Viral Video: Dancing Prison Inmates

What do prison inmates do each day? Of course, it depends on what country you are talking about - could be everything from being on a "frequent flyer program" and being water boarded (thinking of the Getmo Prison inmates) to sitting home and watching TV (thinking of the sentences handed out here in Canada which are served - believe it or not- in your own home).

For the most part though, in the developed countries, I imagine a day in the life is probably pretty boring and much like the TV drama Prison Break - minus the McGiver style plotting and tunnelling. As the quote goes, idle hands are the devil's playthings, so keeping inmates busy is a good thing. Even better if it involves exercise, recreation and teamwork. The Cebu Prison in the Philippines has found a way to make that happen and the trend is catching on at other prisons.

You can read more about the dancing prisoners here, the MSNBC news article. It is interesting to watch the videos and see them do their stuff. I have selected a few to present in this blog.  It is easy to see how these Videos went as they say "viral".    I have selected a few of the better ones - they are really quite great to watch. 

If you really like what you see below, you can be a Facebook fan of "The CPDRC Dancing Inmates".  If you are planning a trip to the Philippines, you can drop by and visit (really). Maybe catch a live performance. Go here to find out more.

The first video below Michael Jackson's Thriller, is the original Dancing Inmates You Tube and last I checked it had over 40 million views.



This next video is a documentary providing background footage of the inmates and interviews with them whilst they go about preparing for their next production.



I chose a couple of the other videos which are available by the Dancing Prison Inmates of Cebu. 







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BenchMark: Persistence of Liberty Village and the Toronto Factory Carpet Building Paintings

BenchMark Blogs: the Art Benches of Liberty Village

If you have missed the previous posts explaining the Liberty Village Benchmark program and the art benches we have located in our village go here to fetch them all and read the earlier posts.  This is the 15th post in the series which features the art benches of Liberty Village.


The bench I am presenting today is located on the north side of Liberty Street between Mowat and Fraser on the south side of the Toronto Carpet Building complex. It is bench number 2 on the Benchmark Map which can be accessed here. Titled "Persistence of Liberty Village", it was created by Renata Mohamed and is sponsored by Allied Properties, who own a number of properties in the immediate vicinity. It is the last bench I will write about in the series until the LBVIA adds some more pieces to the inventory - I have now covered all the benches.

The bench itself looks fairly unremarkable from a distance, with 8 metal disks that are embedded in the horizontal boards of the bench being the only distinguishing feature. As I sat on the bench and carefully examined each side of the disks I noticed that they spun on an axis and were inscribed on each side. As I looked at each disk, I contemplated the meaning of the piece.

The top left disk has the inscription "Thaumatrope The name of this optical toy comes from the Greek word meaning wonder turning ". And on the other side was inscribed "Through persistence of vision, spin the disks to embrace the history of Liberty Village".

There is an interesting animation of a thaumatrope on wiki here. So one is supposed to derive some image, a combination of the images presented on each side during the persistence of vision experienced as the disk is spun.

I had quite the challenge trying to photograph the disks and finally gave up save for the one shown here. As I cannot show you a picture, let me describe each of the disks:




On the top board on the bench from left to right
Left: as described above
Middle: On one side an upside down stylized question mark and the other contains a triangle
Right: A street sign image (above) and the other side "Liberty Street"

On the middle board:
Left side: A simple partial sketch of a dove and on the other side a cross hatch pattern which might suggest jail bars
Right: A rough image of a maple leaf and on the other side the words "World Wars"

On the bottom board:
Left: A thimble of thread and on the other side a laptop
Middle: "www.lvbia.com" and on the other side "Learn about Liberty - Liberty Village Business Improvement Area"
Right: "for more info visit" and " copyright 2006" and "www.renatomohamed.com


Certainly most of these elements are very relevant to Liberty Village and if you have been reading my Liberty Village blogs you will know why but I am not sure about the question mark/triangle one though... Any ideas?

Make your Own Thaumatrope Anyone?

To learn how to make a thaumatrope go here.

