If you haven't seen the, now viral, video of a wedding party dancing down the aisle to Chris Brown's "Forever" you should check it out. But the real news is how the record company handled the unauthorized use of the song.

Instead of suing or removing the video, they added a link so people who view the video can then download the song. Stroke of genius really. The company made buckets of money (that they wouldn't have otherwise) on the song and the makers of the video get to keep sharing it with the world. Sounds like a win-win to me.

While there are still questions and concerns about how music and videos are traded over the internet, this seems like a possible solution (not that it would work in all cases) where everyone can be happy and the record … Read More

Ok, so I was talking to Maurice Ginzer (former owner of Kaos and now organizer of Calgary Bluesfest as well as president of the Blues Music Association -- this guy knows his blues) and he said that the show not to miss at this years bluesfest is Joe Bonamassa. That said there are a bunch of great artists like Colin James, Watermelon Slim, Booker T as well as local mainstays like Tim Williams and Johnny V. 

Ginzer says that this guy is a giant up and coming name, Eric Clapton sat in with him at a recent show in the UK and is getting critical acclaim around the world. According to Ginzer, this will be the show that everyone will be saying they were at in a few years (whether or not they were actually there!)

Anyway, check him out and decide for … Read More

Aldermen Brian Pincott and Joe Ceci are putting a motion before council on Monday, directing administration to outline a strategy to make city data more available and easily accessible to citizens.

DJ Kelly broke the story on his blog today. You can find it, including the full text of the motion here. Currently, there are already a number of reports, as well as council agendas and minutes available on the city website, but, according to Pincott, this would also make available raw data.

"We've crunched the numbers for our purposes," he says. "Now we can open it up to let people do what they want with it." He adds that the idea was first brought to him by Kelly, and others active in the online community after they saw it being done in other … Read More

Do you remember the big hullaballoo a few months ago when the government of Alberta used a picture of an English beach in a marketing campaign? Well, in true "aren't we all human" fashion it feels good to know we aren't the only ones who screw up our PR.

Recently a candidate for governor in Colorado accidentally used a photo of the Canadian Rockies in an ad about Colorado. The picture was displayed with "What do you want for the future of Colorado?" Apparently the answer is, "To be like Canada." Well, there are worse things to aspire to. See the original image.

One question remains though. Does anyone really care if this guy's designer chose the wrong stock photograph?

Now that I have had a chance to sit back and reflect on my festival experience I thought I'd share my thoughts on the groups that I saw and my picks for the best shows of the festival, acts that you SHOULD NOT miss if they ever come through Calgary.

However, seeing as there were well over a gizillion shows I'm sure I missed a fair number of killer shows so please, feel free to share your "best of the fest" with me.

Tuesday

Medeski, Martin and Wood took the stage at the Jack Singer and played a marathon show. They are one of my favourite bands to see live, a strange but entirely awesome combination of funk, avant-garde jam band. John Medeski is a certified monster on the keys with some serious Cecil Taylor influences.

Wednesday

Fairly mellow … Read More

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In case you were wondering what groundbreaking plans the city has for the Sunday closue of Memorial Drive in August, here is the press release from the organizers (all bold face is original). The best part is, in the email that came along with this they said "we don't plan on responding to the media right away, allowing for the negative press to die down."

Don't get me wrong, I wholeheartedly support the closure, but the press release is so nefarious and makes the whole thing sound so...well...lame.

A Vision for The Bow River Flow

The Bow River Flow is an occasion for Calgarians to gather and celebrate life along the Bow River and the Memorial Drive Parkway.  Imagine a great flowing commons through the heart of our city – an event that is … Read More

I recently read a blog post by Ryan at the New Resilient which got me interested in a film called Radiant City, filmed right here in Calgary about urban sprawl.

Some of the facts were astonishing. The average suburban home is now 2200 square feet. Over 90% of kids are now driven to school. Suburbanites are, on average, 6 pounds heavier than their inner city counterparts.

Some of the attitudes in the film were depressing, mostly because they are a true representation of how some people in Calgary view life. The two most recent examples are a Calgary Herald article about the 62 new officers assigned to the downtown beat to help "clean the core" as the chief said and a CBC story about attainable housing. This is an actual quote from the … Read More

Yesterday was a beautiful day for the Lilac Festival. Just nice enough to get good and sunburned but not hot enough for sunstroke. As I meandered through the throngs of families, dogs, birds, snakes and drunkards along fourth street I couldn't help thinking how much organizers were paying to put on this wonderful event for us (see my recent article).

Then, today I ran across some pictures from Pedestrian Sundays in Toronto (see some photos), a similar event that closes streets around Kensington Market and other communities so pedestrians can enjoy music, shops and general fun in the streets. I decided to phone them up and find out if they pay less than the $50,000 the Lilac Festival is paying in city fees.

What I found out is shocking … Read More

I'm not an oenophile (although I'm enough of one to know what it means) but I enjoy good wine and will always jump at the chance to go to wine tastings and swirl, sniff and sample. I nod knowingly and look like I am really tasting the notes of mango, cinnamon, cigars, cat pee or God knows what else the vendor describes in the wine. Really, I just know what I like and what I don't and anyway, it's kind of fun to pretend to be a snob for an evening.

So with media pass in hand I ended up at the New Zealand Wine Fair the other night. Now my knowledge of New Zealand wine consists of a couple sauv blancs I tried a few years ago that were decidedly "meh." But boy was I in for a treat.

Not only does New Zealand make sauv blanc they are also emerging as a name in the pinot … Read More