Author: Dan Dickinson

To be fair, everything looks like twaddle under an electron microscope

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I’ve been too busy to blog (or think) much lately, so no sparkling insight or stunning revelations from me right now. Sorry.

.:.

I am shocked — shocked and appalled — that those Q-Ray bracelets I’ve been seeing in late-night infomercials for years are completely worthless. Wendy Mesley, why do you hate America?

.:.

One lesser-known blog I like to read is Laura Bogomolny’s. She’s a former writer at Canadian Business magazine who’s now doing her MBA at Columbia, and occasionally writes about her classes, the program, life in New York, etc. Today she wrote about a negotiation exercise she did side-by-side with law students:

When the law students were asked if it looked like fun to be the business person in the negotiation, over half of the law students raised their hands. When the business school students were asked if it looked like fun to be the lawyer, not a single hand went up.

OK, I’m not shocked by that one.

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The musical inbox is piling up again. The more recent additions:

  • Annuals . Be He Me
  • Jealous Girlfriends . Comfortably, Uncomfortable
  • Puscifer . V Is For Vagina
  • Robert Plant & Alison Krauss . Raising Sand
  • Sigur Ros . Hvarf-Heim
  • Sigur Ros . Svarf
  • Various Artists (Stereogum) . Drive XV
  • Weakerthans . Reunion Tour
  • Yeasayer . All Hour Cymbals

I need to find a way to listen to this stuff. My job doesn’t really allow me time to listen to music at my desk anymore.

[tags]q-ray, cbc, wendy mesley, laura bogomolny, columbia university, mba, jealous girlfriends, puscifer, sigur ros, weakerthans, naysayer[/tags]

Ten-year-olds and shut-ins.

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On the plus side, we had the day off today. On the other hand, it was an ugly day outside, so we didn’t venture beyond our doorstep much…just shut it down and conserved our energy for the week ahead. We did manage to put up a few pictures, and we just watched a movie: Hollywoodland (imdb | rotten tomatoes). Meh. Not bad, but I’ll forget it by tomorrow.

.:.

I’ll do the Toronto Star one better: it’s time to retire the national embarrassment that is Don Cherry. He is far from an impartial analyst (he openly cheers for the Leafs, “good Canadian boys” and anyone who doesn’t wear a visor), and his opinion is stuck in the goonish 1970s/80s.

“If the instigator rule wasn’t in you could get this guy and wipe him out,” Cherry thundered, apparently not sated by the first-period fisticuffs. “This is what’s bad about hockey when you have a little guy yapping around and you can’t do anything about it.”

Indeed. Retire him, CBC. There’re plenty of cavemen on TV to go around.

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Oxford American magazine has a great article about the nature of indie music. It intersperses the history of a 2006 buzz band with a description of the tastemaking machine that turns out these hot new things with dizzying speed. It talks about the fever that infects these tastemakers, where the discovery of something new becomes more important than the music itself:

“But the second time,” he went on, “well, now it sold out early, and it’s at a bigger club. And I’m not that guy anymore. I’m not the guy discovering them. I’m just a guy who is with everybody else who also knows who they are.”

The article mentions how Pitchfork likens a band to, among others, Animal Collective. I thought for a long time that I just didn’t get this band, but I think now I do. I still don’t like them; I think I’m just on to the scam. I ranted on my friend Joe’s blog about them a while ago; rather than repeat myself I’ll just paste here what I wrote there:

Animal Collective is one of those bands that indie hipster nerds (by which I mean those people who want the label more than they want to listen to the music) profess to love because they know the band will never be mainstream and no one will, as a consequence, question their indie cred for having once liked a mainstream band. Nobody actually *likes* their music. It’s like a secret indie handshake. “Hey, you like Animal Collective? Yeah? Cool, we can hang out then.”

It’s like film students who claim to love Un Chien Andalou…no they don’t. But no one else ever will either, so they keep it for themselves so they can have their little club.

Indie became a scene not because it was a genre of music but because it wasn’t popular and mainstream. Now that indie music is just as mass-produced and marketed as any other genre, the indie hipster nerds who crave exclusivity more than they crave good music have made the pursuit of the next great secret thing more important than the discovery of a life-changing album. It’s to be expected; whenever there’s a little money or prestige to be had, there’s little that can stop people from trying to be the king.

