Top 20 Singles of 2007

Here are a few tunes that I enjoyed from the past year... This is usually a warm-up to my Top 10 Albums list. There are several singles left off here that will end up on that list, so don't freak out if you don't see any of my Kanye West or Jimmy Eat World favs here. In no particular order... enjoy, O.

1. Powderfinger - I Don't Remember (Disappointed in the rest of the album)
2. Foo Fighters - The Pretender (Same witty remark as above)
3. Modest Mouse - Dashboard (Great rocker)
4. Hot Hot Heat - Let Me In (CANCON fav)
5. Raine Maida - Yellow Brick Road (Same witty remark as above)
6. Interpol - The Heinrich Maneuver (How come the rest of the album doesn't sound like this!?!)
7. Paramore - Misery Business (Chicks doing emo... hmmm the next big thing!?!)
8. Fall Out Boy - This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race (You have to admit that it's catchy, even if you don't like the band)
9. Tokyo Police Club - Cheer It On (Two great minutes of garage rock)
10. Linkin Park - Bleed It Out (Where's the mosh pit!?!)
11. Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Face Down (Same witty remark as above)
12. Radiohead - Bodysnatchers (I actually dig this RH track)
13. Beck - Time Bomb (naaa na naaa na)
14. Rilo Kiley - The Moneymaker (Was sooo lookin' forward to this album... at least there's this gem)
15. Architecture In Helsinki - Heart It Races (Most eclectic)
16. Butterfly Boucher - A Bitter Song (Most depressing... so of course it was on Grey's Anatomy)
17. Tim Kay - My World (AKA the theme to Jamie At Home)
18. Four Day Hombre - 1000 Bulbs (Fav indie track)
19. Sophie Ellis-Bextor - If I Can't Dance (Fav dance track)
20. LCD Soundsystem - North American Scum(Fav club track)

New Green Day Side Project

Green Day has not gone on record, but everyone says that the 6-song (Downloadable) Stop Drop and Roll!!! EP by a band called The Foxboro Hot Tubs is indeed a GD side-project.

Sounds like the Hives crossed with Green Day to me after the initial listen... Here's the track list:

1 Stop Drop and Roll
2 Mother Mary
3 Ruby Room
4 Red Tide
5 Highway 1
6 She’s a Saint Not a Celebrity

Free Wii Remote Cover

For all those folks that have a Wii, a pal told me that Nintendo has offered to give free jacket covers for the remotes. Just follow this link right here:

http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/jacket/jacketrequest.jsp

You will need your unit's serial number to qualify... Enjoy.

iPod touch complete?

When the iPhone first came out, I couldn't wait for a version that was just an iPod, (basically an iPhone without the phone), but was disappointed with the iPod touch as more than just the phone was stripped out. For me, it was missing a few critical features that would justify this replacing my old PDA.

But Apple finally fixed a major one last week with the announcement of the 1.1.2 firmware version. However, catching up on iPod touch developments, some folks had been using a 'jailbreak', which allows them to install their own fixes and third-party applications, including the ability to add or edit appointments which was one of the main concerns that I had that were address by the 1.1.2 firmware.

So do I do the jailbreak or have faith in Apple that more functionality will get added to the iPod touch?

Raine Maida - Yellow Brick Road

The OLP frontman goes solo and for the video of the leadoff single, he goes busking in tdot to raise $30 grand for a school in the DRC. Youtube hosts a bunch of other clips caught by the public as well.



A very worthy cause indeed. He and his wife, Chantal Kreviazuk, have been great for War Child.

PS. This is my hundredth posting on my blog and have just started to link it to my facebook as well. It's been a while in between posts, but I had to move my server around the house and have finally put it behind the router.

2007 Summer Movie Trifecta

We managed to head over to a matinée showing of Spider-man 3. We were definitely not alone... It sold out about 45 minutes beforehand, even with a dozen showings in just the afternoon alone. Canoe.ca reports that it made a record $59 million opening day and HSX.com declares that it had the biggest opening weekend as it pulls in another record $148 million in just 3 days (and even more if one factors in international grosses).

Suffice to say, this summer has several movie franchises with their three-quel out to complete the trilogy with Shrek 3, Pirates of the Carribean: At the World's End, The Bourne Ultimatum, Rush Hour 3 and Ocean's Thirteen. The third Pirate flick could make Spidey's record showing short-lived.

A few franchises have actually past their third, with Live Free or Die Hard as Bruce Willis coming back and Harry Potter orders a fifth helping of Phoenix. While several others are trying to repeat their original box office success: Evan Almighty, 28 weeks Later, Hostel: Part II, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Daddy Day Camp (Cuba Gooding Jr. replaces Eddie Murphy), and Mr. Bean's Holiday. Yeah, a few should have probably not gone ahead and could be DOA. The promotion of Steve Carell's character to the main lead in the Bruce Almighty sequel should cement his career as both a TV and Movie star.

