View allAll Photos Tagged Communication
Flaviane B is calling for an uber. The light from her smartphone illuminates her face revealing an expression that is curious and cute. She looks like she is going through some options, all of which must be good since she has almost a whistle like mouth position. The off light from automobiles lays long beams of light across the ground. She looks radiant and fresh, and her nail polish matches her dark sunglasses. Her free hand is in an interesting position, as if she's gesturing for something to happen or come on. The smartphone itself is illuminated with light lime green fluorescent light that is projected on to her shirt mixing with well with the orange and red colors. This is Uber-time. Washington DC 15 September 2017.
A diver at the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores talks through the glass to my wife and daughter in his own way.
3/6 of my interpretation of the LEGO House zones, testing out my new indoor lighting rig (I still prefer sunlight but this was cool to try).
When I was a kid I found a long narrow stone in the Conodoguinet Creek. I was sure it was an Indian spearpoint. I showed it to a neighbor, Mr. Weaver, who knew about such things. It wasn't a spearpoint. It wasn't anything fashion by humans.
What you see in the image is my seventh grade science notebook cover. On top of it is a collection of small stones. Most can look like humans had a hand in their appearance - as tools or art objects. Only one of them is actually likely to have been worked by human hands - the one on the lower right. It's probably a pebble someone worked to make it into a fishing weight. But I'm not qualified to make that claim with authority. If something is blatantly obvious in its human connection, no problem. Otherwise, forget it. I leave it to the folks who have training and experience to identify the one from the other.
That brings me to the point of this image, arranged and shot early this evening. There was an archaeology blog entry posted a few days ago entitled ”Why 50000 bp is a 'Crazy Date' for Topper”. After reading the entry and all the comments, I posted my own comment. After another two comments by others, I felt I had to post one more in response. That's the last for me, as I say in the second comment. The text of those comments follows (with typos corrected - at least those I've identified).
Essentially, if you don't feel like checking out the article and comments at the link above, all you need to know before reading my comments included here is that the subject of the blog entry is an archaeological site in South Carolina where the principal archaeologist has an established date of about 50,000 years BP for a layer where he suggests the stones he's found are crude man-made tools - that they were worked by people, not just chipped that way by nature. It relates to a debate - sometimes contentious - over the "peopling of the Americas", particularly the date of the earliest migration from the Old World. (If you want more background on that, go here). Most of the comments were rational and displayed a mutual understanding of what science is and what it isn't. It was a pleasure to read those for the clarity - individuals weighing in on the topic with an understanding that issues were ones within the framework of the archaeological and scientific method - that the difference of professional opinion related to the sufficiency of evidence which needed to be resolved before going any further in making a case for people being in the Americas 50, 000 years ago. And then there were the other posters whose comments were about what's true, what's a "fact", using shaky logic based on questionable conclusions, and/or simply not understanding that the issue wasn't about whether or not people were possibly or even probably here 50K BP - it was about getting to that conclusion according to the rules of archaeology and science that are necessary to transition something from objects found, and inferences made regarding them, to a consensus-accepted "knowledge" - and that that was not evident in the case of the 50K BP human presence at the Topper site.
So I weighed in on that point... Here are my comments:
kawkawpa says:
Thanks to the scientists who have contributed thoughtful, grounded comments here, and have included links for others to make their own assessments.
After having read the discussion, I only want to offer what seems clear to me... When a scientist says "crazy date", it's in reference to current scientific consensus of a reasonable theory - a theory based on (1) available evidence - and that evidence has also been assessed by peer review using the scientific method; and (2) the accumulated assumptions of the scientific community that can be applied to the evidence. A "crazy date" remark may be considered a challenge, more than anything else, for someone to provide more to back up the proposed theory with evidence and arguments solidly based in evidence and accumulated assumptions (knowledge that has been built through years by careful peer review) that can measure up to the criteria of the field that the proposer's peers have to adhere to as well. That's the crux of it. Nothing would delight us more than to have evidence that stands up to scientific criteria. Scientific criteria are absolutely essential in order for any science to be science. Without such criteria, it's not science. If you argue against the importance of science, then that's another debate.
The best scientists have no lack of imagination. They're not stuck in accepted theories and that's that. It's only about convincing them within the framework of rigorous application of the scientific method. Evidence that does not have what it takes to conclusively qualify will have to have a footnote saying "possible" or "probable" with a long string of references attached for other scientists to scrutinize and make up their own minds on the validity of the evidence. That's how it works in order for it to be science. Anything less is great for imagination and discussion, but is not eligible to be added to the pool of "what we know" (physical evidence) or "what we can conclude based on evidence" (our theories that are always subject to change - if verifiable evidence can be found and/or a new way of interpreting it can be successfully argued) .
More importantly, such footnoted "possible" evidence is also vital to proposing what we should keep in mind or be on the look-out for when doing research from that point forward- something out of the paradigm - like an archaeologist of 50 years ago deciding to dig deeper than a Clovis layer instead of stopping at Clovis because "since Clovis was the first, there's no point to digging deeper". That's the way the best scientists operate. Even if someone's evidence doesn't make the grade conclusively according to the required criteria applied, if there's enough about it that sparks a possibility in a scientist's critical evaluation, s/he will have that in the back of his/her mind. If there's validity to the possibility, history has shown that other evidence will turn up. Some of it may not make the grade either. Some might. And there's something to be said for the preponderance of evidence even if none of it stands up to scientific criteria that indicates something conclusive.
