Super Furry Animals
Seth Falk is kind of an incredible dude. He’s under 30, has a zoo license (the only one in downtown toronto), and under his company, Hands On Exotics, he owns over 90 exotic animals. From desert lizards to 20 lb Columbian Pythons, lion headed rabbits, multiple lemurs, a kangaroo, five different parrots, and most recently, Katya, a five year old lynx that lives in his home with him.
I was incredibly lucky to get to volunteer with him at one of his regular visits to a retirement home (he does these trips up to three times a day). Apparently you need at least three people on hand when showing off a big cat. Yes, we brought a big ass deer hunting, target pouncing cat to an old people’s home. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take picutres during the animal demo, a) because I was busy volunteering and b) you’re prohibited to take pictures at retirement homes unless you are a family member. However, we were still able to snag a few at the end, as you can see here.
After the hour long demo, we returned back to the ‘office’ to clean cages and put the animals away. Seth keeps everything germ free environment as much as possible, at least when it comes to handling animals. My hands were heavily doused in alcohol-cleanser the moment I set foot in his animal area. Needless to say, I had a ridiculous amount of fun in the lemur habitat, where I frolicked for 20 minutes while three kinds of lemurs and a coatimundi kissed, licked, cuddled, nibbled and licked their way through my hair, hands and feet. All photos from the cage were self-shot, hence the moments of incredible awkwardness.
ERRRRYBODY FRY A YAM! Afrikan Boy – Amala Azonto (feat. Dotstar) OFFICIAL VIDEO
ERRRRYBODY FRY A YAM!! Cook dem foo foo too. How this doesn’t have four trillion hits yet is beyond me.
Ghanaian food rap is the next big thing. Don’t sleep on this.
10 Best Video Game Soundtracks
Music and games are like chocolate and peanut butter or, y’knows, ome other cliche about things that go great together.
By Jesse Ship Posted: 11/27/2012 5:21 pm EST
It’s not just the gaming — the hyper-jumping, mega-blaster shooting, sword-fighting or robot-crashing action — that makes a great video game.
The best video games also have rich characters you feel emotionally invested in, smart plotlines that keep your attention, and, in an area that’s constantly underrated, great musical scores.
Twin the right music with the right video game and you have something you’ll not only want to hear for 80, 90, 100+ hours of gameplay, but something that you could genuinely consider “classic” music — whether of the orchestral variety, or “classic” in the sense that it’s timelessly awesome.
We rummaged through the boxes of our old gaming systems (Sigh,Sega FYI Genesis is 24-years-old now) and classic cartridges to determine the best video game soundtracks.
Zelda (multi-platform)
‘The Legend of Zelda Symphony of the Goddesses’: Videogame Music Goes From 8-Bit Chip to 66-Piece Orchestra
Huffington Post Canada | By Jesse Ship Posted: 11/27/2012 5:25 pm EST Updated: 11/27/2012 5:25 pm EST
Anyone who has played video games in the last three decades has at some point likely taken a trip to Hyrule — the land ruled by gaming’s beloved and oft-kidnapped princess Zelda — throughout the franchise’s 20-odd iterations. While players may have been thoroughly engaged in the action, the epic musical soundtrack has always been an added bonus to the experience. So in order to celebrate the series’ 25th anniversary in 2011, a symphonic score was released to accompany latest title, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.
The disc received such a positive reception that after a small production at E3 2011, it unlocked the gates for a potential touring show, The Symphony of the Goddesses.
Jeron Moore, The Symphony of the Goddesses creative producer, has worked on Prey, Warhammer: Mark of Chaos, and the controversial Duke Nukem Forever games. He pushed Nintendo to do the symphony.
“We brought the idea to Nintendo, who had already been working on something, but the idea was sort of foggy to them,” says Moore. “They hadn’t quite fleshed it out and so they put us on their team with the 25th Anniversary symphony, and they were very into our ideas, with little negative feedback.”
Working with Chad Seiter, the symphony’s music director, as his partner, they took on the task of deciding what to include and how to convert segments of the archaic 8-bitZelda themes from the original NES system written by Koji Kondo into properly symphonic music, a considerable challenge considering the minimalist nature of those old theme.
