14 February 2005, the wee hours
Wavelength have apparently been putting on shows in Toronto for five years now. I know this because this past Thursday I attended the first of four shows put on by Wavelength to celebrate their fifth anniversary. That show was the first time I have ever gone to a concert by myself. The fact I was willing to head out to this concert alone should give you some idea of just how great a line-up they had assembled for the show. I left my home a bit before 10:00 and made my way to Cinecycle. Leaving so close to 10:00 was actually a big mistake on my part.
Now, locating Cinecylce was no easy feat. Wavelength’s web site doesn’t seem to mention where the place is. I think if you are a part of ‘the scene’ you are just supposed to know. Looking around at the various web sites of the performers for the night, I stumbled upon directions to the place. Where is Cinecylce? It’s in the first alley south of Richmond St. The place is literally a big shed in an alley. From the outside, the place looks like a big shed. On the inside, the place looks like a big shed. There is no stage, but there is plenty of empty floor space. There is a sort of bar set up at the back. I guess at the end of the day you really don’t need much to put on a show. So, to be clear, Cinecylce is really ghetto.
There were 5 acts playing on the Thursday night show I attended. I wanted to see LAL more than anyone else. They were listed last in the bill for the night, so I assumed they would be the last act of the night. When I walked into Cinecylce, I realized they were in fact the first act of the night. I missed most of their set, which was very disappointing. I made my way to the front of Cinecycle to catch the end of a song, and hear them announce they would play their last song of the night. The song they played was Raindrops and it was brilliant. I am listening to it on their CD as I type this now, but seeing them do it live was something else; the live percussion was incredible, and the bass-line being played live on an electric stand-up bass was impressive to watch. LAL are like a cross between Talvin Singh and Portishead, and are probably one of the best electronic acts I’ve heard in quite some time.
The next act up was Yacht, a guy that makes lo-fi dance music. The dude walked out with his powerbook, plugged it in and set it down on the ground. Now, I was curious as to what this guy planned to do. I mean, if he was just going to play the music he makes off his laptop, did he plan on standing around like an idiot and fidgeting with the keyboard while we watched? My questions were answered shortly when his music kicked it. The guy dances. He dances like a maniac. I wish I could described it, but I can’t. Suffice it to say, the guy was quite entertaining to watch. His music was quite good to boot.
The third act was The Vermicious Knid, a group of four guys from Brantford. They played rock music. Since going out and listening to bands live like this I’ve developed a real fondness for rock music again. I love thrashing guitars and guys and girls trying to sing over top the sounds of their instruments. Knid were quite good. I wish I could tell you what sub-genre of rock music they played, but I can’t. Does it matter? They are a good band, so you would do well to check them out.
The problem with going out on a Thursday night is that I have to work on Friday. I listened to the first song from The World Provider before heading out. I’m not sure if I liked his brand of music or not; it was strange anyway. Wavelength are an impressive group. The line-up of acts they had out this past Thursday was so varied. If you are in Toronto and looking for some good music on a Sunday, their shows at Sneaky Dee’s are usually quite good.
Life | Music
10 February 2005, the wee hours
I heard that Abacus, of Esthero fame, was going to be playing at the Drake Hotel. I had never been to the the Drake Hotel, but I did have vague memories of it being some sort of crack house. The neighbourhood it is situated in isn’t the nicest of places. Apparently this all changed last year, when investors came and dumped a truck load of money into the hotel. Now the Drake Hotel is probalby one of the nicer places to stay in the city, and features one bitching lounge. I met Tyler in said lounge last night to hear Abacus play.
Drinks at the Drake are about the same as drinks anywhere else in Toronto. I paid 15 bucks for a pint of Guinness and a pint of Keat’s, and I paid 14 bucks for a Gin and Tonic and a Rye and Ginger. So they aren’t cheap, but they aren’t crazy expensive; not bad. The interior is quite impressive; I’d say the money they put into the place was well spent. Tyler informed me that when the place just opened it was quite hard to get into. This may still be the case on weekends. The night we were there the place was moderately busy. Most of the seats were taken, but there was plenty of standing room still.
