vitaminwater canada blog

as you can tell we love fashion. how can you not? seeing and wearing cool and wonderful clothes is definitely a good time. you might also have noticed that we enjoy the culture of the internet, with a side of star wars. it’s hard to resist a story that good.

we are just blown away by artist john woo’s “he wears it” star wars meets todays fashion. this is a series of paintings which combines some of our favorite modern designers, like viktor+rolf and thom browne and combines them with luminaries from the star wars galaxy. this is really fun stuff.

seeing a stormtrooper in one of thom browne’s signature highwater suits is pretty stunning. it actually looks good! what’s the well dressed sith lord wearing these days? why a blazer and chinos from band of outsiders, of course.

what other fashion designers would lend themselves to the star wars universe? what other fictional universe could use some fashion help?

we’d like to see dr. who in john varvatos. what about you? leave us a comment with your suggestion.

it’s happened to the best of us. one of your friends has sent you a link to a great new song you should hear, or a cool new skateboard trick. you click the link expecting a pleasant distraction from your day, only to end up with rick astley belting forth his saccharine hit ‘never gonna give you up’. you have been rick rolled.
you aren’t alone. more than 150 million others have been rick rolled, so there’s nothing to be ashamed of!

if you were anywhere near downtown toronto on june 20th, we don’t need to tell you that the 2010 muchmusic video awards were straight up insane. almost two full city blocks were closed off for the little shindig (if you can call the biggest live awards show in canada a shindig), and we’re pretty sure that anyone within a 20 mile radius of muchmusic’s headquarters could hear high-pitched squeals coming from the army of justin bieber fans when canada’s own teen heartthrob took the stage. ok, so maybe we screamed a little bit too… bieber fever’s kind of contagious.

the entire even was a total screamfest, come to think of it. with performers like katy perry, ke$ha, adam lambert, drake, hedley, mariana’s trench and host miley cyrus on the bill, it’s hard to imagine it being anything but.

and it wasn’t just the pop star performers getting mad attention from their fans – a whole slew of international celebrities walked the red carpet to present, accept awards and show their support. actors, musicians, reality television stars, dancers, singers – and one fine lookin’ crop of our home and native land’s premier athletes.

when we rolled up to the red carpet with olympic champions jennifer heil and helen upperton, the flashbulbs exploded. i mean, these ladies are kind of a big deal. both just so happened to win silver medals at the 2010 olympics in vancouver – helen for bobsleigh and jennifer for freestyle mogul skiing.

the athletes sat down with their favourite vitaminwater flavours (defense for helen, xxx for jenn) and spoke with us about their mmva experience, the thrill of representing canada on the podium, and – what else? – justin bieber.

c: hey lisa. I appreciate your time today. let’s start by asking about
you: who you are, how old you are, and where you’re from.

l: my name is lisa lavie. i’m a singer/song-writer from montreal, quebec.

c: what would you say your youtube channel is about? how do you
describe what you do to people who aren’t familiar with it?

l: my youtube channel is a place to showcase my music, from the inception
of writing songs to completion of records and it’s also a place to correspond with
my audience and get feedback as what people are vibing with in terms of my music
& what they’d like to hear more of or what they don’t like.

c: What can you tell us about your history as an artist? when did you
first start singing? performing? what made you think youtube was the
place to share your voice?

l: i first started singing when I was 10 years old. i didn’t take it too
seriously at that point in time, it wasn’t until I was 16 that i
decided this is what I wanted to do as a career.
that’s when I started writing some original songs and recording
demo’s.

