Well done, George. Bravo.

Washington Post: U.S. Pressure Weakens G-8 Climate Plan

The brilliant Sam at Daily Dose of Imagery reminds us just how green Toronto can be, today and yesterday.

Rick Segal, an American VC executive living in Canada, writes a pretty thoughful post about what it’s like to be an American these days. The comments, as you’d expect, get a little personal as the quality of the arguments declines. I actually met Rick once or twice when I was a vendor doing some work for his company; I was young (and a lowly vendor), so I was pretty intimidated by him. He was obviously very smart, but in situations like that you don’t pick up on the fact that someone’s thoughtful…he just seemed scary. So it was a bit of a shock to read a post like this.

Sometimes its hard to be an American

I don’t know who built your profiling system or who your analytics provider is. But I implore you, fire them. In the past year or so I have used your site to purchase tickets for the following events: Neko Case, The Pixies, The Fiery Furnaces, Celtic FC vs. AC Roma, and The Arcade Fire. Based on those purchases, as well as my alert preferences (‘Alternative Rock’, ‘Basketball’, and ‘Plays’), you sent me this last night:

To: radioDan
From: Ticketmaster Canada
Subject: Don’t miss Backstreet Boys

At this point I am not pleased. But then I see your twenty suggestions, and it’s all downhill.

• Backstreet Boys
• Bruce Springsteen
• Bill Gaither
• Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals
• Destiny’s Child
• George Carlin
• Gigantour: Megadeth and Dream Theater
• David Gray
• David Spade
• Death From Above 1979
• Queen – It’s a Kinda Magic Tour
• Dwight Yoakam
• Roger Hodgson(Formerly of Supertramp), with a Symphony Orchestra
• Glasgow Rangers Vs.dinamo Zagreb
• Blue Man Group At the Panasonic Theatre
• Trisha Yearwood
• Spirit of the West
• En Vogue
• Michael McDonald
• Ten Tenors

Now, the only events on here I would even consider seeing are Bruce Springsteen, Ben Harper, George Carlin, Blue Man Group and the football match. But Harper’s out ’cause he’s playing at the Kool Haus (check your profile; I haven’t seen a concert there in five years…should tell you something.); likewise Carlin at Rama. And since you know I bought tickets to see Celtic last year, what’re the odds I’ll want to go see Rangers this year, what with them being mortal enemies and all? So you’re left with the Boss and the Blue Men, and I’m not sure how Springsteen qualifies as alternative rock.

Seriously, fire them.

Last night I realized that Father’s Day is only a few days away and I still haven’t made the CD for my Dad that I planned. I hurriedly burned it last night (it’s a lot easier now that all my music is on my hard drive…no more shuffling cds around). Here’s the lineup:

1. The Shins – “The New Slang”
2. The Black Keys – “Girl Is On My Mind”
3. The Arcade Fire – “Neighbourhood #4 (7 Kettles)”
4. The Hidden Cameras – “Fear Is On”
5. The Heartless Bastards – “Runnin'”
6. Damien Rice – “The Blower’s Daughter”
7. Petra Haden – “I can See For Miles”
8. Damien Jurado – “I Can’t Get Over You”
9. The Long Winters – “Bride And Bridle”
10. Great Lake Swimmers – “I Will Never See The Sun”
11. The Ditty Bops – “Sister Kate”
12. The Kings Of Leon – “Molly’s Chambers”
13. Keren Ann – “Chelsea Burns”
14. The Dandy Warhols – “Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth”
15. Evan Dando & Juliana Hatfield – “$1,000 Wedding”
16. Neko Case – “This Little Light”
17. Jay Farrar – “White Freighliner Blues”
18. Bright Eyes – “We Are Nowhere And It’s Now”
19. Steve Earle – “The Kind”
20. Bob Dylan – “I Was Young When I Left Home”
21. Matt Pond PA – “Athabaska”

He won’t love it all — the Hidden Cameras, Petra Haden, Dandy Warhols and Kings Of Leon songs are less likely to impress him — but he’ll dig on the Damien Jurado, Bright Eyes and Matt Pond PA tunes. Shit, that a 62 year old grandfather would like any of these just proves how cool my dad’s taste in music is.

I’m trying to count in my head the number of email addresses I’ve had over the years. As near as I can tell it’s between 25 and 30, and that doesn’t include anything throw-away…those are ones I’ve used.

I sent my first email in 1993, so I guess it makes sense that I’d have been around.

Britney Spears Ranked Top Virus Celebrity.

Wait…they mean computer viruses, don’t they?

The first time I heard the Dandy Warhols was on a flight from Halifax to Toronto, some time in the late 90s. Alan Cross did a great radio show for Air Canada (which introduced me to a lot of great music over my travelling years, including Sunny Day Real Estate) that, this particular day, happened to feature a song called “Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth”. I was in love. Later I picked up a copy of …Come Down (which, to this day, I consider one of the greatest albums I’ve ever heard) and two more would soon follow. Those first three Dandys discs were brilliant; now, after watching DiG!, I see where a lot of the genius came from: A brilliant and destructive spazpants named Anton Newcombe.

I’ve been dying to see DiG! (imdb | rotten tomatoes) since it screened at Sundance. Well worth the wait. It’s fascinating to watch a genius sabotage his own dreams, and more than a little gratifying to watch a narcissistic bastard make everyone despise him. I figure we got the best of both worlds; the megalomaniacal shithead got what he deserved, but not before his influence helped three Dandy Warhols become near-masterpieces.

I passed, with a little room to spare. B. Thank god.

No rest for the wicked though. I’m already well into the textbook for the next course. Our first assignment’s due in less than two weeks, and we go on vacation next Thursday, so I’m on a compressed schedule. I have to read 150 pages and write a six-page paper in the next week. Fun, no?

Just taking a random stroll through the stats for this blog. It turns out that yesterday someone at Cambridge University found my post about the Sleater-Kinney song “Turn It On” by typing ‘it’s just that when you touch me i can not stand up’ into Google. Maybe they heard it on the radio and wanted to identify it. Maybe they wanted to see if anyone’d reserved it as a domain name.

I just thought that was cool.