Fade to Play

Arisa Cox interviews Kim Cattrall for E! - BANFF World Television Festival

Tomorrow Kim Cattrall of Sex and The City fame will be on campus (see The Straight and the UBC Department of Theatre and Film). She will be interviewed by Jerry Wasserman, the acting head of the Department of Theatre and Film.

Frederic Wood Theatre (map)
12 to 1 pm
Wednesday January 7, 2009
Free Admission, Everyone welcome
Call 604-822-2678 to reserve your FREE tickets (maximum 2 tickets per patron).

Award-winning Sex and the City actress, producer and author KIM CATTRALL returns home to BC to talk to Jerry Wasserman about her professional work in television, theatre and film, her life challenges, women in the work force, post-feminism, self-image, and her 35+ years of success in one of the toughest, most competitive businesses out there.

Relevance: A cool Canadian and hard-work person that would be amazing to hear live. Way to go UBC!

In December I rented a couple lens (Canon 10-22mm f3.5-4.5 USM & Canon 16-35mm f2.8 L II USM) as well as a tripod from Beau Photo and took photographs at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, and West Vancouver.

Special thanks to Lisa Bettany, who tweeted about Beau Photo as a place where she rents equipment. I have found the people there to be very friendly and accommodating. It is also convenient to reach from where I live.

I thought that the first day of the new month, I would share my favourite photos that I had taken the previous month with my Canon Rebel XTi, note the relevant statistics, and outline how the photograph came to be.

50mm lens (1.4 USM), f/16.0, 1/60, ISO 200

On December 14th, after the first snowfall, I walked across the Granville Bridge and took this picture of the boats on English Bay. You can also see the mountains in the distance. This is the first photograph I have taken from the bridge. As I stood watching the water, I felt it was a good moment for a photograph, to remember my experiences walking across the bridge for the first time.



10-22mm lens, 13mm, f/20, 1/10, ISO 100

The Irving K Barber Learning Centre is simply a beautiful place to study. It is a favourite place among many students and it is packed during exams. One of rooms I like to work in is the Ridington Room which has a beautiful chandelier designed by John Nutter.

On December 16th, for this picture, I wanted to provide a different perspective than the usual head-on photograph from the upper level. I had the chandelier lighted and pointed my camera to the ceiling while using my tripod low to the ground. My objective with taking evening photographs was to use the window as a mirror of the chandelier, which resulted in this final image.



16-35mm lens, 22mm, f/25, 1/30, ISO 100

On December 21st, I went outside to see how much snow had been accumulating through the night. I wanted to take a photograph outside and thought that the bike covered in snow would make a interesting picture. Initially I tried a number of pictures with different settings using my tripod, but when I looked at them on my laptop, I wasn’t happy with the shadows.

So I added my Canon 580 EXII flash for a shot and felt happy with the final result. The light peaking through the bike was an added bonus as I didn’t notice it until I was post-editing my pictures.



16-35mm lens, 25mm, f/10, 1/250, ISO 200

On Christmas Day, I woke up and observed that the sky was fairly blue and partly sunny. I realised that this was a pause between snowfalls, so I grabbed my tripod and lenses and spend a couple hours taking photos on campus. I then thought I should take some pictures in Vancouver so I headed downtown to take photographs of the mountains.

On the way as I was passing Kitsilano Beach Park, I got off the bus for some spontaneous pictures. The park was busier than I expected as many families were taking a walk around enjoying the Christmas day weather.



16-35mm lens, 10mm, f/25, 1/20, ISO 800

Once downtown on Christmas Day, I decided to travel to West Vancouver using the seabus from the Vancouver Harbourfront. On the trip back to Vancouver, as it started to get darker, I took photos just before we arrived back at the harbour. This one taken at 4:37pm shows a beautiful view of the city. The sky was darker than visible in the picture. The higher ISO (800) provided a lighter sky which complemented the exquisite reflection on the water.

Relevance: Sharing my love of photography

One of the cool aspects about living in Vancouver is the opportunity to participate and learn about interesting urban opportunities in which people hack and re-interpret public spaces through art or play.

