Visitors!

It's been quite a while since my last "real" post. Since then, I've had visitors for two weekends and made my first trip back to Texas.

At the beginning of August my brother Todd visited for a long weekend. We had a great time.... Dinner at Cafe Brussel, a couple of Blue Jays-Yankees games, an aborted trip to Niagara Falls (the traffic was horrendous), Cuban cigars, and St. Lawrence Market.

The trip to Texas was mainly for my company's annual convention and user conference, but I was able to visit almost all of my friends in Austin and make a trip down to Dickinson to see the folks. Activities included visiting Melanie and her new baby, some great meals (Hoover's, Smitty's Market in Lockhart, Star Seeds Cafe, and sliders at Reido's), drinking on Sixth Street, and tubing on the Guadalupe. All in all it was a great trip, and coming back to Toronto was pretty difficult.

This past weekend Booth and Mako made the journey from Washington, D.C., to the Great White North. Cafe Brussel (yeah, I like that place), Pomegranate, the CN Tower, The World's Biggest Bookstore (except that it's not), a Blue Jays game from the bar at the SkyDome Renaissance Hotel, and The 40 Year-Old Virgin all made for a great time. But I'm not through.... The trip to the CN Tower (holder of the Guinness Book of World's Records title for World's Tallest Building) yielded some beautiful photographs:



View of the tower from below.


View of the SkyDome and my apartment building from 147 stories up.


Downtown T.O.


The tower casts a long shadow over Toronto.


That's 1122 feet (342 meters) straight down!


Mako runs from the Glass Floor in defeat.


I, on the other hand, am master of all I see ;)


The tower prepares to eat Booth and Mako. They are unimpressed.

Hurricane Katrina

My heart goes out to the people of the Gulf Coast hit by Hurricane Katrina. I'm sitting here watching the coverage on CNN and can't believe what I'm seeing. I've ridden out many storms (notably Hurricane Alicia in 1983 and Tropical Storm Claudette in 1979) and still can't fathom what's happened to New Orleans, Gulfport, and other places in the area.

Gimpy Bites

Bonjour,

The obnoxiousness of "tagging" someone aside, I, too, shall comply
with your request Msgr. Guptone. But, it'll be via e-mail. I completely
agree with Greg about the whole "blogging" fad. Besides, would you really
want to read about my boring ass life? I can sum up it concisely: lotsa
cycling, lotsa visits to the local pub and lotsa gettin' no play from the
ladies whatsoever.

At any rate, here's your list:

"The Beast and Dragon, Adored" - Spoon
"After the Dance" - Marvin Gaye
"Somebody's Gotta Do It" - the Roots
"Pussy Galore" - the Roots
"Transatlanctism" - Death Cab for Cutie
"A Man/Me/Then Jim" - Rilo Kiley
"Get Up" - Sleater-Kinney
"What's Mine Is Yours" - Sleater-Kinney
"Climbing Up the Walls" - Radiohead
"The Way" - Jill Scott

I don't know how accurate it is that these are the ten that I'm "digging"
*the most*, but I think it gives one a general idea. Hmmm ... I'm seeing
lots of overlap with other similar lists; makes me feel rather unoriginal.
I should also give honorable mentions to "Outstanding" by the Gap Band and
"Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution" by AC/DC.

And, ketchup-flavored potato chips?!!? Are you flippin' kidding
me? THAT is some of the nastiest shit of which I've ever heard!! Must be
a white person thing, which makes sense seeing as how so much of Canada is
pretty white (literally and figuratively).

"What he said I said has been said before,
Just keep doing your thing, he said,
Say no more,"
--- Gimpy!

PS - Sorry it took me so long to getting around to this, Kyle; I've been
meaning to, but I haven't been very good about returning e-mails as of
late.

Toronto: City of the Future?

When I drive or walk out of my building, I often joke to myself that I live in the "City of the Future". From that vantage point, I can only see very new condo buildings, the SkyDome, and the CN Tower, which makes me feel like I live in some futuristic space-city.

But while walking through Kensington Market and Chinatown the other day, I started to ponder a bit more this "City of the Future" idea and think it might be true. When I say this, I mean nothing about the architecture (Toronto architecture generally blows, btw). I'm talking about the culture and the identity of the city.

One of the most significant things I've noticed about Canada is that Canadians and the Canadian media (probably more the latter) are very interested in establishing an identity separate from that of the United States. One of the things that seems to be sticking in this search for a unique identity is Canada as the "place someone emigrates" (I hope I got that usage correct - someone please correct me if I didn't).

