Pop Culture Blog: Music, Movie and Humor

Leveraging low-hanging synergies outside the vertical fruit box since 1999.

Professionally Photographed Pyes


in Photos

Back in May at the SCTV Reunion show there was a photo stage set up at the after party and Janet and I were the very first folks photographed. We were, of course, being used as test subjects before the actual cast arrived – but the photos were taken nonetheless.

SCTVPARTY-07

A couple of hours later I ran into the photographer and asked him if he’d mind emailing me the photos if he ever got around to it. Well, yesterday he finally did and they are a couple of doozys. There are very few professionally taken snaps of me or my sister in existence – let alone together and let alone dressed up in our best fineries. Janet’s cool ensemble leaves me thinking she should have been battling vampires with Kate Beckinsale and my super beige blazer and shiny ribbed shirt was purchased specifically for the event.

SCTVPARTY-08

Please enjoy, and if ever you wanted a nice pic of the Pye siblings to stick on your fridge (it could happen) – your prayers have finally been answered. Now get yourself some new prayers because that one was just pathetic.

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How Will I Digg Myself Out of This One?


in Canadiana, Heartwarming

I created what’s known as “Linkbait” for a client this week, and I think it’s pretty damn good if I do say so myself. To any of my readers with a Digg account – We’re very close to going viral and I’d like to unashamedly solicit a few votes if I may be so bold. If this effort were sub-standard I’d never ask – this is something you can Digg in good conscience.

How can one make a decent living spending a massive amount of the work week compiling photos and writing copy for a list of funny barbecues? I wish I had an answer for you. I also invite you to post it to facebook, vote for it in StumbleUpon, Mixx, Reddit, etc. There’s a good readership. Sit, readership.

independence-daySo this post isn’t a complete waste of time for everybody else, I am extremely proud to be able to say – for the first time ever as an American Citizen – Happy Frickin’ 4th of July everybody!

I feel very lucky to be able to enjoy dual-citizenship, because I have such strong ties with both Canada and the United States – and I never had a choice.

I bleed red white and blue. And then red and white again. But whatever colors I bleed, they don’t run. Coo loo koo koo coo loo koo koo, and I regret that I have but one life to give for my province. Speak now or forever hold your poutine.

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Leave Barnstead Alone!


in

Forget about Britney – my old pal Eric Barnstead is being harangued by his neighbors in Concord to move and/or shut down his home based landscaping business.

“The board has always had a reluctance” to deny home-based businesses, Chairman Roberto Braceras said before the board voted. “Perhaps the community has become so upscale that we’re going to restrict someones ability to make a living.”

That sounds like Concord all over. From what I can tell his neighbors on Ministerial Drive have made him jump through many difficult hoops in the hopes that he’d be unable to abide and then inevitably shut down by the board. He took down the small sign he had for his business on his lawn as per their wishes. He also limits vehicle trips, idling time, limits his employees to one, operates within strict hours and has ceased storing any materials there. But there’s no pleasing those elitist bastards.

“The neighbors are asking ourselves if we should have moved here or to Billerica,” said one angry neighbor in an outburst after the hearing was closed, “Because here is going to be like Billerica if you continue to carry on this way.”

What a pompous twat. Eric has always been a bit of a back woodsman in the middle of a street of the elite, but he’s a good man and a hard worker – not to mention he is one of the best harmonica players I have ever heard. I spent a lot of time at that house during high school, and I know the area well. Caterina Heights Powder Mill Road definitely isn’t, and I have a hard time imagining the Barnstormer single-handedly causing property values to plummet.

None stood in support of the applicant; almost the entire audience rose in opposition.

Hang in there, brother. If this doesn’t work out John Popper has never looked very healthy.

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I Throw My Panties at Your Copyright


in Endorsements

According to every authority figure I have ever had, there’s a right way and a wrong way to do things. When advanced Flash video compression first came on the scene in 2005, creating new media juggernauts like YouTube and Google Video, it sent copyright holders spinning on their heads and running for their attorneys. Lawsuits were threatened, videos were pulled down quicker than Madonna’s sheer thong (I love Madge, but this is just wrong) and many predicted the demise of the powerful new sharing technology and the hugely popular sites it had so quickly spawned. That, for the record, was the wrong way to do things.

What YouTube and its peers have done is create access to a massive amount of content that many people, particularly young people with money, would never have had access to. In many cases, these young people discovering new movies, bands and TV shows will then go out and purchase CDs, DVDs, BlurRay discs and MP3s. Most record companies, movie studios and TV networks fought tooth and nail against allowing Duran Duran videos, clips from Caddyshack and 80s SNL episodes from availability on YouTube. Of course they’d rather someone had to buy the material instead of watching it for free online – but they won’t buy anything if they are completely unaware of its existence.

Compressed Flash video has very poor audio and video quality by today’s advanced HD standards. It can’t be easily downloaded, converted to other video formats or burned onto DVDs. It threatens nothing but can offer everything to savvy marketers and enlightened corporate decision makers. And it seems YouTube now offers the ability for these copyright holders to take alternate and potentially profitable measures against folks, in this case yours truly, who upload and share material that they own.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Qd0lZIIn3A[/youtube]

“UMG has claimed some or all audio content in your video One Thirsty Kitty. This claim was made as part of the YouTube Content Identification program.”

Apparently someone at UMG took exception recently to the fact that I used Tom Jones’ What’s New Pussycat? as the soundtrack to my breathtaking masterpiece, One Thirsty Kitty. This is one of the most highly viewed videos I have created and shared on the network, but their attention was more likely drawn to it because I ‘tagged’ it with the title and artist, hoping that Tom Jones fans might find and enjoy it. In their email to me, however, YouTube mentions an automated method they’ve created that can seek out at least songs automatically: “Partners may use our automated video / audio matching system to identify their content, or they may manually review videos.” Did some sort of spider crawl through my page and discover the use of the song? If so, that’d almost be cool. But let’s be realistic, it was probably a human busybody.

The right way to do something is what YouTube has empowered UMG to do in my case. I get to keep my silly video of Boss online. YouTube gets to keep a half decent and reasonably popular piece of content live, and UMG may someday, if they haven’t already, enjoy sales of Tom Jones CDs, DVDs or MP3s because a surfer heard the song on One Thirsty Kitty and fell in love with it. Apparently they are also now allowed to use the page OTK resides upon for advertising purposes. It’s a clever compromise and it benefits all three parties.

“Your video is still live because UMG has authorized the use of this content on YouTube. As long as UMG has a claim on your video, they will receive public statistics about your video, such as number of views. Viewers may also see advertising on your video’s page.”

Well done, YouTube Content Identification Team, and I sincerely mean that. This is progress.

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