Bigge Blurbs

Oct 9

Beta Republicans

peterfeld:

mikehudack:

“The Republicans knee jerk reaction to anything positive under the Obama administration is so blatant it makes me wonder why we cannot just reduce the entire party to a piece of software. I could totally code the GOP in 20 minutes.”— Justin Day

Jul 2

Jun 30

I asked Danny Burns, a marketing manager at Nissan Canada, why they decided to launch the car using social media only.

“When you look at the vehicle, it makes sense.” I took a second glance at the Cube. It looked like a minivan that was squished and gutted. I was reminded of those Suzuki microbuses in Latin America where they shove people in until no one can move their arms.

“It doesn’t make sense to me,” I replied.

He explained that it’s not a car for the masses, and so it would not work with a mass media campaign. Nissan wants to lure younger buyers, so reaching them on social media made sense.

Thank god the Baffler is returning: http://www.observer.com/2009/media/color-me-baffled-thomas-franks-magazine-lives-again

(http://communities.canada.com/montrealgazette/blogs/tech/archive/2009/06/24/is-it-social-media-if-you-re-being-antisocial.aspx)


Jun 23

“If I opened a bar in the United States, a bottle of vodka would cost me five bucks and I’d sell a cocktail for $4.25,” she said hotly.

“Here a bottle of vodka costs $35.26 and I still have to sell a cocktail for $4.25, and I have to pay a 10 per cent liquor tax and GST, and I have to go through all these hoops for licensing.”

Cars were circling for his parking spot as Kerim Sursal loaded 50 bottles of wine into his car as quickly as he could.

“Nothing brings Canadians together like shopping for booze,” he said ambiguously.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/655286

Jun 21

Some shoppers question if the five-cent fee is a deterrent or a penalty. Lawyer and mother of two Tierney Grieve is annoyed, she says, pushing a cartload of groceries in plastic bags to her car where she has defiantly left her reusable bags. “People judge you,” she says.

She needs the plastic to line rubbish bins at home. “There’s a lot of social pressure to demonstrate how socially conscious we are,” says Grieve. “Screw it. I need some bags.”

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/654243

Jun 18

Sheila Heti, author of Ticknor

“You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile,” from the Annie soundtrack (1982)

Last year, I spent the summer in Williamsburg. One day, I decided to play a game as I walked to the L train. I smiled at everyone I passed. No one smiled back. So I played it the next day, and the next, always with the same result: a slight raise of the chin and a glance away. Give me a break, darlings! Don’t you remember Annie? There’s only one antidote to your misguided attitude: “Who cares what they’re wearing/On Main Street or Savile Row/It’s what you wear from ear to ear/And not from head to toe/That ma-ah-ah-ters.”

http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-06-17/books/lit-seen-a-heavy-rotation-playlist/1

Jun 9
“Meanwhile, Vintage Canada is preparing to put all of Martel’s largely one-sided correspondence with the PMO into a $19.95 book called What is Stephen Harper Reading? Yann Martel’s Recommended Reading for a Prime Minister (and Book Lovers of All Stripes). A trade paperback, it’s scheduled for release in early November this year.” http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/in-other-words/yann-martel-hears-from-harper——finally/article1174701/

Jun 1
Does Toronto’s tofu tagger use vegetable-based spray paint?

Does Toronto’s tofu tagger use vegetable-based spray paint?


May 31

Four years ago, Gary Ross offered a freelance writer $4,000 for a 4,000-word feature. Her response: “Gary, we had this same conversation 20 years ago.” The then-editor of Saturday Night—now editor of Vancouver Magazine—was having budget problems and could only afford to offer the writer the same rate he gave her in 1985. She ended up taking the assignment. “What’s her alternative?” Ross says. “She will just forego $4,000 in income.”

[…]

Ross also says he’s not afraid to turn to non-CWG members if the agency demands a rate he can’t afford. “How can you raise freelance rates if you don’t have some guarantee that by raising the rates of freelancers, you’re going to somehow improve the income that the magazine generates?” he asks. “It’s a very hard case to make.”

http://www.mastheadonline.ca/news/2009/20090529655.shtml

May 27
“Yes, the Australian red with the cute kangaroo is the definition of easy drinking, with a nostalgic lunchbox grape-juice flavour. But it’s the Coldplay of wine, so popular it’s uncool. So uncool it might as well marry Gwyneth Paltrow. The point here is to find something edgier. More Lil Wayne or Kings of Leon.” http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/bottles-for-millennials-yo/article1154734/

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