The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century
Joey deVilla's Personal Blog
New comic series typically take months before they produce a strip that makes you sit up, take notice and say “hey, that’s interesting”, and that goes double for webcomics. So when I discovered that the Home on the Strange strip shown below is only the fourth one in the series, I was completely surprised. The first four panels appear below; click the image to read the whole thing…
More later…
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Blogstravaganza in full swing! From left to right: Andrew Coyne, John Bowman, Yours Truly. Photo from A North American Patriot.
Let me begin with a shout-out to all the attendees of last Friday’s Blogstravaganza…
(If I missed you, let me know!)
My thanks to Bob Tarantino and Jason Cherniak for putting the whole thing together. It was good to catch up with old friends from previous gatherings and meet some new ones as well. The success of this event shows that the blogosphere is alive and well here in Accordion City.
It’s also compartmentalized.
If you’re a regular reader of this blog or a regular attendee of the GTABloggers gatherings, there’s a strong possibility that many of the blogs listed above will be unfamiliar to you. Likewise, this blog was unfamiliar to the bloggers whom I hadn’t met at previous gatherings of the local Vast Right Wing Conspiracy bloggers, despite recent links from a number of Technorati Top 100 sites and recent mentions in The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and Macleans. One attendee didn’t know who Andrew Coyne was, despite the fact that he’s one of Canada’s highest-profile newspaper writers, while another lamented that Toronto seemed to have more right-wing bloggers than left-wing ones, even though attending a GTABlogger party might make you think the opposite was true.
This sort of thing is to be expected. After all, the term “community” has the same root as the word “common”, as in “sharing some trait or quality”. There’s a natural tendency towards gravitating towards those who share your interests, and in these politically-charged times, towards those who share your politics. There are some advantages to this, not the least of which is that a community can often do what an individual cannot.
This also has its downsides. Consider the “echo chamber” effect, in which the voices of a community serve to amplify voices from within the community and diminish outside voices, forming a self-reinforcing “feedback loop”. This can lead to all sorts of problems, from a “tunnel visioned” mindset to a lack of new ideas within the community to the demonization of other communities based on stereotypes and prejudices.
I think that Bob and Jason did a very good job at attempting to reach Toronto bloggers of all political persuasions. Perhaps it’ll take a few more of these gatherings to bring out more local bloggers whose politics are “centre” and “left”.
Your opinions, please…
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(* That’s “Happy new year” in Cantonese.)
It’s been a busy weekend, with Blogstravaganza on Friday, a Chinese New Year’s party on Saturday and a big Chinese New Year family outing on Sunday. Today is turning out ot be a very busy day, It’s a busy day today an busier day, so today’s posting is a simple one in honour of Chinese New Year: a summer 1999 photo of a dog sitting in a Montreal apartment window, not far from the corner of Milton and Durocher, a location for many of my youthful indiscretions.
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The Google logo has a powdered wig and a musical staff today because it’s Mozart’s birthday. Happy birthday, Amadeus!
Falco and Mozart — together at last!
I don’t have any Mozart here at the office, and it was much easier to find an MP3 of a fan remix of Falco’s Rock Me Amadeus [7.3 MB MP3] than it was to dig up a measly sample of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik [266K MP3], which is a shame. Once I started uploading Rock Me Amadeus, I couldn’t help but post Help Me, Dr. Zaius [268K MP3] from The Simpsons.
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In response to the Monkey Knife Fight graphic that I posted along with my original announcement about Blogstravaganza (it’s the one pictured above), Damian”Babbling Brooks” Brooks wrote in the comments to Bob “Let it Bleed” Tarantino’s blog:
OK, the monkeys going all Jets-and-Sharks doesn’t bug me. Batmanstanding over the little guy like that is a bit off-putting. But the
Wonder Twins swapping spit in the back? Ewwwww.
I pointed him to this Penny Arcade comic (click to see it at full size):
About a month or so back, I was in a conversation with a group of programmers when one posed a hypothetical business model question that started with “Is it evil if…”
Reg, one of the programmers and an all-round astute guy, jumped in before the guy asking the question could finish: “You know, if you have to ask, it probably is.”
