The Coldsnap music festival just finished up in Prince George. I’m a big fan of the festival (and, disclosure, a board member). It’s brought in all-sorts of high-calibre acts that normally wouldn’t tour the city, including Joel Plaskett, Shad, the Great Lake Swimmers, and Dan Managan. This year was no different, with an awesome show by Hey Ocean and an appearance by Whitehorse– among many others.
But one of the highlights for me is the local musicians who get to play. There’s always been a local music component to the festival, but this year the locals were promoted a bit more heavily than in previous years– and with good reason. The locals are just as good as any out-of-town act (and that’s not a knock to the out-of-town acts, it doesn’t matter who came in from outside, the locals would have matched them).
On night one of the locals shows, I caught two young musicians, Darby Yule and Isaac Smeele for the first time– and bought cds from each after fantastic sets. I’ve been a fan of Jamie Bell for a long time, and was happy to hear him please the crowd once again. Then a group of UNBC students playing a mix of bebop and ska under the monikor The Bricks took the stage and, I believe, got more encores than anyone else at the festival. Night two was one of my favourite live experiences, Doug Koyama looping his vocals over himself. Then a few more newbise for me– Mother Tareka, a hip-hop artist who self-accompanies using saxophone, flute, and beatboxing, Avid, a new mordern-rock act, and Dead Street, consisting of various veterans of the PG music scene experimenting with psychedelic and grunge.
And that’s not all– Quesnel’s band reeves opened up for Whitehorse at the PG Playhouse, and as good as Whitehorse was (they are a huge act on the indie scene), I’ve had multiple people tell me reeves sort of upstaged them. Even Whitehorse gave them a shout-out. And there were workshops throughout town that let other burgeoning talents develop and test out their skills.
I’m making the same point I’ve made before– there is an awesome amount of talent in this city. It’s great that Coldsnap can be used to highlight the fun and importance of live music, but these talents should be supported year-round. Fortunately there’s no shortage of opportunities. I feel bad for not posting this yesterday before Jamie Bell opened for Lauren Mann and the Fairly Odd Folk, but yeah, that happened. Incidentally, Lauren Mann is the group that took reeves on a national tour this past summer. And tomorrow Canadian Waste (possibly the most buzzed-about live act at the moment) are playing a benefit show for a downtown building that’s supported the arts scene. On any given weekend, there are shows at Nancy-O’s, Books and Company, and various other venues around town.
There should never be anyone complaining about a lack of places to go in town. My biggest problem is not having the energy to go to everything I’d like to on any given weekend. And that’s the way it should be.
From Minister of State for Democratic Reform Tim Uppal:
1/5: GoC is committed to bringing Canadian elections into 21st century…
— Tim Uppal (@MinTimUppal) January 13, 2012
2/5: … by introducing legislation to get rid of the dated ban on early transmission of election results. #elxnresults
— Tim Uppal (@MinTimUppal) January 13, 2012
3/5: The ban, enctd in 1938, does not make sense with widespread use of social media and modern communications technology. #elxnresults
— Tim Uppal (@MinTimUppal) January 13, 2012
4/5: Canadians should have freedom to communicate about election results without fear of heavy penalty. #elxnresults
— Tim Uppal (@MinTimUppal) January 13, 2012
5/5: Paul Bryan should be acknowledged for his advocacy on this issue. #elxnresults
— Tim Uppal (@MinTimUppal) January 13, 2012
My question is: will anyone oppose this move?
Related: Did You #TweettheResults?
My recent post on biking struck a chord, attracting over 100 pageviews in 24 hours and about 30 social media shares (for my low-level blogging, this is positively viral). This was in response to a column in the Prince George Free Press, and today I’m glad to see they’ve printed another response.
It comes from Jillian Merrick, president of the Prince George Cycling Club, and one of the people whose comments coloured my post, as well. You can read it here on page 7, but once again since the Free Press has no direct link I’m going to excerpt it wholesale, too. Here it is:
“Editor:
While I understand that Ms. Pilon’s ‘Life in the Fat Lane’ column is an opinion piece, I am deeply troubled by the attitude and lack of personal responsibility Ms. Pilon shows as a fellow road user.
In her article, Ms. Pilon wags her finger at winter cyclists, shaming them for scaring her as she nearly runs them over on several occasions. She unknowingly describes many dangerous aspects of her own driving, while blaming the cyclists for the near accidents. In her own words, she ‘was sliding through a yellow light on 15th Avenue’ and ‘waiting for the heater to defrost the paintings Jack Frost rippled all over my windows.’ As a responsible driver, Ms Pilon should be reducing her speed on icy days and braking well in advance of the intersections to avoid sliding through them. Even more frightening, she should not be driving if she cannot see out her windows.
