Can I join the Tungsten Arts & Letters Society?

Yes you can.

The requirements of membership are:

1). You should be a creator or admirer of a) arts, or b) letters.
2). Um.
3). That's all. Although if you also agree that Tungsten is the coolest of all of the elements, that also works in your favour.

If you come to one of our events, you may sign up there, and you may even receive a snazzy membership card that you can keep in your wallet. Our science sub-committee is hard at work in the laboratory developing a secret handshake. You may want to join now to enjoy the privileges of membership without all the severe hazing and steep fees that are likely to become part of the process in the future.

Why do you have such a cheap, crappy website?

It is because we are cheap people, and we are near-strangers to technology. If you find it sometimes difficult to navigate back from our FAQ and IAQ pages, it is because our webmaster is no master at all -- he barely even rates as an apprentice. He is, in fact, somewhat less smart than a doorknob, and somewhat less useful too (especially if you're fixing to open a door).

We are not overly concerned about this; if we were an organization of Information Superhighway enthusiasts, we would be called the Tungsten Technology & Computation Society. We are, in the end, simply practitioners of the more ancient arts -- shouting, jumping, painting, typewriting -- and this website is, far from a showcase for our technical prowess, merely our humble attempt to communicate information to you. Forgive us, dear reader, we are RTFM-ing, as the lingo goes, as we go along.

What is the Outdoor Word & Music Adverture?

The Tungsten Arts & Letters Society Outdoor Word & Music Adventure is a series of events held in public places in and around the city of Toronto. The venues for these events are selected on the basis of how cool a place they seem to hold an arts and literary event.

Around the city, as we wander (and we wander -- oh, do we wander) we spot many spaces, in parks, civic squares, or just hanging around on the corner, that appear to have been constructed for the explicit purpose of hosting public performances. We have noticed that virtually none of these places are ever used for that purpose. We are on a mission to change that.

Our events consist of a few performances by people whose reading skills (and often writing skills) we admire -- they may read work in any of many genres: poetry, fiction, memoir, political manifesto, art criticism, riddle, dramatic monologue, or something else entirely. They may or may not use visual aids.

Afterwards, our house band (whose name is forthcoming, but whose membership is now known to us) will perform some songs.

The ceremonies will be mastered by the Tungsten Arts & Letters Society's Socialite-in-Chief Edward Keenan. Edward's mother, Mrs. Keenan (or "Grandma Donna," if you feel you must) will provide refreshments.

There will be no amplification system set up. There will be no booze. There will often be no washrooms. That, dear friends, is the adventure.

What is the Tungsten Arts & Letters Society?

We are people who like reading and writing and playing music and listening to music and also creating and consuming -- or appreciating, I guess you'd call it -- other forms of art. Painting. Sculpture. Dance -- actually, we're not so big on dance, but we'll take it in a pinch. Especially if the dancers are hot. And they nearly always are, are we right?

But so anyway, we also like saying "Tungsten." It just sounds cool.

Currently, we are the organizers of the Tungsten Arts & Letters Society Outdoor Word & Music Adventure (you may call it TA&LSOW&MA for short, though it doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, we realize).

At some point in the future, our activities may expand. One day, we hope to publish a magazine. That day may be soon, it may not. The future is funny that way.

Why Tungsten?

Tungsten is an element. Of all the elements on the periodic table, it is -- for our money (not that we have much) -- the most fun to say. Try it: "Tungsten." See?

Tungsten is represented on the periodic table by the letter W -- a nickname shared by a certain Decider of whom we know, who was not a factor in our naming process. W is by far the most fun letter of the alphabet to pronounce. Some people in W the Decider's country pronounce it like this: Duba-ya. Saying that is almost as much fun as saying double-you, which is how normal people pronounce it.

Tungsten is also represented by the atomic numer 74. Which, if your lucky numbers are seven and four -- and whose aren't? Phil Esposito and Bobby Orr, anyone? -- is kind of neat.

Tungsten was once known as Wolfram. We like to think of it as the Howlin' Wolf of the elemental world.

Among the many notable properties of Tungsten, perhaps the coolest is that it has the highest melting point of any non-alloy.

Tungsten is used to make many things (among them Superalloys and the target in X-ray tubes), but perhaps its most famous use is in the filaments of lightbulbs, which are the common symbol for an idea.

So: Why not Tungsten? You get the idea.

(Please note that the source of most of our information about Tungsten is the occassionally unreliable yet very handy Wikipedia.)