What I decided not to bring up at that point is that I remembered once, back at Crazy Go Nuts University when someone asked me “Hey, Joey, is it, uh, incest if…if I…”
“You know, even though you haven’t finished,” I replied, “I’m gonna go with ‘yes’.”
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The preponderence of images of knife-wielding monkeys should be a hint to you that tonight is the night of the Accordion City (a.k.a. “Toronto”) Blogstravaganza, a gathering of this fine city’s bloggers. It takes place at a pretty convenient location: Fiddler’s Green, a pub located at 27 Wellesley Street East, just east of Yonge and Wellesley on the south site, and right above Wellesley Station. For those of you who are driving, there’s a parking lot beside Fiddler’s Green.
Over at his blog, Let it Bleed, Blogstravaganza partner Bob Tarantino writes that Fiddler’s Green has given us the third floor room. This means that as soon as you enter the pub, go up, up, waaay up to the third floor…we’ll be the group with the accordion. (The odds against there being two accordions in the same bar at the same time are almost nil…we observe a Highlander-like “There can be only one!” code of honour in the Brotherhood of the Bellows.)
Postmodern Sass tells me that there might be karaoke there. You might get to see The Master at work, you lucky dogs!
I myself expect to be there around 8:30-ish. I’m taking Wendy out on our weekly “date night” ritual prior. If you’ve got questions for Wendy about her new gig as Editor-in-Chief of Top 10 Sources, this is your chance! If you’d like to make a page for Top 10 Sources — a great way to get you and your blog noticed by the larger blogopshere, by the bye — this is also your chance!
For more on the Blogstravaganza (including why I’ve nicknamed it “Monkey Knife Fight”), see this earlier entry of mine. In the spirit of that entry, I share a song with you — Stevie Wonder’s funkafied cover of the Beatles’ We Can Work it Out [3.0MB MP3].
See you there!
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The “Katamari Idiocy” video [10.4MB Windows Media] shows the misadventures of a guy who tries to be the prince from the quirky and addicitive Japanese PlayStation videogame Katamari Damacy in real life. In the video, we learn that neighbourhood cats aren’t too keen on this idea, it’s no good for picking up girls and attempting to roll up a baseball diamond and all the people within works only in the game.
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Pure funky music geek gold: The Paul’s Boutique Samples and References List site examines every song off this seminal Beastie Boys album, sourcing its samples used in every song and explaining every reference in its lyrics. Shhhhake your rump-ahh!
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(0100 is one possible binary representation of the number 4.)
Mathew Hoy at HellaBoss got tagged to make a few lists of four items. He then tagged Grant Hutchison at splorp, who made his lists. Grant then tagged John Martz at RobotJohnny, who made his lists. Johnny tagged Deenster at pony, who made her lists and then tagged me.
It’s my turn now, so here goes:
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(This article was also posted to Tucows Developer.)
Last night, the second Toronto
DemoCamp — a monthly series of meetings of
developers where they show the projects they’re working on — was held
at the offices of Radiant
Core in the “Liberty Village” area of town (the same
neighbourhood as Tucows). Judging by the crowd, which was around 60
people at its peak by my count, I would have to call the event an
success.
a video [5MB QuickTime] that I shot. I’m panning from one end
of the room to the other to show you just how crowded it
was.)
Last night’s demonstrations
were:
Foundation:
A very user-friendly web contentmanagement system developed by Radiant Core, a web design and
development shop run by my friend Jay Goldman. Radiant Core developed
Foundation so that they wouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel for every
new client. It boasts and easy-to-use interface that minimizes the need
for clients to run to them for help and also exposes an API for clients
with development teams who want to do some serious
customization.
user-friendly web tool for business: this time, it’s a web invoicing,
timesheet and support ticketing application. It’s a good example of the
type of business application that can be moved from the shrink-wrapped
pay-once desktop app model to the subscription-based web app one. They
also brought up some a very important point about pricing schemes that
they learned through experience: simpler is
better.
software project that harnesses “the collective wisdom of the net to
predict the future”. It allows you to pose questions and suggested
answers, track the responses and search for questions by
tag.
