Month: March 2012

As a reader of this blog, you’ve probably seen the “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster, as well as the numerous parodies:

You probably also know that the posters are from World War II. What you might not know is that they were never seen by the general public during that time; they were held in reserve just in case things went really badly. The poster was never officially issued and would’ve remained in obscurity if Stewart and Mary Manley, the proprietors of Barter Books in the northeast of England, hadn’t found one in a box of books bought at an auction. Mary like the poster so much that she framed it and displayed in their shop, and soon came the requests for copies.

The posters that people did see during the war were this one:

and this one:

The short film above, The Story of Keep Calm and Carry On, tells the story of how that poster went from unknown to nearly ubiquitous.

If you’d like to find out more about the “Keep Calm and Carry On”, here’s Robyn Schneider with more about the poster.

She points out that the poster was under crown copyright, which lasts 50 years, meaning that it had passed into the public domain by the time the Manleys found it and started reproducing it. However, a sleazeball named Mark Coop has acquired the EU copyright for the slogan and has been suing people – but not the Manleys, oddly enough – who try to sell Keep Calm and Carry On merchandise.

Steve Kirman, a.k.a. “Mr. Steve”, the “Steve” behind Steve’s Music Store, passed away on Saturday. Steve started his music instruments store in Montreal, where it now pretty much eats up a city block, and expanded to open stores in Ottawa as well as my hangout since high school, the Steve’s on Queen Street West.

I’ve bought countless things from Steve’s, from patch cables to amplifiers to my beloved Ensoniq EPS 16 sampler (which I gave to my friend Karl Mohr) to my most recent accordion, the little red Silvetta, pictured below when it was mere days old:

Thanks, Steve, for everything. (Especially for not kicking me out of the synth department when I hung out there for hours after school.)

Stories on Steve Kirman’s passing:

• NOW Magazine: RIP Steve Kirman
• The Link: Steve’s Music Founder Dies

There’s a traditional annual party held by and for Toronto’s tech and social media communities called CanLIT, which is short for Canadian Livers In Training. It’s an excuse to get together and “warm up” for the South by Southwest conference, which sees a lot of attendees from Accordion City.

Want to see last year’s CanLIT photos? They’re over here.

Lee Dale of Say Yeah hosted this year’s edition of CanLIT, and it was spectacular. Here are some photos from the bash.

Adult Supervision. Rohan Jayasekera and I were some of the “silver foxes” – that is, the elder statesmen – in the crowd, enjoying the antics of “the kids”.

The action in the kitchen is a reliable indicator of how well a party is doing.

The kitchen was a-rockin’, so come on a-knockin’!

The dance floor stayed packed the entire night.

When called for, I broke out the accordion. The big hit was when I jammed along to Nine Inch Nails’ Closer.

The other big hit: I decided to dress up a little and wore my little-used black Hugo Boss suit and black shirt. It received much lady-attention and appreciation. I’ll have to wear it more often.

Scenes from the DJ booth.

Photo op!

It ain’t a party until both Justin Kozuch and Raymi the Minx tear up the dance floor!

One of the many fine liquors I sampled that evening.

Silver Foxes represent! This time it’s me and James McNally.

Always let the ladies try the accordion. Here’s Hilary Krupa getting her groove on.

Here’s a gem featuring the audio from the trailer for the upcoming Avengers movie and a lot of the crappy animation from the old 1960s Marvel superhero cartoons. The only cheat is the use of Nick Fury clips: those are from the mid-’90s Iron Man cartoon (the one with the overwrought Keith Emerson theme).

For those of you who spent the 1980s playing Super Mario Bros. and listening to The Smiths, here’s a treat: covers of This Charming Man and Girlfriend in a Coma done Super Nintendo-style!

Here’s Super Morrissey Bros., the chiptune version of This Charming Man, created by “lazyitis”:

…and here’s “deadwhenifoundher’s” 8-bit rendition of Girlfriend in a Coma:

Inspired by both these covers, I had to whip up this graphic:

It’s been too long since we’ve had a Toronto Techie Dim Sum – since November, in fact – so I’m declaring one for this Wednesday, March 7th at noon at good ol’ Sky Dragon (Dragon City Mall, top floor, southwest corner of Spadina and Dundas)!

These are casual, informal lunchtime get-togethers for that broad category of people that I call “The Toronto Techie Community”. It includes programmers, designers and “suits” who work in the web and software industries or anyone interested in hanging out with such people for interesting conversation that isn’t always about technology, as well as cheap, cheerful and delicious Chinese food. If even the notion of attending a lunchtime gathering appeals to you, you’re the sort of person we’d like to see there!

Once again, Toronto Techie Dim Sum happens this Wednesday, March 7th at noon at Sky Dragon. We should be an easy group to spot – look for the table with me (see the photo, inset on the right).

This article also appears in Global Nerdy.