Today was a productive day.

Councillors Mary Fragedakis and Paul Fletcher of wards 29 & 30 respectively held an information meeting today in Eastminster United Church. During this event they had speakers from many organizations, including the Toronto Library, Animal Services, and many other fantastic Toronto services speak about the KPMG report’s recommendations for service cuts.

This event was simply the left preaching to the left. It was good to hear from these organizations, and give faces to the proposed cuts. Sadly all they talked about was “SAY NO TO CUTS!” It wasn’t anything to motivate those already against the cuts, it did nothing to move the masses. So I asked a question… well, two.

1) How are the politicians and the activists represented going to work with others to find a medium ground, to compromise?

2) Yes we can contact our councillors, who agree with us, we can contact the Mayor’s office, who will ignore us, we can sign petitions, but what can we do with this massive group here to make a change? How can we mobilize?

Councillor Fletcher answered the second question with the usual rhetoric, getting friends and family outside of the ward to contact their councillors, coming to city council, holding up signs. All good and useful ideas, but nothing that will move the masses. Nothing that will convince the “mushy middle” they so much deride. The first question, she didn’t even touch. She told me we had to move along to the next person.

After the event, I talked to my councillor, Ms. Fragedakis as someone asked her how to get the “mushy middle” to see the “correct” side of the picture. I then asked, “how can we get the ‘mushy middle’ to our side of the picture if we cannot work with them, and compromise to find solutions?” Fragedakis’ response was simply that the left is right, and that we have to convince them to our side.

And ladies and gentlemen, this is why I hate party politics. You have people who are living and breathing the party manifesto and putting that ahead of reason. Yes I’m against Ford’s cut, but Toronto MUST balance it’s budget, why? Because we HAVE TO BY LAW! We cannot, under provincial law, run a deficit. So we have to work with the Fords and Mammolitis to find a middle ground to our budget problems.

One of the speakers there was Mr. Peter Tabuns, who is running for re-election to represent Toronto-Danforth in Ontario’s provincial legislature… Queen’s Park¹. He spoke well, and he spoke of getting the province to return to the days of Bob Rae, when Ontario subsidized the operational expenses of the TTC. He spoke well, and he spoke convincingly, and he enticed me to want to vote for him. But how can I do that, if I haven’t yet spoken to the Liberal candidate in my riding, especially because of my dislike of Ms. Howath, the leader of the NDP?

Well, it just so happens, that on my walk home from Eastminster United Church, I ran into Marisa Sterling, who is vying for a seat in Queen’s Park.

It was nice to be able to talk to her. It was disappointing, however. She seems to think that representing the city’s needs is the job of Toronto councillors, and that representing Toronto’s needs provincially is not the job of an MPP elected in Toronto. I have to say that she’s wrong. I have to say that the single job of an MPP or an MP elected to represent Toronto-Danforth in their respective Parliament, is to represent Toronto-Danforth in their respective Parliament.

The Liberals aren’t right, the Conservatives aren’t right, the NDP aren’t right, the Greens aren’t right. No one is 100% right, and we must work together to find a compromise.

1. For to two people who didn’t know that. [↩]

Politics is the science which teaches the people of a country to care for each other. If a mischievous individual were to attempt to cut off his neighbour’s hand, would that neighbour’s other hand and feet do well quietly to permit the amputation of the limb if they could hinder it? All will say, No. This then is politics. That part of our duty which teaches us to study the welfare of our whole country, and not to rest satisfied altho’ our own household is well off when our neighbours are in difficulty and danger. The honest politician is he who gives all he can of his time and means to promote the public good, whose charity begins at home but does not end there. The man who says he is no politician, is either ignorant of what he is saying, or a contemptible selfish creature, unworthy of the country or community of which is a part.

William Lyon Mackenzie
March 12, 1795 – August 28, 1861
Mayor of Toronto, 1834
Member of the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada, 1829-1833, 1834-1836
Member of the Legislative Assembly of the United Province of Canada, 1851-1858

Sourced from: Mackenzie: A Political Biography of William Lyon Mackenzie by John Sewell; James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Publishers; 2002

Okay, so Toronto chose the worst possible option for its mayor. I propose two things.

1) We, the people, the ones who own this city, the ones who invest our lives in it, we band together and make it the best possible city it can fuckin’ be! Whether that be creating amazing art spaces for the community, working towards a greener Toronto, escalating guerilla urban planning¹, anything! Let’s make this the best possible city, despite Ford.

2) 2014 is coming soon. Who do we want to run our city. We have three million possible contenders. We need to figure out who that person is, and convince them they want the job. Then we work to run a campaign of hope, a campaign of the future, and that kind of optimism cannot be defeated. This is what the 2010 election lacked.

Who’s with me?

