.... that I want all my conversations to have hyperlinks....
....It would mean I could always avoid the fact that sometimes people just have absolutely no clue what the fuck I am talking about....
Monday, March 12, 2007
Sunday, March 11, 2007
.....Cuz Sometimes....
.... people just have NO CLUE what I am talking about.... I am one of those peole that tend to make giant leaps forward in conversation without notifying anyone....
.... and generally I have no idea why they don't know how I got where I was going... I mean to me the links seem obvious. I may have made them all in my head, but what I say aloud seems to be the next obvious step in the actual conversation. If I were to actually stop and explain the referents that led me to the next statement I would lose my train of thought and be even more muddled..... also, I would not be half as amusing....
.... If I could somehow find a way to hyperlink myself I could then be able to speak freely, at my own pace, and when people got lost they could simply click through and find the meaning behind every word....
.... hw great would that be.
.... and generally I have no idea why they don't know how I got where I was going... I mean to me the links seem obvious. I may have made them all in my head, but what I say aloud seems to be the next obvious step in the actual conversation. If I were to actually stop and explain the referents that led me to the next statement I would lose my train of thought and be even more muddled..... also, I would not be half as amusing....
.... If I could somehow find a way to hyperlink myself I could then be able to speak freely, at my own pace, and when people got lost they could simply click through and find the meaning behind every word....
.... hw great would that be.
Friday, March 9, 2007
.... love the one you're with.....
Have I mentioned I love Toronto! I loved Montreal when I lived ther. And I love NYC when I visit, and he second I stepped off the plane in Vancouver the place felt like it could be home. New Orleans is wickedly, indescribably cool. Paris was like visiting a postcard, Dublin was the most fun I have ever had exploring, Jerusalem is a major headtrip (there is a law that every building MUST be built from limestone). Puerto Vallarta is a crazy mix of tourist and local culture, and the locals are Fuckin cool. London is amazing, I could spend forever there and be in a constant state of discovery and awe..... But Toronto is my home, and I love it that I live here. grew up here, no matter how much flack it takes.... I'll tell you why....
All the other cities on that list were amazing cities to visit, they are right out there, they wear the city's persona, culture, personality, right on the surface. If I spent longer there I am certain I would discover more, deeper, truer extents of what the city is made of, but I think even just visiting can give you a taste of everything the town can be. Everyone calls Toronto bland. I am not fighting that, the city centre, the business districts, they are bland, boring and empty.... But its a new city. Unlike Paris, New York, London, Toronto has a history that spans well under 2 centuries. And because of the time its growth was exploding there is only a very small part of Toronto that ever really encapsulated both an industrial and domestic space together. We are a city that separates community and industry. Not to say the two don't mingle, but only on a small scale.
Toronto is a city you have to know to love. It's a city of niches, hidden surprises and gems for those in the know. This may perpetuate the "Torontonians are Snobs" cliche that is oh-so rampant (especially in Montreal, but that is another rant for another time). But I guess I am ok with that, cuz I am a snob.... but by another name.... I prefer to think of it as a connoseuir. You gotta care to be a part of anything in this city, and it passes through the seekers, the discovers, into the hands of the coat tail draggers. That is when you can officially call something "905". Once everything that was glorious about something in this city has been squeezed out and replaced by ease of access and general knowledge.
Coming at it from the other way when someone who has never been visits Toronto the first places they tend to end up are the CN Tower, The Eaton Centre and The MuchMusic Building. Please, people, listen to me when I say, NONE of these things are even close to being what Toronto is. We hate them like Parisians hate the Eiffel Tower. Not what they are, but what they are seen as. The CN Tower is tall, but that's about it. The Eaton Centre is evil, and is to be avoided at ALL costs. The MuchMusic building is maybe the worst, as it takes what IS at the heart of what this city is and turns it into a simulacrum of itself. Geographically, culturally, the CHUM building is where real Toronto Culture meets the white-washed blandness that is worn on the citys face. But because it is one step away from the trash of tourism and surrounded by flash, lights, and noise of "downtown living", people assume it is the length of "edge" in the Tdot.
It's not..... So people, if you are coming Toronto, if you have never been, if you hated it the last time... make sure you get a Toronto Native (and not a Montreal ex-pat who "lives here now", you won't get off College St) to show you around. You will see things that keep you exclaiming.....
"..........I didn't realize....."
things like this and this (it's where I live), and this, and this and this and this and this (it requires buying a five dollar membership, but they give you a card proclaiming that you are officially, a "researcher") and this (luckiest mofos, definitely plan a sleepover if you know someone) and this and this and this and this and this (I have done it for hours at a stretch) and this and this and this and this and this and this and this.....
