tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-107942942024-03-07T05:00:09.366-05:00squiddity.<b>quiddity</b> <i>n.</i> (from Lat. <i>quidditas</i> "whatness") what a thing is, its essence <br>
<b>squiddity</b> <i>n.</i> this essence when it involves or implies a squidNadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956720884721798604noreply@blogger.comBlogger298125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10794294.post-47141744929381270062011-05-19T13:46:00.002-04:002011-05-19T13:52:32.696-04:00The Squiddity yearsThis blog is no longer updated (as you may have noticed); I felt that it had run its course. I'm leaving it up; feel free to leaf through the back issues, so to speak. I am pondering some new online project, though I'm not sure yet what form it will take; when I figure it out, I'll link it here. Much appreciation to everyone who read and commented on Squiddity over the years!Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956720884721798604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10794294.post-43884399115682324002009-01-12T23:11:00.002-05:002009-01-12T23:17:21.588-05:00Holiday '08<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/3177897697/" title="Untitled by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3535/3177897697_9ed45cb1d4.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="" /></a><br /><br />I went some places over the holidays! I took some photos!<br /><br />The <a href="http://nature.ca/nature_e.cfm">Canadian Museum of Nature</a>, where I was awed by dinosaurs as a child, is undergoing massive renovations. Part of it is still open, and I revisited the giant skeletons, above. Also, my mom curated a nifty show there -- <a href="http://nature.ca/exhibits/exs/gamble/index_e.cfm">paintings by Barbara Gamble</a>, juxtaposed with century-old plant specimens collected & pressed by Catharine Parr Traill (sister of Susanna Moodie).<br /><br />Mom, Rene and I went to Montreal for the weekend, where we visited Rene's sister & went to the <a href="http://www.cca.qc.ca/table.asp?lang=eng">Canadian Centre for Architecture</a>. There's a <i>fantastic</i> show on until April 19 called <a href="http://cca-actions.org/">Actions: What You Can Do With the City</a>. It's an encyclopedically thorough collection of urban interventions -- performance art, guerrilla gardening, parkour, anything you can think of in that vein -- from cities around the world. <br /><br />Then we went to Rene's little house in Cornwall, which is stuffed with an eclectic collection of outsider (and insider) art and toys. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/3177999279/" title="Display case by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3386/3177999279_a6ce73267e.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Display case" /></a><br /><br />The next day, we toured a semi-derelict cotton mill, part of a complex where Rene dreams of creating a private museum, which would be like his house, but larger & open to the public. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/3179020478/" title="Red puddle by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3499/3179020478_20d08bd458.jpg" width="500" height="354" alt="Red puddle" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/sets/72157612255764225/">Full photoset here.</a>Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956720884721798604noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10794294.post-73662541869521080552008-12-22T20:24:00.001-05:002008-12-22T20:24:33.686-05:00Hannukah party at Jonathan's<style type="text/css">.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }</style><div class="flickr-frame"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/3128933239/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3294/3128933239_fd79ac02dd.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="" /></a><br /> <span class="flickr-caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/3128933239/">At Jonathan's</a>, originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/squiddity-of-toronto/">squiddity of toronto</a>.</span></div> <p class="flickr-yourcomment"> Hilary plays the Hammond organ; Eric looks thoughtful; Ron cooks vegetable soup in the kitchen.<br /><br />What has happened to this blog? We're on strike at York, and it's been a really weird few months. I've been doing less walking, & have become lazy about taking photos. But I do have more things to show you! Keep squiddity in your RSS feed, and who knows what will happen?</p>Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956720884721798604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10794294.post-38354928722093555472008-11-17T00:55:00.002-05:002008-11-17T01:01:41.873-05:00England, part 8: The beautiful cat endures<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/3036673179/" title="Untitled by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3015/3036673179_a76b88430a.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="" /></a><br /><br />It was my last afternoon in London, and I went to Highgate Cemetery, which was quite close to my hostel. Karl Marx is buried there, beneath an enormous likeness of himself, and there's an odd assortment of other prominent people: George Eliot and Douglas Adams; the father of Virginia Woolf, and the baron who oversaw the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway; the inventor of Hovis bread and the doctor who devised the vaccine against typhoid in WWI, and a great many artists and firefighters. In late summer, in the brilliant slanting sunlight of late afternoon, it was an uncommonly beautiful place, and I wandered around taking dozens of photographs.<br /><br />As I pondered the headstone of Herbert Spencer, a group of women and little girls clustered around a gravestone nearby. One of the children wants to know why the dead person wasn't there -- the inscription said he had "gone home." The adults laughed, and one explained that people don't like to say someone <i>died</i>, so instead they say that person "was called home" or "went to his rest" or "fell asleep." But what it really means is that the person is dead. <br /><br />The little girls wandered around looking at headstones, and one of them found this one: <br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/3036687265/" title="The beautiful cat endures by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3162/3036687265_13af710ab3.jpg" width="500" height="372" alt="The beautiful cat endures" /></a><br /><br />They clustered around it and conferred.<br /><br />"It's a dead cat!"