Archive for the 'Toronto' Category

Dead Robot in Downtown Toronto

in Blogging, Ontario, Personal Blog, Photography, Toronto and Web Designer

Dead Robot

A signed scream by Dead Robot

Ted is a 43 year old fountain of wit. He’s a good photographer, and a skilled graphic artist.  A barrel chested weekend warrior, this robot is very much alive. He writes with a sharp keyboard, and a keen eye on queer happenstance, local Toronto events, arts and culture. His blog explores web development Toronto new technology, gadget fetishes, web innovations and games.

Dead Robot is an existential personal blog, and by that I mean it has existentialist themes like alienation, dread, and bad faith. There’s an overall ‘reduced to nothingness’ feeling that affects readers, both in the visuals and the text. The name of the blog, and the banner image plant existential thoughts in my brain, as I perceive old technology and broken dreams fermenting fresh new insights into life. Please understand, this blog is Fine Art simply because it’s excellent - every post is carefully concocted and cleverly styled (and often reinforced with good original photos) to make readers question social rituals.

blogger Ted from Dead RobotTed understands that he’s playing a role as Dead Robot, and while keeping an eye on the grand prize of changing the world, he writes about current events and bad corporate behaviour and whatever unpleasant things his caustic wit might colour and could change. He’s a keen observer and transcriber of all that he witnesses. He commonly blogs about the small details he stumbles upon every morning and the events and businesses that affect him. Trips to a Toronto dentist and behind the scenes photos of Toronto Gay Pride parade. This example, published Thursday Sept 4th, 2008 after he witnessed the repetitive abuse of a local food service worker. This post subtly reminds readers of the infectious nature of our emotions, and the healing power of kind words.


One Old Green Bus

in Ontario, Personal Blog, Photography and Toronto

One Old Green Bus blog banner

Matthew Didier - historical reenactorMatthew James Didier lives in west end of Toronto, but his readers would never know it. He seldom writes about the city. When he pens his blog, Didier escapes the GTA and hops around Canada (and back in time) profiling Canadian authors and showcasing vintage film clips he finds on YouTube. He writes about old and new science fiction classics; specifically the TV program Dr Who. Last month Matt dredged up some classic CBC radio interviews with Peter Gzowski (much to my delight). Yes, Matthew Didier is a proud Canadian, but to my ear his blog has the same kind of thick British accent you might have once heard on a Routemaster double decker bus.

One Old Green Bus started in April 2006 when Matt and his family were going through hard times. Like so many other creative souls he went online to license his imagination and explore the possibility of infecting others with a unique vision. And his idea? He had a rather strange idea actually.

Unlike all other bloggers at the time, Matthew fixed his blog quest on an old green bus parked in a wrecker’s yard in southern California. Inspired by One Red Paperclip and Pay It Forward etc, Matt made it his blog’s mission to resurrect this vintage personnel carrier, for the benefit of all humanity, and for his own personal reasons. Sadly, he’s met little success in this endeavour. “We were called cyber panhandlers and generally discouraged at every turn”, Matthew explains “…now the blog is what it is, a place for me to write ideas, report things, and generally kibitz with the online world.”

One Old Green Bus Here it is, a 1950 AEC Regent III double-decker bus in a 1999 photograph. Complete with London Transport fleet names and lots of other cool authenticities, the vehicle looks to be in reasonable condition - only the radiator and most of the engine cooling system is missing.   The story goes that this vehicle was imported into the United States from England and came to be owned by two women from Oregon. It was sold in Santa Rosa California when it broke down on the highway and was deemed too expensive to repair. Now if it could be properly fixed and completely refurbished, it would certainly be a novelty on the streets of Toronto. Mathew was consumed checking vehicle insurance quotes in Canada so I’m sure that’s just what he was thinking.

Matthew DidierIn keeping with the same spiritual idea of raising the dead, this blogger is also active in the Toronto Ghosts and Hauntings Research Society website where he continues to serve Canadians by conducting paranormal investigations in historic Toronto properties.

