February 2012
1 post
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Phèdre: Cold Sunday
Wrote and recorded some vocals for the new Phèdre record. More work with DAPS Records to follow.
January 2012
4 posts
2 tags
Aviva Community Fund
Winners of this year’s Aviva Community Fund were announced today!
Working with a brilliant team at Idea Couture, I was the Lead Copywriter for the site and messaging around this year’s Aviva Community Fund.
ACF is a competition where Canadians submit and vote on ideas to make a positive impact in their communities. Winners receive a portion of the million dollar fund to make their...
3 tags
User-Focused Party-Rocking
published in MISC Magazine, Fall 2011
and at NoodlePlay.com, January 2012
User-Focused Party-Rocking: Customer Experience in the Nightclub
Yale Fox is a DJ and nightclub sociologist living and working between Las Vegas and New York City. In 2010, while working toward his PhD at the University of Toronto, Yale was contacted by a prominent Vegas nightclub – one of the highest rated in the world. So...
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an open birthday letter to Sade
Times Neue Roman - Sade is in my Tape Deck
Hi Sade,
Like most of the people I get along with, I have this fascination, or infatuation, with you. We talk about you like a pegasus, like somehow impossible, lighter than love + pared to bare simplicity. Oversized earrings and understated beauty. Few move with wave like you; there are fewer who would seriously investigate the colour of love; I...
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Interview with Brian Wong
Brian Wong is the fast-tracking, twenty-year-old founder of Kiip—a software business that enables game developers and brands to reward gamers for their virtual achievements, with real-life rewards. ‘Kiiper moments,’ as Brian calls them, leverage the satisfaction of achievement, when a gamer is most engaged, for customer acquisition. You beat a level—you win a prize from a brand—relative to the...
December 2011
1 post
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MISC Magazine Creative Challengers
For MISC Magazine, I recently had the opportunity to interview ten of what we are calling, “Creative Challengers,” or design thinkers who challenge conventional wisdom - “upsetting the status quo, seizing opportunities that others miss and improving systems by inventing new approaches and solutions.”
Working closely with Publisher/EIC, Idris Mootee, Editor, Ashley Perez,...
November 2011
1 post
2 tags
Wolflove
Wolflove by Robert Bolton + Sarah Shafey
From the book, “Of Silence” (2010)
Lyrics after jump.
my love
quiet as a silence
sizeless as a virus
hallowed as the idols,
subtle as its vital
hollow as a bottle, shallow as a puddle
idle as its wild as its mild
unbridled cries lying behind cinematic shadows
he imbibed the tonic vile, walked the mile, dropped the bible
prodded and...
September 2011
9 posts
1 tag
Sade is in my Tape Deck
Our ode to Sade last week at the Thompson Hotel Rooftop in Toronto.
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Cray
I recently approached Mensa and Omada with this idea. As someone who genuinely appreciates regional (id est: Southern) rap, I thought it fruitful to throw an event for those who enjoy Travis Porter unironically. The actual party will be less pretentious than this post.
Party Party Party. Saturday Night.
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Times Neue Roman: Listening Party
We have some new material for you. This Thursday at the Thompson Hotel rooftop in Toronto. V.I.Free. RSVP only to info@1loveto.com Subject: SADE
Salutations 1LoveTO, Moet, Mombacho, and the Thompson.
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Variation on the Suburbs
Variation on the 3D-eco-pastoral-type-poem in collaboration with Christine Mangosing. View with red-cyan anaglyph glasses.
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The Most Innovative Song of the 2000s
Re-posting of a piece I wrote for Noodleplay.
Pitchfork named OutKast’s “B.O.B” the Song of The Decade proclaiming even that it “is the decade…effectively crafting a fast-forwarded highlight-reel prophecy of what the next 10 years held in store.” It remains to be seen where the song will sit in twenty or fifty years. And without hindsight it’s impossible to know the lasting effect of the ...