Ms. Pilon also demonstrates the most common misconception drivers have about cyclists. She curses the cyclist for ‘taking up the middle of the street to avoid those nasty ruts,’ Ms Pilon, like many, is unaware that, by law, cyclists are vehicles that have the same right to the road as motorized traffic. Cyclists must use designated bike lanes and the right hand side of the lane when it is safe to do so, but cyclists are allowed to take the whole lane when a safe alternative is not available. Ms Pilon is also unaware that there are winter tires for bicycles and most winter cyclists use them, and that wearing winter boots to push pedals is no more dangerous that wearing winter boots to push gas (and brake) pedals.
Ms. Pilon admits to passing the same cyclist every day on her way to work, but fails to recognize that passing the same cyclists every day at the same time likely means that he is also on his way to work. Instead she depicts the cyclist as a leisurely gentleman causing trouble for the fun of it. I have no doubt that his morning commute is far more challenging and stressful than her own, and that he would take a viable alternative if available. Most winter cyclists imply do not have another means of getting to where they need to go. The lack of empathy shown is disheartening.
Finally, Ms. Pilon contributes to the false culture of fear around cycling that, as a cycling community, we work very had to dispel. She associates cycling with a death wish and makes much ado of the dangers. Little does she know there are a mere 65 cyclist fatalities in Canada each year, while a killer such as heart disease accounts for 650,000 fatalities. A hard look at the facts reveals that ‘Life in the Fat Lane’ is far more dangerous than life in the bike lane.
I would urge pedestrians, cyclists and motorists alike to use extra caution and understanding in these especially icy conditions.”
If I have one minor quibble with this reaction, it’s the statement that the gentleman’s commute is more stressful than Ms. Pylon’s and he would take a viable alternative if available. As frustrating as aspects of biking can be, I have to say I find that in many cases it’s less stressful than driving, even in winter (the one exception being when you encounter drivers like Ms. Pilon reports herself to be). I do have viable alternatives available yet I choose to bike because, on the whole, I think biking is the best alternative– economically, environmentally, and health-wise. That said, it is probably true that I’m the exception rather than the rule– people on bikes, especially in winter, may wish they were in a car (or a bus that ran a little more often/faster than they do in Prince George).
What I really appreciate about this is the statistic of 65 cyclist fatalities versus 650,000 heart disease fatalities. It’s fascinating that people would rather support a sedentary lifestyle that is far more likely to result in death than getting regular daily exercise to-and-from work. Statistically, the health benefits of biking far outweigh the risks associated with it– but that’s another post for another day.
Online database for Vancouver renters in the works →
From CKNW:
Vancouver is one step closer to having an online database for renters.
A motion is going before council next week calling for the creation of a searchable rental database.
Mayor Gregor Robertson calls it a necessary tool for Vancouver renters, adding it will them avoid negligent landlords.
Robertson says the city already collects data on the history and safety compliance of building owners, and the goal is to make that information more accessible.
The idea for the database comes from New York City, where a similar website was launched last year.
Based on Prince George having its own problems, I’m wondering if this is a model being examined.
In a recent issue of the Prince George Free Press, columnist Delynda Pilon writes a piece entitled “Snow Covered Roads No Place for Bikes.” I can’t link directly to the article, but it’s on page seven of this issue. The column title is “Life in the Fat Lane.”
Here is what I think is a fair summary of what she writes:
“I am thinking of leaving a note on a certain vehicle that I seem to pass each morning…
It would go something like this.
‘Dear bicycle-driving person. Please stop driving that bicycle all over the place during the winter time. You are scaring me. I almost ran over you several times.’
I am not sure who this crazy guy is, driving his blessed bike around Prince George in January, but he seems to be breeding. Yesterday I saw three more of his like while I was bumping over ruts onto Victoria Street, then when I was sliding through a yellow light on 15th Avenue. And I just don’t get it. There I am, waiting for the heater to defrost the paintings Jack Frost rippled all over my windows, and along comes a fellow wrapped head to heel in cushiony comfort seated pedal bike, eking his way downtown…
…getting run over is not a fun experience, and I am trying to avoid being the one to traumatize you by crushing you in the middle of the street, little bicycle man.”
Two disclaimers.
First, assuming her statements are correct, this is not me. She says the guy has winter boots on but not winter tires. I actually have winter bike tires and tend to wear sneakers. Also, she makes reference to riding around in January. Personally, I hadn’t ridden my bike in January until yesterday (the column is from January 4, today is the 10th). And, if we’re keeping count, I didn’t ride it in most of December, either.
Second, I will give her some fair points. He should have winter tires, for his own safety and those of others. She also references his tendency to “ignore all traffic as you bump and bumble along, taking up the middle of the street… You skitter over the ice, swerve for potholes, and generally ignore everyone.” Generally not good practice.
But.
As a bike rider, this column is all sorts of infuriating. I think I know what she’s trying to do here. I think she’s trying to be folksy, relatable, sharing her little annoyances in a humourous way. But as a bike rider, in winter and summer, I find very little funny about the callousness with which Ms. Pilon overlooks her shortcomings and attempts to blame the bike riders of the world for causing her problems.