Ok, I've said enough. Just wanted to weigh in on the matter. Thanks for listening...
Keith
[There were two comments after this that I responded to.]
kawkawpa says:
“If you wish to converse with me, define your terms.” (attributed to Voltaire)
Tay, I’ve found that most arguments (of the round and round kind, not the making of cases) are ignited and fueled by imprecise & ineffectual communication - communication between individuals where a word is understood/conceptualized differently enough between them that everything that follows is out of sync with agreement - the basis of the argument was a flawed mutual understanding of what each alone never doubted was mutually understood.
That takes me to a primary point of my comment - one touched on by Charlie Hackett’s comment after yours. You start with the ground rules - science. If we can agree on using the scientific method (a big “if”), we can move on. The scientific method is defined - it has rules. It’s dependent upon a logical sequence of steps, each building on the previous one. If at any point in the step process the rules of the scientific method are not precisely followed, then everything that follows and that depends on that step being accurately done is flawed as far as the whole process is concerned - I mean the accuracy of the final conclusion derived from the whole process, although any following step itself may have scientific merit within its own component part if it was done according to the scientific method.
But let’s get back to that - the scientific method. If you don’t agree to the rules of the scientific method, strictly defined, then you aren’t agreeing to the scientific method. Every step builds to a conclusion in a logical sequence. Each step must be precisely completed according to the agreed-upon rules of the scientific method. Any one that doesn’t flaws the whole. Charlie Hatchett pointed out something (that I didn’t know, btw) that calls the conclusions of the Topper issue into question. My point is, according to the scientific method, there is insufficient agreement among peers (a vital part of the process) that the oldest stones were made by intelligent beings (which covers humans and other species in human evolution). Without that consensus agreement, which is based upon each peer applying his/her own reasoning resources while using the mutually agreed-upon scientific method, then every step that follows - while obviously intriguing, and that as a subset of steps may be without flaw in logic and application of the agreed-to rules - is necessarily logically “false” in regard to the whole argument (the “making a case for” kind, not the round and round sort). (Look up deductive reasoning on Wikipedia.) Classic examples of this happening are many in the history of the world. And in those tests we had in grade school that demonstrate with gusto just how imprecise a kid (or adult) can be in applying the rules for getting from point A to point Z (the very first instruction says: “Read all the instructions carefully before you begin” and the last reads: “Put your name on the paper and turn in without answering any of the previous questions.”)
Nothing less than the accuracy of what we tend to refer to as “knowledge of our universe” is at stake - that is, knowledge accrued through science (there are many ways of “knowing”, “faith” being the first one that comes to mind). One error accepted as accurate and repeated ever after, others building upon it, can skew whole worlds of what we can be said to “know”. We base our mutually acknowledged understanding of reality on accumulated and culturally-transferred knowledge. The empirical and deductive nature that’s the basis of the process must be of utmost importance, the inherent principles followed to the letter. Wanting something to be a certain way is entirely human, however when it’s something to which science is applicable, and applying science to it - and all the ramifications of that… the scientific world-view - is something you value, then it must be done in accordance with the rules of that valued system.
Science isn’t Truth. It’s a sometimes painful, sometimes plodding, often elegant way to build a body of information capable of being gotten by a process by which we can all agree, and by which anyone - if they choose to repeat the process - can arrive at the same results. Done right, it’s always approached with focus and thoroughness… Hard science is closer to the basis of this than soft science. Precision in applying the rules of the scientific method, including practically accounting for all factors influencing the result, ensuring that each step of the way is done accurately, and vetting the whole thing in an accredited publication for your peers to assess its validity, is the key.
“Facts” are not “facts” unless we first agree on the definition. Lets start there…
Thanks for your thought-intensive comment, Tay; and thanks, Charlie, for adding your point to what I was trying to get at. All this stuff I’ve written isn’t a demonstration that I am infallible in following it myself. I likely used incorrect terms for things in this comment, and made other mistakes. I’ve consciously chosen not to refine this piece - it’s not a high priority. I’ve taken short cuts. What gets across has to be enough for me. Oh, and what I’ve written here will even sound pedantic to somebody, I figure. From my perspective, it’s a necessary self-refresher of these principles. I have to continually reinforce them (and other concepts I feel are of value).
I write these things regarding the scientific method because I value clarity in purpose and (to the best of a chosen level of systematic exactitude, time being a big factor) communication. I’m not a scientist, not a logician. I admire those who have the wherewithal to maintain precision of focus over long periods, with no appreciable error as to follow-through on purpose and method. My concentration isn’t what it used to be. Well… it never was, I suppose… I was one of those kids tooling away at that first-read-all-the-directions test till the class bell rang.
Lastly, I’m not looking for an argument - of any kind. No time to follow through. I’ve said what I intended to say. A significant motivation for my saying any of this at all is a fascination for the peopling of the Americas, as it’s often known. Another is my valuing of the usefulness of knowledge of the universe honed through science and logic. The results of other people’s diligence in those methods is a body of knowledge I can rely on. (Because it’s too often not the case that such knowledge was added to the pool with thoroughness, I must also rely on my own critical thinking to verify “knowledge” - that’s just the way the universe is. Scientifically speaking.) If what I’ve written here helps in any way to add to a refinement in scientific thoroughness in relation to Topper, and to others’ critical assessment of the findings from Topper, then I’ll have helped myself as well.