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Cash 4 Me
10 Cash 4 Me (feat. Rich Kidd, JD Era, Arowbe, Frank White, & Sinotra)-Cash 4 Me (Prod. Boi-1da) by Arowbe
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Parasol
Parasol
Spa sunsplash wash
eightfold parasol.
Sixteen palm fronds firmament
the sky’s misting aerosol.
Tiny paradisiac, unfold space
wide of impermanence.
Wind carousels by.
Mind and decorate my cocktail.
[Poem by Robert Bolton // Typographic Interpretation by Christine Mangosing]
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The Suburbs
3D-eco-pastoral-type-poem in collaboration with Christine Mangosing. View with red-cyan anaglyph glasses.
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On Error
Re-posting of a piece I wrote for Idea Couture’s blog, Noodleplay.
The French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan believed every unsuccessful act to be successful as discourse. Mistakes are reference points. They re-calibrate our assumptions and reorient our course of action. The culture that doesn’t identify and contemplate its mistakes is condemned to repeat them.
Applied Design Thinking...
August 2011
2 posts
4 tags
Sonnet 56
Andrew Zealley: Sonnet 56 (Music in Five Parts)
voice: Robert Bolton
Tibetan singing bowl and music: Andrew Zealley
composed, recorded and mixed in the sky 2011
produced by PSBEUYS
Vague Terrain, 2011
Sonnet 56 is a composition in 5 parts, without pause. Each part lasts 5 minutes, bringing the total duration to 25 minutes and establishing a splendid sense of symmetry. Based on and...
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The Spy Poets: IARPA's New Metaphor Program
Re-posting this piece I did for Idea Couture’s blog, Noodleplay:
The Greatest thing by far,” Aristotle declared, “is to be a master of metaphor…. It is a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in dissimilars.”
IARPA, the US governmental arm for intelligence research (sometimes described as ‘DARPA for spies’) announced The Metaphor...
June 2011
1 post
1 tag
Pretty Beuys: Winning
Listen here.
PRETTY BEUYS: WINNING
produced by PSBEUYS
words: Robert Bolton
music: Andrew Zealley
vocal beatbox: Luis Jacob
recorded and mixed in the sky 2006-2011
release: summer solstice 2011
image: Luis Jacob
download includes 3 hidden bonus tracks
PRETTY BEUYS is the pop/sound art collaboration of Robert Bolton aka Arowbe Arowbe Arowbe (vocals) and Andrew Zealley aka PSBEUYS...
May 2011
2 posts
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City and Gyre
Studies in texture
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International Songwriting Competition
So - this happened: Broad Way Sleep’s Shy and Out of Season won 1st place in the R&B/Hip-Hop category in the 2010 International Songwriting Competition. Thank you to everyone who supported this record. Coolest thing about this? The list of judges which includes: Rihanna, Regina Spektor, Tom Waits, Peter Gabriel, Timabaland.
Broad Way Sleep - Shy and Out of Season
BROAD WAY...
March 2011
9 posts
1 tag
Times Neue Roman: Hands No Hands
Directed by Charles Wahl
Music by Alexander Punzalan Junior
Vocals/Lyrics by Robert Bolton
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Video launch covered by Manifesto
Upon arrival at the undisclosed video launch party location, one is immediately confronted with what looks to be a fugitive gentleman’s library: stacks of vintage Playboys cover nearly every table’s surface, while every wall has a bookshelf containing books that were obviously stolen from various university libraries.
I’m greeted by Arowbe, one-half of the Times Neue Roman (or TNR)...
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Profile on Tasty Spoonful
See the original article here.
It’s easy to have good conversations with Toronto-based poet/musician/composer/performer Rob Bolton. But this particular conversation was having a tough time getting off the ground. When we finally got vchat to work on two finicky wireless networks, important business interrupted:
“Hold on one second, I think my coffee is ready,” he said. It was Saturday...
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Tanika Charles: Silly Happy Wild
Tanika Charles - Silly Happy Wild
Produced by Rich Kidd
Lyrics by Robert Bolton w/ Tanika Charles
Performed by Tanika Charles
This song that I wrote for Tanika Charles received spins on FLOW 93.5 in Toronto all through last summer and was #1 on the MEGACITY COUNTDOWN for Five Weeks. Silly Happy Wild is now up for a Stylus Award for best R&B record. Please vote for it here.
