Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

. . Message to the Girls: Celebrate Summer With Wallet-Friendly Packages Toronto, July 23, 2009 – When the sun beams down all day and even the nighttime temperatures are pleasant, it's a sign that the summer season is in full bloom. Many people know that spending time in Ottawa during the warm holiday months will create a lifetime of memories. To make a Capital City getaway more alluring, Ottawa Tourism is promoting the new "Girlfriends Getaway" package that gives women travelers the chance to stay, shop, dine, spa and take in a cultural event, all at a special affordable price. Ottawa’s new "Girlfriends Getaway" package is a fun choice for a 'girls only' holiday shopping trip tailored for two (but more guests can be added on). The package offers a two-night stay in a downtown Ottawa hotel, discount Rideau Centre Saving coupons and the choice of an add-on. The “Girlfriends Getaway" optional add-ons are numerous and varied. Guests can receive one...

. This story crossed Bloomberg's wire this morning. The feature is the first time in my memory of Scotiabank Caribana (going back 10 years before it was even called Scotiabank) that a business news service has looked at the festival. I obviously didn't write it, but, Bloomberg did use a few of my photographs. Socca Music, Wild Parade Send ‘Vibe’ Through Toronto Caribana By Sean B. Pasternak July 22 (Bloomberg) -- Mention Toronto and steel drums, Carnival and reggae music probably aren’t the first things that come to mind. From July 14 through Aug. 3, however, Canada’s biggest city opens up for Scotiabank Caribana, which promotes itself as North America’s largest celebration of Caribbean culture. Now in its 42nd year, Caribana gives 1.3 million local residents and tourists the chance to see buttoned-down Toronto letting loose, as this year’s slogan -- “Won’t Stop De Vibe” -- suggests. Caribana is best known for its signature parade, set for Aug. 1. Rambunctious crowds line the...

. Slighty expanded story which appeared in Maple Gazette (Cdn newsletter for travel agents) Top Seven Beaches By Stephen Weir So many lakes. So many rivers. And then there is the wide-open ocean. We went to the experts to find out where the seven top beaches and swimming spots in New Hampshire can be found. You might be surprised at the answers! Hampton Beach. MSNBC rated it in the top 3 cleanest beaches in the United States. Miles of white sand. Supervised swimming. There is camping at the Hampton Beach State Park. Lots to do from the annual summer sand sculpture competition (pictured above) to the February 1st Penguin Plunge! www.hamptonbeach.org/ Rye on the Rocks. This beach is best known for being the home of the best surf breaks in New England. The beach is off Route 1-A a few miles from Rye, NH. www.townrye.nh.us. Wallis Sands State Beach. When the tide is out, this is one of the best beaches in the state. Wide expanses of clean sand. This is a family-ori...

Driving down Yonge Street on Saturday night, heading for the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, the new location for the Soca Monarch competition. I was running late, I had been at the Junior Carnival (Kiddies Parade)all day and was not expecting to be interviewed. Its reporter Jasmeet Sidhu from the Toronto Star, -- Toronto's biggest newsaper had not covered the parade. Other papers had. Reporter interviewed me, and the story below appeared on line an hour or so later. Appeared in print this morning. Posted the story not because I was interviewed, but, because they were in need of a photo ... I sent them one I had taken early in the day. Caribana's Junior Carnival lights up Jane and Finch Jul 18, 2009 08:35 PM Jasmeet Sidhu Staff Reporter They danced, they laughed, their glittered costumes sparkling in the afternoon sun. The Jane and Finch area was the scene of jubilant festivities and the bright colours of the Caribbean as the annual Junior Carnival took to the streets Saturday aft...

. Summer Music Festivals: Big Names. Odd Names. Heck just play! The Hill (and the Ottawa Valley) is alive with the sound of music Toronto, June 12, 2009 – When the curtain drops on 2009 there will have been almost 50 (48 to be exact) festivals played out in Ottawa. And while opinions may differ on which festival was the best, all will agree that the Capitol’s summer music festivals are something to sing about. Sometimes Unconventional. Always World Class. In Ottawa it is the summer of the Treble Clef. Jazz. Blues. Classical Music. Three different genres and three separate multi-stage festivals with enough star power to draw visitors from around the world. The TD Canada Trust Ottawa International Jazz Festival (OIJF) features some of the jazz world’s most popular cutting-edge musicians. The OIJF provides visitors to the city with a unique opportunity to enjoy free and ticketed performances both indoors and out. Audiences can enjoy over 80 different jazz performances day and night ...

