About blogTO

Tanja-Tiziana Burdi owns a major in radio production and works as a freelance photographer. See the connection? Neither does she. Currently, Tanja's looking for paid work that expands the mind or proof that it exists. In the meanwhile, she's exploring civic history at UrbanRetrospect.com and continues to publish her daily photoblog at DoubleCrossed.ca.

Operating under the premise that curiosity killed nothing, Jerrold Litwinenko has found himself bouncing around seemingly aimlessly but certainly happily. He's left Toronto a number of times and has joyfully returned home on different occasions as a food scientist, an ESL teacher, and most recently as an art and freelance photographer. Colourful things he's seen along the way can be seen on his photoblog at Photosapience Daily.

Adam is a tech geek by day, and design and culture geek by night. Born in the suburbs of Toronto, he works as technical/freelance writer and photographer and covers mostly arts events in the city. He has a quirky taste in movies, TV, and music, and yes, he's probably seen that one too. He went to school for Distributed Computing and Wireless Telecommunications, and maintains his own blog.

It has been a relatively rough start as a novel writer for Andrew Nguyen using his words as his weapon of choice; he advocates about self-image and social justice. He shifts the way readers think about the world around them. To date, he has published two books: Reflection (2007) and Lost and Found (2008). He has previously worked as an environmental educator in Port Credit and is currently a fashion student. If you want to see his multifaceted mind in action, Andrew commonly frequents Toronto Poetry Slam and NanoWrimo Toronto events.

Anita is a computer geek who has turned into a style monger. Both of these interests have combined in her blog I Want - I Got. Over the past year this blog has evolved from a hobby to a full blown project. She eschews disposable fashion, preferring quality over quantity and style over trends. Anita has a fetish for bags, coats, t-shirts and shoes. And those are just the fetishes we can tell you about.

Andrea is a writer, editor and, uh, accounting assistant living in downtown Toronto, but she's originally from the Maritimes, and has a journalism degree from the University of King's College. She made her living in Halifax as a freelance writer and editor until one day she packed up two boxes of stuff and her disgruntled cat, and got on a train to Toronto. Now she spends her time making photocopied comics about her cat, trying really hard to knit the perfect cupcake, and getting excited about totally random stuff like grapefruit. She's kept a blog since 2001, but these days you can find her at acatforawife.com

Born in Mexico City, living in Toronto, designer, photographer, videographer, illustrator, VJ, musician wannabe, friend and many other, Carlos likes to play and experiment and hopes to grow as a creative individual and as a better human being.

Catherine has had techno-love since playing Jungle Hunt on her Commodore VIC-20, but also likes to hit the language junk pretty hard. She's happiest working on projects that let her shmoosh together multiple interests, and she really likes the word "shmoosh". Catherine supports her blogging habit by working as a fancypants freelance writer. Which is sometimes fancy, and sometimes just pants. Renting in a neighbhourhood where they'll never be able to buy, she lives in downtown Toronto with her lovely husband and their hella awesome cat.

Chris has a strong appetite for street art, independent culture and vegan food. He is constantly working on material for a book, but only ever realizes it after the fact. He maintains his own blog, Shopping Carts in Ravines.

Christine spends her weeks as a dental hygienist, and spends her weekends using her hard-earned money to pursue her private pilots license and check out bands. A girl from Regina, Saskatchewan, she spends her free time exploring everything the city has to offer and will always use her "I'll try anything twice" philosophy upon hearing recommendations.

Day-jobbing as a writer and web-site consultant pays the bills and when not being tragic, reading beckett, precariously dangling from a 5.10 - or trying to reverse engineer ketchup, francis tries his best not to bite the hands that feed him...and is mostly successful.

Gary has been a member and supporter of the Toronto indie music scene since the age of 13. That was a while ago. He's a songwriter, musician, producer and - believe it or not - a published MS Paint artist. He started blogging in 2004 and loves checking out all the music our fine city has to offer: dirty rock bars, pristine dance clubs, buskers, moaning drunkards on the TTC. Whatever. Bring it on!

Graeme is a freelance writer, broadcaster, erstwhile academic and occasional polemicist. His work has appeared in variety of print publications and on CBC TV and Radio. Interested in the intersections between culture and politics, he holds the fervent belief that people aren't dumb, they just get dumb media. He enjoys sites like blogTO, because they make people smarter. Currently living with several small appliances in a cramped Roncesvalles studio apartment, he maintains an index of curiousities at nuncscio.com

Greg is a self-described (or deceived) man of many careers. When he isn't spending way too much time reading blogs and seeking completely distracting knowledge, he is pursuing his masters of applied environmental science and does personal training part-time. Frequent training for Jiu-Jitsu and climbing are justified by telling himself he'll one day make it to the Olympics (nevermind they aren't Olympic sports- a convenient excuse). He also likes the fact that he can post info about himself at gregdavis.ca.

Constantly armed with a vintage camera and oodles of film, Jade is always in search of the perfect shot to make her fall in love with this city even more. A native of Manila, this semi-professional vagabond currently calls Toronto home and is always on the lookout for a good art exhibit or a great upcoming band. Working for major record labels both in Asia and Canada since 2004, Jade keeps her sanity through independent travel, photography and jotting her sometimes incoherent train of thought down on her blog and for publications in Toronto and the Philippines.

Japhet Bower is a beach bum with a penchant for poker, table-dancing and karaoke. Treading the nefarious boundaries between a Jarvis Cocker song and academic respectability, his engagement with a variety of topics is always shifting depending on who he's with and what's going on. In preparation for his eventual retirement on a farm in the Galapagos, most of his time is spent learning everything he can about sustainable living, coffee beans and fermented grains. His spare moments are spent writing in his blog which he's kept at ever since he came to Toronto six years ago.

