Author: Dan Dickinson

If I had a band I'd call them The Supercells. Except that name's already kinda taken.

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I have an unhealthy fascination with tornadoes. Actually, I’m interested in any disaster, but especially natural disasters, and especially especially tornadoes & thunderstorms. One of my favourite things as a kid was to watch storms roll off the bay and up the flats toward our farm…and that smell that would be in the air right before the rain started…man. Good times.

Anyway, that’s why I can tolerate shit movies like Twister and why I can spend hours watching cheesy TV shows like Stormchasers if I come across them on a Sunday afternoon. And it’s why pictures like these and these (found at c|net) make me drool.

Anybody for a trip to Kansas?

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$5,000 is too much to pay for a personal scooter, even something as bitchin’ as a Segway, but with financing available…hmm…

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The new Walkmen disc, “A Hundred Miles Off”, isn’t bad, but not great either. It’s certainly no Bows + Arrows, which was the second best album released in 2004. So sez I.

[tags]tornadoes, stormchasers, segway, walkmen, hundred miles off[/tags]

Baura? Len?

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It’s been a big day for TimmyD. His application for British citizenship has been approved. Now, let’s hope he hasn’t bollocksed it up by not checking the post often enough.

Geez, scolding just sounds so much better when you’re British…

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TimmyD was also so kind as to pass on a rumour about Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant wanting to do more episodes of The Office. They’re right about the NBC version of The Office though; it’s gotten better and better as it’s gone along. I think they’ve actually done an even better job with the whole Tim-Dawn / Jim-Pam (or “Jam”, if you’re a TV nerd) thing than the British version…of course, they’ve had many more episodes to build the tension.

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Ben Harper is lost to me. His last…well, several albums (including his newest, Both Sides Of The Gun) haven’t done anything for me. I remember standing in my living room in my first apartment at Yonge & Sheppard, setting up my new stereo, when this song called “Faded” came on MuchMusic; I snappedlostit and ran out to find the disc. But since that disc…nuthin’. However, more people seem to dig him now than back then, so he’s doing something right for the masses (including Laura Dern, so you can’t blame him too much). Just not for me.

[tags]british citizenship, the office, ricky gervais, stephen merchant, nbc, ben harper[/tags]

Lemons & accents

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You know what’s good? The new Asobi Seksu album Citrus. That’s good.

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You know what’s funny? BBC announcers covering the NHL playoffs. That’s funny.

They say things like “…scoring three goals in the third quarter…” and pronounce the name “Rod Brind’Amour” as if he were from Reims and not Ottawa.

[tags]asobi seksu, bbc, nhl, rod brind’amour[/tags]

Adequate transit is just a fantasy, can you live this fantasy adequate transit?

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Interesting Smart Economist article on the economic effects of an aging population. Among the more interesting statistics:

  • In 1950, the median age in developed countries was 29; by 2000, the median age had risen to 37, and by 2050 this figure is projected to rise to 45.
  • In Japan, in 1950, there were 9.3 people under 20 for every person aged 65 and older; by 2030, this ratio is predicted to fall to 0.59.
  • Between 2003 and 2030, the fraction of elderly voters in the United States will rise from 19.8% to 30.5%.
  • In 2005, the US government spent nearly 6.5% of GDP on transfers to the elderly; a shift of 10% of the population into retirement would cause federal transfers to increase by 4.7% of GDP — or over $500 billion.

That Japan statistic stunned me.

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Spacing points to this fantasy TTC map. Now that’d be pretty sweet…the airport connection, the line that runs up to where I go “away” on course, the Beach, Skydome (love the anti-Rogers station name!), and so on. Sigh…instead we’re stuck with a service prone to underfunding operated by a union prone to tantrums.

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Umm…that’s some Aldo Nova in the title. In case you were wondering.

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Three-armed babies freak me out.

[tags]economics, aging population, fantasy ttc, aldo nova, three armed baby[/tags]

Bland & blander

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This video, found via Antonia Zerbisias, shows you what war really looks like in Iraq, and it’s not what we see on the 11:00 news. Warning: not for the particularly squeamish.

In related news, Mohamed ElBaradei is warning the world not to jump the gun with Iran:

“Iran does not pose an immediate nuclear threat and the world must act cautiously to avoid repeating mistakes made with Iraq and North Korea.”

‘Course, he’s just the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency and a Nobel peace prize winner, so what does he know?

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The new Snow Patrol and Pilate discs are not very good, unfortunately. Very bland. Like hearing the same Coldplay song again and again.

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Speaking of bland…I finished watching a documentary called Going Upriver: The Long War Of John Kerry (imdb | rotten tomatoes). It was released in 2004, before the presidential election, in part to counter the “Swiftboat” attack ads targeting Kerry’s military service. As skewed as it was, it was interesting to see the context around why we saw that shot of Kerry testifying before Congress in his ODs. It was also maddening to know that the young, courageous, eloquent John Kerry had his idealism ground out of him through years of politics and image scrubbing, leaving nothing but a bland, wishy-washy mouthpiece.

[tags]iran, nuclear, mohamed elbaradei, snow patrol, pilate, coldplay, john kerry, swiftboat, going upriver[/tags]

50 Ft Clerkie

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As miserable a day as it was to be outside here in Toronto (especially if the TTC strike forced you to walk to/from work through the smog), it could be worse: you could be in Indonesia. Earthquakes, bird flu, angry volcanoes…even breakway country East Timor’s suffering through some bloodshed right now. Makes some 42 degree heat and a transit strike seem pretty tame, no?

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Angels Twenty has posted Tracy Bonham‘s cover of the PJ Harvey song “50 Ft Queenie”. If you know the PJ song go have a listen; I heard Tracy play it live a few years back and I nearly wet myself. I think I was the only person in the crowd who knew what song it was, so it was a private euphoria.

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Today at The Movie Blog I find a phrase that I never expected to read: “Clerks 2 Gets 8 Minute Standing Ovation At Cannes.” Did not see that comin’.

Still on Cannes, I can’t wait to see The Wind That Shakes The Barley, the Ken Loach film that won the Palme D’or.

[tags]ttc strike, smog, tracy bonham, pj harvey, cannes, clerks 2, wind that shakes the barley, ken loach[/tags]

Realization

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I’ve listened to the song “Criticism As Insipration” by Pedro The Lion probably a hundred times, because I love it. But I’ve never really absorbed the lyrics until today. What Dave Bazan’s singing about, that could be me.

I know I do this to people. I feel bad, because I know some people don’t like it, but criticism (or the expectation of it) is one of the only ways I can get motivated, so I guess I externalize that.

Anyway. Little self-analysis there. Back to work now.

[tags]pedro the lion, criticism, self-analysis[/tags]

Steeeeeeee-rike!

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The sudden TTC strike this morning is really throwing the city into traffic chaos. My office is half empty, partially because regular TTC riders can’t get to work, and partially because the resulting car traffic has overloaded Toronto’s streets and highways — which are stretched paper thin on a good day — causing substantial delays in getting anywhere by car. It’s going to be a weird day.

[tags]ttc, strike, toronto transit commission[/tags]