Month: July 2006

"I'm glad he's not in a position anymore to be whipped by his enemy"

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From this StatsCan study about average commute time for Canadians, we’re told that “Torontonians spent the longest time in transit in 2005, spending an average of 79 minutes per round trip.” This is hardly a surprise. There’s also a misleading statement about public transit:

The study also revealed that despite the widespread problem of traffic congestion, it is much faster to travel by car than by public transportation. On average, Canadians in cars spent between 51 and 59 minutes on the road, while public transit users endured average travel time of 94 to 106 minutes.

It seems like they’re comparing apples to oranges here. Shouldn’t they also have included the average distance car drivers live from work vs. public transit? I mean, if the average transit user lives twice as far away from work as the average car driver, then their commute time would actually be better, no? I’m not saying that’s the case; I’m just saying this article makes a misleading statement. Maybe the StatsCan report clears it up…if only I had the time to read it…

.:.

In what might be the dumbest comparison of the last…I don’t know, EVER, the reverend presiding over Ken Lay’s funeral likened him to both Martin Luther King and Jesus Christ.

[tags]statscan, commute, transit, ken lay[/tags]

Man, that would be the easiest lawn in the world to mow…

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Via Yes But No But Yes: the British (actors who starred in The Office) are coming (to the US version…for an episode…some time next season).

.:.

I find this guy in a lawn-filled wheel both amusing and nostalgic (as you can see straight down Spring Garden Road in Halifax in the picture). Cool social commentary, and a shout-out (yeah, I said “shout-out”) to my alma mater too.

.:.

Finally, Toronto Life has RSS feeds (most importantly for their food and wine blogs). I bitched about the lack of feeds back in May, but someone from TL informed me via the comments section that the feeds would soon appear…et voila, here they are.

[tags]the office, grass-lined wheel, dalhousie, halifax, toronto life[/tags]

Vodka, caviar, and suicidal novelists

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What’s a humid Sunday after a night of fitful sleep good for? Movies! We watched two yesterday:

The Squid And The Whale (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was good, but I don’t know if it was 94%-on-Rotten-Tomatoes good. It was actually one of those rare movies that I wish was longer; they could’ve spent another 15-20 minutes pushing through those stories and I wouldn’t have minded. There’s no doubt about it: those parents screwed those kids up in ways that only two highly-educated neurotic egotists could.

Lord Of War (imdb | rotten tomatoes) seemed to have a weird theatrical release; it got almost no advance marketing but still did $24 million on what seemed to me like just a few screens, but that still seemed odd given the presence of Nicholas Cage in the lead role. I liked the movie, but it never quite seemed to make me feel quite as bad as I think Andrew Niccol wanted me to. He hit the macro discomfort level (pointing out that most arms dealing is done by the five permanent members of the UN security council), but didn’t effectively hit the micro level: no one I cared about really seemed to experience any personal loss because of their actions. Still, it’s worth watching.

.:.

More and more at work I’ve become interested in marketing…of sorts. I still view traditional marketing as this morbid evil, but my job has become less about using technology to deliver our company’s services and more about reinterpreting what those services should be; technology is simply becoming the standard method of delivery. Attending the mesh conference, reading Cluetrain, taking that recent marketing course (and shaking my head with disgust through nearly the whole thing), regular conversations with my boss (who also gets it), daily articles showing up in my feed reader about social marketing, blogs, wikis, podcasts, pinko marketing…and on and on. I feel like there’s real change to be had here, but I never fancied myself a marketing kind of guy. I was a guy who could straddle the line between technology and business — having decent background in both — but marketing never seemed to be a real (or honorable) aspect of business.

But is marketing changing? Or is the change that’s coming something bigger than marketing, something big enough to fundamentally change the way companies operate? Well…probably not, but things could get more interesting as they get more transparent, but I sometimes find myself wanting to lead that change.

I just don’t know if I could stand the hypocrisy. God…next I could be saying that I want to go into sales…

[tags]squid and the whale, lord of war, social marketing, cluetrain, pinko marketing[/tags]

TIFF!

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I just bought our ticket book for this year’s TIFF (or Toronto International Film Festival). We bought 30 tickets this year; we’ll probably only see 12 or 13 and give the other 4/6 tickets to friends. This is the only year when I don’t have an MBA course conflicting with the festival, so I’m taking advantage and booking a few vacation days to take in as much festivaliciousness as I can.
Can’t say I care much for this year’s poster though…

[tags]tiff[/tags]

"petulance, selfishness, looniness, take your pick"

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He won the Golden Ball this year for being the best player in this tournament. He’s one of the greatest players ever to wear the French colours. Sadly, shamefully, what Zinedine Zidane will be best remembered for now is headbutting an Italian player late in the final game of the World Cup, for which he received a red card. His team could not recover; I fear his legacy will suffer the same fate.