More Liberty Village Public Art

I wrote about the Carpet Factory Building in this BenchMark Post some months ago. I did not do justice to the building but instead focused on the history of the building and the Bench sponsor who are the current owners. Today I would like to show you some of the art that is painted on and around the building.

The first two photos are of the most noteworthy painting on the side of (of course) the Toronto Carpet Factory Building.   The second photo shows the wonderful detail. 

The next two photos are on the side of the School Bakery and Cafe Building. I blogged about this building here.  It shows an aerial view of the Toronto Carpet Factory Complex.

Pop Internet Culture: The Meme Daft Hands, Bodies and More

The original concept for the meme was introduced with Daft Hands You Tube Video in June 2007. Quite clever, it is a hand jig revealing the lyrics to the Daft Punk's song Harder Better Faster Stronger which are inked onto various places on the fingers and hands of the finger dancer. The video is ranked among the top viewed YouTube videos in the "All Time" category and appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres Show.  The music  is also a Meme in itself because it uses Auto tune (go here to learn about the Auto tune Meme). The Daft Hands Video was done in one take; there is no editing except the words at the beginning. As such it is also an illustration of the Meme One Take go here to learn about that. 
 
The original You Tube Video has had 37,694,354 views to date.



New versions of Daft hands arrived on You tube in the months following, but more importantly, the concept spread and lots of high school guys and gals were inking up their fingers and practicing the Daft movements. The second stage of a Meme, overexposure, had been reached.

The third and most interesting stage of a Meme is parody and remix. When the fingers of Daft Hands were replaced by bodies and the Daft Bodies Video came out in October of 2007 it had officially gone viral on the Internet. There were finger jigs created for other tunes and so the Meme progressed in more than one direction. The first video below is typical of the hundreds of Daft Body amateur productions which were featured in Videos made in living rooms and school auditoriums in 2008 and through 2009 and even on National TV on as it was performed on UK's Channel 4 on Big Brother in August of 2009. Go here as embedding has been disabled.

More typical of the You Tube productions is this one which features two ladies - the top Google hit and the earliest of the Daft Body Videos I could find.  It has 12,125,845 views.  (If you would rather watch the guys go here: If you would rather watch a bunch of High School Seniors doing a school production go here). Another point illustrated by all these Videos: You don't have to be great, you just have to have a good concept and put in a reasonable effort for it to gain wide (if short lived) attention on the internet. The Internet is not about perfection.



Some interesting parodies are also available.  The first takes the theme to the Scrabble Board published on You Tube in October of 2007.


The Daft Bodies Simpson's Version  was published in April of 2008.



Meme's follow a standard progression of Introduction, Overexposure, Remix and Parody, and then Equilibrium, when the meme falls back to its previous state of obsurity and is relegated to the back pages of the internet.

Talking about the back pages of the internet... where is that last page? Go here to see the last page of the internet and also what is called a "single serving site".

And guess what? Single serving sites are also a type of meme. Go here to learn what they are all about.

Watching US Politics and the Health Care Vote from Canada

This afternoon, our American neighbours to the south have the final vote in  the House of Representatives for the Health Care legislation that President Obama and the Democratic majority have been working so hard to enact.  I hope it passes.  At the time of writing, this blog, it looked like it might but the bill is far from in the bag and of course anything could happen before the vote is taken.

I think I can speak for most Canadians, when I say we have a hard time understanding the great fuss being made in the States about the Health Care Bill.  I must admit that I am shaking my head when I read news originating from the States relating to the bill, and particularly regarding the animosity  between the Republicans and the Democrats on this issue.  My read of this mornings news of House of Representatives law makers being spat upon and called names which I was ashamed to use in the 1960s has me shaking my head.

I was surprised to read that California, the most liberal state (in my mind) is not a shoe-in with its support of the bill.   Apparently,  55% of Californians support the President's health care bill.  45% do not. Given that they are the acknowledged leader in safety standards and the like and are thought of as quite liberal in thinking I find it odd that there isn't greater support even in that state. Isn't health care the epitome of a safety standard?

