LIFE IS SWEET, EVEN IN FEBRUARY – Ashley Gibson honours her mother's memory, and shines a light on mental health with her solo show

The prospect of February always seems daunting – the coldest, greyest of months, it seems predisposed to being an emotional minefield. For Ashley Gibson, you add in the anniversary of your mother’s death and it seems like the bleakest of months. But out of something bleak, Ashley has created something inspiring and beautiful, with her first solo cabaret show, LIFE IS SWEET, EVEN IN FEBRUARY, both honouring her mother’s memory, and benefiting the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

LIFE IS SWEET, EVEN IN FEBRUARY is a solo cabaret show on February 22^nd at 9:30pm, with Ashley singing a number of songs that her mom enjoyed, and sharing stories from her own life, about the impact of mental illness and her journey back after her mom’s suicide.  Ashley’s been open about her mother’s suicide, and how it’s affected her. It’s inspiring that someone has made an effort to share that part of themselves, fighting the stigma of mental illness and letting everyone dealing with mental illness, loss, depression, anxiety, to let all of them know:  “You are not alone”.

Mental health is something which affects us all – when 1 in 5 Canadians will experience mental illness in their lifetime, the odds are you or someone in your life is dealing with mental illness. We don’t always talk about it, we don’t necessarily know how to recognize, or know how to help. But, through the work of people like Ashley, we can have these conversations and end the stigma of mental health. We can move forward, together.

In addition to the show, Gibson will be featuring a number of guest writers on her blog who will write about their experiences with mental illness, depression, and loss – www.dancingthroughlifeblog.com. 

“Over the month of February I will be hosting blog posts from friends, family and bloggers who will be sharing their personal accounts of experience with mental illness, depression, anxiety and loss. I am so proud of all of these people for sharing their stories, and believe that in the act of sharing we will truly confirm that no one is alone. I've utilized my network to also include posts from practitioners on strategies for dealing with mental illness, as well as posts on working through challenges in life and finding the light and love in all of it. “

I’ve been lucky enough to meet Ashley through my Loser Karaoke group, and she always lights up the room when she sings. Her outlook is infectious, moving, and I’m proud to know her. Buy a ticket, take part in something special, and you’ll be lucky too.

In the greyest of days, Ashley shares an outlook I admire: life can be sweet. Yes, even in February.

~

Learn more about Ashley's #lifeissweet month on her blog - dancingthroughlifeblog.com or by following her on Twitter -@ashleydtl

Life is Sweet, Even in February

Produced and performed by Ashley Gibson, Music Direction by Tara Litvack

February 22, 2013 – 9:30PM

The Flying Beaver Pubaret

488 Parliament Street – Toronto, ON

Tickets: $15 in advance / $20 at the door

Tickets are available at the Flying Beaver Pubaret or online at

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/325738

 Facebook event page - Life Is Sweet, Even in February

The “Don’t Be That Guy” Campaign

Edmonton Police launched the “Don’t Be That Guy” campaign in 2010,targeting potential offenders rather than victims of sexual assault - letting perpetrators know it’s not “okay” to take advantage of someone who had too much to drink. It’s not “taking advantage” - it’s sexual assault. If you don’t have ongoing consent, it’s sexual assault. These posters communicate and educate this point clearly. It’s “a rape prevention campaign targeted at potential rapists rather than potential victims”. 

The campaign was relaunched at the end of 2012 in Edmonton, and has proven so effective that other Canadian cities have adopted it, including Vancouver (which saw a 10% drop in assaults), Ottawa, and Regina. Nothing in Toronto yet, but maybe that can change. These should be on every campus and in every bar.

Movember Challenge Karaoke Toronto

Some of our MoChaKaTO friends

For the 3rd year running, the Loser Karaoke family got together to raise funds for Movember Canada with an event we've dubbed MoChaKaTO - Movember Challenge Karaoke Toronto. Spearheaded by our team, The Mustache Farmers of Canada, we made every effort to make this event a success. Movember is a cause that means a great deal to us - we were determined to raise as much as we could to fund men's health initiatives not only for prostate cancer, but men's mental health programs. We spread the word via social media, generated prize donations, and built the excitement up all throughout November until our main event, Thursday, November 29th.