The crowd at the Drake is something else. The bar was filled with a good mix of both younge and old people. There were several couples on dates, and the occasional group of friends hanging out. The waitresses were all attractive, as were a few of the patrons in the lounge.
Tyler with his sharp eyes noticed that sitting no more than 10 feet away from us was none other then Laura Bertram—you know, Amanda from Ready or Not. Admittedly, this isn’t as cool as seeing Sarah Polley at a bar, but it’s something. She was looking pretty good, the guys she was with were not. I’m sure they might have been nice guys, but they really looked like they didn’t belong sitting next to her. I suppose that’s what people think when they see me standing next to Shima.
Seeing Amanda from Ready or Not was a bit strange, but there were stranger things to be seen at the Drake. These two women were taking turns dancing with this brown dude that looked vaguely like my friend Neel. Near the start of the night we saw this brown guy dancing with a reasonably attractive blonde woman. In some parts of the world she might be called a cougar (an older woman on the prowl for a younger man). I didn’t think she looked that old, but she was definitely older then the boy she was dancing with. When I say dancing, I don’t mean in any sort of classy sense of the word. The Drake doesn’t have a dance floor, and no one was dancing save the two of them. They looked very out of place molesting each other on the non-existent dance floor. I looked away for a moment, and when I looked back the blonde had been replaced by an Asian girl. I soon realized the two women were together when the Blonde came back and replaced the Asian chick. They alternated like this for quite some time. The brown dude seemed to be enjoying himself.
Eventually a black dude with a samurai hair cut came in. He was wearing white jeans and a sweat shirt. I thought he looked a bit ridiculous, as did Tyler. Nevertheless, the aforementioned women and the brown dude decided to come over and make friends. When Tyler and I left the four of them were chatting it up.
It was an interesting night out; I’ll have to make it a point to go back to the Drake.
[3] Life | Restaurants and Bars
7 February 2005, late evening
My second outing for Winterlicious was with Steph and Serena. We went to Coco Lezzone, an Itallian restaurant in Little Italy. I’m a fan of the area around College and Bathurst, it has plenty of cool little bars, bistros and restaurants.
I arrived a bit after Steph and Serena, who had both already ordered drinks. My original plan was to not get anything to drink, as it ruins the deal you’re getting on the meal. However, I couldn’t resist, and ordered a white wine with my meal. We were given bread, humus, olive oil and balsamic vinegar to munch on while deciding what to eat. I love bread.
I started with a butternut squash soup; this one was better then the one I got at Monsoon earlier in the week. The girls got goat cheese on greens, which just didn’t sound interesting enough to get. My main was pan seared arctic char. I thought it was a bit too cold; it tasted like it had been made well before I ordered it. It was nice enough dish, just nothing exceptional. The same can be said of the desert, which was a slice of chocolate cake. It was nice, but you could probably get a similar cake at Loblaws. Compared to the cake at Monsoon or Bloom it was rather boring. All the food was good, just not really good.
Coco Lezzone is a nice looking place, but again falls in this arean short when compared to some of the other restaurants in the area. Butt’r, which is down the road, has a much cooler interior. I thought the place was nice, but just somewhat lacking. The restaurant is quite huge, and dimly lit, so I would imagine it’d be a nice place to go get drinks. I don’t think I would go eat there again.
[3] Restaurants and Bars | Life
4 February 2005, the wee hours
Winterlicious is a good time to try out new restaurants in Toronto. For two weeks plenty of very fancy places offer up fixed menus at very good prices. This past Wednesday my friends and I decided to try out an Asian Fusion restaurant in the city called Monsoon.
