Saturday, September 8, 2012

Imaginary Cities, Marti Sarbit's unique vocal stylings reminiscent of Winehouse

Warning: CBC Player plays automatically - to pause, scroll down and click.


Listening to Jonathan Goldstein's WireTap episodes at the new 'CBCMusic' portal (in beta) - listening to the episode, "The Pitch" I heard this amazing band...

My first thought: her voice is as powerful as the recently deceased one!

Winnipeg Manitoba Canada, Imaginary Cities
Featuring Marti Sarbit on vocals and co-writer Rusty Matyas
Debut album: "Temporary Resident" (2011)
Vinyl release: February 2012

Imaginary Cities - Ride This Out (acoustic version)


Imaginary Cities - Purple Heart (Official Music Video)




Found Imaginary Cities via the WireTap episode "The Pitch" recorded live at the Winnipeg Comedy Festival - and featuring special musical guests, Imaginary Cities. They play a beautiful, ethereal rendition of the song 'Ride This Out'. Totally mesmerizing.

WireTap | Friday, August 31, 2012 | "The Pitch"


This episode will die in two weeks from now (September 23,2012).
Warning: CBC Player plays automatically.



References:

CBC Music(beta) | Imaginary Cities | http://music.cbc.ca/#/artists/Imaginary-Cities

Canadian Interviews | Marti Sarbit and Rusty Matyas - In a Dreamlike State | http://www.canadianinterviews.com/interviews/index.php?ID=617

Imaginary Cities | http://www.imaginarycities.ca/usep/

Youtube Channel | Imaginary Cities | Videos | http://www.youtube.com/user/imaginarycities/videos

CBC Radio | WireTap | "The Pitch" | http://www.cbc.ca/wiretap/episode/2012/08/31/summer-broadcast---the-pitch/

Wikipedia | Imaginary Cities | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imaginary_Cities



mh

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Toronto's Zane Caplansky's building Mobile Catering Brands Online via the Mobile Web



Update Sunday, September 8 2012:

Got my first 'Food Truck Eats' location update email today - very cool:
There's lots of food truck action taking place in the City today!

After a successful first night, three new food trucks are back outside the Bloor Cinema (506 Bloor St, just east of Bathurst) for TIFF. The trucks are open to the public and tonight we've got Gourmet Bitches, Gourmet Gringos and Hogtown Smoke serving up street eats from 7:00 p.m. - 11:30 p.m.

For all you Entertainment District partiers, The Food Dudes are doing a late night poutine service outside the Storys Building at 11 Duncan St, just north of King St from 12:00 a.m.- 4:00 a.m.

And finally, Food Cabbie and Pretty Sweet Cupcakes will be at York University for the football game from 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Enjoy your weekend and don't forget to check out the full TIFF food truck schedule!

http://torontofoodtrucks.ca/tiff

- Toronto Food Trucks



Toronto's Zane Caplansky - ‏@foodtrucksTO, and "Food Truck Eats" - is building a Mobile, Network Marketing Brand, with marketing tailored to the Mobile market.

As well as his restaurant, Caplansky's Delicatessen; and it's mobile-brand, simply Caplansky's part of his growing "Food Truck Eats" Mobile Cuisine network.

The marketing model aggregates always-on, smart phone, mobile networks full of people apt to purchase mobile food, with a network of independent mobile catering trucks.

It's brilliant --- and so obvious.

PayPal Here - Caplansky's Deli


I follow Sue Holland:

Re-tweeted from Suresh Doss, 'the #foodtruckeats guy':
 Embedded image permalink


From Zane Caplansky's original tweet


The effective Twitter Marketing is tailored for mobile users: The tweet is concise and re-tweetable:

"Toronto Food Trucks R back @ Yonge/Gould today w/ 5 trucks. 11am #foodtruckeats pic.twitter.com/dH7b6HyE"

The tweet also uses the 'View photo' feature to preset an effective info graphic. The custom poster highlights the brands, location, time - and links to a network of Food Truck Eats food trucks stationed around Toronto.

[The interface is begging to be an interactive Map.]

The tweet is announcing "Food Truck Eats" 'Events' at Gould and Young - right beside Ryerson University - is a perfect mobile phone hotspot, with nearly 100% of the target market online and using the internet social tools in the daily routine of their lives.


From 11am this morning: as the food truck emporium opens for business
Embedded image permalink



This works for 'always-on' office workers too!

From 11:16 AM:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A2HmkjyCYAAkmH4.jpg


Toronto International Film Festivle (TIFF) is being targeted for convenient food, with network marketing professionals re-tweeting the Food Truck Eats brand at the ticket booth.See the Food Truck Eats - TIFF schedule! - http://torontofoodtrucks.ca/tiff

My reading of the website indicates that trucks regularly stay at one location from 11am to 3pm. The site networks lots of independant food trucks as well a Caplansky's "Thundering Thelma" - his first truck, of several now, if I count right.

Locations and times are also updated for the whole network, via an email notification service.


