Judging by my own and my friends’ reaction to every new album, I am Sarah Harmer’s core audience demographic. I pay to download her music. I buy her CDs as gifts for friends. I have attempted to fit one of her rare live TO performances into my very busy life. I quote her lyrics in […] More »

If you’ve spent much time in Vancouver, especially East Vancouver, you’ve probably been captivated by the migration of crows from downtown to parts east that occurs around dusk each day. From the window of my old, top-floor apartment on East 10th, it was a comforting ritual to watch. Now, a group of musicians are ready […] More »

It’s about time we saw a campaign like this: Greenpeace has launched an effort to organize Apple customers and demand that the company employ non-toxic materials in its hardware. For those of us who consider themselves environmentalists and buy a lot of junk from Apple (myself included), it’s time to stop turning a blind eye […] More »

I was wondering the other day — whatever happened to that story about Ted Rogers going to someone’s house to apologize for a ridiculous cell-phone bill resulting from stolen service. We had a pretty good discussion about the media ethics aspects of the story on this blog at the time. It’s one of those corporate […] More »

I just returned from a weekend in the States; Seattle WA to be exact. My friend Gisele and I drove down for Bumbershoot, an annual cultural extravaganza held on the old Expo fair grounds. Thousands of people, hundreds of shows, long lines and sun sun sun. But wait, bragging about my fabulous weekend is not […] More »

Something funny I found tonight: it seems while leftists are criticized by the right for pointless boycotts of corporate baddies such as Wal-Mart, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, the cons are engaging in their own consumer activism by organizing “embargoes” such as this one against Wells Fargo bank. Its transgression? Giving mortgages and banking services to illegal […] More »