When I was in Toronto back in, er, September, I had lunch with my friend Sarah. Afterwards, she gave me a tour of the super-cool Centre for Social Innovation in downtown TO. Housed in a gorgeous heritage building, it’s home to seemingly dozens of small non-profits. Clustering them in one locations enables them to enjoy shared resources and economies of scale.
Sarah just blogged about the Centre having a new website (yes, powered by Drupal), created by our friends at Communicopia. It’s a great-looking site, and features plenty of photographs of the space. Here’s the official blurb on the home page:
The Centre for Social Innovation is a dynamic space in downtown Toronto, Canada. Our mission is to spark and support new ideas that are tackling the social, environmental, economic and cultural challenges we face today. We’re creating the spaces that social innovation needs to thrive and we’re contributing a few of our own ideas along the way!
Hmm…this blurb feels a little too written by the marketing committee, but you get the idea. I prefer language that says what it does on the box, so to speak. You have to dig a bit to get at what the Centre–at least what its physical space–is for.
Anyhow, it’s a remarkable place full of remarkable people. On top of all the social change activity, it has this super-cool living wall in the foyer, and one of Toronto’s only green roofs.
I see that one of the Centre’s tenants is Mammalian Diving Reflex, a theatre group doing some really interesting work around the globe. Er, they too could stand to simplify the text on their home page.
We don’t have a television in Malta. The only TV we see are shows that I download and the occasional football game at the local pub. So, I’ve been watching a fair bit of TV–just grazing, as opposed to watching specific shows–here in Toronto. I was reminded how weird it is:
Does anybody else think this Irish Spring body wash ad is bizarre? I mean, the guy is rubbing Essence of Irish Lass all over his body in the shower. Weird.
I have no interest in golf, but I was waiting for the highlights and the Grand Slam of Golf (I think) was on TV. All the players (and, I think, their caddies) were wearing microphones, so we could hear their conversations about club selection and so forth. Is this commonplace? How often do they curse on-air after a bad putt?
Who watches Ellen and who watches Oprah? I noticed that they’re on at the same time–do they have different demographics?
Isn’t the subtext of Take Home Chef hilarious? A ridiculously handsome and charming Aussie greets an attractive young woman at the grocery store, helps her shop for a special meal, goes home with her while her boyfriend or husband is away and prepares the meal. It ought to be called The Cuckolding Chef Comes Calling.
Walking around downtown Toronto, I realized something about myself–I’m totally a country yokel now. Living in a small village on Gozo, I learned to smile at, nod to or greet anybody who you pass in the street. Everybody else does it, and I wanted to fit in.
I guess it doesn’t take very long for that behaviour to become habitual, because I’ve had the impulse to do it here in Toronto. Not on busy streets, obviously, but if I’m out walking early and pass somebody, my impulse is to smile and nod at them. That would never have been the case living in Vancouver.
This is obvious, but big cities obviously discourage this kind of friendly behaviour. It’s a bit of a pity, eh?
A desire line is the abstract line that represents the shortest route between an origin and destination, and shows where people want to travel. The width of the line represents the amount of demand. Desire lines were used in early transportation planning, prior to the advent of computerized models.
They are manifested on the surface of the earth in certain cases, e.g. as dirt pathways created by people walking through a field, when the original movement by individuals helps clear a path, thereby encouraging more travel.
I got into Toronto last night and had an extremely satisfying evening. I ordered fish and chips from room service, and watched Hockey Night in Canada to stave off the jet lag. Happily, the Leaves [sic] lost and the Canucks won (Trevor Linden, I love ya buddy, but maybe it’s time to hang them up?).
Today I did some work, wandered around downtown doing some random minor shopping in the Enormous! Shiny! Malls!, and then went and saw the aforementioned Once.
And I’m a little chilly! Excepting recent dips in our increasing icy pool, I honestly haven’t been cold since late May. Not even a little chilly. It’s 13°C in the Centre of the Universe, and so I’m reveling in the very slight discomfort of being cold for a change.
Just a quick note to say that the bloggage will be unpredictable around here until I get back from Toronto. Thanks, by the way, for all your great suggestions for stuff to do there. I’ll let you know what I get up to.
Just a quick note to say that I’ll be in Toronto next week for a speaking gig and some meetings. Plans include:
October 14 - I’m having a geek dinner with Will Pate and other Toronto luminaries. Will hates all sports, so I trust the conversation about how much the Leafs suck will be brief but florid. Location to be determined.
October 15 - In the evening, I’ll give my 1100 Stacies talk another crack at Third Tuesday Toronto(or Facebook, if you prefer) meetup. Curiously, that’s a Monday. Thanks to Joseph for organizing that. It looks like the event is fully booked, but maybe Joseph can squeeze you in if you ask himi nicely.
On October 16, I was supposed to speak at the 2nd annual Word Up conference, but I was notified a few days ago that they were changing the date (I gather the website has not been updated). That was disappointing, as it was a major reason I was coming to T-dot. I’m unsure why the date was shifted. I’ve helped run dozens of events over the years, and we’ve never changed a date. It is, I think, the most sacrosanct part of the event planning.
Free Time for Work and Pleasure
So, I find myself with a day or two of free time in the Canada’s biggest city. If you’re a Torontonian who’s interested in the same stuff I am, let me know and we can probably have coffee.
By the same token, I’ve spent almost no part of my adult life in Toronto. I plan to see The Hockey Hall of Fame and The Art Gallery of Ontario. I have no interest in the CN Tower. What else do you Central Canadians recommend?
