A drawing of a spider should settle it...

I spit my tea out while reading this!! HAAAAA!!! HAAA!!!!

The AGO Preview Breakfast

After years of following Frank Gehry's Transformation AGO, I got my first peak at the gallery, nearing completion. It opens to the public November 14th.

There was a breakfast held for donors this morning that Debbie and I attended. I was impressed the most with all the woodwork inside the museum. The serpentine staircase in Walker's Court is gorgeous! It will definitely become the focus of the gallery.

Arriving at AGO, one is greeted by an outstanding wooden ramp that sparks memories of Chicago with its reminiscence to the bridge linking Millennium Park to Grant Park. Cuts in the floor, intertwined with the ramp, allow a view to Ken Thompson's ship models in a gallery below.

The interior of the new modern art wing is quite nice with the wooden blinds on the windows facing Grange Park, generous spaces and sun wells that allow natural light into the gallery throughout the 5th floor ceilings.
The only caveat is that the massive windows facing the park are virtually blocked. An opportunity for viewing the city from the gallery – a beautiful vista granted by OCAD's Alsop building next door – is interrupted by those wooden blinds and dotted glazing. You get a peak at the city, but it doesn't go beyond the tease. That's too bad.



For the preview today, both organic stairs were closed off. The only access to transit between floors was via a single elevator at the back. Eventually, staff recognized the problem and began using the large service elevator instead.

The sculpture gallery is impressive and allows much more visibility to the city below. All that wood just sings "Oh Canada!". The ribbed structure feels like the inside of the hull of an upside down ship.

The single disappointment – one that I expected when I saw the original drawings years ago – is the glass roof above Walker's Court. When walking into the court, one's eyes are immediately drawn to the light source from above. Once there, the sight isn't as rewarding as the invitation would lead you to believe. The metal trusses and ordinariness of the triangular structure disappoint. For Gehry – and a quarter Billion dollars – you'd hope to see a beautiful pièce de resistance, a glass sculptural ceiling worthy of the place it is in. Gehry's DG Bank (Berlin) comes to mind.

The main attraction turns out to be the one you can see from the outside. The Galeria Itália's massive expanse of curving glass with its tears on either end will no doubt transform this part of Dundas.

Come to think of it, it already has.

Home Entertainment Nirvana... almost there.

About a year ago, I had finally had enough of reality TV, constant "news" about the likes of Paris Hilton and the lives of other celebrities, and of paying $100 a month for a zillion channels with nothing ever on...

So I cut cable and began to build my home entertainment around the principal of watching what I want to watch, when I want to watch it. I started on the concept of video podcasts, independent content made available for free via the internet. You subscribe to a collection of these podcast "shows" and when they're updated, you automatically get the new one.

Check ON Networks and Revision3 for some great internet TV.

Of course, it wouldn't be enough to sit in front of my computer and watch these podcasts. I had to be able to do it sitting comfortably on my couch in front of a big screen TV.

AppleTV fit the bill. It's a device that acts pretty much like an iPod for your TV. Instead of taking your music, videos, photos and podcasts with you in your pocket, you have AppleTV sitting next to your TV, feeding it all the content you get off the internet.



The first step in putting together my dream media system was getting the centrepiece: a big screen TV. I picked up a Sharp Aquos 48". AppleTV came right after to start me off on the way to entertainment independence.



Even though I was quite satisfied to be able to enjoy my painstakingly refined music collection via AppleTV, and the vast library of professionally produced video podcasts, I was missing some of my favorite shows. I couldn't get Heroes and SNL on iTunes... yet.

Just in time, AppleTV Take2 arrived. TV shows could now be purchased à la carte and movies could now be rented, directly from the couch. I could now spend $1.99 an episode of a show I know I want to watch rather than $100 per month for fluff on Rogers Cable.



To put it into perspective, if I buy an iTunes card for the $100 I was sending off to Rogers every month for cable, I can buy 3 to 5 entire seasons of my favorite shows. And since I don't follow more than a few shows anyway, I'm only spending $100 flat twice a year!



