|
10 Ruble Russian Coin featuring cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (Photo by Mike) Today is “Day of the Soviet Space Program (Cosmonautics)” for Russians – a day to remember the cosmonaut and national hero Yuri Gagarin, who on April 12, fifty years ago, was blasted into orbit from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. [...] 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 [...] Update: March 2011 – this movie won the Academy Award for Best Documentary at the 2010 Awards ceremony A new documentary is opening – “Inside Job” – a film about the global financial crisis. Positive reviews abound: Rottentomatoes.com gave the flick an amazing 95%! Directed by Charles Ferguson, the doc features Matt Damon as [...] I have been teaching ESL and TESL for about ten years, and as a specialist in teaching speaking, listening and pronunciation, I have frequently used both movies and music in the classroom. I created “Movie Study” worksheets with teacher/student components–a project I undertook when working at Pacific Language Institute (PLI). As a singer-songwriter I would [...] 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 [...] 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 [...] 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 [...] 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 [...] |
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 
|
|
| |