After I write some letters I’m heading to the Mod Club for Chick-A-Boom Room’s Electronic Cabaret: Part 2. I’m stoked. I went to the first one and it was so good. Steve Jobs & Apple images with a ton of dancers on stage in electronic inspired , glowing outfits. Love it.
I’m escaping for the day! Ford is treating a bunch of media to a day long adventure that includes lunch at the Arta Gallery in the Distillery District, some driving in a Ford Escape, rock climbing, and dinner. We’re venturing to Rattle Snake Point to rock climbing and for a hike. Nature FTW!
I’m really into adventure sports lately (see skydive). Last time I went rock climbing with the City of Cambridge Mayor & city council in high school I somehow got a bloody nose and ended up ambulancing to the hospital. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen!
Check out this video of me at the Ford Innovation conference in Michigan last month talking about green technology.
I’m not dressed and need to be there in 30 minutes. Damn you Internet for being so awesome and full of interesting things to distract me. Hopefully that is you reading this blog right now when you are supposed to be doing something else. Ok, now more importantly, rock climbing, hiking, dinner, and an art gallery, what the heck does one wear?
Follow along today’s adventure on Twitter @casiestewart or the hashtag #FordEscape. My tweets have been a lot of First World Problems today and you might like them. I’m feelin’ sassy.
The other day I was invited to an intimate Italian dinner for media at Alimento Fine Foods on King at Bathurst. I live right around the corder but wasn’t sure what was going on there. It looked kinda intimidating in there TBH.
Inside is a huge selection of groceries, mostly imported from Italy & around Europe. There’s heaps of gluten free pasta options, and a massive selection of meats & cheese. There’s a great dining area and bar. We ate a ton of amazing food and drank lots of wine. It was wonderful. I suggest you check it out. Find Aliemento on Twitter at @alimentofoods or at alimento.ca.
I seriously loved the lasagna, I had two pieces. The owner had the chef bring me out another piece! I was kinda embarrassed but I didn’t even care. GAGA GARFIELD STRIKES AGAIN! Thanks to Ryan Emberley for the photos and this great shot of Pay Chen and me. Follow her, she’s awesome. See all photos from the night at cdaily.ca/AlimentoMediaDinner
I was at Sazerac Gastro Lounge for a media dinner last night and my Andrew Dobson told me about this crazy Invisible Bike Helmet. Say wha? I hate wearing a helmet but I have one. Call me intrigued…he sent the video but I hadn’t looked at it yet. Today, Lauren O’Nizz wrote a story about it for CBC “Would you trust an invisible bike helmet?“. Call me intrigued…
The Invisible Bicycle Helmet | Fredrik Gertten from Focus Forward Films
Hövding operates like a collar for cyclists around the neck that inflates like to an airbag for your head. The trigger is controlled by ‘sensors which pick up the abnormal movements’ before you get into an accident.
I subscribe to the Say Media blog and truly love the Venn diagrams that come every Friday morning. This one is from one of my favourite books “Steal Like An Artist”.
Tomorrow night, 9:30pm at The Lower Ossington Theatre, a Peachy Coochy performance will grace the stage at the Performance Bar as part of the SummerWorks Theatre Festival. The name comes from the Japanese ‘Pecha Kucha‘ where each presenter has 5 minutes to deliver 15 slides with only 20 seconds for each slide. I know these as Ignite presentations, people do them at conferences sometimes.
The cast will be sharing Venn diagrams in a form that is ‘smart and playful, sweet and earnest, with a healthy dose of cheek’. See the description on the SummerWorks site. I creeped YouTube for Peachy Coochy and there’s some funny ones. I’m looking forward to this!
Cost is PWYC so if you are broke as a joke or rollin’ in dough you can still go and have some smart fun. I’ll be there and hope to see some familiar faces so we can laugh together.
[insert Jaws music] It’s coming! TIFF is a super exciting time of year for the city of Toronto. So many international people, celebrities, films, events, and business deals. I’ve got a few things in my calendar already as it’s less than 25 days away.
Today I went to the media preview of the X-Men: Gordon Smith Exhibit at TIFF Bell Lightbox. It was so cool! I’m a big X-Men fan despite not talking about comics that much.
Tried to get a good 360 for y’all to see the exhibit but it was dark and there are restrictions on what you can photograph. Looks like this but bigger. If you click on the photo it will take you to 360 website for an interactive view.
Gordon Smith is an Ontario native and thirty-year veteran in the film industry who has worked on some MAYJAH films (X-Men, Platoon, Natural Born Killers) . His Imdb is stacked. Mine will get crazy one day I hope!
The contact lenses, so much variety.
Skin of Mystique uses silicone prosthetics that could be applied directly to the skin. Has a life-like texture.
It took 12 hours for each shooting day and four makeup artists to glue them onto Rebecca Romijn’s skin, then apply paint, powder, and makeup. This is the pattern.
