Weekend

Friday...
We went to eat dinner at Ka Chi.

Saturday...
I did laundry. I then went to the Toronto archives - were I discovered they had not pulled the stuff that I requested last weekend. I did talk to a very useful employee, who directed me to the Ontario archives - it turns out they might have a lot more useful info.
I also discovered the Furniture Bank. Turns out Toronto has a place where people just out of shelters, or immigrants with no cash, can get donated furniture and stuff. Also - on the second Saturday of each month, there is a fundraiser/sale on old furniture. Not as cheap as Goodwill furniture - but way better stuff. Who knew?
Bought some groceries.

Sunday...
I went to buy some more groceries.
I also spent a bit of time trying to record a song. I was late for church, 'cause I lost track of the time. Turns out the song sounds pretty bad - and I will have to do it all over...




Leah's parents are coming to town.

Those That Care

Yesterday evening I ran to catch the bus just before the traffic light changed. It was pretty full, and I expected that we would pull off right after I got on.

After waiting for a while, the driver declared rather loudly, 'I'm still waiting to see a student card.' He was apparantly talking to a young lady, who was maybe fifteen, who did not have a student card to accompany her student metropass.

The funny thing was that she was clearly with a huge group of her school friends (who I assume had the necessary cards), and what's more, WAS WEARING A SCHOOL UNIFORM! The driver, on hearing that she didn't have her card with her, bluntly gave her the options of paying $2.75, or getting off of his bus. I found out that the bus had been sitting there for five minutes before I even got on. He eventually threatened to put the bus out of service, and she eventually got off, and I assume walked the mile to the station.

The whole thing was a little shocking and a little humorous. I guess the driver could be commended for sticking to the rules... except that he was clearly more interested in the rules than in the people they are meant to serve. A few stops later, an old man was getting off the bus, and he asked the driver why he had kicked the girl off the bus. The driver responded by loudly reciting that bylaw number one clearly states blah blah blah... and the old man responded by telling him to have some respect when speaking to a senior. This guy should have been a book-keeper or something, and should definitely remove himself from the service sector, and perhaps the general public.

Weekender

OK, here goes:

Friday -
After work, I met up with the wife and with Jen, to hang out with some people at Walmer Rd Church. Afterwards, I stopped by the McGhee's, and found out that other people have also been rocking the Slowdive recently... maybe it is seasonal??

Saturday -
In the morning I went to the city archives, to look up some info. I hadn't been to the archives since 2000, and I forgot that it is pretty cool. It is where the keepers-of-the-past for the city of Toronto work... while I was there, I picked up a copy of this picture of the Bloor viaduct bridge. This is the bridge that stars in a chapter of Michael Ondaatje's book, In the Skin of a Lion, which I recommend less for the story, and more for its legendary imagery of Toronto past.

I then came home and did some laundry. Jen came over for dinner, and then we went to a fun fundraiser for a trip to India that some folks from church are organizing. Check out some more info about the trip at this (nice) FI³ website. Props to all those involved in putting this thing on, esp. Dylan and Adrienne, for silkscreening a gazillion shirts, and to Pants, for rocking... and to Lisa, just in general!

Sunday -
I did some cleaning, and then went in search of a photocopier, to copy some songsheets for the wife.
Church was hard work for Leah - sound gear was tricky, lights were missing... I am pretty glad I was not drumming, 'cause that would have been one more musician (and 4 more mics for Bradley to troubleshoot)...
I was on 'prayer-duty', as I call it... which was a pretty good time.
Afterwards, we had pancakes for dinner...

Photographs

I really like these pics...

Story time

Find the right tree and you can hear a story.

Public Transit

I am a fan of public transit.

But I am a bigger fan conceptually than I am realistically. Riding transit means you never know if you'll be half an hour late, so if anything is really important, you give yourself enough time to show up half an hour early.

And, when a streetcar dies on the way to work, and you wait forever, and then you give up and walk half the way, you don't get your money back. All you get is really late.

But you also don't have to deal with getting it fixed.

Weekend

Friday - I was mad tired. We hung out at the studio and had dinner with Mae.

Saturday - I purchased some CD's (see previous post). We did some grocery shopping. Bradley came over for dinner, and to rock out.

Sunday - Church.

Young Folks

I have this stuck in my head today...




[more?]

The Innocence Mission

The new album by the Innocence Mission will be out on March 13th.
These guys are heroes, and you can download one of the new songs here...

Metropolitan

Last night we watched Metropolitan. I have seen this movie before (a couple of times, actually), and have been wanting to watch it again for a while.

This time around it seemed slightly stiff in parts, but still ranks as a favorite. For a movie shot on a cheap budget, consisting pretty much entirely of dialogue (and American high-society prep-school teenage dialogue, at that), and for a director's debut...
I can't think of too many first projects that would be more difficult to tackle as a writer/director. And for the most part the characters are pulled off naturally and sympathetically.

If you like unusual movies, and dont find 90+ minutes of dialogue/character-study boring, then check this one out.



And I kind of want to watch the Last Days of Disco now (I watched part of this one years ago, I think on TV, but I don't remember making it through the whole thing) - since I just found out that it not only stars the same actress, but has her playing the same character...

Weekend

Friday night I crashed your party...
Saturday I said I'm sorry...
Sunday came and...

Actually...