We originally had a party of four, which included myself, Carvill, Rishi and Mezan. Dave’s return to Toronto from Ottawa bumped us up to five, and inadvertently bumped us up to a nicer table—well, I thought it was nicer. We were seated right in the centre of the restaurant. The tables around us were your normal dining tables capable of seating four comfortably. The table we were seated was a giant orange-brown slab of wood, metal, and plastic enclosed on three sides by booth-sofa-style seats. The table looked great, but was so big having a conversation proved difficult.
Monsoon is a nice looking place; both the bar and the restaurant have been designed well. The restaurant was quite busy while we were there, and was filled with a good number of attractive looking people—always a bonus.
The service was quite good. Everyone except for Rishi arrived on time, and while it was just the four of us we couldn’t go a few mintues without a waiter coming to check on us. That changed when Rishi arrived. It took a little while to be served, but once they got our order the service was back to being quite prompt. Everyone at the restaurant was quite friendly.
I was less then impressed with the food. None of my dishes were that good. They weren’t bad either, but I was expecting more. My appetizer was a butternut squash and apple soup, it was interesting to say the least. It looked and tasted like baby food. I enjoyed it, but didn’t think it was stellar. My main was a veal dish, which tasted like mutton, served on top of some mash potatoes. I can’t say I enjoyed it at all. I liked the desert a lot, but I think it’s hard to mess up a chocolate cake. Everyone got the cake except for Rishi. His green tea crème brulé was apparently quite amazing.
I don’t know if I’d go back to Monsoon to eat, however the place is nice enough that it’s probably a cool place to go get drinks.
[4] Restaurants and Bars | Life
30 December 2004, lunch time
The BBC has a in-depth section on the tsunamis that have killed thousands of people in South Asia and East Africa. A few days ago I noted with shock that the death toll was over 68000 people. Today that number is 114000. I imagine tomorrow it will climb higher still. Rex Murphy explains quite succinctly why we are quite lucky to be living in the West. The problems Canadians as a whole face are fairly trite when compared to those faced by the rest of the world.
Feeling motivated, I donated a $100 dollars to the Canadian Red Cross; the amount was fairly arbitrary. After donating I realized that I waste more then that eating out and buying crap on eBay. I apparently am not the only person who has come to the realization that it is easy to blow money on junk in our consumer culture. If you would like to donate there are plenty of organizations collecting money. I am quite impressed with Amazon, who have made it so easy to donate to the American Red Cross. More then that, I am impressed with the amount of money that is streaming in through their site. People actually can be quite selfless.
My intention was to donate to the tsunami relief effort, but I ended up marking the money for “Where Help is Needed Most”. People are still being killed in Dafur. There are still people displaced by the hurricanes from last year. It is all human tragedy. Of course, it doesn’t effect me in the least. It is amazing how insulated the West is from most everything ugly in the world. I wonder sometimes how different my life would be if my parents had stayed in Sri Lanka.
[3] Life
12 December 2004, late afternoon
Like many a nerd before me, I used to play Dungeons and Dragons. I stopped sometime in the beginning of high school, but didn’t stop buying the books for my favourite campaign setting, Dark Sun, till some time in the middle of high school. AD&D books used to be quite expensive; I imagine they still might be. However, they can now be purchased in PDF format for almost nothing. More so, I was surprised to learn that Wizards of the Coast, who bought TSR, the original owners of Dungeons and Dragons, let the fan site The Burnt World of Athas take over development of the Dark Sun setting. The group has released several ‘official’ expansion packs for the Dark Sun setting for free, including a conversion of the system to the new AD&D rules. Wizards of the Coast actually did this for a few of the less popular game settings, like Dragon Lance for example. Was anyone else aware of this? It seems quite progressive. I suspect many companies would have simply maintained control of what is by all rights theirs, simply let the settings dwindle and die, and sued fan sites that tried to develop anything with the settings.
