Blog? Blog!

Eh? What? Blog? Oh, blog! Blog. Hmmm . .. that’s right. It will return. I promise. Many reasons, many excuses. You’ll hear them all in due time. I will return, honest.

More video games in schools

It looks like video game makers are really liking this games in schools idea. NESTA Future Labs reports that they are teaming up with EA Games to study how video games can be used in UK classrooms to help students learn:

“The research project, named Teaching with Games, will begin in September 2005. It aims to explore the practical issues surrounding the use of interactive computer games in schools and the changes needed to better support learning in schools across Europe.

The study will look at what children can learn from computer games, how best to introduce games into the classroom and what changes might be required to make them relevant to the educational environment. Computer games are beginning to be introduced to schools but do they really work as a tool for education? The practicalities of using games in the classroom will be explored through trials in selected secondary schools in the UK.”

Now, I love video games and I love education. I’ve even written about how video games can help kids gain digital literacy skills. But I’m always worried when private companies get in on public education.

While the EA folks all gush about games offering kids “intellectual challenge and stimulation” and helping ensure “that gaming in education supports both the teaching and learning goals of today and tomorrow” , that inner voice tells me that EA are wetting themselves at the chance of scoring that coveted “gatekeeper approval” and getting their brand into that last bastion of commercial-free public space: schools.

I’m all for trying out video games in schools. Let’s see what kids will learn. Let’s also see how long it takes for EA to turn it into a branding campaign on a young captive audience. I’m starting my egg timer now.

tagged: [video_games] [schools] [education]

Teens told to shut up and drive

Starting today, teens in Colorado with new driving licences are banned from using their cell phones while driving [via textually.org.] While I think this is a great first step at making the roads a safer place (I’m for a ban on all cell phone use while driving, everywhere), it’s only a half-step and it’s clear who is behind the fight against bans on in-car cell phone use:

“Most states are looking at limited bans because it is unclear – and a bone of contention with the telecommunications industry – whether cell phone use while driving can be tied to more accidents.”
- Santa Cruz Sentinel

So, it’s the phone companies, who profit from the use of cell phones, who don’t want cell phones banned in cars. Very surprising. Apparently, in-car use of cell phones isn’t dangerous. How do we know? The phone company told us so, that’s how:

“The cell phone industry says studies show cell phone use was a factor in less than 1 percent of all accidents in states that require reporting – California, Florida, Michigan, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.”

Now that all this “cell phones are distracting” nonsense is settled (thank you telecommunications industry!) we can ask why teens are the ones being targeted. Let’s have Matt Sundeen, a policy researcher with the legislatures group, tackle that one:

“States are willing to take “baby steps” with younger drivers because it’s easier to get the legislation passed, Sundeen said. He said many lawmakers oppose stronger laws because they don’t want to anger their constituents.”

Translation: teenagers don’t vote, so screw them.

Well, that may be true today. But if these guys get their way (and they should) all this will change. Then poor mommy and daddy will have to stop their cell phone yakking while in the Suburban too. After that, perhaps we can all ride our bikes on the road in peace.

tagged: [cell_phones] [cars] [youth_culture]

Schools turn to video games for exercise

The latest issue of KidScreen Magazine highlights Konami’s attempt to get their brand into schools, achieve “gatekeeper approval” from teachers and score huge points with kids by turning gym class into video game playtime.

At an April 2005 conference for physical educators, the Redwood City, California-based company introduced the idea that its Dance Dance Revolution franchise (sales of which reached 1.2 million units in North America last year) could offer an affordable and fun way to get kids up and moving in the classroom. DDR is based on dance mimicry, so players must imitate a series of moves to music in order to rack up points. The level of difficulty increases as they progress through the game’s levels.

Besides the obvious benefits of exercise and improved hand-eye coordination, Konami pointed out that DDR could be a relatively cheap addition to any phys-ed program. As opposed to shelling out a small fortune for 25 basketballs or 25 baseball gloves, schools can use their existing TV sets, and then purchase an Xbox or PlayStation console for roughly US$149 and the game software for US$60.

Let’s see . . . one game of DDR = 2 kids “exercising” at a cost of $210, or one basketball game with one ball = 10 kids exercising at a cost of $20. Hmmm . . . maybe the video games should be used to help the folks at Konami with their math.

tagged: [education] [video_games] [tech]

The Billboard Bins Have Landed

As I posted earlier this year, Toronto’s potential answer to too much garbage on our streets is to disguise the garbage cans as billboards. These Billboard Bins are over 7 1/2 feet tall, hold the same amount garbage, but now sport garbage of their own in the form of giant advertising billboards. Oh and they use electricity, adding more drain to our already strained electricity grid.

Toronto’s Public Space Committee says it all:

“As Queens Park turned down their lights and even Honest Eds turned their massive sign off, Toronto decided to unveil their new electric garbage cans designed with seven foot tall illuminated ads that stay on all night.

The electric garbage bins are part of a three month pilot project. If appoved by Council, the full rollout of the project will add thousands of light bulbs to the power grid, adding to the strain. But more importantly, the City is setting a bad example about conservation. After all, these lights aren’t serving any purpose except to illuminate the ads! Aren’t we supposed to be turning off non-essential devices?”

Read the TPSC press release to see why these Eucan bins really suck.

If you’ve seen the bins and don’t like them, now is your chance to let the city know. You can fill out a survey about the bins. Or you come to tonight’s TPSC meeting at City Hall at 6:30 pm.

tagged: [public_space] [environment] [toronto]

Who cares if it’s literature?

This article in the London Free Press (a paper that lined the cages of all my pet birds as a child) takes a stab at differentiating between literate and literature in teen readers:

“Teenagers belong to a generation that’s more literate than any other in history, says David Booth, a children’s book author and professor emeritus of literacy and language arts at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.

But he cautions, “Don’t confuse literate with literature. One is process and the other is product. The question shouldn’t be, ‘Is my kid reading?’ but rather, ‘What is my kid reading?’”

[via Places for Writers]

It’s the usual “Is it literature?” argument asked by many adults of their kids reading material. And while it’s important for parents to know what their kids are reading (or playing for that matter), with some kids just getting them to read is an achievement. The ones who are turning to teen “literature” are already accomplished readers, comfortable with sitting down with a good book and dealing with the subtle subtext in many of the books featured in the article. The ones going for the “non-literature” material, like graphic novels and manga, are usually teens struggling to read for a variety of reasons.

