Meet, mingle, pitch and learn at Magawards Winners' Circle event

Nothing magazine people like better than a good schmooze with a dollop of professional development, and the Winners' Circle event being planned for Wednesday, November 25 by the National Magazine Awards should satisfy that craving between annual events. 

All NMA finalists and winners are invited to attend at the Spoke Club in Toronto (600 King Street West) from 5 - 7 pm. The event is co-sponsored by the Canadian Society of Magazine Editors (CSME).

There is a panel called Learn & Leverage and [disclosure] I'm the moderator. The speakers will be Matt Blackett, the publisher and editor of Spacing magazine, Penny Caldwell, the publisher of Cottage Life and Katherine Laidlaw, associate edtior at The Walrus, multiple nominees and winners all.

Following the panel there is the second most-favourite thing of magazine people (after winning awards) -- mingling and networking -- and the NMA is facilitating "Fast Pitch", introductions between writers, artists, editors and art directors. Finalists and winners who are from outside Toronto may be able to teleconference.

To find out more, you can go to the Magawards blog or Join Winners’ Circle on Facebook. To make their lives easier, guest are asked to RSVP to staff@magazine-awards.com by November 13. 

Canzine Toronto being held at the Art Gallery of Ontario

It's come a long, long way. Canzine Toronto, the festival of zine culture produced in partnership with Broken Pencil magazine, is being held this year on Saturday, October 17 at the Art Gallery of Ontario, from 1 - 7 pm.. A major benefit of the venue is that the AGO is accessible, unlike many of the more downscale places the festival has been held in other years (the old Spadina Hotel, for example.)

The all-day festival features more than 400 zines, art books and "works of printed weirdness, plus various panels and workshops.

Lecturer looks back at Interview magazine days, Andy Warhol and Ronald Reagan

Here's an interesting chance to hear about the cultural zeitgeist from an editor and writer who has helped steer it. Bob Colacello was the editor of Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine from 1971 to 1983. Since 1984 he has been a special correspondent for Vanity Fair and has written more than 100 profiles of prominent cultural, political, and social figures,the author of several books including Ronnie and Nancy: Their Path to the White House and Holy Terror: AndyWarhol Close Up.  

Colacello (L) and Andy Warhol

He will be presenting the Royal Ontario Museum's 9th Annual Eva Holtby Lecture on Contemporary Culture on Monday, November 17, 2014 @ 7 pm. It's titled Warhol and Reagan: Architects of Change? An Evening with Bob Colacello. The lecture is supported by the Holtby and Schury Families. It provides Colacello the opportunity to recount some of his personal experiences with Warhol and Reagan, as well as explore the profound differences and surprising similarities between the “Pope of Pop” and the “Great Communicator”.

Tickets to the lecture only to the general public $35 plus HST.

Big box impact on neighbourhoods theme of This Mag film series, panel and issue launch

Big box stores have been steadily creeping into downtown cores and a panel discussion on Wednesday 25th intends to look at the bigger questions behind plans for a Wal-Mart to move into the historic Kensington Market area of Toronto. It's part of the launch of the September/October issue of This Magazine -- its Corporate Hall of Shame issue -- and a new film series sponsored by the magazine called Every Film is Political.

The panel will follow a screening of WAL-TOWN, a National Film Board-produced film by Sergeo Kirby looking at the business practices of mega-retailer. Panellists will include journalist John Lorinc (Spacing, Globe and Mail), Dominique Russell, organizer of Friends of Kensington and Shahil Thomas, who works with the Metcalf Foundation on Resilient Neighbourhood Economies. The moderator will be This Magazine editor Lauren McKeon. 

The magazine issue is an annual survey of Canadian companies This says have been up to no good. 

“It’s about holding 50 companies to account and about digging that hook in real deep and not letting go, watching and observing and saying ‘we know you did that,’” says McKeon.

The event takes place at the Tranzac Club, 292 Brunswick Ave, Toronto and doors open at 6:30 p.m. $15 includes the screening and a copy of the issue. 

This Mag kicks off fundraiser film series with doc about Wal-Mart

This Magazine is kicking off its new series of the Every Film is Political on September 25 with WAL-TOWN, a documentary about the business practices of the mega-retailer Wal-Mart. The kickoff coincides with the September/October issue of the magazine's annual Corporate Hall of Shame issue. And it sheds light on events that are taking place a few blocks from the This Magazine offices.

