I know this is blasphemous, but I cannot cheer for the Vancouver Canucks. There are many reasons, let me tell them to you…

First and foremost, let me point out I actually think Vancouver will go far. I think they’ll make it to either the Western Conference finals or perhaps even the Stanley Cup Finals. Do I want them to? No.

Reason #1: ROBERTO LUONGO (or should I say Ro8erto 7uongo?)
The Canucks goaltender is a showman along the ilk of Patrick Roy. He’s overly cocky, just watch any time a puck goes into his glove and he flashes it with a whirly whirl. I’m sorry, you aren’t Patrick Roy. A word of warning however, refrain from coming close to touching Roberto Luongo because he may flail like he has been shot from the stands, call the whaaaaaambulance, Luongo down. Oh, if he does happen to flail on the ice, he’ll be protected by his massive two storey pads. His penchant giving up 7 or 8 goals in Stanley Cup games is also fantastic.

Reason #2: THE FANS
Except one Canucks fan, every other one I know or see on TV makes me smash my head into a wall. For a team that has never won a Stanley Cup, its fans mistakenly believe every year is the year. This year is no exception, frustratingly so. They are loud, obnoxious and is there a more annoying chant than the “LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUU” they belt out when Roberto makes a routine stick save? Ugh. Their jersey is ridiculous as well…it might as well be this…

Reason #3: JIM HUGHSON
Jim Hughson…give your head a shake. Hughson, the former local announcer for the Canucks has moved onto the CBC and must have his undies in a bundle calling any Canucks series. Half Dudley Dooright, half Kevin Bieksa shoe shiner he enunciates everything to the point of annoyance. If I hear him say Roberto Luongo the way he does one more time I may have to cancel cable. Hughson’s homerism is mind numbing and personally – I don’t want my tax dollars going to them. It’s looking like the Canuckistan Broadcasting Corporation.

Reason #4: ALAIN VIGNAUEUAULT
I can’t spell his last name and frankly don’t care to look it up. The hair, the suit, and most of all…THE GUM. If that man chews his gum any faster he’s liable to break his jaw…or at least a couple molars. He smugger than all the Mac users in Silicon Valley. The gum, the horror.

Reason #5: EVERY SINGLE PLAYER
Ever since the retirement of Trevor Linden, the players of the Vancouver Canucks have been irritating at best. Kesler, Burrows, Bieksa, Luongo, Torres, the Sedin Sisters…the list goes on. What is it with Vancouver that when you join the team you instantly become the most annoying, pestering, cheap, dirty, cocky player known? It’s a team of people who beat up helpless kids, stole their lunch money and then hung them from the fence by their underwear.

With this in mind, Vancouver will never become Canada’s team like the Flames did in 2004. No underdog, no rag tag group of fellas who play for the love of the game. Just a bunch of smug, cocky millionaires with an attitude of entitlement to the most sacred trophy in sports.

Ugh.

2011 UPDATE!!!

Oh man it gets worse! I’ve updated this post but, wow did I not have to change much! I’d like to point out in this update:

THE CANUCKS SYNCHRONIZED DIVING TEAM

That about says it all. That’s how the Canucks roll.

My niece found this at Urban Outfitters…

Hopefully it’s got a passcode.

Waking up on Friday was an eye opening experience as Japan was hammered with a (some reports say) 9.1 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that devastated coastal cities. Watching some of the videos on YouTube it’s amazing to see the power of mother nature. She doesn’t relent, doesn’t care who you are and she’s more powerful than anything you could imagine. The loss of life, even in an incredibly industrialized nation like Japan, will be substantial. It’s so sad.

The web reacted in an interesting way. While the majority of people were remorseful and wanting to help, there was a spattering of just pure hatred from some. The site www.openbook.org shed some light on that. It’s absolutely disgusting to read people’s status’ after the quake and tsunami struck http://openbook.org/index.php?q=pearl+harbour&gender=any.

In the United States, there’s this anti-government hatred that personally I cannot understand. A certain tweet by user @daveewing, was a pretty profound statement relating to the overall “I don’t need no government, but do when I’m in trouble” attitude:

RANDOM THOUGHTS

- Starbucks changed their logo and it looks as though someone from their ad agency just took away some stuff and made it bigger. It looks like it’s an incomplete logo. I wouldn’t put this in the design distaster, but does it really add to their branding?

- My beloved Calgary Flames are faltering. Their push for the playoffs took two hits this week with a loss to the Phoenix Coyotes and Vancouver Canucks. That’s scary. It means for the remaining 11 games they’ll need to win a good 7 or 8 of those. They’ve gotten this far from the depths of despair, don’t stop now! Go Flames Go!

- Will Charlie Sheen just please go away? Wait…you may be able to do that yourself in your browser!

- Apple released the iPad 2. As a current owner of the first iPad, I can attest to the awesomeness of the tablet. It’s enriched my life. So with that said, I’ll be buying the new one, though not until the 25th of March…stupid Apple Canada. Are you getting it?

- Lastly, we are officially taking solidarity with the Wisconsin Union Workers. Specifically, with teachers. They are our greatest resource and as a father, I would much rather have a good set of rules and standards for the people who are going to ultimately have an incredible impact on our young people.

NEW GEAR!

We splurged a little over the weekend and bought ourselves a beauty of a camera case which can withstand a Hummer driving over it, survive a plane crash and make us a cocktail. Okay maybe I lied about the last part.

We also picked up a really nice lighting kit which will no doubt flip some breakers and a Sennheiser sound kit which should increase the golden sounds of our productions.

It was an interesting week! How was yours?

Today, February 22, shall forever be known as Edward Gorey Day. In fact, even Google has honoured the man today with a wonderful Google Doodle.