Instead of limiting the “is it literature?” question to YA fiction, let’s take it to the adults. Let’s ask all those people reading Stephen King, John Grisham or that DaVinci Code guy if they care whether or not their book is considered literature. I don’t think they’d care at all. They’re reading and they’re enjoying it. That’s what matters to them. And while I’m the first to complain about the dumbing down of our culture, I believe that all forms of art serve their purpose. Some books are literature, some aren’t. Each has an audience. Each serves its purpose. One is not better than the other.

So, let’s keep producing great YA literature for the kids who want it, but let’s also give the struggling readers something to get hooked on reading. And let’s stop worrying about whether or not it’s literature.

tagged: [literacy] [reading] [books]

This heat ate my brain

That’s why it’s been so quiet around here. Honestly.

I was thinking about just hiding under the kitchen table with my face in front of the fan until this heatwave breaks, but it’s showing no end in sight. So, I’m back and I’m posting . . .

Back from bear country

Got back from Algonquin on the weekend. I’m sunburned, bug-bitten and thankful to be alive after a very near miss with a curious black bear.

Chandrasutra has the full bear encounter story. I’m sorry for always deferring to her, but she has covered it so well, I’d merely be re-inventing the wheel.

Regular posting will resume very soon . . .

Book Expo Done, Gone Fishin’

Book Expo was great. Much to tell. But for now, I’m out of the city and won’t be back until the paddling is all done. Chandrasutra has the details.

See you in a week!

Buzzing Book Expo

Thanks to the good folks at Canadian Bookseller Magazine, I will be attending this year’s Book Expo Canada here in Toronto.

As a children’s book reviewer and publishing industry writer, I love meeting all the publishers and seeing what’s new for the year.

As a kids book author, I’m very excited that my new picture books will be on display at the HB Fenn booth this year.

Should be a busy weekend!

[from mainsite]

tagged: [writing] [Book_Expo_Canada] [promo]

Lost in History

I haven’t had much time for technology or the internet lately, as I’ve been putting the final touches to a new short story for Kayak magazine, which will appear in their August/September issue (I think). No choosing your own adventure on this one, unfortunately. But I think kids will like the historical adventure I take them on. Can’t give away any more details until the magazine hits the shelves. You’ll just have to wait – if you think you can handle it.

tagged: [kayak_magazine] [history] [writing]

Choosing your own fun in Kayak Mag

My new choose your own adventure story appears in the June/July issue of Kayak, the Canadian history magazine for kids.

Into the Money Pit takes readers deep into the mysterious Oak Island Money Pit in search of treasure, glory and a dog named Doubloon.

Kayak has great website and you can play Into the Money Pit online. So, before your buy your printed copy, head over to Kayakmag.ca and see if you can find the real treasure of Oak Island.

Not only were the guys at Kayak great to work with, they also succeeded in finding an illustrator with the same name as me! Besides having a great name, Liam Thruston’s art is fantastic and he managed to capture my three-eyed rodent perfectly (and that’s not an easy thing to do!)

[from mainsite]

tagged: [writing] [promo] [history]

State of the artist survey

If there is one common thread running through the lives of those of us who make their living from the arts, it’s that we’re not in it for the money. Working full-time as a writer, illustrator, painter, musician, potter or poet means no health benefits, no cushy dental plan for those bi-annual checkups and often a lot of uncertainty about where your next paycheque is coming from. But we do it anyway. Personally, I feel we get a lot of other work benefits (the 30 second commute via the bathroom, the pyjama-friendly dress code and afternoon playstation breaks, just to name a few.)

While these perks are nice, they’re not as good as an 80% break on root canals. That’s why I’m urging all artists or friends of the arts to take the Status of the Artists Survey, from the Ontario Minister’s Advisory Council. It takes about 10 minutes and covers a wide range of issues concerning those who make their living in the arts from the creators to the distributors and beyond. The results from the survey will go towards the decision making process for grants for artists, care for ageing artists and re-thinking how the arts is seen and promoted in this sports-obsessed, corporate-theocratic culture we’re living in.

The deadline is this Friday, June 10th, so grab a coffee, put on your best pair of PJs and take the survey.

Thanks.

tagged: [arts] [culture] [writing]

Gamin’ the library

The Shifted Librarian reported last week about a successful videogame night at her library. With the internet and a slew of other digital diversions captivating the eyeballs of Generation M, the local library seems to destined to slip into obscurity with young people. And while many purists will turn their noses up at the idea of kids playing Mario Cart or Dance Ddance Revolution at their local branch, I think it’s a great way for libraries to reclaim their spot as commercial free, public community gathering places in neigbourhoods.

In addition to gaming tournaments with kids, Jenny at the Shifted Librarian has posted notes from a presentation on how video games can be used to help ailing libraries. Among the presentation notes were these potential outcomes for libraries:

• kids looked at the library differently
• the library didn’t have to force their information on them
• the kids are using the library more
• parents are happy that the kids are not passive in the library anymore

If even a few of these come true, then I’m all for gaming at the library. Just remember to put your headphones on.

tagged: [videogames] [libraries] [literacy]

TCAF’d and liking it

This weekend’s Toronto Comic Arts Festival was a comic lovefest for all. I had a great time hanging out at the OWL table with my Max Finder partner in ‘you-solve-it’ crime, Michael Cho and the sketch-happy Brian McLachlan, writer for OWL’s successful Alex & Charlie comic and a damn fine illustrator himself.

And while there is often not a lot for a non-drawing writer to do at a comic’s fest, it was great to get out from behind the computer, soak up the atmosphere and meet Max Finder fans of all ages. There were also many teachers at the festival, continuing to prove that they are tuning into the educational value of comics [as I've noted earlier].

Hopefully, I’ll soon have some photos to put up, so you can see the magic that is a comics festival.

And speaking of comics, I’ve got a new mystery to write and a deadline to meet!

tagged: [tcaf] [comics] [writing]

Heading to TCAF

I don’t want this blog to become just another one of those writers “where I’ll be next” sites BUT. . .

It’s official and it’s confirmed: I’ll be at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival this Saturday, May 28th from 1:00 until 5:00 pm. Myself and illustrator extraordinaire, Michael Cho will be repping Max Finder Mystery at the OWL table, located in the Scholastic tent.

Mike has promised to sketch any kid that comes within five feet of our table, and while the TCAF website is billing me as “a Toronto-based illustrator and children’s book artist, whose work regularly appears in Owl Magazine” (scroll down to the O’s), I promise not to unleash my secret drawing abilities just yet (they haven’t improved since grade 3 art class.)

If you’re heading to TCAF this weekend, drop by the OWL table, say hi and watch me watch Mike draw!