1. Paint bike lanes, guerilla gardening, whatever! [↩]

This is a pretty bad election for Toronto. We’re faced with three name candidates. A city councillor from Etobicoke who has been making Council a living hell for those who try to make legislation; the former Deputy Premier of Ontario, who as Minister of Health fucked up beyond belief; and the Deputy Mayor.

During this campaign, all three candidates are looking backwards, rather than forwards. Not a single one of them is providing a vision for Toronto, their campaigns are focused on Mayor David Miller, not Toronto.

While Ford and Smitherman’s campaigns are about how Miller did everything wrong, Pantalone’s campaign has been to say that David Miller did no wrong, and we must blindly carry on his legacy. Unfortunately, none of these reflect reality.

So we can evaluate Ford’s campaign, and we see grand gestures criticizing Miller, and using “facts” which can’t stand up to criticism. His plan is to dismantle any good work done by Miller, such as Transit City, and has ideas which will turn Toronto’s horrible gridlock to a nightmare. He plans to cut a few million here and there, while cutting taxes that bring in much larger sums, while claiming to not cut services.

Then we have Smitherman, who’s track record in running large organizations leaves something to be desired. He has a lot of political clout, which he can wave, to help gain support in council. He’s also pandering to the right, to win the support that Ford has won effortlessly.

I can’t vote for either of these candidates. They’re proposing to dismantle this city, and ruin what an incredible city this has become. It will help continue the urban sprawl that has been going on for decades, and now sees people commuting into Toronto from Barrie, or worse.

Pantalone is the only other option. While he’s not campaigning on any grand ideas, and he just seems to want to continue Miller’s work, I feel he’s the closest option to a sane and working government.

Sigh.

Last night, I went to the Ward 29 debate at the Eastminster United Church, around the corner from me. The six candidates were (in alphabetical order, by last name):
Chris Caldwell
Mary Fragedakis
Jane Pitfield
Mike Restivo
John Richardson
Jennifer Wood

None of the candidates are the incumbent, that was Case Ootes, who is retiring.

One thing that bothered me is that all the candidates are upset over how well Toronto’s parking enforcement do their job, and they’d try to get a 10 minute grace period. This is bloody ridiculous, if you park illegally, you park illegally. Don’t expect to not get a ticket if you’re “running in and out.” I was getting home super late from work last night, and en route I needed to visit Graeme and Heather. I stopped at their house, around the corner from me, seeing as I didn’t stop at home, I drove there. They told me about the debate, so we walked together. Graeme warned me that they’re very harsh about ticketing and I should move my car further forward so it didn’t block a bit of the sidewalk. What did I do? I moved my car forward. If I got a ticket, what would I do? Pay it! I made an error, I am responsible for that error.

Mary Fragedakis isn’t a horrible candidate. She’s rather insistent that she’s a small business owner, and felt the need to remind us over and over again. She also seems to not understand what a luxury is, as she stated that a car and house “are not a luxury.” I’d like to remind the candidate that a roof and mobility are not a luxury, and that’s why we have shelters and TTC Wheel-Trans are provided to Toronto’s citizens. A house, however, if it were not a luxury as she implies, why is the City of Toronto not providing me with a house? Why do I live in an apartment? Even though I own a car, I know it is a luxury. I lived for years and years without a car, and if I didn’t work outside of Toronto’s borders, I wouldn’t need a car, or want a car. A car is most certainly a luxury.

Jane Pitfield was awkward, and unsure throughout the whole night. Though she is the most qualified of the candidates, based on her existing political career, I don’t believe her to be the best option to represent Ward 29. Her answers were contradictory, and insightful to her character of speaking before thinking.

Mike Restivo was one of my favourite candidates. He does repair work for a living. Owns a company, repairs POS systems, and PCs. Yet this is his website. HAHAHA! Okay, seriously, here’s his website. I would never trust a man to build, or repair any electronic system who has such little grasp of what a website is. Nor would I trust someone who thinks a blog is a series of static HTML pages. Sigh.

John Richardson is angry, and he’s not going to take it! Richardson is so angry, that he’s unhappy to even be at this event. He didn’t want to be there, and it was damn obvious. He thinks he’s always right, and would rather push ahead with his vision, rather than to examine an issue with a balanced approach. You sir, are not my candidate.

Jennifer Wood is the most visible candidate to me, as her office is across the street. HI JENNY! Within a few seconds of her opening statements we learned two things about her. She’s a lawyer, and teachers Sunday school. RUN FOR THE HILLS! She’s also a small business owner, much like her clone Fragedakis is reluctant to let us forget it.

