I’m in Taipei, Taiwan for a few days. Yeah, I know. Not long enough. I’m checking out the technology scene which is one of the largest in this part of the world.
Yesterday, I did lots of walking around the city and even hired a tour guide to take me around to some of the “touristy” places.
Here’s some of the places that I visited:
National Palace Museum
Chih-Fu Temple
Taipei 101
Discovery Center of Taipei
Night Market
Make sure to check out my Instagramand Twitterto keep up to date with what I’m up to this week.
On Tuesday night I had the opportunity to visit the Toronto Reference Library and listen to Randy Bachman tell stories like no one else can. But that is for another blog post. Today’s post – and photos – is from an amazing collection of photos, videos and posters which exhibit Toronto’s diverse and eclectic music scene from the 1960’s until today.
Maestro Fresh Wes
This jam is amplified. So just glide and let your backbone slide. Remember Maestro Fresh Wes from Scarborough? Now my favourite Canadian rap artist stars on Mr. D on CBC. Soon, he’ll be a guest on Toronto Mike’d with Mike Boon.
Broken Social Scene
Toronto’s Broken Social Scene is perhaps the most influential musical collective and is headed up by Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning. The group has helped with the musical maturity of acts such as Metric, Leslie Feist, and The Stars. You can actually see the latest incarnation of Broken Social Scene this summer at the Field Trip outdoor concert festival.
coffee, beer and mosh pits
Classic posters and hand bills in the gallery.
Guess Who? More posters and photosYorkville Music Scene
Yorkville was once home to future musical greats such as Neil Young and Joni Mitchell.
Coffee, Beer and Mosh Pits runs in the TD Gallery of the Toronto Reference Library until the end of this month. Visit the website for more information
Social writing platform and writer’s network Wattpad has been at it for a while now, and they’ve quietly amassed a massive user base that engages regularly with the site, posting their own stories and reading the stories of others, all the while engaging with one another through feedback, criticism and support. Now, the startup has raised a Series C round of funding worth $46 million, led by OMERS Ventures, and including August Capital, Raine Ventures and Northleaf Venture Catalyst Fund, and all of the company’s existing investors
According to a job listing obtained by VentureBeat, Uber plans to pay bike couriers between $20 and $30 per hour for “on-demand deliveries.” Uber plans to give couriers a free iPhone 4S, allowing them to “receive pickup requests from nearby customers.”
What makes a successful app developer? This is a question that many hundreds (if not thousands) of Canadians are asking themselves. Why? The barrier to create these apps has never been lower and the industry is becoming flooded with talent. In downtown Toronto, one is but a stone’s throw away from successful app development shops.
Every quarter I have the opportunity to help plan and attend a local community coffee lounge organized by the Willowdale Jamatkhana in Toronto. The purpose of these “lounges” are to inspire young professionals to want to strive towards excellence in their careers while also inspiring them to look overseas for service opportunities.
This quarter’s speaker was former Rogers CEO, Nadir Mohamed.
Nadir Mohamed
Nadir spoke for about 25 minutes but stuck around for well over an hour more answering questions and talking to young Ismaili professionals.
Here are a few points which I remember from this past weekend’s event:
– Nadir does not consider his story to be a rags to riches one. He feels he led a charmed life and has been blessed with luck as his parents struggled to provide him with all the best things in life.
– Strongly advocates that his time volunteering with the Vancouver Ismaili community provided him with a foundation based on values.
– Has never considered himself to be the smartest in the room. but was smart enough to always look for the smartest person.
– In order to make changes that might seem tough (personally or for the company) they must be simple to understand.
– Nadir also shared some “inside baseball” stories on how Rogers entered the wireless industry, purchased Microcell and even snapped the NHL away from the CBC. However, these stories are better told than read as I don’t want to mis-interpret anything he said. 🙂
