December 3rd, 2007, 4 Comments »
Having spent the start of the hockey season in Malta, I regularly want to watch NHL (and in particular, Canucks) highlights online. This proved surprisingly challenging. I’ve made a lengthy survey of the alternatives, and here’s what I came up with. I have a relatively slow Web connection here in Malta, and I’m running a MacBook with AdBlock Plus, which can play havoc with Flash-based videos.
- Fox Sports - Decent Flash-based videos, though they’re in a popup window and you have to filter for ‘NHL’ before you can see any. They provide short clips and they only seem to cover the American teams. Grade: B-
- ESPN - Again, decent Flash player but they only cover American teams and their videos often aren’t up to date. It’s December 3rd today, and they haven’t posted video from yesterday’s games. Also, the clips are on the short side. Grade: C+
- TSN - It could just be my connection speed, but this site takes an eternity to load, and performs very poorly in Firefox and Safari on the Mac. The video itself is good, but getting there is too much trouble. Grade: D
- SportsNet - The videos simply won’t play on my Mac, in either Safari or Firefox. Under the blank video window I see the message “Flash is required for Sportsnet.ca video.” I obviously have Flash installed, so I don’t know what’s up. Grade: F
- CBC Sports - I’ve been watching these for a while, and they’re quite good. Yes, it’s an irksome pop-up window, but the Flash app is very fast, easy to use and the videos are lengthy and well-edited. Grade: A-
- NHL.com - It took me a while to find these videos, because a search for “NHL.com video” indicated that their latest video was from 2004. These guys are the winners. They have a fast Flash-based player, the longest highlights packages, and you can choose individual clips–goals, saves, hits and other incidents–from the game summary. Grade: A
My universal complaint about these video sites and micro-sites is that they always disclose the scores before you watch the package. I prefer to watch the highlights with the outcome in doubt. I ought to be able to click a button to hide the scores in the web app.
4 Comments »
October 29th, 2007, 6 Comments »
Stuart McLean is Canada’s Garrison Keilor. His main gig is The Vinyl Cafe, an hour-long variety show on the CBC. These shows are anchored by McLean’s “Dave and Morley” stories–tales of a fictional Toronto family which feel a bit like “For Better or Worse” on the radio.
It’d be easy to dismiss McLean’s schtick as sappy, family-friendly entertainment, but I think what he does is quite tricky. He manages to tell richly-detailed, funny, charming stories about the mundane details of our lives. And he does it without resorting to a lot of comedic tricks–it’s all there in the strength of his writing and delivery. And his delivery is great–he’s a very natural storyteller and humourist.
I wouldn’t want to listen to him every day, but once a week would be quite enjoyable. And now I can, because the CBC just started podcasting the Dave and Morley story portion of The Vinyl Cafe broadcast. I’m subscribed.
UPDATE: Jody’s comment reminded me of something I meant to mention. I suspect McLean makes good money out of his Vinyl Cafe books and recordings, so it surprised me to see his material on iTunes for free. I suspect he conceives of it as a promotional strategy for expanding his audience. After all, the people listening to this podcast probably aren’t the same people who regularly buy his books and CDs.
6 Comments »
October 9th, 2007, 10 Comments »
Last week on CBC’s Q, I listened to a pretty fascinating interview (MP3) with cinematic auteur and hero of snobby cineastes Peter Greenaway. Greenaway was on to promote his latest film, Nightwatching (here’s an extended trailer).
I quite like Q host Jian Ghomeshi, but he was definitely fighting above his weight. Greenaway lectured him on a number of topics, including the ‘death of cinema’. I agreed with much of what Greenaway said, so I transcribed a few bits (only transcribe opinions you concur with, I always say):
Cinema now, with the laptop generation, Generation X, is really to do with an interactive, multimedia world and cinema can’t be that. Cinema cannot be democratic–it cannot create multiple endings. You can’t interface with it in any satisfactory way.
So, I think if we’re going to excite imaginations with the potentiality of this grand audio-visual experience, we’re going to find new ways of doing it. I would argue that the ‘Casablanca’ syndrome–that cut-and-dry bedtime story for adults–is really finished. It doesn’t really have a place anymore.
That’s not to say the screen is going to disappear. I have a mobile phone in my pocket, and I suspect you have too. And it has a screen.
And here’s another good bit:
We’re now all lateral thinkers, and certainly we are encyclopedists. We are browsers, we are laptop users. So we have to refashion this media to be relevant to contemporary imaginations.