Nuff said. Some might say more than enough… :)
Keith
PACIFIC OCEAN (June 26, 2015) Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Fuel) Airman Sharnella Dasalla, a native of San Diego, and Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Fuel) 3rd Class Stephanie Linville, a native of Livermore, Calif., handle fuel lines on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76). Reagan is underway off the coast of southern California. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Timothy Schumaker/Released)
Red is language, blue is gesture.
The upper arrow represents Western language and gesture, with the upper part, language dominant, and the gesture supporting, emphasising and clarifying the linguistic meaning to convey the same message. Kendon (Gesture: Visual Action as Utterance) seems to espouse the view that gestures is generally, or universally bound up with language, as shown by the red-blue arrow.
The lower two arrows represent my feeling about Japanese gesture and language. In Japanese culture which emphasises the split between real meaning (honne本音) and social pleasantry (tatemae 建前), and has lots of essentially non-linguistic fawning (amae 甘え) and ESP (ishindenshi 以心伝心）, or extolls people to "read the air (or non-verbal cues?)" (KY, kuuki wo yomu, kuuki ga yomenai空気を読め、空気が読めない), it seems to me that the two channels, gesture and language can mean different things (hence two arrows), the non-verbal blue arrow can be the true/real/main channel, and the language can be phatic or supurfluous and ignored (hence the bar).
I used to get the feeling (real or imagined) that Japanese verbal and non-verbal communication was tearing me in two like Bateson's schizo producing "double bind," because while I was attempting to attend to the verbal message. It felt like the sender was sending, and other recievers were reading, correctly, the sender's non-verbal communication that meant something else entirely.
I feel that Britons do the same thing, when they are being sarcastic. On the other hand Americans especially tend to tell it to you straight, "watch my lips", with the two channels bound together.
It could be argued however, that Japanese real meaning (honne 本音) is transmitted equally in the verbal linguistic domain, and it was just that I was not able to decode these linguistic meanings correctly. Such as when someone says "thats good" (ii desu いいです） or "I'll think about it" (kangaemasu 考えます） then even in the absence of non-verbal cues, a Japanese person would decode these statements correctly to mean "no thank you" and "the answer to your request is no" respectively. Thus Japanese verbal communication may be at one with Japanese non-verbal communication, but that one should interpret certain verbal statements in a non-literal way.
In a series of papers (e.g. this interesting study) by Sotaro Kita, a professor at Birmingham University compared for instance, Japanese, Turkish and English speakers use of gesture to describe a cartoon showing someone on a swing. Dr. Kita points out that there is no verb "to swing" in Japanese or Turkish. He further found that English speakers moved their hands in an arc when saying "swing" but that Japanese and Turks, when using more general movement verbs meaning "go", moved their hands in a linear movement. Hence the lack of a verb "to swing" (to move in an arc) results in a lack of a arc motion, swinging gestures. If it really were the case that Japanese gestures were independent of speech then one would expect them to move their hand in a swinging arc even though they do not have the verb to express that motion. Since this is not the case, it seems to suggest that Japanese gesture is closely integrated with Japanese speech rather than being an fully independent channel. While some information (notably the direction of swing) was gestured but not spoken, suggesting that gesture is to some extent independent of speech, this tendency to encode extra-verbal data in gesture was the same for all languages in the study.Hence, the diagram above seems to be demostrably wrong.
But I still get the feeling that Western gesture is more integrated with speech, and that language and gesture form a single/merged channel to a greater extent than in the Japanese situation.
Stop press. I have just read the final line of the Sotaro Kita paper linked above, which ends "There are initial findings that speech gesture synchrony differs accorss different languages"
referencing in particular research by Dr. Kita's colleague, Asli Özyürek:
Özyürek (2001) What Do Speech-Gesture Mismatches Reveal
about Speech and Gesture Integration? A Comparison of English
and Turkish. I am guessing that Dr. Özyürek found greater integration in English than Turkish and that this patter would also be found between English and Japanese.
Shot @ Central Jail - Chennai on 19th Chennai Photowalk
This grilled hole is in the main gate of the central prison.
Had to have a quiet chuckle to myself here,as a grown up was explaining to a young child what these things were.
Adazi Training Area, LATVIA – An Estonian Soldier conducts a radio check with a Soldier from the United Kingdom during the ongoing simulation battle between multinational forces during a situational training exercise deliberate defense lane here, June 12, 2014. Saber Strike 2014 is a joint, multi-national military exercise scheduled for June 9- 20. The exercise spans multiple locations in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and involves approximately 4,700 personnel from 10 countries. The exercise is designed to promote regional stability, strengthen international military partnerships, enhance multinational interoperability and prepare participants for worldwide contingency operations. (U.S. Army Europe photo by Spc. Joshua Leonard)
Graph presenting some primary functions of communication (top half) and some support functions of communication (bottom half). This graph was shown as part of a presentation (www.slideshare.net/CPWF/vbdc-communication) given during a communication workshop for the Volta Basin Development Challenge of the Challenge Program for Water and Food (photo credit: ILRI).
Photograph by: Ryan Nyenhuis
Sunday June 15th 2008, Fathers Day. Ryan and I woke with a plan. The plan being to sneak into the abandon R.L. Hearn Thermal Generation Power Plant which is located in the south east area of downtown Toronto. We wanted to photograph the beauty of decay.
We had made a trip over to the power plant a week prior to scout out the area, to see where guards were located and to find easy access inside.
Sneaking past the guard house located at the front of the property and making our way along the north west section of property towards the back of the plant where the barbed wire fence was weakest.
