Mike Simpson » Books

Iconic Canadian Graphic Artist Marian Bantjes Exhibit at OCAD

Mike — Sun, 22 May 2011 21:59:14 +0000

"I want it all" - Marian Bantjes

If you get a chance you must head to the Onsite gallery at OCADU and catch the Marian Bantjes exhibit. Marian recently published, “I Wonder,” a beautifully printed and design “illuminated manuscript” (as design guru Steven Heller has described it). She is definitely one of Canada’s hottest designers. She is a graphic artist who brings passion and personality to her intricate crafty work. Specializing in highly detailed illustration and beautiful typographic work, Bantjes captivates with a variety of works, from magazine covers to posters to laser-cut valentine cards. The detail is phenomenal and the approach highly original. A little bonus is the sound recording of her reading one of her “love letter” pieces aloud, which you’ll find in the main room. This show is here for another two weeks – so be sure to check it out.

Read Steven Heller’s review of “I Wonder” in the NY Times (with slideshow of book spreads):
http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/01/graphic-content-marian-bantjes-illuminated/

Visit the Onsite gallery is on the second floor of the main OCAD building at 100 McCaul St. in downtown Toronto (beside the AGO). The exhibit is on from March 2 – June 5, 2011
http://www.ocad.ca/onsite.htm

Iconic Canadian Connections – Coupland’s McLuhan Book Reviewed

Mike — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 16:41:31 +0000

It was with great excitement that one day early this summer a search for “Douglas Coupland” at the Toronto Public Library website yielded an amazing find: “Extraordinary Canadians – Marshall McLuhan.” This is a book by Coupland which explores the life and ideas of a most iconic Canadian. And if you are familiar with Douglas and like his quirky style, then you might agree it’s a perfect match.

John Ralston Saul, notable Canadian author, essayist, head of PEN International, and the head of the “Extraordinary Canadians” series in 2005, thought as much too. Coupland was approached a few times to do this and finally relented. Some critics have charged that he sourced too much info from Wikipedia and Google searches, but truth be told, the book offers some insights and is related in an affectionate style. Coupland and McLuhan are kindred spirits, separated by a few generations, but definitely on the same wavelength. I know they both have some similarities in style and the odd peculiarity: quiet introspective thinkers who have embraced the media as promotional tool, finding it difficult to fall asleep without the aid of ear plugs (both of which are something I can relate to). Perhaps the most public and iconic element are the catchphrases, from Coupland’s “Generation X,” to McLuhan’s “Global Village.”

In the end, I throughly enjoyed the book, found the biographical elements substantial enough, and the quirky Internet trivia stuff entertaining. Please check out my links to an interview with Douglas Coupland, an excerpt from the book and my full review of Extraordinary Canadians: Marshall Mcluhan.

Interview with Toronto Author and Publisher Michael Redhill

Mike — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:29:26 +0000

Toronto author and publisher Michael Redhill

Michael Redhill is a Toronto-based author and publisher. He has taught at the University of Toronto, where he is also presently the “Writer in Residence.” A few years ago, I was fortunate to have him as my instructor for a Creative Writing (Poetry) course. He has written a number of award-winning poetry collections, plays and novels. His most recent novel is called “Consolation.” He publishes “Brick,” a literary journal.

We discussed his work and the work of other writers, artist and musicians, the CN Tower, Ottawa, culture, identity and nationality, and his time spent living in Paris. I talked to Michael at the Only Cafe over a latte in late February 2010.

Michael will be reading on Tuesday, March 30, 2010, from 4:15 PM to 6:00 PM at Massey College, U of T.

Thanks for meeting and chatting Michael!

Enjoy the interview.

Links:

University of Toronto – Biography

Brick Literary Journal

Quill and Quire article (circa 2001, when his acclaimed first novel “Martin Sloane” was published)

Style Garage Rocks Gus Modern and Canadiana-Themed Furniture

Mike — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:00:09 +0000

Yesterday I was walking along “West Queen St. West”, the hipper cousin to the commercial strip known as Queen West, and I came across a funky furniture store with some real Canadian flavour and heavy style going on (hence the name “Style Garage” I guess!). Style Garage has been at the corner of Queen and Shaw St. for at least a decade, and it’s a little slice of slick but homey/comfy design sense, midway between downtown and Parkdale, in the “Art and Design” district.

Style Garage’s designs are “made to order” and the showroom shows off some really cool furniture (such as that from associates “Gus Modern”), along with funky accessories, many with a heavy Canadiana theme that immediately brought Douglas Coupland to mind. There’s nothing tacky or old-fashioned here though, it’s a fairly serious but friendly vibe at the same time. Nifty pillows with screen printed maps of Canada, and a handful of books on art/design/photography (Bauhaus, Edward Burtynsky’s “Oil”) round out the shop – giving it the feel of a highly artistic and design-centric endeavor. It’s not too far from Trinity Bellwoods Park and I suggest it’s a great place to stop on a crosstown walk, after you have a lunch at a cafe and check out some of the art galleries in the area.

