Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

FIRST COMEDY FOR TORONTO’S FILM AND OPERA DIRECTOR By Stephen Weir  (from Huffington Post ) Photographs by Stephen Weir and George Socka http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/stephen-weir/atom-egoyan-opera_b_4674959.html#es_share_ended It is night-time in downtown Toronto. The opera,  Cosi Fan Tutte , has just ended and the subway platform is crowded. Amongst the post show murmur two names are overheard -- Atom Egoyan and Superman. The Canadian director of movies and tonight's opera is juxtaposed with the Man of Steel. “ Egoyan takes a Superman view on facial recognition,” one 20-something woman lectures her group of friends.   “ When Superman puts on glasses everyone thinks he is Clark Kent – they just aren’t able to see the Man of Steel behind those horn rims.” In Egoyan’s COC production of Cosi Fan Tutte, the movie producer turned opera director admits that the big challenge for this Mozart opera buffa is to make the audience forget some of the silli...

Three Major Cultural Events Staged On Just One (Very Cold) Day In Toronto (Culled From Popular Weir Social Media Posts) MORNING, JANUARY 21st. Carlton Theatres, downtown Toronto Fabienne Colas Colas' advice to Toronto? Buy tickets early (like today) Award winning-actress, director, producer and film festival founder Fabienne Colas advises film lovers to buy tickets to her Toronto Black Film Festival as soon as possible.  " Like today! Don't be disappointed, these are great films and will sell out fast" Colas hosted a morning press briefing at the Carlton Cinema to introduce the line up to this year's festival.  33 films from around the world will be shown at the Festival between February 11th and 16th at the downtown Toronto Carlton Cinemas, the TIFF Bell Lightbox theatre and the Al Green Theatre. Keynote films include From Above (starring Danny Glover), Grigris (Chad's choice for the Oscar's Best Foreign Film category) and director Chris Eska...

Originally published in: http:// www.huffingtonpost.ca/../ ../stephen-weir/ sink-captain-johns-create_b _4475196.html Toronto, It's Time to Sink This Ship .... and Captain John doesn't have to go down with Her. Bow of Capt. John's Floating Seafood Restaurant Sometime on my bum-busting boat ride out from Fort Myers, I realized that the city of Toronto could do something special for its diver tourism industry ... sink the Captain John Toronto Harbour Floating Restaurant. I was in Florida last month, on board a small, open boat heading 21/2 hours out into the wilds of the Gulf of Mexico to scuba dive on a failed Florida Keys museum. I like hundreds of thousands of other divers will go just about anywhere to dive on a shipwreck. Thirty miles out and 90 feet down, the USS Mohawk, sunk just a year ago, is now one of the most sought after underwater attractions in Florida waters. And for the last few months she has hosted an underwater art show that is gar...

Harold Levy and John Artis Photo by George Socka TWENTY YEARS OF SAVING THE INNOCENT.  AIDWYC SET TO GO BACK TO THE FUTURE Originally published in Huffington Post.  http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/stephen-weir/wrongful-convictions_b_4256461.html#es_share_ended     BY Stephen Weir.      Over the past 20 years, the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC) have quarterbacked 18 post-conviction exonerations of people convicted of murder here in Canada. As AIDWYC gets set to mark its 20th anniversary, there are appeals before the courts that could cause that successful case count to rise. On Friday morning, the Supreme Court of Canada ordered that Leighton Hay , a Toronto man found guilty of first-degree murder in 2004, will have a new trial. For 12 years Mr. Hay and AIDWYC have been fighting to clear his name and the Supreme Court of Canada's decision is an important step towards establishing his innocence. A...

. Boomer Memories of the Cold War Aerospace Industry as it spins, flies and slips off the Mortal Coil Litton gyro spins in junk store I spent over 15-years working for a company that made very expensive, highly accurate navigation systems for military and commercial aircraft.  Towards the end of the Cold War, Litton Systems Canada modified an aircraft navigation system for the US cruise missile programme. Employment and profits soared - but as with most things Boomer, it all eventually leads to Bust. The cruise missile was the first low cost missile to use a terrain mapping system (think of it as a precursor to Google Maps) that allowed it to fly close to the ground, past mountains and even tall buildings to blow up a target.  The Litton spinning wheel gyroscopes made sure that the missile knew where it was at all times. It was a technology leap forward in modern warfare. Mindful of the "Red" menace, very little news of the Canadian made navigation eq...

  Art Exhibition on the sunken hull of the USS Mohawk - 30 miles into the Gulf from For Myers Fort Myers shipwreck Enjoy the 12 -work exhibitions but always mind the sharks By Stephen Weir   From the Huffington Post It is an international happening -- an art show that will have you holding your breath -- but only for so long.  People in-the-know and who have access to dive equipment, a big boat and the willingness to swim with big fishes, have been making underwater pilgrimages all summer to see the hidden work of Austrian artist Andreas Franke . Underwater closeup of hull art show Considered one of the 200 best photographers in the world, Franke has taken his art underwater in the new show: The Sinking World Of Andreas Franke - Mohawk Project – Life Above Refined Below ( http://www.thesinkingworld.com/).  This is the third time that he has put together a composite photography exhibition that can only be seen underwater. Underwa...

  Game On 2.0 Game Outs end of Monday in Toronto Game On 2.0 has been the most popular summer kids' exhibition to play in Toronto for years and years. Sadly the Ontario Science Centre's interactive exhibition flippers out end-of-day, Labour Day Monday. "Outstanding, that is all I can say," exclaimed Anna Relyea, the Science Centre's director of public relations.  " Kids, and their parents took to this exhibition right from our opening press conference back in the spring." This fingers-on show traces the 60-year evolution of the computer game beginning with the pinball machine, moving onto Pong and ending with a futuristic 3-D dome game called Virtusphere .  Virtusphere is played  from the inside of 10-foot hollow sphere -- the user runs freely inside while wearing a wireless, head-mounted display. In all there are 150  games and all of them work.  Gamers can learn about the science that goes into making a computer game, or the...