Smart is the new Sexy

I am smitten. It's not an old school crush reignited. Not a facebook flashback from the past. No this new crush is the one I have on the local newspaper, The Toronto Star.
Before you yawn and go back to your facebook page, you owe it to yourself to pay attention to the amazing piece of journalism by Linda Diebel from the Saturday edition Toronto Star. For you politicos out there, this is a well researched and opinionated piece. Decent investigatory writing seems to be a lost art, or so I thought. An amazing story is unfolding about the handful of Canadians stranded around the globe as the government looks the other way, which is abhorrent. The article can be found here.

The impetus for these recent stories of wayward travelers: Suaad Hagi Mohamud. The good news is she's back home in Toronto after her three month ordeal of being called an impostor. Left to twist in the wind by the Canadian government because her lips looked different from her four year old photo in the passport she held. Note to self: No Juviederm before traveling internationally.

Newby that I am to the area, I can't help but be impressed with the story bylines of the recent weeks dealing with the position that Ms. Mohamud found herself . Impressed that the art of journalism still exists in the old school world of newspaper. The Toronto stars' unparalleled coverage of this amazing saga deserves an applause.
Brava Ms. Diebel. It would be lovely to see you awarded a Pulitzer for your work, or maybe the Canadian equivalent.....the National
Newspaper Awards. Certainly not as glamorous, but better than no recognition.

Can't Cha Smell That Smell?

Life in a high rise apartment building has it's good points, but also it's fair share of not so nice.

Like most of the posh buildings in downtown Toronto, we have the doorman wearing a suit, who smiles sweetly in the morning as he opens the door and bids you Adue. It's like having a surrogate parent wishing you well as you start your day.

The not soo nice? Weirdly enough, there's the seemingly year old Christmas wreath still hanging on the front door of #3406, now August the tired greenery smells like a cross between mildewy socks and a catbox. Then there's the boozey breathed guy on the 18 floor that always has the elevator smelling like a bottle of Tanqueray by the time I step in around 9:00 a.m. I have thought about suggesting he add a little milk to the morning gin & cheerio mix but haven't mustered the courage just yet. The elevator is a small paragraph of sociological intrigue all it's own. Elevator etiquette here in Canada differs greatly than say what I experienced while residing in Chicago. My building on ritzy Lake Shore Drive was home to the media elite (many of us worked at WLUP radio, CBS.) A handful of rockstars including Cheap Trick lead singer and guitarist Robin Zander also lived in the building. Elevator protocol was always to be too cool for school and not talk to anyone vs. today where anyone talks to anyone when the elevator doors open. Decidedly Canadian I suppose. It's sweet but I wonder how that's going to work once the H1N1 virus take hold this winter...hopefully mums the word.

I holdout hope however that the Christmas fans in #3406 replace that god awful wreath when the holiday season rolls around soon.

Sugar Sugar

Comic book collectors are celebrating the long awaited hook-up of that goofy Archie to comic book hottie Veronica. Or are they celebrating? Many collectors of this series are chiming in with differing opionions. Imagine that- public spout offs about nothing of great importance. President Obama must be wondering why he can't shake out more support for his health care plan, and low en behold peoples brains are pondering the outcome of comic book lovers' triangles. Wow, never would have guessed that one.

The Archie Comics website shows Archie proposing to Veronica on bended knee on the cover of No. 600, which hits comic book stores today. Plot the love triangle penned into the six-issue story arc that takes place in the future – when the perpetual high schoolers have graduated from college, to quote Victor Gorelick, editor-in-chief of Archie Comics. He said people all over the world are reacting to Archie's choice and "mostly everyone feels bad for Betty.''

I get Archie's decision. Veronica is the dominatrix type who can work a pair of thigh high boots like no one in cartoon kingdom. Sure Betty is cute, but the bubble-gum blond goodie goodie demeanor is soo high school.

