Kung hei fat choi to all our friends! May this year of the rooster bring you much to crow about.

The Barrett and Welsh #MulticulturalMonday post for January 30, 2017, is a brief musical respite from the savagery swirling around us on the news and in social media. 

 Think of it as a much-needed harmonic counterpoint to the cacophony of hatred: the world’s oldest known melody (from what is now modern Syria), played by Michael Levy on a lyre. 
"Musick has charms to soothe a savage breast" wrote Congreve. May it be ever so. 

Peace. Shalom. Salaam. Shanti.

Image from http://thisisnthappiness.stfi.re/?sf=zzprgrl#aa
 My annual habit of sharing the links that led me to think most, love most, give most, pause most over the past year, has long been a replacement (for me) of less useful customs, such as the making of new year resolutions. As the dull disappointments of 2016 fade however, my favourite links for the year ahead are in fact resolutions of a kind.
And so here — in no particular order — are the thinks I enjoyed most in 2016. It strikes me as ironic in the extreme to post these in a year in which thinking itself was valued so little and forgotten so much.
  1. Cure blindness. To see more start here: a quarter of a million photographs from the Eastman Museum. Yes, you can find all sorts of things, but it’s the joy of searching that is most rewarded. From accused murderer Eadward Muybridge’s photographic studies of movement to Warhol’s obsessive iterative experiments your eyes will be opened and your mind blown.
  2. Fight racism. Ask when you don’t know. At yoisthisracist.com Andrew Ti answers your questions about if something is racist or not — and on his podcast of the same name. Hilarious, smart, insightful.
  3. Say what you are feeling. Invent new words if necessary. I felt a strange wistful satisfaction when I happened upon The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a web series which invents new words for the emotions that afflict us and propel us. A labour of love (another powerful emotion), written, edited, and narrated by John Koenig, new episodes are published weekly.
  4. Do not accept accepted wisdom. Revisionist History is a startling, insightful Malcolm Gladwell podcast that looks at the past and discusses forgotten, misunderstood and missed opportunities.
  5. See with your ears. The city of my birth is a tower of sound. Explored through your ears it is equal measures cacophony and music, magical and mundane. Sounds of Mumbai is a beautifully crafted immersive web experience that allows you to plant yourself in my beloved Bombay and experience its clashes, chaos, choral harmonies and rhythms. If you have never been to Mumbai, plug in your earphones and open your mind.
  6. Meet a Nobel Laureate. Read a poet along with his poetry. “You are one of the strangest children I have ever had anything to do with.” That quote comes directly from a note T S Eliot sent Marianne Moore. TSEliot.com is a treasure trove of a site lets you discover Eliot’s poetry and correspondence like never before.
  7. Discover a new subcontinent. Learn to listen to a billion voices. On the Tip of a Billion Tongues is a remarkable radio journey by Indo-Australian novelist Roanna Gonsalves (full disclosure, she is a friend) for the Australia Broadcasting Corporation. Roanna dives into 21st century India through the voices, thoughts and ideas of its writers in Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta and Goa.
  8. Hate hate. Kill the hate with laughter. If you struggle to cope with all the online hating, David Thorne’s blog will leave you ROFL. Laughter is the best revenge. Hate less. Laugh more. Or vice versa.
The pleasure is all mine. Feel free to post your own favourites in the comments. To a wonderful 2017 my friends.

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About the ideawallah

Gavin Barrett is Owner/Founding Partner + Chief Creative Officer, of award-winning Toronto multicultural advertising agency Barrett and Welsh. In pursuit of big ideas he has: nibbled on pigs' ears (not on a live pig at the time); gone elephant-back in the Thai jungle (no elephants were hurt); gambled in a Macau casino (was utterly destroyed). His ads: have run in 35 countries, helped elect prime ministers, attracted the ire of the lawyers for Dolly the clone sheep, drawn an angry crowd in Lagos, have been studied in business texts in Canada and India and received derisive mention in a John Irving novel. His poems: can be found in Penguin’s anthology of 14 contemporary Indian poets, Reasons for Belonging.

He cannot: sing.

Barrett and Welsh

Barrett and Welsh
We're not in the ad business. We're in the moving business. We move product. Perceptions. Behaviour. Market share. But most of all, we move people. We are the only mainstream-multicultural agency in Canada, capable of handling mainstream or multicultural advertising needs with equal ease, in global and North American markets. We have provided multicultural advertising services to clients in every category including Bell Canada, Brampton Transit, Burlington Transit, CBC, Centennial College, City of Brampton, Diageo, Niagara Region, Procter & Gamble, Rogers, Shaw Cable, Sobeys, TD Bank, Unilever, VivaNext, Walmart and York Region Transit.

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Non-stop to New Delhi

Non-stop to New Delhi
An ad for United Airlines created by Gavin Barrett to advertise the launch of a new non-stop United Airlines Hong Kong-New Delhi flight. From the Barrett and Welsh archives.

DISHUM! THE BARRETT AND WELSH GEARSTORE

DISHUM! THE BARRETT AND WELSH GEARSTORE
Cool swag from an ad shop which does multicultural work with real impact. Like this In a Mumbai Minute clock.

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