Best Tips and Guide

Timelapse Overdose

My feelings about timelapse videos wax and wane according to my mood. Sometimes I dislike them, other times I think they are amazing. Certainly a considerable amount of skill and patience is required to capture them.

Herewith a sampling of recent favourites, for when I’m positively inclined...

Namibian Nights from Squiver on Vimeo.

Open Horizon from Russell Houghten on Vimeo.

TimeLAX 01 from iVideoMaking on Vimeo.

Time-Lapse | Earth from Bruce W. Berry Jr on Vimeo.

And of course who could leave out Toronto:

City Rising (Toronto Timelapse) from Tom Ryaboi on Vimeo.

See Also
Wonderful time-lapse tilt-shift changing depth of field short film

That Night in Toronto... (A Tragically Hip Tale)

For a brief, crystalline moment about eight years ago, I found myself faced with a snarling Gord Downie from The Tragically Hip:

Mr. Downie glares at me mid-song

It was November 26, 2004. Friday night. Twenty thousand boisterous fans inside the sold-out Air Canada Centre were rocking out behind me, while I stood in the gap in front of the stage, jostled by security, a pack of professional media photographers, and a film crew.

Lucky Contest Winner

The Tour Poster

Three days prior, I’d received an e-mail from The Toronto Star, informing me I’d somehow won their Tragically Hip Photo Pass Concert contest—the prize for which consisted of ‘two tickets to see the Hip at the ACC, their complete discography, and one photo pass for one person to photograph the band for the first three songs from the "pit."’

Sign me up!

At the time the Hip were perhaps the hottest live act in Canada. Their In Between Evolution tour was selling out venues across North America, and the band had gained a hard-earned reputation for raucous concert performances. So it was an easy choice to go. Without much difficulty I corralled a friend of mine to accompany me (yay Kat!), and Friday night eventually rolled around...

The Air Canada Centre was jammed.

That Night in Toronto
We arrived at the packed ACC and settled into our assigned seats. The opening band was the Joel Plaskett Emergency, but to be honest I didn’t pay much attention because I was too excited. Who wouldn’t be?

After JPE finished their set, a short intermission followed whereupon I was escorted by a gentleman from Universal Music up to the narrow moat in front. Unfortunately I had to leave Kat behind in our seats, as the pass only allowed one person to go. Once up front, I flashed my badge (pictured) to a burly security guard, who waved me gruffly into the off-limits area.

My front stage area pass (left) and my ticket

My Little Sony
The thing is, I’m not a photographer. I didn’t own a film camera. Back then I only had those crappy 24-shot disposables (remember those?!), so I decided instead to bring my digital camera. I’d acquired it from my Silicon Valley employer as a reward for doing online course-work:

My Sony Cybershot S75. Mouseover to see reverse.

Even though it’s a bit ridiculous looking today (check out the viewscreen on the back!), it was a decent model then. I had outfitted it with a whopping 64mb MemoryStick, allowing me to take about 60 shots total.

Naturally, I wasn’t the only person snapping away. A contingent of newspaper and media pros was also present:

The ‘competition’ with real cameras and lenses

Finally, there was a film crew, shooting the band as they performed. Footage from that evening would be released in 2005 as the Hip’s first ever live concert DVD, That Night in Toronto -- the name comes from a line in the Hip song, Bobcaygeon.

I’m a confident guy in most respects, but when you’re standing there and every cameraman has a bigger lens than you... it’s a joke that writes itself.

As a matter of fact, you can occasionally snatch a glimpse or two of me from the recorded footage:

Still from That Night in Toronto, about 6:30 in.

I managed to take three photos that looked all right, in my opinion. When you don’t know anything about photography other than pressing down the shutter button, you have to luck out somewhat. For the initial image in this post, Mr. Downie had noticed me with my dinky consumer apparatus and—judging correctly that I was not a professional like the others in the moat—deliberately struck and held a pose mid-lyric so I could take the shot. Class!

The other two:

Downie belting out Vaccination Scar

For the first couple of songs I stood off to the side, stage right, rooted to where I’d placed myself, but for the third song I felt emboldened and wandered over towards the middle.

Fully, completely in the moment

The rest of the photos were disappointingly what you’d expect of a non-photographer: blurry, out of focus, ill-composed snaps taken not quite at the right moments. It turns out concert photography requires skill. View: the whole gallery.

If you’re a geek, you can examine the EXIF data and, based on the time-stamps, you can play the DVD and figure out approximately when during the concert each photo occurred.

Here’s a photo of me taking a photo (is that too meta?):

Mouseover to see me take the shot...

All too soon, the three songs were over, and I was ushered back to my seat to re-join my friend. The concert, not counting the opening act, wound up lasting two rollicking hours, covering the major hits. Like so many other Tragically Hip performances, it was a blast for those in attendance.

