Waterloo – a dark horse to bet on.

My six year residency in Waterloo for my undergraduate and graduate was overall quite positive.  The negatives are easy to pinpoint – small town, one good club, one good lounge, few good restaurants, and a very new city – very little evidence of older settlements and a downtown of a few blocks that gets major competition from suburban malls and power centres.

The positives are a bit more subcutaneous but they are big.  One is the attraction of strong human capital to the area – two innovative universities and one of Canada’s most successful colleges that have revolutionized co-operative education, RIM along with the dozens of other international hi-tech companies, a major insurance hub, among many others.  They knew that this was the way Canada was going and made the right moves.  Their manufacturing was strong earlier, but like most Canadian cities is steadily on the decline.  In my findings, it’s due to RIM co-CEOs Lazaridis and Balsillie, as well as University of Waterloo President David Johnston.  They embraced and implemented ideas related to intellectual property, improving the conversation between public and private, and really just trying to actualize forward thinking. It seems like a common idea, but who actually takes action on progressive policies and ideas, and quickly? To boot, they have a great city park, one of the country’s best independent movie theatres, and a mean dark lager.

Even environmentally, they have invested millions in (ground)water research, mainly because they realize they are a massively growing community that is 100km away from a Great Lake.  Groundwater represents 85% of Waterloo Region’s water supply.  They also implement urban growth boundaries so recharge areas stay intact and we don’t live in Mississauga.  Their conservation authority is a national leader in watershed management.

Last year they were given an (evidently prestigious) international award for the world’s most intelligent community.  Now c/o the new Perimeter Institute, a physics research think tank, next summer they are hosting one of the brightest minds in the world, Dr. Stephen Hawking. Here’s the Globe & Mail article.

All things considered, things are looking up for Waterloo Region.  They just need to beat the iPhone, but that is looking less and less likely.  Maybe they will just innovate again.

In my experience it has the reputation of being a geeky, sleepy, potentially boring place.  But like anything, the city is what you make it, and there are tons of great things going on throughout K/W all the time.  And for me, it felt amazing to be among a community of such bright, motivated, and yes geeky people.  Geeks got skillz.  God forbid people are fascinated by truly fascinating things and expressing it openly, and it not having to do with the Maple Leafs or your new Hollister necklace.

I saw Stars last night.

Saw them play at the seemingly regular haunt of Metropolis.  Still think it’s the best venue I’ve ever been to.  Perfect size, great sound, beautiful old building, always great Montreal energy.  Even moreso for hometowners Stars, with Gentleman Reg opening.  Gentleman had a full band this time around, was a step up from his solo acoustic performances I’ve seen for sure, but more I-IV-V rock than I wanted.

Stars have significantly improved since I’ve seen them at Waterloo’s Starlight a few years ago.  Plus they are much more of a big venue kind of band rather than a second floor, 9ft ceiling 250 cap club band.  Performances were nearly flawless, passion from Torq as per usual, and the everyindieman’s fawning crush, Amy Millan.  I’ve had my very own Amy Millan fantasy that consists of old hardwood, middle eastern rugs, a low fire, orange Fanta, whiskey, old Martin guitars, and us dueting the Beatles.

Highlights included Ageless Beauty, Look Up, Elevator Love Letter, and the spirit of the Montreal fans.  One interesting thing I noticed at this show was how many couples in attendance.  This band is like the Harry Met Sally of indie rock, and I ate it up with a coffee spoon.  Lather on the camembert.

Housing market projections.

Yale economist Robert Shiller has shown the past 100+ years of housing values, adjusted for inflation of course.  If an 1890 house valued at $100,000 (current day value) is 100%, you can follow how values have changed from then until now.  Then some other people have guessed the bust of this housing boom.

I feel a bit less anxious since I’m poor and have no investments.  Now maybe I can actually afford a place in Squamish.

(via cflatt and popurls.com)

Best musical performance on Letterman, ever.

As promised – My Morning Jacket, the hair rock god aliens playing with the Boston Pops on Mr. Letterman.  You may disagree and feel like the Audioslave or TV on the Radio performances on the Letterman fire escape are better.  But they don’t have the voice of Jim James.  So win.  This song is a perfect protest song, guessing it’s directly addressed to W.  Lyrics below.

Gideon, what have you told us at all?  Make a sound, come down off the wall.  Religion should appeal to the hearts of the young.  Who are you, what have you become?  You animal, come on.  What does this remind you of?

Truly we have become hated and feared for something we don’t want.  Listen – most of us believe that this is wrong.  Animal, come on.  What does this remind you of?

Best musical performance on Conan, ever.

Conan is my boy.  I’ve seen a lot of crappy indie bands on that show and it makes sense sometimes – you get one song, one shot, and now I sound like Eminem.