Aaound that same time, i got offered to tour as a background
vocalist with the #1 hip hop group at the time “dubmatique”.
that was a great start to my musical journey, that’s how it all began.

i decided to use youtube as a vehicle to showcase my music shortly
after a cousin of mine showed me some videos of tons of artists just
regarding themselves at home, singing in their camera and I thought
“hmmmm let me see what this is all about.” i never imagined that It
would have catapulted my career the way it has.

through uploading my videos, I’ve now garnered over 40 million views
of my live in the studio sessions and have gained a whole new
audience. it’s pretty remarkable what youtube is all about.

c: Your ‘we are the world 25 for haiti’ video was extremely well-done,
and received a lot of attention. what was your inspiration for making
that video? where did the idea come from? what did you think of the
outcome?

l: when the disaster struck haiti and I heard that quincy jones was doing
a remake of “we are the world”, i figured why not put together a non
celebrity version and bring more awareness to the cause with singers
from all over the world that i was subscribed to on youtube. I reached
out to 57 artists, everyone was on board, I then assigned lines to all
of the singers. Upon receiving all of their videos, iman crosson who
is also a Youtuber edited the entire video. i posted it to my channel
and the outcome was tremendous. I had a feeling this video would do
great but I had no idea that diane sawyer would soon reach out to me
for an interview on abc world news as well as cnn interviewing me. I’m
just so glad that we were able to reach a wide audience for this
cause.

c: how do you handle the balance between being a recording artist and
being a youtuber? are you more of one than another? how do you think
this might affect you, long-term?

l: first and foremost i’m definitely an artist. when people ask me what I
do, i don’t say “I’m a youtuber” hehehe. everyone would probably
think i’m crazy!!!

youtube is definitely an avenue that I’m going to keep on pursuing. i
love the site and what it’s all about. i think it a great avenue for
independent artists.

c: any advice for singers out there thinking of putting their voice on youtube?

l: the advice that i would give to artists who want to showcase their
music on youtube is go for it, not to worry about all of the
negativity that comes along with posting videos.
that’s just a given and comes with the territory. i recently had an
influx of messages from different singers telling me that they’re too
afraid of the outcome from the public but you have to start somewhere
and why not start on a platform where you have control of the “block”
button. lol

c: youtube user ‘drewigi’ asks: Have you taken voice lessons, and if
so, how long did you take them?

l: i’ve not taken voice lessons yet but i definitely want to start really soon.
i think it’s very important to know how to best use your voice and to
exercise your voice on a regular basis otherwise without proper
technique you could be damaging your vocal chords.

c: how do you balance your professional career with the personal videos
you make, like the ones with youtuber ‘alphacat’?

l: everyone is accustomed to my singing videos but I also like bringing
people in and showing them a whole new side of me which is why i
decided to start posting daily videos on my joint channel with
aphacat.

there definitely has to be a balance and I lean towards singing
videos but it’s always fun to share more.

c: Is there anything coming up from you that we can look forward to?
any word on a new album?

l: there are tons of things that are currently in the works that I’m
really excited about. i wish i could share more info on it right now
but for the time being I’m gonna keep everything close to the vest.
Stay tuned though, more on the way!!!

hey toronto! summer is here, the beach is open, the lake is warming up and the city is ready to rock out. every summer in toronto is filled to overflowing with great stuff to do. the toronto gtv team will be hitting up as many events as they can until the warm weather dies away. we’ll be posting where you can find them here so be sure to check back.

rob testa is the magically delicious man with the kisses on his converse bringing the vitaminwater vibe to toronto this summer. what makes rob magically delicious? he’s actually a magician. how cool is that? he can actually make bottles of vitaminwater disappear by placing them in your hands, and then into your stomach. he’s a kindred spirit because he loves the failblog, which we do as well.

you might know omid nazeri, he’s the inventor of the world famous yoga pose the dj neck tilt. it can be spotted behind the turntables the world over! when you meet omid, which you will all over the t-dot the next few months, he may tell you all about his astronaut training. here’s a protip (he’s lying!) so call his bluff for our sake. if you’re extra nice, he may belt out a little bit of ‘shot through the heart’ his favourite karaoke jam.

this weekend, see what rob and omid are up to, and score some vitaminwater on friday and saturday. the weekend kicks off with a guerilla blitz in fir valley woods park, where as the gtv team says “they will hunt you down and hydrate you like no other”. this will be a walk in the park you will never forget! on saturday they’ll be out the entire afternoon at the ride for sight, canada’s largest motorcycle fundraiser fighting blindness, so start your engines! sunday morning it’s a little bit of time on the diamond at the rod black celebrity softball classic for plan canada.