Of course, in order to do sequels and three-quels, one must actually come out with the first one! How's that for a unique idea? The biggest tent-pole of the summer and gaining the most steam is the Transformers done by Micheal Bay and should revive the toy's popularity if it can cross the huge fanboy-base. Ratatouille is Pixar's big summer animation release along with Surf's Up and The Simpsons. A few comedies to look out for like I Pronounce You Chuck and Larry by Adam Sandler, Knocked Up brought to you by the same folks that did The 40-Year Old Virgin (sans Carell) and Robin Williams has a License to Wed.

A few smaller releases to watch out for: Stephen King's 1408 and Russian-made Day Watch (another sequel) could creep up the radar. But, of course, I already have my eye out for 2008 with the fourth installment of Indiana Jones finally coming out.

NHL 2007 Playoffs

With March Madness over, the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs picks up where it left off. Four grueling best-of-seven series to hoist the Lord Stanley's mug. Tons of tradition and history. Spent the morning (quickly) making my picks. Based my players on the teams that I think will make the Final 4: New Jersey Devils, Buffalo Sabres, Anaheim Ducks, and the San Jose Sharks with the Sabres winning it all.


My Calgary Flames just limped into the playoffs but I predict will knock off the top-seeded Western Conference team, the Detroit Red Wings in 7 games with the final game going into sudden-death overtime.

Google Offers Free Internet

As usual, Google posts their usual April's fool gag: introducing Google TiSP, wireless access using your sewer system! It's too good to be true right? Well, Gmail was launched on April 1st too...


Someone spent way too much time diagramming how it would work:

Coke Zero Sued

By Coke!?! Clever campaign ad, where they pull a "candid camera" on lawyers by having them try see if Coke has a case against Coke Zero for "Basic Taste Infringement". My guess is that Lawyers 4 & 6 are actually actors...

LCDs & Dead Pixels

Finally upgraded my trusty old BenQ 19" LCD to a 22" widescreen L226WA by LG. The only place in town that carried it in Canada was FS, so I was a little paranoid about having dead pixels, but this website helped me see that I was lucky enough to not have any. Was willing to take a chance since it is rated at 2ms refresh, a 3000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, HDMI & component inputs really puts it ahead of other 22" LCDs out there.

March Madness 2007

Not too many Cinderellas at this year's ball... No double-digit seeded teams made it through to the Sweet 16. Was able to catch a bit of the first round day action again through MMOD, here's this year's version of their 'Boss' screen:



A record number of entries in the eighth year of my pool too.

I'm A Billionaire!

Not really, well only virtually. Those that know about HSX.com (and for those that don't: It's basically an online game that treats movie releases like the stock market), my portfolio has finally reached the 9-zeroes mark even though I've never managed to break into the career Top 500.


I started about 6.5 years ago with just $2 Million. Not sure what kind of ROI that is, but I'm pretty sure that it's even better than Apple stock. We were all over at a buddy's place getting ready to go see South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut when we all signed up for it over the Canada Day long weekend.

Ticketmaster Captchas

I tried to order online some concert tickets this weekend, but ticketmaster recently redid their captcha system to the point that even humans can't even decipher them (or is it just me!?!)... I thought these were supposed to just deter scripts and not people... cost me a chance to see how the L.A.M.B. goes across Gwen Stefani's shirt :-(

Normal One:


Bad One:

Music Digital Rights Management

When Yahoo released a DRM-free single (by Jessica Simpson of all people) back in July, it barely made a ripple. But when Steve Jobs just talks about supporting the removal of DRM from iTunes, it gets everyone going. I thought actions were supposed to speak louder than words?


When will music's Big 4 realize that they've lost the battle on this? Yahoo advocates that companies are spending too much money on developing DRM-related technologies while Jobs spins that most people are putting DRM-free (ie illegal?) tracks onto their iPods already.

Superbowl Commercials

Most folks up here may not be able to see Fed-Ex (Britney's latest ex-hubie, not the courier) daydreaming in a $US2.6M commercial, but it looks like AOL.ca has them all online so you won't have to youtube for them... The majority of Bud Lights were pretty good, but the most original had to be Sprint's Connectile Dsyfunction parody and the grossest had to be the Sierra Mist's Combover clip.

PS. Actually watched the half-time show... Interested to see that Prince actually covered the Foo Fighter's "Best of You", since the FFs do a rendition of the Symbol's "Darling Nikki" during their concert sets.

New Snow Patrol Video

One of my favourite bands, Snow Patrol (who are coming to town to play a sold-out show) has a new video coming out for the fifth single off their latest CD (which will definitely make my Top 10). Interestingly enough, they do not appear in it at all, as it is based on the footage from a 1976 cult-classic short film "C'etait un rendez-vous" by the French film maker Claude Lelouch. The film has a great history behind it as well.

Snow Patrol's lead signer was recently on BBC's Zane Lowe as well... Check out the BBC DJ webcast and the track listing.

State of the Owen Address

As the new year starts out, I've been trying to put the past year into perspective. I've just finished a very busy holiday season with the usual friends and family stuff. Barely have had a chance to rest since I've been back from Africa in September.

