New Quotes: May and Mann
I received some pretty surprising feedback about my quotes page earlier this week, so I’ve decided to feature it more prominently on here when I make additions. There’s two new ones today, both seen on the brilliant blog, Presentation Zen:
In order to be open to creativity, one must have the capacity for constructive use of solitude. One must overcome the fear of being alone.
— Rollo May
A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.
— Thomas Mann
I don’t think either of these require much prose in order for me to get my point across, beyond just saying that they both represent the general theme, direction and state of things lately.
Lightning Strike
Here’s how I spent a good chunk of my night yesterday down by Lake Ontario. Sitting, waiting, snapping. I’ve learned a lot lately about shooting nature photography - mostly just with regards to timing and patience. While I didn’t get to snap a whole frame full of lightning here, I’m happy that I even captured it at all!
Genius Marketing/Sales at Work
I briefly mentioned Stars’ new album, “In Our Bedroom After the War” earlier this week and how I thought it was a great album. I wanted to revisit this though, since it’s really developing into an interesting story.
I’ve received more hits to that post in recent memory from search engine queries about the new Stars album. The band’s Canadian recording label, Arts & Crafts Records, apparently released the album just four days after completion of the studio work in an effort to reduce illegal downloads of the album after its inevitable leak on the Net.
How brilliant was that? I very rarely buy entire albums through iTunes, and I don’t think I would have done so had they not gone ahead and released it two months ahead of schedule. The amount of buzz they’re generating around this thing, if not just for the marketing strategy alone is just amazing. I’d be interested to hear their sales figures on how the album sold ahead of the retail release as well. I imagine they’ll be through the roof, and with any luck, we’ll see more of this kind of thing from record labels in the future.
On the ROM Crystal and Details, Details, Details!
Yesterday marked my first visit to the new ROM Crystal re-design, designed by Daniel Libeskind and ear-marked several million dollars by Michael Lee-Chin.
I was hesitant to visit the ROM up until now because of a number of factors. First and foremost, I wanted to give them some time to move the exhibits in and get things sorted out. I also didn’t want to contend with mobs of people just to get a glimpse at the thing.
Well, as it turns out, I probably should have held out a little longer. I had built up a lot of excitement for seeing the new design, and I’ve already talked about how I thought it was a good thing for the city. I’m all for bold architecture. From what I saw yesterday though, I’m left a little confused, and very disappointed.
Chasing a Sunset
Walking out with new book (for only $5, and by Frauenfelder - what a steal!) and frapp in hand from the one-two Chapters/Bucks combo, I was greeted by this beauty.
I immediately jumped in the car and gunned it to the first open space I could find, but still had lots of urban sprawl garbage in the foreground. It was actually kind of appalling (and ironic) how far I had to drive just to find some open space that had an unobstructed view of the horizon.
Ridiculous Data Plans from Rogers (and others) Keep iPhone out of Canada
Fresh off the wire over at AppleInsider is speculation from Michael Geist, quoted in the National Post saying that it’s not contract negotiations keeping the iPhone out of Canada, but instead our completely obscene and unreasonable mobile data plans. I don’t doubt it for a second.
Geist compares the $60 AT&T plan in the USA with 450 minute and unlimited data to how much you’d pay for a similar setup in Canada, and it ends up being about $300 here. Even then, you don’t get truly unlimited data (Rogers doesn’t even offer this at all!), you just get 500MB.
I worried a while back that my initial usage of my BlackBerry Pearl would rack me up a steep bill, and boy was I right to worry. My first few days of usage with Rogers, using only 1.5MB of data, I went 1MB over my 500KB plan and ended up with close to a $300 bill in the mail. After this, I immediately deactivated all e-mail accounts and stopped Web browsing on the phone, which essentially eliminates any of the functionality the BlackBerry has over a regular phone beyond the keypad.
So how’s an iPhone any good to you if all you can do is place calls and send text messages? Maybe a more important question; How much longer are Canadians willing to tolerate our worse-than-third-world-country wireless data plans?
Beyond Trendy
I found this cute considering my (sarcastic) “how hip am I?” comment earlier referring to picking up Stars’ new album two months in advance of retail. A new addition to Threadless, “I listen to bands that don’t even exist yet.”
Good Music: We Are the Icky Open Season In Our Bedroom
I meant to do a ‘Good Music’ last week, so this week you get double the fun. Lots of great albums out lately. Among them, White Stripes’ new one, Icky Thump ranks up there with their first single “You Don’t Know What Love Is” standing out immediately.
Feist’s Open Season has been around for a year, but it’s new to me. It has some great remixes of “Mushaboom” and “One Evening.”
Just a few minutes ago I bought Stars’ In Our Bedroom After the War (not even a link available yet; how hip am I?), which although is only out in September, is available on iTunes as of today; How could I resist? I haven’t even made it all the way through this one yet, but “The Night Starts Here” (which I think is the first single) and “My Favourite Book” are a couple good tracks.
Lastly, The Chemical Brothers are back again with a new album, We Are the Night. I’ve always been a fan of their stuff, and “Saturate” and “Do it Again” are great examples why.
Frenchman’s Bay
I was practically eaten alive getting this shot and several others along the south end of Frenchman’s Bay in Pickering. Something about 35 degree weather and still water lends itself well to a nice mosquito brew.
The new San Francisco by the Bay condo will be going up just about smack dab in the middle of this photo along the horizon. I’ll whip out my crystal ball and predict this will be the first of many to change the look of this waterfront over the next few years.
Toronto Through the Eyes of Andrew Johnston
I’ve revived the ‘Toronto Through the Eyes of…’ feature on blogTO with my first interview with Andrew Johnston, a Toronto comedian and writer. More to follow in the coming weeks!
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Adam lives in Toronto, Canada and likes to make cool stuff. He sometimes even gets paid to make things for the Web.
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