NorthGeek

What is the Internet?

I constantly wish there were more resources like these — very clear and simple illustrations of what is the Internet and how to use it — when doing my F.I.T. duties (family IT support), like “where’s my email?” and “do I type this address into Google?”

Google just produced this lovely HTML5 book, entitled “20 Things I Learned.” It weaves a simplified and elegant story about the Internet — things like cloud computing, browser extensions, privacy, cookies, IP addresses, DNS, etc. But most importantly, don’t use IE6 and know what a fake URL is! I recommend you either read it yourself or share it with your friends and family with whom connecting over the Internet is critical, and you wish they felt more comfortable and knowledgeable doing so. Sure it’s some cute cartoons wrapped up in some Google propaganda, but isn’t it mostly good propaganda here.

Here is the classic “What is a web browser” video from Google:
 

San Francisco from above Twin Peaks

One amazing thing to do in San Francisco is to view it from Twin Peaks, the pair of mountains that, at 922 feet, make up the second highest point in the city after Mount Davidson.



You can drive to the summit, but perhaps you’d prefer to walk or run up there. Start from the Castro Theatre at Market and Castro, and follow the route below. Download the map to your phone, it’s optimized for iPhone and other smartphones, but will work on any device. Go to bit.ly/dsxcd1.

Top 5 Adventure Sport Movies of 2010

It’s that time of year again, to start thinking about sliding on snow. Ski season is just around the corner. But ski movie season is right now.

Sure, we all know the big budget, jaw dropping, pro proportions ski flicks from Matchstick, Teton Gravity Research, Poor Boyz, etc. (for those trailers, skip to the bottom), but we’re also seeing the emergence of a new breed of ski (and sport) action adventures films, proliferating from the professional power of DSLR HD video cameras, portable dolly rigs, and the other side of ski stories out there. They’re perhaps less focused on the massive stunts and moreso on the shot and the story. But they have quite the impact.

Thanks to The Adventure Life, Chris Sacca, Mike Berard, Leslie Anthony, Mike Douglas, Doglotion, etc. for promoting these and helping us curate… the top 5 “other” ski and sports film trailers / shorts / webisodes of 2010. Check out our list of last year’s as well.

NUMBER 5

b4apres media’s “AZADI: Freedom” official trailer, a “cultural documentary as seen through the eyes of skiers. Set in the disputed region of Kashmir, an area deemed the ‘most dangerous place in the world’ during the violent militant insurgency of the 1990′s.”

NUMBER 4

Relentless: Short Stories: Mickey Smith “Dark Side of the Lens”

NUMBER 3

Salomon Freeski TV: their first episode from this new season showed off that there was no scarcity of snow at Whistler during the Olympics, only a scarcity of skiers in it:

By far my favorite Salomon Freeski TV episode was from last year “1-09 Euro Road Trip.” You can’t get much better than watching Mike Douglas and Kaj Zackrisson chasing snow across Europe. I don’t think there are any skiers on the planet who are as technically bombproof and smooth as these two guys:

NUMBER 2

At long last, Life Cycles has just been released. Wow:

NUMBER 1

Jordan Manley travels with a Nikon D3S and a super lightweight setup. His shots, composing, and style is breathtaking. Here’s the latest from his May 2010 tour of the Canadian Rockies:

More from Jordan: Jordan Manley’s episode on La Grave (#2) is also worth embedding here, as it really shows the soul of the mysterious La Grave, but don’t miss the one above from the Rockies. Also, episode 1 is a glimpse into Kashmir.

Considering Mike D, Jordan Manley, and lots of more of that footage comes from Vancouver, BC, Whistler, and the Vancouver North Shore, it’s pretty sweet being out here in this mecca of Vancouver.

Bonus (as long as you’ve watched the ones up top first):

Matchstick’s The Way I See It:

TGR’s Light the Wick:

Vancouver Canadians, A Summer Evening

NorthGeek made it out to a bunch of Vancouver Canadians games this summer at Nat Bailey Stadium. They’re a minor league baseball affiliate to the Oakland A’s, and it’s a helluva good way to spend a gorgeous Vancouver summer evening.

The tune is Billy Bragg & Wilco “California Stars.” Listen here.