For example, Kristina Lee Podesva, a Vancouver-based artist has created a langarapublicart.ca project that is pretty cool. She is the inaugural Artist in Residence Program at the Langara College Centre for Art in Public Spaces.


According to the website:

The Langara College Centre for Art in Public Spaces was formed in 2008 as an innovative approach to the public art requirement of the City of Vancouver. The Centre has a mission to engage communities in the research, production and presentation of art in the public realm. The Centre encourages dialogue, and fosters opportunities to collaborate on, experience and learn about art in public spaces.

The 2008 – 2009 Program includes a public Speakers Series and Curriculum Development initiatives in addition to the Artist in Residence Program.

Project: This is a Vehicle

THIS IS A VEHICLE is a collaborative, online work by Kristina Lee Podesva, Artist in Residence at the Langara College Centre for Art in Public Spaces. THIS IS A VEHICLE represents one aspect of Podesva’s overall residency project, Vehicle, which re-purposes shipping containers as “reading rooms” and as discursive sites for thinking through the experience and phenomena of globalization. Similarly, THIS IS A VEHICLE invites participants to re-purpose everyday and not-so-everyday objects by imagining their new and uncommon functions

Dates: January 13 - April 21, 2009
Hours: Mon - Thurs, 4-8pm
Opening Night: January 13, 7pm

Location: Langara College, 100 West 49 Ave, Vancouver.

I am participating in the project by sending a couple of photos that I have reappropriated to info @ thisisavehicle.com.

This is a Vehicle



for

holding conference badges

Relevance: Public spaces should continually be re-mixed, hacked, and reappropriated by the public. Let’s keep urban spaces as people places.

Today I dropped by Raincity Studios HQ to hand in my old mobile for the Phones for Fearless Campaign. I was happy to participate and everyone that is a part of it (Kris Krüg (@kk), Irwin Oostindie (@dutchphoto), Jenn Lowther (@jennmae), Dave Olson (@uncleweed), Lorraine (@raincoaster), Lani, Hendrick, Roland Tanglao (@rtanglao), etc.) are doing a great job to let people know about the cause and motivate them to participate.

This is an excellent example of social media (e.g. twitter, flickr, blogs, facebook) combining with community organising to help those in need in the Vancouver East Side.

Twitter has done an awesome job in spreading the word. See the blogs of Monica and Dave Olson for proof.

The campaign runs until January. It isn’t too late to participate, so find an old mobile and donate to the cause! See here.

How can you help?

1. Your used mobile phones - preferably with video, camera, wi-fi
2. Cash donations (* tax deductible) or new phone donations
3. Conversation - tell your friends on your blog, twitter, etc. - post a badge

Relevance: Participation made me feel good. Love this city!

On Friday I followed on twitter as Kris Krug (@kk), the CEO of Raincity Studios, Dave Olson, Community Evangelist of Raincity Studios (@uncleweed), and Irwin Oostindie (@dutchphoto) used social media to generate interest in the Fearless City campaign.

The purpose of the Fearless City campaign (@fearlesscity) according to their webpage is for you to:

Donate your old mobile phones to help DTES artists share stories, and tap into life, jobs & family

How can you help?

1. Your used mobile phones - preferably with video, camera, wi-fi
2. Cash donations (* tax deductible) or new phone donations
3. Conversation - tell your friends on your blog, twitter, etc. - post a badge

You can schedule an appointment for phone pickup on Tuesday. Just @kk or @uncleweed on twitter or send an email to Kris (kris@raincitystudios.com).

Relevance: Cool to see the power of social media bringing locals together to help those in need.

Kris Krüg

One of my favourite conferences is called Nothern Voice. It is a social media and personal blogging conference here in Vancouver that occurs each February at the University of British Columbia.

Sunday Brunch at Havana

My Northern Voice 2008 Photos


Relevance: I love attending Northern Voice and I make new friends here every year.

In the technology section of today’s globeandmail.com, there is an article about the landmark ruling against a Canadian spammer that awarded Facebook $873 (US) million in damages.