Jim James and his lovely band My Morning Jacket may just be the very best rock band in America.  They have been for the past few years.  This song (“One Big Holiday” from LP It Still Moves) is from a while back, about three albums ago.  Just make sure you watch it to the end and hear Conan’s reaction.  Just think of them as hairy rock aliens, showing us Earthlings that rock and roll is still alive and changed for the better.

Next post I will show you my favourite performance on Letterman.  And golly it`s My Morning Jacket again.

Excel comedy.

My love of Excel will never cease.  Mostly care of http://www.graphjam.com

Palin just won’t go away. Too good not to post.

Think about this – she was 3% of the popular vote away from being a 33% chance of replacing McCain as president (33% being the chance that McCain wouldn’t survive his first term determined by actuaries).

America – you barely did the right thing.  So I guess I’m just barely proud of you.

Now do you think the hockey moms will finally chuchoté?

Your body is 70% water, 30% corn.

My research site is an agricultural area and the vast majority of the land around it grows corn.  It’s always makes me remember when I was listening to CBC Radio 1 a few years ago.  They were interviewing a food scientist about the presence of corn in the average North American diet, and it shocked me at the time.  You know when you drive by corn fields and wonder if the world eats that much corn?  Well most of the time the corn isn’t fit for human consumption directly – it’s either for feeding livestock or for other products like corn syrup and corn starch.

What’s most shocking is how corn products are in literally everything – spaghetti sauce, bread, and most of your meat (since it’s corn fed, you’re kidding yourself if you think it’s grain fed). The great example is any fast food burger combo – meat (corn fed), bun (corn syrup/starch), ketchup (corn syrup), fries (fried in oil that’s mainly corn derived), pop (literally all corn syrup).  Getting the hint?  Let’s just say this is unnerving.  For one it shows how unbalanced our diet is regardless of our effort.  Second, it worries me that our food economy is so reliant on corn – it’s fertilizer and water intensive and like any crop is subject to microbiological predation.  If we lose massive crops, our whole food system will be screwed.  People diversify their economic portfolios, why don’t we do it with natural resources and food?  We’re smart enough to at least attempt balance. Yes yes I know the almighty dollar.  But it’s not like corn is cheap these days, the demand for corn has created a chicken/egg situation.  Next up is soy.

Some people think that high fructose corn syrup is the main reason for obesity in North America.  Academics think humans are essentially walking corn chips.  Of course a great documentary has been made about this very thing, it’s called King Corn.  I didn’t hear about it until recently, but there are torrents available if you’re interested.  Here’s the trailer/interview:

The future of synthesizers? Meet the ReacTable.

I won’t spend a long time trying to explain the Reactable.  In short, it is the biggest and best of a new style of synthesizers created by a team of European professors.  They call this class of instruments tangible musical interfaces.  Ever since Bjork used it at Coachella 2007, I have been obsessed.  Not only with this conceptual basis of creating modular analog-style sounds without conventional knobs or keys, but of course the eye candy is truly awe-inspiring.  So yes, this blue table is a musical instrument!

Watch the YouTube demo below, or go to the official website here.   I’m guessing you will see it in big rock bands, but I think it will be especially popular for club/electro/dance music.  Picture a DJ with an overhead webcam using this table at a club – people would freak out.  Dudes like BT and Chemical Brothers should be salivating.  You don’t necessarily need to know anything about synthesis, just sit back and listen and watch.  If you do know anything about synthesis, it’s nothing short of jaw dropping.

Some vegetarian meals of food.

I’m not a vegetarian, but it’s always good to have veggie meals in the arsenal.  Especially since most of us meaters eat too much of it anyway.  Nothing too crazy this time around, just some nice classiques:

Vegetable quiche – I love frozen pie crust.  I am yet to be much of a baker, so I rely on frozen puff pastry and frozen pie crust for my offerings.  Soon enough though, just need to buy some lard.  Just used broccoli, onion, mushroom, garlic, a few green peppers, 4 eggs, S&P, lemon juice, and a crapload of good melting cheese (I like Gruyere but cheddar melts well too).  Oh yes, and all the fresh parm you can handle.  Then top with sliced tomatoes, more parm, and some basil.  325 oven for an hour for a nice browning.  Such awesome comfort food.

Roasted tomato greek salad – Let’s face it, lettuce sucks.  And it’s not that nutritious either.  So I only use the goodies from a greek salad.  Roasted some tomatoes on high heat for 25 minutes and the flavour is insanity.  So much better.  Then added all of the other standard ingredients – green pepper, red onion, cucumber, feta, olives, with a homemade greek red wine vinaigrette (olive oil, red wine vinegar, touch of balsamic, oregano, pepper, whole grain dijon, honey).

Tofu steaks – maybe not your first idea of amazing flavour, you just need to know how to do it right, especially with a vegetarian ladyfriend.  The key is marinating the tofu for at least a few hours.  For my marinade, I used sour cream, loads of garlic, lemon juice, cumin, cayenne, curry powder, S&P.

