My latest profile from Applied Arts Magazine. Scroll to the end for the PDF.
Here’s the PDF: AACE Student – Petra Cuschieri.
Reverse decision
April 1, 2013
This is a riot. And the mic was on.
“Canadians love things that aren’t practical or useful, like pennies, the metric system and bilingualism. It’s just part of who we are.” — Jim Flaherty, finance minister (announcing that the Canadian government is reinstating the penny, effective immediately).
Postscript: Yup, they got me hook, line and sinker. Only on April Fool’s could a politician make such a correct observation about Canada, then pretend it’s a joke. I wanted to believe the Google Nose gag too. I’m so sad that one is not true. Click and sniff is the final frontier in computing.
New additions
March 12, 2013
Photo: Ryan Faubert, Design: Alison Garwood-Jones
I’ve upgraded my blog and website. Here’s a rundown of the changes:
1. I added a throw to my new fiction site called Drop Cap (enter through the parachute, top left)
2. I’ve reorganized my drawings on a separate site called iArt (enter through the Etch-A-Sketch, top left).
3. I’ve trumpeted these additions on my home page with three new fancy tags. I’m not the only one who likes those vintage office tags.
And in case you’re wondering about the art above, I was inspired by old record covers from the early 1960s — in particular, The Supremes and some old comedy recordings by Elaine May and Mike Nichols. Here I tried to replicate the quality of the photography fifty years ago on pulpy LP sleeves (grainy black and white). I also got that sixties look by adding false eyelashes, courtesy of Photoshop (I already had the pixie). To finish, I added a few signature graphic touches of the era: round stickers with serrated edges, the Bewitched sparkly text and the oval WordPress symbol I invented to look like the old labels for Capitol Records and Mercury Records.
There is nothing “High Fidelity” about this website, but I like Nick Hornby, so in it went.
Finally, I’d like to thank my friend, Graham Scott, for turning all of my website ideas from the last three years into HTML reality. Nice work, Graham!
Good work
March 8, 2013
I love Betsy Bauer’s Google Doodle today celebrating International Women’s Day.
Bauer has only been with Google six weeks. But, as Rebecca Jarvis of CBS This Morning noted, this opportunity is typical of Google where good work trumps hierarchy.
Here is Betsy’s first Doodle posted on February 5th in honour of Mary Leakey’s 100th birthday.
And this is what she said about it on her blog:
“Today we celebrate the life and work of anthropologist/archaeologist Mary Leakey. In this Doodle, I wanted to highlight Leakey’s work in the most charming way possible. I began by focusing on her discovery of the fossilized Proconsul skull, but ultimately decided to depict a scene of her excavation of the Laetoli footprints. As a fun touch, I included her pet dalmatians, whom are often included in old photographs of Leakey.”
Such talent!
Extra! Extra!
March 2, 2013
The paper I associate with postwar Paris, chocolate brioches dipped in milky coffee, and a certain soignée presentation of self is changing its name.
The International Herald Tribune is to become The International New York Times. I suppose it makes sense. It was always the global edition of the Grey Lady. But still …
Will the new name fit on the T-shirt?
La beauté
February 17, 2013
Good design in women is a human obsession.
A phenomenon distinct from the individual.
Beauty alters rooms.
It changes behaviour
And creates a sense of urgency
In everyone.
For the woman, beauty affects how she plans her life,
Both when she has it
And when she doesn’t.
Either way, society doesn’t let her forget it.
Beautiful women who brush off its significance
Are either coy,
Or in denial.
Maybe that’s because they know attraction and violence breathe the same air.
Being on top of the pecking order comes with a different set of responsibilities and expectations.
People question when beauty is hidden away — i.e. if it stays in on a Saturday night,
Or earns a Ph.D.
Somehow, it’s abandoning its responsibilities to others
To be seen
And admired.
We chastise and sometimes dismiss women
For being obsessed over the very things we can’t take our eyes off:
Their hair, their breasts, their tiny hands,
Their brain when they express profundity through those lips and animated eyes.
Beautiful women get used to being the eye of the storm,
And are incensed when they’re not.
Finally, when the storm clouds clear
And beauty’s draw has diminished,
And when those who would have her are fading too,
Life goes on.
Still, good design in women, like our love of high-end cars and chairs,
Continues to preoccupy us.
Handing over the reins is built into the system.
Conceding gracefully is not.
Acknowledging life’s cycle is the ultimate gift you give yourself
And others.
Peace on earth,
And good will to women,
And men.
Mobile blinders
February 12, 2013
Photo by Jordan Taler with Brushes drawing by Alison Garwood-Jones
Newsstand sales of magazines and gum are both down. There’s a connection
David Carey, president of Hearst Magazines, is calling it “the mobile blinder effect.” Talking to the Financial Times, he said that people waiting in line at the grocery store and the newsstand are staring at their phone screens during this key impulse purchasing window, rather than looking at the magazine racks and candy spreads. The latest reports show gum sales in the US are down by 2.7 percent (or $3.5 billion) while sales of consumer magazines dropped almost 10 percent (8.2%) in the second half of 2012.
