GOBAMA and Dundas Square
5 November 2008, mid-morning
Last night was amazing. I haven’t been so emotionally invested in an election my entire life. And this was an election I played no part in.
I met Tyler at his office, and along with my brother, the three of us made our way to the Gladstone. We were joined by a big posse of people, all interested in the election. The Gladstone was a great place to be last night. People were genuinely excited about what was going on — and you could get beer. The Gladstone was electric, and I’m glad I stayed their long enough to see Obama be declared the winner, and listen to John McCain give his concession speech. You’d have think the leafs had won.
If history is unfolding around you, don’t go to Dundas Square. Dundas Square is a great place to be if you want to look at ads, but that is about it. What a failure of a public space. My cousin sums things up great:
What a self hating city this is. Last night really made me hate Dundas square even more. It truly exists only to sell you things. You cant be a citizen there, you can’t be a person. You can only be a consumer. It is a totally inflexible space and those omnipresent screens can only be used for evil.
So essentially, Toronto has no city centre or town hall that exists as a genuinely civic space. It has a big mall and it has a place to go if you want to be bombarded by ads.
… A black man was elected president of the United States and they couldnt stop selling us useless fucking shit for like an hour?
If you build a city or community on the creation and accumulation of wealth, that is all you are going to have in the end. It is cheap and crass and meaningless and often totally innapropriate. It is antithetical to everything that residents of the city actually need.
But, at the end of the day, who cares about Dundas Square. I listened to Obama give his victory speech at the Elephant and Castle with my cousin, brother, and Haran. The room was quite somber — except for myself, who was pretty loud and drunk at this point. There is a Black Dude heading to the White House, and he is awesome. This is awesome.
Ram, you’re always loud when you’re drunk. Sometimes I think you’re one of us Crazians.
by Cathy on November 5 2008, 11:47 am #
Yeah you were pretty damn loud, especially at Elephant and Castle. The waitresses kept staring.
by Krishna on November 5 2008, 1:27 pm #
Luckily they couldn’t eject you from the place now that a black man is president.
by Mahi on November 5 2008, 1:40 pm #
what an election – I’m slightly jealous I didn’t hit the gladstone last night.
also, I thought today’s doonesbury was slightly appropriate
by josh on November 5 2008, 4:15 pm #
I watched it at Clintons, which was pretty awesome. What a night!
by D on November 5 2008, 5:02 pm #
I can’t believe people would choose Ad Square over Nathan Philip Square! Did anything even happen at city hall last night?
by sh!ma on November 5 2008, 5:24 pm #
But unlike Nathan Philip Square, Ad Square is perfectly set-up for watching an historic moment unfold on live tv! It could have been brilliant.
If only someone had brought a remote control.
by Mahi on November 5 2008, 5:56 pm #
Another reason why Toronto struggles lol…but yes a black dude is the president..and as my black co worker put it yesterday, “reverse slavery is now in effect”
by ahilan on November 6 2008, 7:52 am #
What does that even mean?
by ramanan on November 6 2008, 9:19 am #
It must be a black thing because I didn’t get it either
by ahilan on November 6 2008, 9:28 am #
Hah. I love it.
I wonder if people are freaking the fuck out in Alabama.
by ramanan on November 6 2008, 9:41 am #
Wouldn’t reverse slavery just mean those who were slaves are now masters and vice versa? This is what google has to say.
by Krishna on November 6 2008, 2:59 pm #
Couldn’t you argue reverse slavery would be the opposite of slavery, which is freedom.
by ramanan on November 6 2008, 3:08 pm #
I’m amazed we’re doing such in depth analysis of reverse slavery when I’m sure Ed (My colleague) was just trying to be an ass hahaha.
Moving onto more important things, those shoes Krishna found are cool, but i’d never wear them.
Also, Krishna I need you to go and try and sell my guitar. I’m thinking the next time I’m back I’m going to buy and Epiphone and bring it back here with me, I’ve been doing some research and asking around and I think with my budget I can get a somewhat decent guitar
by ahilan on November 7 2008, 3:33 am #