After it marinates, I quickly dredge in flour and throw it on a pan full of hot oil+butter (butter for flavour, oil for high smoking temperature).  Just let them sizzle for a few minutes each side, then I used the marinade as a dipping sauce.

94/115.

Just out of curiosity, I tallied (by subtraction, believe me) how many of the 115 things I “like” over at the ubiquitous StuffWhitePeopleLike.Com.  The author is originally from Toronto and fits the white, upper middle class, left leaning, arts minded, liberal elite quite well.  And now I’m out of text breath.

94.  I’m a percentage guy, so 82% completely fall in line with me.  The ones furthest from my grasp were bumper stickers, rugby, 80s night, lawyers, and hating their parents.  Hey man, not afraid to say I’m lucky for a solid childhood experience.  The rest are dead on, and the ones that are especially embarassing for me are Mos Def, expensive sandwiches, and living by the water.

The great irony of this (x2) is people like us hate getting pigeonholed, we feel like we are clearing our own path of white liberal (guilt).  He’s done a great job at classifying this sect of the population and more or less outed us as just another mass media demographic.  Us whiteys may hate marketing, but yet another contradiction we possess is we conveniently ignore Apple, Starbucks, and American Apparel as beautifully targeting our market.  So we hate marketing except when it’s for products we need or want or are cool… which covers…. yeah.  Overall, I like that this site helps us actualize our contradictions and our normalcy.  We need that.

Keith Olbermann on Proposition 8.

Yes he may be the exact opposite (and thus possibly just as bad) as O’Reilly.   But as left leaner, Keith Olbermann speaks my English.  I’m just glad he doesn’t yell, and unlike our friend ‘lil Bill, he knows that louder is not more correct.

This is sentimental, and I like I’m getting something sentimental from a news mannequin once in a while. I want Mormons who spent their life savings on Proposition 8 to see this video, as long as their brains aren’t cemented shut by Joseph Smith.

The obvious Synecdoche, New York post.

Charlie Kaufman, writer of the massively brilliant Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind among others is out with his directorial debut, Synecdoche New York.  The movie is already out in a few cities (NY, LA, Toronto soon, Montreal on the 21st).  As you can see it stars the virtuousic Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Dianne West, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and my #1 quasi mom-aged crush Catherine Keener.  #2 is Diane Keaton.  Charlie has done a great job at selecting the world’s most creative directors, so I’m curious to see how he does on his own.

If you want some background on the movie and on Charlie Kaufman, go check out this interview on Charlie Rose.  I really enjoy Charlie Rose, he is probably my favourite interviewer around these days.  He seems so passionate and interested in his interviews and asks great probing questions.  He also has embraced online viewership wholeheartedly as all interviews of late have been posted on the website.  He’s got it all – world class guests in politics, science, entertainment, literature.  All the right moves.

Anyway, this movie looks like a very typical setup for a Kaufman film – a neurotic protagonist who is chronically unhappy and so brilliant that they lack focused ambition as too many things are going on in their brains.  Definitely an art imitating life imitating art in the case of Kaufman.   Naturally, I am very excited to see this movie.  Like most people in my demo, these movies have been nothing short of inspiring.  This man alone proves to me there are plenty more stories to tell in Hollywood, and even more excitingly it tells me there are more than a million more ways to tell it.

Here’s the trailer:

Unashamed Deerhunter fan.

Always reluctant to overhipsterize myself at Pitchforkmedia.com.  Overall they recommend interesting music – some melodic, some not.  As a sole slave for good melody I only occasionally agree with their “Best New Music”.

They’ve been bedding Deerhunter for a while now, and I always instantly lumped them in with all the BS deer/fox/wolf/frog/mid-latitude fauna pick of the day, so I superficially was turned off.  Like most, I mixed them up with Deerhoof, another Pitchfork favourite which is almost entirely over my head.  After checking them out on my closest musical ally Allmusic.com, I saw they are significantly more post-rock/ambient friendly than I had remotely imagined, thus big thumbs from me.  So I got my hands on both full lengths, and I was instantly won over.  They are perfectly aligned with my preferences – Definitely tangential Radiohead, shoegaze and satisfied my reverb addiction, and a cute and welcomed touch of 90s Matador indie ala Pavement and Sonic Youth.

I love when life works out.  Just found out today they are playing Montreal tonight!  Probably going to make it, I think I’d regret it if I didn’t.  Just too serendipitous.  Looks like it’s a go, with Dieu du Ciel as a pre-hit.  If you guys aren’t aware of Montreal’s microbreweries, you are unlucky.

I had a nice 11/11 moment today, hope you all did too.

My life lately = Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V.

I admittedly love Excel, but when you spend days upon days simply copying and pasting, one considers hiring a monkey.  Or an undergrad.  At least I get a view of Parc and Sherbrooke, some solid coffee/croissant, and good company.

Thesis done soon, yes.