CBC's Dragon's Den 'Masters' missed Mobile Web in Assessment

After coming to the Dragons Den original episode through a Twitter Network Marketing ad today (via a Sue Holland - @suesthegrl) I was sure that the 'Dragon Den-ners' were dead wrong in walking away from a 15% share on $375,000.00 investment.

I think the key to their miscalculation was that they weren't aware that mobile phone web is creating marketing vectors that are revolutionizing the mobile catering industry.


Zane Caplansky on Dragons Den



Caplansky's Food Truck Update on Dragon's Den





References:

Caplansky's Delicatessen | Smoked Meat | 356 College | Toronto | www.caplanskys.com/

Mobile Cuisine | Mobile Marketing for the Mobile Food Industry | http://mobile-cuisine.com/marketing/mobile-marketing-for-the-mobile-food-industry/

Youtube | torontofoodtrucks's channel | http://www.youtube.com/user/torontofoodtrucks/feed

Twitter | Toronto Food Trucks (@foodtrucksTO) | https://twitter.com/foodtrucksTO




mh

Monday, September 3, 2012

British Columbia RCMP raid Blogger / Whistleblower's home


Much like a story I posted here earlier this year, where a warrant claiming Criminal Libel was used to shut down a Canadian whistleblower blog, to raid a bloggers home, and to seize the property of a citizen blogger and arrest said blogger. (see: FilterBlogs | March 8, 2012 | Blogging comes of age in Charles LeBlanc Criminal Libel case | http://filter--blog.blogspot.ca/2012/03/blogging-comes-of-age-in-charles.html) ...

..now, on August 16, 2012 a Blog called "Re-sergence Alliance" was taken down; and two days later a blogger / web developers home was raided, and computers and cell phones were confiscated under a criminal, "Defamatory Libel" warrant. A warrant, the contents of which, are oddly sealed from public scrutiny.

http://www.bccla.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/20120818-warrant.jpg
Via link at: http://bccla.org/news/2012/08/bccla-to-apply-to-unseal-rcmp-defamation-search-warrant/


The BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) has called the use of Defamatory Libel in this case disturbing - as it is being used in a case where the RCMP are investigating wrong-doing by the RCMP; and in that this rarely used criminal charge - basically criminal speech - is being applied by police against a citizen who has been critical in a public forum of the same police force now investigating them, and executing the search.

From the CBC article:

"Micheal Vonn, a lawyer with B.C. Civil Liberties Association, calls the RCMP actions an inappropriate use of police resources, because defamation belongs in civil court.

"Vonn also said she believes the defamatory libel section of the Criminal Code is unconstitutional."


Canadian Bloggers need to form a Union - to pool resources; to pay for legal expenses of members, to challenge in court this use of Libel law to shut down the Blogging Free Press.

Here's a CBC's video:

CBC News | Aug 27, 2012 | Police search home (2:57) |
A man who complained about an RCMP about is now the subject of an investigation



So the story goes, a RCMP Officer who was part of the investigation into serial killer Robert Pickton - the man convicted of killing dozens of Downtown East Side Vancouver prostitutes - has pictures of himself up online, in one case holding a pastry knife (not sharp either side) to a woman's throat in a bondage sado/masochistic role-play.

Image via HaifischGeweint (the shark wept) blog
 http://haifischgeweint.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/jim-brown-doppelgang-screenshot1.jpg?w=500&h=246


A CBC story that featured this photo was taken down, and the parts of the story that referenced the photo was redacted - at their site the following 'correction' was added to the bottom of the story:

Corrections and Clarifications
In previous versions of this story, reference was made to one specific photo of a man holding a knife to a woman's throat. Questions about the identity of that man led CBC News to remove the photo and descriptions of it from our coverage. New information has since determined the identity of that man is not Cpl. Jim Brown.
July 17, 2012 | 10:55 a.m. PT


Many photos like these were unearthed by the blogger who's home was raided (who has asked media to with-hold his identity), and they were posted at another blog site where disgruntled RCMP members were publishing inside information about their fellow police in a public forum - the "Re-sergeance Alliance" blog (which claimed membership of 500 RCMP) - that since this Defamatory Libel warrant was issued - has been taken down.



In Google I searched "Blogger.com + Re-sergeance Alliance". Posted number four in Google with that search parameter was "Haifischgeweint" blog - because she has a much used tag on her blog, "re-sergeance alliance". I found the image above posted at Haifischgeweint - it is an Image from a CTV video post - that has since also been taken down.

The "Haifischgeweint" blogger says this RCMP officer, the one playing the 'dominant' with the pastry knife at the 'submissive' woman's throat (pictured above) - lured her (the author) away from her sexually abusive family - still trying to reconcile after many years since the physical abuse had ended (as opposed to the ever-present physiological consequences of that abuse) - and into his family, to live in his home, with his wife and his young son with promises a father makes to a daughter --- where after she arrived was constantly, expertly manipulated towards the easiest path - to become his live-in, submissive sex slave.

