Category: Daily life

"If we have a hormone race I'm bound to finish first."

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I’m supposed to be at a friend’s house for a barbeque right now, but whatever I had for lunch has made the idea of eating anything very unappealing. Really, the only thing getting me through the shaky afternoon at work was — once again — the Frightened Rabbit album. While the whole thing’s fantastic, I tend to really fall hard for one song at a time. First it was “Floating In The Forth,” then “The Modern Leper,” then “Good Arms vs. Bad Arms.” Today it was “Keep Yourself Warm”* but I can already tell my next favourite is going to be “The Twist.”

Once I got home and called in my bbq regrets, all I had the energy for was to do a couple of computer-based errands, including downloading a bunch of music: A Silver Mt. Zion‘s 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons, Sigur Ros‘ Hvarf-Heim, last year’s Frightened Rabbit album Sing The Greys, and the special tenth anniversary edition of Mogwai‘s Young Team. Ye olde eMusic subscription got a workout tonight.

However, just as my energy was flagging, I’ve been dealt a blow that will surely relegate me, bummed and queasy, to the couch for the rest of the evening: the Led-Zep-in-Toronto rumours appear to be groundless. Crapmonkey.

* Not only is this song excellent, I suspect it’s the only song ever recorded to feature the words “choo-choo train” while also including five instances of the word “fucking.” Suck it, Raffi.

[tags]frightened rabbit, silver mt. zion, sigur ros, frightened rabbit, mogwai, emusic[/tags]

Currently…

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

reading: The Angel Riots by Ibi Kaslik and Strategic Management: An Integrated Approach by Charles Hill and Gareth Jones. Eye Weekly and Now Magazine every Thursday. Toronto Life once a month.

listening to: Saul Williams by Saul Williams, though any minute now I’ll move on to Death Cab For Cutie‘s Narrow Stairs or Visiter by The Dodos.

watching: almost nothing. I’m paying only marginal attention to sports (go Pens! go Celts!), The Office and 30 Rock are done for the season and The Shield hasn’t started yet. All that’s on right now is Battlestar Galactica, and even that’s on 2-week hiatus.

scanning: 190 news feeds, averaging about 509 articles per day. Of course, these are only my personal-interest feeds; I have just as many work feeds. I mainly skim the headlines here, and pay attention to maybe 50, flagging 5-10 to read later.

browsing: 6-7 websites per day. I rarely have a need to visit particular websites now (see ‘scanning’, above) but a few are applications (e.g., Google Analytics) or snapshots (e.g., the weather) that don’t work in an RSS channel. There’s also Bruce MacKinnon’s editorial cartoon every day which, despite my best efforts, I cannot wrangle into a Yahoo Pipe. Again, this is personal-interest only; there’re other work sites.

running: 3-4 times per week, 3 miles at a time. On a treadmill. Half flat, half slight incline.

eating: penne with sundried tomato pesto. Well…an hour ago, anyway.

looking forward to: our rockies/BC trip in June; Euro 2008; visiting Nova Scotia twice in August, once to visit with family and once to wrap up the MBA.

wondering: why the hell I started writing this blog post in the first place.

[tags]angel riots, ibi kaslik, toronto life, saul williams, death cab for cutie, narrow stairs, dodos, visiter,  google reader, bruce mackinnon, yahoo pipes, euro 2008[/tags]

"Water and cemeteries… pretty safe bets."

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Second straight night of decent sleep. It’s like I’m on vacation.

Last night all we did was watch Mr. Brooks (imdb | rotten tomatoes), which I actually kind of liked. The ratings weren’t great, but I thought it was an entertaining (if grisly) story. Kevin Costner and William Hurt were both (ha ha) really good, and Demi Moore didn’t bug me like she usually does, so…yeah. Not bad at all.

It’s been a lazy Sunday so far. Kind of gray and cold outside so we stayed in for the morning, watching some TV, cleaning up, etc. I think we may go see another movie this afternoon. Maybe two movies. Damn, I love these quiet periods between courses…

[tags]mr. brooks[/tags]

"Give me a Scotch. I'm starving."

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Nine hours of sleep was just what the doctor ordered, even if it did mean going to bed like lame old people around 11:00. Still, after the week that was and stuffing ourselves with beer and pasta at Smokeless Joe, we didn’t have a lot of energy.

This morning, though, I was well awake. After catching up on email & feeds I grabbed some bagels from St. Urbain, some pretzels from the farmer’s market and a cappuccino for Nellie in the hopes of luring her out of the bed. Not long after that we quit the condo in search of goods & services. We struck out on the household stuff (we need a filing cabinet, a humidifier and an air purifier, but the selection at Staples/Canadian Tire was lacking) but picked up some other stuff…hiking shoes for Nellie, sunglasses & jeans for me. Dropping those off at home, and loving the weather, we set out to find a patio.