[3] Life
1 December 2004, late at night
A lot of sites have started using FeedBurner to manage their RSS or Atom feeds. This is all well and good; I think it’s a cool service. What bugs me however, is that Feedburner lets you send the lame pictures you posted on your Flickr account as part of your feed. This is annoying. Most sites that use Feedburner don’t offer up an alternative feed which doesn’t include Flickr photos. So, I end up getting to see such classic photos as Road Trip or Oh I’m Having Fun. I’m sure the friends of these two authors loved both photos, but as a perfect stranger I really don’t care to see them. And these are sites I don’t want to unsubscribe from; I like reading them.
[1] Life | Weblogs
29 November 2004, late at night
Carvill’s Birthday passed last week, and to celebrate Mezan and I went out with her to Starfish, an oyster bar in Downtown Toronto. I had never had raw oysters before and was quite excited about the evening.
We arrived a bit past seven and were seated in a booth of sorts in the corner of the restaurant. This gave us a fairly good view of the rest of the restaurant and the bar. The inside of Starfish is quite nice, and was a welcome change from stank-ass Fred’s Not Here. The place is basically lit with candles, and has a warm feel to it.
To start we ordered a half bottle of Muscadet Sèvre et Maine (2001), which is a very light white wine. I will probably go looking for it at some point in time in the LCBO. Mezan bought a Lobster soup, but was served a mushroom soup by accident. The mushroom soup was quite good, and the waiter quite apologetic. They serve this really sweet whole-grain bread at Starfish was awesome. I ate so much of it. We also decided to share a small platter of oysters. Carvill is a fan of oysters from France, which is where the bulk of our selection came from. We also ordered a few more from Easter Canada I believe.
Raw oysters are strange to say the least. They’re served on a tray of ice, sitting on top of their shells. The shells basically feel like rocks—cold rocks. Oysters have a strange gooey texture, and the ones we ordered had a taste I really can’t describe. I can say I really didn’t enjoy them though. I had 3 or 4 different ones. Carvill likes very strong oysters, so perhaps I would have enjoyed mild ones more. I’ll have to try some next time Carvill wants oysters.
With all the oysters out of the way, we were brought our mains. We each ordered a different fish dish. I had a halibut, Carvill had a sturgeon, and Mezan had some cod. All the fish were quite good. I thought my halibut was excellent. The fish were all served on top of a bed of vegetables and sauce.
For dessert Mezan and Carvill had Crème Brules, while I had a flour-less chocolate cake. The cake was amazing. If you go to Starfish I strongly recommend you get this cake. The Crème Brule was good, though apparently the sugar at the top was too thick.
After dinner we went to Hy’s Steak House for drinks. That deserves its own post.
Starfish was really good, but quite expensive. The oysters and the wine is probably what pushed the bill quite so high. Appetizers were about 10 dollars each, as were desserts. Mains were around 30 dollars each. Oysters were about 3–4 dollars each. The bill came out to around $260 dollars after taxes and tips, which if you do that math is a lot of money for three people to eat. This is one of many reasons why my apartment is still unfurnished.
Restaurants and Bars | Life
20 November 2004, late at night
If you look far enough back, you’ll see my first entry for this site was a conversation I had on ICQ with Gary. That was posted back in August 2003. Back then this site was run using blogger and served off the web space I had at the University of Waterloo. The orange was still there, though the layout was nothing like this. The colours I was using were much deeper and darker. I also had a 2-column layout, which I now find thoroughly boring.
I registered funkaoshi.com on November 19th, 2003. I announced to the world the domain was up on November 20th, though I don’t think that many people were interested. The site was a fair bit different back then. I would post the inane details of my life, primarily for my friends to read. I would also bitch about the pointless nature of this site. This went on for quite some time.
I changed the layout to the one you see today, and moved things over to textpattern in the middle of the winter. This was probably the worse time to do that, since I was knee-deep in the compilers course I was taking at Waterloo, which is a big bitch. The layout of this page hasn’t really changed at all since then. I changed the name of the site to A Funkaoshi Production from The Not So Immaculate Conception. I’m not sure why I changed the name. I think the old name was too long and I couldn’t work it neatly into the layout. I also noticed that no one referred to the site by that name.