Operating under the premise that curiosity killed nothing, Jerrold Litwinenko has found himself bouncing around seemingly aimlessly but certainly happily. He's left Toronto a number of times and has joyfully returned home on different occasions as a food scientist, an ESL teacher, and most recently as an art and freelance photographer. Colourful things he's seen along the way can be seen on his photoblog at Photosapience Daily.

Joshua went to school to become a biologist, but has always felt the urge to write. While working in a Chicago lab, he earned a technical communications degree, which gets put to use doing proofreading and technical editing for a pharmaceutical company. When he's not working or writing for blogTO, Joshua can be found riding his bike, cooking or checking out another cool Toronto spot. He also has a personal blog, pastabroccoli, with his wife.

Proud of his vitiligo, Facebook "Where I've been" application and the fact he has no idea where he's going, Joseph spends most of his time taking/editing photos. This failure to launch (successfully) photographer counts himself as one of the luckiest people ever and is so excited to work with such a talented group of writers and photographers on blogTO. You can view his work at josephmichael.ca

Kari relocated on a whim, from Windsor to Toronto, in 2003. She sought an environment filled with culture and opportunity, plus her friend was offering cheap rent. It's fortunate she came; since living here, she's gained plenty of perspective, and understands why people who are from Toronto really dig the city (most of the time). She attended college for journalism and photography, but, as usual, has learned more from her work experience as an online camera retailer, a professional photo lab technician and a bookseller. She does her best capturing the everyday objects of her life in an interesting and aesthetic manner, and exhibits them on her photo blog, Ravenswift Images.

A bit of an explorer, Megan loves good food, good art, fun places to take pictures. Anything where learning and a bit of hedonism is involved. Probably why she started a fun self-indulgent blog. Her childhood was filled with performing plays for teddy bears and stuffed bunnies (these days she only does that on very rare occasions). After seeing theatre performed for an audience with a circulatory system she was hooked. Eventually she grew up to get her theatre degree, just one more thing to explore.

Mike's life moves back and forth between High Park and Dundas (the town, not the street). After graduating with a degree in computer science at McMaster, he moved back to Toronto to immerse himself in the indie rock scene, and peruse his other passion, photography. In some circles he is known by Fotograf.416, in others he is known as Rookie.

Nicole Stamp is a fast-talkin' teevee host, director, actor, and writer. Her interests include snacking, environmentalism, doodles, office supplies, leftover chinese food, sans serif fonts, evolutionary biology, brunch, hive minds, hypochondria, curly hair-care tips, feral children, decluttering strategies, caffiene, indirect lighting, dollar stores, regional variations in societal etiquette, bubblegum-flavoured chewing gum, and the internet. She has a website and some stuff on YouTube.

Paul is an art and design nerd who can't help but seek out beautiful and interesting things that he finds inspiring. Sometimes he'll post about his findings on his blog avessel, which only makes sense about a quarter of the time. He has delusions of becoming an architect, a chef, a paid photographer, or a rock star. When he's not snapping photos or just being generally nerdy, he's consumed with finding new and catchy music to make him seem not so nerdy.

Roger Cullman is a freelance photojournalist whose keen sense of observation
enables him to capture candid moments that tell compelling stories. He holds
a journalism degree from Ryerson University and is currently in the esteemed photojournalism program at Loyalist College in Belleville, Ontario. Under the alias Wordfreak, Roger runs Scrabble in the City, a weekly Scrabble club at Kilgour's. You can read his blog and check out his photos at rogercullman.com. Roger's work has been published in Chart, Shift, Spacing and Sports Illustrated.

Born and raised in downtown Toronto, Robin Sharp is, as the name suggests, made entirely of X-acto knife blades. Don't touch him. He studied Drama at Etobicoke School of the Arts, Film Production at York University, and now he ping-pongs between writing and directing for theatre, film, and an occasional foray into the visual arts. Everything he touches turns to excitement.

Sameer Vasta is a man of few words. At least, until you get him talking: then you can't get him to shut up. A lover of all things web, film, spoken word, and Toronto, he chronicles his sometimes-exciting life at Squandrous.com and Eloquation.com.

Susan recently moved back to Toronto for love, after five years of living in Taipei and traveling abroad. She has worked as an editor of a nightlife website, written children's books, and had a brief stint as a caterer in Budapest. Currently temp to perm, she keeps sane by obsessing about food in her blog, painting and infrequent bouts of yoga.

Steve moved to Toronto in the early '90's to make it big as a musician. While that didn't exactly work out as planned, he decided to stick around anyway and raise his family in the city he'd fallen in love with. When forced into excessively early retirement by IBM, Steve took on a bold new career in the field of being a stay-at-home father. In his increasingly limited spare time, he runs a freelance web consultancy, writes his own blog, and will even pick up a guitar every now and then.

Tanja-Tiziana Burdi owns a major in radio production and works as a freelance photographer. See the connection? Neither does she. Currently, Tanja's looking for paid work that expands the mind or proof that it exists. In the meanwhile, she's exploring civic history at UrbanRetrospect.com and continues to publish her daily photoblog at DoubleCrossed.ca.

Tim was born in a suburb of Toronto but now lives around the corner from Lakeview Lunch. Despite that, he's never eaten there even though he wanders in from time to time. When not blogging, he tries to take the perfect photo of Honest Eds or the Canary; and seeks out stores and restaurants that serve wheat and dairy free foods.