British Nights, Canada Day.

This past Canada Day found me in London, England, coolin', with a pocket full of Pound Sterlings and 24 hrs to kill before a flight to Lithuania.  I hit up facebook. Low and behold my homeboy DeeJay Nana just happened to be in the same city alongside D.O and Slakah aka the "the Art of Fresh".  Indeed, representing all things good Canadian music these three brothers from Ontario were called upon to represent Canada, on Canada Day in London! At Trafalgar Square no less!  Nor were they alone; Headliners included Jully Black, Sarah Harmer and Hawksley Workman.
So I rode the double decker bus then hopped on the tube and in two two's I'm backstage drinking Sleemans with DJ Nana, while Hawksley Workman is on stage turning down requests for a "Lover Boy" cover.  Cheeky Brits. It was Canada Day after all (or at least the night before it) and in all fairness to Hawksley he sounded really amazing. The acoustics at 229 "The Venue" were perfect. Click Here for Video.  Backstage, I was introduced to Montreal based Electronica trio La RadioRadio,

who had just stepped off the stage and who were en route to perform two gigs in France later that week.
Truly it was an enlightening evening; from Slakah educating me on the merits of Monster Headphones to Nana playing me track after track of  ridiculously dope unreleased Rich Kidd beats. Yet perhaps the greatest education came from the man himself, Guiness World Record Book holder D.O.  As the evening tapered off and we relocated to a ritzy hotel lobby bar across the street, D.O. was on his A game, aptly demonstrating the art of the schoomze while engaging a table industry who's who over several rounds of Hennessy. No seriously. This dude can network, as is evidenced by his "over 100k" in grant money in 2010 alone! To hear  him put it, there is no one in Canada doing what the Art of Fresh does and with that in mind, success is his only option.

Photo L to R: DJ Nana, Slakah the Beatchild,, La RadioRadio

The Militarization of Space

David Pugliese's blog Defence Watch is reporting via the Asia Times that India is much closer and more determined than ever to developing its very own ASAT (Anti-satellite weapon). This revelation brings the Republic of India  within arms reach of entering an exclusive club occupied only by the United States, Russia , and more recently China. The entrance of yet another state into the race to dominate the cosmos will have regional repercussions as those states (and potentially others) vie for strategic and competitive advantage.
Helium-3, a rare element that can be used to fuel nuclear reactors at incredible efficiency, is virtually non-existent on Earth, yet just happens to be in abundance on the moon, and the Chinese Government has already stated their intent on harvesting the substance.  India, though not having expressed a direct interest in mining the moon for Helium-3, has declared it's intentions to land on the moon in the next ten years while Russia is flat out is saying "we're going to be mining by 2020!!" Forgetting not the recent American declaration to "get back to the moon ASAP" and I think we have a bona fide Star War, or at the very least, enormous potential for conflagration. To be Continued

The Sex Pistols of China

As per my previous post, one of the main reasons why Western companies haven't been able to mimic their 'western' success' in China it's beacause China is not only a political state, it is culture. Matthew Niederhauser is a photographer in Beijing and the author offSound Kapital. and his photos do right in capturing that culture by way of the Beijing music scene. Never mind that the American and Brit influences

Christina Larson is contributing editor at Foreign Policy. See the article plus more photos here:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/01/15/anarchy_in_the_prc?page=0,0

CHINA Vs. Google, Myspace, Yahoo, Ebay.....

Much has been reported about Google's recent rebuke of China's internet censorship policy in wake of the recent, sophisticated cyber attack apparently aimed at Chinese dissidents. To add insult to injury Google has also threatened to pull out of the country all together (!) unless...unless what? DAVID BARBOZA and BRAD STONE at the New York Times have put together a fabulous review of the spectacular rise and fall of American internet companies whom, despite global success, just cant seem to break into China. Follow the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/16/technology/16failure.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

