Last week, Canadian Heritage Minister, James Moore, nominated to that position in the hopes of mending fences with Québec's cultural scene, among others, failed a pop quiz where he was asked to identify not only Québec cultural icons, some of them internationally known, but also famous Anglo-Canadian artists.
All of this puts a new spin on a funny video done by some Québec artists during the last federal elections, which I humbly contributed to spread among Anglo-Canadian medias by adding subtitles...
I don't consider myself particularly intelligent, so it emphasize how frustrating it is to have idiots run my country.
I am not superstitious. I laugh at people trying to bring luck on themselves and their endeavours, or at people that avoid places, situations or objects that could fuck their luck up.
But every time I get a zit on the right side of my nose, which is probably the only place where I get acn. It was also the source of important awkwardness back in my teenage years as it was the only place where it would reach such epic proportions. Back then, it seemed like it would always pop out when I'd be about to meet a cool girl, so, being a pavlovian creature, I ended up associating this particular skin defect with meeting the next girl of my life.
As I grew in confidence, if not in size, I came to accept such temporal skins imperfections. But everytime the zit would be back, I'd be convinced the next girlfriend was around the corner.
I thought I wasn't superstitious.
Today, the zit is back, and my first thought was of the girl I'll meet (probably this weekend, as I'm interviewing a bunch of university students for tree-planting jobs), but my second thought was to doubt the actual accuracy of my prophetical acne, for you see, I can't remember if it actually works or not. Seems like it did, but I can't put my finger on one encounter predicted by the magic zit. A little like when you have a feeling of déjà-vu, but you can't remember when it happened because, well, your mind plays tricks on you as it never occured!
So here's the little experiment, and the reason why I'm blogging about it. Recording my actual skin outbreak will allow me, in the future, to confirm or infirm the nose zit/girl theory and finally free myself from this rather ridiculous superstition.
And if it actually works, well, cool, but I'll have to test it again next time. In a world where such zits actually predict potential sexual/romantic encounters, I'd rather not think about the implications of a nose zit when I'll be married. Note to self, never allow future wife to read this blog.
"Yes your honor, I'm requesting a divorce as my husband cheats on me. Proof? he has a huge zit beside his nose!"
Now that I'm done with this experiment, let's remain on the teen theme. I'm not a fan of McDonald's, I eat there about once a year and I usually regret it soon after. But this McDonald's France advertisement does convey teenage awkwardness very well, and I find the girl's struggles to find her style rather cute, fitting with the French slogan, "Come as You Are". Oh and I love the song too (Time Machine, by Rinôçérôse)...
Yeah, it's weird, I know, but fuck it, the marketers got me this time! Here's the vid:
Arghhhh, shame, shame on me! I'm posting a multinational junk food chain ad here!!!
Time to go check my brain, then my zit, then my online dating account.
I have written about this before, but I'm currently working on a virtual series project, titled Krossroads. It has great potential and the credit goes to my friend Jeremy Grunloh, whose creativity in many artisitc fields makes no doubt. His other virtual series, a Star Trek re-imagination, would really deserve to be adapted for the small screen.
Here's an update on how Krossroads' opening credits would look like if there was any chances of this show being real:
Thanks and kudos to Jer for the efforts and talent put into this video.
And what's the story about? Well, it basically revolves around the somewhat conservative Kross family, running a strategically-located space station (akin to a truck-stop) in a star system rich in natural resources. If I'd consider it a character-based drama set in space above anything else, it remains part of the science-fiction genre. It's closer in style, approach and themes to the re-imagined Battlestar Glactica and what I assume the upcoming Caprica will be about than shows like Lost in Space and Star Wars.
I'm quite involved in this project, and therefore biased, but the story outline along with this vid really makes me wish this could ever appear on my TV...
City of Barcelona Guarded area in a radius of 500 meters. Place George Orwell
George Orwell being, of course, the author of the dystopian novel 1984, which is set in a world where every action done (mostly by a party member) is monitored by cameras, the police, or your own children...
I really like McCain. His hypocrisy, lies and dirty campaign gives a lot of material for dumb blogs like mine.
And the great thing, I don't even have to modify a iota of what he says to make it outrageous.
But Richard Hétu, a french-canadian journalist who is LaPresse special correspondent in New York always have interesting tidbits on the US presidential campaign on his newspaper's blog. Here's a video debunking some "facts" stated in various McCain ads:
Below are a few videos I order you to watch, because I'm too lazy to post original content and also because I happen to like those shows and would like to share.
Heard about BSG and its goodies, but too lazy to go through a three-season marathon? Well, you miss quite a bliss. Meh, frak, here's a funny, very quick recap:
(click on image to watch)
And here's OSS 117, France's most mysoginist, racist, bigot, colonialist and dumbest spy. He's good though!