We then smoked three quarters of a joint together before working up the nerve to hop the fence. Ryan went first, watching him hop the fence and dart out into the yard and hiding behind scrap metal for cover then finally making it to the back of the building. Then it was my turn. What excitement that was, knowing your breaking the law to do something adventurous.
After getting onto the property we were standing at the back of the Hearn and looking for our way inside. To do so we had to hop up onto a metal fence post and from there had to reach up and grab a hold of plywood that covered up the tall entrance area. A good 15 foot climb up, over and in.
Once inside the first photo that was taken was the one of Ryan and I standing together, titled "final hours".
This place was like no other we had ever explored together. The shear size of it all was breathtaking and mind blowing at the same time. The beauty of destruction.
After the first photo was taken we started exploring the plant. Taking the necessary precautions we had come prepared with asbestos masks and flashlights.
We had made our way around on the ground floor, through locker rooms, showers, storage rooms. Then we started making our way up stairs to the 2nd and 3rd level offices, had the remainder of our joint together.
From the office levels we went back onto the factory area and started climbing the metal stairs up further still. Some photos show how high up we were in that building.
We then made ourselves up onto the roof. What a view from there looking out over the city core. Looking out over Lake Ontario we saw really dark storm clouds. Ryan pulled out a cigarette and had a smoke.
We were up on the roof for about a half hour before Ryan asked me "what do you want to do now man?". "Do you want to go home now or stay a bit longer and explore?". My camera battery had died at this point and being there any longer served no purpose for me. I was hesitant on a response because at the same time I wanted to keep exploring because the plan was to keep coming back weekend after weekend to explore and document the old structure.
I then agreed to keep exploring. We came in off the roof, coming down a level, walked through a doorway into a long looking dark room. All across the top level of The Hearn runs conveyor belts that run coal from one end to the other. Walking together along the metal grating flooring. Ryan was 2 feet in front of me.
I then ended up tripping over a small extruded piece of metal on the floor, and from that second on I pointed my flashlight directly onto the floor to see where I was walking.
Very shortly after this happens, in mid sentence Ryan just falls into blackness. All I see is from his waist up as he plunges into complete blackness and followed by about 4-5 seconds before hearing a sick crash far below.
I then look 2 feet in front of me and see there is no more floor. My imediant thought is that he is dead. Then my brain clicks "I have to get my best friend out of here".
I then tried my best to back track to get out of the building, taking a route that he and I had not taken to get to this point. All I knew is I had to get out of The Hearn and find someone that could help.
I don't even know how I got out of that place. When I did I came out on the back side of the building, ran around to the guard house screaming for help.
I screamed to the guard that my best friend just fell in there and is hurt really bad, he asked what we were doing in there and I told him we were just taking photos.
The guard then called like every paramedic, fire and police officer in the city. About 10 minutes after the call was made all I could hear were the sirens. Scared and relived at the same time I was.
Once they all showed up I told them Ryan was in there, that we were up high in the building and he fell. All the cops were telling me to retrace my steps, they wanted to see where we came in from. I screamed at them "we don't have time for that right now, my best friend is dying in there". I then started leading them to the front of the Hearn because I knew it was the closet way inside. We get to the front and all entrances were boarded up. One cops said to me "Ian there is no way in through this way, you have to show us where you came in from". I then demanded to the fire fighters that they bust this plywood down to get inside.
Once inside the cops started fucking with my mind, me being in total shock at the time they started asking me where we had explored, they wanted me to take them on what would have been a few hours of exploration, which we didn't have time for.
Then an officer finds his asbestos mask and glasses. My first thought is he was okay, that he somehow managed to crawl out under his own power. I was wrong. His mask and glasses had bounced off of objects on the fall and Ryan was nowhere to be found.
The police tried getting a hold of Rogers Communication to see if they could pin point his location with the cell phone he had on him. They ended up using thermal vision to locate him. He was trapped in a coal hopper located high up in the building.
I was escorted out at this point in time because I was too "hysterical" for the cops liking.
Two and a half hours went by, a fierce thunderstorm was passing through.
While they were working on getting Ryan out I was giving my statement to the police. Never gave one of those in my life. I told them everything that I am writing here right now, everything, even the joint smoking. I had Nothing to hide.
We went in undetected but I didn't care if the whole world was watching at this point, I was doing what any best friend would do. I was trying to save him. City Pulse News was there and I was trying to hide from them. I was scared that this is how his family would find out and how my family would find out, being Fathers days and all.
After two and a half hours of hell they finally got Ryan out. I watched them carry him out on a backboard and I yelled to him that I loved him.
Ryan was rushed to St. Micheal's Hospital, the best in all the city for trauma.
I followed about an hour after him, being escorted in a police car. On the drive one officer said to me "this is going to cost you and your buddy about a hundred thousand dollars for all that had to be done here today". What a jackass thing to say. I responded by saying "I don't give a fuck about money, take all I have from me I don't care, I'm loosing the most important person in my life right now".
We get to the hospital, I enter the trauma wing of St. Micheal's. They told me that I was going to be the one to call the home of the Nyenhuis'. I thought that was insane, and told them I could not make that call, that they would have to.
I then went into the waiting room, sat down. I remember the NBA finals were on the televisions in there and I ended up falling asleep somehow.
Waking to Stevie and Tammy's faces hours later (Stevie being Ryan's room mate and Tammy being Ryan's girlfriend).
Stevie told me that John and Cheryl were on their way and that we could go up stairs to the trauma ward to see Ryan.
