The concept is simple really. Talented artists cover other artists in a chain format. That is, for example, Garrison Starr covers a Joey Ryan track, who in turn covers a Cary Brothers track, who in turn covers a Ryan Adams track and so on. The interest generated in these one-off acoustic performances creates awareness in the Ugandan situation and ultimately encourages donors, sponsors and advertisers to support programs that directly aid the Ugandan people in need of assistance.

You can read all about The Voice Project on the movement’s website, and check out the growing list of fantastic acoustic performances from artists such as Brett Dennen, Peter Gabriel, Bedouin Soundclash, Broken Social Scene and more.

As a taster, here’s a couple of my favourite performances so far.

To view more music from The Voice Project, visit www.voiceproject.org.

Upon my return from New Zealand this evening, I happened to catch the following ad which looks at the prestigious, World Champion, “Darwin Ice Hockey Club”. I know, all my friends up there in the “Great White North” are probably thinking, “Eh? What kind of gong show is this?”

Well, just check out the video below. You guys may cringe at Vegemite itself (you know, that brown spread stuff we all put on our toast), but I’m betting you’re going to LOVE this ad!

PS. The slap shot on goal at 1:18min is something else, eh?

Yes, the lads from Vancouver-based “Hoodwinked Films” have turned down offers to have a decent lyricist get on board (haha!), for a parody version of Cee-Lo Green’s monster hit “F*%$ You” which they launched a couple of days ago, just in time for the playoffs opener.

With clever “Canucks-themed” lyrics (see below) added to make up for the lack in vocal aesthetics, the boys have come up with an entertaining ode to the best damn club hockey team on the planet – the Vancouver Canucks! Check out the video below and GO, CANUCKS GO!

You see me driving round town for the team I love
And I’m like Canucks Rule. Roo-oo-ool.

They can’t contain us or stop us. Let’s go for the cup!
You won’t see the Canucks lose, cause the Canucks rule.

Said if they had Edler they may be better.
Ha Now ain’t that tough sh!t
Now ain’t that tough sh!t.

And with the C on our chest they’ll soon know we’re the best.
Because the Canucks Rule. Roo-oo-oool.

Well I’m sorry that we’re such an All-Star team,
but that don’t mean we don’t have to try.

You can try to play dirty but we defend like attorneys,
and I hope Malhotra gets back his sight.

We all shouted LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU and then the whistle blew.
That’s Lu he’s the goaltender, just thought you would know better.
Tooo bad we got news for you. Go run and tell your little Hawks fans.

You see me driving round town for the team I love
And I’m like Canucks Rule. Roo-oo-ool.

They can’t contain us or stop us. Let’s go for the cup!
You won’t see the Canucks lose, cause the Canucks rule.

Said if they had Edler they may be better.
Ha Now ain’t that tough sh!t
Now ain’t that tough sh!t.

And with the C on our chest they’ll soon know we’re the best.
Because the Canucks Rule. Roo-oo-oool.

Now I know, that we have Burrows – Dan and Hank and Mase and Keith.
Try to keep up, try to beat us. Cause playin’ the ‘nucks ends in defeat.

Now, we all shouted LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU and then the whistle blew.
That’s Lu he’s the goaltender, just thought you would know better.

Tooo bad we got news for you.
Ooo, I bet you really hate our team right now.

You see me driving round town for the team I love
And I’m like Canucks Rule. Roo-oo-ool.

They can’t contain us or stop us. Let’s go for the cup!
You won’t see the Canucks lose, cause the Canucks rule.

Said if they had Edler they may be better.
Ha Now ain’t that tough sh!t
Now ain’t that tough sh!t.

And with the C on our chest they’ll soon know we’re the best.
Because the Canucks Rule. Roo-oo-oool.

Now Kesler, Kesler, Kesler, why you wanna score goals on me so bad?
So bad, So bad, so bad.