[tags]hollywoodland, don cherry, oxford american, indie music, animal collective, indie music[/tags]

"Most people I've meet hardly seem like human beings to me anymore."

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A Remembrance Day parade just down Church street this afternoon.

.:.

It was a busy days, internets. We were up early, at Home Depot by 8:15 this morning, and back home painting by 9:00. Well…I wasn’t painting, but Nellie and GB were. I provided logistical support (fetching breakfast, moving furniture, etc.) as I am teh suck when it comes to painting. However, those two were very fast; they did two coats on the living room walls and one and a half coats (don’t ask) in the bedroom. The living room is now a very awesome gray. It looks great, and it feels great to have some color on the walls. Tomorrow we plan to actually put some art on the walls! Like we actually live here!

Tonight we relaxed (Nellie’s actually ready to pass out any minute now), ordered some Thai from the new place across the street (which was very good) and watched one of the movies we PVR’d during TMN‘s free preview weekend: Down In The Valley (imdb | rotten tomatoes). It was…weird. The first half is a standard fish out of water, girl falls for the weird loner, pseudo love story. The second half is a western/chase movie set in the San Fernando valley. Like I said…weird. I wouldn’t recommend it.

We started to watch two other movies from the free preview: Strangers With Candy (which we stopped watching after half an hour…maybe I missed something by never seeing the show but I just didn’t find it that funny) and Aeon Flux (I didn’t even want to record it, but Nellie likes dumb action movies sometimes. I couldn’t even watch it.). We also recorded Volver and Hollywoodland.

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This book review in The New Republic makes my brain swim. It’s about Jack Goldsmith’s book detailing his time as assistant attorney general in the White House’s Office of Legal Counsel. The review covers the book itself, but also gives the reader a synopsis of what it must have been like for Goldsmith and others like him, given the unilateral way in which the Bush administration has operated.

Within a matter of days, Goldsmith learned that he was expected to kowtow to the White House’s legal demands…Battle after battle took place, with Goldsmith saying that the president was not at liberty to do this or that and the White House disagreeing. At one point Addington warned Goldsmith that “if you rule that way, the blood of the hundred thousand people who die in the next attack will be on your hands.” All of this made Goldsmith, an honest and learned man who did not like to see the Constitution traduced by ideology or power, more than despondent, and eventually he left the Department of Justice.

Frightening, since this office is set up to provide counsel to an executive branch struggling with some immense legal issues. It wasn’t long-lived though:

But alas, much of Goldsmith’s handiwork would soon be undone. After his departure, his more pliant successor, Steven Bradbury, gave the administration what it wanted. According to a recent New York Times story that could easily serve as an epilogue to Goldsmith’s book, the administration put Bradbury on a probationary period as acting head of OLC, refusing formally to nominate him until they had seen how he would rule in his acting capacity on a variety of issues.

The full review isn’t that long, and is well worth reading. I assume the book is too, if you want to understand what it feels like for a principled, rational man (who is no left wing lawyer, by the way) to find himself surrounded by ideologues.

[tags]remembrance day, home depot, painting, down in the valley, strangers with candy, aeon flux, jack goldsmith, new republic[/tags]

Don't judge me. It felt like hand-stitched butter.

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I needed to ease out of the work week and into the long weekend in tasty fashion last night, so we had some dinner and a couple of drinks at Volo with CBGB. A little veggie pasta, a Black Kat stout and a Mill Race and the unwinding was underway. We couldn’t muster much more energy than that, though, and with a busy weekend ahead of us we decided we’d better relax and catch up a TV backlog. And so we did.

This morning we got up and had breakfast at Eggstasy. Poor Nellie, she just can’t seem to get servers to understand the following:

The Toronto definition of eggs “over hard” does not equal the consistency to which she wants her eggs cooked, which is best described as “shoe leather.”

She asked for “fried, over really hard, nothing runny, no liquid whatsoever, completely cooked all the way through” and the server wrote down “over hard.” Of course, they came back all runny inside; she sent them back and when they returned they were still too runny. Now, granted, she’s very fussy about her eggs, but given the painstaking and blunt description she applies each and every time, I’d expect at least one cook in 10 to get it right. Sadly, it never, ever works. Anyway.