I’m fond of saying that, before too long, going to the cinema will join the ballet and the opera as dated, niche entertainments that appeal to a few. Mr. Greenaway just said it better.
10 Comments »
October 8th, 2007, 7 Comments »
Whiskey tango foxtrot? I leave town for a few months and the place goes to hell in a handcart. The Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation is accepting proposals (PDF) (thanks to Sarah for the link) for a new, uh, exhibit in Stanley Park:
The Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation (the “Park Board”) invites proposals from experienced proponents for the provision of life size animatronic dinosaur and related educational exhibits at Stanley Park in Vancouver, British Columbia. The exhibits will
be set up in the Miniature Railway area and the Children’s Farmyard area.
Is ‘proponents’ the mot juste there? I don’t think so.
Here’s a CBC article about the request for proposals. That’s just nuts. It’s a city park, not a funfair. I encourage the Parks Board staff to take a drive up to Hope, and witness the sad, tired remains of bizarre theme parks that litter the highway. Maybe then they’ll think twice?
It’s a bit like the Parks Board was traumatized by last winter’s storm damage, and they’re just blindly reaching for anything to make us forget about it.
7 Comments »
September 22nd, 2007, 3 Comments »
I happened to hear on the CBC today that Diana Krall has a new compilation album out called The Very Best of Diana Krall. I’m not a fan, but it got me thinking about ‘best of’ albums, why they’re made and how they’re marketed.
I didn’t think for very long, because I decided that I know almost nothing about the subject. Presumably these albums aren’t targeted at dedicated fans, because they already own almost all the tracks from their original releases.
Just Some Demos I Recorded in My Basement
I say ‘almost’ because the compilation album usually includes one or two token ‘previously unreleased’ songs, which are obviously there entice the loyal fan who wants to own everything by their favourite artists (I’m reminded of an old Barenaked Ladies song). iTunes, PureTracks et al have changed this practice, enabling fans to only purchase the 10% of the music that they don’t already own. That said, I’m guessing that most Diana Krall fans will still be buying CDs as opposed to downloading music.
One way to get fans to buy compilation CDs is to pair them with another whole CD of previously unreleased material. I remember that the 10,000 Maniacs did this, and I bought in. Did I get real value for my money? Probably not, but I was pleased to hear 14 new songs (or versions of songs) that I hadn’t heard before.
Assuming it isn’t existing fans, who buys compilations? I’m so out of tune with the music buying patterns of the average adult that I have very little idea. How do people over thirty buy music these days? Do they go to HMV or Walmart with particular CDs in mind? Do they decide ‘I’m going to buy a CD today’, and then peruse the store aisles for something that strikes their fancy? Do they usually visit the artist’s website first?
How do you shop for music? Do you buy compilations? I’m less interested to hear from the iTunes and Music users of the world, and more keen to hear from people who walk into bricks and mortar stores and walk out with shiny plastic discs.
On a vaguely related note, while watching season one of “Heroes”, I was reminded once again of how Ms. Krall and Ali Larter were separated at birth.
3 Comments »
September 19th, 2007, 15 Comments »
Tomorrow I’d like to watch a crucial Canada-Australia football/soccer game at the Women’s World Cup. It’s being broadcast live (at the convenient local time of 10:45am–the tournament’s in China) on CBCSports.ca, but can only be accessed in Canada. The same is true of NHL hockey, which I’d like to watch this fall.
The CBC blocks the rest of the world from watching sports programs because they don’t have broadcast licensing agreements with other countries. That’s lame, but understandable. It’s frustrating, though, as a tax-paying Canadian who doesn’t happen to currently reside in Canada.
I’m looking for a relatively pain-free means of looking Canadian to the CBC’s Canucklehead firewall. I read through Boing Boing’s anti-censorware page, but nothing there seemed applicable to my particular problem. Any suggestions?
UPDATE: I’ve got a kind offer from a Canada-residing Canadian to offer his machine as a proxy server. Now I’m desperate seeking instructions and/or software which enables him to easily set up a proxy server thingy, and me to connect through his machine.
UPDATE #2: Meh. I got access to a Slingbox from another kind Canadian, but the connection speed was pretty poor on my end. Plus, sports are about the worst thing you can watch on dodgy Internet-powered streaming Web video. There’s fast camera movements and many small objects in motion on screen. Soccer is bad, but in my experience hockey is the worst.
Ultimately, the Canadian women failed to advance through to the quarter-finals. A disappointing result for our national team.
