12 July 2017
Jukebox
Similar to a jukebox of old, individuals seem to cultivate only a limited personal universe of musical tastes. Studies such as this one argue that adolescence is a particularly important time for forming these preferences, and that once the universe has been established, it changes only very gradually over a listener's lifetime.
Granted, these days the gadget in your pocket can hold many more tunes than the best Wurlitzer ever could, and in theory the internet offers infinite selection. But services such as YouTube and Spotify build on users' tastes and offer more of the same, driving us ever deeper into the limited realm we have a predisposition towards. It is not unlike the news selection bias created by social media.
In Montréal, the festival summer is in full swing (well, jazz, actually) and one of its joys is the opportunity to spend warm evenings aimlessly wandering around the Quartier des Spectacles and letting oneself be surprised by whatever performances are going on at the various outdoor scenes. It is a perfect opportunity to invite serendipity and to discover new acoustic worlds.
And so it was last weekend, when a little misunderstanding meant I found myself in front of a different stage than my friends. But onto this stage leaped a woman who had just come back from a lengthy hiatus. In my formative music years, Lee Aaron was Canada's metal queen. Now, two children and three decades later, she has drifted towards solid rock and blues. With her fantastic voice, vivid presence and great tunes, she catapulted herself right into the center of my attention.
That same night, I downloaded her music and made her a headliner in my playlists. Out of nowhere, a new sun had risen in my acoustic universe - and reminded me how enjoyable it can be to look over the horizon.
But while there are new tunes to sing along, has Lee opened up a new genre to me? Not really. I still love Rock 'n' Roll. So put another dime in the jukebox, baby!
# posted by Oli : 22:11
21 January 2017
Prime Time
Cunningly, though, the e-commerce giant also offered to send the book for free within two days, if I signed up for a free 30 day trial of its Prime subscription service. This will then start costing $99 a year on day 31, should I forget to cancel in time.
Instead of paying for shipping, I signed up for the trial and set myself a reminder to cancel at the end of the month. Little did I know that this would change my daily routine far beyond receiving free shipping.
Immediately after enrolling, an email arrived in my inbox welcoming me to Prime, and highlighting the many features the service has evolved to include. Front and center is a gigantic amount of free digital content to stream, from music to movies to TV shows, the latter including the series that Amazon has started producing exclusively for its subscribers.
The only time I had previously heard of Amazon's own film studios was at the announcement that the three intrepid Brits behind the BBC's Top Gear were moving over there, putting a new label on their highly successful motoring show. It is now called The Grand Tour and sure enough, was included in my subscription. So perhaps I could watch an episode or two?
Fast (indeed, very fast) forward two weeks, and I have caught up on the 11 episodes made available so far, and am eagerly waiting for the next weekly release. And I haven't stopped there: A friend recommended the dystopian The Man In The High Castle, set in a world in which the Allies had lost World War II and the United States is now split between the two victorious powers of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. The show is brilliantly adapted from Philip K. Dick's novel, lavishly produced and instantly addictive.
Inevitably, in these cold grey January days, we have become true couch potatoes, curling up every night in front of the tube for a new episode. Or two, for in the days of streaming content, the viewer decides when and how much to watch.
So Amazon is clearly very smart in offering these free trials - the digital content is extremely engaging and boosts customer "stickiness", while data shows that once people are signed up to Prime, they will buy a much wider selection of products at Amazon, and become less price-sensitive.
Will it work for me? The TV shows are a tasty bait. But I will still cancel my membership at the end of the trial month. After all, it started when I bought a travel guide. I need time to read it. And soon, I'll embark on a Grand Tour of my own.
Labels: media, technology
# posted by Oli : 16:47
03 November 2013
Expat
What sounds like the beginning of a corny joke is in fact a rather frequent occurence in the life of expats, these rootless roaming warriors of the globe, who live their lives far away from the green green grass of home. It's a lifestyle with lots of perks, but it does not come without downsides. Apart from the obvious occasional bout of home sickness, expats frequently struggle to properly immerse themselves in their current host culture, and to make friends among the local population, lest they get attached to someone they have to abandon again soon.
It was partly out of fear of staying in a glitzy, but transient expat bubble that I tried to avoid fellow foreigners when I first arrived in Montréal. Instead, my efforts centered on building a network of Québecois friends, who over the years provided me with a great introduction to life in the belle province and enabled many of the adventures you have read about here.
Perhaps it was the sense of detachment and superficial commitment experienced during my six months in Chile that helped me open up towards the expat community. Shortly after my return to Montréal, a friend introduced me to an online platform specifically geared towards global nomads. InterNations not only has a wealth of information, bulletin boards and resources on most major cities, it also facilitates regular community meet-ups for networking, and plenty of social activities.
Before I knew it, I had started attending these monthly gatherings on a regular basis, and have seen my connections multiply across a panoply of nationalities. To my own surprise, my almost five years in the city made me one of the more experienced expat residents, and enabled me to help out many of my new acquaintances with their questions on settling in. On several occasions, I directed fellow InterNations members to these pages for reference, from how to get a driver's license to obtaining your immigration physical.
