2009 - You’re dead to me

So this year was, erm, interesting.  Thankfully there were loads of fantastic LPs/EPs & shows to lift our collective spirits, right guys? Right?

Like every year, a virtual tip of the hat is directed Waub’s way for starting the best annual tradition among our crew.  Extra thanks go out to everyone who contributed to those list emails or posted lists on their respective sites.

I have been agonizing/procrastinating for over a month.  Had a Top 20 list burning a hole in my draft folder & I think I have whittled it down properly…So in no particular order, I give you:

Zeus - Sounds Like Zeus EP - Tho last year’s promise of a full-length won’t materialize til February, this tiny perfect pop confection arrived just in time for Zeus’ pint-sized, yet triumphant, takeover of the Arts&Crafts NXNEshowcase.  Neil’s tune ‘Marching Through Your Head’ is my personal fav, but the Phil Collins cover of ‘That’s All’ is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser!

Joel Plaskett - Three - 3xs the usual amazing JP output but surprisingly (unlike almost every other concept album in the history of rock music after Sgt Pepper’s) strung together with a cohesive theme, both lyrically and melodically, featuring beautiful guest vocals and insane hooks.  This undertaking stands on par with Down at the Khyber

Gentleman Reg - Jet Black - He’s Reg.  He can do no (faux)albino wrong.

Cats On Fire - Our Temperance Movement - Frosty Finnish climate makes for toasty warm indoor fireworks.  I am entirely biased because they are Finnish. (Insert Kayne interruption joke *here*)

Sprengjuhöllin - Bestu Kveðjur - What can I say?  I love Scandinavian dudes.  These psych pop lads are what The Coral would sound like if they were fronted by Sondre Lerche - borderline saccharine-sweet, but genuinely heartfelt. Now that they’re penning English-language lyrics, they’ll hopefully have 2010 North American success to match their string of homeland #1s.

Do Make Say Think - Other Truths - This record makes me wish I was still in school so it could be my go-to-instrumental background writing s/t. If you have a chance to catch DMST/Happiness Project on tour - PROMISE ME you will attend.  Happiness Project is such a phenomenal experience live, I cried. (& I only cry for Rufus or when someone drops a delicious gooey cookie from Le Gourmand)

Bahamas - Pink Strat - This record is more of a ‘07-09 souvenir for the zillions of treks to the Magpie for Paso Mino or some other brilliant indie incarnation of Afie Jurvanen (here I go again with the Finns…).  I can promise with a clear-conscience that this record will make you smile - it’s perfect.

Dan Mangan - Nice, Nice, Very Nice
- This is the only album that overlaps with the year-end list by almighty music guru Frank at Chromewaves.  So I’ve got that going for me…Although it’s ridiculously earnest/shockingly adorable, Dan’s gravely voice balances it out & it turns into this laddish singer-songwriter masterpiece.

PJ Harvey & John Parish - A Woman A Man Walked By - Pretty sure if I had to pick a #1 that this would be it…not necessarily due to its musical merits, but mainly because I’m a *little* stubborn.  I’ve been so disappointed that throughout the year, & especially now, this LP hasn’t gotten any love.  People take PJ for granted! I’m convinced if some new YouTubeing/Twittering waif in Portland put this haunting, sexy, gutsy, intense, raw, intelligent record out, you’d hear it in every pseudo bohemian cafe from here to Timbuktu.  But what the hell do I know?

Noah And The Whale - The First Days Of Spring
- Every couple years you need a new ‘break glass in case of sad bastard emergency (heartbreak, boredom, general malaise, crap manager who accuses one of job hunting whilst on medical leave, etc)’ record.  This is your new one if you get sick of your old Belle & Sebastian LPs.

Honourable Mentions:
St. Vincent - Actor
Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It’s Blitz!
Bruce Peninsula - A Mountain Is A Mouth
The Wooden Sky - If I don’t come home you’ll know I’m gone
Bon Iver - Blood Bank EP
Julie Fader - Outside In
M. Ward - Hold Time
Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
Robert Francis - Before Nightfall
Neko Case - Middle Cyclone

cleaning out the iPhone…

As October winds to an end, I’m realizing how much STUFF I’ve accumulated on my phone this fall. A crazy month+ has left me with little time for the regular digital data dump. So many amazing events with the TO community occurred this season & there is so much fantastic news to celebrate, share, synthesize…but this is all I can manage for now…

A highlight of the autumn was Dan Mangan’s in-store at Criminal Records two weeks ago.  The Sure Things opened up for Dan at the Rivoli later than night, & their blowout CD Release party was last night at the Dakota - so get that CD already!