15 Comments »
September 5th, 2007, 4 Comments »
I’ve had a few browser tabs open in over the weekend. They’re topics that don’t necessarily merit a complete post, but I wanted to mention them:
- She’s Geeky is an unconference that “will provide an agenda-free and friendly environment for women who not only care about building technology that is useful for people, but who also want to encourage more women to get involved.” Sounds like a great event. I wouldn’t have positioned this with the ‘geeky’ moniker. I know plenty of women who would be interested in and could contribute this unconference, but would prefer not to self-identify this way.
- October 15th is Blog Action Day, when “bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment.” Hopefully they send me an email to remind me–I’m a very forgetful blogger. Oddly, when I registered my participation, they only asked how many RSS subscribers I had, not how many readers. Obviously plenty of site visitors don’t visit the front page, but my RSS subscribers are only a subset of the daily readers of this site.
- John discovered a new alternative to cremation or burial: “Resomation is an environmentally responsible, non-burn, water based process which sympathetically returns the body to its constituent elements.” Weird, but strangely appealing.
- I didn’t realize how shockingly negligent the American government has been regarding lead poisoning among its population. Has the Canadian government done any better?
- I must find an anonymizing tool which will serve up my IP address as Canadian, so that I can watch Hockey Night in Canada from abroad. Because of licensing issues, the CBC restricts the games to Canadian Internet users.
4 Comments »
August 2nd, 2007, 3 Comments »
I think Tapestry is one of the CBC’s most consistently interesting programs. They often have fascinating, learned guests, and talk about topics of religion, spirituality, and culture that rarely get discussed in other secular or (relatively) unbiased settings.
I recently listened to an episode featuring Daniel Gilbert, Harvard professor and social psychologist. I’m a bit late on this, because I gather he wrote a bestseller last year called Stumbling on Happiness.
Gilbert was an articulate, clever, amusing guest–you really wished that host Mary Hynes would just keep her mouth shut so that he could keep talking. Hynes is usually an excellent interviewer, but I’m afraid she contributes very little to this particular conversation.
The book isn’t a handbook on how to be happy, but seems to be an examination of the past twenty years research on the subject. There are a number of compelling points that arose in the piece. Here are two:
- We all have a default happiness setting, to which we tend to return. Events which seem to inspire great joy or sadness in fact have a much lesser, much briefer impact on our psyches than we imagine.
- Parenting, statistically speaking, makes you less happy.
Anyhow, I’ve added Stumbling on Happiness to my list of books to buy. I’d definitely recommend that you give the CBC piece a listen, and watch this earlier talk Gilbert gave at TED. I wrote about Gilbert a while back, referencing a talk he gave at SXSW (MP3).
3 Comments »
July 19th, 2007, No Comments »
My favourite new podcast is the CBC’s Editor’s Choice, a melange of episodes from the various shows on CBC 1 radio. I recently listened to a fascinating report (one of a series, I think) called “Black Hat, White Coat”. It was produced and narrated by an emergency room doctor, Dr. Brian Goldman.
He interviews emergency room staff, and discusses the crucial, stressful role of the triage nurse. There’s also a really interesting conversation about the False Creek Surgical Centre, a new, controversial, possibly-private medical centre in Vancouver (there’s no Wikipedia entry for them–I’ll start one).
You can listen to the episode here:
I’ve been fortunate never to have gone to the emergency room in my adult life for myself. Touch wood. A lot of wood.
No Comments »
July 16th, 2007, 1 Comment »
I did a lot of housework this weekend, and thus caught up on a bunch of podcasts. I’m quite enjoying the CBC’s cultural magazine show, Q. They have this weekly web correspondent who reports on fun stuff from the Web. I’d heard of everything else he talked about with the exception of What Jeff Killed was new to me.
Welcome to What Jeff Killed, your authoritative source for news and information about Jeff The Giant Orange Cat and his favorite pastime: killing things.
DISCLAIMER: This Web site contains disgusting/disturbing images, has no value whatsoever, and due to its content should not be viewed by anyone. Read the full disclaimer.
Yeah, Jeff kills some big things. Some of those photos are particularly visceral.
I don’t think that web guy has his schtick quite sorted out. He sang the praises of Battle at Kruger, and even mentioned the 6.7 million people who’d seen it. He also mentioned ye olde Dramatic Chipmunk. Isn’t his job to find stuff on the web that people haven’t seen?
1 Comment »
