I always win

I'm not a musical theatre gay. I've reluctantly attended shows in the past and enjoyed myself ( Mamma Mia! comes to mind). But it's not how I like to spend my entertainment dollar. One of Toronto's current offerings is a production of Matilda the Musical ; it's being advertised heavily on local tv. If it's as chock-full of caterwauling as the ad, you couldn't pay me to be in the audience.

City hall apparently thinks that no one in Toronto needs a car. Most car-owners will effectively see their annual registration / licensing fees increase by 80% .* Bad car owners! Bad! Don't you know that the TTC will magically transport you anywhere you want to go, in a 100% stress-free environment? The TTC never goes on strike , and its operators are hardly ever unpleasant. BAD CAR OWNERS! BAD! And when you're not taking the TTC, you can walk. The weather is never inclement. Or hey, ride a bicycle! You won't be breathing in any pollution or particulate matter, because the public transit system is so efficient, hardly anyone drives! Heck, they're eventually going to rip down the rest of the Gardiner Expressway . We're on the verge of using matter-energy transport. Or flying carpets. Who needs cars? Bring on the $60 annual Personal Vehicle Tax! That'll learn them right-wing, conservative, car-drivin' rednecks up real nice! (They're...

Let me state at the outset: I support the idea of a gay pride weekend. I used to participate. But I think it has become way too large. Nearly 10 years ago, I moved to Church/Wellesley , thinking it would be great to be in the middle of it all &mdash including pride weekend. The novelty wore off . I live at Pride Ground Zero; I'll own that. I have choices: I can participate, I can leave the city for the weekend, or I can move. However, the letter sent to me by Pride Toronto made me chuckle. It's well-intentioned, and it's great to provide street closure information to the community. But there is some language that, to me, conjures up images of stress, combat, and violence. It talks about traveling "the gauntlet of Church Street". Like running the gauntlet . Funny... that's exactly what a crushing crowd seems like to me if I'm not under the influence of intoxicants ! And there's a reference to passing "through the crosshairs of Church ...

I've come to the conclusion that people who enjoy hot, humid weather are part reptile. Please allow me to explain... If you were on the southbound 6 Bay bus at 8:40 this morning, I was the guy in the aviators (wearing a shirt & tie) with rivulets of perspiration flowing down his forehead, nose, earlobes, and neck. I'm sorry. I was clean, and I was wearing anti-perspirant... but it was stuffy as Hell in the back of that bus, and for some reason, most of the windows were closed. The relative humidity this morning was well into the 60% range, and it was already near 30°C with the humidex. (The bus was one of the old GM "fishbowls" ... no air conditioning.) I had grabbed the only available seat, next to a non-opening rear window. I stared at a girl sitting in the back corner of the bus &mdash next to one of the closed windows &mdash and I couldn't figure out how she was surviving . Other people were starting to open windows, but the bus was stuck i...

06:30 a.m. - up 08:15 a.m. - ultrasound at Sunnybrook 09:05 a.m. - another tech comes into room for advice, leaving door open 09:06 a.m. - people in hall walk by and see me in my underwear / hospital gown 09:07 a.m. - get up from gurney and close door, loudly 09:15 a.m. - wipe up lube, dress, head to lab for bloodwork 09:30 a.m. - leave hospital, drive south on Bayview 09:40 a.m. - massive traffic jam, due to closure of Bayview extension 09:55 a.m. - after doubling back up to Eglinton Ave. East, drive to DVP 10:05 a.m. - cut off by burgundy Jeep Liberty refusing to let me merge onto DVP 10:06 a.m. - watch Jeep Liberty make illegal lane change, southbound at Don Mills 10:07 a.m. - watch Jeep Liberty change lanes again while cutting off bus 10:08 a.m. - get caught behind a light blue Jaguar driving way underneath limit 10:09 a.m. - pass Jaguar, notice driver is reading newspaper 10:20 a.m. - arrive at work to "start" my day! 09:20 p.m. - find out I didn't get awesome gover...

This week, I saw the Neville Park "mini-ravine" for the first time. I was driving down Victoria Park Avenue to meet a friend in the Beaches neighbourhood. Vic Park gets very quiet and residential down by the lake. It jogs slightly to the east at Bracken Avenue... and that's where I had to stop and take a look. In front of me was a landscape I had never seen before, yet it was strangely familiar. I've had a recurring dream about an almost exact replica of this beautiful, south-facing, tree-lined ravine. The light was poor, but I took a photo anyway. You can see Lake Ontario in the background. On my way back home, I got this shot of downtown Toronto on Kingston Road, just east of Woodbine. Again... not the best light. I shot several, but my hands were freezing and the best vantage point was in the middle of the road. Once home, I did this: It's basically the same thing I've done with this blog. I haven't quit or bailed on it for...

There are communal libraries in the laundry rooms of my apartment complex. (Some of Peter's gag gifts and books have ended up there--but they never last long!) A couple of weeks ago, I pulled a copy of Valley of the Dolls from the shelf and found something neat tucked inside: a mailer from Etobicoke Hydro . From the font, I thought it might date back to the 1950s. Some web searching revealed that the mayor listed on the card served from 1967 to 1972. It's not as old as I thought. Business Reply Mail was 8 cents, and there's no postal code. Etobicoke was one of six former boroughs of the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto. Etobicoke Hydro later became part of Toronto Hydro , and Metropolitan Toronto was amalgamated into the City of Toronto in 1998.

On Sunday, I went to the Royal Ontario Museum with a friend who was visiting Toronto. I try to be a tourist in my own city once in a while... I find it makes me stop taking my surroundings for granted. It had been years since I had been to the ROM. There are extensive exhibits of art and artifacts from China, Japan, and Korea. They made me want to live more simply and drink green tea. In the Déco Lalique exhibition, this piece caught my eye: It's the "Martigues" charger with a beautiful fish design... its peacefulness seemed right at home, upstairs from the Buddha statues and Japanese tea sets. artist: René Lalique It was brutally hot on Sunday, so I welcomed the chance to be in a cool, dry place. It occurred to me that art gets to be in better air than a lot of people get to breathe . And for a different take on things with Korean heritage, I finished off the night by re-watching Notorious C.H.O. featuring my hero, Margaret Cho.

I checked three sources ( wikipedia , a U.S. Census Bureau map , and Business Week ) and it would seem fair to conclude that Indianapolis is either in or on the fringes of the rust belt. On Wednesday, indygirl listed a miscellany of facts... among them: FACT: If you blog, there is a 90% chance that you either live in Toronto or Indianapolis. Let's all try and think of some other similarities between Toronto and Indianapolis! both are capitals (provincial/state) Indy has hoosiers; Toronto has hosers (JAJAJAJAJA!) both cities have NBA teams Here's the biggest difference I can see: Indianapolis is just about dead-centre in the middle of the state; Toronto thinks it's in the dead-centre of Ontario (much to the annoyance of people in other parts of the province)