The set list that evening. Photo by The Tragically Hip

Thanks in retrospect to Nicolas Casimir at The Toronto Star, and to Andrew Patton & David Lindores of Universal Music, for organizing the contest! It was great.

Context for this post & bonus links
I was cleaning up my hard drive when I stumbled across these photos and I thought, why not share them? Kinda belated, but...

[LINK: The Tragically Hip performing ‘Bobcaygeon’ during That Night in Toronto]

Here’s the band’s official photo set from that evening.

Google Reader is getting canned?!

Google just announced that they are shelving Google Reader this summer. As a nerd, I am shocked. WTF Google?!

This dialog box needs a Cancel option.

I accept that RSS has never been sexy. ‘What's this little orange icon mean?' Explaining it to a non-technical person almost always wound up confusing them more.

But it doesn’t mean they had to kill the service. Functionally speaking, it was fine as it was. They didn’t have to keep developing it. Stick a co-op student on it or something -- it’s not like they don’t have the resources.

I’m appalled. What a gross display of corporate indifference in the name of 'focus'. Instead of showing good stewardship for the technology and letting it sunset naturally, Google is screwing us over -- & doesn’t care. So much for trust.

Google Reader has been an essential, major interface to the web for me since 2005, and was a key factor in my readily adopting other Google services. It’s about the ecosystem, guys.

[LINK: Hitler finds out Google Reader is shutting down]

This is a teaching moment about the cloud -- don’t rely too much on any given service because it can just vanish if the provider feels like it. This act shakes my confidence in the long-term viability of every other Google service I use. Why should I use any of these tools if they’re subject to evaporating based on Google’s whims? What’s next on the arbitrary chopping block -- Gmail?

Google may profess not be evil, but on this day it has surely crossed the line into suckitude.

Other posts I’ve written on Google

Further (external) reading

Google’s Lost Social Network
Google Reader lived on borrowed time: creator Chris Wetherell reflects
Why Is Google Shutting Down Google Reader -- a former product manager answers
Dave Winer (creator of RSS): Goodbye Google Reader
Embrace, extend, extinguish: How Google crushed and abandoned the RSS industry
The Evolution Of Google Reader Started With A Crash (a history of Google Reader by the founding product manager)

Industrial food processing video clip - from Samsara

While I’m not necessarily a fan of consuming the output of mass industrialized food production -- with certain contextual exceptions -- I nevertheless am always fascinated by the logistics and engineering processes that go into the design of these large-scale systems.

This lovely excerpt from the film Samsara displays food factory production with hypnotic grace. While the content may be mildly disturbing, the soundtrack, slow panning, and time-lapse-ing 'cool' the visuals down, abstracting the mechanical violence and allowing you to observe the flow of material. The director also worked on Koyaanisqatsi, incidentally.

SAMSARA food sequence from Baraka & Samsara on Vimeo.

Mm. Who feels like a Big Mac?

Other Posts I’ve Written on Industrial Food
The Best Industrial Mushroom Processing Video You’ll Ever See
The ugly truth about orange juice
Why I love Waffle House - a personal reflection
Commercial honeybee colonies continue to die off a.k.a. that time I wrote to Buzz the Honeybee
Larabars - are they for real?!

Happy 179th, Toronto!

Happy birthday Toronto!

Image: the first page of the Act incorporating the City of Toronto, March 6, 1834

AN ACT, To extend the limits of the Town of York; to erect the said Town into a City; and to Incorporate it under the name of the City of Toronto.

It’s amusing how after a few lofty legal phrases the act gets down to business, authorizing the Commissioners of the Peace to 'appoint such days and hours for exposing to sale Butcher's meat, butter, eggs, poultry, fish and vegetables.'

Read the full act here. As far as I can tell, the first two and a half pages of the Act consist of a single, massive, run-on legal sentence.

Incidentally, Toronto sure was a lot smaller back then...

How I Beat The World’s Oldest Marathoner -- In His Racing Prime

The world’s oldest long-distance runner, Fauja Singh, aged 101, ran his final race in Hong Kong last week. He’s decided to retire from racing (but not running), after over a decade of international prominence.

Singh in training. Photo: Levon Biss for ESPN The Magazine.
Click to view original.

Congratulations to Mr. Singh, an inspiration to all of us!

Yes, I defeated the Turbaned Tornado
It’s thoroughly ridiculous to make this observation, but I did overtake the celebrated ‘Turbaned Tornado’ once, 10 years ago. Here’s the story:

It was at the 2003 Scotiabank Waterfront Marathon in Toronto. Listed under the name 'Fauga Singh', the then-youthful-92-year-old started in the 'Early Bird / Walker' section, which began the race about an hour and a bit before the main start.

So, because of the head start, it was actually kind of tight for me, in terms of passing Singh and his coterie -- it happened fairly close to the finish line, with just a few kilometers remaining down the stretch. He wasn’t as famous then, but I still recognized him. He was striding along at a decent pace. I vividly remember thinking, I’d better complete this race or I’ll never hear the end of it.