At one time, the United States was the place to go if you wanted to, or were forced to, leave your homeland. All you had to do was show up, and you were in. Over the last hundred years, it's become progressively more difficult, to the point where now the US isn't much thought of as friendly to outsiders. It seems that Canada has jumped in to pick up that slack and is building its identity around it.

In the United States, we traditionally talk about the "melting pot", where lots of cultures go in, and something uniquely "American" emerges. In Canada, they speak of the "mosaic", where people are able to retain their cultural identities but exist in harmony with one another.

And that's where the idea of Toronto as the City of the Future comes in. Toronto doesn't really have a unique identity. It's sort of like New York, Chicago, or Boston, but doesn't really have the unique identity that any of those cities have. This lack of an identity seems to be a point of concern for many Torontonians (again, mainly as expressed through the media). What's interesting, though, is that this lack of an identity and lack of an "identity momentum", is allowing the city to construct its identity right now. That's pretty interesting to me, as it's not something that most American cities have gotten to do in a while. Their identities are largely set. They do change, but only rather slowly.

Toronto's identity, however, is changing (emerging, really) rapidly. And what it's growing towards is one of a truly multicultural mosaic. This new emphasis on being a mosaic of cultures rather than a melting pot of cultures, coupled with the tremendous human migrations underway in the world, means that what Toronto is becoming is what many other cities will become in the years ahead. Thus, I think it's legitimate to call it the City of the Future.

Greg's Response

Greg the Curmudgeon, who "snarls at he faddishness of the blog", won't start one, so he sent me his response to my tag via email. With his permission, I post it here:

I dunno about this "blog" thing and I sure as hell ain't gonna waste my
time starting one. But I will respond to your "tag." And no, I'm not
signing up on blogger to enter them in the comments section...

In no particular order:

1. Bloc Party, "Banquet," from the album Silent Alarm

2. Brazilian Girls, "Pussy," from the ST album

3. Peaches and Iggy Pop, "Kick It" single

4. Pelican, "GW," from the album Australasia (this is some heavy shit
from Chicago, you dig?)

5. Phantom Planet, "Big Brat," from the ST album (I hate their hit
single from the OC, but they've got some other great tracks)

6. ACDC, "TNT," from the album High Voltage

7. Sleater-Kinney, "What's Mine is Yours," from the album The Woods

8. Air, "Universal Traveler," from the album Walkie Talkie

9. Babasonicos, "Pendejo" from the album Jessico (great Argentinian
pop/rock band)

10. Caetano Veloso / Gal Costa, "Baby," from the compilation Tropicalia

Thanks Greg! And thanks to Barbara too for responding to the challenge!

More Canada Stuff....

Can you tell I'm on a holiday today? It's Simcoe Day here in Ontario, a day to celebrate the accomplishments of John Graves Simcoe, the founder of Toronto.

Random Canada thoughts here on this day:

• Went to World's Biggest Bookstore on Friday night. Don't know whether it's actually the biggest bookstore in the world, but it's pretty dang big and has some great stuff. I picked up a couple of cookbooks: Rick Bayless's Mexico One Plate at a Time and Jane Bamforth's Cooking With Trout. I like trout.


• There are ketchup-flavored potato chips in Canada.

I've Been Tagged

My friend Melanie, who may be giving birth at this very moment, has tagged me. Here it is:

List ten songs that you are currently digging ... it doesn't matter what genre they are from, whether they have words, or even if they're no good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying right now. Post these instructions, the artists, and the ten songs in your blog. Then tag five other people to see what they're listening to.

My list (in no particular order):

• Wilco - Hell Is Chrome


• Spoon - The Beast And Dragon, Adored


• Louis XIV - God Killed the Queen


• Wilco - Spiders (Kidsmoke)


• The Roots - Rock You


• Jason Fowler - My Daily Burden


• ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - It Was There That I Saw You


• David Bowie - Life on Mars? Also, Seu Jorge's cover of this song, both on the soundtrack to The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.


• J.S. Bach - Prélude from the Suite for Violoncello Solo No. 1 in G major, BWV 1007, as performed on solo guitar by Andrés Segovia


• The Arcade Fire - Haiti and Rebellion (Lies). Yes, I know that's two songs, but they go together as a set.

I now tag Tim, Dipu, and Barbara. Sorry, I don't have five friends who keep regular blogs.... Oren and Gimpy, get yer asses in gear! I want to see y'all's lists. Actually, I tag both of you, as well as Greg, Booth, and Omid. Now, not only do you have to make your own list, but you have to start a blog.