With Wal-Mart Canada eyeing Toronto’s historic Kensington Market neighbourhood for future development, public attention has again turned to Wal-Mart and the radical effects of the retail giant’s business practices. When RioCan announced plans to install a 125,000-square-foot Wal-Mart in the former site of Kromer Radio (just beside the distinctive, fabled Kensington Market), the Friends of Kensington Market formed to oppose the deal, and Toronto City Council passed a bylaw to freeze current development on the Bathurst strip.

The film series at the TRANZAC (292 Brunswick Avenue) in Toronto is a fundraiser for This Magazine's Red Maple Foundation. Tickets are $15 at the door or available in advance at the online shop.

Canadian Dimension magazine hosting author and muckraker Chris Hedges in Toronto, Sept 20

Canadian Dimension magazine is presenting an evening with author and muckraker Chris Hedges on Friday, Sept 20, 7:30 p.m. at Bloor United Church in Toronto. Hedges is to be introduced by Simon Black and CAW economist Jim Stanford. The cost is $20. It is part of a series of events across the country -- another, probably for Montreal, is soon to be announced. Tickets available online. 

Hedges is a regular columnist on the progressive site Truthdig and had an extensive career as a foreign correspondent for, among other things, the New York Times, where he was part of the team of reporters who were awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 2002 for coverage of global terrorism. (He left the Times after being issued a formal reprimand for denouncing the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq.) He's a senior fellow at the Nation Institute in New York and has written 12 books, including Death of the Liberal Class (2010) and Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt (2012)

Gallery celebrates four decades of Horst Ehricht's photojournalism

David Lewis & Tommy Douglas
photo: Horst Ehricht

In an era when most mobile phones have a camera, it is possible to forget that great photojournalism is more than point-and-click. It can result in moving, amazing works of art. Case in point is the show Photography: Horst Ehricht, May 28 to June 21 at the John B. Aird Gallery in Toronto. 

Ehricht was, among other things, director of photography at Maclean's magazine from 1965 to 1972 and a prolific freelancer for publications ranging from Time, Life and Sports Illustrated to The City (Toronto Sunday Star) , Reader's Digest and Chatelaine. 

"In a career spanning over four decades, award-winning photojournalist Ehricht took tens of thousands of photos that appeared in leading newspapers and magazines throughout North America and Europe," said a release from the gallery]. The Aird exhibition focuses on four key themes in this body of work: Kensington Market in the 1950s; Homesteading in Alberta in the 1960s; the 1967 Detroit Riots; and Politicians and Personalities. From Lester Pearson to Oscar Peterson and Marshall McLuhan to Bobby Hull, this last category includes some of the biggest names ever to emerge from Canada."

Ehricht studied photography at Ryerson Polytechnic, graduating in 1955 to work as a freelancer. In 1991, the National Archives of Canada acquired Ehricht's entire collection of works in black & white -- 450,000 of them. He won the lifetime achievement award of the Canadian Association of Professional Image Creators (CAPIC) that same year.  

LRC magazine partners on Spur, a new national festival of politics, art and ideas

The magazine Literary Review of Canada (LRC), in collaboration with Diaspora Dialogues, has today launched a national festival of politics, art and ideas called Spur. The festival takes place in parts, across Canada and it promises to present town halls, readings, performances, walking tours and funky late-night music, all designed to encourage engagement with pressing issues. It describes itself as "multi-partisan, forward-looking and solutions-oriented -- spurring ideas into action". 

More Spurs are intended to roll out in 2014, but the first three are:

• Spur Toronto: The Bottom Line (April 11-14) -- the intersection of cash, civics and culture;
• Spur Winnipeg: Unnatural Histories (April 26-28) -- The past, present and future of our human-made world;
• Spur Vancouver: Global Power Play (June 17 - 19) -- The rise, fall and reimagination of societies

Presenters include 

• New Yorker senior editor Hendrik Hertzberg on vested interests in politics; 
• Playwrights Hannah Moscovitch and Michael Healy;
• Political operatives Chima Nkemdirim,Jaime Watt and David Herle on electoral alchemy;
• First-time author Ayelet Tsabari; and 
• Ins Choi's (Kim's Convenience) brand new theatrical walking piece

Tickets are on sale now and cover all events, including a private reception. The organizers are also launching the RBC Emerging Scholars program and the Spur Public Fellow to capture ideas generated through the festival and which will guide programming for the coming year. 

Toronto Life launching paid event series called "Love Your City"

Toronto Life is launching its own paid event series called Love Your City, offering curated events with "unique experiences in food and drink, real estate, arts and culture and much more" according to the TL web page. Naturally given the proclivities of the magazine and its audience, the first event will be about real estate. 

