- I’m practically asleep at 10:00 on a Friday night. In my defence I only got about 4 hours of sleep last night.
- I played Dance Dance Revolution today, for the first time. I feel dirty all over.
[tags]dance dance revolution[/tags]
Month: June 2007
Can one glamp in Central Park?
This is my favourite time of night. Not day, but not night yet either. That’s St. James Cathedral, by the way. It’s the structure that inspired my building.
.:.
Apparently I’m even further behind the time than JR, ’cause I’d never heard of glamping either. But I like the sound of it. Someone needs to make a canoe with a Bang & Olufsen stereo in it. I’m also in the market for an inflatable 5-star bathroom.
.:.
Porter is now cleared to fly to New York. Well, Newark airport, but close enough.
Montreal, Ottawa, Halifax, and now New York; I may never fly from Pearson again. Uh, until September when I got to Europe.
[tags]st james cathedral, glamping, porter air[/tags]
Hollywood loves him and so should you.
I want to see A Mighty Heart. It’s compelling subject matter. It stars Angelina Jolie. It’s about terrorism and geopolitics and the importance of journalism.
But here’s why I won’t go see it: the name. A Mighty Heart? C’mon. Show me that someone has a mighty heart, don’t try to convince me before I even get to the theatre. You’re supposed to be telling a story, not selling me a hero.
.:.
Even in re-runs Friday Night Lights is better than most things on TV. Within five minutes Jason Street rattles off two classic lines:
“Because I’m crippled and I want to listen to Nirvana. Is that so hard to understand?!?”
-and-
Jason: “If you’re looking for Clay Aiken you’ll find him under A.”
Lyla: “You should know, he’s your boyfriend.”
Jason: “Hey…what Clay and I have is special. America loves him and so do I.”
But it’s the way they all deliver their lines on that show. You just have to watch it, if you’re not already.
[tags]a mighty heart, friday night lights[/tags]
Richard Thompson = White Bear
A few days ago I talked about how certain songs have particular — and often irrational — connections to certain places in my mind. Another one just came to me as my Zen is on random: “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” by Richard Thompson, for some reason, makes me think of an English pub called The White Bear. My brother, his girlfriend, Nellie and I stopped there as we drove north to Scotland, and they had amazing food, a stunning view, great ambience and charm…none of which have anything to do with Richard Thompson or vintage motorcycles.
I have no idea why my brain makes that connection, but hearing the song just puts me back in that seat, eating a huge feast of duck in black cherry sauce, sipping whisky, ducking low ceiling beams, laughing with my family, surrounded by misty English hills as we started our European adventure two years ago.
I am a puzzle wrapped in a mystery inside a music-and-food-associating enigma.
[tags]richard thompson, vincent black lightning, white bear pub[/tags]
Winner of the first annual Least Absurd contest: the independents
I finally visited the bakery downstairs (called “Porh Pawh”…anyone want to take a stab at what the hell that means?) since I was walking by it around 7:45. I got an almond croissant, still piping hot…it was really good. Dammit. Fresh, tasty croissants downstairs — literally, I don’t even have to outside — is not what I need.
.:.
Is anyone else having problems with Sympatico? Or is it just me? My connection has been le suck since Saturday.
.:.
I am stunned. I knew it was bad down there, but I didn’t know it was this bad.
I remember being amused when three of the Republicans running for the party candidacy admitted, during a debate, that they did not believe in evolution. I thought, “That’s it. Those guys are toast.” Little did I know that they’d probably just read the advanced polling and were giving their constituents what they wanted to hear. That’s horrifying in and of itself, but the fact that 68% of the party who voted in the president doesn’t believe in evolution is just…staggering. I’m flummoxed, really.
Full story here.
[tags]porh pawh, sympatico problems, evolution, republicans, democrats, gallup[/tags]
Experts agree: The Strokes suck
Our bbq has gas. Not flatulence gas, natural gas. Not natural flatulent gas, just natural gas. We can now cook food. In fact, Nellie is outside doing so now whilst I try to recover from the day that was.
.:.
Four interesting things that RSS’d their way to me today:
- There will be a Voltron movie. When it is released I shall re-live my childhood.