The trauma centre, located on the 9th floor of St. Micheal's Hospital.
Hours passed by, as the night went on the news kept getting worse and worse about his condition.
I ended up leaving to come back to my apartment at 6am the following morning, I had to talk to my parents and try and shovel some food into my system. Still being in shock and never got treatment for shock when it happened.
I returned to the hospital at 3pm that day. Only to find nothing had changed with his condition.
Then came the worst words I ever had to hear, Ryan's father coming in the room and telling me it was time to say goodbye to Ryan.
We made our way into where he was being cared for. To see my best friend in the state he was in broke my heart. Blood coming out the back of his head, body black and blue bruised from head to toe, internal damage that could not be repaired, feeling his forehead and it being ice cold. He was laying there in front of us, dead. Machines were the only thing keeping him "alive".
I said my goodbyes to him, telling him that he can't leave me here, he can't leave the creation of Studies In Comfort behind, something that is so brilliant, that we were supposed to take over the world together and do all that was planned. I told him to haunt me.
I then looked at his eyes and saw tears. He may have been brain dead but I know he heard every word I said. Doctors did not give an explanation to what was coming out of his eyes.
If only I had said to Ryan "hey man watch your step" he might still be alive today. I have been told over and over again that I can not blame myself for what happened that day. I sometimes still do.
Ryan and I once had a conversation that if something ever happened to one of us that Studies In Comfort would stop, without a core creator there is no sense to continue it. Well I am going against those wishes. I can't lose what he and I created even before it took off the ground.
I now know my purpose in life. To carry on Studies In Comfort. I must continue on for him, finish off the 3 studio albums we had in the works and continue on with this art form.
Ryan died at the wheel and I have moved his lifeless body to the passengers seat and now a fucking insane madman is driving.
Ryan Nyenhuis, whos favourite artist was Nine Inch Nails, who lived on floor number 9, who wore a roman numeral 9 on his right arm, who died on the 9th floor at St. Micheal's Hospital, Toronto.
Thank you to 55 Division and all the paramedics and fire fighters who helped get Ryan out of that terrible dark place.
Ryan Nyenhuis is survived by his father, John, mother Cheryl, sisters, Jennifer and Leah, their beautiful children, myself and Studies In Comfort.
Ryan John Nyenhuis
July 28th 1981 - June 15th 2008
We love and miss you.
___________________________
All photographs were taken by Ryan Nyenhuis & Ian Levack with a Casio EX-Z1050 camera.
1919 Sixty-fourth Annual Communication of the Grand Lodge of Canada in the Province of Ontario, Canada. Framed B&W photo.
May 2017 A new Toronto Concert Hall 888 Yonge St. Toronto. Ontario.
Its current owner is: www.infotech.com/about
To book: 888yonge.com
History:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masonic_Temple_(Toronto).
Construction began November 2, 1916 when the contract was signed and approved by the Board of The Masonic Temple Company for the tearing down of an existing church and excavation. The Masonic ceremony of laying the cornerstone occurring November 17, 1917 and the first Lodge meeting taking place on New Year's Day, 1918.[2] At its peak, the Masonic Temple was home to 38 different Masonic bodies: 27 Craft Lodges, six Chapters (York Rite), two Preceptories (Knights Templar), two Scottish Rite Bodies and Adoniram Council.[2]
The hall functioned as a ballroom in the 1930s and began to host rock acts in the late 1960s.[3]
In the years before its sale to CTV, the building housed live music clubs known as The Concert Hall, and earlier, in the late 1960s, The Rock Pile, a sitting-on-the-floor style concert venue that featured not only showcases for top local talent but also appearances by major international recording stars, including Toronto's first Led Zeppelin concert on February 2, 1969, during the band's inaugural North American Tour.
Although the location remained historically significant and was added to the City of Toronto Heritage Property Inventory in 1974, the building has changed hands a number of times. In 1997, it was threatened with demolition: a developer had planned a new highrise residential building marketed to Asians, solely to exploit its "lucky" address of 888 Yonge Street, [4] It was designated under the Ontario Heritage Act in the same year.[4]
Also in the 1990s, the studio was the home of Open Mike with Mike Bullard, and was one of CTV Toronto's news bureaus. Also, notably, it has been rented as a rehearsal space by the Rolling Stones. From March 2006, the building became the broadcast home of the new MTV Canada and has hosted the Polaris Music Prize since 2009.
The building's fate was once again placed under a cloud on November 2, 2012, when Bell Media announced the moving of MTV Canada studio production to 299 Queen Street West and that the building would be sold, possibly for condominiums.[4] Bell Media officially listed the property for sale on March 4, 2013.[5] On June 17, 2013, the building was purchased by the Info-Tech Research Group for $12.5 million.[6][1] Info-Tech announced that its plans for the building include staging an annual charity rock concert in the auditorium.[7]
In 2017, it was announced that the concert hall was to permanently reopen as a public year-round music venue beginning in June for the Toronto Jazz Festival.[3][6]
List of live shows:
Date Operating Name Act Notes
1968-09-20 The Rock Pile Blood, Sweat & Tears
1968-09-21 The Rock Pile Blood, Sweat & Tears Transfusion opened.
