Cyborg Monkey

UNFREAKINGBELIEVABLE

concert

I finally bought tickets to see R.E.M.

Workend

On Friday night I made dinner and then biked to the ROM for the kickoff of this year's Doors Open. I wanted to a) see the ROM for free, and b) see the Pecha Kucha presentations.

The new ROM addition, for those who don't know, is Toronto's version of a Daniel Liebeskind building... which, for those who don't know, means a bunch of jagged forms smashed together to make architecture. This building was supposedly inspired by the ROM's crystal collection, which is a joke because it looks pretty much like all of his other buildings. From my perspective within the architecture industry, Toronto's local architects don't think much of this building. This could be for a number of reasons: a) they didn't get to design it, b) they have conservative Canadian taste, c) the building is actually kinda crappy.

I actually like the thing from the outside, which is the only view I had ever seen. From what I had heard, the interior is where the thing doesn't hold up. Having finally made it inside, I have to say I sort of agree. The interior is pretty underwhelming. Also, the place was filled with one million people which, to be fair, is probably not the best scenario for evaluating the space.

Anyway - for such a crazy building, the inside is a little boring. The walls are mostly large expanses of white drywall and aluminum, which at times seem somehow unfinished. Worst of all (in my opinion) is the lack of grandness. The huge crazy shards don't really translate into any huge crazy interior spaces, and when I found my way into the old entryway (which is now just an emergency exit, I guess), I couldn't help but prefer the scale (and richness) of it. (I also like that quote in the ceiling.)

I also way preferred the old dark dinosaur hallway, with the fake environments and dramatic lighting. Now the dinos all hang from oddly inclined white surfaces, like pieces of art in a 'neutral' (although not neutral, 'cause there are no right angles anywhere) field. I realize this is probably not a 'new ROM' thing, and likely reflects the latest in Museum Curatorial Theory - but I liked the drama of the old setup.

Anyway - the Pecha Kucha. The theme was Sacred Spaces, which I thought would be interesting. Most of the presenters were architects, and most took the opportunity to just show their own work, with a brief introduction to shoe-horn it into the theme of the night... 'Sustainability is the new religion', 'Healthcare (architecture) is sacred', 'Here's some of my (sacred) work!'. To be fair, some of these presentations (like the healthcare one) were pretty cool... but I was hoping for a bit more creativity, and a deeper exploration of the idea of the sacred.

My favorites were maybe this guy (his presentation was kinda terrible - but I just like his paintings!)... and this church, by Larkin (the coloured light on the concrete is amazing - like modern stained glass)


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And on with the weekend...

Saturday, I cleaned up the front yard and scattered some wild-flower seeds. I hope they can grow in gravelly dirt and bus fumes...
We also went to the Dufferin Mall and Leah bought a dress. We ran into the Cumby's and friends in a random alley on the way home, so we hung out with them briefly on a rooftop deck.

Sunday - I did laundry. That afternoon we went down to Queen street to find shoes to go with Leah's dress. After looking at a LOT of shoes, Leah bought some crazy nice Camper shoes...

We skipped church and watched Shaun of the Dead!

Rock Show

Last night Leah and I went to Rancho Relaxo to see The Books Elusive (Leah is a fan)...

Slugging

I just found out about slugging - essentially a form of commuter hitchhiking in which the 'slug' gets a free ride, and the driver gets a quicker commute (by accessing HOV lanes). It's anonymous carpooling.

This is pretty interesting... The American landscape (physically and culturally) has evolved in the context of large space. In this environment, the automobile became the ideal form of transportation - it is an effective means to navigate the distances involved, and it also enables a very high level of independence.

Slugging maintains the geographic distances, but the independence of driving your own car is traded in for a 'free ride'.

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Ironically, the independence once offered by the automobile has been replaced by a kind of slavery. As gas prices rise, people realize that they have no real alternatives to driving. The form of our landscape (outside of very few urban centres) offers little to those without a car. (This has long been known by bored suburban kids, trapped elderly populations, and the very poor - but these are easy groups to ignore).

