Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Urban design awards in Toronto

Toronto's urban design awards were announced Monday night at the highly fabulous Palais Royale.

built in 1922, the Palais was originally a dancehall with a boat house downstairs. the building on the shore of Lake Ontario hasn't changed that much--though the view from the verandah probably has...
considering these awards focus on new buildings' context and the evolution of the Toronto's urban fabric, the Palais location seemed peculiarly appropriate--a gorgeous corner of the city's history, marooned by poor planning decisions. of course, the good people at the ceremony were far too polite to mention that fact.

no huge surprises at the awards. i was delighted to see two of my personal city faves being singled out for further glory: the 40R_Laneway house and the Spadina wavedeck.


and this is the Palais at the end of the rainy evening, when there was a special city bus to drag revellers back to Union Station. instead, i braved the crazy pedestrian bridge across the Gardiner Expressway (easier to get home, from there.)

for more about the Urban Design awards, check out my article for blogto.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

RATS is here!

my copies of the book have arrived...very exciting...

Monday, September 14, 2009

a really really BIG rat

while i'm waiting for the first copies of my book RATS OF LAS VEGAS to arrive, i couldn't help noticing this great tidbit of RAT news in the world...

there's a newly-discovered giant rat in Papua New Guinea, living in the crater of a volcano. and the rat is quite friendly, as you can see on the BBC website's video. hopefully it won't meet too many humans who pull its tail (that might influence how friendly it feels towards us.)

and in case you think i'm exaggerating with the word "giant"...the rat is 82 cm long.

Monday, September 07, 2009

Rats of Las Vegas - the book trailer!

i'm thrilled to be back in Toronto for the launch of my new novel, Rats of Las Vegas. i'm gearing up for the first Rats-related event, on September 28th...a cabaret at the Gladstone Hotel, hosted by This Is Not A Reading Series. curious about the book? Kit Pasold, a Toronto-based television producer & graphic designer (& by amazing good luck, he's also my brother), has created a fab book trailer, which is a great intro to the novel: