The Other UVic LipDub Project

UVic lipdub, choreography practice
Originally uploaded by theotherlondon

In the eight plus years I've worked in higher ed I've come across a fair number of instances where I've been pleasantly taken aback at the lengths students will go to in the name of school spirit.  I'm not talking about the gewgaw of costumed athletics fans cheering in the stands at football games and the donning of extreme hair styles during orientation week, I'm referring to the undertaking of projects of such momentous and lofty scope as to make me wonder how the students involved a) didn't consider the improbability of success; b) came up with the idea in the first place; c) managed to find time to do their homework; and d) all of the above (sorry about that, I couldn't resist).

If such displays of school spirit are any indication of how much the students involved love the institution they attend, then going by what took place on filming day for the UVic lipdub project this past weekend, it's fair to say that I haven't come across any students who love their university as much as the students at UVic - and I'm not just saying that because I work there and I'm supposed to say stuff like that.  Come on, you know me...

The lipdub phenomenon and 'the other UVic'

The libdub phenomenon has been glee-ly weaving it's way around the Internet for a number of years.  The 'official' lipdub site reports that the first lipdub production was filmed at Hochschule Furtwangen University in Germany and lists charming slightly-lost-in-translation advice on how to produce your own lipdub video. A good number of higher ed institutions around the world have answered the site's call to 'Join it!' by developing and broadcasting lipdub videos to varying degrees of success.  In Canada, perhaps the most successful example is the L'Université du Québec à Montréal's 'I gotta feeling' video' that has currently received almost 7 million hits on YouTube.

In May of 2010, a lipdub video was produced by UVic, not the University of Victoria, in Victoria British Columbia, but the less-abbreviated Universitat de Vic in Spain. Reports on the web suggested the video had most people (including Perez Hilton, I kid you not) believing it had been produced at the Canadian UVic. Being the socially sensitive, humble, west coast institution it is, the general response at the University of Victoria was to an extent, one of slight moral confusion. The Spanish version received fairly positive accolades world wide - and rightly so - but while I think it's fair to say many members of the University of Victoria community appreciated the unintentional praise received by way of the success of the other UVic, the truth of the matter was, the video fell short of accurately reflecting the true spirit of the community and environment to be found at Canada's UVic. In short, some felt that our own UVic could do better.

The University of Victoria (UVic) lipdub project

The following exert is taken from the UVic lipdub news release posted on the official UVic lipdub website.  Visit the website to view information on the amazing accomplishments of the group of UVic students who organized the project.

When Shawn Slavin, a University of Victoria undergrad, saw UVIC Spain’s video, he decided that his UVic (“the real UVic”) should and could do bigger and better. Slavin’s project is shooting for a Guinness record by hopefully inspiring over 3,000 members of the community to sing, dance, and perform on UVic’s campus on Saturday, September 25. Slavin says, “I also hope this project unites the university community in a way I’ve never seen before. This is an opportunity to make a name for both UVic and the city of Victoria.” Read more.

It's 9 am on a Saturday, I'm tired, my head hurts and I'm learning choreography to a Michael Buble song.

Thus it came to be that I woke up at 6am on Saturday, September 25, 2010 to head down to campus for filming day, participating simply as an extra in the big dance number to be featured at the end of the video. As weekends usually go for me, it didn't start out as one of the best of morning experiences.  I posted the above status update to Facebook soon after I reported for registration to my assigned classroom.

Gladly, I soon realized that no attention to detail had been spared, including the provision of coffee and breakfast and the understanding that most participants would require additional instruction if they were to master the choreography developed for the video (I meant to practice more, honest I did). By the time our group, last name ending with the letter P, made our way over to the UVic fountain at 9am for the shooting to begin excitement was high and all seemed clear that we were going to go for it...big time!

Filming of the big finale wrapped up around noon and with it, my brief participation in the UVic lipdub project came to an end. I headed home with a new appreciation of the talent and earnest dedication to be found in UVic's student population. The experience was by far the most overt demonstration of school spirit I have ever witnessed, manifested in the core group of students who pulled it all together and the 900 or so UVic community members who followed their lead. Congrats to Shawn Slavin and team, and thank you for an amazing experience.

