These itty bitty Pawdeles have a lot to “meow” about – they are looking for a home. East Bay SPCA releases Meow, a video spoof of Adele’s Hello music video featuring adoptable kittens. The East Bay SPCA video promotes cat adoption while telling a silly, yet touching story of a little girl, woman and older gentleman’s visit to the East Bay SPCA in hopes of adopting a kitten. The kittens promise their potential adopters that they will do whatever it takes to be the best pets ever! Every cute kitten that appears in the video was adopted from the East Bay SPCA.
Husband Shared Why His Wife Is A Hero And You’ll Definitely Agree
Bobby Wesson decided to write a post on Facebook about why his wife is a hero. She is a caring wife, a giving mother, and a registered nurse. His thoughts immediately went viral online, and shows that everyone deserves a little caring, a little attention, and a good spot on the couch after a long, long day.
David Foster Wallace On Why You Need A Dictionary
I urge my students to get a usage dictionary… To recognize that you need a usage dictionary, you have to be paying a level of attention to your own writing that very few people are doing… A usage dictionary is [like] a linguistic hard drive… For me the big trio is a big dictionary, a usage dictionary, a thesaurus — only because I cannot retain and move nimbly around in enough of the language not to need these extra sources.
As a teacher, about 90% of my job is getting the students to understand why they might need one.
A usage dictionary is one of the great bathroom books of all time. Because it has the appeal of trivia, the entries are for the most part brief, and you end up within 48 hours — due to that weird psychological effect — actually drawing on exactly what you learned in some weird, coincidental way.
– David Foster Wallace in Quack This Way
The Guess Who’s “American Women” Isolated Drums, Bass And Guitar
American Woman by Canadian rock band The Guess Who, was first released in January 1970 on the album of the same name and later in March as a single, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Backed with “No Sugar Tonight,” Billboard ranked it as the No. 3 record of 1970.
Shortly after its release, The Guess Who were invited to play at the White House. Because of its supposed anti-American lyrics, Pat Nixon asked that they not play “American Woman”.
https://youtu.be/_S0rjbDSetE?list=PL1kce1vO4m_lbSEsUa_HBQ6LC0GPKV4zA
Justin Bieber Nails What Being Famous REALLY Feels Like
It’s because of the way the Justin Bieber brand was portrayed. I was a wholesome pop star who was so amazing who had nice hair and a fucking image that no one could ever live up to. So when all this happened people were like, “Woah, let’s rip him apart”. If you see Gandhi roll up a blunt, it’s different to seeing Ryan Gosling roll up a blunt. You wouldn’t give Ryan Gosling a hard time.
I watched the Amy Winehouse documentary on the plane and I had tears in my eyes because I could see what the media was doing to her, how they were treating her. People thought it was funny to poke her when she was at rock bottom, to keep pushing her down until she had no more of herself. And that’s what they were trying to do to me.
You get lonely, you know, when you’re on the road. People see the glam and the amazing stuff, but they don’t know the other side. This life can rip you apart. [I get depressed] all the time. And I feel isolated. You’re in your hotel room and there are fans all around, paparazzi following you everywhere, and it gets intense. When you can’t go anywhere or do anything alone you get depressed. I would not wish this upon anyone.
I just want people to know I’m human. I’m struggling just to get through the days. I think a lot of people are.
– Justin Bieber in NME
British Pro Tennis Player Fistbumps Ball Boy by Mistake
Dominic Inglot is so excited to be leading during his doubles match with Andy Murray on Monday in Monte-Carlo, he gets a little generous with his fist bumps.
Facebook gets its own Content ID with Rights Manager
It’s essentially Facebook’s equivalent of YouTube’s Content ID, albeit focused more on managing copyrighted video content uploaded to the social network and tackling infringement, rather than monetising user uploads of it.
The Rights Manager tool will enable rightsholders to: “Easily upload and maintain a reference library of video content to monitor and protect, including live video streams; Specify permitted uses of each video by setting match rules; Identify and surface new matches against your protected content so you can review them and file a report if needed; Whitelist specific Pages and profiles who have permission to use your copyright content; and Outsource management, monitoring and protection of your content by using our Rights Manager API” according to Facebook.
Toronto to unveil music plaques celebrating Yorkville Village
Toronto’s Yorkville Village – widely considered the heart of Canada’s bohemian, counterculture community in the ’60s and ’70s – boasted more than 40 clubs and coffee houses that nightly featured such legendary singer-songwriters as Gordon Lightfoot, Ian & Sylvia, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. Those were extraordinary times. Club 71 the Village’s first coffee house, was opened by Werner Graeber in 1959. By 1964, Yorkville had become a nurturing environment not only for folk music, but also for pop, blues, and later, psychedelic rock. Hippies, teenagers and curious tourists flocked to these unlicensed venues, which offered an alternative to the Yonge Street bars.
Yorkville was also home to three acclaimed recording studios regularly used by such major Canadian artists as Gordon Lightfoot, Anne Murray, The Guess Who, Lighthouse, Bruce Cockburn, Murray McLauchlan and Dan Hill and many international artists including Elton John, Cat Stevens and Fleetwood Mac.
The Yorkville scene inspired a generation of songwriters and led to the rise of a new Canadian sound. Many successful groups came to prominence through their performances there including Luke & The Apostles, The Ugly Ducklings, The Kensington Market, to name a very few.
On Friday, May 6th, long overdue, I might add, there will be an unveiling of three new plaques: The Purple Onion, The Penny Farthing and Yorkville’s Music Scene.
Thanks to Heritage Toronto for doing this. They’re the charitable arms-length agency of the City of Toronto established in 1949 to promote a greater appreciation for the city’s rich architectural, cultural, archaeological and natural heritage. Through partnerships with local community groups and volunteers, Heritage Toronto provides city-wide programs and services. Core annual programs include neighbourhood Tours, the Heritage Toronto Awards and Kilbourn Lecture, and a heritage Plaques and Markers program.
Toronto Mayor John Tory Gets Kudos In IFPI Global Music Report
The latest IFPI Global Music Report that was released this week had some great mentions of the success in 2015 from Justin Bieber, Drake and The Weeknd in the top Ten of Best-Selling Artists of 2015. But the report contains ven more Canadian content in the Report by way in a chapter on Music Cities that made mention of Toronto and Mayor John Tory.
The report noted that “Cities around the world are increasingly realising the economic potential of music alongside its long acknowledged cultural and social benefits. IFPI’s national affiliate Music Canada campaigned for Toronto to leverage music to benefit its economy based on the strategies deployed in Austin, Texas. It pointed out that Austin is much smaller than Toronto, the hub of Canada’s recording industry, but that the US city was using music far more effectively to generate jobs, taxes and growth.
“The campaign secured the engagement of City Hall and the Mayor of Toronto, John Tory, has put leveraging music at the heart of his political agenda. This successful campaign prompted interest from other cities around the world, looking for a “roadmap” so that they too could tap into the power of music.”
It also quotes Mayor Tory on the topic: “Growing our music industry is key to driving economic growth, job creation and investment. A city’s passion for music is important in attracting talented people to visit and to stay. The Mastering of a Music City report reinforces in my mind the real potential of what supporting the music industry can do to transform and grow a real 21st century city.”