At some point I started writing about movies, and couldn’t stop. I think this is actually the point in time I started noticing that people I didn’t know were regularly reading this site, which was strange to say the least. I call this period, “the summer”. Unemployed and done with school, I took some time off to do nothing. Well, almost nothing; I would watch movies and work on this site. You’d be surprised how long you can do that for and not complain. With employment came an end to my summer. Those of you who have been reading this site for quite some time will have noticed the lack of movie reviews. If there is one thing I really miss, it is watching lots of movies.
So this brings us to now. I was worried my domain would disappear into the ether, but 1&1 automatically renewed it for me. Another year of A Funkaoshi Production? Oh my, whatever will we do?
[2] Weblogs | Life
19 November 2004, early evening
“There is a dude on the subway eating a whole Baguette for breakfast. That is a lot of bread to be eating in the morning.” I wrote that in my small Moleskine this morning. I don’t know why I bought another one. I think I’m addicted to notepads—nice notepads.
[1] Life
19 November 2004, the wee hours
I met Mezan after work, and the two of us made our way to Pikto to drop off some slide film I wanted to get cross-processed. We met Carvill later at Union Station. The three of us made our way to Fred’s Not Here, which I had remembered being much better then it actually was.
Ugly décor and fairly slow service started our meal. The table cloths in the restaurant were covered with white paper, which I have usually seen at other restaurants accompanied with crayons to draw on. For the Fall, the restaurant is offering 2-courses for 25 dollars, which may sound like a deal, but trust me when I say it is not.
We all ordered Kobe Beef Burgers, which sounded quite good. I don’t think we’ll ever know if they actually were or not, since the waiter came out and told us while we were eating our appetizers that they had run out of the burgers. I ended up ordering Sole, Carvill got some Salmon, and Mezan some Beef Brisket. The appetizers were good I would say, the highlight of the meal. I had a Crab and Lobster Bisk that was quite enjoyable. Unfortunatly, the mains were all really disappointing. I don’t think the food was bad, it just wasn’t good—at all. Swiss Chalet would have been a better use of our money. Little things, like the fact the bread and butter they served us were all hard as a rock didn’t help matters.
The funny thing is, I enjoyed Fred’s Not Here the first time I was there. I’m not quite sure what was so different this time.
[4] Restaurants and Bars | Life
14 November 2004, late at night
I’ve walked past Bloom, a restaurant in the Bloor West Village, several times. The place isn’t hard to notice as it stands out next to the sea of Ukrainian delis and bakeries. The place always looks like it’s closed. Friday I called them up and asked for reservations for two. The plan was to take Shima out for dinner.
We arrived at Bloom a bit past 7:30. The place was fairly empty, just a few other tables were full. The waiter was quite friendly, and showed us to our table. The interior of the restaurant is quite nice. A handful of tables line the wall along the left side of the restaurant and end at the bar. White brick walls contrast the smooth red ceiling nicely. On the right are a few larger tables and a booth of sorts. The place is dimly lit, which is what makes it look closed from the outside when you peer in through tinted glass. I wanted to steal the chair I was sitting on, but didn’t think I’d be able to sneak it out of the store.
Shima is actually not a big fan of food. She is a very picky eater. So, actually going to nice places to eat is a bit of a problem. Bloom had a very small and simple menu. If I recall correctly, there were 6 mains, 6 appetizers. There were no vegetarian dishes, which may be an issue for some. I ended up getting a Tuna dish; Shima, after some serious thought, ended up getting the Salmon. The appetizers looked good, but neither of us were that hungry.
We munched on some very good bread while waiting for our food to arrive. I drank a red wine from California that was quite enjoyable. Our food arived in a reasonable time, and looked amazing. My Tuna dish was served on a small rectangular plate. My dish was sushi-grade tuna, seared on the outside, raw on the inside, served on top of red cabbage of some sort, with these shoots-come-celery sort of thing lighted fried so they were like spring rolls almost. Shima’s salmon was served on a large circular dish, the salmon resting on top of some risoto.
