Tag: Toronto

Et le but

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Last night I went straight from work to the Auld Spot, to meet up with Nellie & CBGB. A good unwinding was exactly what I needed, and a few pints of Dennison’s took care of that. However, I ate way too much yesterday (big breakfast, team lunch, big dinner, beer) and I still feel gross. Clearly I can neither eat nor drink like I used to.

I got home just in time to see the end of the Montreal-Buffalo game. Montreal was down 3-1 with less than three minutes remaining in the game, but scored twice late to tie it and then won it in OT. It’s a pleasant, if strange, feeling to see my team playing so well.

.:.

The plan for today: summon enough energy to go run some errands and buy some food, and then welcome CBGB over for Earth Hour this evening. We’re still not sure what we’ll do, short of turning off all electrical draw. I don’t expect a major difference in the appearance of downtown Toronto, but there are some promising signs.

.:.

A shooting occurred last night on board a TTC subway car, near where I used to live. Crazy.

[tags]auld spot, montreal canadiens, buffalo sabres, earth hour, toronto, ttc shooting[/tags]

Max Payne is attacking my city

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The upcoming Mark Wahlberg movie Max Payne (imdb) is being shot in Toronto right now, and today from our balcony we could see some helicopter scenes being filmed. Actually, the helicopters have been buzzing around the sky above us pretty much non-stop since the early afternoon. You can see from this shot that helicopter #1 (which is part of the movie; the other chopper is unmarked and, I presume, has a camera and/or the director in it) was hovering over Yonge & King, roughly. If you click the next picture you’ll see the helicopter was marked “NPYD” so the people in One King West and BCE Place who weren’t informed of the movie shoot must’ve been awfully confused.

Eventually they peeled off from the downtown; they then set up so that the black helicopter hovered over the waterfront while the “NYPD” chopper did a high-speed lap around it. It circled out over the island, over the DVP and right over our building. Nellie got this great shot of it as it appeared overhead.

Hours later they were back at it, swooping back into the spot near One King West (which was lit up). Sadly, Nellie hasn’t quite figured out the nighttime settings on her new camera, and thinks she’d need a tripod for the shots anyway.

Anyway, apart from getting my haircut and buying a new garbage can, that was our excitement for the day.

 

[tags]max payne, mark wahlberg, one king west, bce place, toronto, helicopters[/tags]

Unmarked helicopters? Somebody call Mulder.

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

This helicopter’s been hovering around just to the east of my building for most of the morning. Not sure what’s going on. Nellie says that if we see guys with rifles start sliding down any ziplines, we’re locking the door.

.:.

I forgot to post about the Flickr song chart pool last week when I saw it. I lost a good hour one night going through it. Enjoy!

(by the way, this one should make any Buffy fans out there extremely happy)

.:.

I have to fly to Montreal tomorrow, and back Tuesday night. It’ll be my first time flying off the island airport with Porter Air, so I’m looking forward to it. Actually, what I’m looking forward to is to not have to go all the way out to Pearson.

If it’s as good an experience as I’ve heard, I can see us using them for flights to New York, Montreal and even Halifax.

.:.

We have a new picture in the dictionary next to the word “ironic”: the logo of film production company Genius Products, who are responsible for The Hottie And The Nottie. Well done, gentlemen.

[tags]helicopter, toronto, flickr song chart pool, buffy, once more with feeling, porter air, irony, geniuss products, the hottie and the nottie[/tags]

"Snow: a form of precipitation witnessed every year in Toronto, to great astonishment."

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Oh, Torontians. When the media begins making fun of your hysteria, that’s when you know you should quit your whining and just buy a fucking shovel.

I’ll admit it wasn’t a lot of fun outside today — I don’t mind the snow but I’d really prefer it didn’t come at me parallel to the ground — but for the love of Frank Shuster, it’s Canada and it’s February. Take a deep breath. Buy a scarf. When we get hit by something like this, you can kvetch all you want, but until then, all you’re doing is keeping the memory of Mel Lastman’s army distress call alive in the national consciousness.

.:.

We watched Hot Fuzz (imdb | rotten tomatoes) last night. It followed the style of Shaun Of The Dead closely: very, very funny at first and developing into a fairly serious homage (of, admittedly, a fairly silly subject: cop/buddy movies) by the end. If you liked SotD, I’d definitely recommend Hot Fuzz.

[tags]toronto, weather, snowfall, mel lastman, hot fuzz[/tags]

"Brick remains aloof. He is very handsome, and possibly a homosexual."

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I got home around 8:30 tonight and am rather wiped, so blogging tonight will be terse.

  • I ate two fortune cookies today (Kung Hey Fat Choi!) and the fortunes inside read “A sweet surprise awaits you” and “Goods that are not shared are not goods.” You know what though? Those lines never worked on the girls in my high school, so I don’t know why I should put any faith in them now.
  • I wish I liked The Weakerthans‘ music as much as I liked John Samson’s lyrics.
  • Caitlin: still hot. Stacie Mistysyn: girlfriend du jour.
  • The Onion always make me laugh, but sometimes it’s so brilliantly absurd that I can only marvel and wonder where they buy their wonderful drugs. Today’s article “Ask The Stage Directions To Tennessee Williams’ Cat On A Hot Tin Roof” may set the bar at an all-time high.
  • It’s fully fucking snowtastic out there tonight. It’s been windy and blizzard-y all day, and there was more thundersnow earlier tonight. My walk home tonight, though only a few minutes from subway to lobby, was about seven different kinds of unpleasant. I’m ready for spring now.

[tags]fortune cookies, kung hey fat choi, weakerthans, degrassi, caitlin, the onion, tennessee williams, cat on a hot tin roof, toronto, blizzard, thundersnow[/tags]

Is there anyone "old, grey-haired, hard-drinking Scottish geezers" can't inspire?

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

No time for fancy bloggin’ tonight, kids. Too much work to do. It’s link-dump time:

It could be like this all week, so have some other reading material on hand with which to occupy yourselves.

[tags]triumph, toronto, road tolls, gentrification, wall street journal[/tags]

At least I still have the empty can

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

As I write this I’m trapped in the den, as Nellie’s wrapping gifts in the living room. Luckily I have a TV in here and there’s a Canadiens game on, but I think I might’ve had a little too much Diet Pepsi, so it could get messy in here.

.:.

Last Friday night at Smokeless Joe was so enjoyable we returned again last night, looking for more Great Lakes Winter Ale. Unfortunately they were out, but we had some very tasty alternatives (Hacker-Pschorr Dunkle Weiss for me and some kind of Belgian Tripel for Nellie which she loved). No fear about not getting another taste of the winter ale, though: we bought a few bottles today at the LCBO.

We also got some treats for ourselves (Nellie got some Tedeschi Amarone at the LCBO, and I picked up some truffles at JS Bonbons) and for the cats (especially Sonny; his favourite toy is a little red ball that his Auntie Jenny got him years ago, and we’ve had trouble finding more of…until today and we bought five. Oh, and catnip, so they’ve been trying to crawl into their stocking all day).

.:.

I’ve never been in Toronto this close to Christmas before; it’s interesting. We went to St. Lawrence Market today to pick up a few things, and it was about six different kinds of crazy in there. It wasn’t even 10:00 yet and the crowds were so thick you’d think you were at a concert. I can’t wait to go grocery shopping tomorrow.

It’ll be really weird going to work on the 24th.

[tags]smokeless joe, great lakes winter ale, dunkle weiss, tripel, st. lawrence market, toronto[/tags]