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Jack Layton

Today’s a sad day for Canada, the left-wing, and Toronto-Danforth, the riding where Mr. Layton represented my neighbours and myself. I never found myself in full agreement with Layton, or his party, but I had respect for what he did. I always found him a better leader of the NDP than as an MP. While I might have disagreed with him at times, or get infuriated by canned replies to my letters, I always felt he was a good voice for Canada’s left, especially when the Liberals failed, leader after leader. Unfortunately, in Layton’s battle with cancer, the latter won. He’s missed by many. My riding has no voice in… Read More »Jack Layton

Weather Station, Daniel Romano, & Eons

Last night was the album release for Weather Station’s All Of It Was Mine at CSI Annex, a beautiful basement space on Bathurst, south of Bloor. It had been some time since I last saw The Weather Station, and even longer since I last wrote about Tamara Lindeman’s work; I had interviewed Lindeman, along with Ruhee Dewji and Simon Borer, as part of my final piece for Being There. Back then, Lindeman was part of the group Entire Cities, and they had just released their record Deep River. She’s since left Entire Cities, but that doesn’t mean she’s been sitting idle. In addition to this new record, she’s also been performing… Read More »Weather Station, Daniel Romano, & Eons

Blog!

Did you know that the word “blog” sounds like the sound one makes when they puke? Well, it does. I haven’t posted here in quite some time. Why? Well, I’m a slacker. I also have a real life, and those things get in the way. So why blog now1? Well, my sister is blogging somewhat frequently… Hi Shira! In addition, my brother has now started a blog… Hi Moti!2 So this blog post will be a life update… Rock and Roll Adam I have tickets to a number of upcoming shows: The Weather Station w/ Dan Romano (Tomorrow)3 Arizona Lily are playing at Rancho on August 274. Wild Flag5 are… Read More »Blog!

Criminal Records

Dear Criminal Records, When you first opened, there wasn’t any gap in the Toronto record store scene. We had Rotate This, Soundscapes, Sonic Boom, we might have even had Sam’s still. Toronto’s music nerds were happy. Then you opened, I remember seeing your sign on Queen Street and being excited for this new record store, even though I had no use for ANOTHER one. Then one day, I went in, I was greeted with incredible prices, fantastic selection, wonderful staff/owners, and a lot of vinyl. Though we didn’t need another record store, we learned we needed a great record store, and you showed Toronto how amazing one can be. It’s… Read More »Criminal Records

Nation-states

The history of the modern Western nation-state is built on three founding monolithic mythologies; race and language and mythology itself. After the murderous disasters of the twentieth century, the race element has been happily downplayed, but it is still there as an unspoken assumption. In this model a real nation-state comprises these three elements and must have a singular face. The very idea of a nation-state intentionally built on ideas and a multiplicity of races, languages and myths doesn’t fit into the historic Western framework and therefore cannot be real. And yet what began to emerge in April 1839 was exactly that alternative model. – John Ralston Saul on the reform movement of the newly united Canadas

bin Laden

Late last night US President Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden, a man wanted for the horrible, horrible crime of killing thousands in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. We all know this. President Obama said: So Americans understand the costs of war. Yet as a country, we will never tolerate our security being threatened, nor stand idly by when our people have been killed. We will be relentless in defence of our citizens and our friends and allies. We will be true to the values that make us who we are. And on nights like this one, we can say to those families who have lost… Read More »bin Laden

The Future of Canada

As you all know, on May 2nd Canadians will go to the polls and cast our votes for Canada’s 41st Parliament. We will send 308 Canadians to Ottawa to represent us in the House of Commons. An election should be a question of what do you want for Canada’s future? What course do you want to put the nation on? Where do we see our country over the next four years, and beyond? More importantly… What are our democratic principles? This election is not about the economy, this election is not about coalitions, this election is simply about what we as Canadians see as our democracy. Peter Russell puts it… Read More »The Future of Canada

Huluhoop

One of the downsides of living in Canada is that some media and such isn’t available outside of the United States. Us Canadians are frequently faced with: Recently I was told about this awesome app called Hotspot Shield which will easily mask your connection to be in the United States. Awesome…  

The Sock Gap

You might want to skip ahead to 4:21. Jeff suggests that a man takes his socks off “after his shoes, and before his trousers.” Miss the sock gap, and “suddenly you’re a naked man in socks. No self respecting woman will ever let a naked man in socks do the squelchy with her.” Why do I mention this only a few days after I previously posted this video in another context? Well, I went to the Honeysuckle Strip Spelling Bee at Buddies In Bad Times a few days back. As usual it was rather entertaining, but here’s the problem, the men competing, they didn’t seem to understand the Sock Gap.… Read More »The Sock Gap

Lessons I’ve Learned In Life

This is perhaps an ongoing series of lessons I have learned in my time as a human. Lesson 1: Never marry, then subsequently divorce, someone with good taste in music No matter how you feel about someone, an album might become hard to find. I once had the traumatic experience of splitting a record collection. Yes I was once married1, and then divorced2. When we split there were many records that only one of us cared about such as my Bob Dylan records; there were records that no one wanted, such as Pretty Together by Sloan; and of course records that we both wanted, albums we bought as a couple… Read More »Lessons I’ve Learned In Life