In Canada, we have been hearing the vehement rhetoric regarding this legislation (and other things which were central to Obama's election platform) for more than a year. This bill would extend health care coverage to approximately 32 million Americans who have none. It would also prohibit insurers from denying coverage because of pre-existing medical conditions and cut federal deficits by an estimated $138 billion over 10 years.  As a health care framework it isn't even half of the health care safety net we enjoy in Canada.  It is a baby step toward the universal health care we take for granted here. Excuse my lack of understanding, but it seems to me, as a Canadian, this seems to be a no brainer.  I hope it passes.  We send aid to other continents to provide health care in developing nations - aid that the developed nation's poor cannot afford to pay for either. This makes no sense to me.

What I have found to be even more curious is the nasty politics going on.  My son, who recently returned from living in Arizona for several years has commented to us that he saw that politicas play a larger role in folks lives in the States than they do generally, here in Canada.  People there are more defined by the party that they belong to and a person's politics over ride sensibilities which might otherwise apply.   He and I have had more than a couple discussions on the topic as he has tried to explain the attitude that prevails in the States regarding politics.  Particularly since my parents spend nearly 6 months of every year in Florida and have adopted much of the American Republican viewpoint as their own.

Here in Canada we could argue that for us, our choice really is only which side of centre we would prefer - unless you live in Quebec, and I will stay away from that topic in this blog.  We might argue and discuss the adequacy of the party leaders, but rarely do we ask anyone we might be associating with what party they might belong to because for the most part we don't care and unless we are approaching an election, there seems little point to the discussion. It might be related to our "I'm sorry" culture and the need to be most polite and not to make waves.  More likely it is that we don't care any more than we care what religion an acquaintance might practice.

I try to keep up with what is going on in the States, but admit I cannot (for long) stay tuned to some of the more Republican news sources such as Fox News.  I do read a middle Democrat (liberal) daily eZine called Salon which covers not only politics but entertainment and humour with an American perspective.  I find it facinating and sometimes - as today - disturbing.

I have to close this blog by re-tweeting part of the article written by Joan Walsh in The Salon eZine, regarding the goings on in Washington this morning in advance of this afternoon's vote.  Go here to read her perspective on the altercations which went on and were reported in the New York Times.  I entirely agree with her observation that the Republicans, by not denouncing some of the more nasty parts of this business, is traversing a very sad path (my interpretation).

I thought it appropriate to re-tweet from the article the statements issued by the offices of the House Leader upon whom some of the nastiness was aimed,  as included in the Joan Walsh article.  I found hope in the part of the statement I italicized and highlighted in red ink.

From the article written by Joan Walsh:

I'm going to close with statements issued by the offices of Emanuel Cleaver and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (no firebrand lefty, by the way), which I found on the New York Times: Cleaver (who didn't press charges against the loser who spit at him) is first:

For many of the members of the CBC, like John Lewis and Emanuel Cleaver who worked in the civil rights movement, and for Mr. Frank who has struggled in the cause of equality, this is not the first time they have been spit on during turbulent times.

This afternoon, the Congressman was walking into the Capitol to vote, when one protester spat on him. The Congressman would like to thank the US Capitol Police officer who quickly escorted the other Members and him into the Capitol, and defused the tense situation with professionalism and care. After all the Members were safe, a full report was taken and the matter was handled by the US Capitol Police. The man who spat on the Congressman was arrested, but the Congressman has chosen not to press charges. He has left the matter with the Capitol Police.

This is not the first time the Congressman has been called the “n” word and certainly not the worst assault he has endured in his years fighting for equal rights for all Americans. That being said, he is disappointed that in the 21st century our national discourse has devolved to the point of name calling and spitting. He looks forward to taking a historic vote on health care reform legislation tomorrow, for the residents of the Fifth District of Missouri and for all Americans. He believes deeply that tomorrow’s vote is, in fact, a vote for equality and to secure health care as a right for all. Our nation has a history of struggling each time we expand rights. Today’s protests are no different, but the Congressman believes this is worth fighting for.

