Wednesday July 23, 2008
Latest Columns 
Bike culture rolls into the mainstream
1
Online Edition: Saturday, July 19, 2008 03:55 PM
Can a form of transportation, no matter how popular, become anything near a culture?
Bike culture rolls into the mainstream
Published: Saturday, July 19, 2008 12:00 AM Page L1
I love driving a car. There, I've come out with it: the worst, most inflammatory statement anyone can make at this moment in history. But seriously, I do enjoy driving, even if I lament what North American auto dependence has wrought, in wretchedly unwalkable cities and car-centric sprawl, as I also enjoy walking. What I find as both a driver and a pedestrian, however, is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to love my fellow cyclists, who are now so empowered by their environmental correctness that they have begun to proclaim their own (naturally superior and far more fashionable) bike ''culture.''
Why we need vacations from our vacations
Published: Saturday, July 12, 2008 12:00 AM Page L3
One summer when I was a teenager, my friend Joel swiped a relaxation tape of his mother's. Late at night, or whenever we were in need of amusement, he would pop in the cassette and play it for us at maximum speed so that instead of speaking in soothing tones, the woman's voice on the tape came out in a shrill staccato. ''Ree-lax!'' she would screech as we rolled on the carpet, begging him to stop. ''Ree-lax your feet and legs! Ree-lax!''
Why my aging brain can't remember Feist lyrics
Online Edition: Saturday, July 5, 2008 03:25 PM
But instead I can remember every word of the 1972 Eagles hit Take it Easy
Why my aging brain can't remember Feist lyrics
Published: Saturday, July 5, 2008 12:00 AM Page L3
So there I was, driving a convertible in the California desert, with the top down and a hot wind blowing through my hair. It was like a road movie: I was flying along a deserted highway dotted with cacti and the radio was cranked up loud.
Don't hate them because they're beautiful
Published: Saturday, June 28, 2008 12:00 AM Page L3
Childish as it sounds, I have to admit that before running out to meet Robert Hintze and Greg Hodge, the partners behind BeautifulPeople.com, I had a small wardrobe crisis. Everything was wrong: my hair, my shoes, my lipstick. In truth, I don't know what good a better outfit might have done me, as BeautifulPeople.com is nothing less than the virtual equivalent of the toughest red-velvet-rope scenario imaginable: an online community for beautiful people only, judged by same.
Where did all the crazy conceptual artists go? Into marketing
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Online Edition: Saturday, June 21, 2008 04:03 PM
Just as in conceptual art, the idea is now more significant than the product
Where did all the crazy conceptual artists go? Into marketing
Published: Saturday, June 21, 2008 12:00 AM Page L3
A moment before I lay my grateful head down on the massage table, the masseur asked me the oddest question. Did I want Ibiza chill, Raj rhythm or new dawn? He passed me a laminated piece of paper with a list on it. It turns out that he was asking me what kind of musical ''journey'' I wanted to take while he did his best to stretch out my neck.
The new couture: T-shirts
Published: Saturday, June 14, 2008 12:00 AM Page L1
The recent death of Yves Saint Laurent opens up an interesting question. If, as the fashion media has unanimously proclaimed postmortem, YSL was the last designer who could truly be called a great artist, could it be said that creative genius in fashion has breathed its last too?
If street furniture really speaks for T.O., woe is us
Published: Saturday, June 14, 2008 12:00 AM Page M3
Toronto isn't pretty. It would be more accurately described as plain, rather than fair. In these design-minded times, however, this simple, if unpleasant, truth has our civic leaders and design types in a twist.