Nonetheless, it caught me by surprise when one of the community members suggested I list this humble diary as a featured blog in InterNations' Montréal section. But why not? Communities such as this one are all about sharing knowledge and learning from each other. And this is why you will now notice a small "featured blog" banner on the right-hand side of this page. A cordial Bonjour-Welcome to all new readers!
I am happy to have joined the InterNations gang, and should probably have done so a lot earlier. After all, I had long been an active participant in a certain other, specialized online community which has impacted my life in more ways than I can think. Including getting me to join a German and an American in a French bar in Hong Kong.
Labels: culture, media, Montreal, technology
# posted by Oli : 11:34
03 February 2013
Oldies
For this song recently played on the radio, and without paying much attention I started to sing along. Until I suddenly froze - where the heck did I know this horrid song from anyways? What followed was a shocking, and somewhat painful, trip down memory lane.
This particular Europop masterpiece, "Saturday Night" by Danish starlet Whigfield, entered my record collection as part of a compilation called Bravo Hits Best of '94, which was released on November 8th of said year. Other artists featured on this Double CD (remember?) include DJ Bobo, Rednex, Take That, and a future movie star then going by the name of Marky Mark. It was clearly a worthwhile investment of my pocket money.
In my defense, it must be said that Best of '94 was the only edition of this still going series that ever made it into my stereo set. The reason presumably is that the tracks included brought back exceptionally emotional memories of the 6th grade wingdings we celebrated in basements, garages and air raid shelters (all the way 'till mum came in at midnight to turn the lights on).
Yet to this date, a large part of my music collection (in mp3 format, these days) still gravitates toward the eighties and nineties, as per the neat sorting functionality on my new smartphone. And most of the represented artists, from Bon Jovi to Madonna and from Bruce Springsteen to Texas, have retained much of their respectability. Two of them, Bryan Adams and Roxette, even performed on stage in Montréal just last year.
I realize now that they all, and my taste in music along with them, rapidly approach that section titled "Oldies". Even my colleagues pick up on it: On a recent night out, I was completely unaware of the hits by Nickelback, Arcade Fire or Katy Perry (I linked them for your reference), but had no problems singing along once the DJ started playing INXS and the Pet Shop Boys. "Toi, là, t'es vraiment full les quatre-vingts, toé!" my co-worker jeered.
It's true. I hear current chart toppers all the time, but I don't really listen to them the way I did in those teenage years. I have been musically inoculated two decades ago, and if that means listening to "all-time hits" web radio, then so be it. I am what I am.
# posted by Oli : 18:22
04 March 2011
Camelot
It's not that I'd totally lack sympathy for the media business. But its most annoying representatives certainly test my patience with their constant besieging. I'm not talking about snooping reporters here, although from what I hear those can be a real pain if you happen to be a member of the Canadiens hockey team. No, my battle is with the hand distributors of free newspapers that lurk on my daily commute. They represent the foot troops in the fierce war for readership raging in Montréal.It presumably started 10 years ago, on March 1st, 2001, when Swedish media group Metro International launched the local edition of their free Metro daily, as a direct assault on the hitherto peaceful Montréal newspaper landscape. With its free and abundant distribution, as well as compact format, it quickly gained a strong foothold and a big chunk of the advertising market. Unsurprisingly, the incumbent media overlord, Québecor, struck back in force shortly thereafter by launching the equally free and compact 24 heures. It also opened a second front through the legal system, contesting the exclusive distribution agreement Metro had sealed with Montréal's public transit authority, which forced 24 heures to relay on hand distributors only. After a long campaign, Québecor ultimately lost the legal fight in 2005, when the supreme court upheld the exclusivity agreement.
So Québecor had to change strategy from courtroom to checkbook battle: When Metro's contract with the transit authority came up for renewal, Metro saw itself outbid and as of this January, it is 24 heures instead of Metro which is distributed en exclusivité in subway and bus stop dispensers. All that remains from Metro's long reign are its branded recycling boxes.
But of course Metro has not surrendered. It fell back on the secondary distribution tactic pioneered by 24 heures when it was in the same situation: An army of brightly dressed, shouting guys shoving the paper into your hand outside transit hubs. They wrestle for the best spots with their opponents from 24 heures, who are still there (thanks to unionized labor) despite the fact that their wares are now also available inside the station.
Where does this leave the traditional media? On the same battlefield, unfortunately. Trying to stop the defection of their readership, tabloid Journal de Montréal as well as broadsheet La Presse increasingly reach for the same weapon: Free hand distribution by a camelot, as the touts are known in French. And so it comes that, on my daily commute from one busy interchange station to the next, I have to overcome no less than 7 camelots, which much like their mythical namesake castle, do their best to stand in your way and resist. Therefore, when the new iPad 2 was recently annouced, my exasperation led me to consider buying one. Not to read some fancy e-paper, mind you. But to use the tablet as a protective shield!
# posted by Oli : 15:49
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