Charlottetown Tourism completely unaware of their mistake with FOL this year.

By filsinger

CBC just posted an article on their website about how this year’s annual Festival of Lights has only sold 5000 tickets this year.  For the last decade they have pretty much sold out without an issue.  This year they are completely dumbfounded on why the tickets haven’t sold.  They are blaming it on that there is a plethora of concerts in the maritimes this year, yeah that has something to do with it.  But it has more to do with the fact  that the lineup is absolutely garbage.  I mean it is perhaps the worse its ever been.  There are 8 bands, not one of them which I would even go to see if I could go hear for free (oddly enough the local band 2 Hours Traffic does a free concert every year here in Charlottetown), and add on top of that they raised ticket prices.

“This has been the worst year ever for the Festival of Lights,” said Antoinette Goeseels, sales manager of the Howard Johnson Hotel in Cornwall. “We’ve always been sold out, or pretty near being sold out. It’s never an issue, but this year, for some reason, it is.

Between the 30 people who complain about the loud noise downtown every year, the terrible choice in bands, and the planning committee seemingly unaware that the surrounding provinces landed the likes of AC/DC, Bon Jovi, KISS and Chickenfoot all within a month of FOL, they really dropped the ball this year.

To give you an example, I’m going to Rockfest in Halifax in 3 weeks to see Chickenfoot, Our Lady Peace, Sloan, and Finger 11… 2 of those bands played here last year.. hrm… wake up Charlottetown.  You lost this year badly, and stop whining and do something about it next year.

My tip next year if anyone is listening is this:

Make Canada day the family oriented day of concerts, and turn the FOL for young adults who will spend the money to come over.  Bring in bands the 18-30 year olds want to see, we are the ones with disposable incomes, little commitments and the time to attend.  Going after the tween crowd (See Marinias Trench, Theory of  Deadman) who have to rely on mom/dad to attend will not fill hotels.  Also get your lineup out there before Moncton can announced AC/DC and Bon Jovi in the SAME summer. cripes.

What is your Spiritual Footprint?

By filsinger

What is your Spiritual Footprint?

Introduction

The Lord has really been talking to me lately about a lot of things. This blog is a collection of inner workings, fights, discussions, conversations and investigations that have been going on my life recently. So through that struggle, I have felt compelled today to share some of what God has been working on me with. If I say anything today that resonates with you, then that is all I can hope for. So in essence this sermon is for me and my life as much as it is for you. It is something that I need to hear as much as anyone else.

Carbon Footprint

A buzz word that has recently come into our vernacular is “carbon footprint”. A definition of which I grabbed from Wikipedia is “the total set of GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organization, event or product”. We are asked by the media to be mindful of our “carbon footprint”, that effect on the environment that we leave with our lifestyle. I’m not here this morning to debate Global Warming, or the green movement, but I do know we need to take care of this earth God made, but I am here this morning to talk about our “Spiritual Footprint”, which I would like to define as “A person’s reaction to the impressing of the Holy Spirit’s guidance in their life in regards to giving back to the Kingdom.”

I believe that once we accept the great gift that Jesus has offered us, we then have a responsibility to act and give back. So what good are you leaving behind at the end of each day? What has the Lord asked you to do for another person? Have you ignored the Holy Spirit’s prodding? Have your ears been deaf? Your eyes blind? Is your heart cold to the hurting of the world?

Rich Young Ruler

Do you ever “hate” a scripture? Well, this following scripture is one I’ve hated for a long time. Only for the fact that the Holy Spirit uses it to convict me each time I read it. Many times I can find myself becoming a HighLighter Christian. Reading the scriptures that I like, ignore the ones I don’t, and this just happens to be one those hard scriptures that fall into both of those categories.

Mark 10:17-31

¹⁷As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ¹⁸“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. ¹⁹You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.²⁰“Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”²¹Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”²²At this, the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. ²³Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” ²⁴The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is^[b] to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” ²⁶The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?” ²⁷Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” ²⁸Peter said to him, “We have left everything to follow you!” ²⁹“I tell you the truth,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel ³⁰will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life. ³¹But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

How would you define rich?

