23 things assignment #3 RSS feeds

This weeks post is about RSS feeds that have things to do with Toronto. The Library Journal feed that we were asked to try was really easy because it allowed you to select the application that you wished to use from their page instead of copying and pasting. The other feeds that I now subscribe to prefer the ctrl+c ctrl+v method. They are the following.

Akimbo: which is a website designed arround the visual arts in Toronto. Anything from calls for submissions to exhibits to curatorial/eductional jobs in the field of the arts gets posted on this website. You can also set it up to directly email you about current news, although an RSS feed makes more sense because new postings come out every hour.

Toronto Life: because if you're like me and need to know more about the city you live in, it's good to receive that information faster. I enjoy it for the finance related articles and the best restaurant guide.

Now Magazine: This publication is good for the arts in this city as well. Of particular note are the CD reviews that will direct you to some fantastic music one might otherwise not come across and the little section on gallery openings that will do an article about one of the exhibits currently on display.

The RSS feed system seems like a sound way of taking alot of information and condensing it for portable use.

23 things assignment #2

This is what Toronto can look like sometimes. A new building under construction, a picturesque escape or a huge blown up bunny attracting thousands to a mall after it's closed.

On Portraits

This post is inspired by my most recent visit to the AGO which has a gallery devoted to the portraits of Rembrandt on at the moment. I'm a member and like to visit a few spaces at a time rather than see the whole building in one go. In this space is an audio visual display that allows you to click on the faces of people who know a thing or two about the faces on display. A woman discusses how a portrait is different from a photograph.

A portrait differs because a person has to settle, or some such reason. It is the person as they are. Relaxed, that they are more themselves somehow than in a photograph. Whereas the still image catches a single moment, they looked that way for a second and that is all you get to see, a seconds worth of character.

So now I have ideas of portraiture floating in my head. I bought a book called "The Imaginary Portraits of George Condo" and enjoyed them, found them to be similar to how I tend to use figures - places to insert posture and action rather than specific identity.

This is probably why I keep thinking about that gallery in the AGO. I had been looking at identifiable people. The person speaking in the display said most of the people we encounter are like photographs, we look at them briefly and we think we know where they fit, we think we understand. The exhibit serves as a reminder of the mysteries of humanity, it allows the opportunity of inspection, to be dumbfounded, to wonder what they were thinking.

What's good about the distillery

If you travel, you know that it's hard to find a good public washroom in some of the less frequented areas of a city. In the distillery however, not only do you find points of interest such as galleries, breweries, and a chocolate factory you needn't worry about the lou situation if you are just out there for a stroll. Public washrooms are located across from the Mill St. Brewery and are very prestine.

23 things assignment #1

Well, it would be interesting if 23 things would show us how to edit Html. Since I'm interested in blogging about arts and culture in Toronto, it would be useful to make a really dynamic blog that people would want to visit.