Well, Canada won the World Cup of Hockey about 10 minutes ago and as the crowd files out of the ACC I’m sure they’ll be joined by thousands of others pouring out onto Yonge Street to celebrate.
I made the trek out when the Leafs won round after round in the 90s. Same for the two Blue Jays World Series… but really, I have no desire what-so-ever to head out and celebrate tonight. In fact, I almost didn’t watch the game at all. I almost opted to work (yes - work!) rather than watch. So what gives? I’m a die hard hockey fan. I play the game; I watch the game; I’m a patriotic Canadian… Some theories:

A) It’s a little bitter sweet knowing that this may be the last hockey game we see for a LONG time as a lockout is imminent
B) Knowing some of the issues involved with the current CBA dispute, I’m kind of disappointed with the players. These guys are earning millions and are totally out of touch with the common fan.
C) This doesn’t come close to taking the Olympic gold in Salt Lake after a long drought by the Canadians.
D) Those damn Yankees! I’m a real critic of ESPN and it’s lack of hockey coverage and knowledge. But alas, I must give credit where credit is due. In their pre-game analysis they called a 3-2 result in favour of Canada. I hate it when the Yanks are right…
E) A bunch of the players on this year’s Team Canada are guys I never heard of - and as I said - I’m a hockey fan. Doan, Bouwmeester, Hannan… I guess some are on West Coast teams or smaller markets so I don’t see them much - but someone is doing a lousey job in NHL marketing…
F) Come on - after losing a heartbreaking Game 7 of the Stanley Cup to Tampa Bay you had to be pulling a little bit for Finland’s goalie “The Kipper” => not to mention the comeback kid Koivu…
G) Yeah they have a Maple Leaf on their shirt but it’s not Blue and White… the nation that bleeds blue still patiently wait their turn…
H) All of the above

g’night!

Okay…so when you hear a police car, ambulance or emergency vehicle you pull over right??? RIGHT!!!
You let that vehicle pass so it can go and do it’s good deed for the day/hour/minute whatever. You do not, REPEAT, DO NOT! Wait for the cars in front of you to pull over then zip around and move up about 5-6 cars with an emergency vehicle desparately trying to get around you.
I tried to explain this to the driver who performed this “act” at the corner of Young and Dundas. But, I guess he didn’t understand that while I stood on his front bumper waggin’ my penis at him, calling him “mongoloid”.
Oh and if “Mr. Toolbot” reads this…putting a whale tail on a 1991 Honda Civic does NOT make it a “cool ride”. Your still a wanker and your not going to get laid. Even with your “bling” and flip, trucker hat of youth firmly planted at the wrong angle on that bloated melon of what I guess some might call a “head”.

I know you think you look like a rough and ready character but in actuality your a boob…now pull up those god damn pants and get back to your trailer for the next marathon TV session of Cops and Jerry Springer or as you like to call them “Family film”. Oh and if you haven’t figured it out yet trucker hats or “Chapeaus du Hill Billy” are sooooooo played.

Can you feel it…do you feel the rage…burning deep…DEEP! Can I get an Amen!

I work right by King and Lower Jarvis View image
and what I’ve noticed lately is that.. well… urm… there are a LOT of crazies around here…
At first I thought it was just that I was working downtown now, and well the downtown core is sure to attract all sorts. But what I’ve discovered after boarding the streetcar enough times with people with all sorts of ticks, talking to themselves, wearing wreaths in their hair etc. - is that a lot of them know each other.
So what gives? Is there some kind of social club for misfits down around these parts? Are they giving away wreaths to people who think they’re the second coming of Christ at the local convenience store? Does George Brown have a cafeteria staffed with people who couldn’t find employment elsewhere? Or am I the oddity and talking to oneself is all the rage these days?
Anyone?

An unidentified Toronto couple have been granted the first gay divorce — not just in Canada, but possibly in the world. I love that the article specifies that same-sex couples can now get married in several provinces and one territory, but that they can only get divorced in Ontario, making us the Reno of gay divorce.