- Classy Friday Night Fund Raiser at the McMichael A Celebration of Canadian Art, Music, Cuisine and all that Jazz background info/article for Vaughan Citizen, Corriere Canadese (Toronto daily Italian newspaper) and Vaughan Today The woods, the hills and even the galleries of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection were alive with the sound of music. Jazz at the McMichael, an annual fund raising celebration of art, music and cuisine, was blessed with picture perfect weather and a large supportive crowd, the evening of Friday May 22nd. Attending and speaking at the Jazz concert was the Honourable Aileen Carroll, Ontario’s Minister of Culture. 200 people joined the Minister, who enjoyed an exceptional evening of fusion jazz with the Vaughan based VSM Trio. The trio featured popular musicians Vito Rezza, Shelly Birger, and Mario Romano. The three musicians were joined on the McMichael stage by violinists Valentina Romano and Leonid Pejsahov. This unique fundraiser benefits ongoing exhibi...

DIVER MAGAZINE SIDEBAR (TO BE PUBLISHED IN JUNE 09) ABOUT DIVING AND SNORKELING FOR STEPHEN WEIR STORY ON DIVE PHOTOGRAPHERS GUIDE TO THE FLORIDA KEYS AND POMPANO BEACH (AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN) Five Great Places To Dive and Take Underwater Photographs in the Florida Keys 1. Biscayne National Park - 95% of this park is underwater. Outstanding reefs covered in picturesque elk horn coral. Shipwrecks abound. Northern tip of the Florida Keys. 2. Wreck of the USN Speigel Grove. 155m. (510ft) retired warship scuttled to create artifical reef, 10 kms (6 mi) offshore of Key Largo. Ship originally lay on its side but after Hurricane Dennis (‘05), the ship is now upright 40m (130 ft) down. Experienced divers only. 3. Jules’ Undersea Lodge. La Chalupa Underwater Research Lab has been converted to world’s only underwater hotel. Two hotel rooms have glass picture windows onto the reef, air-conditioning, hot showers, a fully stocked galley, and unlimited diving for divers! Key Largo 4. Ten-Fath...

Mathew Rosenblatt, a principal with Cityscape Development Corporation (Distillery), plays with his daughter in the Distillery area's daycare - photo by Toronto Star. GEN-CONS LOOK SKYWARD - THE CONDO GENERATION READY TO RAISE THEIR FAMILIES IN DOWNTOWN HIGH-RISES Published in the Toronto Star, May 2, 2009. By Stephen Weir A new high-rise trend led by the Condo Generation, is pulling into two downtowns. A small but growing number of Gen-Con parents are forsaking dreams of family homes … you know, the one with the white picket fence and the swing set in the large backyard … for condos in the city. There are already family-friendly buildings in downtown Toronto, and Mississauga, with more on the way. Builders, architects and realtors agree that over the next decade an increasing number of parents will decide to raise their children in high-rise condominiums within the city core. Urbanization, a Toronto condo think tank, isn’t so sure. They believe that as long as units are small, pri...

' FAMILY CONDO FACTOIDS In the United States the National Association of Home Builders Multifamily Council regularly issues information on the Multifamily (Condo) Outlook. Among its findings is that: • In multifamily buildings renters have more children than condo owners, but the magnitude of the difference varies by structure type. Fewer school-age children are found in buildings (rented or owned) with 20 or more units • The highest number of children per 100 households is 90.8, which is found among households that have recently moved into newly constructed single-family detached rental units. The lowest number is 3.2 for newly constructed condominiums with 20 or more units. • The National Association of Home Builders found that in hot metro markets - American cities that have retained a vibrant core -- investment buyers now account for 15 percent of purchasers of multi-family condominium units. Speculators are prone to flipping condos, even before the suites are completed. • How ...

. SIDEBAR What are downtown condos projects offering parents in other cities? • Singapore's Capital Land builder has constructed over 40 family friendly condo projects. Their new 420-unit Clearwater Condominiums has: a children's playground, family fitness corner, children's pool, karaoke room, rooftop BBQ, a kid's space net and outdoor maze. Their Waverina has an outdoor wave pool. • The downtown Denver 42-unit Zocalo Condominiums opened in 2006. The building includes a small city police station at street level. • Daniels Capital Condominium in Mississauga has two 30-story high-rise condo towers and a few three-storey family friendly villas. It has a Hollywood style home theatre, barbecue patios and indoor pool. At street level there is a dental practice, a walk-in medical clinic and a pharmacy (which delivers to your condo door). Mississauga Living Arts Centre right across the road. • Craig's Ranch, a planned community in Texas includes, homes, soon-to-be built ...

http://www.yourhome.ca/homes/article/626607 I have received feedback from readers (which is very very rare for my condo stories) already. These four emails were posted on the Toronto Star site. Don't disagree with any of them! sl119 mf123, Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah, familyof3, Saime: You miss the point. Condo markets attract a certain kind of customer with a particular mindset. This kind of customer wants only a condo, regardless of the deals on homes with yards or other opportunities out there. These condos attract people with money (and these people are clearly, at least monetarily, not an "average family"), and they don't mind the prices. There will always be people out there who will scoop these condos up. Submitted by Sherry119 at 5:41 PM Monday, May 04 2009 | A million for a 2.5 bedroom or... how about some acreage with a big home just on the outskirts of Burlington? Even $400 000 for a 2 bedroom plus den is ridiculous. Again, in the 905 you could pick up a nice...

