EDIT: and then last night the Raptor struck again!  Michael Nus were seated down by the court for the Raptors home opener!

Check the Vlog Action!

Watch: Raptors VS New York Knicks

Watch: Raptors Fan Jam

★

Videos are by me, and pics are by Lauren O’Nizzle

Last night a handful of bloggers and social media people got invited to the Teletoon offices in downtown Toronto for a sneak peek at the new cartoon show Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

Watch our video preview:

This show is pretty cool.  I was kind of expecting them to phone it in as a cheap attempt to build brand recognition in advance of The Avengers movie but the show is packed full of surprises and it’s a lot of fun.

And we had fun watching it!

Watch our video Preview:

LYRICS:
There’s a brand new thing, it’s shiny and true
It’s Social Media and that’s what’s new
(Talk to everyone around the world
And hope to hell someone’s listening)

Now I got friends and I got kin
But here I was by myself again
I thought I was alone, but then I found
This thing called Social Media going down
(Never be lonesome again
There’s always a few million people to talk to)

If you get enough people to follow you back
There’s fame & riches at the end of the track
So you follow me and I’ll follow you
And maybe we’ll get on TV a time or two!
(You get a million followers, you can pretty much write your own ticket after that
But you don’t get it if you care how many followers you’ve got)

I don’t know but I once thunk
There’s nothing in the world like more free junk
Might have to get a job to pay for a new spot
To put all the awesome free swag I got
(The free drinks are nice
They don’t take up any room in my suitcase!)

I don’t know but I’ve been told
The girls want a purse made out of gold
You get enough from a PR company for free
You’ll be like them folks on MTV!
(Internetting is like meditating
It’s more important than ever to be careful what you wish for)

Ev’ryone I meet’s got a brand new car
But I’m walkin’. Guess I ain’t goin’ too far!
People flyin’ here & there for free
While I’m gettin’ around by TTC
(I swear in my tweets. I dont’ represent anyone’s brand well
And now I’ve gotta pay for my flight like everyone else)

We talk ev’ry day but I don’t see you much
At least we’ve got the means to be in touch
My followers are up and my Klout score’s high
I wonder how many it takes to get by…
(I don’t do it for the money
But it’s hard not to think about the money when you’ve got five dollars in your pocket and you’re deciding between eating or riding the subway

* * *

The Making of
Talkin’ Social Media Blues

The first time anyone saw TALKIN’ SOCIAL MEDIA BLUES was when I screened it for a small group of Twitter peeps as an impromptu party to celebrate my 100th day in a row of Daily V-Loggin’:

But an bringing an idea like this from inception to materialization is no party. I got the idea for the song, wrote it straight away, and recorded it the next morning. Here is the Daily Video Blog entry from when I was working on the beat in which I explain how I came up with the idea:

Two days later, I shared footage of the recording of the song as well as brought you with me for the car ride the very first time anyone heard the song:

I got into some deep thinking about consumer culture the day that I went to make the signs for this video:

I shot the video on my own in an afternoon in five locations around town that I had scoped out. I was very clear with myself that I was trying to do something reminiscent of DONT LOOK BACK…

And then the day that I was editing the video, I got really heavy about being an artist:

This video was a lot of work, but it was also a lot of fun. If you are a Social Media enthusiast, I hope you think it’s funny.

Subscribe to my Youtube channels – seanward for my Daily V-Loggin’, and TheSeanWardShow for my comedy videos

This video went up to Youtube a couple of days ago and I am only now doing the blog post that I intended for it to accompany. It’s been pretty mad-cap busy in Sean-Land this week, but when is it not?

This slice-of-life vlog was recorded on the set of a video that I produced and created with my long-time friend and collaborator, Ms. Jennica Beshiri – follow her on Twitter @kidjennica – for Bite TV’s Bite Daily blog which, as you know, I have been writing for.  As for what’s up with the cereal… all will be revealed when you see the video.

Not sure yet when this video, At Home With Lights starring Jennica as Lights and me as a reporter, will be online but you know that you’ll know as soon as I know.  Stay tuned!