1968-10-05 The Rock Pile Procol Harum [8]
1968-10-27 The Rock Pile The Jeff Beck Group. Rod Stewart sang. I was there. The crowd was rude! **
1968-11-09 The Rock Pile Iron Butterfly
1969-02-02 The Rock Pile Led Zeppelin [9]
1969-02-23 The Rock Pile Frank Zappa [10]
1969-03-02 The Rock Pile John Mayall
1969-03-08 The Rock Pile Savoy Brown Blues Band
1969-03-16 The Rock Pile Chuck Berry
1969-03-23 The Rock Pile Spirit
1969-03-29 The Rock Pile Jethro Tull
1969-04-05 The Rock Pile John Lee Hooker
1969-04-12 The Rock Pile The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
1969-04-19 The Rock Pile Family
1969-04-26 The Rock Pile Paul Butterfield
1969-05-04 The Rock Pile Sweetwater
1969-05-11 The Rock Pile Deep Purple
1969-05-17 The Rock Pile Kensington Market
1969-05-19 The Rock Pile The Who [11] Concert Poster
1969-05-24 The Rock Pile Frank Zappa
1969-07-08 The Rock Pile Grateful Dead [12]
1969-07-12 The Rock Pile McKenna Mendelson Mainline
1969-08-18 The Rock Pile Led Zeppelin [13]
1969-09-24 The Rock Pile The Mothers of Invention [14]
1969-12-31 Masonic Temple Auditorium Alice Cooper Teegarden & Van Winkle Keith McVie, Moonshine and more...
1979-11-15 The Concert Hall City Boy [15]
1980-08-21 The Concert Hall Magazine
1980-10-17 The Concert Hall Split Enz
1980-10-18 The Concert Hall Split Enz
1980-11-18 The Concert Hall Siouxsie & The Banshees [16]
1981-03-?? The Concert Hall Blue Peteras part of the "March Hop Jump"
1981-03-12 The Concert Hall Iggy Pop
1981-05-10 The Concert Hall Plasmatics [17]
1981-06-10 The Concert Hall Goddo [18]
1981-06-19 The Concert Hall Iron Maiden [19] Reckless opened, first Canadian Iron Maiden show
1981-06-21 The Concert Hall Iron Maiden
1981-07-24 The Concert Hall Kraftwerk [20]
1981-08-30 The Concert Hall The Cure [21] First show in Toronto
1981-10-23 The Concert Hall King Crimson 2 shows
1982-??-?? The Concert Hall Public Image Ltd.
1982-07-06 The Concert Hall Duran Duran
1982-10-28 The Concert Hall Iggy Pop with The Untouchables
1982-10-29 The Concert Hall Spoons Show simulcast on CITY-TV and CHUM-FM; later released on DVD
1982-12-17 The Concert Hall SpoonsSanta Geets Xmas Party presented by CFNY-FM
1983-01-?? The Concert Hall Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
1983-??-?? The Concert Hall Nina Hagen
1984-06-13 The Concert Hall MarillionThe Box opened
1984-07-13 The Concert Hall R.E.M.
1984-11-12 The Concert Hall The Cure
1984-12-21 The Concert Hall The Parachute Club
1985-01-19 The Concert Hall Metallica [22]
1985-03-10 The Concert Hall Run–D.M.C.
1985-03-31 The Concert Hall Venom/Slayer/Razor
1985-05-05 The Concert Hall Cabaret Voltaire
1987-??-?? The Concert Hall Boogie Down Productions with special guest Biz Markie
1987-05-31 The Concert Hall Skinny Puppy
1988-04-21 The Concert Hall Love and Rockets The Mighty Lemon Drops & The Bubblemen opened
1988-05-08 The Concert Hall Midnight Oil
1988-11-06 The Concert Hall Skinny Puppy
1990-01-12 The Concert Hall Voivod [23] Faith No More and Soundgarden opened
1990-03-30 The Concert Hall The Tragically Hip
1990-11-25 The Concert Hall Jane's Addiction The Buck Pets opened
1990-11-27 The Concert Hall The Pixies [24] Pere Ubu opened
1991-02-24 The Concert Hall The Charlatans venue moved from the Opera House
1991-04-14 The Concert Hall Happy Mondays Stereo MCs opened
1991-07-05 The Concert Hall The Tragically Hip
1991-07-09 The Concert Hall EMF
1991-09-29 The Concert Hall Jesus Jones
1991-10-29 The Concert Hall The Smashing Pumpkins [25]
1991-10-30 The Concert Hall The Smashing Pumpkins [26]
1991-11-23 The Concert Hall Billy Bragg Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy opened
1991-11-30 The Concert Hall The Pixies
1991-12-03 The Concert Hall Tin Machine [26] (David Bowie) It's My Life Tour
1992-03-30 The Concert Hall The Beautiful South The Waltons opened
1992-04-28 The Concert Hall The Charlatans Catherine Wheel opened
1992-05-04 The Concert Hall Soundgarden
1992-05-15 The Concert Hall Sugarcubes [27]
1992-05-15 The Concert Hall Beastie Boys [28]
1992-11-29 The Concert Hall Alice In Chains
1992-12-21 The Concert Hall Body Count
1993-01-25 The Concert Hall Ned's Atomic Dustbin
1993-01-29 The Concert Hall Slik Toxik
1993-02-19 The Concert Hall Inspiral Carpets
1993-03-06 The Concert Hall PanteraSacred Reich opened.
1993-03-31 The Concert Hall Rage Against the Machine
1993-04-13 The Concert Hall Midnight Oil
1993-04-27 The Concert Hall Phish
1993-05-17 The Concert Hall Danzig Nudeswirl and Proper Grounds opened.