- Voting for the Golden Tap awards is now open. The awards honor the best microbreweries (and their beers) in the GTA, and in Ontario. My picks are as follows:
- Best microbrewery in the GTA (Granite Brewery)
- Best beer brewed in the GTA (Granite Brewery Dry Hop Special Bitter)
- Best microbrewery in Ontario (Neustadt)
- Best beer brewed in Ontario, outside the GTA (Neustadt 10W30)
- Best pub in the GTA, in terms of draught selection (Bar Volo)
- Best pub in the GTA, in terms of bottle selection (Smokeless Joe’s)
- Best pub in Ontario, outside of the GTA (Manx, in Ottawa, though I should admit that it’s the only one I’ve been to)
- Best brewpub or tied house in Ontario (Granite Brewery)
- Il Fornello, a Toronto restaurant, will be adding an Ontario-only menu.
- There are a lot of “classic” albums that I just can’t stand. A few of them are mentioned in this Guardian article, and some folks agree with me. In fact, the only ones I don’t agree with are the Arcade Fire (which seems out of place from the rest, and I think it’s just an easy and controversial target) and to some degree Nirvana and Pink Floyd. The rest I don’t care for at all.
[tags]natural gas bbq, voltron, golden tap awards, ontario microbrew, granite brewery, neustadt, il fornello, arcade fire, nirvana, pink floyd[/tags]
A big steel decoration
The good news: we picked up our barbeque today.
The bad news: our natural gas connection doesn’t seem to be working.
.:.
CBGB came over this morning for brunch. There was much sitting on the balcony. Then there was gelato. Then there was an overwhelming desire to nap, followed by work and some painting. Truly, a red-letter day.
.:.
We watched Nacho Libre (imdb | rotten tomatoes) yesterday. A few funny bits early on, but overall pretty disappointing. I expected more from Jack Black and the director of Napoleon Dynamite. One interesting thing: the female lead, Ana de la Reguera, looked like someone had spliced Winona Ryder together with Penelope Cruz.
[tags]natural gas barbeque, gelato, nacho libre[/tags]
We'll keep the spider that bites the lady that cleans the couch that swallowed the fly
Three things about the condo:
- We have a new couch. It’s big and squishy.
- We have a giant spider (seen here) living on our balcony. I’m not particularly fond of spiders, but he’s eating the swarm of insects that seems to frequent the area, so he can stay. Click on the picture if you want to see a higher-res version.
- Cleaning lady: best invention ever.
.:.
CBGB came over last night while I was at work and taught Nellie how to make GB’s excellent veggie burgers. I got home in time to enjoy the beautiful weather on the balcony with them. We actually spent the whole night out there, ate some pizza from Amato, and even saw some unexpected fireworks. It was a nice end to a long week.
.:.
Violent protests in Halifax? Ontario supporting public transit? Yesterday was topsy-turvy day, apparently…
[tags]condo furniture, spider, cleaning lady, amato pizza, fireworks, halifax protests, ontario public transit[/tags]
Radio silence
I got nothin’.
[tags]blogger’s block[/tags]
Scott Adams for President (so long as he keeps drawing Dilbert)
A couple of weeks ago Scott Adams (the writer of Dilbert) wrote something I wish I’d written myself: a very logical and sensible summary of the global warming debate. Clearly I think we have to make thoughtful choices about the impact we have on the environment; that said, I don’t believe the most extreme doomsday scenarios which all the true believers are supposed to support. Here’s how Adams puts it:
“The people predicting likely doom because of global warming have not made their case. Humans are incredibly adaptive. And technological breakthroughs happen in steps, not predictable straight lines. Every other predicted type of global doom hasn’t happened because of human resourcefulness. No climate model can predict human resourcefulness.”
Ultimately he falls out in pretty much the same place as me: it’s a problem, and something has to be done, but nothing substantial will be done until there’s:
- obvious & undeniable evidence of global warming that even a low-grade moron can’t ignore, or;
- an economic way of solving global warming.
Failing that, it’ll stay a debate.
UPDATE, May 2025: Obviously I don’t go back to review old posts very often, or I would have made this edit earlier. Clearly I do not want Scott Adams to be president…although even with all his bullshit, it’s hard to imagine how he could be worse than the incumbent.
[tags]scott adams, dilbert, global warming[/tags]
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 