His sprightly time was 5:40 -- which, retrospectively, turned out to be his personal best over the course of 8 marathons -- while I limped in at a lousy 4:06 (I endured wretched calf cramps that day, sigh).

In 2004 Fauja Singh starred in this Adidas advertisement
for the Nothing Is Impossible campaign

That’s part of the fun of racing; technically you’re competing in the exact same event and the identical course as everyone else, including the world-class runners and other outliers. It’s very... egalitarian.

Now that his competitive running career is over (we’ll see!), I can make the absurd boast that I beat Fauja Singh -- at his marathon racing peak. Hahaha!

For more about Singh, read this excellent, thorough ESPN profile of him (including the painful tale of how he was snubbed by the Guinness Book of World Records): The Runner.

Will Ed Whitlock one day shatter Singh’s records? That would be my wager. Heck, I couldn’t beat Ed Whitlock in a race even if I were in my prime [Seriously. My best unofficial times for half marathon distances were around 1:45; last year Whitlock did the Milton Half in 1:38!]...

The Return of Longboard Haven Skate Shop

Earlier this month marked the happy, much-anticipated launch of Longboard Haven, a Toronto skate shop selling a focused selection of high-quality decks, gear, safety equipment, clothing, and art.

Photo: Longboard Haven skate shop owners Rob Sydia and Mike McGown

Proud shop owners Rob Sydia and Mike McGown

I dropped in on the two proprietors, Rob Sydia, and Mike McGown (a.k.a. ‘Smooth Chicken’) to discuss the new business and what they have planned for the future. Located on a gritty stretch of Queen Street East, their compact shop is open every day, ‘noon-ish to seven’ (five on weekends). When the spring season starts, official hours will be 11 am to 8pm.

Photo: exterior of Longboard Haven skate shop at 183 Queen St. E

Longboard Haven: Now open for business at 183 Queen St. E

The Origins of Longboard Haven: Pat Switzer
Longboard Haven is a name that has a history in Toronto longboarding circles.

The shop had its first incarnation seven years ago as a (literally) underground operation, run from the basement apartments of Patrick Switzer -- who has since become one of the world’s top downhill skateboarders. McGown was his room-mate and close friend; the Haven was named after a secret skate garage near Eglinton and Leslie they used to frequent, along with Sydia and a couple of others.

Switzer supplied and serviced the then-nascent Toronto longboarding community, featuring specialized gear that regular skate shops often wouldn’t carry, and which was otherwise difficult to obtain.

Photo: circa 2008 image of Longboard Haven run from Patrick Switzer's basement apartment

Longboard Haven was once run from Mike and Pat’s old Essex St.
basement apartment [the very first incarnation was in the basement of Adam Winston’s family home]. Photo circa 2008, courtesy Patrick Switzer

Switzer subsequently moved west to pursue his downhill racing career, and the business was shuttered. I reached out to Pat (based in Vancouver & not involved in the current version, except karmically) to ask what he thought about LBH’s fresh start as an actual bricks and mortar store. His comment:

I am honoured that the store is having a rebirth -- like we imagined it could one day be. Rob and Mike were invaluable to what Longboard Haven was as a underground skate shop. Now they are taking that dream, good vibes and ideology of being different and for the community, to a new level.

Pat & Mike in their salad days
“E.S. 4 life!”

Side note: Switzer is now producing the Greener Pastures sport adventure web series, which brings together many of the world’s best riders and has accumulated nearly a million views to date. Support his project via the indiegogo fundraising campaign!

Equipping Riders with the Right Gear
I asked McGown why he and Sydia would take up the challenge of starting up a for-real retail shop, when the industry is notorious for turnover, and undergoing a transition as online distributors compress margins. McGown’s explanation of the opportunity:

Toronto’s skate market needs it. There’s a hole in how people get gear. When Pat and I ran the shop out of the basement initially, it was only to bring in gear that people wanted that was... a little bit out there. You wanted a truck that was made halfway around the world? Ok, we’re going to get that for you, that's the quality that we’re looking for. And that has [since] kind of slipped away.

You have shops selling some pretty cheap ‘Made in China’ stuff. Both Rob and I didn’t like what we were seeing.

Longboard Haven will stock a focused selection of high-quality skate gear

He informed me of the shop’s unofficial motto, which has a distinctly old-timey cadence:

‘If we won’t ride it, we won’t stock it.’

Sydia then chimed in:

We saw an explosion of the grom community. You have new skaters arriving at the scene, they see the videos on YouTube of Pat or John or Mike and they want to go in at 100kph.

But there’s a learning curve. How do we bring things back to that? It starts with your gear -- understanding the gear. The philosophy is, we brought the best of the best in, and it’s the rider that determines what they purchase, with our help.

The Longboard Haven logo: Can you name all the silhouettes?

