About a week ago I was contacted out of the blue by a employee of Razor Company, a Toronto based online shaving company. I suppose my Battle of the (Razor) Blades article is pretty popular and they wanted to throw their blades into the mix. I was happy to oblige; I'm not a professional reviewer but I watch enough Top Gear and figured "razor blades, cars, what's the difference"? I also liked the idea of supporting a local company, after all we Torontonians gotta stick together! What follows is my review of the experience, which is by no means scientific.

Review, Original ContentAdam SchoalesFebruary 6, 2015Harry's, Dollar Shave Club, Razor Company, razor blades, shavingComment

Reviewing Season 2 of "House of Cards"

I must admit, I was not one of the millions who fawned over season 1 of House of Cards. Sure, I thought the acting was outstanding, the cinematography absolutely beautiful, and it showed great promise for what a Netflix Original Series could be; I also found it incredibly plodding, and slightly too much style over substance.

Read on for my full review.

Original Content, ReviewAdam SchoalesJanuary 27, 2015review, netflix, House of Cards, television, series Comment

J A N U A R Y

In high school I loved making mix CDs. It gave me an opportunity to introduce my friends to some of my favourite artists, or to teach them about the deep cuts of the Michael Jackson catalogue. Unfortunately, as podcasts began to dominate my listening habits mix CDs kind of fell by the wayside. While I still put out an annual Christmas mix it's been a long while since I put out a really great mix.

See, people think it's easy to make a mix. It's not. Firstly you need to pick songs that work together, be it thematically, melodically, or just in style. Sequencing is important; after all you need to lead the listener through things and you don't want to jar them by having a death metal track next to a Bach minuet. And then there's the little details like the gap between songs. This is the thing that is hardest to get right. If you're jumping around an album things like this don't matter, but if you're intending to lead the listener to listen from start to finish it is key that you get this right. See what I mean? Not easy.

So I wanted to try something new this year; each month I'm going to put out a mix for the month. Each mix will contain (hopefully) 12 tracks. Get it? 12 months, 12 tracks.

Original Content, Monthly MixAdam SchoalesJanuary 22, 2015music, mix, monthly mixComment

Cinema 2014: Year in Review

I have to say, 2014 turned out to be quite the year for film lovers. While the film was certainly made up of plenty of reboots, remakes, sequels, and films based on existing IP, there was also a number of original stories (and, spoiler alert, those are the ones that are among the best films this year).

I've been tracking my year in cinema over at the film-focused website Letterboxd and you can get a full look at my year in review by heading over there. However, here's a run-down of some of my favourites of the year (in no real particular order).

Original ContentAdam SchoalesDecember 31, 2014film, list, best ofComment

A Few of My Favourite Things (of 2014)

You know, I’ve never understood why people consider “My Favourite Things” a Christmas song, and I certainly never get why people think The Sound of Music is a Christmas film (nothing says Christmas like fleeing Nazi occupied Austria).Any-hoo, be that as it may, it's probably why so many people post their “favourite things” lists near the end of the year; that and the fact that they are a great way to recommend products for people to buy for Christmas. I've never done one myself and figured, what the hell?

So here's a collection of some of my favourite things, things I use on a daily basis, things I couldn't live without, and things you couldn't go wrong with buying.

Original ContentAdam SchoalesDecember 2, 2014list, tech, toys, gadgets, ChristmasComment

FCP X Tip: Premiere Pro to Final Cut Pro X

I was recently approached about cutting a project that had been assembled in Adobe Premiere Pro. And while I have nothing inherently against Premiere, I must prefer to work in, and am much faster and more familiar with Final Cut Pro X.

But since I didn't want to waste time re-creating the work that was already done in Premiere I decided to look around to see if there was a quick solution for taking a Premiere Pro project and converting it into a workable Final Cut Pro X project.

Sure enough there was. Click through to find out how.

TipAdam SchoalesSeptember 10, 2014FCP X, Premiere Pro, Editing, Workflow Comment

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