Our purpose today was shopping, so after a quick stop to look at some Herman Miller chairs (I want!) we went to Harry Rosen. I’ll spare you the gory details, but suffice it to say when I left 90 minutes later picking up my credit card required oven mitts. It’s official…I have a weakness for two things: chocolate and nice clothes. I’m kind of worried; now that I’ve tried on a Canali suit I can’t go back. From this day on it’s a descent into Brioni territory, and that way lies madness. Anyway, it’s all stuff I needed (or at least wanted a lot) and I’m considering it an advance on my bonus. I hope.

We got home and ran a few more errands (finally getting a frame for the art we bought from a Parisien wine bar, picking up some wine & snacks, etc.) in preparation for tomorrow’s work. We figure it’s time to finish painting the joint, now that all the repairs are complete (hurrah!), and we’ve enlisted GB’s expertise to get us over the goal line. Wish us luck.

[tags]bar volo, eggstasy, herman miller, harry rosen, canali, brioni[/tags]

I'm not having it either

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My brother sent me this article from a Manchester newspaper yesterday and I had to post it. I like to share stories that make me weep for humanity.

A lottery scratchcard has been withdrawn from sale by [national lottery operator] Camelot – because players couldn’t understand it. To qualify for a prize, users had to scratch away a window to reveal a temperature lower than the figure displayed on each card. As the game had a winter theme, the temperature was usually below freezing.

But the concept of comparing negative numbers proved too difficult for some Camelot received dozens of complaints on the first day from players who could not understand how, for example, -5 is higher than -6.

I can see why that could be complicated. Witness the lament from this poor confused soul:

“I phoned Camelot and they fobbed me off with some story that -6 is higher – not lower – than -8 but I’m not having it.”

Onward, vacuous soldier. Rage against that machine.

.:.

Tonight I was reminded of the reason (well…one reason) why I love my wife so much. I got home, expecting her to be there, but she hadn’t yet returned from the grocery store. She came home a few minutes later, crying. On her way home she’d found an injured pigeon on the street. She stopped to take care of it, got it out of harm’s way and into a box, called animal rescue and (along with a stranger) waited with it. She got home, dropped her bags and went out to the balcony to watch for the rescue van to arrive, guiding them to the box on her cell phone.

The pigeon might not make it, but she stopped and cared for it when no one else would. Pretty hard to not love her for that.

[tags]cool cash scratchcard, camelot, why i love my wife[/tags]

They "treat people like crap?" Oh no, no, they treat severe speeders like crap. Important distinction.

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Work and school have me kind of spun right now, so I’m pretty much limited to link dumps and non sequiturs:

  • Amnesty International says we (meaning Canada) are getting soft on the death penalty. This ain’t something we wanna be soft on, Steve.
  • Today’s whiny man for whom I have absolutely no sympathy: Jason Stainthorpe. Driving his SUV 50km/h over the speed limit and ignorant of month-old speeding legislation, he “admitted he was speeding, but was furious that police wouldn’t let him off with a warning since he had never heard of the new law.” Aw, the mean man sworn to protect the populace took away his girlfriend’s big truck. Truly, my heart bleeds.
  • I’ll declare it right now: I pledge to vote for any politician who promises to ban Christmas ads and/or decorations before December 1st. I don’t care if they run on a puppy-farm and scat-porn stump; they have my vote.

[tags]amnesty international, canada, death penalty, ontario speeding legislation, christmas ads, christmas decorations[/tags]

We could call it MentaliTivo

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Today was the kind of day I wish I could erase from my own memory. Not a catastrophe…just a constant low level of ugliness that I’d just as soon wipe out, like a bad show off the PVR. Hmmm…a brain PVR? I think there’s a product there.

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The other night, on my way home, I saw a lineup outside the sales centre for the shmancy new condo scheduled for the southeast corner of Yonge & Bloor. I wondered why there was a lineup. Now I know.

A line stretching about 100 people long has formed outside a Toronto condo office — a full week before the units are to be released for sale.

Touted as a prime piece of real estate at Yonge and Bloor, 1 Bloor St. E also holds the distinction of being the first 80-storey residential tower planned in the country. Construction is expected to be completed by 2011.

I hope all this money pouring into the corner convinces someone to fix all the rest of the ugliness at that corner. I’m looking at you, Royal Bank.

.:.

Wondering which book you should read next? Wonder no more.