Let’s take a few of her points step by step.
“Dear bicycle-driving person. Please stop driving that bicycle all over the place during the winter time. You are scaring me. I almost ran over you several times.”
Dear Ms. Pilon,
I am sorry I and my fellow bike-riders are scaring you. I can certainly relate to how frightening it must be to almost crush us to death. Awfully inconsiderate of us.
“Yesterday I saw three more of his like while I was bumping over ruts onto Victoria Street, then when I was sliding through a yellow light on 15th Avenue.”
Wait, what? Are you seriously complaining about bike riders while you are sliding through a yellow light? Put on your brakes, woman! Compensate for the slipperiness, drive slow, and stop early. I mean, good god, you’re sliding through a yellow light and you’re upset at someone on a bike!?
“There I am, waiting for the heater to defrost the paintings Jack Frost rippled all over my windows, and along comes a fellow wrapped head to heel in cushiony comfort seated pedal bike, eking his way downtown…”
Good lord, I hope that you are waiting for your car to defrost WHILE IN A PARKED POSITION. I really don’t know though, because you’re already talking about driving. So just to be sure, since we’re trading advice here: wait until AFTER you can see out the windshield to start driving.
“Finally, do you know how hard it is for motorized vehicles to stop this time of year? Especially those driven by cranky blondes?”
I can’t speak for you cranky blondes but, yes, I do have an idea of how hard it is for motorized vehicles to stop. That’s why, when I’m driving, I tend to go slow and stop early. Instead of, you know… sliding through yellow lights.
Let’s move on.
It’s telling that Ms. Pilon decides to lay all her blame on the people biking in winter. As a group, they are not well-treated in our society.
Let me make something clear. I do not ride my bike to work for political reasons. I started doing it to save money and get exercise. As time went on, I realized its practicality. I am not trying to be an activist.
Another disclaimer. Most of the drivers I encounter are great. They give me room. They slow down. A lot of time, they’ll stop to let me cross at an intersection even when they have right-of-way.
But as Ms. Pilon has reminded me, there is nothing neutral about riding your bike in most North American cities.
Bike riders challenge things simply by existing. I want to go to from point A to point B. For much of this route, there is a bike lane. But there are a couple of sections where that bike lane disappears, and I am suddenly at the mercy of Ms. Pilon. I have to hope that she’s paying sufficient attention to the road in front of her that she notices me, off to the side, often on a layer of gravel or mud or ice that has been swept there or ignored by the street cleaners.
I’m not allowed on the sidewalk, that much is clear. The rules are bikes are to be treated as vehicles. So there I am, maxing out at maybe 15 km/h while giant hunks of metal speed by at 50 or 60 or more. Hoping.
Like I said, most drivers are fine. But every once in a while you get that person who honks at you simply for existing, yells at you to get off the road even while you’re in your designated spot, narrowly avoids hitting you despite the clearly marked lanes. And you’re reminded that this is not your place. Even with all the courteous drivers, most North American roads are truly not the ideal location for a bike to be, little white line bike lane or no.
Ms. Pilon could direct her irk elsewhere. She could ask the city to change the rules, allowing bikes on the sidewalk when safety demands it. Or to clear the lanes in winter a little more so bikes have the room to ride in their spots. Or even create TRUE dedicated bike lanes, ones that would ACTUALLY separate the cyclists from the vehicles so that she would never have to worry about Mr. Bike Rider again, and he would not have to worry about her.
There’s reasons to encourage biking. Obesity and a lack of exercise are among the top public health concerns. Bikes reduce wear on roads. Bikes are less likely to kill someone if they get into an accident. Biking reduces pollution.
And yet. And yet, and yet, and yet, bike-riders continue to be treated as an irritant. An inconvenience. A special interest group. Whenever governments or businesses announce some “green” initiative, they measure it by saying how many cars it’s equivalent to taking off the road.
Guess what? Every time you ride a bike, you ACTUALLY take a car off the road. And every time you fail to make bike riding a safe experience for people, you put one more car back on.
But despite all this, we are still treated to newspaper columnist writing light-heartedly about how inconvenient it would be for her to run over someone on a bike and destroy their life. This in the same newspaper with an article about a driver hitting a teen pedestrian, yelling at him to get out of the way or he’d do it again, and then driving off. Seriously. Page 5.
Cars have made my life imminently easier. I’ve used one for the majority of my adult life, and I completely understand why the most of my fellow citizens choose them over bikes, especially in the winter.
But can we, as a society, get over the idea that anyone on a bike is just asking for trouble? The idea that they should get behind a wheel and a motor where they belong or else they deserve whatever’s coming to them? Because that is exactly the attitude Ms. Pilon is exuding in her column.
And then she has the audacity to suggest this person cab, bus, or walk.
Guess what, Ms. Pilon? You sliding through a yellow light is going to cause problems regardless of what you hit. Whether I’m in a bus, or a cab, or (especially) a pedestrian, you failing to stop at the designated time and sliding through a yellow light as your heater slowly removes the frost off of your windows– well, that’s causing an accident, possibly fatal.