About six months into my experiment, I began to realize how disconnected I was becoming from my local reality. I was watching and reading the news on CNN.com and other of my favorite news sources, but I was missing out on what was going on in my local community.

A little research landed me into Digital Broadcasts. In February of next year, the Federal Communications Commision (FCC) has mandated that all american analog broadcasts – the kind you pick up with your old fashioned rabbit ears – will need to switch to broadcasting in digital. What this means is that a TV like the Sharp Aquos that I bought earlier, has an ATSC tuner that can receive 1080i HD – and 1080p when it becomes available – crystal clear digital picture... over the air.. for free. With a pair of rabbit ears.

I have a clear south view of the lake from my apartment, and the CN Tower is practically my neighbor: absolutely the ideal conditions to pick up American digital broadcasts and all the local ones too. Technically, the rabbit ears wouldn't suffice – those pick up VHF signals, I needed the loop that picks up the UHF signals which digital TV is being sent out in – so I started looking for a UHF antenna.

It turns out that those things haven't been for sale since the late 80's when cable really took off. It was practically impossible to find a mainstream store carrying a good UHF antenna. So I set out to build one myself.

Living in an apartment building, I couldn't just plop one on my roof or outside my window as I'd have the landlord up my ass. I also didn't want an ugly home made antenna in my apartment. So I disguised it as an IKEA magazine rack. :)



Recipe:
1 long piece of 2"x2" wood beam that I found in the trash
4 wire hangers
3 feet of cable that I had lying around
1 cardboard box cut out into a rectangle and shielded in tin foil

I won't get into the instructions as this guy has a great step by step here: uhfhdtvantenna.blogspot.com/

The result: I now get crystal clear American and local channels, most in 1080i or 720p HD... FREE.

Here's the list of the channels I get perfect reception for (I've skipped a bunch of religious channels and Buffalo weather networks):

2.1 NBC (plus 2.2 which is a Buffalo weather station that I've skipped)
4.1 ABC
5.1 CBC
7.1 CBS
7.2 RTN (80s tv shows)
9.1 CTV
11.1 E!
17.1, 17.2, 17.3 WNED/PBS
23.1 CW23
25.1 CBC (Français)
29.1, 29.2 FOX
41.1 Global
44.1 OMNI2
57.1 CityTV
64.1 OMNI1
66.1 SUN TV



Other channels may appear in the coming months as the mandatory digital switchover is completed.

I can now watch casual TV and keep in touch with local news, as well as watch all the best shows for free and in HD.

One final hurdle had yet to be overcome: While I was a Rogers Cable subscriber, I grew quite attached to having a PVR. I would select which shows to watch via the on screen schedule and it'd be recorded, ready to watch when I was ready.

I find the solution in El Gato's EyeTV. It's an ATSC digital receiver, with excellent software that records HD TV, converts it and sends it into my AppleTV's TV Show menu. Perfect!



My birthday is approaching so Debbie – my room mate – wanted to get me a gift so she picked up an essential piece to my home entertainment puzzle: a 1TB Time Capsule. Thanks Debbie!! :-D



Time Capsule is a network HUB that connects all my entertainment items together and allows wireless access to the hard drives that hold all my media. Time Capsule also goes to work in the background, tirelessly backing up all my data without any intervention on my part.

Here's the almost complete diagram to Home Entertainment Nirvana:



Click the diagram for a hi-res in depth look at my media setup (8MB)

It's been an amazing experience being on the cutting edge of the new era of TV. Digital distribution is upon us. Most people aren't aware of it yet... but AppleTV is gaining some fans ;-)


"Attack of the Show" host, Olivia Munn likes her AppleTV

Jib Jab

Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!

An entertaining new video by Jib Jab in anticipation of the US Presidential election.

(If you're seeing this on Facebook and you can't view the video, click here)

Bloomberg: Pedro Marques first iPhone buyer in Toronto's financial district.