<br />"No it isn't!"<br />"It <i>is</i>! Look, it says, 'The beautiful cat endures.' It <i>is</i> a dead cat."<br />"Mummy! Mummy, come look! Mummy a cat died and it's <i>really sad</i>."<br /><br />This concludes my account of my trip to England! (And it only took me 2 months to get through all the photos!) The <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/sets/72157607345664677/">whole photoset is here</a> -- do have a look at the photos of gorgeous Highgate, in particular.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/3036683167/" title="Untitled by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3035/3036683167_4186399b31.jpg" width="357" height="500" alt="" /></a>Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956720884721798604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10794294.post-55381939055132554902008-11-10T19:57:00.002-05:002008-11-10T20:02:49.587-05:00England, part 7: Hampstead Heath<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/3020840356/" title="Untitled by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3210/3020840356_acd30bc9de.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="" /></a><br /><br />My last day in London, a Sunday, was brilliantly sunny and warm, and I went for a long walk on Hampstead Heath. My destination was <a href="http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server.php?show=nav.12783">Kenwood House</a>, but it took me awhile to get there, as I kept getting lost; <i>twice</i> I realized that I'd been walking for 20 minutes in a direction <i>opposite</i> to where I should have been going. But I didn't really mind; I was having a great time rambling around, soaking up the sun and eavesdropping on English people.<br /><br />Two men in their 40s, walking with wives & strollers. <br /><br />1st man: ... which worked well with my assistants in Hong Kong, but then it didn't work at all with my assistants in Japan.<br />2nd man: You have to find a balance. That's the key, finding a balance. <br /><br />Man in his 40s to female friend: [Happily and somewhat bashfully] ... smart, funny, <i>and</i> she's half-Jewish. Her father's Jewish.<br />Female friend: [throwing up hands and laughing] Wow!<br /><br />Londoners make enthusiastic use of their outdoor public spaces in fine weather, I noticed. Both the Heath and Waterlow Park, which I walked through later that day, were full of people having picnics, jogging, playing with their dogs, or just lolling on blankets reading paperbacks. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/3020839682/" title="Leaves and shadows by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3063/3020839682_74b1515dc5.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Leaves and shadows" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/sets/72157607345664677/">Full photoset here.</a>Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956720884721798604noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10794294.post-35830425718866571402008-10-27T15:08:00.001-04:002008-10-27T15:11:56.513-04:00England, part 6: Looking at London from the Tate Modern; Aren't birds brilliant!<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2979175570/" title="View from the chimney of the Tate Modern by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3027/2979175570_46303ba328.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="View from the chimney of the Tate Modern" /></a><br /><br />I followed up the Tate Britain with a visit to the <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/">Tate Modern</a> the next day. I loved the eclectic collection; I was particularly mesmerized by the room of portraits by mid-20th-century West African photographer <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/explore/room.do?show=1333&code=10&tourid=undefined&action=1">Seydou Keïta</a>, and by a room in which all four walls, from floor to 20-foot ceiling, were covered with original Soviet propaganda posters. And the Tate's worth visiting for the building alone, a former power station with a vast Turbine Hall at its centre and a 99-metre-tall chimney, from which you get the spectacular city view in the photo above.<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.thamesfestival.org/">Thames Festival</a> was on, and the riverfront was crowded with people. Directly in front of the gallery, a bandstand and outdoor dance floor had been set up, and a beginners' tango lesson was in progress. I snapped some photos from the chimney with my zoom lens.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2979173086/" title="Tangoing Londoners by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3180/2979173086_230716c9c7.jpg" width="500" height="357" alt="Tangoing Londoners" /></a><br /><br />In front of the gallery, the <a href="http://www.rspb.org.uk/">Royal Society for the Protection of Birds</a> had set up a booth & were explaining to people that a pair of peregrine falcons had built a nest way, way up in the chimney. There were binoculars at the booth through which you could look at the nest, though both of the falcons were off hunting when I was there. This was one of a series of RSPB events called <a href="http://www.rspb.org.uk/brilliant/">"Aren't Birds Brilliant!"</a> You really have to say that out loud with a British accent.<br /><br />I walked to the <a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/default.aspx">British Museum</a> after that; I've been before, and I got there only 30 minutes before it closed this time, but I love the British Museum and it was good to spend a little while poking about in the <a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/galleries/themes/room_1_enlightenment.aspx">Enlightenment Gallery</a>. There was a big exhibition on about the Emperor Hadrian, and it was "Roman Life" day at the museum; people dressed as centurions were wandering around having their photos taken with tourists. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2978320873/" title="Untitled by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3240/2978320873_165791d995.jpg" width="357" height="500" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/sets/72157607345664677/">Photoset here.</a><br /><br />Next: getting lost on Hampstead Heath.Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956720884721798604noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10794294.post-82148602650446055982008-10-18T16:41:00.002-04:002008-10-18T16:45:57.714-04:00England, part 5: London! Portobello Road, and the first Tate<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2951863315/" title="Buttons! by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3178/2951863315_77deed3e7c.