Toronto, we really do love you...

Coors pulling B.C. billboards as frosty mugs from Toronto call new beer ads tasteless.

"colder than most people from Toronto."

The billboard, which was part of Molson Coors' "Colder than . . ." summer beer campaign, went largely unnoticed by anyone east of the Rockies until a Toronto newspaper carried a complaint from a Toronto resident who saw the ad while on vacation.

Within hours of the story, Molson Coors backtracked and cancelled the campaign after it received complaints from people who thought the ads offended residents of Canada's largest city.

Via Vancouver Sun

If only the ad was for a beer worth drinking.

Eastside Culture Crawl

Last night I had the great pleasure to meet a bunch of artists involved in the Eastside Culture Crawl to talk social media and how they might use these tools for promotion.

WendyD and the promotions/advertising board are already doing a good job maintaining a website and using twitter to connect the community to artists and the Crawl. Some of the artists are onboard with social media and self-promotion too, and are maintaining blogs and personal websites.

I had a good time and wanted to give a shout-out to the cool people I met last night. Obviously a group who work hard on creative pursuits, they brought great questions and an insight into what matters for artists.

So Long Sullivan

Sam's out, which is probably the worst thing to happen to Vision in the past couple of weeks. I'm now looking forward to a good competition even though I don't live in Vancouver.

6 days to go until we know who will be flying the Vision flag.

Out east, there's just no real excitement. My mayor, papa Corrigan, aint goin' nowhere.

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Homelessness :: Photos & Commentary

Over at the Vancouver Sun, Randy Shore and Daphne Bramham have a good slideshow of sorts on homelessness in Vancouver.

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Best Vancouver Blog

No, it has nothing to do with social-network marketing, guerilla-gardening, drupal, the Canucks, porn, pot, or fashion.

David Eby's Blog - The Vancouver 2010 Olympics, displacement and homelessness blog brings a whole lot of context to what we hear about the games, human rights, and civic politics.

It's must-read material because it's one of the few sources of legitimate commentary in a town gone five-ring-mad.

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No Fun!

No-fun closing times are turning the clock back towards Hicksville

"Vancouver has quietly adopted a policy where senior bureaucrats -- and it's these folks who really run the city -- have decided most restaurants, bar and grills, cafe/lounges and pubs that serve beer, wine and spirits will have to close at midnight, even on Friday and Saturday nights."

For serious?

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Workman @ St. Andrews-Wesley in Vancouver

Hawksley Workman played an amazing show last night at St. Andrews-Wesley United Church in Vancouver. For not 1, 2, but right around 3 hours he held the attention of a packed church.

It was a great show in a great venue.

Click away at the songs below and enjoy yourself some Workman.

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Sun Tower to change

One of Vancouver's most recognizable buildings to get a makeover

CKNW News Talk 980 - CKNWAM

Does this mean thetyee is homeless?

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Corb Lund in Vancouver

Corb Lund and the Hurtin' Albertans put on a great show at the Commodore Ballroom last night.
Hayes Carll opened up the show and was great too!
Musicians like these restore my faith in country.

Going Home

Tonight we begin the long drive home. It's a ways - The roadsigns will tell you it's about 1,400 kilometers, but google maps says it's closer to 1,200. I was having a chat a few days ago with an Italian gentleman and his jaw just dropped at the thought of driving that far and not leaving the country, let alone the province.

It's a long journey for sure, but it's an amazing drive through a series of distinct ecosystems.

Chinatown

Best place for Christmas shopping ever. Everyone wants a bottle-cozy tailored to look like a traditional Chinese wedding dress right? RIGHT?

Honestly, it was uncrowded and inexpensive. That's two big advantages over any shopping mall or downtown core in the country right now.

I loves you Chinatown.

Edit: Oh, and the BBQ pork buns. DAMN!

iMove - Motorists - Home

I love maps. This is probably because I have such poor sense of direction in unnatural settings. I'm pretty good out in the wild, but as soon as streets and drives come in to play, well I'm pretty much buggered without having first checked a map.

Seriously, it can take me three or four trips somewhere before I can navigate confidently sans-carte.

Because I dislike driving into downtown cores I tend to use transit, and here's my issue:

Transit maps or transit websites are generally a cumbersome thing. Translink's website has a really hard time understanding that when I type in something like "Granville Station" I really do mean "Granville Station." It also doesn't let me check road conditions when I'm debating whether to drive or to transit somewhere.

I was really excited a few days ago when I stumbled across google-transit, but now I'm really excited about iMove. Traffic conditions, transit directions, cycling paths, colour-coded density... It's awesome. Seriously, or for cereal as I like to say, bookmark this and maybe join me in sending a thank you card.

I should also note that the always on top of it even though he's in Malta Darren Barefoot has a post about the smartly-simple common craft video that covers iMove.

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Pics From the Phone

Greasy pizza

Mrs. James's Mom's Sunflower

What happens when Canadian Tire changes a new tire.

Breakfast

I love eggs!

I hate shopping for eggs because I always think of things like this.

Back at home in rural Canada we got our eggs from a farmer. They tasted better, and the chickens sure as hell weren't all locked up in "battery pens."

Now I've got to pay top dollar for organic free range eggs, whereas I used to be able to buy dozens for a buck-fitty straight up.

Stupid city.

The Sun Run

Helen and I ran the Vancouver Sun Run.

As a tribute to the absolutely ridiculously massively hugely gigantic number of people registered, we decided to pace ourselves at exactly one minute per thousand people registered to run.

54:45 was my time, pretty close eh...


OR

Helen had a hangover and I hadn't run in about a week so we took it pretty easy (or were unable to really giver.)

This was flagged in my email as important

What Drives the News in Vancouver

Just how far have Olympic promoters penetrated the CTV Newsroom?

A student of ours (and my buddy) Joel Baycroft was at the unveiling of the countdown clock for the 2010 games, and he (along with everyone other than CTV)witnessed quite a different event.

To be fair, on board Chopper9 David Kincaid noticed the protesters and did mention their concerns - perhaps they just looked like a small group from up in the air...

To be extra fair - CTV links to 2010watch from their site - check the bottom of the yellow block of links on the left.

To be opinionated and rude, the evening news for Monday night was basically a blow job for games-organizers and a celebration along the lines of "We have the broadcast-rights, na na na na na!" I hate criticizing a broadcast in public because in general CTV really can put together a stellar show, but it was gross.

I wonder if the other broadcasters are increasingly going to focus on CTV painting the games with their happy-brush. It seems strange to me, and I think the central issue is that Bill Good is doing a considerable amount of Rah-Rahing outside of the newscast - and for many people he represents CTV-News in Vancouver. When I see B.G. on TV it means I'm watching news, not a hosted-celebration.

At first I though maybe it was all in my head, but pretty much everyone I've chatted with has agreed.

New Job

I'm Back!

• Back in Vancouver
• Back at BCIT - although I'm now an employee.
• Back into running - 5k this morning

Good times.

I'm working on a lesson covering microphones and sound-gathering techniques, and just about ready to start with some AVID workshops. Lots to do, not a whole lot of time to do it in. Pretty good gig though, I'm filling in for a great instructor/broadcaster who is off on maternity leave.

So check out the BCIT blogs. At the moment there isn't much fresh content, but the term has just started back up.

Later.