Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

The Master Photographer Has Died (Huffington Post  http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/stephen-weir/arnaud-maggs-dies-_b_2170683.html ) After Nadar - self-portrait by Arnaud Maggs. Press photograph courtesy of the Susan Hobbs Gallery --> Photographer 86-year old photographer Arnaud Maggs didn't suffer media fools lightly.  "If another reporter asks me how come I have managed to stay active so long, and what is my secret to long life, I am going to tell him sex and drugs" he groused as we walked out of the Canada AM television studio. "What about Rock and Roll?" I asked. Arnaud thought for a moment, smiled and answered, "less so". It was in the late spring and Maggs was on a roll. He had had a successful show of his works in Toronto at the Susan Hobbs Gallery.  The National Gallery in Ottawa had paid the ultimate tribute by opening Arnaud Maggs: Identification  a survey exhibition that follows the senior artist’s production over four de...

PR Tales From My Blue Bin (some marketing and PR ideas are better left alone) From the Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/stephen-weir/worst-pr-campaign_b_2067262.html By Stephen Weir: Saying something loudly doesn't make it true. Doubly so when it is the printed word doing all the yelling. I was given a card (pictured top) to keep so that I wouldn't forget the show I had just paid to see. Since then the card has been pinned to my corkboard wall. It has been up there for a while. It edges have started to curl. It has taken a couple of Starbuck splashes over time. I took it down yesterday when I realized the card's message -- Please Keep This Card As Your Memory Of The Show -- hadn't worked. I have no memory of getting that 3" by 4" piece of cardboard. I can't tell you what show I was at when I received the card. An art show? A play? A dance performance? Hmm. Probably something that was given out at a Toronto Harbourf...

. The Revolution To Change The World B egin s Underwater  A n edited version of this story appears in this month's Diver Magazine   Revolution is a new big brain movie for divers who care about the planet. Underwater filmmaker Rob Stewart premiered the full-length film in early September at the Toronto International Film Festival.  Already Revolution is doing what Stewart wants it to do – change the world. The movie captured the People’s Choice Award Documentary  (Runner-Up) in his hometown and was Documentary Winner at last month’s Atlantic Film Festival .  It will be screening at Festivals for the next few months before getting theatrical release in Canada in March 2013. Revolution is the true-life eco-crusade that the Toronto diver found himself leading, half way through making the movie.  The film, originally meant as a shark conservation film – a follow-up to his acclaimed 2006 SHARKWATER documentary – ended back on land and morphed ...

Top: Eran Penny and Old Self, Variation #, 1960 Left: young Penny . "HOPE I DIE BEFORE GET OLD" (Oops too late)   Maybe, says Canadian artist but that was a long time AGO From the Huffington Post by Stephen Weir   http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/../../stephen-weir/evan-penny-ago_b_1964942.html It was the sixties. Vietnam.  Nuclear testing in the Pacific.  Sgt Pepper. And, t he Who singing they hoped th eir generation would die before it got old. What could be worse than aging?  Cutting your hair? Buying a suit?  Cubicles? Getting a mortgage? The song didn't work.  Most of us lived. We all grew old.  Overnight. No one thought about what was going to happen as the aging process took hold ... except maybe Canadian sculptor, Evan Penny. When Peter Townsend wrote My Generation (with that famous dying line) it was 1965 and the Who w ere pointing out that older people just "don't get it".  Evan Penny w...

 . Chasing Ink With Camera! One Day On A Little Cayman Dive Boat The compass has a dive flag. Celtic ink with 3 waves for the dive world Stripping down in Little Cayman's only food store Little Cayman Island, population 200, attracts only two types of visitors.  Ornithologists. Experienced Scuba Divers. Ornithologists because of the birds. The largest colony of Red Footed Boobies in the Caribbean is found on Little Cayman's Booby Pond. Scuba Divers go there because of the sheer wall of coral found in the island's underwater preserve, just north of the island. My wife and I returned from Little Cayman Island on Sunday.  We weren't there for the birds. Flamingo is the logo for dive haven Bonaire. We spent most of our week on a couple of dive boats. One large scuba boat was operated by Reef Divers out of the Little Cayman Resort.  The other, a small Boston Whaler operated by three divers, was out on the reef hunting the invasive lionfish...

  (The hard way to get a best seller) The Unusual Way One Man is Getting His Story Out - First Novel Sells Very Well  Yahaya Baruwa talks about his book on William Doyle Marshall's CHRY show My Data Bag. Linda at the second mike. By Stephen Weir Posted: 09/20/2012 5:37 pm Huffington Post Canada http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/../../stephen-weir/struggles-of-a-dreamer_b_1897972.html   Meet Yahaya Baruwa (pronounced: YaHaYa BaRuWa). He is a recent York University Graduate. On Tuesday he and I shared a microphone at CHRY-fm. It was the My Data Bag show with William Doyle Marshall. I was talking about art, films and books in a big picture fashion, Yahaya was much more practical -- very down to earth. He was there to talk about the difficult journey he took to get his new novel Struggles of a Dreamer published. Just like the title, it was a struggle for the Nigerian Canadian to just get the book printed....