.:.

I picked the wrong time to walk to work this morning. It was raining, the kind of rain that comes in at 45 degrees and laughs at puny umbrellas like mine. Thus, the backs of my legs are soaked. Could life get any worse?

Oh yeah. See above.

[tags]zinedine zidane, headbutt, a hard rain’s a-gonna fall[/tags]

"Jim Henson knew his place"

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For the sake of my waistline, I really need my family to stop visiting Toronto. Last night we took another brother and his wife to Fieramosca — our second visit in as many Saturdays — and left the place stuffed, as always. The staff actually ribbed us a bit, saying “OK, see you tomorrow night!” as we left. Smartasses. I had the salsiccia e quaglia alla griglia, a sausage & quail plate that TimmyD got last week (which I just had to try), my brother had the linguine di mama ninetta (a favourite of T-Bone’s), and the ladies shared the seafood pasta for 2. The hostess Mani (sp?) gave us some Tiramisu to keep us busy while the ladies had their after-dinner glass of Amarone. 3.5 hours later, we managed to waddle home. Oy.

Sadly, we didn’t get to spend much more time than that with them. They arrived mid-afternoon, after trying to deal with some lost luggage, and after we got some food into them the ladies went shopping while my brother and I sat and Starbucks and caught up on things. Then we popped down to Henry’s to find them a new digital camera (and may have found one ourselves: the Canon S3 IS), swung by the condo to have a look, strolled down to Front Street and then came back up on the subway (fighting for seats with Indy fans) to relax before dinner. While relaxing we put it on Just For Laughs — there was really nothing else on — and saw a very bizarre, very funny ventriloquist act by Nina Conti…it was weird to see this beautiful woman do a surrealist comedy act with a smarmy monkey. Anyway. Good fun, but it’s too bad they could only stick around for half a day.

Now then…to find a salad…

[tags]fieramosca, henry’s, nina conti, molson indy[/tags]

Stars, deaths & disasters

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Dang. Last weekend we saw a pink-topped hearse driving around, promoting the new Andy Warhol exhibit at the AGO (curated by David Cronenberg); we’d have stopped him if we knew we’d get free tickets.

.:.

My brother and his wife should be arriving soon (the other one, not the one who just left on Tuesday). They picked a great weekend to visit: great weather and tons of festivals going on.

[tags]andy warhol, david cronenberg, ago, family visits[/tags]

Hell all

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That subject line is a lot funnier if you worked at Delano.

.:.

Word of advice: if you should find yourself drinking a chocolate chiller from Second Cup (or any other similar frozen drinky thing), restrain yourself from sucking it all back in one or two gulps. Today I inhaled so much ice in one go that I temporarily incapacitated myself. I’d hate to see it happen to you too.

.:.

My music “inbox” is getting out of hand again: Be Your Own Pet, Danielson, Danny Michel, Jesu, John Frusciante, Jolie Holland, Primal Scream, Thom Yorke, Tilly & The Wall and a few others that wouldn’t fit on my memory key. Is there some part of my music habit that I can outsource? Perhaps my evaluation of new music can be offshored?

[tags]delano, second cup, enjoyment outsourcing[/tags]

The best albums of 2005, now that I've had some time to think about it.

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  1. sleater-kinney . the woods
  2. heartless bastards . stairs and elevators
  3. duke spirit, the . cuts across the land
  4. the dandy warhols . odditorium or the warlords of mars
  5. low . the great destroyer
  6. the constantines . tournament of hearts
  7. the new pornographers . twin cinema
  8. spoon . gimme fiction
  9. wolf parade . apologies to the queen mary
  10. …and you will know us by the trail of dead . worlds apart

…….aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand the rest of the best. Or best of rest. Gaadshgihsoghhwhatever.

  • black mountain . black mountain
  • black rebel motorcycle club . howl
  • bright eyes . i’m wide awake it’s morning
  • death cab for cutie . plans
  • fiery furnaces, the . ep
  • ladytron . witching hour
  • lcd soundsystem . lcd soundsystem
  • living things . ahead of the lions
  • metric . live it out
  • nine inch nails . with teeth
  • pelican . the fire in our throats will beckon the thaw
  • rogue wave . descended like vultures
  • sigur ros . takk…
  • silver mt. zion . horses in the sky
  • sufjan stevens . illinoise

Again, as before, there were three great discs that I didn’t include because they’re compilations or live recordings: Hey! by The Pixies, Government Commisions: BBC Sessions 1996-2003 by Mogwai and Sunday Nights: The Songs Of Junior Kimbrough.

[tags]best music of 2005[/tags]