"Buy, Sell or Hold: The future of Toronto Real Estate" will be on Wednesday, March 27 from 6 to 8:30 at the Arcadian Loft at Queen and Bay in Toronto. A press release promises an expert panel discussion followed by a cocktail reception. Price: $40. 

Energy reporter Andrew Nikiforuk says energy dependence has created plantation economy

Investigative reporter Andrew Nikiforuk is speaking Wednesday in Vancouver about the challenges of weaning ourselves off oil. The event is free and is being held October 3 at at 7 p.m. at the Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema, Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, SFU Woodward's, 149 West Hastings. Admission is free. Presented by SFU's Vancity Office of Community Engagement and The Tyee, whose editor David Beers is hosting. Nikiforuk's address is keying off his new book The Energy of Slaves: Oil and the New Servitude.
In a preview, The Tyee quoted Nikiforuk in part as follows. (It promises to be a provocative evening):

"We have largely imposed its values and attitudes on mechanized slaves fueled by hydrocarbons. In the process we have created unique plantation economies based on the use and proliferation of energy slaves. And like the slaveholders of old, we, too, have become fat, incompetent and lazy. What we have gained in comfort, we have lost in vitality."

Canzine 2012 kicks off with a symposium for indie creators

Canzine 2012, the largest annual zine fair and festival of independent culture, is scheduled for Sunday, October 21 in Toronto at the 918 Bathurst Arts/Culture Centre, just north of Bloor Street. It's from 1-7 p.m. and costs $5, which includes the fall issue of Broken Pencil magazine, presenters of the long-running fair.
This year, in addition to a special event every hour and up to 200 exhibitors of zines, comics, books and printed ephemera, there is for the first time a symposium for indie creators on the day before, Saturday 20, from 10 to 3 p.m.about fundraising strategy, beautification of zines, 8-minute "hyperspeed talks"  on practical and philosophical issue relating to indie culture. Symposium lineup.
The organizers are looking for volunteers to help run the event.

The best from Alberta's lit magazines to be read outdoors on August 26

Short stories and poetry from some of Alberta's best literary magazines will be read en pleine air (outdoors to you) at the Olympic Plaza in Calgary on Sunday, August 26 from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. 

Selected by Alberta Magazine Publishers Association members, the works will be read in an event hosted by Calgary's Poet Laureate Kris Demeanor and will feature readings from the likes of Shannon Lee Bennett, Marcello Di Cintio, Jon R. Flieger, Barb Howard, Naomi K. Lewis and Fred Stenson. (In case of rain, the readings will be at the Central Library.)

"Bring sunscreen and mittens -- it's Calgary, after all," say the organizers.

AZ Awards honour architecture and design

Last Thursday was a heckuva night, with awards programs blooming everywhere in Toronto  (National Magazine Awards, KRWs, CAJs) and it would be shame if one of them got short shrift, particularly if it's an excellent line extension for a successful Canadian magazine.

The AZ Awards is an international competition for architecture, interior and product design, presented by Azure magazine and this year hosted by CBC's Diana Swain.

Sixty finalists were selected from over 600 submissions and all will be featured in the awards issue of Azure, on newsstands June 18.The cover lettering of that issue was conceived by well-regarded type designer Paul Sych. In each category, there are jury-selected and "People's Choice" winners.

Entrants attended the event from far and wide, including finalists from India, a large contingent from Mexico, as well as from all over the States and Canada. George Brown College School of Design sponsored the A+ Award, a $5,000 prize for the best student project.

City of Toronto remembers June Callwood with tower lights, book launch, park dedication

The CN Tower will be lit up in pink and green on Wednesday night in honour of June Callwood. She died five years ago and was known for her prodigious journalism and for her passionate advocacy in many causes. 

She is being honoured at the Parler Fort speaker series at Fort York in Toronto marking the recent release of a commemorative book It’s All About Kindness: Remembering June Callwood,(Cormorant Books), edited by Margaret McBurney. The book contains recollections by nearly 60 people who knew or worked with Callwood. The event, hosted by the CBC's Michael Enright and with music by singer Molly Johnson, will coincide with the groundbreaking of a park nearby built in her name and May 16 is being proclaimed "It's All About Kindness Day" in Toronto. An article in Quill & Quire reports

For McBurney, the book’s main purpose is to keep Callwood’s name and legacy alive among younger generations. It was inconceivable to the designer and historian that her dear friend – who wrote 30 books and more than 1,500 magazine articles, was a founding member of PEN Canada and The Writers’ Union of Canada, and had been integral in the establishment of community organizations such as the AIDS hospice Casey House, Nellie’s shelter for women and children, and Jessie’s Centre for Teenagers (now called the June Callwood Centre for Women and Families) – might vanish from popular memory.