I promise that this knife is not gratuitous.

Subscribe to my Youtube channel! youtube.com/seanward

Hey dudes!  Enjoy another peek into the pages of my sketchbooks.  This is where the magic starts to happen…

Have you checked out my 2010 manifesto? Click here to check it out, and tell me what you’re excited about for 2010 in the comments!

Revolution 9.9.9 – a dramatic and intense exhibition that explores the extent and magnitude of popular culture’s biggest influence – The Beatles.

EDIT: What a fantastic night! Thanks to everyone for making it a hit. Click here for Party Pics!

Revolution 9.9.9 opens 09/09/09 (Number Nine… Number Nine… Number Nine…) at Space Gallery in San Francisco, the city that was the location of The Beatles’ last ever official concert in 1966, and runs to September 14.

The exhibition opens the same day as the release of The Beatles Rock Band video game and their re-mastered albums, exploring the band’s unmatched impact on popular culture through paintings, drawings, photography, sculpture, film and performance.

Artists include:
Sean Ward (that’s me!)
Marco Mejia
Julia Sanders
Tandy Kunkle

I need your help to get me to San Francisco, and support the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in memory of  huge John Lennon fan!  Click here for details about my San Francisco fundraiser!

Revolution 9.9.9 opens with a reception on Wednesday Sept. 9, and will be capped with a live event featuring a performance by The Vows who will play two sets: the first as the psychedelic Beatles, and the second – after a drastic and radical costume change – as the Beatlemania-era mop tops.

Revolution 9.9.9 is presented by Space Gallery, and produced by Rand Shuler. Space Gallery is located at 1141 Polk Street, San Francisco, California. Visit them on the web at www.spacegallerysf.com

Special thanks to:
Amoeba Music for sponsoring the event and getting us involved in “Beatle Day at Amoeba”
Harmonix for giving the show a Beatles Rock Band Bundle
Isotope Comics and RVCA
everyone at Space Gallery

above: The Summer of 1967 as represented in The Beatles Go Too Far, my Beatles comic book from 2003

ED

Michael Mann made HEAT and that one ruled. It was a movie about bank robbers and the cops trying to catch them that got really heavy about the personal lives of everyone involved. I have watched Heat so many times I couldn’t even count. It’s the bomb.

PUBLIC ENEMIES is a movie about bank robbers and the cops trying to catch them, directed by the same guy only this one takes place in 1933 during the Great Depression. There’s no reason that PUBLIC ENEMIES shouldn’t have been as good as HEAT. In fact, it could have been better than HEAT because with the whole American ‘economic downtown’ and the comparisons thrown around about now and The Great Depression, it could have been a really cool look into how these kinds of circumstances mold these kinds of people.

But we don’t get any of that. PUBLIC ENEMIES is plot for plot’s sake and that’s it. There are a couple of intense action scenes (none of them the bank robberies) but they’re strung together with soap opera bits of nothing. It’s fun to watch everyone playing dress up and having fun doing the period piece thing, but at no point does anyone give us any reason to care about anything anyone is doing. The characters are never fleshed out into people. I don’t know anything more about John Dillinger now than I did before the movie started. He’s an archetypal old-fashioned bank robber. And Christian Bale is the archetypal cop who’s after him. I’m a fan of 30s pop culture and gangster lore so it’s kind of fun to watch the action scenes and hear the names Frank Niti, Pretty Boy Floyd, and Baby Face Nelson thrown about but I didn’t even know which guy was supposed to be Baby Face Nelson until the last scene he’s in.

Oh, and Giovanni Ribisi is in it. He doesn’t do much and he’s kind of a throwaway but for some reason I always get a kick out of it whenever I see him. I think that started with BOILER ROOM. But we’re not talking about BOILER ROOM. We’re talking about PUBLIC ENEMIES.

The archetypal girl in this movie has nothing to do but fawn over John Dillinger. I get that women are attracted to confidence and power but beyond that we have nothing as to why she would go along with him, and we are given absolutely nothing about why John Dillinger is so interested in and devoted to her. He just seems to pick her out of the crowd and instantly go cuckoo obsessed with her and we don’t know anything about either of them.

