On a Monday night in November, the upstairs floor of Bistro 990 is filled with magazine editors, art directors and writers who have come to see the unveiling of Nigel Dickson’s 30 photographs of Toronto authors. While guests snack on stuffed pastries and sip wine, they examine the portraits that are displayed throughout the room,… Continue reading The Soul in the Lens
Series: Summer 2000
The First Lady of Razzmatazz
At seven minutes after 11 o’clock in the evening, on September 8, 1954, 16-year-old Marilyn Bell waded into the choppy water of Lake Ontario at Youngstown, New York. In drizzling rain, the 119-pound high-school girl started swimming. Soon, nausea swept over her as the rolling swells of the lake crashed above her head. Eels attached… Continue reading The First Lady of Razzmatazz
Speed Writer
Gerald Donaldson is sitting in the din of a jammed pressroom overlooking the front straight of a rain-soaked Nürburgring road racing course, site of the 1999 European Grand Prix. The course is carved out of the lovely Eifel Forest of west-central Germany, but on this dreary September afternoon, Donaldson’s concern is not with the scenery… Continue reading Speed Writer
The British Are Coming, The British Are Coming
On a cold night in Ottawa last October, a hundred people packed the National Press Club theatre to meet The Globe and Mail’s editor, Richard Addis, the new general in the bloody newspaper war against the National Post. The room buzzed with anticipation. So far, most of the war had been fought with biting columns,… Continue reading The British Are Coming, The British Are Coming
The Tragically Square
The steadily greying readership of newspapers has been a cause for concern among publishers for some years. Now, in the age of great newspaper wars, dailies are even more desperate to recruit younger readers. Meanwhile, teens, who are being courted by everyone from clothing stores to credit card companies, aren’t even reading enough papers to… Continue reading The Tragically Square