The voluble and often bombastic Sydia has been skating for a long time [sorry, Rob!]. He’s... the skater dad. The adult who patiently calms down the cops. Who explains to parents what their kids are really doing. Who tells you to put on a helmet [which he’s now in a position to sell you, ahem].

He’s also been involved behind the scenes, as a mentor, influence and advisor to Switzer and others within the skate community via Gnar Extreme Sports Management. Sydia contends that the sport has grown too large overall to stay underground, and that it must evolve towards legitimacy. The shop is one facet of his participation in that maturation process.

I asked about their pricing approach -- something that can be a sensitive topic with skate shops, from both the customer and supplier directions. Sydia understands the tension, but was careful to emphasize their shop would prioritize selling quality and premium goods at fair (but not cut-rate) prices.

He elaborated again on the mindset they are bringing:

Your style and my style are different. Mike's style is different. What feels right under your feet might not feel good under my feet. So the idea is to stock the best gear -- we’re not dealing any junk, ever -- and work with the customer to dial it down...

It's about equipping riders with knowledge, equipping them with the right gear, and then putting really good safety around it.

A Community Hub

Sign the downstairs lounge wall...

The partners are working to develop strong connections in the industry -- including and especially local builders -- something that they hope will give them an edge.

What’s more, the pair intend the shop to be much more than just an outlet of goods. Their vision is to become an important nucleus of the Ontario skate community, and to get more people involved.

Switzer’s leathers
on display...

Sections of the store are consciously oriented towards connecting visitors to the rest of the local skate scene and its history. The downstairs lounge features a signature wall, and mini-exhibit pieces are scattered throughout. Sydia pointed out a surface that he hopes to populate with photos and ephemera from events as they happen:

It’ll be like a museum -- of our culture.

(BTW rabid Pat Switzer fans: his old race leathers are on temporary display in the lower level, until the model leathers come in. If you want to see & touch a piece of longboarding history, check it out now.)

An Obvious Labour of Love
The venture is self-funded (Sydia is the principal owner, with veteran skater McGown as a secondary partner). It took the duo two months of intense labour to clean, renovate, paint, set up, decorate, and stock the establishment, housed inside a former art-gallery.

Chicken: working for himself now
Photo courtesy Jonathan Nuss

I commend the pair for their spirit and commitment. It’s easy to say, “oh, it would be great to run a skate shop”; it’s an entirely different thing to put your passion and savings on the line and do it.

I wish them every success.

Longboard Haven -- featuring the nicest skate shop washroom you’ll ever use -- is located at 183 Queen St. East, Toronto. Support your local shop!

[Full disclosure: Chicken is a friend of mine. And Sydia’s friends with everyone. Mostly.]

Past Skate Articles From Me
• Profile: Justin Readings, Downhill Skateboarder
• Is skateboarding illegal in Toronto?
• The Toronto Board Meeting: A Short History
• The rise of Patrick Switzer, Downhill Skateboarder
• Letter to Councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon: Why Jeopardize the Ashbridges Bay Skate Park?
• Concrete Wave’s Lame ‘Pin-Up’ Cover
• The Banana Split -- Four Years Later
• Grappling with another longboarding death
• Our first longboarding tragedy
• Speed! Thrills! Women! FUBU Skate Race Recap

The Charleston set to The Creeps

A friend of mine lamented the silliness of modern dance crazes like the Harlem Shake. This was my response:

[LINK]

Harlem Ducks

This is about a week too late, but, whatever. Ducklings. They’re cute.

[LINK]

cf. Harlem Shake meme. It’s pop culture; why not participate?

This is my favorite version, which remixes Charlie Brown [I have a penchant for cultural remixes and adaptations]:

[LINK]

See also this complete explanation of the origins.

Toronto History Links and Resources

Toronto, Canada West
by Edwin Whitefield, 1854

There are numerous online resources that I’ve found extremely useful to have bookmarked, when researching aspects of Toronto history. This post will be an ongoing listing of those sites. I hope you’ll find these resources useful too!

Toronto Public Library: Digital Archive search
Globe and Mail online archive 1844-2009 (need TPL card)
Toronto Star online archive 1894-2009 (need TPL card)
Toronto Public Library: Historical resources by Neighbourhood
City of Toronto Archives: database image search

Archives of Ontario [click 'Archives Descriptive Database']

Library and Archives Canada: LAC search
Goad’s Atlas of the City of Toronto
Historical Maps of Toronto
Fort York and Garrison Common Maps
(Yes -- I know these are my own sites!)
List of Toronto City Directories (1833-1922 via Jane MacNamara)

Map resources

University of Toronto Map & Data Library
City of Toronto Archives
Toronto Public Library - Maps Collection

TPL guide to online map sources - a broad source list
City of Toronto maps (Contemporary)

Toronto Transit maps

Miscellaneous sites of interest

Vintage Toronto on Facebook
Toronto’s Historical Plaques
Lost Toronto - Superb collection of 'then and now' photos
Wholemaps.com - collection of photos by date, neighbourhood
Simcoe’s Gentry - Toronto’s Park Lots
fortyork.ca - Friends of Fort York
Transit Toronto
wherethestorytakesme - blog by Jane MacNamara
Toronto Then and Now Photographs - thread on urbantoronto.ca
Ontario Road Maps
Ontario War Memorials
Chuckman's Photos: Toronto Nostalgia

Wolfram|Alpha and my Friend Network

Wolfram|Alpha updated their Personal Analytics for Facebook tool. To be honest I’d forgotten about it.