In a landmark ruling Monday, U.S. federal Judge Jeremy Fogel awarded Facebook $873-million (U.S.) in damages after finding Mr. Guerbuez was in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing) which prohibits the distribution of mass e-mail messages that contain false or misleading information.

How was Mr. Guerbuez able to send four million messages before being shut down by Facebook? He sent messages to people’s email and got them to click on a link that looked like it was from Facebook and told them to enter their username and password.

“Spam has gone Web 2.0,” said David Poellhuber, president of Montreal-based Zero Spam.

“The social networks are really the new spammers playground. … Tech savvy young people are new, fresh targets for spammers.”

But Mr. Guerbuez gained the usernames and passwords of a number of Facebook accounts through more traditional means: He spammed countless e-mail accounts with a message purporting to be from Facebook that requested the recipient follow a link and then enter their login information. It’s one of the oldest tricks in the spammer’s book.

For many students I know Facebook = Internet.

People need to be careful online and less trusting of messages they receive. Just because a message looks like it from Facebook asking you for your username and password, it doesn’t mean that it actually does. Facebook uses the @facebookmail domain to send email messages to you (e.g. notifications).

I have been on Facebook since 2005 and absolutely love it as a place to socialise with my real world student friends, comments on their walls, share photos, and RVSP to various events taking place on campus that I ordinarily might not know about. Like most of my student friends, my Facebook friends are real-world students, not people I know only from the Internet or that are interested in networking.

So, when a message comes from my best friend Sam telling me to click a link because it’s a cool photo of us, then my trust level is higher and I’m more likely to do it than if it’s Steven, who added me as friend because they heard me on the radio or liked my photos on flickr. That trust factor is what spammers are using to exploit Facebook accounts. I have received a number of messages either on FB or on my wall that were spam because that friend had clicked on a spammer link, that had also been sent by a trusted friend.

Spammers will continue to exploit the high level of trust that students have for Facebook. Be careful, think before you click.

Relevance: I’m in ur Facebook, spamming ur friends.

According to research from the world’s largest privately-held speech techology, SpinVox, it seems that the pick-up lines work in Canada.

The report has revealed the top five ‘worst’ pick-up lines in Canada to be:

1. “Do you have a mirror in your pocket? Because I can see myself in your pants.”

2. “You must be leaving the country if you’re packing that much ass.”

3. “Excuse me if I’m wrong, but is your name Yolanda?

4. “Inheriting 50 million dollars doesn’t mean much when you have a weak heart.”

5. “Excuse me, but I’m new in town, can I have directions to your place?”

Whether you rely on these old favorites or a more original opener, it’s worth starting up a conversation: the research, based on feedback from focus groups conducted among 1,000 Canadians, showed that for 37 percent of women, a well-timed chat-up approach will lead to conversation. (Regardless of how well the night is going, only six percent of the women surveyed said it would lead to an overnighter.)

They come to interesting conclusions regarding Facebook users.

With 120 million active users, Facebook is another great way to connect with potential dates online. Even if things don’t fare well initially, men may get a second chance: nearly half of the women surveyed will look up the men they’ve met on Facebook. Meanwhile, only 38 percent of men said they look for the women they’ve just met on the Internet, which sharply contrasts the 95 percent look-up rate of men in America.

I personally wouldn’t randomly message a stranger on Facebook looking for a date. I’ve been on Facebook since 2005 and Facebook is still a place where I interact with close real-world friends and maintain personal relationships with them there.

Does anyone use social media for finding dates? Do people feel comfortable using Facebook, twitter, or Flickr for this purpose? Were you happy with the results?

Relevance: As social media becomes more known to the public, how are these tools being used to connect people seeking partners?

Thanks to a tweet and post by djvibe of Vancouver, I discovered the The Obama Mix by DJ Z-Trip, which is a mix of music, political thought, and famous text.

Download the Obama Mix here.

It was created to help encourage people to get involved in the election process.
DJ Z-Trip worked with artist Shepard Fairey of Obey (who created the Obey Hope poster among others) to organise Obama fundraisers. The Obama Mix by DJ Z-Trip is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

And for those of us in Vancouver, DJ Z-Trip is coming with Bassnectar to the Commodore on Nov 22nd ($35).