Can't wait to see the video! It's going to be awesome (way better than that other UVic lipdub)!

My UVic Lipdub Flickr Photoset

I love your music, but do I really care about your new t-shirt?: A letter from a fan to a musican I follow on Twitter

I recently had the opportunity to meet a musician I'm now following on Twitter.  I'm fascinated by the impact the Internet is having on the music industry and was very interested in hearing about the grassroots marketing techniques musicians are using these days. Our conversations made me think about how  I use the web as a music listener/purchaser, what I like and what I don't like and how I behave online.  With the purpose of it maybe being helpful I wrote a little piece about it.

How I use the Internet as a music listener/purchaser

Here’s a rundown of the music sites I use, why I use them and what I like about them. Though I know there’s a lot of additional sites and services out there, and I’ve tried out more than the ones I’ve listed, these are the ones I’ve continued to use.

twitter.com

Generally I don’t actively seek out musicians to follow on Twitter. The musicians I follow are mainly ones who have contacted or followed me first. If I see a new band or musician is following me on Twitter I’ll check out their feed and if their feed looks interesting I might check out their music on last.fm or myspace.  I like feeds that include reflections on tours (thoughts on countries visited and venues played in), info on upcoming projects, and some creative writing is nice. If I like the music, I’ll follow the musician, and I have followed up on tweets I’ve received to download music and purchase merchandise. That said, I think there’s a little luck involved with Twitter. It’s kind of touch and go as to whether I’ll actually see everything (or even anything) a band or musican posts. I heard a good tip when I attended SXSWi this year, which was to tweet important items multiple times (the specific suggestion was three times). The second and third tweets are to catch any followers who may have missed the message the first time around. 

myspace.com

I’m going to guess I’m not your typical MySpace user.  For one thing, I don’t participate in the myspace community.  I only use it to access music by musicians I’ve never heard of before, and last.fm is kind of taking over in this category. I most often use it to check out new bands, especially local bands, who are opening at concerts I’m going to.

last.fm

Again, I’m not a typical last.fm user as I don’t actively participate in the community, but I use last.fm a lot to check out new bands I’ve never heard of before and, to a small extent to check into bands I notice other last.fm users suggest.

facebook.com/iLike

I first hear about a fair number of concerts that I attend through iLike on Facebook.

facbook.com fan pages

I come across the majority of info I hear about about upcoming concerts, new releases, merchandise and special offers through Facebook’s fan pages. Most of the music and merchandise purchases I’ve made have started with a Facebook post. Of course, I don’t think I’d be too keen if all the info a band posted on FB had to do with ways I can spend money.  I like reading about projects, reflections on current events, checking out photos of concerts, and news items.

blip.fm

I use blip.fm a lot to learn about new music from other users who like the same bands I do. It’s where I get the majority of tips on new bands to check out - in fact, I’d estimate at least 75% of the new bands I heard about this year were suggested to me by blip.fm DJs.

CBC Radio 3  (radio3.cbc.ca)

I love the CBC Radio 3 site. If the other music sites I participated in offered a Canadian only area, that would probably suffice, but as it is, Radio 3 is the only source I’ve come across that provides in-depth info on what’s new and happening in the Canadian music scene.  As the majority of concerts I attend are in Canada, that’s important to me.

Band sites I use regularly

I can see how it’s necessary to have a site to provide resources for media and a store, but to be honest, there aren’t a lot of band sites out there that I’ve found have warranted more than a very occasional visit (once or twice a year).  All the information about concerts, new releases and special offers I’ve ever followed up on have come from the sites and services listed above.  That’s not to say I don’t think it’s important to post this information on a site, I just think there’s more exposure to be had from posting this information elsewhere.  There are two exceptions, I will frequently return to the two sites listed below.  Great Lake Swimmers because they update their site frequently (very frequently) with news and announcements (more than a monthly basis) and Billy Bragg because he’s an amazing man-of-the-people and I’m fascinated by what he’s doing with social media (heavy on the ‘social’ aspect’, with ‘media’ only an aside).

greatlakeswimmers.com
billybragg.co.uk