Black Bush

The Globe and Mail recently had President Obama on their cover with the headline reading "We are at War", for which the accompanying article went on to highlight the growing simularties between former President Bush's foreign Policy and Obama's, namely the Afghanistan troop surge and the perpetual status of Guantanamo Bay detainees. I cant actually disagree with them! But... I also cant say this is an entirely bad thing either. After all, we are at war, and if there was anything I liked about former President Bush is that he would never bring a knife to a gun fight. What I found it particularly interesting about the comparison is that in one instance of his war strategy, President Obama had actually surpassed his predecessor in terms of destruction wrought against the Taliban - namely UAV drone strikes. Now don't get me started on drones - I absolutely LOVE the idea of remote controlled death from above (if it saves the lives of our troops all the better) and as it turns out "More C.I.A. drone attacks have been conducted under President Obama than under President George W. Bush". Incase you've forgotten that was eight years under Bush and one year with Obama as commander in chief. All this of course becomes slightly bizarre when examined in light of President Obama's recent Nobel Peace prize but hey... the man has a job to do! But after reading that initial headline and article in Globe I couldnt help but think back to Dave Chappelle's sketch from a few years ago that had the comedian playing a gangsta, swaggered out American president by the name Black Bush. Art imitating life or vice versa? I found this cartoon to go with my post, if you want to see the Chappelle skit it's on youtube.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/04/world/asia/04drones.html

LOUWOP

I love how my friends also happen to be some of the most talented people on the planet.

http://louwop.com/

The End of Brand Loyalty?

I'm from Waterloo. Rim is headquarterd down the street from where I went to highschool. Blackberry's are assembled a stones throw from where I grew up for Pete's Sake! My friends work at RIM, my friend's wives work at RIM, sh*t even my enemies work at RIM. My point is I've always supported RIM products, even when they were clunky with monocrome screens, because lets face it they are good at what they do. I wont deny that civic pride has something to do with it, because frankly it's in the best interests of Canada and Waterloo Region in particular that RIM continues to flourish - see the CIGI, The Perimeter Institute and the Balsille School of International Affairs as exhibit A, B, and C. So why now, at this critical economic juncture, am I torn between who I should choose as the manufacturer of my first touch screen phone? When the Iphone dropped I was all over it, I wanted one sooooo badly, but I waited. I know how Apple operates, and sure as day, they dropped another more advanced version within months of the original. What added to my hesitance was the insider information I had on what would later be called the Blackberry Storm. Fastforward to today and there are more options in touchscreen mobile phones than there are PC's, easily. But the one that has my eye, despite all my civic duty/pride/responsibility isn't the Storm 2, or the Iphone 3Gs, the Motorolla droid or whatever for that matter. It's the Nexus One. Why? Cuz it does everything I need and then some, and the price is right - bottom line. When it comes to electronics my people, please believe me competition is GOOD. Now, unless RIM can drop a 5 megapixel+ touch screen phone in the next couple months, i'll be replacing yet another one of my trusted tools with yet another Google product (see MS word, MS explorer, physical hardrives, hotmail, newspapers, etc, etc).

Photo courtesy of : Blackberrycool.com

A good articles on the implication of the Nexus One and the question as to whether Google actually has the ability to manufacture, market and then mobilize an international sales force (something RIM is very good at) to sell the phone, can be found at

-http://www.blackberrycool.com/2010/01/06/nexus-one-and-what-it-means-for-blackberry-and-iphone/

Kidstreet

Yeah I know it's a year old but whatever...I ran into Edna at the Starlight lastnite and i was reminded just how fly she is really is. I put money on this band in 2010 - KIDSTREET.

Adjustable Cocoon

"By supporting the body in all the right places and at the same time both filtering and acknowledging its surroundings and occupant, the sleep suit provides for a sound 30 minute nap"

Courtesy www.blogitecture.net via www.designscene.net

Radical Reinvention of The PC

"The design of the “Philco PC” was inspired by the 1954 design classic Philco Predicta, as well as an eclectic mixture of modern minimalism, the steampunk movement, and antiques. As lead designer Dave Schultze explains, “The result is a design aesthetic that blends multiple elements of the familiar, but with some surprisingly fresh styling that just so happens to house a state-of-the-art Windows 7 PC." More photos can be found by clicking :

http://www.schultzeworks.com/philcopc/