Everyone has had a week to swallow the huge talent we’ve lost, and there has been many e-tributes dedicated to Mr. Ledger. Most notably are two that I’ve seen tonight. Daniel Day Lewis’ speech at the SAG awards, and this article from newsweek, written by Chris Nolan. I won’t ruin it, please read.

“Heath was bursting with creativity. It was in his every gesture. He once told me that he liked to wait between jobs until he was creatively hungry. Until he needed it again. He brought that attitude to our set every day. There aren’t many actors who can make you feel ashamed of how often you complain about doing the best job in the world. Heath was one of them.”

The rest at Newsweek

This is great news. Not only has this been a very long wait, but Joomla 1.5 takes the standard of the web 2.0 platform to a new high.

http://joomla.org/

“It is with great pride that the Joomla! community announces to the world the immediate availability of Joomla! 1.5 Stable [Khepri]. As a community of contributors, we have been through celebrations and tribulations. We have had fun, and we have worked hard. We have learned from and helped one another. What started two and a half years ago with a letter to the community has grown into a great opportunity for both the Joomla! project and community to benefit from these efforts and to consider our future.”

For those of you that don’t know. Joomla is a CMS (Content Management System) which is essentially a complete website out of the box. It not only allows you to publish a website with all the essential gear of business, but it allows you to follow the ‘blog’ mantra of being able to publish content or modify it from anywhere with an internet connection. No more FTP, no more designing individual HTML files and then having to wait to upload. With an extensive backend administration panel, easy customization and compatibility with thousands of modules, this is all you need.

This release is very personal for me. I’ve been anticipating the release of Joomla 1.5 for almost a year now, ever since I first tested the Beta builds. When we were thinking of switching Spotlight’s website from it’s archaic php/html hybrid design, we were looking at CMS systems that were out there. Drupal, Mambo, Joomla. I proposed the CMS platform and tested out Joomla to see if everyone would agree. Most of us did. 2 months of installation and testing followed with the previous version to bring our site to what it is today. We love it, it’s great, almost perfect. However, I was still anticipating 1.5, To the point where I was checking the joomla site daily for updates. Now here it is.

I won’t spoil it with my jabber, please visit joomla for the full info.

Wait till you see what I’ve got in store.

I miss food photography.

The last few months have been spent primarily shooting events and city life. With the winter in full effect now, I’d love to be able to get back to my roots. Photos of food. Whether it’s the stuff that comes out of my home kitchen, or the contract gigs at restaurants.

I started taking photos when I was very young, film of course. I started archiving digital photos about 10 years ago. Progressively with each year, the hobby got more and more serious. Now I find myself shooting full on weddings in the Caribbean. Never a dull moment, I love it. Over time, my collection of digital images has bubbled. About 63,000 images and increasing on a daily basis. This can be a nightmare for anyone to manage, but luckily I was quite organized from the get go.

My Basic Archiving Method;

Photos pertaining to a specific event or product are properly labelled using keywords and categories, dates and sometimes camera model (eg. Food – Steak Tacos – Olympus 5060 - November 2007)

The folders are stored by year, or in a separate folder altogether if they pertain to a very specific type of photography (eg, all food folders are under Food, all weddings are under Weddings).

Slideshow?

My usual workflow for collecting images, would have been to sort through these folders to find the proper image that fits what I am looking for. This has worked efficiently in the past. However, I don’t feel that I’m doing justice to the images. I’m sure I’m overlooking many images that have great post editing potential.

I decided that for myself – the proper medium to view the images would be in a classic slideshow format. In a sense, I wanted to take all the photos I have ever taken, and toss them out on the floor as if they were real prints. Then sort through them one by one, reflecting on the last 10 years as well as letting my eyes focus on each image as it stands by itself rather than in a collage of thumbnails.

But how to do this? Well I guess I could do a search for all jpg files and then just copy them all into one folder. All of them. One massive selection, and then just drag that sucker.

Well, that didn’t work. The army of cameras I had used over the last decade and given to duplicate file names, and we all know that no two file names can be alike in a single folder. CRAP!.

I took my dilemma online, thinking surely someone else had come across this problem before. What to do? I just want to slideshow each photo. It seems the answer was simpler than I thought. Everyone suggested to use Adobe Lightroom.

Adobe Lightroom has an import catalog feature which allows the program to scan through a hierarchy of folders and collect all photos. Then it’s displayed for your viewing pleasure.

I started the process last night, and it took several hours for Lightroom to catalog all the shots. Then a few hours to apply any relevant Metadata and properties. I haven’t perfected the method yet, because it did skip some files, but I’m getting there.

Hopefully in a day or two, I can sit on the laptop browsing through the pictures with much reflection and creative thought. Pretty exciting stuff. I wonder how long it will take to go through 63,000 photos?

As much as I hate the winter, I realize that it’s just a countdown to Spring. But it’s days like today, that really get to me. Absolutely no sunshine. It’s not just today, the last few weeks, there has barely been any sunshine in the city. It’s depressing. You remember the little things that summer represented, and miss dearly.

Can’t ever get used to this, not even after 18 years in the city.