“The tough thing was that the original Zelda was written for an orchestra” said Seiter. “So to re-adapt it was sometimes difficult, but the greater thing is that you have these melodies that have withstood the test of time, so it wasn’t too hard to put it into this setting. I’ve been playing Zelda all my life so it’s been in the making for 25 years.”
Along with other adaptations, Seiter made the decision to add a bit of a cowboy color with a string-theme to accompany the many scenes of Link traveling across the desert on his trusty steed, Epona.
Thankfully, the gaming industry has seen a considerable boost in musical sophistication, and later Zelda episodes that the symphony pulled from A Link To The Past(SNES), The Wind Waker (GameCube), The Ocarina of Time (N64), The Twilight Princess (Wii) and Majora’s Mask(Wii) have had more work involved on an orchestral level.
CLICK TO READ THE REST OF ‘The Legend of Zelda Symphony of the Goddesses’: Videogame Music Goes From 8-Bit Chip to 66-Piece Orchestra
Yorkdale Apple Store Relocates…. Two Stores Over From Microsoft – FIRST PICS
In what could be interpreted as the biggest “Eff You” to Microsoft Canada’s darling baby flagship store at Yorkdale Mall, Apple is moving in two stores over. And to add insult to injury, their plot is monstrous — doubling, or even tripling the Windows-based square footage.
Without a direct quote, it’s hard to say if this is a genuine business move, or a just a coincidence. The new Yorkdale wing is not huge (more of a corridor extension), and the current Yorkdale Apple store is cramped and in need of a change. I understand their need to relocate but you would think competitive chains would have some kind of restraining orders on each other. I guess that’s just how the story of the big box battles unpacks. Your thoughts?
It’s a Windows Wonderland – Microsoft Store Launch at Yorkdale Mall
With tomorrow’s opening of Canada’s first Microsoft store at Yorkdale Mall, you could say that we are one step closer to living in the tech-oriented society envisioned in flicks like Back To The Future 2. Apple of course has always been an innovator, but when the software and hardware provider of the masses (i.e. Microsoft) opens up shop and starts pushing their ultra-inclusive ‘all-in-one’ Xbox integrated touch screen monitor computer systems, it’s time to take note, the seas are changing.
Behold! A 6,800 square-feet of slick Microsoft and Windows 8 wonder. The entire shop is lined wall-to-wall with LCD panels that mimic the tiles from the new operating system, shifting, blinking, and refreshing with hip and friendly scenes that have something for everyone, from christmas baubles, to gardening projects, and the compulsory half-pipe and skateboard scene. I wonder when the breakdancing montage is coming out…. But what really hooked me is that staff can sync phones to the panels to coach customers on how to use the apps or just demonstrate general functionality.
It will be interesting to see what level of customer service is available at the shop. The store managers and Microsoft rep insisted that all staff will be well versed in all aspects of Microsoft culture and software from Excel 2013 to Halo 4 to trouble shooting Microsoft Office for Mac, but when I asked an orange-shirted staff guy polishing up the sales counter if he could tell me anything about bootcamping Windows 8 on my Macbook, he told me he’d have to check with a technician… Hmm, so I guess they aren’t all ‘geniuses’.
Aside from that, Microsoft is really trying hard to become an all inclusive lifestyle brand with collaborations like the TFC and FIFA controllers. I’m not sure why they went with pink (was it to match with a Microsoft colour scheme ?), I fear the pink might just fuel the fire for the TFC haters, and confuse their fans.
The Microsoft store opens officially this weekend with a free outdoor concert by the San Franciscan Grammy-winning mellow pop/rock band Train whose “Hey, Soul Sister” song has found it’s place in thousands of retail play lists. Oh and they will also have THE GREAT ONE, Wayne Gretzky, in the house, playing Kinect Hockey with some lucky, lucky fans. Will The Microsoft store take off? We’ll have to wait and see…. which leads to the next post…… Yorkdale Apple Store Relocates Two Stores Down From Microsoft!
Innis & Gunn Bartender’s Choice Tasting
Despite the rugged sounding name, the Edinborough Innis & Gunn Brewery have only been around since 2003 and was founded, Dougal Gunn Sharp, who used his middle name and his brother’s, Neil Innis Sharp, to title it. A group of 30 or so staff from GTA The Keg locations, and myself, sat and listened to Peter Allison, their global brand ambassador explain the history of the beer and their (mostly) exclusively oak-barrel brewing methods, along with a tasting session, which kind of goes without saying. Interestingly enough, 30 is also the number of staff that run Innis & Gunn, on a global scale.
