Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

  Now and Zen - condos have few walls and no place to exhibit art Before the coming of Zen Zen and Now.  Designing for nothing at all!  Minimalist movement takes root in urban centres   By Stephen Weir I recently pitched the Toronto Star on an update of this story which I wrote for the PDRA magazine in the US 5-years ago. After digging the story out archives I decided to post it, story is as relevant then as it is now It’s a designer’s worst nightmare -- a wealthy client with no possessions and no desire to acquire any. But, wait, as both Seinfield and Sheila Doris know, there is real money to be made when comes to the Zen of nothing! “North Americans are over-run with stuff,” exclaimed Sheila Doris “ We are junkies for stimulation, we don’t lightly give up on our toys.”  But, as the Canadian educator and decorator told a large group of interior decorators, the times are changing!  Speaking at a standing-room-only PDRA sponsored series lecture in Toronto,...

. .... For writing about the things that divers do to get publicity for their causes (and themselves). PART ONE How to generate press for a non-event? Set a world’s record. Build the world’s first or the world’s biggest. Do something that no one has done before, or set a record for doing it over and over again. Hold your breath. Hold all your neighbours' toes. You can even make the world’s smelliest Taleggio (stinky cheese) and attract reporters willing to take a sniff. No one knows this better than scuba and skin divers. There is a certain amount of implied danger in anything you do underwater and as result the media sits up and takes note when there is a potential underwater accident. Hold your breath for 10 minutes and no one will care. Do it underwater? CNN will be knocking on your door. Play bad billiards in the rec room and no one, not even your family will watch. Do it underwater? Headline news. No matter how obscure your record is, announcing it generates publicity in prin...

. Stephen Weir Writes a Story so that he can get a Guinness Book of World Records' Listing (most scuba record stories by a writer in an attic on a Mac) PART TWO Dive Record Story continues from http://stephenweirarticles.blogspot.com/2010/03/stephen-weir-writes-story-so-that-he.html I have been writing on a casual basis about underwater records for Diver Magazine, divermag.com and this website. A colleague of mine at Diver Magazine, Quebec based diver/explorer/film maker/ record keeper Jeffrey Gallant, has set up a website to keep track of the many underwater records set – some are Guinness records, others are simply proclaimed by individuals (who may have had a record amount of Guinness). http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30587750&id=1090578941#!/pages/Drummondville-QC/The-Diving-Almanac-Book-of-Records/303917838845?ref=ss Since I last wrote about underwater record attempts in 2008 I have received emails and clippings about over 30 new underwater feats of daring and fooli...

. Good ship(s) Canada sail in the week long Bacardi Cup. Queen City Star Class boat finishes 73rd, another Canadian team finishes 4th A pair of sailors from the Queen City Yacht Club took part in 5-days of Star Class races in the Miami's Bacardi Cup. Skipper Greg Poole and crew Jeff Imai took part in the 83rd running of the venerable regatta. Poole and Imai were not the only Canadians in the race, according to our correspondent/photographer Pat Whetung (and commodore of the QCYC) reported from the races that " there are boats from the Royal Hamilton Yacht Club in Ontario, and entries from Quebec and British Columbia." "There were 84 entries in total this year." she continued. "That makes for a very long start line filled with skilled boatmen. There were 10-12 Canadians on the start line each day." The race schedule was hampered by bad weather, organizers called it a "vicious storm system which lurked north of Miami." As a result some races w...

Vacationing Large in a Five Star Houseboat Canadian boats let Lake Powell visitors put on the Ritz .     First class on Lake Powell Posh pampering on board Canadian-built luxury houseboats     By STEPHEN WEIR, TORONTO SUN Sun, June 4 / 06     If the plush deep padding of the houseboat sofa wasn't already absorbing your Speedo covered derriere; you'd probably be on your keester anyway. The shocking beauty of the sword-edge cliffs that line the famous Utah/Arizona watercourse will stagger even the most jaded holiday boater. There are places along the Lake Powell Canyon system that are so narrow you can lean out from either side of the upper deck of the rented five-star houseboat and touch the smooth 200 metre tall walls. So abrupt are the sandstone cliffs it is only at noon that the sun will light the flybridge of your $10,000 US a-week-floating condo. A super-sized Bald Eagle lazily circles above in the scorching desert updrafts; hungrily eyeing the Canadi...

. HOUSEBOAT IN NAME ONLY Living Large on Lake Powell aboard a Canadian built mini-cruise ship By Stephen Weir BOATING BUSINESS MAGAZINE 3.24.06 … There are sections of canyon lining Arizona’s Lake Powell where the direct light of day only reaches the deck of passing luxury built Canadian houseboats at high noon. Looking like Mother Nature’s T-square, the sandstone walls soar 200 feet straight up from the blue cool waters of the waterway. Situated at the top of the Grand Canyon system, the man-made lake, with its 2,000 mile coastline, is the world’s number one houseboat destination. In fact, the breath-taking beauty and the relative ease of boating on Lake Powell are credited with kick starting both the concept of five-star American house boating vacations and the luxury houseboat building industry in British Columbia. Imagine an on-the-water vacation aboard a 75 ft long houseboat that comes complete with central air, a corporate sized hot tub, a wine cellar and a theatre-style enter...