The Jason George was packed, so we tried the Flatiron & Firkin instead. We sat down on the warm, sunny patio and ordered a beer. It did not suck (to wit: I actually said “This does not suck.”) to sit in the sunshine and drink a Rickard’s white. Then things started to go wrong: the sun went behind the clouds, which cooled things off. Then the wind came up, which made it downright chilly. Then our food arrived, but not the calamari appetizer we’d ordered. We ate our meal quickly; it got so cold Nellie actually had to switch seats and hide behind the wall to stay out of the wind. After we finished our meals (my veggie burger was awful, by the way…it was like a giant piece of carrot pressed into a hockey puck) the calamari showed up. I would have been more annoyed except that it was piping hot, and I was cold, so you do the math. I scarfed it and we got the bill…then waited around forever for the server to bring us our change. I wanted to leave a crap tip; Nellie would not allow it. No balls, that girl.

However, we would not let a little cold or bad service ruin our day. Stopping back at the apartment to get changed, we found a showtime for Iron Man (imdb | rotten tomatoes) at the new theatre at Yonge & Dundas and took off. First of all, the theatre: it was our first time (it only opened a month or so ago) and…wow. Seats: comfy, reclining and plentiful. Screens: fracking ginormous. Dizzying combination of screaming teenagers and spinning lights making the Paramount Scotiabank theatre so nauseating: absent. I think we have a winner. Iron Man was, as promised, very good. Certainly one of the best superhero movies to date, if not the best. Go see. Fun for the whole family.

After that we just had a little time for a walk, then back home to relax a bit, make dinner and watch another movie. More on that tomorrow. For now…more sleep.

[tags]iron man, flatiron and firkin[/tags]

In which the word "halcyon" enters my head

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In spite of having the day off, I got up at 8:00. Or rather, I was forced to get up, since our cleaning service comes at 9:00 on Fridays. I considered transplanting myself to the den and putting up a “keep out” sign on the door so I could keep sleeping, but this seemed silly and impractical, cleaning not being the quietest of activities.

I showered and went out for some breakfast at Fran’s, then walked down to Church & Front where I sipped hot chocolate and read my book at the Second Cup. A little after 10:00 I walked over to Nicholas Hoare and spent an hour perusing, finally settling on The Angel Riots by Ibi Kaslik. I needed a new book as I just this morning finished A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius, which has been sitting on my shelf for…8 years, maybe? I have tons of non-fiction I want to buy, but I’ve found I’m less interested in them as long as I’m also reading a textbook.

My plans for the rest of the day involve catching up on work email & news feeds, tidying up a bit and possibly tormenting the cats. I’m starting to dig the idea of a 4-day work week.

[tags]fran’s, second cup, nicholas hoare, ibi kaslik[/tags]

Stupid Denmark

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Well, that was a fun day. Once again, with no TTC, we left early to get to the Bloor Theatre for our documentary. It was another beautiful day so we were happy to stroll and take a couple of pictures along the way, like this one of a billboard desperately in need of grammar checker…

…and this one of a very cheeky sign on St. George, on the U of T campus.

We were hungry and thirsty by the time we reached Bloor, so we stopped in at the Brunswick Avenue Pump for some food and a cold beer. Nellie got a Hoegaarden, which is always awesome, ’cause she has to hold the giant glass like a sippy cup.

After finishing up there we still had a few minutes to spare, so we backtracked to COBS Bread to pick up some tasties for the evening. Nellie got a cinnamon bun to eat in the line, and I got some kind of giant apple thing for after dinner. It was in a big box, so I asked them to hold it there for me. Off we went to get in line, and a few minutes later we were in and watching the doc.

Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go (hot docs) was our last doc, on the last day of the festival. It was a very interesting topic — troubled, violent British kids (and I mean violent…kicking, punching, spitting, stabbing, using words that would make sailors blush, etc.) at a special school — but the film itself wasn’t that impressive…I saw no arc, no narrative, no depth. The teachers, which probably isn’t even the right word for them, must surely be the most patient and calm people in the world; it would have been very interesting to see how they cope when they’re alone for a few minutes after dealing with those kids all day. So not a bad documentary by any means, but I wanted more than I got. It was a BBC doc; I suspect it was turned into a series at some point.

We left the theatre and went back to COBS. As soon as we got there the girl who’d sold me the apple thingy gasped and covered her mouth…she’d given away my dessert. Or sold it. Or gave it to the staff. I’m not sure what happened exactly, but it wasn’t there. No big deal; it’s not like I was dying for the apple dealie, but she apologized profusely, refunded my money and offered to give me anything I wanted, so I took a couple of croissants. I figure that’s what the pastry gods intended; who am I to question divine will?

