National Volunteer Week: What's Your Story?

Posted by Jon
Filed in City
April 30, 2008
Friends
Today we find ourselves in the middle of National Volunteer Week. So I ask the blogTO community: Do you volunteer? Do you want to volunteer? Do you have a volunteer-related story you'd like to share?

Sandeep Aujla, Volunteer Coordinator with Hazel Burns Hospice, sat down with me for an interview about her experiences with volunteering: "It's the most beautiful part of my week. When my week finishes, that's the thing I'm most proud of."

That's how Sandeep described volunteering and the role it plays in her life. At Hazel Burns, she spends time with her client out in the community. Her volunteering hours are spent providing emotional support to her client and practical help for their family.

Take Me Back: Raising the Bar for Web Series

Posted by Jon
Filed in Arts
April 27, 2008
Seth Mendelson
For those of you who haven't been driven completely mad by the TTC strike and, more importantly, for those who have, take a quick break and watch an episode of Take Me Back.

Seth Mendelson (seen above), star and co-creator, sat down for an interview about making the ten part web series.

It all began with a call that Seth got at midnight sometime in December of '06 from his co-creator Joe Baron who was in Scotland at the time. Originally intended to be a quick and dirty production for the internet, the series took sixteen months to produce and and went further than Seth and Joe ever thought possible. "We decided that we'd make something [that] we actually wanted to see."

Scooter Head: Guerilla Marketing Gone Horribly Right?

Posted by Jon
Filed in City
April 24, 2008
Scooter Head
Looking at Vespa's new scooter head ads, which popped up at the intersection of Richmond St. W and Peter St., I can't help but laugh. It's the symbolism that gets me.

The posters are human sized cutouts with an image of your average downtown hipster. One exception, which you see above, is that their heads share a remarkable resemblance to the new Vespa S.

Underwear, Not Trains at a Standstill in Union Station

Posted by Jon
Filed in City
April 21, 2008
Underwear Affair
Commuters made their way through an obstacle course of underwear-clad human statues in Union Station at the peak of this afternoon's rush-hour.

City Hall Gets Some Colour, Care of GRL

Posted by Jon
Filed in Arts
April 20, 2008
20080420_tagged_ED.jpg
Graffiti Research Lab is arguably the best thing to happen to City Hall, in all its concrete splendor, since... well, ever.

It all started at Pixel Gallery where Evan Roth of GRL gave a free talk about his work. A former 9-5 architect turn digital artist, Evan is inspiring others to get excited about their city and take back their public space from retailers and advertising. GAP doesn't live here, you do.

Vote: OCAD's "My Toronto is..."

Posted by Jon
Filed in Arts
April 17, 2008
My Toronto IsLast night, almost three hundred posters, showcasing four different artistic works, went up in transit shelters across the city with the lofty ambition of defining Toronto and what it is to be Torontonian.

It's up to you to make the final choice.