Websters dictionary defines rich as “having abundant possessions and especially material wealth”

What percentage of the world’s population would have to be below you for you to consider yourself “rich”? If you were in the world’s top 51%, would that make you rich? I think on a technicality you have more possessions than more than half the world, so yeah maybe. Well what about the top 25%? 10%? 5%? I wonder these things myself. So where exactly do you as a person rank amongst the world’s wealthiest. Luckily there is a website that does the math for us! www.globalrichlist.com. I decided to do a little digging and I looked up the AVERAGE family income in Charlottetown, PEI and that amount comes in at whopping $61,569. According to this calculator if you are an average family in Charlottetown you now fall into the TOP 0.95% of the world’s wealthiest. Now let’s go back and read verse 23 “How hard is it for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” What does that mean for us North America?

When I was a kid my complete concept of being poor meant shopping at KMART and that my family could not afford to buy me Reebok Pumps. But never once did I ever wonder where my next meal was coming from, or what would happen when the cookie jar was empty, or even if I was going to be able to play hockey next season. I was born into a life of privilege, of intense wealth, and of never actually needing something (even though I thought much differently as a kid). Sadly, it took me a long time to realize this. The Lord has been continually convicting me of my wealth, of how everything I have in my life is because of Him, and how much I need to detach myself from my “stuff”.

After years of struggling and fighting, I feel like finally the LORD has gotten me to a point where if he asked me to sell all I had and move to Africa, I would. This is where the last part of that scripture really hits home for me, and makes all the sacrifice worth it. He hasn’t asked me yet, but I know he is preparing my life for a watershed moment like this.

²⁹“I tell you the truth,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel ³⁰will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life. ³¹But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

I finished reading a book recently called The Irresistible Revolution: Living the life as an ordinary radical by Shane Claiborne (which I cannot recommend strongly enough). And in that book, he has some great quotes, but one that resonated with me was this “But as I pursued that dream of upward mobility preparing for college, things just didn’t fit together. As I read Scriptures about how the last will be first, I started wondering why I was working so hard to be first.” Bill spoke last week, on this very topic, why is the church trying so hard to be first, when maybe all we need to is learn how to be last a little more. Something that I’ve heard said a lot recently is that “The church is the sole institution that exists for the benefit of its non members”, so why does the church spend so much time trying to please the people inside it?

So how can we as rich Christians serve? We need to recognize the need around us, and act on it. Luckily for us a wise person by the name of Jesus had something interesting to say directly on this topic.

Recognize the Need around You

In scripture there are more than 2000 references to helping the poor, and the destitute.

Jesus only talks about judgment day once in the gospels.

And this scripture has both!

Matthew 25:31-46

The Sheep and the Goats

³¹“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. ³²All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.  ³⁴“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ ³⁷“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ ⁴⁰“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’ ⁴¹“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴²For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’  ⁴⁴“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’  ⁴⁵“He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’  ⁴⁶“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Jesus is all around us. All we need to do is open our eyes and help those in need. Jesus isn’t asking nicely. Jesus isn’t saying to his disciples here “Well if you kind of feel like it today, then maybe you could, you know maybe um, drop a can of corn into that bin at the end of the line at Sobeys next time you get groceries”. No, he is commanding his disciples (us) to help those in need, and weight of the world is upon our shoulders. At the end of the age, there will not be a theology test. Nowhere in this passage do I see Jesus saying “and the sheep and goats will be sorted to the left and to the right, which will be determined by a 1000 word essay on Entire Sanctification.”

It will be on how we treated, or mistreated the marginalized, the poor, the widow, the hurting soul and the man in jail. As you have done to the least of these, so have you done to me. That what you have NOT done to these, so you have not done to me.

Now don’t get me wrong and think that I am saying one can get to heaven by works, no, it doesn’t work that way. But what I AM saying is that we will be held completely accountable on how we used our time, immense resources and calling on our lives to serve God. If you, can honestly say right now, if Jesus was to walk into this room and separate us, where would you fall? Are you one of the sheep that has given up everything to follow him? Or are you still saying “Jessus, I did not see you”. Ignorance will not be an option, I’m sorry. You should not live your life afraid of losing it, you should be afraid of not living the life God has in store for you. What exactly are you still holding onto? Where is your heart?

