Gratuitous cat photograph.
B-Movie
Remembrance Day (1981)
A fake video to observe the day, since there’s not a real video for this song.
And just for good measure, another fake video of a more recent song that I’ve always thought landed just shy of plagiarising “Remembrance Day”:
The Faint
Southern Bells in London Sing (2004)
At this precise moment ten years ago today, I had my last cigarette ever.
I started smoking in junior high, which was not unusual in the late 1970s. I kept up with the filthy, vile, and disgusting habit for twenty-five years, doing Great Pumpkin knows what kind of damage to my body and inflicting discomfort and repulsive smells on the friends who got within twenty feet of me.
In the end, I pretty much quit cold turkey. I used a little nicotine gum and I’d tapered off for six months before by not smoking inside the house. But it was just time. And I’ve never looked back. I now find the notion that intentionally inhaling any kind of smoke into your body would be a good thing is utterly fucking ridiculous. Being around smokers is as unpleasant for me as it must be for someone who never smoked. Maybe even more so.
I fully understand how hard it is to quit, though.
But it’s not impossible…
Dammit…
Arcade Fire
Reflektor (2013)
This pre-release track has been available for a while but it’s a good intro if you’re not familiar with the new Arcade Fire album that was released this week.
And yeah, that’s a David Bowie cameo…
Statistics and superlatives:
- Total distance traveled: 3505 km
- States/provinces included: 6 (North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Ontario
- Days: 12
- Nights: 11
- Most surprising lodging: Motel 6 in Burlington. It was actually quite nice, clean, and quiet. And everything worked. It’s not your average Motel 6.
- Best shawarma: Falafel Queen in Toronto.
- Cheapest sit-down breakfast: Skyway Diner in Burlington.
- Cheapest gas (US): $2.979/gallon in Wytheville, Virginia.
- Cheapest gas (Canada): $1.151/litre in Guelph, Ontario.
- Most colossally bad idea I’m glad I didn’t act on: Driving to Thunder Bay to visit Canada’s easternmost Safeway store before it becomes a Sobeys.
- Best mood elevator when I needed it most: The toll collector on the West Virginia Turnpike who was dressed up for Hallowe’en.
- Second best: The random teenager who stepped away from his posse in Kensington Market to tell me he liked my jacket.
- Honorable mention: The cashier at Loblaws who shared my giddy glee about Coffin Crisp, the Hallowe’en version of Coffee Crisp.
- Biggest regret: being in the GTA on a weekend when they were doing several shows and still not seeing Sloan.
Plus Pittsburgh and other assorted road tip destinations:
[flickr-gallery mode=”photoset” photoset=”72157645432283686″]
Safely home now.
Wednesday, my last full day in Toronto, was actually a pretty nice day weather-wise, and I spent most of it on foot.
I probably walked (conservative estimate) 12-13 km, covering Queen Street East from the beaches to downtown, big chunks of Dundas Street West and Bloor Street West, and Broadview. I took lots of pictures, looked at books, and ate a lot (surprise). I could really spend days just walking the streets of Toronto. I love it.
Other Wednesday highlights:
- Preposterously large breakfast at the Tulip.
- No lunch required due to preposterously large breakfast at the Tulip.
- Dinner in Greek Town. I ate at Messini, which I’ve really liked in the past but didn’t much care for this time around. I think they were out of lettuce but didn’t want to admit it, which made for a very unusual gyro/salad combo.
On Thursday morning, I packed up the car and headed back toward home. After some stops in St. Catherine’s and Niagara Falls, I didn’t dawdle much more, only stopping for lunch and dinner, gas, and bathroom breaks. I did the full 1200 km in one day, landing here at 1:30 in the morning.
Thursday highlights:
- Listening the Rob Ford train wreck unfold on the way home.
- CBC Radio 3 making West Virginia tolerable…again.
- Smiley cookie with dinner.
More details, photos, follow-up, etc. to come.
I have to go back to that other country–the one I don’t like nearly as much–tomorrow. That makes me sad.
Reset button successfully pressed.
Breakfast a the hotel this morning, and then I headed north toward Newmarket (home of Tokyo Police Club, if you care) and Barrie. Barrie was quite pretty. And pretty boring. It was the perfect place to go for lunch and an hour of exploration before returning to civilization so that’s exactly what I gave it. I use these side trips to give me some perspective and to remind me that Toronto is really what’s interesting here, which could be an issue should I ever exercise my option to relocate.
Coming back into the city, I explored the northwest corner, where every fucking street is apparently under construction. I spent a few minutes in the Annex, stopped on Broadview to take some skyline shots, and then stumbled upon this magical neighborhood on Gerrard Street full of Indian restaurants. And dinner was lovely.
Random thoughts:
- Canada must be the only place in the world where rap songs refer to Neil Young.
- I hereby declare that the new Arcade Fire album (that came out today) is good enough that I almost forgive Canada for allowing Nickelback to continue living.
- That’s really all I have.