Winter is coming

Vans Sentry Parka

Roots Slouch Sweatshirt

Levi's 511cargos

Clarks saddle leather desert boot by David Z NYC

Days like these

You know what's worse than these days where you wake up and it's dark and cold out and you're still tired and there's nothing in the fridge you want to have for breakfast and you sure as shit don't want to go to work and sit and let another eight hours of your life just drift away when you'd rather be going for a walk or reading a good book, or pretty much anything else? What's worse than this is realizing there's going to be a thousand more days like this one. But how is your day?

Look at that blubber fly!

This gif accurately capture show I feel after many many months of only sporadic physical activity.

Burgertime

Every week I tell myself I'm going to grab a burger for dinner before my night class and every week I pussy out.

I've changed.

This'n'that

Favourite English names:
Tim Pigott-Smith
Jessica Brown Findley

Fictional Band Name du Jour:
The Burning Sensations

Current listening:
Wild Flag- s/t (2011)
Wye Oak-Civilians (2011)

Reading:
Are you kidding me?

Feeling:
Broke/indebtted.

I hate my Life

Toronto Life editor Sarah Fulford

Nice to see Toronto Life continuing it's fine work printing shallow, insincere bullshit for page views. And I fall for it like a sucker every damn time.

The daily barf

Work is dead slow at the moment, so I've been spending a lot of time scanning job boards, trolling hockey forums watching early '90s can-rock videos on the You Tubes (see below) and reading food and home design blogs.

Now, it's no surprise to anyone who reads blogs (including this one, which absolutely no one reads) that a certain amount of self-absorption is a prerequisite for the gig. But some of the shit out there really takes solipsism to a new level. Let's put it another way: If I see one more whimsical blog by some skinny, middle class white chick with a bird tattoo and an Etsy shop who takes over-Photoshopped cutesy pictures of her beardo boyfriend and herself, her "outfits" and various babies/pets, my eyeballs are going to crawl out of my asshole. Also "thrifting" is not a word. You privileged fucks.

Hey remember these guys? Bubbles!

The bright side

The good thing about being bald is that I never have to worry about getting a stupid haircut like a Mullethawk or, let's be honest, every haircut I ever had when I had hair.

Flotsam

Fictional band name du jour: 
Cold Concrete Canyons

Listening to:
Wire "Red Bark Tree" (2011) (particularly "Bad Worn Thing")
Jonathan Fire*Eater "Wolf Songs for Lambs" (1995)

Reading:
Lucky Peach Issue #1

Feeling:
Guilt over not going to the gym/being fat. Also: gassy.

You're dumbstruck baby, now you know.

The National to headline ACC show

Not sure how a band with such an intimate sound (one better suited for late nights around the dinner table) will pull off a show in a hockey rink, but I'd like to find out. Love those guys. Wish this shirt was still in stock.

Fall wish list: head to toe

Top to bottom: NY Cosmos New Era fitted (I'm partial to the all black everything version), Long sleeve stripe crew neck sweat shirt from Norse Projects, Levi's 511 Commuter Jeans, Vans LPE Chambray

Ephemera

Favourite English names:

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (celebrity chef)

Benedict Cumberbatch (actor)

Fictional band name du jour:

Land Battles

Current listening:

The War on Drugs – “Slave Ambient” (2011)

Band of Horses – “Infinite Arms’ (2010)

The Walkmen – “Lisbon” (2010)

Crystal Stilts – “In Love with Oblivion” (2011)

Reading:

As per my last update to my 2011 reading list, I've been on a good run this year. I should point out that the seven books I've checked off to date are by no means the complete picture. Right now, I'm taking the harrowing journey through Cormac McCarthy's gore-soaked classic "Blood Meridian" and started another Lethem (his breakout novel "Fortress of Solitude" which I can't say I'm enjoying so far). I've also knocked off more Hornby ("A Long Way Down" which is one of his better ones, even though it further exposes his inability to write in different voices); "Bruno, Chief of Police," a delightful summer read about a small town French cop and epicure penned by Martin Walker; and, uh, the first book of the "Hunger Games" trilogy.

A way for living

"Weniger, aber besser."
- Dieter Rams

Kids these days

Last week, I was on the subway for the commute home. There were two kids, probably 12 or 13 year sold, standing by the door. As we neared a stop, the older of the two casually leaned forward and spat on the door. No reason, just wanton disregard for public propriety, property and hygiene. I caught the kids I and glared (okay, I may have mouthed "you little fucking shit" at him), which much amused the little fucker to no end. Now, this morning, I read about some guy getting assaulted at random by a mob of tweens in Washington, D.C., while no one lifted a finger to help. It got me thinking:  are kids shittier today?

Kelly Grant, debunked

The Globe writer takes aim at the Toronto Environmental Alliance's comparison of Transit City to Rob Ford's transit plan and fails, spectacularly.

The nut graf:

Would Transit City really serve that many more riders? Sure, if you base your map-doodling on a version of the plan that’s mostly unfunded and mostly dead, especially now that Mr. Miller has vamoosed.

The trouble with TEA’s map and with the Pembina Institute figures that underlie them, is that the numbers include whole lines, or parts of lines, that Queen’s Park hasn’t committed to funding yet. In a city where we once filled in a subway hole we'd already started digging, unfunded crayon lines on a map are meaningless.

The problem? Ford's Sheppard subway extension has yet to recieve Ontario's blessing. As it stands, its apples to apples.

Wrapped up in books

Another 2011 target to hit: read these books. I'll add more as I go.

1. The Extra Man — Jonathan Ames
2. The Bicycle Diaries — David Byrne
3. The Food of France — Wayverly Root
4. Girl Crazy — Russell Smith
5. The Cloud Atlas — David Mitchell
6. Nikolski — Nicholas Dickner
7. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running — Haruki Murakami
8. Juliette, Naked — Nick Hornby
9. Never Let Me Go — Kazuo Ishiguro
10. Super Sad True Love Story — Gary Shteyngart
11. Freedom — Jonathan Franzen
12. Chronic City — Jonathan Lethem
13. Girls to the Front — Sara Marcus

*updated August 25, 2011