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Halloween 2010

This year’s Halloween was a bust for me. I did absolutely NOTHING. While I did dress (temporarily) as a beaver the week before, I couldn’t bring myself to attend any Halloween festivities. Slightly annoyed at myself for missing both the annual pumpkin carving, and the Indie Bloggers Brunch. This year’s pumpkin carving was specifically the “Toronto’s Public Services Memorial Pumpkin Carving1.” The above photo was stolen from Emily, who I assume is both the carver and photographer. She perfectly captured City Hall, and the T it makes in the negative space2. I also missed crazy good times at the bloggers brunch, where people who are saner than I and who… Read More »Halloween 2010

Dan Mangan at Trinity St. Paul’s United Church

… and Reverend Mangan came down from the stage and spoketh to the assembled crowd. As he walked through the aisle, the crowd repeated his words back to him, over and over again, and it was good, for “Robots need love, too; they want to be loved by you!” The night started out poorly, as someone working for what I’d guess to be either the venue, or Collective Concerts would not let me into the Church with my camera. Apparently pro1 camera equipment was not allowed if you didn’t have a photo pass. Something that more than pissed me off, as I was eager to photograph Dan Mangan, at my… Read More »Dan Mangan at Trinity St. Paul’s United Church

Stephin Merritt is amazing

Stephin Merritt at one point wrote for Time Out New York. They recently posted all his works online. Aluminum Tunes is not a new Stereolab album but two CDs of B-sides and outtakes and such. Three or four years ago, Stereolab was an indie-rock group with intentionally unintelligible singing, obscure words drawn from Marxist tracts, really long songs consisting of one chord, Velvet Underground shtick, lackluster playing skills and plenty of charm. Nowadays, it still has the charm part, but indie rock is dead—Stereolab helped kill it. Now its music is much better. Stephin reviews Stereolab. That has to be the greatest summary of Stereolab I’ve ever read.1 Merritt also… Read More »Stephin Merritt is amazing

Mayor Staypuft

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… Read More »Mayor Staypuft

Why Joey Trousers is getting my vote…

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… Read More »Why Joey Trousers is getting my vote…

Isobel(le, sans Sebastian)

Isobel Campbell seems to hate Toronto. In 1999, her then-band Belle & Sebastian were scheduled to play a show here, but she got sick, and the band had to cancel what was to be their first Toronto show. The next time they came around to Toronto, they played at one of the city’s worst venues, The Kool Haus. She didn’t seem to be too happy up on stage, and lo and behold, she left the band the next day. Since then Belle & Sebastian have been without a cellist1 and they seem happy about it. A few years later, Campbell was on tour supporting her new record, an album she… Read More »Isobel(le, sans Sebastian)