Loser Karaoke is a weekly Toronto karaoke night (currently at Lou Dawg's Southern BBQ on King St.), that originated from a hashtag on Twitter #LoserKaraoke - it's proven to be a great place to sing and mingle in real life (IRL) with friends I interact with on Twitter. At our best, we can come together on something like #MoChaKaTO and make something special happen.

Money was raised one of two ways:

1) Challenge Karaoke - singers and patrons donations drive the entertainment.

• For $5, you get your name in the rotation to be able to sing
• For $20, you can challenge someone else when they get up to sing, and make them sing whatever you want
• For $30, you can buy yourself out if you get challenged (just in case the challenge is too horrific for you, or you're a big chicken!)
• For $50, you can sing a song off the host's list of banned songs
• For $100, you can sing a song by Celine Dion, the most banned of our artists

2) Prize Raffle - we had an outstanding collection of prizes, from gift certificates to restaurants like Lou Dawg's, to box seats to a  Toronto Marlies hockey game, and a number of certificates for services at Mazz Salon.

If you checked in on the #MoChaKaTO hashtag that night, you'd see pictures of us all singing, dancing, and having an outstanding night. I'm happy to report everyone was game for the challenges and we had a laugh with some of them - that was the only way I would've sang "Gangnam Style", and my apology again to the people of South Korea - and some we just wanted to hear songs we love performed by our friends. 


By the end of the night, we raised $1680 for Movember Canada in one night - a new record, surpassing our goal of $1500. At $564 more than was raised in 2011, we're geared up to make it bigger and better next year.

Facebook Page for MoChaKaTO

More photos from the night: MoChaKaTO photos on Instagram (via statigram)

Thanks again to our Loser Karaoke host, Jason Rolland, and our Movember team:

The Mustache Farmers of Canada

Andrew Boyle, Jay Chan, Joshua Murray, Sean Bolton, Jessica Law

Our team: (L to R) Sean, Me, Jay, Jessica, Joshua (not pictured: Andrew) with our Loser Karaoke host, Jason Rolland

Matt Fraction on writing female characters in comics

From Comic Book Resources: FRACTION BIDS FAREWELL TO THE "INVINCIBLE IRON MAN"

I started to realize that if I had a daughter, there would come a day when I would have to apologize to her for my profession. I would have to apologize for the way it treats and speaks to women readers, and the way it treats its female characters.

“I knew that if we had a daughter, because I know my wife and I know the kind of girl she wants to raise and I know the kind of girl I want to raise, she was going to look at what I did for a living and want to know how the fuck I could stomach it. How could I sell her out like that?” Fraction continued. “That conversation is still coming, and I’m bracing for it in the way that some dads brace for their daughter’s first date or boyfriend. I became acutely aware that I had sort of done that thing that lots of privileged hetero cisgendered white dudes do. ‘I’m cool with women, and that’s enough.’ It’s not enough. It’s embarrassing to say, because we somehow have attached shame to learning and evolving our opinions, culturally, but I became aware that there was a deficiency of and to women in my work, and all I could do at that moment was take care of my side of the street.

I've always been a fan of Matt Fraction’s writing before, but now, I’m especially a fan of Matt Fraction as a human being. More of people like him please. 

Do yourself a favour and pick up some of the comics written by Matt, like "The Immortal Iron Fist", "The Invincible Iron Man", and his current series, "Hawkeye".

Resolutions - I Am Jack's Enduring Legacy.

I am Jack's beating heart., a photo by the2scoops on Flickr.

If there's one picture of mine that I come back to that made an impression this year, it's this one. And if you make a New Year's Resolution for 2012, even just one, make it this: "love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world." - Jack Layton

Happy New Year.

"F-ing Sponge Cake!?" - Worlds Best Commercials 2008

Had a nice treat this weekend as I hit The Princess Cinema's in KW with Ms Rita at my side to check out the screening of "World's Best Commercials 2008", a showcase of the best international commercials as recognized by the London International Awards for advertising. The Princess is a classic little repertory cinema, with the real popcorn (not the glowing yellow kind) and butter. Settled in to the bucket seats, we laughed and marveled at some of the most creative and funniest commercials of the year, some tearingly funny, some moving and effective enough to take your breath away. Each commercial felt like a short film, some of them 30-seconds, some more ambitious like the 10 minute spot by director Martin Scorsese. For short attention spans and if you could use a laugh, do yourself a favor and check out a screening at a local cinema near you, or spend some time cruising the LIA site which has the award winning spots available for viewing in Quicktime format. You'll lose productivity today, guaranteed.