The Democratic majority leader, Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, issued a statement condemning the remarks:

Today’s protests against health insurance reform saw a rash of despicable, inflammatory behavior, much of it directed at minority Members of Congress. According to reports, anti-reform protestors spat on Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver, yelled a sexual slur at Rep. Barney Frank, and addressed my dear friend, Rep. John Lewis, with a racial slur that he has sadly heard far too many times. On the one hand, I am saddened that America’s debate on health care — which could have been a national conversation of substance and respect — has degenerated to the point of such anger and incivility. But on the other, I know that every step toward a more just America has aroused similar hate in its own time; and I know that John Lewis, a hero of the civil rights movement, has learned to wear the worst slurs as a badge of honor. (My italics)

America always has room for open and spirited debate, and the hateful actions of some should not cast doubt on the good motives of the majority, on both sides of this argument. But Members of Congress and opinion leaders ought to come to terms with their responsibility for inciting the tone and actions we saw today. A debate that began with false fears of forced euthanasia has ended in a truly ugly scene. It is incumbent on all of us to do better next time.

Liberty Village Public Art and the Artscape Building

Art is everywhere in Liberty Village. Even on roof tops there are creative expressions.

Artscape is a not-for-profit, urban development organization that revitalizes buildings, neighbourhoods, and cities through the arts. Artscape projects provide affordable space for creativity while generating positive cultural, economic, social, and environmental impact.

The building above is the Liberty Village Artscape Building.  From the Artscape Web Site:

In 1991, Artscape helped transform Liberty Village from a derelict and largely vacant industrial district into a dynamic community full of artists, designers, and new media companies.
Today, while many artists have been priced out of neighbouring buildings, the 46 work studios at Artscape Liberty Studios at 60 Atlantic Ave. help ensure that artists are part of the mix that continues to make the neighbourhood attractive to creative industries. In addition to private work studios, Artscape Liberty Village is also home to the Toronto Animated Image Society, Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild, Arraymusic, Small World Music Society and Worlds of Music Toronto.
We invite you to get to know Artscape's tenants in all of our buildings by visiting our tenant website listing.

The building is decorated with bright painted bits - as are many buildings in our Village.  Perhaps in other circumstances they would be considered graffiti, but no these (without words) are works of art.

Liberty Village Public Art - Our City Infrastructure Elements are often made works of Art!

We have a Go Train Stop in the village and I ventured down there for a walk this last week and found someone had nicely decorated the hydro/cable housings sitting there.

This one has nice perspective.

Even our sidewalks are decorated.

Tuesday's Pot Pourris

5,000 Naked People

Over 5,000 participants took part in the nude installation by New York based artist Spencer Tunick titled 'Mardi Gras:The Base'.  In the photo below they pose on the front steps of the Sydney Opera House.

(Photo by REUTERS/Tim Wimbourn, appears in Sydney's Daily Telegraph)

Spencer Tunick is a well known contemporary photographer and this is his latest installation which was staged  in Australia during the Mardi Gras Celebrations.



Go here to see a gallery of 40 photos taken at the event.   It is very bizarre to see so many naked people together in one place.  Without context, the photo below could be very scary, no doubt!

Go here to read a well written blog, "Pardon My Randomness" and to hear all about this and other installations by Spencer Tunich.

Alejandra Ribera at Hugh's Room - Fabulous Again!

I had the splendid opportunity to go hear Alejandra Ribera perform at Hugh's Room on Saturday night, tickets thanks to my son Eric.   It was my eldest son Jeff's birthday the day prior and so was a bit of a birthday celebration.   Her performance was as vibrant as always and she did many of the old favourites.  Noteworthy was a much polished version of Sans Vous, a song which at the Cameron she introduced as her attempt to write a song with a French lyric.  The version she sang at Hugh's Room on Saturday night was noticeably improved - the French sounded quite credible.   I wish that my Montreal friend had been there he would have been able to comment whether the words now made better sense.  It seemed so.  I am guessing that she was able to polish up her French whilst on tour in Quebec with Caracol.