Adding more screaming headlines to the newsstand and more flavours of gum, like Eclipse Polar Ice and Extra Dessert Delights, are not bringing readers or chewers back. In the case of the gum, the dizzying explosion of flavours over the past few years actually cannibalized sales rather than attracting new consumers. “We’ve made shopping for gum very complicated,” Casey Keller, president of the North America division of Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. told The Wall Street Journal. “We have 50 different varieties of gum in a convenience store, and that’s just Wrigley.”
Gum makers, including Wrigley’s, are considering a return to the classic flavours (remember mint?) and re-marketing gum as a “concentration aid” — something that will help video game addicts, students studying for exams and other high-strung types focus on the task at hand. They also want to make the packs small enough (6 pieces per) to fit into a smart phone pocket and cheaper than the cost of downloading an iTune (i.e. less than $1). Last year, the average price of a pack of gum in the US shot up to $1.58, whereas the average download was .99¢.
Magazines are also playing with pricing, offering cheap digital downloads. Whether they can make the consumer stop and stare, or care, is the current challenge. My pal Kat Tancock put it best. Commenting on this story on D.B. Scott’s Canadian Magazines blog, she said:
“Competing in a busier space just means magazines have to prove their value rather than just taking advantage of impulse buys. Frankly, if bored shoppers are the only reason a magazine can keep going, it probably isn’t that good a magazine. Instead of trying to protect the old, dead business model, let’s work on creating great magazines that people really want to read.”
Otherwise, magazines could all come polywrapped with a pack of gum inside to help keep readers focused on the contents. I dunno, I’m chewing on it.
Good news
February 6, 2013
My blog turned 3 in January.
And on this sunny February day, I got this good news.
I was nominated in the “Life Category.”
Thanks guys.
Spilled milk
January 29, 2013
UPDATED: January 30, 2013
Yesterday, The Globe & Mail, “Canada’s national newspaper,” fired took its literary editors, the crusty and intelligent team of Martin Levin and Jack Kirchhoff, off Books. I pounded my fist on the desk when I read this. Then I let out a cry in my condo that was heard only by the dogs down the hall. By the end of the day, word broke that Levin had been moved to Obituaries (the symbolism there is unfortunate). Kirchhoff’s new location in the building has yet to be determined (updates from insiders welcome).
What appears to be clear is that The Books Section will be no more will be a shadow of its former self. Last year it lost a ton of weight, going from a 20-plus page supplement (like The New York Times Book Review), to a handful pages in Focus, to … well, that too has yet to be determined. But it sounds like it’s living off sugared water.
These corrections were issued at the end of the day in a letter by Globe and Mail editor John Stackhouse who claimed Now Magazine got the story wrong, sending an army of bibliophiles on a rampage through social media. The veteran writer at Now didn’t even call the paper, Stackhouse noted. He went on to reassure readers,
“The Globe is as committed as ever to both books coverage and book reviews. While space and style continue to change, the importance of books to the Globe does not. I continue to look forward to opportunities to innovate in this space as rapidly and creatively as possible, with the sort of energetic leadership that 21st-century book readers and publishersdeserve and demand.”
I hope Jack and Martin dust themselves off. Every day there’s something fresh to make print journalists uncomfortable in their own skin.
I’ve lost many writing jobs because of the economy and the rise of digital media, including a column in a national magazine shortly after the economic collapse in 2008. But even though we’ve known for years where the stampede is going too many of us are still crying, “No-o-o-o-o-o-o!” Yesterday, I noted the number of journalists screaming their disbelief on Facebook when this story broke. “Everything’s going to rat shit,” was the general tenor of the comment stream. Many of these journalists, I silently noted, were folks who have openly admitted on other occasions to no longer subscribing to The Globe.
I stopped subscribing to the paper I’ve written for many times (including full-page features with commissioned editorial cartoons) back in 2010. My reasons were the same as theirs. It dropped its freelance rates to a handful of nickels and it switched to more advertorial-style articles after the net highjacked breaking news, a move that has seriously diluted the quality of the commentary. The paper build-up on my coffee table goes without saying. But for many writers, the cachet of being in The Globe has been lost. That peaked, in my opinion, in the late nineties when competition from the new National Post sharpened everyone’s analysis and wit. What a line-up it was: Robert Fulford, Val Ross, David Macfarlane, Bronwyn Drainie … sigh. I wasn’t even a journalist back then, just a hungry reader.
[pullquote]”If you don’t like change, you’ll like irrelevance even less.”[/pullquote]
The literary geek in me misses the late nineties. Music geeks tell me they feel the same way. Music had a similar burst of creativity before Napster unearthed our cannibalizing tendencies. Today, with Books gone on a potentially meat-free diet, Ian Brown and Ivor Tossell are the only two reasons I’d go to the Globe‘s website, but two reasons are not enough to make me invest in the entire package. My news consumption is messy and piecemeal. Just like yours.
So to my colleagues who hiss that things like blogging are ruining us, I say, you’re right. But, as the aphorism goes, “If you don’t like change, you’ll like irrelevance even less.” There are no guarantees of success in anything (including blogging or what follows after achieving the “All Star” status on LinkedIn), but there are even fewer results if you don’t try.
