Feb/105
Brad Nowell.
Ever since about 1997, shit, when I was fourteen, I’ve been in love with Sublime. I remember paddling down the Sand River in Lake Superior Provincial Park, bobbing my head to the killer sound of Wrong Way and April 29, 1992 (Miami), in a canoe and on my Sony Discman… Wow, those were the days. There was just something perfect about the ska/punk sound, the lyrics, which were so easy to pick up, and Brad Nowell’s voice rivals any of the greats, living or dead and you all know it. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a party or a cottage or the beach without someone righteously demanding and playing Sublime, it just goes without saying. Sublime means summer and is essential to it; one cannot be without the other. I've always been intrigued by what really happened to Nowell, so I figured you guys would too.
Dec/093
Goodbye, 2000s, you shitty decade.
9/11, eight years of George W. Bush, two new wars, economic collapse, and you killed George Carlin. Fuck you, 2000s. Seriously.
On the other hand, you elected a black dude, proved the Internet as an incredibly powerful tool for freedom and democracy, birthed the private spaceflight industry, gave us the Large Hadron Collider, the Mars rovers, iPhones, Avatar*, and you killed Robert Novak.
What are the high and low moments for the naughts, in your opinion?
* I mention Avatar only because I expect it will get the credit for moving 3D into the mainstream.
Dec/092
Winter break hibernation: a study.
I'm sitting at my computer and it's 6AM; normally I'd be expecting to go to work in an hour or so, but this is a special time of year. It's Christmastime, and that means I'm at home for the break; it means no schoolwork, minimal responsibility and the opportunity to stay up way later than I ever thought practical. The annual Demers winter hibernation means I'm in bed by the not-so-wee hours of the morning and up in the late (late!) afternoon. What started as a later-than-usual bedtime has now compounded on itself, inevitably snowballing to the point where I stay up so late I'll go to bed on time (wait a minute...).
Dec/090
The 15 most intriguing of the year… In Jeff’s life.
In contrast and in retaliation to the hocus pocus and bullshit crap that the likes of Entertainment Tonight and People Magazine has put together, I would like to lay out a list of the most intriguing “real” people, that I know and love. To boot, I’ve added an extra 5 more spots to the usual 10 you see driveling out of magazines and TV screens across North America, so there, fuck you Mary Hart.
15. James Dalgleish:
As a brother, James Dalgleish inevitably finds a place at the top of the list. Being both a sharer of genetic material and man of considerable size he and I share many of the same quality. Returning to school this year put me in a situation not many people get to be in, a post-secondary scenario that had us pitted together in a Critical Thinking Philosophy class run by a codeine high, English Philosophy Doctorate. Needless to say, I lost the race in terms of marks, but our ability to relate almost every aspect of critical thinking jargon and terminology to the Star Wars Saga was staggering. My brother intrigues me because of his inability to clean his room, at all, over the fall semester yet amidst the Beirut like interior of his man lair, he still seemed to garnish high marks as he plugged away at his Geography major. God bless you James, oh wait, if you critically argue the existence of God, there is no real, solid evidence to back up the inductive argument that states there actually is one….
Dec/092
Protect Your Neck: What I’ve learned from listening to the Wu-Tang Clan.
When you listen to a band for awhile you tend to take a few things away with you; whether it's to buy their merchandise or to fuck the system that sells you it, hopefully you're listening to the tunes close enough that you gleam some sort of message. It's been years since I've started down my slippery path into the world of hip-hop, and I'd like to share with you (yes, you!) the life lessons that I've learned from rap's first dynasty, the Wu-Tang Clan. By no means is this supposed to sound preachy; I'm just riffing on a thought process that I had.
Nov/094
Blame games.
I've had a Metropass for ten years now. I don't own a car. I don't plan on owning a car. I'm OK with that. Public transit, with its occasional shortcomings, suits me just fine. So, I, like just about everyone in Toronto, am unimpressed about the impending TTC fare hike. But I'm not nonplussed about it. As a result of the fare hike, a lot of people are up in arms and pointing fingers in the wrong directions. So the following is the reality, in simple bullets, in the hopes of correctly framing the discourse....
- The TTC's operating budget (the cost to run the system on a day-to-day basis) and its capital budget (the cost of new equipment such as streetcars, subways, station renovations, route modification projects, etc.) are two separate entities and money cannot legally be transferred from one to another (i.e. "Hey, why would the TTC renovate Museum Station but not be able to afford to run the bloody buses next year? That's so stoopid [sic]").
- The capital budget gets its funding heavily from the federal and provincial governments (e.g. TransitCity, new buses) as these are warm fuzzy (see: politically advantageous) news stories - but not before a lot of begging and pleading.
- Fare revenue makes up about 70% of the TTC's operating budget. Compare that to 36% in NYC, 44% in Boston, 57% in Montreal and 54% in Vancouver. The rest of money comes from government subsidies and TTC revenue generation (e.g. advertising, etc.). This makes the TTC's operating budget the least subsidized in North America.
- Until the Harris government in the 1990s, the province used to shell out 50% of the TTC's operating budget.
- All Toronto budgets must be balanced as per the delegation of financial duties between the province and municipalities. The city cannot run a deficit. Therefore, it's a zero sum game.
Where do you want to point your finger now? If the public is so outraged, why aren't they knocking on the right doors?
Nov/091
What being a Tetris block for Halloween taught me; fitting in with the world.
Yes, I'm partially making this post to show off my Halloween (and future comic book convention) costume, which took me a couple days to build. The ingredients to this marvel were three office chair boxes, a roll of black duct tape and a whole lot of red spray paint; I'd say it turned out pretty well, don't you?
You are now listening to the Tetris theme in your head.
Oct/092
Is this really it, MJ?
Michael Jackson – arguably the most famous man in world history and easily the greatest entertainer of all time, died this past summer.
Oh, you’ve heard?
The aftermath and mourning of his passing included this past Tuesday’s release of “This Is It”, a documentary-style film that followed Jackson as he rehearsed in the weeks before what was going to be his curtain call - a string of 50 sold out concerts for over one million people, taking place in London’s O2 Theatre, beginning in July of this year.
Oct/095
H1N1 makes me feel like an attention whore.
So last week I had H1N1. It was terrible, and that's pretty much the last word on that I'll say in this post. What's interesting is what happened after.
Oct/092
Walking with the zombies.
Yesterday's Zombie Walk was awesome. Check out my photos from the event here.
PH0T0ADAY.
FLICKR TAG W0RD.CA.
