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Accordion, Instrument of the Gods Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

"The Behaviour of Houses": This Thursday at the Brunswick Theatre

Poster for 'The Behaviour of Houses.

This Thursday, May 10th at 7:00 p.m., my friends from Crazy Go Nuts University David W. Scott and Andrea Medovarski will have a screening of their new film, The Behaviour of Houses at the Brunswick Theatre (296 Brunswick Avenue).

Here’s a synopsis:

Melinda, an aspiring artist with a dead-end job, lives in the city with Colum, who is pursuing his PhD. Escaping her privileged upbringing, Melinda is deeply critical of her family’s business “building suburban bungalows for the moral majority.” When Melinda’s brother, Jeremy, comes to the city for the Home Builders’ convention, he brings shocking news that will change all three of their lives.

As they all try to cope with unfinished family business, Melinda must make the most dramatic choices of all. Caught between her artistic dreams and her family’s demands to take over the business, she must now find her own place in the world.

Main characters from 'The Behaviour of Houses'.

The Behaviour of Houses is a story about finding your voice. It deals with that period in your mid twenties when you have to face up to where you come from – and decide where you’re really heading. It explores the awkward space between what someone says and what they really do.

Melinda is the daughter of a real estate developer who is running from her past. Colum is a PhD student trying to make his own place in the world and create the family life he never had. Jeremy is Melinda’s younger brother. His wild side hides how much he wants to protect those he cares about.

After the movie (it runs 98 minutes), there’ll be an after-party at Boom Shiva (1180 Queen Street West, halfway between the Gladstone and the Drake). One of the lead actors is also a singer so she will be singing there that night. It’s pretty casual, and anyone with musical ability is invited to attend and participate; I’ve been invited to kick out some accordion jams.

Come and support indie film and rockin’ accordion!

Categories
Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Open Coffee Thursday

Open Coffee -- Every Thrusday

I’m going to simply quote the announcement:

What is Open Coffee? A weekly informal opportunity for the startup

scene (entrepreneurs, developers, and investors) to Percolate,

Discuss, Demo, and Meet!

Where is Open Coffee? Tequila Bookworm. A cozy coffee shop at 512

Queen Street West. Free WiFi and ample parking across the street. We

can even take over the whole 2nd floor!

When is Open Coffee? Every Thursday 10:00am to 12:00pm.

I’m going to try to attend this week’s Open Coffee gathering.

Categories
Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

DemoCamp 13 Tomorrow

The 13th DemoCamp — the regular show-and-tell gathering for Toronto and area’s developers, businesspeople and creatives — takes place tomorrow at No Regrets Restaurant and Lounge (42 Mowat, not far from the corner of King and Dufferin). The presentations start at 6:30 p.m. and run until about 8:30 p.m., after which the social part of the evening begins.

Here’s the lineup for this DemoCamp:

  1. Invited: Mike Beltzner — Mozilla (15 minutes)
  2. Invited: Betsy Weber — TechSmith (15 minutes)
  3. Break (10 minutes)
  4. Demos – 5 minutes each (these should not be sales demos)
    1. Opensource Game Platforms
    2. SneakerPlay
    3. NotSoSo
    4. ViaVol
    5. ProductWiki
    6. Bart G

David Crow has a message for presenters, and I concur:

These presentations should not be sales demos.

Demonstrators should read Value to the Audience.

I am also going to ask that every presenter create a blog post or page on the wiki that is linked from their sign up that answers the following questions:

  • Have you attended a previous DemoCamp?
  • Who are you? Previous experience, what makes you qualified for us to listen to, etc.
  • What does your product do?
  • What hard problem, interesting insight, or cool feature will you be demonstrating?
  • What are you hoping to get out of presenting?
  • What does the community gain by hearing you present?
  • Basically, we need to improve the quality. I’m thinking of following the Ignite Seattle model of having all presenters submit a PowerPoint presentation. The point is not necessarily to use PowerPoint at DemoCamp, but to make the slides (and we’d limit the number, say 8 slides) available before the talk to the community.

    For goodness sake, you have the attention of people in this community for 5 minutes. Make it count. And if I have to sit through a demonstration of a tag cloud or web login form, so help me…

See you there!

Categories
Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Your Valentine’s Day Warning

Man sleeping in the doghouse.

Here’s a public service announcement for you gentlemen who are married, engaged, dating or “attached” in some way: this weekend is probably your last window of opportunity to book dinner reservations for Valentine’s Day, which is this Wednesday. Book as soon as possible and stay out of the doghouse. Don’t say I never do you any favours!

If you live in the Accordion City area, the Toronto Life Valentine’s Day Guide 2007 might have some ideas you might want to try.

Categories
Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Report from DemoCamp 12

DemoCamp logo

Nearly forgot about this one: I’ve got a writeup of DemoCamp 12 over at Global Nerdy.

Categories
Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Toronto Transit Camp Update

Toronto Transit Camp banner.

Just a little update on what’s happening with Toronto Transit Camp:

  • TTC and city bigwigs have confirmed their attendance! We’ve got Toronto Transit Commission Chair Adam Giambrone attending and City Councillor Joe Mihevc. Also attending will be the TTC’s Chief Marketing Officer and several planners from TTC staff.
  • We’re getting considerable attention, not just locally, but internationally. On the ‘net BoingBoing and WorldChanging are following what we’re doing, and we’re getting the mainstream press lined up, too.
  • This may be a minor footnote to you, but I think it’s worth mentioning: the company for whom I am Technical Evangelist, Tucows, is a sponsor of this event.
Categories
Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Reminder: Toronto Transit Camp (Sunday) and DemoCamp (Monday)

Toronto Transit Camp banner.

Don’t forget that Toronto Transit Camp takes place this Sunday, February 4th at the Gladstone Hotel between 9:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.! There’s not cost to attend, but space is limited, so if you haven’t registered yet, do so now.

DemoCamp logo.

And on the day after — Monday, February 5th — DemoCamp returns with DemoCamp 12! It takes place at No Regrets and starts at 6:30. Now that we all have a year’s worth of DemoCamps under our collective belts, we’ve made some changes to the format to see if we can’t improve the experience for everyone. Like Toronto Transit Camp, there’s no admission for DemoCamp.