A Constructed Image of Toronto

blogTO is a media partner of the Contact Photography Festival this year, and will be featuring exclusive coverage of the festival on the blogTO @ Contact 2007 page. In addition, they are hosting a Flickr gallery where members can show their “Constructed Image of Toronto.”

Along with the online presence, blogTO has also organized an exhibit at Brassai for the whole month of May, featuring some of the best photobloggers in the city. The opening party for the exhibit at Brassai will be held in conjunction with the opening reception for the festival this Friday night. I definitely hope to see many of you there.

Also, if some of you may have noticed, that’s a photo of mine there in the promotional postcard above!

I Took the 2007 Survey

Everyone these days is a web designer. You don’t have to know anything about graphic design in order to be a web designer: you could be an interface designer, a web director, a project manager, a creative director, a webmaster, a web consumer. You can even be a writer, content strategist, and information architect like I am. Either way, any person that has an impact on design online is a web designer.

As web design is so ubiquitous, then Zeldman’s question is very poignant:

If web design makes the new information age possible — if it creates new markets and new products, generates significant global cash flow, changes the way companies and non-profits interact with the public, and employs untold legions of specialists — why, until now, hasn’t anybody tried to find out more about it as an industry?

In that spirit, the ALA Web Design Survey is a wonderful idea to get a pulse on the domain of web design as it stands today. I took the survey, and encourage you to do the same. You could win some great prizes, but most of all, it will help build a good look at who exactly is doing web design today. I’m looking forward to seeing the results. Take the survey now.

In Honor of Fat People

Reading The Guardian at breakfast Wednesday morning, I came across a short article in G2 by Stephen Moss refuting the claim that fat people are lazy. Now, as a fat guy myself, I must say I’m far from lazy, but Stephen Moss was even better: he collected a list of high achievers in history that have been fat:

“Fat people don’t work as hard as people who are not fat,” claimed Dragon’s Den fire-breather Duncan Bannatyne. He may not realise it, but some of history’s most significant figures have been fat. Here, we raise our extra-milky lattes with two sugars and mayonnaise-filled superclub sandwiches to 10 high-achieving fatties.

The list includes very famous people including Henry VIII, Buddha, Santa Claus, Orson Welles, and Luciano Pavarotti. In that spirit, I decided it would be nice for me to compile my own short list of famous fat people that have been influential in popular culture.

• Shaquille O’Neal: Sure, he may be tall and built, but if you look at him closely (especially during the off-season) it is clear that the man has paunch. It is precisely that size advantage that has made him so dominant in the NBA: his ability to throw his weight around has secured his place as one of the greatest big men to ever play the game.
• John Candy: Quite possibly one of the funniest men to ever live, Candy used his size to bring laughter to the people around him. In fact, comedy was once dominated by the fat man: Chris Farley, John Belushi, John Goodman, and Drew Carey are just a few examples of this fact.
• Warren Sapp: To tell the truth, I could probably have put the name of any NFL lineman (notably the great and inimitable Reggie White) on this list, but I chose Sapp because at his prime, he was not only bigger than most of the players you see in the league, but because he has been part of the most dominating (and fattest) lines in this history of the NFL with both the Buccaneers and the Raiders.
• Jack Black: Emerging as a leading Hollywood funnyman that has the ability to take on the dramatic role, Black embraces not only his fatness, but his unkempt and crazy look as well.
• Winston Churchill: It’s hard to argue that Churchill is one of the most celebrated and renown politicians of all time. Whether you agree with his politics or not, he definitely wasn’t a lazy fat man.
• Queen Latifah: In the late 80s rap world, being a woman was hard enough; being an overweight woman was practically unheard of. Queen Latifah took her situation as a proud and strong African-American woman and turned it into a career of music celebrating her power as a woman and now into a film career showcasing the true beauty of her body.
• Jason Alexander: Okay, he may not be as prominent as the rest of them, but he made his mark playing a short, fat, balding, broke, glasses-wearing oaf. You can’t blame me if I can relate.
• Mo Vaughn: If any sport was made for the fatman other than football, it was definitely baseball. You don’t need to look like Derek Jeter if you can consistently hit it out of the park, and Mo Vaughn was the ultimate fat baseball player. Sure, there have been other players that have been better (Big Papi, Cecil Fielder, David Wells) and other players that have been fatter (Kirby Puckett, John Kruk), but when I think of fat baseball, Vaughn is the first guy that comes to mind.
• Rosie O’Donnel: Love her or hate her, Rosie’s done a lot for fat people in America. Her daytime talk-show was one of the most entertaining and enlightening shows to come on during the day, and she’s maintained her celebrity presence pretty well for a woman that was constantly being derided by mainstream media as a fat blabber-mouth.
• Tony Soprano: Sure, he’s a fictional character, but James Gandolfini’s mobster has the dream life. Money, fame, notoriety, and women women women. All us fat guys dream of having a life like his.
• The Notorious B.I.G.: If there ever was one fat guy that embraced his fatness and used it to his advantage, it was Christopher Wallace. Biggie Smalls, as he was often called, made hip hop sexy and smooth, instead of thugged out like the West Coast rappers were trying to do. Thinking of Biggie conjures up images of lyrical prowess, melodic flow, and of course, money and women.