Shima liked the food—a lot. I thought my food was amazing as well. Everything tasted great. The portions are probably small for your average person, but were good for Shima and I. I think getting an appetizer would be a good idea for your average person to feel more full. I imagine the meals are made to had with an appetizer and a dessert.
For dessert Shima and I split a chocolate almond torte on top of a blueberry comport. Basically, a sort of brownie on top of blueberries. I think it may well have been the greatest brownie I’ve ever had in my entire life.
I’d definitely go back to Bloom. I was very impressed with the place. The meal for Shima and I was 76 dollars after taxes. The mains were on average about 24-30 dollars each, appetizers were about 7-14 dollars each, and dessert were about 7-12 dollars each. Many times you go to nice restaurants and wonder what it is you are paying for. I didn’t feel this way with Bloom, it was definitely worth the money.
[4] Restaurants and Bars | Life
5 November 2004, lunch time
I ordered Design Patterns from Amazon earlier in the week—Tuesday to be exact. I got an email at 7:30 PM last night telling me my order had shipped. I make it a point to check the extra-lame free shipping option whenever I order over 39 bucks worth of stuff so I don’t get billed for shipping. My order was slated to arrive some time next week, between the 10th to the 14th of November. Since I am working I shipped to my office, which I imagine is quite close to the shipping centre Amazon uses in Toronto. I’m guessing it is close because my book arrived today, at 10:30 AM. That’s some serious service, apparently facilitated by: Amazon, Canada Post, and some convenient geography. I don’t think FedEx could have got the book here faster.
[7] Life | Comics and Books
3 November 2004, mid-afternoon
I wonder how much of the world is glued to their TVs waiting for the election results of the US. Incredible the effect one country can have on the rest of the planet. I’m heading to Matt’s now to watch the spectacle, and I’m quite sure it will be a spectacle.
update 12:13 AM: Matt’s party was fun; I got to watch the Daily Show. However, the election results are looking pretty grim so far. I am hoping things turn around, but it is looking like Bush the sequel right now. I don’t understand how Americans can vote for him again. Come on people!
update 12:30 AM: Thinking about it more, it’s actually quite disappointing. I’m hoping that some time soon the tides will turn in Kerry’s favour. But, even if they do, I can’t believe so much of the US is still in love with Bush. Even if you can’t get behind everything Kerry says and does, how can he not be better then Bush. I mean, honestly, how can anyone not be better then Bush. He’s like walking talking incompetence.
update 7:31 AM: I was quite disappointed last night; did it show? I think it did. I realized this morning that I shouldn’t be sad. Why? Because at the very least, I don’t live in the USA, I live in Canada, the greatest country in the world. There are lots of reasons Canada is the best thing since sliced bread, but I’ll just bring up the smallest reason: we do a pretty bang up job of counting all the votes in our elections in one night. It is quite impressive. Lets see if they figure things out by the end of the day, right now it is 254 vs. 252 with 3 states still counting.
update 8:42 AM: Also, to continue my shock and outrage, how many states voted to outlaw gay marriages outright? The only thing better then bigotry is institutionalized bigotry. Good on ya’.
update 12:07 PM: Well, Kerry has conceded. Four More Years! Four More Years! Four More Years! I need to get that on a T-Shirt. Well, maybe Four More Years? Or perhaps, Four More Fucking Years?.
[14] Life | Politics
29 October 2004, terribly early in the morning
The Tangiers are amazing. There is no doubt about that. They are one of the best bands I’ve heard live ever. Tyler had been bigging this band up like they were the second coming; he was definitely right to do so.
Read the rest of this post. (422 words)
Music | Life
26 October 2004, the wee hours
Rachael Yamagata didn’t have the breasts to pull off the top she was wearing. Thankfully, that is really the only bad thing I can say about the girl and her show tonight. She put on a great performance tonight.
