use the lufa

random question

not that i would want to hear it anywhere else, but why do i only ever hear this song in grocery stores?

jonas lofgren

super good illustrator. check out his stuff here.



chloë sevigny as seen in lula magazine.

1/60

that's why they say never run across the street.

or for a cab. or a street car. or a bus.

the street's a crazy place.

what???

cameron card.

shot at Woodward Camp in Pennsylvania.

song of the week.

maybe 2 weeks....
nothing new, just rediscovered. even more so through this video. it's amazing how a video can change to song. i love the take CPF has on the track. it's pretty much a 180 from the strokes look and feel but it's totally believable. a lotta michael in there. a little james brown. maybe a little elvis. very old school. love it.

the strokes. killing lies. a cozzars production films video interpretation.

google today

smaaaaart

"To encourage people to take the staircase instead of the escalator, Volkswagen converted a set of steps at the Odenplan subway station in Stockholm into working piano keys. The effort is just one stunt that appears on the carmaker's Rolighetsteorin.se or "Theory of Fun" website, which showcases efforts to get people to change by simply making things more fun."

creativity-online.com

old spice = awesome (unlike nuit blanche)

nuit blanche. fail.

the scotia bank nuit blanche was on this past saturday night for the 4th straight year and i have to say - pretty shitty. last year was great. lots of actual art and installations. no line-ups. just an awesome night. this year, complete opposite. the work wasn't really that interesting and/or inspiring. i wouldn't be surprised to learn there was a huge budget cut to the commissioned work because it definitely looked like it. people standing around in paper bags, or participants riding around on bikes towing couches doesn't really come off as "art." but that's just me. art is completely subjective, i know. but dressing people up in paper bags? people building "shelters" out of cardboard boxes? also, the line-ups for the work were ridiculous. on a night where you know thousands of people are going to be out, why would you organize anything that would require a line-up? last year we rode from spot to spot, saw almost everything and didn't have to wait for anything other than cars and traffic. after an entire night of disappointment, we lined up for one piece. was it worth it? no.

here are some shots from the night.

procrastination at its finest

beautiful, rhythmic procrastination found here: lab.andre-michelle.com/tonematrix

and for those that want something a little more advanced.... inudge.net

drum machine

4 year old drummer

See more funny videos and TBT Videos at Today's Big Thing.

perspectives of a girl

online film festival for girl guides canada. here are my favorite 3. visit the site to watch them all.
perspectivesonagirl.ca

population of this city by krystle mullin


dream by shelley lewis


different by jenn rossini and liz whalen with alchemy

more thought required....

new city of toronto ad. seriously.

helping monkey

came across this picture randomly today on corbis while searching for photos....

"A monkey trained to help paraplegics fetches an item from the fridge. Boston."

tiff recos

so i got a chance to check out some short films at the toronto international film festival and have a couple MUST-SEES for you.

The Armoire by Jamie Travis.

"A young boy goes missing in a seemingly “perfect” suburban neighbourhood. His best friend has no idea what happened, and slowly begins to descend into an abyss of grief, tormented by the mystery surrounding the disappearance. Soon the depressed lad begins sleeping in his armoire, haunted by the silence it holds. Through magnificent art direction, Jamie Travis brings us another sad children’s tale, eerily capturing a young boy’s struggle to hide his secrets."



Danse Macabre by Pedro Pires

"Based on a concept by Robert Lepage, Pedro Pires’s exquisitely photographed morbid ballet pushes the traditional dance film to new cinematic heights. In haunting deserted spaces, the choreographed erratic motions of a corpse evoke the final spasms of life and a last struggle with the emotional turns of the past."

peak 2 peak

raina kirn original.
whistler, bc
rainakirn.com
rwphotographic.com

in b flat

inbflat.net

send back your Sigg

sigg.com/liner
article found here

When you call the customer service department of an international company, you don't expect the chief executive to be returning your call or answering your e-mail.

But that's exactly what Steve Wasik's been doing for weeks now in a massive damage control exercise aimed at placating fuming owners of the Sigg water bottle.