There’s probably tons of others I should be adding to this list, but it’s just a start. And the moral of the story: all fat people aren’t lazy.

Transit Chatter

A couple of days ago, The London Paper ran a story about how the officials at the London Underground are discouraging their drivers from using the public address system in order to reduce passenger annoyance. Apparently, many passengers are upset by the large amount of information that comes through the intercom during their commute to work.

I personally think that this is all hogwash. Sure, it can get a little annoying to have such a cacophony of sound bombard your ears when you’re tired and not looking forward to going to work, but giving train operators the flexibility to customize announcements over the loudspeakers makes the ride much more personal and comfortable than hearing a silly automated recording saying “Please, Mind the Gap.”

While the operator should be limited in what kind of messages they can convey, having a personal touch to the message rather than a cold and lifeless recorded voice will make the ride much more pleasurable for all the people on the train: it assures people that their train is not only being operated by a human, but by someone who is approachable and friendly.

Without personalized announcements, you would miss gems such as:

The Bakerloo line is running normally today, so you may expect delays to all destinations.

The London Paper also included this very humorous quote:

Ladies and Gentlemen, I do apologize for the delay to your service. I know you’re all dying to get home, unless, of course, you happen to be married to my ex-wife, in which case you’ll want to cross over to the Westbound and go in the opposite direction.

While some people may find these kinds of announcements extreme, they do a lot to make people less pressured and more at ease in times of high stress like train delays during rush hour. They often bring a smile to faces that would otherwise be covered in scowls, and in general, help lighten the demeanor of the passengers. Asking operators to say the bare minimum will only do more to anger and irritate passengers who are in need of more information delivered in a light-hearted manner.

Who is the “star” of Mira Nair’s The Namesake?

Mira Nair’s The Namesake recently opened here in London, and posters advertising the film have been scattered all across the Underground stations. I recently noticed a dramatic difference in the poster design between the United Kingdom and North America.

As you can see in the North American one-sheet above, the primary focus in the advert is Kal Penn. Penn is quite the star now, especially after the very-popular Harold & Kumar movie, and will do a lot to draw people to Nair’s film. I do think that Penn’s selling power in the United Kingdom may be a bit more limited, as the British poster almost omits Penn entirely in favor of focusing on stars Irfan Khan and Tabu.

I’m sure a good chunk of the readers of this site will actually be unaware of these two Indian cinema stars outside the context of The Namesake, as the infiltration of Bollywood culture has been relatively slow in most parts of North America. Not so in the United Kingdom, where the recent wedding of Aishwarya and Abhishek was front-page (quite literally) news over the weekend. It makes sense that the target audience for The Namesake here in London would be more like to relate to Irfan Khan or Tabu rather than Kal Penn.

I’m not quite sure what point I was trying to make here (or if I was trying to make a point at all), but I do find it fascinating that that the “maind-draw star” of a movie can be so different from region to region.

First Aiding in French

Languages are funny things. I haven’t spoken French for quite some time (since the 11th grade, actually) so my command of spoken French is a bit rusty. Still solid, but I’m just in need of practice.

So as I arrived in Brussels yesterday, I was still asking questions and conversing with locals in English. Until something happened yesterday afternoon that made all my French skills come rushing back.

I was getting off the metro near the European Commission for a set of meetings when the man walking ahead of me on the sidewalk collapsed and started having a seizure. My first-aider instincts jumped in and I started doing the usual: clearing the area, verifying his vitals, and coordinating emergency response. It wasn’t until the emergency response teams had left and I was walking to the Commission that I realized that I had coordinated the first aid efforts completely in French. No hesitation, no stuttering: I spoke French like it was my native language.

Since then, I’ve been using French as my lingua franca here in Brussels. Funny how it takes one small impetus to bring something like a language back into your life.

My Toronto Is…

So while I’m out here in London, Astral Media Outdoor is holding an open vote on designs for a billboard that illustrates what Toronto means to its residents. I’m quite impressed that Astral Media went to OCAD students and is willing to donate a good chunk of its advertising space in the city to celebrating Toronto, but as one commenter on blogTO said: “how about no ads?”

They bring up a good point. While it is valiant of Astral Media to try and push residents to think about the sentence “My Toronto Is,” it would be nicer if there were fewer ads — whether for the city or not — that littered our public spaces. Another blogTO commenter finished the sentence as: “My Toronto is… covered with billboards.”

