The Walrus Talk at the Canadian Museum of Nature on Thursday night took The Arctic as its theme, and the evening was as inspiring and illuminating as previous events in this ambitious national series. It also demonstrated with stunning clarity the conflict between communications cultures that is my main topic on this blog. As usual,... Continue Reading →
I read with interest this thoughtful article by Diane Ragsdale about the challenges posed by digital tools to arts audiences, as well as the many excellent comments that followed. I added my own comment, which I will post here as it was fairly substantial: This is a fascinating topic, but I would argue that our... Continue Reading →
This is the first of a series of new posts that explain how you can apply the lessons of jazz to collaborate successfully. Respect “Music is my mistress and she plays second fiddle to no one.” Duke Ellington Jazz - like any collaborative process - is rooted in respect. Respect for oneself. Respect for others.... Continue Reading →
Hi. This post lists and links to my first 50 posts on this blog, indexing 50 brief critical essays on contemporary media culture. Topics include The Leveson Inquiry, Occupy Wall Street, Privacy, Music, Food, Economics and more. Try one. 1. Happy Birth Day! my blog is born 2. Gifts and Books, Books and Gifts books as... Continue Reading →
In New Zealand, electronic-bracelet-wearing Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom has gone on the offensive again, launching a new dance video produced by Black Eyed Peas' musical director Printz Board that directly attacks John Banks, the NZ cabinet minister whom Dotcom claims asked for – and received – an anonymous and illegal $50,000 campaign donation from him.... Continue Reading →
In 1974, Ontario's public broadcaster (OECA) launched a unique experiment in live broadcasting and media criticism. Media Circus was 90-minutes of live commercial-free analysis of 'what is on TV right now'. Until recently it was believed that no recordings of this groundbreaking TV series existed, but recently a copy of the first episode came into... Continue Reading →
EDIT to this post: as you'll see if you check the comments to this post, someone has informed me that in fact the Girl Scouts/Guides had nothing to do with the suing of Men at Work and in fact it was an Australian publishing company called Larrikin Music that pursued the suit. I apologize to... Continue Reading →
This has been a busy time, with some long-term artistic projects coming to fruition and others popping up out of the blue. I like to track these on this blog, although it does seem like recently most of my writing here has been about various artistic projects and less about ideas and current events, which... Continue Reading →
A few weeks ago I gave a talk at the Toronto Reference Library as part of an excellent series called Treehouse Talks. It was a lovely event, attended by about 100 people and held in the spectacular 5-story atrium of the library. I gave an updated version of the talk that I call Know Your... Continue Reading →
Late afternoon last Saturday I found myself walking past Grossman's Tavern on Spadina in Toronto when a thought suddenly struck me: "Hey, don't the Happy Pals play here every Saturday afternoon?" I went in and sure enough, the best traditional jazz band north of N'awlins was just setting up, as they have done every Saturday at... Continue Reading →
YOU ARE YOUR MEDIA 