Hopefully our geography can be retrofitted to allow for alternative means of getting around. Until then I will try to remember that it is a luxury for me to NOT have a car.

weekender

It was a long weekend, with the crappiest cold, wet weather...
I watched quite a few movies... we rented The Graduate and The Sixth Sense (which I never bothered to watch when it came out, since somebody ruined the ending for me). I also went to the new AMC theatre yesterday to watch Iron Man. Generally I like the whole superhero genre, and I thought this one was pretty decent. It was also something to do that involved not being out in the cold.
We also did the usual weekend laundry and grocery shopping.

Leah starts working today at the Yonge Street Mission.

Giger

I was talking to mom and dad on the phone last night, about their recent trip to Switzerland and Siberia.
Dad was telling me about visiting the tiny village of Gruyères, Switzerland. Apparantly there is an art museum in the village, and dad told me about a large sculpture of a gun loaded with little metal people instead of bullets.

So I looked it up. Turns out the museum they saw is the H.R.Giger museum! I had no idea that he was Swiss, and would never have guessed that the museum would be in a tiny mountain village. This would explain the black clothed pierced kids that mom says were hanging around the place - this is probably an international mecca for nightmare obsessed goth kids!

You of course know him best for his Alien movie sets... but check out that gun sculpture - it's actually pretty cool...

On Monday, Leah went to Guelph... After work, I randomly went to the Free Times Cafe for their open mic night. This is where Leah used to play each week, a long time ago. It was pretty much the same thing as I'm sure it has always been... a range of pretty good to pretty awful random people (many of whom have CDs to sell, for some reason) playing 2 songs each. My favorite is usually some old guy who can play guitar well, and isn't interested in 'making it'...
This time, my favorite was a vaguely Coldplayish sounding guy, who played keyboard, and covered Video Killed the Radio Star.

On Tuesday, we went to Supermarket for Karl's short film screenings. The best part of this, aside from the joy of watching Karl bring his creations to the public, was seeing Lisa on the big screen! The other best part was Pants' HILARIOUS set after the films. And then the other best was seeing Leah and the rest of Glory Glory Hallelujah perform a set of hymns afterwards (on stage at Supermarket)...

wknd

Friday - we rented and watched The French Connection
Saturday - we made sunchoke pancakes for breakfast, and then did laundry. That afternoon, we went to a barbecue birthday party at Anne and Joel's.
Sunday - Leah played music at an Anglican church in the morning, and I went grocery shopping. In the afternoon, I stopped by the OCAD grad show on my way to church. Check out some of /dr.'s thesis work... (more to come later)

Reading

At 'church' last night, Adrienne lent me the 4th Scott Pilgrim book... I started reading it on the subway this morning, and almost missed my stop.

MySpace

It's Gangsta Wife.

...

On Friday night we went to the Jays game... we were in about the 6th row, behind the first base, which was pretty fun.

Saturday was all about chores. I finished doing the taxes, and then filed this year's and last year's US taxes... Since we exempt all of our income as foreign, US taxes are mostly just an exercise in beaurocracy, with no money actually changing hands.
Afterwards, we celebrated by going to the laundromat!

On Sunday, I woke up at 5 and took various buses to Yonge and Eglinton. Luckily for me, one of the buses never showed up. I had to wait at Eglinton and Marlee for about 45 mins. When the next bus came, it was crammed with runners and pissed off shift workers who were late for work.
After that, I ran 10 kilometres... It was cool to see the endless river of runners down Yonge street, as far as you could see. I finished with a time of 50.56, which I think is pretty good considering I went running all of 3 times to train... I came in number 3450.

We were on setup for church, and I ran sound... so by the end of the day, I was pretty much wiped out.

weekend preview

Tonight Leah and I are going to a Jays game...
And on Sunday I will be waking up super-early for the 10k run.

Run like crazy

I'm running a race on Sunday - I found out you can sponsor me...
(the money goes to kids camps for kids affected by childhood cancer)