Also appearing on behalf of OWL is Brian McLachlin writer of the new Alex & Charlie comic and Steve Manale, the writer/illustrator of ChickaDEE’s Chick and DEE comic and resident of Ghostmilk studios.

[cross-posted from mainsite]

tagged: [writing] [comics] [toronto]

Wined and cheesed in Brantford

The Branford Wine and Cheese on Tuesday night was a great success for children’s authors and librarians alike.

It was great to meet many fellow authors like Gillian Chan, Steve Pitt, Rina Singh, and Lynne Kositsky to name just a few.

Many of my Pet Tales books were sold with Duncan: A Brave Rescue being the clear winner out of the lot (I had predicted that the sad eyes of Baxter, who needs a home, would have won many hearts but I was wrong.)

The highlight of the night for me was being spotted by two Max Finder Mystery fans and asked for an autograph. It was great to chat to actual readers of my monthly comic strip to find out what they liked and didn’t like. Hopefully I’ll be doing more of that when I’m at TCAF at the end of the month.

Now that my ego is back to normal porportions, it’s back to the writing board for this not-so hermitish writer.

tagged: [writing] [books] [promotions]

Wine, cheese and literacy in Brantford

In an attempt to improve my not so impressive record of self-promotion, I’m hitting the road tomorrow night and heading to Brantford to shake some hands, meet some teachers and sell some books.

It’s all part of the Childrens Writer’s Wine and Cheese Night with Brantford teacher/librarians, organised by fellow CANSCAIPer Marsha Skrypuch. The idea is to introduce childrens authors to local librarians and educators with the aim of encouraging future school visits and promote literacy.

I’m excited to be heading up to Brantford to meet fellow CANSCAIP members and others interested in promoting literacy in kids. I’ll give a full report when I return. In the meantime, I’m off to find something to wear! (Feel free to leave your suggestions, I’m sure they’ll be very helpful.)

tagged: [books] [writing] [promotion]

Teachers loving comics

This USA Today article highlights something that I’ve witnessed evolve over the last few years: educators are accepting comics as a legitimate way to get kids reading.

“And along with librarians, teachers also are embracing comics, both for recreational and instructional reading. They’re using the caped crusader Batman to explore mythology and Art Spiegelman’s Maus, a Holocaust memoir, as well as other titles, to teach history.”

With publishers like Scholastic getting into the graphic novel genre, with their new Graphix line of comics, it’s clear that comics are shedding the stigma of being junk and moving closer to the respect they deserve.

As the creator and writer of one popular comic and a graphic novel for reluctant readers, I couldn’t be happier.

tagged: [writing] [literacy] [comics]

Meet meettheauthor.com

Regardless of their genre, I’ve always seen books as conversations with the author. Every book, no matter if it’s the cheesiest fantasy or a the driest business book, has a bit of the author it in. Characters are composites of people the author has known, situations are very often drawn from the writer’s past. And yet, very few people ever actually get to hear authors talk about their work. You might catch them at a book signing, or see them on Oprah (which is generally a sign that you shouldn’t be reading the book anyway) but other than that, it’s all left up to marketing hype and the occassional review.

Meettheauthor.com changes all that. Started by David Freeman, a book lover who used to have his own book TV show (remember them?) and believes that the best people to sell a book are the authors themselves. This article in the Times explains it all.

The concept of meettheauthor.com is simple: pick an author and watch a short video clip of them introducing their book. It’s quite effective and addictive, because readers can finally put faces to names and because it’s pretty amazing to see the head where all that good writing came from.

Meettheauthor.com already has an impressive line up of authors and plans to have them shown in the extremely under-used lookup computers in book stores.

With some companies seeking to turn the DIY lookup computers into glorified tvs by showing a loop of traditional advertising, meettheauthor.com is a positive form of promotion that I can support. It gives the viewer something more than the big sell. It gives them a glimpse at the often elusive author, while promoting something. As an writer shy of promotion, I think this is a great idea and one that I see being spread across the web onto author’s personal sites and writing group sites, like my own CANSCAIP.

Of course, the first catagory I checked out was children’s and a few of my favourite writers are there, like:

[links launch video clips]

Eoin Colfer talking about “Aremis Fowl”

Philip Pullman talking about “Lyra’s Oxford”

Kevin Crossley-Hollan talking about “Arthur: The Seeing Stone”

Anyway, visit meettheauthor.com find your favourite writer and enjoy.

tagged: [writing] [books] [promotion]

Untrackable teens talk tech

Danah Boyd and several teens at the recent Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference in Seattle confirm what I’ve always said about teens and RFID surveillance technologies: they don’t want it and they can get around it. From the transcript of the panel discussion in Wired:

Kevin Bankston: Several schools have been implementing RFID tracking where they place a trackable chip on a badge (that kids wear). How would you and your friends react to that?

Steve: I know quite a few people who would probably, you know, stick the tag on the lavatory and skip school so the school thought they were still in the bathroom for a very long time.

Morgan: I think that there’d be a type of black market for trafficking tags. I’ll give you $5 if you take my tag to English for me. (Audience laughs)

Boyd and EFF lawyer Kevin Bankston Q&A’d the teens about their use of blogs, mobile tech and the privacy issues raised when surveillance technology meets parental concern. The result is a peek at a wired generation that encourages adults to get knowledgeable about technology and talk to their kids about privacy.

Steve: Every kid at whatever age gets “the talk” from their parents about sex. So why don’t they have a one-on-one mature conversation with their kids about privacy on the internet as well?

Morgan: Parents really need to talk to their kids more. A lot of times (my parents) don’t really talk to me about anything, they just expect me to know it. If parents want their kids to act mature, if they want their kids to care about certain things, they need to explain to their kids why they should care.

Elisabeth: I think it’s hard for parents and educators, though, because we’re moving at a different pace than they are. It feels like we’re done and on to the next thing by the time people are trying to block it or are really aware of it. I think it’s really hard for parents and educators to talk to us like they understand (technology) because it doesn’t seem like adults are using these things in the same way that we are.

Morgan: I think that if the parents did talk to their kids about it they would get a better idea about what we’re doing with technology. They don’t really (as) make much of an effort as they could to get to know us.

It’s clear, once again, that censorship and control of information being absorbed by young minds breeds resentment. Media education empowers and protects all who use technology, both old and young.

tagged: [rfid] [tech] [young_minds]

Author visits and me

Children’s writers clearly don’t receive the celebrity we deserve. We have to buy our own groceries, dress ourselves, chew our own food and even fight end of level bosses alone. It’s a tragedy.