Nightcrawler had plaster moulds and they used computer graphics paired with real actors wearing 3D silicone prosthetics to make the characters life-like.
The scarification on his skin, which represents his sins used Maori moko tattoo as inspiration. I always knew I had a special connection to this movie. Maori are native New Zealanders and Gordon Smith is Canadian. Anna Paquin who plays Rogue is Kiwi/Canadian like me too!
I love Wolverine. Such a babe. They used plastic blades for most the movie but these are actual metal and super sharp/dangerous.
Those were my favourite things along with the full body Mystique mannequin but we aren’t allowed to publish take those photos.
The exhibit opens Friday, August 17th and runs through March 2013 and it is FREE! It’s up on the 4th floor of the Light Box. If you are into comics, makeup-artistry and or the X-Men movies, go see it.
Now, if I was a super hero, what do you think my skills would be?
Yesterday I treated myself to a nice brekky at the Drake Hotel before afternoon meetings, SummerWorks, and a media dinner. I was feeling meh and a dining experience for one always makes me feel better.
I’m working on some new things to launch at casiestewart.com in September. This space hasn’t changed much since it started in 2005 and I feel that it needs to grow along with how I have. It all started as “people, places, things & thoughts, in attempt to keep more memories” and it’s an amazing memory bank for me but I feel it could be better.
I’d love your thoughts on things you would like to see me do, write about, or cover. Some ideas from around my head and the Internet are:
Hat & collar from H&M
I just went to this totally RAD media preview of the X-Men exhibit at TIFF and have a really fun SummerWorks theatre show to tell you about. I’ll be writing all day and trying to keep mute as I’m fighting a cough. I have little to no voice at the moment so don’t bother calling me, Tweet!
You never know what you’re gonna get. You start a blog, you write, you post, you share. If you are interested in blogging that’s a good place to start. And, if you’re prepared when opportunity presents itself, you’re lucky. I’ve grown so much over the past seven years writing this blog and I’m extremely grateful for all the awesome it’s brought into my life.
This is my sister Jenny 😉
Mum rung me from the boat this morning and they’ve sailed into Canada after being away for about a month. I can’t wait to see her. She’s so inspiring.
Living out a childhood dream today casting kids for a commercial. I always wanted to to this. TBH it’s not that glamorous! Getting kids on camera and judging them as they act out part of the scene. I was pretty nervous at first but after a few, it’s easy. Having gone to heaps of auditions is helpful.
Got this last night 🙂
If you are around & about Queen West pop by the Great Hall & get a SummerWorks programme. GO TO SOMETHING! Most stuff is free and you will be glad you did. Get cultured!
There’s a gallery across from Dog & Bear at Dovercourt where Nina Arsenault has a piece of performance art. It’s super interesting. She is a great writer. Jenie and I went by there on Friday. I’m gonna pass by again on my way home. I wrote about Nina’s Live Art piece on the SummerWorks blog here.
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Inspired. I’m so into the narrative of this video. I’d love to write for something like this. I saw the Levi’s FW 2012 preview about a month ago at Burroughs, it was creative. Not your average fashion show. I want that button down dress the babe with the fro has.
I like that the campaign is GO FORTH. Ford conference I was at last month and the new Ford campaign is GO FURTHER. Banff World Media had me repeating ‘innovate or die‘. Notice a pattern here. Technology & innovation are changing everything, you can do anything now. ANYTHING.
“You’re a queen, you’re a king, you’re the solo act in a sold out show at a six story stadium, and you’re proud, you’re a hero! You got a hero’s grip. Swingin’ by a single stitch. You follow your heart, follow the leader, you’re the leader.”
Beatles Banditos just arrived in an email from Mr. Brainwash.
Hola! Hope you are enjoying the weekend. Jenie stayed over after an awesome night at a few SummerWorks events. I was up early to meet the team from Coral TV for brekky. Was the first time all the hosts on the channel have met up with the team. First of many! We’ll be doing cameo’s on each others show before you know it. This week Sara Lynn and I had promoted vids on YouTube and both are over 4,000 views. Crazy awesome!
Lucy, Candice, Me, Julie, Sarah Lynn
Photo by Julie
Stopped by Eaton Centre & the 3F store on the way home. Saw ‘Don’t Get Mad, Get Rad on a shirt, like it. Was so lovely to walk in the rain, the sun was almost peeking out.
La Senza sent me over a lingerie set from the new ‘Show Off’ Collection and I exchanged it for sizes today. The entire collection is incredibly BRIGHT. I picked this fun set. Va va voom! Feelin’ the love La Senza, thank you!
Lots of sales at 3F right now before new Fall/Winter stuff comes in. I got a denim jacket in coral and didn’t even realize it was called ‘coral’ until I got home.
The annual Perseid Meteor shower is tonight. Science is AWESOME. It’s going to be magical. Hope you have someone special to share it with. MIght take a drive into the country when it peaks around 1am. Lauren did a great post on CBC with all kinds of details of what to look for and where.