Anyone can find Matthew Didier on the PSICAN Message Board, a science fiction discussion forum he operates under the moniker “Inconvenient Facts”, and this according to Matt is not a play on anything to do with former Vice President Al Gore’s efforts, but from a book entitled Roswell : inconvenient facts and the will to believe.

Suffice to say, One Old Green Bus is more than a Dr Who fan blog.



Canada’s ModSuperstar

in Personal Blog, Toronto and Web Designer

ModSuperstarIn Cambridge Ontario, an hour west of Toronto along hwy 401, there lives a modern superstar, a skilled web designer in his early twenties, a music enthusiast and a gadget geek with a good sense of humour named jamEs. This guy is a great writer with a special gift; he has the ability to make something from nothing. ModSuperstar.ca repackages jamEs’ suburban reality into socially relevant content. It’s like a magic wand he waves over his life and makes it funny.

jamEs

ModSuperstar.ca also gets high points for appearances. Its a sexy blog that looks clever and funny at the same time. That’s a big part of its appeal; the Wordpress template design is so simple and clean it draws readers into the text, which is equally compelling. Yes in fact I borrowed elements of this design for Canada Blog Friends.ca

ModSuperstar blogs about vintage Canadian pop culture, innovative jokes, old TV commercials and their forgotten actors, camping trips and the bumper stickers seen on the hwy - its a cross section of the minutia that streams past jamEs to enter his consciousness and then his camera’s lens. For example the ‘herpes sign’ beside the MacDonalds in Cambridge is a clever piece of photo journalism.

Canada Blog Friends applauds jamEs for proudly registering the dot ca address and completely ignoring the dot com domain. Or maybe he couldn’t get the dot com? Whatever, Mod Superstar is a great Canadian blog.


Dumpdiggers - Treasure Under Toronto

in Personal Blog, Toronto and niche blogs

Dumpdiggers logo

hands, teapotDumpdiggers chronicles the adventures of low tech treasure hunters Rob Campbell (that’s me) and Tim Braithwaite as we research and recover antiques from forgotten historical sites.

Lately I’ve been blogging about metal detectors and a charismatic antiques dealer at Queen St and Roncesvalles Ave in Toronto named Pickwick (Harold Barrett).  And every now and then I’ll try to sell something online - this summer I’ve experimented with costume jewelry.  For some reason I’m obsessed with finding a workable ‘buy local / sell global’ mercantile strategy; in other words buying relatively rare stuff cheap at yard sales, and then ‘flipping it’ for profit on eBay - its a nice idea, but I’ve yet to succeed.

Each week, Rob Campbell (that’s me) updates the blog’s content and completes another chapter in the compelling quest to find history and grow as wealthy as the Wise Old Man.

Toronto from Cherry St bridge

Each post is built to thrill readers with good information and the possibility of spectacular success; the blog is spiced with local adventures and the sauce of commercial avarice.

Here’s an August 08 vision of the east Lakeshore - this is the Golden Triangle of old Toronto. Buried under this lush vegetation from the Cherry St bridge west to Victory Soy Mills and north to Front Street are thousands of collectible bottles; a museum’s supply of early Canadian glass waits to be found.

In the late 1800’s, early Canadian glasshouses made many different types of specialized vessels to contain medicines, liniments, whiskeys, ginger beers, inks, poisons, and milk - now this ‘gem field’ of beautiful antique glass waits for the next property developers or anyone with intuition and the strength to dig a deep hole.

Dumpdiggers estimates that 80% of the east Toronto lakeshore dump (which dates from the early 1900’s) will be scooped out and hauled away in trucks and then reburied in obscurity somewhere else in the city when this area is developed sometime in the next decade.

Dumpdiggers will be watching from the gate.  We also endorse this portable toilet rentals company in Ontario canada.


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