Category: Around the World
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The Path
In the winter, when I commuted into downtown Toronto from my family’s hometown in the suburbs, I would often get where I needed to go through a Guinness world-record setting network of underground tunnels called the Path. I enjoyed getting lost in the Path, which usually meant discovering something—running into a new food court, finding…
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The magic of the first trip
My first two trips out of North America were to Portugal and China. I hadn’t visited Europe before, and I only visited Hong Kong once, nearly two decades before. Both trips were the result of flight deals. My friends and I traveled together—a group of four, and then a separate group of seven. We shared…
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Long & McQuade
Over a decade ago, my friends and I released the first episode of Prologue with a recording artist named Ryan Lewis. We drove from Toronto to Montreal, went backstage to Osheaga, recorded the interview, slept, and left early the next morning. That kicked off a series of other interviews with artists like Ty Dolla $ign,…
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Your city’s culture needs you
One of Toronto’s few magazine shops, Presse Internationale, is shutting down after nearly two decades of operation. A new landlord bought the building and is increasing rent for that storefront from $7,000 to $11,000. It’s difficult news, and there are a lot of things to feel upset about. What I think is missing from the…
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Post-travel integration
Earlier this year, I went to Hawaii for my honeymoon (which was the reason for essentials week). When my partner and I returned, we bought a couple of notebooks from Moleskine and decided to recount our trip through that. For me, it meant writing a page full of words documenting moments from the trip. Sometimes,…
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Notes on promotion, at the book fair
Printed Matter’s New York Art Book Fair is made up of 36,000 square feet of books and the people who print and publish them. If you like books, or art, it’s a great place to be. Events are great temporary spaces and occasions to bring a group of people together (known in marketing as activation).…
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The destination is a new way of seeing
One’s destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things. Henry Miller
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Visiting vs. living somewhere
There’s no way to actually know what it’s like to live somewhere unless you actually live there. Maybe you cross that line when you sign a lease, or when you buy furniture. I’m not sure. But the point is, you need to settle down to know a place. The longer you live there, the more…
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Write it down for someone else
Whenever you can, however you can, stored and published in some digital and searchable format for posterity.
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Value your ignorance
My friend Abdel’s lament, after watching a student “solve” the Rubik’s Cube on his desk just like the YouTube video showed her how: “You need to value your ignorance.” Ross Gay, The Book of Delights When I played video games as a young boy, I constantly referred to cheat codes and guides. I wanted to…