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Random thoughts on Canada, my new old neighborhood, food, etc.:

• CanCon: The only reason any radio station still plays Loverboy.
• The City of Vancouver Archives never disappoints me.
• I’m warming to my newly rediscovered childhood neighborhood. It’s still not my dream ‘hood and I really hate the giant yard BUT I find that I actually have more useful stuff within easy walking distance here than I did in Winston-Salem–or maybe even South of Market, for that matter. I can walk to several decent restaurants and a supermarket (even if it is just an Aldi), and dropping my car off for its annual checkup this morning was dreamy. There’s hope, I suppose. And contractors next week…
• Happy occurrence of the week: Buying jeans of a size that I haven’t purchased in fifteen years.
• In case you were wondering, there is at least one German restaurant in the world that doesn’t sell beer and this is it. And yes, my friends and I were also amused by the idea of a German and Italian restaurant. Adding a few Japanese dishes would probably get it firebombed by Asheboro’s remaining WWII vets.
• Cool thing of the week: This, via here.
• Taking a four-day weekend next week. Destination suggestions? Anybody out there?

It was a band I’m familiar with through my unusual status as an anglophone American guy with a strange affection for francophone Canadian alt-rock.

Other random Monday stuff:

• Students are back along with free print copies of the New York Times, part of a “newspapers in education” program that’s meant to get students reading newspapers but realistically is probably more about giving faculty and staff free ones.
• A good weekend, all in all, highlighted by another batch of my Pollo Vindaloo (recipe upon request) in all its Tex-Mex-Indian deliciousness and some of someone else’s leftover birthday cake since I purposefully didn’t have one of my own last weekend.
• Had a nice time at Westerwood and College Hill Saturday night…as long as you don’t count the part where someone slashed one of my tires. That part kind of sucked.
• I should (finally) have a new toilet and bathroom floor by the end of the day. That’s pretty exciting. Fortunately it’s a two-bathroom house so I haven’t been having to run down to the Texaco station at the corner while I waited.
• No, we no longer have Texaco stations here, but it flowed better than “Shell station” so I rolled with it anyway.
• Anyone need a really nice 2011 Buick Regal? I have one for sale if you want to match what they offered me at Carmax.

My new obsession this week is Naked City. I’ve been recording it off MeTV and now I have this (probably ill-advised) urge to buy the complete series on DVD in November.

It’s no big secret that I’m a sucker for old cop shows, specifically the ones that were shot on location in interesting urban areas, like The Streets of San Francisco (probably the best of the genre), Adam-12, Homicide, Cagney and Lacey, etc. Aside from being entertaining of their own accord, I love that they provide such a time capsule of what these cities really looked like at a specific time in the past, with diners and neon signs and dumpy furniture stores…and not an artisinal cronut stand in sight. It also helps that Naked City seems pretty consistent in its geographical accuracy; when they say they’re at Second Avenue and East Fourth Street, they really are. It’s always kind of a crap shoot on other shows.

Naked City is especially interesting, though, because it aired a good ten years earlier than most of my favorites and during a time when filimg on location was really unusual for a weekly TV series. It also has a sophistication that was lacking in most dramatic series of the time (it shared a creator with Route 66). All of this is making me wonder if it might actually be worth owning. I know you’ll be on the edge of your seats till November so I’ll let you know my decision as soon as possible.

Biggest discoveries of the weekend so far:

• Sugar water with a couple of drops of dish soap really does work when you’re trying to kill gnats. You put it in a little dish, the sugar attracts them, and the soap keepe them from being able to get out.
• The Dark Shadows movie was every bit as wretched as I thought it would be, which is why I waited until I could see it for free. It was still overpriced.
• I make a pretty damned good meatloaf. Just sayin’.
• I need to get rid of lots more stuff at both houses. Fortunately, I’m feeling really motivated right now.