Here’s the thing. In 2007, I spent a total of 2 weeks in Mexico. Once in the Mayan Riviera, once in Los Cabos. Albeit the cuisine was mostly the same (with the exception of the abundance of Fish in Cabos) I didn’t enjoy it as much (this may have been due to the fact that the resort food was a complete turnoff). I was craving authentic Mexican and was only satisfied once outside a club in Cabo San Lucas. Where are all the good taco stands? Is it that hard to get a quick fix of meat and tortilla?

I’m still craving Mexican. One option is to make the stuff at home, and I’ve got a few different variations so far. The other is to head over to Johny Banana on Bathurst (a door north of Queen street). This restaurant has received a lot of attention in the press lately for the makeover and menu alterations. Essentially it is one of the few places in Toronto where you can get authentic Mexican food that actually tastes good. They also serve great tex mex (burritos).

As I sit, I’m craving the Pork’n’Roll Tacos. A trio of pork tacos mixed with diced pineapples. Spicy and fantastic. I want one right now.

Johny Banana
181 Bathurst Street, Toronto
416.304.0101

It’s easy to spot a portable music player in public as you walk through the city. Every third person has a pair of earphones stuck in, blasting their own background music to city life. Some do it to tune out the sounds of the city, to get focused, or just because they’re addicted to their downloads.

For much of the past month or so, I’ve been wandering the streets of Toronto to the tune of Radiohead’s In Rainbows. It’s hard to describe in words the kind of musical experience this album puts a person through. From prominent guitar riffs to schizophrenic vocals.

This has been one of the best albums in a very long time, for me.

Today I found that Radiohead had released a one hour video featuring live performances of all tracks from the new cd. What a New Years treat. Enjoy.

The more people I talk to, the more I realize that people don’t know a heck of a lot about Los Cabos. Besides what you can find on wikipedia or tripadvisor, here are some first hand experiences from spending time there during the holidays.

Remember that Los Cabos, is actually 2 separate cities, when you book. There is Cabo San Lucas, and there is San Jose Del Cabo. This is very important as most travel agents will either not know this or forget to tell you. It’s important to know this because most people tend to book because of the party scene.

Cabo San Lucas - warmer beaches, amazing night life, amazing marina area, amazing restaurants, amazing bars, decent stripclubs but don’t bother, stick to the Toronto ones. Everything is in walking distance if you have shoes. Chances are it is about a $10 cab ride from your hotel to downtown, or about a 30-40 minute walk (I’ve done it). The resorts are mostly occupied by Canadian and Amercians in the ages of 20-35…looking to rock out.

San Jose Del Cabo - About as exciting as watching two cockroaches fight. The beaches are colder, very breezy in the morning and evening and the town is very much into local art. There are 2-3 bars, but mostly the place is filled with agents trying to sell you timeshare. The resorts have about as much atmosphere as the waiting room at the local dentist. It is about a $35 cab ride to San Lucas (30minutes) or a $6 bus ride. The resorts are mostly occupied by Canadian and American families.

General info;

- Cabo is very much known for its rock nightlife. There are many happening bars in San Lucas and everyone knows to have a good time. This is good if you like to party, but if you don’t like running into drunk kids around midnight, then maybe you should go to Negril, Jamaica.

- San Jose is extremely quiet. Very quiet. There’s not THAT much to do outside of the resort at night, and that is in comparison to Cabo San Lucas. It will also be expensive for you to trek back and forth if you want a dose of the action.

- Mendano beach is where it’s at in Cabo San Lucas. This is the beach at the very tip near the famous ‘arch’. The beach is filled tanners and partygoers….there is a really good bar called the office, incredibly busy from sunset onwards.

- The steak is extremely good in Cabo, anywhere really. It is almost as good as Kobe when cooked right. Surprisingly, we had the best steak meal at the hardrock cafe…even the burger was sinful. All the premium beef is served at the resorts, so if you are staying at an all inclusive, enjoy it.

- People ask for tip everywhere. Yes the Caribbean is bad, but this place is a bit extreme. Even the doorman to the strip club wants a tip for giving you a flyer on the way out.

- The marina at Cabo San Lucas is a great place to stroll around at night….to take some pictures. Very romantic setting with quite a few patio restaurants and lounges.

- The glass bottom boat ride is great if you want some scenic shots of the arch, the pelican habitat, or even the loud sea lions. You get quite close.

- Don’t go to the adult only resort (desire), it is filled with “fat and gay” men, I quote the tour guides.

- Don’t go whale watching unless you happen to be there in January. We didn’t, but many tried and complained that they didn’t see anything.

-You can’t swim on the beaches there, the undercurrent is deadly strong. The beaches are not the nicest either, sometimes a pain to walk. The view is spectacular in san lucas as you can see the arch and watch the beautiful sunset or take a quick ride to the clothing optional lovers beach where a lot of couples and 3somes get it on….oh yes….natch!

-Avoid the timeshare people like the plague. They are everywhere, trying to bribe you with free tours to this and that.

-Bring a sweater for the evenings, the winds are crazy.