Tyler told me about the show yesterday. He said it started at 7:00 and that the act would be good. I went to her web site and heard some Fiona Apple sounding tune; I was definitely in the mood for something like that. I left work late and decided to go straight to El Mocambo , where the show was supposed to be. In terms of my token usage that was a good call, but this meant I didn’t have my camera on hand. Oh what a dumb-ass I can be.
The show was hosted by her label, BMG, so it was free and catered. That was a first for me. I imagine there were people from the press at the show who they were trying to impress. I want to get invited to stuff. I’ll need to figure out how to go about making that happen.
Rachael Yamagata was fantastic. I really hope she gets some air play when her CD comes out. I find it depressing that all these ‘I can act like a pop-star’ singers are rich and famous while there is plenty of serious talent that remains untapped, and will most likely never get the audience they deserve. I think Rachael Yamagata is some what reminiscent of Alanis Morisette, and as I mentioned earlier, Fiona Apple. Vocally I found her very similar to Fiona Apple. Her backing band were also great. I thought the lead guitarist was quite impressive. I think my brother would have liked to have seen this set.
El Mocambo is a cool venue. I’ll definitely have to check it out again. Apparently the booking agent for the club is quite renowned. If you are looking for some good live music, this might be a great place to go check out.
[1] Music | Life
23 October 2004, late afternoon
Write Impressions is a stationary shop down the road from where I live. While wandering Bloor West looking for a bathroom mat I stopped in to see what the store had to offer up. I left with a small card for Shima, with a simple quote by Goete: There is nothing more important than today. The store sold Moleskine notebooks, which I glanced at quickly before coming home.
Today I wandered Bloor street again. The streets were full of people today. It must be the sun. During the fall and winter people really do start to miss the sun; I know I did. I walked alone towards Jane, and then turned right back around and walked back. Every so often I would duck into a shop to see what sorts of things they were selling.
I ended up back at Write Impressions. I really wanted to get a notepad. I think Mezan’s subtle suggestions to get a Moleskine left some impression on me. I stood there looking at them for quite some time, and ended up buying the large ruled notepad. I must say it is a well crafted notepad.
I’m still not sure what I will do with it. I am thinking of keeping a journal—a real journal, one without hyperlinks and valid markup. So much has happened that I don’t want to forget, and at the same time don’t think I want to share with the whole world.
On an unrelated note, I find that I have been posting nothing but links here for the past few weeks. Though I will be the first to admit I have an aversion to overtly personal weblogs, I suspect that what makes weblogs so interesting to read is the personal nature of them. To this end, I hope to start posting to this web site at the same rate I was earlier in the summer.
[2] Life
23 October 2004, early afternoon
After work, on a Thursday afternoon, I got off at Jane station instead of High Park, and began wandering down Bloor West Village. Bloor West is home to a good majority of Toronto’s Ukrainian community, and is a very quaint place to live. It is a 10 minute walk from my home. I’ve been through the area a couple times now, trying to get a handle on what exactly is in Bloor West—apparently quite a lot.
On this particular outing, the first shop I walked into was a Deli/Bakery. Bloor West is full of them. Each seems identical to the next. This one however was run by a very friendly lady, and sold some tasty sausage rolls. I don’t think I’ve bought a sausage roll from a bakery since I left England, so it was quite the treat. I ate the roll as I walked down the road, unsure of what exactly it was I was looking for.
My apartment is still quite barren. I find I am without simple necessities with each passing day; I’m talking about the sorts of things you don’t miss till you are without them. My bathroom lacks a mat of some sort. This as it turns out really isn’t such a big deal, however I wanted to get one. It seemed like something I should own.
Interior Luxe sold expensive furniture. I could see this was the case the moment I walked into the store. Nevertheless, sausage roll in hand, I wanted to at least give off the impression I was in the market for furniture. They sold a lot of interesting pieces, including mats. I would be lying if I said what I bought looks anything like a bathroom mat, though the lady at the store assured me I could use it as one.
