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Steve Kirman, a.k.a. “Mr. Steve”, the “Steve” behind Steve’s Music Store, passed away on Saturday. Steve started his music instruments store in Montreal, where it now pretty much eats up a city block, and expanded to open stores in Ottawa as well as my hangout since high school, the Steve’s on Queen Street West.

I’ve bought countless things from Steve’s, from patch cables to amplifiers to my beloved Ensoniq EPS 16 sampler (which I gave to my friend Karl Mohr) to my most recent accordion, the little red Silvetta, pictured below when it was mere days old:

Thanks, Steve, for everything. (Especially for not kicking me out of the synth department when I hung out there for hours after school.)

Stories on Steve Kirman’s passing:

• NOW Magazine: RIP Steve Kirman
• The Link: Steve’s Music Founder Dies

There’s a traditional annual party held by and for Toronto’s tech and social media communities called CanLIT, which is short for Canadian Livers In Training. It’s an excuse to get together and “warm up” for the South by Southwest conference, which sees a lot of attendees from Accordion City.

Want to see last year’s CanLIT photos? They’re over here.

Lee Dale of Say Yeah hosted this year’s edition of CanLIT, and it was spectacular. Here are some photos from the bash.

Adult Supervision. Rohan Jayasekera and I were some of the “silver foxes” – that is, the elder statesmen – in the crowd, enjoying the antics of “the kids”.

The action in the kitchen is a reliable indicator of how well a party is doing.

The kitchen was a-rockin’, so come on a-knockin’!

The dance floor stayed packed the entire night.

When called for, I broke out the accordion. The big hit was when I jammed along to Nine Inch Nails’ Closer.

The other big hit: I decided to dress up a little and wore my little-used black Hugo Boss suit and black shirt. It received much lady-attention and appreciation. I’ll have to wear it more often.

Scenes from the DJ booth.

Photo op!

It ain’t a party until both Justin Kozuch and Raymi the Minx tear up the dance floor!

One of the many fine liquors I sampled that evening.

Silver Foxes represent! This time it’s me and James McNally.

Always let the ladies try the accordion. Here’s Hilary Krupa getting her groove on.

Here’s a gem featuring the audio from the trailer for the upcoming Avengers movie and a lot of the crappy animation from the old 1960s Marvel superhero cartoons. The only cheat is the use of Nick Fury clips: those are from the mid-’90s Iron Man cartoon (the one with the overwrought Keith Emerson theme).

For those of you who spent the 1980s playing Super Mario Bros. and listening to The Smiths, here’s a treat: covers of This Charming Man and Girlfriend in a Coma done Super Nintendo-style!

Here’s Super Morrissey Bros., the chiptune version of This Charming Man, created by “lazyitis”:

…and here’s “deadwhenifoundher’s” 8-bit rendition of Girlfriend in a Coma:

Inspired by both these covers, I had to whip up this graphic:

It’s been too long since we’ve had a Toronto Techie Dim Sum – since November, in fact – so I’m declaring one for this Wednesday, March 7th at noon at good ol’ Sky Dragon (Dragon City Mall, top floor, southwest corner of Spadina and Dundas)!

These are casual, informal lunchtime get-togethers for that broad category of people that I call “The Toronto Techie Community”. It includes programmers, designers and “suits” who work in the web and software industries or anyone interested in hanging out with such people for interesting conversation that isn’t always about technology, as well as cheap, cheerful and delicious Chinese food. If even the notion of attending a lunchtime gathering appeals to you, you’re the sort of person we’d like to see there!

Once again, Toronto Techie Dim Sum happens this Wednesday, March 7th at noon at Sky Dragon. We should be an easy group to spot – look for the table with me (see the photo, inset on the right).

This article also appears in Global Nerdy.

Nathan Fillion, whom most people know as “Castle” but sci-fi fans know and love as “Mal” from Firefly, tells Jimmy Kimmel what he did when we saw the Google Maps Street View car approach his house: he struck his Google Maps Pose!

Found via Search Engine Land.

Mope-tastic! The Smiths vs. Lana Del Rey in This Charming Video Game.

1980s mope meets 2010s mope when mashup artists The Reborn Identity combine Morrissey’s vocals from This Charming Man with the backing tracks of Lana Del Rey’s Video Games. The end result is perfect for sitting in a hotel bar and nursing a bourbon, and I mean that in the best possible way.

Mondo thanks to Duarte da Silva for the find!