Category: Toronto

CBGBBQ

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

The Star has once again started dumping free newspapers outside my door. They do this a couple of times a year, unprompted. Normally a free newspaper is a good thing, except that I feel compelled to read a newspaper if it’s put in front of me (well…unless it’s a complete shitrag like The Sun) so I end up getting to work late every day. My own fault, I suppose, but dammit, they’re enabling me.

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Carl Bernstein, a guy who knows a thing or two about impeaching presidents, asks in the HuffPo if the president should be impeached. I have a recommendation, but I don’t think I get to vote on this.

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I’ve won tickets from Now Magazine for the second time in as many weeks. This time it’s for The Sentinel, which probably won’t be quite as good as Brick, but hey…it’s free and I was gonna see it anyway, so 3 shy little hipster hoorays for Now.

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This month’s Toronto Life, in addition to humorous letters, contains an article about the Don Valley Parkway. They make the point that further north — near Eglinton or Lawrence — it feels like a big, dead, cold highway, but the further it gets into the downtown core, it paradoxically becomes more and more green…more trees, more grass, better conformity to the landscape. Near the Bayview extension you can see the Don River, trees, fields, and the downtown towers pulling up over the trees. The first time I rode down the DVP with a friend, shortly after moving here, I was blown away as we neared the bottom of the valley at sunset, shocked by how green space I could see (I lived at Yonge & Sheppard, so I wasn’t used to seeing any), and then suddenly we were on the Gardiner and I was looking at the incredible cityscape. I remember it was the first time that I liked looking at Toronto.

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CBGB had us over last night for a barbeque, which was pretty sweet. It’s never a bad thing to have friends who own meat grilling equipment and live within the city limits in quick transit distance. And, of course, are nice enough to invite us over on a whim on a sunny Sunday afternoon for some red wine & red meat. It made us [sigh] look forward to the day when we have our own barbeque.

D.Y.S.

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From the CBC: Accused Serbian robber sews up lips, tongue to avoid court hearing. Ow ow OW. Surely there was a better way to avoid a hearing.

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From a letter to the editor of Toronto Life magazine (which they don’t post online, unfortunately), regarding last month’s condo story:

“If to be a hipster condo owner in downtown Toronto means saying things like ‘The very best thing about living here is Olivier at Clafouti’ without a trace of self-parody…then count me in as a renter who would rather put a bullet through his temple than live among these prats.”

I snorted my iced tea when I read this, and made a mental note not to be this kind of condo owner. If you ever hear me going on about how delightful so-and-so at Rosewater is, for god’s sake, punch me.

Truer words…

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“Understandably Leaf supporters are on a high right now, with the team recording points in each of the past 9 games. It’s the same classic symptoms that Leaf Nation has been plagued with for too long now. A few wins and the Stanley Cup is now a sure thing, management is praised, contracts are extended, and everyone forgets that Jean-Sebastien Aubin isn’t Martin Brodeur.”

[Courtesy of {gasp} Torontoist]

Accelerated fossilisation

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Time to catch up on the news:

  • London (Ontario, not England) seems like a delightful tourist destination, what with the biker gang violence and all. I am now more convinced than ever to never, ever go there.
  • ABC is starting to get it: they’re going to offer next-day streaming of their most popular shows, which is really just migrating the same content to a new medium, but at least they’re adding some flexibility to their viewing options.
  • Christopher Hume of The Star has new hope for Toronto, and the cultural renaissance he sees on the horizon.
  • This guy can kiss my pale maritimer ass. He acts recklessly, blows up some innocent and unsuspecting allies, gets off practically without consequence and then has the nerve to bitch about the way in which his country lightly slaps his wrist? Fuck him.
  • BlogTO reaffirms their membership in the ‘tear down the Gardiner Expressway‘ club.
  • Finally, and most tragically, Bow Wow and Ciara have split up. I mean, if a kid named after a dog noise and a woman dubbed “the First Lady of Crunk & B” by an overrated shitbag can’t make it in this crazy world, then who can? [tear]

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I read Confused Of Calcutta primarily for my job, as it focuses on technology, but this post went beyond work topics. It’s about change, and the rate at which it happens nowadays; people have been fearfully lamenting change ever since the loom or the printing press, but CoC’s not complaining. He’s pointing out that the era when you could take your time adjusting to market demand is gone. I like the term he uses: fossilisation. “Accelerated fossilisation”…I may have a t-shirt made. I’ll be the guy jumping up and down when I can consume media on my own schedule, in a format of my choosing. I’ll be the guy throwing a party when everyone has free internet access. I’ll be the guy doing a jig when politicians actually make decisions based on socioeconomics and not politics. I’ll toast the new world when my own company talks to me like I’m an intelligent adult (which, I’d have to think, is at least part of the reason why they hired me) and not an agitated child who needs to be soothed.

Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them. Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.   .:Arundhati Roy

Let’s get on with it.

Muse Sick N Hour Mess Age

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Reading Toronto taunts us with the idea of a high-speed Toronto-Montreal train link that could do the trip in an hour. I’d go for that, especially since we’re facing a half-hour taxi ride and an hour wait in the airport this coming weekend for a flight that only last 75 minutes. If you get it down to an hour, or even two hours, it’d be worth people’s while to take the train, especially if they made wi-fi access free.

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Varsity.co.nz lists the best and worst album titles of all time. My basketball-numbed brain can’t come up with anything worse (and it’s pretty hard to argue with “J to the LO” or “Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavoured Water”) but I think Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live by Explosions In The Sky should be on the ten best list. As should Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven by Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Basically, anything by a post-rock instrumental band.
[via Largehearted Boy]

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If there’s one phrase I’d like to see stricken from common use, it’s “rap mogul“.

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Barry Bonds, Barry Bonds…I don’t know. MLB must really be shitting their pants right now; if Bonds goes on a tear this year, or sticks around (and avoids suspension) for a few more years and breaks the home run record, how big an asterisk would they have to put next to that? I mean, if they put one on Roger Maris’ record ’cause he played a few extra games, how could they not put one next to a guy who’s provoked such controversy and outrage?

No more economics

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It’s nice to have a day to relax, just space out after a week at school. Even though we were just north of the city, it feels like I’ve been in another province for five days, so it was almost like becoming reacquainted with Toronto. Read the paper, went up to Summerhill for a pile of yummy bread, did some errands, picked up dinner for tonight and came home to watch several more episodes of Six Feet Under…which is pretty much all we did last night too. We’ll burn through it by the end of the weekend at this rate; we even found time to watch the latest episode of The Sopranos last night and I caught up on tons of PVR’d shows.

83.1%

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Doopy doopy doo. Whilst I wait for inspiration to strike (I’ve reviewed and studied about as much as I feel like iI can), here’re a few interesting tidbits of news that caught my eye:

  • United 93 is premiering at the Tribeca film festival next month. It’s high on my list of must-see movies this spring, partly because of the gripping subject matter, and party because it’s directed by Paul Greengrass, whose work I enjoy immensely. I can only imagine it will draw some controversy, but it’s been 5 years since the attacks and if anyone can handle it, it’s New Yorkers. They’re not much for shying away from things.
  • Toronto, on the other hand, has been hemming and hawing about the waterfront since before I moved here. However, as Christopher Hume reports in the Star, it appears they’re taking the first steps toward the redevelopment they’ve been promising for years. However, I shall believe it when I see it.

OK. Back to studying. Or pretending to study.

Holy crapinaw!

Dan Dickinson

After years and years and years of waiting, Nellie’s wishes have finally been answered. Season one of The Young Riders has been released on DVD. I’m not kidding. She was squealing with joy as she opened the packaging.

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I’m watching the Leafs and Canadiens play on TSN. Even though the game’s in Montreal and TSN’s usually a fairly impartial network, it’s like watching the game in a Toronto bar ’cause Joe Bowen and Harry Neale are calling it.

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Just ordered our festival pass for Hot Docs. By the time I get back from my course next wek the lineup should be announced. I love Hot Docs; dollar for dollar it’s the best festival value in the city.

Constant lovers

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Spacing says the TTC is working with Google to create a usable transit map. I will be supremely happy on day that this happens.

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Seriously, anxiety or no, this kid is now the envy of everyone who’s ever had this teacher. –>

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I agree with M_Blogler: I’ve lost a bit of respect for Thom Yorke after reading this article. If he was serious about wanting to make a difference he could’ve gone through with the meeting. That said, he might know more about just how futile an exercise it’d be to meet with the PM’s handlers and doesn’t want to put himself through that. Still, it sounds a little chickenshit.

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I might have to go see these ladies when they come through town. They belt out a mean tune.