Tag: #Taylorette1989

  • Taylorette1989 is Over, and What is a Podcast?

    Taylorette1989 is Over, and What is a Podcast?

    #Taylorette1989 is done. No, we weren’t able to get Julia into Taylor’s inner circle (although this did happen), but I think both Julia and myself learned a lot about life, love, and what’s important to us in the last 6 months or so of trying. I’ll be writing a bit in the near future about my experiences trying to capture the attention of probably the most widely recognizable entity in the world at the moment.

    Pictured: 6 months of hard work and dedication, and we get some pixels hosted on taylorswift.com!

    There are a couple of really interesting secret things I had been doing for Taylorette that I’m excited to share in the coming weeks, but for now, I’m looking to the future. I have some big plans once the summer is done and all the wedding and honeymoon craziness is behind us. I miss making videos every week, and it’s obvious to me that I haven’t done enough to let my friends in on what I’m working on these days, so I’ll be trying to do more of that too.

    Another fun project that I think it might help me to talk about is sharing some of the things on the internet that entertain me on a regular basis. Most people I talk to bounce around viral videos and things that pop into their Facebook feeds, whereas I tend to follow the work of individuals and groups of creative people on the Internet, keeping track of what they’re up to on a regular basis. I’m excited to talk about those people and what I’m able to learn from them, and I hope you’ll enjoy it.

    I’m still going through my week’s supply of Soylent. As expected, it isn’t something I think I can realistically have to replace ALL of my meals. That being said, I do like it (minus the artificial sweetener) and I have been able to not bring lunch to work for the last 2 weeks and get along just fine.

    In the meantime, Ottawhat? and Future Chat continue to soldier on with their usual episodes, you can subscribe to them and listen to the latest episodes down below. It has come to my attention that even people who are close to me are not aware that Future Chat is a podcast. First of all, it seems like those people probably just don’t actually know what a podcast is (really any episodic video or audio conversation or documentary could be considered a podcast). Second of all, if it’s been a while, I would encourage you to check out one of these two shows, we have a lot of fun making them and really try hard to put together something anybody can enjoy.

    This week, we sat down with training librarian and new mom Jessica Dubois. She told us all about her experiences with part-time online learning, her…
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    This week on the show, we discuss all the latest goings on around Pluto, the ramifications of the leap second, and how you might not get Windows 10 for a…
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  • Dear Taylor, Love Rob

    Dear Taylor, Love Rob

    She’s kiiiiind of a big fan.

    Dear Taylor,

    You’ve got a lot going on. Last month, a letter you wrote on your blog helped potentially millions of young musicians to get paid during Apple Music’s 3-month free trial. Not to mention that you’ve been on a world tour spanning 7 countries and several continents since May. How you find the time for a 4th of July celebration with so many of your friends this past weekend is totally beyond me.

    Anyhow, the reason I’m writing this is to let you know about your most incredible fan. She’s my fiancée, and her name is Julia de Carlo. Last year, when your 1989 tour tickets went on sale, Julia decided she would have her bachelorette party at your concert that is happening tonight. She bought 5 tickets to the show the day they went on sale, and sadly she wasn’t able to get 5 seats together (but the girls will work something out).

    Almost immediately after those tickets were bought, I decided that I needed to do something big to try to show you just how much Julia is looking forward to your show and potentially meeting you. I thought hard about it for weeks and decided to coin the name #Taylorette1989 for the entire bachelorette weekend. In February, I released the first video I made to tell you and our friends all about Julia’s bachelorette, and her love for you and your music. She even made her Tumblr all about her love for you and her excitement for this concert.

    Julia is such an incredible person, she’s smart, cute, funny, sexy, adorable, fun, outgoing, generous, loving, loyal, and she’s an incredibly inspiring elementary school teacher. If anybody deserves a little face time with you, this woman does. I would do absolutely anything to help her see her dreams realized.

    So, that first video and other #Taylorette1989 video projects have been shared a ton on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, but obviously it was going to take something truly special to get this message to you. Julia and her fellow Taylorettes have really gone all out making signs and costumes for your concert tonight. You can search #Taylorette1989 on Twitter to see what I’m talking about. I’ve done everything I can to help, but at this point all I can do is hope that tonight, the stars will align and she will get a chance to meet you.

    It was my birthday this past Saturday, and all I’ve really been wishing for is that Julia’s wish to meet you will be granted tonight. I hope with all my heart that her excitement will be enough to bubble over and you’ll be able to see just how much she loves you as an artist and a person.

    Thanks a lot Taylor, from myself and from Julia, and I hope tonight and the rest of your world tour is incredible!

    Love Rob

    ps. Here is just some of the noise Julia and her Taylorettes having been making lately!

