NorthGeek

Something inspiring about modern dance

This video came to me from Canadian online marketing guru Darren Barefoot, claiming it would be “the most beautiful piece of modern dance you’ll see this year.” It’s actually from 6 years ago, from a project this Montreal-based dance company, La La La Human Steps, undertook to capture dance on film. Or more importantly, to show something very new by interlacing these two media as is rarely done. Dance is often a live performance art, but this camera did not just capture a performance, but showed it in a very new way by mixing up the camera angles and using great dolly and rotating shots.

In any case, 6 years later, it just goes to show that modern dance could still slowly gain mainstream attention and not be considered too esoteric or contrived. Here’s the piece, Amelia (Amazon link to buy the DVD):

But don’t stop there. Modern dance has been progressive for years. I was resistant and forced to watch this David Parsons piece as a 13 year old sports nut, and was still able to be moved. Here’s the 1 minute excerpt version of this totally creative piece called Caught from over 20 years ago. This blew me away and will you too:

Here’s the full version. If you make it to 3:20, you won’t be able to stop:

Just this week I watched a beautiful video installation done by my friends at Caste Projects for a designer’s seasonal collection as part of Vancouver Fashion Week, and shown at the raucous and upside-down after-party. Similar effect but no relation… this begs to see lots more connection between dance and fashion (just like dance and film, above).

Mieka Pauley live in studio at SXSW 2006

This is one hell of a breathtaking live in studio performance by Mieka Pauley, one of my once-upon-a-time fellow Boston musicians. I’ll let the video speak for itself:

8 affordable wines that "bring the thunder"

This past weekend, I tasted a lot of wine at the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival. The event was called 25 under $25, which means I was bound to get sloshed by 6 in the afternoon, but more importantly, I could trial lots of reasonably priced wines that I would buy on a daily basis.  Sure you could buy great wines for $100 a bottle, but c’mon, isn’t it more fun finding wines that “bring the thunder” ie. taste great and don’t break the bank. (Thanks Gary Vaynerchuck.)

My criteria for a great wine aren’t based on whether you smell berries or tobacco. Really, enjoying wine isn’t about showing off your “refined” palate. Great wine means it’s not too bitter, too alcoholic tasting, doesn’t taste like dogfood, and has depth. Depth just means you can smell and taste flavours other than the grape. This makes the wine much more memorable and unique. I’d take a wine with a story to tell any day over grape juice.

Here are my favourites, which you can buy at British Columbia liquor stores, and likely elsewhere:

• d’Arenberg The Footbolt Shiraz 2006, Australia, 506931 $24. This winery makes great wines, and the Shiraz are my favourites. Shiraz tastes spicy to me. d’Arenberg also makes the great Stump Jump. They have the signature diagonal red stripe on the label.
• Castaña Monastrell 2006, Spain, 731620 $12. Nice dark colour, and rich flavours.
• Evans & Tate Margaret River Shiraz, Australia $20. Another excellent Aussie Shiraz. Reminds me of my first winery tour in Australia years ago.
• Kettle Valley Winery Pinot Noir, BC 556407 $24. First BC Pinot I really like. Living in Vancouver, there are so many BC wines to discover. I love Pinots. They’re delicate and very deep with flavour. I’m looking forward to finding a lot more great BC wines.
• Beringer Founders Estate Merlot 2006, US 634255 $20. Big Beringer makes a fine Merlot.
• Brancott Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2008, New Zealand 129528 $17. Just like Kim Crawford and Oyster Bay, another great white from the area. Sweet but not overpowering
• De Bortoli dB Traminer Riesling 2008 Australia 952580. This is a sweeter white, not oaky like lots of Chardonnays. Oaky means tastes like wood. Not my style.

Now get out and find yourself some wines with a story.

The Canadian electric car you haven’t heard of

Did you know there’s a Canadian car company? Oh and it’s electric. Spread this great news.

But this is a funny story, a funny sad (and controversial) story, because, despite this gorgeous (well, gorgeous in the environmental sense) car being manufactured entirely in Canada, it’s not actually legal on the road in Canada!

They’re called ZENN, as in Zero Emission No Noise. You will hear sounds of nature when you drive this car. Not the engine. Woah.