. SIDEBAR TO LAKE POWELL HOUSEBOAT BUILDING AND CRUISING STORY PUBLISHED ABOVE Contact Information for companies mentioned in this houseboat feature Orca Houseboats Ltd. 304-1488 Hornby St. Vancouver, BC V6Z 1X3 Phone: 604.646.0484 Fax: 604.646.0408 Email: info@orcahouseboats.com Twin Anchors Marine 675 Old Town Road, P.O. Box 318 Sicamous, BC V0E 2V0, Phone: 250.836-3028 Fax: 250.836-3038 Website: www.twinanchors.com Waterway Houseboat Builders Ltd. Box 728, Sicamous, BC, V0E 2V0 Phone: 250.836.2595 Fax: 250.836.2535 Email: builders@waterwayhouseboats.com Lake Powell Resorts & Marina Aramark Region Office 2233 Dunlap Ave #400 Phoenix AZ USA 85021 Phone: 602.331.5200 Fax: 602.331.5294 Website: www.visitlakepowell.com Selected Ontario Houseboat Builders TIECO (custom built steel hulled houseboats) 511 1000 Island Parkway Lansdowne,ON, K0E 1L0 Attn: David Williams Phone: 613.659.3159 Fax: 613.659.3183 U-Fab Boats (houseboat kits) 459 Highway 29, R.R. #4 Smiths Falls,O...

. To Russia and back on a Sea Doo Pack Ice Pas De Deux In 1998 I worked on an adventure TV show that saw a group of Canadian and American boaters travel from Alaska to Russia on Sea Doos. I wrote the show script and went on the trip. The Globe and Mail took the following story and held onto it for almost a year before giving it back (with a kill fee check) ... a boating magazine and a Vancouver based boating newspaper subsequently bought and carried the piece. The actual adventure aired as part of Power Boat TV. By Stephen Weir Passing through the Anchorage airport, Russian wilderness expert Andrey Velikanov stopped in front of the departure lounge newsstand, looked at the stack of clear plastic wrapped Playboy Magazines and gave loud thanks to Hugh Hefner. “Yeah, and to Jim Beam and the Marlboro Man too.” Mr. Velikanov was tipping his baseball cap to the American icons of sin because a gift of cigarettes, alcohol and “adult” magazines helped facilitate his release from arrest on a r...

. Cutline: left: Dick Wehrs masks fight for wall space in a Water Tower Pisan window filled condo. Far Left: No room for art in this small downtown condo. Below: Roving I, a Flickr photographer took this picture of art in a bathroom in Macau. BIG CANVAS OR FLAT PANEL TELEVISION. FLOOR SCULPTURE OR UMBRELLA STAND. HOW DO CONDO OWNERS BRING ORIGINAL ART INTO THEIR LIVES. JOURNALIST NEEDS YOUR HELP IN RESEARCHING A FEATURE STORY ABOUT THE ART OF CONDO ZEN Has the downtown condo boom hurt the sale of original art? If you don't have wall space do you just buy smaller art? The Zen of Condos (according to an article I wrote for the US trade magazine Paint Decorating Retailer) says that when you live in a finite space you must remove something old to make room for something new. Buy a chair? Throw out a coffee table! What about art? Buy a painting throw out a wall clock? In space challenged downtown condos the norm is for the builder to provide as much natural light as possible ... at ...

Toronto based Defence Company appoints Malcolm Stanton -- Director for Business Development Highland Integrated Surveillance Systems , Inc. (HISS Inc). is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Malcolm Stanton as Director for Business Development for HISS, Inc. for the Middle East and Asian region. Malcolm brings over 40 years of experience that covers Customer Service, Program Management and Business Development in the Canadian and International Aerospace / Defence community. Most recently Malcolm Stanton was Director, Business Development for L-3 Communications - WESCAM, responsible for Business Development in the Asia- Pacific region. “We are pleased to welcome Malcolm to the HISS team and wish him every success in this challenging role,” said Roger Smibert, president and CEO of HISS Inc. HISS, Inc is an internationally recognized surveillance mission system solution integrator with a focus on applications in the military and paramilitary airborne, ground and marine sectors. H...

. The Recycled Condo. EVERYTHING old is new again By Stephen Weir It looks news. It smells fresh. It has a new home warranty. Yet, some of the parts of its sum have been around at least once before. Recycled materials are beginning to be used in the construction of new condos, not to save money but to save the planet. When it comes to constructing Toronto condominiums EVERTHING old, from broken glass to discarded animal skin, is new again. In a drive to be green, developers are using recycled materials in almost every aspect of the building cycle. There isn’t a totally recycled condominium in Canada … yet. But a visit to a number of new building projects offers a glimpse of the future fast approaching. One building uses century-old wood for flooring in new half-million dollar condos, another uses concrete blocks made with old broken wine bottles. And then there is the building that has recycled leather car upholstery on the walls and floor. “ There is a consumer demand for all th...