Be warned though: I don't let advertising influence my decisions, but the first thing I did today was to drink Schweppe's Ginger Ale while buying my VW Golf, which I drove to McDonald's, all funded by the profits I made from investing my Ladbrokes winnings into my E-Trade account. And then I will buy a drum playing gorilla as my sidekick. On E-Bay.

Here's a selection of some standouts:

McDonald's "Boombox" - Silver Winner, Best Use of Music. Try not to smile while watching this spot, with a young boy who is too fly for the dinner table. Rita started doing the electric slide in her chair to this, and you will too.
Agency: Leo Burnett, Chicago

E-gaming "Climb", "Parachute"," Shark" - Silver Winner, Campaign. These character feel like they lept out of a Wes Anderson movie. Crazy goofy bastards.
Agency: M&C Saatchi, London

Schweppes "Burst" - Gold Winner, Cinematography. Beautiful in motion and image, with a soundtrack from Cinematic Orchestra. In the words of Ms Rita, "their music will burst your heart". The song is "To Build a Home".
Agency: George Patterson Y&R, Melbourne

Cadbury Dairy Milk - "Gorilla" Grand Prize, and Gold Winner, Confectionary. Love the serious look on his face, a slight head nod of commitment and BAM.
Agency: Fallon London, London

Volkswagen GTI "Dreams" - Nicely captures that transcendence between dreams and the real world. Gold Winner for Best Use of Music.
Agency: Ogilvy, Cape Town

Herringbone "Henri's Hands" - The Gold Winner in the Apparel category swerved us, posing as a poignant PSA before we started cracking up at a very inappropriate moment.
Agency: M&C Saatchi, Sydney

Louis Vuitton - "A Journey" - A gorgeous spot that will have you yearning to go beyond the places you know. Gold Winner for Cinematography
Agency: Ogilvy, Paris

Human Trafficking - "Radiohead" - Not shown in the collection I saw but worth watching is this Silver Winner for Cinematography. The band Radiohead committed their song "All I Need" to this spot for MTV's Campaign Against Human Trafficking, a music video that tells two stories in parallel, one child in a Western country, one in the Third World. It draws you in and gives you pause, successfully marrying music and message to shine a light on the shame that in this day there is still legitimized slavery and exploitation.
Agency: Colman Rasic Carrasco, Sydney

Volkswagen International Cinema "Toy Story" - Gold Winner, Corporate. Funny, but I don't think I can watch this Pixar classic the same way anymore.
Agency: DDB London, London

Coca Cola "It's Mine" - Silver Winner for Animation -A charming balloon battle for supremecy.
Agency: Wieden & Kennedy, Portland

Orange TV On Demand - "Rewind City" - Silver Winner, Editing. Sweetly romantic spot.
Agency: Publicis Conseil, Paris

Nintendo Jam Sessions - "Sponge" - Silver Winner, Low Budget. NSFW, a cheeky Australian ad.
Agency: Colenso BBDO, Auckland

AMP Energy- "Walk of No Shame" - Silver Winner, Humour. No, I am not familiar with this concept.
Agency: GREYnyc, New York

E*Trade - "Baby Banking - Gold Winner, Humour "I underestimated the creepiness."
Agency: GREYnyc, New York

FedEx - "Carrier Pigeons" - Gold Winner, Humour
Agency: BBDO New York, New York

Glade AutoSport - "Trash" - Silver Winner, Automotive Products
Agency: Draftfcb, Buenos Aires

Come On Up For The Rising - Inauguration Day

It's a big day in Washington tomorrow as Barrack Obama swears the oath and becomes President of the United States of America. Once he cleans that old man smell out of the furniture in the Oval Office ("What the hell smells like Cheney in here?"), and changes the locks (Hilary probably still has a copy of the key) President Obama will some heavy lifting to do - Bush left the place a mess. But for the first time in a long time, the majority of Americans, and most of the world, seem to believe that things can get better. The air of optimism is almost tangible, you'd think this presidency is going to be scripted by Aaron Sorkin.

I'll have the radio tuned in tomorrow and plan to watch the highlights when I get home. I loved how some of my co-workers were looking forwards to "Obama Day". And why not, because this day is a big one. It proves change can happen if enough voices cry out. This is a day that's bigger than politics.