Matthew 6:19-21

¹⁹“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

“What you believe is not what you say you believe, what you believe is what you do”

Donald Miller – Blue Like Jazz

Jesus’ call on your life is always on the table.

In 1999 I moved out to Calgary to go to school. To this day I still believe that God called me out there for a purpose. It was in leaving my family, and seeking God that landed me into some of the darkest times of my life. Even if those years were not easy, they were necessary and formative to the man I am today. Somewhere along the line in seeking God though, I forgot to keep looking, and I was subsequently side tracked for many years. I had lost my sense of purpose and the call of God on my life. In a lot of ways, I relate strongly to the rich young ruler. I went out to Calgary, much like how he went to Jesus. Saying “Ok Jesus, here I am, I followed all your rules, I was a good boy! What else must I do?”. Jesus, then put the question to me, will you give up your life? Give up your desire to become first? Give up your desire for wealth? Give up everything? How much do you trust me… and I didn’t trust him, and I did my own thing. This led me falling away from God, and losing my sense of purpose. The parable of Prodigal Son, meshes well in this context as well. As we see in the scripture of the rich young ruler, Jesus does not chase after him when he walks away. The father in the Prodigal Son, does not chase his son down the road when he leaves with the money. But, he is always waiting, his arms are always open for a loving embrace and welcome home feast.

God’s arms were open waiting for me to come back, and even though it took a small life crisis for me to recognize this, he was there, waiting for when I did. If you are in a similar situation, I guarantee, he will be there when you finally choose to listen, and you won’t regret it.

Conclusion

So now what? What is God saying to you right now? What is it that you need to do? Today my prayer is that when you lay your head down on your pillow tonight, tomorrow night, and every remaining night for the rest of the life, you answer to “What is your Spiritual Footprint?” will be a positive one. God saved you, so you could give back to the Kingdom.

John 13: 35 “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Has God called you to a purpose and you’ve ignored him?

What is God asking you to give up today?

Have you become apathetic to the needs of those around you?

What is your Spiritual Footprint at the end each day?

iPhone 3GS - $199, 3mb Camera, Video, available June 17th

By filsinger

Almost one year to the date I blogged about the iPhone finally coming to Canada.  Now today, Apple announced that the 3rd version of the iPhone will be coming very soon (June 17th to be exact) and has some great new features.  The iPhone 3GS and features some of the following upgrades (along with 3.0):

• Tethering Support
• 3mb Camera
• Tap to focus
• Video
• MMS
• Voice Activation
• Hardware Compass
• Battery Upgrade
• CPU/RAM upgrade

Most of this is old technology, and the iPhone should have had when it launched, but plugged some of the final holes/criticisms of the device.  Now we just need a front facing camera, and flash support built into safari.

The only thing stopping me really from getting the iPhone is Rogers.  It has been said before, but Rogers is the worst iPhone provider in the world.  This is a comparison of the fact that they require a 3 year contract, and they don’t offer unlimited data.  I really hope someday soon the spectrum auction that happened late last year here in Canada will open up the GSM spectrum so more than just Rogers will be able to sell the iPhone.

On another note, ngmoco got to show off their game Star Defense, which is available today, and my company Sculpin QA worked on it with them.  When I first heard about the iPhone 2 years ago, never did I dream the device would pay my bills, and I wouldn’t even own one.  haha.

The one thing that really impressed me today was the application for doctors.  I said to myself “wow we are in the future”.  This app lets a doctor monitor his patients without actually being in the hospital, now it just needs to read alien life forms and be used by Captain Kirk.

The new device comes in at $199 and will have 16gb of storage.  No mention of any new iPod touches, but perhaps that will come out later this summer.  Are there better devices out there?  Yeah in some areas, but it’s the App Store that really makes this device limitless in terms of expandability.  Should be another interesting year.

Microsoft changing how you game.