While my Sure Things bootlegs turned out regrettably furry (arg! & they played SO many great originals & hilarious covers…spoon solos…Dani’s cuteness…Martin’s slide guitar prowess…frak!) You *can* enjoy two Dan Mangan Mp3s recorded at the lovely intimate session in Paul’s shoppe with a packed rapt house…you could’ve heard a pin drop between his husky growls & breathy phrasing for ‘We’re not us’…trust me, download it, it’s just gorgeous… & you’ll have to settle for a fan’s giggle instead of a pin:

Mp3 - We’re not us - Dan Mangan

Mp3 - Indie Queens Are Waiting - Dan Mangan

& here’s the newest Mangan video for ‘Robots’:

& a freight train running through the middle of my head

Before I spam my entire FB peeps’ update stream with ‘Meghan favourited a YouTube video’ notices, I’ll give massive official blahg shout out to Fader magazine (who throws the BEST sxsw parties, BTW) for their inspired new web campaign sponsored by Southern Comfort.  ‘At the Bar with Southern Comfort‘ is weekly series of YouTube videos has filmed bands in their favourite hometown bars & asks them to perform acoustic covers - & the choices by the bands are just - wow.

Dunno if Fader approached SoCo or if this just came out of their existing advertiser/publisher arrangement, but IMHO this is a great campaign.  Fader said in July that an upcoming SoCo tour with Polyphonic Spree (meh) & The Hold Steady (yea) is happening along these all-cover-song-lines….

As anyone knows from most major music fests, absorbing some sponsorship/logo/branded stuff is a given to book decent acts & turn a profit.

Here’s a sample of the vids - Daredevil Christopher Wright in Madison, Wisconsin covering Megafaun’s Drains. & to all the pristine prissies who accuse musicians of selling out for doing stuff like this…don’t even get me started…

p.s. Canuck <3s’ll go aflutter for Born RuffiansLuke Lalonde covering the Boss at the best mojito joint in TO, Souz Dal.

Why social media schadenfreude is scarier than swine flu

There’s a particularly startling epidemic happening in the online world, which I’m noticing mainly in Toronto of late.  It might just be the 2.0 version of the classic Canadian tall poppy syndrome, but this strain is turning out to be stronger & scarier than swine flu.  Victims are compelled (nay, forced?) to gush out unnecessary mea culpas, fall on their twittering swords & hide in abject terror of the virus reappearing.  It disguises itself as a ‘transparency’ inoculation or an ‘authenticity’ booster shot, but there is only one diagnosis for the unfortunate malady-stricken online risk-takers - they’ve been bitten by social media schadenfreude.

Now I’m the first to grab the popcorn when things get spicy on the political scene, and don’t get between me and my indierock drama…BUT when it comes to jumping down people’s throats in an online/professional context…I get a little…empathetic.  By the luck of astrologically-aligned-nerd-stars, my salty slangly casual language whilst pitching bloggers, writing content & generally floundering through life has not put in me in this position.  According to the law of averages, until I am drafted to the WNBA, I will soon play the role of the  ’social media practitioner’ or ‘community member’ receiving a thorough ego trouncing from the peanut gallery.  {In fact, if those web gremlins continue to highjack a lovely microsite/app-project we’re eager to seed/launch I might be in this position early next week :)}

We all make mistakes.  If we’re doing right by our clients, we aren’t just going through the same-old super-safe motions developing & executing campaigns.  Ask any stellar standup comedian.  Some jokes kill and some jokes bomb.  That’s life.

So on this turkey weekend eve, let’s be thankful that there are social media peeps still taking risks, let’s remember that when this happens with ad campaigns we think it’s unique & quirky & let’s consider the embarassment of riches we have in terms of attending awesome events.  Before you pile on to critique someone going out on a limb or trying something new or having an opinion…ask yourself if you really want to end up like these dudes:

Enough with the peanut gallery already

*Massive full disclosure - A staffer at Social Media Group is my basketball bud & I have been known to enjoy cheap soft-serve ‘ice cream’ with Refresh Events founder.

Tell you what I did last…Wednesday

Caught Gonzales at the Mod Club.  He was, as usual, absolutely stunning.  Caught a couple songs from his too-brief duo interlude with Feist.  Wanted to share with y’all, my bffs :)

Oops Oh My (Tweet Cover)

Where Can I Go Without You?

H/T to dooflop01 for the video.

