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Foothills Charity Triathlon for Kid’s Hope Ethiopia

The other day a friend asked if I would take part in the Foothills Charity Triathlon for Kid’s Hope Ethiopia. It’s actually a “mixed” triathlon in that, the three segments of the race are done by different people, so I’ll only be doing the 500m swimming section in Crystal Shores Lake (Okotoks, Alberta).

I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve never been much a distance swimmer, and though 500m isn’t exactly FAR (by most swimmers’ standards), it’s slightly out of reach for me to sprint the whole way though it wouldn’t surprise my former swim teammates if I tried.

http://www.foothillscharitytriathlon.com/

Wish me luck, and if you’re in the Calgary/Okotoks area, come and cheer for my team! The race happens Saturday, July 5th, 2008 starting at Crystal Shores Lake at 8:00am.

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Coldplay Plagerizes?

I wasn’t going to go anyway, but Coldplay has cancelled the Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Calgary shows of their Viva La Vida tour. I know it has disappointed a couple of my friends. Sorry Canada, but Coldplay just doesn’t love you enough to make it to the boring middle parts of your country.

In other Coldplay news, the band Creaky Boards has posted a YouTube video accusing the lead singer of Coldplay, Chris Martin, of plagiarizing their song, “The Songs I Didn’t Write” when he wrote “Viva la Vida”.

The idea that a band as big as Coldplay would stoop to copying someone else’s melody seems unrealistic, nevertheless, this video seems pretty damning for Chris Martin. I’d be interested to hear Coldplay’s side of the story.

Update: Creaky Boards frontman Andrew Hoepfner has retracted his allegations of plagiarism.

Well, it appears that Chris was actually recording in London during my October show and Coldplay demoed Viva La Vida in March 2007, before I taught my band “Songs” in June 2007. What’s most likely is that both Chris and I were inspired by The Legend of Zelda’s “Fairy Theme”, causing us to write similiar songs in 2006. What a coincidince! I guess Nintendo’s the big winner. But isn’t it weird how in 2008, an independent artist can make something in their bedroom that receives almost as much attention as EMI’s biggest marketing push of the year?

My conclusion? At first when I read headlines about his retraction, I figured it was a pay-off, but now I think it’s probably just a coincidence.

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Download Firefox 3 and Help Set a Record

It’s time! Right now, go download Firefox 3 and help set a new world record.

Sounds like a good deal, right? All you have to do is get Firefox 3 during Download Day, [today], to help set the record for most software downloads in 24 hours—it’s that easy. We’re not asking you to swallow a sword or to balance 30 spoons on your face, although that would be kind of awesome.

Firefox Download day

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Running Lundbreck Falls

Yesterday I went kayaking down the Crowsnest River with a bunch of friends. It was a stretch of the river that none of us had gone down before, and frankly it was a bit boring with very little white water. At the halfway point we came upon Lundbreck Falls. The plan was to portage around it, but after taking some time to study it, I decided to go for it!

The adrenaline rush totally made my day.

Jeff Milner Running Lundbreck Falls
Jeff Milner going over Lundbreck Falls.

Photo by Tom Buchanan (used on the web with permission). Here’s my Lundbreck Falls Run set on Flickr.

Update: You can see me going over in this Lundbreck Falls Drop video on Youtube, compliments of my friend Janson.

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Theresa Andersson Plays “Na Na Na” in Her Kitchen

Theresa Andersson plays all the instruments and does vocal looping on the fly as she sings “Na Na Na” in her kitchen.

Theresa recently recorded her newest album in her kitchen. The record was produced by Swedish singer-songwriter/producer Tobias Froberg (Peter Moren’s upcoming solo album) and mixed by Linus Larsson (Peter Bjorn and John, Mercury Rev.) Theresa played all the instruments on the album except for a duet with legendary New Orleans producer and composer Allen Toussaint (The Meters, Dr. John, The Band, Elvis Costello) and a duet with Norwegian singer Ane Brun.