On the mend

After a nasty spill care of streetcar tracks at Church and Richmond yesterday, I rested at home today. Nothing like a crash to jolt me right out of bikist complacency as said rightly by Jillian at work yesterday.

3 things I learned today:

It's near impossible to find the jeans I want in Canada - if Holt Renfrew and self-proclaimed jeanporium Over the Rainbow don't have them (not even the hemline!) and American stores won't ship to me, I might just have to save my clams. And save them for when I cross the border next in the fall. Maybe at that time, I will no longer have icecream ass from consuming mass quantities of the stuff.

Lance Bass from *NSYNC is gay! He was my favourite always. Just found out on ET and then I had to Google it. Turns out this is old news- reported back in July here.

The new Old Navy commercial sounds a bit like Cadence Weapon. Ok.

Good Catch

Shoegazing

Here is the thread on Stille Post.

Post-painterly blahblahblah

www.jacksonpollock.org

On the radio

above image c/o Becky, make your own at http://www.sp-studio.de/

Mark goes to air Wednesday and Saturday on Socket (for more info and local times for the show in your area, check www.cbc.ca/socket).
For this episode (Theme: Do-It-Yourself), he did three audio pieces inspired by Paint-by-numbers kit titles using sound samples available online for free use in archives and sample databases. Listen up because our Mark also has an interview with the host, Angela Antle.

Got my greasy paws on some discs today. On the rotation is Madonna's 'Confessions on a Dance Floor,' Thom Yorke, 'The Eraser,' and Ghostface Killah, 'Fishscale.'

In disturbing news: I found out that the Vice office for Toronto is in my neighbourhood.

In sad news: Nick leaves for San Fran. Auf wiedersehen, mein freund!

In news news: The COMMONS does projections for Shoegaze cover night at the Tranzac in Toronto, August 23rd. More details to follow. And there may be giveaways because everyone likes free things.

Pillow Fight!

Pillow Fight League™ to Crown World Champion
TORONTO, ON, August 6, 2006 – The Pillow Fight League (PFL™) will crown the Pillow Fighting Champion or the World at its largest Live Event yet – PFL3 The Brawl for it All! – on Thursday August 17, 2006 at The Courthouse, 57 Adelaide Street East, Toronto Canada.

WHO: Persian Princess VS Digit Jones for the PFL World Championship; 6’6” Eiffel Power battling two fighters for #1 Contender status; Roller Derby girls battling pro-fighters in an 8-woman Pillow Fight Scramble; and the women of the PFL in a full card of fights including tapings for The Comedy Network’s reality show, Punched Up.
WHAT: An action-packed two-hour Live Event with Professional Pillow Fights, Live Audience Try-Outs, Comedy Network Television taping, and 700+ Pillow Fight fans.
WHEN: Thursday August 17, 2006 Doors @ 9:00 PM; Fights start @ 10:00PM sharp!
WHERE: The elegant Courthouse, 57 Adelaide Street East (at Church), Toronto ON. Formalwear encouraged.

The Brawl for it All is Here. The PFL™ will have a World Champion!
See the PFL’s first Champion! Hear the roar of the crowd! Touch the Championship Cape! Smell the excitement in the air! Taste the sweetness of victory!

PFL3 will take place Thursday August 17, 2006 in Toronto Canada. PFL3, The Brawl for it All! is the culmination of a four-round tournament to crown the first PFL™ World Champion and Official #1 Contender. The event will also feature a full fight-card of professional pillow fights, amateur try-outs, and tapings for The Comedy Network reality-show Punched-Up.

The first three rounds of the PFL™ Championship tournament were taped last month in front of a live studio audience at the PFL™ Studio & Fight Training Centre. 16 fighters answered the invitation to participate in the round-robin. Fight fans witnessed the first ever PFL™ disqualification when Sister Resistor applied an illegal choke to the then undefeated PFL veteran CHAMPAIN and Persian Princess dislocate fan-favourite Boozy Suzy’s right shoulder.

The fights are real. The women are real. The glory of the World Championship is very real.

The PFL™ has already hosted two major sold-out live events, PFL1 and PFL2. At each event, legions of fight fans revelled and cheered in a standing-room-only arena where they were entertained by non-stop action as our gal-gladiators hit the mat for sensational matches, live interviews, and an infamous 14-girl Pillow Fight Scramble.

At PFL3, 700 fortunate fans will get what Pillow Fight fans world-wide have been asking for: A World Champion; and a world-class event in one of the most beautiful venues in fight history, The Liberty Group’s spectacular Courthouse in downtown Toronto, Canada.

PFL™ World Title Contender, Digit Jones says, “When I download my pillow on Persian Princess, you can bet that all she’ll be seeing are ones-and-zeros. PFL3 is going to take sports-entertainment into the high-speed world. Unless you’re still on dial-up, you better not miss it.” In response, Persian Princess said something in Farsi that sounded tuff, smart, and sexy, but we were not able to translate it…

Tickets for PFL3 are $12 advance, or $15 at the door. For advance ticket locations, visit . PFL3 is a licensed event. 19+ only!

Contact Information:
For more information email thepfl@gmail.com / www.GoPFL.com

What I miss

Desserts


Nick with Susur

Well, well. This is what I missed by not going to Nick's (who has been ceremoniously poached by Pixar) grand farewell at Susur. And yes, I was hit with a wave of regret for not being there. Ah, perhaps I will use this as inspiration for when I experience my next life changing moment?

Bright Colours

While reading up on the day's posts at torontoist.com, I came across this link to an article about jazz great Oscar Peterson. He's been the target of racial slurs in Mississauga, where he calls home. Coming from a suburban town whiter than bread, I can relate. Usually, however, the racially-tinged comments came from ignorant little kids in the neighbourhood or even out of touch friends in highschool. Since moving to Toronto six years ago, I have appreciated the diversity in cultures, and was relieved that I no longer had to act more white for fear of appearing less white, while not being white at all.

Not long ago, I was riding my bike down a side street off Brock and Queen. Out of the blue, two kids around ten or twelve years old biked past with the larger one yelling "Chinatown!" at me. First of all- what decade is it? Second, where am I? And third, the kid wasn't exactly Caucasian himself. I'm always shocked when this happens, as it confirms my naivety and that of those around me.

Getting back to Oscar Peterson, do people (and by this, I mean the general public) understand how influential black culture is? Pop music as we know it today is based on blues and jazz, and pop culture continues to be molded by this continuing history. Without people like Oscar, there would be no Elvis, Beatles or Led Zeppelin - all white performers whose music is derived heavily from the old tradition of Robert Johnson and his descendents. Where would we be? The world would be a quieter place.

Really though, I shouldn't be surprised. Looking around the world, it's clear that we haven't progressed beyond our differences. We just have created a false veneer of what appears to be tolerance.