One of my favourite venues in the city celebrates a special anniversary this week. The St. Lawrence Market turns 205 this week. Stop by this piece of the city’s history on Friday and Saturday to catch up on the festivities. On Friday Bruce Bell will be leading a tour through Old Town Toronto bringing familiar Toronto landmarks to life. The fun continues Saturday with music, buskers and more. Rediscover the core.

Of course one can’t forget the the food! There will be specials and anniversary features to sample so don’t miss it. All the more reason to check out the St Lawrence Market.

St. Lawrence Market 205th Anniversary
Friday, November 6, 6 p.m., and Saturday November 7, 2009, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

This Sunday is the 5th Annual Human River. A free event explores the natural history of our city incorporating art and education. Human River is a project of the Toronto Public Spacing Committee in partnership with Coach House Books, LEAF, Lost Rivers of the Toronto Green Community, RiverSides, vanishingpoint.ca and wade.

Put on some blue clothing and join the volunteers as they explore the history of the Garrison Creek, a creek that still flows beneath our homes and roads. The walk begins on Sunday at 1:00 pm, leaving from the Pavilion at Christie Pits Park and finishes at Historic Fort York Blue Barracks with a closing reception at 5:30 pm.

One need not walk the whole downhill route, but those who do will be rewarded with different perspectives of Toronto. You will learn how the city continues to be shaped by Garrison Creek even today. Organizers can let you know points along the route to catch up with the “blue parade” if you can’t make it to Christie Pits for 1pm. Just email them at contact@humanriver.ca. You can also go to Fort York at 5:30pm. All are welcome at the closing reception.

This a great family event put on by some excellent volunteers (donations are welcome). This year blue Human River T-shirts will be available for a $15 donation, 2 Human River buttons will be available with a $5 donation.

Human River – Sunday October 25th
Free
Donations are welcome ($5 will buy 2 commemorative buttons, $15 at T-Shirt)
Starts at Christie Pits Pavillion at 1pm
Closing Reception at Fort York, Blue Barricks at 5:30pm

I was talking to Mark Appleyard about his new site during the Flip Premiere. It’s finally live, Werd Life. The new site is a collaboration between Mark, Geoff Rowley and artist Todd Bratrud. With these strong skateboard personalities the site should be epic and live up to the definition.

The success of the iPhone is unquestionable. Mac vs. PC, Blackberry vs. iPhone… All users of computers and mobile phones are potential customers for the mobile giants. If Rogers loses it’s exclusive rights things could get pretty good for consumers (of expensive gadgety cell phone thingys).

In this economy service and selection are a welcome commodity. Big Bell has upgraded their network and may be realizing it can’t just throw away customers any longer. Looks as though we soon may see if Apple haters have changed their tune in November.

Today is last day of the Manifesto Festival. The main event, runs noon till 10pm. A free concert at Nathan Phillips Square. The highlight of the festival so far was Friday night’s Chapter III art show. AMAZING. Three floors of music and art. Great pieces by Elicsor, Fathom and Chor Boogie. If you miss out on today’s show be sure to at least head back to 52 McCaul before or during Nuit Blanche.

The Manifesto Festival – Main Event
Nathan Phillips Square
noon till 10pm
Featuring Talib Kweli & HiTek,
Grand Analog and many others.

Been waiting for this all week. Gordon Ball graces us with a visit from Montreal for his latest photo show at Sleeping Giant.

It’s always a pleasure to see a well crafted photo in person. PIKTO is providing a special treat in time for the film fest. Head down to their space and see a collection of Karsh portraits showing until November 6th. If you missed the exhibit at the McMichael this will be a great opportunity to see a great collection of Karsh’s famous portraits.

You’ve no doubt by now noticed that the sites got a bit of a re-design and some things got changed around last week. We wanted to highlight two changes to make sure everyone knows what changed.

The first and biggest is COMMENTS! Registration is no longer required to post a comment on any post. Of course if you already have an account you can still login to ensure your comments are attributed to you, but those who don’t can now post a comment without any long term commitment. Also, on the right you can see some of the recent comments so you’ll always know what the active discussions are. This was the most requested thing we’ve heard from people since our last redesign and we’re excited to see where it leads.

The next change is also something that was heavily requested, and that is a change to the ADS on the sites. You’ll immediately notice fewer of them, but what might not be as obvious is those smaller square ones to the right are specific to this city only and are being sold for a flat rate for a period of time rather than a confusing CPM/traffic/network model. Depending on the city, these range from $7-$175 for a full week. If you purchase one, during that time your ad will be the only one in that spot and will show on every page. We set these up both to make it easier for smaller local businesses to get their ads on our site, and also to help us bring in ads that relate better to our local audiences. Also, keeping these sites online is expensive and every little bit helps.

There are a bunch of other things we changed but we’ll leave those to you to investigate and take advantage of. Hope you like it, and we look forward to seeing you in the comments!!

Love,
The folks at MBHQ

I always cringe when I hear about a bicycle or pedestrian accident. The latest high profile incident featuring Michael Bryant is no exception.

Road rage gone horribly wrong?! I’m sure a major investigation is not required to figure that out. Whether alcohol or other factors are at play here there is no doubt that this incident, among about 1,000 that occur every year, was preventable. It never matters “who’s fault” a minor faux pas on the streets is caused by. The key is minor driver vs. driver (or bike or pedestrian) mistakes don’t escalate into the death, trauma or damage to those who share the roads. Considering how this case escalated I hope people can recognize how fast things can go so wrong.

I still shoot digital here and there but considering how fast photo “innovations” hit the streets I don’t mind looking to the past and simpler times. I’ve been a fan of half frame cameras and photographers who use them like Bob Kronbauer, Andy Mueller and Isaac Mckay-Randozzi for years. After drooling over these camera gizmos for some time but got my first one on ebay a few months back.

