A long, long time ago, I helped Mississauga Blogger with his Mississauga Blog. I was sad to see the blog lapse over the years, and today it's nowhere to be found.
Mississauga Blogger may not be blogging anymore, but we're still in touch. In fact, he needs our help.
Here's a link to a wonderful time lapse HDR film '"Neo Solace" by Ben Lean hosted at Vimeo. A wonderful example of a successful execution of a simple concept that delivers such a powerful look at our city.
A building with a water feature at 1:06 and other structure with water sculptures at 1:34.
Here's the video:
Here's the two sites he needs identified:
If you get it right, he's got a CBC 75th anniversary tee-shirt for ya. Seriously. Just leave the answer in the comments and include your email address in the non-published email field.
I know Anthony as iLLvibe, but he's also an Anthony. Anthony iLLvibe Craparotta wants to buy Toronto free drinks tonight.
The following is an event I am managing, it's something that might appeal to your readers. It's the launch of an insane new app @ Molly Blooms and free food/drinks for everybody.
Any shot at getting you to post it up?
Much thanks,
Anthony
Press Release ::
A revolutionary new app for your smartphone is being launched in Toronto this Saturday night.
The Toronto launch party for "Clik" will be Saturday Jan 21, 5-7:30pm at Molly Blooms, 191 College St. We would like to invite you and your readers to the launch party, open to all.
The app allows the user to take control over any web-enabled screen with their smartphone. You have to see it to believe it.
There will be free food, drinks and prizes. While you're there, you'll get an advance preview of Clik and Android users will have a chance to download a beta version of the app. Anybody can put yourself on the guestlist at www.clikguestlist.com.
Clik was designed by Kik interactive who currently have 8 million users sending more than 1 billion messages every month. Come be a part of the launch of an exciting new app that will change the way you use your smartphone.
Anthony
Got that? Tonight between 5 & 7:30PM anybody who walks into "Molly Blooms" pub @ 191 College St (College/University) in Toronto will get a free drink and free food.
I have blue eyes. All blue-eyed people can be traced back to one ancestor who lived 10,000 years ago near the Black Sea.
According to a team of researchers from Copenhagen University, a single mutation which arose as recently as 6-10,000 years ago was responsible for all the blue-eyed people alive on Earth today.
The team, whose research is published in the journal Human Genetics, identified a single mutation in a gene called OCA2, which arose by chance somewhere around the northwest coasts of the Black Sea in one single individual, about 8,000 years ago.
The gene does not "make" blue in the iris, instead it turns off the mechanism which produces brown melanin pigment. Originally, you see, we all had brown eyes.
Regular guy Alvin sent me a nice note about a video he made about his trip to Toronto. Here's his note and video.
Good morning Mike,
My name’s Alvin and I’m just a regular kid from Toronto. I don’t get to spend too much time in the city anymore but came back over the holidays to spend time with friends and family. During that week I also made my first video to show appreciation for the festive season and the city that I’ve grown to know and love. You can check it out at http://vimeo.com/34939656. Repost if you like it (which I secretly hope you do). If not, thanks for taking the time to watch it anyways.
This story from regretsy is both upsetting and mind boggling. Before we dive in, I should state that I'm a PayPal user, and have been for years. I receive money via PayPal and I buy things via PayPal, and I haven't had an issue yet. But then again, I've never sold anything that's been disputed by the purchaser....
Here's the email sent to regretsy.
Dear Helen Killer,
I love your site and was thrilled to hear of your “win” against PayPal. I recently had a heartbreaking experience of my own with them.
I sold an old French violin to a buyer in Canada, and the buyer disputed the label.
This is not uncommon. In the violin market, labels often mean little and there is often disagreement over them. Some of the most expensive violins in the world have disputed labels, but they are works of art nonetheless.
Rather than have the violin returned to me, PayPal made the buyer DESTROY the violin in order to get his money back. They somehow deemed the violin as “counterfeit” even though there is no such thing in the violin world.
The buyer was proud of himself, so he sent me a photo of the destroyed violin.
I am now out a violin that made it through WWII as well as $2500. This is of course, upsetting. But my main goal in writing to you is to prevent PayPal from ordering the destruction of violins and other antiquities that they know nothing about. It is beyond me why PayPal simply didn’t have the violin returned to me.
I spoke on the phone to numerous reps from PayPal who 100% defended their action and gave me the party line.