Bloomberg covered the launch of the iPhone on Bay Street in Toronto and I was first in line:



For the story, go here.

An Artificial Segregation

Today, I felt compelled to register an experience that had me learn about myself and my beliefs.

For the past month, I dated a girl who I came to care about. An unfortunate circumstance dictated that an eventual impasse blocked our way to truly becoming a couple:

She's a Christian, strongly dedicated to her religion and firm in her beliefs, and I a firm atheist, a man of science, of common sense and of logic.

Through this month, I set out in a personal spiritual trek within my mind in search of a compromise and I suspect she did the same.

Ironically, my analytical self expedition made me an even stronger believer in Darwin's Theory of Evolution and Natural Selection and of how one can truly be happier by opening one's eyes to science as a tool of individual inference and free thinking rather than laying in the blissful ignorance of an established religion. I've experienced both.
I was a God believer from my childhood to a point in my teenage years where I learned the truth through personal conclusions. From that defining moment to this one, I was – for lack of a better word – indifferent. As of this event, I've become a de facto Atheist, proud to let it be known and happy to explain to those willing how I've found in me the power to release myself from the obfuscation and fear of Catholicism.

There was something about this my personal casualty of religion and about our failure as a couple due to what I perceive as a silly artificial segregation of two humans, that sealed the deal for me.

In this personal case, her and I lost what otherwise could have flourished to become something very special.

Her religion eventually won over her desire to be with me and we both concluded that our relationship was not possible.

It's a tragedy that didn't have to occur.

Fun Deconstruction

Tonight my buddy Rob who's opening a new Krav Maga martial arts school on Dundas + Dovercourt invited me over to the location where he's setting up his school.

I showed up and he was tearing down some walls, meticulously unscrewing screws, hammering out drywall.
I was looking for an outlet for all my built up nervous energy so I took a different approach: Running into walls, side kicking, ramming 2x4's into them. Anything went, just as long as it was noisy and involved flying dry wall shrapnel.

The most fun I've had in a while!

I'm committed to training at the school at least three times a week starting in mid March when it officially opens for business. I've been meaning to train in martial arts since I was a child and the opportunity finally presented itself.

Pedro, martial artist... I can get used to the idea.

Obama for President ... of the World

This man is going to change the world. In an era of partisan politics where a President represents only those who voted for him, Barack Obama is a refreshing candidate. (The spell checker doesn't recognize either "Barack" or "Obama"... that'll change after November 2008).

Here's a video put together by Hollywood, inspired enough to give a damn in the upcoming election.



In Canada we're living through the same: our Prime Minister represents the conservative elite who voted for him and blatantly ignores the remaining 49% of the electorate. Where's our Barack Obama?

Blue Mountain Escape

I'm on the slopes of Blue Mountain overlooking the village from high up on a hill. The sun is barely piercing through the light blizzard. One moment it's sunny, the next it's gloomy.

I find my mood changing with it. I came here to de-stress but all I can think about are those four major stories currently playing out in my life.
I can see a very successful professional life just ahead but somehow I feel that the wrong decision might steer me away from it.
I'm facing decisions now and who knows which is wrong or which is right. Which way to go?

I guess all I can do is put on my amber coloured goggles, point my board down hill and make decisions as I go along. We'll see where the mountain takes me.
Pedro Marques
Marqx Creative Communications

This e-mail was sent via BlackBerry

Need to Unwind

It's nearly 3am and I'm wide awake, full of energy and having an unusual desire to snow board.

This week has been a non stop cerebral thunderstorm. I'm pumping out ideas faster than wheety O's at a Cheerios factory.

With so many potential money makers and career advancers hanging out right in front of me, it's difficult to not be in a constant state of epiphany.

I'm giving in to my desire to go snowboarding. It'll be good to burn off all this energy in the morning. I booked my car and off I go on the 3 hours trek to Blue Mountain tomorrow.