Their Edinburgh brewery, formerly the historical Caledonian Brewery founded in 1869, was one of the last of of its kind when it was purchased by the Sharp son’s da’, Russel Sharp, in 1987. A bit shocking considering there were over40 by the time beer brewing hit its peak in 1860, but the lack of naturally grown hops must have been a drawback to their production cycle — Scottish soil is too alkaline to grow it, however they use alternatives like heather or fruits and gruit. Another thing that I learned was that before the Reinheitsgebot of 1516, that is, the official beer standardization laws, breweries were using wacko products to cut their fermentation process, ranging from opium (yum!) to arsenic (not so yum, more like…croak.)
So, onto the actual beer. Most people are used to tasting oak aged wine, but oak aged beer has a really interesting sweetening effect. Oak contains naturally occurring vanillin (similar to vanilla pods), with an incredible flavour profile, see above, that’s released into the beer while it is aged and gently heated in the casks for 77 days. The result is a sweet, savoury, and fruity 6.4 % alcohol bath for your palate that may be a bit overpowering at first but the taste really grows on you after a few gulps.
We were also treated to the Innis & Gunn Spiced Rum Cask beer which, as you can guess, has been aged in rum casks, giving it an even more caramel flavour. The Rum Cask beer is actually their most decorated beer, having one numerous in the British Beers category. Also on the table was their soon to be released Winter Treacle Porter, a recipe Dougal found in ancient recipe book from the 1800s titled “Scot’s Cellar”. Apparently it’s not a true porter, as treacle (what we call molasses), is just added to the brewing process partway through to give it that a rich sweet flavour that you might associate with sugar cookies, christmas, and winter seasonings. This is what the Brit’s actually call a “wee heavy” beer. One thing I almost forgot… Innis & Gunn also treated us to a bottle of their un-oaked beer, that is, beer before it gets barrelled, to give us an idea of the before and after tastes. It sounds intriguing, but not really something you’d wanna drink on a regular basis. The dominant tastes were bitterness and maltiness, with a pronounced drying effect on the mouth.
The tasting also had another purpose, which was to promote the Innis & Gunn Bartender’s Choice contest, a bar-industry user submitted idea contest where the winners would win a trip to Scotland and have their beer idea actually bottled and sold internationally! They are running the contest in Canada, England and Sweden of all places. I met two awesome, friendly and very serious bartenders from the Vaughn Keg location who showed up with their proof of concept already completed and professionally designed. Good luck Angela (who also runs her own vodka-based blog The Vodka Doll, how cool is that? More bartenders should blog more often!) and Tassia! May the luck of the Scots, err I mean Irish, errr, I mean African princesses, be with you!
What Four? – Duke Slammer
Duke Slammer is the latest moniker from established techno maverick, Luke’s Anger. As he said in his BBC Introducing interview, he enjoys “looking for albums that sound like Prince but aren’t as good” to help create his electro-boogie, spandex-obsessed sound. You can hear ‘GO$$IP’ from his upcoming album ‘What Four?’ album out on Bonus Round Records Dec 10th, below, performed at the BBC.
Craft Coffee Club
Man, how I wish I had an extra $20 to blow in my monthly budget on Craft Coffee, who deliver three 4 oz bags of specially curated artisan beans to your door on a monthly basis. While this vid is beautiful, honest and sent my coffee-lusting receptors into overdrive, there’s something about Michael Horn’s (founder and CEO), drawl that is spot on with Louis CK’s indie barista impression from his “Chewed Up” tape. If you are easily offended by Louis’s arbitrary imagination, perhaps you should avoid his bit and skip straight to the moka.
Craft Coffee from Craft Coffee on Vimeo.
CONTACT Music Festival: INTERsections – Musicworks Oct 2012
Once again, I was scared, frightened, yet quite excited to be tackling another assignment for Musicworks, the world’s leading magazine in experimental music. This month’s issue had Juno-winning electronic artist Tim Hecker on the cover, whom I helped nominate this past spring!
Click the articles to expand for easy reading.