I voted for this design, which speaks to me a lot more than any of the other designs, but don’t let my opinion color your vote. The way I see it, if Astral Media is going to be littering our public space with ads, they might as well be ads that promote our city.

100 Best Books Since 1982

The piggy notebook passed over this great link to a list of the greatest books published since the year of my birth as compiled by Waterstone’s employees and reported by The Telegraph. According to The Telegraph:

The company asked its 5,000 staff to name their favorite five books written since 1982, the date Waterstone’s opened its first store.

Compared to most lists of this type, I can relate to this one a lot more because it only includes books that have been published since my birth. And because I like lists, here’s a list of the exactly 50 books from The Telegraph list that I have read:

• God Delusion, Richard Dawkins
• Labyrinth, Kate Mosse
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon
• Small Island, Andrea Levy
• The Time Traveller’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
• The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
• The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom
• The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
• A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson
• Notes on a Scandal, Zoe Heller
• The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
• Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
• Life of Pi, Yann Martel
• Atonement, Ian McEwan
• Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
• The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic, Sophie Kinsella
• White Teeth, Zadie Smith
• Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood
• Chocolat, Joanne Harris
• Disgrace, JM Coetzee
• Holes, Louis Sachar
• Poisonwood Bible, Margaret Atwood
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling
• Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden
• The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
• Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier
• Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt
• High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
• A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
• A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
• Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
• Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
• Shipping News, Annie Proulx
• English Patient, Michael Ondaatje
• Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby
• American Psycho, Bret Ellis
• LA Confidential, James Ellroy
• A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving
• Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro
• The Silence of the Lambs, Thomas Harris
• The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
• A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking
• Cat’s Eye, Margaret Atwood
• Watchmen, Alan Moore
• Perfume, Patrick Suskind
• Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
• Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
• Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
• The BFG, Roald Dahl

(There are tons of great books on that list, but if you’re looking to start somewhere, the ones in a bold font weight are the titles I most highly recommend.)

As you can tell, there’s still a whole lot of books I have left to read from the list, and I’m willing to take suggestions as to what I should start with. Once I get home from London, I’m hitting up the public library.

Service Matters at the Holiday Inn Brentford Lock

As most of you know, I spend a decent chunk of time in Europe for my new job, so hotel living has become a bit of a normal situation for me. I’m actually in London right now for a series of meetings, and I am staying at the Holiday Inn Brentford Lock in West London, a short bus ride away from my office in Hounslow. I can truly say that this hotel is one of the best places I have ever stayed in my life.

First of all, the hotel itself is exquisite. The rooms are spacious and well designed, the dining areas are fantastic and the food is excellent, and the overall aesthetic and comfort of the hotel is above par. The location is ideal for someone like me: right on the shores of the Brentford Lock, near the water and just off the High Street, and close enough to every major method of public transportation.

On top of it being absolutely gorgeous, the one thing that stands out most about the Holiday Inn Brentford Lock — and subsequently makes it even more appealing than some of the Hilton, Fairmont, and Westin hotels where I have stayed — is the remarkable customer service that it offers. Each member of the staff takes care to treat me (and I’m guessing every other customer) like I am the most important person in the hotel, and is eager to help at any moment.

Case in point: as I walked into the hotel, the lady at reception greeted me by name before I had even said a word. Knowing that I needed to have access to the hotel gym while I was staying here, she had already prepared the necessary gym pass and set me up with my room promptly and easily. I have stayed at this hotel before, but it was only for a week, over two months ago. The fact that she not only recognized me, but also remembered my name and personal details (including my preference of wake-up call time and the fact that I needed a gym key) is remarkable considering the fact that hundreds of guests come through the hotel every week.

Another example is that of Ankit, who works in the hotel restaurant. My first breakfast meal there, he not only greeted me by name, but remembered my choice of coffee over tea and remembered not only where I was from, but my line of work and my personal interests. During my solitary breakfast — I’m the only person I know that wakes up before 6am on a Sunday morning — we chatted about work and life and he made sure that I was all set for the week of meetings ahead of me. Of course, none of this was necessary: he could have easily gone about doing his work in a regular manner and I still would have enjoyed my meal. However, Ankit knows that the secret to a happy hotel guest isn’t in the fancy frills you add to their pillow. He knows that people need to feel a sense of comfort and belonging, to truly feel at home when they are in a foreign environment.

You might think that all of this is common sense, but you’d be surprised how many hotels I have stayed in that prize their features and fanciness, but fail to make the guest feel like family instead of just another paying customer. It’s not often that I say I feel like I could live in a hotel, but with people around me like they have at the Holiday Inn Brentford Lock, it really does feel like home.