1993-06-15 The Concert Hall The Flaming Lips Porno for Pyros opened.
1993-10-06 The Concert Hall Bad Religion Green Day and Doughboys opened.
1993-10-18 The Concert Hall Stone Temple Pilots The Mighty Mighty Bosstones opened.
1993-10-24 The Concert Hall Primus Melvins opened.
1993-10-28 The Concert Hall Rage Against the Machine Quicksand opened.
1993-11-21 The Concert Hall The Lemonheads Redd Kross opened.
1993-12-06 The Concert Hall Green Day
1994-02-23 The Concert Hall Tool Failure opened.
1994-04-06 The Concert Hall Phish [29]
1994-05-16 The Concert Hall Rollins Band
1994-11-18 The Concert Hall Anvil
1996-04-03 The Concert Hall Foo Fighters
1996-04-18 The Concert Hall Rusty
1996-04-27 The Concert Hall Bob Dylan [30]
1996-04-28 The Concert Hall Bob Dylan [31] Aimee Mann opened.
1996-05-11 The Concert Hall Dave Matthews Band [32]
1996-05-31 The Concert Hall The Band High on the Hog tour. The Mahones opened.
1996-06-14 The Concert Hall Cocteau Twins
1996-07-06 The Concert Hall Finn Brothers
1996-08-18 The Concert Hall Steve Earle [33]
1996-09-20 The Concert Hall Sloan
1996-10-27 The Concert Hall Billy Bragg Robyn Hitchcock and Deni Bonet opened
1996-11-22 The Concert Hall James Brown
1997-04-18 The Concert Hall Rusty
1997-06-09 The Concert Hall The Tragically Hip [34]
1997-10-01 The Concert Hall Paul Weller
1998-06-27 The Concert Hall Cibo Matto
2016-05-06 Info-Tech Research Group Luke & The Apostles
2016-06-02 Info-Tech Research Group Platinum Blonde
2016-09-09 888 Yonge Karl Wolf GLB V after party.
This is where it all starts. The Cell phone store.
No place like a large city to see just how many people have cell phones.
Kids at school have cells, people at work have cells, every one driving a car has a cell phone.
Who doesn’t have a cell phone??
So this is the way we communicate with each other. And judging by the amount of people I see using them there must be a lot of really important communication going on.
Leadership training Buffalo NY. This was a training that I facilitated with Leadership Buffalo. Focus on creative thinking, and customer service in leadership
RCA engineer, Joel Bacher, adjusts a propulsion thruster on a communication satellite. The thrusters were designed to enable the spacecraft to maintain correct attitude control after it had achieved a 22,000-mile synchronous orbit over Earth. The satellite shown is an RCA Satcom domestic communication satellite that was launched December 13, 1975. The satellite was built by RCA Global Communication, Inc. and RCA Alaska Communications, Inc. This domestic communication satellite spurred the cable television industry to unprecedented heights with the assistance of a company known as Home Box Office (HBO). Cable television networks relayed signals to ground-based stations using satellites. This allowed cable television to enter into the suburban and metropolitan markets, thus allowing HBO to accumulate 1.6 million subscribers by the end of 1977.
Credit: NASA
Image Number: 75-H-1104
Date: December 10, 1975
Barichara is considered to be the best example of a colonial village (at least according to one of the colombianas I met along the way…and Lonely Planet seems to speak very highly of the town as well.)
It’s a town in east-central Colombia, in the department of Santander, whose capital is Bucaramanga. To get there from where I’m living at the moment is about a 9 hour bus ride…even though it’s barely 300 km away. (Hello, winding mountain roads, and thank you for reintroducing me to nausea.) The ride over the mountain range is rather spectacular, but literally, with curves on average of every 15-30 seconds and few stops…it’s literally quite dizzying after a few hours. Also, since we didn’t make any stops along the way, there’s not a single picture in this set to represent the actual road trip.
My roommate and I struck out from Cúcuta around 3:00 on a Friday afternoon and spent one night in Bucaramanga, getting to the hotel there around 9:00 in the evening. Since I was nauseous, I didn’t make it out in Buca, unfortunately, though my roommate met one of his friends and they had a good time drinking and catching up.
Saturday morning, we left around 10:30 and had another bus ride – much shorter at about 2-3 hours and it wasn’t completely mountain road like the drive from Friday. That took us to the town of San Gil, about 100 km west of Bucaramanga.
San Gil is a good destination in its own right. It’s supposedly the adventure capital of Colombia (wholesome adventure, that is…or safe adventure). It’s the area to come if you’re interested in rafting, paragliding, etc. The town is pretty small and there’s some nice colonial architecture. We had lunch here since it looked to be an interesting enough place to spend an hour or two, then paid a taxi driver 37,000 pesos (about $12) to take us the 20 km from San Gil to Barichara. By that point, we’d had enough buses.
Finally, around 24 hours after we’d left Cúcuta, we arrived in the center of colonial Barichara. Our driver dropped us off at the northeast corner of the main square. Our guesthouse (and a rather comfortable guesthouse at that) was only a block away, half a block south from the southeast corner of the square. It was called Color de Hormiga and was at once comfortable, convenient, affordable ($30/night) and very hospitable. There’s no breakfast included in the stay – there’s no restaurant on site – but, they do provide coffee (for those who like it, which seems to be everyone in the world besides me) and the courtyard is very quiet and charming.