Veronica is a blogger and although not the most articulate, she works facebook like she works the crowd at her evening job as a stripper. Gone are the dayz of high school teeny bop: Comics have made it into the 21st century sporting a nicer edge and better graphics. Otherwise how could an X box game be in the cards if The Archies stayed completely G rated?

I put my money on a twist of fate for Archie and Veronica, or should I say tryst of fate with Betty in the mix by the time cover #610 is in print. The only way to make it even more interesting is to throw another vixen into the mix. My vote would be for a redhead.

Who knew comics could be so delicious?

Chill The F@*K Out

This seems so silly. Blame British Columbia for this cheekiness: Coors Light declares the beer is "Colder Than Most People From Toronto." Making fun of Toronto is a unity issue that ties together everyone who doesn't live here, apparently a strategy that has been used for years. Weirdly it's not Molson(although they do own Coors) or Wellington poking fun while having a bit of fun playing up regional differences. Geez- C'mon Canadians... this is the battle you pick to fight? You bunch of beer babies can't even drink a decent microbrew, choosing instead to cry into your swilly American branded, Canadian owned beer...Eeew..Boohoo. Get over it.

Weirdly as a Bay Area transplant I find Torontonians amazingly friendly, and polite. What I like the best? I am finding the flirty, funny, and down right friendliness of my new hood' deelicious and I can't even imagine anyone taking offense to something sooo pedestrian. So that Canadian Complacency quip I tossed around a week or so ago needs an amendment of sorts.

Complacency with all things political, economic, and legal ( See this story?)

Pint of Stella anyone? Cheers!

Ohh The Places You'll Go

We all have favorite travel stories. Mine typically have to do with the irritating way travel styles go array. Traveling through Guatemala with someone who found it impossible to lift their nose from the lonely planet book, or Yelp! website addicts who can't decide where to eat breakfast without a democratically elected opinion. Life on the road to adventure can get gritty when one travelers' idea of camping is the Hotel Arts Barcelona but the other partner in crime is free wheeling- get off the plane -train- bus and walk into the world content to sleep where ever, but that too makes for great travel fodder.

A good friend of mine came back from a whirl wind trip that covered a zillion miles and a gaggle of gorgeous locales. I couldn't help but post his work, as he is about the funniest, well read person on the planet. In the spirit of all things summer, Enjoy life in the moment!
What better way than with pictures and captions to sum up the tasty kernel depicting moments on the road.
For me this is the best of an experience distilled down to a tasty snippet- enjoy... This is what summer is all about.
Thank-you to my good friend Dave Benson, Radio Programming maestro and photographer /writer, world traveler. Nice Work. Now get back to work slacker boy.


Caption: i don't even want to know what they cook in here.

everybody needs a place to call their own

even the inside of my hat gives me advice.

view from the rooftop bar/restaurant in Istanbul. it's all well and good until tomorrow morning when some guy decides to put the boom box on 11 and give a shout out on Mohammed's behalf.

To Dance Or Not 2 Dance

The old saying that excitement is infectious doesn't seem to hold true for concert goers here in T.O.

I was listening to an interview on the New Yorker Podcast with John Seabrook who was discussing the history of rock concerts. The mystic of venue, sound quality and overall experience has changed for concert goers as the music-concert genre has morphed into big stadium shows that lack sound quality and control. Depersonalized.

A handful of sweet little concert venues still exist here in Toronto (The Mod Theater comes to mind with Matt Nathanson putting on an awesome show) The swanky n sweet Drake Hotel is a gem that serves marvelous martinis during music shows. A big exciting part of seeing a live show is experiencing this lost art of showmanship, of course acoustics add to the overall small venue experience of an energized crowd. No small part of this experience is the energy of a crowd turned on by the performer.

My thread of niceness concerning my Canadian hosts has run it's course. Sad to say, but sometimes an edge to ones' personality is a necessary evil. Or maybe just a pulse would be fine here under the red and white flag waving it's friendly maple leaf everywhere.. The concert experience in Canada is about as energy filled as watching paint dry. Okay, perhaps that analogy is a bit harsh. Think airport lounge television experience: the Canadian sport of Curling on every monitor and they've announced a delay for your flight. So after a month here, I can say the experience is pretty similar whether the band is rock, jazz or pop... snore. The scene looks like this: no pushing or shoving, no dancing, not much physical mosh pit like crunch/crush. Sound like fun? Sure, if this describes waiting for the subway but a live music show deserves a better return of our creative investment.