The Future of Media: Vancouver Olympics and True North Media House

Next week, Kris Krug and Dave Olson will be talking True North Media House at an event in London called #media2012, and I like to think this is a big deal. True North Media House emerged in the leadup to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games, as a vehicle to give a voice to the citizens walking, talking, and covering the Games — in a substantial way unlike previous Olympics. The world is changing — nearly everybody has simple means to share text and media about the world in the way they experience it, and, well, a whole lot of people do that passionately.

As it turned out, through the use of a simple hashtag (#tnmh) and keywords, from many websites and united around social networks, here was a pretty amazing experiment of what non official media can do to cover a massive localized event, like the Olympics.

Fear
At first, there was a lot of fear. The IOC was supposedly sending cease and desist letters to anyone sharing media about the Olympics, official events, and venues. Rumours were abound — the “IOC police” could enter a private residence and remove publicly-visible signage that was deemed destructive to the Olympics vision. We (as I consider myself/ourselves part of the TNMH impetus) had no idea what to expect. We urged each other to review the fine text and figure out what we could and could not do. Could we bring cameras to venues without official IOC certification? Could we publish photos? Could we say the word “Olympics”?

But this was Canada! But this was social media! But this was 2010! People felt violated. People protested — well, for whatever reason they wanted, and unfortunately often the reason was less important than the thrill of protesting.

The Games
Then the Games happened. And the C&Ds didn’t show up. And we went wild with media and words. Hats off to John Biehler, Kris Krug, Miss 604, even ourselves, NorthGeek (some of our coverage is here), AND SO MANY OTHERS for giving us the insider view on the Games and showing the world that we had a damn good time.

Coverup
And then some media brands and the IOC wined and dined some of the alternative-media-elite. It was a nice gesture. It said, very gently, “we embrace the new media.” But as far as I’m concerned was a half assed, suspicious, and way overdue attempt.

Our coverage
At least, for us at NorthGeek, we often left the real equipment (SLR, tripod, video, etc) at home and went with whatever was on us — phones, Flip, WordPress, and Twitter — and left the long shots for someone else, and focused on the closeups, the insider, on-the-ground view of the Olympics. We wanted to show off Vancouver, the glory of these athletes, and that it was a fucking good time.

The legacy of TNMH
TNMH will ultimately stand as a lesson on how to make a community. We were not antagonist. We preached about being open, being fair, and being there. Did that work? Was that necessary? Weren’t there enough others being antagonistic and even violent?

In the end, the success of True North Media House was not about getting more people to use #tnmh tag. It was in empowering people to create content (who otherwise may not have) and showing a stodgy organization like the IOC to realize that the times are changing.

What’s next?
Well, let’s just keep pushing further for London 2012. Will that be in the guise of #tnmh or something else: another form, another hashtag, another group? That really doesn’t matter. It’s about the people. The power is there. As Kris Krug would say, “Use it with kindness and discretion.”

P.S. Some inspiration
Were the Games meaningful to you? Did your country’s athletes make you proud? Then consider supporting them. Sure you paid big money (or your valuable advertising eyes) to follow the Games, but these amateur athletes are heroes, and you can help them do what they were made to do. Go out and support local sports. Learn who your country’s great amateur athletes are. Go watch their races and games. And they will make your proud.

Fubar’s Back: Fubar 2

Fubar is back. Canada’s favourite headbangers with a movie have just released the sequel, in theatres October 1.

Trailer for Fubar 2:

Give’r.

Travis Pastrana Attempts Mt. Washington Record

At NorthGeek, above all, we love cars, mountains, and adrenaline. So when Travis Pastrana attempts a flying attempt at the fastest rally drive up New Hampshire’s Mt Washington, we’re all ears, eyes, and sweaty palms.

Bonus: here is more video eye candy. Ken Block drifts up a wall. It even makes a Segway look cool:

(via Jalopnik)

The World’s Best at Montreal ProTour

This past weekend, the Tour de France came to Quebec.

It is extremely remarkable that Quebec City and Montreal hosted the ProTour. The ProTour is the season long series of races around the world and mostly in Europe, but very rarely in North America. The last time a similar race was held in North America was in Montreal in 1992.

These world’s best cyclists from the very select ProTour teams (there are only 18 of them) raced two road races on Friday in Quebec and Sunday in Montreal. The ProTour squads were joined a Canadian national team which is being directed by 1988 Montreal winner Bauer.