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  • #ABpoli, Orange Crush, and Archives (Unwind Media | May 20-27)

    #ABpoli, Orange Crush, and Archives (Unwind Media | May 20-27)

    It was another full week on Unwind Media, and I’m happy to let you know we finally recorded another episode of East Meets West, discussing, among other things, the recent NDP sweep of the Albertan Provincial government.

    If you still haven’t gotten your #Taylorette1989 videos out, or at the very least shared your stories, now would be the time to do so! Taylorette itself is a little under 6 weeks away!

    On a final, new note about Unwind Media, I’ve been working hard to bring you show archives, so you can now find those if you go to any of the show pages below. I have no idea if any of you will find that useful, but it was one of those fun learning experiences getting the code working properly, and it seemed worth it to me!

    Rob and Nick are joined by special guest and Future Chat co-host Mike Attrell to discuss the outcome of the recent Alberta election, and the NDP Crushing…
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    This week on Ottawhat, we sat down with Alexis Scott. She’s one of the co-founders of Vacant House Theatre, a company that is putting on a production of F…
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    This week, we talk Let’s Talk Science funding, wind turbines with no blades, and look forward to Google I/O later in the week…
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  • Feedback wraps Season 1, and #Taylorette1989 hits Phase 2 (Unwind Media | May 14-20)

    Feedback wraps Season 1, and #Taylorette1989 hits Phase 2 (Unwind Media | May 14-20)

    ‘Twas a busy week on +Unwind Media! We wrapped Season 1 of Feedback, which means Volume 1 of Feedback: The Music can’t be far off! As well as regular episodes of Ottawhat? and Future Chat, the next phase of #Taylorette1989 launched. I’m looking for a video or story about what’s special about my fiancée Julia, and stories about +Taylor Swift! I’d love to hear your favourite memories of Taylor!

    In this final episode of season 1 of Feedback, we discuss YouTube’s role in the fight against music loudness, the new Mumford and Sons album Wilder Mind…
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    This week’s episode features Keegan’s brother Branden On! He’s into all kinds of creative endeavours like acting, playing music, and drawing. We also hear…
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    This week, are Google cars less safe than human-driven ones, Nick uses his pirate voice several times, and we all lust after $1000 blenders (or do we?)…
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  • Share your favourite thing about Julia, and your best Taylor Swift memory for #Taylorette1989!

    Share your favourite thing about Julia, and your best Taylor Swift memory for #Taylorette1989!

    Hey friends and readers, July 6 is coming up fast! If you need to get up to speed, check out this post. For the next phase of #Taylorette1989, I’m asking everybody to share something about Julia telling Taylor why she deserves an extra-special bachelorette party, and also telling me about their favourite memory involving Taylor Swift. Either make your own video, or write it down and share your memories along with #Taylorette1989.

    As for me, if you aren’t going to watch the video above, I think that Julia is by far the nicest person I know. I love her so much, she’s sweet, smart, beautiful, and she is the world’s biggest Taylor Swift fan. My favourite Taylor Swift moment has to be singing along to Taylor’s album in the car with Julia, but seeing her perform in Toronto, with fireworks and a packed Rogers Centre is a very close second.


    If you don’t have a memory or something about Julia to share, please consider using the sharing buttons under the video to like or share the video! Thanks!
  • SoundCloud, Writing, and #Taylorette1989 heats up. (Unwind Media; May 7-13)

    SoundCloud, Writing, and #Taylorette1989 heats up. (Unwind Media; May 7-13)

    This week we made a couple of substantial changes on Unwind Media, most notably we’re making the transition to hosting audio files on SoundCloud, as opposed to Archive.org. I’m pretty excited for that, and I even wrote a little bit about some of the neat tricks I am using now to get those files to work with podcast clients and on the podcast website while keeping the setup simple.

    I also wrote a little more for MobileSyrup, rather than linking to all of them, you can find those stories by using a custom Google Search (for ‘site:mobilesyrup.com “Rob Attrell” ‘)one of the hosts on Unwind Media and my cousin, +Mike Attrell, came up with to find things I’ve written.

    In other news, #Taylorette1989 is entering its next phase, as +Taylor Swift begins her world tour and gets ready to launch her latest music video. Look for more on that in the next week! As well, there’s a new episode of Feedback coming before the end of the week, so that means a fun conversation, AND 2 more cover tunes from Damien and BL in the next week or so! Stay tuned!

    On Ottawhat this week, we met former UFC fighter and Ottawa native Mark “Boots” Holst. He spoke to us about his experiences in the ring, teaching the new…
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    In this episode, Tesla goes gangbusters, it’s zeppelins vs. dirigibles, and trucks are driving themselves in Nevada. Get excited, because we’ll be deliver…
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