My friend network

The generated report doesn’t really tell me anything super-amazing about my Facebook usage and network, but it still has a couple of interesting tidbits...

Apparently my friend network boils down to just four relatively-unrelated major clusters (see right).

Most of my friends have a few hundred friends:

Number of friends per friend

The wordcloud from my wall posts is disappointingly bland. My vocabulary could use a thesaurus upgrade, I guess. And I would have hoped ‘Yay’ would occur more often:

If you’re curious about how your usage of Facebook stacks up, head over to Wolfram|Alpha and run a report against your account!

Note: requires you to give significant permissions to the Wolfram|Alpha app to generate the report... (I allowed it, then disabled it after running the report. Of course in that timeframe they can slurp basically anything they want about you into their database.)

Beyond The Pink: The Subversion Of Barbie

Image: Barbie is a modern doll with a classic sensibility

Barbie: “A modern doll
with a classic sensibility”

Barbie is iconic.

Ubiquitous, and evocative, she is an inscrutable Mona Lisa for our times. Her pink-themed branding aggressively colonizes entire sections of every mainstream toy store.

Critics have decried the doll’s image for the 50 years of her existence. Yet her glamorous power endures within our cultural topography.

“Women my age know whom to blame for our own self-loathing, eating disorders and distorted body image: Barbie.”

- Amy Dickinson, Time Magazine

The Iron Maiden of The Beauty Myth?

Barbie for President:
‘Iron Maiden’ or
aspirational?

In her best-selling feminist work, The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf describes the pernicious effects emanating from a widespread societal obsession with a coercive ideal of feminine appearance.

In Wolf’s view, the mis-proportioned figure of Barbara Millicent Roberts almost certainly embodies this malign ideal -- an unrealistic ‘iron maiden’ from which young women struggle to escape.

Meanwhile, Mattel, the maker of the doll, brightly and optimistically casts Barbie as an empowering, aspirational model -- a toy manifestation of the American dream where any identity is possible.

Which view is correct?

Iconoclasts and Subversion

Tom Forsythe was famously sued by Mattel, for his absurdist Food Chain Barbie photographic series. His challenging legal journey opened the path for other artists to freely experiment with Barbie-themed images, without fear of litigation.

Fondue For Three - Tom Forsythe
This series sparked a 5 year legal battle with Mattel
over fair use, free speech and artistic expression

I want to mention and share the work of several such artists, each of whom leverages and re-mixes the standard portrayal of Barbie in some way. The sequence progresses from coy and conventional, through to a much darker world view.

These images form entry points for reflection on our deeply persistent cultural relationship with Barbie. Our understanding of her turns out to be as mutable as the clothes she wears.

Barbie’s Wedding

Beatrice De Guigne captures “Barbie and Ken’s Wedding” through the ironic lens of an actual wedding photographer...

Beatrice De Guigne’s Wedding Photography
Click here to view series

This series is kind of cute, even saccharine, and is more of a playful take on stereotypical wedding photos, than it is a commentary on the Barbie universe. But this naturally leads to the question, “What happens after the wedding?”

The next two photographers suggest some possible, not entirely happy answers...

in the dollhouse

Dina Goldstein’s ‘in the dollhouse’ series features real-life models posed as Barbie and Ken.

It purports to examine ‘the less than perfect life of B and K. B is a super doll, the most successful doll in the world. Her partner K is grappling with his sexuality and finds himself in a loveless marriage. He struggles with his position in the household and faces his lack of authenticity.’

Dina Goldstein’s ‘in the dollhouse’: an unhappy marriage?
Click here to view series

Check out Dina Goldstein’s ‘in the dollhouse’.

Goldstein is most well known for her Fallen Princesses project, which creatively imagines less-than-idyllic scenes of post-fairy-tale life.

Mariel Clayton: Disturbing Yet Funny

Mariel Clayton’s work takes the Barbie aesthetic, and corrupts it. The results are disturbing, incorporating elements of sexuality and grisly force.

Ontario-based Clayon’s meticulously arranged dioramas often show the aftermath of violence. Barbie exists, in this world, as a smart, sexy, psychotic -- in control of herself and the situation -- rather than as a vapid materialist concerned solely with clothes and fashion.