Do we have patients waiting to get into the elevators?

I noticed the above photo posted on the out of service elevator door.  Hmm, cause to pause.

Photo Shop at WallMart

I don't often go shopping, but on occasion as I happen to pop into a Walmart for something I have been noticing those photograph printing devices they now have installed at the checkout.   I bumped into this You Tube which made me aware of the fact that you can access both Picasso and Facebook web sites and produce prints from pictures you have previously uploaded there.  Next time I go to Walmart I just might make a couple of decent photos for the picture frames I have my cheap paper printer  produced pictures installed in.

BenchMark: The Path Home

BenchMark Blogs: the Art Benches of Liberty Village

If you have missed the previous posts explaining the Liberty Village Benchmark program and the art benches we have located in our village go here to fetch them all and read the earlier posts.  This is the 14th post in the series which features the art benches of Liberty Village.


The bench I am presenting today is located on the east side of Atlantic Avenue between Liberty and Snooker Street.  Don't you just love our Monopoly Street Names?  It is bench number 3 on the Benchmark Map which can be accessed here. Titled "The Path Home", it was created by Po Chun Lau and is sponsored by Liberty Village BIA. I have written about the LVBIA in previous blogs go here to find out more.

The painting on the bench was incredibly difficult to do justice with given the camera I have.  The bench has an autumn woodsy tone serving as background to a drawing of sorts.  You will need to visit and inspect the bench yourself.  The drawing reminds me of tree branches.

The sculpture is quite an nice addition to the bench and places this one a tad above many of the other bench installations, for sure!  At first glance it looks like this guy is thoughtfully strolling over to the bench.

I am wondering if maybe he is wandering over to visit his friends stationed up Liberty Street a wee bit, mid way between Jefferson and Fraser.   He looks like he got away from a crowd of like minded creatures which have been installed by the entrance to the Lambert Stadium Parking Lot.

These guys look like they are on a hunt for something...  Dropped your car keys, maybe?  Or just milling about?

I quite like the sculpture, but not to be too critical, I find the backdrop for this piece to be less than ideal.  The grey of the statues blend into the grey of the parking lot and surroundings.

NEWS FLASH: Alejandra Ribera at Hugh's Room

My very favourite local rising star  is once again gracing us with a performance at Hugh's Room this Saturday night for anyone local who wants to listen to some great music!  Don't know who Alejandra is?  Go Here to read my blog about her performance at Hugh's Room in January - it was fabulous!  I am hoping that I get great seats again!

Pop Internet Culture: On the Internet, Memes and the example Fail!

Starting today I am going to replace the Tuesday Art and Architecture focused blogs with blogs of an entirely different sort.  I need to add a lighter side to my blog - seems like I am art and architecting it to death....  I have art and architecture focus to my Thursday blog even though it it Liberty Village focused as well so I have decided that Thursdays will be the domain of all art and architecture going forward.  Tuesdays will be something different.

If you want to skip the long monologue just skip down to the section Titled "The Failed Meme".  I wanted to provide a bit of an introduction and then ended up writing a major dissertation on the Internet and publicizing sites worth visiting and Internet pop culture. 

I often sit and surf and find some tremendously interesting and funny postings. Some of these are part of or go on to define pop Internet culture others are flashes in the pan.  It strikes me that as the months and years march on, we (I mean the Global We) are building this huge cultural archive of Internet content, the value of which is diminished by lack of exposure.  And yes, there is also a good deal of content which is not sufficiently deserving to gain exposure at all.  On the Internet, these posts sit, appropriately, gathering dust unread and unloved. 

What got me started on this line of thought was that I found this week several old and new sites which contain Toronto Outdoor Public art information.  Many of these are point in time contributions which are now out of date as the art which was written about sounded like a permanent installation but is now gone.  Other sites contained information which would be much of what I would have otherwise researched and written about.   All content I had to do a great deal of digging to find. This presented a dilemma.  Tuesday was Toronto Art and Architecture, but it seems to be a favourite topic of others.   I like to write but I value my time and don't want to re-invent the wheel.

