GenX Canadiana courtesy of the NFB.

If you’re a 30-something Canadian, these National Film Board vignettes are a part of your genetic makeup. Step back and see why you hold the chain power saw in so much regard.

The Logdriver’s Waltz

Are there still logdrivers? Do they still please girls completely?

The Logger

By the way: Do not turn your back on a falling tree.

Bill Miner

“Hands up”, said the Sargeant. “Haaaands up.”

Lady Francis Simpson

I still call gruelling tasks “merciless portages” to this day.

Spence’s Republic

You can’t act as judge & accuser both!

The Dance

You’ll have this song in your head for the rest of—I was going to say “day”, but really, “life”—yet it’s patently unhummable. Kind of like Canada.

I respect the NFB enormously as a Canadian institution: filmmakers, animators, and propagandists all. I mean that affectionately—their task was to enculturate Canadians with muted palettes, natural narration, absurd humour, and a deeply-rooted sense of our own history. The patriotic nostalgia you felt from watching these Vignettes proves their success.

They’re still doing amazing work today in the interactive space, preserving Canadian memories in web documentaries. Pine Point made my nose run for sure.

CBC’s best Canadian culture podcasts for advertising & social media fanboys/girls.

My car has satellite radio, and the funny thing about it is that 90% of the time it’s tuned to CBC. [I work with CBC Manitoba (news ) and CBC Radio, but I've been paying Sirius monthly for no reason for a while now].

Turns out our national public broadcaster talks about smart stuff & topics I care about. Here are my hand-selected podcasts that you should totally get.

1. Spark

Brilliant & MILFish Nora Young talks tech, Twitter, robots, futurism, and the practical impact of it all on your life. Bonus coolness: legit UGC!

End credits democratically include everyone who contributed to the episode, (listeners too), often via phone.

Be inspired by everything: subscribe to this podcast.

2. Age of Persuasion

Mellifluous Terry O’Reilly talks golden age of advertising, replete with insights into classic marketing strategies.

Juicy tidbit: this podcast is brand new, because it took forever for CBC to get permission to use all the copywrited jingle action. The back catalogue of older stuff isn’t up on iTunes (yet?).

See through everything: subscribe to this podcast.

3. Q

I first heard of Q when Billy Bob Thorton went nuts on silky smooth host Jian Ghomeshi last year. In solidarity, I gave Q a listen, and ❤ the easy-going analysis of current culture (always situating Canada in a broader ‘North American’ context) and media panels examining—you got it—the media.

Discuss everything: subscribe to this podcast.

Social technologies flatten culture, leading to multiple Thanksgivings & Canadian Black Friday.

If we were acquainted when I was furnishing my baby’s room, you know my deft eBaying  and Amazoning abilities. You also know my fury when confronted with absurd shipping charges and companies that “can’t” ship to Canada.

Online shopping is the lifeline of people in comprised retail situations (cough, Winnipeg, cough). And with Twitter flattening culture, Canadians (and I assume the world) are absorbing holidays, events, and national moods on a level never imagined by the CRTC. We’re basically going to do Thanksgiving twice this year because, I mean, why not?

When a giant American event like Black Friday goes down, the global marketing machine unavoidably affects the rest of us. And nothing ticks off a customer more than when major brands offer deals to some folks and not to us. (I’m talking to you, Best Buy. Shame on your $30-off iPods).

To combat the strong dollar’s pull on cross-border shoppers, some Canadian outposts are offering online Black Fridays. I expect this custom, along with double turkey days, the ability to enter contests, and watching tv online (yeah, we still kinda don’t have that) will only grow as online consumer’s dismay at being left out of cultural events—amplified by social media—becomes a customer service problem for big brands. We can hear everything you’re saying, guys.

Social Butterflies Series: Canadian Women in social media talk about women in social media. But not like that.

Introducing an interview series with some of the most influential Canadian women in the social media scene, wherein they ponder the thesis:

“Women are more suited professionally to social media, because they’re friendlier, chattier, reveal more and make alliances more quickly than men do”.

I picked the brains (ew) of a number of very generous and influential ladies, including Kate Trgovac, Kelly Rusk, Monica Hamburg, Adele McAlear, and Tara Hunt, on their experiences with other women in their careers. Given that social media is a bit of a matriarchy, had they encountered professional kindness from other women in the popularity contest that is social media, or does cattiness get in the way?

“Are you helpful to other women jockeying for head social butterfly—spreading the love—or do you confess to not linking it up like you should to hold others down? Do you have a sneaking suspicion that’s happened to you, or seen it happen to someone else?”

This topic is such a hot button and the answers are so good that I have to devote a post to each of them, so those will be coming right up!