And it’s your fault. Not mine.
So thank you for your note.
—
Thank you to the comments left by some Facebook friends where I originally posted Ms. Pilon’s article. Some of your points were used in this post. Photo by ohsweetie on Flickr.
For the second year in a row, a best-of music list, complete with radio show to accompany it. However, I completely ditched the format of last year. If you want a musical accompaniment while you read, there’s a few, starting with the radio-show version of this list as broadcast on CFUR. Click the big green play button and read on.
Back to Back Albums
Last year I formatted my list as my favourite songs of 2010. The reason I did this as songs last year was because that was basically what I listened to– songs, and very few actual albums. As I wrote at the time:
“If there’s one thing I can peg 2010 too, it’s the year I officially transitioned out of listening to albums. There were very clearly great albums this year… But the fact is that everything I listened to this year was in the form of singles. If I did listen to the full album, it was after noticing that I had liked three or more songs off of the album already …
I chalk this transition up to a number of factors. First, have you heard of the internet? It’s pretty cool. Sites like the Hype Machine, Soundcloud, CBC Radio 3, Stereogum, and Ex.fm combined with Tumblr all give me daily doses of new/interesting music. That’s not to mention all the other blogs out there. This year I just got really good at using them.”
But then a funny thing happened. Shortly after writing this, I started using a service Rdio. It, too, is an internet streaming service, but its emphasis on streaming full albums, rather than songs. It also has offline mode for listening on your phone, something I’ve taken advantage of on the majority of my commutes to work.
And a funny thing happened– as it became easier for me to listen to new albums, that’s exactly what I did. And so here we are, at the end of 2011, and I’m back to making a list of my favourite albums, rather than songs.
Less Professional Listening
The emphasis on albums over singles means I probably sampled less of what was on offer this year than last. The amount of sampling I did was also hurt by the fact that while last year I spent a lot of time listening to music for CFUR and CBC, this year I moved towards more of a management role at CFUR and more of a writing-actual-stories-vs-the-music-segments role at CBC. And I just found myself missing the old-fashioned getting-to-know-an-album thing.
Criteria
So, how did I choose the list? Here’s the criteria, rough as it is.
First, the album had to be released in 2011.
Second, this is MY list based on what I listened to. It’s not supposed to be a definitive list, because I didn’t listen to half of what came out. I probably didn’t even listen to half of what’s on a bunch of other best-of lists out there. I listened to what I listened to, which was a lot, but was by no means close to comprehensive.
Third, this is about the albums, but the songs have to work, too. There’s stuff out there that’s really interesting from start to finish as an album, but if there’s not at least one tune that gets stuck in my head, it’s not going to work for me. But as a caveat to that, there’s nothing on here that’s just based on a couple of good songs while the rest of the music falls flat. If I were to make my favourite songs list, it would probably look different, but those songs don’t come from strong albums. Conversely, what we have here are all good listens from start to finish, with at least two or three stand-out tracks.
And finally, I’m doing this alphabetically by artist. Eleven albums are eleven albums and I don’t see a need to can’t rank them. Each of these is good music.
So, on to the music.
Adele – 21
Easily the most mainstream album on my list (given that it was the biggest album of the year– everywhere from commercials to Canucks games). But I’ve never liked or disliked music based on mass appeal. Good is good, and this is good. (adele.tv)
Beastie Boys – Hot Sauce Committee Part Two
The thing is, I’m not even a huge fan of the Beastie Boys. Yes, I enjoy their classic work, but I’m nowhere near liking them as much as many of my friends. And while this album doesn’t go anywhere dramatically different from where they’ve gone before, they go to their good stuff in an incredibly consistent and fresh-sounding way throughout. A worthy entrant into their canon, and onto this list. (beastieboys.com)
Dan Mangan – Oh Fortune
The first time I listened to this album as a whole was while I was mowing my lawn and doing yardwork towards the end of summer, when it felt more like fall. Leaves were turning, plants were dying, frost was coming. It was so perfect for that moment that I played it back-to-back three times. That’s good enough for me. (danmanganmusic.com)
Destroyer – Kaputt
I listened to this when it first came out in January, and knew then that it would place high in my year-end list. Even ignoring the masterpiece that is “Bay of Pigs” (previously released as a single and then tacked onto the end of this album), this is an amazing piece of work that manages to make some of the worst production aesthetics of the seventies/eighties sound beautiful. (destroyersongs.com)
Fucked Up – David Comes To Life
I didn’t really like these guys before. I could hear what was going on and what was exciting about it, but man, was it harsh. The addition of female vocalists to the screaming and instrumental assault is a stroke of genius, tempering things just enough without losing any of the power. I don’t know if this musical thing is happening or not, but it sure helped make a cohesive album. (lookingforgold.blogspot.com)
Handsome Furs – Sound Kapital
Seriously, as long as they don’t deliberately make a terrible album I think anything by this husband-wife duo will make my year-end list. Perfect blend of garage rock and electronic. (handsomefurs.com)
Mother Mother – Eureka
I am a big fan of Mother Mother, both as a live act and as a recording group, and I was really looking forward to this one. I’ll admit I was a little disappointed when it came out, but a few more listens and, well, here it is. (mothermothersite.com)
Rural Alberta Advantage – Departing
Another slow grower on me, but there’s just something so compelling about these songs– the urgency, despite the stripped-down nature. It’s lovely just getting lost in the instrumentation and the voices on this one. (theraa.com)
Smith Westerns – Dye It Blonde
From the first notes of “Weekend,” you know you’re in for a great time. I’m not sure why these guys are being ignored by the rock world, as they seem to be doing a blend of the Beatles and the Black Keys in a way that comes off as not being indebted to either. And hey, it’s fun. (smithwesternsmusic.com)
Timber Timbre – Creep On Creepin’ On
What can I say? This fantastic blend of haunting swamp-rock with doo-wop style melodies just keeps me coming back for more. (timbertimbre.com)
The Weeknd – House of Balloons/Thursday/Echoes of Silence Trilogy
OK, I know I said I wasn’t going to rank these, but I think there’s a very strong case to be made for “House of Balloons” and its two sisters albums, “Thursday” and “Echoes of Silence” joining forces to be album of the year.