[tags]mentalitivo, 1 bloor, what should i read next[/tags]

I had no idea "religiosity" was even a word

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Richard Florida, author of Rise of the Creative Class, professor and all-around smart guy, is living in Toronto now. His blog is mirrored on the Globe and Mail’s website, and given his local focus I’ve subscribed to the feed. I find most of what he posts about very interesting; he describes his specialty areas as “economic competitiveness, demographic trends, and cultural and technological innovation” so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.

Over the weekend he posted a graph that he’d found on Andrew Sullivan’s site, who found it in a Pew Research paper. I’ve posted it here:

Wealth and religion

While it doesn’t surprise me, it does illustrate the data nicely. Put simply, it indicates that the more religious a country, the less wealthy it tends to be. You could argue about which is the chicken and which is the egg in that correlation, but the trend is there. Canada’s easy to spot; the two North American countries are represented in navy blue and the US is labeled. Canada’s practically on top of the trend line.

Actually, the US is one of the two very interesting outliers: it’s the most wealthy nation, but is way off the trend line. Kuwait is the other: more wealthy than most of its middle eastern neighbours, but near the very top of the religion axis. Of course, that aberration can be explained by the fluke presence of oil; the US is a more complicated riddle.

Lots of other fascinating data in that report; give it a read if you have a chance.

.:.

More interesting articles that showed up in my feeds today:

[tags]richard florida, pew research, toronto pollution, wes anderson, malcolm gladwell[/tags]

"This is my first torture."

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The weekend of awesomeness continued today. We both slept in a little before going for breakfast at Fran’s and picking up groceries on the way home. We dropped the bags and walked over to the Scotiabank theatre to see Rendition (imdb | rotten tomatoes). It was ok…a little heavy-handed and too scattered to really flesh out most of the characters, but worth watching. Weird part was the couple in front of us. They alternated between fooling around and taking phone calls. It was distracting and, frankly, confusing. And the dude had Sideshow Bob hair. Anyhoo.

After the movie we decided to stop at Smokeless Joe’s for a couple of beer (Great Lakes Pumpkin Spice Ale for Nellie, Hacker-Pschorr Dunkel Weiss for me) and a late lunch. We got there at 3:40 and the place was empty. I mean, literally empty…even the staff was nowhere to be seen. Finally a guy showed up; turns out they don’t open until 4, but he let us stay. When we left 90 minutes later only one other customer had come in, so it was like we had the bar to ourselves all afternoon. Fun.

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Late last night we finally watched The Last King Of Scotland (imdb | rotten tomatoes), and I’ll say the same thing every other critic and person I know has said: pretty good movie, but Forest Whitaker was amazing. Pretty decent performances all around, and a good job recreating the Uganda of the time, and Kerry Washington is my girlfriend du jour, but really, it’s Whitaker who steals the show. As usual. Looking at the man’s imdb profile it’s almost hard to believe he hadn’t won many awards until this film. He should have won an Emmy just for his role on The Shield two seasons ago.

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Christopher Hume, the Toronto Star’s architecture critic, wrote up our building yesterday. He gave it an A, which is nice to hear.

Sitting on the northwest corner of Church and Adelaide Sts., this is one of the most elegant condo towers in Toronto. It isn’t fancy and the materials – glass and steel – aren’t expensive; what makes this building attractive is the elegance and simplicity of its form. At 45 storeys , it’s one of those rare structures designed to take advantage of height, indeed, height is what makes it so appealing.

Up close, there’s just enough detailing to maintain a sense of engagement. Glass Juliet balconies, perforated banding, operable windows and other touches enliven surfaces that could otherwise be sterile and boring. Just as important, the utilitarian functions have been hidden away from the main facades on Church, Adelaide and Lombard. Keeping in mind that the original proposed site was the park surrounding St. James’ Cathedral (which would have been disastrous), the final location across the road and slightly north is perfect; a rare happy ending.

The design and integration to the neighbourhood were almost as important to us as the unit itself. We’re glad it turned out so well.

.:.

  • Original weight: 233
  • Weight last week: 222
  • Weight this week: 221.5

I did get to the gym three times this week and did lots of walkin’ around the city this weekend; I believe what kept me to a scant half pound dropped was the steady influx of Hallowe’en candy to the office

[tags]rendition, smokeless joe’s, last king of scotland, forest whitaker, girlfriend du jour, spire condominium, christopher hume, toronto star, fatblogging[/tags]