Publications

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

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The Harvard Business Review

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OneZero

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JSTOR DAILY

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THE VERGE

Sing, sing a song

Sing, sing a song

I'm coming out: I'm an American Idol fan. I'm guessing that the reason for my fandom may be at the heart of the show's popularity: I would LOVE to get up on stage and open my mouth and have a big, beautiful voice pour out of it.

As things stand, I can at best hope for half that equation (the standing up on stage half). And given that the only thing to pour out would be a fine, even at times kinda nice voice, but nothing special and nothing to hit the high notes with, I don't see myself getting up on stage anytime soon.

One of the great things about having young kids is that it has gotten me past my self-consciousness about my just-okay voice, and has me singing regularly for the first time in years. Not just the Raffi repertoire, either (though we do a mean Baby Beluga). Our daughter has a great Simon & Garfunkely repertoire from her father, and a decent command of the Broadway standards thanks to me.

But ten minutes at bedtime — and maybe another five in the shower — isn't cutting it. What I'd really like to do is petition to universe for do-over, and ask for an Idol-worthy set of pipes…not to be on American Idol, but to light up a local choir, or take a page from Opera Man and go cruising around the city a capella.

In the absence of the Universal Do-over, I want to start singing more, even within the constraints of my current instrument. Won't you join me? I'd love to see Vancouver turn into one giant, unselfconscious, slightly off-key streetscape.

If your answer is yes….sing it!

 


Live from the LaFontaine-Baldwin lecture

Live from the LaFontaine-Baldwin lecture

Adrienne Clarkson gave the 8th annual LaFontaine-Baldwin lecture tonight on “the society of difference”. She argued that we are ultimately able to transcend difference because we are all one manifestation, connected by a collective consciousness. I’m not sure it ultimately allows us to transcend all our differences, but you can see the web as a manifestation of unconscious human interconnection – and an ever-deepening picture of that interconnection. My favorite way to visualize how that process of connection is facilitated is on youtube:

Out of my demographic on Facebook

Out of my demographic on Facebook

I finally (!) joined Facebook, but here’s as key sign it’s not exactly my demographic: there’s no way to define your relationship to someone as “married”. When Rob added me as a friend, I had the option of describing our relationship as “lived together”, “family” (if I wanted to describe him as a sibling or cousin — but no, it’s not that kind of marriage!) or “dated”. I chose “dated”, and had the opportunity to further clarify that we were “practically married” and are “still together”. Now all I have to worry about are all the ladies cruising Facebook to find the kind of guy who is commitment-ready, but not legally committed….

Your Mac needs this software

Your Mac needs this software

I'm always looking for new bits of software that will make me more productive, more effective, and of course, taller. So I LOVED Tod Maffin's session at MooseCamp today where he ran us through a bunch of his favourite little apps — and other folks shared theirs. Mac users, check out the list!