Category: Toronto

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.

They're no here

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Ooh, almost forgot: Chromewaves’ Frank noticed that Mogwai will make a stop in Toronto after all. Like him, I think my ears have healed sufficiently since I last saw them. I shall see if M2 is up for it.

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Ever see Ripley’s Game (imdb | rotten tomatoes)? I just watched it this week; don’t even remember how it got onto my Zip list, but I’m glad it did. I liked it very much; Malkovich is better than usual here, and that’s something. I like movies with style; this one has it. It’s subtle, but it’s there.

Come to Tsukuba. We're Number 53!!

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Today was one of those days when I just didn’t sit down long enough to do anything until about 4:00. Hence, I forgot to post to Girlfriend Du Jour, forgot to update my hockey and basketball pools (costing myself some points) and haven’t posted anything to my blogs (work-related or personal). But all four of my meetings were good, I got a pile of work done between 4:00 and 7:00 and I still got home in time to watch Montreal pound Boston.

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Another by-city quality-of-life index. Toronto tied for 14th, Vancouver finished 3rd. Five Canadian cities finished in the top 25, but 3 Swiss and 3 German cities finished in the top 10. And as if I didn’t want to visit Geneva and Switzerland already, they finished 1-2.

Own the podium

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Another event, another medal for Cindy Klassen (she finished third; Clara Hughes won the gold). Five medals in one olympics. Pretty incredible. Speaking of incredible, and speaking of Clara Hughes, not many people could win two medals in olympic cycling and two medals in speed skating.

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Still on incredible women: MacLeans talks to Neko Case. She loves her some Canada, and Canada loves her back.

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We’ve had a really easy winter so far here in Toronto. I can barely remember any sustained snowfall (certainly nothing like this storm in St. John’s; I hope they got all their curling-inspired partying over with before it hit!) and very few days of really numbing cold. Still, it’s been really grey and dreary, so I can’t wait for spring.

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The Raptors tanked another one today, blowing a 28-point halftime lead over the Mavs. Well, I guess they didn’t tank it so much as Dallas just caught fire from beyond the arc. Chris Bosh is good, but he’s just not as clutch as Dirk Nowitzki. Yet.

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Economics is almost done. One last bit of reading to do, and then one last assignment; if I finish it by the middle of next week, I’ll have three weeks off before the class starts. Good thing, too; I have a trip to New York and a ton of March Madness watching planned in there.

Hoop dreams

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I just saw a clip on The Hour that freaked me out. It was about an autistic high school student in Rochester, NY named Jason McElwain who helps manage his high school basketball team. In the team’s last game of the year, with the large lead late in the game, his coach put him in the game, so that Jason could have a team jersey.

With four minutes left, the kid went six for seven from beyond the arc. SIX FOR SEVEN!!

Check out the video clips; you’ll see his teammates lose it every time he scores. And check out the quotes:

His coach: “I’ve had a lot of thrills in coaching. I’ve coached a lot of wonderful kids, but I’ve never experienced something like this ever in my life…I couldn’t stop crying.”

His mother: “This is the first moment Jason has ever succeeded and been proud of himself. I look at autism as the Berlin Wall. He cracked it.”

Wow. You can be cynical about a lot of things, but it’s hard to be cynical about that.

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Via Spacing: Howard Moscoe wants condo developers building near subway lines to buy Metropasses for buyers. I think this is a great idea. In fact, I hope someone enforces it before we move into our building next year. 🙂

The best-laid plans of mice and plastinated men

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We were foiled in our attempt to see BodyWorlds last night at the Science Centre last night with CBGB. Apparently we left it too late (the exhibit leaves Sunday) and it was sold out by the time we got there. I guess we shouldn’t have left it so late, but vacations and house purchases and xmas trips just got in the way and, alas, we may have missed our chance. I’ve seen the show (in an earlier incarnation) so I wasn’t that disappointed, and CBGB may be able to see it this weekend, but Nellie probably will not. I felt bad about that.

Defeated, we went back down to the Danforth and had some food & drink at Dora Keogh, then home to watch The Shield, which kicked ass.