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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 [...] 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 [...] 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 [...] 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 [...] 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 [...] 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 [...] 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 [...] 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 [...] The branding and identity work for the Olympics features some stunning illustration. Kudos to the Vancouver Olympic committee! Today I fired up Google Chrome and saw the Olympic graphic (or “doodle”) Google created for their homepage. (It’s pictured at the end of this article). The image is subtle and appealing. It doesn’t even [...] 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 [...] |
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 a hybrid music and video project called "City Symphony" and teaching at George Brown College. Check out Strong+Free for his Design and Media work. Contact him: mike @ strongandfree.ca 
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