Tweets for 2009-04-27

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  • So…apparently it was windy last night?? Didn’t notice a thing. #
  • Cold, wet Sunday is a harsh wakeup call from yesterday’s dreamy warmth. Good day for watching movies that rattle my brain. #
  • Car alarms: quite possibly the most poorly executed idea ever. #
  • Never thought I would experience hearing Neko Case played over a grocery store’s speakers. #
  • “Obsessed” #1, “17 Again” #2 and “Fighting” #3. 29%, 56% & 35% on Rotten Tomatoes. #cinematicapocalypse http://is.gd/uHCA #

"It's important that you feel through this."

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

What a great weekend. Not because we did anything particularly dramatic or new, but because it was just so damn enjoyable. With work being the way it has lately (though it’s let up a bit for me in recent weeks, Nellie’s still hard at it) we’re usually happy just to relax and not feel guilty/worried about not working on the weekend.

Yesterday — easily the nicest day of the year so far — was a day to get out, stroll around, do some shopping at the market and visit friends. On the way over to see CBGB we spotted this little guy hanging out in a tree.

CBGB just got a new back patio and we helped them celebrate by taking advantage of their hospitality. They grilled burgers, served amazing cheeses (note to self: cranberry raincoast crisps + creamy applewood smoked cheddar = amazing), threw some beer in ice and welcomed us under the shade of the umbrella. The weather was perfect for sitting, drinking, laughing, eating and even hanging out with little LB, who was determined to get himself some beer. The oncoming rain forced us to wrap up, but not before we’d finished eating anyway. Inside we had more drinks and some delicious gelato — spiced chili chocolate mixed with blood orange, the latter being more of a sorbeto, really — before retiring once LB got his crank on a little bit. Awesome, awesome Saturday afternoon. I’ve been waiting for a day like that since, oh, October give or take.

Today wasn’t nearly as nice — cold, windy, grey — and started out a bit odd. The old gent next to us at breakfast seemed to be having his own one-man coot-off, yelling to his wife about how young people can’t do simple math anymore, and so on. No matter, it’s been more than satisfactory since then. We caught up on some TV. We got groceries and did laundry. We talked to our parents. We watched Snow Angels (imdb | rotten tomatoes) which, as with most David Gordon Green movies, was an excellent and textured slow burn leading to a few moments of raw violence. We lazed about and read. Nellie made pizza. Good, good day to cap off an excellent weekend.

Should work let up for both of us at once it’ll be nice to actually do something outside the city, or even explore something within it, but for now we’ll take these kinds of weekends no questions asked.

Today's tweets

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment
  • M&M Uptown opening at King & Church. We suck so bad at cooking these days that this could actually be a helpful option. http://is.gd/utmt #
  • Wow. Beautiful out there right now. #spring #aboutdamntime #
  • It’s great to open all the windows on warm days like this, but thanks to my smoking neighbour our place now smells like Marlboros. Thx dude. #
  • holy hannah (niece shoutout!) it’s nice outside. doing a final couple of things and then off to see cbgb’s new back patio. #
  • Picking up beer. Yay summer. #
  • Back yard. BBQ. Beer. Cheese. Sunshine. Friends. Best Saturday ever. #

Today's tweets

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment
  • Getting up before 5am is a suck. #yawn #
  • Reading @plasmatron’s setlist reports has me all giddy, wondering what I’ll hear in two weeks. I can haz “My Father My King” encore? #
  • Deli breakfast down my neck. Let the second half of the day begin! #
  • @shaiza But very in line with their current window display. And it got people talking! To wit: you tweeted for the first time in months. 🙂 in reply to shaiza #
  • RT @FakeSteveHarper: It would be nice to gain the ~10k followers I need to pass @pmharper. Someone get that done for me, ok? #followfriday #
  • Promo email from Porter Airlines. No text, images don’t load, ‘contact us’ and ‘unsubscribe’ links broken. #emailmarketingfail #flyporter #
  • i think i’ve found my brother’s early christmas gift: http://is.gd/ukN4 #
  • Done, heading home. Maybe there’s something to be said for getting to work crazy-early… #
  • “What we don’t know could fill a truck. What we don’t know cannot hurt us.” ♫ http://blip.fm/~4wq3u #
  • This Bill Moyers interview with The Wire writer David Simon is exceptional. http://is.gd/t4le #
  • @spotlightcity We ended up going more pubby. Jason George. in reply to spotlightcity #
  • Note to self: if you want to stay awake past 11, don’t get up before 5. I. Am. So. Old. #

So it goes.