Saturday night’s sunset provided a very photogenic sky, though I was too tired (and, really, not thinking quickly enough) to ask about where to go to see it upon arriving after having traveled for that much time to get there. So, I saw the remains of the day from the main square and wondered what might have been.
We spent the better part of the evening just east of the northeast corner of the square; there were a few – at least three – decent bars in a row there and they were relaxing places to hang out. We had a few drinks, then wandered north of the square (uphill) for a few blocks towards one of the at least 4 chapels in this small town before cutting over a block and back down to the main cathedral on the square…before heading straight back to the bar – this time for a bite to eat. I wasn’t hungry, though, so just sat and enjoyed the music.
Sunday was the only full day we’d have here. I woke up early enough to catch the town before there were too many people wandering around. Barichara is really less than 10 blocks by 10 blocks (give or take) and it’s set on a ridge overlooking a gorgeous valley to the west.
Wandering alone in the morning, I started at the main square, including a few shots inside the main cathedral there before heading due west and slightly uphill towards the ridgeline. En route to the ridgeline, I passed another chapel (which I didn’t enter) that was attached to a cemetery (which I did enter). It was a nice cemetery with an unusually high number of fake floral arrangements. That struck me as a little odd considering Colombia is one of the highest exporters of flowers in the world. At any rate, it was a nice few minutes to reflect, especially since my mother (who also happens to be about the only one who would regularly look at any of this writing/posting that you’re reading) passed away only a few days before.
From the cemetery, I walked west the last black to Calle 1 (Calle del mirador) which is the one that crests the ridgeline overlooking the Cañón del Río Suárez (Saravita). When I got here, I realized this would’ve been a fabulous place to have seen the sunset the previous night – though I’m also certain it would have been VERY crowded, too.
At 9:00 in the morning, with the sun at my back, I just found myself overlooking a somewhat hazy valley…though not hazy enough to completely obscure the view. Walking along Viewpoint Road, I stopped at both pavilions and also at the Simón Bolivar statue which is at the head of El camino real (Royal Road) which connects Barichara to the much smaller colonial town of Guane about 5-6 km mostly downhill.
For the moment, I bypassed the trail and continued along Calle 1 to Santa Barbara Chapel and its attached art park (which left a lot to be desired). From there, it was a 6 block walk straight downhill to the guesthouse, with a stop next to the square for what I would consider an adequate (at best) breakfast.
After resting a few minutes at the guesthouse, my roommate showed up and we decided to walk to Guane via El camino real. (The heat wasn’t oppressive in the least and, since it was downhill…no big deal. Though my roommate is in much better shape than I, we still deliberated about whether or not to do this and, in the end, decided to go simply because there wasn’t much to see or do in Barichara.)
We left Color de Hormiga and made our way back to Calle 1 via San Antonio Chapel which was 2 blocks down the street and one block west on Carrera 4/Calle 5. It was the least imposing of the chapels, though still pleasant. (Like the Jesus Chapel next to the cemetery, we didn’t enter; I only entered the Church of the Immaculate Conception on the main square and the Santa Barbara Chapel at the top of the hill.)
Passing by, we just enjoyed walking the streets and eventually made our way to the trailhead next to our man Bolivar. The walk down to Guane, according to everything I read, was about “an hour walk.” It’s advertised as just under 5K, though one of the locals said it’s a little over 6. In my opinion, that’s a good walking/running pace…if you happen to be on flat ground or even pavement. This trail, however, was mostly rocks/boulders which would slow down most normal folks. The views of the valley were quite good, and we caught occasional glimpses of random lizards and birds (South American cardinals twice). We also stopped at Señor Esteban’s house on the way down for a few sodas and some fresh papaya. We hung out there for close to an hour, it seemed.
By that point, I was more interested in seeing the sunset and, as the day was getting long in the tooth, I talked my roomie into grabbing a taxi, bus, anything up the hill back to town. One of the other hikers at Esteban’s told us nothing really came by and it was easier to walk the last 40 minutes down to Guane (which was still about 3 km away) and just catch a bus there. Those 40 minutes turned out to be more than an hour.
As an aside, I’d like to mention the culinary delicacy of Barichara. They are quite proud of their hormigas culonas. (This literally translates to “fat-bottomed ants,” and yes…they eat them.) They’re considered to be an aphrodisiac. I mention this now because my roommate and I kept joking that we were stepping on someone’s dinner once in a while on the path.
When we arrived in Guane, we probably stayed less than 15 minutes. We walked to their main square, snapped a quick picture of the cathedral there, and then set to finding someone to negotiate a ride with to head back up to Barichara. We paid a guy (who seemed happier than a pig in slop) 25,000 to drive us the 9 km up the road to Barichara where he dropped us at Calle 1 and we watched what was a much cloudier and less-than-spectacular (compared with Saturday’s) sunset.
As I suspected, even with a “subpar” sunset, there were quite a few people at the pavilion. We didn’t stay until the end and just walked back down to our room for quick showers then dinner next to the main cathedral (underwhelming Italian) and a drink at the bar two doors down from where we’d been on Saturday night. (Of the three, this is the only one that was exclusively a bar; the others had limited menus.)
Monday morning brought an early start since we were doing the return trip all in one stretch. We were in a taxi by 7:30 and eventually got out at our apartment around 6:00 in the evening. For a first photo shoot in Colombia, I was pretty happy with how this turned out, though am looking forward to the next one in Cartagena in about 3 weeks.
The telephone switching station from the G.O. Miller Telephone Company on display at The Goodhue Area History Museum www.goodhueareahistory.org/