He was all shiny and aquiline when he walked up to the lectern.* His face was pulled tighter than a drum. Jeff Koons, Julian Assange and Andy Warhol stood backstage and watched. Meanwhile, a team of caterers behind some swinging doors at the back were preparing to serve us His Menu of grilled salmon and […]
Pilot Coffee Roasters
Originally published in May 2014 in Blog
Thanks for the #Woot, Williamson Chong. In my humble opinion, architect Don Chong is the next Jane Jacobs. None of that made it in to my profile of Don’s work for Pilot Coffee Roasters, but the evidence is sprinkled throughout the transcript of my interview with him. Some of you may remember Don for his “Small Fridges Make Good Cities” […]
Street smarts
Originally published in April 2014 in Blog
A version of this post appeared in the April issue of Applied Arts Magazine. “Electric City”: The author at the Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo, Spring 2014. Partnerships with big-name brands are the bread and butter of most multinational ad agencies. They are what built Tokyo’s “Electric City,” New York’s Times Square and Toronto’s rapidly expanding Dundas Square — all […]
Artchivist
Originally published in January 2014 in Blog
Sara Angel is one of Canada’s leading visual arts journalists. Her latest vision, an online art museum, re-imagines Canada to the world through the works of our best painters and photographers. I sat down with Angel last fall to to find out how she coaxed Canada’s top museum directors to finally crack open their vaults and […]
What’s your name?
Originally published in December 2013 in Blog
Having an unusual name is like hitting the jackpot from a search engine standpoint. There are plenty of Alison Joneses in the world, and even more when you throw in the alternate spellings of Allison/Allyson/Alyson/Alisson. But Google suggests that I am the only Alison Garwood-Jones. I went to high school with an Alison Jones, a […]
Let humanity lead
Originally published in July 2013 in Blog