Mariel Clayton: Grim humour amidst banal clutter
Click here to view more

WARNING: SCENES OF VIOLENCE AND SEXUALITY.

I particularly appreciate the careful detailing of each photograph. Clayton’s rooms are filled with the banal clutter of domesticity, a mundane backdrop to the turbulence elsewhere in the scene.

We are drawn into a fantastic and gruesome world where Barbie has taken matters into her own hands — a world where she has liberated herself from the drudgery of her consumer existence. The message is anarchic. Irreverent. And, I think, delightful.

Mariel Clayton’s work on Facebook
Mariel Clayton’s website

Interview with Clayton

Barbie: She Is Us

Barbie: a fascinating figure

Barbie influences -- and represents -- our cultural values in many ways, whether we approve or not. She is our Madison Avenue Madonna, our corporate-generated Venus. She is a fascinating figure, at once the subject and object of artistic critical interpretation.

500 years from now, historians and anthropologists will study the doll, and her endless accessories, as valuable indicators of our fashions, social institutions, customs and mores (A visit to Barbie’s Facebook page or her YouTube channel is remarkably instructive).

What is your opinion of Barbie? If you are a woman, did you play with Barbie as a child, and how did you interact with the doll? If you are a man, to what extent did Barbie shape your impression of feminine beauty? What role, if any, did Barbie have in forming your expectations of gender norms?

If you are a parent -- are you going to buy Barbie for your children, or will you attempt to shield them from ‘princess’ culture?

[LINK: Aqua - Barbie Girl]

Bonus Barbie: What would Barbie look like as an average woman?

Nickolay Lamm recently released a short set of of photos depicting a normally proportioned Barbie that he fashioned using a 3D printed model (based on CDC measurements of an average 19 year old American woman). The contrast is striking.

Nickolay Lamm's 'average Barbie'.
Click here to view more.

Lamm discusses the process he undertook to create this version here.

On the way at Front and Bathurst...

It looks like that condo project at Front and Bathurst is finally proceeding.

To recap: Minto, the development company, rushed to demolish the lovely 120 year-old building that used to be there. A year early. I guess I’m still sore about that. I feel like that tiresome guy who just won’t shut up about a particular topic.

One day I’ll get over it.

Hurrah For The Ontario Access Coalition

The other day at the gym, someone asked me about the meaning of the Ontario Access Coalition sticker on my water bottle.

I laughed, and sheepishly told them that, although I’ve been a member in the past, I don’t have anything to do with the OAC in terms of participation. But I’m appreciative that the OAC exists, generally -- and here’s why...

What does the Ontario Access Coalition do?

The OAC works “to keep [Ontario] climbing and bouldering areas open in an environmentally responsible manner.”

Which is a noble way of saying, it’s a volunteer not-for-profit that deals with the thorny world of access issues.

Somebody has to put in the interminable, tedious hours to advocate, communicate, and hand-hold with other climbers, parks management, government agencies, private land-owners, conservation authorities, and other stakeholders -- from the perspective of climbers.

Few individuals have the time, resources -- or persistence -- to sustain that sort of activity. Even mentioning it makes my eyes glaze over. Plus, climbers can be a fractious lot. Having a patient group of moderately organized volunteers -- with a mandate that most people can agree on -- provides continuity, and a single voice in those discussions, which literally take place over the course of years and never end.

To me, as a climber, the value is clear. I’m thankful that someone else is doing that work, to enable access for all of us -- even when I’m not totally in agreement with everything that they’re doing, or overly impressed with the glacial pace of progress on certain issues.

Examples of Ontario Access Coalition wins

Did you know that bouldering in Niagara Glen was nearly banned in 2009? Over the following two year period, the OAC worked with the Niagara Parks Commission to formally legitimize bouldering in the area in the context of a fee and waiver system. Sure, a lot of people I know weren’t happy about the implementation of fees -- but I also know they were grateful that the activity wasn’t banned altogether.

There’s a similar story with respect to the restoration of bouldering access at Halfway Log Dump -- a difficult, bureaucratic process that played out over seven years with Parks Canada. Without the intervention of the OAC, climbers might not have legal access to those (and other) areas.

In addition to that work, the OAC also provides crag statuses, coordinates area clean-up days, and holds occasional talks. All good stuff for the community.

The OAC Code of Ethics

If you’re visiting Ontario or otherwise climbing in the region, these are the ethics the OAC promotes:

Aspire to climb and boulder without leaving a trace
Maintain a low profile
Use existing trails
Dispose of human waste properly
Understand and respect historical ethics and restrictions [cough. Oh, Ontario!]
Respect the rules
Park and camp only in designated areas
Climb and boulder safely
Increase climber awareness of key plant species to be protected

Find out more about the OAC

Some links to check out:
Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Ontario Access Coalition website

It’s a $5 donation for a lifetime individual membership. Be glad someone is on our side, doing the boring dirty work. If you climb outside in Ontario, you ought to sign up -- if only for the climbing karma!