For more info and to peep some of their amazing furniture design go to http://www.stylegarage.com/

Book Review – Presentation Zen

Mike — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:41:39 +0000

4 famous books on Presentations

I have just finished a book review on Garr Reynold’s inspirational Presentation Zen. I summarize a few of the key ideas in the book and offer some links to online presentations at Slideshare and Ted Talks.

Presentations have fascinated me for the last year, coinciding with my early video experiments, one of the first of which was a video resume based on a PowerPoint presentation I uploaded to LinkedIn. Presentations, when combined with an interesting speaker and interesting topic, are a great learning experience. Too often though, we associate presentations with some dull training or business information session. It shouldn’t have to be this way.

In the world of education, the concept of “digital storytelling” has been a buzz concept for the last few years. More than ever, regular people have access to tools for telling their stories and sharing their ideas digitally. One of the problems with this of course, is the great output of mediocre or uninspiring video and other multimedia. I think a crash course is necessary, to teach a few design basics to anyone thinking about putting together a presentation or video.

In my expansive book review of Presentation Zen you’ll find some design principles I followed when creating presentations and a number of examples I borrowed from Reynold’s book. These days with tools like Photoshop Elements (a light version) being affordable and accessible, there is really no excuse for anyone to churn out a template-based “presentation by numbers” production. Interesting photos can be found at stock photo sites or through creative commons licensing. A world of resources is available to give your presentations some graphical pizazz.

Read the review of Presentation Zen and check out some links to amazing presentations
http://iam.strongandfree.ca/book-reviews/presentation-zen

Greatest Indie Canadians

Mike — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:28:06 +0000

Recently I got to playing around with a graphic of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games and a picture of artist/writer Douglas Coupland. I was compositing the two and came up with the image at left, which I really quite like. I started thinking about what makes Doug Coupland one of my favourite Canadians, and who else would make that list.

In 2004, as you may remember, the CBC commissioned a survey asking Canadians to nominate their own “Top 10 Greatest Canadians.” It was quite a challenge but the people were up to the task. I still remember that program. there were media/sport celebrities like Don Cherry and the environmentalist David Suzuki. There were pioneers in politics and science/medicine like Tommy Douglas and Frederick Banting. It was quite an impressive list. Perhaps the only person I thought was ”sure thing” was Pierre Trudeau. For any of his faults, he was a thinker and an enigmatic leader who came to power at the same time that Canada was blossoming on the world stage.

If we think of the dramatic decade that was the 1960s, and the amazing moments like a man on the moon and the Vietnam war, Trudeau was a leader for amazing times. He was, as the expression goes (especially for new young alpha male leaders in areas like extreme sport), a “Rock Star.” He also championed, along with the Liberal party, the rights of minorities and helped usher in the modern age of Canada as global human-rights benefactor and multicultural country (particularly through UN peacekeeping missions and landmark moments like the acceptance of the “boat people” – the tide of hundreds of thousands of refugees who fled Southeast Asia during the Vietnam war, rejected elsewhere but accepted first by Canada).

This stuff is really important, especially as we regard cities as the future habitat of most of humanity, and we begin to understand how things like climate change will play a role in forcing large groups of people to seek new lands in the 21st century. Canada can lead in progressive humanitarian areas, even as we fail or struggle to lead on the global environmental stage. But back to my list of “Great Indie Canadians.”

I thought up that title because I don’t feel the need to challenge the present CBC list which is found at http://www.cbc.ca/greatest/top_ten/. My “Indie” group, as you might have guessed, are not heroes of the nation in science or politics, and might be recognizable more to those who grew up in the 1970s and 80s, the children of the Baby boomers, and as Douglas Coupland calls them, “Generation X.”

My heroes include Doug Coupland, who has written books like “Generation X”, “Micro Serfs,” and “Shampoo Planet,” and authored a couple of photo-based books called “Souvenir of Canada” (Parts 1 and 2). I suggest you check out the books, but also rent or buy the DVD version. Watching Coupland mount his art exhibit of Canadian “souvenirs” in a condemned suburban family house in Vancouver he calls “Canada House” is remarkable. Included are dramatizations of Coupland’s youth: first jobs, traveling across Canada by car and other coming of age anecdotes, a terrific narration of his travails through university and his twenties, and an in-depth look at the identity of one of Canada’s most interesting and self-deprecating author/celebrities.

As a teacher and an artist, I feel great pride and admiration for this example of new-school multimedia work and encourage any and all to seek it out. If you like the old National film Board “educational” films you’ll enjoy some of the archival footage that is also used throughout the DVD. Doug is very Canadian and sits somewhere right at the top of my list. Who else makes my list? Well, in no particular order, here are a loose group of my Canadian heroes.

(My) Greatest (Indie) Canadians:

Douglas Coupland (writer), Marshall McLuhan (thinker/writer), Sloan (the rock group), Wendel Clark (vs. Marty McSorely), Atom Egoyan and Bruce McDonald (film directors), The Tragically Hip, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Rush (Musicians), Maestro (Fresh Wes, the rapper) and Frank Arthur Calder (First Aboriginal Canadian elected to a Legislature in Canada).

