Toronto Summer Festivals - A Glimpse of the World at Home

I am a huge proponent of the multiculture. It informs my design and my world outlook. I also teach English and through my teaching have met students from literally every corner of the globe.  In my artistic life, as Mikooshka (my musical alter-ego), I craft music which crosses over from genres like reggae, rock and [...]

Free Online Course – DIY Graphic Design and Marketing – July 5- Aug 9

I’m a teacher and designer offering a free online course for people interested in developing skills in areas like Graphic Design and Marketing. I’m offering the course to people who are not artists, but who have “artistic” or “artsy” tendencies and would like to develop some materials to promote themselves, their business or their organization.

The World Comes Home to Africa - FIFA World Cup 2010 - A Musical Perspective

The opening ceremony of the 2010 World Cup is taking place right now, and it’s reminiscent of the large-scale ceremonies I remember from the Vancouver and Beijing games. The stadium is ginormous and hundreds of Africans, primarily women, are performing synchronized dancing as performers do songs blended together in medleys.

I just saw the singer of [...]

Photoshop Turns 20

It’s amazing to think about the importance of Photoshop in my life. As a graphic designer I have fired up Photoshop nearly every day for the last ten years, and for a few years prior to that, friends were doing the “firing up” and I was just along for the amazing ride.

In 1996, with the [...]

Build It and They Will Come - Marketing in the Digital Age

Can my site rank higher than Facebook and Yahoo? Yes, in the right circumstances, and with a terrifically crafted post on a specific subject.

The Contact Photography Festival just passed and my blog’s Google rank was higher than EYE weekly magazine and both the Facebook page for the fest and a page in Yahoo Business. The [...]

“Waterlife” Documentary – Free Screening at NFB on June 1st

This movie looks like a “must see.” The director, Kevin McMahon has directed some amazing documentaries, including one of my favorites, “McLuhan’s Wake” – a doc on the Canadian media communications theorist Marshall McLuhan.

Green Screens presents WATERLIFE

Directed by Kevin McMahon, 2009, 109 minutes.

Tuesday June 1 at 7pm

FREE

NFB Cinema – 150 John St (at Richmond St [...]

Contact Photography Festival 2010

The annual Contact Photography Festival is taking place through the month of May. Unlike the other famous Toronto festivals, including HotDocs and TIFF, this one is completely free – so there are no excuses – check some stuff out!

This year’s theme is “Pervasive Influence: Exploring the social and political consequences of the medium of photography, [...]

“iDIY” – Free Online Course in DIY Graphic Design and Marketing – May 24th – June 28th

I am offering this course again soon – please contact me if you are interested. Here’s the most current post:

http://iam.strongandfree.ca/blog/free-online-course-diy-graphic-design-and-marketing-july-5-aug-9

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Mike Simpson is offering a free online course. The topic is “Do It Yourself” Graphics and Marketing. iDIY and uCan too! You are invited to participate! (Printable PDF Version).

If you have an [...]

Torontoist announces Rep Theatre Opening - Toronto Underground Cinema

Wow. It’s been quite a week for arts and entertainment in the city. The HotDocs Documentary Film Festival opening and Contact Photography Festival mark the beginning of the many arts-focused festivals which take centre-stage during summer months. Venerable website Torontoist has a story and photographs of the founders of a new repertory theatre which will [...]

Mediatheque and NFB - Great Toronto Film and Documentary Resource!

Located at John and Richmond St. in downtown Toronto, the National Film Board’s Mediatheque centre is an inspiring place. You can check out all kinds of short films, animations and documentaries. Once I took a group of students there for a field trip. The presenter was amazing – it was one of my favorite all-time [...]