The Power of Photography

Yesterday, I attended a show as part of the Contact Festival in Toronto, which celebrates photography. At the show I went to, Lucas Oleniuk from the Toronto Star presented photographs he took as part of a special in the Star called AirSick. He turned the photographs into a movie and that movie is now on YouTube. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tv9K02PC1aI

I spoke to Lucas after the show and he said he can't find anything more important to write about than the environment, not to mention take pictures of. These images are very simple yet powerful. Take a look!

Critical Mass

Last Friday I attended Critical Mass in Toronto for the very first time. If you haven't heard of critical mass before, it's essentially a big bike ride. The motto for Toronto critical mass is: we're not blocking traffic, we are traffic. The first critical mass took place on September 25, 1992 in San Francisco; however, for that first ride, it was known as the Commute Clot. The reason it became known as critical mass is because after the first ride, those who participated went to see a film about cycling. The film, Return of the Scorcher, showed that when a critical mass of cyclists and motorists in China reached an intersection where there were no signals, the crowd would continue through the intersection. There are now at least 325 cities that host critical mass every last Friday of the month including Seattle, Honolulu, Riga (Latvia) and Vilnius (Lithuania).

There's definitely something about critical mass that can't really be explained. It's that feeling of being part of a crowd and participating in something bigger than yourself. That being said, it does feel strange to have motorists supporting you (some honked for us). If they are for it, why aren't they cycling home from their jobs?