AFTER NEARLY 15 years of churning words into dollars, I'm shifting gears. I recently resigned as editor-in-chief of A\J, having spent nearly three years rebooting the 40-year-old publication into a vibrant, upstart media brand (here's my last editorial). In that role I also pioneered and lead the curation, organization and... Continue reading

LIKE SO MANY things in yoga, opinions vary about the wisdom of sequencing a practice to music. I find certain kinds of music to be unbeatable ingredients for laying down a solid foundational layer in many practice spaces and themes. Well-curated songs can support strong, steady and rhythmic breath, plus... Continue reading

WHEN I TOOK the reigns at A\J in January 2012, the first issue I contributed to was themed Art & Media. We've since rebranded the hell out of the publication and made that theme an annual one. The cross-pollination of those two moves led to the May/June 2013 cover above... Continue reading

I POURED MOST of my blood and sweat (and perhaps a few tears) last year into rebranding A\J, the magazine I've been editing since January 2012. One of the many changes we introduced to A\J's pages (and online) was coverage of environmental documentaries, largely because there are so many incredible... Continue reading

ALMOST THREE YEARS ago now, I began doing some communications work for a company based in Kitchener, Ontario, called REEP Green Solutions. Mostly I helped promote a century home that the organization had retrofitted with examples of sustainable technology and building techniques to show local homeowners how to upgrade old... Continue reading

I STARTED A new gig in early 2012. It sort of came out of nowhere. I’m now editing the kind of magazine that I’ve always wanted the opportunity to work on: Alternatives. It is a small publication with plans to get much bigger, and I hope I can help accomplish... Continue reading

Andrew Nikiforuk is perhaps the most spine-tingling author that I read with any regularity. Not because he writes thrillers, but rather because he explores the staggering frontiers upon which Canada's future is being shaped. For the October issue of Canadian Geographic, I reviewed his excellent new book, Empire of the... Continue reading

FEW PEOPLE KNOW that Lake Winnipeg is poorly, and perhaps even on the verge of slowly suffocating itself. Fewer still know the smartest and most effective way to fix it, but thankfully a small army of scientists have been assembling a proper knowledge base for turning the ongoing discussion into... Continue reading

WHEN IT WAS published a couple of years ago, I couldn't wait to get my mitts on Anthony Flint's "Wrestling With Moses." The American author's lean chronicle of the epic mid-20th Century battles over public space that unearthed urban design pillar Jane Jacobs and buried NYC master builder Robert Moses... Continue reading

AS IF THIS fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants freelancer gig didn't pay meagerly enough, I've recently launched a pro bono writing project. It's basically my excuse to harass musicians with an offbeat line of questioning as they put out new records, but also a niche with some room to spread out a bit. Stay... Continue reading

IN THE SUMMER of 2009, I approached Flemish Eye records' impresario Ian Russell about creating an art zine in collaboration with his label's musicians, the aim being to celebrate their non-musical talents and exhibit their hilarious personalities. It was a total Hail Mary, but Ian liked the concept, and luckily... Continue reading

DURING THE WINTER of 2009/2010, I embarked on a big, reckless, soul-bruising adventure down the US West Coast and into the sweltering depths of Mexico (well, southern Oaxaca state, at least). I couldn't really afford the trip, so I scrambled to find work along the way, and managed to shop... Continue reading

YOU MAY OR may not be aware that our lovely little (albeit massive) country is building the planet's largest recreational trail network, aiming to git'er done by the time Canada turns 150 in 2017. I spent a couple of days this summer with a community of kind folks who have... Continue reading

UNDOUBTEDLY, ALBERTA HAS three of country's most unique and fascinating attractions, all within a couple of hours' drive east of Calgary. Two are rubberneck-worthy novelties: a small-but-famous (and PETA-vilified) gopher taxidermy shrine and a muted, museum-style retort to evolution. The other is a breathtaking landscape where you can play paleontologist... Continue reading

FUELLED BY GOB-smacking poke and arguably the planet's most sensational climate, I spent about a week on three Hawaiian islands trying to catch up with a dozen influential wave hounds for this profile series, featured on up! magazine's February 2010 cover. It was also the most recent of many working... Continue reading

THE FIRST THING I wanted to do after escaping an office gig after four solid years of being deprived of sunshine was to get my meathooks dirty in the great outdoors. I earned a week of sweat equity on a hardscrabble farm and ended up profiling the exceptional folks who... Continue reading

IN THE FALL of 2008, I returned to the city where I'd attended university (a decade earlier) and had my mind tickled inside-out by how things had evolved. What I discovered on the ground while in Kitchener-Waterloo would eventually turn into perhaps my best piece of writing to date. >>>... Continue reading

I WORKED AT up! magazine's headquarters in Calgary for more than four years, during which time I had final sign off (always on deadline) for about 50 issues of the magazine. Near the end of my run, I was travelling and writing like mad as well. I think the photo... Continue reading

THIS TALE OF woe chronicles my ass being kicked during a two-day taste of the alpine training regiment of Calgary Flames defenseman Andrew Ference, perhaps the fittest man I've ever met. This was one of the best pieces I wrote during my first crack at working as a freelancer. And... Continue reading

ONE OF THE perks of being a journalist is getting the chance to stalk your musical heroes without appearing too creepy. I've been lucky enough to access a wide collection of famous folks who rock my world. These three stories are probably my favourites involving icons of rawk that I... Continue reading

FOR ABOUT TWO years, I was listed on the masthead of Adbusters magazine as a contributing editor. I did a dog's breakfast of stories for them, some of which are collected here. Most of the ideas were hatched by the sometimes brilliant and always inflammatory founding editor Kalle Lasn, and... Continue reading

THIS IS LIKELY one of the first collections of professional writing that I ever assembled. The first piece is a profile of Toronto's farmers' markets for CityBites magazine, a puckish local food rag that stays afloat on the sweat of perhaps my biggest mentor and a fantastic drinking companion, Dick... Continue reading