.... it goes forever, but you get the picture....
All the other cities on that list were amazing cities to visit, they are right out there, they wear the city's persona, culture, personality, right on the surface. If I spent longer there I am certain I would discover more, deeper, truer extents of what the city is made of, but I think even just visiting can give you a taste of everything the town can be. Everyone calls Toronto bland. I am not fighting that, the city centre, the business districts, they are bland, boring and empty.... But its a new city. Unlike Paris, New York, London, Toronto has a history that spans well under 2 centuries. And because of the time its growth was exploding there is only a very small part of Toronto that ever really encapsulated both an industrial and domestic space together. We are a city that separates community and industry. Not to say the two don't mingle, but only on a small scale.
Toronto is a city you have to know to love. It's a city of niches, hidden surprises and gems for those in the know. This may perpetuate the "Torontonians are Snobs" cliche that is oh-so rampant (especially in Montreal, but that is another rant for another time). But I guess I am ok with that, cuz I am a snob.... but by another name.... I prefer to think of it as a connoseuir. You gotta care to be a part of anything in this city, and it passes through the seekers, the discovers, into the hands of the coat tail draggers. That is when you can officially call something "905". Once everything that was glorious about something in this city has been squeezed out and replaced by ease of access and general knowledge.
Coming at it from the other way when someone who has never been visits Toronto the first places they tend to end up are the CN Tower, The Eaton Centre and The MuchMusic Building. Please, people, listen to me when I say, NONE of these things are even close to being what Toronto is. We hate them like Parisians hate the Eiffel Tower. Not what they are, but what they are seen as. The CN Tower is tall, but that's about it. The Eaton Centre is evil, and is to be avoided at ALL costs. The MuchMusic building is maybe the worst, as it takes what IS at the heart of what this city is and turns it into a simulacrum of itself. Geographically, culturally, the CHUM building is where real Toronto Culture meets the white-washed blandness that is worn on the citys face. But because it is one step away from the trash of tourism and surrounded by flash, lights, and noise of "downtown living", people assume it is the length of "edge" in the Tdot.
It's not..... So people, if you are coming Toronto, if you have never been, if you hated it the last time... make sure you get a Toronto Native (and not a Montreal ex-pat who "lives here now", you won't get off College St) to show you around. You will see things that keep you exclaiming.....
"..........I didn't realize....."
things like this and this (it's where I live), and this, and this and this and this and this (it requires buying a five dollar membership, but they give you a card proclaiming that you are officially, a "researcher") and this (luckiest mofos, definitely plan a sleepover if you know someone) and this and this and this and this and this (I have done it for hours at a stretch) and this and this and this and this and this and this and this.....
.... it goes forever, but you get the picture....
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
.....timing and circumstance.....
....Can really fuck you, even when it seems to be working in your favour. you just can convince yourself that the world wants you to win.... It seems so great, you are wooing, lulling in softly. The beauty is in the numbers.... it's so far away, there's no way I can get into trouble with this one. It's an impossibility. That's the beauty of this game. With so much distance, so much warning. There is NO way you can possibly get into trouble
...truth is, you are just talking yourself into a big ass hole.... It's always trouble. There may be distance, and the timing may seem right, but the matters of your heart, the bad habits you can't get over, they are with you always.... You have gotten in the jam this time, sticky and sweet, but you look up and its all suddenly too real....
.... and now you owe toronto hydro a kajillion dollars, and you are left thinking, how the fuck did that happen? I swear to god, I just paid this off... I had so much time... they gave me an extra month...... you know how it happened
...truth is, you are just talking yourself into a big ass hole.... It's always trouble. There may be distance, and the timing may seem right, but the matters of your heart, the bad habits you can't get over, they are with you always.... You have gotten in the jam this time, sticky and sweet, but you look up and its all suddenly too real....
.... and now you owe toronto hydro a kajillion dollars, and you are left thinking, how the fuck did that happen? I swear to god, I just paid this off... I had so much time... they gave me an extra month...... you know how it happened
Monday, March 5, 2007
Saturday, March 3, 2007
.... I just saw Santa downtown....
.... he kinda smells, he's dirty, tired and taking donations....
....apparently the sleigh broke down...
.... I wonder if he had to eat the reindeer.... or slit them open to huddle inside for warmth (you all saw star wars, you know what I'm talking about)....
... Is it wrong that I walked by without dropping some change? I smiled..... but I think I am going on the naughty list this year... again....
....apparently the sleigh broke down...
.... I wonder if he had to eat the reindeer.... or slit them open to huddle inside for warmth (you all saw star wars, you know what I'm talking about)....