wherever you are in canada this summer, chances are one of the gtv teams will be close by having a good time. we’d love to meet you in person, so come by these events to have a drink in person! we’ll see you soon canada.

nxne transformed toronto into a musical marketplace this week with bands at every pub, club and garden. everyone from indie bands to cultural icons could be found providing countless opportunities to rock out to your favourite tunes while discovering some new ones. nxne definitely brings a different energy to toronto; creativity is swirling, music aficionados are celebrating and every night offers free concerts and chances to get up close and interactive with this incredible scene. not to mention that nxne shared toronto with luminato, taste of little italy and the mmva’s–virtually making every inch of tdot a sensory overload of deliciousness.

walking across queen west we encountered artists out on the street performing for passers by such as the moog audio dj’s featured below. they were spinning and beat boxing old school hip hop tracks from artists like busta rhymes and drew a huge crowd on saturday afternoon. our favourite part of nxne was the free mainstage concerts at yonge-dundas square which featured k-os and sloan on friday, iggy and the stooges on saturday with de la soul blowing things out on sunday night. y&d square was a sight to be seen: the entire intersection was closed off to make way for a huge street party complete with vendors, artists and countless drummers. along with a few thousand other concert goers, we were lucky to watch the king of cool himself, iggy pop belt out classic punk songs and generally misbehave.

we would love to hear your nxne experiences too! which concerts did you go to?

c : hey shawn. thanks for taking the time to let me chat with you. let’s start with some basics: who you are, how old you are, and where you’re from.

hey corey – thanks for this opportunity i’m shawn ahmed – i’m a 29 year old canadian from toronto. on youtube, i run something called the uncultured project.

c: you’re doing something pretty unique on youtube that not a lot of people have tried or even seen before. can you try to summarize what your goals are with your channel?

the uncultured project is about global poverty. i try and raise awareness about mobilize others on this issue by going to places where i think i can help and doing projects hands-on. i share the story through youtube and even raise funds to show people where their money goes and who it helps.

the idea for this project came in 2006 – when youtube was about a year old. back then, the only videos about global poverty were by charities which just uploaded their tv spots. not only was that boring but it also was mostly just videos designed to guilt us, make us feel bad about the poor, and donate to the charity.

my goal was to change the conversation about global poverty. i wanted to prove that people would be interested in learning, watching, and even doing something about global poverty if it was presented in a positive way and wasn’t focused on guilting people into donating. i also wanted to show that it doesn’t take a lot of money to make a
difference and that even the simplest things can have a huge impact.

c: how did you get started? when? what kind of journey has this been for you, and others involved?

this all started while I was a grad student at notre dame university. while there, i got to hear dr. jeffrey sachs speak. he’s author of a book called “the end of poverty”. he started his speech by saying we can be the generation that ends extreme poverty. that was the tipping point for me.

shortly after that speech, i decided to withdraw from graduate school, pack my bags, buy a camcorder, and fly to bangladesh (my parents homeland). since then i’ve also done work in kenya as well as even domestically dealing with those under the poverty line in urban america.

i wish i could say this journey has been a warm and fuzzy journey – but it really hasn’t been. in the past three years, i’ve had to deal with earthquakes, floods, cyclones, military curfews, minor surgery, iron poisoning, riots, government censorship of youtube, and a military mutiny.

it would be okay if it was just me in harms way – but my parents have actually been in harms way as well. My mother, who wanted to come with me to act as a bengali translator, nearly died after contracted dengue fever. we were able to get her to a hospital and eventually back home to canada.

c: what effects have you seen from what you do? what has been the most impactful experience thus-far?

that’s a great question because impact and effect can sometimes be two different things.

for me, the most impactful experiences are when I can use all the momentum of this project to make someone else into the hero. you only see a glimmer of this online – when I show how one person’s donation can impact an individual’s life.

but the bigger part of it is when I can conduct myself on the ground in a way that makes a local person the hero – instead of me. although it’s not online yet, last year i helped repair a school damaged by a cyclone. in one of my videos, you can see a student talking about the damage to his school.