Probably one of the best French comedies of the last few years. The movie is more than a parody, it's an hommage to 1960's spy movies, up to the cinematography.
A must see. Here's a few clips with english subtitles (except for the last two ones, but they are hardly necessary)
All Tied Up: (click on image to watch)
Meeting Other Spies: (click on image to watch)
The Hookah: (click on image to watch)
Bambino: (click on image to watch)
Jack: (click on image to watch) (Translation of the few spoken words in the last clip) Scene 1: French Official: "Very sad news" OSS 117:"Jack! Jack..."
Scene 2: OSS 117:"Jack...Jack. Larmina:"What are you doing Lucien? OSS 117: "Huh?"
Scene 3: OSS 117:"Jack, my friend, my brother!" Jack: "My friend? It's not how I remember it." OSS 117: "Hahahahaha, 23-nothing! You're an amateur Jack, you don't know how to play, Jack! You suck!" OSS 117: "Hey, Jack!" Jack: "No, really not how I remember it!"
Did I say you guys need to go over the fact it's a foreign film with subtitles? It's simply hilarious!
Time to go watch my dreams, with subtitles (I swear it happened once)!
I'm slowly getting in treeplanting mode and I found this interesting video. I usually post this kind of stuff on my planting blog, but this desserves a little more attention.
Below is a trailer for Rooted Lives, a documentary directed by Erika Drushka, depicting the lives of three British-Columbia career treeplanters, known in the business as "lifers".
Here's the website, a better-quality Quicktime version of the video is available here.
Tupperfan's Guide to Useless Knowledge: B-C's treeplanting season can start as early as February on the Pacific Coast (highly rainy at that time of the year) and last over 6 months, thus earning the workers wage highly sufficient to not work for the rest of the year if they want to, allowing them to pursue any personal interests and venue, ranging from arts to travelling, passing by full-time parenting. (Some treeplanting outfits gathering to veterans and lifers will even offer children daycare services)
The LEGO plastic brick celebrated its 50 years yesterday. It was on January 28th 1958, that Godtfred Kirk Christiansen (son of the LEGO company founder) was granted the patent for the stud-and-tube design of the automatic binding brick. World happiness ensues.
Mediasaroundtheworld marked the occasion. For instance, Google (whose creators once used LEGO bricks as casings for their hard-drives) had a LEGO-made logo:
For the last 50 years, LEGO bricks have been used by kids of any age for creations as diverse as their backgrounds and ideas. From children's multi-coloured houses to "corporate workshops" passing, of course, by visual arts:
And here's Michel Gondry's award-wining White Stripes videoclip, Fell in Love with a Girl:
(click on image to watch)
So, happy birthday, multinational's patent! It seems that the anniversary of an inanimate, celebrated icon of mass-consumerism and globalization is indeed worth more of my time than very basic human problems!
Time to go play with my bricks...
Tupperfan's Guide to Useless Knowledge: LEGO is the second largest tire manufacturer in the world!
Good Old 1980's Advertisement Classic (and a parody)
Couldn't resist posting this.
Here's an old TV ad for Distribution Aux Consommateurs (Consumers Distributing), a company whose outlets would never have the inventory in stock, relying on catalogue orders, even in their stores. The concept failed and the company bankrupted, a few years short of the revolution brought by the "Information Highway" (internet).
The following videos are in french, but I posted a home-made english transcription:
English Translation:
It has to be worth my money. (chorus: "C'est DAC", the french initials of the company, also somewhat meaning "agreed"...) I'm working hard for my money. (chorus) It's worthy of my money. Consumers Distributing!
The "C'est DAC" Catalogue (chorus) The quality, the prices, we agree It's worthy of my money, Consumers Distributing!
Oh yes, we all agree, yeah, I do agree, agree! Consumers Distributing, "c'est DAC!"
And here's the parody's english translation: It's worthy of my money. (chorus: It Sucks!) I'm doing ads for the money. (chorus) Yeah it costs shitloads of money, Distributors Contributing!
The catalogue is poorly translated (Huge twit!) It's full of cheap shit, oh yeah! They are fucking ugly, Distributors Contributing!
Oh yes we all suck, yeah I do suck, suck Distributors Contributing, It Sucks!
I usually post treeplanting videos on my planting blog, but this video, shared by an user on Replant.ca's forums is just amazing! Besides, the season is upon us!
I don't know if it's a real trailer, but it's a funny and spectacular video showing the craziness of treeplanting...and treeplanters!
You might wonder why there's some public pool footage. It's simply a popular activity on day-off. The music featured is Clint Mansell's Requiem for a Dream.
