Funky bones

Listening to a BBC podcast about Beatemania in the USSR, I came across an interesting historical tidbit. Apparently most countries in Eastern Europe and in the USSR were denied access to Western music. However, some vinyl records were smuggled across the “Iron Curtain” and made it into the hands of some crafty bootleggers who distributed it illegally to the masses. Since the 1950’s and 60’s were tough economically for the USSR, bootleggers had to find cheap accessible materials on which to make copies of the original vinyl records. After some experimentation it became apparent that discarded x-ray films from hospitals were the best and most freely available material for pressing bootleg records. So imagine buying a Beatles record from a bootlegger, going home and taking it out of its package. You take the record, put it up against the light and you are looking at some stranger’s ribcage. Maybe I am morbid kind of guy, but that’s pretty damn cool…

Toronto Vs Montreal: Skyline edition

When I first moved to Toronto, the first thing to hit me was the overwhelming number of impressive skyscrapers. Although there is a cluster of massive financial buildings downtown, there are also hundreds of towering condo buildings throughout the rest of the city. Sure big buildings block the sun and create mysterious wind tunnels that make cold days even colder, but I do enjoy a good skyline.

The skyline is a good indicator of a city's status. Montreal has Place Ville Marie and... Well there aren't very many that go beyond 25 floors. This is quite telling of Montreal's economic stagnation. All of our skyscrapers are quite old and there have not been any projects affecting the skyline since 1980. Montreal has not degraded economically in the last 3 decades per se however nobody is pumping money into the city. This is most likely a consequence of the rise of the sovereignty movement culminating in the 1980 referendum. This caused several companies to move their headquarters to the more stable city of Toronto. Toronto got the “big boy” status and the big buildings...

Although skyscrapers are impressive at first glance, they tend to ruin the city at the street level. Skyscrapers generally have a spacious lobby and elevators on the ground floor. This reduces the amount of restaurants, shops and bars that pedestrians can access. This unfortunate side effect saps the charm and practicality away from clusters of skyscrapers.

I have noticed something else in the last year: Toronto city planners have terrible taste in architecture. If the buildings are impressive in size, they rarely are in their design. Everything Toronto has built since their expansion in the 70's is quite awful. The city hall is supposed to be designed like an eye (top picture)... it might look good from a hot air balloon, not from the ground. The back of city hall is brown cement! More recently, the royal Ontario museum reopened on Bloor Street which is supposed to be avant-garde/crystal-like, but it just looks like it's been chewed up and spit out by Godzilla (bottom picture).

Montreal is a much older city, so the oldest buildings really give the city its charm. This is true for most cities I’ve visited: the older the city, the more charming it is. However, having travelled to cities such as Lisbon, Porto and Chicago it has become clear that new buildings can also have style. Therefore if anybody reading this is a struggling architect... please come to Toronto, the city needs you.

Montreal vs. Toronto: Street Meat Edition

On February 9th it was the one year anniversary of my move to Toronto. I will post a series of articles giving my two cents on the major differences between the two cities.

Let’s start somewhere random: street meat. For those unfamiliar with downtown Toronto, it is impossible to walk more than two blocks without being enticed or assaulted (depends on hunger) with the smell of hot-dogs. Every few blocks a small metal booth is visible. These plastic tarp-sheltered booths typically contain a propane grill, various condiments and a hard working immigrant trying to satisfy his customers’ need for sausage.

The glistening “street meat” served by the vendors is tasty although a little disappointing. I don’t think I ate more than 1 or 2 in my first year in Toronto. They seem to be a perfect end to a night of drinking and dancing! Since I don’t frequent clubs anymore, this might be responsible for my low sausage intake. To be honest I would trade all the hot dog stands in Toronto for a decent falafel or shawarma sandwich. Nothing but disappointment in terms of Arabic food in Toronto… I miss Lebanese immigrants!

What's the value of Money?

These days, with the US printing money like Wal-Mart flyers, it makes you wonder what the global monetary system is based on. With the words “speculative bubble” popping up everywhere it makes you wonder if money itself is simply a giant speculative bubble!

For those not familiar with the term, speculative bubbles refer to any market (such as telecoms, real-estate, food, oil) where values are driven up beyond their actual worth by investments. It’s a supply and demand of a supply and demand! During the dot com boom, telecom companies were thriving (high demand) and this attracted a lot of investors trying to get a piece of the pie (high demand). This additive effect drove up stock prices beyond the actual value of the companies. Once the honeymoon period is over (bubble bursts), there is a rapid decrease in the market’s value and it becomes undervalued due to a loss of confidence.

This also happened in the summer of 2007 with record high food prices and in 2008 with the 140$ barrel of oil. This is most likely going to happen with gold now that the economy is in shambles. To go back to my original point: the US can ultimately print as much money as it wants even though its gold reserves stay the same. This begs the question… what decides money’s true value. Why is the US dollar worth specifically 1.21857 Canadian dollars or 0.76525 Euros today? This is all very speculative isn’t it? Financial experts have pretty much shown in the last 30 years that they honestly have no real sense of a market’s true value. How true are those monetary exchange values quoted? What happens when that bubble bursts?

Same name new gimmick

I am about to try something a little different: Shorter articles twice a week.

Come back later today for the first new article.

RIP x-bomb

For those who don’t know, I make music under the alias “x-bomb”. Nothing too serious but there is a significant numbers of mp3s on my disk drive with “x-bomb” in their file names. Today it saddens me to retire that moniker.

This is the reason.

From the Tallahassee Democrat, Florida:

April 4, 2008

A briefcase marked "A-Bomb" in a pickup truck in Florida State's parking garage Thursday caused classes to be cancelled […].The Tallahassee Fire Department, police and bomb squad were called.

The bomb threat turned out to be bogus. It turns out the term "A-Bomb" is a nickname for a 17-year-old high-school student, Brooks said. A parking attendant originally spotted the briefcase in the bed of the boy's truck on the fourth-floor of the Woodward Avenue parking garage and notified authorities.

No arrest was made Thursday, but the case has not been closed.

Absolute Certainty

The other day, as I walked through a hospital, I noticed an older man struggling to sip his apple juice through a straw as his son looked on. The son looked distraught. Maybe he was upset that old age and illness were changing his father…

Life is a gift.

None of it should be wasted.

Go ahead, live.



“Look alive
See these bones
What you are now
We were once
Just like we are
You will be dust
Just like we are
Permanent”


Taken from Nada Surf’s “See These Bones”
http://www.myspace.com/nadasurf