what i decided to do was keep my project a secret to those on the ground. instead, i just said i’m some guy with a camera and my friends back home were inspired by this young boy talking about his school. i told them we provided funds to repair the school – all because of the boy.

the boy became the village hero.

it’s things like that which have the most impact on me personally. but i know the greatest effect of this project won’t be the projects i complete. rather, it’s about how this project is helping to set the tone on how charities should talk about poverty. it’s about engaging
the youtube community and not guilting us.

in fact, in a somewhat creepy story, i was once in a restaurant in the capital city of bangladesh when I went to the bathroom. after stepping out there was a man waiting for me. he explained he had been sent by a charity to bangladesh with instructions to model his work after mine. mind = blown.

both online and on the ground, the less this is about me and only me -the bigger the effect and impact this is having.

c: what are some of the challenges you’ve found in trying to accomplish your goals? any unexpected developments? what would you change, if you could?

i’ve been really mindful of the fact that good intentions is not enough to do good charity work. i’ve made a lot of mistakes and learned a lot of lessons doing this project. one of the things I’ve been trying to do is to leverage the experience of established charities by teaming up with them.

for example, i’ve been able to do great things with save the children usa. we’ve constructed a water filtration system for a village, repaired a school, provided disaster relief to cyclone victims, and much more. this is a charity that has been around for fifty years – they’re one of the most experienced.

relevant videos:

the biggest unexpected development i’ve encountered is that many charities are resistant to dealing with outsiders like me. even though my youtube channel helps to raise a lot of awareness that charities otherwise could not have gotten – i get the cold shoulder way too often.

in fact, I’ve spent the past year back home trying to negotiate to do new projects and spend new funds with charities. even charities like save the children have left me in limbo somewhat – with things being uncertain whether I can do more projects with them.

if i could change one thing it would definitely have been my naive assumption that just because the youtube community, people on the ground, and i can see the value in this project – that charities would also see the value for them and be eager to team up.

c: how might people get involved with what you’re doing, or find ways of doing it themselves?

again, great question. there have already been a few cases where people have copied the uncultured project and taken it to other countries.

for example, recently, a young girl in the uk wrote to me saying that she created a project to help kids in tanzania based on the uncultured project. you can find more about her work online at: http://www.youtube.com/thetumainiproject

there was also a guy from san francisco who was also inspired by my project to try the same thing in nicaragua: http://www.youtube.com/BRIDGEnicaragua although he ran into some problems with funding and had to come back.

the biggest piece of advice I can give is that this is not easy and you really shouldn’t just dive in – even though that’s what I did. helping people is hard work and just because it gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling doesn’t mean you’ve done something that is useful or has a lasting impact.

john green, one of my friends on youtube, says that we (as human beings) often fail to imagine the complexity of others. if you want to do this well, and truly make a difference, you need to understand the complexity of those you are helping. it’s the only way this won’t be a handout.

also, at least for my project, it’s not all about donations. the biggest impact you can have is by helping to spread the word. please subscribe, please watch the videos, and please share them with others. in the big picture, this helps me pay it forward. but, because I’m a youtube partner, it also means I may one day be able to do this without having to beg my family for money for my own living expenses.

c: youtube user ‘tulucus’ asks: what motivates you to help kids?

i think my parents were a huge factor in that. growing up, they would often tell me that it was pure luck that I happen to be living a comfortable Western middle class life. If their luck had been any different, I could have been a kid growing up in the slums of dhaka.

and, when dealing with an issue like global poverty, there are people and pundits who have strong opinions on why poverty exists. some blame colonialism, others blame it on too much capitalism while the rest blame it on too much socialism, and some call the poor lazy.

but kids are really the biggest victims – they didn’t have a choice as to what circumstances they were born in. They are also the best bet in breaking the cycle of poverty. i hate to quote numbers, but 24,000 children die each day in the developing world. most don’t even reach the age of five.

if we can change the circumstances of children in poverty, we shape their future as adults. and, hopefully, break the cycle of poverty.

c: is there anything coming up from you that we can look forward to? any word on future trips?