But it’s a tragedy that is corrected by the hallowed author school visit. This is a time when a kids writer is truly treated like a celebrity, even if it’s only for a few hours.

Being a kids writer terrible at self-promotion (as my four month delay in announcing my last batch of books clearly proves), I haven’t focused on getting out there and I have yet to do a *real* school visit.

I say *real* because there was one time before I was published when my little sister (then in grade 4) convinced her teacher to read my manuscript to the class over the course of a few weeks and then invite me in to talk to them. The manuscript was awful and is now buried in a drawer somewhere in my office, where it will remain. I don’t remember planning anything for the visit but I think it was a success. My sister said so anyway.

These memories have bubbled up in my mind and spilled out here because I have just finished reading a great article by fellow CANSCAIP member and school visit pro, Magriet Ruurs. The article, Optimizing Author Visits is aimed at teachers planning to have an author come to their school. It’s a fantastic resource for authors too, who may think about pointing it out to prospective host schools.

Among the great tips for teachers, is this final piece of advice definitely sets the bar of success for authors:

Have students write thank you notes. I have received wonderful letters from students that I treasure and often share in teacher presentations:

“Your presentation wasn’t even boring.”
“I like your books. You’re my third favorite author.”
“My name is Stephen. When I grow up I want to be an Arthur.”

With praise like that who wouldn’t want to hit the author visit circuit?

tagged: [writing]

Who’s watching the kids?

I’ve posted earlier about RFID tags in kids clothes and cell phones providing a handy way for parents to strip kids of all sense of privacy and personal responsibility, while exposing their developing organs (like that useful thing called a brain) to potentially harmful levels of radiation. Chipping your kids may give parents more time to spend on the golf course or at the office, it doesn’t solve every niggling concern.

You see, the annoying thing about kids is even when you hide tracking devices on them, someone still has to take the time to actually watch them. What a complete pain! Who knew that breeding would be such a big responsibility?

Thankfully, parents now have another level of high tech wizardry to remove them from contact with their icky children and save them the hassle of actually watching their little darlings: robots!

Via we make money not art:

“Japanese company Secom has released the “SECOM School Security,” a system which monitors kids using RFID tags while they are commuting to and from school but also uses robots (the good old “smoking robots”) that move around and monitor school properties. The robots can also “scare” suspicious people by fast movements, light and smoke.”

I want to know who is watching the robots watch the children? Oh wait, I know: robots watch robots watch children.

Tell me where the parents are again?

tagged: [tech] [rfid] [surveillance]

Back? Back!

Okay, what started out as a typical silence due to too much work was extended by a series of glitches with Blogger and then exasperated by a complete synapse shutdown on my part with my server settings not being tweaked when they clearly should have been tweaked (I’m sure you know the feeling.)

Anyway, I’m back and able to post. Let us never talk of it again.

BuddyBeads connect teens by emotion

[via textually.org] With 44% of US teens owning a cell phone staying in touch with your best friend is only a SMS message away. BuddyBeads are bringing that teen connection even closer.

Designed and built by Ruth Kikin-Gil, a masters student at the Interaction Design Institute in Ivrea, Italy, BuddyBeads combines two things close the heart of a modern teenage girl: peergroups and cell phones:

BuddyBeads are techno-jewelry items that facilitate non-verbal and emotional communication among group members, through codes and signals which the group decided upon together.

Each group member has a matching jewelry piece and can use it to communicate her emotional state to the other group members. Messages are decided by the group in advance and construct a secret private code among its members.

Basically a group of teens each wear a bracelet. On each bracelet is a bead that represents one of the teens’ friends. When the teen wants to communicate to her friend, she simply presses a pre-arranged morse-code of dot-dot-dash messages into the bead representing her friend. The message is beamed to her friends cell phone and then relayed to her friends’ BuddyBead bracelet, which flashes and vibrates her friends’ coded message. As Kikin-Gil points out, subtlety is the key:

The ability to send a message without looking at the bracelet is important in situations where other people are involved and the sender wants to comment about the situation but doesn’t want the others to notice that she is engaged in another communication. This can be the case when a girl is talking to a boy she likes and want her friend to know, or when few group members are talking with someone who is not part of their group and they want to comment about the situation.

Still in early prototype stage, BuddyBeads have huge potential in many areas beyond teenage girl gossip. From the analytical approach that Kukin-Gil is taking with the ways that this new technology will shape mobile non-verbal communication, it is clear that this is more than a new fad in development (although the idea of high tech, collectible beads will have teen marketers no doubt wetting themselves – get your covert buzz machines started, marketing weenies.)

Let’s hope that a new language of flashes and vibrations replaces those annoying one-sided cell phone conversations (from adults and teens) currently clogging up our public spaces.

tagged: [tech] [buddybeads] [cellphones]

Evil teen buzz marketing tries to go legit

When you run a dodgy marketing strategy, like getting teenagers to secretly sell to their friends, it’s best to band together and create an air of legitimacy. That’s what “buzz marketing” groups did recently with the first meeting of their new group: Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), as this article in Alternet reports.

Buzz marketing in teens is gaining popularity as big companies like Proctor and Gamble (via tremor.com), all scramble for a piece of the $170 billion teens will spend this year on cosmetics, clothes, DVDs, music and anything else that isn’t nailed down. By hiring influencial teens to covertly talk-up product to their friends, many say these marketing tactics take advantage of unsophisticated consumers, who often aren’t aware of that their friends are putting on the big sell:

“Some of the forms that [buzz marketing] takes have to do with recruiting kids to be marketers and encouraging them to keep their identities as marketers secret,” says David Walsh, president and founder of the National Institute on Media and the Family (NIMF) in Minneapolis. “So kids end up being junior ad people, and they’re encouraged not to share this [even] with their friends.”

Teens can also put themselves in danger by giving away too much information when the lines between marketing and community are blurred:

“NIMF points out that at one marketer-facilitated online community, kids can create their own Old Spice “Girls of the Red Zone” calendar. And that signing up for membership at Soul-Kool.com, one of a handful of buzz-marketing firms that double as online communities, requires entering an instant-messenger address.”

The party line is that WOMMA was formed to set down some guidelines to protect youth against tactics like this. But anyone who has ever hung up on a telemarketer will see that WOMMA is merely marketering types trying to legitmize a dubious practice before government catches on legislates some guidelines.

Putting marketers in charge of ethics is never a good idea. I look forward to watching the shocked indignation from WOMMA reps when the next inevitable teen buzz marketing scandal hits the news.

tagged: [consumerism] [buzz_marketing][evil][womma]

In your face and on your bookshelf

Although this book came out last year, I’ve been turning to, In Your Face: The Culture of Beauty and You a lot lately while researching my latest project and each time I flip it open, I feel I must tell everyone I know about it.

