My wife was watching TV in the other room and suddenly I heard Feist's 1 2 3 4 (that I wrote about only a couple weeks ago). We saw Apple's new commercial twice tonight for the colourful iPod nano. Looks like much bigger exposure for Feist.

For me, I'm still holding out on buying an Apple product - it's not a boycott, it's just that I already have a free mobile phone and a cheap DAP. We'll see how the iPodTouch fares - that might be what I need (an audio player that lets me browse the web over WiFi). Some may claim that it makes more sense to spring for the iPhone because the iPhone is only $100 more - but it's the 2-year AT&T chokehold that I dislike...

§394 · September 9, 2007 · Entertainment, Life, Safari, Technology, Television · Comments Off on iPod Nano Gets Feisty ·


Having a "Blog Break" in the summer I guess...

Anyway, I happened to catch the tail-end of an impressive musical performance last night on The Late Show with David Letterman. So I hopped on Google which led me to the show's site where I learned that the musical performer had been "Feist". Looking it up on Wikipedia, it was not obvious at first that the performance I had seen was by a solo artist, but I was able to make out that it was Leslie Feist, a fellow Canadian.

Woops, her official site is currently having an "identity crisis". Ugh, check out the referenced MySpace page and get inundated with audio that I didn't necessarily want to hear. Enough of this, go to YouTube and search for "Feist". First link is to a video for the song "1 2 3 4" which happens to be the song I enjoyed on Letterman (to be fair this video is also currently the first one on the MySpace page). Video is kind of cool - the fact that it's all one take, colourful, lots of youth and energy, with (apparently) no special effects. Might take one or two viewings, but it's catchy too. Here's a "Making Of" video too, see if you can spot the differences in the take they used in the final video...

Here's the same song performed on Conan two months ago. Still doesn't compare to the bigger choir and brass sections they had on Letterman. I'd pay to see a show with all those people clapping and singing and playing music... An hour after seeing it on Letterman, I used Google's Blog Search to find out that someone has now posted the performance on YouTube so you can judge for yourself (Update: video taken down, here's another copy).

Then I found this cute video: Some high schoolers re-enacted (and adapted) the video for a senior project. I was impressed enough to leave an encouraging word and rate the video.

Anyway, I'm liking Feist. She reminds me of Regina Spektor in the sense that she seems like another talented female artist that's fresh and new and wholly herself, despite achieving some popular commercial success (i.e. present in commercial and television spots). Do you think music companies are learning a thing or two about letting the artists be themselves? Do you think music companies are learning anything about marketing in the internet age?

§391 · August 28, 2007 · Entertainment, Life, Technology, Television, Web · Comments Off on How The Web Works For Me Today ·


Ok, now that the rest of America has had a chance to watch the Lost finale or is currently watching it, I'll give my thoughts on this great piece of story-telling. I don't know about you, but I spent most of the episode literally feeling like anything could happen... and with a big grin on my face for most of the time. BIG BIG Spoiler Alert - please only read on if you watched what happened! Read the rest of this entry ...

§377 · May 23, 2007 · Entertainment, Lost, Television · 16 comments ·


WOW! Mind... still... reeling...

I kind of chuckled to my wife when Jack made his final telephone call to meet someone at the airport - just how many people turned to each other at that moment in their living rooms with puzzled looks on their faces.

I have to hand it to the writers here - they really caught me off guard. I'm going to be responsible here and not give away anything just yet but I have to say that was probably the most gripping two hours of television I have ever watched.

Take that Heroes!!! 🙂

§376 · May 23, 2007 · Entertainment, Lost, Television · Comments Off on Lost Season Finale: Game Changing ·


The disappointing season finale of Heroes has made me even more hopeful for the 2 hour Lost season finale tonight, got to try and lower my expectations so I don't get crushed... Meanwhile, Jess posted this link to an absolutely hilarious visual recap of Lost Season 3 (best viewed if you already know what happened this season).

§375 · May 23, 2007 · Entertainment, Lost, QuickLinks, Television · Comments Off on Have (Not) Lost Anticipation ·