While you wait for the show to get underway in D.C., kill some time with the Obamicon.me site, where you can upload a picture and have it re-touched in the style of of Shepard Fairey’s iconic work shown above. You can't avoid it: I saw CBS network promos down in this style today. My contribution:

While we march into this new age, take one last, long lingering look at the clusterf*ck that was the Bush years, and no better narrative exists than The Story Of Bush, as told through the headlines from The Onion catalogued by Teresa Nielsen Hayden, As Teresa said:

There will be histories written about the Bush administration. They’ll be privy to information we don’t have yet, because the future is like that. On the other hand, we have our own privileged knowledge: We know how the story looked like to people who didn’t know how it was going to come out.

Now, in this moment before a changing world overwrites our memories of the era, let us pause to salute our constant companion of those years: The Onion. Other histories of the Bush years will doubtless be more factual, but none will ever be truer.

(via Accordion Guy, who also pointed out the brilliant someecards has out for the election).


This one's also a favourite.

Bye bye Bush. Hello hope.

A Design For Life

What if the thought put into engineering and designing the iPhone went into creating new ways to improve living conditions and improve mortality rates in the Third World and impoverished communities?

A well-designed object is a thing of beauty. I’ve been known to stare at the computers in the Apple store or at the furniture in Big Country like Homer Simpson gazing at a doughnut. And we take it for granted as design influences every aspect of our lives in our wardrobe, our furnishings, and our cities. Or at least, the 10% of the world’s population that has disposable income take it for granted.

So what about the other 90% of the world? Can’t we apply the same thought and effort put into designing cars and cell phones into finding solutions to genuine problems like finding food and shelter?

"Design for the Other 90%" is an eye-opening installation of low-cost yet highly functional inventions at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City. Engineers, designers, innovators, and social entrepreneurs take their skills and apply it to the challenges of shelter, health, water, education, energy and transportation. These things can make the difference between life and death, sustainability or starvation for not only the Third World, but for under-served populations in Industrial nations. What has resulted from these initiatives are cheap but effective ways to improve access to that which we take for granted: food, clean water, sustainable energy, education, healthcare.

Take some time and browse the Design for the Other 90% site. There are some fantastic life-changing things that can be found there, including standouts like:




The LifeStraw, a personal mobile water-purification tool is designed to turn any surface water into drinking water. It has proven to be effective against waterborne diseases such as typhoid, cholera, dysentery, and diarrhea, and removes particles as small as fifteen microns. (text: Cooper-Hewitt Museum)

Internet Village Motoman Network, mobile internet access vehicles. These vehicles travel to remote areas of Cambodia equipped with satellite uplinks and solar powered computers, giving the population access to email and the internet, and giving the population access to Telemedicine: "healthcare workers interview, examine, and digitally photograph patients, then transmits the information by satellite to physicians in Boston using a solar-powered computer. Within hours, the physicians respond with medical opinions and treatment recommendations."

Global Village Shelters are remarkably light, portable shelters. They’re made from triple wall-laminated corrugated cardboard treated with fire-resistant and waterproof coating. They’re low-cost temporary emergency shelters that can last up to eighteen months. Prefabricated, shipped flat, and requiring no tools to assemble, they are easy to deploy. The first prototypes were sent to Afghanistan and Grenada, and later used in tsunami-hit countries in Asia; Pakistan’s Azad Kashmir Province, which was devastated by an earthquake, and to Gulfport, Mississippi, after Hurricane Katrina. (text: Cooper-Hewitt Museum)

The Q Drum: round water cans that are designed to roll easily, and can transport seventy-five litres of clean and potable water. For populations who have to trek daily to a clean water source for all their water and carry it back, this can ease their burden.


The Big Boda Load-Carrying Bicycle, developed in Kenya by the design firm WorldBike, can carry eight crates of goods, three children or two adult passengers in places where bikes are the main mode of transportation. It has an extended wheel base and a lower center of gravity. (text: NPR)

Just think what some of these inventions could mean for the quality of living not just in a village in rural Africa, but for impoverished communities in Canada or even the inner-city?

I’m going to dig around a bit and look for ways to get these things into the hands of those that need them. If you hear of any initiatives like this, drop me a line in the comments.

I first heard about the exhibit in the story Functional Designs that Change Lives, on National Public Radio's "Weekend Edition".

National Design Museum: Design For The Other 90%