kooza: which act of the show is depicted above?
I’ve yet to witness a Cirque du Soleil show, but over the years I have heard amazing things and it’s perpetually been on my list of things to do. Whenever those tents go up at the end of False Creek, I become acutely aware that I’m missing out yet again and kick myself for not working amazing summer events like this into my schedule. But with the arrival of KOOZA to Vancouver on July 22nd, and the 25% discount ticket deal they’re offering until July 11, I will finally be able to check this cultural experience off my list.
Reserve your 25% off tickets here before July 11th. The show runs in Vancouver from July 22-August 22.
Also, the first person to email terri[at]theconveyorbelt[dot]com correctly identifying which act of the show is depicted in the image above will win 2 free tickets to the KOOZA show in Vancouver. Yay circus!
CONGRATULATIONS to contest winner Jason Sanders: the correct answer was the Wheel of Death.
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
I like music too. I’ve just been tipped off to this great site, Apophenia, that provides links to zip files of entire albums. Good ones, too. See ya later, Limewire!
Speaking of music, you might also want to consider following Culturite’s blip.fm stream – he’s introduced me to many a great new band. I’m all over Neutral Milk Hotel and Son House right now, thanks to him.
Even more music news: if you’re into film/photography/good bands, you’ve got a chance to contribute content for a Choir of Young Believers‘ music video through BOOOOOOM! My buddy Jeff Hamada is always coming up with fantastic projects through his site, and this 8th endeavour is a really unique opportunity be a part of something spectacular. Check out the deets for the music video project here – deadline has been extended to July 1st.
Scout Magazine threw a quick and dirty q&a my way recently – check out the piece here.
Scout is a fantastic online magazine that covers food, culture, life and style in Vancouver, the ultimate go-to guide to good living. Great for restaurant reviews and discovering what other cool folks in the city are up to.
Civixen photo.
The PopVox Awards and closing gala for VIDFEST was great, and the impromptu party that happened a couple warehouses down the way was more fun than any one person should be able to handle. The Mondo Spider was in attendance, and a number of meetings were called on the mobile boardroom (photos: daytime / partytime) as we did laps around the warehouse, it was very productive.
The parties were fun, but this is why VIDFEST is best: you could practically reach into thin air and pluck an idea out of nowhere, the energy was just electrifying. Everyone around you is doing something amazing, fired up about whatever it is they’re working on, and it was really inspiring to meet so many supercoolios in one short week. The other thing I appreciated was, unlike film industry events, nobody was too good to attend (an old boss used to say of film networking parties, “They all want to talk to me, but I don’t need to talk to them..”) The scope of panelists, attendees, and everyone involved spanned from folks like me to CEOs and master planners, and we had no trouble getting along.
Me in the red, eyeing a reporter asking Chris Anderson an irrelevant question.
In addition to Chris Anderson’s talk, I was also able to attend the McLuhan 2.0 session and the Right Brain Rock Out session on creativity with Evan Biddell, Jonathan Tippett, Jan Sircus, and Graham Clark. You can read about McLuhan 2.0 here, and continue on for highlights from Right Brain.
Continue reading ‘VIDFEST is Best!’
Photo courtesy of Civixen
For the keynote address this morning at VIDFEST, Wired Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson elaborated on his “Free! Why $0.00 is the Future of Business” article which was recently published in Wired (interesting side note, Chris is also publishing a book on the same topic that will be – you guessed it – FREE!). The point he brought up which I’d like to discuss is the statement that “waste is good.”
You could almost feel the audience tense up with apprehension, given our newfound propensity for conservation and saving this little planet. He explained by drawing an example from nature: biology “wastes” all of the time in a continual effort to improve the efficacy of species. Evolution is accomplished through gene mutations – most of which are horribly unsuccessful – until the right chord is struck and the species adapts and becomes more fit for survival. This process of natural selection was likened to both YouTube and the future of the virtual marketplace as a whole: in this new “free” economy, where we can download and upload as much as we please, parade ourselves on stage with unlimited bandwidth and forge entire online worlds without cost, most of the content is complete and utter trash. But like the process of mutations in nature, this trash is a necessary step in order to find the most efficient model for the future of digital and the economy of free.
I immediately thought of how this model could serve to dumb down culture permanently, as in “The Rise of the Idiots,” which is aptly profiled in the British television comedy Nathan Barley (and feature film Idiocracy.) I wonder if we aren’t inviting the evolution of idiocracy by encouraging internet users to produce junk, to exploit every available pocket while leaving a trail of shit in their wake in the process? If people weren’t watching and eating up every second of it, then I wouldn’t be so alarmist. But the public is watching, and they are responding. And that’s alarming.
How do we preserve intelligent, rational thought within this popular media format, which emphasizes fast, quick and mindless content? Won’t this “waste is good” and the subsequent user-generated trash (over 99% of the content is bum, by Anderson’s own mark) condition a vulnerable public into further lowering their standards, eventually resulting in a culture that is nearly devoid of creativity and objective thinking?
Not all handshakes were created equal, and when Carleen, Pariya and I got together yesterday at English Bay for a meeting this topic came up. We ran through the top 5 most common handshakes we experience on a regular basis.
The Power Shake:
Ideal for business meetings, interviews, or whenever you want to make a solid first impression with a solid person. Safe to say that this is always our default shake.
The Dead Fish:
Ideal for when you really dislike the person you’re shaking hands with, you don’t care to know them, or when you’re feeling lazy and inattentive. Not fun to be on the receiving end of this one.
The Kiss of Death:
“The Dead Fish, Extended” … Ideal if you’re wearing gloves, when you think you’re high class, or are blatantly inviting a hand kiss. A rarer occurrence.
The Limp Tip:
This shake could only mean a few things: the shaker is fragile, is extremely shy, or has very sweaty hands.
The Secret Handshake:
These ones are fun, but seem to be on the down and out. Can mean you’re part of an exclusive club, are elitist, or are simply having one helluva good time. You probably don’t want to know what The Conveyor Belt secret handshake is…