"In the last few weeks, we heard from thousands of people, probably approaching 10,000," said Wasik in an interview this week from Las Vegas, where he's supposed to be vacationing with his family.

Instead, he's been handling most media inquiries and responding to hundreds of customer complaints, writing e-mails himself and offering to replace old bottles for free.

This was not what the CEO had in mind when late last month he posted a letter to customers boasting that all Sigg aluminum water bottles now on the market were "certified to be 100 per cent free of BPA," a controversial chemical used to harden plastic, but suspected to pose potential health hazards.

(In Canada, the federal government last year banned BPA in baby bottles and several U.S. states are considering similar legislation.)

But Wasik's letter also mentioned how Sigg bottles manufactured before August 2008 contained "trace amounts of BPA."

Needless to say, Wasik's letter did not have the desired effect.

Instead of its customers applauding Sigg's million-dollar initiative in developing its "ECO-Care" liner, they were stunned to learn that older bottles were made with any BPA at all.

Sigg has never claimed its bottles were BPA-free. When asked about the chemical last year in an interview with the popular environmental website Treehugger.com, Wasik said that scientific testing consistently showed no BPA leaching from Sigg bottles into water.

But many Sigg customers purchased the expensive bottles -- they retail for as much as $30 -- specifically because of concerns over chemicals found in plastic bottles, chemicals like BPA.

In fact, the 100-year-old Swiss company cashed in on consumer fears over BPA. When the company that makes the Nalgene water bottle pulled the popular product off store shelves amidst growing concern over the chemical, people flocked to Sigg.

Don Smith, co-owner of health-food store Foodsmiths in Perth, said that during that time, his store sold "thousands of bottles a month," peaking in the spring or summer of 2008 -- before the new BPA-free liner was introduced.

"Our trust in the company has diminished," said Smith. "They could have and should have been more forthright in their disclosure. This BPA issue has blindsided everyone."

That includes Donna Davis. Extremely health conscious, Davis tries to be as green as possible, in her personal life as well as in her business, the Movement to Health yoga studio. She even sold the bottles to her students. "Now I feel like a loser," Davis said. "I feel deceived and I feel like the middleman in deceiving other consumers."

She said claims by the company that the old lining didn't leach BPA weren't enough -- they should have disclosed that the lining contained trace amounts of chemical "and then consumers can make up their own minds."

Davis is far from alone in feeling duped by the company, which portrays itself as environmentally responsible.

"I'm new in the environmental business," said Wasik, whose background has been in the beverage and fashion industries.

"What I'm learning is that our consumers hold us to a higher standard and expect more transparency."

Earlier this week, Wasik formally apologized to Sigg customers and offered to exchange any older bottles for new ones, a move that will certainly cost the privately held company hundreds of thousands -- if not millions -- of dollars. He has also tried to personally respond to as many customer complaints as possible.

"I'd say 80 per cent of my conversations have been cordial," said Wasik. "About another 10 per cent people were angry, but most of them still want to do business with us. And about 10 per cent of people say they'll never buy our product again.

"I understand that."

Smith of Foodsmiths falls under the angry-but-still-will-sell-Siggs category. He said that even though his trust in the company has fallen, at least it is trying to make amends.

Davis isn't quite so forgiving. "I probably wouldn't stock Sigg again; I'd probably stock a nice-looking stainless steel one."

Like many other retailers who sell Siggs, Foodsmiths will exchange any bottles with the old liner that were purchased at the store, saving the customer the cost of shipping the bottles.

It's too early to tell whether customers will forgive Sigg. And retailers won't cut the company any slack.

"We do sell stainless bottles as well, and we will be promoting those a little more heavily," said Smith. "We're not loyal to the company necessarily. We'll let customers dictate. Some may choose to accept Sigg's apology and some may not."

- - -

How to return your old Sigg bottle

Since August 2008, Sigg bottles have been manufactured with the new BPA-free lining. But even if you purchased yours after that date, it may still have the old liner. Look inside your bottle: the liner with trace amounts of BPA will be a shiny copper colour, while the new "EcoCare" one is a matte yellow.