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Buttons!" /></a><br /><br />I took a coach into London on Thursday, did some laundry in my hostel that night, and set out Friday morning. This was my third time in London; I seem to wind up there about once every ten years. I've seen the big tourist draws before: Tower Bridge, St. Paul's, Buckingham Palace. This time, I headed first for Portobello Road. Looked at lovely piles of ephemera and junk; bought a china phrenology head! I am going to put it in my office next term & scare my students with it. Here is what it looks like now, ensconced on my bookshelf at home:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2951866981/" title="The phrenology head at home by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3048/2951866981_043bc72731.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="The phrenology head at home" /></a><br /><br />I'd seen ads in the Tube for a big <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/francisbacon/default.shtm">Francis Bacon exhibition that had just opened in the Tate Britain</a>, so I went there next. The permanent collection closed earlier, so I looked at that first. I was standing in the big central hall when a guy in running shorts went tearing past me at top speed, vanishing around a corner at the end. I thought, "Well, <i>that</i> was odd," then when it happened again 30 seconds later I thought, "Aha! <i>Art</i>." I asked a nearby guard about it, and he explained that indeed, the sprinters were part of <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2222514/Martin-Creed's-Tate-Britain-artwork-shows-sprinting-runners.html">Martin Creed's <i>Work No. 850</i></a>. I stood for a few minutes & watch them sprint through at regular intervals. It was pretty great: a nice conceptual counterpoint to all the gorgeous yet static Turners and Rossettis in the galleries. <br /><br />After that I wandered through the Bacon exhibit. Large canvases of screaming eyeless popes and mashed chimpanzees. This being only the second night, and a Friday, the exhibition was well-attended. There were a few tourists in windbreakers, walking through silently, having run out of things to talk to talk about with their travelling companions; a lot of giddy boys in tight t-shirts, flinging their arms around each other; middle-aged men unremarkably holding hands. <br /><br />The electricity went out for several minutes. Only the last of the daylight, filtering through the skylights, illuminated the gallery. The handful of tourists were all "What's happening? What's going on?" but the Londoners seemed to take it in stride, like they're used to things fucking up randomly on a regular basis. Soon enough the lights came back on.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/sets/72157607345664677/">All my England pics, including more from Portobello Road, here.</a><br /><br />Next: The view from the Tate Modern.Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956720884721798604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10794294.post-36957441127635186982008-09-24T13:59:00.002-04:002008-09-24T14:03:36.518-04:00England, part 4: The conference, a castle, random Oxford<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2885607270/" title="Lunch by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3024/2885607270_44cf53089b.jpg" width="371" height="500" alt="Lunch" /></a><br /><br />The <a href="http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/ptb/persons/madness/m1/prog.html">conference, an interdisciplinary meeting on the topic of madness,</a> went very well. The range of presenters -- both geographically and in terms of the kinds of work they were doing -- was remarkable, and at the same time the conference seemed very coherent, as everyone was concerned with the same broad set of questions relating to mental illness and its troubled connections with agency and creativity. This is not an academic blog, though, so I'm going to talk more about the building and the food. The building was Oxford's <a href="http://www.mansfield.ox.ac.uk/">Mansfield College</a>, a late-Victorian neo-Gothic structure that would not look out of place on U of T's St. George campus. Dinner on the first day, and lunch on the subsequent days, was included with conference registration, and was served in a dining room with vaulted, painted ceilings, halfway up the college's central tower. The food was <i>marvellous</i>: roast lamb with mint sauce, chicken-and-mushroom pies, piles of steamed vegetables, golden roasted potatoes, and for dessert: bread-and-butter pudding with stewed apples and little pitchers of clotted cream. I have nothing bad to say about English cuisine.<br /><br />Post-conference on the second day, some of us went for dinner at <a href="http://www.thebigbangrestaurants.co.uk/index.htm">The Big Bang</a>, "Officially the Finest Sausage and Mash in Britain." They serve nothing but mash (potatoes and/or turnips), and sausages. If you are vegetarian, you can have vegetarian sausages. It's a small place, and about a dozen of us descended on it unannounced and were served by a flummoxed but cheerful waitress who seemed to be channelling Emma Thompson circa 1990. I have no idea whether the sausages were indeed the best in Britain, but they were good. <br /><br />What else did I do in Oxford? I visited <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Castle">Oxford Castle</a>. Its central tower was built by the Normans in 1071, but as I learned on the tour, archaologists now believe there was already a Saxon structure on the site which the Normans took over and built up, and that the Saxons in turn had built on a pre-existing, pre-Saxon burial ground. So: Really old building. It was a castle & a keep, then it was used as a jail for 700 years, decommissioned only in 1996. Now it is partly a museum and partly a <a href="http://www.oxfordcastle.com/home.html">"hotel and leisure complex"</a>; you can stay in a jail-cell-turned-hotel-room for up to £300/night, and there is a posh restaurant and a Krispy Kreme Doughnuts.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/sets/72157607345664677/">All my Oxford photos are up now.</a> Next: On to London!Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956720884721798604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10794294.post-55262186465652071752008-09-20T13:28:00.001-04:002008-09-20T13:32:44.663-04:00England, part 3: There's the dodo! -- and other scenes from museums<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2872315005/" title="Squid in a jar! by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3273/2872315005_7591b2785c.