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Pretty Beuys: Five Covers
PRETTY BEUYS: FIVE COVERS (LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD HERE).
Pretty Beuys is the pop / sound art collaboration of Robert Bolton aka Arowbe Arowbe Arowbe (vocals) and Andrew Zealley aka PSBEUYS (music). Their first release, an EP appropriately titled Five Covers is a series of impressions—riffing on a variety of sonic wellsprings ranging from Joni Mitchell to Elvis Presley to post-punk outfit Magazine....
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Broad Way Sleep: IMA Profile
I was recently nominated for an Independent Music Award for the Broad Way Sleep song, Something to Touch. The IMAs interviewed us and posted this profile. Click here for full text.
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TNR App Featured on TechVibes
We’ve relaunched our EP Talking Sporty as an app! Find it for free in the iTunes store. Collaboration with CMANGO DESIGN and Cardinal Media Technologies.
Times Neue Roman iPhone app
A collaboration with CMANGO DESIGN + Cardinal Media Technologies Talking Sporty the app is available in iTunes app store now. For free. You can use it to listen to our EP and share on social networks. I’m already looking forward to version 2 for our next release.
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Shy & Out of Season (Video Shoot / Shortlisted in...
About a week ago, I reconnected with Jesse Blight, a smart director and my old dorm-mate from first year at YorkU. About fifteen minutes into our reunion, we agreed to shoot a video for the Broad Way Sleep song, Shy & Out of Season. About three days later we shot the video—mostly on location at the vintage store Cabaret, Queen Street, Toronto.
About two days ago, Broad Way Sleep was...
February 2011
3 posts
3 tags
IMA Nomination
Broad Way Sleep has been nominated in the 10th annual Independent Music Awards! A song I wrote with Ralph Joseph and Alexander The, “Something to Touch” is up for best rap/hip-hop song. Judging panel for this international awards program includes Seal, Suzanne Vega, Joe Perry (Aerosmith), Beth Gibbons (Portishead), Jeremy Taggart (Our Lady Peace), Pete Wentz (Fall Out...
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Coolest Girl (with Rich Kidd)
Happy Valentine’s Day Riverdale! Got this song with Rich Kidd done just in time. You remember those days. Tell your crush how you feel when you see her/him/other in the hall this afternoon.
I conceived the artwork with Ilona Fiddy who executed beautifully, based on a 1940s Archie Comic. Rich Kidd on production. Guest vocals by Lizzie Nightingale. Recorded by Bronze. Mixed by Dirty...
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On the Aesthetics of (In)Betweenness
Spent last week in New York for the HISTORY MAKERS Conference/Awards. A project I’d worked on some years ago was nominated for Best Interactive Production (it lost to the BBC). Overall, an inspiring week of art, theatre, and meetings.
While in NYC I connected with an old friend and young filmmaker, Ryan Sidhoo who thought he’d make me the subject of a quick doc. I rambled into a tape...
January 2011
37 posts
1 tag
The PEACHFUZZ REUNION Photos
Happy people: Thanks to all of you who attended the reunion. There’s a radiance to this event—the gathering of bright beings in the honeyed soundscape. And it warms me that so many recognize it as I do. If you don’t know what I mean, listen to the mix. Mensa and Todd capture it exactly. It was rambunctious too, thank Abraxas! Saturday’s confused and apologetic Facebook...
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Driving Down The Freeway
Driving Down The Freeway
An oldie but goodie, we’re re-releasing this dubplate at the request of some longtime supporters. I remember Mensa playing the original Young Buck and Outlawz record at Peachfuzz 3+ years ago. I wilded. He found the instrumental for me and I put it down in studio that week. Cali-driving inspired, it first appeared on one of Mensa’s Cool Out mixes. Oh how...
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Broad Way Sleep news
New single, EP, and song featured in a film. Read about it here.