Guess we should start off with that (well, my travel adventures that is, as there is no mention of Africa at all in this paragraph). For once, I didn't travel to Vegas at all in 2006 (Guess that makes up for going three times the year before though). Did go spend weekends in Canmore, Canal Flats and Fernie (where I gave snowboarding another futile attempt and discovered that I will never reach the same greatness as I can in SSX Tricky).

But of course, the big trip this year was the high-altitude hike up to summit Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Being that I've never really hiked before, my friends were quite surprised that I was interested in joining them on this adventure (would it be like someone that only drives automatic trying to race in the Indy 500?). So I was totally the fish out of water, but after spending the summer hiking numerous trails and multiple trips to MEC to get the appropriate gear, I thought I was ready (thought being the key word).

I definitely pushed myself as I had my ups and downs on the Machame route. The first day was very long (~18 KMs), so I started cramping up near end (and got me thinking about what I had gotten myself into!). I had a good second day though, but then I hurt my knee in the middle of the third day. With plenty of help from my group and our guides (and painkillers too) enabled me to finish off the afternoon and scale the Barranco Wall the next day on one good leg.

We departed Barafu base camp at midnight for Uhuru peak, where the unexpected windchill definitely made things tough. I thought I had given it my all just to reach Stella's Point, but was able to somehow summon some extra strength (and inspiration) to reach the summit at 5895 meters successfully. Totally exhausted (and dehydrated), coming down was almost just as tough as we put in about 30 KMs of hiking in the 24-hour period.

I was also able to spend time on an amazing three day safari (where I had a bout of food poisoning) beforehand, four relaxing (and sunburnt) days in Zanzibar afterwards, all sandwiched around a week's-worth of sightseeing in and around London (where I got to spend my birthday).

On the TV side of things, another Winter Olympics passed (with surprises like Klassen and disappointments like Men's hockey), the cancellation of TV's Arrested Development, but I did discover HBO's Entourage (where Piven steals every scene) to make up for things. Plenty of movie franchises (Superman, Xmen, Mission Impossible, James Bond) over the year too.

With hockey back in town, I thought I'd scale back my concerts after an amazing year for shows in 2005, but I still managed to go see the following live: Sarah Harmer, INXS, OLP, The Strokes, Bright Eyes, Pilate, Black Eye Peas, Tragically Hip (@ Mac Hall), Metric, James Blunt, Mobile/Theory of a Deadman, and Matt Mays/The Trews during Stampede. I did miss out on RHCP (again), Franz/Death Cab double-bill, Dashboard Confessional and the Subways though.

I just like to be thankful for all my friends, co-workers, and family for what I've been able to accomplish in the different areas of my life. This balance has been very fufilling and kept things very interesting. So I hope to keep this up for 2007. It's been a lot of fun being able to express myself here since my very first posting.

PS. No Wii purchase yet, but once they announce the first Star Wars game, I'll be there with my Best Buy gift card!

When Fighting Was Still Allowed in the NHL

I managed to go to a Calgary Flames & Anaheim (Mighty still back then) Ducks game through a buddy of mine back on December 8th, 2001. I was looking forward to seeing Paul Kariya play and was instead treated to a late game brawl that went multiple rounds. The best was when Dave Lowry flipped the puck out to free up Craig Berube from the penalty box who then chased Jeff Friesen (who ironically is now a Flame). Youtube.com still has links to revisit that great experience:

• Long Version (22:47) with HOF Peter Maher Commentary
• Medium Version (6:51) edited
• Short Version (3:15: with music)

PS. Here's a bonus Flames Red Hot music video circa 1987.

2006 Top Singles of the Year

I think I'm ahead of my music listening this year or was it due to me being more selective in the albums that I download? Either way, I should be able to come out with my Top 10 Albums in a timely fashion this year as I always try to have it out the same time as the Grammys. But for now, here's my fav tunes from the year (in no particular order):

• Skinny Boy - Amy Milan (Best lyric: You got lips I could spend a day with)
• Make Damn Sure - Taking Back Sunday (Best Emo... Could be DQ'ed cause it came out in 2005 tho)
• When You Were Young - The Killers (Why didn't the rest of the album sound this good?)
• When the President Talks to God - Bright Eyes (Best protest song that I've heard in awhile)
• So Sick - Ne-Yo (Turns the ladies into butter)
• In The Deep - Bird York (From a REAL double-threat... remember her from The West Wing?)
• Hey There Delilah - Plain White Ts (Must listen while away from home/travelling)
• Peace and Hate - The Submarines (Fav indie tune... another one is from The Museum Pieces called It Keeps Me Up)
• Rock & Roll Queen - The Subways (Best Guitar Rock)
• For You I Will (Confidence) - Teddy Geiger (Cheesy/Sappy but still good)
• Here It Goes Again - OK Go (Best Pop & Video)
• Oh Gravity - Switchfoot (Catchy Pop Rock)
  

No Orson or Snow Patrol here but their albums will definitely make my Top 10. Make sure to submit your Top 10 CDs here over the next few weeks.