' DIVINE DIVE PICTURES Olympus Puts The Bite on Underwater Digital Picture Taking Market For divers, swimmers and snorkellers By Stephen Weir 3 May 2009 …By Man-Eating standards, this was a very small shark. She was as big as my two fellow underwater photographers swimming hell-bent-for-rubber towards her. But, what with the cameras in their waterproof housings, aluminum scuba tanks and chewy neoprene wet suits, there was far too much bulk approaching even for a hungry 2-metre long Ginglymostoma Cirratum. After my strobe (underwater flash) fired, the grey Nurse Shark shook her large dorsal fin and leisurely swam through a cut in the living Florida Keys reef and headed into the gloom. Probably in Havana by now. With only one large fish shot to show for an hour of diving, and my air supply dwindling, I quickly scanned the lush shallow reef for something - anything – big to shoot. There! Up above, hovering around the coral-encrusted bow of a WW2 shipwreck, were a dozen 2-metre long...

. TEN THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT SCUBA DIVING IF YOU INTEND ON BECOMING AN UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHER More people have taken pictures from inside the International Space Station than have dove down and taken photographs of the wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald. Lake bottoms, rivers beds and the ocean floor are truly the final frontiers. If you use scuba gear to take pictures you must be a certified diver (there many levels and types of certification). It is estimated that there are about half a million people in this country who are active scuba divers … a growing number of them own cameras. So, what does one need to know to join the growing rank of Canadians who live to spend time breathing air from an aluminum cylinder? 1. Age. Some scuba training agencies begin teaching students at the age of 10. Last year, Bert Killade, the self-styled “Last Pirate of the Caribbean”, died at the age of 94. Killade claimed to have been the oldest active sport diver. 2. Ability. You should know how to swi...

' Snorkeling is a gentle sport that is safe, fun and healthy. Unlike scuba diving, one doesn’t need a course before getting wet. Snorkeling leaves no carbon footprint, doesn’t harm the underwater environment and requires little gear beyond a mask, a set of fins, and of course the snorkel. Depending on where you are, a wet suit and a weight belt (to neutralize the buoyancy of the suit) should be worn. While there are advantages to taking pictures underwater using scuba gear (you can stay up to 90 minutes underwater to get a good photograph and you can go deep to take pictures), there are many photographers and videographers who prefer snorkeling and free diving. SIDEBAR: FIVE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SNORKELING AND PHOTOGRAPHY Interested in snorkeling? Consider the following: 1. Only David Blaine can stay underwater for more than 15-minutes (and we aren’t sure he didn’t have a secret supply of air). Some free divers can stay underwater for 10-minutes (and reach incrediable d...

- Producer and Musical Director Maribeth Solomon (right) attend opening of Imax Under the Sea at the Ontario Science Centre in April. At the Opening - Story to Follow

. Toronto Dive Industry on the Ropes? First signs that the current recession is taking its toll of Toronto's scuba industry appeared early in 2009 when the classey Toronto dive shop, Waterline, quietly closed its doors. The dive store, located on Avenue Road in the heart of Lawrence Park, one of Toronto's most affluent neighbourhood, has been servicing sport divers since 1992. The shop, established by Wendy Rutherford and her late husband Craig, was a full service store. It offered equipment, repairs, classes and popular dive trips. Waterline was the first shop to use the Internet to effectively communicate with divers throughout the city. Rutherford has always believed in having a close relationship with the dive community. On her website she has long said that the goal of her store was "to provide top-quality merchandise from companies which stand behind their products and value customer satisfaction, and to provide incredible customer service by knowing our products,...

. Early version of a piece written for Sunwings' inflight magazine, summer 2009 edition There is a myth about Canadians that just won’t go away. It says that we are a nation of hewers of wood and drawers of water. Truth is, most Canucks live in urban communities within 150kms of the American border, our trees are for shade and the water comes right out of the tap. A visit to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ontario (just north of the City of Toronto) shows, however, that the myth has done some good things for the country. The publicly owned gallery is the only major art gallery in the country that solely collects and exhibits Canadian Art, and its most prized works were created by the Group of Seven, painters who painted the myth! In 1920, seven artists – Lawren Harris, J.E.H. MacDonald, Arthur Lismer, Frederick Varley, Frank Johnston, Franklin Carmichael and A.Y. Jackson – decided, for the first time, to exhibit as the Group of Seven. The Group’s first exhib...