4 posts tagged “toronto”
Around 4am last night, two of my more centrally-located friends popped on MSN and asked something to the tune of "Sweet Jesus, Brad, did you hear that explosion?" Over here, we were getting a bit of rain, so I assumed they meant thunder. Nope. Kaboom. People as far south and west as Queen and Dufferin heard/felt that blast; that's at least eight kilometres of window-rattling, five times the size of the evacuation zone (I'm about ten kilometres from the epicentre and four feet underground, not to mention on the other side of the Don Valley, so I didn't even notice). I just hope the initial report of no fatalities remains true, and that nobody takes advantage of the conveniently pre-shattered windows in the blast radius to go looting.
This is going to mean a slow day at work, too. The 401 is closed between 400 and the DVP, and half the University subway line is shut down for safety.
A weekend for the vaults, to be sure! Rebecca and her friend Ashley were visiting from Sault Ste. Marie for the Great Big Sea concert, and darned if I wasn't going to show them a good time while they were in my city. We had a nice wander around Queen West, stormed various parks and tourist attractions, laughed at Ashley's compulsive photo-taking (two months in Toronto, and already tourists make me twitchy!), and generally goofed around. I missed Rebecca, and I enjoyed having guests at the new Bradlands. It sounds like they had a good time at their concert, too, so huzzah.
On Friday night, we watched the new Hellboy movie. As with just about everything Del Toro does, the visuals were impeccable; the scenery, critters, and fight scenes were gorgeous. That was one uneven script, though. I couldn't believe how clunky the dialogue was compared to some of his earlier work. However, that little troll-baby has a hell of a one-liner.
Today was neat too. I mostly just relaxed, but also made the trek down to Kensington to see my old Guelph friend Jo for the first time in far too long. We had mighty burritos from Big Fat Burrito on Augusta, threw around the usual hilarious innuendo, got back in the Guelph gossip loop, and peoplewatched in the park. Next time, however, we won't let Jo navigate.
Oh hi, blog! It's been...two weeks. I'm getting sloppy. Then again, I'm just another voice in the susurrus of the city these days. Almost all of the fourteen days since the last post look something like this:
12:00pm: Wake up, shower, get dressed, consume fruit and rice
1:30pm: Hop on bike or subway, soar down the Danforth/Bloor Street to work
2:00pm: Start work
10:30pm: Finish work, hop on bike or subway
11:00pm: Arrive at home, have a snack, unwind with guitar/book/videogame/Internet/whatever
4:00am: Sleep
Aaaaaand repeat. It's an uneventful, content sort of autopilot; I wish there were a bit more going on, but as far as stati quo go, things could be a lot worse.
Notable exceptions to the rule of boredom include a pretty awesome Canada Day. I caught the fireworks down at Ashbridge's Bay, which is actually a lovely little spot. I had no idea how close I lived to such a nice beach. I probably still don't want to swim there, but hey.
Rebecca and her friend are coming to visit me next weekend. Surely I'll have some better stories by then.
Things:
- Yet another aging legend left us on the weekend: Mr. Conductor and Cardinal Glick himself, George Carlin.
Free-speech warrior, keen social commentator, and general scatological
goofball, his legacy should be so much more than the "Milwaukee Seven"
skit that gave him such infamy. Still, I hope that, as his soul was flung to the roof, never to return, he managed to growl out one last "cocksuckers!"
- Speaking of cocks, culinary tragedy struck the Bradlands today. I dropped my vaunted bottle of Cock Sauce, coating my floor in a fine layer of fermented fish. Despite all efforts to clean up, I have a feeling that that curious is-that-South-Asian-cuisine-or-an-oversexed-dorm-room smell is going to be here for a while.
- Oh Lord. I, Lucifer was awful. The plotting wasn't bad, but the prose was hideous; Duncan's Satan was pretentious without the wit to back it up. On the bright side, with Daniel Craig and Ewan MacGregor starring in the film adaptation, the film stands to greatly improve on the source material.
- On Sunday, Indigo had a big charity softball tournament. That was actually loads of fun, even if we got knocked out well before the semifinals. Our team had some ridiculously good players holding down the defensive side of things, and even I got my moment in the sun with a dramatic base slide. Never slide without pads, folks. I can't move my knee more than 90 degrees right now, lest I tear open the paperback-sized scab. It's pretty badass.
- Speaking of moments in the sun, what the hell was with that hailstorm on Sunday? Hail? In Toronto? Geez.