Beyond adoption - considering NGO’s social media intentions

It’s been a long non-blogging stretch, which included live music (natch), a bday (piñata & nacho-enhanced), driver’s ed (2nd time’s a charm, right?), domain registration lapse (ack!) & details emerging on what could be the wildest winter ever…

Thankfully, the key sanity check (outside of running/air-drum solo’ing) has been reading.  One of the best nerdy reads in a long while has been the Hatcher Group’s recent report ‘New Media & Social Change: How Nonprofits are Using Web-based Technologies to Reach their Goals.’ Despite the sins of unnecessary capitalization, this is a punchy report worth downloading regardless of whether you or your clients are in the nonprofit sector.

Why is the Hatcher report, which is filled with some good ‘how-tos’ & tip sheets, different than the usual freebie ebooks or ‘top ten’ digg/delicious-bait blog posts?  It’s the data peppered throughout the report, which was culled from a relatively recent survey (May 2009).  The survey asked 70 key questions to gauge 30 NGOs’ new media interest & experience.  Most telling were these statistics confirming NGOs’ attuned state regarding the online world:

  • 53% ‘infrequently’ & 30% ‘frequently’ perform blogger outreach (& 57% spend at least 1-2 hours a week doing so)
  • 73% frequently monitor blog references to their organization &/or issue
  • 60% increased their fanbase, 40% increased web traffic & 20% increased media coverage thanks to Facebook

It’s valuable to stay on top of this sector’s digital communications habits because it’s planting social media seeds in the most fertile ground.  This fertility is thanks to two factors - the necessity of very cost-conscious tool-use & a youngish workforce with a seemingly limitless supply of passion for their cause.

About this time last year, I drafted an interview list for a winter interview circuit of New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles & San Francisco.  A large percentage of the almost 30 interviewees were working for social change either in-house at non-profits or at agencies dedicated to the nonprofit sector.  While almost all of the interviewees were at or near the cutting edge of online tool adoption & seamlessly integrating digital communications into their organization’s overall plan, the Hatcher Report is a valuable sample of an average NGOs’ habits.

To demonstrate the more realistic snapshot & less experimental respondents, check out this survey response about the aims of an organization’s blogger outreach:

  • 91% of organizations hoped to reach media
  • 83% wanted advocates, legislators &/or staff to take note
  • 70% sought the general public’s engagement through this unique digital channel

Perceiving online communications & blogger outreach as primarily a ‘means to an end’ for mainstream media coverage is a somewhat disheartening response from almost all 30 groups the Hatcher Group surveyed.  While blogs can break or popularize stories before they are reported in newspapers or on television, the 91% wish to affect MSM left me worrying that blogger outreach wasn’t being executed with the best intentions, & as a consequence, without the most tactful approach.

Am I being completely paranoid?  It seems odd that there was a 20% gap between NGOs who considered the ‘general public’ as a separate entity worth speaking with via blogs vs. feeding messages to the masses in a backdoor fashion via blog authors.  Regardless of this concern, the report is a great short read & in addition to the data offers short & sweet reminders about best practices in conducting campaigns online.

Labour Day of Love

My long weekends begin & end with an epic trek to the Sound & involve spending overdue time with the fam.  Despite the gorgeous clear skies, fresh rural Ontario air & infinite opportunities to sing ‘Save a horse, ride a cowboy’ at karaoke, I usually end up splitting this free time 50/50:  sleeping in & nerding out.

This weekend was no different - nerdery included a docu-binge, interesting new client/sector reading, and indulging in a thorough leisurely read of the Pew Internet & American Life Project report on The Internet & Civic Engagement, which was released just last week.

If the impact of the internet on political participation is at all of interest, download the entire report - it’s less than 70 pgs (incl. big’ol’graphs!) - not a massive undertaking, I swear :)

A gem gleaned/interpreted from the report is that once someone becomes involved in politics online - not necessarily partisan - they are on a slippery slope to nerdsville.  Posting a blog comment is practically a gateway drug for full-on civic engagement - next thing you know they’re signing petitions, writing their local representatives, writing & posting material themselves…& even donating cash.  Who knows what they’re doing in the streets to get this money to pass on to organizations & campaigns.