By filsinger

Every so often there is an innovation that comes around in gaming that changes how we play our games.  Bringing the arcade experience into the homes through consoles, the first hand held system, Nintendo’s Wii motion controller and now today Microsoft claimed to be providing the next.  They were the first of the big three to have their E3 keynote address, and did they ever deliver.  Today they announced Left 4 Dead 2, a Metal Gear solid game, a new Halo game, and a new Forza.  In the last few years that would have been enough, for example take a look to last year, their big reveal was Final Fantasy is coming to the xbox (previously a sony exclusive).  Not this year, it had been rumored that they were preparing a motion controller to rival the Wii, well today they did that, but without a controller.

What they appear to have done is turned you into the controller, and if it works half as good as the video, than I am impressed.  With menu navigation similar to the Minority Report, voice recognition, and Peter Molyneux presenting an AI that if it is 25% of what he claims, is really impressive (as he really doesn’t have the best track of delivering up to his promises).  If that wasn’t all enough, they have now integrated facebook, and twitter into Xbox Live, setup High Def streaming service, the ability to buy old 360 titles via an On Demand solution.  Oh and they happened to have the Beatles stop by to open things up.

Nintendo and Sony execs must be scrambling to out do Microsoft this year, cause if all Nintendo has is a new Mario game and Sony announcing a price cut than both are in big trouble.  It should be an interested few days ahead as we see where E3 goes from here.

See below for videos on the AI and the motion sensor.

Photography

By filsinger

I haven’t blogged in a while, and it’s mostly due to not having a ton to say, and also having to do with being away the last couple weeks.  But with trips comes pictures, since I’ve recently started growing into a love of Photography I took a lot.  Over the last two weeks I snapped about 700 photographs, and I think around 70 turned out ok.  That is a much better percentage than my trip to Orlando a couple months back, and was pretty much the last time I took up the camera due to the weather.  But this summer I’m promosing to myself that I will take a few moments at least every couple days and go outside and shoot.

I’ll be picking a new pic every few days to upload to my photoblog here, and will be uploading batches to my facebook and flickr streams.  I just finished editing a few from my week in San Francisco and uploaded them to flickr and facebook.  I would love for comments, espicially criticism as I’m trying to learn this difficult art.  Since I doubt many of you will visit any of my locations here are a few I really liked from this batch.

What did you see? Weird Lost commercials

By filsinger

It appears that ABC has decided to intrigue us LOST viewers once again with an online game.  From all accounts they are setting up a show that has not even been picked up yet, if we are to believe this article.

If you perform a search on twitter for “what did you see?” You will find an account twitter.com/whatdidyousee which links you to www.themosaiccollective.com/ .  It seems to be an ABC site just asking you for what you saw.  Right now i think the answer is A coffin, a wedding, a surfer, a sonogram, kids leaving school. (or so i think).  I’ve inputted my answer and my email address… lets see if it goes anywhere.

Album Review: K-OS - YES!

By filsinger

I have this love/hate relationship with K-OS.  All of my animosity can be traced back to the fact that he walked off stage in the middle of the one chance I had ever had to see him live.  From my perspective he threw a tantrum over the fact that not everyone at the show was there to listen to him.  In the middle of one his songs he left the stage, grabbed some popcorn, threw it at the audience, and walked off stage.  All this happened after starting the concert late.  As you can see, that as a fan who really wanted to see perhaps the only Hip Hop act I’ve ever liked live, the whole event had left a bad taste in my mouth.  This was in October 2007, shortly after Atlantis: Hymns for Disco came out.  After the show, I contacted him asking for my money back, he even offered to refund personally, but I did not send my address to him.  Whether or not he would have actually refunded my ticket, I’m not quite sure.

It is now two years later, and I still have that bitter taste in my mouth over my disappointing concert experience, still feeling like he owes me $15 or at least a free concert.  He has released his fourth studio album (after saying publicly he’d only ever put out 1 ), and it is titled YES!.  The first single is titled 4321, which is also the moniker for his disc launch website 4321.fm .  Which, by the way is where you can now listen to his entire album, online for free!  So due to being cheap, lazy, and unsure if I wanted to give this man my money, I listened to the entire thing online, several times tonight to get a feel for it.  So, all that introduction aside, here is what I think of it.  One last thing before I dive into it, I generally do not like hip hop, rap, R&B, etc, it is just one of those genres of music I could never really understand, relate to, or sink my teeth into.  There are a few *very* rare exceptions, one being Gnarls Barkley, and the other most notably, being the man himself, K-OS.  I have liked his stuff pretty much from day one, maybe it’s his rhymes, or his voice, or the crunchy guitar he likes to throw in here and there or a combination of all three.