application of the evening, WaveDNA is a “music reverse engineering
tool” whose purpose is to analyse music for patterns. It breaks down
music into fundamental units of pitch, duration and “feel” and perfoms
analysis on those elements and their arrangement. The potential uses
for this application are vast and interesting, ranging from analysing
what makes a good commercial jingle (by analysing the most-remembered
ones and seeing what their common qualities are) to a Ph.D. thesis
project in which a researcher is trying to determine what makes a song
a lullaby. The University of Toronto and a local music recording
studio, MetalWorks, are involved in this
project.
application: this one’s a “bulletin board” where people who need
favours — perhaps they need work done, or advice — can post those
needs and people who can help can see them. It’s an excellent blending
of social software technologies and local community
involvement.
tax rebate program
was explained by WayneBradley from Development Associates. This tax rebate program gives
money to Canadian companies to encourage them to work on R&D.
You don’t have to provide a business plan or promise profitability –
in this case, the criterion for qualification is that you’re breaking
new ground or advancing the field. You can make up to 66% of your
salary investments if you qualify.
As with the
first DemoCamp, which was held in December, it was a good opportunity
to meet with other developers in town and see what they were working
on. Even better was the palpable feeling of inspiration that came from
being in a gathering of people who want to write cool and useful
software. I expect great things from DemoCamp in the months to come. My
heartiest congratulations to David
Crow for making it a success!
The next
DemoCamp, which will be held in February, is already being planned.
I’ve offered Tucows as the location — watch this space for more
details!
David Crow: DemoCamp 2.0 Rocks the
House
Here’s a flickr photoset
of TorCamp photos.
The BarCamp
wiki. Here’s the wiki’s DemoCamp
page.
An explanation of what BarCamp
is.
Foo Camp — short for Friends Of O’Reilly Camp — which led
to the creation of
BarCamp.
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Yesterday, Michael Oliveri from the Canadian Press conducted a phone interview with me about the election and Sam Bulte.
“So, judging from your blog, I take it that you’re pleased with the outcome of the election?” he asked.
“If you’re talking at the federal level, I wouldn’t say ‘pleased’. Maybe ‘satisfied that the outcome was the least abhorrent of the realistic ones’ would be more accurate.”
The resulting article, Bloggers Take Some Credit for Ousting Former MP, also features quotes from Michael Geist and Cory Doctorow.
Because this is my blog and tooting my own horn is its primary purpose, here’s the snippet featuring me:
In 2004, the NDP’s Peggy Nash got 34.5 per cent of the vote in the Parkdale-High Park riding and fell 3,526 ballots short of Liberal incumbent Bulte. This time, Nash captured 40 per cent support and won over Bulte by 2,201 votes.
While bloggers are stopping short of saying they’re the reason for Nash’s 5,700 vote turnaround, they credit the Internet community with being a major contributing force and influencing the decision.
“I think it’s premature for anybody with a blog right now to start saying, ‘OK, now that I’ve got a blog I am a kingmaker,’” said Joey deVilla, a resident in the riding and author of the blog, The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century.
“But I believe (the online campaign) did help. It stirred some discussion online and at the candidates’ meetings, it got the attention of the media, and it became a story.”
For more on the role of the Parkdale-High Park election result and its relationship to the blogosphere, I point you to Michael Geist’s article, Lessons Learned.
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The picture below comes from Stephen Taylor’s blog — it’s a shot of strategists from the three major Canadian political parties: Susan Murray (Liberal Party), Brad Lavigne (New Democratic Party) and Sandra Buckler (Conservative Party). If I had to sum up the election results using only one picture, I’d use this one.
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Back in 1999 — this is the pre-accordion — I lived in a condo at the corner of Yonge and Carlton and sometimes got together with friends and friends-of-friends at Fiddler’s Green and talked over beer and pub grub. One particular night at the Green stands out in my mind: I think we all drank a little too much and one of the girls, in one of those “Too Much Information” moments, told us stories of her offbeat sexual proclivities. You can’t unhear such things once heard; I will simply say that thanks to this story, I cannot ever again watch A Charlie Brown Christmas — especially the ending — without cringing.
The night after that, I got into the only bar fight I have ever started in my life: I clobbered my gay friend at a gay bar. It wasn’t a queer-bashing thing; he was monopolizing the girl with whom I was on a date. He has since forgiven me and The Code of Dudes clearly exonerates me in this matter (statute 5: “Cock-blocking is wrong, dude”).