Summer 2007 Movies: What I’m Watching

Let summer 2007 be known as the summer of the sequel. Or should I say, three-quel. People say this is an indication of the fact that Hollywood has run out of good ideas; I say that this is an indication of the fact that Hollywood totally knows how to draw as much money as possible out of the movie-going public. They sure have business-savvy, those studios.

So here’s a breakdown of the upcoming releases this summer, and what I’ll be watching each week. And accept my apologies if posting gets a bit slow over the next two weeks, I’m out of town on business.

May 4, 2007
I’ve seen Away from Her already, and if you haven’t I’d strongly recommend it. I’ve also seen Paris, je t’aime already, and it was one of my favorite movies from 2006. If you want to go watch this again, let me know, I’ll come with you. Of course, that’s after I watch this week’s juggernaut; Venom is one of the greatest villains in comic book history.
What I’m Watching: Spider-Man 3

May 11, 2007
28 Weeks Later looks pretty intriguing, and the advertising design for the film has been pretty strong, but there’s no way I can turn away from a Zach Braff feature.
What I’m Watching: The Ex

May 18, 2007
Hate me all you want, but I really don’t like the Shrek franchise, so I’ll definitely be skipping Shrek the Third. And I hope nobody goes to see Captivity after the poster fiasco.
What I’m Watching: Fay Grim

May 25, 2007
It’s sad that Rolf de Heer’s Ten Canoes opens this weekend, because the chances of anyone catching this absolutely magnificent film about the Australian Aborigines is slim because of the Johnny Depp machine.
What I’m Watching: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

June 1, 2007
I’m no fan of Kevin Costner, but Mr. Brooks looks intriguing. I am, however, a huge fan of Judd Apatow.
What I’m Watching: Knocked Up

June 8, 2007
I’m ridiculously sick of penguin movies. Stop already. How did Surf’s Up even get the green light to be made? Thank god Clooney and Pitt are opening on the same weekend.
What I’m Watching: Ocean’s 13

June 15, 2007
Fido was a fun movie, but slightly overrated. And did enough people actually watch the first Fantastic Four in order to warrant a sequel? Evening will clearly be the best film of the week, and I’ll probably go see it sometime, but you can’t escape the literary heroes of your childhood.
What I’m Watching: Nancy Drew

June 22, 2007
Funny, all the big movies opening this weekend were actually released some time last year. DOA is, well, entertaining, and Black Sheep is one of the most exciting killer sheep movies you’ll ever see (go watch it), but Steve Carell is a funny man.
What I’m Watching: Evan Almighty (but only because I’ve seen Black Sheep)

June 29, 2007
Ghosts of Cite Soleil is quite the remarkable film, but this is one weekend (thankfully I get the Monday off) where the big guns are coming out to play.
What I’m Watching: Ratatouille and Live Free or Die Hard
 

July 6, 2007
I know it’s futile for me to pray that you all go see Rescue Dawn instead of Transformers this weekend, especially since I’ll be throwing my money at Transformers as well. But hey, I’ve already seen Rescue Dawn.
What I’m Watching: Transformers

July 13, 2007
I’m surprised any studio would be silly enough to open a film this weekend. Everyone’s going to watch one movie, and one movie alone.
What I’m Watching: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

July 20, 2007
Yes, I know I’m a nerd, which clearly explains why I’m thinking both Goya’s Ghosts and Talk to Me are going to be much more entertaining than I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry or Hairspray. I’m okay with being a nerd.
What I’m Watching: Goya’s Ghosts

July 27, 2007
I might be the only person who thinks Skinwalkers looks like a good movie, but everyone is going to watch The Simpsons Movie. I will too, but probably not on opening night.
What I’m Watching: Moliere
 

August 3, 2007
I’m a fan of Anne Hathaway, so Becoming Jane looks intriguing, and The Ten has a pretty neat premise, but every great story needs closure, especially Ludlum’s Jason Bourne trilogy.
What I’m Watching: The Bourne Ultimatum

August 10, 2007
They’re making a Bratz movie? Oh my oh my oh my, what is the world coming to? Time to turn to some Jackie Chan.
What I’m Watching: Rush Hour 3

August 17, 2007
Penelope was one of the best movies at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, and luckily, it’s opening on a weekend where there isn’t much else going on.
What I’m Watching: Penelope

August 24, 2007
I missed Ethan Hawke’s movie at last year’s TIFF, so I’m going to watch it on opening night when it gets released. And then, the next day, I’m totally going to check out The Last Legion.
What I’m Watching: The Hottest State

August 31, 2007
What a weak week. Trade might be a tad bit interesting. Maybe.
What I’m Watching: Nothing
 

And then, oh my, September rolls around and we wait for all the Oscar movies to come out. The blockbuster summer ends. (Some September highlights for you: Sunshine, War, Virgin Territory.)