To put it simply, and out front; this album really is quite good.  It starts off with Zambony which is a great opening song that is a strong example of what I think Kevin does very well.  He presents the listener with digestible hip hop verses, with a singable chorus that are separated with very smooth transitions.  Next up on the list is Astronaut, which has some great verses, a good beat, an interesting world music vibe, but the modified voice overs through out the song, just ruin it for me.

After that is Burning Bridges, which reminds me strongly of “Sunday Morning”, which is a good thing.  That was one of my favourite songs from his last outing and the song structure works well here.  Singing about caring what other people think of him, hopefully he has taken these lyrics to heart and performs for the people that came to hear him, and not for those who didn’t.  He follows that one up with Uptown Girl which is another stand out on the album.

Almost half way through we get treated with what I like to describe as the most stereotypical hip hop song on the entire album.  It has classic female harmony sung by Nelly Fertado, hard over the top rap lyrics, which usually isn’t my thing, but for some reason it works here and I liked it.

As mentioned earlier, 4321 is the first single from the album, and is fine on it’s own, and was probably the most logical choice for a single on the whole album.  Not much to say, other than that.

Right after that is the follow up Eye Know Something, which has some heavy synth, voice overs and K-OS’ alien voice makes a comeback.  It is another song that I normally wouldn’t like, but it brings me in and I hate that I like it.  If that makes any sense.

In Aviator we see a slower tune, with some funk guitar overlaid, and is a good setup to Fun! which is probably my second favourite track on the entire album.  Which is opened up with some heavy guitar, dj scratching, and scathing lyrics.

Sometimes, the best is followed with the worst, and so is the case with Mr. Telephone Man.  If musicians can have “gimmick” songs, than Mr Telephone Man is one.. with the repeating dialing tones playing in the background, stuttering verses, and lyrics surrounding the topic.  Easily the weakest track on the album, seems like he just sat bored one day in a room staring at his phone and out popped track 10.  The last two songs are WhipC.R.E.A.M and The Avenue, which are not really not worthy, and easily forgettable.

K-OS really shines when the music gets out of his way, sets up the back beat and his lyrics just flow from topic to topic.  For the most part, he does this on the album, but it’s marred by some over sampling and trying to do much here and there.  This album is not as musically diverse as his other outings, but that doesn’t detract from the overall experience…  I did really enjoy the album, and I am probably going to buy it.  If you liked any of his earlier work, I recommend you pick it up, you won’t be disappointed.

I give this album 4 concert refunds out of 5.

As a final note he is touring the country for free in a “pay what you want” type of concert.  Maybe he’s trying to make up for his walk out in PEI, or maybe that is just my imposing my wants onto his publicity stunt.  And the cherry on top, is that I won VIP passes to any of the shows in Canada, but I can’t attend any of them.

K-OS, if you ever read this, or it comes across your desk, come back to PEI, I’ll buy the ticket again, just give me the full show, and we’ll call it even.

1. “Zambony” - 3:46
2. “Astronaut” - 3:14
3. “Burning Bridges” - 3:32
4. “Uptown Girl” (featuring Emily Haines from Metric & Murray Lightburn) - 3:38
5. “I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman” (featuring Saukrates & Nelly Furtado) - 3:10
6. “4, 3, 2, 1″ - 3:54
7. “Eye Know Something” - 3:36
8. “The Aviator” - 3:27
9. “FUN!” - 5:27
10. “Mr. Telephone Man” - 6:06
11. “WhipC.R.E.A.M.” - 2:56
12. “The Avenue” - 9:23