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Squid in a jar!" /></a><br /><br />The weather was pretty awful -- rainy and cold -- but that made it a perfect day for checking out some of Oxford's fantastic museums.<br /><br />First: the <a href="http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/">Oxford University Museum of Natural History</a>. This is a Victorian neo-Gothic museum -- opened in 1860 -- stuffed with dinosaur skeletons, insect specimens, cephalopods in jars, and all kinds of other relics of the natural world that are interesting to look at. It was the site of the famous (if largely apocryphal) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1860_Oxford_evolution_debate">debate about evolution between T.H. Huxley and Samuel Wilberforce</a>, and there's a statue of Darwin and a display about evolutionary theory. Also, the museum houses the Oxford Dodo -- the "most complete remains of a single dodo" extant today, along with a model of what a living dodo likely looked like.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2872323221/" title="The Oxford Dodo. by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3038/2872323221_7cbfb15a25.jpg" width="500" height="370" alt="The Oxford Dodo." /></a><br /><br />Excitable small British child in the Museum of Natural History: "Where's the dodo? Where's the dodo? Where's the dodo? THERE'S the dodo!"<br /><br />Then I moved on to <a href="http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/index.htm">the Museum of the History of Science</a>, which is apparently "the world's oldest surviving purpose-built museum building" and was "the world's first museum open to the general public" when it opened in 1683 to showcase the collection of Elias Ashmole. (There is now a New Ashmolean, a different museum, which I didn't get to this trip.)<br /><br />The focus in the History of Science museum is on esoteric and wonderful antique scientific devices of all kinds: clockwork models of the solar system, early cameras and microscopes, the second-oldest grandfather clock in England, etc. Also, a chalkboard which Albert Einstein wrote on when he gave a lecture at Oxford in 1931, which someone had the presence of mind to take down & cover with glass before it could be wiped clean. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2872331529/" title="Einstein's blackboard by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3099/2872331529_0932812141.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Einstein's blackboard" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/sets/72157607345664677/">More museum photos</a>.<br /><br />Next: The conference, and random Oxford photos.Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956720884721798604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10794294.post-54012795958758377252008-09-18T10:14:00.001-04:002008-09-18T10:16:45.470-04:00England, part 2: Canal, houseboats, friendly cat<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2867216541/" title="Untitled by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3139/2867216541_bafb2a8565.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="" /></a><br /><br />I had one full day to explore Oxford before the conference began. I didn't have any kind of plan, but Oxford's pretty small, and I figured it wouldn't be hard to find things worth looking at. I was really jetlagged, but, bolstered by that impressive hostel breakfast, I went out and started walking.<br /><br />Almost immediately I happened upon the <a href="http://www.waterscape.com/canals-and-rivers/oxford-canal">Oxford Canal</a>. Did you know Oxford has a canal? And it's lined with houseboats!<br /><br />I walked along it for awhile, taking pictures of the houseboats. I saw this cat perched on one of them & tried to take a picture of that, but as soon as the cat saw me, it hopped down onto the path and presented its belly to be rubbed, and then it followed me for awhile, purring.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2868051058/" title="Hello by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3179/2868051058_63f687ab0e.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Hello" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/sets/72157607345664677/">More houseboat pictures here.</a><br /><br />Next: Museums!Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956720884721798604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10794294.post-87873072988765355652008-09-17T13:25:00.001-04:002008-09-17T13:27:23.921-04:00England, part 1: Getting to Oxford<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2865142037/" title="Dawn by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3131/2865142037_24ed348327.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Dawn" /></a><br /><br />I have no fear of flying. We flew to Holland regularly to visit family when I was little, and it was always a big treat for me -- I still have the KLM "Junior Stewardess" pin I was given on a flight in 1974 -- so I have all these pleasant childhood memories of being on airplanes. However, every single aspect of getting on and off a plane -- from buying the ticket, to getting to the airport on time, to running the gauntlet of customs and security checks, to standing by the baggage carousel hoping one's suitcase is here & not in Budapest -- scares the living crap out of me. So many opportunities for things to go catastrophically wrong!<br /><br />A few things nearly <i>did</i> go wrong on my way to Pearson. At Kipling I somehow got on the 191 bus instead of the 192, and if a kind West Indian lady had not leaned over & said, "Are you trying to go to the airport?" seconds before the bus took off, I would have wound up way the hell out on Steeles instead. Then I couldn't figure out which stop to get off at when we got to Pearson, and the driver was having a screaming argument with the father of a family of four over the fare, so it was impossible to ask, and I wound up at Terminal 1 when I needed to be at Terminal 2. But I was still about an hour early, and I took the nifty airport monorail to where I needed to be.<br /><br />And then my carry-on was too heavy but the nice check-in guy let me keep it anyway, and then I was finally on the plane, watching the sun rise over the Atlantic.