... Is it wrong that I walked by without dropping some change? I smiled..... but I think I am going on the naughty list this year... again....
.... a band of misfits....
... I am sitting amidst memory. The sounds of stories, and voices and laughter and song tell the story of who i am, at the heart. The people around me are where I have come from and, more importantly, who I have become. More than ever I realize that I am who I am because at 14 - wide-eyed, scared, lonely and alone - a group of people, thrown together by privilege and circumstance, showed me that all i was afraid of was being who i could become, and that who i could become was a person worth being.....
....She plays my goosebumps, my memory and my dreams. She plays my happy memories, my courage and my fears. She plays my sense of humour, my curiousity and my calm. And as i watch her from my seat, singing, joking, making fun of herself in a way that shows humility, yet awareness of her own power, her own talent, i am transported to another time, another realization....
....A rooftop amidst trees, the cool, granular tarring of rough roof on my back and a hot summer wind flowing over my front, I watched a million stars, lieing silently, still, amidst broken chords... they must have a name, but to me they are the chords that sound like water, dropping and breaking apart in waves on a glassy pool.... I lie and listen as music comes at me from above, on the peak of the roof, from her guitar.... her hands.... her voice.... her heart.....And that is the love that sustained me, nurtured me and gave me heart, strength and pride.... Humble and strong, soft, yet rugged. A mountain guide. And the goosebumps that come from knowing that this, this is a moment. Like, a 'moment'... that will stay with me, that i will remember, that will change me.... and i do, and it has. It was a moment of realization... not of anything in particular. just an awareness that it was a moment. As simple as that, or rather, as complex as the things that conspire to lead to awareness. The stars, the sky, the music and me. That was enough, it was everything.
A decade later. Another sky, another night and her voice brings it all back. To a room where the same people laugh, tell the same stories, the same jokes, that have linked us for a generation. Through time and change and distance and all that is growing up (or growing older). And we have, at our centre, a bond that is bigger than the stories we tell, the summer space we shared, the memories that exist for each of us. We are eachothers teachers, each others students, audiences, co-conspirators, cheerleaders, celebrators and shoulder to lean on. Life has taken us down different roads, we are a band of misfits, an unnatural table. We draw attention with our size, our disparity, the noise. there are suits and students and lawyers and singles and actors and wives and homeowners and worldtravellers and uncles and teachers and orphans and liquidity and renters... But somehow we are all the same.
We are the ones who put a lot of weight in sentiment. Empathy, Sincerity, Dependability, Integrity, Tolerance, Courtesy, Courage. These were words with meaning. Are words with meaning, for a group that devoted time, months at a stretch, to nothing but learning the value of the human spirit. Though I still feel silly spouting sentiment in a world where I am largely a cynic, I push through and put it out there. Tonight I am happy to be the fool who believes. To live in another moment. have a perfect moment live again through me. Tonight I trust that happiness and trust, purity of spirit exists. I saw it, in each memory changing, yet frozen in time, and perhaps in the spaces between us.
ps. the goosebumpsreside here - http://www.abandofowls.ca/
....She plays my goosebumps, my memory and my dreams. She plays my happy memories, my courage and my fears. She plays my sense of humour, my curiousity and my calm. And as i watch her from my seat, singing, joking, making fun of herself in a way that shows humility, yet awareness of her own power, her own talent, i am transported to another time, another realization....
....A rooftop amidst trees, the cool, granular tarring of rough roof on my back and a hot summer wind flowing over my front, I watched a million stars, lieing silently, still, amidst broken chords... they must have a name, but to me they are the chords that sound like water, dropping and breaking apart in waves on a glassy pool.... I lie and listen as music comes at me from above, on the peak of the roof, from her guitar.... her hands.... her voice.... her heart.....And that is the love that sustained me, nurtured me and gave me heart, strength and pride.... Humble and strong, soft, yet rugged. A mountain guide. And the goosebumps that come from knowing that this, this is a moment. Like, a 'moment'... that will stay with me, that i will remember, that will change me.... and i do, and it has. It was a moment of realization... not of anything in particular. just an awareness that it was a moment. As simple as that, or rather, as complex as the things that conspire to lead to awareness. The stars, the sky, the music and me. That was enough, it was everything.