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

As I write this Boston is running away with game four against Montreal, and is about to sweep the Canadiens out of the playoffs. This isn’t unexpected — the Bruins finished first in the east, Montreal eighth — but it’s certainly disappointing.

Had Montreal been healthy and played well they might’ve stood a chance against Boston, but they weren’t and they didn’t. Tonight Montreal was missing Andrei Markov — their best defenseman, leading scorer and best player overall — and three more top-seven defensemen: Mathieu Schneider, Francis Buillon and Patrice Brisebois. They were also missing top-line winger Alex Tanguay and #2 center Robert Lang, who’s been out for months. With a roster full of spare-part defensemen and discombobulated lines, they stood no chance. Boston rolled four lines at Montreal who just couldn’t keep up, couldn’t get to loose pucks, couldn’t get the puck out of their own end. Part of this was due to Montreal not consisting of, or playing like, a playoff-worthy lineup of late, but some of it was also due to the kind of systemic breakdown that a good team like Boston can grind you into.

And so Montreal will slip into the postseason with a whimper, and tomorrow the Montreal dailies and sports blogs will cry that this is not how the famed centennial season was supposed to go. A season which started with so much promise and faded so badly in the second half, which hosted an amazing all-star game but saw the coach fired shortly after, which ended with a team virtually unrecognizable from the potent weapon that began the season. I remember watching an exhibition game against Detroit when the Canadiens and Wings looked like sure locks to meet in the Stanley Cup final. How things change.

Let’s go Canucks.

"Kids had never been attacked in this kind of way"

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Yesterday marked the tenth anniversary of Columbine, the familiar title given the killings at the Columbine high school in Littleton, Colorado. CNN yesterday ran a piece about the release of a new book — Columbine, by Dave Cullen — which I’ve been meaning to pick up. The big draw of the book for me is that is tells the real story of what happened and debunks many of the myths which sprung up in the immediate aftermath. Among them:

  • There was a group of kids at Columbine called the Trench Coat Mafia, but Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold weren’t part of it.
  • The killers did not target jocks (those wearing baseball hats, as it’s sometimes reported) or black kids. There was no discernible pattern to their killing.
  • Harris and Klebold, though clearly unstable and dangerous, were not outcasts or loners, nor was their rampage apparently caused by bullying.
  • Cassie Bernall, reported to have been killed when she replied to the killers that she believed in god and subsequently made a martyr by evangelical christians, in fact said no such thing. Another student was asked whether she believed in god; she answered yes, was shot and lived.

The first three myths are explained by psychologists in the CNN article as being persistent because they were (irresponsibly) reported immediately after the killing, and are convenient for people to believe because they point to Harris and Klebold being misanthropes, different from everyone else, conveniently monstrous. People don’t like to think that normal people can do terrible things, so they cast them as evil. While not logical, this is understandable as a coping mechanism.

The last myth, though…that’s the one that gets me. By the fall of 1999 it was well established that the rumour about Bernall was false, but her parents still earned royalties from a book about her death called She Said Yes released in Aug 1999 (and reprinted several times) and earned $3,500 per speaking appearance in the years since. Misinformation is one thing; exploitation another.

Even I adore ya, my Victoria-aaa-a-a-a

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

According to Richard Florida’s latest in the Globe, I’m living in the wrong city.

MID-CAREER PROFESSIONALS (Age 29-44)
1. Ottawa-Gatineau
2. Calgary
3. Whitehorse
4. Yellowknife
5. Iqaluit
6. Edmonton
7. Guelph
8. Victoria
9. Toronto
10. Montreal

Hmmm…#9, and behind some cities that I really have no desire in which to live. Also, the older you get, the better an option Toronto is for you, according to Florida: It’s #2 for families with children, #1 for empty-nesters and #2 for retirees. It doesn’t even show up in the top ten for single people. Not that I am, but that ranking says something about the city, or at least Florida’s perception of it.

I suppose I’d have to buy Who’s Your City to know exactly what criteria Florida uses. I suspect growth potential of the economy plays a large part (otherwise I can’t imagine Whitehorse-Yellowknife-Iqaluit going 3-4-5), but there are likely specific industries centered around Toronto and Montreal that would skew the scores for some people.

Anyway, having just gotten a taste of Ottawa winter (and having lived there for an entire humid-ass summer), I don’t think that #1 rating’s gonna sway me.