I run a cozy little dining club of about a dozen people or so called the Toronto Dining Concern. It’s easy to get stuck in a routine of going to a few favourite places when it comes to eating out. So every month a member picks a restaurant they have not been to and we all meet for food and catch up on what we’ve all been up to.

This month the TDC took us to the Kingsway — the part of Etobicoke that thankfully doesn’t seem like the rest of Etobicoke — to Cafe Barcelona. Our night began ominously with a big traffic mess courtesy of the Taste of the Kingsway street fair. Seems like every neighbourhood has it’s own Taste Of festival now. Can’t we just let The Danforth have their thing? And what the hell does the The Kingsway taste like anyways? I assume sliced enriched flour white bread given the neighbourhood.

The rest of the evening didn’t go any better. If you like really really like oily mediocre Spanish tapas you’ll love Cafe Barcelona. And if you love food like that you’ll probably love the surly Russian waitress who inaudibly whispers what tapas she’s bringing to the table then rudely screams it when you ask her to repeat that. Oh, they also ran out of beer while we were there.

The ongoing public flogging of Tom Jakobek is my favourite Toronto news story at the moment. I just love how covering the inquiry is really testing the limits of journalists’ (official) objectivity — especially Christie Blatchford’s, not that she really ever tries that hard to conceal her true feelings in her reporting.

I’m not saying he definitely took a bribe. But I am saying that he is not a very credible witness in his own defense.

My parents live at Bloor and Avenue Road — Ground Zero for the Festival. Last year, they went out to a dinner party in the suburbs somewhere and, when they came back around 10 PM or so, took thirty-five minutes to travel about a hundred feet on Cumberland.

Therefore, I won’t be trying to visit them this week at all, because if there’s anything I hate more than crowds, it’s crowds full of scenesters.

I hate to start posting on a dreary note.. but what are you gonna do? It’s Monday - cope.
A bunch of my co-workers travel home every day by train. Not the subway - but the real thing. Of late (and on Friday in particular), there seem to be a number of Torontonians who are deciding to end their miserable existence via the train. **Side note: Ironically, they are not choosing VIA but rather GO**
Now, I understand there are some people with serious problems out there. Depression, mental illness, family problems, health concerns, money woes, etc.
But why park yourself in front of a train?
There are easier ways to go. There are less messy ways to go. I understand they’ve made it damn near impossible to scale over the Bloor bridge now.. but come on people! I had one co-worker who had to spend 4 hours on a train Friday waiting for them to scrape some poor guys remains off the front of it.

OK - I can be sympathetic. You have a lousy life. But why do you have to depress the rest of us too?

Saturday night was frustrating - the Southside Shuffle was happening in Port Credit and as a result, Lakeshore was closed from Hurontario to probably the marina area. Lots of traffic being redirected, lots of yellow tickets under windshield wipers. I don’t remember seeing if the GO lot was full, but people tried for the closer spots on the side streets. I was so flustered that I forgot to use the key to open the door to my building’s underground parking, ending up at the bottom of the ramp, facing a closed garage door. Luckily there was another car right behind me so I got in safely, however embarassed I was. On my way out I tried to blast Flow 93 on my car radio in protest of the blues music but I don’t think I had any effect.

I finally got to my friend’s place, she was having a get-together and I got to see her new place and meet her new boyfriend, and a lot of her work friends that I have never met. She lives in the Queen-Broadview area, an area that I am newly discovering as someone else I know has recently moved there too. On the map I saw that the fabled DeGrassi street is in the area. Hmm.

Film Festival and World Cup of Hockey…what bizarre cosmic thread got pulled to bring these two groups under the same sky at the same time?

Saw Dolph Lundgren at my favorite Churrasco , he recommended the red wine with the chicken…go figure. I think he was pitching a remake of “Ishtar” in between serving the courses.

Tonight, the Cloak and Dagger pub at College and Bathurst for a jam session with a few members of White Cowbell Oklahoma…leave the kids at home. I like to call it the “Fake Gospel Night”.