She claims he pursued sexual touching towards this end when ever his wife was not present - even with his very young son, in one case - sitting next to him on the couch in the living room watching TV ... where he was trying to get the author to give him a hand job, encouraging her to reach down his pants.

These sexually inappropriate actions have to be taken with-in context: the author, sexual abuse victim - being manipulated - and the young son as an essential part of that manipulation (being directly exposed to adult sexual situations at an inappropriately young age) - upon a person who has unresolved issues around this same type of abuse; who is also in a dependant situation (a young person, living in his home, in a new city far from home, after having just left their home, which had a history of sexual abuse).

The blogger appears to be blogging towards resolving these abuse issues through the process of writing and publishing in a public forum - something with which I have - although not with sexual abuse as it's root - a personal appreciation of.

For this reason - and having read much of the content there - I point readers to this person's blog with some confidence in it's veracity as an important back-grounder to this piece.



Right after Re-sergeance Alliance was taken down the RCMP sent a memo to officers telling them they were not allowed to post in social media. This over-the-top pronouncement needs to be tested in court; as well as the use by Police of Defamatory Libel towards a criminal prosecution of the writer / publisher / web developer.

It is beyond my believe that there was not already some part of the RCMP's code of conduct that forbids members from posting about their jobs in public forum. Think about it - would a police officer be allowed to talk at a public town hall about the inner workings of a department they work for?

That the RCMP officer under investigation by the RCMP for code of conduct violations would post images in which he has used parts of his uniform performing S&M play is obviously across the officer code of conduct line - and should have had hiim fired a long time ago.

This has now lead to a mutiny with-in the ranks - and for good reason in his writers opinion - what's the rub? Fire the stupid man already.

Screen Shot 2012-08-16 at 8.54.29 AM

The letter goes on to state that the force faces “corruption at the most disturbing levels” and “through our managerial conduct of literally covering up their crimes and demoting them upwards.” The Re-Sergeance calls on members to remember their oath to protect and serve fellow Canadians with “honour and humility.”

Anonymous Mounties Threaten Force’s ‘Bad Apples’ With Exposure
- by Amy Boughner


Now these actions by one officer - with some very questionable attitudes about acceptable social behavour, on several fronts - has lead the RCMP to ban all posting on social networks by all officers. And to top it off they have invoked a questionable use of criminal speech law - in an investigation of themselves - to shut down a blog that could have been stopped with the internal memo.

These must not stand - these two precedents in law must have their day in court - because if not this type of extremist application of the law will spread to other government institutions, and reinforce those already in place in the private sector (which also should be tested in court).

This second use this year by a Canadian Police Force, of the Criminal Libel charge against a blogger critical of Police rings a bell of alarm - it must not stand.

The impartial application of the law by police, and as well the freedom of the Blogging Free Press to honestly, accurately and responsibly report on what the police are doing is essential to democracies delicate balance.



References:

Sun Media | Friday, August 31, 2012 06:28 PM EDT | New questions about RCMP credibility | http://www.torontosun.com/2012/08/31/new-questions-about-rcmp-credibility

CBC News | Aug 27, 2012 5:33 PM PT | Updated: Aug 27, 2012 9:41 PM PT | Whistleblower claims RCMP targeting him | http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/08/27/bc-bondage-whistleblower-search-seizure.html

CBC News Jul 5, 2012 10:56 AM PT | Updated: Jul 5, 2012 6:43 PM PT | RCMP officer investigated over bondage photos | http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/07/05/bc-rcmp-sex-photos.html

Haifischgeweint  | Tag: re-sergeance-alliance | http://haifischgeweint.wordpress.com/tag/re-sergeance-alliance/ 

Haifischgeweint | August 30, 2012 | Information, Speculation, & Misinformation | http://haifischgeweint.wordpress.com/2012/08/30/information-speculation-misinformation/

Haifischgeweint | August 16, 2012 | An Open Letter To Damien: Fuck You, You Privileged Fuck | http://haifischgeweint.wordpress.com/2012/08/16/an-open-letter-to-damien-fuck-you-you-privileged-fuck/

Care2/Causes | Amy Boughner | August 16, 2012 | Anonymous Mounties Threaten Force’s ‘Bad Apples’ With Exposure | http://www.care2.com/causes/anonymous-mounties-threaten-forces-bad-apples-with-exposure.html

British Columbia Civil Liberties Association | August 28, 2012 | BCCLA to apply to unseal RCMP defamation search warrant | http://bccla.org/news/2012/08/bccla-to-apply-to-unseal-rcmp-defamation-search-warrant/



mh

Saturday, September 1, 2012

U.S. Drought Monitor 12 week .GIF - June 12 to August 28, 2012


U.S. Drought Monitor 12 week .GIF - June 12 to August 28, 2012

http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/12_week.gif


The Drought Monitor is a project of:
  • Joint Agricultural Weather Facility (U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Commerce/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) 
  • Climate Prediction Center (U.S. Department of Commerce/NOAA/National Weather Service) 
  • National Climatic Data Center (DOC/NOAA)

Drought Monitor - http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/



mh