Category: Daily life

Jumbo shrimp. Open secret. Deafening silence.

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Awesome dentist.

Some time last night I broke a filling (which isn’t even my fault) and left a tiny jagged piece behind, which scraped the crap out of my tongue all night. This morning I called my dentist. He agreed to squeeze me in at 1:15. By 1:16 I was in his chair. By 1:17 he’d gently ground down the jagged bit. By 1:18 my tooth felt fine and he’d sent me on my way, free of charge.

I know this doesn’t seem like much, but it’s certainly a lot less painful (literally) than a typical trip to the dentist, and cost less than I expected, even for two minutes of work. If any dentist can be classified as awesome (relatively speaking) this guy can.

If you live in Toronto and consider your dentist less-than-awesome, try Dr. Lee at Royal Bank Plaza Dental.

[tags]royal bank plaza dental[/tags]

Thick but spritzy-clean palate

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Apparently the summer decided to grant us one last beautiful weekend before fall arrives to spoil the party. Yesterday we took advantage of likely the last lazy, hazy summer Saturday of the year: we slept in, picked up fresh vegetables and some dessert at the market, walked over to the Bay and bought some new bed stuff and cleaned up the balcony. We spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening sitting outside, reading, listening to music, snapping the picture you see up there (note HMCS Charlottetown in the middle-right of the frame…not sure what she’s doing there) and enjoying a Great Lakes Pumpkin Ale until CBGB showed up. Nellie barbecued some rainbow trout, which we ate with maple-glazed carrots, peas, potatoes, two bottles of wine, some Mill Street Belgian Wit beer and the afore-mentioned dessert, an apple strudel. There wasn’t much time left in the evening when they left…just enough for me to pull the trigger on the new computer I’ve been thinking about ordering, and crawl between the comfy new duvet & pillows.

Good day, that.

[tags]last day of summer, great lakes pumpkin ale, mill street belgian wit[/tags]

In which our hero regains an enjoyable bit of his life, post-MBA

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Some friends and I played basketball tonight. It was my first time since…oh, since this happened. Actually, I did hurt my wrist again tonight…jammed it on somebody as he ran by. That’s all it is, though…jam or a minor sprain.

It felt good to play again, even if I was terribly out of sync & shape. Thankfully we all were.

One weird thing: in the schoolyard where we played there was this…I dunno, aerobics class or boot camp thing or something. Twenty girls doing push-ups and wind sprints and being barked at by some instructor while listening to the most horrible dance remixes of disco songs (surely the soundtrack in my personal hell), all right next to where we were playing ball. PC got a little distracted when they did stretches, but we persevered.

[tags]basketball, wrist injury[/tags]

Now what?

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Ummm, yeah. So I’m done blogging about the MBA. And TIFF is over for another year. So what the hell do I talk about now?

Well, last night we got the remnants of a hurricane. Which was fun. And this morning the American financial system fucking melted. Happy trails, Lehman Brothers. You too Merrill Lynch. Say hello to Bear Stearns for us. Here’s hoping AIG can get up off the mat. Me, I spent the day trying to catch up at the office and wondering how the ass balls I can tame my inbox.

And here’s what’s coming up: Canadiens training camp. A Mogwai concert. A Toronto FC game next weekend. Volo’s cask days. Drinks with two friends and a cousin (all at different times…they don’t know each other) that I’ve been putting off for a while. Dinner with T-Bone. Long overdue blog template redesign. The “some day” category on my RTM task list. PVR annihilation, especially the stuff recorded back in December. Listening (finally) to the following:

  • bonnie prince billy . lie down in the light
  • coldplay . viva la vida or death and all his friends
  • frightened rabbit . sing the greys
  • kings of leon . only by the night
  • lightspeed champion . falling of the lavender bridge
  • mates of state . re-arrange us
  • mgmt . oracular spectacular
  • mogwai . the hawk is howling
  • nick + norah’s infinite playlist . original soundtrack
  • okkervil river . the stand-ins
  • spiritualized . songs in a & e
  • tv on the radio . dear science
  • walkmen . you & me
  • witch . paralyzed
  • wolf parade . at mount zoomer

Reviews:

  • I watched a few minutes of J.J. Abrams’ new show Fringe and that was enough. I liked Cloverfield and all but I want nothing to do with the dude’s shows.
  • The jury’s still out on the new HBO show True Blood. Alan Ball: good. Vampires: boring. Anna Paquin: less hot than I expected. Rutina Wesley, who plays her best friend: my new girlfriend du jour.
  • Bon Iver: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

[tags]tiff, lehman brothers, merrill lynch, canadiens, mogwai, toronto fc, volo cask days, fringe, cloverfield, true blood, anna paquin, rutina wesley, bon iver[/tags]

Poems and Rhymes From Around the World

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Little too tired to blog much today. Didn’t get home from work until 8:30 and it was a crap day. All the more reason, I guess, to be excited about the first TIFF film I’ll be watching about 23 hours from now. I kick things off with Waltz With Bashir (tiff), ’cause nothin’ says “film festival” like an animated war documentary subtitled in Hebrew.

I don’t know how blogging is going to go, especially during the first few days. This Saturday and Sunday are my heaviest — 4 films each day, with MIdnight Madness both nights — so there might be some radio silence. I’ll probably mutter inanities on twitter while waiting in line, and try to save the blog for reviews and more substantial observations than “in line at ryerson again need to pee”. I’ll have my teeny tiny laptop with me so if I have a break between screenings and can locate some free wi-fi, I’ll do my best to keep up.