Like pretty much anything good in music these days, nothing is conventional about these. First, it wasn’t really an album or set of albums, it was mixtapes, released for free, on the internet, at first without anyone knowing who was behind it. Sonically, it’s unlike anything else– kind of R&B, kind of electronic, kind of indie. There’s getting to be more and more music that just defies classification as everything melds together in one big genre of “good”, and the Weeknd is part of that.
And finally, it’s huge in the way things get huge in this day of the divided internet– it’s on all sorts of best-of lists, it was covered by all the music blogs and magazines– but I’ll bet most people have never heard of it, let alone heard it.
But, none of this would matter if the songs didn’t work. And they do– the whole mood of this album just floats into your head and stays there, in a way that hasn’t happened with music and me in a long time.
Earlier, I wrote about the concept of 2011 having “No Important Albums”, citing a lack of anything groundbreaking– sonically or otherwise. At the time I wrote that I had, for some reason, forgotten about the Weeknd. Then he released his third free mixtape in a year, completing a trilogy of spaced-out jams that sound unlike anything else going on, and everything clicked into place.
Like Kanye did last year, M.I.A. did from 2007-2009, and the White Stripes did from 2001-2003, the Weeknd has shifted the musical landscape completely in his direction. And like them, I predict there will be many imitations, but absolutely no one who comes close to what he does. A throwback to the past, a glimpse into the future, and something completely of and yet outside of the present– that’s what makes an Important Album, and that’s what the Weeknd has delivered. (the-weeknd.com)
For the record, I had a much longer set of albums on my longlist before winnowing things down. Here’s a picture of the notecard I wrote them all on– see if you can make out the names of any bands you love!
And as always, feel free to comment here or on on Twitter.
September always feels like the real beginning of a new year to me. There’s an obvious divide between seasons, plus going to school of some form for 18 years has imprinted the idea on me in a way I don’t think I’ll ever shake. But January is always the place where I take stock– not just because it is the ACTUAL new year, but because it means my birthday is soon, as well. The world is another year older, and so am I.
In a lot of ways, 2011 has been an anomaly. For just about every year of my adult or semi-adult life, there has been some major change. Starting university, starting a new semester, starting new jobs, travelling someplace new, buying a house– at least one of those things every year since 2003. 2011 had none. I lived in the same house, marking the longest stretch of time I’ve gone without moving in five years. I didn’t change jobs, meaning I’ve extended the longest I’ve ever gone without getting a new employer. I got married, yes, but I did that on a weekend where we still got up in the same house and went to bed in the same house. Not really a big change.
And that isn’t a bad thing. This has been a year of solidifying things. Seeing old friends get married, move into careers, get pregnant. Feeling more confident in my skills in radio, growing and developing into something a little (very little) beyond a complete amateur. Not doing any major renovations or repairs to the house, just making little changes here and there to make it more comfortable. Even travel was to familiar places, and more limited than normal.
But even in a year without as many Big Events as might be normal, it’s felt big. There are events that I will be able to pinpoint as being in 2011. There certainly hasn’t been too much downtime between this thing and that thing. If anything, I’m hoping 2012 will be even more uneventful. It’s nice to just sort of know what’s going to happen next– where you’ll be next month, what you’ll be doing on Wednesday night. And I’m learning that as time goes on, what’s important is less the big events and more the little ones. The regular happenings and routines and people that make up the daily flow of your life, not just the major milestones. If you can get that right, then you’re doing just fine.
Happy 2012.