Internet Content - The Global Library

Let me stand up for a moment on a soap box and make a speech about the value of the internet and the need for readers who comment and promote posts of others.

The defining characteristic of the Internet is that content is created in a large and increasing measure by its participants - those who blog, comment and create informational sites without renumeration along side with those who do it for commercial gain.  We both create content and voraciously read (and comment on) content on the web produced by others.  This is the new paradigm of journalism in a Web 2.0 world.   I have also found that those who create content without pay are sometimes as good as many of those who do it for pay.

The other characteristic of Internet content is that the type of content being created for reading or viewing by the "consuming public"  has changed and expanded.   Twenty years ago there were books, magazines, comic books, newspapers, recorded music and film.  We now have mash-ups of all those types of content compiled by us Internet trolls in appropriate measures for the subject at hand.  We also have our Internet participants who define what is interesting by the power granted to them through the tool of re-tweet (RT).  I am using this word in a new way.  What I mean is to describe the acts taken by Internet participants to expose interesting and noteworthy pages through use of social networking and other tools. In addition to Twitter (to which the word re-tweet really applies) we can re-tweet (in the broadest sense of the word) using email, Facebook, our blogs as well as print media simply by quoting the URL.  We can add to the content of the original author by commenting on the blog on in the location we embed the re-tweet.

It also helps that we have those useful Search Engines, the web crawlers that search out pages and index their content so that useful pages on any topic can be found.   (Aside:  Web Bots take this a step further but that is another topic).  Having the page indexed is not enough to actually be useful in promoting the page.  Do a google search on just about any topic and you might find  dozens or even hundreds of dozens of results for more common questions, ideas or concepts.  It has been estimated that less than 20% of sites are able to be visited by a web crawler in a given year.  So good web pages don't necessarily make it to or at the to of search results on their own - they also need to get to the "top of the hit list". The act of someone going to a particular web page can increase its ranking and cause it to be more visible which in turn can cause it to increase its ranking, etc.  Interesting web pages are promoted automatically by the Internet itself by search engines.

Lastly, Internet facilities such as RSS and the practice of "following" bloggists have allowed individuals to easily obtain new content from those who create content we have enjoyed in the past.  Internet tools facilitate participation and easy access by those who want to view specific content.

Of course, as time marches the collaborative nature of the Internet will only increase as those of the "Net Generation" mature.  I found this chart depicting on Google Images.  Click through for a larger image to show the details but it shows how large Internet participation is for NetGen students, also known as Millennials (those born between 1982 and 2000).  They are immersed in technology, very social, prone to collaboration, skilled multitaskers, and heavy multimedia content creators and consumers.


I go back to my original thought as I wanted to replace Art and Architecture Tuesdays there are a lot of great Internet sites which no one hears about.  If no one hears about it the great collective "Global We" cannot collaborate on it and make it better.  Tuesdays will therefore be devoted to promoting things I find on the Internet.

The Internet Meme

Good web pages are promoted directly or indirectly by the readership of those pages, but more than that can happen if the page or the idea relating to the page is deemed to be in some way an item that calls out to be replicated or "re-tweeted with a twist".    This is Internet collaboration in action! A Meme can apply to all types of content in web pages and often includes an extrapolation into the real world.    If a concept catches on and "goes viral" - changing and evolving as it catches on from person to person - an Internet Meme is born.

Let me give you the 101 on the concept of a meme.  From Wikk (read more here about sociology of memes):

The term "Internet meme" refers to a catchphrase or concept that spreads rapidly from person to person via the Internet, largely through Internet-based email, blogs, forums, social networking sites and instant messaging.

There are many types of memes and even a set of You Tubes which are devoted to explaining top Memes.  If you want to catch up on your meme's go here to see the list Know Your Meme You Tube Videos.

