resistance to persistence

I bought Mint Royale’s “Singin In The Rain” from iTunes last week after being reminded of David “Elsewhere” Bernal’s dancing in the Volkswagon GTI Golf/Gene Kelly commercial — my wife had on Dancing With The Stars.

A little googlin’ to find out who did the music for that commercial brought me to Mint Royale and their video for the remix is awesome. Now everytime I hear this song when I’m walking down the street, I want to start pop lockin and dancing along. Watch the video below.

Mint Royale’s Singin In The Rain

Not a strike, but an opportunity to spare it up. Bowling humour.

Looks like someone either doesn’t like newspaper boxes or was a little reckless behind the wheel today. This was the scene outside the Toronto Sun newspaper offices. Think it’s a coincidence that newspaper boxes were attacked outside a newspaper publisher? I think not.

episode 3 of kenny vs spenny starts tonight

just a reminder…season 3 of kenny vs spenny starts tonight. make sure to tune in. 9:30 on showcase. for tonight’s episode challenge, the first person to laugh loses. i’m sure it’s a lot harder than it sounds.

i can’t wait…it’s been a long time since there’s been some new episodes. remember to watch for me with kenny in episode 12, who can be homeless the longest.

i’m a little big for the box. i jumped in to help test the lighting. photo by magda

i was invited to help out as a photo assistant again the past weekend. this photo shoot was a fun one. a few women from an entertainment wrestling team were getting their photos done for promotional materials and websites, etc. you can read a bit about them here. keep your eyes open for events around Toronto where the women are appearing. they’ve got an event happening at the drake hotel very soon. the women were “wild rose”, “ella hitsville” and alison - i didn’t catch her wrestling name, but i learned she loves david bowie and marilyn manson.

i’m learning a lot about setups and lighting and the whole process. as we were waiting around, I snapped a couple quick scene photos when I wasn’t required to be doing something else. view the larger photos by clicking on the thumbnails below.

click the image to read the article

one of my personal software projects, DeliciousMind, is discussed in an online newspaper article at newsforge.com - “the online newspaper for linux and open source”. i’m shocked and excited. it’s been mentioned lots in blogs and other websites, but never in a real article. i’m very proud that it’s picking up more usage and getting noticed.

DeliciousMind is a java application to convert del.icio.us bookmarks into a visual mindmap which can be viewed in Freemind, an open source mindmap tool. Mindmaps are graphical tree structures which make it much easier to remember and review. The non-linear nature of mind maps makes it easy to link and cross-reference different elements of the map.

if you like using del.icio.us and would like to see them in a more visual way, give DeliciousMind a try.

the dark skies made for the perfect backdrop of this ominous machine

I was invited to attend the revealing of Stella Artois’ “The Trap” on the evening of October 11. A very hip event with great free Stella, The Trap is “a visual representation of just how far someone might go to protect the perfect beer, and in turn, the sacrifice someone else would have to make to get it”. A massive machine of swirling metal, lights and gears, it’s like watching the insides of a grandfather clock, yet all of it designed to protect a chalice of beer. It’s on display outside of the Gardiner Museum until October 25th. Also, there’s a very cool online component to go along with the machine. At http://www.stellaartois.com, you can challenge your friends online to try to beat you at games and the loser gets to buy drinks so it’s also a nice way to encourage meeting up with friends. If you’re in the neighbourhood of Bloor & University, it’s across from the Royal Ontario Museum for viewing outdoors. You’ll have to get the beer somewhere else.

View the larger photos at flickr.com by clicking on the thumbnails below.

Photos from the Stella Artois revealing of “The Trap”

photo by Pål Hermansen, Norway, for Orion Forlag/Getty Images

The World Press Photo exhibit is showing at BCE Place. It’s a free exhibit as you walk through the building. I stopped in for a while and was captivated by the photos. Some of them are very graphic so it’s not something you want to bring children to. These are some of the photos from the show. It’s there until October 22.

World Press Photo organizes the world’s largest and most prestigious annual press photography contest. The prizewinning photographs are assembled into a traveling exhibition, which is visited by over two million people in more than 35 countries each year.

photo by Michael Appleton, USA, New York Daily News

as seen on photos.blainekendall.com

The 2006 Canadian Blog Awards have just opened up their nominations for their categories. I’m looking to make an impact in the “Best Photo/Art Blog” category. If you like what you’ve seen over on my photoblog (http://photos.blainekendall.com) , please be sure to add a nomination for me at Canadian Blog Awards. Then hopefully I’ll be in the running and maybe I’ll be begging for votes later on. While you’re there, be sure to nominate/vote for your other favorite Canadian blogs like Accordion Guy, DDOI, Photojunkie, etc.

for those of you afraid to wander away from your neighbourhood because you fear not being able to get your caffeine fix when the tremors and shakes kick in, findbyclick.com has your problem solved. They’ve now mapped out locations for you to find your nearest cafe. Choose your brew: Starbucks or Tim Horton’s. Now get out there and enjoy the rest of the world.

i’m doing some fall cleaning of gadgets i no longer need or have replaced with newer models. if you’re interested, here’s what i’m selling on ebay…
fuji finepix 3800 digital camera with case
3 xD memory cards (784MB total)
256 MB DDR Ram (PC3200 400MHz)
External hard disk enclosure (USB 2.0 or Firewire connection)
Wireless PCMCIA Card
Pentax 35mm point & shoot film camera
Portable CD Player

If you’re interested, let me know by leaving a comment.