In other film news: yet another Chuck Palahniuk book coming to theatres near you. According to Paste casting for Lullaby is already underway, and Choke doesn’t even come out for another three weeks. I liked Lullaby more than Choke, so I wait with bated breath.

[tags]tiff, chuck palahniuk, midnight madness[/tags]

Doot doot plot

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Random-y thought-y-ness. Yay-y.

  • This is the most excited I’ve been about the TIFF in a good long while. The prospect of shutting down my life (I’m taking six days off work) to watch this many films, and get this into the festival, feels pretty awesome right now.
  • I feel like our Canadian election cycle — the Prime Minister dropped serious hints about an election last week and we’ll likely go to the polls in mid-October — makes so much more sense than the American election cycle. First, two months of bleating, braying political ads is quite enough. Second, as Naomi Klein explains in a recent AV Club interview, having a constant two-year cycle of elections & midterm elections makes politicians afraid to actually do anything lest they hurt their upcoming election chances…and with a constant, two-year cycle an election is always upcoming. Not that Canadian politicians are fearless & efficient, but at least the irregular, unpredictable nature of dissolving parliament and calling an election limits the degree to which that plays on a politician’s mind.
  • Mill Street Belgian Wit Beer is good. My wife’s homemade pizza is excellent.
  • I’ll miss the Mars Phoenix.
  • Colin Farrell’s a pretty good guy, apparently. Just ask Stress.
  • In mid-September the LCBO will once again carry the Great Lakes Pumpkin Ale, among others. Between this and the Winter Ale, Great Lakes is fast becoming my favourite seasonal brewery.
  • Every time I listen to Mississauga Goddam by The Hidden Cameras, I’m surprised all over again just how good it is.

[tags]tiff, tiff08, canadian election, mill street belgian wit, colin farrell, great lakes brewery, lcbo, hidden cameras[/tags]

We're in line for Bel Biv DeVoe tickets. Want one?

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Yet another beautiful, sunny day in Toronto. We both slept in, got some breakfast and then made for the ticket pickup line at Yonge & Dundas. It was a monster, going all the way around two sides of the block and halfway down the third. We stayed in line for about half an hour before Nellie sent me home to work on…um, work. She was in line for more than an hour after that, giving me time to finish off at least some of what needed to be done.

A note about lineups: few things bother me more than when random strangers stop and ask why people are lining up. Not festival-goers asking if they’re in the correct TIFF line, mind you; that’s common, and quite necessary. No, I mean the people who are appalled at the very idea of not being in the know about some kind of organizing function on Yonge Street, and who demand to know what it is, perhaps so they can join in, perhaps so they can assuage their fragile ego that no, that’s not something they wish to attend, so they don’t have to go home and weep gently at not having been invited. Wankers.

Anyway. Once she got home we went back out to enjoy some more of the day (standing in the shadows of Toronto Life square waiting for an envelope does not a nice summer day make) and walked down to HTO park. It’s hell ass balls hot outside, so after walking all the way down there we decided to stop at Smokeless Joe on the way home, for shade & beer & and food. We got all three, and it was very very good.

Back to TIFF: I’m happy to see that one of the films I’ll be seeing — Slumdog Millionaire by Danny Boyle — is generating good buzz at Telluride. Hopefully it’ll offset the less flattering reviews I’ve heard about Rian Johnson’s latest The Brothers Bloom.

[tags]tiff, tiff08, hto park, telluride, slumdog millionaire, the brothers bloom[/tags]

So this is what regular life feels like

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Long weekends used to mean an extra day to get schoolwork done before going back to the office. This long weekend, on the other hand, has meant an aggressive regime of nothing topped off with some lazy-sprints. True, we’ve cleaned up and organized and bought some things for the condo, and done the usual mundane housekeeping things like groceries, laundry and, well, housekeeping, but it’s felt like a very nice, relaxing weekend indeed. I had no intention of going away or doing anything for the long weekend (TIFF all but prohibits that anyway), just enjoying the city. And the weather…my god, the weather. Sunny & warm, but not muggy or smoggy. Just perfect. The barbeque’s gotten a workout.

Speaking of TIFF, Nellie got all 20 of her #1 picks too. She never did get her email, but we checked online et voila. We have 17 together, which is nice; always better to have someone with you in the line.

We’ve watched a couple of movies this weekend too, in an attempt to clear off the PVR in advance of next week when some things will pile up. Dan In Real Life (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was ok…cute, if a little boring. Steve Carell proved once again that he can do subtle as well as over-the-top. 30 Days Of Night (imdb | rotten tomatoes) wasn’t bad, as far as violent vampire thrillers go, but when your two leads are as bland and expressionless as Josh Hartnett and Melissa George, you’re in trouble. Timothy Hutton almost saved the film, but not quite.

[tags]tiff, toronto weather, dan in real life, 30 days of night[/tags]

Love my bed SO HARD

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Sorry, there hasn’t been much time to post. It’s been a whirlwind since landing in Halifax…lot of catching up and celebrating and so on.

It’s amazing to be back in Halifax. Seeing old familiar places (like Pizza Corner) and new ones (like Rogue’s Roost), with so many good friends, many of whom have never been here before, has been fantastic. I’m really looking forward to the rest of the week — even the classroom time — and they’re keeping us busy in the evenings. Feels weird to be here without Nellie though.

I have to get up early, and I’m damned exhausted, so that’s it for tonight. I’ll have more later in the week. If you desire more updates and want to follow along with the minutiae of my daily life, you can follow me on twitter.

[tags]mba, halifax[/tags]