Album Review: The Tragically Hip - We are the Same

By filsinger

The Tragically Hip are Canadian rock legends.  They have been making albums for 22 years, and have released a total of 12 separate discs, plus a host of live and best of.  I own almost all of their music and have been a fan for as long as I can remember.  I have even had the opportunity to see them live three times, and each time I appreciated them more than the last time I saw them.  I would pay money to watch them live every opportunity I can, that can’t be said by me for many other bands.  Their record releases and singles have also spanned across most of my life, and I identify almost each of their big singles with various parts of my life.  To give you an example, Ahead by a Century came out when I was in junior high and I was an awkward kid trying to find what I liked in music.  Poets was released while I was in high school and it helped define late 90s rock for me.  I used to watch the music video all the time on MuchMusic, and it was a place of escape from all the Boy bands and ridiculous bubble gum pop streaming through the airwaves.  Or even In Violet Light which is probably one of the most critically hated albums, was one of the first CDs in my very first car I ever owned and I have fond memories of driving around Calgary with that blaring.  So introduction aside, The Hip have put out another album, and what do I feel about it?

Well, I have now listened to this album about 3 times through, and feel overall it does what I think they are trying to accomplish.  They have stated that they are trying to write some music that touches people during this economic turmoil and touches everyone (Hence the name).  This album has some songs that are a departure from your typical Hip Rock style, and that hurts the overall album a bit.  The musical styles are varied, Morning Moon is very country, The Depression Suite is orchestral and Queen of The Furrows is very catchy pop rock.

There are two easily identifiable sections to to this album, the first half being slow country rock, and the second being a bit more traditional Hip Rock.  I’m not a big fan of country, and I was initially turned off the album due to it’s opening.  But somewhere half way through we run into The Depression Suite, which clocks in at over 9 minutes with melodic strings and was where I began to really enjoy myself.  Quickly after this we are treated with What I think will be Hip concert staples in Speed River, and previously mentioned Queen of the Furrows.  Since I purchased this album on iTunes I was also given “Hush”, which seems unavailable elsewhere and is a weird dark blues tune with some odd lyrics, but yet is quite enjoyable.

The Hip have been making music for a long time, and it’s understandable that they are here to try new things in their music.  This album is different, it has country, melodic strings, blues, pop, and rock.  It’s an eclectic mix that works.  If you aren’t a huge Hip fan, this might not be your cup of tea, but there are definitely tracks here which are worth the 0.99 on iTunes.  The first single Love is a First, is one of those, and shouldn’t be missed.

Overall I give this album, 3.5 sold out arenas out of 5.  I’m just sad they are not coming to the Maritimes this year to promote the album.  Oh well, maybe next year.

1. “Morning Moon” – 4:01
2. “Honey, Please” – 4:01
3. “The Last Recluse” – 3:49
4. “Coffee Girl” – 3:46
5. “Now the Struggle Has a Name” – 6:05
6. “The Depression Suite” – 9:28
7. “The Exact Feeling” – 3:56
8. “Queen of the Furrows” – 4:12
9. “Speed River” – 4:28
10. “Frozen in My Tracks” – 4:04
11. “Love Is a First” – 3:44
12. “Country Day” – 5:19
13. “Hush” - 2:30 (iTunes only)

People need to listen to Trent Reznor

By filsinger

I have never been a big fan of Nine Inch Nails.  Their music style is close to what I might listen to, but just never struck a chord with my ear, so to speak.  What they do right though is leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else.  I have blogged about how media is changing, new distribution methods need to be found, and if you don’t change how you do business, and adapt to this new force you will die.  Reznor was recently interviewed about his coming iPhone app that lets people have access to a social network of NIN fans, and direct access to Reznor himself.   He was interviewed for a Wired article and this is what he had to say.. and he’s exactly right.

Since then, Reznor has pioneered a new, fan-centered business model that radically breaks with the practices of the struggling music industry. His embrace of “freemium” pricing, torrent distribution, fan remixes and social media seem to be paying off financially even as they have helped him forge deeper connections with the Nine Inch Nails faithful.

It’s something he never could have done before, even on an indie label. “Anyone who’s an executive at a record label does not understand what the internet is, how it works, how people use it, how fans and consumers interact — no idea,” he declares. “I’m surprised they know how to use e-mail. They have built a business around selling plastic discs, and nobody wants plastic discs any more.”

