By Mike, on November 29th, 2010  I finally launched a long discussed travel presentation night – the idea gestated over the last year and was conceived when I was a friend’s at Christmas and we were all exchanging stories about trips to exotic overseas lands. Eventually a laptop was fired up and we were shown an impromptu slideshow. The problem wasn’t the quality of story-telling or experience, it was that we were essentially looking at something that resembles the classic “family home movies.” If it’s not a computer, it’s a camera attached to the TV, and in the digital age we are often subjected to hundreds and hundreds of images. It often goes this way, and there’s a better solution.
A presentation, where photos are hand-picked because they help tell the story, goes a long way to remedying the situation. and it’s a great excuse the get some friends together and discuss a passion many of us share these days: travel. It may well be the golden age of travel. It’s reliable, and relatively cheap. The world is going through globalization at an astounding rate; many of us are travelling to increasingly exotic lands, and coming back with tremendous stories. Continue reading Travel Talks – Mike’s Presentation Night in Toronto
By Mike, on November 2nd, 2010 
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 the narrator, and a heavy duty investigative flavor that is sure to make waves in media, entertainment and politics. But will it have any effect on economics? Hopefully – but obviously regulators and politicians have a role to play in reigning in the excessive system that is a greedy, irresponsible blight on the early 21st century landscape. The movie traces the development of the causes of the disaster, which have their roots in 1980s Reagonomics – the loosening or removal of financial systems regulations designed to stymie abuse and protect consumers.
Here is the synopsis:
‘Inside Job’ is the first film to provide a comprehensive analysis of the global financial crisis of 2008, which at a cost over $20 trillion, caused millions of people to lose their jobs and homes in the worst recession since the Great Depression, and nearly resulted in a global financial collapse. Through exhaustive research and extensive interviews with key financial insiders, politicians, journalists, and academics, the film traces the rise of a rogue industry which has corrupted politics, regulation, and academia
Links:
Article in Globe and Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/movies/inside-job-skillfully-skewering-the-lobbyists-and-apologists/article1776590/
Trailer at YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzrBurlJUNk
By Mike, on October 21st, 2010  I’m very excited that on October 28th I will be presenting at the TESL Ontario conference in Toronto. This is an opportunity to refine some thinking I’ve been doing about the possibilities available to teachers and other professionals to harness the power of websites and blogs. My presentation is going to be on the topic of “Websites for Content Creation and Management,” and will explore everyday tools like Google Applications and WordPress, an amazing tool for creating websites and blogs.
Continue reading TESL ON Conference – Presentation – Create, Manage Websites
By Mike, on October 21st, 2010 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 often bring a guitar to class and lead informal workshops–entertaining while educating. Music and movies have been my lifelong passion and I have extensive experience inspiring and teaching students with both mediums. By extension there is also a world of hybrid media available to teachers and learners as well – and we shall take a look at the wealth of software, flash-based games and activities, and “rich media” or “multimedia” that is available online and in our computer labs.
Continue reading Music and Movies – aka “Media for the Classroom” – Workshop at CCLCS
By Mike, on October 21st, 2010  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 “A Windigo Tale,” directed by Carlton University Professor Armand Ruffo. The film mingles different family stories, and takes a dramatic look at the sad legacy of residential schools. The trailer at the festival site looks promising. “A Windigo Tale” closes the festival on Sunday and plays at the Bloor Cinema. It’s great to see another film festival in Toronto and one that showcases works by and about Canadian First Nations and natives from around the world.
By Mike, on October 15th, 2010  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.
Continue reading Iconic Canadian Connections – Coupland’s McLuhan Book Reviewed
By Mike, on September 29th, 2010 This could be the zeitgeist moment of Facebook – when the little social network that could really become an all-encompassing behemoth. Already writers and thinkers in the tech world compare its scope and power with Google. It is an incredible phenomenon: it quite reminds me of the game changing killer app that was Napster at its peak circa summer 2001. It is is the quintessential social media app – and it seems these days that everybody is using Facebook.
Whatever your opinion of it, Facebook is an epoch definer, and a marvelous indicator of the state of the social Internet (aka social media), and two new movies in theatres now describe different facets of the world-wide wonder (which recently hit 500 million users and looks unstoppable). The two movies diverge in their style and content but a cautionary tale emerges overall. Continue reading New Doc and Drama about Social Media (aka Facebook) – Catfish and The Social Network
By Mike, on September 17th, 2010  < 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 and a loyal supporter of community events like Pedestrian Sundays. I asked him to write about the event and tell us what we might expect for the last two events on September 26th and October 31st. Continue reading Pedestrian Sundays Rock Toronto’s Kensington Market
By Mike, on September 17th, 2010  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 is that the Internet, still essentially a relatively new technology and communications medium, is expanding, while the “web” is dying. Continue reading Web is Dead but ‘Net Lives On: Wired Magazine
By Mike, on September 9th, 2010 Two art show / exhibitions open this Friday that explore the geography of Ontario, one focusing on the man-made spit at the foot of Leslie St. in Toronto, and the other on the remote wilds of northern Ontario, north of Thunder Bay by and reached via Highway 11.
I don’t really frequent art openings and I’m a marginal participant, but in the last year I attended Contact Photography Festival, the Gladstone on an occasion or two, and a handful of cool shows involving friends (including the amazing YYZ shopping mall at 401 Richmond that my friend Ulysses participated in). I was really stoked to get emails from two gallery spaces early this week. This weekend two shows open which document explorations of urban/wilderness spaces and concepts at the geographic extremes of Toronto and northern Ontario (easily 24 hours driving north of the megacity). Continue reading Art exhibits explore Toronto/Ontario urban and wilderness spaces
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I finally launched a long discussed travel presentation night – the idea gestated over the last year and was conceived when I was a friend’s at Christmas and we were all exchanging stories about trips to exotic overseas lands. Eventually a laptop was fired up and we were shown an impromptu slideshow. The problem wasn’t the quality of story-telling or experience, it was that we were essentially looking at something that resembles the classic “family home movies.” If it’s not a computer, it’s a camera attached to the TV, and in the digital age we are often subjected to hundreds and hundreds of images. It often goes this way, and there’s a better solution.