<br /><br />I took a coach from Gatwick to Oxford, through green countryside dotted with pheasants and red-brick farm buildings, and checked in at the <a href="http://www.yha.org.uk/find-accommodation/heart-of-england/hostels/oxford/index.aspx">Oxford YHA</a>. It was spartan, but quiet and clean, and in the mornings they had the most amazing breakfast buffet, included in the (very low) accommodation price. I have no idea why the colours came out so horribly in this photo -- the breakfast was much more appetizing in real life.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2865143797/" title="Hostel breakfast by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3203/2865143797_2e109cd3ca.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Hostel breakfast" /></a><br /><br />Note the sausage, which was fresh and delicious, and the grilled tomato. A grilled tomato on your breakfast plate = surefire sign you are in England.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/sets/72157607345664677/">More photos here</a>.<br /><br />Next: Houseboats!Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956720884721798604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10794294.post-7099764412517099832008-09-05T00:53:00.002-04:002008-09-05T01:03:10.458-04:00Here we go<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2827206744/" title="Sails by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3179/2827206744_0378055f92.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Sails" /></a><br /><br />This is what Ward's Island looks like from the 44th floor of a posh downtown hotel. Kim's a juror with the Toronto International Film Festival this year, and they flew her in from Vancouver and put her up in this great room, and she invited some of her friends, including me, up to check it out. I hadn't seen Austin and Leslie in ages; they'll be spending a lot of time at the Festival as well, Austin in particular, as the production company he works for has 3 feature releases in TIFF this year -- including the gala opener. <br /><br />And I'm going to miss it all -- because I'll be in England! I'll be presenting a paper at <a href="http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/ptb/persons/madness/m1/fd.html">this conference</a> in Oxford next week. Leaving <i>tomorrow</i>. Wow.<br /><br />So there's a real sense of It's All Really Happening Now in the air these days. It's going to be a busy year for me. This blog will still be updated, though. How often? What will I post here? Not sure yet. Check back and see.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/sets/72157607100142390/">More photos from the 44th floor here</a>.Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956720884721798604noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10794294.post-33078576939509062482008-08-25T14:55:00.001-04:002008-08-25T14:57:48.434-04:00Dark water walk<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2797404746/" title="Untitled by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3282/2797404746_c1ab64266f.jpg" width="372" height="500" alt="" /></a><br /><br />On Thursday, I got a new camera (my brother gave me a gift certificate from Henry's for my birthday!), and then took it on a psychogeography walk, my first in ages. I didn't use the camera for much of the walk, because we went into some dark, dark places. We gathered at Warden Station, and the sun had gone down by the time we started out. We went into the Warden Woods and headed south, in the direction of the <a href="http://www.toronto.ca/water/supply/supply_facilities/rcharris/index.htm">Harris filtration plant</a>. <br /><br />We came out of the woods to troop along Victoria Park Avenue, where we stopped briefly for soft-serve ice cream at a McDonalds. Then onto Kingston Road, where presently we came to the densely wooded Glen Stewart Park. There was a sign saying Eastern Ravine, and a wooden staircase leading down into the forest. We started down the stairs. The trees immediately swallowed up the light from the street, and the further down we went, the darker it got. The stairs seemed to go on and on, turning this way and that. Some of us took out cellphones and held them up to try and light the way; they looked like blue fireflies in the blackness. When we finally reached the ground, it was so dark we could barely see the trail. We moved along it, feeling as much as seeing our way, the ones in front yelling out a warning to the others when they hit a tree root or a mud puddle. As we walked, Eric told me about a restaurant he went to in Montreal last week, called Eau Noir, where diners sat and ate in a room that was completely dark. You read a menu before you went into the dark room; you could choose from a selection of appetizers and entrees, or ask to be surprised. Dinner was served by a waiter named Mathieu, who was perfectly comfortable working in the dark room, because he was blind.<br /><br />Black water gurgled and splashed in the creek that ran alongside the path. For some reason, the ravine smelled faintly and pleasantly of cucumber. We all noticed this.<br /><br />We reached the water filtration plant, which is finally accessible again after months of construction work. A big waning moon hung over it. We walked through the grounds and down to the inky lake, and threw rocks in. I took photos; I have not yet figured out all the available settings on my new camera, so there's an odd painterly effect in a lot of the photos, like we're wandering around in a de Chirico picture, which is actually what it was like.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2797413440/" title="Moon over filtration plant by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3162/2797413440_8b6172cdd0.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Moon over filtration plant" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/sets/72157606950486449/">More photos here.