I tried to stop your wrist shot but it slipped right in between my pads, my pads, my pads.

And I’m like, Uhh Ry. Uhhh, Ry, uhhh, Ryan Kesler.
Oh I hate you! I still hate you!

You see me driving round town for the team I love
And I’m like Canucks Rule. Roo-oo-ool.

They can’t contain us or stop us. Let’s go for the cup!
You won’t see the Canucks lose, cause the Canucks rule.

Said if they had Edler they may be better.
Ha Now ain’t that tough sh!t
Now ain’t that tough sh!t.

And with the C on our chest they’ll soon know we’re the best.
Because the Canucks Rule. Roo-oo-oool.

UBC LipDub – Raise Your Glass & Celebrity Status

While we’re showcasing mad Vancouverite talent, a HUGE shout out to the UBC Lipdub team who brought together some 1,000 students on March 26 this year to shoot a viral lipdub video which was launched this week and has already generated over 650,000 views on YouTube.

Obviously a terrific promotional piece for the BC campus, the video is seemingly shot continuously while performers lip sync to “Raise Your Glass” by P!nk and “Celebrity Status” by local punk outfit, Marianas Trench.

Check it out, it’s AWESOME!

Feast your eyes upon these entertaining ads from the crew at Boston Pizza and their creative agency “TAXI Canada“:

And thanks to a nifty accompanying website, you can learn more about the “FDPWCA” on their association website you can find at: http://www.flattiesanddrummies.com/.

While you are there you can learn more about Carl and his colleagues, as well as explore the intricate physiques of both the “Flatty” and the “Drummy” forms (example below) via the site’s “Wing Cartography” section. I’ll be holding an exam at 3:30pm!

Oh how I love this campaign! Hoping to see a lot more of “Carl” in the months ahead!

Boston Pizza changes their name to Montreal Pizza

In other news, think about the poor fans in Quebec who’ll be wanting to cheer on their “Montreal Canadiens” at a decent sports bar over the coming weeks as they take on the “Boston Bruins” in the first round of the playoffs.

Even the most part-time fan would baulk at the prospect of meeting their friends at the “pizza joint down the road” featuring the name (“Boston”) of their round one rivals.

To combat this, Boston Pizza Quebec have changed their names to “Montreal Pizza” for the duration of the series, as can be seen on their website home page right now. Simple idea – great way to show your support of the local team!

Theo’s has spent over two decades creating and unleashing a series of huge PVC creatures known as “Strandbeests” (Beach Beasts) on the sandy shores in his native country. Using the wind as their power source, these plastic works of living art are able to move independently in a smooth, alien-like way along the sand in a motion that is nothing short of fascinating.

The following video from the BBC’s “Wallace & Gromit’s World of Invention” gives you a good look at Theo’s creations as they come to life and march along the beach in an eerily organic lifelike way.

A little more digging around and I was able to find this great TED talk that Theo Jansen gave in March 2007. It gives a good account of the thinking behind these creations from the lips of their creator.

A simple idea that has brilliant comedic value. My ribs hurt right now from the chuckle-fest I just had putting this post together!

The following post is broken up into two mini walk-throughs that will show you how to easily convert and import optimised iPhone-ready videos onto your device using a free program called “Evom”, and also how to import just about any video format to your iPhone without first having to convert them to iPhone’s mp4 format using a great, free iPhone/iPod Touch application called “VLC Media Player”.

Converting & uploading video using Evom

1. Download & install Evom

Download “Evom” for free from “The Little App Factory” website.

2. Install Evom on your Mac

Install the application on your Mac and crank it up. You may be met with a message asking if you would like to “Download and install video components?”.

DO IT – the application is next to useless without them.

3. Select your video to convert/import

This is perhaps the easiest part of the whole process, but you may need to be a little patient depending on how big the video file is.

Simply drag your video file from the desktop into the Evom application window where prompted. Alternatively, you can simply “right click” on the video file and choose to open it using “Evom”.

