Hello my friends – here’s the latest episode of “Hard Truth and a Big Hug”. It’s a small part of a book that I haven’t yet got around to publishing – but I thought the big ideas and the final take-away were
Here’s a mostly-visual essay. When do we officially declare working-class habitat endangered, anyhow? (Not until it’s utterly extinct?) These were all caught on the fly on my lovely long city walks with Nada. Gentrification is one of those things that can sometimes
Here’s a view we don’t often get to see – the Gardiner’s bridge-like britches – excavated courtesy of the massive project to turn Loblaws old downtown distribution warehouse into a new megastore for the badly underserved lakeshore condo community – with every
Designed my Thomas W Lamb, built in 1913, the Elgin and Winter Garden are not one but two grand full-sized theatres stacked on top of one another – a design fairly common in Edwardian days, but this beauty is now the last
When people who are into sequential art, comics, and illustration history (an increasingly intersecting set on the venn-diagram, I am happy to report) talk about the science fiction and fantasy pulp of the seventies, ninety percent of the bandwidth usually gets taken
When I was a little boy, I always liked to ride in the front of the subway train so I could look out and see everything that was whooshing-by – while also pretending to drive the train (naturally). Thanks to the wide
While there are worrisome changes to the Toronto landscape, and also many new developments of promise – there are also, I’m very glad to say, many sweet things about Toronto that remain very recognizable, from when I was a kid. Ossfest itself
I am not myself religious – but I know many sweet folks who are – and I also have a great fondness for the lovely structures which have been created by extraordinary sacrifices of patience and investment, by so many congregations. Toronto,
Here is a great example of old-school made manifest in a number of ways – first off, the place was closed on Sunday – because there once was a time when we had respect for the tradespeople around us, and didn’t put
Here’s another one of my unexpectedly nifty hand-held nighttime rain-shots. This one took a bit of doing too – walked back and forth for about a block, to get the right sort of mix of odd little businesses set up in front
One of the most ridiculous modern beliefs is that we are smarter than people used to be. We aren’t – people have had this brain structure for much longer than culture has been making use of it – we just pack different
I’d rank Bumblebees as the second cutest insect after ladybugs, and they are far more cuddly-looking, thanks to their apparently soft and colourful fur But I have to say, I always thought the weird plastic wings that people wore for their bumblebee
I sure felt cool in that carpentry apron. Childhood is weird, and there’s no doubt that parenthood is challenging – but there’s one simple principle worth remembering – kids remember! Any experience they have of being able to create things which are
To the left, Hudson’s bay – finished in 1974 – 135 m To the right, CIBC building – finished in 1972 – 149m Still under construction, on the site of the old back-alley shop where one used to be able to get
I really don’t like crowds (I mean REALLY) but today I not only made my way across the Harbourfront through the thickest crowds I’ve ever seen down there (counting even much-missed WOMAD in it’s glory days) – but I did four complete
I’ve got a strange pantheon of heroes, not just scientists and science-fiction writers – but also poets, mad-philosophers, artistes and engineers – but HG Welles has been right up near the top for me from very early days – not only because
Nada and I saw an extraordinary show today at the Ryerson image centre – which (I repeat) is free and awesome, so if you don’t go, you stink! (so there) Their latest exhibition (on ’till Apr 9th) – contains optimal black-history energy
If you’ve been following me awhile, you’ve probably noticed Buckminster Fuller (Bucky) is one of my favourite and most frequent referents – there is a very particular reason for this – and it’s not what he’s best known for. As a designer,
…now sadly lapsed, but in full-force through the fifties, sixties and seventies, which said that at some point between the ages of eight and ten, every young boy must attempt to build a model of the Cutty Sark, drive himself crazy trying
Not every day that one comes across Batman ducking through traffic instead of walking to the nearby intersection and waiting patiently for the crossing guard, the way we must assume any responsible Adam West type Batman would. Which places this fellow firmly
Winston Churchill, like JFK, is one of those characters that you end up liking and disliking ever more intensely as you study them. What no one (I’ve heard) ever questions, is that Britain was lucky to have him when they needed him.