I got in touch with Lawrence, who ran a music festival, in hopes of connecting with bands and artists who might be interested in cd duplication. Bands like to sell their CDs at live events, and I was the guy to provide them with those CDs. I discovered that he also ran a newspaper, so we made a deal in which I bartered space in his newspaper in exchange for putting graphic art skills to use on the publication. Lawrence was a good sales guy who paid for live events, and paid himself with sales of ads in his paper. When the local city counselor did not grant Lawrence a permit to have his outdoor blues concert, Lawrence changed the focus of his paper to politics, rather than music.
Lawrence had it out for the local city councillor, Sandra Bussin, and used the local paper as a platform to sway as many votes as possible. During this time, I ran for council for the sole purpose of being on stage at a rally beside Janet Davis so I could create some opposition and get people thinking. Lawrence was actually successful in getting Sandra Bussin out of office with a little help from Sandra herself getting involved in shady deals that he was able to uncover. I was proud of his job in getting a bad city councillor out of public office. She really had no right to be there anymore.
Beaches Blues Festival never happened but a street festival happened in its place on the danforth. By 2009 Lawrence had changed to a new editor and graphic layout artist and took a hard right in politics. The current salesperson for Lawrence asked me to continue the newspaper, but change the name to Bloor News. In 2009, Bloor News ran 5 different newspapers throughout the city, but faded out entirely in 2014 with the popularity of Facebook and the internet.
Understanding the coming digital age, I created a number of social media accounts to service requests from publicists who had me on their lists from the days of newspapers. Gone were the days of print, but online publications require graphic design and layout too, so I still get to put my skills to use.
Bloor News – General News – instagram.com
Fashion – instagram.com/fashionreviewed
Art – instagram.com/visualartreview
Music + Movies – instagram.com/paulmurton