NOTE: It’s also possible to drag in URLs from the location bar in your web browser for videos on popular video sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo – very convenient!

4. Choose where your video should be sent

Next, you’ll be prompted to select where to save the converted video file. For the purposes of this walk-through, we obviously want to send the file to our iPhone/iPod Touch, so select that option and hit the “Convert” button.

The window you are presented with next will show the progress of the conversion. Depending on how large and long your video file is, this process may take up to an hour or longer for full-length feature films etc.

Once the conversion has completed, Evom will launch into the second phase of the process by sending the converted file to iTunes. You can note this action in iTunes’ status pane.

When the transfer process is complete, you need only do an iPhone/iPod Touch sync to get the video onto your device and you’re good to go. The completion of the conversion and transfer will be reflected in Evom’s transfer window.

Adding video to iPhone’s VLC Media Player app

While the Evom video conversion and transfer process listed above is simple and effective, there is a dead simple way you can cut out the need to convert the video altogether using VLC Media Player and iTunes’ File Sharing feature. Sounds like it could be complicated, but trust me on this one – it’s EASY, EASY, EASY!

1. Install the free VLC Media Player app on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

At the time of me writing out this walk-through, VLC Media Player is compatible with iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and the most recent iPod Touches.

2. Add your videos to the VLC File Sharing section in iTunes

Connect your iPhone or iPod Touch to your computer and wait for the device icon to appear in iTunes’ source pane. Click on the device and on the screen that appears, look for the “Apps” menu option. Click it.

Scroll down until you find the “File Sharing” section on the Apps page and click on the VLC icon. You’re now ready to start adding any video file you like to the VLC Media Player application.

Click on the “Add” button and navigate to the video(s) you wish to add. Select as many as you wish to upload to your device and hit the “Choose” option.

If you take a look back up in iTunes’ status pane, you will see your selected videos being transferred across to your device.

3. Start watching your videos using VLC Media Player

Nothing tricky about this part at all. Simply, find and start your VLC Media Player application, select the video you wish to watch and there you go.

I sincerely hope that any and all of the above steps and instructions have been clear and simple enough for you to follow. If you’ve come across any hiccups along the way, by all means shoot me a message in the comments section below and I’ll do my level best to help you out!

Check out the ad below which features a couple of golfers who shy away from a particular golf shot, after a sizable crocodile blocks their path to the ball – which is otherwise considered a “favourable lie”. All of a sudden a band of sugar millers from the 1880′s appear on the scene and instruct the golfer to ditch his idea of taking a drop, and instead come up with a more creative solution, just as the millers did back in the day when there was an overwhelming oversupply of molasses in Queensland, hence the birth of Bundaberg Rum.

Not surprisingly, those well-meaning animal rights activists at PETA are all up in arms about the obviously fake crocodile that goes up in a ball of triumphant flame and smoke.

In true cheeky style that has become synonymous with the Bundaberg Rum brand, rather than issue an apology and assurance that no crocodiles were harmed during the filming of the ad, they issued this genius little ditty…

Personally, I love everything about this campaign and follow-up. Despite the slightly off-the-wall nature of the golf tee blow pipe, the tone is down right blokey and it encapsulates a sense of Aussie larrikinism that the world has come to know and love.

TOP SHELF THINKING!

To give you all a break from squirting fake blood all over the latest acquisition of second-hand garb, ripped from the racks of “Value Village”, I thought I would share with you a selection of short films I found on Vimeo, that feature an array of creepy characters and contorted content that will get you in the mood for the weekend’s festivities.

Enjoy!

Set to a track called “Mary’s Song” by Nick Cave from the movie soundtrack of the “Assassination of Jesse James”, the 2:52 video is quite spectacular and features a beautiful moon-rise sequence about 52 seconds in which is a must-see!

You can check out more of Simon’s fantastic work on his website, Flickr account or Vimeo account.