I was lucky enough to first hear about In Your Face at the 2004 Book Expo and wrote a quick review for Canadian Bookseller magazine:

From Annick Press comes In Your Face: The Culture of Beauty and You by Shari Graydon. Following up on her success with Made You Look, Graydon tackles the myths and false promises that lie at the heart of our culture obsessed with beauty. Graydon tells it like it is, revealing the truths about the double standards and constant competition we all engage in as we strive to be beautiful. In Your Face is easily the most important book for teens this year and should be read by everyone who looks in the mirror each morning.

This morning I discovered that Annick Press has built an In Your Face mini-site. Like the book, it is definitely worth checking out. The site highlights some of the darkest secrets that our culture holds as it pushes us all toward the one ideal of beauty:

Too Ethnic?

Some Asian people seek plastic surgery to make their eyes more “Western”. Around the world products like hair straighteners and skin whiteners have been flying off the shelves for decades. Why the craze to look Caucasian? Although people of colour make up 50 % of the population in many large North American cities, most mainstream magazines, movies and TV shows feature overwhelmingly white actors and models.

If you happen to know anyone, boy or girl, who is in their teens, then this book is simply an essential addition to your library. Buy it, drop it on the kitchen counter and let them discover it for themselves. I’ll bet you’ll see them flip it open, browse through quickly, ready to judge and then quietly take the book into their rooms. You’ll never see it again, but that’s a good thing. They’ll be reading it and gaining some very strong defences against the relentless beauty machine that is our modern culture.

tagged: [culture] [beauty] [consumerism] [books]

DIY Vlogger Teleprompter

History has shown that every new technology borrows from the old (the computer keyboard you type on is a throwback to the old typewriter and hasn’t changed much since.) So, it’s natural that vloggers will want to borrow from television to help shape the future of this new form of blogging. While this can lead some uninteresting and redundant uses of vlogging, it also leads to some cool innovations.

Like Max Rottersman’s Do-It-Yourself Video Blogger Plastiprompter. With a webcam, laptop and some old CD cases you can be reading your vlog posts with the style and grace of Peter Mansbridge.

I don’t know why it took a vlogger to invent this handy cheap teleprompter (it can be used for any video recording and not just over the web stuff) but I think it’s a testament to their inventiveness with technology. As for their content, they would do well to listen to this guy.

tagged: [vlogs] [TV] [blogs]

del.icio.usly tagged

In the last year, I’ve wondered at del.icio.us, played with del.icio.us and put my brain on del.icio.us. Now I am offically streaming del.icio.us.

Thanks to Bigbold’s RSS Digest, anyone not geek enough to know how to hack an rss feed (ie me) can now stream any page’s feed onto their site.

It’s timing is perfect. As you may or may not have noticed, this blog can go silent for days on end when things get hectic with me. I’m not offline. I’m still stumbling upon great stuff online. It’s that I just don’t have time to sit down and type out a post about everything I’m finding. That’s where my del.icio.us bookmarks come in. I’ve been bookmarking cool stuff with plans on posting about it later. But of course that never happens and the del.icio.us bookmarks remain unnoticed, unread and unloved.

But not anymore, with the start of my “del.icio.us five” list on the right side of this blog. Now when I don’t have time to blog, but I find something worth bookmarking it will appear on this site the instant I tag it. It’s like a mini linkblog or sideblog without the hassle of maintaining another blog. Cool.

So, if my posts start to look stale, have a look at my del.iciou.us five, they’re sure to be slightly more fresh and just as tasty.

tagged: [del.icio.us] [blogging] [tech]

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Goodbye Gen Y, Hello Gen M

In our never-ending need to assign letters to people younger than us, the Kaiser Family Foundation hereby dubs the recent crop of kids: Generation M. As in media. Why?

“Children and teens are spending an increasing amount of time using “new media” like computers, the Internet and video games, without cutting back on the time they spend with “old” media like TV, print and music, according to a new study released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Instead, because of the amount of time they spend using more than one medium at a time (for example, going online while watching TV), they’re managing to pack increasing amounts of media content into the same amount of time each day.”

The study, Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-olds, says that kids are becoming masters of multitasking and although the KFF doesn’t know if that’s good or bad for their health, it’ll certainly help them in the hectic modern workplace.

The study focuses young people’s consumption of media and raises some interesting concerns regarding media in the bedroom and parental supervision.

In addition to these findings on their media consumption, I’d like to see more studies about how much media young people are producing via blogs, zines, podcasts, etc. Somewhere in there, I feel, we will find a healthy balance of consumption and production by those rascally Gen-Mers.

The Pitch That Time Forgot Lives!

Back in November, I wrote about the Pitch that Time Forgot, an article pitch that I submitted to a magazine that seemed to disappear into the ether. About six months went by and I hadn’t heard back about the fate of my article idea. Long story short – I eventually heard back and got the go-ahead on the article and I was a happy writer.

I researched the article and was ready to start writing when I got a frantic email from my editor, also a freelancer. She told me to stop all work because the entire staff of the magazine had been laid off. She didn’t know the whether the magazine was going under, but I’d be wise to not do any more work on the commissioned piece.

I called the magazine publisher to get to the bottom of the story and to enquire about my Kill Fee, which I had luckily negotiated into my contract (lesson one from this story: always ensure there is a Kill Fee with any commissioned writing!)

It turned out the magazine wasn’t going under, but was now going to be produced entirely by freelancers to cut costs. So, the magazine was alive and so, possibly, was my article.

I contacted the new editor and gave her my pitch over the phone. She was curious and asked for my original query. This was a little frustrating, but if it meant that my article would see the printed page, I was up for it. If she rejected the pitch, I planned to invoice the publisher for my Kill Fee anyway.

About a month later, the new editor accepted the article pitch and I got the go ahead once again.

So, almost a year after I submitted the original pitch and two editors later, it seems I am to write my little article after all. At the end of the day, the money vs time spent on this pitch won’t work out in my favour. But in my opinion, it’s much better than if the article idea never got printed in the first place. I will receive some compensation for my time and effort (also this is my first piece with the magazine, which could lead to more.)

Moral of the story: the obvious one is if you’ve taken the time to write a pitch and send it off, make sure that you get paid for it eventually! Less obvious moral? Writing is the easy part of a writer’s job. Selling your work is the hard part.

On that note, I’m off wrap up the year-long saga and actually write the darn article!