Finally there’s Chris Caldwell. He studied urban planning, he’s well spoken, his brain seems to be filled with a crazy amount of raw data, and wants to properly evaluate and plan the city. I couldn’t quite put my finger on whether he was left wing or right wing. Simply, he’s an intelligent man, who would be a good representative for the ward in council.

Simply put, please vote, please consider Mr. Caldwell.

• Fuck you Miller, relying on outside sources to fund one of the most important infrastructures in Toronto.
• Fuck you McGuinty, you know the entire province relies on the city of Toronto.
• Fuck you Harper, just cuz.
• CBC wants to know how French are you… in other news, la SRC ne se soucie pas comment l’anglais que vous soyez.
• Smitherman wants to take the Chertien/Martin approach to governance… he might win my vote.
• Surgery in Windsor, not a good idea. Is there anything that’s a good idea in Windsor?
• Who cares? No one uses Bing or Yahoo!
• As often as I’ve had brunch at Sneaky Dee’s, I’ve never had their Huevos Rancheros.
• The Parliamentary Budget Officer takes a look at Canada and its long term financial future.
• I think I need to puke…
• Sharon Jones is coming to Toronto in May, but she’s playing the Sound Academy. Any other venue, and I’d be there with bells on. I absolutely refuse to visit that venue.
• Most god-awful recipes I’ve ever seen. (thanks Terri)

• Above, NPR inverview Stephin Merritt & Claudia Gonson.
• Carrie Brownstein, will you marry me? Okay, we’ve never met, and it would be slightly awkward that my best friend has the same first name as me, and his wife has the same first name as you, but does that really matter? Your love of The Magnetic Fields is enough for me. Oh, and while we’re on the topic, your amazingness as part of Sleater-Kinney doesn’t hurt.
• With a Gold in hand for Canada, 3000km away in the country’s largest city (and my city), the CN Tower goes gold.
• Mechanical Forest Sound posts a new Gentleman Reg song. Thanks Joe!
• Apparently Canadians handle their sticks with their left hands. Though I’ve never played hockey, I do hold a golf club and baseball bat left handed. (Yoinked from TIMMMMAAAAY)
• A video illustrating Microsoft’s creative process. Best comment, “I will never think about MS Paint the same way.”
• Who has a few million to spare? (via the article’s author… HI KATE!)

My plans of attending Wavelength over the past week seem to have been defeated; of five shows, over the past week, I only attended one. For those who didn’t read my previous post, Wavelength is a music series that has happened every Sunday for the past ten year. To celebrate Wavelength 500 and mourn the end of the weekly series, Toronto was lucky enough to see a five night festival happening in various venues throughout the city.

I missed the first four shows, and unfortunately wasn’t able to see The Bicycles, Laura Barrett, Evening Hymns, Diamond Rings, Picastro, Constantines or numerous other bands, I did however get to see a show I will never forget.

Opening the show were Boars, Neck & Mean Red Spiders. They were all good. I enjoyed them all but don’t remember enough about any of them to have anything much to say.

The Barcelona Pavilion were probably my highlight of the show. I had wondered for a long time why anyone cared for any music performed by Steve Kado. I had seem him perform a number of times, and just didn’t get it, it didn’t make sense to me. Sure, I had respect for him, and the □□□□□□ Recording Club he helped found and admired the spirit of DIY so very much embodied by □□□□□□ and Wavelength. I’ve also been to The Boat many times and seen bands who were part of the Bad Band Revolution, and always wondered why anyone liked this self-admitted “bad bands,” seriously, they were horrible. I’ve always related Kado to that. Kado used to play in a band called The Barcelona Pavilion, and they reformed in their original lineup for Wavelength 500.

I was blown away by their performance, sure musically, it fit in with the bad band revolution, but it had all those wonderful tenants of good punk! I also haven’t moshed in a long time, and that was a nice change from usual… oh and did I mention that Maggie MacDonald is hot?

The best I can say about Kids on TV is that they are theatrical; I could also say they’re gay, but for some odd reason the two seem to go hand in hand. Their set didn’t really do anything for me, and I didn’t quite understand why anyone else was enjoying it; I found it to be cliché and boring.

Did you know that “Tranzac” is an adjective? As in, “This band is rather Trazacy.” Well, before Thomas came on, I asked someone what they were like, and he said “Tranzacy.” Then after getting bored with them, and hovering elsewhere in the bar, I mentioned my boredom to someone else, and she said, “yeah, they’re very Tranzac.” In closing, they were boring, and not an exciting secret act, the following secret act was much better.

Did someone say Owen Pallett? Oh my! For those who don’t know Owen Pallett used to record and tour under the name Final Fantasy. He’s recently decided to start going by his actual name. Pallett’s set’s biggest drawback was the 30 minutes for him to set up his excessive amounts of gear to play four songs. However, those four songs were absolutely wonderful. Before he left the stage he announced that he would be back in a few with The Hidden Cameras.