The movie looks like it was shot by the cinematographer from Trailer Park Boys. I’m used enough to that digital look in movies but for a movie that takes place in 1933, it absolutely kills the illusion. You can see the make-up and it looks way different when the camera pans than if they had shot it on film. Maybe it was just the digital projection, I don’t know. Regardless, at no point was I able to lose myself in it. I was always conscious of the actors. It never feels like we’re looking at that era the way THE UNTOUCHABLES did.

MIAMI VICE went kind of the same way, giving us no characterization and just plot, shot digitally. But that was sort of the point. It was supposed to play like any random episode of the TV show. It doesn’t work here though, and the whole movie feels like something everyone made to screen test the costumes and see how the period details photograph. It doesn’t feel like a whole movie.

It says a lot about the talent involved that despite these flaws, it’s never boring. It’s fun to look at, especially if you like those 30s cars, clothes, hairstyles, etc. Definitely worth a watch but you can safely wait for the DVD or download it.

We are back with the second episode of the hottest new show on the Internet: THE ISSUES, starring Sean (me!) and Raymi.

We discuss THE ISSUES in a manner that is both entertaining and enlightening.

In addition, watch us eat.  Watch us drink.  And watch us groove.

SHOW LINKS:

Raymi the Minx

Unagi (the music)

69 Vintage (where Raymi got her outfit)

69 Vintage’s blog

Ready, Set, Breakfast!

History was made in Toronto this past Saturday, June 6.  That was when me, Sean Ward, yours truly, joined the band to shake a tambourine as a member of Wildlife for their performance at Whippersnapper Gallery.

“Damn, Sean! You’re really into it!”

I’m ‘in the pocket’, as they say in the business.

Rare views from the stage…

Gotta love that exclusive Custom Album Art…. a seanward.net specialty…

With a big day that has spawned three blog posts, how surprising that I only got this one sweet picture of the happy couple! Birthday boy Derek and Julia. I think they look fantastic together, don’t you? Few things I hate more than a mismatched bullshit couple. You two stay fly now, y’hear?

Me and these ladies had a nice little dance squadron going for the preceeding band, Commandeer. Meet Caitlin, Lisa, and Danielle. They were my tambourine inspiration, watching the show from the front of the stage.

It is vital to match your tambourine to your t-shirt.

My camera was messed at this point in the night, and all of the pictures I took of Commandeer were whited out. Thanks for the pics, new Facebook friends.

You caught that the name of the venue was Whippersnapper GALLERY, right? It’s a cool place and I have never not had a really good time there. It’s a performance space, but an art gallery as well.

Here is some of the art on the walls. Who’s that in the hot air balloon on the left?

Oh hey John Lennon.

This pic was in the restroom. Not part of the exhibit.

Here are the artists, as seen from an adjacent table at Southside Louie’s before the show. The guy on the left was the painter, I think his name was Alex. They guy on the right was the photographer and I didn’t get his name. I was kind of looking forward to kickin’ it with them a little at the end of the show because they were both super cool guys but between loading out the gear and being exhausted from two nights in a row of four hours sleep and a big day of picknicking, it was not to be the case.

If either of you guys see this, get in touch and give me links to post!

Southside Louie’s on College Street between load-in and showtime would be Derek’s birthday dinner.

Who are you rappin’ at, Tim? Must be an agent or some big shot being all “Hey Tim, we need to fly you around the world for a gig” because Tim is a big star of the stage and screen.

And if the call ain’t about show business, dollars to doughnuts says that it’s about ho business.

No music was played in this bar. It was all about the Stanley Cup finals. The shouting would get quite cacophonous at times.

Oh snap, who made Tim mad????

Stimulating dinner conversation.

Happy Birthday tooooooo yoooooouuuuuuuu!!!!!!!!!!!

Hope your birthday gig and party were fun, D.

To see the rest of Derek’s birthday festivities in High Park, check this out – Part One. Part Two.