The weekend was not all that eventful, from this end...
Leah and the Heroes rocked out at the Brampton Indie Arts Festival.
I rented, but did not watch, Metropolitan.
I played drums (this time it was pretty shaky, kids) at church.
That's about it.

Amphibian Ark

Frogs are dying... =(

Wabi Sabi

The other day I was thinking about 'green' architecture. Actually, I was thinking more about the concept of redemption, and the idea of using old buildings. I wonder if even the greenest of new green buildings is more wasteful than re-using (with appropriate system and insulation upgrades), old unused buildings. Even if just the structure of an old building can be salvaged, and reinvigorated, the old energy embodied in that skeleton (materials AND construction) is significant.

I was paging through this week's EYE magazine on the (infuriating) bus-ride to work this morning, and noticed a short letter that someone (Graeme Stewart) had written in response to an article. I never read the article, but I gather that it was some sort of critique of a lot of the failed modern architectural ideas of the 60s. This letter called for an environmentally sound approach of re-use, rather than EYE's suggestion of bulldozing ugliness.

A new architecture that exists within the skin and bones of dying buildings, reclaiming, reinterpreting, redeeming the past. This is quite a beautiful concept.

And what sort of aesthetic expression would suit this architecture? I have usually seen this sort of problem approached from a slightly grotesque, prosthetic, parasitic angle... (see: the ROM)... I don't really mind this sort of harsh juxtaposition of new and old, but I suspect there is a more sympathetic and sensitive alternative - one which values the old as much as the new, and turns even the scars and failures of the past into something beautiful...

Snow

Weekend Updated

This weekend was kinda lame. For some reason (I am silly), I spent most of it feeling kinda bored and restless. Here are some highlights:

Friday night - we went to the McGhee's. This is always a good time, and especially so when you watch American Splendor. If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favour (or a favor, if you prefer).

On Saturday I went to the dentist. This is supposedly everybody's least favourite (or favorite) thing to do, but it's not that bad when there are clouds painted on the wall around the skylight above the dentist chair (United Smiles of Kensington - I'm not kidding, that is the actual name of the dentist!)

Afterwards I went to the Moonbean for a coffee and bagel. I always found the Moonbean a little silly. Well, not the place, more the people that tend to hang out there sometimes. I can be too judgmental, and easily annoyed by people who try too hard to talk loudly about screenplays/novels that they are 'working on'.

BUT - if you go there early in the morning - the slackers are still in bed, and any writers/artists in the room are the kind that ACTUALLY write and make art - and they are less noisy - and it is quite a pleasant place!

Sunday - I tried to buy a decaf Americano from the guy at the new cafe near our place. I am a little torn between buying coffee from them (styrofoam = pure evil) and not buying coffee from them (I want them not to go out of business - and I appear to be their only customer). Usually the guy's daughter is there (speaks english, knows how to make coffee), but not this time. It was fun trying to explain to him what I wanted...

Church was cool.
And afterwards we had sushi. I also talked to my dad and mom, which was cool.

Wavelength

Kevy P (well, the wavelength crew, featuring Kevy P) made the feature music story in this week's (sex issue) edition of one of Toronto's finest smut-rag weeklys.


Hooray!!

Tuesday?!

Seems I missed the Weekend Update yesterday... must have been due to the 10.5 hours I worked (5 hours of meetings...) Can't complain, since I have to make up the time I spend teaching each week - so that puts me in a pretty good position for the rest of the week.

Speaking of... teaching was pretty fun today. Students did informal presentations, and then the whole class had a chance to critique each project. It is great practice at learning to think critically, and pretty darn quickly too.

This evening is church. Good times.

Oh yeah, the weekend.

Saturday - we had an actual meeting involving all members of the 324 studio. This involved a million pancakes, and lots of talk about insurance, signs, etc. Along those lines, if you know of anybody who would like to share cheap studio space with a bunch of Christian artists - please holler back.

Sunday involved a crazy drive to church. We were on setup/teardown, which is usually pretty fun, actually. Also, I played a few notes on the old melodica (Q: 'what is that thing?!' A:'it's called a melodica; you blow in here and play notes'... REPEAT) during a couple of songs... the highlight being the end of the service when Leah played a Suf-jam. It worked so well within the context of the service, and it sounded sweet with everybody singing.

The end.

Going FREAKING Awesome

This Ghost Ride It video is especially for Leah, but I'm fairly certain you will enjoy it too!

So, for those of us too dumb to understand what the hell is going on without some Hyphy 101... I recommend reading all about ghost ridin' here, yadadamean?

The Secret History

'I think there is something we were supposed to do before we lost our memories.'

I recently checked in to the never-updated blog of Michael Grace Jr. He's the guy from now-defunct My Favorite, the band that 'could be your life'...

Turns out he updated - about his new band, The Secret History, and their new record, an autobiographical-ish set of songs about a fictional band known as the Haunted Hearts. It sounds to me like the perfect recipe for the filter of nostalgia/longing/sadness/joy that My Favorite was able to sing over your teenage life.

Steam

Yesterday, I felt like I just ran out of steam. It seems as if I have been pretty busy lately, although not THAT busy...

Anyway - I got home and we made dinner. And then I half fell asleep on the couch. And then I went to bed at 9.




Luckily, the weekend looks as busy as ever!!