Yes, The Hidden Cameras. I’ve never been a fan. I have a strange double 7″ EP, and have listened to it a couple times. but I never really got into them. Unlike Kids on TV, I completely understand why they have a following, and really dug seeing them live. I was able to get into the groove of the audience, and enjoy the show for what it was. I still won’t be buying any of their records any time soon, but I’ll have fun if they randomly decide to close a show I’m at.

Above photo of Doc Pickles taken by Garry Tsaconas, used with permission.

• I want this for my birthday.
• How to attract women.
• Google wants to bring 1 gigabit per second internet to you.
• Adam Giambrone throws in the towel.I’m iffy on this. I wouldn’t have voted for the man, because of the state of the TTC, but to have to drop out of the race because of his personal life isn’t right.
• Did you know they still do a MacWorld Expo? Why? Seriously, why?
• Google Street View… let’s visit the Yukon River in Whitehorse.
• Valentines day mixtape courtesy of Monitor Mix. Dear Carrie Brownstein, will you be my valentine?
• Fake Simpsons words that belong in the dictionary. (Courtesy of swhibbsy)

via The Muppet Newsflash

10 years ago, Toronto’s music scene was bleak and boring; Canada’s music scene was incredible. Sloan had just released their best album Between The Bridges, The Flashing Lights were “Kings of the Canadian now,” and yet there were a handful of Toronto bands, but no decisive scene. We had Blue Rodeo, The Sadies and Ron Sexsmith hanging around, but Toronto seemed to be hostile towards new bands. Then came Wavelength…

I could easily discuss how important Wavelength has been to me, and that’s usually what I talk about on this blog, ME ME ME; you can’t blame me, I’m AWESOME. Instead I’d rather examine what Wavelength has done for Toronto as a whole.

I doubt there’s any Toronto music nerd who hasn’t walked into Sneaky Dee’s at some point and been completely confused by Doc Pickles’ strange ranting/introductions. There are some items in Toronto culture which are rights of passage for anyone; Wavelength is one of these. We’ve all been to Wavelength, and we’ve all seen tiny bands in tiny bars who would go on to greater things. We’ve also seen tiny bands in tiny bars who would stay where they are. So what makes Wavelength unique in Toronto?

Nothing. There is absolutely nothing unique about Wavelength, anymore. It’s another series amongst dozens that take place in this city every night of the year, but Wavelength is special. Sure, there’s its length (10 years is nearly impossible in this industry), but the historical context of Wavelength is truly where it shines. Toronto’s music scene was so very bleak before it and it was the first of its kind. Without it, we might just be faced with a pay-to-play city, where status is defined by pocketbook. Thanks to Wavelength, we have a local community of bands, we’re able to foster musicians, allowing them to grow, gain a reputation and then expand outside of the city. This has happened for so many Toronto bands since Wavelength’s founding, and it can easily be traced back to this weekly night.

Now we’ve had Wavelength for ten years, and its bowing out, but it’s going out with a band. The Wavelength 500 festival, begins today and goes until Sunday night. Bands big and small will play this festival, from The Constantines to Picastro, Kids On TV to Mean Red Spiders, Pony Da Look to Evening Hymns. I had planned to purchase a festival pass, I never got around to it. Rumour has it tonight’s show at The Music Gallery (an amazing venue) is sold out. That was the one show I was most excited for, but I’m sure I’ll find myself at some of these shows any way. It is after all, the end of an era.

With tons of other music series like No Shame, Two Way Monologues, Gather Round and more, will we miss Wavelength? Sure. We all know that no matter what we’ll have a good time on a Sunday night if we went out to Sneaky’s (or The Garrison), but at least we’ll have other places to spend our Sunday nights.

• Wed, February 10, 2010 - WAVELENGTH 500 / 10th Anniversary Festival — Night 1: Bruce Peninsula, Evening Hymns, Pony da Look, Deep Dark United, Canaille
• Thu, February 11, 2010 - WAVELENGTH 500 / 10th Anniversary Festival — Night 2: Holy Fuck, Russian Futurists, Diamond Rings, Fembots, Professor Fingers
• Fri, February 12, 2010 - WAVELENGTH 500 / 10th Anniversary Festival — Night 3: From Fiction, The Bicycles, Laura Barrett, Magic Cheezies, Young Mother
• Sat, February 13, 2010 - WAVELENGTH 500 / 10th Anniversary Festival — Night 4: Constantines, Rockets Red Glare, Donne Roberts, Picastro, Danger Bay
• Sun, February 14, 2010 - WAVELENGTH 500 / 10th Anniversary Festival — Night 5: Kids on TV, The Barcelona Pavilion, Mean Red Spiders, Neck, Boars