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Nominated: The Law Project
An interactive film project I worked on a few years ago, The Law Project, was recently nominated for a History Makers award. I’m headed to NYC on Jan 26th for the conference/ceremony.
The Law Project is an interactive website designed to get you thinking critically and creatively about legal, human rights, and social justice issues. Explore the site, ‘collect’ media that interests you,...
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Anticipated Acts on livemusicTO
Read the whole piece here.
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Broad Way Sleep: Sound The Alarm
Broad Way Sleep is a songwriting collective I’m in with Ralph Joseph, Alexander The, and Sarah Shafey (and some others from time to time). Our new single is Sound The Alarm. I conceived the artwork with the talented designer Christine Mangosing - obvious nod to the famous poster by Russian Constructivist, Aleksandr Rodchenko. 1LoveTO just posted the song. So go have a listen.
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Peachfuzz & A Quarter Century
Mensa, Todd and I threw this party every single week for two years. The perfect blend of delicious (sexy) and nutritious (wholesome). If you were there, you know. If you never had the chance, now you have a chance. This Friday, I celebrate my 25th birthday party with the legendary Peachfuzz family.
The official:
Peachfuzz is a melodic mix of tunes you never knew and always loved, and the...
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Music & Math
Times Neue Roman - Music and Math
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TEDxToronto
Event: TEDxToronto 2010
Performance: Orpheus - with Eric Chan (Eepmon) and Andrew Zealley
Place: Glenn Gould Studio, Toronto
ORPHEUS - A Graphic-Narrative Poem
Eric and I originally collaborated on this piece for a performance as part of the Vancouver Art Gallery’s KRAZY! The Delirious World of Anime + Comics + Video Games + Art exhibit (May 17-September 7, 2008). It is structured...
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WalkHumans
The Times Neue Roman WalkHumans (never to be gender specific) were an idea I dreamed when people were asking for copies of certain songs that we were performing but not ready to release. Many of these songs were unmixed, or we simply didn’t have the distribution machine in motion. We didn’t want the songs to leak too heavy before they came out officially but we did want to hook...
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Design Through Dialogue
Christine Mangosing (CMANGO DESIGN) is a brilliant graphic designer and artist and a frequent collaborator of mine. I recently co-conceptualized and wrote the copy for her positioning tag and landing page. Love what she did with the text.
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Broad Way Sleep at TEDxToronto
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Caw three times.
Published in Existere, Journal of Arts and Literature. June 2008. Winner of Existere Writing Contest in Poetry category.
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Superstition in The Capilano Review
Years ago, I collaborated on a song called Superstition with Zach and Tom from The Zolas. The lyrics were published in the Capilano Review. Superstition premiered at one of the famous songroom events at Tom Cone’s home in Vancouver.
A Selection:
3:00 am – Meetings at Spadina
where Silent Sam greets General Tao
and other teenage immortals
fooled by their fortune cookies.
Published (with...
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James Blake CMYK (Pretty Beuys freemix)
Edit of James Blake’s CMYK by Pretty Beuys (Andrew Zealley and Robert Bolton). Photo by Miles Collyer.
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Dear Lucille, Talk Soon Aiden
Music by Alexander Punzalan Junior
Lyrics by Robert Bolton
Artwork by Christine Mangosing
Purchase the 7-Inch vinyl here.
Lyrics after the jump.
Text:
Dear Lucille,
Just got back Toronto. Sorry I missed you. Trip jumped a little bit mean and reckless, body full vodka, hole in my pocket. Weekend was nauseous. Grey Goose and nothing less for the young boys. I got bossy on Friday, 126...
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Broad Way Sleep: Shy & Out of Season
Music: Ralph Joseph & Alexander The
Vox: Sarah Shafey & Robert Bolton
Lyrics: Robert Bolton
Art: Ilona Fiddy and Christine Mangosing for CMANGO DESIGN
Concept by Robert Bolton, based on the painting, Nighthawks by Edward Hopper
www.broadwaysleep.com