“The year of No Important Albums (and many Good Records)” by Steve Hyden →
The Onion A.V. writer summarizes what I’ve been thinking about 2011 in music for a couple months now:
“I think there’s another reason for the lack of consensus in 2011, and it goes beyond changes in technology.
There weren’t any Important Albums.
What’s an Important Album? It’s an album that is perceived to be a momentous work of ambition, invention, and high artistic credibility before it is released, and then proves to actually be so, planting itself in a highly visible place in the culture and acting as a signifier for the year in retrospect. It’s the one album you can’t avoid hearing about at the end of the year to an almost annoying degree; “Important” in this context can be taken to mean “legitimately great” or “incredibly gas-baggy.” But either way, an Important Album stands apart from the pack as a year-defining work.”
As Hyden says, last year’s Important Album was hands-down Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Even if you didn’t like it, you knew it was a statement that was resonating with a lot of critics and would top year-end lists. And even if that hadn’t been released there was LCD Soundsystem’s This is Happening and Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs, both genuine events in themselves.
This year was much more low key. Even artists who were on lists last year who released albums this year (Kanye West, the Black Keys) seem to have put in solid, placeholding efforts, but nothing groundbreaking– not for their own career, and not for music as a whole. I’m sussing out my favourites, and while there’s plenty worthy of top ten (Adele, Destroyer, Fucked Up, Dan Managan, and Smith Westerns are probably my most listened albums), none of them lend themselves immediately to number one.
Like Kanye’s and the Key’s efforts, these are mostly solid- better than solid, even- albums that fail to be year-defining, or even career defining. Only Adele’s record, I think, really did anything for her career or legacy, and that was mostly making her a household name whose music is played at hockey games, rather than any amount of critical acclaim.
In late 2010, West’s release of Dark Twisted Fantasy solidified his place as a Great Artist of the age. 808’s and Heartbreaks had some people wondering if his was a career worth watching anymore. Fantasy shot him right back into the upward trajectory that leads you to believe his next album (after Watch the Throne) will be an Event Worth Hearing. I don’t think anyone else did that. Fucked Up and Destroyer are definitely the contenders for my Album of the Year, but neither of them really redefined their artistic legacy. They refined what each of these artists have done well, adding some new colours to their musical palette, but I don’t think they opened up any new doors, critically or commercially. Which is to say, I don’t think they opened them up to any new audiences. Fans they won over with previous efforts will be satisfied, but it’s not the White Stripes and Elephant which suddenly wins over whole swaths of new fans– critical and commercial.
Then again, who knows? As non-groundbreaking as 2011 may seen now, legacies are a long game. There could be some hidden gem out there that I haven’t heard yet– maybe even underground critics barely noticed. After all, I haven’t mentioned my FAVOURITE album of the year, the one that easily got the most spins and still makes me want to hear it again. It’s the Asteroids Galaxy Tour’s Fruit. It came out in 2009.
(More music mentioned in this article after the jump)
Read more →
In today’s issue of the Prince George Citizen, they provide an update on work being done by the Red Cross for displaced residents of the Victoria Towers apartment building that was evacuated after a fire November 3. In it, they talk to Lisa Anne Pierce, the Red Cross’ provincial manager of disaster assistance. From the article:
“Pierce said she’s also heard from tenants that the building’s owner has given tenants back their November rent and their damage deposits.”
Since I’ve done quite a bit of work on the Victoria Towers story for CBC, I was interested in this development, especially since as of last week none of my contacts among the ex-tenants had heard anything about getting that money back. So I called up Lisa Anne Pierce. She told me that she hadn’t actually heard from any residents, but she had heard from the building manager that the ball was rolling. She suggested I follow up with someone who was working directly with clients. I did, and she said she had not heard from the clients that they were getting money back.
I’m not blaming the Citizen or the Red Cross for this. It is far more likely that it was a misunderstanding, a mishearing, or a misprint than anything else. It happens. Everyone’s human. It is not a reflection on the overall work that either of these organizations do, organizations that I’m glad exist. But given that the building owners have been to court over 50 times for failing to pay money they were supposed to pay to tenants and contractors and are being taken to court by the city of Vancouver for failing to do what they were supposed to do, I would hesitate to report on that money being returned until it is actually, physically, in the possession of the tenants.
I’ve been doing some heavier posts lately, so here’s something lighter-weight. It’s highlighting a cool new service that I’ve found very useful and think deserves some attention.
If This Then That (henceforth ifttt) is a simple tool that let’s you tell the internet “If this happens, then make that happen.” It’s really straight-forward and well-designed, and you can learn more about it here.
I’ve enabled a few tasks, including archiving my Tweets and Foursquare check-ins on my Google Calendar account, but I’m going to highlight two of the more useful ones I’m using that are a bit more of a hack then the rest. First:
Automatically retweet @(user) when they use a specific #hashtag
This one I actually enabled for Daybreak North. CBC is moving more and more to having Twitter take on a central role in communicating with listeners, and everyone in the office has been moving towards using Twitter with more frequency. The problem is that while I my Tweet from my account and other people who work on the show will Tweet from theirs, it’s a bit of a hassle to have to everyone logging in and out of @DaybreakNorth to share news there as well (particularly when Tweeting from in-the-field, something that will happen with breaking news).