.  Toronto Film Maker Opens Revolution at Toronto International Film Festival ( From a recent, popular Facebook posting by Stephen Weir ) I attended last night's world premiere of Rob Stewart's newest eco-documentary, Revolution. The full-length movie was screened  here in Toronto to an almost full house at TIFF. Stewart, an underwater filmmaker (Shark Water) spends most of this movie above-water looking at how close the planet is to a total eco-meltdown. The movie is very critical of Canada's Tar Sands project. Great underwater scenes with whale sharks and manta rays. Pictured is Stewart before and after the screening, and a plastic shark prop (from the movie) outside the Wellington Street bar where the after-party was held.

  Cayman Brac   “The Russian Destroyer” Cayman Brac - Reef Divers' crew prepare for a morning dive on the Russian Destroyer Wrecked  - Diver Magazine Feature by Stephen Weir September 2012. Sidebar 3 The Russian destroyer was actually a Russian Patrol Frigate based in Cuba. It was Patrol Vessel 356 until just before her sinking when she was named the Dive Captain Keith Tibbetts Length 330’ Width 42’ Commissioned in 1984 Decommissioned in 1992 Sunk in 1996 Last passenger on ship – Jean Michelle Cousteau Armament – Two 5” deck gun. Reef Divers, Cayman Brac visit the Destroyer almost daily, and occasionally will dive her at night.   The Cayman Aggressor live-aboard usually dives her weekly.   When conditions are right, she can be dove from shore. Reef Divers at Brac Reef Beach Resort Cayman Brac 1-800-594-0843 info@866thebrac.com Full Story: http://stephenweirarticles.blogspot.ca/2012/08/cover-story-diver-magaz...

Soto Wreck - Little Cayman - Peter Brink  Cayman Wreck Story - Diver Magazine September 2012 Little Cayman - The Wreck of the Soto Trader MV Soto Trader Commissioned: 1940s. Decommissioned: 1975 Date lost :  04/04 / 1975 cause lost :  fire Dimensions: 120 Ft Length - 30 Ft Beam Cargo at time of sinking: Beer. Construction equipment. Vehicle. Note: no beer has been found on the wreck this century. (I’ve looked)   Reef Divers Little Cayman Conch Club Condos and Conch Club Divers Phone: (345) 948 1026   (561) 283-1715 P.O. Box 58, Little Cayman. KY3-2501, Cayman Islands Conch Club Divers in Little Cayman Phone (345) 948-1026   (832) 460-9127 E-mail ccdivers@candw.ky Little Cayman Beach Resort and Reef Divers http://www.littlecayman.com/contact-us/ Phone: (345) 948-0124 The Southern Cross Club Little Cayman http://www.SouthernCrossClub.com Tel: 345-948-1099 Full Story: http://stephe...

Cayman sinking story by Stephen Weir Tale of the tape The World’s newest diveable artificial reef – this month. The Kittiwake is for divers and snorkellers Ex-USS Kittiwake ASR 13 - Chanticleer Class Submarine Rescue Ship ASR Built by: Savannah Machinery and Foundry Co of Savannah, Georgia, USA Keel Laid: 5th January 1945 Launched: 10th July 1945 Commissioned: 16th July 1945 Decommissioned: 30th September 1994 Displacement: 2290 TONS Dimensions: 251 ft Length - 42 Ft Beam - 15 ft Draft Machinery: Diesel Electric Propulsion - 1 Shaft - 3000 BHP for 15 Kts Complement: 85 Officers and Sailors   The Kittiwake shipwreck is in a private park and attraction that is managed by the Cayman Islands Tourism Association. All divers to the Kittiwake shipwreck are required to pay an entry fee (which added to your dive shop charges). - Scuba Divers = $10 Cdn/US Divetech @candw.ky 571 NW Point Road, West Bay Grand Cayman, CAYMAN ISL...

  Three Artificial Reefs. Three Days of Diving. Three Cayman Islands September Issue. Diver Magazine. www.divermag.com   By Stephen Weir The buzz is back. Cayman Islands, best known for their reef walls, gin clear water and a high standard of dive services, is attracting wreck divers these days because of their growing inventory of artificial reefs. Have just three   dive days and want to see the underside of all three Cayman Islands?   There are underwater world-class military shipwrecks   (well, two and a worthy commercial wreck) that have been sunk close to shore to allow for diving almost any day (or night) of the year on Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman. A year and a half ago the Cayman Dive Operators Association sank the USS Kittiwake on the North End of Grand Cayman Island’s 7-Mile Beach.   Ever since, a Canadian run dive shop has been modifying the remains of the retired US Navy submarine tender, to make i...