March is Max Finder Month

Comics get their day in the pages of March’s Owl Magazine and Max and Alison get the cover. Full points to illustrator-extraordinaire Michael Cho for whipping up a great full sized image of Canada’s favourite pre-teen detective duo.

Inside the covers is another Max Finder Mystery, this time featuring this year’s winner of the “I Want to Be in Max” contest. Congratulations to the winner and good luck solving The Case of the Elvis Prankster.

Can’t wait to pick up a copy of Owl from your local magazine store? You can always solve a Max Finder Mystery today and see what all the fuss is about.

[Cross-posted from main site]

Finding The Way Up

My head’s down working on a new project and an impending deadline, but I couldn’t look at my Friday post about ‘going to’ Pat Metheny anymore. We went, it was amazing in a way that I can’t even describe because I know I won’t do justice to it – although Chandrasutra once again does an amazing job of it.

All I can say is that for the last month having The Way Up in my headphones has been an incredible journey. Listening to a single track, 68 minutes long at first seems like a daunting task, but after a few listens when you hear the recognizable final melody begin, you long for more. A sadness takes over as you realise that trip is almost over. Not even the thought of replaying it again can comfort the longing you have to be back somewhere in the middle of the experience that is The Way Up.

I don’t have much experience with jazz, but in the last few months I have heard a great deal of Pat Metheny and I am very happy to be discovering him at a time when he has created something so important to both music and our culture at large.

TWU is more than an album, it’s an answer to the dumbing down of our culture. It’s a response to the hyper-pace, sound-bite jingles that pass for music these days. This view comes from Pat Metheny himself and it’s refreshing to know that, as always happens in times of cultural crisis, there are artists out there creating works that openly smash the standard, refuse the norm, and challenge the audience. I encourage you all, jazz fans or not, to answer the challenge and give TWU a listen.

On a side note: Due to forces that I cannot name or hope to understand, Chandrasutra was able to arrange for us to meet Pat Metheny after the show! It was both an amazing experience and an honour to be able to personally thank him for blowing my mind. There were only a handful of other people in the room, so we had a chance to actually talk to Pat about the music, our cultural crisis and mind-blowing in general. It was an unbelievably perfect way to end a fantastic night.

Jazzin’ it up

Everyday I get literally thousands of emails asking me what I’m up to on the weekend (or is it for v1aGrra? I can never tell.) Anyway, at long last I’ll tell you: Myself and my lady are stepping out to see the Pat Metheny Group in concert.

I’m new to the whole PMG thing, but I like any musician who has worse hair than me. Seriously, PMG (and jazz guitar in general) can be a bit cheeseball and interstellar for me, but the latest album, The Way Up, is a refreshing response to the bite-sized, candy-coated, faux-angst crap that assaults my ears every time I make the mistake of going near a place that has the radio on (ie: every store/restaurant/cafe in town – why do restaurants/cafes/bars play the radio? And why do people sit there as they consume the food/drink they bought and listen to advertising? I don’t get it.)

Anyway, if you want the lowdown on Pat Metheny, I suggest you check out this great post by Chandrasutra and her excellent review of The Way Up.

See you on Monday, jazzyfriends.

Great Day for Environment(s)

Well, it’s finally here, after months of waiting the good news is finally official: the NHL Season is cancelled. The mental environment of thinking Canadians will continue to get a much needed boost with the absence of over-paid goons hogging the CBC airwaves from September to April.

Oh yeah, that other environment gets a boost today too. Go Team Earth!

Stripped Book Readings

I’ve been hunkered down meeting a deadline and being creative, so it’s been quiet around here. But I did run into Stripped Books over at Chase Sequence [via Morning Improv]. These comic strips appear on BookSlut regularly and offer a surreal, post-modern look at that glorious published author event: the book signing. My favourite is Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith reading to a gullible group of children (for the unwashed: they’re the creators of Stinky Cheeseman, Time Warp Trio and many other seminal works of children’s literature.)

Go. Read. Have fun.

REALLY Late to the party on this one

When I first started this blog I was concerned on the impact it’d have on my *real* writing, so I sought advice from the one writer who would definitely have a blog: William Gibson.

When I arrived at his site, I found that he’d stopped blogging because it was getting in the way of his fiction writing.

That concerned me, because if this guy can’t balance blogging and fiction writing how was I going to do it? But I persevered and kept up the blog and kept up the fiction writing. I’ve made it work mostly because when the paid writing gets busy or the writer’s block too jammed, the blog goes silent. But I always return to the blog for whatever reason. And now it seems that Gibson has returned to his blog. His reasons for returning, like his best novels, crystalize the conscious of the time and point to an ominious future:

“Why?

Because the United States currently has, as Jack Womack so succintly puts it, a president who makes Richard Nixon look like Abraham Lincoln.

And because, as the Spanish philospher Unamuno said, “At times, to be silent is to lie.”

From the archives, you’ll see that this is very old news, it happened back in October 04. But as with everything that’s pretty cool, I arrive fashionably late.

Darth Vader Reads the Bible

I just received my copy of Canadian Bookseller Magazine, which has a few of my kids book reviews in it. While seeing my reviews in print is always fun, I was shocked to learn that Darth Vader, the Dark Lord of the Sith, has released an audio book of the Bible.

Now the two things that gave me nightmares as a kid, are together in one convenient package. Great.

Hammy Nibbles His Way onto Walk of Fame

As a kid newly arrived to Canada from Northern Ireland one of the biggest changes for me to make was getting to know all the new TV shows (that’s a big job when your six.) One of the first shows I really bonded with was Tales of the Riverbank, starring Hammy Hamster [thanks JAG for the link.] And finally it looks like the Hammy and his furry friends are getting the recognition they deserve: they’ve been inducted into CBC’s Alternative Walk of Fame:

“Before the dogmatic twaddle of Barney and Teletubbies, kids looked to Once Upon A Hamster for early-morning amusement. Unapologetically wholesome, the live-action serial followed a boot-dwelling hamster, Hammy, and his exploits with the Riverbank posse: GP the Guinea Pig, Martha Mouse, the Wise Old Frog, Turtle and Granny Rabbit. Tune in one week and you might find Hammy steering a raft or riding shotgun in GP’s car; the next, he’d be navigating a (miniature) hot-air balloon. That critter led a life of unequalled adventure.”

Ahh . . . if they only made TV shows like that these days. Wait a minute, they do.