So I’ve enabled ifttt to automatically retweet all of us when we use certain hashtags. For me, it’s #cbc. If that hashtag goes in one of Tweets, it will trigger ifttt, and retweet from the @DaybreakNorth account automatically. This lets me live-tweet things like press conferences from my own account, and append #cbc to key decisions that go out to the wider followers of @DaybreakNorth.
#PrinceGeorge is Canada’s most dangerous city for second year in a row according to @MacleansMag. Based on 2010 stats. #cbc
— Andrew Kurjata (@akurjata) December 14, 2011
RT @akurjata: #PrinceGeorge is Canada’s most dangerous city for second year in a row according to @MacleansMag. Based on 2010 stats. #cbc
— CBC Daybreak North (@daybreaknorth) December 14, 2011
There’s a bit of a hack to doing this, since the default choices within ifttt are to either retweet EVERYTHING a certain user says (which would lead to DaybreakNorth repeating my thoughts on waking up super early) or a certain hashtag (which would mean anyone could trigger DaybreakNorth), but not the more specific retweet SPECIFIC users WHEN they use a hashtag. To do this, we have to go to the RSS feed provided by Twitter for users, and use that as the trigger. You can see how it works in the picture below– just replace the part that says “akurjata” with whichever username you want to pull from in your own version.
I actually have this enabled for @PGTransitAlerts as well, though I make it so anyone tweeting at it can share tips.
Automatically repost pictures natively across platforms
The other set-up that I absolutely love this service for is pictures. I have an Android phone, which means no Instagram. This isn’t a big deal since I very much like the Picplz app, which does much the same thing as Instagram, including posting pictures to multiple photo services. I take a picture, I share it to Picplz, and Picplz sends it to Flickr, Tumblr, Facebook, and Twitter.
With Flickr and Tumblr this service works great. The pictures shows up exactly the same as it would if I were posting the picture directly to those services. But Facebook and Twitter leave something to be desired.
With Facebook, it’s the same problem facing Instagram and pretty much every third-party photo service. Instead of having the picture post to a Facebook album, it appears as a thumbnail with a link to the Picplz picture. This is fine, but Facebook recently enabled nice big displays of photos, and this gets lost using Picplz.
With Twitter, this is a problem specific to Picplz. Where Instagram and a number of other services will display directly within Twitter, Picplz (for some reason) does not– it’s just a link. If people want to see the picture, people have to leave Twitter.
Neither of these are a HUGE deal, but it would be nice to have the option of using Picplz to post photos as photos, rather than links. Enter ifttt.
You’ll notice here that we’ve go the Flickr logo going on, rather than Picplz. That’s because Picplz is not its own channel within ifttt (hopefully that will change). Not a big deal, though, because when Picplz posts to Flickr, it automatically tags the photo as “picplz”, and it’s that tag that we are using as the trigger. Whenever a new public photo tagged “picplz” is added to my Flickr account, it triggers Twitter to upload the same photo to its photo app, and Facebook to add the photo to one of its albums. I still only upload the photo once, but now rather than appearing on Facebook and Twitter as links to a photo, they appear as I want them to: as photos. You can see (and copy) the Facebook recipe here and the Twitter recipe here.
These two recipes are the killers for me– things that I’ve wanted to do for a while, but wasn’t able to until ifttt came along. There’s a ton of other recipes incorporating things like Tumblr, Craigslist, text, email, and weather forecasts, so I highly recommend you head over to the recipe-browsing section and check it out. It is a really, really cool service.
This one feels good.
As I write this, the most prominent story on CBC’s B.C. website is about some Vancouver landlords who are being taken to court by the city for years of causing problems for their tenants and refusing to pay fines when ordered. A pretty big story from those Vancouver residents who’ve been dealing with these problems.
A pretty big deal for people in Prince George, too.
You see, the trajectory of this story has it origins in a November 3 fire at the Victoria Towers apartment building here in Prince George. Close to 100 residents were evacuated from the building, and it was too damaged for any to return.
A few weeks later, one of the former tenants invited me along as he cleaned his place out. That story aired on Daybreak North (you can find it here).
A portion of that story that didn’t go to air was this particular tenant relating to me the problems he’d had with the building in the past. He actually has had those problems documented by other media, like the Free Press and the Citizen. There just wasn’t room for it in that story.
But then things kept happening. I went to a tenant meeting, where evacuees were looking for money back since they paid November rent, and then were out on their own without word from the owners about getting compensated. Other former tenants started contacting CBC, relating their own problems with the building. I was directed to a website that documented problems people had with an apartment in Vancouver owned by the same people. A contractor got in touch, saying he’d dealt with the building owners and had trouble getting paid. I talked to people, and then started doing some searches for company registry and court documents. The results were surprising.