The FAIL Meme
Today's blog is about the Meme called Fail.  There is more to this meme than someone calling out FAIL as something is seen which has not been done right and the schadenfreude which accompanies this.  There are some nuances, for instance the difference between Fail and PWND and what makes for an Epic Fail.  I have included the Know Your Meme You Tube to explain what FAIL all about. 



There are many sites now devoted to ferreting out and promoting situations which have been deemed to be FAIL. There is even a Meme which came out of an Epic Fail - Boom Goes the Dynamite go here.   I noticed yesterday on a friends FACEBOOK that she was retweeting a site dealing with Failed Cakes - actually they are really funny - go here.
As the presenter in the above Video mentioned, if you want to chuckle at someone else's fails there are many websites devoted to such things (it is after all, a Meme) but one site has the position of leadership at the moment - Failblog.org .  Their catalog of fails  is endless and endlessly funny.   I have selected an item from this website for your morning laugh.




see more Epic Fails

This is a very funny story on many levels and is a great prelude to the numerous and humourous puns which have been added to the story.   The readers have actually made this initial story to be much more than it would have otherwise been by adding some great content. If you would like a good belly laugh it is well worth a visit to the page - click here. My favourite is

"Crime solved. Afterward, they sat around and chewed the fat." Comment by "foop".

LOL   This story and the ensuing puns are even funnier to my family  as we have a standing joke about bacon and a story that involves one of my children eating a full pound of bacon. 

More seriously, there are so many layers which illustrate the point of the Failed meme in the posting (and so makes a great example of FAILED in context of the meme)- as pointed out in another comment added as commentary to the picture. 

...Trust in relationship fail, snacking restraint fail, snacking size fail, health fail, appropriate amount of bacon to keep in a fridge fail (how much do they eat normally?!), policing fail (it took them a week to ask his wife?), journalism fail (because they clearly reported the story of the original theft as if it was genuine news)… Comment by "a".

Another meme, related to FAIL is Keyboard Cat.  Essentially this is a short video sequence of a cat playing a keyboard signature tune which should be included at the end of any video which involves FAIL.  

If you review the original Bacon Theft page on FailBlog.org and view it and the comments following as an example of promotion on the Internet by participants you will see how this meme is also a great illustration of my first topic in this blog. i.e. how the Internet is evolving into a collaborative content medium which allows its participants to contribute to and promote the content it deems deserving of others to visit. 

If you want to look at another interesting meme go here to explore the meme of autotune. I am going to see if I can find an iPhone app to allow me to produce autotune content!

Elizabeth Shepherd Trio and Start To Move

Thanks to CBC Toronto Metro Morning Radio program I have discovered another great Canadian Jazz musician. The format of the morning show is to feature just one song each half hour and maybe once every week or two they can coax a musician to come in and do a live performance of a song. Tuesday morning I woke up to the sounds of Elizabeth Shepherd who was in the studio and playing some material from her up and coming album "Heavy Falls The Night. She had just gotten back from some tour dates in Japan.

When rooting around the Internet for information about her I was delighted to find that CBC now has their Metro Morning playlist online so no more jumping out of bed running for a notebook and pen to write down the name of the artist and song. I also found this marvellous You Tube Video which featuring the JazzCotech Dancers of London UK.


Fabulous dancing and energy and great music on this video!







If you like her music she offers a free download of the song she sang, Numbers, which is on her new album, by subscribing on her site. I was sent a link in response to signing up but could not figure out how to turn the link into a download - all I could do is get it to play... but maybe I am missing something here which you might be able to figure out. (In which case, please let me know)

Still working away on my book keeping so I am not letting myself get caught up with any big blogs until next week.

I have to apologize - I am in the midst of preparing for my annual year end for accounting purposes and as usual for me, I have left it all to the last minute. So I haven't much time to spend putting together this week's blogs - so begging your pardon, I will return with fresh blogs in 1 week's time.

Next week I will tell you all about this sculpture grouping  located at the Toronto Metro Hall south lawn at Wellington and John Street.  Nice to see green grass, eh?