Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

 . CTV / CP24: COLOUR OUR   WORLD W ITH CARNIVAL Over 60 mas dancers, pan artistes, make-up people and costume carriers came to Jamaal Magloire's Mas camp to shoot two commercials with CTV/CP24.  The shoot included a lot of paint throwing ( a tradition that is carried on in all Carnival parades), squirting water and having Soca (Soak-A ?) laughs. Hosts Colin D ' Mello and Andria Case were  the only people who managed to leave the Scarborough warehouse (home of Magloire's Toronto Revellers) dry and paint free. The shoot was a lot of fun as these pictures illustrate. What follows are a few photographs from the day long event at the home of the Toronto Revellers on Ellesmere Avenue here in Toronto. PANNING THE PERFORMANCE This is one performance the critics can pan!  AFROPAN - Canada' longest performing steel pan orchestras (they celebrate their 40th anniversary this year) sent five of their musicans to appear on camera in CTV/CP24's upcomi

. HAS THERE BEEN A COUP IN COLBORNE?  A PUTSCH IN THE APPLE P ATCH ? HAS AMERICA'S MR PEANUT TAKEN A BITE OF CANADA'S BIG APPLE? (popular Facebook posting by Stephen Weir - June 2013)   Peanut Allegeries? No w orries . Mr. Peanut is dead and under glass - cell photo by M. Nenadovich  On our way to Prescott, Ontario on the mighty 401 highway, we stopped off at the Big Apple , near Colborne.  The Big Apple is the world's tallest observation tower (overlooking a freeway) that is shaped like a bright red MacIntosh apple.  The attraction also makes and sells apple pies, has a petting zoo and a miniature golf game.  At one time the concrete apple housed the Peter Puck Collection! (a cheesey hockey museum). The  35ft tall structure is a monument to the local apple industry and was built by Colborne booster George Boycott. But has there been a coup in Eastern Ontario's backyard orchard?  My Northern Spie eye went into full alert mode when we peeled off the highway

Hawking Meghan Rennie's photographs at Harbourfront's new six-artist year-long outdoor Nine Rivers art installation/exhibition Photographer Meghan Rennie says it took a long-long time to get the perfect picture. Beautiful sky. Calm Lake Ontario waters. A hawk just taking off to hunt overtop of the shores of the Leslie Spit. It took patience. A practised eye and quick finger on the trigger of her old-style analog film camera. Rennie and five other Toronto photographers are featured in a new year-long free outdoor photography show at Harbourfront Centre. The show Nine Rivers City: Toronto's Extraordinary Waterways had its media preview/launch this evening -Thursday June 20th - in the city's newest outdoor park! Photographer Meghan Rennie in front of one of her photographs at Harbourfron The exhibition features 72 large-scale fully winterized photographs that explore the nine rivers that wend their way through the city and down to Lake Ontario. Rennie

 . IT WASN'T TOO HOT, THE PARADE ROUTE WASN'T TOO LONG AND THE STUDENTS' SPIRITS WER E SOOO HIGH! Students party at York University following the parade (middle) Organizer Itah Sadu (Educational Attainment West) presents awards ! On Friday morning 300 grade 12 students, with the help of the Educational Attainment West group and a number of other associations and institutes, end ed their high school "careers" by walking up the road to York University to begin the next stage of their lives. Graduating students from three Jane/Finch Toronto high schools took part in the first annual Walk of Excellence, with parents and community groups watching on! Teens graduating from C. W. Jeffreys, Westview Centennial and Downsview Secondary Schools took part in a gymnasium ceremony at the C.W. Jeffreys school and then paraded 1km up  Sentinel Road to York. Once at the University, the students were introduced to some of the professors and staff of the

.  BROCK AND BRONZE IN SAINT CATHARINES, ONTARI O ( http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/stephen-weir/danek-mozdzenski-wins-a-m_b_3393809.html ) Sketch of Danek Mozdezenski's proposed Brock sculpture Every winter, w hen the temperature dips below zero, and the snow swirls across the campus of the University of Alberta, someone trudges out into the cold and puts a toque and scarf around Danek Mozdzenski's life-sized statue of Martin Luther.  And on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, new Canadians, fresh from citizenship ceremonies get their pictures taken around Mozdzenski's famous seated statue of Prime Minister  Lester B. Pearson. " Children are often placed on Pearson's raised foot for the picture," said the Edmonton, Alberta sculptor. "So much so that Pearson's shoe is much shinier than the rest (of th e statue)."  In a year's time, students at St Catharine's Brock University are going to have a Mozdzenski of their own.  On Tuesday it w

. SHARKS HAVE BEEN GETTING A BAD RAP SINCE THE 1800s! (popular Stephen Weir Facebook posting) The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean is a super popular British boy's books that, while written over 150 years ago (1858), is still in print today. The novel written by Scottish author R. M. Ballantyne tells the story of how three boys marooned on a South Pacific island, are able to survive off the land, battle sharks, kill wild animals, overcome savage natives and make it back to civilization. This is the book that inspired William Golding's Lord of the Flies . It also inspired generations of fiction readers to keep out of the water for fear being eaten by Mr. Jaws. Ballantyne never traveled to the South Pacific and most likely never  ever saw a Great White Shark, but, it didn't stop him from putting the fear of sharks into young fiction readers around the world. Pictured in an 1890 edition of the book (below), the three boys are fishing from a lo

.   . AS MAY FADES, SO DOES THE CONTACT FESTIVAL. STILL TIME TO SEE MAGGS, MACLEANS AND SCHOOL EYED KENYA! (Draft article for Huffington Post Blog) Somewhere in the great city of Toronto, there is an art lover who has seen every single Contact Festival picture hung by over 1,500 Canadian and international photographers in 175 venues throughout the city.  But for the rest of us,  it is a challenge to  see at best a few of the exhibitions that make up the  world's largest month long photography festival.  With only a few days left in the At the Design Exchange Big Show, what will you see? May I suggest three -  the late Arnaud Maggs (AGO/Ryerson), Maclean's Face to Face (Gladstone Hotel)  and the intriguing group show - I Am Standing In The Place Where I Live - by four students from Emori Joi High School in Kenya (Design Exchange)! I Am Standing In The Place Where I Live : Christopher Nokes is a well-known figure in Toronto's art scene, and an inspirationa