-Stay at the Riu palace in cabo san lucas (not the riu santa fe), save money, afford it. It is truly a palace.

-The best bars to visit are;
barometro
el squid roe (gong show)
zoo
hardrock cafe
giggling marlin (earlier in the nights if you love a tequila show)
cabo wabo

-The best tours;
The taste of cabos - gives you a very nice tour of both cities, highly recommend.
ATV - Looks like a heck of a lot of fun driving on the roads.
Bar hopping - you get to hop around 4 bars, all inc…..and get a nice dose of clublife..
Jungle booze cruise – Only if you want to get smashed and party with mexicans (careful ladies, it is pretty sketch)

There are also plenty..and i mean plenty of fishing tours as Cabo is the Marlin capital of the world.

The Best burrito I have ever had came from the taco burrito stand outside of Squid roe. These guys open the stand at 1am every night, and sell the stuff for $5 a pop.

Pics to come shortly.

It has taken me a few days to able to digest the closing of 2007. Due largely to the fact that I was overseas — in a place where you can truly lose track of time and day – I abstained from thinking about the end of the year, and everything to do with Toronto. Perhaps it was because 2007 was the most emotionally charged and challenging year to date. We all need a break from time to time, well, I needed a break from 2007 and Toronto. The concept of vacation seems to be dwindling in the city’s fast paced corporate society.

The 2008 train is in full speed, time is flying by already, let’s reflect quickly. This post is guaranteed to be all over the place.

On a business note, this year started off on a stump but then grew in leaps and bounds. Spotlight lost a valuable staff member, and as a result the responsibilities piled up on my plate. If you got to do something right, well you got to teach yourself.

On a personal note, this year was mostly tumultuous. The ending of what could have been a lifelong relationship mixed with ostracizing of friends set a base for ups and downs. If there was a resolution to be made, it would be that in 2008 I need to focus more on real life social networking.

On Toronto, this year was interesting to say the least. We as foodies, dished out more money to eat at chic restaurants, but we ate less. Tapas went mainstream and as a result, every new restaurant took the advantage of serving smaller more ‘complex’ dishes at double the prices. People ate it up. I hope this trend doesn’t stick around, because there’s nothing appealing about this. It’s a fad and it must disappear. If it ain’t Spanish, don’t call it tapas.

In the online world, more local blogs launched, with more emphasis on restaurant reviews and food. Then something really sinister happened, maybe a page out of ‘lord of the flies’, we started to not only review (or try to in a lot of cases) restaurants, but we also became critics of other blogs and sites. Maybe we’re all starved for some web traffic, but lets try to focus on some meaningful content in 2008. Let’s not knock the fellow blogger, hack websites, spread rumours or post personal pics online. That’s very un-Toronto.

On Music, Nine Inch Nails (Year Zero), Radiohead (In Rainbows), Velvet Revolver (Libertad) did it for me.

On Food, I discovered that I have a sweet tooth, particularly for imported chocolates.

On Movies, I didn’t see as many. But I do recall Juno, Eastern Promises, American Gangster, Knocked up, Transformers,  No Country for old men, and some other mainstream crap.

On Visual Tirades, I had an incredible year. Shooting weddings, big events, fashion, portrait, food, you name it. Getting to do what I absolutely love, and getting paid for it.

On Spotlight, I think the site speaks for itself. Take a look and see for yourself. We’re kicking ass. We’ve raised the bar on many things. People don’t copy us for no reason.

2008, bring it on. 

A few minutes after hopping into a beer infested van that was headed for Downtown Cabo San Lucas, my thoughts started to drift. It’s been a long day – Dark Rum, Johnny walker, Jack Daniels, some cheap tequila shit that smells like stale eggs when it has been sitting for a while. Double fisting while soaking sun rays, background music provided by the Pacific Ocean.

The plan was to hop on a van with a bunch of other folks and head into downtown Cabo for some old schooled club hopping. In a few hours, the time pushes me into the 3rd decade of my life. The promoter in the van is a short skinny Mexican with a loud raspy voice. He’s spent some time abroad so he speaks good English, and he’s got a good social sense. He’s trying hard to get us riled up, blowing his whistle and throwing cans of cold American beer our way. He explains the tour, repeating the words “drunk, tequila, aguebo (fuck yeah), party, insane” intermittently. So my mind started to drift…fuelled by the semi intoxicity of buffet drinking.

Society forces upon a stigma that you should feel a number of things when your age parks itself on the big 30. A devastating blow of sudden Self-Realization of life, love, work, health, prosperity, longevity?. Add to the fact that since my birthday is very close to the new year, the blow is double in strength. Couple life improvements with new years resolutions.

In the past, I have used both events to set new goals about what to achieve over the following 12 months. It worked wonderfully, and I was able to project myself very well. But now apparently this is the year I grow from the healthy post-college-aged guy who was cruising the town any night of the week on alcohol injected sex junkets to the object of Chris Rock’s “the old guy at the bar” joke. In a nutshell, at 30 idealism gives way to practicality. This age presents the moment of truth where certain realities of life firmly take hold. Read the rest of this entry »