Meanwhile, the entire system that for a lucky few turned those discs into hits — rock radio, MTV, music mags, CD megastores — has crumbled, and label execs have no idea where to turn. “They’re in such a state of denial it’s impossible for them to understand what’s happening,” Reznor says. “As an artist, you are now the market.”(emphasis mine)

I believe you should have to pay for music, but nobody wants plastic discs anymore.  The last plastic disc I bought for myself was 3 years ago, but now I buy more music than I ever have.  I listen to all my music through my iPod or on my laptop at work.  Why would I want a disc that I have to rip and then just put away?  I want music digitally, cheap and fast.  Even today I bought the new Hip album on iTunes and didn’t have to go hunting for it.  Just clicked two things and now I’m listening to it.

I’ll scream on this soap box for a while I think.  Media is shifting, don’t get left behind.  This applies to all apsects of our lives, religion, tv, print, music, video, tourism.  The 21st century culture shift isn’t coming, it’s already here.  What are you going to do about it?

The Oncomming Collapse of Traditional Television

By filsinger

On my way to work today I was listening to the radio and heard a news article on how Canadian Broadcasters are crying to the CRTC to allow them to reduce their local programming.  The Globe and Mail has an article up on the same issue.  Essentially, the broadcasters are in peril and local programming is losing them money.  To compensate for this down trend in the economy, and demand for local programming, they want to bring in more American programming and charge a fee to the other carriers for using their signal.  In the last few years there have been a microcosm of events that each on their own wouldn’t have caused this issue, but together is making the perfect storm.

1) The Internet - The interweb has created a completely level playing field.  My little blog on the net has as much of a chance of being viewed by people as a news article written on the Globe and Mail.  The know-how to get your message out there is next to nil now.  Me personally? I get more local news from a few Charlottetown bloggers than I do from The Guardian or the CBC.

2) Youtube - Now anyone can be a star.  Look at people like sXePhil, some guy who makes “what interested me videos” and puts them up.  He gets 300,000 views per video, daily.  His audience is world wide, his content is immediate, and more relevant than any fluff piece that the local tv station puts up.  This is only the beginning.

3) Torrents - You can now watch any show you want, within 1 hour of it being on TV without commercials and in High Definition on your TV.  Why would I sit through programming and force fed commercials that do not relate to me and waste my time, when I can digest any media I want, instantly and when I want.  (I am willing to pay for this service if stations offered it.  Give me the ability to download your shows on Demand, in perfect quality the second they air on TV and I will pay… no one offers this yet, wake me up when they do).

4) The Recession - Add in a recession to all of these things, people are cutting back.  I pay $40/month for my TV and $40/month for Internet.  What would I cut first? My TV of course, I rarely watch anything on satellite now, and would not miss it.  Advertisers are cutting back as well, so funds are being sucked from the broadcasters.

In 1998 Napster came out, the music industry had an opportunity to seize a new trend, make it their own and deliver us high quality music, DRM free for a fee.  They balked at it, and instead of embracing it they fought it, and have lost millions and millions in the process.  Imagine if they had bought Napster, turned that into a service and started the shift THEN to this new medium, I bet they would be in much better shape.  TV is going down the same path with the high availability of any show on the Internet, and people watching more Youtube than they do actual TV.  The CRTC and the broadcasters are clinging on to this old world and not embracing this new trend that will take over.  With the Internet, the world is flat, so stop fighting against it, embrace it.  I believe in local content, but I believe news will be brought to me by the local people on the ground, not traditional news outlets.  Look at what happened with Twitter and the Plane crash in the Hudson.  We were getting updates from the people IN the plane, not the fools out there with cameras and a microphone.

TV as we’ve known it for 50 years is dying.  The game is changing.  There is money out there, and great ideas for programming.  It’s just going to be delivered to us differently, and if the CBC, CTV and other Canadian programmers don’t realize this fast enough they will be left in the dark and eclipsed by some guy in his basement making funny videos with a webcam and he will be the rich one with the advertising dollars.

ps.  Print media is dying too, and that is a similar case to this.  Stop clinging to your old ways, adapt, embrace or be forgotten and out of a job.