</a>Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956720884721798604noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10794294.post-7406269455266552512008-08-22T16:46:00.002-04:002008-08-22T16:51:43.298-04:00Swallow swarm on the IslandsI was out on the Islands again on Wednesday, and I walked from the Ward's Island ferry docks all the way to the snack bar at Hanlan's Point, then back again. The weather was about as beautiful as it could possibly be. On the rocky southwest shore, I found the carcass of a fish as big as my thigh. I investigated Gibraltar Point Beach, the one I hadn't been to before, and found it to be smaller than Hanlan's, quiet and shady. <br /><br />Walking back, I found myself in a clearing on the south shore, near where the boardwalk begins, late in the afternoon. There were a lot of tiny gnats in the air, and these had attracted dozens of swallows, which were all darting and swooping and chirping madly. I stood in the middle of the clearing and they flew all around me, and just above my head: I was standing in a cloud of swallows. It was impossible to photograph, since they moved so quickly, but I shot a video that maybe gives you some idea:<br /><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="300" data="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=58932" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"> <param name="flashvars" value="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=72d787ffef&photo_id=2785425138"></param> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=58932"></param> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"></param> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=58932" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=72d787ffef&photo_id=2785425138" height="300" width="400"></embed></object><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/sets/72157606878338933/">Photo set here.</a>Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956720884721798604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10794294.post-22541095307506630652008-08-18T23:51:00.001-04:002008-08-18T23:51:33.099-04:00Jesse and the Curta Calculator<style type="text/css">.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }</style><div class="flickr-frame"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2777178638/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3222/2777178638_c98a105fa5.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="" /></a><br /> <span class="flickr-caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2777178638/">Jesse and the Curta Calculator</a>, originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/squiddity-of-toronto/">squiddity of toronto</a>.</span></div> <p class="flickr-yourcomment"> At Monday's Trampoline Hall, after Jesse's lecture on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curta_Calculator">The Curta Calculator</a>: Its Construction, History and Aura, audience members cluster round for a closer look at the amazing artifact from some alternate-universe twentieth century.</p>Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956720884721798604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10794294.post-58082549522266004732008-08-18T17:10:00.001-04:002008-08-18T17:10:40.534-04:00Hilary and the cicada<style type="text/css">.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }</style><div class="flickr-frame"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2775206933/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3234/2775206933_681d3a2263.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="" /></a><br /> <span class="flickr-caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2775206933/">Hilary and the cicada</a>, originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/squiddity-of-toronto/">squiddity of toronto</a>.</span></div> <p class="flickr-yourcomment"> Hilary ponders a dead cicada she found. She took it with her, to show her nephews, when she went home to Newfoundland this weekend.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/sets/72157606814034460/">More photos from Friday afternoon.</a></p>Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956720884721798604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10794294.post-79633975500865052202008-08-17T17:44:00.003-04:002008-08-17T17:54:04.611-04:00Rainbows, butterflies, and tacky souvenirs: this must be Niagara Falls<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2769527706/" title="Pupae by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3236/2769527706_cd9b65618c.jpg" width="500" height="374" alt="Pupae" /></a><br /><br />On Thursday, <a href="http://www.maggiehelwig.com/index1.html">Maggie</a> and <a href="http://www.hunkamooga.com/">Stuart</a> read as part of the <a href="http://www.geocities.com/virusreadings/">Virus Readings</a> series, in the Book Nook at <a href="http://www.fourtriplefive.com/">4555 Queen St</a>, Niagara Falls. Stuart's friend Heather and I came along, and we made a day trip out of it.<br /><br />We stopped in <a href="">Grimsby</a> to eat lunch and check out a nifty thrift shop Stuart knew about, and got to Niagara Falls sometime early in the afternoon. Heather went off on a bike ride, and Stuart, Maggie & I went looking for the <a href="">Niagara Parks Butterfly Conservatory</a>.<br /><br />Now, Niagara Falls is the kind of town where there are a lot of tourist attractions of dubious interest, with long lineups and inflated ticket prices. The Butterfly Conservatory, on the other hand, is totally worth your 12 bucks. It's a huge greenhouse filled with lush, blooming tropical plants, and giant, drifting, fluttering, jewel-coloured butterflies. There's a hatchery where you can see chrysalids (above), and watch butterflies crawl out of them and spread their damp new wings. <br /><br />There's also, as you might guess, a hideously tacky souvenir shop, where these magnets seem to be popular:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2769524382/" title="In the gift shop by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3279/2769524382_8f95bb144d.jpg" width="377" height="500" alt="In the gift shop" /></a><br /><br />That's a found poem, right there.<br /><br />Then we went and looked at the Falls themselves, which are of course beautiful, and are also a Baudrillardian essay in hyperreality, the real thing being effaced and superseded by its signs, the mediation of experience through technology, etc. Maggie said, "You can tell we're the intellectuals because we're the ones taking pictures of the coin-operated binoculars."<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2768698485/" title="Coin-operated binoculars by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3021/2768698485_2c8c6cab12.jpg" width="500" height="377" alt="Coin-operated binoculars" /></a><br /><br />The cultural-theory field trip continued as we ventured into the Clifton Hill tourist area, which is a kind of insane, disorienting sensory-overload environment, like a mini Las Vegas. There are a lot of wax museums, and a lot of attractions advertised as "4-D", as if the same old 3 physical dimensions were just not exciting enough anymore & a new one has been added to jazz up the carnival rides. Seriously, we have no idea what "4-D" was supposed to mean. Also, the Tourist Area is just <i>crawling</i> with robots. There are animatronic figures rappelling up the sides of buildings; disembodied voices boom from every storefront, hyping the wonders within; and sometimes the animatronic figures speak in recorded voices, trying to entice you inside. Robot barkers! Impervious to boredom, heatstroke or laryngitis! Also, you see the word FUN a lot.