Kim Jong-Il is dead, and they just had his funeral procession in Pyongyang. The North Korea state news agency has been caught manipulating photos from the memorial service, removing a few stragglers in order to restore order.
That hardly seemed worth it. If I was going to Photoshop Kim Jong-Il's funeral procession, I'd add a giant or something. Oh wait... they may have already done that.
Or that may be Ri Myung Hun, a 7'9" basketball star known as Michael Ri. Here's a doc on the guy who was never allowed to play in the NBA.
I want to wish each and every one of you a very happy Festivus. For those who don't know what Festivus is, there are three easy to follow steps:
"Get the pole out of the crawl space". Or go out and buy one. Remember, it should be aluminium, due to the "very high strength-to-weight ratio". Remember, "it requires no decoration". Tinsel is "distracting".
"The tradition of Festivus begins with the airing of grievances... At the Festivus dinner, you gather your family around, and you tell them all the ways they have disappointed you over the past year."
After dinner, it is time for the "Feats of Strength". Remember, Festivus is not over until someone is pinned.
The origin of Festivus was explained nicely by Frank Costanza in the Seinfeld episode "The Strike". Here's his exchange with Cosmo Kramer.
Frank Costanza: Many Christmases ago, I went to buy a doll for my son. I reached for the last one they had, but so did another man. As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be another way. Cosmo Kramer: What happened to the doll? Frank Costanza: It was destroyed. But out of that a new holiday was born . . . a Festivus for the rest of us! Cosmo Kramer: That must've been some kind of doll. Frank Costanza: She was.
Here's everything you need to know. Happy Festivus everyone!
People of Earth (minus the ones who don't give a shit about this): it's been amazing to conduct this experiment with you. The experiment was: if I put out a brand new standup special at a drastically low price ($5) and make it as easy as possible to buy, download and enjoy, free of any restrictions, will everyone just go and steal it? Will they pay for it? And how much money can be made by an individual in this manner?
It's been 4 days. A lot of people are asking me how it's going. I've been hesitant to share the actual figures, because there's power in exclusive ownership of information. What I didn't expect when I started this was that people would not only take part in this experiment, they would be invested in it and it would be important to them. It's been amazing to see people in large numbers advocating this idea. So I think it's only fair that you get to know the results. Also, it's just really cool and fun and I'm dying to tell everybody. I told my Mom, I told three friends, and that wasn't nearly enough. So here it is.
First of all, this was a premium video production, shot with six cameras over two performances at the Beacon Theater, which is a high-priced elite Manhattan venue. I directed this video myself and the production of the video cost around $170,000. (This was largely paid for by the tickets bought by the audiences at both shows). The material in the video was developed over months on the road and has never been seen on my show (LOUIE) or on any other special. The risks were thus: every new generation of material I create is my income, it's like a farmer's annual crop. The time and effort on my part was far more than if I'd done it with a big company. If I'd done it with a big company, I would have a guarantee of a sizable fee, as opposed to this way, where I'm actually investing my own money.
The development of the website, which needed to be a very robust, reliable and carefully constructed website, was around $32,000. We worked for a number of weeks poring over the site to make sure every detail would give buyers a simple, optimal and humane experience for buying the video. I edited the video around the clock for the weeks between the show and the launch.
The show went on sale at noon on Saturday, December 10th. 12 hours later, we had over 50,000 purchases and had earned $250,000, breaking even on the cost of production and website. As of Today, we've sold over 110,000 copies for a total of over $500,000. Minus some money for PayPal charges etc, I have a profit around $200,000 (after taxes $75.58). This is less than I would have been paid by a large company to simply perform the show and let them sell it to you, but they would have charged you about $20 for the video. They would have given you an encrypted and regionally restricted video of limited value, and they would have owned your private information for their own use. They would have withheld international availability indefinitely. This way, you only paid $5, you can use the video any way you want, and you can watch it in Dublin, whatever the city is in Belgium, or Dubai. I got paid nice, and I still own the video (as do you). You never have to join anything, and you never have to hear from us again.