It’s a Canadian success story, and I’d like to see these on the road across Canada now.

Have you seen the gas tank is an electric plug? Yeah, plug ‘er in. You’ll pay a penny a mile, and the energy used is equivalent to 245 miles per gallon. It takes 8 hours for a full charge and 4 hours for 85% charge, just like your cell phone. As CEO Ian Clifford said, “Your biggest carbon footprint as an individual is probably the car you drive.” Consider that…

Here’s an 8 minute product tour with CEO Ian:

So as Canadians, this makes us even more compelled to spread the word about this car, which retails for $12,000 to $15,000 USD.

Illustrious TV show host and comedian Rick Mercer brought his classic Canadian mix of satire and reverence to his tour of the factory:

I would definitely drive this car. Would you? Well, gonna have to do something about that backing up buzzer, golf car style. Yikes.

The drawback with this car is that it’s maximum speed is 40km/h. But coming soon is the cityZENN with a maximum speed of 125km/h and 400km range on one charge. Or will it…

That would make it a real competitor to the big car companies, and if that project gets hidden under the rug like Who Killed the Electric Car?, many Canadians may never hear of ZENN. That project is dependent on some mysterious battery advancements coming out of a very private Texas Company called EEStor Inc. CEO Ian has (majority) propriety rights to this controversial technology — a unique energy storage system (shall we say, ultra capacitor) that can charge a car in 5 minutes to go 400 kilometres. Wowya! Or can it? Watch GM play dumb:

Ski Flying or Speed Riding down Aconcagua

Call it whatever you like. This hybrid extreme winter sport is jaw-dropping.

This guy François Bon summited Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Western Hemisphere, at 22,841 feet. His 11 day approach and climb was capped up by a 4 minute and 50 second descent of the 9000 foot south face.

Amazing. Watch:

Here are the Acro-Base guys flying down the Eiger in Switzerland, albeit to some other editor’s better chosen reggae soundtrack:

Gary Vaynerchuck drinks wine and kicks ass

This is required viewing for anyone who’s making trying to make a living online. Gary Vaynerchuck from Wine Library TV has made a few killer, inspirational presentations, but this is perhaps the best. Here’s Gary at the Web 2.0 Expo in New York in September 2008. He talks about hard damn work (“stop watching fucking Lost”), passion in what you do (“if you’re pumping out good shit, people will follow”), and personal branding (ask yourself: “what do I want to do?”). Anything can happen, but if you have brand equity, you’ll be fine.

“Legacy is greater than currency.” The only thing worse than failing and being skeptical is being irrelevant. Now go!

(Actually, he normally spits out his tastings. I do hope he drinks the stuff on occasion.)

Video of the day: Feist’s Juno music video of the year

Anthony Seck won the 2009 Juno (Canadian Grammy award) for video of the year with Feist’s Honey Honey. If you haven’t seen this video yet, you will be mesmerized by the fantastical images and storyline and Feist’s ethereal voice:

While so many artists have neglected making creative music videos, worth more than showing off how great the musician is are or how big their boat is (or just that they’re… on a boat), it’s refreshing to see something about more than the performer.

Beautiful custom urban bikes by Republic

Republic makes gorgeous, customized bicycles for $344. By customized, we mean nearly every colour (saddle, chain, tires, wheels, etc.) and through a nifty interface. The physical bike is pretty standardized steel frame and components, but you can have fun and create a very unique looking bike. They come as interchangeable fixed gear and freewheel drivetrains.

Here’s one:

Check out the build quality. Looks like decent components:

The full bike weight a very reasonble 24 pounds.

What’s your Aristotle? Share it here. Here’s ours:

Again, we’d love to see some social media site sharing by this company!

Create your own Muppet (puppet)

Make your own Muppet for $90. Have fun. Here are approximations of your NorthGeek authors:
Daniel:

Noah:

This now is another toy customization ecommerce site, but we’d love to see some social media sharing going on here — make a Muppet and share it via your social network of choice!

Where the Wild Things Are: Movie preview out today

The preview, for what looks to be a stunning film rendition of the famous children’s book Where the Wild Things are, came out today, and it’s set to the insistent, dramatic beat of The Arcade Fire. See it over at Apple or click below.