To solve this dilemma? I thought I might ask for feedback, as buying drinks for the entire venue could get spendy.

Is Canada The New China

No, Not due to the recent typhoon. This comparison is purely censorship driven. What does censorship have to due with living in Canada you might wonder. The lock on the telcom/internet world is an arm wrestle between a couple of players here in the great northern enclave of Canada. The carrier that hosts the service in the apartment has a devilish way of blocking out or redirecting DNS searches. I can't access google at the oddest of time. No, I don't have a online porn habit that needs to be curtailed by the Rogers Telephone control freaks, but in the last week (notice my lack of posts??) Weird re directs occur on my machine when I have attempted to google ANYTHING... be it a search, a gmail account, or my urbanfirefly account. In what appears to be a violation of Net Neutrality by Rogers Cable, Digital Home readers ( me included) are reporting that Rogers High Speed Internet service has begun redirecting customers "Server not found pages" to webpages laden with Rogers advertising.

The hijacking of the webpage appears to be attempt by Rogers to use its Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) technology to cash in on the mistakes of its users.

Pissed off is really an understatement. So who do I rant to? Well the first stop was the customer assistance line at Rogers. Of course after feigning ignorance on any re-direct from any where, it was deemed that perhaps I needed a refresher course or how-to- surf the Internet. Even recommended where to find the classes. As if.

My very Canadian service rep soon heard a stream of expletives come pouring from my mouth, I vow to take the censorship to the ether and have it reign down upon f#$K face Rogers Internet for redirecting and basically controlling where I surf. China has this in spades, but Canada...

He Shoots He Scores

I think we have a new nick name for Bill Clinton. Catnip. Catnip Clinton was on a "private humanitarian mission" to see his little friend Kim Jong-il and discuss the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, of San Francisco-based Current TV. Both women had been taken into custody in March near the border with China while reporting on refugees fleeing North Korea. They were sentenced to hard labor for illegal entry and "hostile acts." Bill Clinton had "expressed a deep apology that the [two female reporters] entered the country illegally and committed hostile acts against the republic." I feel your pain.. but we have cocktails awaiting and a plane to catch.
I wonder if Catnip brought along boot leg DVDs of current Hollywood blockbusters to break the ice and put a smiley face on a situation his wife Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton merely described as petulant and childish (referring to Kim Jong-il and those pesky nuclear tests from a few weeks ago.)

I would have loved to have had the fly on the wall experience of eavesdropping on what I imagine: the scene of Kim and Bill, enjoying a bowl of Kim Chee while watching Hangover, laughing about frat boy antics and comparing notes on the best lap dance in Vegas.

Who else is ecstatic? H.E. Mr. Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, President of the 63rd session of the United Nations General Assembly has gotta be doing the happy dance. This Catnip Clinton gesture places a band-aid of sorts upon the recent North Korea United Nations resolutions defiance of nuclear arms.

What about that inconvenient tie between Clinton inner circle stiff guy: past VP of The United States of America/past CEO of Current TV Al Gore? Why not invite him along for a few cocktails flying first class. Clinton's spokesman said the former president had left Pyongyang with the two reporters and they were en route to Los Angeles.

Mr. Clinton has gotta be thinking "it's good to be me" today. I couldn't agree more. Especially if this could pave the way to direct nuclear disarmament talks. He shoots He scores- Pure Catnip.

Complacency: A Canadian Cultural Trait

After a month here in Canada, I have an opinion about the overall lack of initiative on the part of environmental groups. The recent strike could have -should have -would have been the catalyst for change. Except no groups stepped forward to seize the moment.
Excuses, excuses. These ranged from :not enough time to organize (37 days) to summer vacation.

