Jul 17, 2009

Things I didn't expect to find in Toronto.




We can make this an entirely unfair scavenger hunt. Next time I'm back I'll bring a present for whoever can identify where these are. If I remember. If you were there when I took the picture, you don't qualify.

Jul 9, 2009

It's not the same Toronto.

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People change. That's a given. For better or worse, I'd run into people after a few years and find they're not quite as I remembered. Recognizeable of course, but usually the interests aren't necessarily the same as before. Some people grow more adventurous, others a little more settled and staid. Others have additions they carry around in diapers.

Toronto's a little different too. Don Mills and York Mills used to be kinda dead, now it's upscale. The condo on the corner of Bayview and Sheppard used to be a big grassy hill on the edge of a parking lot. The garbage dump on the corner of Bayview and Leslie used to be a parking lot too.

While still flooded with immigrants, it seems like the faces are changing. I'm noticing more people with darker skin then before, and hearing more Arabic, along with other languages I don't recognize.

I was wondering, listening to the radio, whether 102.1 was still the Edge. It seemed somehow, a little less edgy. Like how alternative's gone mainstream. Then just yesterday I read about the suicide of Martin Streek. I've been listening to the Edge for so long that his voice had become a fixture. Even though I *know* they come and go (like morning show hosts "Don and Erin" and "Humble and Fred", I still find it mind-boggling when they change or disappear, especially in such a tragic manner.

Speaking of celebrity, does it strike anyone else as kinda odd how the protests in Iran kinda toned down with MJ's passing, and now they're back up and at it now that his tribute's done?

Ok, I know I'm writing about YYZ, but I've been listening to a band from SFO.

Jul 6, 2009

Retro Monday.

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I seem to be keeping myself pretty entertained these days. I haven't even blogged about camping out in Joshua Tree in June, and already it's July.

There's a deep subtle thrill to camp out in the middle of nowhere. Not at a campground with facilities, but just out there, where there isn't another soul in a 10 mile radius. It might not be as exciting as night in the hustle of the city, but for a moment the world falls into another perspective.

I felt so small and insignificant in the vast emptiness. Looking upwards just revealed an even greater vastness of an incomprehensible scale. The rest of the world seemed so far away and inconsequtial; only the blinking lights of high flying planes or slow moving satellites reminded me of that high tech society on the other side of the mountain range. It felt like the world could end, and I'd miss it entirely. It was brilliant.

On another note, I heard a Matthew Good song on the radio the other day. Haven't heard any of that down here. How's this one for going back a few years?