And what heroic racing and deafening crowds. Watch the final kilometres of the Montreal race here:

Rabobank’s Robert Gesink from The Netherlands apparently climbed the big hill, the Camilien Houde in Montreal, in 3 minutes and 45 seconds, the last lap and 16th of the race. This is unreal, and so hard to comprehend from my best — 4:45 or so.

NorthGeek’s own Chris Manitt shot this video on the downhill, for some appreciation of what they do — the pace and concentration:

Here are the final kilometres of the Quebec race:

The ProTour will be back for at least the next four years. Did you go see it? Was it promoted well?

Favourite artists from The Cheaper Show

This past Saturday was Vancouver’s The Cheaper Show, where the public was asked to come out to support ‘local’ artists, buy any of the 200 artists’ pieces onsite for precisely $200 each, and, well, be seen. While I have issues with arbitrarily pricing every piece at some mitigating level and the spectacle of selling art instead of being able to enjoy it, it was a very slickly run event, ultimately benefiting new, rising artists and new, curious art buyers.

Unfortunately, if you showed up after the doors were blown down by the first attendees, much of the highly sought work was already sold. Those red dots meant you were too late. And they really just indicated that the more established artists’ discounted work was the secret to such an event. Hell, if that were my work, I might have placed the red dots on my work before the event started. Most people notice the red dots moreso than their own perceived value of the art, and I was not the only person punching the names of memorable artists into my iPhone.

Still, it would appear that the brand of The Cheaper Show is beyond needing high profile artists anymore. So what’s next, more local events across the land for their respective cities’ new artists?

On that note, ironically, here were my favorite artists, all of them local to Vancouver — The Cheaper Show used to be only Vancouver artists, so I thought I’d stick to that. Check out all their linked sites. And support local art, because, well, Stephen Harper won’t.

In reverse alphabetical order:

Sara Araujo-Salas:

Robert Mearns:

Nathalee Paolinelli:

Jeff Ladouceur:

Dan Siney:

Adam Blasberg:

Why diving in soccer?

I tweeted last week for help to understand diving in soccer. I treasure international sporting competitions like the World Cup, and well, there’s little like the World Cup. But I have a difficult time not finding myself very frustrated during the seemingly wussy behaviour when a player sobs and grits his teeth while rolling on the grass in anguish after a little fall to the ground:

Just Like This
Brazil’s Rivaldo in 2002:

Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo in 2006:

What I’ve Learned
I got some useful replies, but basically theatrics are just as important a part of soccer as fighting is a part of hockey, and you just have to get used to it. John Doyle (MisterJohnDoyle on Twitter) wrote a great piece in The Globe and Mail:

The fact is, in some countries, mainly Latin nations, soccer is as much theatre as it is athletic endeavour.
[...]
They are men. They intend to win. By any means necessary.
[...]
The World Cup is the biggest sports event on the plant. Applying our small notions about manliness and sportsmanship is unsophisticated and small. Get over it.

Basically, just get used to it, because it’s an intrinsic part of the sport. And it’s not going to change anytime soon. In most countries, it’s not frowned upon — if you don’t scoff at it, you might even be considered more tolerant of different cultures and ideals. Got it.

But, My Issues

• The number of referees in each game: it looks like there’s only one ref (other than linesmen?) on the field, possibly two. How can they expect this one person to cover the whole match?
• Athletes are simply very, very bad actors: this point doesn’t need much more explanation. They’re good with their feet, and well, that’s about it. Bad actors who are actors just don’t get jobs.
• Ronaldo is not known as a sneaky performer but as someone who always falls down. Does that just make him clumsy?
• And most irksome to me, by diving, you are playing to expect the referee to direct important outcomes of a game through mistakes and not through your own abilities. I have a huge issue with that. I will clearly never fully accept this part of soccer.

One More
Just because it’s so comical to watch, here’s one more exceptional dive from one of the greatest: Rinaldo.

Still the tournament has just begun, and if you can get beyond the non-creative and non-musical drone of the vuvuzelas, the skill of these athletes, the aesthetics of the game, and the rarity of pitting country versus country cannot be matched. I’ll be watching. Very closely.

Afterthought
Ultimately, sports usually fall into the classes of those judged, those raced, and those refereed. You don’t always have the simplicity of a clean race. This is just the inventiveness of sport. What are your thoughts on this?