What Does A Decade of TTC Metropass Designs Look Like?

I once spent more than $14,000 to get around Toronto.

Granted, it was over the course of eleven years. And the whole time, I never once had to park, pay for gas or insurance, or change any flat tires.

How did I do it? Easy -- I took the TTC!

What a decade-plus -- and $14,000 -- of TTC Metropasses looks like.

A Collection of Monthly Passes

It’s a familiar routine: At the end of each month, I take my expired Metropass out of my wallet, and toss it into a pile at the back of my desk drawer.

I thought it would be fun to share what that pile looks like...

How the months roll by...

Visual Design -- Room for Improvement?

Many people like to moan and groan about the visual design of the Toronto Transit Commission Metropasses.

Are their complaints justified? Decide for yourself -- take a look at the passes below, and tell me what you think! I’ve grouped them chronologically into rough sets of similar design, and made a few comments about each set. (Sorry completists, my collection isn’t perfect--several months are missing, lost in my files or discarded.)

Pastel Flowers: December 2001-March 2004

Click any photo to expand and view larger

TTC passes were non-transferable and had to be presented along with a photo-ID.
You had to write your name or TTC photo ID# on the space in the front.
Months are abbreviated and spelled in capitals.
Check out the genuine 1970’s bubble font! (‘Metropass’)

Gradients: April 2004-Aug 2005

Bottom left: A blocky ‘A’ to denote an adult pass; bottom right: a repeated ‘adult’. The thing is, do you actually need the ‘A’ to distinguish it? You could just as easily leave the space blank -- and only mark Student/Senior passes.
The months are spelled out in faux-gold foil lowercase.
Gradients, then eventually patterns are used for the background.
The TTC logo appears twice, in colour and in gold.
These represent Kal Bedder’s first makeovers of the pass design (see article link near end of this post).

Patterns - September 2005-December 2006

In September 2005 Metropasses became transferable -- you could share your pass with someone else once your ride was complete. The wording gets tinkered with in January 2006, and again in November 2006.
The Big A now appears on both corners.
I have heard the patterns described as ‘Corel PhotoPaint texture fills’ -- can anyone confirm?

Random Typefaces: January 2007-December 2007

The months are spelled out inside a dark bar at the bottom of the pass, using semi-random typefaces. Some of the months are painfully stretched -- oh, June!
We’re back to the single A on the right with a thin black outline, and a single foil TTC logo.
The non-kerning between the P and A of Metropass is especially glaring.
July and December are looking ready to party...

Pastel A & Photographs: January 2008-December 2008

Photographs are used as background images, using a floating angled rectangular mask. The scenes are TTC related, naturally. In later years art from various stations seems to become a theme.
The ‘A’ gets moved to the left, now pastel-coloured with a white outline. ‘ADULT’ makes a reappearance.
Typefaces are again kind of random. What is that, Stencil for November?! Also it’s a matte gold as opposed to reflective.
‘/ 08’ gets appended to the month line.

Vertical Pastel Bars: January 2009-June 2009

Order returns to the Metropass universe. Note the vertical bars and upright photographs.
The ‘A’ goes back to white and gets the thin black outline again; we are informed these are ‘Adult Metropass’ cards.
Heavy counterfeiting of Metropasses occurred during this time period. And apparently counterfeiting is on the rise again.

Holographic Foil Stamp: July 2009-December 2010

The anti-counterfeiting holographic foil stamp appears. High-tech!
The stamp, the ‘A’, and the photograph move around from month to month, along the middle third of the pass. (Though, the ‘A’ never gets the middle slot)
Those yellow ‘Only Valid if Removed’ stickers begin usage. Amusingly, underneath they have a transparent film with ‘Do not remove’ on it. (The stickers are applied this way so they can be easily removed but not reapplied -- they prevent pass-renting)
In August 2009 the TTC issued an RFI calling for original artwork to use on Metropasses. Allegedly passes were to use artwork by April 2010. But... did anything happen on that front? -- Can you tell the difference? As a sidenote, the political career of Adam Giambrone, the TTC Chair who was championing this initiative, was derailed in Feb. 2010 in the wake of a sex scandal. Perhaps that nixed the artwork idea, who knows?

Depending on the angle, the foil stamp shows a different TTC logo / crest. Um, no, the month doesn’t change! Haha.

Horizontal Bars: January 2011-October 2011

Thin horizontal bars slide across the middle.
In August, the transparent ‘Do not remove’ film seems to have been... removed.
September turned out a bit garish, wouldn’t you say? Whoever was doing the work didn’t want to put a white outline around the TTC logo, I guess. (This would have enabled a red pass, with the text in white)

Cutting Corners: November 2011-December 2012

The TTC incorporates a small but useful bit of innovation for visually impaired users: the top left corner of each pass is clipped for easy orientation by feel.
In January the month is moved to the left.
The foil now has different cuts or shapes for each month. What’s on the foil changed as well.
The graphic used for Dec 2011 is a crop of the one used for July 2011! C’mon, that’s lazy.

