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When I was growing up, my mother would take notes about what sports we kids played, how tall we were at certain ages, and what we wanted to be “when we grew up.” My entries say things like: Mike wants to be: an astronaut, a fireman, a baseball player. And variations of [...] There is a quite a buzz surrounding the arrival of a large exhibition of work by General Idea at the Art Gallery of Ontario. GI were a Toronto-based art collective, founded in 1969 and comprised of: AA Bronson, Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal. They were renowned for their irreverance and satirical wit – [...] "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 [...] Illustration by Mike Simpson – Strong-and-Free Update (March 29): Yesterday the band Arcade Fire completed the trifecta – winning Best Group and 3 other awards at the Canadian Juno awards – after bringing home awards at both the British and American music awards shows. Arcade Fire won a Grammy award on Sunday [...] Mike has been an earnest student of film since he studied the “History of Cinema” and “Italian Cinema” at university. Mike is an aspiring filmmaker with a few short videos under his belt. Currently he is working on “City Symphony” – a hybrid documentary / music video that includes music by his alter-ego “Mikooshka.” Here [...] The ImagineNATIVE Film Festival kicked off last night – following up on a busy summer in Toronto cinema festivals (Hot Docs, TIFF). The film festival runs international movies and “celebrates the latest works by Indigenous peoples on the forefront of innovation in film, video, radio, and new media.” One movie that caught my eye is [...] 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 [...] < Photo of Maracatu Nunca Antes, Toronto-based Brazilian music group, by Yvonne Bambrick Kensington Market is a colorful, lively place chock full of quaint shops and colorful characters. On the last Sunday of every month they hold an innovative, car-free, pedestrian-only street festival. My pal Grey Coyote is the President of the Kensington Market Action Committee [...] I picked up the September 2010 issue of Wired Magazine and was struck by the amazing cover story and (design!). It boldly declares that the “Web is Dead!” For those of you who would like my take and synopsis, please read on. (Link at end of this blog post). The basic premise of the article [...] |
Mike Simpson is a teacher, writer, musician and designer from Toronto, Canada. He is a new media enthusiast and has been "strongandfree" since 1996. Mike is working on new graphic design, developing websites and multimedia, and leading training workshops on weekends. Check out Strong+Free for his Design and Media work. Check out Mike's Edu-Tech Workshop site. Please contact him at this address: mike | strongandfree.ca 
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