  • 19% of Americans online had posted material about political &/or social issues or used a social network for civic/political engagement
  • This crew was disproportionately young, of course, & also don’t show as much of an old/rich/educated socio-econo slant compared to other engagement measures such as donations & volunteering.
  • 61% of politically active online Americans signed petitions (vs. 32% of all adults)
  • 50% of online politicos have contacted an official directly.  (Very cool to note that satisfaction rates for contacting political officials was equal online/offline)

The authors posit that social media could alter the vast majority political participants being well off/educated.  The catch is ensuring that newly recruited online politicos start affecting change IRL.  We all know how easy it is to comment on a Facebook/blog post, or ping off a petition - but ratcheting up the free-time donation to include face-to-face canvassing, volunteering & other vital parts of being a ‘real’ citizen are tougher to nail down.

Now this is usually the part of the blog post where I complain about not having similar report from a Canadian thinktank or pollster, but that’d be unfair.  In April’09 Elections Canada published a Working Paper on ‘Youth Electoral Engagement in Canada.’ Thankfully I CAN complain about the age of the data - most recent year in the report was 2006.  The authors have similar conclusions regarding age/income/education as being the three determining factors in political participation as Pew.  The highest engagement levels create this familiar demographic combo: Older religious married born-in-Canada men who earn more than $40K with post-secondary education in rural communities.  Of these factors, being born in Canada was the #1 influencer, with post-secondary education a close runner-up.

Although I whinge about the age of the Elections Canada data, (even Pew study authors admit that without cell-phone owners included in their survey they’re not getting a true glimpse of the younger cohort) there’s a great section on ‘Why is youth turnout so low?’ that has a fantastic summary of previous political science theories on declining engagement.  Citing Cart & Eagles, among many other political scientists, the authors state:

“…the way election campaigns are run may be partly responsible for the turnout decline…traditional door-to-door canvassing has a powerful impact on turnout…evidence that direct candidate contact with voters has been decreasing over time, as parties have devoted more attention to the media…may have contributed to lower turnout, although it is not clear why this should have affected the youth more than older people.”

I couldn’t agree more.  Although online content is a great source for spreading information/sparking discussion/priming donations about politics & social issues, until the user becomes engaged with an issue to the point of ponying up volunteer-time - online engagement is a series of soon-forgotten empty gestures (green avatars, anyone?).

This ends tonight’s nerdcast - I’ll be online less this week because of an especially short work week for less than awesome reasons.  Heartfelt thanks to everyone who’s helped thus far (whether you know it or not :) ).  Equal gratitude goes out to a flexible employer & helpful IT crew who’re eager to lend wireless routers, webcams & laptops during a time of coccooning.

Among the garbage & the flowers there are heroes in the seaweed

If you haven’t been following Beck’s Record Club….He’s just recruited MGMT , Devendra Banhart & other folks to cover a tune that’s close to my heart. Hoping you have a great long weekend full of your favourite cover songs, time with family/friends & nerdy reads:

Record Club: Songs Of Leonard Cohen “Suzanne” from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

(news)cycle

Wisdom handed down from the blog oracle advises against writing when upset, which is probably the same futile logic that propelled legislation against road rage, but in the world of ‘current affairs’ online - delaying a post 18 hours seems prudent enough, this barely qualifies as current anymore, even.

Of course I couldn’t really keep my online mouth shut this long - after receiving emails about the tragic death of a Toronto cyclist and the sad circumstances of the accident, I started posting thoughts and reflections on Twitter.

For non-Torontonians unaware of the online rubbernecking, review the national newspapers or television stations to find a breathless breakdown in hour-by-hour bullet points of assumed/alleged actions.  Don’t forget to watch videos from the various eye witnesses, the arrest scene itself, and the sadly-reminiscent-of-an-AG-press-conference car-towing.

Until officials fully review security tapes and statements from witnesses, there is no point speculating  culpability.  What was most stunning, and poorly articulated in my blurbs under 140 characters, was last night’s stark contrast to the fortunes of Ted Kennedy.

Today’s politicians live in a virtual fishbowl, many, like Bryant, tried to embrace it - speaking directly to constituents or stakeholders through YouTube channels, attempting to connect with new online audiences, and presenting a personal ’self’ in media interviews.  Unfortunately, the hyper connected/accessible/affordable means to capture and publish media online tears down as well as it builds up.  The enthusiasm and momentum embracing a ‘viral video’ is equally powerful when packaging and distributing mass amounts of information, teasing it out under the guise of objective news and judging a case before a court date is booked.

Today’s newscycle illustrates that the impressively productive career following Kennedy’s tragic fatal mistake cannot be reproduced by allegedly erring politicians today.  Even the tone of Kennedy’s statement released after the investigation - less an ‘apology’ than a fierce rebuttal - seems completely opposite to the bleary eyed press conferences staffed by scrubbed-clean family members, or the vaseline-lensed ‘exclusive’ interviews to ’set things straight’ after a scandal.