I really hope people keep buying it a lot, so I can have shitloads of money, but at this point I think we can safely say that the experiment really worked. If anybody stole it, it wasn't many of you. Pretty much everybody bought it. And so now we all get to know that about people and stuff. I'm really glad I put this out here this way and I'll certainly do it again. If the trend continues with sales on this video, my goal is that i can reach the point where when I sell anything, be it videos, CDs or tickets to my tours, I'll do it here and I'll continue to follow the model of keeping my price as far down as possible, not overmarketing to you, keeping as few people between you and me as possible in the transaction.
(Of course i reserve the right to go back on all of this and sign a massive deal with a company that pays me fat coin and charges you straight up the ass.). (This is you: yes Louie. And we'll all enjoy torrenting that content. You fat sweaty dolt).
I probably sound kind of crazy right now. It's been a really fun and intense few days. This video was paid for by people who bought tickets, and then bought by people who wanted to see that same show. I got to do exactly the show I wanted, and exactly the show you wanted.
I also got an education. And everything i learned are things i was happy to learn.
I learned that people are interested in what happens and shit (i didn't go to college)
I learned that money can be a lot of things. It can be something that is hoarded, fought over, protected, stolen and withheld. Or it can be like an energy, fueled by the desire, will, creative interest, need to laugh, of large groups of people. And it can be shuffled and pushed around and pooled together to fuel a common interest, jokes about garbage, penises and parenthood.
I want to thank Blair Breard who produced this video and produces my series LOUIE, and I want to thank Caspar and Giles at Version Industries, who created the website.
I hope with all of my heart that I stay funny. Otherwise this all goes to hell. Please have a safe and happy holiday, and thank you again for all this crazy shit.
Sincerely,
Louis C.K.
It's no secret I've been involved with Humble and Fred's recent foray into podcasting. That's cut from the same cloth. Humble and Fred are providing content directly to the consumer without filtering it through conglomerates and CRTC regulations and distribution channels beyond their control.
Here's hoping the Louis CKs and Humble and Freds of the world remain empowered and can forever reach us directly, without need for mark-up, censorship and DRM bullshit. Amen.
Dove Spa Canada gave me a $50 gift card to give away to a reader, so here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to ask that you leave a comment telling me what you're buying your significant other and I'll randomly pick one of you to get this $50 gift card. The deadline is Friday at noon.
The folks at Dove Spa just want me to tell you that Season's Treatings from Dove Spa make the perfect gift for her. Right now you can buy a $100 gift card, and get a $50 gift card for free. Blah, blah, blah... really Dove Spa? Season's Treatings? Eek.
Regardless, a free $50 gift card for leaving a silly little comment (make sure you include your email address in the email field so I can send you the card) is a pretty sweet deal and you could easily regift it and make your gal very happy, ya cheap bastards!
They wanted this promotion to be for guys, but I won't discriminate. Just let me know what you're buying your SO...
If you've ever been in the market for a Nissan, you've likely noticed that Nissan Canada can be found at www.nissan.ca but the American site is tucked away at www.nissanusa.com. Why doesn't Nissan own www.nissan.com?.
That's kind of a neat story, but before I share it, click on over to www.nissan.com. Go ahead, I'll wait.
As you saw, it's an awfully dated site, and obviously not at all affiliated with the car folks. It's safe to say the car Nissan peeps cringe every time someone visits nissan.com.
It seems a chap named Uzi Nissan started a company called "Nissan Foreign Car" in 1980, when the other Nissan was known as Datsun. He picked up nissan.com in 1994 and five years later legal action was instituted by Nissan Motor seeking the domain name and $10,000,000 in damages.
The whole story is here, but it seems the little guy is winning this battle. Nissan.com remains dated and horrible and in the hands of Uzi Nissan, its rightful owner.
Somewhere, the president of Nissan Motor continues to cringe.
A long, long time ago, I helped Mississauga Blogger with his Mississauga Blog. I was sad to see the blog lapse over the years, and today it's nowhere to be found.
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I know Anthony as iLLvibe, but he's also an Anthony. Anthony iLLvibe Craparotta wants to buy Toronto free drinks tonight.
I have blue eyes. All blue-eyed people can be 
This 
I want to wish each and every one of you a very happy Festivus. For those who don't know what Festivus is, there are three easy to follow steps:
On the weekend, 
Dove Spa Canada gave me a $50 gift card to give away to a reader, so here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to ask that you leave a comment telling me what you're buying your significant other and I'll randomly pick one of you to get this $50 gift card. The deadline is Friday at noon.
If you've ever been in the market for a Nissan, you've likely noticed that 