Camera #1

I've said it all before.

OK, maybe I didn't say "holy PIPES, my cultural luff!", so I will add that in.

If there is ever a CBC host Ultimate Fighting Cage Match, I now know who I'm betting on.

Pretty (handsome?) british things...

A low/no content post - a few pics of some nice british things.

garden, garden, garden...

I have a whopping headache so this will be brief...but I do have to share some of the new members of the family with the rest of the world.

The bunkle garden has been a long standing problem, and has been far from the focus of my time. I don't really have many "before" pictures (some here) because the before was not something I wanted to record. But the after - well, that's something else!

Over the last few weeks the lovely Mel has been ripping, digging, sawing, trimming, planting, and (I suspect) sweating. I didn't have any firm direction as to what I wanted, except something easy to look after. Every day, I'd come home and things would have changed. Significantly. It was so fun, and so exciting. All the planting was done when I was in London, so apart from rather excited emails from my mum and Mel, I had no idea what to expect. Needless to say, I loved it. So much, that I have asked Mel to turn her talents to the back nightmare...I mean, garden. Can't wait :)

I'm back.

Tired, but wearing my new wellibobs (more on those later)

Meet my new friend, Robin. We hung out for a bit. I invited him to visit my new front garden, but he says he's happy in Regents Park.

Apparently I'm related to a crazy person.

tuesday - the crying light
Originally uploaded by Matthew Burditt

Tell me something I don't already know - truthfully, she's one of many...

Off to England for a week - work trip, but I am not complaining. You never know, I may have a chance to post - stranger things have happened.

More exciting is that I will return to a completely revamped front garden! Can't wait...(thanks Mel!)

Am I really an "arsehole"?

(To those of you that immediately thought "wow - she's stating the obvious" ... hi friends! because you obviously know me well ;- )

So, this wonderful cyberworld is raising questions in my brain again.

Last night, I went to see the completely delightful Jens Lekman at Richards (which still has completely undelightful washrooms, despite the newly installed "washroom attendant"). The place was full, and the audience was keen to love the lovable Jens. The performance was bright and bouncy and wonderful (apparently he has the flu, but you'd never know). The audience was bright and bouncy and wonderful (pretty much). I wasn't feeling bright or bouncy when I went, but my world was re-bounced within the first 30 seconds of Jens taking the stage.

So what's the issue at hand?

Well, Jens, at the beginning of the gig, told the audience it was OK to film, but requested that the videos don't get posted on YouTube - "it should be a special evening just between you and me" being the basic idea. And I have to admit, it put a seed of doubt in my mind. I mused aloud to my brother after the gig and his response was "What about the shut-ins? What about people that will never have a chance to see him live?". He had a good point. I regularly forget about the shut-ins. But I admit, my hand hesitated as I hit "upload" onto YouTube this morning for a couple of the videos.

Low and behold, by the time I got to work, I had these two comments (from the same person):

You arsehole! He politely requested that people not upload the show onto YouTube.

I guess it was more important for you to look cool on YouTube than to for you to follow a simple request from Jens to not post the show. Nice.

When I told my brother, defender of the shut-ins til the day he dies, he responded with "tell him to fuck off". Once again, I think he kind of has a point...not that I would ever engage in an argument with the poster in question - but it has all made me think.

I do feel a bit crap about disregarding "the request of the artist" - but I spent a lot of time thinking of possible reasons why he'd make the request. Concern over poor performance? Shouldn't be that, as he was great. Concern that a good performance would come across as crap due to poor filming? I can see that I guess. Concern that the performance wouldn't be as "fresh" to the audience if they had heard his stories on YouTube before? I could see that too I suppose.

But here's the thing - in this cyber-age, artists have lost the ability to control what images get out there; it's a bit futile to try. The better thing to do, in my arseholeish opinion, is to embrace the changing landscape and see how you can use it to your advantage. I've had bands contact me thrilled to see the videos, wanting me to send the original file, or linking to the YouTube post on their own sites. And truthfully, in my mind fan videos on YouTube are a key part of spreading the love. If I like a band, I will always try to see footage of them live, and if that footage is good, it gets me that much more hungry to buy tickets to a show when they come to town ( I have actually gone to see bands pretty much based on my reaction to seeing footage of their live show - hello, Les Savy Fav!!). If the footage is crap, I think "oh, crap camera quality" but I never let it reflect on the quality of the performance. If the footage is great but the performance is crap - well, I guess you have a problem, band, but it goes far beyond your fan videos onYouTube.

So - maybe I am an arsehole. But I don't really think that, in this case, my being an arsehole is doing the lovely Jens any harm. Anyone watching the footage would be just as charmed as I was.

And as an aside, I love the idea that I'm posting videos to look cool on YouTube - I haven't looked cool anywhere else in a long time, so bully for me if that's the case. For those that care, the reasons I post are primarily 1) to help build an archive of what I've seen for my rapidly aging brain, and 2) to share the love with other fans. Though from now on, I'm going to post just to be cool, because I need all the help I can get.

And here, for those that care to watch and participate in my bad behaviour, are two from Jens:

The Craigsicle: the groaners are just too easy

..but this has just entered my list of things I would like to ... consume (how's that for a 'safe' word?).

You have to admit, he's pretty cool ... ;-)