I laid the mat out in my bathroom when I got home. “No, this just wouldn’t do.” I’m not sure if it was too nice for the bathroom, but it was definitely too expensive. I don’t want some schmuck pissing on on my new mat. I couldn’t bring my self to put it at the front of my home either. I don’t want people treading all over it in their shoes. So it sits, in the middle of my floor, black bordered bamboo in all its glory.
My place is still empty. This is a new beginning I suppose.
[6] Life
16 October 2004, terribly early in the morning
My Kiev 35 arrived with little fanfare a few weeks back. After a few missteps I finally got to try it out last Sunday; I moved a few things into my new apartment, and was going to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening with Shima. We began by heading down to Queen West, in search of some Pumas. Shima had little luck finding anything she wanted or that was in her size. We continued further west in search of furniture shops. They have a few nice places around Bathurst and Queen, though most of the stores sold stuff I simply couldn’t afford.
I documented the whole outing with my new camera, who’s electric shutter didn’t inspire much confidence in me. My parents and Shima both laughed at my camera because it seems so broken. Even I had my doubts it was working. However, I am glad to say that the pictures came out quite nice. You can see them at my flickr home page. I’ve created a set of the photos. Flickr is probably the best photo album site on the internet, hands down. I’ll probably fill up We Must Abuse The Broadband with a few of my favourites from the roll. I got two great pictures of Shima, and some other interesting shots that day.
[4] Life | Photography
15 October 2004, the wee hours
I’ve seen her twice now. Both times we get pretty close to taking it to the next level, but I always back off at the last minute. I don’t know why I’m so hesitant. I guess I feel this urge for things to stay the same. I think change is good though. I think I really need a change. So I’ve decided that next time I go to Ikea, I will actually buy something.
This post is dedicated to Shima and Roshanak, who like to write stuff nobody understands.
[1] Life
13 October 2004, the wee hours
I’ve done the unthinkable, and moved to the West-end. I’ve lived in Scarborough ever since I moved to Canada. Scarborough is the East end of Toronto, and a very nice place to live. East Side!!
It is strange being out of the suburbs. I walked down to the Bloor West Village to get groceries today and was surrounded by people. There are joggers everywhere here. The streets were reasonably busy. Unlike Scarborough, I stick out like a sore thumb, and definitely feel like a minority again. Scarborough has to be the most diverse part of Toronto. One day I hope the rest of the city catches up.
My apartment is barren, and would be thoroughly boring if not for the hot spot somewhere in this building. I thank you who has given me internet access. I am slowly making a list of things to buy. If people can recommend furniture stores in the city, and perhaps tips on furnishing a studio, you know where to comment.
[3] Life
10 October 2004, early afternoon
We played Pit last night. Dave won by a good margin. The results were interesting and will be discussed in this post.
Read the rest of this post. (420 words)
[3] Life
8 October 2004, the wee hours
Steph stopped by and we watched the Apprentice together. I’m not a big fan of the show really, but there was nothing else on. Incidentally, I thought the lady that got fired tonight, Pamela, looked a lot like Candice Bergen aka Murphy Brown. Steph came by on her new motorbike. She hasn’t really mastered the art of driving just yet, but it is cool to see her ride nevertheless. I think she’s wanted a bike for ages now. I started it, which is strangely satisfying. For such a small bike it is quite loud—and heavy. I can see the appeal of motorbikes. They really are cool.
[1] Life
7 October 2004, the wee hours
I take the HWY 27 ‘Rocket’ on my way to work, and back home in the evening. The bus is supposed to arrive frequently during rush hour. The TTC defines that as busses arriving in intervals of time less then 10 minutes. I can tell you the TTC are liars. I waited 45 minutes for one yesterday night, and about 20 minutes for one today. I hate that bus—it’s always packed in the morning to boot.
[2] Life