[thanks to Anita's Other Space for this]

Canada kids books not into seal-eating (or hugging)

[via places for writers] Children’s writer Andri Snaer Magnason may be an award winning author in his home country of Iceland, but in Canada, his book The Story of the Blue Planet goes just too far:

When Magnason recently presented a manuscript to a Canadian publisher based in Toronto, they offered to publish the book provided he remove references to grilling a seal that had been hunted for food, as well as a scene where a grateful child hugs and kisses two other children who saved his life.

I’m not a big meat-eater myself, but when kids in Canada are offered this and this and this, then I think there is room for a little chowing down on seals and the occasional hug.

S&S use tsunami to sell christ to kids

“[The audience for these books] is not what we have always thought of as the traditional Christian market. It’s Joe Everybody. When a tsunami hits, you want to be reassuring to your kids.”

- Robin Corey, Simon & Schuster Publishing

Good to see the folks at Simon & Schuster don’t have a problem using one of the worst natural disasters in history to move some product. They are cashing in on both world disasters and the booming Christian children’s book market with their new line of religious books for kids. And by religious, we’re obviously talking about Christianity because, according to this Newsweek article they are both one in the same.

The new line of books, called “Little Simon Inspirations”, won’t actually quote scripture or feature Jesus playing soccer, but they will be heavy on message and look eerily like books that a certain writer/blogger has just put out. See for yourself – jesus / no jesus. Scary stuff.

Their books don’t come with a stuffed toy, so I least I have that market cornered. For now.

Being anti-anti-everything

Max Barry is a fine example of a writer who uses his website to promote his books, communicate with his fans and speak his mind. In his latest post he answers his critics who accuse him of being “anti-everything”, something that is regularly laid at my feet by people who should know better.

He has this to say on being anti-corporate:

“My attitude toward corporations doesn’t depend on whether they’re large or small, chain or independent, foreign or local. It’s certainly true that companies that serve the general public (like McDonald’s and Apple) act nicer than companies that don’t (like Monsanto and Halliburton), but this is no anomaly: it’s just further proof that corporations are only interested in public opinion when it affects their bottom-line. Fundamentally, all public companies are cast from the same mold. They are all machines, running different programs on the same operating system.”

When you speak out against things that bother you, it immediately pins you as being “anti-” that particular thing. That’s a convenient frame for people to put on anyone who disagrees with what’s happening. Personally, when I’m accused of being anti-this, or anti-that, I try to turn it on around and stress what I’m “pro-”. And that’s tough sometimes because it’s a lot easier to define yourself by what you are not, rather than what you are.

So, being anti-anti-everything actually means being pro-something. Like
a healthy environment, triple bottom-line economics, and crackin’ orc skulls in your spare time.

To name just a few.

Your Mail in Court

That old NAFTA spectre of Chapter 11 is rearing its ugly head again. The good people at UPS believe that Canadians don’t deserve a publicly owned parcel delivery service, and they’ll sue the packages off us to make that point.

Thanks to a little NAFTA clause called Investor Rights, corporations can sue governments if they feel they are being treated unfairly. In 1998, Canada paid the Ethyl Corporation millions of dollars because we didn’t allow them to put the banned, toxic additive MMT into our gasoline.

As I type, Council of Canadians are in court in a battle to uphold the Canadian constitution. Lawyer for the CoC, Steven Shrybman puts it like this:

“It’s the first case to question whether or not Canada’s obligations under NAFTA actually are compatible with our own constitutional arrangements and norms. Foreign investors have been given the right to invoke international dispute processes that operate entirely behind closed doors and outside the framework of Canadian law and our court system.” – CBC.ca

You can let International Trade Minister, Jim Peterson, know how you feel about this via the Council’s website.

This case promises to be a big one. Hopefully someone will get punched in court that way it might actually make onto the TV news. After all it’s only our constitution at stake. Obviously the news has better things to talk about.

When Garbage Bins Attack

What’s Toronto’s answer to their littering problem? Bigger garbage bins! I’m talking 7 1/2 feet tall. With ads. Lit up (as in draining electricity from the already strained TO power grid.) That’s taller than Toronto Raptor Loren Woods, who is a measley 7 feet.

Instead of trying to get people to buy less junk, the Toronto city council is testing out the new “EcoMupis” bins, which will carry illuminated billboards selling junk and larger garbage containers for people to put all that added junk they’ll buy after seeing the new ads for the junk.

There are so many things wrong with this plan, that I decided to contact my city councillor, Bill Saundercook, and find out why he decided to opt in on this pilot project (councillors like Olivia Chow wisely passed on the whole plan.)

The conversation was as illuminating as the EcoMupis billboards promise to be. Councillor Saundercook gave the familiar wail of budget crunches, and savings etc. but failed to see how plastering our city’s streets with Raptor-sized ads, that suck electricity, block pedestrians, distract drivers and generally contribute a message of “buy more junk, we’ll take care of it!”, will cost more to the city in the long-run (through addeds strain on the powergrid, the inevitable medical costs resulting from pedestrians not seeing oncoming traffic as they cross, and more garbage going into our Michigan’s landfills.)

Basically the party line is: “It’s better to try these things out and see what the public thinks.”

In my opinion the councillor, and city hall are betting on the apathy of the residents to not say anything about the garbage cans disguised as billboards. I predict that there’ll be a counter-attack to the Monster/Raptor Bins. Toronto’s Public Space Committee will be meeting on Feb 2nd at City Hall. The bins will be high on the agenda and I’ll be there. If you live in Toronto and think we don’t need more ads littering our streets, then I invite you to come along.

Stay tuned for more on this. Today, the monsters are attacking Toronto. Tomorrow it could be your home town (cue B-movie music and sinister laugh.)

More Great Advice from Crof

Anyone looking for a great blog for writing inspiration and advice would do well to drop in at Writing Fiction, just one of Crawford Kilian’s many blogs. Crof discusses the progress and setbacks of his own fiction with an honesty that most writers could never muster, me in particular [yesterday's post will tell you why.] Recently Crof received this email from a reader:

I have written many stories for kids and youth. I want to publish.

It’s a common enough question and one that busy writer/bloggers/teacher would justified in ignoring, but Crawford takes the time to offer some more great advice for anyone who is cursed with the desire to publish a book. I share his belief that being a successful writer means, unfortunately, being a good salesperson:

If writers were automatically also good salespersons, more of us would get into print. But many of us, including me, find the marketing of a novel a lot harder than the writing…and the writing is hard enough.

It’s only recently that I’m tuning into the idea that I have to actually sell myself as a writer. For many of writers who have hermit tendencies [me], selling yourself or your writing can be a painful process that enduces a feeling of slime growing on your back. But it must be done and remember: this isn’t a time-share in Flordia your trying to unload, it’s you and your babies. Presumably you like yourself and if you don’t, hopefully you at least like your writing.