Click to Enlarge

The idea, thanks to @Scarlett_witch, should be one to celebrate the life and works of one of the most underrated, macabre, brilliant and imaginative author and illustrator of our time.

A while ago we posted “The Gashlycrumb Tinies”, a deathly illustrated alphabet with a brutal if not comical twist. Since then we’ve seen an incredible interest in not only that book, but also the wealth of art he gave us.

Sadly he died in 2000, but let this day be a chance to honor him, learn more about him and read the ghastly brilliance he left us.

Cheers Mr. Gorey, a toast to you!

Edward Gorey resources:
Edward Gorey Wiki
Book Covers
Tuning Forks Video by Edward Gorey

Have more we should put here? Let us know

My love affair with Sigur Ros was shaken to its core last year when the iconic Icelandic band decided to go on haitus, cancelling a rumoured album. But there was reprieve…Jón Þór Birgisson, lead guitarist and singer of Sigur Ros ventured on a solo journey with the incredible and inspiring album “Go”. The song “Go Do” is featured in the 2011 Ford Commercial “Going Green”.

In short, the album inspires and uplifts. His voice is incredible unique…as one commenter on a YouTube video said “..this is a song for the WORLD” and it really is.

I’ll just let you listen…specifically to the songs “Go Do”, “Animal Arithmetic”, “Boy Lilikoi” and “Sinking Friendships”. Enjoy!

The Calgary Flames Brand Your Passion Contest is now done…and we didn’t win, to put it bluntly. We thought about going on a rampage in some random Super 8 Motel, but decided against it, which I think was a wise decision.

What we would like to do is extend a big thank you to the Calgary Flames organization and Rogers Sportsnet. We’re proud to have been selected to the final top 4 contestants and equally as happy for the awesome free tickets (with Dome dollars to boot) to the Flames/Blackhawks game. It was a blast.

Word is they may be running this contest again next year…let’s hope so. We’ll throw our hat into the ring again.

I’m not quite sure what exactly a “Bieber” is, but apparently it’s Canadian and sings like a girl..? Amirite?

In all seriousness (not really) Bieber’s tiny face is plastered on everything from Bieber branded Nail Polish to lesbians who look like him.  In these examples and everything in between, not a single cease and desist letter can be found.

Today, however, we learned that if you actually create something unofficially Bieber branded that’s useful to the people and hilarious as hell, that’ll get shot down like Sarah Palin’s presidential hopes.

Bieber.ly (http://www.bieber.ly) was a URL shortener similar to Bit.ly and Ow.ly, which allowed users to shorten their URLs whilst looking at the face of this Bieber.  Lo and Behold creator Elliot Kember was presented with a cease and desist letter from the scary lawyers of “His Biebness”.

RIP Bieber.ly, we hardly used you.

Recently the Calgary Flames and Rogers Sportsnet launched the “Calgary Flames Brand Your Passion” video contest. We like a challenge so decided to put a video together on relatively short notice (does the night before contest close work?). Voila! We were selected to the FINAL FOUR! What does this mean?

It’s up to voters and a panel of judges to decide who wins $10,000, the ultimate Flames experience and the 30 second spot featured on a Rogers Sportsnet Calgary Flames broadcast!

So out of the graciousness of your wonderful heart, throw a vote our way!

You must be logged in to Facebook and go to this link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Official-Calgary-Flames-Hockey-Club/23106553703. Click the “Like” button and you’ll be able to vote. You’re allowed to vote once a day as well. Thanks to all who support us and throw some votes our way!

Our Video “This is Dan”:

How many video views did we get? What were our most popular videos? What search terms did people use to get to us? What WEIRD search terms did people use? Here’s a comprehensive report about our wildly strange and interesting traffic report for 2010! Edward Gorey???

Chuck Storm Blooper: 244,328
FaceSaver Facebook Breathalyzer: 85,600
Car Dance Party Moscow: 28,717
Chuck Storm 2: 20, 841
TrueCredit Commercials: 13,576
Car Dance Party Belgium: 11,033
The Hockey Sweater: 4,576
FUDDYTV Bloopers #1: 6,509
Canadian Heritage Minute: 2,011
Angry Scotsman Gum: 1,855

TOTAL VIDEO PLAYS in 2010: 701,901

From January 1, 2010 to June 30th, 2010:
15,740

From July 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010:
30,048

From January 1, 2010 to June 30th, 2010:
50,423

From July 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010:
102,954

Edward Gorey: 941
Chuck Storm: 883
Car Dance Party: 629
FUDDYTV: 622
Facebook Breathalyzer: 396
Tim Hortons: 241
Extra Gum: 225
Angry Scotsman: 147
Ryan Northcott: 147

Counselling a Roommate: 14
“Jennifer Carpenter” Pee: 4
“Imelda Marcos” Servant: 2
“My zipper is undone”: 1
“Ryan Northcott” gay: 3
Chuck Storm gay: 1
Brad Pitt Nude: 2
Money hungry women in calgary: 1

Edward Gorey and His Alphabet Blog Post
FaceSaver Facebook Breathalyzer
Car Dance Party Moscow
The Hockey Sweater
Chuck Storm Blooper
Chuck Storm True Credit Commercial
Extra Gum Ad Blog Post
Car Dance Party Belgium
Canadian Heritage Minute: The Caesar
About FUDDYTV

Canada 44.14%
United States 36.51%
United Kingdom 4.58%
Australia 2.34%
Poland 1.29%

Firefox 31.56%
Internet Explorer 29.67%
Safari 22.77%
Chrome 13.10%
Opera 0.76%

13,870,695 (Estimate)

DJ Earmworm (website) has compiled the top 25 songs of 2010 into a neat mash up. While I’m not a fan of 99% of these songs, I can appreciate the time and effort that went into making this pretty damn cool mash up.

Cheers,
Ryan