The Unknown Studio

In this latest instalment of our ongoing Watch This feature — in which Adam and I give you a rundown on shows or movies you absolutely must see — we take a look at movies starring beings from beyond the boundaries of our little blue-green planet.

That’s right, we’re going back into outer space. But we’re not talking about cute and cuddly E.T.s and Stitches who just want to hug and be friends with us. Hell, we’re not even talking campy outer space denizens who come here with their “Yak-Yak” and their “Prepare to die, Earth-scum” and shoot us with laser guns.

No, today we’re talking about skin crawling, nightmare inducing wrongness.

We’re talking real aliens.

Real scary aliens. Read the rest of this entry »

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Yes, dear reader, I still live. And, equally astonishing for many of you, I still write. On occasion. Really, I hope to post more in the coming days. In the meantime, Adam sent me an e-mail today that required some following up on, and I have decided to write a little bit about it.

The e-mail: Such Tweet Sorrow – a Shakespearean play performed over social media. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 21% [?]

Just shy of a month ago, I dropped $100 to attend a day filled with lectures and presentations. TED Talks came to Edmonton thanks to an excellent group of thought leaders here in the city. Before TEDx Edmonton started collecting applications to be one of the audience members — a seemingly bizarre process, I thought, when I first heard of it — I didn’t really have any idea what TED was all about (incidentally, TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design). In my mind, it was some amorphous concept that I occasionally read about on the Internet. I remember reading good things about it, but never actually taking the time to really understand what it was about, beyond a day’s worth of lectures and presentations.

But I applied to participate anyway. And it was worth way more than the money I paid to attend. Read the rest of this entry »

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If you haven’t heard the name Eduard Khil or been the victim of the newest and possible the most hilarious internet meme since the Rick Roll, then you’ve probably just emerged from a cave in some strange blighted landscape.

Eduard Khil is a Russian singer. He recorded a video for a song called “I Am Glad to Finally Be Home” in 1976. It’s a bizarre vocalization set to music. No lyrics. I’m not exactly certain why there aren’t lyrics, though I’ve heard tell it has something to do with the fact that the words were censored by the former Soviet government in the 70s. Here’s the video of the meme everyone’s talking about (popularized by Stephen Colbert and Christoph Waltz), often referred to simply as Trololo Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 16% [?]

Yes, this feature is supposed to be about movies. But it’s also our website and we can do whatever we want. In your face!

In this latest installment of our ongoing Watch This feature — in which Adam and I give you a rundown on shows or movies you absolutely must see — we run-down the dial on the television and give you our picks for some of the greatest cartoons…

For grown-ups.

So put the kids to bed, pull up a bowl of popcorn, and lets take a look at what you won’t see on Treehouse. Read the rest of this entry »

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Sometimes it feels like no matter the choices we make — buying clothes, going out, mowing the lawn (or even having a lawn) — we’re doing something to harm the environment, indigenous group, or some animal species. It’s damn near impossible to make a purchase without discovering it’s had some negative impact on something or someone if you trace what you’ve bought back to its component parts.

However, as people become more aware of the impact of their purchasing choices, some have moved to make more prudent, low-impact buys, whether they need a new pair of shoes or want to buy a box of chocolates.

That’s where Ethical Ocean comes in. Spawned from a discussion during a road trip in 2007 and launched at the beginning of February, Ethical Ocean equips consumers with the tools they need to make ethical buying choices. Think of it as the eCommerce solution to the green, fair trade and organic movements.

The Unknown Studio had a chance to speak with Tony Hancock, one of the minds behind Ethical Ocean over email last week. Read the rest of this entry »

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