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2769589366/" title="WELCOME TO FUN! by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3209/2769589366_33a008b021.jpg" width="500" height="377" alt="WELCOME TO FUN!" /></a><br /><br />Tired out by the heat, loud noises & flashing lights, we met up with Heather and were happy to stumble upon <a href="http://falls.net/dining/basells.htm">Basell's Diner</a>, where we had classic diner food and beers and I GOT CARDED, much to my delight and the astonishment of everyone else. (Maggie: "I can vouch for her being <i>really, really old</i>.") Someday I want to have breakfast at Basell's; they have those little single-serving cardboard boxes of Kellogg's cereals, and they also have three kinds of pancakes:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2768774199/" title="3 kinds of pancakes by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3210/2768774199_cb04253e38.jpg" width="500" height="377" alt="3 kinds of pancakes" /></a><br /><br />Then on to the reading. We had been speculating all day about what kind of arts community or neighbourhood Niagara Falls might have: it's a pretty small city, built around tourism, with no universities, though I'm told it does have some good community colleges. Who would show up to a literary reading?<br /><br />It turns out that much of the arts community in Niagara Falls (as far as we could make out) revolves around one nifty building, 4555 Queen St., affectionately known as <a href="http://www.fourtriplefive.com/">The Four-Triple-Five</a>. A former nightclub, it's got a cafe, an art gallery, a music performance space, and -- up a flight of stairs, in what was once the VIP lounge -- an adorably cozy little second-hand bookstore, which is where the reading took place. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2768772871/" title="Untitled by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3080/2768772871_6888efe1e9.jpg" width="500" height="377" alt="" /></a><br /><br />If you're ever in Niagara Falls, and if you're the kind of person who gets migraines in Tourist Areas, escape from Clifton Hill and check this place out. <br /><br />The reading was intimate, the small audience attentive. Maggie and Stuart both read substantial, sometimes intense sets, impressive given how wiped out they were feeling in the late afternoon. I was intrigued by <a href="http://rideoutandearp.vox.com/">Tanis Rideout's</a> work-in-progress, a nearly-completed novel based on the true story of a failed attempt to climb Everest 30 years before the Hillary expedition.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/sets/72157606768569636/">All my Niagara Falls photos here.</a>Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956720884721798604noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10794294.post-31765840679470877502008-07-18T16:19:00.001-04:002008-07-18T16:22:26.332-04:00The heat is making people weird<a href="http://thescream.ca/">The Scream</a> is over, and desultory monthly-ish posting will now resume here on Squiddity. I was in Kensington getting groceries today, and there was a busker in front of the bakery again. Today it was a young white woman in an ankle-length African-print muumuu, singing "Walking On Sunshine" very loudly, unaccompanied, not particularly well, <i>into a carrot</i>. Yup. Bouncing from side to side, holding a jumbo carrot as if it were a microphone, and singing into it. This was unusual even by Kensington standards, and people half a block away were standing on the sidewalk staring at her. The ladies in the Patty King across the street were talking about maybe calling 911.Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956720884721798604noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10794294.post-37542567716521073032008-07-11T13:45:00.003-04:002008-07-11T13:49:08.167-04:00A futile questToday someone found this blog by searching on the term "how to impress hipster boys."<br /><br />Hah! Hipster boys <i>aren't impressed by anything</i>.Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956720884721798604noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10794294.post-74705244639617412382008-07-05T16:52:00.002-04:002008-07-05T16:57:40.244-04:00Squiddity at the ScreamThe Scream Literary Festival is on now, with events every night until the mainstage in High Park on the 14th. I'll be <a href="http://thescream.ca/blogs/nadia_halim">blogging on the Scream website</a> about events I attend throughout the festival. Do drop by!Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956720884721798604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10794294.post-64378474504450341472008-06-26T00:09:00.001-04:002008-06-26T00:12:36.664-04:00Birds, cats, fluffy white clouds<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2611712619/" title="Snoozing by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3009/2611712619_fb7d39c9e7.jpg" width="377" height="500" alt="Snoozing" /></a><br /><br />I know it's been a month, but this blog isn't dead, it's just resting! I'm going to two conferences in the fall, and I'm pretty busy these days making travel arrangements & working on my presentations. Keep me in your RSS feed and hopefully you'll see photos from England and Texas later this year.<br /><br />I did get out to the Islands yesterday, to enjoy the first decent weather in what feels like weeks. Ward's Island is still my favourite place in Toronto to spend a sunny day: cats, bicycles, little cottages, a nice pecan tart at the cafe. It appears to be poplar fluff season on the Islands right now: see photo below. Is it poplars that produce all that fluff? It's everywhere you look: on the ground, in the air, in the water, where the geese and ducks graze on it happily. <br /><br />Also, I saw several brilliant orange songbirds, and wondered what they were. I thought they might be scarlet tanagers, but they had black heads, and tanagers don't, as a quick Google search revealed. Some more Googling, and I figured out they were <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinyfishy/2487598307/">Baltimore orioles</a>. So pretty! <br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/sets/72157605818337152/">More photos here</a>, though none of the orioles -- they're too quick for me.