We began walking home, but around Harbord and Queen’s Park it got a bit cold so we flagged a cab. Actually, we only half flagged it; it was too bright to see if the sign was on or off, and from a distance there appeared to be someone in the back. However, he pulled over and we jumped in. What we saw in the back window turned out to be a pillow, in the shape and design of a globe. Here’s how the conversation went from there:

  • Driver: I have a proposal for you.
  • Us: [dubious] Okay.
  • Driver: I’ll ask you one question, and if you get it right, your ride is free.
  • Us: [laughing] Shoot!
  • Driver: You have thirty seconds to answer. Ready? OK. What’s the capital of Nigeria?

I struggled with the answer, getting close to Lagos but not quite reaching it. As it turned out, Lagos is the biggest city but not the capital, so it didn’t matter. He gave us another chance, asking us for all 13 Canadian provinces and territories in alphabetical order, in 30 seconds. I think we could’ve gotten it, but he sped up the clock a little. The he told me to ask him a question, and we went back and forth. I got close to guessing a few (all the states bordering Canada, but forgot about stupid Minnesota; languages spoken in Singapore but I couldn’t think of Tamil; countries bordering Germany but only got 8 of 9) but this guy answered everything…African countries bordering Lake Victoria, north-to-south order of former Soviet breakaway republics, states with coasts on the Gulf of Mexico, the island between Baffin Island and Ellesmere Island, and piles of others. He even knew the names of the island chains between Tiera del Fuego and the Ross Ice Shelf; I had no idea some of the islands there are called the South Orkneys.

I asked him if he was a geography major or something; he told me he’s famous and began handing me laminated copies of press clippings about him. He actually calls himself Mr. Geography and his offer was for real…if you answer his question, your ride is free. He gave me his card and let us take his picture. I got out of the car laughing and smiling and smarter, and don’t even remember the ride home (I had my nose buried in an atlas trying to stump him). Best cab ride ever.

Quite a day. And the capital of Nigeria, in case you’re curious, is Abuja.

[tags]ttc strike, hoodia, brunswick avenue pump, cobs bread, hold me tight let me go, mr. geography, abuja[/tags]

Would that I could still eat smoked meat

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It’s a very Montreal day: St. Urbain bagels for breakfast, the Canadiens game on TV tonight. Of course, that could be any Saturday, but it’s even better during the playoffs.

.:.

While I sit here and catch up on news and such from the past two days, I’ve been poking through my music inbox and seeing what’s what. I’m a little disappointed in the newest Black Keys disc Attack and Release. Part of what I loved about their previous albums was the lo-fi fuzzy blues; the new one is more advanced musically, but less interesting to me.The new R.E.M. isn’t great, but at least it has some crunch. I don’t mind it so far. (metacritic: black keys | r.e.m.)

Recently it’s stopped making sense to me that the album format even really exists anymore. Albums were really only a convenient format under which to release music; they were just groupings of singles before becoming ends unto themselves. Now that the album is no longer necessary, it’s only a matter of time before the increasing popularity of iTunes, etc. makes the album format irrelevant and we just consume individual songs, like we did 60 years ago.

.:.

We watched the season premiere of 30 Rock. Very funny. My love for Tina Fey (Girlfriend du jour!) is really getting quite alarming. It’s distressing, to be honest with you.

[tags]st-urbain bagels, montreal canadiens, black keys, r.e.m., itunes, 30 rock, tina fey[/tags]

Things I realized today

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  • Quickest way to make friends with the neighbourhood homeless guys: take pictures outside at night. Like moths to a flame.
  • I can write a 4-page marketing assignment in one day if I need to, even if I couldn’t possibly care any less about it.
  • Enough people listen to the request show on my old home town’s community access radio show via the web that the server was choppy. Also: requesting Nicole Atkins and The Thermals will probably confuse the locals; they did come hot on the heels of a request for “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” by Poison. Thanks for playing them anyway, Andrew.
  • Seeing the Canadiens finish first in their conference is surreal. The last time this happened was 1989, and I wasn’t even that into hockey yet (it hit me two years later), so it didn’t mean that much. Now, after watching them struggle for so long, it’s just…weird. Nice, but weird. Come Wednesday (or Thursday?) I’ll be so amped up I won’t care about my next marketing assignment.
  • I’d pay somebody $100 if I didn’t have to go to work tomorrow.
  • It may have been 11 degrees somewhere in the city, but down here by the waterfront, t’wasn’t.

[tags]parrsboro, nicole atkins, thermals, canadiens, toronto weather[/tags]

Hey look

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…it’s spring.

While I don’t expect it to last, it’s 12 degrees and sunny outside my window right now, so I’m calling it. Printemps, enfin.

This better not be an April Fool’s joke. Same goes for the long-range forecast, which says sunny and ten degrees on Saturday. I may just buy a frickin’ party hat.

[tags]spring, april fool’s[/tags]