike) and a m very pleased for opportunities to collaborate with her.
Other excuses include all the time i spend rocking projects including the effervescent Rebecca and the other renegades we roll with.
While a snowstorm dumps on Vancouver, Dave checks in while doing volunteer work at a holiday tree lot at Ikea in Coquitlam. He explains aesthetic and practicial tree tips and reviews safety hints to do with highlighters, scissors and orange vests.
Along with some other local blogger/indie media/creative types, I am testing one of Brother’s new laser printers. I am someone who loves making stuff since ditto machines to working at K!nko’s for three months so i could scam the colour copier after hours. Thusly i am stoked to be testing a 65lb., full duplex(!), full colour(!), laser printer.
Among other projects, I’ll be making some photo wall collages (mounted on black museum board) me and the sweetie have been meaning to make for years.
Then (excitedly) make some bound and fully realized versions of my Letters from Russia (.pdf) war & love epistletory discourse book (which, incidentally, i’ll be discussing on Santa Cruz public radio soon) which included some drawings, painting and such which never made it to the digital version.
If i get really productive, I’ll finally create a printed, illustrated version of the Uncle Weed’s Red rock Adventure (.pdf) – eco-minded edu-tainment for all ages.
Yes there is a book with pictures written in 1988 or so which is Uncle Weed’s adventure in the desert explaining tips and tricks for development sabotage with outstanding illustrations by the talented Mr. B.G. Kiggins of NYC.
Next step is to gather a killer stash of quality paper to ensure the finest results. Thanks to DB eh.
Rolling out podcasts at a usual epic pace including a few new series and guest appearances of sorts – so, in case you missed any these new and old series, here you go:
Raincity Radio – i’ve resurrected an old series, previously shepherded by Mark Yuasa, Robert scales, Megan Cole and others .. so far busted out a healthy batch about web community building in Vancouver and elsewhere with guests including Jordan Behan, Marc Laporte, Boris Mann, Robert, Francis, Erik, Mark, etc.
Dopecast95: LIVE from Vancouver and Seattle!
My UK counterpart came to visit and we talked and toked and recorded it all for your listening pleasure. I offer half-asses analysis about the urban mileiu of Vancouver, forests, transportation, planning, politics, weed …
Roland’s Rabble
discussion about the open soft/hard OpenMoko and other phones seeking to shake up the mobile industry (iPhone, rumoured Google phone) with Bryght’s Mr. Furley and PhP guru Audrey F.
Postcards from Gravelly Beach
Final chapter of the White Poppies for Remembrance series – out in time for Remembrance day – this “back cover” of the series features me spieling on about the remnants and artifacts of war and the folks pointing the troops to conflict and their motivations while wandering around London
Postcards from Radio Zoom
Radio Zoom John and I are planning a plan to bring the music i used in the WPfR series to his music-focused show.
This includes:
World of Hurt – Drive by Truckers
White Daisy Passing – Rocky Votolato
Mercy -
Refresh -
Providence – Chris Jacobsen
Brokedown Palace – Grateful Dead
First Vietnam War/Snipers at the Gates of Heave – The Black Angels
Gone Beyond – Akron/Family
Be Joyful! -
ahh,… the i’ll jsut looka the White Poppies archive
another PfGB- more with Wm Lenker at the Woodshed this time a sort of John Sinclair inspired reading – seeking the right JS tracks to combo it with, Comso, you got some Sinclair beat tracks for me?
Choogle on!’s section of the Podcast Queue clean-out bonanza is nearing an end, next up (in no particular order):
- Numbskulz grow up – the third installment of these rocksters
- London last wander, maybe a bonus show about getting to London from vancouver with thoughts on NYC and elsewhere – might go under the Feasthouse label if not Choogley enough
- Herby’s tales of ganja growing and swinging at Wreck beach recorded in a grow room with Dopefiend
- with the leftovers, mix up a “big psychedelic mop-up tray” of all that’s left including a drunken (well me anyhow) discussion on the role of union in modern economy, some clips of the Dalai Lama’s Canadian citizenship ceremony, hanging out watching Seattle planes land with Cosmo, etc.
So this winter, move on to:
- Clayoquot recordings, water shortage, first nations reservation, skateboard comp, sitting in the woods with eagles perched overhead, wandering along trails, reading poetry and essays on clearcuts …
and record (possibly “instudio”) discourse on:
War resistance – seeking refuge in Canada
Marc Emery – extradition hearing status
Immigrating to Canada – ways and means
Growing weed in a small space – safe and personal
Another Urban Vancouver:
HempC soda pop taste test
Next on Raincity Radio:
Scales’ international business exploits to China, Blogworld and more
Michael Fergusson about web communities for families and Facebook marketing Kinzin
Boris and Francis about best practices for Drupal debuggin process management
Dmitri, William, Colin at BAD Camp
Upcoming Olympic Outsider:
a couple interviews which still need edited, release and all that with Duff Gibson and Crispin Lipscomb
Tis oft remarked that a what constitutes a commute in Vancouver may be considered a pleasure sightseeing adventure in other cities. My treks starting from the North Shore and heading across Burrard inlet via Seabus or Lions Gate bridge are certainly visually inspiring albeit a wee bit crowded at busy times (which are almost always in transit-hungry Vancouver). As such, i often join the tourists in snapping pics along the way. Heck, i film Seabus voyages and Skytrain rides when i can score that very front seat.
Anyhow, along with a rabble of techies, I tested a Nokia N95 phone for 8 days and used it to create a group project so to speak in which Roland, Richard, Rebecca, Kris and I all documented part of the Vancouver commute experience in order to try out different features and engage with one another using mobile technology. The quest: Return and report both the phone’s functionality/usability as well as the mobile presence-ness mojo conjured up during the experiment.
Of course, Canada’s absurd mobile data plans really limit the usefulness but the wi-fi ability and 5MP camera (with solid video) made for some fun times documenting and getting up quick. I connected to the freethenet.ca connections but having to go through the web screen caused an extra clumsy step.
I also extended the phone’s ability with Shozu which allows direct photo upload to Flickr. I found the tool useful but set-up painful and wouldn’t have pulled it off without the help of Shozu warrior Roland Tanglao. I wish there was a direct upload of video as connecting via usb and then dragging the vid files to the ‘puter and then ftp upload was more steps then i’d like. I also didn’t pre-tag in Shozu but did later in Flickr (typing tricky with small keys).
Really, the phone’s user interface lacks massaged usability polish which remove the intimidation for all but the geekiest users. We all provided frank opinions to Jean Hebert (great hockey name eh) who was research project dude for SFU at Harbour Centre. We also commented on what we’d like to have in a portable communications device. I want flexibility, versatility, ruggedness, ease of use, big buttons, quick response – not too much to ask right? {Gonna test an OpenMoko phone next.}
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