It’s nice getting twice as many pictures crammed on to a roll of film. The “relic” of a camera I hooked up was probably one of the best point and shoot cameras of 1962 and still works well today! The reality is that whether your camera is a metal, plastic or pinhole it’s a photographer’s imagination that’s at the soul of a good picture.

When Lomography announced the release of a new plastic half frame camera, the Diana Mini, I pounced. Their remake of the classic Diana is quite good but they seem to have out done themselves with this mini version. 120 (medium format film) is harder to come by so a cute 35mm version of a Diana is a welcome surprise.

The camera is in the mail, just in time to catch the madness at The Ex. For those allergic to carnies and mail order I’m sure that Urban Outfitters or the good people at PIKTO will be stocking the Diana Mini for your own photo adventure soon enough.

Pleased to hear a track from Saint Dirt Elementary School on this month’s Zunior Music Sampler. Saint Dirt Elementary School are an interesting mix of lap steel and jazz best seen and heard live at the cozy Tranzac club. Their latest release, Ice Cream Man Dreams, is a solid album.

As always Zunior is a great place to get quality independent Canadian Music via download. A lot of out of print releases are available often at higher resolution than iTunes and cost less! Toronto bands and labels are well represented but it never hurts to browse and discover others. The monthly sampler is a great way to start!

Saint Dirt Elementary School @ The Tranzac
292 Brunswick Avenue
Tuesday August 18th
$5 or PWYC

Best squeeze the best out of these last few weekends of summer. Looks to be a sweet and sunny weekend. A perfect backdrop for a lazy afternoon. Or not?

Things are heating up in the skate scene too. Some of Toronto’s and Southern Ontario’s best are heading West to Hamilton this afternoon. Hamilton is holding the 17th annual Hamilton Sk8 Jam. One of the longest running amateur skateboard competitions in Canada. This year there is a twist. The original home of the contest, Beasley Bowl, will host today’s competition. The final day, Sunday, will be held at the new Turner Skatepark. A skateshop/crew challenge is being thrown in to see who can dominate both days.

Hamilton Sk8 Jam
August 15, 2009
Beasley Park (Mary & Wilson) – Hamilton

1pm start both days

A bit of grandstanding by some but Toronto city councillors voted this evening to approve the deals worked out with two CUPE unions. The strike is over!

The special day long meeting resulted in a 21-17 vote in favour of settling. Seems like a decent compromise despite media hype, doomsday projections and hyperbole.

Read the background info. This was one of the lowest settlements among public sector employees in the province. The city is allowing some OT for union workers to clean up the mess BUT is not restricted to hiring contractors if it saves the city money. (Note that some contractors have billed, some who have needed their services The sick day plan benefit has been grandfathered much the same way as in other municipalities like Mississauga.

The bargaining committee for the city, and Mayor Miller, did a relatively good job. If many were paying attention the strain on the city’s finances, started with downloading by the Harris Conservatives. More services dumped down have meant more we have tax increases. All told, while some benefits are still intact for unionized employees, demographics will favour the city as pay outs and the costs of these will fade away. The unions get modest increases and don’t completely hijack to city’s pocketbook.

The workers are back, the services are restored. We’ll have two weeks of unlimited Green Bin and garbage pick up. The ferry services will return to full service Saturday too. Let’s enjoy the rest of the summer and the the Caribana Parade!

Tentative agreements have been reached with striking inside and outside workers and the city Monday. While it has been a roller coaster ride at least both sides were not “forced” into a decision by an outside arbitrator that would have caused more whining. It took a long time but it will be nice to know this is all settled and everyone is back to work. (The details will not be disclosed until they are ratified by council so one can only speculate about the end result of hot issues like sick days).

Perhaps Torontonians can learn from this, much as we did during the big blackout. Will we produce less garbage and stop taking our parks for granted???!!!

Much to the annoyance of RIM, Sweden’s Ericsson has emerged the winner in the bid for Nortel Networks Corp.’s wireless division. Research in Motion claimed that they had been blocked from the bidding process. Not surprising.

The quest of the current government to divest or sell off Canadian assets stretches further than nuclear isotopes. Jim Balsillie, RIM’s co-chief executive officer stated,

“RIM is extremely disappointed that Nortel’s world leading technology, the development of which has been funded in part by Canadian taxpayers, seems destined to leave Canada and that Canada’s own Export Development Corporation is preparing to help by lending $300 million to another bidder. RIM remains extremely interested in acquiring Nortel assets through a Canadian ownership solution that would serve the dual purpose of keeping key wireless technologies in Canada and extending RIM’s leadership in the research, development and distribution of leading edge wireless solutions, but RIM has found itself blocked at every turn.”

Selling off Canadian innovation in our national interests to keep seems counter-intuitive, but not to the current helm at Industry Canada. Hate to think how they will handle a tourism portfolio when Jim Flaherty has mentioned he may sell off Via Rail.

Yes, the addition of The Marquee Tourism Events Program (MTEP) to Indusrty Minister’s (Tony Clement) plate comes after sexy isotopes and hopes to privatize nuclear medicine in Canada. The tourism portfolio inheritance comes with the turfing of junior cabinet minister Diane Ablonczy (likely over $400,000 of funding to the Toronto Pride Parade). Marry this off with further sell offs of Canadian patents and technology and the new “Conservatives” are taunting the opposition and adding fuel to the election fire.

Well a fight seems to be brewing at least here at Queen’s Park. Dwight Duncan, Ontario’s finance minister, feels that technology funded with Canadian taxpayer money shouldn’t easily be sold off to a foreign company.