The Mehtas, a family named by everyone who contacted me as being the landlords/owners/managers of these various buildings, are officers of multiple companies around the province (officer being secretary, president, etc of the company). The main company is Zoro. There’s some other ones, including Pacific West (Group of Properties, Properties, Management, etc– the name changes), which is listed in the lobby of Victoria Towers as the owners and managers. I didn’t find this company registered anywhere, but it has a website and a phone listing, and it shares the same address as Zoro.
Simply having multiple companies isn’t necessarily newsworthy. What WAS was the court search. Over 50 small claims cases since 1991, from Prince Rupert to Prince George to Victoria to (mostly) Vancouver, primarily dealing with tenants wanting money owed or small contractors wanting money owed. Exactly what was going on in Prince George with Victoria Towers. Oh, and an arrest warrant for one of the Mehtas.
That was enough to do a story on, and so I did. On Monday of this week I went on Daybreak and outlined what I’d found. I should stress that a lot of this was thanks to help from people who’d already done some digging into this story on their own, and guidance from people throughout CBC. The story was fairly well received.
But then Natalie Clancy in Vancouver picked up on it. She’s a Vancouver-based investigative reporter. She rightly realized that this was a Vancouver story as much as it’s a Prince George one, and one with some fantastic visuals. She did some more research, got interviews, got tape, and turned the thing around for the TV newscast tonight. You can see the results here.
This story still isn’t done. Natalie’s story reveals that the City of Vancouver is now taking the Mehta family to court “allegations of failing to maintain the building and ignoring a string of orders to make repairs.” So perhaps something will happen there. But I would posit that it’s a bit of an issue that’s it’s taken this long for things to get to this point. I don’t know all the details, but 50 court cases over 20 years, plus who knows how many complaints with the Residential Tenancy Branch (they wouldn’t tell me), which is the first line of defence for wronged tenants, and it’s finally gotten to this point? It seems a bit long.
Not that I blame anyone in particular. It’s a complicated problem. Landlords are going to get complaints, and that alone isn’t enough to punish them. But there seems to be a lot of grey area in the landlord/tenant rules in the province. And as outlined by Prince George city councilor Murry Krause here, it’s not necessarily an easy fix. People need to know their rights. They need the resources to ask for them. The cities need the resources to enforce these rights. And ultimately, people need to live somewhere. If one of these places is all they can afford, what else are they supposed to do?
So I’m glad I was able to help get the message out there for some people who feel wronged by this whole situation. But I would be happier if this sparked a larger dialogue about finding a solution to this problem, and then putting it into place.
See also: No Magic Bullet: Tenant Rights in B.C.
Ad nauseam
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February 5 2012 | ∞
Chris Shepard explains why he’s leaving journalism:
I know very little about working for a small-town newspaper, and less still about what that would be like in Nelson. But I do know this: this discussion matters. Small-town journalism matters.
Shepard goes into his own reasons why, some of which are disputed in his comments section, but here’s what I believe:
I work for a northern B.C. current events show whose biggest target city is Prince George (which I’m not sure qualifies as a major center or not, but which at least currently supports one bi-weekly and one daily newspaper, one online-only news site, two radio-only newsrooms and one radio/television-news hybrid newsroom). But Prince George has by far the most robust news coverage of any of the other cities we reach and reflect. Most rely on a single weekly or bi-weekly paper, sometimes shared with multiple other cities, and perhaps a community radio station, and then us at a far more distant level. These papers are run by one to three people, and aside from reporting they are sometimes also responsible for lay-out, editorial, and advertising. Each of these takes away time for more in-depth analysis of issues.
Even on this shoestring of an operation, these outlets are an invaluable resource. I know because I read most of them on a regular basis in an attempt to keep a pulse on what’s happening throughout the north. Sometimes these stories get translated into an interview on Daybreak North. And sometimes those interviews get picked up by other outlets, and sometimes they even bubble up into the national news cycle, with coverage from the the Globe and the Post and others. But those stories may not have happened without that one reporter slogging away locally, single-handedly producing a paper and going to city council meetings or reading up on zoning disputes that no national outlet would bother with.
The irony of this is that the reporters often don’t get the credit for producing those original pieces of journalism that make their way into the provincial or national conversation, because the majority of people wind up hearing about them in the Vancouver Sun or on CBC without realizing where it originally came from. I know, because I’ve broken stories that got wider coverage without ever being credited at higher levels. That’s the nature of news– you can do all the work to break it, but once it’s out there anyone can go ahead and report on it.
Unfortunately, alarm-bells are being raised about the future of small-town journalism (or niche subject journalism, as the folding of Public Eye Online demonstrates). I know very little about how they operate, but I know they are a rich part of our national conversation. And apparently, they are in trouble. And this is something that should matter to us all.
Filed under: Canada | Discussion