So, the only answer is sell as well as you write. Who knows? If you sell enough, you’ll eventually get an agent who will do the selling for you.

Debunking Writer’s Block

Like many prolific authors, Philip Pullman doesn’t have time for writers who complain about writer’s block (as I’ve posted about before):

“I don’t believe in it. All writing is difficult. The most you can hope for is a day when it goes reasonably easily. Plumbers don’t get plumber’s block, and doctors don’t get doctor’s block; why should writers be the only profession that gives a special name to the difficulty of working, and then expects sympathy for it?”

I’m bringing it up again because I’ve just recovered from a very serious case of blockage to the writerly arteries. I’m not asking for sympathy and even after a week of banging my head against my computer, I’m still not sure if writer’s block even exists.

My writing task was to come up with a very specific story idea that was fresh, smart and engaging for young readers. After passing my deadline by nearly a week, I finally came up with the idea (not even the story yet, just the idea!)

The thing is, I didn’t sit around for a week with an empty head. I had many ideas, but the internal editor rejected all of them for various reasons (bland, done-before, and just plain stupid, you know the ones.) I can’t ever see using any of my rejected ideas but I was still generating stuff, just not the right stuff. So did I have writer’s block? Or was my idea flow bunged up with too much holiday eggnog?

“Writer’s write” is the famous quote aimed at those who moan about being blocked. And I agree with it completely. First drafts are designed to be horrible messes that should never see the light of day, but unfortunately many do. I think many people take the definition of “being blocked” too literally, as if it’s an on/off kind of thing. I find it very hard to believe that someone who wants to write has absolutely no ideas coming from their brain. They must!

We are constantly generating ideas, many of which we think are unbelievably bad so they get stopped by that sensible editor within and they shrivel up and die before they hit the page/screen. But the idea is generated and that is part of the creative process. We writers are an egotistical group of people and many of us feel that writing bad stuff is not writing at all. So they don’t admit to writing the crap copy that is essential to get to the final draft. They’d rather avoid writing all togehter and complain of a complete creative block.

As Pullman says, plumbers don’t get plumber’s block, but plumbers do have their good days and their bad days. A plumber having a bad day will still show up to work and fix your pipes. She just won’t do a good job and will have to return next week to tighten the pipe that she missed and do the job right.

And that, as the last week has taught me, is what writing is all about. Leaky pipes and bad ideas are not to be ignored. Either fix them or replace them.

Now that my writing ideas are back on track, I think we should work on a new idea together: redefinig writer’s block.

I’m sure there’s no shortage of ideas out there.

New Year, New Server

If things look a bit rough around here (ie broken links, empty images, etc) it’s because I’m in the process of switching to a new server and I’m still pulling out the wires and plugging them into their new slots. It also explains why the site has been down since the start of the new year!

A big thanks goes out to Jim Munroe over at nomediakings.org, for providing the hosting and tech support.

Everything should be up and running like the well-oiled website you’ve come to know and love (sort of.)

Thanks,

Liam

anticipation: it’s all I got left

When it comes to Christmas and the holidays, scrooges and grumps don’t get any scroogier or grumpier than me. I hate this time of year: the crowds, the cold and all that nail-to-the-brain candy cane in-store holiday muzak that makes you want to chuck bathbombs at shoppers and punch the dancing santa at the cash desk.

But it hasn’t always been that way. When I was a kid I loved this whole Christmas thing, solely for the presents that were waiting for me under the tree, of course.

So, no one was more surprised than me when last night my fog of holiday jeer lifted for a few moments and I was suddenly . . . excited for the 25th. I know. Weird. But somewhere in the back of that dog’s breakfast I call a brain, a synapse fired when I saw all those presents under the tree (okay, it’s not a tree but a really big-leafed plant we call the Monstrum, which captures the holiday spirit perfectly for me.) Suddenly, I was returned to my childhood with snow falling outside and Kenny and Dolly on the turn table singing “I’ll be Home for Christmas” for the gazillionth time.

What I loved about that time was the anticipation that led up to Christmas. It’s the secrets that lie within those wrapped presents. There was always a bitter taste on the 25th when all the presents were unwrapped and you realized that was all – it was all over for another year. That is why I’m a firm believer in not unwrapping any presents before Christmas day. Got to save it all up for one big present-opening feista on the big day (Jesus would have wanted it that way.)

I may despise this time of year now that I’m older, but there is one thing that religion and consumer madness cannot spoil for me: the secret thrill of not knowing what is in those presents (which is in a way very consumeristic, but I’m still shaking off my suburban, catholic upbringing.) Last night, for a fleeting moment I was filled with a bit of the holiday spirit and it felt kind of good.

Don’t worry, it’s gone now. I’m not going to start buying turkeys for everyone on my block. So, if I don’t post again here until the big day: merry-whatever-you’re-choosing-to-celebrate and remember to eat far too much chocolate.

Bill Moyers Signs off Now

One of the great things about living in Toronto is that for a one-time $20.00 investment, a pair of rabbit ears will give you the best of the best that television has to offer. I’m talking public television: provincial, Canadian and American. The airwaves are public and so should our media.

For me watching commercial news is like eating a giant bowl of Capn’ Crunch cereal with chocolate milk: sugary, sinful and definitely not good for the heart (or brain.) So each night for the past few months, when I’m all done watching my fake news, I’ve caught the last half of Now with Bill Moyers.

After 33 years on public television, Bill Moyers will host Now for the last time tonight. And this evening’s broadcast seems tailored made for Moyers. The topic is the media and it should be a good one. From pbs.org:

Bill Moyers looks inside the right-wing media machine that the conservative NEW YORK TIMES columnist David Brooks called a “dazzlingly efficient ideology delivery system.” The program examines how a vast echo chamber that is admittedly partisan and powerfully successful delivers information — and misinformation — with more regard for propaganda than fact. Founding father to the conservative movement, Richard Viguerie tells Moyers, “That’s what journalism is, Bill. It’s all just opinion. Just opinion.”

Find your PBS station and tune in tonight to see Bill get the last word.

CANSCAIP Bio Online

I joined CANSCAIP (Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers) at the end of the summer and it’s been a great experience so far. It’s great to be part of a large group, spanning the country, dedicated to promoting the arts for children. As part of the membership, we each get a bio page on the website. So, here is my CANSCAIP bio. It’s the first time I’ve seen all my books and comics listed in one place, which is pretty cool if you ask me.

[re-posted from main site]