Ah, good times, good times.
Anyhow, this is all preamble to my reminding you that the Blogstravaganza, which I mentioned earlier, takes place this Friday at good ol’ Fiddler’s Green. Organized by Bob “Let it Bleed” Tarantino (and supposedly by Jason “Cherniak on Politics” Cherniak, but I’ve been plugging the event harder than he has), it’s a gathering of Accordion City’s bloggers, blog readers, curious onlookers and people who just need to know the details behind the Charlie Brown Christmas story.
I’ll let Bob do some of the talking:
Everyone walks away from last night’s excitement with something to keepthem happy: Conservatives have a victory, the NDP has an increased seat
count and the Liberals remain a relatively strong Official Opposition.
Which means everyone should be in a good mood for Friday night’s blogstravaganza!
C’mon down! Once again, it takes place at Fiddler’s Green, located at 27 Wellesley Street East, on Friday, January 27th at 8 p.m..
Fiddler’s Green is a decent Irish pub that I used to frequent back when
I lived at the corner of Yonge and Carlton. It’s a nice central
location that’s also right on top of Wellesley Station.
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A couple of days ago, Damian “Daimnation!” Penny wrote a blog entry in which he speculated how various characters on The Simpsons would’ve voted in last night’s election. It’s an amusing read, and the comments range from the funny to the foamy (I suspect that that commenter is shopping for Asian mail-order brides and some marital brass knuckles).
I’ll throw my hat in the ring by suggesting that Harper use the speech that Sideshow Bob made after getting elected mayor of Springfield, with the appropriate word substitutions. I think it shows what attracts people to the Conservatives and how their policies simply replace the “nanny state” they despise with a “nunny state”:
Because you need me, Springfield. Your guilty conscience may move you to vote Democratic, but deep down you long for a cold-hearted Republican to lower taxes, brutalize criminals, and rule you like a king. That’s why I did this, to save you from yourselves.Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a city to run.
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I’d like to thank my fellow voters in the Parkdale-High Park
riding for voting out Sam “Hollywood’s MP” Bulte and voting in Peggy
Nash.
Some of the credit should go to Cory Doctorow, Michael Geist, Ren Bucholz and the EFF/Online Rights Canada
and all the bloggers who
spoke out about Ms. Bulte. It would probably be wrong to declare that
“The Internet” or “The Blogosphere” was the sole factor in Ms. Bulte’s
ouster, but it probably helped get the word out. A lot of the credit
has to go to Peggy Nash for calling Ms. Bulte on her Big Content
cronyism during her campaign, and a lot of the blame has to go to the
way Ms. Bulte presented her case: with a toxic mixture of arrogance,
contempt for her own constituents and a willingness to play fast and
loose with facts.
Here’s how the votes broke down:
| DISTRICT: Parkdale-High Park | ||||
| Candidate | Party | Vote Count | Vote Share | Elected |
| Peggy Nash | NDP | 20690 | 40.31% | X |
| Sarmite Sam Bulte | LIB | 18489 | 36.02% | |
| Jurij Klufas | CON | 8767 | 17.08% | |
| Robert L. Rishchynski | GRN | 2820 | 5.49% | |
| Terry Parker | MP | 311 | 0.61% | |
| Lorne Gershuny | ML | 133 | 0.26% | |
| Beverly Bernardo | NA | 119 | 0.23% | |
If there’s a candidate I feel sorry for, it’s Marxist-Leninist Party
candidate Lorne Gershuny. As I said earlier, he made articulate and
impassioned statements and was considerably more personable than Bulte
at the January 11th all-candidates meeting. Still, his party was beaten
by the Marijuana Party by a two-to-one margin, even though their
candidate Terry Parker passed on a few questions and was mostly
unintelligible (and possibly baked) for the rest. Even worse, they were
nearly matched by Beverly Bernardo, who didn’t show up to any of the
all-candidate meetings, didn’t have any signage and whose candidacy was
unknown to many voters until they saw the ballot. He’s probably
thanking his lucky stars that the Communist Party wasn’t in the riding
to further split the no-hope vote in a People’s Front of Judea/Judean People’s Front sort of way.
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