I still remember riding my bike downtown as a kid in ’75, to watch the giant twin-rotor Sikorsky sky-crane helicopter “Olga” lift the final sections of the CN tower into place, making it the tallest freestanding bit of inhabitable engineering in the
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The Cocomile All-Stars (top photo) You’ve probably already noticed that I really enjoy trying to capture the modest beauty and niftiness of the city photographically, especially those things most perishable, but in some cases I have just plain missed my chance. The
I’ve been trying for some time to zero-in on a particular sort of thinking which is both dangerous to compassion, and very widespread right now. Most helpfully, one of my favourite TV intellectuals, Steve Paikin did an episode about the psychology of
Photo credit: Nada Nesin (finally found it – thanks for a perfect image my friend!) I’m not an easy sell on sport or spectacle – happy to join-in and play, mind you, just haven’t ever got back into the league-following habit, since
Haven’t had a fantastic camera-day in a few weeks, but I do have a regular practise of ‘checking my film’ the same day I take them, and setting aside the curious ones for later processing. This means I can always have plenty
Here’s another selection from the extraordinary collection of Canadian news photography recently acquired by the Ryerson Image Centre – the best new free gallery in Toronto in many years, already the vital centre of photo art for the city, as well as
Memory is a strange thing. How to use it creatively is even stranger – it’s definitely unpredictable stuff – never quite what you expect it to be, when you first start digging (though often as not, what you find is extra richness).
There is something about night-photography from a moving car that feels incredibly decadent to me. Probably the simple fact that it was utterly impossible to do, hand-held (certainly with cheap gear), only a few years ago. But motion around a subject can
The world is in a state of considerable upheaval, on a great many fronts at once. I am currently fascinated by (obsessed with) thinking about self-definition and mental health, acculturation and role within community (the very obvious and powerful life-meaning that everyone
You’ve probably already noticed that I’m very interested in extending our awareness of the means of perception we all use, but tend not to examine. One reason for this is really simple – and it’s also why I’m constantly recommending Julian Jaynes’
Also not to be smiled-at (top photo) Crocs and alligators are among very few really obvious dinosaurs still thriving on earth – and yet my recent museum visit proved that their ancestors were considerably more fearsome still. Who was it who first
Sparks fly (top photo) It’s funny how some matters that seem bafflingly vast and subtle when you’re a young curious student (like the classic Greek debates about understanding the universe), can gradually develop increasing associated richness and clarity, if you keep an
Preliminary model of the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern pavilion – Frank Gehry (top photo) Nobody likes to talk about epistemology anymore – but absolutely everyone should be thinking about it – now, more than ever, because when it goes badly wrong, things like
I think the Empire Sandy is the most elegant three-master in the harbour, though she’s by no means alone – with bigger and smaller friends along the waterfront all summer long. Now that the real cold has set in, she’s tucked-in snug
Is that the cat that ate your new shoes? (top photo) The massive revamp of Union station has been going on for years – and clearly has years yet to run. The tracks themselves are currently open to the sky for the
One of the odd anglo traditions that is still very popular in Canada, is to listen to the Queen’s Christmas speech. Often this is done with fair sincerity by youngsters, and then increasingly for comedic or ironic value over time (even my
My atheism is no secret – nor, frankly is the very sad proliferation of betrayals of principle by legions of those who self-proclaim spirituality. No figurehead, nor call to live only peace and love has ever been strong enough to convince even
Every town should have one (top photo) I’m pretty sure that every great town has a few great markets in it – and somehow we are attracted to them deeply, without often stopping to think about their extraordinary cultural inertia. I will
And then there’s barrel-vaulting (top photo) Transit in Toronto and the region is one of the most contentious issues there is – we have had tons of misfires, multi-decade fights and studies of studies (even studies of why there are so many
A friend of mine mentioned Pythagoras recently – as a very powerful very early example of someone who was trying to extrapolate philosophical rigour, from mathematical clarity and principles. Better still, he didn’t just sit around thinking about stuff, like some nervous
Growing up Canadian, with tons of US media input, we notice early that Americans regularly assure each other that many things happen “only in America” which have in fact been common in dozens of other countries for ages, and are often done
One of the ways that writing reminds me a lot of thinking about mathematics or science, is that you are forever playing with different ways to arrange dynamically-related ideas (characters) – but you always have to provide some credible way-into their relationship,
Just finished a really lovely read – Variable Star – which was written by Spider Robinson, from 1950s notes for a never-completed novel by Robert Heinlein. Quite a nifty piece of work it is, too, in genesis and execution. Robinson’s curiosity and
I don’t like to make a big deal of it, but I have been blue of late – for a combination of very normal human reasons. Stoicism is worth having in your toolkit (and a vanishing art worth demonstrating, in any case),
One of the things I like best about Hamilton, just down the lake from Toronto, is that while it is a serious cultural city, with plenty of working artists, galleries, concert venues and events to celebrate it’s active scene (not to mention
As I mentioned the other day (Pinhead-camera) Catherine and I had a lovely day-trip with her father Neville to see the Hamilton steam museum last week. The museum consists of five structures which went into operation in 1860 – and the exquisite