Slurpees and Murder Record Club: Just Go to a Pavilion for a Dream That You Can Share

I wrote this Uptown column, about how awesome hidden talents are (spoiler alert: they're pretty awesome), and I mention it to start this post because I'm dedicated to shameless plugs but also because this is the time of year when you are most likely to find out that people you know around town are secretly really good at things.

That's right: it's Folklorama time! Kicking off with a free Saturday show and then running until the middle of the month, Winnipeg's annual multiculturalism festival -- or, as one of my former professors proclaimed it (and indelibly branded it in my mind), "ethnic zoo" -- will be filling community clubs, curling rinks and high school gymnasiums all across town.

Two weeks of good times! Squabbling amongst your travel group over which pavilion to drive to, buying a wacky imported soda pop because the MLCC never allows any beer more exotic than Corona into the festival, eating whatever the spiciest and/or scariest food is on the menu, and clapping along as strangers do exotic and potentially injurious dances for your entertainment. That, my friends, is an evening well spent, and I look forward to this year's extravaganzas (now with less E. Coli!) with glee.

Are you all ready to get into the Folklorama spirit? You'd better be! Because tonight's installment of the Slurpees and Murder Record Club is a sampling of years past -- way, way past -- with something for everyone and a finale that you won't want to listen to. Er--did I say "listen to"? I meant "miss". A finale you won't want to miss.

I bring you:

The Newest in Runway Fashion: Winnipeg Jets Logo and Merchandise Unveiled

As has been the theme thus far with the hasty relocation of the former Atlanta Thrashers, the logo of the newly transplanted team has been considerably behind schedule. Not that True North Sports and Entertainment has had much of a choice when they acquired the franchise; the original snags and snafus in the relocation negotiations put the new owners behind the clock on everything, from hiring staff to negotiating with players and from establishing the team name (which only finally happened at the Draft, seemingly reluctantly, time essentially having ran out) to designing the logo and jerseys, iconic elements of any team that are sort of important to have before the start of a season.

The jersey design isn't expected any time soon, nor does it have the urgency of the other puzzle pieces, but the logo was considered an ASAP project; the other 29 teams need a logo so they can print tickets for the season, companies like Electronic Arts and Upper Deck need a logo to produce the League's merchandise, the League needs a logo for its own promotional material, and the team needs a logo because augh did the constant use of the generic NHL shield placeholder just get old really fast.

So there were no signals from the organization that the logo would be forthcoming any time soon -- but the early afternoon saw frantic scrambling amidst the Twitterverse and other pockets of the web today when the news broke that the Winnipeg Jets logo might potentially have been leaked.

Could it be true? Had the internet once again worked its information-gathering magic and flushed out the symbol that would guide our beloved hockey team into its new era? Would this be the first public peek at the iconography sure to launch a million jerseys?

It's coming! It's here! It's--

Slurpees and Murder Record Club: My Favourite Song That I Can't Identify

I happen to be on Google+ now, if you're into that sort of thing; part of the whole Information Science rigamarole means paying attention to emerging trends in social media, in case a prospective employer considers it the kind of stuff that may be lumped into one's hypothetical job description. So I am now, if nothing else, aware of it -- but the platform is popularly seen as a response to Facebook and Facebook never really ended up being my bag, so I'll have to wait and see how well Google+ grabs me.

Twitter, as you're aware, I dig; it's built around the rapid-fire short-form delivery of information, a helpful skill not otherwise often taught, so I check it fairly frequently to see how people work within its disciplines. But Facebook? Man, my Facebook use is entirely sporadic, as anyone who's tried to contact me through Facebook has long since figured out by now. Facebook only exists in my mind as a way to remind me of folks' birthdays and to keep me updated on adorable baby photos of tiny relatives, which, I mean, I guess that's still pretty good for a website. But its continually rotating air-quotes "Privacy" settings and its gradual, Myspaceian advertising creep are bad enough before you realize that there isn't much to it or on it at this point; most of its clientele only seem to use it now for personality tests, web quizzes, Flash games and copy-paste exercises.

"A LOST COW HAS WANDERED ONTO CASUAL ACQUAINTANCE'S FARM!"
"HOW MANY OF THE AFI TOP 100 MOVIES HAVE YOU SEEN?? CLICK HERE"
"70% OF PEOPLE WHO READ THIS ARE IN THE MAJORITY, REPOST THIS IF YOU'RE IN THE MINORITY 30%"
"DON'T YOU HATE WHEN YOU WANT A SANDWICH AND THE BREAD ALL GONE, PUT THIS AS YOUR STATUS IF YOU OUT OF BREAD"

On Slurpees and Stolen Plates

July is clearly not Daily Post Month! But, heck, clearly I deserved a break from all the... all the nothing I do normally right now. (God, I hope somebody hires me.)

So! On to business. We are actually quite unlikely to be the Murder Capital this year, astonishing as that may seem; Edmonton's been having another hell of a year, and you never can count out the two-year reigning champions over in Abbotsford-Mission. But Slurpees? God damn, son, we got Slurpees covered.