The Toronto Twitter community, at least the fraction in which I choose to participate, has a very large cyclist crew.  Reviewing their comments, I was immensely impressed with the respectful and sombre tone as they reflected on the sad news and awaited substantiated facts.

Most encouraging of these commentators was Mark Kuznicki, spearheader of ChangeCamp, TransitCamp organizer and now a force behind BikeCampTO.  Follow @bikeunion for more information & hopefully road-sharing/transit/infrastructure becomes an ongoing conversation with all Torontonians, unprovoked by a tragedy.

Why online protests fail IRL

What do KISS, IKEA & Muslim women have in common? Unfortunately there’s no snappy punchline, it’s just an excuse to weave a nerd narrative through a bunch of interesting news stories.

I’m sure by now you’ve got your Oshawa B&B resos, relieved to hear the city’s glam-rocker residents’ KISS ARMY allegiance wasn’t in vain. The band ran a straightforward prove-how-much-you-love-us online contest, which was styled like a petition, requiring city residents to submit email addresses, & promised a concert for the winning city (regrettably it was a KISS concert).  After the band announced the winning city, they published a tour schedule that did not include Oshawa. Now, it doesn’t take Columbo to examine a tour schedule & discover a gap that is geographically & schedule-wise able to accommodate a ’secret’ show or ‘by popular demand’ second night in a venue (Hello Wilco, Welcome to Massey Hall x2!).  Nonetheless, the interwebs’ hyper hypos have an irrepressible impulse to stretch their harnesses.  The city was up in arms, thousands joined Facebook protest groups, locals became ‘representatives’ on news outlets, fansites heaved & a PR maelstrom ensued.  Can’t completely blame unnerved fans for their reaction, but it proves that an online ‘petition’ campaign banking on engaging region-specific communities must reach all stakeholders clearly, consistently & concurrently - online & in ‘public’/mainstream media messaging - or face the wrath of multiple red-dye-tongue-waggings.

From KISS to kisses, The Times’ Freakonomics blogger Steven Dubner references gay rights kissing protests in Salt Lake City (or ‘IRL’ - in real life) in a fantastic quorum post called ‘How Much Do Protests Really Matter?’.  It’s a great long piece that highlights some of the most effective protests throughout history - & puts the KISS KRAP, ridiculous IKEA font fiasco & the ultimate online overreaction of #AmazonFail (of which Shirkey’s blushing reflection is the best) - into perspective.  Kent State, this ain’t. Aside from totally dismissing the online flareups, what can be gleaned from recent issues that’ve made their way into the mainstream?

One positive example of addressing consumer concerns straight-on is the triage-style response from Tim Horton’s to their comp’ed coffee clusterfritter.  After being accused of supporting anti-gay groups, HQ calmly, widely, publicly stated otherwise, while explaining the franchisee relationship & corporate values in a balanced manner.  Though they’ll go down in Twitter history as being ‘too slow’, realistically a major multi-national addressing an online issue centered on a (not ideal ideologically…) backwoods charity BBQ in less than 48 hours (counting weekend days…sadly the downside of our email era is expectation to check 24/7) is approaching impressive.

Finally, last Sunday’s NYTimes magazine on women’s issues had a special ‘The Medium’ column on Feminist Hawks by Virginia Herrernan. It illustrates how ‘motherhood’ issues (for lack of a better word…) can be repackaged, re-purposed & emailed for protest campaigns under new auspices.  In this case an anti-Afghan outlook was wrapped in women’s rights.  Herrernan tracked a popular email petition propelled by pundits such as David Horowitz that sought signatures supporting persecuted Muslim women, but stated military aggression was the solution to women’s liberation.  “This material is expected to help seal Horowitz’s general case for the war on terror, though he has not yet changed the name of his cause to, say, the war on misogyny.”

It might be hard to assign a #fail to online protests writ large, but the summer months brought a new level of inane chatter that could be called out & calmed down as the temperature drops & leaves begin to fall.  Creating online communities, sharing fact-checked/substantiated information & organizing IRL events is one of the strengths of the internet.  Our creative communities’ ongoing successes in subverting negative legislative/funding changes & presenting a strong case for supporting the arts is my favourite example of combining social networks, multimedia & the power of assembly to affect legislative change & public discourse.  Maybe revisiting the history of protests & learning from past well-informed, organized, thoughtful participants, will remind us of this.  You’ve been assigned Whingeing History for first period, first semester - enjoy the final days of summer, kids :)