quoperative

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted so here’s a recap of what happened…

I went to Toronto for FITC… and we won an award! Also got a super cool gift from Relish for the whole famn damily. Gosh you guys are clever.

I became an uncle. I just missed meeting Dylan Matthew (no Facebook profile to link to yet) by an hour and change. He was literally born as I my plane was taxiing on the runway to head back to Vancouver. To be honest, I’m kind of mad that my sister couldn’t push him out sooner but I’m sure I’ll forgive her in time.

Mish and I went to see night #2 of the Weakerthans and Constantines 2-night stand of the Rolling Tundra Revue at the Commodore. That was a seriously good show. It’s probably been 5 years since I’ve seen the Cons play (I’m pretty sure it was with the now-defunct Royal City at Babylon) and they quickly reminded me that they are a smoking live band. Huge sound and tight as hell. Even though I think I’m an album or two behind I forgot how many of their songs I knew.

Monday night we went to the Showbox in Seattle to see the Shins. I find those drive-there-and-back-the-same-night shows always sound like a good idea on paper when you buy the tickets but not so much when you’re jet-lagged and have to hit the road at the end of a long work day. All that aside, the show was great and it was super sweet to see the band in a cozy venue like that. It was all ages and Mish and I ended up standing next to David Bazan (who is – or was – Pedro the Lion) and his little daughter… who was dancing up a storm. The set finished at midnight, which was decent, but the drive back was especially painful. Since I was tasked with driving I loaded up on a concoction of sugar and energy drinks designed to keep me awake for the required 2 hours. I think my sugar buzz was just trailing off as we entered Vancouver but I managed to hold it together and not launch the car off the road into a ditch. Lesson learned… stay in a hotel room next time, cheap ass!

Last night we went to see a screening of the documentary film Objectified at the Rio, which is a great old (recently restored) theatre in town. The director/producer Gary Hustwit was there and answered questions afterwards. Pretty good film all in all… it’s a nice overview of the massively huge topic of “design” and how it fits into our everyday lives. Obviously he featured designers from great brands like Braun and Apple but there’s a notable absence of any kind of analysis into the IKEA phenomenon — “high” design at low prices that basically falls apart if you ever have to move it. Mish was going to ask him why he basically glossed over IKEA but was way too chicken to put her hand up and ask it in front of everybody. Fortunately somebody else asked a simliar question and his response was basically that IKEA is a bit of a touchy topic in design circles and he didn’t want to take sides. Fair enough. Here’s the trailer… enjoy.

If somebody wandered out of the woods and had never had any form of contact with any humans in their entire lifetime, I would show them this to explain what the internet is.

Looks like the verdict has finally come in and it’s bad news for the Pirate Bay — guilty.  While this is definitely a landmark case in the realm of piracy, torrents and the distribution of copyrighted materials, it’s expected that the defendents will appeal the decision and that it could be years until the final decision is made.

It’s interesting to note that the guys behind Pirate Bay were convicted on “intent” rather than on the technical workings of the site.  I’m no lawyer, but I think that’s always been the legal safety net for the webmasters in these situations — dubbed the “King Kong defense”. Since they’re not actually storing the copyrighted materials on their servers or initiating the transfers they aren’t committing any crime. The users are. According to them, at least.

If this verdict sticks then maybe we’ll see Canadian and American courts taking notice. I’m sure they’d just love to put the screws to those pirates.