Please feel free to contribute your own list! Looking forward to your comments!

(Related) From the Toronto Star:
“Designed by Canadian artist/author Douglas Coupland and landscape architects Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg, an 8-acre park in downtown Toronto was unveiled today, featuring unique public art, water features and a jogging track dedicated to Terry Fox. Narration by Christopher Hume. Video by Bernard Weil. (September 9, 2009)” – This video shows some iconic images/people from “Douglas Coupland’s Canada”
http://www.thestar.com/videozone/693351

Brave New World Wide Web – The Writing of Don Tapscott

Mike — Sun, 10 May 2009 22:04:58 +0000

Tapscott is a Toronto-based writer who tackles concepts such as digital literacy and the changing nature of technology and society.

First of all, you may have asked the question “What is Web 2.0?” There are many terms floating around the “blogosphere” – to use another recent neologism. Blogs for one are a new kind of publishing, providing a voice for millions, an echo of the “desktop publishing” revolution of the 1980s that democratized the tools of creative production and allowed more people to participate in creating media. Web 2.0 encompasses blogs and social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn. But it’s also about apps like “Google Maps” and the ability of website designers and visitors to employ these technologies in novel and practical ways. Web 2.o is about a democratization of the media and the evolution toward constantly-evolving sites, non-static, truly dynamic, user-created worlds where the individual is king and interactivity rules. There are other related concepts. The “cloud” is one of the more interesting phenomenon. (More on that later!)

Writers like Tapscott argue that teenagers and twentysomethings, grown up with digital technology and media, possess a different kind of intelligence. Schools and businesses need to adapt to keep up. We live in a new world – a “brave new world wide web.” Content belongs to the “creative commons, ” collaboration is central and businesses can learn from innovators like Wikipedia and MySpace. Tapscott’s latest book is a look at the “Net Generation” and what it means to live in the 21st century – the world of “Web 2.0″ – a tech-crazy, digitally-dense era that demands the development of new kinds of skills and new ways of thinking.

Read my review of “Grown Up Digital”

Related: Marc Prensky is a writer/thinker with an interesting article called “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants” (look up marcprensky.com and click the writing link). Michael Wesch is an academic who speaks about “media ecology.” Look up his videos on YouTube.

Gerald and Setsuko Lazare – East Meets West Book Launch – Japan Foundation, Toronto

Mike — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 13:12:52 +0000

Gerald with his award-winning portrait of Setsuko which adorns the cover of their book

Last night I attended a book launch and lecture for Gerald and Setsuko Lazare’s amazing new publication “East Meets West.” The Japan foundation is the perfect setting for an event like this – central and elegant in design and ambiance. As we strolled from Lettieri in chi-chi Yorkville to the venue, we were greeted with brass-buttoned ‘guards’ outside the Cartier shop – and we joked about the 50% off sale inside and proceeded to the Japan Foundation.

The event turned out to be a sweet lecture and talk that was nicely informal at times, as both Gerald and his wife and creative partner, Setsuko discussed their lives in the art world and their real life day to day routine in Toronto. Their story is of two people from divergent cultures finding something in common and falling in love and as they related anecdotes from their work and travels I was caught up in the romance and strong artistic vision the couple possess. Gerald was easy-going and humorous while Setsuko was tender, relating stories like the one of the inspiration for her to place her deceased sisters together in a lovely ‘parlour room’ portrait. Most of their art is in the style of 19th century European art like Sergeant.

After their 30 min talk, with a nice accompaniment of slides, the couple entertained questions from the audience. A couple of questions challenged the artists and their work – why paint a kimono without its customary wrap or components? where is the intersection of east and west in the art? It was interesting to hear the responses. In the end, the artwork is what it is – not a merger of styles but a portrait of two cultures and two people from two cultures – Gerald especially admitting his take on “‘oriental art” was not meant to be accurate or true – but indeed a foreigner’s take and one containing appreciation and respect. It was an entertaining and thought-provoking launch for a book that is full of amazing paintings (and the Lazare’s story in a bilingual text).

Look for their exhibit in May at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto!

Robert Ward speaks / reads on the 'Camino de Santiago', Spain

Mike — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 20:51:07 +0000

Cross at Finisterre - Robert and Michiko

My friend Robert is a writer with a passion for the ‘Camino’ pilgrimage trail in Spain – he’s written books and magazine articles about it – and now he’s going to share his writing and memories of his experiences via a couple of speaking engagements. First up is a one hour lecture at Intrepid Travel on Bloor St. on Wednesday. That will be followed 9 days later by an appearance at the Canadian Author’s Association and then he’ll talk at some Toronto Public Libraries in April. If you’ve never met Robert you’re in for a treat. He’s quite creative and entertaining and he will divide his time between reading and regaling, so it should be a fun evening.

Of course, I have reviewed his book on this very blog, so if you’re curious you might start with that.

Robert Ward site

Intrepid Travel (March 11), the Canadian Authors’ Association (March 19)