Results tagged “markkingwell”

After street artist (and Torontoist contributor) Posterchild finished philosopher flâneur Mark Kingwell's recent book, Concrete Reveries: Consciousness and the City, the Vandalist curator and street art advocate noticed that Kingwell's celebration of concrete and the cities built out of it missed one reverie in particular: graffiti.

The "Night In The Big House @ THE DON JAIL," scheduled for tonight, was to be the rave of the season. But a note posted to the Facebook event page on Thursday morning called it off: "As of 10am on Thursday, June 04, 2009 the Ontario Realty Corporation, an arm of the provincial government and the agency that controls the Old Don Jail has cancelled our event on Friday, June 5, 2009 and ALL other events for the Old Don Jail in the near future."

"Philosophers tend to focus on the 'why' of that question 'why are you here'—I wanna focus on how the here relates to the why, which is to say, why are you here, why are you some place in particular?"

It’s often refreshing to hear an outsider’s point of view of your city. Sometimes they offer a new perspective on something so commonplace that you take it for granted. Or they can simply offer the expected platitudes. One writer, Olga Bonfiglio, who visited Toronto for the first time this holiday season, recently offered her take. She painted a very glowing picture of our city "as both a model and an inspiration for cities," and offered the usual outsider praise for our diversity and tolerance; the cleanliness of the streets; the low crime rate; and the "clean, safe, and efficient" transit system.

Photo by Stig Nygaard.

As the subject for a serious music book, Céline Dion––amazing or not––seems like an odd choice. In the latest book in the 33⅓ series, however––a series which typically looks at albums like the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds or Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures or the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main St.––Carl Wilson, probably Toronto's pre-eminent music critic, takes it upon himself to "[strive] to understand Céline's global popularity," in the process "fac[ing] the question of what drives personal taste––and whether it's possible to change it." Wilson, needless to add, is a brave, brave man.

Often, ideas are continually improved through the feedback of others. Other times, an idea is at its best when first conceived, and can only be diluted from there.

Sheila Heti (pictured here hiding behind this chair) is one of the many artists invited by the Music Gallery for its fundraiser "Compose Yourself."

Between July 2003 and January 2006, photographer Geoffrey James took his panoramic camera across our city, taking shots of areas as diverse as High Park, Dundas Square, Kensington Market, Regent Park, and Liberty Village. Those photographs are collected in his newly-released book, Toronto, and the shots tell a story of a city in flux, both confident in its history and insecure about where it's headed. Besides photographs, Toronto also features an expansive introduction by Mark Kingwell and a surprisingly entertaining Notes section (no, really).

We've got an invite to pass along for a launch party, exhibit, and book signing for photographer Geoffrey James' newest effort, Toronto, on Thursday night. James has travelled around the city taking shots of some of the underappreciated places in the city with his wide-angle panoramic camera. Torontoist's favourite local philosopher, Mark Kingwell, provides the introduction.

The week starts off with another instalment of Pussy Pen, an evening of readings and performance focusing on women, trans, and queer perspectives. It takes place at Tango and Crews, 508 Church St, beginning at 8pm. Free.

at the Gladstone. We hosted a marshmallow-and-toothpick building contest (because we're actually about five-years-old) and we got some fabulous entries from aspiring alternative architects of all ages - all eager to recreate their favourite Toronto landmarks in marshmallow. And then we all got tummy-aches from eating too much of the building material.

Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, extraordinary renditions, security certificates, Maher Arar, enemy combatants, torture, all of them erosions of democracy and symptoms of a larger problem. Government abuse of power isn't anything new, and as the sole holder of power and force in most societies, our elected "representatives" can often do so with impunity.

Forget what all those bleeding hearts tell you about the evils and soullessness of rampant capitalism. What capitalism really gives you is the freedom to choose. Take this weekend's music offerings.

Well, kinda. The much-awaited, revamped Sunday Star is here, as of yesterday, and, as promised, it is new. It even has an article on the meaning of 'new,' by fishing and floating philisophist Mark Kingwell. It's got week-old Times' crosswords (score! If you can wait a week), chunks of ephemera from Schott's Miscellany, and a back page summary of everything in the paper. Also, it's all colour, all the time. The only thing that doesn't quite gel as of yet are the Harpers-style snippets, hastily pulled from websites, like topics on an exotic dancer's chatroom. And a business piece on the fried versus the flourishing that tries to compare Tim Horton's (with thousands of shops across the country) to Krispy Kreme (a novelty shop, with just a few attraction-style locations across the country).