A decade later. Another sky, another night and her voice brings it all back. To a room where the same people laugh, tell the same stories, the same jokes, that have linked us for a generation. Through time and change and distance and all that is growing up (or growing older). And we have, at our centre, a bond that is bigger than the stories we tell, the summer space we shared, the memories that exist for each of us. We are eachothers teachers, each others students, audiences, co-conspirators, cheerleaders, celebrators and shoulder to lean on. Life has taken us down different roads, we are a band of misfits, an unnatural table. We draw attention with our size, our disparity, the noise. there are suits and students and lawyers and singles and actors and wives and homeowners and worldtravellers and uncles and teachers and orphans and liquidity and renters... But somehow we are all the same.
We are the ones who put a lot of weight in sentiment. Empathy, Sincerity, Dependability, Integrity, Tolerance, Courtesy, Courage. These were words with meaning. Are words with meaning, for a group that devoted time, months at a stretch, to nothing but learning the value of the human spirit. Though I still feel silly spouting sentiment in a world where I am largely a cynic, I push through and put it out there. Tonight I am happy to be the fool who believes. To live in another moment. have a perfect moment live again through me. Tonight I trust that happiness and trust, purity of spirit exists. I saw it, in each memory changing, yet frozen in time, and perhaps in the spaces between us.
ps. the goosebumpsreside here - http://www.abandofowls.ca/
Friday, March 2, 2007
I have been talking about this for a while now....
.... and still no one has gotten it for me?
This is really the coolest thing I have ever seen. For someone who likes books, design, equality, and playing with meaning, it ties it all together in one kickass package.
I love that it didn't stop with the big three, I love that it is a big fuck you to so much history, while maintaining respect for the product of it, for the faith in it.... I love that I can have it at my house (well, one day, when I can afford to be cool). That it is a statement in ownership... not through swooshes or arches or logoes of anysort. It takes the original logo and brands it, through the unbranding of it, the evening out of what it is supposed to be.
I was talking about this the other day actually.... After I read this article I tried to engage a friend in the debate.... well, to be fair, I tried to get him to listen to me rant about what a great theory this is.... I miss my old college roommate. She was a theology and poli sci student. I majored in (pop) culture studies, and sociology. And it was the days where theory was king, no idea had to be applied. Only had to make sense. We had some zinger debates. I guess I look for that in anyone.
But I digress, since I could not get anyone to talk religion/branding with me I will simply rant here. There is less input from anyone, but also less dissent, which we all know I prefer. It seems like a smple concept, I know that people have caught on to it.... Religion was the first major brand. It had everything: logo/icon, visioning, brand loyalty, promise of fulfillment....lack of fulfillment, advertising/marketing teams.... the whole megillah, if I may.
And now that branding is the new religion, the old school is adapting..... (Buddy Jesus? anyone remember that from Dogma ?) All this adaptation is just trying to make religion more brand identified. It is the faith, the solidarity that are the points now, instead of the beliefs, the content of the "name brand" Even atheists are now a religion, in this new sense.
Because what is religion for, in this world of skepticism, intellectuallism, rationalism and, ultimately, loneliness? We are simply looking for something to believe in. It no longer has to be a deity, it just has to look good.
This is really the coolest thing I have ever seen. For someone who likes books, design, equality, and playing with meaning, it ties it all together in one kickass package.
I love that it didn't stop with the big three, I love that it is a big fuck you to so much history, while maintaining respect for the product of it, for the faith in it.... I love that I can have it at my house (well, one day, when I can afford to be cool). That it is a statement in ownership... not through swooshes or arches or logoes of anysort. It takes the original logo and brands it, through the unbranding of it, the evening out of what it is supposed to be.
I was talking about this the other day actually.... After I read this article I tried to engage a friend in the debate.... well, to be fair, I tried to get him to listen to me rant about what a great theory this is.... I miss my old college roommate. She was a theology and poli sci student. I majored in (pop) culture studies, and sociology. And it was the days where theory was king, no idea had to be applied. Only had to make sense. We had some zinger debates. I guess I look for that in anyone.
But I digress, since I could not get anyone to talk religion/branding with me I will simply rant here. There is less input from anyone, but also less dissent, which we all know I prefer. It seems like a smple concept, I know that people have caught on to it.... Religion was the first major brand. It had everything: logo/icon, visioning, brand loyalty, promise of fulfillment....lack of fulfillment, advertising/marketing teams.... the whole megillah, if I may.
And now that branding is the new religion, the old school is adapting..... (Buddy Jesus? anyone remember that from Dogma ?) All this adaptation is just trying to make religion more brand identified. It is the faith, the solidarity that are the points now, instead of the beliefs, the content of the "name brand" Even atheists are now a religion, in this new sense.
Because what is religion for, in this world of skepticism, intellectuallism, rationalism and, ultimately, loneliness? We are simply looking for something to believe in. It no longer has to be a deity, it just has to look good.
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