Ad club speaker to talk about why digital's future is print

The annual Magazine Day for the Advertising Club of Toronto is this Friday, April 27, 11:30  a.m. to 2 p.m. It features as its keynote speaker Andrew Davis, chief strategy officer and co-founder of Tippingpoint Labs of Newton, Mass. His topic is The Future of Digital is Print. 

The event is at the Arcadian Court, 401 Bay Street, Simpson Tower, 8th floor and tickets are $100 (a table of 10 is $900). Further information and tickets are available online.

Shane Smith of Vice to talk about secrets of success at Toronto conference

Smith

 Marketing magazine is featuring Shane Smith, the co-founder of Vice magazine and Vice Media as the keynote speaker in its Young Influencers conference, Thursday, Feb 23 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.at the Bram and Bluma Appel Salon at the Toronto Reference Library. Not coincident with his appearance is a feature by Marketing's editor Tom Gierasimczuk  in this week's issue relating how the hipster bible, launched only a decade ago in Montreal, is showing the way for media by essentially leaving behind its "magazine" beginnings in order to pursue the creation of content across platforms and verticals and grow into a company valued at $1 billion today.

“The magazine is less than 5% of our total revenue,” growls Smith, bleary eyed from the previous day’s flight from Los Angeles where he and creative director Eddy Moretti shopped their new independent film and photo project. The plan is for it to live as an online branded content community, joining an expansive network that Vice already curates and sells to complementary brands....

Smith is fond of saying that he handed the magazine over to the interns years ago. It’s a typically effective anecdote to demonstrate that these days, he and Toronto-raised Alvi and Moretti, are busy following the money to where brands are spending it on Vice’s verticals and platforms. Last month’s billion-dollar valuation by Forbes magazine had to do with the verified statement by Smith that “if we don’t answer our phones in 2012, we’ll double—likely triple—in size.”

[Update: All free tickets have been claimed.] Tickets for the conference are $425 each and we have five of them to give away, courtesy of Marketing. The first five readers to send their coordinates (name, e-mail) to canadianmags[at]gmail[dot] com will get them.

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Chantal Hébert at Massey College January 25th

Chantal Hébert, the national affairs columnist for The Toronto Star will submit herself to a conversational Q & A with John Fraser, the Master of Massey College in Toronto on Wednesday, January 25 at 7:30 p.m. 

It's one of the occasional press club nights at Massey, with no RSVP and no fee required; just show up. There's coffee, tea and a cash bar afterwards.

In addition to her Star column and feature writing, Hébert is well known as one of the CBC National "At Issue" panelists.

Getting sponsored editorial to work for everyone

The thorny problem of sponsored editorial will be explored at a luncheon panel being held by the Canadian Society of Magazine Editors in Toronto on Thursday, December 1. Maureen Halushak of Glow, Andrea Kolber of Canadian Living and Matthew McKinnon of The Walrus will be talking about how to keep your integrity while accepting the advertisers' dollars, observing the ad:edit guidelines and bringing in new and much-needed revenue.

The lunch is at Carr Hall, 100 St. Joseph Street (east side of Queen's Park) and begins at noon. It's $25 for CSME members and $40 for non-members. It's highly advised to register in advance because space is limited.

Celebration of life of editor and teacher Charles Oberdorf to be held October 25

[Note: correction of day error.]Many of his friends and colleagues will want to attend the celebration of the life of Charles Oberdorf, who died last month. The event will be held WednesdayTuesday, October 25 at Glebe Road United Church, 20 Glebe Road East in Toronto at 3 p.m., followed by a reception at Grano restaurant. 

Canadian Society of Magazine Editors' luncheon about getting sh*t done

We presume that the pressure to get things done still allows time for lunch. The Canadian Society of  Magazine Editors (CSME) is holding one of its periodic Toronto lunches, this time with the topic Be a Task Master: Take control of your priorities and get sh*t done.Presenters are time-management expert Steve Prentice and This Magazine editor-in-chief Graham Scott discussing organizational strategies for magazine editors.

It's on Thursday, May 5, noon - 1:30 pm at the Arts and Letters Club,14 Elm Street, Toronto. Admission is $25 for members; $40 for non-members (includes a delicious lunch). RSVPs are mandatory to csmeadmin@canadianeditors.com by Friday, April 29, to indicate whether you prefer a meat or vegetarian option.