right now, i’m debating between heading back to bangladesh to do more projects or to spend more time in canada editing the 1.5 tb of footage i have of all the stuff I’ve done already that you guys don’t even know about yet. the journey’s not over yet – it’s just a matter of when I fly back. any thoughts?

c: anything else you’d like to say or share?

yeah, when do we get to hang out irl?

it’s that time again. time to check in on what the rest of the vitaminwater universe is up to. vitaminwater is truly worldwide, and we have friends all over the world who are doing some amazing things on a daily basis.

for example, our friends at vitaminwater france recently had a chance to check out alicia keys (one of our favorites). not only did she play a full set of her hits on the piano, but she had a bottle of multi-v sitting up there for everyone to see. how cool is that?

over in the uk, it’s summer, and that means it’s festival time! some of the biggest and best festivals you can find anywhere go down in the uk, and this year is no exception. richard and the gang were on hand at the big breach break, where they were on the receiving end of some of the coolest finger nail painting we’ve ever seen. the pictures need to be seen to be believed. beyond that, they’ll be attending 3 or 4 festivals every weekend all summer long. sounds a lot like our gtv teams in canada…

then there are our friends at vitaminwater japan. once again we’ll admit it – we don’t read a word of japanese. still, that doesn’t help us from loving this site. not only is the blog design totally different than anything you’ll see in the west, it always has fantastic photos. take a look and see how the crew in japan enjoy vitaminwater along with all the cool activities they always have going on.

there you have it. that’s around the world in 80 bottles, where we chronicle how people around the world incorporate vitaminwater into their everyday lives. very cool stuff. make sure to check back soon for another installment when we see what our vitaminwater posse is doing around the world!

girl talk was extraordinary last friday night. hearing that he was coming to toronto to spin at the sound academy seemed too good to be true. we immediately started ruminating on the fact that we were getting a true bonnaroo or south by southwest experience right here in toronto. we were more than ready to go party with the notorious mash-up mixer himself. with vitaminwater energy in hand, we arrived on the scene: the sound academy roared, backlit by the toronto waterfront under the summer night sky. the sunset was pink, purple and orange…so appropriate for the psychedelic night that lay ahead.
you know that moment of recognition when william miller first gets backstage in almost famous? well we had that moment amidst all the hysteria and the uber hip crowd…it was positively electric.

then girl talk appeared on stage and got things rolling. it would be too easy to say that he is better live. in a crowd of 2000 people we felt really connected to him and to everyone around; that’s because you know you are witnessing something very rare and very cool. he spun the classics “once again” and “friday night” and featured all his new songs which literally had the entire hall jumping with joy. when things got a bit too hot and intense we were able to escape outside on sound academy’s gorgeous marina patio where we caught up with friends, chilled in the gazebos and yes… you could even buy poutine so as to refuel! does it sound like the perfect night?

thanks to our amazing friends, bloggers and musicians who shared the night with us.

Boing Boing’s Mark
Frauenfelder: Made By Hand from DANGEROUS MINDS on Vimeo.

though all of us are surrounded by lots of modern conveniences, very few of us understand how they work, or can even build them ourselves. inveterate builder, and editor of make magazine, mark frauenfelder is out to change this. he has recently written a wonderful new book, ‘made by hand’, which is all about doing things for yourself. the video above is a great interview where he discusses the benefits of taking things apart and putting them back together yourself.

‘made by hand’ doesn’t have any kind of big political agenda nor is it getting down on modern life and running off the grid to live in the woods. it’s simply about making things yourself, because making things is fun. it’s that simple. frauenfelder discusses all types of diy projects that are will improve your life. he discusses the benefits of everything from fixing a clock, to beekeeping and raising chickens. basically, anything that involves you taking the initiative, and fixing or creating something yourself at home, is good for you. the idea that getting your hands dirty on a project will improve your life is a sound one. it’s so interesting because it is something many of us rarely hear.

the best thing about building and fixing things yourself, is that it’s fun. what have you done yourself lately? we know lots of our online friends make videos, music, write blogs and create digital art. what else have you assembled, disassembled, built, fixed, grown or cooked lately? we want to know, so leave us a comment and share your diy skills.