Small Press Book Group

i'm really thrilled to announce that i'm going to help organize the next Toronto Small Press Book Fair! the last event, last month, was a lot of fun, and i'm looking forward to an exciting autumn, setting up the next one. i'm lucky to be working with a fabulous co-organizer, playwright Sang Kim. the Fall Fair is in early November...stand by for exact date & location, coming soon.

the perfect how-to book promotion...

ouch, how true...especially the moment around 2.30 minutes.



oh yes, livin' the dream.

e-publishing

Sarah Sheard makes really interesting points about publishing, Kindle, and all that digital jazz in her article Brave new e-world in this past Saturday's Globe & Mail

Toronto Fringe

i have to find time to see more at Toronto's Fringe, happening all this week

i'm planning to see The Universal Wolf later this week. some of my other picks, here at blogTO.

Happy Canada Day!

the country of the maple leaf is 142 today.along with the birthday candles & good cheer...i'll make a birthday wish: I'd like a better government than the one we've currently got, one that has more common sense about the environment, human rights, freedom of expression, and our international role.

but in the meantime, bring on the the fireworks, the poutine, and yes, our proud national rodent, the beaver. (you other countries with eagles & things, you're just jealous you don't have a national animal as practical & entertaining as a beaver.)

Back in TO...Mongiat's Lansdowne mural updated

to distract us from Toronto's stinking strike...Richard Mongiat has completed the north side of his Underpass Project, the beautiful monochromatic mural on Bloor, at Lansdowne.

i love this project because it's a refreshing new take on what a street mural is supposed to be--Mongiat isn't trying to hide the wall or cover up the sometimes sketchy aspects of his neighbourhood. "I like working with what's here," he says.

the broken-up & stained surface of the concrete wall, the industrial feel of the railway bridge overhead, even the graffitti that has turned up on the south side of the mural (completed last year)--it's all part of his inspiration. for more about the mural, see my BlogTO article here.

Theatre, brothels, vaudeville...welcome to London

i'm stage-managing Bremner Duthie's show "The Barker's Spiel" at the London Ontario Fringe Festival this week. the show is happening at the Grand Theatre in downtown London, which turns out to be the oldest continually-running playhouse in all of Canada.

above, the interior of the main Grand stage; Bremner is performing in the downstairs black box theatre, which used to be a rabbit's warren of rooms for the vaudeville performers. very appropriate for the cabaret-inspired "Barker's Spiel"!

unfortunately, the exterior has been renovated, so you would never suspect the interior is so fabulous. the theatre is apparently haunted by the Grand's original impresario, Ambrose Small, who disappeared mysteriously in 1919. we haven't seen his ghost, as yet (and we had a late show on Saturday, so if he was going to appear, surely he'd have turned up then...maybe he can't figure out what happened to the outside of his theatre.) the various stories about him are quite fascinating. the theatre technician happily showed us the original basement wall of the Grand--where Small kept a secret office, to settle gambling debts & meet the ladies.

this kind of nefarious history seems to turn up all over London, even behind the most elegant 19th century facades that we walk past every day. we're staying in Woodfield, beside downtown; starting in the 1840, tobacco barons, a medical genius or two, and all kinds of business tycoons built homes here. (photos are two of my favourite "white brick" houses--the brick was quarried nearby & gives the streets a much brighter, lighter feeling than Toronto's red brick bay & gables.)

we're staying in a 19th-century Ontario cottage a block from here...and our first evening, while we relaxed in the garden, our host admitted that back in 1920s, the house was a well-known brothel. the immense claw-footed tub (since refinished) still stands proudly in the main bathroom.

for a theatre performance that's inspired by Berlin 1930s cabaret, by 1950s Vegas lounge, and by the vaudeville world of the carny, turns out London couldn't be more appropriate...

Swooning for the Simcoe WaveDeck

Sexy...fun...unique...welcome to the WaveDeck! the latest addition to Toronto's waterfront gets my whole-hearted thumbs-up at its ribbon-cutting. More photos with my BlogTO piece, here.

of course, nothing is flawless: the curving steps of the city's new urban dock seems a little too inviting for skateboarders...and some grouches are worried that urbanites will slip on ice in winter (or the city will completely cover the bridge in salt, turning the fish beneath into gravlax).

but i'm excited about this new deck because it shows creativity and vision--rare qualities indeed. and i like the determined playful work of Adriaan Geuze, the Dutch landscape architect whose design won the Waterfront competition. at this Friday's opening, Chris Glaisek (vice-president of planning and design for Waterfront Toronto) said he hoped the WaveDeck's success would calm critics who are raging about the project's slow progress and cost. the deck was completed two weeks early, and under budget.