I’m doing a quick and dirty hour show tonight at Timothys (corner of Chester and Danforth, Chester subway) with Gord Oxley, Jane Luk and Dave (mumblemumble)! Best seats are available at 8:45pm, show starts at 9, drinks after commence at 10pm.
Come see me fall on my face! I havent been on stage in MONTHS! Weee!!!
I came home from the store last night and this gash was running blood down my heel. I didn’t even feel it! No more flip flops in public for me!
A year ago today, I was standing under this as it raced by overhead. It was one of the happiest times of my life. Without SharkBoy I probably would never have gone. I owe him a lot.
The weekend is almost upon us! Quick quiz for you: Who’s hands are these? Click the jump (“READ MORE” below pic) for your answer and a bonus video!
I walk by Alan Gardens every day. It’s a beautiful park, despite the rubbies and homeless and cop cars that occupy this green oasis, just east of Jarvis. Last October, around the end of the month, a blue temporary fence was erected with a sign announcing a Dogs Off-Leash area was going to be constructed inside 6 weeks. Landscaping through November? Ain’t gonna happen, was the first thing that came to mind.
Of course the due date of “late December” flew by like a hawk chasing a park pigeon.
SharkBoy and I would walk by and speculate how much the city was spending to rent, lease or contract out the machines that sat idle for weeks at a time inside this blue fence over the winter months. Occasionally we’d see workers in there prepping cement or laying out a feature for the park, but the brunt of the work was done the first while in October, halted for the most part of November/December and sporadically over January to March.
While the workers did their light touches to the run, all this time we watched as dog owners “broke into” the area and let their beasties go free, long before the area was complete. If this action of premature puppy pooping added time to the project, I can’t say, but it comes as no surprise this was happening. The same sort of guerrilla dog walking took place all during Cawthra Square’s (in the Gayborhood) re-modelling. Puppies just can’t wait, people!
This project is 5 months over their posted deadline (according to the sign) and little by little, small things are getting done: cement water features were finalized in March; the surrounding fence was put into place; a couple weeks back the area was landscaped with plants and mulch. Stuff is getting done, but at a lets-extend-this-contract-as-long-as-we-can pace. Mike Holmes would weep openly at the time and money this project is taking. I estimate that they could have started work in March and still be where they are now if they had put in regular work hours.
At this point, I don’t care what the dog run looks like, I just want my park back sans ugly blue fence.
Gizmodo has a video capture that proves Cylons are evil: they run Windows XP
I’m concerned that there are people out there slowing down their video long enough to look for this kind of stuff, frame by frame.
Hey Kids! Shelly Here!
Oh Indy…
(Spoilers ahead. You’ve been warned!)
I know that the Indy movies are all based on serial installments from the early days of film. I know that they’re emulating a forced, melodramatic style of acting. I know the Indy stories themselves are over the top and require a degree of suspension of disbelief, but the Crystal Skulls were… cracked.
I was loving where the movie started. Right back to the roots. The infamous warehouse (replete with a longing look at the Ark of the Covenant). Good one George/Steven! But the countdown clock for the rocket sled used LED lights made me think: “Waitaminnit! The US only started to develop LEDs in 1961, let alone have the technology to use them for numeric displays at secret military bases!” Okay okay… breathe. From there on, I started to suspect everything shoveled at me: Like how many fridges from the 50s were proudly labeled “Lead Lined”? Or dragging a motorcycle along with you to a South American adventure for two completely unnecessary establishing shots. The suspension of disbelief had been cut and I was left dangling.
I also thought we had to swallow the alien storyline way too soon. X Files The Movie had us questioning our beliefs better. With the previous Indys, we had a sense of mysticism that kept us just one step behind the mystery. A step behind the solution. With the alien plot, all bets are off. Lasers could have flown out of Indy’s whip and it could be too easily been explained by “alien tech!” Too easy and no payoff. With “Doom” or “Crusade” the mystery was faith-based and for some part, so it was for “Crystal Skull”, but there was no dual alternative explanation. The killer ants avoid the skull. The skull is magnetic to non-magnetic materials. The skull can control minds. Why? Alien technology!
I have to admit at this point that I’m getting alien CGI burnout after seeing it repeated over and over from Spielberg’s other speculative offerings (A.I., Taken, Close Encounters, Amazing Stories etc). What’s next? Shindler’s Schwa?
It was heavy on the action and light on the goofball comedy, which seems like the Star Trek Curse: odd number Treks suck, so I guess even number Indys aren’t as funny and are action heavy. In all, I did enjoy it, but the core was a bit shaky.
I give it four fedoras out of five.
Full gallery here at my Picasa Web Album.
This was my first Doors Open event. For those of you across the pond, or not from our city, once a year a great number of otherwise closed Toronto facilities open their doors to the public for a weekend. Spaces that you may never get to see in your lifetime are open to you. For example, the mayor’s office was open (under heavy guard) for you to peek into his cabinets of mementos and reading materials (zzzz). Or you could see the outlandish but uber-trendy Drake Hotel’s custom boutique hotel room’s custom wallpaper (and not have to endure a sleazy trendy one night stand). I thought it was going to be a bit dull but I found all of it extremely interesting.
Some select shots:
The York Armories.
Me with a musket that takes a full 30 some odd seconds to load (if you’re quick)
Us with Steamy! from the Steamwhistle Brewing Company (owners of the old Roundhouse)
Malabar Costumes Wear-house (geddit?). Racks of pantaloons!
Posing at the Drake
A bar just behind the city council chamber. Ten Forward has nothing like this!
And for fun, a preview of the ROTC routine this year:
I’m a horrible gift giver. I’ve mentioned before that I buy things I want to get, which is subconsciously greedy, I know. But if I manage to get things the receiver actually wants (usually through HEAVY hinting and suggestion), I always manage to destroy the act of surprise.
I drop too many cautionary suggestions (“You know those underwear you liked? I think you should just forget about buying them.”); or I ask too many questions (“That camera you looked at last week. Did it have a serial number you can remember off the top of your head?”); or in the case of home-made, hear felt gifts, I execute their creation waaay too early (“You may want to wear this now – it’s a scarf I made you!”); or I just leave the damn things lying around without trying to hide them (“What’s this Charlie’s Angels Season One doing here?”), all resulting in the most anti-climactic surprise for the recipient.
So when I finished wrapping the gifts last night for someone’s impending birthday, this someone systematically picked them up and one by one and identified nearly each gift:
(Fondle) “That book I wanted.”
(Shake) “Socks. Probably green.”
(Lift, bend) “That t-shirt I said I liked.”
(Hold, weigh) “Not sure.”
(Hold, poke) “Not sure.”
(Passing to side) “Charlie’s Angels.”
(Passing to side) “Charlie’s Angels.”
(Lift, bend) “Padded CD case?”
Damn it!
My own fault, really. I can’t go up against the master. He had my iPhone sitting beside my bed (hardly hidden) for at least 3 weeks before my birthday with not one mention or hint to me about it. Subsequently I was blindsided, twice (he got me a decoy gift which he also didn’t let on, but gave to me early – the Wii). Cool as a cucumber, he sat on these gifts for a long time without hint of their impending coolness.
Me? I think in terms of the happiness. I’m bursting to see the payoff, but I get disappointed when the recipient makes the all too easy connection: “Want to see what I got you? No? Darn! It’s really cool! It makes toast and is toaster-like! What? No. It’s not a toaster! Fttt!”
By Weezer!
How many internet video heroes can you name?