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2612535450/" title="Fluff in shrubbery by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3278/2612535450_5b8e6ff4c8.jpg" width="500" height="377" alt="Fluff in shrubbery" /></a>Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956720884721798604noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10794294.post-48854946328799696442008-05-27T18:20:00.000-04:002008-05-27T18:21:10.073-04:00Now growing in the Sculpture Garden<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2528631909/" title="100_5345 by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2209/2528631909_58e342e070.jpg" width="500" height="377" alt="100_5345" /></a><br /><br />Katie Bethune-Leamen puts the finishing touches on "Mushroom Studio," a 20-foot structure that will be <a href="http://wx.toronto.ca/inter/it/newsrel.nsf/9da959222128b9e885256618006646d3/10b0105bea5793218525744000634477?OpenDocument">on display in the Sculpture Garden on King East</a> for a year. Bethune-Leamen will regularly be found inside the sculpture, working on new sculptures. <br /><br />It was <a href="http://www.toronto.ca/doorsopen/">Doors Open</a> this weekend, but most of the walking around I did was unrelated. I saw some frisky baby goats at <a href="http://www.toronto.ca/parks/riverdalefarm.htm">Riverdale Farm</a> -- I highly recommend dropping by soon, while they are still tiny -- and the new <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2008/05/21/purdy-statue-unveil.html">statue of Al Purdy</a> in Queen's Park. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/sets/72157605292824657/">More photos.</a>Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956720884721798604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10794294.post-47198903569628780552008-04-30T23:37:00.002-04:002008-04-30T23:49:13.100-04:00To the lighthouse, and back<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2455208643/" title="Nearly there by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2104/2455208643_ccc999f26d.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Nearly there" /></a><br /><br />Four of us explored the Leslie St. Spit on Saturday -- an epic 4-hour psychogeography walk. The Spit, as you Toronto people already know, is an entirely manmade peninsula a bit east of the Toronto Islands. It's been constructed over 50 years from the rubble of demolished buildings, and the soil and rocks dug up in the construction of the subway system. (Lots of interesting background on the Spit can be found in <a href="http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/414004">this hugely informative Toronto Star feature</a> -- be sure to check out the PDF info-graphic.) It's now a city park and bird sanctuary, but truckloads of rubble are still being added every week. So the Spit is an unusual hybrid: both nature reserve and junkyard. A lot of the old building detritus looks curiously organic; it's really interesting to see how the natural and the artificial blend together out there.<br /><br />We saw a beaver lodge, rabbits, a hawk that glared at us but did not fly off when we walked up close enough to see its talons, pretty blue-backed songbirds nesting in birdhouses, and the famous double-crested cormorant colony. Also, the <a href="http://www.thestar.com/article/277509">Quonset hut</a> referenced in <a href="http://spacing.ca/wire/2008/04/01/presenting-spacing-magazine-hut/">Spacing's April Fool's gag this year</a>. And the lighthouse at the end of the Spit. <br /><br />I took LOTS of photos and have put them up on Flickr with notes: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/sets/72157604822255725/">click here</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2455175293/" title="<3 by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2068/2455175293_2a4ef90bee.jpg" width="500" height="377" alt="<3" /></a>Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956720884721798604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10794294.post-89014073854080595382008-04-24T16:19:00.002-04:002008-04-24T17:08:45.364-04:00It's time for another installment of Toronto's Hipster Boys Say the Darndest ThingsBakery section, Dominion. A nerdy hipster boy in a leather jacket is talking at a pretty girl with an eyebrow piercing, who is ignoring him and browsing the selection of day-old bread.<br /><br />Hipster boy: ... an unethical idea: I steal holy water and mix it with Jaegermeister.<br />Girl: [in deeply bored voice, still looking at bread] That's disgusting.<br /><br />Hipster boy then pulls out his cellphone, checks it, and announces he has just received an "awesome" text from a friend who is in a bar getting drunk on "Jaeger bombs". The girl, unimpressed, says "He's getting drunk at 3 in the afternoon?" The boy says, "I think he's drunk already!"<br /><br /><strong>Update</strong> -- Later the same day:<br /><br />Driveway of Olivia Chow & Jack Layton's house. Two guys are sweeping up leaves & debris & putting them into boxes in a truck. <br /><br />One yardwork guy to the other: Thinking and self-reflection are the only tools we have for self-regulation. Use them always!Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956720884721798604noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10794294.post-34736569175294184062008-04-14T14:17:00.001-04:002008-04-14T14:19:33.782-04:00Sunday at the diner<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2413423831/" title="Jukebox by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2069/2413423831_5d12571a1e.jpg" width="377" height="500" alt="Jukebox" /></a><br /><br />Can there be a more generically-named eatery in Toronto than People's Foods on Dupont? It's a great place to go for a classic diner breakfast, though. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2414247492/" title="Untitled by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2412/2414247492_68a984cff6.jpg" width="500" height="373" alt="" /></a><br /><br />These vintage table-top jukeboxes apparently still work, although we didn't try putting a quarter in. Laura and Jake noted that every time they're in there (which is often), someone at one of the tables is listening to "Sweet Child of Mine" by Guns & Roses. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2414249342/" title="mmm diner coffee by squiddity of toronto, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3086/2414249342_52fe3ab700.jpg" width="377" height="500" alt="mmm diner coffee" /></a>Nadiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956720884721798604noreply@blogger.com5