- Check with the store where you purchased your bottles -- many retailers are exchanging the old Siggs for new ones (and absorbing the shipping fees as a service for their customers).

- If you're sending your old Siggs in yourself, go online to www.mysigg.com/liner. On the left-hand side, click on menu item "Exchange Program."

- Near the bottom of the page are downloadable forms specifically for Canadian customers. You'll need two: one is a shipping label, so that your bottles will get to the right part of the Sigg Canada warehouse. The second one is a return form for Canadian customers. Make sure you fill this out in full so that the company knows where to send your new bottles.

- This is not a recall, but a voluntary replacement program. The company is not offering refunds. And you'll have to pay the postage for sending the old Siggs back to the company.

- The exchange program ends Oct. 31, 2009.

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

one year walk/beard grow time lapse

November 9th 2007 - November 13th 2008
one year on foot - 4646km through China
unlimited beard & hair growth
thelongestway.com
musical score by the kingpins ( myspace.com/theoneandonlykingpins ) and zhu fengbo

Additional info:
- I never finished my original goal of walking to Germany. Instead, I walked for a year and roughly 4500km, passed the desert of Gobi, and then decided to stop walking for now.
- All of the distance from Beijing to Ürümqi has been completed solely on foot, straight good old walking. There are instances where you can see me in the video sitting on a plane or riding a boat, but those are during breaks I had to take from walking, either to sort out bureaucracy issues or to take care of some personal things.
- I had been planning this trip for over a year before I even started, and getting as far as I got was an experience for which I am very grateful.
- Obtaining the necessary visa for a trip like this was not very easy, hence I had to go back to Beijing a few times to resolve some issues.
- The songs I used in the video are 1) Zhu Fengbo - "Olive Tree" and 2) The Kingpins - "L'aventurier" - visit the Kingpins website if you want to know more, they are very cool I think.
- This is not a strict "1 pic a day" video, because I wanted to make it a bit more alive by adding some additional movement. Sometimes during the film you would follow me turn around, or something would happen in the background. I tried to capture these moments to make the video more interesting.
- The core of this project is in fact my website "www.thelongestway.com" where I have posted my extensive travel diary, starting from day 1 (Nov 9th 2007) and describing every single day until the end one year later.

The Longest Way 1.0 - one year walk/beard grow time lapse from Christoph Rehage on Vimeo.

November 9th 2007 - November 13th 2008

one year on foot - 4646km through China

unlimited beard & hair growth

http://www.thelongestway.com

musical score by the kingpins ( http://www.myspace.com/theoneandonlykingpins ) and zhu fengbo



Additional info:

- I never finished my original goal of walking to Germany. Instead, I walked for a year and roughly 4500km, passed the desert of Gobi, and then decided to stop walking for now.

- All of the distance from Beijing to Ürümqi has been completed solely on foot, straight good old walking. There are instances where you can see me in the video sitting on a plane or riding a boat, but those are during breaks I had to take from walking, either to sort out bureaucracy issues or to take care of some personal things.

- I had been planning this trip for over a year before I even started, and getting as far as I got was an experience for which I am very grateful.

- Obtaining the necessary visa for a trip like this was not very easy, hence I had to go back to Beijing a few times to resolve some issues.

- The songs I used in the video are 1) Zhu Fengbo - "Olive Tree" and 2) The Kingpins - "L'aventurier" - visit the Kingpins website if you want to know more, they are very cool I think.

- This is not a strict "1 pic a day" video, because I wanted to make it a bit more alive by adding some additional movement. Sometimes during the film you would follow me turn around, or something would happen in the background. I tried to capture these moments to make the video more interesting.

- The core of this project is in fact my website "www.thelongestway.com" where I have posted my extensive travel diary, starting from day 1 (Nov 9th 2007) and describing every single day until the end one year later.

"smart cars are just as strong as any other car."

i know no car would have any kind of advantage against these trucks in this situation, but somehow i'd much rather take my chances in something that a little more up front and behind (like an engine and a trunk).

lemonade

More than 70,000 advertising professionals have lost their jobs in this Great Recession. Lemonade is about what happens when people who were once paid to be creative in advertising are forced to be creative with their own lives.