The people who consider themselves "environmentalist" must have been up at the cottage. For those not familiar with the cottage concept, picture in your mind a season of three months and a crazed urgency people exhibit for getting away to visit the land of the black fly and mosquito. Seems like a lot of work to me, but then I am used to having a longer runway of nice weather to enjoy. Talk to me in the spring, and perhaps I will be singing a different tune. But really- each and every free moment of the so called summer season for many here in Canada is time spent lakeside.
It's much like the Tahoe phenomenon in California with a highly evolved myopic view of venue.

With the Canadian love of nature, and sustainability worn on the cuff of everyone who weathered this strike for the past month, a few observations came to mind. This could be considered a rant by Canadian terms, so avert your eyes as the following paragraph o' vitriol.

The media places the blame for environmental complacency to: summer vacation. Yes, here in Canada the environmentalist rabble rouses, pot stirrers and soap box fans all take a break from their pot stirring. Hard to believe, but the local press blames this summer vacation phenomenon for the lack of any activist messages aimed at enticing people to make smarter choices when shopping. Puchasing goods with less packaging, being a vocal forefront for changing consumer habits-but instead of seizing the opportunity to make politically charged socially important messages framed by a backdrop of garbage bags we got..... nada.

Sometimes marketing opportunities just don't get any better than the recent visual of football field sized waste holding areas, too bad none of the environmental groups here capitalized.

Complacency accompanied with a fine set of rationalization runs deep here. Of course I'm just a pushy American (suppose that's redundant too.) but at least I know an opportunity when I see one, and that too is very American .

Evoke change? There's always next time.

The Staycation

Sloth. Couch Potato. Slacker. Today it's an easy fit for any of the three adjectives. Despite the beautiful weather the most productive thing accomplished today: reading the paper. Weirdly enough the Sunday paper here in Canada is pretty thin. I suppose the assumption is that an August Sunday should be spent doing more arduous tasks than reading the paper.

The city is looking it's spit polished self again with the city municipal workers back on the clock. Garbage collection has taken place around the clock, along with ferry service to the Islands that loom just beyond a quick sail across the lake. Even that fabulous view couldn't unseat me today.

I've noticed the media and marketing wizards of the world have coined a term for this sort of no plan, rudderless agenda at least when it coincides with a three day holiday weekend: Staycation.

Unlike a vacation with posh hotel room service, and delicious over priced mini bar delights my staycation culinary highlight of the day was an online pizza order/delivery.

Yes, it is an oxymoron to actually post a blog about sloth like behavior, but hey- it's a cathartic reason of sharing my guilt of missing a beautiful day. Especially when beautiful days are considered a scarce commodity in this part of the world. Maybe a few evening hours left of sultry summer weather can tug me from my ivory tower life here in T.O

Cocktails & Croquet anyone?

Bless Me Father...

What does Snoop Dogg and the Pope have in common?

No it's not the fondness of wearing big bling or a cool lid. Weirdly enough, both his holyness and the hip hop rap rock star are represented by Geffen Records. Word is, the November release of Pope Benedict XVI's album entitled, "Alma Mater," will contain songs and prayers to the Virgin Mary. My first question is who did the market research for this one? Will itunes carry the cd, and when will the video be released.

I wish I could throw my hat in the ring for directing the creative for video produced. I envision a pussycat dolls meets his holiness dance video with lots of cleavage sporting large crucifix necklaces and super short parochial school tartan print skirts. Embellish with high heels (for the dolls, not his holyness.) Sex sells, even the Vatican must see that. Why else choose an American icon of entertainment as representation?

Radio stations typically receive swag or merchandise to giveaway when promoting new albums/cd's. This is a marketing persons' wet dream: worldwide exposure meets endless open ended promotional opportunities- pope in the pizza, holy water bubble wands. Then there's the tee shirts... Why do I need to write about this you ask? The sheer strangeness of Snoop dogg and the pope receiving record royalties from the same corporation, it's just too bad this isn't an April fools joke.