Updates: Horizontal lines and solid colours: January 2013-December 2013

The background of the cards is now solid (in 2012 faint patterns were used)
Two horizontal lines with gradients enclose the 'A', holograph, and photo
The 'Valid for Month/Year Shown' text is deleted
Fans of TTC typography are happy to see that 'Metropass' uses the original TTC font. The month is also de-accentuated with a lighter typeface.
May 2013 repeats the graphic used in Sept 2012. Boo!

Minor tweaks: January 2014-December 2014

The horizontal lines with gradients were removed
The TTC crest gets a bit larger and stays on the left
The (redundant) fine print ‘Adult’ under the A is removed
A black band (with the exception of June) near the bottom highlights the month and pass type
The pattern on the foil often changes involving variations of the TTC crest

The Fine Print on the Back

I’d write about what changes occur, but the fine print is surprisingly effective at defeating my attentions. It just gives me a headache!
Various TTC Chairs have deigned to put their name on passes, including: Brian Ashton, Betty Disero, Howard Moscoe, and Adam Giambrone. The current pass omits the present TTC Chair’s name.
‘No Pass Backs’ as of September 2005.
As of January 2008, TTC passes could be claimed for a transit tax credit, so a space was made for signatures.

TTC Photo ID Card

Hahahaha.
Up until August 2005, monthly pass users had to present a photo-ID along with the pass.
For me the typeface for ‘Metropass’ feels nostalgic and comfortable, rather than dated. It’s similar to how I feel about the phasing out of the maroon jackets.

‘Must be presented in an open and unrestricted manner’

Criticism & Discussion: Who Cares?

The Metropasses are ugly -- that’s the standard criticism I’ve come across. Fonts are haphazardly chosen, layouts are cluttered, the graphics are bland or unremarkable. The passes lack clarity.

“It's an aesthetic thing. ... You carry this thing around for a month. It should look nice.”

- TTC spokesman Brad Ross Toronto Star, Aug. 14, 2009

The TTC is a brand, and love it or loathe it, has an identity which connects many of us as Torontonians.

Mediocre execution on something shared by almost half of all TTC customers speaks to a certain... indifference on the part of the mandarins of Davisville.

Where is their passion and pride for this city we love? Shouldn’t we expect better? It invites larger questions about cohesion in presentation for the TTC as a whole -- observers have wryly noted that the TTC lacks consistency in its signage and branding.

On the other hand, Metropasses are supposed to be utilitarian objects, not art. Over the long run they are ephemeral -- no-one secretly cherishes the disco-glory of December 2007. It’s not like someone’s going to collect them all (Er, hold on a sec...).

I often imagine the TTC management mindset as, “We’re busy making the trains go. Typography and aesthetic flair is not a priority.”

And I’m not entirely unsympathetic to that.

If Metropasses were cool to look at and to collect, would it have any impact on usage or adoption rates (which would actually negatively impact the TTC, as revenue is lower from pass holders)?

What if we put awesome archival photos on them? Or community-generated art? Or images of historical figures from Toronto’ past?

Is there a better way we could celebrate Toronto transit?

I wonder...

Thanks for reading! Tell me what you think in the comments!

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The Man To Blame (or Credit)

I would love to ask Print and Electronic Information Supervisor Kal Bedder some of the above questions. He’s the TTC employee who is responsible (from 2004 to at least Jan. 2012) for the design of the passes. But I didn’t get around to it. And frankly, he’s probably got better things to do than field random questions from a gadfly blogger. Sorry!

However, I did manage to discover an excellent interview with Bedder by Chris Berube for the Grid. The article sheds light on the production challenges and constraints on pass design due to security, bureaucracy, and a plethora of other requirements. If you’ve found this discussion of interest, I recommend a perusal.

Has Bedder been successful in his choices? That’s up to you to judge...

The Cost Calculation

Aesthetic considerations notwithstanding, financially it’s been a great deal when you compare it to the cost of owning and operating a car.

My TTC metropass cost calculation is an approximation only -- it uses the full retail adult prices, and does not take into account factors such as the Metropass Discount Plan, student or senior rates, Volume Incentive Programs, tax credits, municipal taxes, net present value of funds, opportunity costs, inflation, service interruptions, externalities, etc. Data source: Mike’s Transit Stop [update: this site is sadly defunct. But the data still exists on the Wayback Machine: click 'Update Archive', do a find for 'TTC Statistics', follow that link and then look for the item 'TTC Fares from 1954 to Present')

Update
This post was covered in the Summer 2013 issue of Spacing magazine. It tickled me to find myself opposite Steve Munro, the city’s wise luminary on transit matters. Click the image to read the article!

‘Evolution of the Metropass’ by Amber Daugherty in Spacing

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